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Yoongi believes that if everyone just minded their own business, the world would get along fine. World peace, no more war, no more global warming – all of it cured if people just stay in their own lane.Cynical, maybe, but when is he not? He’s interfered in things before and it’s never ended well. Better to just keep the hell away.So when Yoongi’s walking to the store and sees the woman crouched over, clutching her head and muttering to herself, he ignores it. He doesn’t look twice at her. He doesn’t pay any attention to the demon fighting for possession, its form twisting and flickering over her face.Unless he’s getting paid, it’s very much Not His Business.He goes into the store, loads up on enough cereal and ramen to get him through the next few weeks, and pays. He pauses for a moment outside to light up, and that’s when he sees her again.She’s wearing a thin, pale pink sundress, but she’s wasted away beneath it. Her hair is in clumps, bald in places, and her fingers are digging into her arms hard enough to bleed. Pieces of hair are still caught between her fingers.He doesn’t know anything about who she was or what she did before a demon took a liking to her, but she’s strong to still be battling the possession. Perseverant. Yoongi can admire that.Cigarette in mouth, he goes to step past. Not his business. Stops. Sighs.“Hey,” he says, “You.”The woman twitches, keens. The demon’s face, overlaid like a shadow over her own, rises a moment before hers does. They morph into one and her snarl twists into a smile. Gas leaks out of her eyes.“My, my, aren’t you a pretty one,” she says. Her accent is strange, choppy in places. “Come a little closer.”Yoongi grunts and crouches down. The cigarette gets stubbed out on the ground, but he slides it back in the packet for later. He’s not made of money, okay?Feeling around in his pocket, he finds his switchblade. A gift. The engravings down the side of it are as familiar as breathing.He flicks it open and spins it instinctively. Brings it down across his palm. The cut burns like thousands of icy needles drilling into his skin as it tries to close up, but he keeps the blade pressed tight until enough blood pools in his palm.“What are you doing?” The woman’s voice is suddenly sharper. She cranes forward, but her body is still rebelling so she just ends up rocking in place.Yoongi dips a finger into the blood and sketches a quick circle.“You should know better,” he says as he works. “Possessing someone in broad daylight? Where anyone can walk by? Dumb move.”“No—”“Feel free to jump in and correct me if I’m wrong, now, okay?” He continues drawing the glyphs on the dirty pavement. “From the looks of the woman you’re trying to take a joyride in, you’re from the Second Circle. You lust demons are always the same. I’m gonna take a shot in the dark here and say you’re a son of Ziminiar too, eh? And none too intelligent, so no higher than an earl.”“Who are you?”Yoongi adds the final lead glyph to the seal and sighs again.“You really did choose the wrong store to hang out in front of. Have a nice trip back to hell, Sonek.”“No—”The demon lunges out of the body towards him, all twisting smoke and fangs. Yoongi places his bloody hand on the glyph. He can feel his blood being suctioned out. It activates in a flare of fire. The demon shrieks. Yoongi can see it clawing at the body, but another force is dragging it towards the seal. With a noise not unlike all the air being sucked out, the demon’s sucked into the seal and the screams stop.The seal burns hot, then falls to ash. The woman collapses to the ground. It’s all over in under a minute.Other exorcists have to work harder at banishing demons. Candles, circles of power, chanting while holding hands, sigil rings – the full works. But Yoongi’s different. Bloodmagic is dangerous because of how much blood is required. That’s not a problem for Yoongi. Sacrificing someone you love for power will do that, unintentional or not.Yoongi leans over and pokes at her cheek.“Hey. You,” he says. She looks like she’s breathing. There’s a chance she’s a vegetable, but if she had the power to try and fight the demon off, she’ll probably be okay.She flinches, curling in on herself. Her eyes flutter open. They’re dazed now, without that laser-focused, hungry look demons have.“Wha…?”“You should probably get to the hospital. And eat something.”She blinks at him. Yoongi feels awkward. He hates this part. Give him a demon any day. Talking to a human? No, thank you.He looks down at the groceries next to him.“Here.” He shoves one of his ramen packets at her. “Eat up.”“What?” She’s blinking more now, coming back to herself. She’ll be fine. Probably.He stands up and relights his cigarette.“Take care of yourself, etcetera, don’t go getting possessed again,” he says. “Uh. Bye.”“W-Wait! What happened—”Her voice fades as Yoongi melts into the crowd. No one looks twice at him or at the woman still recovering on the ground. Granted, they’re all blind and wouldn’t have noticed the demon anyway. But even if they could, Yoongi had his doubts they’d really care.That’s the true beauty of New York City.He breathes in deep, the air filled with the smell of trash rotting behind the bad Chinese takeout joint and the faint odour of piss, and smiles. He really does love this city. Not giving a shit is part of every New Yorker’s DNA.“Min Yoongi.”Except for one person, apparently.To his right, standing in the alley with the aforementioned rotting trash, is Chaeseon. Fitting, to be honest. He sometimes wonders if she exists in a vacuum when she’s not bothering him – she always looks the same. The same permed hairstyle, the same three strings of pearls, the same rubber shoes. She looks like any other ajumma you might pass in Koreatown, except for her beady, all-seeing eyes.“They let you out of the retirement home?” Yoongi steps out of the way of the other pedestrians. He ends up facing Chaeseon at the mouth of the alley. “Your sense of humour is marvellous, boy,” Chaeseon says. “Perhaps you can give an old woman like me some pointers.”“I get my entertainment where I can.” Yoongi takes a deep drag of his cigarette and blows the smoke into her face.Yoongi doesn’t get the reaction he was after. She just smiles.“I saw you send that demon back to hell,” she says. “How much did she pay you?”Yoongi narrows his eyes.“Are you trying to get me to admit I have a heart again? Some loving warmth buried deep down? I thought you’d given that up.”“You even gave her some of your food. You’d better watch it, Min Yoongi, or your reputation will go down the drain.”“Stop saying that.”“Saying what?”“My name like that, you annoying old woman.”She leans over and pats him on the cheek. Yoongi has to fight not to pull away.“It’s a nice name. I like it. And Min is a very powerful line.”“Mention my parents and I’m leaving.”Chaeseon looks at him, head tilting to the side. One hand fiddles with the pearls and Yoongi tries not to side-eye them too much. He knows they’ve got some kind of power attached to them, but he hasn’t been able to figure out what. He’s done a lot of things in his shitty time on earth, but trying to steal Chaeseon’s pearls won’t ever be one of them. That’d take a hell of a lot more bravery than anyone has a right to have. The woman is a shrew.No one quite knows what Chaeseon is. Or if they do, they’re not sharing it with Yoongi. Some part of her is human, he’s sure of it, but he hasn’t managed to work out the rest. She never seems to age – just always randomly appearing, wearing the same pair of rubber shoes.“A few months ago, there wouldn’t be someone possessed at the corner of a 7-Eleven like that.”“I’m sure I’ve passed a few in my time.”“You’re not an idiot, boy, so don’t act like one. You’ve noticed demonic activity has been on the rise lately. You used to have one or two possessions a month. Now you’re getting one a week, at least.”Yoongi grunts. “It comes in waves. It’s not unusual. Your old age is getting to you.”“There’s something in the air as well. Someone’s summoning a lot of dark energy in this city.”“Are you finished? This is the same speech the fake psychic two blocks away gives to the tourists.”“There’s something coming.”“There’s always something coming. I’d be out of a job, otherwise.”“This time it’s big. You’re not the type to listen to anyone else, but you’ll take in my words. They’ll stick in the back of your mind. And when I’m proven right, which I will be, I’ll accept your help.”“You know my fee.”Chaeseon sighs, but she’s smiling. “And we’re back at square one. It’s almost like my conversations with you follow a script.”“Feel free to just email it to me next time.”“I would, but we all know you’re worse with technology than I am. And that’s saying something.”“Don’t you have somewhere else to be? Any grandchildren trying to herd you back to the nursing home?” Yoongi says with a scowl.“Ah, you’ve reminded me. What I really wanted to talk to you about.”“Are you saying it wasn’t the premonition bullshit?” Yoongi takes a frustrated drag of his cigarette. The smoke settles in his lungs like a lost friend.“My grandson. He needs your help.”Yoongi’s eyebrows shoot up. “You want to hire me?”“He’s being followed. He refused to sell an item to someone last week and he’s been followed ever since.”“That sounds like work for a PI. This is New York, you can find one on every block.”“A PI? For my grandson?”“Why don’t you figure it out?”“Because I’m needed at the nursing home,” she says dryly. “And this isn’t my speciality.”“Find someone else,” Yoongi says, dropping the cigarette to the ground and stepping on it. “I’m not interested.”Chaeseon may be one of the friendlier faces in his world – relative to everyone else. She’s never tried to throw him into hell, which is a more common occurrence than Yoongi thought warranted. He doesn’t like her, but he doesn’t like anyone. He tolerates her.But separate to all that, he just doesn’t trust her. And he certainly doesn’t trust whatever scheme she’s trying to pull him into now.“I can pay you in a favour.” One of her eyebrows cocks up. “That’s worth a lot more than you’d get for any other job.”“A favour from you, in exchange for proving your grandson’s paranoid? If you want to try and trick me into something, make it a little more believable.”“He’s my grandson. I want the best.”“Then you can find that elsewhere. Get one of those bleeding hearts at that school of yours to help him out.”“He could be in danger,” Chaeseon says, an edge to her voice.Yoongi sighs as he lights another cigarette. He takes a drag before replying, closing his eyes to savour it.“Honestly,” he says, blowing out a cloud of smoke. “Not my grandson, not my problem. Feel free to not seek me out again.”Yoongi’s already turned away when she calls out after him.“You’re not the monster everyone says you are, no matter what you think. You’re a good man, Min Yoongi.”Yoongi’s fingers clench tight around his cigarette. He doesn’t respond.---Yoongi’s blissfully asleep when the pounding at his door wakes him.“Fuck off,” he croaks into his pillow.It continues. Muttering to himself, he rolls out of bed, stumbles onto the floor and pulls on a pair of sweatpants. His apartment is a shithole, so it only takes a few steps to reach his door and throw it open.“What?” he snaps.A young couple stand outside his door, clutching each other and staring at him wide-eyed. The woman’s eyes are bloodshot, hair a mess. She’s the one that speaks first.“Mr Min? You’re him? The, ah, exorcist?”“How the fuck did you find me? And how did you get in.” Yoongi grumbles. His voice is rough with sleep, rasping. He doesn’t do well with being woken up, surprise surprise.“Um, your apprentice? He said he was your apprentice? He gave us this card. And the door downstairs was propped open.”She hands it over. It’s a plain white business card, the edges worried at. Written in dramatic letters on the front:

