Little: Hyunjin   (age range: 7-2)

Caregivers: SKZ (lots of hyunho and hyunchan)

   College boys gone away for the summer is what they were. All living together in a cottage that used to belong to Chan's grandmother. That was because it was summer break and they were all ready for some adventure, and as they wanted to have their adventures together, it was most convenient for them to live all in one place for a few months. They'd go to the beach or to amusement parks (where one specific person would throw up into another's lap mistakenly while screaming his throat out on a roller coaster); they'd go white water rafting or they'd just go into the woods and build wooden forts to camp in.

    The cottage was the perfect place for Hyunjin to live: the property included several acres of green, wildflower-dotted fields and alluring, explorable woods, and Hyunjin loved to play outside, in little space or not. He was enchanted by the forest, and the forest seemed to be enchanted by him as well.

   Today, he was in little space, and even though it was deadly hot, he was out traipsing through the woods, picking wildflowers and weeds and pretending to make soup for the animals that lived there, just like his Min hyungie, the cottage's resident culinary arts student, would make soup for all of his friends, especially on sweltering days like this.

   Being that his little space age tended to be on the older side, his housemates and caregivers weren't worried about him going off into the woods on his own, provided that he didn't go too far and that he came back for lunch and/or dinner. Sometimes that meant one of the boys had to go strolling down the paths for a little while to find him, but because he was well-behaved and a good listener that followed the rules and stayed fairly close to the cottage while he played, and because no one really minded going for a quick walk with that beautiful scenery surrounding them, it was no big deal.

   Today, it was Minho that came to collect him in the late afternoon.

   A loud call of, "Hyun?" piercing the near-silence of the woods, was what got Hyunjin's attention away from the bowl of "soup" (which was really just watery muck with dandelions and torn up leaves dispersed throughout it) he'd been stirring up and thinking of giving to the squirrel that had been curiously peering at him from a safe distance, up in a tree.

   "'m here, hyung!" Hyunjin replied, just as loud, but with a bit more excitement and childish glee.

   Minho stepped through the brush and gave a little smile, shaking the dirt out of his flip flop as he asked, "Whatcha doin'?"

    "Making soup!"

    Minho's cheeks hiked up a little higher and he crouched by Hyunjin's bowl of mud. "Looks great, bub. But how about you come in and have some water? It's super hot today."

   "Okie dokie." Hyunjin set down his spoon (which was really a long, smooth stick that had been weathered nicely so that it wasn't too rough to handle comfortably), and told the squirrel that he should try a spoonful or two as he rose to follow his hyung out of the woods. "Hyungie, can I get on your back?" he requested, cheerfully.

   Minho took one look at him, mud-covered as he was, and promptly, cheekily said, "Nope!"

~~~

   Hyunjin sat on the wooden living room floor, a stick of frozen juice (that Minho had given him, because he asked very nicely and promised not to make a mess) hanging out of his mouth as he sucked the sweetness out of it. Minho had told him that if he didn't want to get cleaned up yet, he was allowed to stay inside only if he stayed off the furniture.

   Just about the time that he reduced it to the last little bits of flavorless ice, Hyunjin heard the sliding door open with a swoosh and looked to it expectantly.

   A round-cheeked boy with his sleeves rolled up and his hair fluffy, sweaty, and tousled, stepped inside, his hands full of the same old things he always came home from work with— bag, phone, keys, nearly-empty iced coffee.

   Sungie was home!

    Hyunjin watched him shove the stuff down on the kitchen table carelessly, the keys clinking loudly while he greeted the first person he saw— Minho— wordlessly, with a big, gummy smile, and a slight tilt to his head, and then as he turned his head and caught sight of him.

    Jisung waved enthusiastically to Hyunjin before he stepped across the kitchen to tuck himself in against the counter at Minho's side, for a short, hushed conversation. And then, just like that, he was kicking off his shoes and letting them hit the screen door so he could slide on his socks while he hurried across the room to Hyunjin.

   Must've been the pastels he was wearing, the wrapper of the frozen treat hanging from his mouth, and the all-around curiosity that was so obvious on his face because everything was so exciting to him— all telltale signs of him being little— that made Jisung so excited to see him. The boy just tackled him in a hug, like he didn't even see that he was mud-caked.

    "Hey, little fairy," Jisung started, retracting one arm from around Hyunjin's waist to stroke his muddied cheek. "Bit dirty, huh?"

    Hyunjin gave a little, toothy grin.

    "Let's get you a bath before dinner, okay, bub? Min hyungie's making galbitang."

    Voice chipper and childish, Hyunjin replied, "'kay!"

   "Oh, so you're all excited for a bath when he asks, huh?" Minho huffed, crossing his arms. 

   "I just make it more fun than you do!" Jisung badgered. "C'mon, bub, let's get you squeaky clean!"

