"-and that's when I said, If you liked breathing so much, you shouldn't have messed with Kim Yoongi," Yoongi said dramatically, spreading his arms wide before shrugging, a smirk on his lips.

"But you never s-said that, hyung," Jimin countered, and Yoongi sighed.

"Not in those exact words, maybe, but there was definitely a moment where-"

"Oh, the moment where you got sucker punched in the gut?" Hobi piped up helpfully, laughing along with Jimin, but Yoongi just tilted his chin up.

"Every victory comes with a few blows," he acknowledged. "And every hero has his struggles."

"Wait, you're the hero? I thought you were a side character, at best," Hobi said, and Yoongi gave him a look.

"Heroes don't have to go to the hospital to get checked for a concussion," Lisa said dryly, and Yoongi gave her a look.

"I'm still just-" Namjoon blew out a frustrated breath. "Fighting? Again?"

Lisa took Namjoon's words as a cue to gather their plates and set them in the sink before leaving the room to give them some time to talk.

"Well, technically, it was their first time so-"

Namjoon set his hand down on the table, effectively cutting off Yoongi. "This isn't a joke, Yoongi." Namjoon sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you but- you have to take this seriously, okay? No more fighting. All of you were put in danger and you might even have a concussion, Yoongi, and for what? Bragging rights?" Namjoon rubbed his temples. "Look, Yoongi, I know I'm taking this out on you, but you're the oldest of the three of them, and I trust you to look after them and keep them safe."

"Yeah? Well I wouldn't have to if we had a dad," Yoongi mumbled, his eyes narrowed, and Namjoon looked up, shocked.

"What did you just say?"

Yoongi hesitated, his mouth slightly open before he looked to the side, crossing his arms. "Nothing."

Namjoon stared at Yoongi. "Yoongi, no matter what house you live in or which parent you're with, I'll always be your dad and-"

"And nothing. You're the one who's supposed to look after us and keep us safe, but somehow I'm the one who has to do it, so maybe that makes me the dad."

Hobi made a disgusted face at the thought of Yoongi being anyone's father.

Namjoon still hadn't recovered from Yoongi's words. "Yoongi, it hurts me to to hear you say that, but I talked to your mom and we may be working out a way for all of you to live together with me again."

Yoongi flinched like he'd been slapped. "No."

Namjoon's eyes widened. "N- You don't want to? But- I thought-"

"No, it's not that we don't want to, we just can't, okay," Yoongi rushed, avoiding eye contact with Namjoon, and Jimin and Hobi stared at Yoongi.

"Since you're apparently making decisions for us now, why exactly can't we?" Hobi asked slowly.

"It's complicated," Yoongi said brusquely, and Hobi frowned.

"It can't be as complicated as my chemistry homework," Hobi replied, "so why don't you just spit it out?"

"Mom needs us," Yoongi said sharply. "So we can't go. Or maybe you guys can if you want to leave, whatever. I'm not going."

"But, Yoongi," Namjoon said, his heart breaking. Five years he'd waited for an opportunity like this, an opportunity to sew his family back together stitch by stitch. Was it too late? "Everything can go back to how it was before, the seven of us and Lisa, together, here. And Lala, of course."

"And T-Toaster," Jimin added anxiously, wanting to make sure there was room for an extra family member.

Namjoon smiled tensely at Jimin. "And Toaster. If you're worried about all the programs you guys are in, I'll take care of it. I know that Jimin has already stopped going to speech therapy, but he can still have his psychologist appointments, and we'll figure out a better system for you, Hobi, to track what you're eating and to get you help so you don't end up hospitalized again, and I'll talk to the principal about getting your student records expunged or making it up with community service or something, Yoongi. Whatever it is, we can all figure it out together, okay?"

Yoongi frowned at Namjoon. "A month ago you were thinking about selling the house because we don't have the money, and now you have the money to support a family of 8, plus a flower, plus a kitten?"

"Lisa moved in, and she's paying rent," Namjoon said, and Yoongi shook his head.

"I don't care, we can't do that right now, okay?" Yoongi looked over at Hobi and Jimin, who were staring at him with hurt eyes, and Yoongi scowled. "C'mon," he said to them, standing up and starting to leave the kitchen, but he stopped to look back at them.

"Stay," Namjoon said gently. "Let's all talk about this, okay?"

"Hobi, Jimin," Yoongi said, his arms crossed, and they slowly got out of their seats and followed him to their room.