Min Yoongi

Exorcist, monster hunter, master of the dark arts

Problem of the spooky variety? Here to help.

Price varies. Please inquire.
And then his phone number and home address. Yoongi stares at it for a moment before crushing it in his fist and turning around.“Excuse me? Mr Min? Does this mean we can come in?”Yoongi ignores them. He can’t remember the last time he saw his phone, but it can’t have gone far. His apartment isn’t that big, either.He finds it, eventually, in the pocket of yesterday’s jeans. The screen is filled with missed calls and text messages, and the little battery icon in the corner is an angry red.He ignores all the rest and navigates his way to Jeongguk’s messages. There’s a whole bunch, but he doesn’t bother to read them.Painstakingly, with one finger, he types.

Yoongi

U LITL PPIECE OF SHIT WTF R THESI CARDS>?

“So will you help us?”Yoongi blinks and looks up. The couple are standing just inside the doorway. The woman is staring at him earnestly, but the man is eyeing the stack of pizza boxes in the corner. They’re leaning precariously, but perfectly balanced. Yoongi doesn’t want to brag, but he’s something of a Jenga master in his spare time. The demon in the apartment next to his is the only one who’ll play Pizza Jenga with him. Jeongguk gave up years ago.“Excuse me?” Yoongi says after a long moment.“With the, ah, ghost? In our dishwasher? I can start from the beginning again, if you want?”“No, I heard it the first time,” Yoongi lies. He hadn’t even realised they’d been talking. “Ghost. In dishwasher. Gotcha.”His phone vibrates and a series of messages pop up on the screen.
Jeongguk
😂😂😂
You’re welcome!

You said rent was due next week, didn’t you? Gotta get that bread somehow $$$
Rent was indeed due next week. And from memory, he only had maybe a few hundred in the bank. The bank being the money shoved into the rip in his mattress.“I’ll do it,” Yoongi says. He looks up and realises the woman has her mouth open, caught mid-speech. It closes with a snap.“You will? Really? We’re desperate.”Yoongi snorts. “Yeah, that’s pretty obvious.” You’d have to be desperate to last this long in Yoongi’s shithole apartment, Pizza Jenga or not. “You can pay?”“Yes! Yes, we can. Pay, that is.”“Where is this ghost?”“In the dishwash—”“No, where do you live?”“Oh. Hoboken.”Yoongi’s lip curls. “You can also pay for the cab there.”---The couple wasn’t lying or idiotic. There really was a ghost haunting their dishwasher.“Let’s settle the payment upfront, though. My usual rate is $1,000 for something like this.”The woman opens her mouth and closes it again, like a goldfish. The man looks shifty. It could also have something to do with their location – they’re in the foyer of a quaint brownstone, trying to avoid the seeping blood pouring out of the dishwasher in the other room.“Ah, well, the thing is—”“Nope,” Yoongi says, spinning and heading to the door. The painting above the mantelpiece shakes, but doesn’t drop. “No payment, no help. You caught me on the wrong day if you were after charity.”“No, we can pay!” the man yells, splashing through the blood after him. “Just not in cash. Elleanor has a collection of jewellery and precious stones from her grandmother. They’re worth a lot of money. At least let us show you!”Yoongi sighs, but turns around. Him and his bleeding heart, right? Chaeseon would be proud.“Where are these supposed jewels? And who’s Elleanor?”The woman, who is reminding him more and more of a scared hamster, raises her hand. “Ah, me?”Upstairs, all the doors slam shut in quick succession. Bang bang bang bang bang.“They’re in here,” the man says, kicking at an antique cabinet. “But it’s not opening!”Yoongi grimaces as he steps back into the expanding pool of blood and walks across the room to the cabinets. He pulls a flask out of his pocket and sprays a bit of the liquid on the cabinet. He tries the drawer.It doesn’t budge. The whole cabinet rumbles.“What? What was that?” The man hovers next to him, peering anxiously over his shoulder.Yoongi sniffs the open flask.Oh.“Oops,” he says. “Wrong one.”He takes a swig anyway before putting it back. The cabinet vibrates even more violently, so much so that it’s rocking in place.“Settle down, you little shit,” Yoongi mutters, rooting around in his pockets for the right flask. “You might be able to stay here. I haven’t made a decision yet.”When he sprays his flask on the cabinet this time, the vibrating abruptly stops. Steam rises faintly.“Holy water,” Yoongi says, reaching down and wrenching the drawer open. “Works a charm.”The man reaches around him and fishes beneath the random pieces of paper and folders to pull out an antique jewellery box. It’s inlaid with brass patterns and has tiny, useless handles on either side.“Here, take a look. Whatever you want,” the man says.“Please! Look quickly!”Yoongi opens it and a tiny ballerina pops up, beginning to spin around. He peers closely at her.“Interesting…”The lights start flickering on and off. Yoongi grumbles and walks over to the curtain, wrenching it open and letting the natural light in.The box is filled with several necklaces and rings and hairclips, all with shiny stones and looking like they’d been made centuries ago. He holds a few of the stones up to the light, squinting.“This one’s fake,” he says, tossing a necklace onto the top of the cabinet. “This one’s fine, not what I’m after though, this one’s fake, can’t see any use in this…”“What! This stuff is priceless! It’s antique!”Yoongi holds a few more up to the light, grumbling to himself. Eventually, all the supposed treasures are outside the box and scattered on the top of the cabinet. Even though it’s stopped shaking, the same can’t be said of the bookshelf next to it.This, case in point, is the problem with too much furniture. What kind of person younger than fifty collects antique furniture? Yoongi will take their money, but he won’t be trusting them.“I’ll take the box itself,” he says, peering closer at the ballerina once again. It shimmers in the light, face shifting. It winks at him. “And also this ring.”The ring is a last-minute decision. The rock in it is green, but definitely not an emerald or any stone of real value. Cut glass, most like. But there’s a scent to it, an inherent hunch that makes him pause over it. Like a sudden wave of goosebumps over his body. He doesn’t know what the hell it is, but he’s not passing something like this by.“Does this mean you’ll help us?” The woman’s voice is getting reedy, more desperate. Yoongi should probably feel worse about it than he does.“Mmm,” Yoongi says, carefully placing the green ring inside the box. “Keep this safe for me.” He presses the jewellery box into the man’s hands. False ideals of masculinity aside, he seems the least likely to come rushing in haphazard and getting himself killed. The perfect safe spot for his payment.“What? What does that mean? Is that a yes?”The kitchen is a mess.Yoongi has a strong belief that saucepans belong in a cupboard or drawer. Any person with their saucepans and frypans hanging up like trophies deserve to be haunted. As it is, the floor is littered with pans and pots and skillets, the contents of the cutlery drawer, and of course the blood.The dishwasher does indeed look to be the source of it. Blood is still bubbling up from the corners of it, spilling out onto the ground.“Hello, lovely,” Yoongi murmurs, stepping in close. The walls rumble. “You know the rules. Don’t be getting mad at me for something that’s not my fault. You break the rules, you get banished.”He gets his switchblade out, flicks it around. Crouches down in front of the dishwasher. The whole house is vibrating now, blood trembling on the floor. The cupboard next to him spills open, plates tumbling out and cracking on the ground.“Just try me,” he says. The blade screeches as it carves into the shiny metal of the dishwasher. He doesn’t need a circle of power for this, at least. A few glyphs will do him fine.“And now.” He slices across his palm. “Begone, may the power of Christ compel you, etcetera.”He can feel the poltergeist’s energy swarming through the house, beating down on him, but his wards are too tight. It can’t harm him.He presses his bloody palm to the sketched glyph. Nothing happens for a moment, then his palm begins to steam. Like oil spreading across a fire, the blood evaporates in a wave. Yoongi’s palm is hot, itchy, and he can feel the blood being sucked from his own body. It’s an unpleasant feeling, but still not as bad as the one time he’d become a vampire’s snack. No, thank you.The house falls deathly still, and the sudden silence pounds against Yoongi’s ears. The dishwasher under his palm is cold once more. The blood has disappeared from the ground, leaving just a dusty residue behind. No more shaking from the house, no more flickering lights, no more slamming doors.Silence.“Is it… is it gone?”The couple are hovering at the kitchen entryway.Yoongi holds up a finger and leans in closer. The vibration, like an inaudible humming, gets softer and softer until it’s gone entirely.Yoongi stands up and exchanges his switchblade for a cigarette.“You let this one sink in for a while, eh? Next time, call your friendly neighbourhood exorcist a little sooner. Less blood to clean.”“We will! We will. Thank you, truly, from the bottom of our hearts.”Their gratitude, the outpouring of so much visible emotion, makes Yoongi cringe. “Look,” he says gruffly, grabbing his payment on the way to the door. “Poltergeists are attracted to stress. So maybe cool it a little? Or invest in some weed, at least.”“We normally aren’t stressed, but this past month—”“Not interested. You have my number. Use that instead of coming to my door.”“But the nice boy with the eyes said you’d answer if we knock—”Yoongi’s out the door and letting it slam behind him. He pauses on the sidewalk and takes a deep puff.He pulls out his phone and messages Jeongguk.

