Work Text:
“Make it bigger,” Seokjin demands, arms crossed but peering extremely close over Jimin’s shoulder as he works.
“Really, hyung?” Jimin grouses, jabbing his makeup brush a little too hard into the palette. Taehyung winces in between bites of the scallion pancake Seokjin just fried up for him.
“This is my manhood on the line here!” he quips, winking at Taehyung. “Ah, eat up, Tae-ah. I need those cheeks looking nice and full!”
Rolling his eyes, he cranes his neck to the side as Jimin goes in with more makeup to create his scar. A mating scar, because he needs to look mated. To Seokjin. His best friend (other than his soulmate, Jimin, of course).
Jungkook sticks his head into the bathroom, eyes narrowed. “And just how far along are you supposed to be?”
“Twelve weeks?” Taehyung says through stuffed cheeks. Seokjin pokes one, smiling at him softly. Taehyung smiles back, kinda. Probably doesn’t look that different when his cheeks are so full.
“Close your mouth.” Jimin tips it shut for him with the end of the brush. Taehyung rolls his eyes because his mouth doesn’t need to be shut for makeup application on his neck.
“Oh, well, for a first pregnancy, you really wouldn’t be showing much…” Jeongguk says, eyes a little misty. He might be their maknae, but he was also the friend in the group who had an unplanned pregnancy at the age of twenty in the middle of his undergraduate degree. Because he’s the golden maknae with both a heart of gold and the world’s greatest luck, it all worked out for him. Not only did the father of his child, Yoongi, stick around, but they’ve been married for two years already and their pup, now five, is an angel. Taehyung used to think Jimin was an angel, but then he met Hyejin.
He can’t believe she is Jeongguk’s child. That girl is all Yoongi.
“Oh, we’re having triplets,” Seokjin mentions, oh so casually. Which - to be fair - no one is having triplets, this is all a grand scheme thunk up by his hyung at three am on no sleep in between his two-and-a-half jobs while rustling around Taehyung while he tried to sleep in their shared bed.
“What?!”
“You are?”
Jimin and Jeongguk yell over each other.
Seokjin grins, standing up tall and proud with his hands on his hips like he’s Superman for knocking someone up with multiples. Taehyung rolls his eyes some more. Manhood, his ass.
“You’re gonna owe me forever, Kim Seokjin,” he says. In reality, all his friend has to do is continue feeding him homemade meals, and if Seokjin gets his way-
“Don’t worry, Tae-ah. Hyung is gonna be able to take care of both of us with this inheritance money! No more intermittent power outages or empty fridges in our future.”
Jimin quietly finishes up what he’s doing. Jeongguk fidgets in the doorway. Neither of them have excess money to throw around either, but neither of them have struggled quite like Seokjin or Taehyung have in the past year alone. Seokjin works a full time “responsible” ad agency job in addition to travel sales part time at home and whatever modeling gigs he can pick up when really he’d love to full-time stream as a gamer.
Taehyung moved in with him almost a year ago. He was only planning to stay for a month or two in between finding a new place, but at this point the options were to stay with Seokjin, his only friend who would tolerate him crashing indefinitely, or pack it in and head back home to stay with his folks for a while.
The two of them live together in a studio apartment that is standing room only between two adults. Currently, they’re in Jeongguk and Yoongi’s apartment, a spacious if ancient two-bedroom place they would love to nab a unit in if the opportunity arises. With Yoongi traveling for work, Jimin stays with Jeongguk to help out around the home with Hyejin.
He doesn’t need any help though. Again - Hyejin, literal angel on earth.
Jimin just loves sleepovers.
“Chim, sleep over at our place next!” Taehyung teases to hear Seokjin’s squawk of protest. There is no room for anyone to visit, ever, but it doesn’t stop them from trying. Besides, Jimin doesn’t count. They can fuse together into one as needed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me you were actually knocked up with hyung’s baby,” Jeongguk comments, tossing something at Taehyung’s head. It bounces into his lap - it’s a condom. “You only have one bed, and no one is convinced by the best friends li-”
“Jeon Jeongguk, you will not assault someone with your birth control methods!” Seokjin squeaks, ears wonderfully red. Taehyung smiles, never really bothered by their friends’ ribbing. “Take it back! You clearly need it more than anyone else!”
