it was the end of another day,

grueling hours that dragged away in a pace maddening,

just a horrible and burdensome day off of his shoulder,

night enveloped him like a depressing veil now and the home thats looking more and more unkept as these days pass by welcomes namjoon into its familiar loneliness.

like a cycle, the routine has him going straight to the bedroom with his shadow following after him, later taking a shower and changing into comfortable clothes.

his light feet takes him to the worn out dining table where he had kept the little trinklets he bought from a nearby convenience store.

namjoon took the contents with him, then sitting heavily on the sofa before he munched on the mediocre kimbap while taking a sip of soda.

times like this he wish his eomma was still with him; no matter how much mentally prepared he was for it, watching his mother surrender to the illness that plagued her still makes his chest feeling tight.

now with his sister mated and away, truly loneliness was his only companion.

then there is seokjin.

"that jerk" namjoon huffs under his breath, it probably the tenth time that evening, ever since that dreaded official notice arrived at his desk.

the official notice which namjoon wasn't informed about before told him in bold letters that seokjins prison sentence was to be over that day,

the reason? apparently they found out another prime accomplise of the weapon heist and they deemed seokjins seven months sentence more than enough for his crime.

namjoon sure knows thats a whole load of bullshit, because the only possible explanation is that seokjin himself arranged for all of this behind his back.

afterall with him in prison, seokjins enemies had lost interest in his wellbeing and so what better way than to get out and escape discreetly now.

and that exactly had seokjin did,

he had dumped away his orange prison uniform and changed to his pristine suits, expensive watch on wrist and chains around his neck; the beta had walked past his office with an obnoxious wink thrown in namjoons away.

no words, not even goodbyes- for all namjoon knows the beta would be out of the country by now,

as if namjoon never mattered to him...

"why am i even so bothered?!" namjoon exasperates and slumps on the couch.

"its just seokjin" he tells himself.

yes, the seokjin who blackmailed him and made his life a hell!

also the seokjin who laughs to his own bad jokes, who gives him kisses, asks him about his day every morning,

the seokjin who preens when you call him 'jinnie',

the seokjin who make this big alpha blush,

the seokjin whom he had moaning under him in several occasions,

his seokjin.

namjoon throws the empty soda can at the wall.

"stupid seokjin!" he grumbles again.

stupid seokjin and his stupid handsome face that just left namjoon alone feeling like a medieval lover who lost his other half.

namjoon was so lost in his spiraling thoughts, he startled and tore through a couch pillow when there was a sudden knock on the front door.

suspicion high in the air, namjoon padded towards the front door, police senses alert as he gently opened the door.

"seokjin?"

the alpha wonders if he had got so seokjin obsessed he is hallucinating things now because why else is the ex mafia leader standing right outside his home and smiling at him???

"hey joonie!" seokjin purrs out as he adjusts the lapels of his burberry suit, somehow still oozing power and looking so awfully perfect.

"why are you here?" namjoon blurts out.

"ai this brat! is that how you talk to your hyung?" seokjin chastises over a roll of his eyes as he push past the alpha into the hallway.

namjoon locks the door and follows after him, insecurities clogging his mind when he see the beta look around the home.

"you cant just be walking around seoul, jin-- its still not safe for you. stop with the crazy acts" namjoon crosses his arm.

"protective much" seokjin smirks and shit did namjoons traitorous heart stutter.

"well-- since we established here that i am crazy--- i am here to do one last crazy thing" the beta says and namjoons brows furrow.

the alpha steels his breath when seokjin takes slow steps towards him and namjoon cant help but his eyes drift to those plump lips.

confused, namjoon blinked as seokjin stopped infront of him, then yelping embarrassingly when the beta just dropped to his knees.

heart in his throat, namjoons mouth gaped open at the sight of the elegant human now on one knees for him.

"kim namjoon, we have known each other for six years now---" he starts.

"seokjin!! what are you doing??"

the beta ignores namjoons half panicked half whining sentences and continues,

"we have wanted to kill each other for the first four of those years, then wanted to fuck for the next one year and the last year--"

namjoons rambling cut short in his throat when seokjin looked up and met his eyes,

"the last one year__i realized many things, joon-ah__ and the best of all was that you mean a lot to me"

"h-hyung?" namjoons eyes widen, now devoid of the sharpness those dragon eyes usually hosts.