Yoongi

Pick me hp

U

UP

Hoboken

Jeongguk

Omw 🚗

Yoongi

???????

U mean omg?

What

Jeongguk doesn’t take too long. Yoongi’s only halfway to the subway station when Jeongguk calls for directions. Directions he can do. Texting? Not interested.Jeongguk pulls up in a shiny silver Prius, window down and waving frantically.“Hey! Yoongi! Hey! Over here!”“I can see you, shut up,” Yoongi grumbles, jogging over to the other side of the road and getting in. He wrinkles his nose immediately.“What the hell is that smell?”Jeongguk reaches over and taps the air freshener sitting on the vent.“Greek seaside, I believe. I like it!”“I would rather smell rotting chicken.” Yoongi powers down the window. The whole car is squeaky clean. “Who owns a Prius in New York, anyway?”Jeongguk shrugs, fingers tapping on the steering wheel. “No clue, it was just the closest car when you messaged me. I’ve always wanted to drive one. Makes me feel wholesome. Like I own a kale farm, or whatever.”Yoongi snorts. “Don’t act like you know what kale is, or that you’ve eaten a green vegetable in the past week.”Jeongguk pulls a face, opens his mouth, then closes it. “Um. Wanna get skewers?”“My boots are covered in blood residue.”“It’s New York. No one cares.”“True. But you’re paying this time. This job didn’t really pay much in the way of cash.”“Oh what? I thought for sure that old lady would have some serious cash.”“Old lady?” Yoongi repeats. He stares at Jeongguk. “This was a couple. How many people did you give that stupid fucking business card to, Jeongguk?”The boy squirms in his seat. His wide eyes dart between Yoongi and the road.“Um. Do you want an actual number? I don’t think I can give that to you. I printed out a pack of a hundred, though, and they’re almost gone?”Yoongi reaches over and slaps him upside the back of the head. The car swerves.“Ow!”“There are a hundred business cards out there calling me a ‘master of the dark arts’?!”“Less than a hundred! I have a few left! Quite a few, actually. And, well, you need to get jobs somehow!”“I have a website!”“You have a Craigslist ad some old boyfriend of yours helped set up.”“Boyfriend’s a generous term.”“Not the point! These cards will help you. You need the rent money and people need the help!”Yoongi groans and sinks into his seat. “I’m glad you didn’t add any superhero bullshit to it. The one and only good thing to come of this.”When they’re seated in the Chinese hole-in-the-wall, squished between other patrons and reeking of oil, Yoongi shows Jeongguk the ring. He frowns at it, spinning it in his hands.“It feels warm,” Jeongguk says. “This stone’s definitely just glass, though.”“Yes, I am aware.”“But there’s something else here. Is this all you got?”“No, a jewellery box too. It’s a got a curse on it, pretty sure that’s a pixie being held inside.”“Ooh, a pixie! Can I see? Are you gonna free her?”“What’s the point.”Jeongguk opens his mouth, probably to give him the same rant he’s heard a thousand times over, but the waitress comes over and dumps a plate of skewers on their table. One tumbles off and onto the table. The waitress doesn’t bat an eye.The smell of cumin makes Yoongi’s mouth water.“The ring. I’ll probably sell it after I find out what it is. The pixie might come in handy later.”“You should ask Taehyung,” Jeongguk says, words muffled around a mouthful of lamb. Yoongi watches in fascination. If Jeongguk didn’t have such wide, cute eyes, the sight would be disgusting. Instead, it’s somehow cute. The brat. “He knows everything about weird magical objects. So smart.”“Who?” Yoongi asks, still distracted by the horrifying sight in front of him. “Taehyung. You know Taehyung. Owns that shop? House of Mystery? Taehyung’s House of Mystery?”“That’s a fucking horrible name for a shop. Also doesn’t ring a bell.”“But… everyone knows Taehyung!”“Apparently,” Yoongi says dryly. He nibbles at his first skewer. Jeongguk’s on his fourth.“Taehyung! I’ve definitely told you about him! Like, this high? With the eyebrows? Grey hair? Plants? And Korean, too.”“We don’t all know each other.”“But everyone knows Taehyung!”Yoongi holds out his hand. “Ring. Give it over.”As soon as Jeongguk drops it into his hand, Yoongi stands.“Wait, no! You can’t go! Wait! I don’t have any money on me!”Yoongi leans forward and sticks his finger in Jeongguk’s face. His eyes go cross-eyed to see it.“No more fucking around with this Taehyung bullshit. Proper answers like a normal person.”“Yes, Yoongi,” Jeongguk says. “Sure, Yoongi.”“Disrespectful street rat,” Yoongi mumbles, settling back into his seat. The people on either side of him side-eye him, but Yoongi glares back.“This Taehyung. Why should I go to him?”Jeongguk shrugs and says around his mouthful of food, “I dunno, he’s nice. Used to help me out when I was hanging out in Chinatown. Near his shop. He’d buy me a meal or let me stay in the shop when it was snowing.”“He let you stay in his shop? Alone? Multiple times?”Pink floods his cheeks. “I never took anything, okay!”Yoongi raises his eyebrows.“I never took anything much. He always knew. I can’t help it! Anyway, he’s smart and kind and knows his shit. His shop is filled with random magical objects he’s found and so many plants, and he’s good at researching too! He can help.”“Mhmm.” Yoongi picks up another skewer. It’s the last one. Jeongguk’s side of the table is littered with metal skewers, but he’s still looking hungrily at the skewer Yoongi’s eating. “Don’t look at me like that. Order more if you’re still hungry. Or dumplings.”Jeongguk orders both dumplings and more skewers and proceeds to eat pretty much all of it by himself.Yoongi ends up paying in the end, because of course he does.“Taehyung normally stays open pretty late, so we should be fine,” Jeongguk says as they leave the tiny restaurant, dodging angry waitstaff.“Eh, I’ll just go tomorrow.” He’s had quite enough with being social. Banishing a poltergeist and trying to fill Jeongguk’s black hole of a stomach is enough action for one day. “No, that’s what you always say to me. And then you never do it! We’re going now.” They walk past Jeongguk’s borrowed Prius. “Plus, I have the ring anyway.”“What.” Yoongi feels his pockets. Jeongguk holds up the ring in front of him, pinched between thumb and forefinger. He waves it like he’s ringing a cowbell.“We’re going to Taehyung’s. It’s not too far from here.”They’re in Lower Manhattan, just off Canal Street, and Jeongguk leads them deeper into Chinatown. Everyone ignores them, except for a luduan seated out the front of a store. Its lion-like head follows Yoongi until they’ve turned into another street, jade eyes glinting in the streetlights.“Ugh, Yoongi,” Jeongguk says. “You’re thinking too loudly. We’re not gonna find it if you’re thinking so hard.”“It sounds like you just don’t know where it is.”“I do! But we can’t get there with you thinking so hard about it!”“It’s one of those places, then,” Yoongi says, rolling his eyes. “Fine. Gimme a second.”He closes his eyes, breathes out, and lets his thoughts go with it. With his head clear, he can feel the thrumming of the city deep in his bones – the humming of the subway nearby, rapid-fire Cantonese in the seafood shop, the footsteps of those flowing around them on the sidewalk. It’s grimey and messy and dirty and so very New York.“Lead the way,” Yoongi says, opening his eyes. He lets his feet follow Jeongguk, keeping his mind open to the buzzing city but blank of everything else.Yoongi wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else how they got there, but from one moment to the next, they were stopped on the pavement. Squished between an acupuncture clinic and a sprawling fruit and vegetable store is the sign ‘House of Mystery’. The facade is dark, vines growing over all of it, and there’s objects stacked in the windows. Purple light shines out.Yoongi can feel the wards coating the place, radiating power. The door is one of those ridiculously solid ones with a big brass knocker, but Jeongguk just shoves it open and strolls in.