Seokjin chases Jeongguk down the hall with the condom stretched between them. There is much cackling from the kitchen. “I can’t believe Jeongguk has an actual child,” Jimin says. “I can’t believe you’re going to pretend like you might have one. Or three.”
Jimin gently jokes Taehyung in the tummy with the end of his brush. “All done,” he adds.
“Oh my god, Chim, it looks so real!” Taehyung peers closer in the mirror. He wants so badly to touch it, but he already imagines Jimin smacking his hand away. “You should do this professionally.”
Jimin snaps close the top of his palette right at his nose. Jimin did makeup professionally. He hated it.
But, it was how they met and became soulmates, and it was how they all met Seokjin too.
“Showtime.” Taehyung grabs a long tunic out of Jeongguk’s maternity tops that he dug out of storage for him, which Taehyung only can assume means that he and Yoongi might be planning for more kids at some point. Honestly, it looks like most of Jeongguk’s tops now - big and baggy. Soft. When he pulls it on, it smells like his friend and if he wants to be delusional about it, a little milky too.
He waddles out dramatically into the living room with a pillow stuffed under the top; both Jeongguk and Seokjin freeze in their wrestling to look over and burst into laughter. “Ta-da!” Taehyung shows off his silhouette, side to side, one hand on his hip to really showcase his modeling abilities.
Jimin makes himself at home on the couch. Only one of Hyejin’s toy dolls is left out, and it sits in perfect posture on the couch next to his friend. They all laugh until Seokjin pulls out the real fake baby bump, something actors use that his friend in the business was able to loan him.
Then they all really have a laugh.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing so hard, you’ve been pregnant and you looked way more pathetic!” Jimin teases Jeongguk, rolling on the floor happily. Everyone smells happy, looks happy. Taehyung doesn’t mind agreeing to Seokjin’s request even if Jimin warned him against it.
“He looks ridiculous! Does this even look believable?” Jeongguk asks incredulously, poking at the fake bump under Taehyung’s (Jeongguk’s) shirt.
“It looks - real enough. For the day.” Jimin’s smile softens when he catches Taehyung. You okay? he mouths. Taehyung nods subtly, glancing over at Seokjin who looks a little - out of it. He’s looking down at Taehyung’s belly and only his belly.
“You wanna feel, appa?” he jokes, picking up Seokjin’s hands and putting them over the bump. His hyung’s hands are big, and absolutely Taehyung’s favorite thing about him. Those lovely crooked fingers, how neat and precise he keeps his nails. Or is it his ears that get so red that are his favorite? Like now. Or maybe it’s the way he blinks, slow in a near exaggerated way when he’s thinking about something.
“You okay, Jin hyung?” Jeongguk kicks at him. Seokjin blinks.
“We should, uh, we should get going,” he says, but rather than let go of Seokjin’s bump, he just pulls Taehyung into his side. “Stay close to hyung today, alright?”
The drive out of the city and into the country takes the rest of the morning. When they arrive at Seokjin’s uncle’s home, Taehyung fidgets nervously in the car, arranging his baby bump. “You can’t do that once we’re inside, you know?” Seokjin laughs, but he sounds nervous too.
“Two girls and a boy, remember, hyung?” Taehyung says, gazing up at the massive home. “We’re doing this for their future!”
Seokjin chuckles.
When he explained the situation - that his great uncle was dying and planning to distribute his wealth by splitting it among the heads of households, and those with more offspring and lineage would receive more of his wealth - Taehyung just nodded along and commiserate with Seokjin about how unfair it all was. After all, among all of them, Seokjin should be the one making it. His modeling career would naturally slow down in a few years (according to the alpha himself), but it brought in good money, if a little inconsistent.
The only reason he lived the way he did was because of his father’s debt.
And it is his father’s brother who now lies dying in some mansion with the ability to unshackle Seokjin from the last of the debt.
