Chapter Text
It wasn’t that surprising when Chan revealed he wanted to try regressing. He never actually said it, but everyone could see how his eyes glowed while he watched little Jihoon and how eager he looked to play with Junnie.
He had started picking up the signs for a while now, but never felt confident enough to share his thoughts with anyone – not that he needed to, because even though he didn’t notice, Seungcheol and Jeonghan had already noticed his behavior and shared their thoughts with each other.
It was a quiet Saturday morning when Chan finally gathered the courage to speak with Jihoon about how he felt, because he judged it would be a nice start to talk with someone who already experiences age regressing. Woozi sat peacefully at the couch waiting for his food to arrive when Dino awkwardly sat beside him. "You want to tell me something, don’t you?" the older cocked an eyebrow on the youngest way, making him look a bit startled, as if he had just been caught doing something very bad. He just nodded, trying to formulate his sentence in the best way possible.
"I- I kind of want to try little space, I guess? Is that a problem?" Chan asked, not looking the other boy in the eyes "I mean- you and Junhui-hyung do it for stress relieving, it seems to be so natural to you guys that I… I don’t feel like it’s right for me to want it, you know?"
"Chan, first of: thank you for telling me, yeah?" he gave a small smile "Second: there aren’t any rules for age regressing, really. You can slip in a stressful day without planning on it, or you can set up a date to do it. Both ways are fine." Jihoon reassured, but soon after catching his breath to start talking again "However, I don’t think you have ever noticed it, but you do seem like you somehow slip when you are not okay. You tend to be more clingy, you lie down on the couch and watch cartoons all day, you feel uncomfortable with your regular clothes… these are all small signs. I think you should try it out."
Chan looked at him, sort of speechless, and recognizing how he really acted more childlike when stressed or sad. "Okay, hyung. Thank you." was all he managed to say before he went to his room to think it through. It would probably be a good idea to talk to Seungcheol about it, since he was kind of the 'head caregiver' (is that even a thing?) of the group and he was always so sweet and understanding towards their youngest.
Cheol was cuddling with Jeonghan when Dino opened the door, passing his fingers through the younger’s short hair, just enjoying the little amount of time they spent together on the weekends. "Hey, Chan, do you need something?" the oldest asked, letting go a small bit from the boy he hugged as both of them directed their gazes to the maknae.
"Hm, yeah? I…" there is no turning back now, Chan "I wanted to talk with you about something, maybe? If you’re not, y’know, busy and all… it’s fine if you are though!" his words started stumbling on each other and Dino could feel his heart beating on his throat "You know what? I’m just gonna go away and let you enjoy the little time you two have together, I know you are not seeing each other much due to Jeonghan-hyung being in military now so I don’t want to interrupt" and just as he turned on his heels to exit the room, Jeonghan’s soft voice called his name.
"Talk to us, Channie. What is going on?"
"I think it’s best if I go straight to the point. I want to try little space like Jun and Jihoon hyungs, if that’s okay" he took a deep breath for this part, feeling awkward and a bit insecure "And I was wondering if maybe you two could be my main caregivers? I guess? Like Soonyoung with Jihoon and Minghao with Jun. It’s okay if you can’t! I know it is a lot of responsibility and you’re both always very busy" his anxiety was consuming his thoughts and actions so cruelly that he didn’t notice the exchanged looks between the two and how big they were smiling.
"Channie, we would love to. We thought you would never act upon your tendencies to regress" Seungcheol answered in a mix of excitement and tenderness. "Wait, really? Won’t it be too much trouble?" it seemed too good to believe, so Jeonghan just got up from the bed and walked towards Dino, with a caring hand gently tucking a little lock of the boy’s brown hair behind his ear "Never, honey". Three big smiles and a handful of love filled the whole room.
The news quickly spread across the dorm, making Chan feel all shy but so very loved with all the attention he was receiving, and everyone was eager to see little Dino playing around the house.
It was, however, that surprising when Minghao nervously shared his wants with Junhui.