“Taehyungie! Jiminie! Hallooo! I am here! Did you miss me!”Yoongi groans. He considers just leaving, but Jeongguk’s thieving fingers still have his ring.The inside of the shop is a lot bigger than the outside suggests. And it’s a hell of a lot greener. Plants cover all the walls, vines and leaves and flowers. It’s like stepping into a jungle. There are shelves filled with items, but all manner of pot plants are interspersed between it. The ceiling is covered in gauzy fabrics, lights shining hazily through.It’s honestly just an enormous fucking mess. The strong scent of incense tickles his nose and he tries not to sneeze.A door slams somewhere in the shop, then footsteps. A head pokes up over a vine-covered shelf. Yoongi can only see silver hair falling into bright eyes.“Guk-ah! And a friend?”The half-head disappears as Jeongguk grumbles, “You don’t need to act so surprised, okay. I have friends.”“I’m sure you have friends,” says the disembodied voice. “Just a surprise to see my little Guk all grown up and out in the world, making his own friends, living his own life— oh. Hello.”The silver-haired guy steps out from around a plant with purple leaves and stops short. He blinks wide eyes at Yoongi, then smiles, and Yoongi feels like he’s been punched in the gut. He didn’t expect Jeongguk’s friend to look like this. With the plants and the grey hair, he’d thought Taehyung was some old grandfather.But he’s not. He’s very, very not. His skin is golden, his collarbones are sharp, and his face holds an ethereal beauty that’s at home amongst the gauzy, green atmosphere of the shop. Yoongi had thought no one would be able to suit this store without looking tacky, but… here we are.“Taehyung! This is my friend, he’s really great and really kind and he needs your help—”“Min Yoongi, right?” Taehyung smiles, head canting to the side so his earring dangles onto his shoulder. “Exorcist extraordinaire. Jeongguk’s friend. I should’ve known for that, but the rest gives you away.” One long-fingered hand gestures at Yoongi’s everything.Yoongi stares. He can’t remember a time he’s ever been introduced to someone who’s heard of him and they smiled. A real, genuine smile. Yoongi isn’t that great at people, but he’s getting nothing but sincerity from this guy. It’s rare his instincts are that wrong. Nowadays, at least.“I have other friends,” Jeongguk mutters sourly.“I’m sorry, I’d shake your hand, but.” He holds up his hands and wiggles his fingers. They’re covered in dirt. And while his shirt looks like something silk and expensive, he’s got his pants rolled up to his knees, no shoes. His feet are also covered in dirt. It should definitely be gross. Yoongi should definitely not be intrigued. “I normally wear gloves, I swear. But I just saw this really great snail, you know? And then there was a weed. And where there’s one, there’s more. Don’t tell Jimin I got distracted from the store again.”It’s a lot of words. Yoongi’s not really sure what to do with them all. Luckily, silence isn’t Jeongguk’s strong suit.“Depends,” he says, eyes narrowing. “What do you have for me?”“It always comes down to bribery, huh.” Taehyung walks over, ruffling Jeongguk’s hair. He yelps, lunging away.“Ew, gross! Gross hands!”“There’s Choco Pies upstairs. Go gorge yourself while the adults talk.”“Deal!” Jeongguk scampers off to the stairs, taking them two at a time. Yoongi can hear his footsteps thudding around for a few moments.“So you need help,” Taehyung says. He turns and walks away. Yoongi hesitates a moment before following after him. Like he’s meant to, right? Fuck, Yoongi hates socialising. “My help, specifically? Some kind of magical artefact?”Taehyung’s movements are graceful and quick. The purple lights catch on his silver hair. Yoongi finds he can’t tear his eyes away.“A, uh, a ring,” Yoongi says belatedly. Is it just him or are the plants tilting towards Taehyung as they pass? “It stinks of magic but I don’t know what kind.”“Mmm. You’re in the right place.”Yoongi’s too focused on watching Taehyung’s dirt-smeared, long fingers drag across a vine that he walks into a shelf. Something wobbles. In an instant, Taehyung’s there, a hand on his back and the other snatching the snow globe that almost fell.“Oops,” Taehyung says, too close. A smile curls up his face. His voice is low and Yoongi shivers. “Don’t wanna break that. I’d have to hire you to exterminate the very angry yeti inside.” Taehyung steps back, hand leaving Yoongi’s back. Yoongi can breathe again. “Look, so small and cute. Very ferocious in real life.”He shakes the snow globe and holds it in front of Yoongi’s face. Inside is a mountain peak, covered in snow. Tiny trees dot the bottom of it. Something furry is running in circles around a tiny, wooden house. Its little arms are waving up in the air.“A curse?” Yoongi asks, frowning at him.Taehyung places it back on the top of the shelf, in its stand. The snowstorm inside the globe begins to die down. The yeti makes a beeline away from the house to bang on the edge of the glass. It doesn’t make a sound.“Something like that. A punishment is probably more correct. He’s so adorable, but not for sale just yet.”Yoongi watches the snow globe for a moment before his eyes are drawn back to Taehyung. His eyes are on the globe, but he glances at Yoongi and smiles again. It’s so earnest and bright. Yoongi doesn’t get it.“The ring?” Yoongi says, clearing his throat.“Oh, yes. Of course. I’ll just wash my hands.”Taehyung leads him to a counter then disappears through a door. Yoongi looks around, shifting on his feet. The rest of the store is empty. Something touches his wrist. He jumps back, stumbling, switchblade in his hand.It’s just a vine.A dark green vine, small leaves dotting its length, uncurling to reach out to him. Yoongi stares at it. It shivers a bit but doesn’t move further.“All clean! No more grubby hands. Where’s that— oh.” Taehyung, on the other side of the counter, stops short. Frowns at the vine reaching out to Yoongi. “Ah, hah, sorry. It does that sometimes.”Taehyung pokes at the vine, whispering, “Hey, don’t embarrass me.” Yoongi’s not sure if he was meant to hear that. The vine curls back in and disappears into the mess of green. “The ring?” Taehyung smiles hopefully.Yoongi gives one last look to the vine then hands over the ring. Taehyung holds it up to the light dangling on a chain above them. His eyes narrow.“You know this is just cut glass, right?”Yoongi grits his teeth. “Yes, I’m aware.”Taehyung fishes around under the counter for a moment before coming up with a jeweller’s loupe. He examines the ring again through the tiny magnifying glass.“Mmm. And set in iron. That’s an interesting choice. Iron’s notoriously hard to spell with anything. Just sucks magic right up. Strong ties to Mars, though. Ancient Roman god of war, rather than the planet. Though also the planet, to an extent. And this… an engraving? Hmm.” In a quick movement, he snaps the loupe closed and focuses on Yoongi. Having his full attention again makes shivers run down his back.“Nope, no idea,” Taehyung says.Yoongi blinks.“What?”Taehyung rests an elbow on the counter, propping his head up with a fist. His shirt falls to the side to reveal even more collarbone.“No clue,” he says. He stares unblinkingly at Yoongi. “I have some ideas, though. Leave it with me for several days and I’ll chase down a few leads.” Yoongi frowns and opens his mouth, but Taehyung beats him to it. “You’ll be wanting the ring back, though, right? You look like you don’t trust easily.”Yoongi’s eyes narrow.“I don’t know you.”“And you trust the people you do know? Actually, sorry, no need to answer that. Jimin’s always going on about what I can say and what I shouldn’t say. And that probably falls into the latter. Sorry! Just give me a sec.” Taehyung pulls out his phone and takes several photos of the ring. He holds the phone out to Yoongi. Yoongi stares at it. “Well?” Taehyung shakes it at him. “Put your number in.”“What? Why?”“How else am I meant to tell you what I’ve found out?”“I’ll just come by in a few days.”One eyebrow arches. “Yoongi. Number. Don’t make this difficult.”Yoongi scowls. He tries not to feel like a scolded child as he puts his number into Taehyung’s phone.“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Taehyung says as he takes his phone back and fiddles with it. Then stares at him expectantly.