But then Seokjin asked Taehyung if he would pretend to be mated and pupped with him for a day. He was estranged enough with the family that no one would know the wiser, he promised. All Taehyung had to do was make the rounds in front of his great uncle and complain loudly of carrying three pups, which is more than the one or two pups his cousins had.
Taehyung wouldn’t have asked for anything in return, because what more could he ask for than to roleplay his favorite fantasy, but his hyung promises him that it will be enough money to get them out of poverty and in a new place. The both of them.
He wants to take Taehyung with him.
“We’re natural born actors, we got this,” Taehyung whispers into his ear, because he knows there are people on the stairs in front of the door watching. Seokjin gives him his most charming smile, and his arm.
The people they pass outside taking a smoke break are some of Seokjin’s younger cousins. “He’ll hate that they’re out there putting ash on the front stairs,” he comments as he leads Taehyung into the foyer. Then he smiles. “It’s perfect!”
Taehyung laughs, then remembers he needs to be more conscious of the belly. Immediately, he adjusts his posture to stick his hips out, one hand going to his lower back to support the supposed weight.
The next people Taehyung is introduced to are the parents of the cousins outside, an alpha and beta couple who on the surface have nothing but kind smiles for Taehyung, even if he notices the beta woman grip her glass of wine a little tighter when taking in his form.
“How far along, dear?” she asks.
“Three months! But,” Taehyung stops to dramatically giggle. “We’re having triplets!”
She gasps, and her alpha mate gently draws her closer, perhaps to pinch her side. “How wonderful,” the alpha woman coughs after thickly swallowing.
“Isn’t it?” Seokjin smiles. “We’re ecstatic!”
“What fortuitous timing,” her partner remarks, thinly veiled eye roll. Taehyung sticks his stomach out some more and pats it.
“And just where will you put three children? Don’t you still live in Guryong in that shoebox?” Seokjin’s aunt comments. Her nails are perfectly polished and red, sharp like claws. Seokjin gently pulls Taehyung back.
“We do, but we’re planning to relocate before the pups arrive.”
The aunts narrow their eyes at Seokjin, and Taehyung gently tugs on his arm. “The babies are hungry. Me included,” he announces, because part of the gig Seokjin promised him is that there would be a buffet so grand he could not imagine it, because apparently the upper class never cook for themselves. How hyung became the chef he is remains a mystery.
They locate the food; Seokjin gently takes the plate from his hands when Taehyung picks it up. There is a long line of options in a hall outside of the kitchen, leading to a dining room. “Let me get it for you.”
Wow, he thinks as he watches Seokjin pile-up one plate, then a second, then a third, all delicately balanced on his arm because he waited tables for years as a side gig. If this is what it’s like to be pregnant, maybe Taehyung can look forward to it after all.
“You know, your scent isn’t too milky yet,” one of the aunt comments, reappearing like a vulture right behind them.
“Milk hasn’t come in yet,” Taehyung replies easily. Seokjin looks at him. Taehyung gives a one shoulder tiny shrug.
“Go sit down, sweetheart,” Seokjin says. “I’ll bring everything to you.”
He waddles away with an extra sway in his step for the aunt to appreciate. Inside the dining room, there is a long table with a few occupied chairs. At the head of it sits an alpha who Taehyung knows immediately must be the great uncle. The man looks frail, thin and pale, slumped over almost painfully to one side of the chair. When he looks up at Taehyung, he freezes.
Seokjin almost runs right into him. “Tae-ah, why are you standing there? Your feet must hurt by now, baby.”
Taehyung relaxes, because being called baby by his hyung makes him feel gooey like honey, even in the midst of what has to be the most tense room in the country, and it only gets worse when Seokjin looks up and surveys the room.
“Oh. Uncle, let me introduce you to Kim Taehyung, my mate.” Taehyung bows when Seokjin speaks his name. His hyung moves around him to put down all of the food on the table. There is a man and woman sitting close to the alpha at the head of the table. To the woman, Seokjin nods his head. “Mother.”