~~~

   "Did 'ya have lots of fun outside today, sweets?" Jisung asked, gently scrubbing the mud off of Hyunjin's face with a washcloth, kneeling at the side of the bathtub that was brimming with cool, bubbly water. The door to the bathroom was propped slightly open, as Seungmin came in and out, gophering for Jisung, bringing Hyunjin his bath toys and grabbing a towel and a change of clothes for him to wear afterwards and finding a comb for his hair.

   "Uh-huh!"

   Jisung set down the washcloth and took to squeezing shampoo onto his hands. "Wanna tell hyungie about it while I wash your hair?"

    Hyunjin beamed and began to chatter away with Jisung gently working shampoo through his long, blonde hair. He had just gotten through explaining that he'd pretty much made friends with a squirrel (which, of course, reminded him of his Sungie hyung), and had paused to wonder whether there was anything left to tell or not. That's when Jisung's fingers glided over a little bump behind his ear. It felt mostly like a scab, so Jisung glanced down at it briefly and saw something small and black.

   With closer inspection, he concluded that it was not a scab, as scabs generally did not have six nasty little legs sticking out of them. "Ohhhhh boy..." Jisung grimaced, his voice slipping out before he realized he ought to act normal for Hyunjin's sake.  As calmly as he could ever say something, he said, "Seungmin, bring me the tweezers."

   "Why, what's up?" Seungmin questioned, looking over Jisung's shoulder to take a look. "Oh. Be right back."

   Now Hyunjin, he wasn't really afraid of bugs, not even when he was in little space. Spiders, however, freaked him out to no end, with all their little legs and eyes and creepy bodies and disconcertingly quick movements. If he saw one in his room, he'd shriek and cry and refuse to sleep in his bed for the next several nights, and he'd be passed around to sleep with one of the other seven boys in the cottage, but it was generally Chan. (Chan had even tried putting him in his lap and getting him to watch videos of Lucas the Spider, but it didn't end up working.)

   And this wasn't a spider. But it did look like a spider, which is why Jisung did his best to keep it hush. But it wasn't really working, because Hyunjin was now looking frantically back and forth between the two of them, repeatedly asking "What? What??" while Seungmin just smiled tensely at him and Jisung asked him to please stop moving his head.

   Pressing his lips together into a thin line, Jisung once again folded over Hyunjin's left ear and cringed as he took a good look at the tick with its mouth buried in Hyunjin's skin and its little disgusting legs curled up against its sesame-seed-body, tweezers in hand. He poked at it with the tweezers, watching the tiny thing flail, and clamped his hand over his mouth.

   It was just so gross. 

   Jisung handed the tweezers off to Seungmin and stepped away.

   Seungmin rolled his eyes and crouched by the bathtub, taking Jisung's spot. "Okay, Hyunnie baby, hold still for me."

   Fear pooling in his watery eyes, Hyunjin mumbled, "Okay, hyungie."

   Seungmin pulled it off with quite the struggle, just nearly avoiding leaving the head in. By that time Hyunjin was crying from the pain and from the fear, because neither of them would tell him what was on his ear.

   When Seungmin finally pulled the thing away from Hyunjin, he held it between the tweezers and frowned at it, taking a good look at its swollen. "It looks pretty big; that's probably not a good sign—"

