"Let me love you a little more before you're not little anymore."

-Unknown

***

A loud "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BED?!" was followed by a thump, which was followed by a "NO DON'T PUSH ME DOWN THE LADDER HYUNG!"

And that was how everyone woke up that morning.

When Jimin opened his eyes, he looked up to see Hobi clinging to the ladder for dear life, Yoongi glaring at him. Then scene itself was odd enough, but something was bugging Jimin.

Wait, I'm in my hyungs' room...

I remember falling asleep with Hobi...

But Hobi is on the ladder...

So who has been snuggling with me?

Jimin blinked, turning his next slightly to see a familiar boxy smile that he'd dreamt of for 5 years.

"Surprise," Tae whispered, pulling Jimin closer, and a smile made its way onto Jimin's lips. "Are you surprised?"

Jimin nodded, more to please Tae than an answer to the question. "I'm surprised."

Tae smiled, his lips forming a rectangle, and it made Jimin feel warm inside. "Happy surprised or-?"

"Happy surprised," Jimin confirmed as Tae shifted, hugging Jimin like a possessive koala as Hobi yelled, "It's Tae's fault! He shoved me out of my bed so he could have Jimin all to himself!"

Yoongi's upside-down face appeared from the upper bunk as he looked down to glare at Tae. "Who said you got to monopolize Jimin?"

"Today's my day," Tae shot back, sticking his tongue out. "12:00 AM to 12:00 AM, all mine. If you want to talk to Jimin, you have to ask me nicely, and then I'll consider it," he added, sniffing haughtily as Yoongi stared at him through slitted eyes.

"I let you talk to Jimin on my day," Yoongi argued, and Tae just made a so what face.

"Yeah, well, that was a poor decision on your part," Tae said, sassy as usual. "You had your Jimin time, and now it's mine so I can use it however I want." He looked over at Jimin, who smiled hesitantly back. "Let's get breakfast!" Tae suggested, hopping out of bed but hanging onto Jimin's hand because he didn't want to lose contact with him.

Jimin smiled, following Tae, but shivered as he left the blanket behind.

"Aw, are you cold?" Tae asked before grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around Jimin so only his face could be seen. "There you go. Perfect."

Then Tae led the swaddled Jimin into the kitchen.

***

Tae made it a point to stay in physical contact with Jimin as much as humanly possible. He was either holding Jimin's hand, playing with his hair, rubbing his back, looping an arm around Jimin, or finding some other way to touch Jimin.

Jimin remembered Tae being sort of clingy, but not this much.

Not that he minded. He liked it, feeling loved and spoiled and warm all the time. For the past 5 years, there had only been the three of them: Eungi, Chul, and Jimin. There were no siblings yelling at each other at 7 in the morning or trying to push each other down ladders or stealing each other's flowers or drawing eye liner on each other. But there was also no one to cuddle Jimin throughout the night, no one to wake him up in a clingy hug, no one to play with him or hold his hand for no real reason or cover him in blankets when he was cold. He'd had Eungi as a mom, but she didn't fill the void.

But this - Jin, Yoongi, Hobi, Tae, Jungkook, Namjoon - this filled the void.

His family.

His real family.

It wasn't until this moment that Jimin realized with true certainty:

I'm home now.

He sniffled, and Tae turned to him, concerned, while Namjoon was leaving to take the other kids to school. "Jimin? Jiminie, what's wrong?" Tae asked, cupping Jimin's cheeks in his hands. "Was it Yoongi? Did he make a mean face at you?"

Jimin shook his head quickly. He didn't want Yoongi to get in trouble. Besides, that was just Yoongi's natural face.

"Then who hurt your feelings? Tell me so I can beat them up," Tae said sternly, rolling up his sleeves even though they were alone in the house.

Jimin shook his head again, looking down so Tae couldn't see his tears with his bangs in the way. "N-nobody, I just..."

"You just what?" Tae's voice grew softer, deeper. "You can tell me anything, Jimin. You know that, right? Anything."

"Anything?" Jimin mumbled, sniffling and trying to stop his tears.

