First off, I’m glad this has been able to bring you any amount of comfort, sweetheart. This month has been rough for kitty, too, and i hope that February is better to us. Kitty is here to provide whatever i can, even through just this little doorway of light.

As for doing certain activities with the members, you’re right and absolutely ! There’s an element of ‘schedule’ as to who takes care of mnh when he slips, but there’s also the balance of who mnh wants to be with, and if it’s possible they’ll always try to accommodate for their baby, because there are days where he’s extra clingy and codependent, but there’s also the reality that sometimes, the members are not available or on schedule. It’s a teeter totter.

I mentioned it before, but if they’re on schedule when he slips, he usually latches onto whichever member is nearest/with him, because he immediately seeks out safety, but if they’re not, and say mnh is at home with jsng, it’s entirely dependent on his mood. There’s plenty of variables and sometimes, it’s not just one member-one association: mnh likes to spend time with both hynjn and chngbn, together, because he gets the creative playtime through painting and then the physical playtime of being tossed around and used as a dumbbell for chngbn to bench press him (mnh also requests airplane rides—chngbn holds mnh up by his stomach with his feet, back on the ground, and holds mnh’s hands so he can ‘fly’—at least ten of them, and chngbn is more sore after playtime with mnh than any amount of gym sessions could accumulate, but he’d happily tear every muscle in his body if it means mnh is smiling so big his paci falls out of his mouth). Mnh loves Chngbn’s laugh, so he’ll make silly faces down at him while he’s ‘flying’ and once chngbn starts, neither of them stop, and mnh tries to clap his hands in glee but he’s still interlocked with chngbn so he topples over, and where a toddler would usually get upset and bothered—mnh just starfishes out because he knows chngbn is going to roll right over and blow fifty raspberries onto his tummy, and hynjn will always swoop down and tickle under his chin with a freshly cleaned paintbrush, and mnh will laugh himself exhausted, until all hynjn has to do is peel him off of the floor and slow dance around the living room to get the angel in his arms to knock out. (They order pizza for dinner and mnh decides to use the sauce as paint…for his face. He’s going to look a little extra rosy for their schedules tomorrow. It’s fine.)

With Lixie, mnh likes to play games along with him. Now, we’re not setting mnh up at the gaming desk with his LoL account, but there’s ways to keep mnh involved without running any risk to his rank. He’ll hijack Seungmin’s chair and wheel it into his room, next to his own, and gives mnh his own special keyboard (wireless and yellow and covered in pudding keycaps with arrows that are little cat paws which mnh loves to spam), along with his very own mouse (also wireless, and off.) so he can ‘play’ along with lix. Now, mnh probably shouldn’t be infront of a screen this long, but it hardly happens often enough to matter, and mnh is more interested in pressing buttons and spinning in his chair than watching Lix get his ass kicked. Everytime he does win, though, mnh will clap and keyboard smash, and when lix offers a high five, the little will bonk him on the palm with the blunt of his duck-yellow paci in congratulations.

That said, with sngmn, mnh is down for anything. He just likes the sound of sngmn’s voice. Clean and clear and easy. Mnh tries to be vocal the most with Sngmn out of any member, and Sngmn has quietly taken notice, not telling the others because it’s a small, certain happiness to be able to have this unique relationship, where mnh wants to talk, wants to try, and even if he doesn’t say more than a word or two, it’s a privilege that sngmn selfishly holds close. They’ll sit in the middle of his bed and he’ll hold mnh’s little hands up to his own mouth, letting him feel the shape of his lips as they form words, and then he’ll wait for mnh to, tentatively, push his paci from his mouth and wait for sngmn to guide the shape of his lips, now. It’s been simple words, of course. Like ‘hungry’ and ‘tired’, and while it’s peculiar because mnh obviously has no problem speaking when big, and this has been chalked up to him just not wanting to be verbal when little—there’s something else to it. Maybe it’s not just mnh wanting to be as little as possible with all the members, maybe he wants to show progress like a big boy, but not so big that they won’t baby him anymore. Sngmn truly doesn’t know, and he doesn’t think mnh does either, but again; he’s just happy to sit and let mnh’s cherubic little voice dance in the space between them, finding it’s footing in their sliver of haven. (Mnh will sign ‘all done’ with his palms twisting in and out, and sngmn will sing 𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘢 while mnh cozies himself among the pillows. Mnh won’t sing along, but sngmn will catch him humming while he kneads biscuits into a plushie, ‘Your voice is so pretty, little one.’ He’ll sing out, to the tune of the last few lines of their song, and mnh will smush his face down into softness, shy and curled up and if sngmn feeds his own delusion enough, beyond the sound of his own singing, he thinks he hears a ‘𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴~’, muffled into the melody.)