   Jisung whacked him. "Seung, you idiot, don't let him see it!" he blurted out, in a hurry. But it was too late. Seeing that that gross, spidery-looking little thing had been attached to him, Hyunjin began to scream.

~~~

   It'd gotten late and everyone but one person was home (and hungry), so once Jisung and Seungmin had managed to console Hyunjin enough to finish bathing him and get him into a pair of shorts, at least, Minho called it and decided they'd be having dinner without Chan tonight.

   Once Minho set the pot of galbitang on the table and sat down, a puffy-faced Hyunjin crawled onto his lap, wrapped up in a fluffy towel. All but the three of them that had been in the bathroom a moment ago were asking what happened, partly because they could see that Hyunjin had been upset and was currently out of it and actively seeking comfort, but also partly because they heard him screaming earlier. After Jisung's quick explanation, Minho patted Hyunjin gently on the head, murmuring, "Here, have some soup, little one. You'll feel better." He held a spoonful of broth to Hyunjin's lips.

   They were all about halfway through their bowls of soup when the sliding door finally opened and Chan walked inside, with his usual happy smile and greeting as he neatly removed his shoes, but when he saw Hyunjin, snuggled into Minho with his face still red and swollen, his smile dropped and he made his way around the table to Minho's chair.

   "Hyun's been crying? What happened?" He held the hand that Hyunjin reached out toward him gently.

    "Got a tick bite. Seungmin pulled it off of him," Minho responded.

   "Oh, gosh. Poor thing." Chan patted Hyunjin's hand. "Can I see it, baby? Hyung wants to make sure it's okay."

   Pouting, Hyunjin turned his head for Chan, and Minho bent his ear down carefully. A small pink bump was all that was left.

   "Well, looks like the head is out, so that's good. I guess we'll need to check him after he goes out in the woods."

   Despite the fact that the tick had not come from his bedroom, Hyunjin still did not want to sleep in his own bed. He clung to Chan for the rest of the night, and went to bed with him, no questions asked.

~~~

   The next day was rainy, and even if it hadn't been, Hyunjin wouldn't have felt like going out to play (though his caregivers weren't sure if that was because he was just tired or because he was still shaken up from yesterday).

   After waking up to Chan leaving for work, he was passed to Felix, who he fell asleep with again for a few hours, and then he spent the rest of his day quietly playing, with Jeongin and Changbin joining in here and there when they were free, and watching cartoons when he didn't feel like playing anymore.

   He felt a little weird all day and he just wanted his Daddy. Of course, his Daddy had to be working late again that night. This time, it was completely dark out and dinner had long since been cleared away and still there was no sign of him.

   As everyone else but the cottage cats drifted away from the kitchen and most of them headed upstairs to do their own things, Hyunjin stayed and sat by the window, listening to the cicadas sing, trying to distract himself from subtle throb of his head that he hadn't really noticed until it'd gone quiet.

   Peering out the window, he fixed his eyes on the path to the door and watched intently. Chan had to come home sometime, after all, and Hyunjin was determined to wait until he did.

   His plans were ruined when Jeongin came down for a drink of water and noticed him there.

   "Hey, Hyunnie. Jeongin approached his chair and scratched the head of the cat lying over the table briefly. "It's time for bed." He patted Hyunjin's back.

   Hyunjin leaned closer to the window. "'m gonna wait for Channie hyung," he whimpered.

   "No, baby," Jeongin answered, and he didn't falter, even when Hyunjin whined and pouted and gave him pleading puppy eyes. "Don't try it, Hyunnie. Answer's no. I know you want your Channie hyung but it's bedtime, and you've been sleepy all day. Who knows when Chan hyung will be back?"

   Now, Jeongin understood that it wasn't that Hyunjin didn't like him as much as he liked Chan. When Hyunjin wanted to romp around and play and cause a ruckus, it tended to be Jeongin or Jisung that he looked for. And when he wanted comfort, he wanted Chan, because he had a soothing, parental nature to him and naturally poured out his care on anyone that seemed to want it. But, there was one other person who seemed to have this sort of effect as well; it was just that he was, perhaps, a tad bit more stingy with his comforting and doting (maybe because this person was saving it for someone in particular). 

   "How about we get you to Min hyung, huh? Maybe he'll let you stay with him for the night." Jeongin offered.

   Realizing there was no chance he'd get his way, Hyunjin sniffled and nodded, passively sticking up his arms. Jeongin picked him up without hesitation and carried him to the stairs, where he apologetically set him back down and promised that he would hold his hand as they went up, but he really couldn't carry him up the stairs. After that was over with, Hyunjin was put right back on Jeongin's hip while he turned the corner and headed down the long hallway.

   "Knock for me, please," Jeongin chuckled, leaning forward to let Hyunjin tap his fist on Minho's door. 

   A delayed, slightly hesitant, "Yes?" was the answer. 

   Jeongin nodded toward the knob, and Hyunjin twisted it. With a push from Jeongin's foot, the door creaked open. It was a team effort. Minho sat propped up on his messy bed, the blankets in a wad beside him. 

