soft - seventeen littles.

boredom | 12

'an arcade?! are you all insane?!" vernon was currently holding onto the back of seungkwans shirt as he was trying to run away from his caregiver, along with the small group that had formed outside the company building made of mingyu, wonwoo, dokyeom and joshua.

after their dance practice dino and woozi had fallen asleep so jeonghan, seungcheol and hoshi had taken them to get some rest. around an hour or two in minghao had tripped over dinos foot making them both collapse and the china line member had scared himself into an anxiety attack when no one scolded him.

turns out he felt bad enough to blame himself for hurting the other and ended up breaking down so jun took him home. the others now stood outdoors trying to think of a way to tire out their now little members who'd slipped after working.

'you want them in an open, public space when they're acting high?!' at this point hansol had given up and now seungkwan was chasing joshua whilst little wonwoo was playing with a bouncy ball that mingyu, today in his big space, had found stashed in his pocket.

"i mean, sure? i guess it would be ok as long as we keep it on the down low until we get there." dokyeom reasoned as mingyu spoke from looking down at his phone. "it's only 15-20 minutes away so it wouldn't be that bad, plus it's a work day so not many people are gonna be out."

"if we do get recognised what do you intend to do then?! this isn't as simple as you're making it out to be you know!" mingyu just shrugged and kept looking through his phone whilst vernon huffed out.

placing a hand on his shoulder dk spoke up again. "we can take a picture and ask them not to spread it but that's all we can do. all i know is i'm not taking a hyper joshua home right now for the sake of every breakable thing i own."

having eventually convinced vernon mingyu yelled for the others to jump in the car before slipping behind the wheel in the drivers seat. this seemed to make dokyeom go pale. "um, mingyu ..... how long has it been since you last drove?"

stretching nonchalantly he responded in pretty much the opposite way he should have. "it's been ages now i think about it, guess we'll have to see how it goes haha." before anyone could speak up he'd already started the car and sped off, barely below the speed limit and almost hitting a squirrel. (rip jisung - if anyone gets this i love you)

once they arrived at the place they made a mad dash from the death trap that mingyu called a car to the reception of the arcade. inside vernon was scratching his head as seungkwan and wonwoo talked about some sort of show behind him and josh played with the bell on the desk.

"mingyu? are you sure this place is open?" strolling in whilst twirling his keys around his fingers the older one nodded. "yeah, i just called ahead...." dokyeom who had eventually dragged his little away from the dreadful noise making device on the table narrowed his eyes and rubbed his fingers together at vernon. his mouth fell open. "YOU BOUGHT THE PLACE OUT?!?!?!"

mingyu shrugged and just walked in, calling for wonwoo as he did and taking his hand. vernon was left with his mouth hanging open and dk shook his head but walked in anyways with josh, seungkwan following after him who pushed up his caregivers chin to close his mouth as he walked past. "it's rude to leave your mouth open daddy."

as much as no one wanted to admit it mingyu seemed to have done the right thing. the games ranged from pac-man to ddr to a vr headset, the whole place being designed around video games through time making it honestly a really good choice, which vernon turned red at when he finally admitted it to himself.

the littles has immediately taken an interest in the games that were playing loud melodies over the rest and soon the group was huddled around an old school dance dance revolution machine covered in neon lights and brightly coloured arrows.

now let me tell you, you have never truly lost your uwu until you have watched a mentally six year old joshua doing his best to dance and sing to an old idol group song before almost falling over his own shoe laces. after josh, wonwoo tried and was considerably better despite only being 5 but still high fived the other as he stepped off with his head held high.

seungkwan was another story that should be told on another day, but there's no such time like the present. in short he tripped on the step up, pretending it was intensional, before picking a girl group song and dancing his little ass off only to then realise that he didn't actually remember how to play. needless to say once the song finished he still walked off like he owned the place, earning glorified stares from wonwoo.

then came them playing centipede and cubert on some original machines, a few driving games and one (accidental) horror simulator..... to be fair mingyu seemed more scared than wonwoo, although he was almost definitely gonna have to deal with some nightmares for a while.

eventually dokyeom collapsed onto one of the few couches after losing his fifth game of smash bros to vernon. feeling a tug on his sleeve the taller boy looked down to see josh fighting to keep his eyes open. dk sat up quietly and picked his baby boy off of the floor and into his lap where he immediately fell against his chest.

"you tired, kitten?" a small nod which he felt made the caregivers heart hurt a little as he sent a quick text to the others somewhere in the arcade. roughly 10 minutes later they were all in the back of the car, except vernon who was driving, josh still softly holding onto dk's shirt and wonwoo sat on mingyus lap with his head tucked under the others chin.

vernon smiled to himself, reaching slightly to make sure that his jacket completely covered seungkwan in the passenger seat next to him. who knew you could be so in love. the butterflies in his stomach fluttered when his little murmured "daddy.." in his sleep, before he turned the key and took them home.