Home Is Where the Heart Is

Chapter Nine

Christmas, Taehyung's birthday, and the New Year all in the same week was truly a test of endurance. Not spiritually — Seokjin had enough love and Christmas cheer to power all of the North Pole, after all. He was the embodiment of hope, children's dreams, and whatever magic made reindeer fly. Christmas had always been his favorite holiday, even as an orphan.

It had been even better this year with the twins and the ornaments he'd helped them make to put on the tiny tree they had in the house. The giggles and wrapping paper and questionably hidden gifts the boys had made them. New toys and new clothes all around, though his new toy had been a necklace with a single, solitary diamond on it, delicate and small, and Jeongguk's new toy had been a sleek black watch with the boys' names engraved inside, but still — it had been the best Christmas by far. He was still buzzing with Christmas spirit a whole week later. Christmas spirit, birthday spirit, New Year spirit. Shopping spirit, cleaning spirit, baking-end-of-year-orders-he'd-accidentally-double-booked spirit.

Okay, he was running a little low on spirit.

Seokjin winced as Jeongguk threw open his bedroom curtains. "No," he mumbled around the cotton in his mouth. "Turn it off."

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not capable of turning off sound," Jeongguk said softly. Seokjin felt the bed shift with Jeongguk's weight. "Come on, hyung. Sun is up in two hours."

"You're already up now, Jeongguk-ah," Seokjin grumbled. "Defeats the whole purpose of this hike."

For a second, Seokjin could hear Jeongguk not breathing. Then he cleared his throat. "Yes, well, your personal sun would like you to appreciate the one outside, too. And hyung?"

"Yes, Jeongguk-ah," Seokjin sighed into his pillow.

"There's two unsupervised five-year-olds in your kitchen. I believe one of them is trying to reverse engineer cereal?"

Seokjin shot up and rubbed his eyes. "I'm awake! I'm awake! Jeongguk, don't — it's the new year, please, don't let Jimin ruin my clean kitchen yet."

"No guarantees. I closed the milk jug as tightly as I could but between the two of them..."

Seokjin shoved Jeongguk — already in his hiking gear, still head to toe black, the man was consistent — and whined, "I'll be down in six minutes! No, five minutes! Save my kitchen!"

Jeongguk laughed as he sauntered off, closing the door behind him.

The way Taehyung had taken to art, Jimin had taken to cooking. And Seokjin loved it. He did! Jimin was a fantastic assistant. He cut the cheese and butter flawlessly (Jimin enjoyed cubes, which made grilled cheese sandwiches an experience all around), cracked eggs with a delicate hand (maybe too delicate? The eggs never really cracked. Seokjin had to wait fifteen minutes once for the tiny hole in the eggshell Jimin had made to release a single drop of egg) and whisked whatever Seokjin needed with an enthusiasm and vigor that made them both smile. Cooking with Jimin was one of his favorite things to do in the day when they had time and the boy was up for it.

The toddler knew the rules — no heat without Daddy or Appa, no knives, nothing sharp, and nothing spicy. He followed them to the letter.

But Seokjin was always cooking with Jimin. Which was cool when Jimin was four, but now he was fiveand he could cook on his own, thank you very much, Appa.

Hence, reverse engineering.

Seokjin didn't mind it when he was there to keep an eye on where Jimin's cold-food culinary adventures were going, but sometimes...

Something thudded downstairs. Jimin's loud Ew!made it through to the bathroom, where Seokjin was shimmying into his new hiking leggings.

There it was. That was it. His kitchen was a mess.