#pixie made

Chan had expected that Minho may feel embarrassed by the fact that he had shown his vulnerable side last night. However, what he didn’t expect was to be avoided by Minho completely, and not only towards himself, but the other members as well. Despite being a bit hurt by this, Chan at least knew why Minho was behaving this way. His boyfriends on the other hand, had no knowledge of last night’s events and only grew increasingly worried since Minho had seemed visibly stressed and exhausted the past month. Chan didn’t want to overstep and possibly make Minho uncomfortable so he figured he would wait it out until after comeback preparations ended to talk to him.

“Hyung?” Chan snapped out of his thoughts when he realized he had been spaced out, Felix was looking down at him with a concerned glance. “You okay Channie?”

Chan quickly stood up, wiping sweat off his brow and planting a quick kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek before saying, “Yeah! Just resting, the choreo is pretty intense huh?”

Felix blushed at the show of affection before nodding, deciding he wanted a soda from the vending machine around the corner of their dance practice room. After inviting Chan who agreed happily, they went on their way, leaving the rest of their members to finish up their break before continuing to practice.

Meanwhile, Minho had also been alone in his thoughts, overthinking every interaction his little self had with Chan. How could he allow himself to slip in his boyfriend’s presence? Had he already told everyone? Did all his boyfriends hate him? Would he be kicked out? He needed to stop regressing, for good. He needed to avoid them, to not be more of a burden, not wanting to see their disgusted faces. These thoughts had been on a constant loop since he woke up and Minho was set on avoiding his seven boyfriends in any context besides work and only focusing on the comeback.

A few hours later, Minho was attempting to suppress his feelings while also trying to guide the rest of the members through the choreo, but his stress was bringing his patience to an all time low.

“Hyunjin! Can’t you hear me counting? Why can’t you turn on beat?” Minho shouted over the loud music booming from the speaker, locking eyes with the younger.

“I’m sorry hyung.. I was really trying I swear!” Hyunjin’s eyes widened under Minho’s intense gaze, trying his best to convey he was being honest.

Minho scoffed at this, causing Chan to look over at Hyunjin sympathetically, patting his back and only receiving a forced small smile in return. Their youngest boyfriend however, was very protective of Hyunjin and wasn’t having Minho’s attitude.

“Why are you yelling at him like that? You know we’re all tired Minho hyung, this isn’t just about you!” Jeongin was fuming, and everyone could feel the tension in the air due to the volume and tone of his voice.

“Shut up Jeongin. You need the most practice out of all of us.” Minho wasn’t shouting anymore, but his cold way of speaking, while also managing to point out one of Jeongin’s deepest insecurities caused his lip to tremble.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, Jeongin’s mouth gaped at Minho’s response, feeling like he had just been slapped and trying to reply. Despite their previous arguments that occurred during practice, Minho had never brought any of the member’s talents or abilities into it. Trying his best to blink away the tears welling up in his eyes, he ran out of the practice room as quickly as possible.

“I’ll follow him.” Hyunjin quickly said, racing after the maknae and nearly slamming the door closed due to the force used.

Minho was looking down at his feet, on the verge of tears himself, knowing he fucked up very badly. His boyfriends were definitely going to leave him now. He couldn’t control himself to the point he had insulted his youngest boyfriend with words he didn’t even mean. He felt ashamed.

“Practice is over, everyone go home besides Minho.” Chan firmly stated before everyone besides the two of them shuffled out of the room as fast as they could.

Before Minho could speak, Chan shook his head, saying, “Minho, you seriously need to get your act together, just because you’re stressed doesn’t mean you can take it out on us, do you realize how immature that is? You’re the second oldest, so start acting like it.”

Unable to look Chan in the eye, he could only see in his peripherals the movement of Chan’s feet and eventually, he heard the sound of the door closing. Releasing a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding, Minho collapsed to the ground. His hands were shaking, he felt so overwhelmed, and painful sobs that he attempted to muffle with his sleeve escaped him. Trying to regain his composure, Minho gathered his belongings and shoved them in his backpack before exiting the building. It was freezing cold outside and Minho wasn’t properly dressed for the weather, but he felt as if he deserved it. Instead of calling for a car to pick him up, he chose to walk home, not caring about any sort of consequence.

