Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

xxxvii.

that tongue though...

"No, just because your mom isn't coming back doesn't mean that you don't have to wear matching socks," Namjoon called out, exasperated as he tried to catch Tae, who slipped around him and kept running, one of his feed clad in blue and the other in neon yellow.

Tae just laughed, ignoring his frustrated father. "I don't have to match, and you can't make me unless you catch me, but you can't catch me because I'm the fastest-" Tae smacked into something - or someone - and fell back, landing on his butt. "Ow-"

Yoongi calmly grabbed Tae's wrist. "Caught you. Now go change or I will snap every single crayon in half."

"You wouldn't," Tae said, but his voice was weak with doubt.

Yoongi just calmly tilted his head. "Not the black one."

Tae's eyes widened and he jumped up, running back to his room to find a match for either one of his socks.

Namjoon sighed. "Thank you, Yoong-"

"I want an extra cookie in my lunch."

Namjoon just stared at his first-grader. "Excuse me?"

"That's my price, one cookie for an obedient Taehyung. It's a fair price, Daddy. So the cookie?"

"What do you say, Yoongi?"

"Now?"

"..."

"Please? Now please?"

Namjoon sighed before going into the kitchen and pulling a cookie out of the box, holding it up to Yoongi for proof before dropping it in his lunch bag. "Have all your demands been met?" he asked dryly, and Yoongi put on a thinking face.

"Well, there was-"

"Good. Go brush your teeth and get ready for school." Namjoon looked towards the bedrooms. "WE'RE LEAVING IN TEN MINUTES WITH OR WITHOUT YOU."

Yoongi still looked unperturbed. "Well if those are my options-"

Namjoon gave him a look, and Yoongi scurried off, knowing better than to cross too many lines.

They'd all woken up in a big pile that morning, Namjoon more or less on the bottom with everyone else sleeping on some limb or otherwise appendage of his, which meant that near every muscle in his entire body was sore and numb. Yoongi had been responsible for his right leg.

Then when Namjoon had tried to get out of bed, he'd stumbled, falling but just barely catching himself, and they'd all laughed. Following that, they'd seemed to believe that they were able to get away with anything.

Hence the morning of wardrobe rebellion and bribery.

"Daddy! I'm ready!" Jin yelled, coming out of his room in a pink sweater and jeans.

Namjoon smiled gently at him. He was still struggling on how to help Jin now that Jin had told him about struggling in school. Jin had mentioned his pink backpack as the reason why the kids didn't like him, and for some reason, Namjoon felt proud of Jin for wearing a pink sweater and refusing to back down from what made Jin Jin.

Namjoon tousled Jin's hair, and Jin just ducked slightly, looking up at him from under his long, dark eyelashes with a dubious expression.

"Yes, Daddy? What is it?" he asked, and Namjoon smiled, recognizing the second phrase as one of his own when his kids were bugging him about something.

"Nothing, sweetie. You just looked cute."

Jin's lip jutted out to one side. "Daddy, I always look cute, so that's a silly thing to say. If you're going to pat my head when I'm cute, then you'd have to do it every second, okay?"