"Yeah, anything. Like, if you killed someone? That's okay. I mean, you shouldn't, you'd get grounded probably or something, but I'll help you get rid of the body."

Jimin laughed, so startled by Tae's humor that he stopped crying, and when he looked up with his familiar eye smile, Tae froze, struck by how similar Jimin was five years later, before smiling softly and wiping Jimin's tears away.

"So, what's wrong?" Tae asked, and Jimin bit his lip, opening his eyes.

"I just..." Jimin swallowed, his voice dense with emotion. "I'm home now," he whispered, and Tae seemed to understand what he meant even if he hadn't said much.

"That's right," Tae said. "You're home now and for always. You're safe here. And we won't let anything happen to you again."

Jimin looked up at Tae. "You promise?"

Tae nodded. "I promise. I'll protect you, Jimin."

Jimin leaned into Tae. "Tae, I'm scared," he whispered. "I'm home, but it doesn't feel like it's over, like I'm safe."

Tae frowned before smoothing Jimin's hair with his fingers. "You are safe, and it's over, Jimin. We couldn't save you 5 years ago, but we'll definitely save you if anything happens ever again."

"Ever?"

Tae nodded. "Ever. I won't leave you alone again, Jimin."

"I wasn't alone," Jimin said, biting his lip. "Jungkook was there."

Tae clenched his jaw. Since Jimin had come home, everyone had been so excited and happy that Tae hadn't had much interaction with Jungkook, which was honestly a good thing since all they did now was fight and argue. Sharing a room for the past 5 years had been terrible.

All because Jungkook had been in the room when Jimin had been taken, and he hadn't done anything. He hadn't seen anything, because he was intentionally trying to ignore Jimin.

He'd ignored him straight out of their family.

Tae couldn't forgive him. Not then, not yet, maybe not ever.

"Jungkook told everybody where I was, right?" Jimin pressed, not understanding Tae's sudden silence. "That's how you found me, right?" He seemed desperate.

Tae shrugged. "He told the cops something that helped," he finally said. 5 years too late.

"Then why did you all take so long?" Jimin asked, his eyes welling back up into tears after everything Tae had done to cheer him up. "Why didn't you come get me right away? Didn't you want me? Didn't Daddy want me?"

"Of course we wanted you back!" Tae said, pulling Jimin into his lap. That was one thing that had changed; 5 years ago, Jimin had been the tallest or the triplets, and yet now, he was the smallest, perfect for cuddling or using as a pillow. "Of course we did," Tae said more softly, running his hands down the arms of Jimin's sweater.

Tae wanted to blurt out how it was all Jungkook's fault, that he had let Jimin be taken, that he had forgotten a key piece of information, that he had failed to protect Jimin.

But he knew it would destroy Jimin, knowing that one of his brothers had failed him, betrayed him in a sense. And he didn't want to make Jimin sad.

"Some things didn't make sense until later," Tae finally said. "There were clues that weren't noticed until recently. And as soon as we knew, Dad brought up all to the police station and we went straight to the lady's house. Dad didn't even wait for the cops," Tae said, trying to calm Jimin down. "He's been out of it for 5 years, just...like on autopilot. But he always tucked your bed in." Tae smiled gently at Jimin, sweeping his bangs out of his eyes. "We all wanted you home so much, and now you are."

Jimin hesitated before nodding and leaning back into Tae's warmth. Tae wrapped his arms around him.

"All right? Do you feel better now?"

Jimin nodded, shifting so he was still sitting in Tae's lap but facing him, and gave Tae a hug, snuggling into his neck. "Thank you, Tae. I'm sorry."

Tae bopped Jimin lightly on the head. "Stop apologizing. It's a waste of words. If you're going to waste your words, you might as well start giving a speech on how I'm your favorite brother and-"

"But I'm not supposed to pick favorites," Jimin said, smiling slyly, and Tae wiggled his eyebrows.

"No one else will know," Tae said, and Jimin just laughed before turning back around to face the TV.

"Let's watch something together," Jimin suggested. "Mo- she wouldn't let me watch a lot of TV, so I haven't seen much lately."