   "The little fairy needs to get to sleep and Chan's not home yet. You mind?"

   Hyunjin made grabby hands for Minho.

   "Um.. Sure, yeah, he can sleep with me." Minho let Jeongin pass Hyunjin off to him, and settled the little in his lap. 

   Jeongin snickered, lowering his voice, as if that would do anything when Hyunjin was as close to him as Minho was. "You know, you do a pretty bad job of hiding it." Jeongin brought his hand down on the lump of blankets, which strangely gave a rather human-sounding grunt in reply.

   "Alright, yeah, shut up, will you? We were just talking."

   "Then why is he hiding under the blankets?"   

   Then, all of a sudden, the blankets were thrown up and a static-y, messy-haired Jisung appeared out from under them, which startled Hyunjin. "I wasn't hiding! I was taking a nap. Why would I be hiding?"

   "Well, why are you napping in Minho hyung's—"

   "Okay, you know what? You're upsetting the little fairy. It's bedtime, now, goodnight!" Minho announced, in a bit of a hurry, patting Hyunjin's back as he did so. And then he made a shooing motion, which finally got Jeongin to shrug and retreat before he got a Minho-style verbal beating (since his hands were currently busy).

   Jisung, too, glanced at the little who was now lying over Minho's front, sighed and followed Jeongin out the door, though not without stalling at the door and whispering a, "Night, hyung," with a grin, before he closed it behind him.

   Once it was quiet, Minho reached for the lamp on his desk and switched it off, then sunk down to lie flat on his back, Hyunjin over his chest.  He didn't pull the blankets over them, because the night air filtering in through the window was still warm, especially since they were now sharing body heat.

   Hyunjin pressed his cheek into Minho's chest, hair splaying over it, nuzzling into him to feel the beat of his heart and the rising and falling of his chest. He happily took in the wave of comfort that being close to Minho provided, similar to Chan in the way that having his arms around him made him feel safe enough to close his eyes and doze off, because his caregiver would protect him no matter what (even if he didn't always openly show it).

