when children fall.
Title: when children fall
Pairing: Kai/Kyungsoo
Genre: fluff
Length: 2062w
Summary: This is the first time Jongin falls in love. (Or - kid!au, in which Kyungsoo decides to play doctor.)
The playground is full of shrieking children, sticky hands and high pitched voices making Kyungsoo wrinkle his nose. It’s not that he doesn’t like the other kids - they were fine, he supposes, but they were almost all younger than him. He’s a couple of months shy of seven, and soon enough, he’d be out of preschool and in regular school. With other big kids. Like himself.
‘Soo!’ Jongin yells, bounding over and enveloping the elder in a hug. Jongin was a full year and two days younger than him, but still he could see over the top of Kyungsoo’s head, and the elder found that unspeakably unfair. He pouts and pulls away.
‘I told you to call me Soo hyung, Jonginnie!’ Kyungsoo says, arms folding across his chest. ‘I’m older than you, so you have to call me hyung,’ he whines.
‘But I don’t want to!’ says Jongin stubbornly, frowning because he’s been made to let go of his favourite friend. He likes the sound of favourite friend, he thinks, a lot more than he does best friend. Anybody could do the things friends were supposed to do for him. Getting him to like them back wasn’t that simple.
(Except for when it comes to Kyungsoo.)
‘It’s just one extra sound! You just kind of have to breathe the right way and - hyung, see!’ Kyungsoo demonstrates, sounding a little like he’d just come up for air after a long time holding his breath underwater. Jongin stifles his giggle. Wars are not won with laughs.
‘But Soo, what if I run out of voice!’ Jongin protests, reaching out to tug on Kyungsoo’s sleeve. The elder angrily steps back, keeping himself just out of reach.
‘Then you won’t have to talk to me again, ever! And serves you right for being so mean to me!’ Kyungsoo says, almost yelling, chubby hands curled into fists. He turns to leave the playground, stomping off in the direction of his house.
‘Soo! Don’t leave me!’ yells Jongin, belatedly realising that his favourite friend was leaving him alone in the park with a bunch of people he didn’t know. It makes a surge of panic spark throughout his little limbs, and he doesn’t look where he’s going while he’s running after Kyungsoo.
He trips and falls, bare skin scraping against tarmac.
Jongin screams.
‘Jonginnie!’ yells Kyungsoo, when he turns to see Jongin on all fours on the ground, unmoving as tears stream down his cheeks. He runs as quick as his little feet can carry him towards his injured friend, and kneels down next to him. ‘Are you okay?’ he asks.
‘Soo… Blood...’ says Jongin, wincing as he moves to sit, falling back on his bottom with a squeak. Sure enough, there are angry red scrapes all along Jongin’s forearms, and one particularly nasty looking gash is dripping blood. Jongin touches a finger to it, blood colouring his fingertip and he shrieks, wiping it on Kyungsoo’s hand instead.
‘Jonginnie, gross!’ Kyungsoo almost yells. Almost, because he can’t get angry at Jongin when the younger was obviously in pain, when he had tears running down his face. Kyungsoo bites his bottom lip.
‘Sehuna! Can you go get Jonginnie’s mummy?’ Kyungsoo calls, and the tall boy nods, jogging off importantly towards Jongin’s house.
Five minutes later, Kyungsoo is in the Kim family kitchen, Jongin’s mother fussing over her injured son as he cries. Kyungsoo tries to calm the younger down - he can’t help but feel guilty about all the trouble he’s caused.
‘Soo, it hurts!’ yells Jongin, when his cuts are being cleaned. The stuff Jongin’s mum rubs around her son’s wounds turns the skin yellow, and Kyungsoo bites back the I am your hyung that hangs on the tip of his tongue.
‘You can hold my hand until it’s done,’ he suggests instead, and Jongin nods tearfully before gripping both Kyungsoo’s hands in his own. Mrs Kim works as quickly as she can, fingers wrapping a bandage around her son’s small arm, kissing him when he’s done.
