Twinkle || BTS

A Little Tired

"What is Lia still doing awake?" Jin asked as soon as he walked into the living room. It was late at night, and darkness enveloped the house save for the television illuminating the living room. The culprits, Jimin, Taehyung, and Hoseok, stared up at Jin like deer in headlights from their places on the floor. Countless blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals surrounded them, making the living room mimic a deconstructed pillow fort. Lia laid in front of the trio with her head rested in Jimin's lap. She paid Jin no mind, as she contently watched the television screen in front of her. Her hands idly fidgeted with her baby pink blanket and her teeth toyed with the mint glow-in-the-dark pacifier in her mouth.

That caught Jin off guard.

"She wouldn't fall asleep," Hoseok said, looking absolutely drained despite only being home for the past three hours. Taehyung and Jimin spent the entire day dealing with the overly anxious little and looked nearly dead.

"She hasn't slept for longer than an hour all day," Jimin continued, "Plus she's been very clingy and just... off?" The raised eyebrow from Seokjin silently urged Jimin to elaborate. "After you left this morning she started throwing fits whenever we'd try to put her down for a nap or even left her alone for a second."

"It's almost like..." Taehyung smiled triumphantly toward Seokjin, allowing the elder to mentally interpret the rest of his thought. The grin never left his face even when his only responses were an eye roll from Seokjin and a jab in the side by Jimin's elbow.

Jin approached the quartet and picked Lia up into his arms despite the pout on Jimin's face. "You put her into little space but you can't put her to sleep. That's impressive, Tae." Even though the words dripped with sarcasm, Taehyung still took it as a win for himself. Lia squirmed in discontent in Jin's arms, and Jin shushed her and gently rocked her. Looking down at her face, Jin realized she looked closer to sleep than he was led to believe with her half closed eyes. He gently brushed his hand through her hair, noting that she felt significantly cooler compared to this morning, and Lia finally allowed her eyes to close all the way. Jin took another look around the living room with a sigh.

"I'm assuming all of this is from Lia's crib?" He received three timid nods in response. "You better have it put back together in the next three minutes otherwise the three of you will be the ones sleeping in the crib."

Jin took Lia into the kitchen, speaking and singing to her in hushed tones as he made her bottle. As the milk heated up, the bottle of sleeping pills caught Jin's eye. If what Jimin said about Lia fighting sleep was true, Jin would have to go against what he thought was morally right and make Lia sleep using drugs again. Jin felt as if he was betraying Lia by using the muscle relaxers, sleeping pills, and other drugs, not allowing her full freedom to slip when she felt comfortable. Of course, some of the drugs were necessary, but they did no harm in Jin's eyes. They were at a perfect balance at the moment- they must have done something right seeing as Lia looks to be slipping in and out of little space.

The walk to the nursery seemed much longer; Jin tried his hardest to keep Lia in her half-asleep daze. Every step and bump caused her to flinch ever so slightly, opening her eyes in an annoyed glare at the nothingness behind them. When they finally arrived, Jin was beyond thankful that the lights were already off. All that illuminated the room was the soft purple nightlight next to the crib.

Jin sat in the rocking chair with Lia in his lap. While she still looked on the edge of sleep, Jin saw no harm in feeding her a bottle. As he gently rocked Lia he placed the nipple near her mouth. Almost as if something snapped inside her, Lia's eyes opened fully and she pushed the bottle away. Jin was caught off guard for a moment- she was just dozing off but now she seemed wide awake out of nowhere.

"Come on, sweetie. I know you're tired, so take your baba and let's go to sleep." Jin cooed, but Lia was having none of it. She violently shook her head to avoid the warm milk and managed to squirm out of Seokjin's hold. Lia scooted herself back against the wall across from Seokjin, glaring as menacingly as she could. Jin could feel the annoyance building up inside him, letting it out in a frustrated sigh; it's been quite a while since Lia fought this hard against her bottle.

