cute

• thirty-four •

"Jeon Jungkook, I'm not playing around!"

Taehyung put his hands on his hips and gave the aforementioned boy a stern look. In reply, Jungkook just stuck out his tongue and stomped his foot on the ground.

"If you don't get here right now, you'll be getting a time-out," Taehyung threatened. He was trying to get the boy dressed for the day but Jungkook had decided that he'd rather run around the house in just his boxers. Taehyung had tried to get him back to bathroom but he'd defiantly ran away from the man. The two had gone in circles around the living room before both pausing at opposite ends of the coffee table in the middle of the room. When Tae would take a step in one direction, Jungkook would take a step in the opposite.

"You have to catch me to put me in time-out," Jungkook replied like a smart-ass.

Taehyung crossed his arms across his chest, "do you want spankies too?"

Jungkook, believing he had the man figured out, responded with, "spankies mean sex afterwards, so yes please."

"Language," Taehyung scolded, "now, come here or else."

Jungkook once again stomped his foot on the ground, wordlessly telling that he was going to go nowhere. He mirrored the man across from his and crossed his arms over his chest, holding his chin up.

"One."

He still didn't move but admittedly he started to get worried.

"Two."

He shifted slightly in his spot.

"Thr-"

"I'm sorry Daddy!" Jungkook exclaimed as he ran over to Tae, throwing his arms around the man to pull him into an apology hug. Taehyung wanted to still scold the boy for making the morning a struggle but he couldn't resist the way the younger buried his face into his chest. He gently pat Jungkook's head before pulling him back, making him look into his own eyes.

"You're a pain," Tae mumbled, "but I still love you."

"I know," Jungkook replied before making grabby hands at Tae. The man picked him up and carried him back to the bathroom, placing him down on the sink. He grabbed the denim overalls and helped Jungkook get dressed into them, gushing over how adorable the boy looked in the outfit. He squished Jungkook's cheeks together and pressed delicate little kisses all over the boy's face.

"Daddy," Jungkook whined out, pretending to be bothered by the action despite wanting for it to ever end. He liked how loved Tae made him feel. It helped keep that dark self-doubt away for some time.

"So, what does my baby boy want to do today?" Taehyung asked as he fixed Jungkook's hair, pushing some lose strands out of his face.

Just as the question was asked, Tae's phone began to ring. He excused himself to the bedroom to find his phone buzzing with Hoseok's contact name on the screen. Answering the call, Tae didn't even have time to greet the boy before he was being interrupted by a panting Hoseok.

"Can you come over?"

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" Tae asked as he picked up both he and Jungkook's bags.

There were some muffled noises from the other end of the call and if Tae wasn't mistaken, it sounded like breaking glass. There was another voice with Hoseok and all he could make out was that it was female, but she wasn't familiar.

"Hoseok?" Taehyung called, beginning to worry. He speed-walked out of the room to retrieve Jungkook who still stood in the bathroom. Pulling the boy by his hand, Tae lead the way out of the house and to the car, squishing the phone between his shoulder and ear while he buckled Jungkook's seatbelt for him (because the little liked it, though he would never admit it out loud).

"She's gone crazy," Hoseok spoke after another loud crash, followed by even more yelling, "hurry up man."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way," Tae got into the driver's side and started up the car, rather violently pulling out of the driveway. Jungkook squeaked a little at the action, his stress starting to build at the mysterious situation. While the boy liked to misbehave and act like some cool kid and play with his superhero toys, he had a rather delicate side. He could ignore people's judgemental, questioning looks but he couldn't ignore it when his caregiver looked so worried. If the person that was meant to protect him was stressed, then he couldn't help but feel the same.

Taehyung was too focused on driving and keeping his phone against his ear to notice how Jungkook was starting worry. The little's legs were pulled up to his chest, eyes frantically scanning back and forth as if searching for the danger, thumb between his teeth as some sort of distraction.

After only three or five minutes of driving that may or may not have been over the speed limit, Taehyung was pulling up to the front of Hoseok's house.

"Stay here," and with that, Taehyung got out of the car and rushed inside.

Scared little Jungkook was left in the car to watched his daddy disappear in the house. Jungkook was left to start conjuring all those horrible scenarios in his head, all those potential situations in which something bad happened to the one he loved. And what about Hobi? Was Hobi already hurt in there? These thoughts started spiralling out of control in Jungkook's mind.

Meanwhile, both Taehyung and Hoseok were now dealing with a woman who had also spiralled out of control.