‘You did a good job, getting Sehun to find me,’ says Mrs Kim, patting Kyungsoo fondly on the head when Jongin goes to the bathroom to admire his battlescars. ‘He’s fine now, so if you want to go home or back out to play, you can. He’s going to be fine.’
Kyungsoo looks up at Mrs Kim with uncertainty, biting his lower lip again. Mrs Do always told him to tell the truth, and he supposes there isn’t any use keeping it from Mrs Kim. She’s bound to find out soon enough.
‘It’s my fault!’ Kyungsoo blurts out, unable to restrain his guilt. Mrs Kim just raises her eyebrows, surprised at his outburst. ‘I mean - I didn’t push Jonginnie or anything, I wouldn’t do that. But it’s still my fault Jonginnie fell over,’ Kyungsoo confesses.
The look in his eyes tells Mrs Kim that he really was sorry, that he wanted to make it up to them any way he could. So she smiles as warmly as she can, kneeling down to meet him at his eye level. ‘Do you want to stay the night and help him feel better?’ she asks. Kyungsoo’s eyes go wide and he nods frantically, hair bobbing up and down on top of his head. Mrs Kim laughs.
‘Alright, just let me call your mummy. You know where Jongin’s room is,’ she says, gently ruffling his hair and then he’s off, dashing up the stairs and into Jongin’s room.
He finds the younger tucked up under his sheets, blankets up to his eyes. ‘Soo?’ he squeaks. ‘Are you going to stay with me?’
‘That's Doctor Soo to you, patient!’ says Kyungsoo proudly, chest puffing out as he struts towards his injured friend. Jongin just smiles, hiding his amusement under the covers. Older or not, sometimes Kyungsoo was just too cute. ‘I’m going to make you feel all better by the morning, Jonginnie! Just you wait!’
‘Okay, Soo,’ says Jongin, throwing his covers back just a little so he can sit up and look at his hyung attentively. ‘When do we start?’
‘First things first,’ says Kyungsoo seriously, brows set in determination. ‘I need to make you soup and bring it to you. Wait right there, patient, don’t move!’ he says, before rushing out the door and into the kitchen.
When he actually gets there he remembers he has no idea (or permission) how to make soup, and he huffs. The puff of air makes the hair hanging in his eyes flutter a little, and when it resettles against his forehead, he finds he has an idea.
He waddles off towards the pantry and gets a bowl to bring up to Jongin, bursting through the door with fervour. ‘I have for the patient, soup!’ he proclaims, brandishing a juicebox in one hand, bowl and spoon in another.
Jongin almost laughs. Kyungsoo doesn’t miss the twitch of his lips.
‘Just pretend it’s soup, okay, Jonginnie?’ he begs, poking the straw through the metallic hole in the top and pouring the contents out into the bowl. ‘I’d make you real soup,’ he begins, voice transitioning back into doctor mode, ‘but I don’t understand stuff that’s not medicine,’ he finishes. Jongin just smiles and obediently takes the bowl from him to drink his “soup”.
When he’s done, Kyungsoo takes the bowl away and sets it aside, clapping his hands together. ‘What next, Dr Soo?’ asks Jongin, unable to fight back the giggle that bubbles up in his throat because this was actually fun. He likes having his favourite friend take care of him.
There’s an evil glint in Kyungsoo’s eye before he attacks Jongin, carefully avoiding his friend’s injuries as he tackles him into the bed. ‘Soo! What are you doing?!’ yells Jongin, surprise making his voice squeak. Kyungsoo just ignores his question, roughly tugging the blanket up to Jongin’s chin. He tucks the blanket in under Jongin’s sides, his legs, all the way down to his feet and back up again. By the time he’s done, Jongin is cocooned in his own bedcovers, unable to move save for his (wounded) arms.
He frowns.
‘Soo,’ he says evenly, ‘I. Can’t. Move.’
Kyungsoo grins at him. ‘Good!’ he exclaims, sitting down next to his trapped friend. ‘That’s the whole point.’
