<lower case intended>

the christmas tree glowed with fairy lights, sparkling balls and stars, shining the brightest among which was the top most one, the biggest star of the tree. the boys had foreseen this christmas and lived this every year, what's new was the presence of a little one; a child who belonged to one of the members.

jimin had moved in just yesterday as jungkook and the rest of the members really wanted him and evie to celebrate christmas with them in the dorm. so out of hurry and excitement, both jungkook and taehyung had been helping jimin pack for the last three days. and it didn't seem like a bad idea till now. jimin sat with the members, laughing and having a conversation like any normal day from the past while evie played around with the decorative stars and balls that remained.

she waddled towards the elders, holding two sparkling balls in her hands, one green and the other blue. hoseok being the first and the nearest one, smiled at her when she held her tiny arm out, giving him the blue one and mumbled something. then she moved ahead to her father, giving him the green ball and walked back to the tree, picking up more balls probably for the rest of them.

the boys watched with curiosity, fond of having a baby among them. once evie distributed all the balls and kept one for herself, she stood by the table in the center, having all their attention on her. "ball..." she mumbled, tapping on the table, earning some confused frowns but on seeing jimin placing his yellow ball on the table they understood she wanted the balls back.

"what are you gonna do with them?" jimin asked, earning a look from the daughter who instead of answering, giggled toddling towards him and hugged him tightly.

"she doesn't understand everything," jin chuckled, patting the baby's head, making the rest of them laugh.

"evie," jungkook called, "i'll take these. they're mine."

"daddy mine!" evie glared at him, making him sigh while jimin laughed.

"i'm not talking about him," jungkook shook his head, picking up a ball and showed to her, "this is mine."

"no..." she mumbled, marching to him and takes the ball away, hugging it between her arms.

"it is mine," he grinned, "my hyung bought it."

"my daddy..." evie babbled, hitting his hand and pointed at jimin, blabbering something again.

"yeah, he's my hyung and he got it for me."

"evie,"

"kookie,"

"evieeeee!"

"kookieeee!"

evie pouted at him, breaking into a sob while jungkook snickered, bringing her in his lap at last and kissed her cheek, "okay it's for you," he said, giving the ball to her again which made her stop crying almsot instantly, "i see you were faking it huh?" his brows arched up and evie muttered something, turning to face him as she stood up in his lap and leaned closer, letting out a small yawn.

"jungkook's the only person who can put her to sleep after jimin," taehyung said, "i was with them this week, but i couldn't get her to eat or sleep or do literally anything other than playing."

"she's my best friend," jungkook smirked, patting the baby's back and stood up, glancing at jimin who nodded, keeping his empty cup on the table, holding his arms to take his daughter.

"dadda," evie mumbled, hugging jimin who patted her back gently.

"yes baby? do you wanna sleep now?" he asked in a soft, "let's go and take a nap, say bye to your uncles,"

"bye-bye," evie waved at them briefly, resting her head on her father's shoulder which is when jungkook caught her eyes. "koo... s'eepy..."

"koo's not sleepy," jimin sighed, getting a look from the baby as she pouted at him, "what? you wanna sleep with him?"

"ah this is so cute!" hoseok cooed and jungkook stood up, pulling out his phone and grinned at the toddler.

"fine, let's go then. we'll watch micky mouse and then sleep,"

"mimi-moushe..." evie nodded, but didn't let go of jimin yet.

"she's so confused," jimin sighed, "let it be jungkook, i'll–."

"daddy! koo!" evie whined, earning looks from the boys as they sighed.

"maybe she wants you both?" taehyung suggested and jungkook nodded.

"yeah, right! yesterday she kept calling for you hyung when i was trying to put her to sleep. but when you were there and she was sitting with us, then she fell asleep."

"aw how cute," jin smiled.

"yeah, but if that becomes a habit it's gonna be a bit of a problem." jimin said,

"no it's not," jungkook rolled his eyes, "how is that a problem explain to me."

"idiot, we're not always together."

