Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

cxlv.

"When do you find out about the scholarship?" Tae asked, rolling over to look at Jin, who (for once) wasn't on his phone but had rather been staring blankly at the ceiling.

"The...oh, Dad told you." Jin sighed. "I don't know. It's stressing me out."

"We can tell," Jungkook mumbled, and Tae would have elbowed him had he not been across the room.

"Well, I'm bored," Tae announced after the silence had settled. "What do you guys want to do?" When nobody made any suggestions, Tae tilted his head, thinking out loud. "We could...hmm, we could go back through Yoongi's journal-"

"No," Jin and Jungkook both said immediately.

Tae threw his hands up. "It was just a suggestion!"

A knock on their door silenced their discussion.

"Hi, boys," their mom said, smiling tensely. "Would you guys like to play a board game or something?"

Tae looked over at Jin, who had resumed staring at the ceiling, before looking over to Jungkook.

"No thanks," Jungkook said without hesitation.

"Oh...well...maybe we could all-"

"I don't think so," Jungkook said, and their mom hesitated before nodding, biting her bottom lip.

"Please take care of Toaster then," she said quietly. "She's under Hobi's bed."

She shut the door.

Jungkook sighed heavily while Tae frowned.

"You didn't have to be that mean," Tae said, and Jungkook gave Tae a look.

"If I'm not mean, she'll start thinking that I like her, and I don't want that to happen. It doesn't make what she did to us okay, even if Jimin is all buddy-buddy with her now."

Tae frowned but decided to put aside the issue. "Let's just find Toaster. I didn't even know she was in here." Tae got down on his hands and knees and peered under the bed. "I don't see anything- oh wait, there's Yoongi's journal, maybe it's a sign that-"

"No," Jungkook immediately denied.

"Fine, fine...oh, wait a sec, I think I see..." Tae's voice trailed off as he crawled underneath the bed and slowly came back out with something in his hands. "Shh," Tae said to the kitten, who was silent anyway, just a small trembling ball of fur with two ears and a tail poking out. Tae held her close to his chest and bounced her up and down gently.

"It's not a baby, it's a kitten," Jungkook said, rolling his eyes, and Tae gave him a look.

"Fine, you hold her," he said, holding Toaster out to Jungkook.

"Wait wait I don't-"

"Too bad," Tae said, setting Toaster down on Jungkook's lap.

Jungkook froze, eyes wide, staring at the kitten. Ever so slowly, Toaster peeked out her head to look at Jungkook before padding around in a circle on his legs and curling up next to his stomach. "Tae, she's like vibrating or something, what the hell does that mean?" Jungkook asked, still on edge because he'd never dealt with any sort of cat before.

Tae laughed. "She's purring, you idiot. It means she's happy."

"Oh...why...?"

"I don't know," Tae said before getting back on the ground. "I bet she's got a food and water bowl under here somewhere...oh, there-"

There was a bump as Tae's head hit the bottom of the bed, followed by a groan and the sound of an object hitting the ground.

"What was that?" Jungkook asked, trying to peer under the bed, but he didn't want to move and startle Toaster.