Chapter Text
To be honest, this probably wasn’t Jinu’s best idea. And he definitely didn’t expect this to be the outcome of it.
It had started as something small. He had convinced the rest of the Saja Boys to help him sneak into Huntr/x’s penthouse to screw around with their stuff and overall get inside their heads while the girls were supposed to be away at a fan signing. Perfect opportunity in Jinu’s mind. Unfortunately, being 400 years old means he didn’t know to check social media about them every ten minutes, or he would have seen everyone talking about a no-show. So when he and the other four slipped through the portal Derpy made for them into Rumi’s room, he did not expect the sound of crying to reach them. Especially not the sound of a child crying, and most certainly not three voices. All five of them froze. The other four turned to their leader, who was wracking his brain trying to remember if any of the girls had younger siblings. Or kids his mind provided but he quickly pushed that thought away. Taking a breath, Jinu stepped forward and looked towards where the first cry came from.
The braid was shorter. Her eyes didn’t hold the malice of wanting to kill him for existing. And the purple patterns he had grown to enjoy seeing had retreated to just appearing on her shoulders. But the toddler staring up at him through tear-stained eyes was undoubtedly Rumi. Jinu found himself frozen, locked eyes with hers as she stopped her crying to stare up at him. Baby Saja decided it was the perfect time to look over Jinu’s shoulder, catching sight of Rumi too.
“What the fu-mmmf!” he starts to yell, only for Jinu to promptly slap his hand over Baby’s mouth. Baby licks his hand in retaliation, Jinu whips his hand away in disgust, before turning his attention back to Rumi.
“Hey Rumi, are you okay?” He asks softly.
“Dude what kind of question is that?” “Yeah, she’s literally a toddler” “Like you would have a better startup question” “Is she gonna start swinging a tiny sword at us?” The rest of the Saja boys chime in, Jinu getting increasingly annoyed. Rumi starts backing away on the bed, pulling a blanket with her. Jinu clocks the movement as he tries to get the rest of them to shut up, turning with his hands raised back to her.
“Easy, it’s okay! Do you remember me?” He asks, voice low as he tries not to scare her, or get stabbed if she does remember and has her sword on her. Rumi looks up at him, wide-eyed, as she shakes her head. Jinu wracks his brain, trying to come up with a plan.
“Well, I’m here to help you, okay? Do you know where your friends are?” he asks, ignoring the weird and panicked looks from the other members. Rumi nods and holds her arms up, grabbing towards him. The five of them freeze again. Then Mystery is pushing Jinu from behind.
“Pick her up,” the usually quiet member states, “she wants to be held.”
Jinu shoots a panicked look before stepping forward, picking Rumi up by the armpits and instinctively holding her in one arm as he brushes a few stray hairs out of her face. Rumi points at the door, where the other two cries could be heard.
The five Saja Boys plus toddler Rumi enter the main living area and immediately see a toddler Zoey on the large couch. She’s younger than Rumi is, and is curled up around a pillow. A dropped sketch book lay on the floor in front of the couch, and a few nail polishes sat on the table in front of the couch. Mystery quickly walks over and crouches in front of Zoey, letting her play with his hair for a bit before he picks her up.
Then they found Mira.
She was sitting silently in front of the window, headphones that were comically large still perched on her head, watching the world through the glass. Romance was the unfortunate one who tried to pick her up. The minute he tried to take her headphones off she bit his hand, and refused to let go. The next minute romance is screaming while running around with Mira locked onto his hand, Abby chasing them both around the living room. Baby sighed, walking into what Jinu assumed was Mira’s room and returning with a blanket, which he threw over Mira and bundled her up like a feral cat so she couldn’t bite anyone before handing her off to Abby. They set the three girls onto the couch-see, two were set down, but Rumi had latched onto Jinu and wouldn’t let go, so he sat next to the other two with Rumi in his lap-as the five boys try to figure out what to do.
“We can’t leave them here alone” Jinu protests for the third time in a row.
“And so we should just babysit the girls who literally are trying to kill us?” Baby replies, watching Mystery catch Zoey gently before she tries to slide off the edge of the couch.
“We do enjoy the competition though, and we wouldn’t get that if they get hurt” Abby pipes up from where he is trying, and failing, to hold a staring contest with Mira.
“Look,” Jinu says, holding his free hand up, “all I’m saying is we figure out what did this to them, reverse it, and continue on like nothing happened.”
The rest of the Saja Boys nod in agreement.
“Can we at least take blackmail photos?” Baby asks. Jinu sighs, but nods. He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t want to have some photos of Rumi to tease her with when she returned to normal. And they were definitely just to tease her with, not because he thought she is super cute as a toddler, he told himself as he looked down at the purple-haired girl in his lap, who had started falling asleep.
“Alright, let's head back to our place” he says, cradling Rumi as he stands.
“Hang on, we’re bringing them HOME? ”