He felt so embarrassed by his actions from earlier, and Chan’s words bounced around in his head. “You’re the second oldest, so start acting like it” in particular was practically screaming at him. He needed to stop acting like a child and get it together. Chan was obviously faking it when he took care of him and only acted like he was okay with it.

Having felt his phone buzzing, Minho reached for his pocket to view his lockscreen. He noticed a missed call notification from the leader and two unopened messages from Jisung on kakaotalk, which, upon seeing that, made his heart sink. He didn’t even want to know what Jisung had said. he could not handle that coming from his Sungie.

Sungie? Minho cursed under his breath after having thought of Jisung’s nickname, one he only used in his thoughts when he was on the verge of slipping, and that was not happening ever again. It just couldn’t. Turning off his ringer, Minho shivered the rest of the walk home.

By the time he arrived, he could hear laughing echoing throughout the halls of the dorm. His stomach twisted at the thought of that laughter possibly being about him. No, it was definitely about him. They were making fun of him, they didn’t want anything to do with him. He was just a baby, a stupid, useless baby who couldn’t act his age, who couldn’t-

“Minho? Jesus christ you’re freezing, did you walk all the way here?”

Blinking to try and rid his eyesight of its blurry haze, Minho realized that Jisung was standing before him in the entrance of the dorm. Behind Jisung were his other six boyfriends, cuddled together with blankets and popcorn, cups of hot cocoa placed on coasters resting on the table in front of them. He could make out the light from the tv, and music from the movie frozen coming from the speakers. Since he hadn’t moved or said a word, they all stopped, Seungmin reaching over to pause the movie before everyone just stared at him. For some reason, Jeongin stood up and began walking over to Minho.

To him, that meant everything was over. He completely panicked.

Lunging forward towards Jeongin, Minho wrapped his arms around him tightly before breaking down crying. Jeongin, despite being very confused and still a bit mad at his hyung, returned the hug, considering Minho rarely initiated affection nor cried. After feeling the chilly temperature of Minho’s jacket Jeongin pulled back a bit to look at his face. He was met with a distraught, anxiety riddled version of his boyfriend, heart breaking after noting tear stains on his cheeks, a red nose, and slightly blue lips.

“Baby? You need to warm up, I’m worried about you, we all are.”

Minho softly whimpered, causing everyone to grow even more concerned (if that was possible at this point), Chan rushed over immediately having recognized that sound. It was the same gentle noise Minho made last night rather than talking when he was upset and in pain.

Realizing the sound he’d made, Minho panicked again, tears still spilling over as he wailed “Min sorry Innie!".

Jeongin was definitely confused now, everyone besides Chan was. There wasn’t time for questions, as it was obvious that Minho was in a vulnerable state and needed their support so everyone was ready to help.

Chan began removing Minho’s jacket, it was soaked with remnants of snow and he needed minho to get warm. Jeongin sprung into action as well, guiding Minho to the couch. Changbin and Hyunjin got up to go make tea, Felix to go run a bath, and Jisung to get a blanket while Seungmin made room on the couch. Jeongin got Minho situated in his lap when he sat down, Chan kneeled to take off Minho’s shoes and socks. Jisung returned with the blanket, wrapping up Minho while Jeongin shushed his cries and gently rocked him back and forth.

“Aw look at you, you’re so cute sweetheart.” Jisung cooed, kissing Minho’s forehead who began giggling in response, but suddenly stopped and whimpered.

“What’s wrong? Does something hurt angel?” Jisung gently reached for Minho’s hand, noting that the boy was still shivering. “Still cold?”

Minho looked up at Jisung with glossy eyes, nodding slowly and then snuggling into jeogin’s chest to try and get warm. Jisung went to go get a sweater and socks for Minho, hoping that would help. Jeongin looked up at Chan, seemingly for an explanation.