“What?” Yoongi says. He feels like he’s missed something. To be fair, he’s felt like he’s missing something for the whole time he’s been here.“My message. Did you get it?”Yoongi stares at him blankly for a moment before digging his phone out of his pocket. He jams the home button a few times. Nothing happens. It’s dead. He holds it out to Taehyung with a shrug.“Useless.” Taehyung rolls his eyes. “You’re lucky you’re so cute. Jeongguk! Get back down here! You better not have eaten all of my Choco Pies!”Cute? Cute? What in the fuck had Yoongi ever done in his life that could be considered cute? Maybe as a baby, he could be considered cute. Maybe. He’d been called many things, but they were generally the complete opposite of cute.Jeongguk’s footsteps thud across the ceiling before he comes jumping down the stairs, taking them two at a time. A tiny, dark hairball leaps along behind him. Yoongi blinks at it, mind racing through his bestiary until realising it’s just a very small, very fluffy dog.“You woke up Yeontannie!” Taehyung scolds, but he’s leaning down to scoop up the little dog and cradle him in his arms. He buries his face into the dog’s fur and makes kissy noises. The dog squirms, trying to lick his face.“Yeontan, joy of my life, bundle of happiness, this is Min Yoongi. Be nice.”The dog is shoved in Yoongi’s face. It goes still, staring at him with unblinking eyes for a moment, before straining forward nose-first.“Um,” Yoongi says, hesitantly stretching forward a hand. “Nice doggy?”Yeontan sniffs his fingers, wet nose cold against his skin. A ripple goes through Yoongi’s body and he frowns.“Wait. That’s not a dog.”“Good boy, Tannie,” Taehyung coos, bringing the dog back to nestle against his chest. “What do you mean? He’s a dog.”“I’m not an idiot.”“I’m sure you’re not,” Taehyung says. “But Yeontan’s just a harmless little Pomeranian, right?”Yoongi stares at him for a moment. Taehyung looks back evenly, small smile playing around his mouth.“A harmless dog. Right,” Yoongi eventually says. “Well, call me when you know something.”“I will,” he replies. Yoongi feels like he has all of Taehyung’s focus, despite the wiggling dog in his arms. His eyes are warm and bright and see straight into Yoongi.He’s not used to this.“Wait! I’ll drive you back!” Jeongguk says, eyes shining as he jogs over.“I thought I told you no more stealing cars near my shop,” Taehyung scolds.“I’d prefer the walk, anyway,” Yoongi says.“Yoongi,” Taehyung calls when he’s almost at the door. “Are you forgetting something? Or did you wanna leave it with me after all?”Yoongi turns back. The ring glints in Taehyung’s hand.“Dammit,” he mutters under his breath. He stalks back and snatches it up.Taehyung grins at him, lips pulling back to reveal both rows of teeth. It’s strange-shaped and so fucking cute, it makes Yoongi nauseous.“It was nice meeting you, Min Yoongi! After all this time. Gukkie talks about you all the time but never mentioned how perfectly adorable you are.”And then, of all the fucking things, Taehyung leans in and boops him on the nose. Yoongi rears back, nose wrinkling.“I… ah—”He’s lost for words. Since when the fuck is he ever lost for words.“See you soon!”Yoongi mumbles something in reply then hurries out of there. As the door’s closing, he hears Jeongguk say, “Gross, Taehyungie, did you really have to—” And then he’s out on the street again.It’s not until the next morning, when he finally remembers to charge his phone, that he sees what Taehyung had sent him.
Unknown number
Hello Yoongi! Don’t forget to save my number to your phone 😇✨Yoongi definitely does not like him.---“Jeongguk,” Yoongi says a few days later. “What does the little picture with three stars mean?” “What? What are you talking about? What picture?”Yoongi peers into the water in front of him. “You know, those little pictures that you send through your phone? You sent me one today. Of a tiny person swimming.”“You mean emojis? Oh my god. Oh my god. Little pictures.” Jeongguk laughs so loud he bends in half, clutching his stomach. “Little pictures! Just wait until I tell Taehyung!”“You can’t tell Taehyung!” Yoongi hisses. “Tell me what the three stars mean!”“I assume it’s from Taehyung? I can’t see anyone else messaging you, let alone sending you emojis.”“It doesn’t matter who it’s from.”“Little pictures, oh my god.”“What are the three stars!”“Is this really the best time to be talking about this? I appreciate you taking me along on one of your jobs, but I don’t know how I’m meant to be watching your back when you say stuff like that. You’re so funny, Yoongi.”Jeongguk is, perhaps, correct. They’re currently in the foyer of an over-the-top, completely empty karaoke joint. The walls are gold and there’s a ridiculous fountain taking pride of place in the room. The same fountain where several karaoke-goers drowned in the past week.“Um, if I may? Interrupt? I wouldn’t stand so close to the water.”Yoongi blinks. He’d forgotten about the man who’d hired him. Benji Otsuka. He was hovering to the side, anxiously wringing his hands. The owner of this gaudy karaoke bar, he’d called Yoongi five times in a row before Yoongi bothered to pick up. That kind of dedication deserved some reward. And maybe he was in a good mood.Benji Otsuka isn’t a bad sort. Yoongi believes that any man above the age of fifty that’s comfortable wearing a bright pink feather boa warrants his respect. “What did the bodies look like when you found them?”“Bloated. And wrinkled. We’d always find them when we opened at midday.”“Did they look like they’d been in a fight? Still smiling? Crushed at all? Blood drained out?”Benji looks nauseated.“Blood. They have stomach wounds, but no blood. Is it a…” His voice lowers. “A vampire?”Yoongi snorts. “Living in a fountain? No.”“I actually know a vampire, really nice—”“Do you usually serve up cucumbers?” Yoongi cuts Jeongguk off.Benji looks surprised. “Ah, yes, we cut them up and use them to decorate our fruit platters. But they messed up our last order, so we’re out.”“Jeongguk.”Jeongguk’s already tugging off his backpack and pulling out the cucumber Yoongi asked him to bring earlier.“I still don’t understand cucumbers, out of everything. I thought you were just hungry?”“I am,” Yoongi says, taking a bite of the cucumber and crunching away. It’s probably the most nutritious thing he’s eaten in months. “Step back.”He snaps off half the cucumber and lobs it into the pool. He grabs his mageblade hilt from his belt. It smokes for a moment, then the blade begins to form out of the mist. Tiny droplets dot its length. Yoongi can feel its power roiling and hissing in his mind.The fountain is still. The cucumber bobs on top. Then a dark green shape blurs out of the other corner of the pool and darts towards the cucumber. Yoongi leaps into the pool and stabs forward with his blade. The creature shrieks as the blade skims along its side, catching against the shell on its back.The thing darts back, bleeding black blood, and stares at Yoongi with unblinking eyes. The cucumber has bobbed away behind him.“What the fuck! Is that a mutant ninja turtle?” Jeongguk yelps.It does somewhat look like an overgrown turtle, except with a beak and claws and a weird, dish-like depression on its head. It’s not a pretty sight, but Yoongi isn’t one to judge.“Stay back,” Yoongi orders, but Jeongguk’s already stepped closer. The kappa’s eyes dart to the side and it’s all the warning Yoongi gets. It lunges, its back legs pushing off powerfully, and slams into Jeongguk. Blood sprays into the air as its claws tear into him.Yoongi can’t hear anything but a dull whine. His mind’s gone blank. He’s out of the pool in a moment and ramming the blade through the top of the kappa’s skull, its one weak point. Still stuck on his mageblade, he wrenches the kappa off Jeongguk. The body flops wetly to the ground. Black blood leaks out. He leaves the blade stuck in the kappa’s twitching body, humming happily as it sucks the monster’s power out.Jeongguk is coughing on the ground. His shirt is ripped along the sides from the kappa’s claws. The worst damage is to his neck and shoulder, where the kappa’s long teeth had been buried.