   "Sleep well, bub," Minho murmured, placing a hand on the back of Hyunjin's blonde head that would keep him still and close throughout the night.

~~~

    Hyunjin did sleep well. For quite a long time, too. And he didn't wake up when Minho did, nor when Minho got very bored of lying flat and motionless so he carefully moved the boy to his shoulder, nor when he stood and very carefully carried him downstairs.

    When Hyunjin did wake up, he was still in Minho's arms, but now he was in the kitchen (judging by the sizzling he heard), and Minho was swaying him gently while having a quiet chat with whoever he was standing in front of— Hyunjin couldn't see, even when he opened his bleary eyes, because he was attached to Minho's front after all, arms looped around his neck and legs dangling limply around his back. He wasn't very interested to find out, either, rather more content to just leave his heavy, for-some-unknown-reason-aching head where it was resting on Minho's shoulder, until he heard Chan's voice reply.

   Suddenly he whipped his head around to look, just to make sure, and there he was. Hyunjin felt his head go even fuzzier at the sight of him, and just like that all he knew was that he wanted to be right there, sat on Chan's lap while the oldest drank his coffee. He squirmed in Minho's arms and whined softly, twisting toward Chan and trying to reach for him.

    "Woah, bub, calm down— You're gonna make me drop you." Minho waited until Hyunjin was still to make any sort of move. "Yes, Hyunnie, I can see that you want Chan hyung."

   With Chan reaching out to take Hyunjin off his hands, Minho leaned forward and let the little slip away from him and fall into Chan's arms. The little immediately buried his face in Chan's shirt, which made the oldest boy coo and wrap his arms around him snugly.

   It wasn't unusual for Hyunjin to be clingy with Chan, even if he was feeling fine, but this was a little extreme, and the way he was acting so much younger than he usually did was worrisome.

   "You okay, baby?" Chan asked, rubbing a soothing hand up and down his back.

   Hyunjin whimpered into the black fabric and pressed himself closer, because no, he didn't really feel okay.

   "He was kind of hot when I was holding him. I think he's sweating a little," Minho commented, and Chan nodded. It was only morning, though, and there was a gentle breeze sweeping in through the windows, so it really wasn't that hot. "I'll get him something cold to drink."  Minho walked off toward the fridge and came back a moment later with an ice-filled sippy cup in his hand, which he offered to Hyunjin. "Look, bub, hyung's got apple juice for you."

   Hyunjin took one look and pushed it away, shrinking further into Chan's arms with a shiver as soon as he touched it and got the condensation on his hand.

   "You're cold?" Chan mused, eyebrows furrowed. Hyunjin nodded. "Look at Daddy, baby."

    Hyunjin reluctantly pulled his face out of Chan's chest and looked up at his caregiver with glassy eyes, which he closed when Chan pressed the back of his hand to his forehead.

   "That's a fever," Chan concluded.

   "The little one's sick?" Jisung called, from where he was tangled up with Felix and Changbin on the couch, all three watching their Saturday morning cartoons.

    "Looks like it." Chan looked down at Hyunjin and smiled comfortingly. "Wanna watch cartoons with them while I get the thermometer?"

   Hyunjin just shrugged, because he didn't really feel like leaving Chan's lap, but he also didn't feel like protesting. Chan tapped his leg to get him moving, but he didn't feel like he could. The older boy made a move to slide him off his lap, but when Hyunjin didn't brace himself at all, he stopped and hurriedly caught him around the waist.

   "You're really sleepy, aren't you?"

   Hyunjin nodded lazily, adding on a, "Hurts."

   "It hurts? Tell Daddy what hurts, baby."

   "Everythin'."

   "Aww, baby." Chan hoisted him into his arms instead, walking him to the living room. "I'll get you some medicine, too." With one hand, he motioned for the pile of boys on the couch to make room for one more. Changbin shoved Jisung and Felix to the other end and made his lap avaliable for Chan to set Hyunjin down on. However, when the oldest attempted to transfer the little into Changbin's arms, desperate fists bunched up the fabric of his shirt as Hyunjin clung for dear life with a distressed, high-pitched whine.

    "Shh, it's alright, little one; I'm not leaving. I'll be here all day, okay? Just cuddle with Binnie for a little bit and let Daddy find the thermometer."

    Once Hyunjin considered the option of curling up in Changbin's lap, he was slightly more willing to let go of Chan. He laid back against Changbin's chest, only pouting a little as he watched Chan walk away. Changbin held him tight while Jisung and Felix tried to get him interested in the cartoon that was playing so as to distract him, but he was too glassy-eyed to make much of anything out and trying to do so was hurting his eyes, so he ended up whining hoarsely and pressing his face into Changbin's neck. He nearly fell asleep again like that, but right before he drifted off, a gentle hand touched his cheek.

    Hyunjin slowly and dazedly cracked open his eyes to see Chan leaning down and looking at him. His eyes fluttered shut again as he leaned his head entirely into Chan's palm.

    "Hyunnie, open wide," Chan instructed, resting the probe of a thermometer against his lips. Lazily, Hyunjin let his mouth fall open, only so much to let his top teeth show a little. "A little more, please," Chan chuckled, and when Hyunjin did finally open wide enough he stuck the thermometer in and wedged it, carefully as he could, under his tongue.

    The oldest boy hummed disapprovingly when the display on the thermometer came up with the numbers 102. By that time, Minho was already peeking over his shoulder.

      "Guess we're doing soup again, tonight," Minho sighed.