"uhm i know i am not very good at talking about my feelings-- but i hope this clarifies it all--" the beta actually sounded embarrassed as his hands went to the suit pockets and took out a blue velvet box.

the box opened to reveal two diamond studded platinum rings, simple and elegant, and seokjin seemed to suck in a breath before he nearly shout outs,

"kim namjoon, will you marry me?!"

"seokjin! you crazy fucker!" namjoon swears in disbelief.

"what?" seokjin innocently cocks his head.

"you cant just barge in people's house and ask them to marry you?!" the alpha exasperates.

"its not anyone. its you!" seokjin counters from where he is still on his knees on namjoons dirty floor.

the alphas face was concerningly red now.

"so? will you marry me?" seokjin asks again.

"uh fine. yes"

"what?" now it was seokjins turn to be in shock.

"will you put that ring on me now?" namjoon wiggles the fingers of his extended hand.

"shit you are marrying me? wow you're the crazy one here" seokjin blinks and raises a brow before slipping one of the platinum rings perfectly onto the alphas ring finger.

"what can i say, jinne. your habits have been rubbing on me" namjoon shrugs and helps seokjin stand up.

"if i can like your clumsiness, i sure can love a bit of craziness" seokjin croons.

"ah i knew it! you're marrying me just for my charming safety hazard skills" namjoons fakes a gasp though a smile was fighting its way up his lips.

seokjin then leans closer and murmurs a- "no silly. i am marrying you because i love you"

that was all it took for namjoon to pull the beta into a kiss, finally those hands cupping seokjins delicate face with the finality that they're each others, lips fierce enough to speak volumes of unending words before they pull apart.

"can i request for one more crazy thing?" namjoon murmurs into the betas lip.

seokjin hums loving and affirmative.

"my good friend is a wedding attorney-- if we wait a few more hours, we can make it official--" namjoons murmurs, dimples peeking.

seokjin just coos and kisses him, "of course. anything for my joonie".

namjoons eyes lights up then.

"come on then, my fiancé. lets go get our wedding suits!" seokjin laughs carefree, heart full for the first time as he let himself be dragged out by namjoon.

afterall whats more perfect than a enemies to husbands troop, right?

□□□

it was not anything new to find taehyung dragging himself through the front door around late evening, groaning and untucking his blouse, before he lazily wanders and plops onto the couch with a tired sigh.

today, jungkook was lounging on the couch going through a report from starlight, so taehyung plops on the alpha.

"rough day?" jungkook leans back so taehyung can comfortably lay on top of him and enquires.

"productive. got to set up the gallery for a few new artists" he looks up from jungkooks chest and gives a tired yawn, "now i sleep" he states and comfortable settles back.

jungkook chuckles.

"okay then. sleep" the alpha cards a finger through taehyungs blonde locks and goes back to reading his report.

for the rest of the day the omega lazied around, then got some work done, bathed the babies and slept curled around his nest.

when jungkooks scent tickled his nose midnight, taehyung stirs.

"nightmares?" taehyung asks and jungkook nods.

this is now usual too; when those rare days jungkook startles awake with a nightmare, he finds himself curled up in one end of taehyungs nest.

taehyung extends his palm over the nesting blankets and holds jungkooks own hand in his,

and they fell asleep comfortably like that.

the next day being a weekend, taehyung was free from his internship.

jungkook that morning got ready early to leave to hopeworld, leaving with a kiss each on both the sleepy pups cheeks while he reminded them to be good for eomma.

taehyung adored days like this when he can spend all his time with his puppies, even with a headache thats been keeping him on toes from morning the omega brushed it away just so he can pamper the pups.

for the first few hours he did just that.

with heaps of toys now on the play mat, taehyung basked in the comfort as each of his pups giggles settled on him like a warm blanket.

come noon, the alpha pup starts to get antsy.

