Times Six

2

warning:smut

It's hard for Namjoon to feel awkward and uncomfortable when he gets back, since they start doing the promotional rounds promptly upon his return. But he manages to feel awkward anyway.

It's not exactly a secret, either from himself or from the others, that he has a terminal case of Sex Brain, but he's very invested on keeping the fact that he spent a good chunk of his masturbatory time during his heat inundated with ideas about their various body parts a secret from the others, especially since he definitely can't keep that secret from himself. It's only natural, and it's not his fault, because he lives practically on top of – nope, not like that – six alphas, so of course these hints of them have embedded themselves in his subconscious.

His knees still skitter away from Yoongi's when they knock together in the dark of Yoongi's studio, and their faces lit up by the blue of the screen let him see Yoongi's brows drawing together whenever it happens. He's stiffer than usual when Jimin throws his arms around his middle and, once, Taehyung catches his wrists together in one hand and Namjoon yanks his arms away so fast that Taehyung complains he's pulled a muscle in his shoulder. So on, so forth.

He's grateful for the full-body immersion of promos and rehearsals, all of which keep them out late at night and get them up early in the morning and give him an excuse to excuse himself from activities. But he can't avoid everything.

They have a tradition, and have for years, that one night every few months is their night , together, no work, just sitting together and drinking and watching a movie or playing a game or just shooting the shit and forgetting about all of the shit they have to do and keep doing. They find an agreeable day with management and block it off, usually a month in advance. Hoseok adds sunflower stickers to the calendar on the day and Taehyung doodles their seven little faces on the calendar square. It's important. They're together all the time but they're not allowed to talk about work on Their Night. It usually coincides with a rare day off the next day. The timing has to be immaculate.

Seokjin's been teaching Jeongguk how to cook, at his request, which means they're in the kitchen, which means that Taehyung and Jimin are also in the kitchen, because they'd never pass up an opportunity to tease Jeongguk or rile Seokjin up. The cacophony of the quartet carries out into the den, where Hoseok and Yoongi are scrolling through a list of potential movies on Yoongi's phone. Where Namjoon sits across from Hoseok and Yoongi, watching their feet bounce as they chat with a huge amount of fondness. It's easy, being here with them, like this. And it's easy to forget that it's not like it was before. The smell of cooking food in the kitchen nearly masks their scents, which he's become more sensitive and attuned to in the past few months.

He can start to pick out, or rather name, the notes of their scents that mark them as, well, them . It's not instantaneous and it's not foolproof, but he's got a good grip, generally, on whose scent is whose. Sometimes he thinks about Hoseok telling him his smelled good, on that first day, and he wonders what good smells like, if they, like him, have been able to pick out more notes in his fragrance. Maybe Hoseok just meant that his smell was a good thing , not that it was good . He doesn't remember exactly what was said, what the exact phrasing was. He still wants to know.

Namjoon sits up from how he's slouched against the couch when Seokjin and the boys start spilling into the den, Jimin and Taehyung laying down insulators and bowls on the table and Seokjin and Jeongguk, who looks very proud and rosy, piling food onto the table. Hands on his hips, Seokjin announces,

"Okay! Jeongguk learned some good recipes today. Budae jjigae," he points to the steaming, shallow pot in the middle, "plus my ahjummah's fresh kimchi recipe, and cucumber kimchi, and ojingeo bokkeum and –" he pauses, pinches Jeongguk's ear, "– and where's the rice, JK? You want us to eat all this salt and spice with no rice?" Jeongguk laughs, goes to the kitchen. "He did a great job, huh?"