“You idiot,” Yoongi hisses, crouching down. Jeongguk’s red blood mixes with the water that’s dripping off of Yoongi. “How can you be so stupid.”“This, ow, this d-doesn’t mean you can’t bring me w-with you in the future.”“Such an idiot.”“Does this mean you c-care? Aw, Yoongi, I’ll have to get hurt m-more often.”Yoongi ignores him and turns to Benji instead. He’s clutching his feather boa between both hands like he wants to rip it apart.“You. Find some bandages. I also want you to boil some water for ten minutes, then add three tablespoons of salt, and boil it for three more. Can you do that for me?”“Y-yes! Right away!”Benji scurries off.“Boiling salt water?” Jeongguk’s eyes are unfocused from the pain. “W-What kind of pathetic excuse is that?”“Shut the fuck up,” Yoongi says. He lays both his hands on Jeongguk’s forearm and closes his eyes. “I can’t let him see this.”Yoongi breaths in and holds it for a few moments. Lets the breath go. He reaches inside of himself for that hated ball of hell-magic. Lets it fill him up with icy, stabbing pain. The tattoo on his chest tingles. In the next breath, he reaches into Jeongguk and sucks in his wounds.For a moment as it works, he feels like he’s drifting in a cold mist. Then his neck rips open, lines of pain ripping down his sides and he gasps. The pain is immense, like millions of needles stabbing into his skin. He draws in a breath to scream, but his chest is frozen. All he can do is roll to his side and ride it out.He’s not sure how much later it is when he opens his eyes. He’s lying in a puddle and it stinks. It’s water mixed with the blood of both Jeongguk, Yoongi and the kappa. Gross.Jeongguk is hovering in front of him, hands patting back his hair.“Yoongi? Are you there?”Yoongi groans. “Keep your dirty, thieving hands to yourself, brat.”Jeongguk lets out a relieved huff. Yoongi pushes himself up. He feels fine now, but shivers of phantom pain are still wracking his body. He touches his neck. His fingers come away with sticky blood. The skin is perfectly healed beneath.Jeongguk is fine as well, even if his clothes are a little worse for wear.“You’re gonna have to steal yourself a new shirt.”Jeongguk looks down at his shirt and pulls it away from his body to examine it.“Nah, I’ll just wash it. I can rock the ripped shirt look.”Yoongi gives him a disgusted look. “How long was I out?”“About ten minutes. Feather boa dude hasn’t come back yet.”“Good,” Yoongi grunts, pushing himself up. “Go wait in the car. Don’t get into more trouble. I’m not healing you again.”Jeongguk looks abashed. “Sorry, Yoongi. Thank you for healing me.”“Get out of here,” Yoongi says, waving him off when he tries to go in for a hug.When he’s gone, Yoongi breathes out a soft sigh. Jeongguk is a pest, but the sight of him lying in a pool of his own blood is going to be stuck in his head on loop for the next few weeks.The kappa’s just a grey pile of ash now. His mageblade has fallen to the side, blade vanished. He picks up the hilt and sticks it through his belt again. Kicks aside the cucumber he’d dropped.He takes a guess where the kitchens are and meets Benji hurrying out with a pot of water.“Ah! There you are! The boy, is he still alive? I followed your instructions.”“He’s fine. The kappa’s dead. We talked about payment, before?”Benji stares at him.“But… what about this?” He holds out the pot, as if Yoongi’s gonna take it.“It’s fine.” Yoongi takes a small step back. “Payment?”“O-Okay. If you say so. Let me just… go get it then. And I’ll pour out this water? If you don’t need it? Are you sure?”Yoongi raises an eyebrow. Benji scurries off. He returns a few moments later, no pot, but a pile of cash in hand.“Here, thank you, Min-sama. I can’t thank you enough. I am sorry about your friend. That thing, what was it?”“A kappa. They love cucumbers. I guess it got angry when you ran out of cucumbers and decided to eat your customers instead.” Yoongi counts out the money and pockets it. “Pleasure doing business with you.”“Thank you, Min-sama! Truly!”Yoongi’s climbing the stairs out of the karaoke den when he realises his phone is vibrating. He digs it out. He presses on the answer button, then realises it’s already stopping ringing. 1 missed call – Taehyung flashes across the screen and Yoongi stops dead.He’s already calling him back before his mind catches up.“Yoongi?”Was Taehyung’s voice really that deep when they met before? Probably not.“Ah, yeah, yes. Hi, Taehyung.”“Woah, didn’t expect to hear from you so quick. Speedy!” Yoongi feels his cheeks heating up, which he’d never admit to anyone.“Yeah, sorry for missing your call. Just finished a job.”“Does that mean now’s a good time to come via my place? I’ve got info for you on the ring.”“Yes,” Yoongi says, then glances down at himself. He’s still covered in a mix of blood and water. His boots squelch when he shifts his feet. “Ah, actually, no. Maybe in an hour?”“Works for me! I’ll, ah, try not to get caught out back again. If I’m not there, Jimin will be out front! Just ask for me. Okay. Yep. See you soon, Yoongi!”Taehyung hangs up and Yoongi’s left standing on the street, blinking in the sunlight. Even talking to Taehyung on the phone is like a whirlwind. He’s just so much.No one gives him a second look as he stands there – the beauty of the city. He realises he’s smiling – not much – but clears his throat and gets rid of it.Beeeeeep!Yoongi jolts. Jeongguk’s head pops out of the window of a car parked a few spots down.“C’mon! What are you doing, let’s go!”“Brat,” Yoongi mutters, but gets into the car anyway.---Yoongi had definitely not stood in his room, debating what to wear. He wore pretty much the same thing every day, so that would be ridiculous. He hadn’t done that. At all.If his jeans were slightly nicer and less ripped than normal? If they were the ones Jeongguk had wolf-whistled at that one time? That didn’t mean anything.“Taehyung?” Yoongi calls as he enters the store. He looks around and stops short. The layout is different. He could’ve sworn the winding staircase was on his right before, but now it’s on his left. Even the plants – was there that cluster of white lilies there before?“Yoongi!” Taehyung ducks out from around a plant, grinning at him. There’s some kind of yellow flower with a red centre hooked behind his ear. Instead of looking like an idiot on vacation in Hawaii, he looks ethereal. Maybe it’s the floral robe billowing behind him as he hops around plants on his way to Yoongi. “Thanks for coming in! And your phone being charged this time. That was unexpected.”“You got lucky,” Yoongi says, as if he hadn’t made sure his phone was charging last night for the first time ever. His eyes are drawn back to the flower in Taehyung’s ear and he notices. His eyes go wide and his hand flies up, grabbing the flower.“Oh! Ah, oops, sorry,” he laughs. His cheeks are dusted with pink. Yoongi can’t look away. “It was a gift. They do that, sometimes. Forgot about it completely!”“It’s fine. It looks nice,” Yoongi says, and now he’s blushing.“Thank you.” The smile on his face is brilliant. “But the ring! The ring. Come, I made tea.”His long fingers wrap around Yoongi’s wrist and he tugs him forward. Yoongi thinks of wrenching his wrist back but then he just… doesn’t. He’s led through the new layout of the shop and out a door at the back. His stomach lurches and he stumbles to a stop, blinking at the bright sunlight.It had been an overcast day when he’d entered the store. And there definitely wasn’t any room for this green oasis. Trees ring them in, plants growing in a mess of colours and sizes everywhere. The only building Yoongi can see is the store behind them.They’re definitely not in New York anymore.“Oops, sorry!” Taehyung says, eyes wide when he catches sight of Yoongi’s pale face. His fingers drop from Yoongi’s wrist. “I always forget to warn people. It can be a bit jarring at first.”“Where are we?” Yoongi frowns, walking to the edge. He can’t see any walls enclosing them in, just greenery. The sun is hot on his skin, breeze warm. He shrugs off his jacket but keeps his sleeves pulled down to his wrists.A butterfly floats past his nose.“Not New York,” Taehyung says. He has wandered over to a garden bed where the soil looks freshly turned. A few tiny plants peak through. They shiver as Taehyung kneels down to examine them. “Not even the US, I don’t think. I never asked.”