Tae ignored Jimin's slip for his benefit and grinned. "I have just the movie."

***

Namjoon unlocked the door, opening it and letting all the kids run in ahead of his before he followed.

"DADDY!" Jimin screamed, running over and hugging Namjoon, who accepted the hug but was more than a little confused as to why a sobbing Jimin was clinging to him.

"Okay sweetie, just calm down and tell me what's wrong," Namjoon said, frowning as he ruffled Jimin's hair.

"Ay-ut-on-sca-mov!" Jimin mumbled incomprehensibly, his face burrowing into Namjoon's jacket and refusing to come out.

"What?" Namjoon asked, frowning before he pulled Jimin back slightly. "Say it again, Jimin. I couldn't hear you."

"TAE PUT ON A SCARY MOVIE!" Jimin yelled, still sobbing, his voice rough.

Namjoon blinked once, twice. Then he carried Jimin into his room and tucked him in, tucking the corners down as well the way Jimin liked it, and surrounding Jimin with a dozen stuffed animals. Then he quietly closed the door to the triplets' room and walked very slowly into the living room, where Tae was innocently sitting on the couch and watching a Lifetime movie.

"Tae," Namjoon said fake politely.

"Yes, Dad?" Tae responded, looking up with a fake nice smile.

"Jimin was crying," Namjoon said.

"That's really sad," Tae said.

There was a long moment of silence before Namjoon gave Tae a look that sent Tae running into the triplets' room to apologize to Jimin.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," Tae said, hopping from his left foot to his right foot next to Jimin's bed.

"No you're not" came Jimin's muffled reply from within his blanket nest.

"Ah, you got me," Tae admitted. "It was really funny the way you screamed and clung onto me-"

"GO AWAY TAE!"

"I'm kidding, kidding..." Tae shrugged even though Jimin couldn't see him. "I'm...sorry for tricking you by telling you it was a cute movie with kittens in it."

Jimin sniffled loudly.

"And for making you look when the murderer went into the house."

Jimin's cries got louder.

"But...I'm not sorry for showing you the movie because you held onto me the whole time," Tae finished, stilling. "You curled up into me and hid your face in my shirt." Tae smacked himself lightly, trying to stop himself from making Jimin cry more. "I just mean to say that I wanted you to see that you felt safe with me, so you don't have to be so scared because I'm here, okay?"

Tae had to wait a few minutes before the blankets lifted slightly but not enough for Tae to see into the little fort.

"There's m-more room I'm here," Jimin said between sniffles. "I-if you wanted to come inside."

Tae smiled as he slipped beneath the blankets and stared at Jimin.

"It's like before," Jimin said suddenly, and Tae tilted his head. "What's like before?"

"You always saved me from Hyukk and Jongup, But then you'd knock over my tower anyway."

Tae smiled fondly at his brother. "That's right, because only I get to tease you."

"Well, and Jin, and Yoongi, and Hobi, and-"

"Forget about them," Tae said, reaching out and interlocking his fingers with Jimin. "I'm more important."

Jimin laughed softly and laid his head on Tae's chest.

Just when Tae thought he was asleep, he heard a soft voice.

"You were right," Jimin whispered. "You make me feel safe."

Tae smiled, rubbing Jimin's back until he heard Jimin's breathing even out and saw his eyes close.

***

"Sorry," Mark apologized as he gave Yugyeom and BamBam a gentle push forward. "It came up suddenly, and I didn't have a sitter-"

"It's fine," Namjoon assured him, letting the two kids run into the house. "You've watched my kids a million times."

"Thanks!" Mark yelled before dashing back out to his car.

"Namjoon? Can we watch a movie?" BamBam asked, and Namjoon shrugged, preoccupied with a text he'd received from Lisa.

"Sure, sure," Namjoon said, walking away to reply.

"Oh, there's already a movie in the machine," Yugyeom said.

"Let's just watch that one. Is that good with you, Yugyeom?"

"Sure."

***

Fifteen minutes later, Namjoon heard screams echoing throughout the house.

thanks for reading as always :) and some pics of these cuties