Jngn is the adventurer. Mnh can’t exactly go out and just wander around the city when little, per se, but, with a little planning, they manage to get a ‘kit day’ every now and then. (Kit for fox kits, and kit for the shortened version of kitten, simple and certain to get mnh’s face lighting up). Jngn, despite being the youngest, seems to take on the most mature role with mnh, next to chn. The dimple dorm has been comically referred to as the ‘daddy dorm’ because out of all the members, they’re all confident that mnh would refer to either of them as daddy before the other 5. (Jsng has been referred to as ‘appa’, but mnh still seems to be teetering with his confidence, and while they want him to get more comfortable with him calling any of his hyungs whatever makes him feel the safest, they don’t want to push him or make him feel like he has to be on a timeline. It’ll happen naturally, hopefully, maybe—jsng is trying to get him more attuned to calling him ‘appa’ by referring to himself as such, in third person, so that ideally, mnh will have a positive association with it and adopt more terms for the others, too.) So on their ‘kit days’, mnh will dress 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢 nice, and they’ll just…drive. Mnh loves being in the car—with Jngn. He loves looking out the window, loves watching Jngn drive, loves listening to whatever trot Jngn will put on and sing his heart out to (mnh will sign ‘again!’ And run one song into the ground for an hour if he so much as wants it.). They can’t really ‘go’ places like normal people would, especially with mnh being little, so their ‘kit days’ are usually long drives, encompassed with jngn telling mnh about anything and everything, mnh playing with Jngn’s fingers when they’re on a more joyride-able stretch (he loves to hold jngn’s hand up with his own, significantly smaller one, palm to palm, ‘Your hands are so tiny baby, i know. Hyung could just eat you up.’ And Jngn will swallow mnh’s little paw up with his own hand ‘Grahhh~!’ and give it a playful shake, eyes flicking between the road and mnh’s full bodied preen, ruby red from his apples of his cheeks to the tips of his ears.). They’ll stop for food, typically, (mnh in tow behind jngn’s broad shoulders, clinging to the back of his jacket and tugging his ballcap over his face because then no one can see him, if he’s hiding behind d—) and if it’s nice out, Jngn knows a nice, isolated park that’s just far enough from the dorms that if they have a little picnic, mnh will be out cold by the time they get back home, (mnh will always rub his thumb over jngn’s knuckles that he’s clasped over, and whenever that little, loving motion stops, jngn will wait until he hears little sleep induced suckles before bringing mnh’s hand up to kiss the foxiny Gashapon ring on his index, then the leebit on his middle) where Chn can take the reins.

