{completed} cuties » stray kids

discovery » hyunho

little!hyunjin
soon-to-be-caregiver!minho

this cute idea was requested by TaeVh8 and i hope you enjoy!

~*~

Hyunjin was very good at keeping secrets. Normally, that is.

For years he'd been hiding that he was a little, perfectly content with just slipping on his own in his room and playing with his stuffed animals and colouring books. He never wanted anyone to know or find out, not even Felix, who was his best friend.

Hyunjin didn't want to face the ridicule or rejection, and while he'd seen loads of littles on the internet saying that having a caregiver was the best thing in the world, Hyunjin didn't want to risk it. But when he met Minho in college and the two of them decided to become housemates after becoming friends when they met in their dance class, his views on caregivers changed completely.

Minho was in the year above him, but since dance wasn't a very popular subject at the college they went to, the teachers decided to mesh all the first, second and third-year classes into one to also allow the students to mingle with one another more than they would've if they were in a class of students in their own year.

The moment Hyunjin saw Minho, he knew he wanted to get to know him. Maybe as friends at first, but in the back of his mind, he knew he would've wanted more after they became friends. And Minho was kind as well as pretty, which was a rare combination in Hyunjin's mind. They got talking and made a silent agreement to be each other's dance partners whenever partner work was involved and they often stayed behind to help each other on pieces of the group choreo that they missed.

Hyunjin was in deep, but there was no way in hell he was going to mess this up and risk losing his friendship with Minho. When the two of them became housemates in Hyunjin's second year, he made sure he had locks on both the inside and outside of his door so no one could just stumble into his room when he wasn't there.

He was very careful with his appliances: dummies, sippy cups, bottles, he kept them all in his room and washed them when Minho wasn't home. So it was safe to say that he was confident Minho would never find out about his little space, and being so confident made Hyunjin lower his guard a bit, which turned out to be a big mistake.

~*~

Hyunjin had just finished his shift at the store, which lasted a whole two hours longer than it was supposed to, but his manager had promised Hyunjin she would pay him overtime for it, and so Hyunjin couldn't really argue. He was so tired and his feet were aching and all he wanted to do was crawl into his bed with his green dummy and teddy bear but then he remembered that he hadn't even washed his dummy yet.

Unlocking the front door, Hyunjin traipsed into the front room after locking the door again and threw his coat over the back of the couch. He would hang it up properly tomorrow when he actually had the energy. Heading to his room, Hyunjin didn't think about closing the door after he'd retrieved his dummy, thinking Minho was already asleep or still at the studio practicing. He hadn't really calculated how late it was or registered that he was making more noise than usual as he ran his dummy under the tap in the kitchen, humming to himself tiredly as he wiped it clean.

"Hyunjin?" Minho's voice came from behind him, and Hyunjin almost screamed, jumping and turning around before he'd even put down his dummy. And Minho saw it. He saw it.

Hyunjin knew he'd seen it because Minho couldn't stop staring at it, and Hyunjin felt the tears fill his eyes before he could even try and explain himself.

"P-Please don't think I'm weird," he whimpered, bottom lip quivering as the tears started to spill. "P-please don't tell anyone."

"Hyunjin, I-" Minho started but cut himself off, not entirely sure what to say. "I don't think you're weird, and I won't tell anyone. You can trust me, Jinnie."

Turns out Minho had actually been asleep and was woken up by the noise Hyunjin was making, but he wasn't expecting to see his housemate with a dummy in his hand. Nevertheless, he helped calm Hyunjin down with quiet words of reassurance and soon they were sitting on the kitchen floor, Minho holding Hyunjin's hand while Hyunjin explained.

"It's called Little Space," he started. "It's where someone regresses mentally to the age of a child. But don't confuse it with ageplay because that's purely sexual - Little Space isn't. It's just a way to cope with stress or anxiety or depression. That's why I use it..."

Minho ran his thumb over Hyunjin's knuckles. "And the dummy?"

"I use it for comfort..." He sniffled. "'M sorry, hyung, please don't move out."

"Oh, honey," Minho cooed. "I would never move out over something like this."

He sat closer to Hyunjin so that he could wrap his arms around the younger's broad shoulders, cradling his head in his chest.

"If anything I think it's kind of cute," he said, and Hyunjin looked up at Minho.

"Really?" He asked, hope sparkling in his eyes.

Minho smiled. "Really. If you want me to, I can do some research on it and this can become, like, our thing?"

Hyunjin couldn't believe his ears. Was Minho offering to be his caregiver? (In a way).

"I-I would really like that," Hyunjin replied. "Thank you, hyung."

"You're welcome, Jinnie."

~*~

hope you enjoyed!