"what happened, wonie?" taehyung coos as the pup sniffled and started dragging his face on taehyungs neck for comfort.

taehyungs brows furrow and he rubs the babies back soothingly.

as the pup grew more restless, taehyung tried to feed him and put him for a nap but nothing seems to work.

the baby just fists his eomma shirt and lets out pitiful whimpers over teary eyes.

when the pup started chewing on taehyungs shirt did he finally understood the reason.

"aw baby, are you finally teething?" taehyung holds the pup proper and inspects the gums; sure indeed they were red and swollen.

while haesoo handled the teething early and painless, little jongwonie seems to be not that lucky.

"eommas sorry baby" taehyung kisses his pups cheek and rocks him.

unsurprisingly, soon the omega pup started crying for attention having being left in the play mat for too long.

"its okay, eomma got you" taehyung carefully took haesoo on his other arm and settled on the couch with both the babies in his arm.

he hoped for the day to go by smoothly, but none of that happened.

the little alpha grew more irritable as the pain on his gum seem to increase and having his twin so gloomy only seem to sadden the other little one.

as the alpha pups sniffles turn into a full blown cries, six toes too started getting cranky.

its okay, taehyung told himself. he had handled two crying babies before. this is okay, even if all the crying was making his headache worse.

but as jongwon still refused to feed, taehyung couldn't take it anymore.

"eomma is sorry you're hurting, puppy" taehyungs own lips threatened to wobble as the baby refused to feed from even the bottle.

taehyung helplessly glanced at the wall clock. its three pm now, jungkook will be back by six. he can handle for three more hours.

minutes ticked by.

the scent of distressed babies was pungent, taehyungs stomach grumbled for some lunch which will have to wait, his arms hurt bad from holding the pups, his head pounded and his baby was tired out from crying with a missed feeding.

taehyung didn't mean to, but his shaking hands went for his phone dialing for jungkook.

"hey, tae!" jungkooks voice muffled across loudly playing music from the other side.

"hi-- when will you be back" taehyung just wanted a bit of comfort now and he didn't want to sound so pathetic.

so he willed himself to not sniffle, even if his eyes flooded.

"--the same time if the choreography is set. everything alright there?"

"y-yeah, everythings fine" taehyung lies.

there was a silence followed by jungkook carefully asking, "you sure, baby? should i come home early?"

taehyung bit his lips to not start crying into the phone, but then the alpha pup he was rocking let out a whimper and snuggled onto his chest and taehyung lost it.

"a-alpha--" taehyung broke down into hiccuping tears, heaving for breaths as he cried.

"taehyung-- baby what happened?" jungkooks voice came panicky and alert, but taehyung could do nothing more than cry.

"tae, hey pup, alpha is coming, okay. everythings gonna be alright. so breathe for me, angel. come on, take a deep breath with me--"

taehyung whimpered, but still closed his eyes and sucked in a breath- "thats it, baby. you're doing good" jungkook encouraged, his voice calm eventhough taehyung could hear shuffling from other side.

"i am driving home now, pup. can you tell alpha if you're hurt?" jungkook enquires.

"no 'm not-" taehyung whimpers out.

"good, thats good, baby. can you tell me where the pups are?"

"my lap" taehyung hugs his babies close.

there was almost a relieved sigh from the other end.

"okay, all of you're safe-" as the voice came through the speaker, taehyung could hear the car rolling into the drive away.

there were sound of a car door slamming and then running footsteps, keys jiggling before the front door was pushed open.

unlike how calm he sounded in the call, jungkook rather looked frantic, making a concerned noise at all the distressed scents in the air and red, protective eyes eager on taehyung and his pups.

he rushed in, not even caring about his boots as he enveloped three of them in a hug,

"you're alright. i got you" he murmured.

taehyung sagged, those words lifting a weight off his heart as his tears stained jungkooks tshirt.

"a-alpha, the baby-- not feeding-- he's teething" taehyung whimpered onto jungkooks neck.

jungkook immediately became alert, senses focusing on the little bundles taehyung is holding.

the alpha carefully took jongwon from taehyungs tired hands, the baby sniffling even in his sleep.

"i got him, tae. are you okay though, baby" jungkook cards a finger through taehyungs hair.