He had long knew that he wanted – scratch that, he needed to regress, because every now and then Hao felt a little fuzziness taking over him when he practiced for too long or when his hyungs babied him, even though he acted like he didn’t want it (well, he really doesn’t want it when he is big, but sometimes he just tended to be feeling a little sillier than usual), and not to mention how hugging his stuffed froggie while sucking on his thumb helped him on sleepless nights.
However, one thing had been stopping him for a while: he didn’t want to stop taking care of Junhui. In Minghao’s head, if he decided to try little space, Jun would no longer want him as his main caregiver, and that’s something he never wanted to happen because Hao loves looking after his baby, so he had to make sure no one would ever notice his little tendencies.
After Chan’s news came to everyone’s knowledge, Jun and Jihoon still let his big self take care of them, and Minghao saw that it could probably be a safe space for him, too.
"You- what? You want to try regressing too?" Jun didn’t quite seem to process what Minghao told him, and the younger felt a little taken aback.
"It’s dumb, forget it. I’m sorry, let’s just keep everything as it is" he was quick to try and cut off the conversation, but that was not what Junhui wished. "Hao, hey, that’s not what I meant" the older said in an apology voice "I’m just surprised because you never really showed any interest in it. At least not like Chan did." He couldn’t be more wrong, because everything fascinated him. He just put a lot of effort into not letting people finding anything out.
They talked it through a little, everything in Mandarin because of how shy Minghao still was about the whole subject. "Hao, can I ask you a question?" mumbled an awkward voice, that kept nervously speaking after the nod Minghao gave "Could we like, switch? Like, you keep taking care of me, but I also take care of you when you’re little". Three blinks, eyes locked together "We can do that?"
Oh, he had so much to learn.
After some days of group talking – specially with the new found littles –, the caregiver and little dynamic ended up like that:
– Jun's main caregiver is Minghao, and Minghao’s main caregiver is Jun. In case they are both regressed at the same moment, Joshua is the first in line to look after them.
– Jihoon’s main caregiver is Soonyoung.
– Chan's main caregivers are Seungcheol and Jeonghan.
– Everyone can help taking care of the babies, even the littles (when out of their headspace).
After finishing the ‘caregiver lineup', everyone decided that the next Saturday would be a great day for Hao and Dino to try "officially" slipping.
"I’m feeling kind of nervous, should I be feeling nervous?" Chan asked while fidgeting with his hands and waiting for Cheol and Han to arrive home. It didn’t really help that they refused to tell him where they (and Junhui) were going because it would be a surprise.
Even though his question wasn’t answered, the youngest could tell that Hao felt just as anxious as him, sucking on his thumb. Was he also feeling a little fuzzy thing in the back of his head? "Are you also starting to feel kinda small?" and that got Minghao’s attention because he hadn’t really noticed the finger in his mouth, taking it off quickly and hiding his hands in his pockets while giving an almost unnoticeable nod.
"Hyung, you don’t have to be shy around me! I’m feeling pretty much the same" Chan looked around for Hao's stuffed froggie (which he learned was called Tiana) and handed it to the older "Here! If you are embarrassed to suck on your finger around me, at least hold her for some comfort". Minghao smiled, noticing how his voice sounded a bit higher-pitched than normal and taking the stuffie in his arms.
Shortly after, they heard the soft voices of the three men talking while unlocking the doors, and their bodies tensed immediately, Minghao automatically hiding Tiana from their gazes. "Wow, calm down boys" Seungcheol said with a small laugh, although it didn’t make much difference for them due to the mix of anxiety and embarrassment that was crippling through their nerves.
"Yeah, relax! We’ve got some things for the both of you" smiled Jun while waving lightly the two plastic bags he held on his hands "You guys want to give it a look, hm?" and no words were needed, because their shining and curious eyes already yelled 'yes' for them.
Chan’s things were handed to Jeonghan, who sat down on the floor along with Seungcheol and Dino, while Jun and Minghao comfortably settled down on the couch. Inside each one of the bags were some rather simple but very significative items: a bottle, a sippy cup, a pacifier and some fluffy and warm pajamas, all of them containing either dinosaur or frog themes – except for Minghao’s pajamas, which held a white background with lots of shapes and doodles, accompanied by set of markers, meant to be used to color the drawings on the clothing.