‘What? How does this help make me feel better?’ Jongin questions, lower lip sticking out in a pout.
‘Next step: I need to pat pat pat your head and sing you a song!’ says Kyungsoo, and his words make Jongin’s dissatisfaction fade. Instead he smiles contentedly, eagerly awaiting his “treatment”.
Kyungsoo pats Jongin’s head softly, tenderly as a soft smile curls his lips. ‘Kiss me,’ he sings, ‘Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm, nightly, beside the green green grass.’ His voice isn’t the best, not yet anyway, and he struggles to curl his tongue around some of the bigger words, but Jongin finds he doesn’t mind. What’s important is that his hyung is going through all this trouble to help him get better, and even that little piece of information makes the sting in his arms dissipate.
‘That’s a funny song to sing, Soo,’ Jongin chuckles, when Kyungsoo’s done singing and sits back to look at Jongin proudly. Kyungsoo’s lower lip starts to wibble at the comment, but Jongin is quick to appease him. ‘I really liked it though!’ he says, and breathes a sigh of relief when Kyungsoo’s smile returns to his face.
‘Time for the last step,’ announces Kyungsoo, kneeling on the bed, ‘Before you go to sleep and wake up all better!’
Jongin grins in anticipation, watching as Kyungsoo takes a deep breath.
‘Apply five kisses to patient,’ says Kyungsoo, completely unaware of the way Jongin blushes furiously. ‘One, two,’ he counts, landing a kiss on each of Jongin’s bandaged arms, ‘three, four,’ one on each of his cheeks, and - ‘f - five!’
He cups both of Jongin’s cheeks in his little chubby hands, brings the younger’s face towards his, and plants a kiss full on Jongin’s mouth. When he pulls away his eyes are bent into crescents and his lips look like they’re going to break his face with that smile, and Jongin - well, Jongin, really, just gapes.
‘There!’ says Kyungsoo, gently laying Jongin back down. ‘All done! You’ll be better by the morning,’ he assures, blissfully unaware of how quickly Jongin’s heart was beating, how the blush that previously dusted his face a light pink has turned a bright red.
He ignores all of this as he pulls the blanket out from under Jongin’s sides, sliding into the bed next to Jongin and wriggling into his arms for a hug. By now Jongin’s more than merely taken aback - he’s absolutely flabbergasted, mouth going dry when Kyungsoo wraps an arm tightly around the younger’s waist.
‘Soo - what are you doing?’ he asks, voice a little shaky because Kyungsoo feels so nice in his arms it shouldn’t be allowed. Even the sting from his wounds seems to have evaporated altogether.
‘I’m taking a nap,’ says Kyungsoo matter-of-factly, eyes already fluttering closed.
‘Um - why?’ asks Jongin again, persistence annoying Kyungsoo because really he just wants to sleep. It’s been a long day.
‘I’m tired!’ Kyungsoo exclaims, eyes flying open to look fiercely enough at Jongin that the younger almost pulls away. ‘Being a doctor is hard work, you know, Jonginnie!’ says Kyungsoo, snuggling closer to Jongin’s body.
‘But - ’ Kyungsoo doesn’t let any further arguments escape Jongin’s mouth, finger coming up to press firmly against the younger’s lips.
‘Shh, Jonginnie. Sleep time now,’ he says, with a note of finality that makes Jongin shut up.
It doesn’t take long for them both to fall asleep, limbs tangled with each other’s, dreams filling the silence. Sometimes the oddest of things can make you realise how much someone else means to you, and for Jongin, it’s the wounds that scab over in the night.
(This is the first time Jongin falls in love.)
(With Kyungsoo.)
Author’s Note: basically
'hello emma what must i do to get a fic where kid!soo wriggles into kid!kai's arms'
'idk emma nobody seems to want to write that'
'i suppose i shall have to write it myself then emma'
'i suppose you shall emma'
'very well emma'
yeah
legit tlist only ever writes me angst i’m
ask.fm
Pairing: Kai/Kyungsoo
Genre: fluff
Length: 2062w
Summary: This is the first time Jongin falls in love. (Or - kid!au, in which Kyungsoo decides to play doctor.)
