Six of a Kind

사십일: Bonding

Jimin pulled himself up by the sofa arm, and wobbled uncertainly on his feet. Cautiously, he let go, and toddled over to the TV stand. He gripped the edge, securing himself again. He breathed heavily through his nose from concentration. He'd been trying to get someone's attention for what felt like forever, but daddy must have been busy. Jimin fiddled under the TV, pressing buttons until the screen finally burst into light. He grabbed the remote, let his knees buckle, and crawled back over to the sofa. He wasn't strong enough to pull himself up to sit on it, so he settled with leaning against the base, jamming at the buttons on the remote. Finally, Milkshake popped up on the screen, and Jimin clapped his hands triumphantly.

Namjoon came rushing into the living room at this sudden sound. Jimin was the only person in here, and he couldn't have managed to figure out Nana's TV on his own, right? He couldn't even work out the one at home ...

Jimin pointed up at the big screen. "Mam!"

"Yeah, Milkshake!" Namjoon stared incredulously. "Did you manage to turn the TV on all by yourself, Jiminie?"

"Mam!" Jimin repeated, dropping the remote and getting sucked into whatever show was playing.

Milkshake was a toddler's TV channel. The sextuplets had loved it, but had stopped watching it a couple years back as they transitioned to CBBC and Nickelodeon. Sometimes, if Namjoon got hold of the remote, he was able to pop Milkshake on for Jimin, but it would only last for around 20 minutes before one of the boys snatched the remote. Poor Jimin never complained, but it was obvious he hadn't moved on yet.

Taehyung followed his dad into the living room, shoving orange segments into his mouth. "Daddy, why have you put the baby TV on? Can't we go to the beach now?"

"You need to finish your lunch first, Taehyungie, and Jimin put the TV on all by himself! Just let him watch what he wants to watch."

"I know how to turn the TV on, too, daddy. It's not that hard."

"Yes, you're all my clever boys, okay? It's not a competition."

Namjoon pulled Jimin up onto the sofa, and Taehyung sat up next to him, sucking on another orange slice. Namjoon picked up the TV remote so Taehyung couldn't try to change the channel, and headed into the kitchen. He came back a few moments later with another orange peeled and segmented for Jimin. He kept a close eye on him as he ate unaided, concerned he might choke, but Jimin was just fine by himself.

Namjoon grinned to himself when he saw Taehyung become just as entranced by the show on, despite him just complaining it was for babies. He pressed some buttons, and the subtitles and the sign language lady popped up on screen. Jimin was distracted from his orange as he attempted to copy some of the signs, orange juice dribbling down his chin.

Slowly, the rest of the sextuplets followed into the living room, holding either sandwiches or half-eaten oranges. They wanted to be part of the fun, too. They looked at the TV, deciding whether they wanted to watch or not. Seokjin's face brightened at the use of sign language, and Jungkook was secretly delighted to watch all of his old favourite shows again. As much as he loved Spongebob and Dexter's Laboratory, he missed his old comfort shows. The pair settled on the sofa. Hoseok and Yoongi didn't show much interest.

Yoongi decided to make his way upstairs. Whilst they slept up there, they hadn't done much exploring. The stairs were still pretty new to them, and whilst they were old enough to walk up them just fine, the boys were pretty avoidant unless they had to. However, curiosity had gotten the best of Yoongi, and, knowing that his daddy had come here over the summer when he was younger, he wanted to explore.

He ran up the stairs on all fours like a dog, since that made him feel safer. Whilst Hoseok was scared of tipping back and falling all the way back down, Yoongi was scared he would get his head stuck in the bannister if he tripped.