"--got a headache" the omega mumbles.

at that jungkook took the pups from taehyung, leaving them in their crib before guiding taehyung to his nest for a nap.

jungkook went back to the puppies, later calling up their pediatrician for guidance.

as instructed by the doctor, the alpha massaged the pups gums to reduce the pain, then gave an over the counter pain medicine they have so the little thing can suckle a bottle without hurting.

all the crying sure made them sleep fast, and jungkook got enough time to make something quick, kimchi fried rice plated with a warm soup as he took it to taehyungs room.

the omega was still curled up in his nest, face still flushed and looking so fragile, and jungkook felt bad for having to wake the other up.

but taehyung didn't fuss, instead was grateful for a meal.

"the babies?" he enquires,

"napping now- both of them are fed and okay" jungkook ensures.

taehyung nods and droops his head, the spoon in his hand absent-mindedly playing with the food, " 'm a horrible mom" he sniffles.

"what?" jungkook brows furrow at the statement.

" i-i cant even take care of my pups for a day__its so pathetic_" taehyung rubs at his eyes, "back then i used to think i can run away 'nd take care of them on my own__now look- you're the better parent here" he laughs bitterly.

"stop that, taehyung. you're an amazing parent" jungkook interjects, voice strong.

"no-- 'm just weak-- i now have the life i always wanted but 'm still dependent on my ex- abusive husband-- cant even take care of his babies without breaking into tears. pathetic" taehyung fights tears through the venom he tells about himself.

"i refuse with all that" jungkook rumbles, "taehyung if only you knew how strong you are--"

"i know i dont deserve to say this but-- you got through all the difficulties life threw at you, tae- even through me __hell without your strong will, me or our pups wont be surviving now" jungkook face was a mask of shame and regret.

"if anything i am the coward here__ i dont think i have to remind you of all the horrible things i have done, taehyung. honestly, i am not even worthy of being by your side or being our pups father"

jungkook heart weighed him down, like all his nightmares and all the realizations he had; no matter what he did, even if he spend the rest of his life by taehyungs feet, jungkook doesn't think its enough to rectify all his misdeeds.

"you're brave, tae. you fought through your life refusing to bow down to anyone-- be it your father or me. please believe me when i say you're the strongest omega and the bestest mother" jungkook words were sincere, but he couldn't bring himself to face the other when he knew a part of taehyungs sufferings were because of him.

"i-- i just wanted to survive. but i want better for our pups. they only deserve happiness" taehyung says, wiping his tears.

"and we'll give it to them, taehyung. but the babies getting sick now and then is inevitable" jungkook smiles, endeared, "think like this- they teething means they're growing up healthy!"

taehyung laughs then and leans his head on the alphas shoulder.

"thanks for saying all that" taehyung says after a beat of silence.

"its the least i can do" jungkook cards his fingers through the omegas hair and the other melts into the touch,

"oh you're good at that" a purr reverbates in his chest and taehyung tips his head back.

"you're the one who taught me" jungkook smiles and taehyung laughs reminded of the clueless mafia leader who used to pat his head gently.

"you know-- you have come so far too. i never thought you were capable of this change" taehyung mumbles.

"even i didn't knew-- guess i just needed a push in the right direction" jungkook snuggles closer. it was hell of a push involving life threatening situations and careful choices, but maybe that was a needed change to clear the mafia hothead.

"you sure did-- hitting you with a vase wasn't nearly enough" taehyung snickered.

"god, you wont ever live that down, will you" jungkook groans as taehyung giggles a "nope! its fun to tease you".

"i know you do, baby-- afterall you were grinding and crying on my fingers the other day" the conversation turned into an unexpected path.

"god- dont be so crude!" taehyung blushes and throws a pillow.

jungkook catches it with his hands and smirks a- "what?! i was not the one leaking slick all over hoseoks studio"

"will you please stop talking?!" taehyung groans and hides his face in the blanket, embarrassed at the reminder.

"i dont know-- try sitting on my face. that might work"

taehyung made an embarrassed gasp and punched jungkook shoulder.

eventually the bickering turned into laughs; jungkook then yawned, taehyung following after as the food was done and the warmth of the nest felt inviting. they settled like they always do, but this time less distance between them.