Yoongi shut the door.

"What the hell was that, hyung?" Hobi asked, clearly upset. He remained standing while Yoongi sat down on Jin's bed.

"Y-Yoongi?" Jimin asked uncertainly, his brows furrowed.

"Do you guys trust me?" Yoongi asked after a second.

Two slow nods.

"Then trust me right now, we can't just go back to how everything was."

"But I w-want to, hyung," Jimin mumbled before lowering his eyes in shame.

"I miss-" Hobi swallowed. "I miss living together with everyone. Why can't we, Yoongi?"

Yoongi stared at them, at their wide eyes and downturned lips. "Like I said. Do what you want, but I'm not going."

"But I don't want to g-go without hyung," Jimin said before looking over at Hobi for reassurance.

Hobi sighed, biting his lip while glaring at the ground. "We won't go without you," he said before looking up to meet Hobi's eyes. "But we deserve a damn good reason why we're sacrificing the one thing we always wanted."

Yoongi leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped loosely together. "He's hitting Mom," Yoongi said hoarsely. He'd been strong for their mom because he was one of the only men she could rely on, but now that Yoongi was out of the kitchen, he felt his strength diminishing. He looked up at their eyes, wide with confusion and a little bit of fear. "Our step-father is hitting her, and if we leave, there won't be anyone to protect her and stop him."

Hobi stared at Yoongi for a moment, quickly processing what Yoongi had told him before startling as an idea struck him. "Well, this is perfect, Lisa's here right now, we can just tell her and-"

"No," Yoongi said, cutting Hobi off. "We can't tell Lisa, or Dad, or anyone, okay?"

"B-But, why not?" Jimin asked, fisting some of the loose fabric from Hobi's sweatshirt.

"Because then we'll be taken away from Mom," Yoongi said.

Hobi frowned. "Right, we go back to Namjoon and that asshole goes to prison and it's a happy ending for everyone, what's wrong with that?"

"Not everyone," Yoongi said softly. "What about Mom? The court won't let us go back to her. She won't have to deal with him anymore, but then she'll be all alone. We're her whole life. Can't you guys see that? She's got nothing else to live for. With us gone-" Yoongi sighed heavily. "She'll have nothing."

"So, what do we do?" Hobi asked, frowning at Yoongi. "We don't have a whole lot of options here, hyung."

"I know that," Yoongi growled, pulling at his hair. "But keeping Mom safe is our number one priority right now, okay?" He blew out a breath before trying to speak more gently. "Look. I know that you guys want to go back to living with Dad and the others. I know you miss that. I do too. But if we walk away from Mom for our own happiness and leave her to suffer, well, that's sort of like what she did to us when we were younger, right?"

Hobi frowned. "You're killing whatever point you were trying to make."

"She made a mistake," Yoongi insisted. "She chose her own happiness over the happiness of her family. And if we abandon Mom, we'd be doing the same thing. We would be making the same mistake that she did. Even if we were living back with Dad and everyone, I don't think I could live happily knowing that she was suffering for our happiness." Yoongi sighed once more. "As much as we love this house, the one we grew up in, it wouldn't be our house any more, it would just be another Omelas."

Hobi looked down at the ground, his eyes wet and his expression a mix between sadness and anger. He looked back up at Yoongi, desperation in his eyes. "But we've suffered enough, hyung, haven't we? For the past five years? For our entire lives? We deserve to be happy, don't we? Can't we be happy?"

Yoongi forced his lips into a tight smile, but it was growing harder to control his own emotions when he had to watch his younger brothers lose control of theirs. "Maybe later," he said. "Maybe we'll be able to get her away from him, but until that happens, we can't just leave her, even if she left us once. And besides, not every moment is horrible, right? We've had some good memories," he said, but even as he spoke, his lips were wobbling as he tried to hang on to his composure.

"We could have more if we were here," Hobi said in an uneven voice.

"We have the chance," Yoongi began in a shaky voice, "to be her heroes. And no, we're not Superman or anything, but we're the only ones who can save her."

"Okay," Jimin whispered, and Yoongi looked at him.

Jimin was doing the same thing with his mouth that Yoongi was doing, tightening his lips and shifting them to try and stop himself from breaking down.

"Okay what?" Yoongi asked, taking several sharp breaths.

"If you're going to s-stay, then I'll stay t-too."