The playground is full of shrieking children, sticky hands and high pitched voices making Kyungsoo wrinkle his nose. It’s not that he doesn’t like the other kids - they were fine, he supposes, but they were almost all younger than him. He’s a couple of months shy of seven, and soon enough, he’d be out of preschool and in regular school. With other big kids. Like himself.
‘Soo!’ Jongin yells, bounding over and enveloping the elder in a hug. Jongin was a full year and two days younger than him, but still he could see over the top of Kyungsoo’s head, and the elder found that unspeakably unfair. He pouts and pulls away.
‘I told you to call me Soo hyung, Jonginnie!’ Kyungsoo says, arms folding across his chest. ‘I’m older than you, so you have to call me hyung,’ he whines.
‘But I don’t want to!’ says Jongin stubbornly, frowning because he’s been made to let go of his favourite friend. He likes the sound of favourite friend, he thinks, a lot more than he does best friend. Anybody could do the things friends were supposed to do for him. Getting him to like them back wasn’t that simple.
(Except for when it comes to Kyungsoo.)
‘It’s just one extra sound! You just kind of have to breathe the right way and - hyung, see!’ Kyungsoo demonstrates, sounding a little like he’d just come up for air after a long time holding his breath underwater. Jongin stifles his giggle. Wars are not won with laughs.
‘But Soo, what if I run out of voice!’ Jongin protests, reaching out to tug on Kyungsoo’s sleeve. The elder angrily steps back, keeping himself just out of reach.
‘Then you won’t have to talk to me again, ever! And serves you right for being so mean to me!’ Kyungsoo says, almost yelling, chubby hands curled into fists. He turns to leave the playground, stomping off in the direction of his house.
‘Soo! Don’t leave me!’ yells Jongin, belatedly realising that his favourite friend was leaving him alone in the park with a bunch of people he didn’t know. It makes a surge of panic spark throughout his little limbs, and he doesn’t look where he’s going while he’s running after Kyungsoo.
He trips and falls, bare skin scraping against tarmac.
Jongin screams.
‘Jonginnie!’ yells Kyungsoo, when he turns to see Jongin on all fours on the ground, unmoving as tears stream down his cheeks. He runs as quick as his little feet can carry him towards his injured friend, and kneels down next to him. ‘Are you okay?’ he asks.
‘Soo… Blood...’ says Jongin, wincing as he moves to sit, falling back on his bottom with a squeak. Sure enough, there are angry red scrapes all along Jongin’s forearms, and one particularly nasty looking gash is dripping blood. Jongin touches a finger to it, blood colouring his fingertip and he shrieks, wiping it on Kyungsoo’s hand instead.
‘Jonginnie, gross!’ Kyungsoo almost yells. Almost, because he can’t get angry at Jongin when the younger was obviously in pain, when he had tears running down his face. Kyungsoo bites his bottom lip.
‘Sehuna! Can you go get Jonginnie’s mummy?’ Kyungsoo calls, and the tall boy nods, jogging off importantly towards Jongin’s house.
Five minutes later, Kyungsoo is in the Kim family kitchen, Jongin’s mother fussing over her injured son as he cries. Kyungsoo tries to calm the younger down - he can’t help but feel guilty about all the trouble he’s caused.
‘Soo, it hurts!’ yells Jongin, when his cuts are being cleaned. The stuff Jongin’s mum rubs around her son’s wounds turns the skin yellow, and Kyungsoo bites back the I am your hyung that hangs on the tip of his tongue.
‘You can hold my hand until it’s done,’ he suggests instead, and Jongin nods tearfully before gripping both Kyungsoo’s hands in his own. Mrs Kim works as quickly as she can, fingers wrapping a bandage around her son’s small arm, kissing him when he’s done.
