𝓜𝔂 𝓑𝓲𝓰 𝓑𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 ■ 𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐙 𝐚𝐮

𝓞𝓷𝓮

"No, no, no!"

"Come on Joongie, bath time" Yeosang spoke carefully, to ease the boy into the tub filled with warm bubbly water.

The boy in question was currently sat next to Yeosang, legs and arms crossed as he refused. 'No' was actually one of his favourite words recently. Due to him being unable to communicate properly, Yeosang had been slowly encouraging him to speak. Introducing a new word to him every week and then repeating them a couple of months later.

The boy had a lot of responsibility in taking care of him. However, he was more than okay with the prospect of taking care of him and teaching him. Even if it left him tired due to his busy life.

"No!" He wanted to get in the bath because he hated being dirty. Being clean felt much better. But this time, he wanted to do it by himself, however, was unable to convey his feelings to his younger brother.

Yeosang sighed as he lowered his hands onto his legs where he kneeled. "Hongjoong please, I need to go to work early tomorrow. Come on" He pleaded. "You've never had an aversion to bath time before. Why now?"

"No...Joongie...Sangie...no" The boy struggled. He looked close to tears as he couldn't get out what he wanted to say. After he calmed down, he began tugging at his clothes, attempting to get them off.

He wanted to bath by himself, but he also didn't want to see his brother upset. Seeing Yeosangs' handsome face envelop in exhaustion, he changed his mind.

Yeosang saw what he was doing and a wide smile stretched over his face. "Thank you hyung" He quickly put his larger hands over his brothers much smaller ones and began helping, not taking over fully, instead he was guiding almost.

"Yeo-yeo" Hongjoong muttered as he watched his brothers hands. "Come on Joongie, good boy" The boy beamed at this, loving being told he was good. Yeosang quickly took over the undressing once the boy got distracted before placing him in the bathtub. It took 5 minutes to scrub him clean once he placed some toys in there as well.

Hongjoong squealed as he played with the plastic, squeezy minions that Yunho had brought him. He absolutely loved them. "So, Joongie hyung, as I said, I have to go to work tomorrow okay? Then it's school. So I need you to be on your best behaviour for me"

The two were still in school as well as all their friends. And no, they didn't live alone. Their father also lived with them, but he was absent most of the time or drunk, so it basically was only the two brothers. Their mother had passed away 10 years ago when Yeosang was 7 and when Hongjoong was 8. She died in a car accident which caused their father to become a workaholic. When he wasn't working, he was drinking. And that was dangerous to be around.

Yeosang squirted a small amount of shampoo on his hands and began scrubbing at the boy's scalp, causing the older to whine and squirm at the sensation. "I know hyung. Shh, calm down" Yeosang softly spoke as he rinsed the bubbled out.

The house they lived in was small and rather dirty. But with their father slacking off, they were unable to have a lot of luxuries. Meaning they had to use everything sparingly. The two boys shared the biggest room in the house. And that too was small. It barely fit two beds in it, let alone Hongjoongs toys that he had saved from when he was younger. But they made do with what they had.

Once the boy was clean, Yeosang reached down underneath his armpits and lifted him out. That was another thing about his older brother. Whilst Yeosang himself was at a comfortable 5"10' but was on the skinny side, Hongjoong had only grown to be 5"2'. So he was incredibly easy to lift, making Yeosangs life much easier.

"Come on, let's get you dressed" Yeosang hummed as he wrapped the boy up in a crusty towel and carried him to their shared room. Due to it being so small, the two had to share what they had. Even though they barely had any clothes to begin with.

Yeosang set his sleepy brother down and trapesed off to find something comfortable for the boy to sleep in. Preferably to keep him warm as he didn't want him sneaking into his bed tonight. He quickly came across the boy's favourite pair of pyjamas; ones with little fish characters littered on them. Their mother had brought them, expecting Hongjoong to grow into them when she was still with them. But it was only 3 years ago that he did. He was rather small.

Yeosang quickly got to work in dressing him, making sure he wouldn't be able to slip out of them in the night. He quickly tucked the boy into his bed and got himself ready, laying down and falling into a deep slumber, hoping tomorrow wouldn't be too bad.