"Are we really going to waste this chance?" Hobi asked, his voice breaking, and Jimin took the opportunity to turn Hobi to the side and wrap his arms tight around Hobi's rib cage.

Hobi took the hug as permission to hug Jimin back, shutting his eyes and squeezing as hard as he needed to in order to express the pain he felt, and Jimin watched as Yoongi finally started crying.

"It's going to b-be okay, hyung," Jimin whispered, and Yoongi rubbed at his eyes with his palms while nodding.

"I know," Yoongi mumbled. "I know it'll be okay eventually. But it doesn't feel okay right now."

Jimin's lips turned upward at the corners although nothing about his expression looked happy. "We'll be okay, h-hyung. We will. And M-Mom too."

"I know," Yoongi repeated, still crying, but the words I know were all that he could say. He didn't know. Not really. None of them did. But he was still the oldest, and he was the one who was supposed to give them a direction to go in. Even if it was the wrong direction, it was his job to lead the way with firm, unshaken steps.

He didn't feel like much of a leader right now.

"I'm sorry," Yoongi gasped through his tears. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you s-sorry for?" Jimin asked, Hobi still crying in his arms.

"For taking all of this away from you guys."

"You're sacrificing your h-happiness too, hyung," Jimin said. "And we made our own ch-choice. So don't say that you're s-sorry."

"Hyung," Jimin said, frowning. "Who are your f-favorite brothers?"

Yoongi's eyes widened in surprised. "Well, you two, but I love everyone-"

"And you're our favorite h-hyung," Jimin interrupted. "Even though we love them t-too. The three of us t-take care of each other, okay? So I'm going to ask y-you again, who are your favorite b-brothers?"'

Yoongi smiled even though his cheeks were wet. "Hobi and Jiminie."

"And you're our favorite h-hyung," Jimin said with a smile before smacking Hobi lightly on the back.

"What he said," Hobi mumbled, his voice unsteady, and even though his eyes were still heavy with the pain of losing something precious, he forced himself to smile for all three of them.

***

"Are you still upset about them getting into a fight, babe?" Lisa asked, her lips pursed as she gently combed stray hairs off of Namjoon's forehead with her fingers. "You know that they're teenage boys. It's only natural for them to do that sort of thing every now and then."

"It's not just that," Namjoon said with a sigh before capturing one of Lisa's hands in both of his own and placing a soft kiss on the back of her hand. "Although I'm worried about that too. Half the time, I don't even hear about the things they do. I want to be involved in their lives as much as possible, but it's hard to do when I don't know what's going on in their lives in the first place."

Lisa smiled sadly at Namjoon before moving to lie down next to him, laying her head on his chest, and he ran a hand through her long hair as she curled into his side. "Just being there for them means a lot to them, Joon, and I know they don't always make it clear to you, but you know that you mean the world to them."

"But I told them that there's a possibility that we could all live together and they said no, Lisa," Namjoon said, stressed, and Lisa let out a small yelp.

"Joon, you're going to rip my hair out," Lisa said, and Namjoon mumbled an apology as he got his hand out of the tangle he'd created. Lisa sighed in relief before turning slightly to look up at him. "They're going through a lot right now, and you know that they have to have a reason, right? Just give it a little bit of time. We don't know anything for sure yet, anyway. Talk to your lawyers, have her talk to hers, start looking at a solution together, and maybe by the time you guys work something out, they will have changed their minds."

"But what could possibly keep them from wanting to come home?" Namjoon asked, his voice raw, and his hand stilled on Lisa's back.

"They didn't tell you why?" she asked, and he shook his head, frowning.

"Yoongi just said that he couldn't leave their mom."

Lisa's lips turned down at the corners. "I don't know, Joon. But I've worked with teenagers at the police station, some who were arrested for petty crimes and some who were witnesses, and if I've learned anything about them, it's that when you try to pressure teenagers into doing something or telling you something, it usually backfires and makes them clam up even more. This isn't something you can just force out, Joon. You need to be delicate about it, and that can be the hardest part, just sitting back and waiting for them to come to you. But if you try to force them to tell you, you might just push them farther away and lose their trust. Please be careful, okay, babe?"

Namjoon nodded, distraught, before pressing a kiss to Lisa's forehead. "For someone who's never had kids, you always seem to know the right thing to say," he mumbled, and she smiled up at him weakly.

"I've been helping you raise your kids for ten years, Joon. I've learned a thing or two."

Namjoon chuckled lightly before reaching over to turn off the lamp.