Jimin, Taehyung, and Hoseok barged in with the crib's pillows and blankets. Their loudness refocused Lia's attention from glaring at Jin to curiously watching the trio in their struggle to properly carry sheets. Jin watched them as well, and let out a snarky, "I don't think carrying blankets is a three-person job."

"Well, we're trying, okay?" Jimin shot back, "I don't see you helping."

"Do you not-" Jin cut himself off with an angry groan. The rocking chair flung back, slamming into the wall as he stood up and shoved the bottle into Hoseok's hands, storming out of the nursery. Everyone stared in shock as the eldest left, not knowing what exactly caused his sudden shift in mood.

Yoongi spent most of his time holed away in his bedroom, eyes glued to his computer screen in an unbreakable concentration. The current task of censoring Ophelia's name from the media started off as a simple task, but for every page and article he successfully deleted, ten more popped up out of nowhere like a hydra. Yoongi would have been more frustrated that he was if it had not been for the constant migraine he suffered, providing him a dull, comforting thud in the back of his mind.

The ping of his cellphone dragged him out of the depths of his mind- when had he lost focus on his work? Yoongi couldn't recall when his mind wandered off. He flipped the device over and saw multiple days' worth of notifications. The most recent one came from Seokjin.

'Come down and watch Lia, please.'

The more Yoongi scrolled, the more he realized Jin tried multiple times throughout the week to get him to leave his room. 23 unread texts, 12 missed calls, and countless other notifications from other irrelevant apps. Yoongi looked back towards his computer screen to see the hit count for Lia's name increase by nearly two thousand in the short time he checked his phone. Maybe he did need a break.

Yoongi groggily made his way downstairs. No one else was home besides Lia and Jin, making the spacious area seem oddly empty. Out of the corner of his eye, Yoongi saw a pink lump laying on the floor, face illuminated by whatever children's show was playing on the tablet. Yoongi quickly realized that it was Lia wrapped in her favorite blanket and taking a nap in the corner.

"Jin-hyung," Yoongi called out, "Why is Lia sleeping on the floor?"

"She's asleep?" Jin asked as he walked in from the kitchen. His initial surprise soon turned stern as he looked toward Yoongi. "Don't touch her- don't even look at her, I don't know. She hasn't been sleeping for longer than an hour all week. She needs it."

Yoongi didn't know if it was Jin's harsh tone or the fact that Lia has been having trouble sleeping that concerned him the most. Jin had obvious tension in the way he acted- he frantically walked around, grabbing a light jacket and his phone. Obviously something was going on that Yoongi was unaware of.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes, Yoongi." So everything was not alright. "I'm going to check on Jungkook, so I won't be back until late." Without another word, Jin stormed out of the house, front door slamming behind him. While it caused Yoongi to flinch, surprisingly Lia still lay undisturbed.

Ignoring Jin's instructions, Yoongi approached Lia and lifted her into his arms; The floor wasn't the cleanest or most comfortable place to sleep. Once she was in his arms, a glimpse of black hair peeked out from where Lia entangled herself in her blanket.

Yoongi really did miss a lot.

He laid Lia down gently on the couch as to not wake her. Moving the blanket further away from Lia's face, Yoongi got a better view at just what they did to her hair. Not only did they dye it back to her natural black, but they cut it as well. The black contrasted with the paleness of her skin, and the shoulder-length hair with a straight fringe made her appear even younger. Yoongi ran a hand through the dark locks only to see the dye slightly rub off on his fingers- they must have recently dyed it. Immediately, Yoongi realized that if it stained his hand that quickly, the blanket that Lia was wrapped in was probably a goner. Yoongi grasped a corner that previously covered her head and it was, indeed, stained with permanent hair dye. The damage looked nearly irreversible and Yoongi highly doubted their washer's capability to get it out. He wrapped Lia's head back up in the blanket so no dye would get on the couch, and planned on throwing away the blanket once she woke up.