That sends a jolt down Taehyung’s spine. He can’t even help himself when he whips around to look at Seokjin; Seokjin’s father may have passed several years ago, but he never spoke of his mother. Taehyung for a while wondered if she was also deceased, but Hoseok had told him the simple truth that his mother had left years prior to his father’s failing health.
“Didn’t think I’d see you again, but here you are. Playing nice with people who aren’t even your blood relations,” Seokjin comments, reaching around Taehyung to pull out a chair for him. “Sit, Tae.”
Taehyung sits. He does not eat, but he keeps his head down. The alpha uncle wheezes painfully, an oxygen mask hanging off the corner of his chair.
“Didn’t think you were the kind to take after me in the con business,” she snarks right back.
Shit! Taehyung cradles the bump to have something to do, and he keeps his head down as much as possible so no one can see his face. Who knows what it’s doing. Next to him, Seokjin does not flinch.
“It’s not my fault that communication with the family has been limited,” Seokjin replies smoothly, like not every single person has doubted them since they’re arrived. “If any of you cared who I mated, you would have met Taehyung long ago.”
“Sit, sit,” the uncle says, then coughs. “You may not have been mated long, but I know he moved in a year ago.”
Taehyung looks up at Seokjin in panic. Did this guy hire a private detective to dig up dirt on him? Has someone been following them? Isn’t that something rich people do? How else would he know that?
God, he’s watched a lot of thrillers lately. Maybe Jimin is right. Maybe all the noir style movies are the source of his recent nightmares.
“I’m happy to see you both,” the alpha continues, then coughs. A nurse appears from nowhere to slip the oxygen mask back around his mouth and nose.
“Go ahead and eat, sweetheart,” Seokjin says gently to him, one hand coming up to Taehyung’s neck to lightly massage him. Taehyung would worry about him rubbing away at his fake mating bite if not for the fact that the touch is the only thing keeping him grounded.
Seokjin’s mother continues to stare him down. Seokjin looks away from her dismissively to pick up a tiny quiche and feed it to him. Right. Because they’re mated, and that’s a thing an alpha would do for their pregnant mate. Taehyung opens his mouth.
“When are you due, dear?” she asks, but it’s Seokjin who answers, “August 19th.”
“What are you having?”
“Two girls and a boy.”
“Triplets! How - wonderful.” She sneers to make it evident that she probably would not find it wonderful if she also believed it to be true. “Who’s your doctor?”
“Dr. Chang over at Rolling Hills Hospital.”
“How quaint. And if I were to call and inquire about sending flowers there in August?”
Seokjin’s jaw ticks in his peripheral vision. “They’ll make sure we get them, of course, but I hardly expect any of us will be hearing much from you in six months.”
She crosses her arms. The uncle coughs enough that they wouldn’t be able to hear anything more she says. The nurse hovers close by, but she must not be able to do much for him. Taehyung isn’t looking at whatever he nervously stuffs in his mouth, and what it is would be roasted sweet potatoes. They scorch the roof of his mouth and he has to hold down his own coughing fit.
A few more people enter the dining room and sit at the table. It would be silent if not for the old man’s wheezing.
“I’m glad you could all make it,” he says, albeit slowly, softly. It doesn’t sound like he has much voice left. “I know why you’re all here, but I still appreciate, some, ah, effort.”
If only he knew, Taehyung thinks. Or - maybe he does. None of them look particularly convinced by the ruse, but he knows none of them can be sure they’re right about it either. Seokjin really doesn’t have relationships with any of these people. He would know, not only as his best friend, but they’ve lived together for a year. A full year where the only incoming messages on Seokjin’s phone were from work or their small friend group.
Taehyung eats quietly, spurred on by Seokjin. For the first time ever, Taehyung shrinks away from the eyes on him and lets the alpha feed him. It gives him some feeling of safety in this moment.
He looks up at Seokjin’s face - this is what it would be like if they were really together, and he was really pregnant with hyung’s baby. It’s easy to fake it, because it doesn’t exactly feel fake. Not the way he naturally leans into Seokjin when the alpha sits back with his arm across the top of his chair, ducking his head under the alpha’s chin. Seokjin brings his arm down around to cradle the bump, gentle so he doesn’t move it too much.