“You’ve never explored through the trees?”“Sure,” Taehyung says. He’s rooting through the soil now. His silk robe is hanging in the dirt but he doesn’t seem to care. “You just end up coming out the other side.”“Did you make this?” Surely Yoongi would’ve heard of him if he was this powerful.Two birds dive together out of a tree, fluttering around each other before swooping out of sight. One’s bright red, the other’s green and yellow.Taehyung snorts. “No, no way. I’m somewhat the black sheep of the family. I can barely light a candle. This was a gift from a witch who lives down south. Very far down south.”A breeze stirs the tree. The leaves rustle together. Yoongi isn’t sensing any kind of illusions. It seems real. Maybe a pocket? Half here and half there. Taehyung’s store is in the perfect place for it, one of the thin places between this world and the magic out there.“Yoongi! Look at this!”Yoongu turns. Taehyung’s on his knees, turned towards him with a hand out. Yoongi comes closer. A tiny ladybug is crawling between his fingers. Taehyung’s hand tilts with its movements.“Isn’t she cute! She just landed on me. Here!”And suddenly Taehyung is right in front of him, connecting their hands. The ladybug scuttles around for a bit then walks onto Yoongi’s fingers. He stares down at it, wide-eyed. He can feel tiny legs like a tickle across his skin.In the next moment, it flies away. Yoongi’s eyes latch back onto Taehyung, though, watching the child-like wonder light up his face as he tracks the ladybug’s journey.“Adorable,” Taehyung breathes. He tilts his head to the side and catches Yoongi looking at him. His smile widens. “And you’re pretty adorable yourself. Tea?”Yoongi’s left blinking by himself as Taehyung moves away.“What?”“Tea! I have some buckwheat tea, straight from the motherland.” He pours it out. Yoongi hesitantly sits down. “I hope you like it. I forgot to ask. You do drink tea, right? Now I think about it, I feel you’d be a coffee addict. It’s the whole… sleepy, angry vibe you’ve got going on.”“Vibe?” Yoongi repeats.“Yeah, you know… the circles under your eyes. The angry eyebrows.”“Thanks.”“Not in a bad way! In a cute way. Kind of like Grumpy Cat, you know?”Yoongi blinks. The name sounds familiar, but he says, “No. I don’t know.”“It’s that famous cat, you know, that always looks grumpy? He’s a meme.” It hits him, then, why it’s familiar – Jeongguk once changed his phone’s lock screen to that and he couldn’t change it back for a month. “Anyway, not the point. The point is tea! Here!”Taehyung’s holiding out a mug to him. It has a fox painted on it, the tail curling up the handle.“It’s Jimin’s,” Taehyung says with a shrug. “You can’t learn taste, I guess. He thinks it’s hilarious.”“Uh… thanks?” Yoongi says. He takes a sip of the buckwheat tea. It tastes a bit like how Yoongi imagines dirt would taste. But like the soil from Taehyung’s magical garden, rather than the dirt from the sidewalk. Expensive dirt. Taehyung looks like he’s enjoying it, at least.He feels something curling around his ankle and he flinches, sending the teacup clattering onto the table.It’s a fucking vine again, trying to curl around his ankle.“Oh,” Taehyung says, eyes round and cheeks pink as he stares down at the vine. It’s reaching out to Yoongi hungrily. Yoongi shifts out of reach. “Sorry! I swear they don’t normally do this. Pinky swear.”“Aren’t you some kind of green witch? You can’t make them stop?”Something in Taehyung’s face shifts. It’s like a curtain coming down. Where before he was open and earnest, now something’s closed off. The smile is still there and Yoongi can’t pinpoint exactly what’s different, but he’s messed up.“Black sheep, remember? I’m a useless witch. Plants just love me, I guess.”Yoongi doesn’t know what to say. He’s not used to comforting other people, but he knows enough to know that’s what he should be doing here. But… he’s coming up blank. Jeongguk’s the one who’s good at this. It’s the main reason he started bringing him on jobs – he deals with the emotions side of it. The comforting side. Yoongi just does the only thing he’s good at – sending things back to hell.“The ring,” Yoongi blurts, seizing on the first topic to come to mind. “What’d you find out?”The sharp set of Taehyung’s shoulders softens, relaxes.“The ring,” he says, “is an interesting one. It’s called the Ring of Naberius.”Yoongi frowns. “Like the demon?”“Exactly like the demon!” The light enters back into Taehyung’s eyes and he’s leaning forward eagerly, phone out and flipping through the photo’s he’d taken. He zooms in on one and points at the screen. “That’s his seal scratched into the ring; really, really tiny. You see it? It’s kinda hidden by the raven wing etchings, but it’s there. Six of them.”“So it’s a demon’s ring?”“Yes! And a pretty powerful one, too. Naberius is known for being good at talking. People listen to him. He’s also fashioned himself into a bit of a protector of hell, like a policeman, if demons can have that? But, oh, you’d know better than me, right? This is your thing.”“My thing,” Yoongi repeats. “Sure. Yeah, I’ve crossed paths with him. Would not shut the fuck up.”“Maybe you just inspire conversation,” Taehyung says with a grin. “It’s a strong, silent type thing, I guess? Anyway. Back to the ring. I’d say he crafted it years ago and invested part of his power in it, probably as a gift. I found mention of a few people he would’ve been close enough to gift something like this, but you’re not concerned with how it came into your hands, right?”“I want to know what it can do.”“You warrior types.” Taehyung sips his tea, making a happy humming noise. “I can’t know for sure without testing it out myself. Did you bring it?”“What do you think?”Taehyung rolls his eyes. “No also works just fine. Okay, without testing it out myself, my best guess is it gives the wearer some emotional manipulation power tied with voice. More in the vein of nudging the listener towards believing everything the wearer’s saying, than outright being able to control their emotions. There’s probably a protection element to it as well, like some wards. The iron means it won’t be too strong at the emotional manipulation but adds to the protection side of it.”“Huh,” Yoongi says. “Not bad.”“Finding things is part of my job, Yoongi. Are you surprised I’m competent at it?”“Wait, what? No—”“I’m not just a pretty face, but I appreciate you thinking so.”Yoongi opens his mouth, pauses. Taehyung’s grinning at him. His mouth snaps closed.“You’re winding me up on purpose.”“Of course I am,” Taehyung says. When he sips his tea this time, his eyes don’t leave Yoongi’s. “It’s fun. And I’ll also do anything for a compliment. I thrive off validation.”“Ah,” Yoongi says. He swallows. “I can see that.”“Now, as for paying me for this information that I went to a lot of trouble to find,” Taehyung says, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the edge of the table. He’s smirking. “Nothing in this world is free, etcetera, etcetera. You know the Guild of the Guiding Light’s ball this weekend?”Yoongi had been invited. He’d had a lot of fun setting the pretentious invite on fire. Every year, he got the same invite. They hated him, but they still wanted everything he knew. And it’s at least an acknowledgement that he’s the best exorcist in the city.“I’m aware of it,” Yoongi says. It’s probably the most diplomatic he’s ever been. He takes a sip of his tea in congratulations.“I need a date. And you need to repay me. So, two birds one stone!”Yoongi’s mouthful of tea ends up splattered all over the table. He hacks out the rest of it, then wipes his face with his jacket. Taehyung is looking at him in concern.“You what,” he eventually grunts out.“I’d like to take you to the ball this weekend. As my date.”“In payment for the ring information?”Taehyung shrugs.“Sure.”