  Hyunjin spent most of the day falling asleep in someone's arms. At first, he was restless and fussy until Chan put down the thermometer and held him again, then once Chan sweet-talked him into taking some medicine, Hyunjin promptly nuzzled into his chest and nodded off.

    When he was handed off to someone else an hour or so later so that Chan could get up and do Chan things, he hardly woke up at all, and certainly not enough to refuse being shifted into the arms of... Felix? It seemed like it was probably Felix, but he couldn't be sure, since he fell right back to sleep, and on the cycle went until the boys supposed he was probably sleeping deeply enough to be laid on the couch by himself and tucked in with a thick blanket to soothe his shivers.

    He only really, fully woke up that evening when Minho had just finished making a pot of samgyetang and Chan patted him softly with a bowl of it in hand.

    It freaked everyone out, especially Hyunjin, to see that even sitting up had become quite the task for him.

  Chan had asked him to sit up to make feeding him easier. Hyunjin hadn't eaten anything because he'd been asleep nearly the whole day, which was certainly not going to help his fever, and that was why Chan woke him up. Obediently, Hyunjin lifted his head and tried to lean himself forward, which he could usually do mostly without using his hands. It didn't work. It felt like his body had turned to lead at some point while he'd fallen asleep, and now just propping himself up on his elbows was scarily difficult. A disconcerted, confused whimper slipped past his lips and caught Chan's attention. Instantly, there was a strong hand under his back, pushing him up like he was light as a feather. Limply, his head fell forward as Chan sat him up.

    "Geez, Hyunnie," Jisung's voice cropped up from somewhere in the room— Hyunjin didn't know where, and didn't have the energy to care enough to find out. He barely even had the energy to remember where he was. How was it possible to be so exhausted after sleeping the whole day?

   He hardly even noticed the fact that Chan was pulling him into his lap. He was like a ragdoll in his hold, ready to doze off again until there was a spoon against his lips. One eye opening momentarily, he glanced at the soup Chan was trying to get into his closed mouth.

   He frowned and turned his heavy head to the side to reject it. He wasn't hungry at all, and eating sounded like so much work right now.

    "Hyunnie, baby, please. I need you to eat," Chan pleaded.

    Being little, exhausted, and emotional from his fever, Hyunjin started crying, very weakly, right then and there. Salty tears trickled into his dry mouth as he opened it then to whimper once again, because it was all he could manage. Had he not been quite so tired, he probably would've been sobbing.

   Chan sighed and handed the bowl off to Minho, who was standing close by. He pulled Hyunjin in close to his chest and shushed him steadily, rubbing his sweat-damp back, until an idea crossed his mind. "How about a bottle?"

    That stopped the last of his pained whimpering. He nodded slightly against Chan's shoulder.

    Hyunjin hardly ever slipped young enough to need anything more than a sippy cup (which he only needed because he was prone to knocking his cups over) so it wasn't usual for him to have a bottle. This, however, was a special occasion, and he was a lot littler than usual.

    "Jeongin, can you find his bottle? It's probably in his room somewhere." 

    "Sure, hyung," Jeongin answered, heading upstairs in a hurry, with Seungmin in tow as a reinforcement to help scour Hyunjin's bedroom.

    "In the meantime..." Chan started, shifting Hyunjin to his left arm so he could see his face. "Can you eat just a few bites of soup, little fairy?"

    Hyunjin looked up at him uneasily. Maybe he could handle just a few bites. For Chan.

     "Min hyungie made it for you, baby. I think he'd be a little sad if you didn't have any."

    He glanced over at Minho, with the steaming bowl in his hand, and a slight, encouraging smile on the corners of his lips. "...'kay, Daddy," Hyunjin croaked, giving in.

    Minho had just fed him his third spoonful of soup when Jeongin came back down, but because the bottle had been sitting around so long, he had to wash the dust off of it, which was majorly disappointing for Hyunjin.

    "One more, bub. Innie's still heating up the milk," Minho urged.

    Hyunjin made one more weak, tired noise of protest, but he still took the last spoonful Minho gave him. Then, finally, Minho smiled and praised him and took away the bowl. Chan patted his head and thanked him for his cooperation, and by that time, the youngest was walking to the couch, milk-filled bottle in hand.

    He willingly opened his mouth this time and let Jeongin put the tip of the bottle into it, not moving his hands to take it out of Jeongin's at all. Instead, Chan took it from Jeongin and held it for Hyunjin, who snuggled in closer to Chan's chest before suckling softly and steadily.

   By then, most everyone had migrated to the kitchen and were chowing down on Minho's samgyetang, so it was just Chan and a very sleepy Hyunjin in the living room, and it was fairly quiet, so the little was, once again, nodding off. Chan, however, kept bouncing his leg slightly to wake him, because he hadn't even gotten through half of the milk and the oldest wanted Hyunjin to at least have something in his stomach, even if it was just milk (along with the four little bites of soup). Because of this, it took a good twenty minutes for Hyunjin to finish, and by then it was his normal bedtime (when he was regressed), anyway.

   Chan's stomach was growling, and the soup was getting cold, so he passed Hyunjin off to Minho to get him to his bed, which went more smoothly than expected. He was so tired that he didn't even put up a fight about sleeping in his own bed.

   ~~~