‘You did a good job, getting Sehun to find me,’ says Mrs Kim, patting Kyungsoo fondly on the head when Jongin goes to the bathroom to admire his battlescars. ‘He’s fine now, so if you want to go home or back out to play, you can. He’s going to be fine.’
Kyungsoo looks up at Mrs Kim with uncertainty, biting his lower lip again. Mrs Do always told him to tell the truth, and he supposes there isn’t any use keeping it from Mrs Kim. She’s bound to find out soon enough.
‘It’s my fault!’ Kyungsoo blurts out, unable to restrain his guilt. Mrs Kim just raises her eyebrows, surprised at his outburst. ‘I mean - I didn’t push Jonginnie or anything, I wouldn’t do that. But it’s still my fault Jonginnie fell over,’ Kyungsoo confesses.
The look in his eyes tells Mrs Kim that he really was sorry, that he wanted to make it up to them any way he could. So she smiles as warmly as she can, kneeling down to meet him at his eye level. ‘Do you want to stay the night and help him feel better?’ she asks. Kyungsoo’s eyes go wide and he nods frantically, hair bobbing up and down on top of his head. Mrs Kim laughs.
‘Alright, just let me call your mummy. You know where Jongin’s room is,’ she says, gently ruffling his hair and then he’s off, dashing up the stairs and into Jongin’s room.
He finds the younger tucked up under his sheets, blankets up to his eyes. ‘Soo?’ he squeaks. ‘Are you going to stay with me?’
‘That's Doctor Soo to you, patient!’ says Kyungsoo proudly, chest puffing out as he struts towards his injured friend. Jongin just smiles, hiding his amusement under the covers. Older or not, sometimes Kyungsoo was just too cute. ‘I’m going to make you feel all better by the morning, Jonginnie! Just you wait!’
‘Okay, Soo,’ says Jongin, throwing his covers back just a little so he can sit up and look at his hyung attentively. ‘When do we start?’
‘First things first,’ says Kyungsoo seriously, brows set in determination. ‘I need to make you soup and bring it to you. Wait right there, patient, don’t move!’ he says, before rushing out the door and into the kitchen.
When he actually gets there he remembers he has no idea (or permission) how to make soup, and he huffs. The puff of air makes the hair hanging in his eyes flutter a little, and when it resettles against his forehead, he finds he has an idea.
He waddles off towards the pantry and gets a bowl to bring up to Jongin, bursting through the door with fervour. ‘I have for the patient, soup!’ he proclaims, brandishing a juicebox in one hand, bowl and spoon in another.
Jongin almost laughs. Kyungsoo doesn’t miss the twitch of his lips.
‘Just pretend it’s soup, okay, Jonginnie?’ he begs, poking the straw through the metallic hole in the top and pouring the contents out into the bowl. ‘I’d make you real soup,’ he begins, voice transitioning back into doctor mode, ‘but I don’t understand stuff that’s not medicine,’ he finishes. Jongin just smiles and obediently takes the bowl from him to drink his “soup”.
When he’s done, Kyungsoo takes the bowl away and sets it aside, clapping his hands together. ‘What next, Dr Soo?’ asks Jongin, unable to fight back the giggle that bubbles up in his throat because this was actually fun. He likes having his favourite friend take care of him.
There’s an evil glint in Kyungsoo’s eye before he attacks Jongin, carefully avoiding his friend’s injuries as he tackles him into the bed. ‘Soo! What are you doing?!’ yells Jongin, surprise making his voice squeak. Kyungsoo just ignores his question, roughly tugging the blanket up to Jongin’s chin. He tucks the blanket in under Jongin’s sides, his legs, all the way down to his feet and back up again. By the time he’s done, Jongin is cocooned in his own bedcovers, unable to move save for his (wounded) arms.
He frowns.
‘Soo,’ he says evenly, ‘I. Can’t. Move.’
Kyungsoo grins at him. ‘Good!’ he exclaims, sitting down next to his trapped friend. ‘That’s the whole point.’