Chan knew there was no point in lying or hiding this, and as he was thinking of a way to explain, everyone had returned to the room and sat down, joining in with Jeongin to look up at him questioningly.

Sighing, Chan questioned “Okay I know everyone is really confused right?” Six heads nodded. “well…” glancing at minho, Chan realized it wouldn’t be right to just say everything about last night’s events without Minho’s consent, so he walked over and kneeled down to look at him.

Minho moved his head to look at Chan, tilting his head cutely. Chan smiled to try and reassure him, figuring he must be very overwhelmed right now.

“Hey Min, I know there’s a lot happening, must be scary hm? Do you think you could be a brave boy and let hyung explain what’s going on, why you’re tiny?” Minho shyly babbled in response, which Chan somehow understood as a yes. “Good boy baby!” Chan ruffled Minho’s hair, and Minho finally genuinely giggled without any interruptions from pain or anxiety.

Moving to the center of the living room, Chan began, “So we all know Minho’s been really stressed lately, and struggling with headaches a lot… well last night I heard crying and found him on the floor with some cuts and bruises, of course I could see that it hurt and was shocking, but I was confused about why he was wailing so loudly, since that’s not how Minho hyung is you know? After comforting him, I realized he wasn’t acting like himself. He wasn’t speaking in full sentences, his voice was higher pitched, and in general it was really obvious to me that this wasn’t a joke. I didn’t know exactly what to do, but I ended up taking care of him and he was so adorable, he fell asleep in my bed while I started to research. I’m pretty sure Minho is a little, have you guys heard of it?”

Felix perked up instantly, “Wait yeah, isn’t that when you’re in a younger headspace?”

Despite Felix asking a genuine question to try and understand, Minho’s little brain picked up on a few of the words and felt like Felix was judging him. Starting to cry and breathe heavily, he forced himself to be a bit older before breaking down again, “Min sorry! Min bad boy! Hyungies hate Min!”

Everyone instantly tried to reassure Minho, Felix going over to him directly since he realized Minho may have misunderstood. “Honey I’m not mad at you, we don’t hate you, how could we ever hate our precious Min? Don’t be sorry baby, can hyung give you a hug?” Minho sniffled before nodding.

Hyunjin piped up, “Yeah Minho we’re not upset by it at all, it’s adorable!”

The others verbally agreed with both Felix and Hyunjin.

“B-but Channie hyung no wan… Min not ‘pose to be baby… Min try to be big…” Minho whimpered sadly, thinking his hyung truly hated him.

Piecing everything together, Chan remembered what he had told Minho this morning while scolding him, internally cursing at himself for his choice of words. He should have known that discussing age after Minho had been so vulnerable around him wasn’t okay, no matter what Minho had done he didn’t deserve that at all. “Oh Min, Channie hyung is so sorry for what he said earlier, he was being a big meanie. Of course my baby can always come to hyung okay?” Minho made grabby hands at Chan who cooed at him and picked him up from Jeongin, who looked lost in his thoughts.

“I should have known something was wrong with how he snapped at Hyunjin. It really isn’t like him to get angry, yeah he jokes around but...” Jeongin muttered to himself.

Having heard his hyung talk, Minho whipped his head towards Jeongin in a panic, “Min sorry! Innie no cry again!”

“I know sweetheart, you haven’t been feeling well at all lately and you just couldn’t handle the stress could you? Innie isn’t mad okay? Innie forgives you.”

Minho felt relieved, burying his head into Chan’s chest. His boyfriends couldn’t help but awe at his cute mannerisms, they instantly knew that they would learn as much as possible about Minho’s littlespace to care for him properly if he’d let them. The seven of them knew that Minho would apologize again when he was out of headspace, despite his cold demeanor he was very kind, never wanting to upset his boyfriends and self aware of when he’s in the wrong. In hindsight, Minho not acting like that should have been a red flag to all of them, but they decided they could have an adult talk later, right now Minho needed all their attention and care.

Finally letting himself slip younger again, Minho physically relaxed in Chan’s arms before feeling his eyes flutter closed, he was so sleepy and his hyung was so warm and gentle. Chan noticed this, shushing everyone before letting them know he would give Minho a quick bath then get him ready for bed.