    Two hours later, Hyunjin was back on the couch, and a little circle of his hyungs were sitting in front of it, chatting uneasily.

   Chan had just gotten through cleaning the puke off of Hyunjin's bed, with some help from Minho and Changbin. The two oldest had apologized to the little, who was quivering miserably on the floor of his room as his hyungs rushed to get the sheets and blankets into the washer, for making him eat earlier. They knew, of course, that he hadn't been feeling well, but they didn't know he wasn't feeling well in this specific way.

    "Daddy's sorry, baby," Chan repeated as he laid Hyunjin down on the couch, then draped a thin blanket over him, pulling it up to his chest. "If you feel icky like that again, try to tell me, but if there's no time, use this." He set a trash-bag lined bucket at the side of the couch and watched Hyunjin weakly nod.

    Changbin got up to turn on the tv and peruse the shelf full of movies to pick one for Hyunjin to watch/fall asleep to.

   "It's just weird that he got this sick all of a sudden. I've never seen him have more than a cough and a runny nose before," Minho mused.

   "Yeah. I've got no clue where he could've gotten something like this from..." Chan pondered, taking his seat by the foot of the couch. Suddenly, his brow furrowed. "...Come to think of it, no one's checked his bite recently, right?"

   "No, I think you were the last one to look at it," Changbin answered, putting a disc into the dvd player.

   "Come here, angel," Chan said, as if Hyunjin was actually capable of coming to him right now. He slipped a hand underneath his head and carefully brought the little to a sitting position, leaning him against the couch for support while he gently held his jaw to tilt his head toward him, then used one finger to fold down his ear.

    It was a good thing Hyunjin couldn't see it, because he would've used the last bit of energy he had left crying. He would've been incredibly freaked out by seeing the swollen bump with the dark purpley-pink ring surrounding it. 

    "Oh gosh, Hyunnie. I should've checked you sooner," Chan sighed. "Why didn't I think of that?"

   "What's wrong?" Minho demanded, trying to peek over Chan's shoulder.

    "He's got a bullseye rash," Chan paused, rubbing his eyes frustratedly. "Okay, I'm taking him to urgent care. I was already thinking about taking him just because of the fever... I just— I didn't realize it was probably because of the bite."

    "You think he got this sick from Lyme?"

    "Yeah, I mean, I didn't know it could get this bad so fast, but... it's pretty hard to believe it's just a coincidence." Chan pushed himself to his feet and went off in search of socks, shoes, and keys. Minho went to get Hyunjin a jacket and some slippers, since it'd be hard to get him into actual shoes just then. Changbin turned off the tv.

    When Chan came back, ready to go, he knelt by Hyunjin's side and asked, "Your tummy feeling okay?" He breathed a sigh of relief when Hyunjin nodded. "We have to go see the doctor, so I'm gonna carry you to the car, baby."

   An exhausted Chan was nearly in tears too when he saw the overwhelmed, silent tears dribbling down Hyunjin's cheeks as the little sniffled and nodded again. 

~~~

   Hyunjin felt a little better the next morning, despite how awful the last night had been for him. All he wanted was to cling to Chan and go back to sleep, but an annoying doctor kept prodding at him in that intensely bright room, and the worst part of it all was that at the end they stuck a syringe in his mouth and filled it with a gross white paste that they called 'amoxicillin'. They told him it would taste good! Like bubblegum. It was nasty.

    Having that horrible stuff sitting on his tongue was his last straw, and he sobbed into Chan's neck while the older boy carried him back to the car. Then, he fell asleep again, and didn't wake up until the morning, when he was tucked into Chan's bed, only to be given more nasty bubble gum stuff with a stern but loving look from Chan when he was gearing up to complain with all his might.

   Chan explained it to him in simple words, telling him that a sick bug had bitten him and gotten him sick too, so he needed to take his medicine. So, unfortunately he'd be spending weeks taking mouthfuls of that nasty bubblegum stuff twice a day. But, at least, after every time he had to take it, Chan would hold him and tell him he was such a good little fairy.

   And maybe in a couple days, when his fever went away, he'd be back to playing outside, because Minho came home with a bottle of tick repellent the other day.

.

-6083 words

SOMEONE TEACH ME HOW TO WRITE SATISFYING ENDINGS. also why do my oneshots keep getting longer and longer.

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also like,, realistically i don't think the effects of lyme disease would get that bad that quickly but does it look like i care?

fun fact,, when i got lyme nothing really happened.. or so i thought?? im kinda confused cuz like i got diagnosed with eds last year but i don't think i really had problems before i got lyme which was like six or seven years ago atp idk

basically the moral of the story is ticks are bad don't let them bite you

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who's your favorite skz little? i'm totally soft for little minho :')