"aren't you gonna let your baby grow up? she won't stay this small forever, and when she grows up a little she'll be able to sleep on her own too. so stop being worried. god, i feel like the parent hyung!" jungkook grumbled, making the rest laugh while jimin stared at him an embarrassed face.

"shut up, brat," he hissed, "take her with you and sleep, i've to have a word with the hyungs."

"a meeting without me?" jungkook squinted at the elder and he sighed.

"about the comeback," jimin said, "we've talked about it already, but i can wait for you if you want."

"ah that, no it's fine. you can carry on," jungkook nodded, taking evie and smiled at her, "let's go, daddy's gonna come later."

"remove the–"

"i know hyung, chill," jungkook gave a thumbs up, "oh by the way, we're running out of banana milk. letting you know just in case you go out."

"fine," jimin replied, shaking his head and sat down, "so, i was thinking about the comeback and everything. even though i signed the contact and joined bts again, but honestly i'm still scared that the fans might not accept me hyung. what if–"

"rule number one," yoongi voiced out, "no one talks about 'what if's in this house."

"and rule number two," jin added, "we're gonna make everything work. bts is, was and will be seven."

jimin smiled at that, nodding his head and namjoon clapped his hands for attention, "so, you've heard the new songs right? and the jungkook was writing?"

"ah yeah, he showed me." jimin nodded, "it was good. he wrote something else too during all this, when he used to mostly stay in his room. he was writing a song."

"oh did you see it?"

"no, he never talked about it, and i didn't want to invade just like that. he was going through a lot already so i didn't ask. but i'm sure he'll tell us when he's ready,"

"yeah, he's grown up a lot," namjoon nodded with a smile, "especially with you,"

"ah no, it's because of all of us." jimin said, "he's learnt something from each one of us. you won't believe me, but even back at home he used to mention sometimes and show me things- like if he saw suga hyung working in a certain way or jin hyung or namjoon hyung doing something, he would try to copy that and be like, yeah i saw hyung doing it."

"ah i know," taehyung laughed, "remember he argued with us about cooking the ramyeon with or without a lid just because yoongi told him that."

"he really follows you guys," jimin smiled,

"you sound so mature right now, you have no idea," hoseok pointed out, making jimin laugh.

"well, that's good i guess?"

"yeah but also kinda sad that our little jiminie isn't there anymore,"

jimin hummed, nodding his head, "your little jiminie went through shit, became a dad of a now eighteen-months-old baby. i feel it's good that the old jimin matured, otherwise taking care of everything would be really impossible."

taehyung patted his back, sending a small smile and yoongi cleared his throat, "let's not talk about the emotional things right now. we have a lot of things to work on, especially jimin for the comeback once these holidays are done."

"yeah right," jimin nodded, "i should start from tomorrow itself. i've gained weight in these four-five months while i was away,"

"how much?"

"around six or seven kilos, i'm not sure." he groans, "i just used to sit and eat. not working out, nothing."

"hmm it's gonna be hard for you,"

"i'll do it, returning back to form and that active lifestyle is important." jimin said, "i'll start with the gym from today,"

"make it tomorrow, you don't have to be that hard on yourself." yoongi said, standing up and stretched his body, "i'm gonna sleep for a while, nobody makes noise."

"aye aye captain!" taehyung saluted and turned to jimin, "fortnight?"

"let's go," jimin grinned, nodding his head, "i'm gonna beat you today!"

"nah, i'm the champion," taehyung smirked.

"we'll see who's the champion," jimin cracked his neck, heading upstairs to taehyung's room.

"everything is normal," jin smiled.

"it feels like home now after so many days," namjoon said, laying on the couch and closed his eyes.

"i'm gonna watch them," hoseok grinned, jogging upstairs too after the youngers.

____

a/n- after long time man! ahhh i'm so sorry 😭😭

i hope didn't get old waiting for me to update. please take care od yourself and thank you so much for being patient, you have no idea how much means to me. vote if you like the story, comment your views, and well yeah enjoy! love y'all ❤️❤️❤️