Six of a Kind

오: The Box

ee oo

-------------

Namjoon shuffled the box into the centre of the living room with a sigh. When he had ordered one of the first of six toddler sized beds, he had expected a flatpack, not this box nearly the size of his babies, and the width of the pouffe.

The sextuplets stared up at it in curiosity, their toys splayed out in front of them. Even Jungkook's interest was away from his dolls for once.

With another sigh, Namjoon started pulling the pieces of the bed out. He had bought a simple, wooden frame and mattress, and would get more to match when he was happy if this first bed would work. It had come with a little wire railing in case one of them tried to roll off the bed in their sleep. The mattress he'd bought in a shop, and had dragged into the house and was already in one of the rooms he'd had painted and recarpeted before the babies were born. He pulled out the instructions book, and sighed once again.

One by one, he took the pieces to the bedroom, leaving the empty box where he dumped it in the living room. He scratched at his hair as he wandered around for tools, too, barely paying attention to the six toddlers as they fully turned to the box in excitement.

"What dat?" Hoseok asked daddy as he walked past, but Namjoon was too in his own thoughts to hear him. He went back into the empty bedroom with a handful of screwdrivers.

"It a box!" Yoongi answered instead, standing up and putting his small arms inside it. "Box."

Jungkook stood up, and tentatively stepped over. Jimin sat up on his knees, trying to peer over the box but failing. Seokjin stood next to Yoongi, putting his arms inside, too. The box came to about their chests, and held sturdily as they leaned on it.Taehyung stood on his taller leg, craning his neck inside.

"Empty," he said simply.

"Can we play wiv it?" Hoseok asked innocently, his eyes wide. "It can be a car!"

"No, I want it to be a hairy plane!" Yoongi shouted.

"No, a woket ship!" Hoseok whined.

"A house," Jimin thought, a picture of their house in his head instead of the word. He opened his mouth, but pictures couldn't turn to words, so he just chattered instead."

Jungkook had the same idea as Jimin, and worded it. "I want a house."

The others stared at him, as did Jimin. He didn't know what 'house' meant. Why did everyone always make these odd sounds, and how come they could understand? He made the same odd sound again, waiting for everyone to stare at him and smile, but they didn't. He just didn't understand this talking thing.

"I can be the daddy!" Yoongi shouted immediately.

"No, Seokjin should be the daddy, 'cause he's the oldest!" Hoseok argued.

Yoongi pouted. "No, I'm the daddy! Seokjin can be the mummy!"

"But we don't have a mummy!" Taehyung interjected, pouting. "I want to be a dog! Woof!"
Seokjin just watched in amusement as Yoongi gave Hoseok a little push. He had no idea what was going on, but he wanted to get inside the box too.

"Why can't we all be daddy's?" Taehyung finally asked, and Hoseok and Yoongi went silent, staring at each other, and then at Seokjin, who stared back at them with innocent eyes. He smiled at them, and they smiled back. He stroked what was left of his hair between the bandages, and kept smiling as the others turned back to the box, and started chatting again.

"We can daw windows on it!" Hoseok said, rushing over to the toybox to get their crayons. "And we can colour it in!"

"I want to daw fowers!" Taehyung squealed, making a snatch at the box of crayons.