soft - seventeen littles.

breathe | 11

wonwoo had been called to help make a snack with some of the others, but not before seungkwan had forced him to stick on a kids bop cd and made the mistake of showing him how to turn up the volume. after he left into the kitchen the group of older littles looked at the cd and settled on some loud party song before turning up the sound as much as possible, which somehow couldn't be heard from the kitchen.

woozi was sat on dinos knee who was bouncing him up and down as he yawned before he wanted to be sat on the floor so that he could dance (which was freaking adorable because he was just waving his arms around randomly and giggling) and chan left for a second to go get himself a drink, too lazy to yell to or go turn of the music himself.

minghao elt his ears fill with the talking of the other members and the sounds of the other littles and music along with all the over-excited yelling. as his eyes brimmed with tears he looked around from the floor for his daddy but couldn't see him.

the sound of his heart drowned out his surroundings and his head began to hurt. tears rolled down his cheeks from his dark cocoa-like eyes and his breathing spiked violently in his throat. hearing the choked sounds over the noise wonwoo squinted and strained his ears.

he poked his head into the living room to see minghao with his knees curled up to his chest and shaking against the wall away from the others. panic setting in he rushed over and tried to bring the youngers head up only to be greeted with the littles eyes opening and closing in fear and slow streams traveling down his face.

"hey, baby boy, what's wrong huh?" keeping his voice soft and calm wonwoo asked, only another tear fell and left a shadow but was broken up by minghao's ragged breathing. quickly realising this wasn't just a fussy fit wonwoo shouted for jeonghan and seungcheol who at first walked but after glancing at the pair ran over and crouched down to pick up minghao who kept struggling to take breaths.

seungcheol stuck to wonwoo and looked pretty pissed. "what did you-" "nothing, i swear, i came in and found him hyperventilating." jeonghan bounced minghao gently on his hip whilst hushing and trying to calm him down. hoshi walked in and immediately took him from jeonghan, brushing his hair which was stuck to his forehead with sweat to the side.

"jeonghan go get his pacifier." as jeonghan got ready to scold soonyoung for talking brashly seungcheol tapped him on the shoulder and he ran upstairs for the comfort item along with the pale purple blanket too. whilst he did hoshi walked into the kitchen holding onto the smaller and quickly threw together a bottle of formula that jun had brought.

halfway through jeonghan came and gave the pacifier to him which hoshi put into minghao's mouth making his crying die down but his breathing was still broken. pretty much at the same time as the formula finished jun came through the door and heard all the commotion from in the kitchen.

he walked in and something clicked instinctively where he walked over and took his baby boy into his arms. "jeonghan please can you go quieten down the other littles and caregivers, and seungcheol can you turn off the music aswell." it was less like a question and more a command so both nodded and left to do their jobs.

as they did junhui saw minghao still struggling to breathe, more so behind the pacifier that soonyoung called for. he placed him on the kitchen worktop and took it out, tilted the youngers head upwards, using his thumb to wipe his cheeks and look him dead in the eye. "breathe baby, come on sweet, i know you can. breathe for me alright?"

fresh tears filled up minghao's eyes and he made grabby hands as he tried to sniffle. "babá..." jun quickly picked him back up onto his hip and put his hand on the back of his head as he held his little as close as possible. "hey baby boy, shh, it's ok, babá's here now. shh, i'm here." whispering into his baby's ear with his soft and gentle voice "you're ok, you're safe, i've got you ok? i promise."

the whole apartment grew quiet and junhui took the formula hoshi had made, nodding his thank you. jun carried minghao to the living room and sat with the small boy in his lap, running his fingers through the young littles hair as he fed him. the younger of the two had his eyes closed as stray tears still fell freely.

all the other littles had been practically forced outside by jeonghan and were running about, thankfully though with the door closed so there wasn't as much noise and the entire atmosphere was quiet and still. hoshi who had been doing dishes whilst jun dealt with the little walked in with a cloth over his shoulder and sat down across from the caregiver/little couple.

he looked down and saw the pacifier on the side making junhui look up when he hit himself on the forehead. "i'm so sorry.... i should've known if he wasn't breathing okay to not give him his paci, it wouldn't help him and made the whole thing so much wors-" he was cut off by junhui who was shaking his head and smiling a little.

"soonyoung, it's honestly fine. none of the others have anxiety attacks like minghao so you couldn't have known, heck, even jeonghan was lost and dino has breathing issues when it comes to his nightmares most of the time. plus, you were all just worried, you didn't have any bad intentions. trust me, ok? you did what you thought was right at the time."

listening with his head in his hands hoshi's shoulders visibly relaxed. with that there was a knocking sound on the glass door leading to the garden. hoshi turned to see mingyu and seungkwan looking through with their heads tilted to the side and ran over to close the curtains quickly and shot a glance at jun.

"i can't keep them out much longer. go. save yourself!" junhui chuckled as he stood and saw their host setting up snacks with one of the 200 disney movies they owned; he made his way up the stairs slowly, his baby boys hand holding onto his shirt with his little fists as he did.