‘What? How does this help make me feel better?’ Jongin questions, lower lip sticking out in a pout.
‘Next step: I need to pat pat pat your head and sing you a song!’ says Kyungsoo, and his words make Jongin’s dissatisfaction fade. Instead he smiles contentedly, eagerly awaiting his “treatment”.
Kyungsoo pats Jongin’s head softly, tenderly as a soft smile curls his lips. ‘Kiss me,’ he sings, ‘Hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm, nightly, beside the green green grass.’ His voice isn’t the best, not yet anyway, and he struggles to curl his tongue around some of the bigger words, but Jongin finds he doesn’t mind. What’s important is that his hyung is going through all this trouble to help him get better, and even that little piece of information makes the sting in his arms dissipate.
‘That’s a funny song to sing, Soo,’ Jongin chuckles, when Kyungsoo’s done singing and sits back to look at Jongin proudly. Kyungsoo’s lower lip starts to wibble at the comment, but Jongin is quick to appease him. ‘I really liked it though!’ he says, and breathes a sigh of relief when Kyungsoo’s smile returns to his face.
‘Time for the last step,’ announces Kyungsoo, kneeling on the bed, ‘Before you go to sleep and wake up all better!’
Jongin grins in anticipation, watching as Kyungsoo takes a deep breath.
‘Apply five kisses to patient,’ says Kyungsoo, completely unaware of the way Jongin blushes furiously. ‘One, two,’ he counts, landing a kiss on each of Jongin’s bandaged arms, ‘three, four,’ one on each of his cheeks, and - ‘f - five!’
He cups both of Jongin’s cheeks in his little chubby hands, brings the younger’s face towards his, and plants a kiss full on Jongin’s mouth. When he pulls away his eyes are bent into crescents and his lips look like they’re going to break his face with that smile, and Jongin - well, Jongin, really, just gapes.
‘There!’ says Kyungsoo, gently laying Jongin back down. ‘All done! You’ll be better by the morning,’ he assures, blissfully unaware of how quickly Jongin’s heart was beating, how the blush that previously dusted his face a light pink has turned a bright red.
He ignores all of this as he pulls the blanket out from under Jongin’s sides, sliding into the bed next to Jongin and wriggling into his arms for a hug. By now Jongin’s more than merely taken aback - he’s absolutely flabbergasted, mouth going dry when Kyungsoo wraps an arm tightly around the younger’s waist.
‘Soo - what are you doing?’ he asks, voice a little shaky because Kyungsoo feels so nice in his arms it shouldn’t be allowed. Even the sting from his wounds seems to have evaporated altogether.
‘I’m taking a nap,’ says Kyungsoo matter-of-factly, eyes already fluttering closed.
‘Um - why?’ asks Jongin again, persistence annoying Kyungsoo because really he just wants to sleep. It’s been a long day.
‘I’m tired!’ Kyungsoo exclaims, eyes flying open to look fiercely enough at Jongin that the younger almost pulls away. ‘Being a doctor is hard work, you know, Jonginnie!’ says Kyungsoo, snuggling closer to Jongin’s body.
‘But - ’ Kyungsoo doesn’t let any further arguments escape Jongin’s mouth, finger coming up to press firmly against the younger’s lips.
‘Shh, Jonginnie. Sleep time now,’ he says, with a note of finality that makes Jongin shut up.
It doesn’t take long for them both to fall asleep, limbs tangled with each other’s, dreams filling the silence. Sometimes the oddest of things can make you realise how much someone else means to you, and for Jongin, it’s the wounds that scab over in the night.
(This is the first time Jongin falls in love.)
(With Kyungsoo.)
Author’s Note: basically
'hello emma what must i do to get a fic where kid!soo wriggles into kid!kai's arms'
'idk emma nobody seems to want to write that'
'i suppose i shall have to write it myself then emma'
'i suppose you shall emma'
'very well emma'
yeah
legit tlist only ever writes me angst i’m
ask.fm