Taehyung so wishes he could feel that hand on his belly. His real belly. His real pregnant belly.
Seokjin looks up from picking the peppers out of the japchae for him. He smiles so softly, and Taehyung smiles back.
“How long have you two known each other?” one of the cousins asks.
Seokjin looks up as if he needs to remember to count. “Eight years?”
“And how long since you mated?”
Taehyung gives his best shy smile. It feels easy at this moment. “Just a few months.”
The cousin chuckles, not unkindly. “I see. Congratulations.”
“You’ll be lucky if you make it anywhere near August,” Seokjin’s mother mumbles. Taehyung stiffens, but Seokjin freezes for all of a short second before he jumps up.
“What did you just say?”
“I said, you’ll be lucky if he makes it anywhere near his due date,” she repeats. “Carrying triplets? They’re sure to be premature. It’s a high risk pregnancy.”
Seokjin gapes. “Is that a threat?”
Taehyung wonders too. He shivers, curling around his make-believe stomach.
“Don’t be dramatic. I’m simply stating a fact. There are no guarantees in life, Seokjin. You know better than anyone.”
“I know better than to count on any of you for any support, or certainly any love,” he hisses. “Tae-ah, honey. I think we should just go.”
“Hyung?” Taehyung looks up at him, mouth still full of food. The plan was to stay for the day, to mingle with as many people as possible.
They haven’t been there for more than an hour.
“I’m serious.” Seokjin spares him a soft look and a gentle hand through his hair. “Let’s go. I changed my mind.”
“If - if you’re sure, hyung.” Taehyung clambers out of the chair with some help, because real or fake, the belly gets in the way and is awkward. He accepts Seokjin’s hand, but as they walk past the dining room table chair-by-chair, every head turns and watches.
Seokjin’s great uncle coughs and wheezes, waving a feeble hand in their direction. “Wait, wait.” His heavy breathing rattles every nerve Taehyung has when they come to stand in front of him.
“I’d like to - like to say something to them,” the alpha gasps out, waving Taehyung closer. He looks back at Seokjin. Next to the uncle, Seokjin’s mother fidgets in her chair. Taehyung makes the decision for him.
He steps closer to the older man and picks up his trembling hands to place them on the roundest part of the belly. He isn’t sure if playing into the ruse like this helps or not, but if it gives the man any peace of mind - to think the triplets are real or to know for sure they aren’t - Taehyung doesn’t see what it matters if they’re about to walk away.
He tries to keep the man’s hands still on the bump, so that they won’t be able to reach any of the spots where it’s obvious that it’s attached to a piece of clothing, but his hands shake so much that Taehyung wonders if it’s necessary to feel nervous at all. “You won’t feel anything,” he says. “It’s too early on to feel their little feet kick yet.”
The alpha trembles so much that it feels like it’s Taehyung holding onto him, but his gaze fixates on the pup bump. “Thank you, dear boy,” he says when he leans back in his chair. Not once does he look up at Taehyung’s face. He isn’t anything to this man except the person potentially carrying part of their family lineage. It does not endear Taehyung to him, nor make him feel sorry for the man, but he does not hold it against him either.
Gently, Seokjin pulls him back to his chest, one hand sneaking around to cradle the bump in front of all of them. What does it matter if Taehyung plays into it by leaning his head back against his shoulder? It stretches his neck so they can all see his mating mark. He knows it’s in good condition, because Park Jimin made it.
“We’re leaving now. I would say it’s been lovely to reconnect, but.” Seokjin lets out a little puff of air on top of his head, a soft snort that only Taehyung would hear. “Uncle.” He softens his voice, and bows slightly. Taehyung follows suit with his hands around the belly.
In the car, the silence is deafening once the doors are closed and seatbelts on. Seokjin starts his car and backs out of the driveway. It’s a long driveway.
It’s a long drive back to Seoul.