The two boys vibrated with the gifts, clapping their hands and moving their bodies out of happiness while the fuzzy feeling came back even stronger, itching their brains and telling them to just let go. After they calmed down a little, Jun spoke up "Okay, how about each caregiver take their little to their bedroom, gets them ready and then we can come back here for the both of you play together? Is that alright? Okay! Let’s go."
Minghao felt very shy when they arrived at the bedroom, his eyes searching for anything that wasn’t Jun to focus on and his thumb mindlessly going into his mouth, which didn’t go unnoticed by the caregiver. "Baby, how about you use the paci instead? You don’t have to be ashamed of this, specially with me, of all people". Maybe he was right, maybe Minghao really shouldn’t be so embarrassed about this newly discovered side of him, and if Junhui was there, it was because he wanted to, right?
He hesitantly grabbed the pacifier and admired it for a while, slightly fascinated with the pretty shade of green that decorated the borders, which matched the cute frog drawing positioned in the middle and okay, from this perspective it was not a big deal. The object entered his mouth, slightly trapped between his lips and he could swear this was the most relaxing thing he has done in ages. After a few instants just enjoying the feeling of having the paci on his teeth, he finally let himself be led by that cozy feeling.
That cozy feeling has made Minghao so uncomfortable with the clothes he was wearing he could swear he was able to just start crying his eyes out because of it. Jun was quick to understand the assignment and grabbed the pajamas to put on his boy, finishing the baby’s look with a very cute Tiana held tightly against his chest.
On Seungcheol and Jeonghan’s side of the dorm, Dino mumbled some words from time to time while sitting on the oldest’s lap, face hidden on his neck. None of them were able to take him out of his seat to change his clothes until they held his new dinosaur stuffie in front of him and Chan jumped off of bed to grab it. Once the boy stood up, Jeonghan handed the dinosaur to him and took the opportunity to change his clothes into some comfy ones.
Jeonghan and Seungcheol admired their little boy hugging his new toy and proudly showing it off. He poked the oldest’s side with a big smile and said "Appa, di’ you know t’is is a bra’iosau’us?" and pointed to the stuffie’s long neck. Seungcheol almost exploded when he heard how cute it was little Dino trying his best to say brachiosaurus.
"Ah, our baby is so smart" said Jeonghan while lying down beside dino, who was now sandwiched between the two caregivers and receiving a lot of kisses while giggling happily to the duo. "Appa! Eomma! ‘Ickles!" exclaimed the little, making both of them look fondly at each other, seeming just as happy with the nicknames as the younger was.
"Channie, do you want to go play with Hao now?" The huge smile and the small claps of happiness might mean yes.
Once everyone gathered on the living room, Chan ran to hug Minghao and show him his new toy, "Hao, t’is is a bra-" he scratched his head, pausing mid-word "-a bra’iosau’us?" Minghao smiled in awe, pacifier never leaving his mouth, and eyes big and curious to what his friend had to say.
"Jun, do you think Minghao is very deep in the headspace? He seems so small" asked Seungcheol "Do you think he can go into babyspace?" now the leader sounded a bit worried, because no one really had anything for babyspace ready right now, and noticing the worries, Jun gave his best comforting smile and said "I don’t think so, at least not today. But he is undeniably young. Hao, baobei, how old are you feeling?"
He just shook his head as if saying 'I don’t know', but Jun has the impression that this is a lie and that the question made Minghao a bit self-conscious, because his posture changed immediately after and he seemed to be forcing himself to look bigger. Jun noticed right away and decided to sit on his little’s side while caressing his back and ruffling his hair.
"Honey, look at me", he said softly "How old are you feeling, little one? You can be honest with me". Although Minghao felt a little too insecure, he decided to trust his Junnie, because what harm could that ever do? He wasn’t really sure if he wanted to speak much –or at all– so he just timidly lifted three fingers, to which Jun acted very proud, congratulating him for being so brave.
Chan, on the other side, seemed to be not just older, but also much more energetic. He had been yapping about different types of dinosaurs while jumping and walking around his two caregivers, who watched him with joy in their eyes. His pacifier was long forgotten on the center table, because according to Dino, it’s hard to speak with it inside his mouth.