Chn is where mnh can be a baby through and through. (See: ‘𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘵’ 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥!) But it’s also where mnh can get spoiled to filth and doted on like the last remaining bloodline holder of a monarchy. Chn would probably level a city for mnh if a sidewalk tripped him. And mnh is also much more prone to slipping around chn, especially in the studio. Chn’s always calling him cute, telling him he’s doing so well, and because they’re long days, lots of strain, and what feels like a billion takes sometimes, mnh can only bear the weight for so long. Luckily, he’s never slipped mid-take (yet) when there’s producers and managers in the room, but there’s not enough fingers on his hands to count how many times he’s stepped out of the booth and slumped on the couch until everyone else leaves, hood tugged over his head and sweater paw over his mouth so no one will see him trying to suck at his thumb, so that Chn can wheel over to him in his chair and lug the bundle of boy onto his lap, ‘Don’t eat your paws, baby, hey.’ He’ll coax mnh’s thumb from his mouth and replace it with one of his own fingers, temporarily, while he fishes in his bag next to the couch with a stretch that has the chair’s strength being tested. ‘Here, kitten. I know it’s been a tough day.’ And mnh’s eyes will blow so wide the little bobas of them might just roll out of his skull, jaw dropping with no interest in chn’s fingers and he’s thinking faster than he can sign, ‘𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦? 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦?’ And Chn will just nod and pop the little sanitized case open, revealing his sea-blue custom wolfchn paci that never leaves the dimple dorm, and mnh will chase it with his little bunny bite so that all Chn has to do is pop it between his lips, greeted by the sound of satiated, peaceful suckling that’s become the heartbeat of their little’s happiness. ‘I knew today would be a lot, and you did better than I could have ever imagined, baby. So thank you for being so brave and strong.’ At that, mnh shakes his head and touches his palms to Chn’s chest, then his face, looking at him with precious, narrowed eyes, before taking a big breath, sitting himself up a little straighter on chn’s lap. He’s brave, after all. Brave, brave, as his hands form familiar signs, ‘𝘕𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶,’ He emphasizes by pressing a small palm up to Chn’s heart. Then, with toes dipping in the salt of the sea, a warm sun blanketing him through a set of strong arms around his waist; he’s brave enough to try to swim. ‘𝘋𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺.’

Jsng is, much like in their day to day life, his other half. Mnh would do anything and everything with jsng if it meant they were together. There’s no set ‘special’ thing between them because everything is theirs if they so decide, and that applies when mnh is little, too. It’s a little different in the sense that jsng has the most time with him, so he’s more attuned to what mnh’s needs are and how to keep him afloat, but it also means that jsng has seen their little prince at his lowest, the most often. Mnh cries much more when he’s little, whereas when he’s big it’s almost never at all, but jsng just believes that’s because he bottles it all up and his little self is incapable of doing that, and the well of tears is a healthy response to all of the things he shouldn’t have to hold in, in the first place. Jsng is mnh’s sanctuary. He doesn’t have to play, or do anything to be loved undoubtedly, every second of the day. He can just crawl onto his back when jsng is writing lyrics in his notebook on the bed and be a weighted blanket, ‘Hi, kitten. Just sunbathing?’ Jsng will hum back at him and mnh will nod, resting his cheek on the back of jsng’s shoulder so the sun will hit his face through the window, and he’ll just laze there, lulled by the gentle scratching of pencil to paper, jsng’s occasional mumbles and half-bars, unfinished but music to mnh’s ears nonetheless, and he’s happy, here. Doing absolutely nothing at all, with his legs draped over jsng’s hips and one hand loosely clasped over a bicep that flexes every now and then, just to make mnh giggle out a slurred, ‘𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘢~’, because while jsng knows mnh loves to act like a cat and sunbathe on his back, he also knows that his baby thrives on being acknowledged, even if means jsng being cheesy every few minutes. Jsng will write, and write, and sing and sing, and mnh will draw shapes on jsng’s arm, a square, a circle, and jsng will tip his head back enough to bump into the top of mnh’s, voice extra low like it’s just part of the song he’s working on, but mnh knows those words are meant for him, ‘Love you.’

Mnh draws a heart. Then another. And another. Until jsng puts the pencil down and rolls them both over, abandoning the peaceful monotony for an onslaught of kisses he just can’t keep back.

(Holy shit this is long thank you so much for reading this, sweetheart !)