“You didn’t tell me your mother would be there,” Taehyung says, idly drawing on the window.
“Didn’t know. Haven’t heard from her in - I don’t know how long.”
Taehyung nods, trying to be respectful of the fact his hyung doesn't seem to want to talk about it, but the longer he thinks about it, the more he seethes. What right did that woman have to show up there? Like Seokjin said - she married into the family then left it. She isn’t even related to the man in question! And how dare she insulate anything about the two of them? Yes, they’re con artists for the day, but - but -
It could be true.
It all could be true.
They do live together. They do love each other (in a less romantic way than perhaps he’d like). They do have a future together, regardless of babies being involved or a new place or anything else. Taehyung just wants Seokjin, and everything else that comes with would be nothing more than an added bonus.
Taehyung, for feeling so oddly protective over his fake belly all day, even on the car ride home, rips it off as soon as they’re through the door of their apartment. In their home - their tiny, cramped home - it just doesn’t fit. There is no illusion to be had.
But still.
Taehyung marches in and out of their bathroom - which is only one stride across before it puts him in the middle of their one room, just one big bed and a desk pushed together. There are a couple of stacked chairs in the corner that mostly function as a place to throw their coats and clothing in a hurry.
Seokjin sprawls in the middle of the bed, apparently too tired to wash his face. Taehyung crawls into bed next to him. When he collapses on top of his chest, Seokjin pretends to heave out a big gasp, but he knew he was coming.
“I like being with you like this,” Taehyung tells him.
Seokjin looks up at him, face still flush from the day. “Me too. Who needs an apartment in a building where the centralized air runs indoors and not outside in the halls?”
“No.” Taehyung cups his cheeks. He makes his best friend look at him. Really look at him. “I meant like this.”
Seokjin’s eyebrows knit together, but Taehyung just nods. “When I think of my future, it looks a lot like this, hyung, but also - it looks a lot like today. With a pup on the way, maybe not triplets, but one at a time would be nice, and it would be even nicer if it was with you.”
“Oh.” Seokjin blinks.
Taehyung kisses him. Before he opens his eyes and looks, Taehyung feels Seokjin’s ears warm up in his hands.
How wonderful. Seokjin blinks some more, then he smiles. A really big, wonderful smile, and Taehyung can relax.
“It’s not so bad though, right?” Seokjin asks. “What we have now.”
Taehyung nudges Seokjin’s nose with his. “No, hyung. What we have now is perfect.”
Seokjin’s great uncle passes away two months later. In the end, he leaves Seokjin a sum of money meant for both of them and their three pups. There’s a note included with the paperwork to file with their bank that makes Seokjin frown then snort.
“It says he knows we won’t need this for August, but he expects we might need it in the future regardless.”
Taehyung beams.
His boyfriend feels too guilty about lying for the money, despite the truth being supposedly known, so they don’t immediately do anything with it. Seokjin deposits it, then they sit on it for a long time, making due in their cramped space for one that is only perfect for two people who have always liked living on top of each other.
“But we should probably move somewhere with working heat for next winter, right?” Seokjin says, bundled up in his parka in bed under the covers the following January, almost a full year after their pretend triplets.
Taehyung grins in delight, wiggling into the parka with his hyung. “Probably. If not for us, then for the pup.”
He drags Seokjin’s hand down to his belly. His very real albeit still flat tummy.
His boyfriend squawks so loud the neighbor bangs on their shared wall, maybe to check if they’re alright, maybe to protest, or maybe to congratulate them - the walls are that thin.
“Congrats, appa,” Taehyung purrs, and purrs and purrs.
“Kim Taehyung! Even in our run-through of this, we were mated before we were expecting!”
“Who’s fault is that?”
Seokjin hides his face in the hood of his jacket.
In the morning, they finally put a deposit down on a new apartment, much larger with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms in a neighborhood closer to their jobs. Neither one of them say it, but they sleep easy at night knowing that they’ve made good on the unspoken promise that came with the gift of the inheritance.
Taehyung can’t wait to tell Seokjin that they’re already two pups closer to that promise.