Single Father • Namjoon + BTS!Kids

xci.

The house seemed brighter after that night. Maybe because Namjoon would smile at his phone every so often as a message came in from a certain someone. Maybe because Jooheon started coming over more often, playing with Jin and teasing Jimin affectionately. Maybe because Hobi had decided to try and get Wonpil back as his friend. Maybe because Tae was able to continue his interrupted childhood. Maybe because Jungkook felt more included now, like the precious maknae he was. Maybe because so many secrets had been lifted off of Jimin's chest.

Whichever of those it was - or maybe a combination of all - the air seemed lighter, laughter traveled farther, and peace spread from one family member to the next.

Until the day that Namjoon brought it home.

The Wii.

***

"Stop it, hyung!" Jungkook whined, pawing at Hobi's shoulder as Hobi continued his work. "You're making my character have bunny teeth!"

"I'm trying to make your Mii as accurate as possible," Hobi said, laughing as he finished up Jungkook's character.

Jungkook snatched the remote out of his hands, intending to fix it, but Jin looked up with a disapproving eyebrow. "Rules are rules. No changing the one he made for you. But now you get to choose whose you want to make."

Jungkook hmph'ed before letting his eyes wander, finally landing on Yoongi. He smiled mischievously before turning back to the game console and starting his masterpiece, eventually creating a frowny, beady-eyed character who was set to the shortest height the Wii would allow.

Yoongi just glared at Jungkook. "Make me at least a little taller."

"Nuh uh!"

"You have to leave room for Jimin," Yoongi reminded him, and Jungkook made an o with his lips before making Yoongi's character a smidge taller.

"Fine. Your turn, hyung," he said, passing off the remote and ignoring Jimin's pout.

Yoongi got to work, crafting a digital Jimin and actually doing a pretty good job. He finished off the Mii by sliding the height bar all the way down. "Perfect," he congratulated himself before tossing the Wii remote at Jimin, who bobbled it twice before saving it from dropping.

"Hyung! Don't throw it at me! What if it hits the ground and breaks!" Jimin scolded gently before turning back to the screen.

"Make me, make me!" Taehyung yelled, bouncing up and down, and Jimin nodded, smiling before turning to Taehyung.

"Okay, but you can't look! Not until it's finished!"

Tae exhaled deeply but gave in, turning around and taking peeks over his shoulder when Jimin wasn't looking, too concentrated on the television to notice his cheating. Jimin gave Tae alien eyes and set Tae to the tallest height, not because Tae was the tallest out of them, but because Jimin always noticed Tae's height the most since Tae was by him the most. He made Jimin feel safe. He could look up to Tae, both physically and metaphorically.

He finished and passed the remote to Tae, who pretended to be happily surprised by Jimin's creation even though he'd been watching the whole time. Then, Tae made an abstract version of Jin, making his eyes different sizes from his nose and his lips extremely big. Jin, being a good sport and tolerant older brother, just put up with the artistic abuse, only commenting to say, "Don't make me look fat."

Finally, all the Miis had been created.

That was when the trouble started.

***

"It's no fair!" Jimin insisted. "I swung the remote! My racket should have swung! I should have gotten that point!"

Yoongi just clucked his tongue. "That's mature, blame the equipment."

Jimin crossed his arms. "It was though!"

Yoongi stared at Jimin, about to protest about how Yoongi had won the tennis match fair and square when he was drawn in by Jimin's large eyes and his pouting lips.

Sighing, he turned away. "Rematch, winner takes all."

"Fine," Jimin mumbled.

Yoongi pretended to try, but he let Jimin win most of the points.

After the final point, he passed the Wii remote to Hobi, sitting back on the couch. "Maybe it was just the remote."

Jimin brightened.

"But it was probably just you being bad at tennis."

Jimin frowned again and turned back to the screen.

Hobi wasn't as sympathetic as Yoongi and quickly beat Jimin, who sighed before passing the remote to Taehyung.

When it was his turn to serve, Taehyung started winding his arm up as though he were going to throw a baseball. Hobi, for every receive, pretended to be an actual pro tennis player, jumping back and forth between the balls of his feet and yelling, "Ace!" whenever he felt like it (even when it didn't apply whatsoever).

Eventually, Taehyung was declared as winner, and Hobi humbled accepted defeat.

Humbly, as in got down on his knees and yelled at the remote in his hands, "WHY? WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!"

Jin lost in record time to Taehyung, always swinging after the ball had already landed out or swinging too early. He tried to play it off as letting Taehyung win, but nobody believed him.

Jungkook shook his head when the remote was passed to him, not wanting to see his Mii character appear on screen.

"And Taehyung is declared the ultimate winner!" Taehyung yelled, throwing his arms up in the air.

Namjoon told them that they'd had enough video games for the day, and they all cooperated, turning the Wii off and retreating into their rooms.

Once he was sure they were gone, Namjoon turned the Wii back on and made his own Mii, making himself as tall as possible and with a non-egg-shaped face just because he could.

Then he started a tennis match, ignoring the system message instructing him to put the wrist strap on.

***

Five minutes later, Namjoon winced in unpleasant surprise at the sound the remote had made after flying out of his hands and hitting the wall.

"It's fine, it'll be fine, it's just a toy," he muttered to himself, going over to the wall and picking up the remote before looking up and noticing a dent in the drywall. "..."

***

The next day, the boys were surprised to see the Wii gone.

"I think it's just too dangerous for you all to play with. You guys could break something," Namjoon said, trying to appear as wise and not guilty.

filler because i felt guilty for not updating in a while