Six of a Kind

십칠: Building Bedrooms

Months started to pass, and soon, summer was starting to show. Namjoon had their school places booked, except for Jimin, as he needed a tour in a special school. It broke Namjoon's heart that they would be separated, but Namjoon knew that putting Jimin first was most important. His education was important.

Even though the sextuplets stayed much smaller than what their age group should be, they were really overgrown for their cots. As soon as Namjoon's paycheck came through, he booked an appointment for Jimin's wheezy chest, and a psychologist's meeting for Jungkook (he'd done some more research on neurodiverse issues), and bought off the rest of the beds. It was time for them to go into their own bedrooms.

Namjoon honestly didn't want that. He wanted the babies to stay with him forever, especially because of Jimin, but he knew it was time, otherwise they would end up with separation anxiety. They would be going to school soon, and he had to get himself prepared and face the fact that his sons really were growing up too quick.

He dragged all of the boxes into the house, much to the sextuplets' delight. He dragged two to the room with a bed already made, and three to the empty room. They were painted pastel blue already, and the carpets were still fresh. It was just the beds and the toys that needed to be moved in.

He let the sextuplets join him as he opened up the first box, and took everything out. He expected them to all be interested in the box again, but this time, half of them were more interested in what Namjoon was doing. They wanted to help him build the beds. He had started in the room with a bed already built, which Jimin was using to pull himself to his feet. Despite the months between his last convulsive seizure, he still hadn't walked properly, though he was finally starting to speak a little.

Jungkook was more interested in the empty box. He turned it to its side, and crawled in. He sat there for a couple minutes with Yoongi, before crawling back out, toddling away, and coming back with his little sniffy blanket and bunny. He curled himself up, making a little nest, and watched Namjoon build.

Hoseok, Taehyung, and Seokjin were interested in what Namjoon was doing. They sat and watched him screw the first few wooden slats together, before they started to interfere. They started digging their fingers into the bags of screws, and played with Namjoon's screwdrivers.

"Boys, stop," he tried, but none of them listened to him. Taehyung dumped a whole bag of screws out onto his lap, and rattled them together. Jungkook liked that sound, and showed a little more interest in what was happening, but he didn't come out of the box.

"Daddy, scoos!" Taehyung said cutely, rattling them again in his hand. One of the pointy ends poked his finger. "Ouchie! Pointy, daddy!"

Namjoon sighed, but he leaned forward, and kissed Taehyung's finger. "There, all better! You can leave the screws alone if they're going to hurt, baby."

Taehyung wasn't really listening. Hoseok was scooping some of them up, and sat opposite Taehyung. "I trade your scoos for mine!"

"But dey all mine! You stoled them!"

"No, mine fiwst! I want fwee scoos for one of mine!"

Taehyung shook his head. "Uh-uh! Dat not a fair deal! You'll get more scoos dan me!"

Namjoon wondered where Taehyung had learnt fair trading from, but honestly, he didn't really care. Taehyung was very smart in his own way. He was very bright, but he didn't seem to take in the right information. No matter how many kiddie shows he played, Taehyung couldn't arrange his numbers or the alphabet, but he could remember all the information from random adverts. They were usually ones from the shows Namjoon watched.

"Hoseok, can you share the screws nicely, please, if you're so determined to play with them? Even after daddy said no, that's very naughty!"

"Taehyungie and Hoseokie norty!" Seokjin repeated thickly, touching his lips as he spoke. Namjoon was impressed with how well Seokjin was picking up speech, despite his first three years being silent. He knew how to use his voice, and mimicked what the others said, and Namjoon filled him in. He copied the voices on cartoons, too.