Having felt so floaty, Minho didn’t notice that Jisung trailed behind the two of them. He was deep in babyspace now, mostly non verbal besides the occasional whine or confused babble. All he could process was his hyungs undressing him, placing him in the warm water, washing his body and hair, then drying him off. Jisung couldn’t resist blowing raspberries on Minho’s adorable tummy, his giggles were so precious and after realizing just how much he had been dealing with all he wanted to do was make his boyfriend laugh. Minho could barely stay conscious, the soft massage from getting his hair shampooed made him slump over in Chan’s arms as he was put in his favorite tiger pajamas. Chan put Minho down on the bed, wrapping him up in his blankets and making sure his kitten plushie was beside him before exiting the room.

Minho felt a weight on his bed then arms wrapped around him. Instantly recognizing it as his Sungie’s presence, he hummed contently and got as close as possibly to his hyung.

“Hyung’s here Minnie, don’t worry about a thing. Sleep well baby.” Jisung whispered before kissing the top of his head. He could have sworn he heard Minho say “love da” before slipping his thumb between his lips and going quiet, but he decided that could be talked about later too.

Three weeks. That’s how long it had been since Minho had regressed, it was comeback season and despite the excitement it brought Minho and his members, it meant packed schedules with no free time. The few breaks he did have were spent trying to catch up on lost sleep, which usually failed due to the amount of caffeine constantly in his system. Even without this schedule, Minho always had to hide his age regression due to the fact he thought the members would think he was a freak, and he would rather keep it a secret than lose them. Now, it was time for b-side promotions, it would only be a few performances, and then Minho could rest and be as little as he wanted! He just had to push himself a bit more, and stays would help encourage him to stay motivated & work hard. It would be manageable, right?

-

It was past midnight. One more day of promotions and then a week off. Minho lay awake in his bed, trying to distract himself from his thoughts by listening to his members beside him, softly breathing while sound asleep. Turning to his side, he squeezed his blanket closer to his chest, trying to ignore his pounding headache & hunger present in his tummy. Why couldn’t he just fall asleep?

With a frustrated sigh, he tossed his blanket off of him and quietly got out of bed, walking out of the shared room and into the kitchen. He turned on the light, wincing when it caused a sharp pang in his head.

“Ow…” he whimpered, slowly falling into that in between area where he wasn’t big but wasn’t yet in littlespace.

Trying to push it away as best he could, Minho opened the fridge, staring at the sight in front of him until he realized there was nothing he wanted. Giving up, he walked past the counter, deciding to just sit on the couch and watch some tv, hopefully he’d fall asleep then. Unfortunately, Minho didn’t realize the shoes left on the kitchen tiles a few feet ahead of him, and before he knew it he tripped and fell forward, trying to catch himself with his hands with some success. The fall was rough, he landed on the hard tile which had ridges and raised edges rather than the soft carpet he had almost reached.

His elbow and forearm was affected the most, Minho brought it close to him and stared at the bruising spot, blinking to try and control his emotions before he completely lost it. Peeking down, he spotted his knee that had small spots of blood… and that’s when he gave up on composing himself. Slipping faster than he ever had in years, Minho’s lip trembled for a few seconds before bursting into tears. This aggravated his headache even more which made him feel so frustrated, he was all alone and spiraling, his head full of thoughts about how he didn’t want his members to know this about him. He was supposed to be the mature one, the second oldest hyung who looked after the others, the cold one who never cried and was void of sensitive emotions. His brain tried to comprehend this all at once, which was nearly impossible due to his headspace. Anxiety and an overwhelming sense of panic bubbled in his chest, his crying turned into loud wailing & hiccups in between his hyperventilating. Unaware of the sound of footsteps racing down the hall due to the sensory overload he was feeling, Minho huddled into himself, hands over his ears as he rocked back and forth.

“Oh shit… Minho? What happened?” a muffled voice he couldn’t make out was trying to speak to him, and despite the adult part of himself trying to tell him to suck it up and hide his regressed state, he was so overwhelmed and scared that all he could do was throw himself into the person’s arms, clutching their shirt while crying into their chest.

