“Hey, Daddy Jin, who’s your favorite?” Yoongi, the oldest, asked suddenly in the middle of dinner.

Seokjin stopped chewing for a moment, trying to process why in the world his eight-year-old son would ask him a question like that, and really hoping that he was really meaning to ask Seokjin who his favorite actor was, or something like that.

“Who’s my favorite what, Yoongi?”  Seokjin asked calmly, glancing at Namjoon, who looked just as calm/panicked as Seokjin.

“Your favorite son.  Out of all of us,” Yoongi clarified, as if it should’ve been obvious.

“What’s a favorite?” Jimin, one of the twins, asked.

“A favorite is something that you like more than something else. Like if blue is your favorite color, then that means you like blue more than the other color,” Hoseok, the second eldest, told him.  Seokjin and Namjoon exchanged proud fatherly glances at each other at his explanation.

“I like blue,” Jeongguk, the youngest said, and Taehyung, the other twin, patted him on the head approvingly.

“So?” Yoongi asked, getting impatient that his brothers kept talking and he wasn’t getting any answers.

“So what?” Namjoon asked.

“Who’s your two’s favorite?” Yoongi asked.

“We don’t have favorites, baby.  We love all of you equally,” Seokjin said.

“That’s right,” Namjoon came in with the backup, smiling is dimply dad smile.

Yoongi huffed and shoveled more food in his mouth.

“Where did you even come up with a question like that?” Namjoon asked.

“I like blue a lot,” Jeongguk said, and he giggled, and Taehyung grinned at him.

“My friend at school.  He has three sisters and he said his parents told him that they liked him more than they liked his sisters,” Yoongi shrugged.

“Well, if it helps, we definitely like you more than we like your sisters,” Namjoon nodded.

Yoongi sat up real tall in his big boy chair, a proud smile on his face, before it dawned on him. “Hey! I don’t have any sisters!”

“Exactly,” Namjoon said, and Hoseok started cracking up, laughing so hard that it made Jimin laugh, which caused Seokjin to laugh, and then Namjoon, and then Taehyung, and then even Yoongi started to chuckle, which confused Jeongguk, who started to cry.

“Jeongguk, why are you crying?” Namjoon asked, as Taehyung pulled him into a brotherly hug to calm him down.

“Loud,” Jeongguk sniffled.

“Do you want us to be quieter?” Seokjin sked his youngest child.

Jeongguk nodded.

Seokjin held his finger over his lips as a symbol for everyone to be quiet.  All the boys copied him, putting a finger to their lips, except for Jimin, who just shoved another dinosaur-shaped chicken nugget into his mouth.

-

After dinner was put away, the table was wiped clean, and the dishes were washed, the boys stumbled into the living room to play until bedtime. 

Lately, Yoongi had taken a liking to playing with the doctor kit, running around the house sticking Band-Aids on people, listening to their heart with his toy stethoscope, and taking their temperature with his little plastic thermometer. 

Hoseok usually liked to play detective with Jimin, where Jimin was always the criminal and Hoseok was the detective, mainly because Hoseok really liked to use the pink fuzzy handcuffs (courtesy of Namjoon) to arrest Jimin, and Jimin enjoyed the chase around the living room, like a game of tag, but instead of “tag, you’re it!” it was “freeze, dirtbag! You’re under arrest!”

Taehyung usually found himself sprawled out on the floor, surrounded in crayons and paper, trying to teach Jeongguk to properly draw a cat.  So far the youngest boy hadn’t quite gotten the hang of it, he still drew the tail and the ears in the same place on the cat, but he was getting there.

While the kids were playing in the floor, Seokjin and Namjoon had taken a liking to playing footsie on the couch, stealing glances and holding hands, talking about their days, and Namjoon making empty threats to “borrow” the fuzzy pink handcuffs from Hoseok’s detective game.  Or maybe not so empty.

-

After playtime was over and everything was put away, all five boys, snug in their footed pajamas, settled on the couch with their fathers, arms tangled together and legs shoved sloppily in awkward places, and they watched Spongebob together, a unanimous favorite, until sleepy eyes began to close, tiny bodies curling up for sleep.

Seokjin and Namjoon put the boys to bed, starting with Jeongguk, kissing him goodnight and tucking him in.  He was out like a light in seconds.  Next were the twins, who still refused to sleep in separate beds, but they switched whose bed they would sleep in every night so their fathers wouldn’t get rid of one or put Jeongguk in their room.  They were hugged and kissed and tucked in, snuggled together in Jimin’s bed.  Next was Hoseok, who liked extra kisses before bed because the monsters under his bed don’t like kisses and that’s why he needs extra, and he liked his blanket to be tucked in extra tight.  Lastly was Yoongi, who was always talkative before bedtime, so he could keep himself awake.

“Daddies, you two really don’t have a favorite?” Yoongi asked, rubbing his eyes, his voice a little tired and whiny.

“Of course not, baby.  We love all of you equally,” Seokjin said, smiling warmly.

“Even when we’re bad?” Yoongi asked.

“Even when you’re bad,” Namjoon nodded and smiled.

Yoongi smiled widely, looking up at his fathers before pulling his blanket up tight around his ears.

“Thanks,” he said, and he closed his little eyes to sleep.

Seokjin and Namjoon smiled at each other, taking one last glance at a sleeping Yoongi before walking out of his and Hoseok’s room. 

“Hey, you’re definitely my favorite Seokjin out of all the Seokjins,” Namjoon teased.

“You haven’t met all the Seokjins,” Seokjin pointed out.

“Don’t gotta.  They can’t possibly compare to you,” Namjoon grinned and kissed Seokjin on the cheek.

Seokjin swatted him away but he was smiling anyway.  After all these years, Namjoon could still make him happy, as if time were nothing. 

They collapsed back on the couch, another episode of Spongebob on, Namjoon’s favorite.  They watched it together, arms and legs tangled together in a sloppy comfortable kind of way, Seokjin’s head on Namjoon’s shoulder.

“You’re totally my favorite Namjoon of all the Namjoons,” Seokjin said during a commercial.

“I knew it,” Namjoon grinned, and Seokjin swatted him again, laughing almost loud enough to wake the kids. 

“Oh, hush,” Seokjin chuckled, and Namjoon, always one to oblige, hushed and they watched that talking yellow sponge on the TV until it was time to put themselves to bed and kiss each other goodnight, Namjoon always wanting extra kisses, because the monsters in Hoseok’s closet didn’t like kisses, and that’s why he needs extra.​