Once he finished talking about how velociraptors actually looked a bit like chickens, he noticed Hao playing with some cubes and Jun hugging him from behind, and of course little Channie could not let him play alone. He abruptly stopped talking, making Jeonghan and Seungcheol look at each other with a question mark written on their faces, and then immediately after ran to Minghao.
"Can Channie p’lay wi’ Hao?" and Minghao probably agreed in some way because the little sat in front of him right away and started looking for toys to play with. He seemed to be quite pleased with the Monster High doll he found.
"Appa, Eomma, who is ‘is?" asked the little, showing off his blue-skinned doll, covered with white fur. "That’s Abbey, love", answered Jeonghan with a kind smile. Chan laughed repeating "Abby" and happily shaking the doll on his right hand, showing it off to everyone — specially to Minghao, who seemed to really enjoy the show if his wide eyes and bright smile were anything to go by.
There was another doll inside the big box of toys, a green one, with pink stripes all over her hair. This one was found by Minghao, and he took the toy on his hands, fascinated. Chan saw it, and immediately began asking Jeonghan who was the 'pretty lady with green and pink hair', quickly learning that she was called Venus.
Despite the difference in their little ages, Chan and Minghao had a very nice chemistry together, and they spent the whole afternoon playing with the dolls and making towers with the blocks. When the clock hit around six p.m., Minghao started acting a little bothered and irritated. "Honey, I need you to try and tell me what’s going on, okay? Can you do that?", said Jun in the same loving voice as always. Minghao pouted and pointed to his belly, which probably meant he was hungry. "You wanna eat something, bub?" a lot of nods followed that question, and Chan started looking at his caregivers with pleading eyes, telling them he also wants something to eat.
"Jun-ah, how about we go get the babies some food while you watch them?" asked Seungcheol.
"Sure! Can you please make a bottle for Minghao? Add some of the vitamins and the protein that are in the second cabinet."
The duo went to the kitchen to prepare the boys' meals, and while Jeonghan was in charge of the bottle, Seungcheol prepared some dino nuggets, sliced apples and a small amount of grapes for Chan, the two also making sure to heat up some leftovers for them and Jun.
Once they were back, the two littles looked at the food with stars in their eyes, Minghao making grabbing hands at the bottle. "Calm down, baby, I’ll give it to you", laughed Junhui with the milk in hands, taking the nipple to the younger's mouth and letting him suck it gently.
Chan seemed so excited about the dino-shaped nuggets that he almost forgot he had to actually eat them, making his caregivers smile fondly and take the food to the little's mouth. Soon enough, he was finished, even though Minghao was just a little more than halfway his bottle. "Appa! Eomma! Can Channie gi’e bot’le ‘o Hao?", his smile the biggest it has been the whole day. The three caregivers looked at each other and decided it was not a bad idea, so Chan sat carefully by Jun's –who had Minghao in his lap– side and held the bottle.
When the bottle was empty, a little yawn came from Hao's mouth, soon followed by Chan, who was starting to look a bit tired now. They all decided on Jun doing the dishes while the two oldest boys (with Chan's help) cleaned the living room. Once everything was done, they split up to go into two different bathrooms and brush their teeth.
Chan was pretty independent, so it wasn’t a hard task to give him the toothbrush and tell the little to clean his teeth before bedtime. Minghao, however, could barely stand up properly, causing Jun to carry him to the bathroom, sitting him down and brushing his boy's teeth. The caregiver was also able to put on some diapers on the baby just because.
All cleaned up and ready to sleep, Chan insisted on going to give good night to Minghao.
"Nigh' HaoHao! Sl’eep goo’!" he softly spoke, depositing a kiss to the baby's forehead, that was followed by a hug to Jun's waist.
Chan lay down between Jeonghan and Cheol's arms, holding his plushie tightly to his chest while smiling.
"Appa, Eomma, Channie lo’es u!"
"Sleep tight, baby. I love you, baobei" whispered Jun as he positioned himself behind Minghao on the bed, hugging him.
In that cozy feeling, the five drifted away into a quiet night of sleep.