“Hey, it’s okay Min,” it was Chan’s voice that he could recognize now, and his comforting aura along with the nickname made him slip even deeper, even younger than he had in years.

“Ouchie… bwood,” Minho tried his best to use the right words, insecure by the fact he couldn’t seem to articulate sentences, and his lisp made it difficult to pronounce words properly.

Chan’s eyes widened at Minho’s tone of voice along with his word choices. Why is he talking like a baby?

Pushing his confusion aside, Chan softly rubbed Minho’s back, rocking him back and forth while shushing him. “It’s okay Minnie, I’m here okay? Did you get hurt?”

Minho looked up and nodded slowly, pointing at his knee. Chan noticed his eyes looked different. Yes, he was crying but that wasn’t all it was. Besides the tears his eyes looked more innocent, pupils dilated and somehow younger? Chan knew that Minho wasn’t acting or doing this for attention, he realized that he was truly in a younger headspace, and being his only hyung he instantly felt more protective of him.

“Oh baby, you fell hard didn’t you? It must hurt a lot hm? Here, let’s go clean that up okay?” Chan made his voice softer and higher, worried for a split second that Minho wouldn’t like being so intensely babied, but after he nodded and then didn’t say anything else, Chan figured it was okay.

Chan stood up, waiting for Minho to stand up with him, but after seconds passed he looked down only to see Minho looking up at him and tilting his head.

“D-do you want me to carry you?” Chan questioned.

Minho nodded, reaching his arms out and softly saying “uppies?” to which Chan could have sworn his heart burst with love before picking him up and placing him on his hip.

Minho felt safe, nuzzling his head into Chan’s shoulder and sighing contently. Chan chucked a bit at Minho’s adorableness, carrying him to the bathroom and placing him on top of the counter. Minho whined at the lost contact but when Chan kissed his forehead a second later he squealed happily.

“Okay Min, this might sting a bit but you can hold my hand okay? Squeeze if it hurts, it’ll be over soon alright?”

Minho looked at the bottle in Chan’s hand puzzledly, but he trusted his hyung, so he nodded confidently before holding Chan’s empty hand. Chan took a cotton round and poured some of the liquid onto it before gently placing it on Minho’s cut. Minho whimpered at the stinging sensation, squeezing Chan’s hand like he was told to in order to distract himself from the pain.

“Good boy, almost done okay?” Chan cooed at Minho, smiling gently at him while trying to hurry so he didn’t have to be in pain any longer than necessary. After another minute or so, Chan had finished cleaning up a sleepy Minho. Eyes fluttering, Minho tried his best to be a good boy and stay awake for his hyung, but the comfort of being babied made him feel at ease, and after weeks of sleeping poorly he finally felt relaxed.

Chan noticed Minho nodding off, so he decided the boy probably wouldn’t wanna be alone after going through such a difficult time tonight. Despite his unanswered questions and limited knowledge about whatever was happening, he knew it wasn’t the time to prod.

“Min? Do you want me to carry you to your bed?” Chan asked, slightly rubbing his back to wake him up just enough to hear his question.

Minho let out a drawn out high pitched whine which Chan interpreted as a “no”.

“Do you want to sleep with me bubs? Will you feel better if you’re not alone?” Chan smiled softly when Minho nodded rapidly to his question. “Okay sweetheart, then up we go!” Chan picked up Minho as gently as he could, making a slight whoosh sound to which Minho giggled into his shoulder.

Walking carefully to his room, he made sure not to awaken the other boys he shared a room with (how did they manage to sleep through all this?) as he placed Minho down onto his bed before taking off his slippers and pulling back the covers to get in with him.

“Snuggies?” Minho whispered, eyes wide and hopeful. Of course, Chan couldn’t resist that look.

“Of course baby, come here,” Chan opened his arms so Minho could comfortably snuggle against his chest. Minho wrapped his arms around Chan’s back in an attempt to be as close to his hyung as possible.