“No, you don’t get to give me half-ass answers,” Yoongi snaps. “Why the hell would you want to go with me? Are you trying to piss off all of New York’s mage population? You’ve gotta know what they think of me.”Taehyung shrugs again, the movement almost bird-like in its delicacy. “My halmeoni is always pressuring me to bring a date and I think I’d have fun with you. I don’t really care about what New York’s esteemed mage population thinks about me. They all already know I’m a fail witch and I only get invited because of my family. It’ll be fun.”“It won’t be fun,” Yoongi says. “Can’t you just accept money like a normal person?”“Nope,” Taehyung says cheerfully, leaning back in his chair. A dragonfly hovers next to his head. “This is my payment.”“We never discussed payment. I thought it was a favour.”“Nothing’s free,” Taehyung sing-songs. “And it was gonna be a favour until I remembered the ball, so… that’s what this is.”Yoongi’s brow furrows. “Are you saying you want to go to this ball with me? Why?”“Eye-candy,” Taehyung says breezily. “And you’ll piss off Delfadessa even more. It’ll be fun, c’mon. Don’t you wanna spend more time with me?” Taehyung leans forward, resting his chin on a hand and batting his eyelashes.And Yoongi must be drunk or insane because his answer is yes. He does want to spend more time with Taehyung, ball or not. He wants to watch the way Taehyung’s eyes light up at the most inane things. How animated his face gets. He doesn’t even mind his stupid plants, which are currently winding their way up his leg.“Okay,” he says. Taehyung freezes, but only for a moment. He cheers.“Yes! Really? Yes! You can’t take it back now! Excellent! Jimin’s gonna be so jealous I have a date like you.”“Like me?” Yoongi says, face going red at the word ‘date’.“So cute.” Taehyung leans forward and pinches his cheek. Yoongi lets him. Then Taehyung’s fingers push into his hair and Yoongi does nothing but shiver. “Oops!” Taehyung giggles, hand withdrawing. He brandishes a leaf. “Not as cool as a ladybug, but still.” Then he blows the leaf away.Yoongi takes a sip of his tea. He looks up to find Taehyung staring at him, chin propped up on his hand again and fingers drumming against his cheekbone.“What,” Yoongi says flatly to hide his embarrassment.“You just came from a job?”“Yes.”“Another poltergeist?”“No, a creature this time. A kappa.”“Ooh, I like them! They’re nice.”“This one drowned four people because they stopped giving him cucumbers.”“Not the smartest, I guess. Whereabouts?”“East Village. Karaoke joint.”Taehyung huffs and sits back. Yoongi sips at his tea. He’s up to the bottom part where the flavour is super intense. Like dirt.“Yoongi, I’m trying to create conversation.” Taehyung laughs. “You look like I’m torturing this information out of you?”“You’re interrogating me.”“People love to talk about themselves! This is how conversation happens. You’re just a lost cause.” Taehyung switches gears abruptly, eyes going intent. “Did you get hurt? You’re moving a little gingerly.”Yoongi’s hit with the image of Jeongguk, on the ground, neck and shoulder torn to shreds. His whole body on fire as it heals.The sick feeling in his stomach that’s been there since the karaoke joint intensifies.“No,” he says, stiffening.Out of nowhere, he hears tiny nails skittering across the floor and then a ball of fluff jumps through the doggy-door. It barrels towards him and stops a few feet away, growling.“Tannie,” Taehyung says, exasperated. He bends down to scoop him up and cradles him in one elbow. The dog settles down but turns and fixes its beady little eyes on Yoongi. Yoongi frowns at it.“Where are you hurt?” Taehyung asks. He leans forward slightly, eyes bright and scanning what he can see of Yoongi. “Did you treat it yourself? Let me take a look, I’ve had to bandage a few wounds in my time.”“I’m not hurt,” Yoongi snaps. “I told you that.”Taehyung pauses, lips parted. He tilts his head to the side, silver hair shifting, and Yoongi hates the way he’s looking at him. Like he cares.Yeontan settles down in his arms.“No, you said you didn’t get hurt. But you lied.”Yoongi’s spine goes stiff.“You’re an empath?” he asks. Revulsion creeps through him. It takes Yeontan jumping on the table for him to realise he’s standing again, chair shoved to the side. Taehyung stares up at him, wide-eyed.“No, I’m not an empath,” Taehyung says quickly. His hands are out in front of him. “I’m not. I can’t read your thoughts or anything like that.”“A truthseeker, then.”“No, it’s, uh… it’s Yeontan.”“What? Your dog?” Yoongi takes another step back.“Please don’t go,” Taehyung says, eyes beseeching. He stands up from the table but doesn’t come much closer. “I knew you were lying because Yeontan got angry. Here, look. Um… the sky is green.”Yeontan whines and wiggles in his arms.“Jeongguk would never steal any of my food.”Yeontan growls. His teeth are revealed, tiny and sharp.“I really want Yoongi to leave.” He says it softly, voice like the sun on a cold winter’s day. Deep and soul-warming and soft. Delicate.Until Yeontan’s growl gets louder and he lunges forward, sinking his small, vicious teeth into Taehyung’s arm.“Taehyung, fuck, I get it, okay.” Yoongi comes forward and grabs Taehyung’s wrist. His robe falls back to his elbow, revealing the light dusting of hair on his tan forearm. His skin is red around the bite, but it’s only bleeding shallowly in two spots. Yoongi pulls his sweater over his hand and gently dabs the blood away. “We need to clean this. Where’s your bathroom?”“Yoongi.” He doesn’t need to see Taehyung’s face to know he’s smiling at him. He probably wouldn’t be able to deal with that smile at the moment. “It’s fine. I can deal with a Yeontan-sized bite. I deserve it, anyway. Lies are painful for him.”“So you can’t read my mind.”“I can’t read your mind. In case you haven’t picked it up yet, I’m a fail witch.” Yoongi looks up from Taehyung’s wound, meeting his eyes. They’re standing close. Taehyung’s smiling, but there’s a deep sadness in his eyes. Less of a joke than he makes it seem, then.“You can’t be that much of a fail witch,” Yoongi says. “This garden is amazing. And the plants all love you.”Yoongi’s the first to admit he’s shit at comforting other people. But something about Taehyung makes him want to try.But his awkward attempt pays off when Taehyung ducks his head down, cheeks dusting pink.“They do, don’t they,” he murmurs. He stretches a toe out, nudging at a dandelion. At his touch, it shoots up a few inches. The expression on Taehyung’s face as he looks at his garden makes Yoongi’s heart hurt. It’s an unfamiliar feeling.“I have to go,” Yoongi says, stepping back. “But send me the event information.”“I will!” Taehyung says, head flying up and grin overtaking his face. “It’s gonna be fun! You won’t regret it.”“I’ll definitely regret it.”Taehyung ignores him. “And answer my text messages this time! Okay?”Yoongi rolls his eyes, throwing a wave over his shoulder and leaving Taehyung in his magical garden surrounded by all the plants clamouring for his attention.---Yoongi doesn’t really know what he’s doing here. He’d resolved not to show up and yet… here he is. Out the front of what looks like a cathedral packed between the usual cramped apartment buildings of midtown Manhattan. The Guild must think they’re so hilarious hosting their wanky ball in a cathedral, or at least what had once been a cathedral. He’s out of view, leaning against a building across the street and working on his third cigarette. He’s not hiding. That’d be ridiculous. He glances down at his phone. The last message is from Taehyung.
Taehyung

I’m 5 away! ✨✨
Those fucking stars again. Yoongi still doesn’t know what they mean. He doesn’t know about the others one, either. All week, Taehyung had been sending him photos? Of stupid things, too. One was of a tiny carved wooden statue with an enormous dick. Taehyung’s caption: It’s cursed! Made the last owner wank to death. Goals, amirightThe next was a video of a bright orange ball bouncing around the store. Yoongi can hear someone else cursing in the background. Bouncing ball of doom got loose somehow ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ once it starts, it doesn’t stop lolThere were a few photos of Yeontan and one with Taehyung’s face scrunched next to the furball’s. It wasn’t cute at all.He’d also come across the ladybug again and sent him a blurry picture. Yoongi’s not really sure why Taehyung is bothering with all this.As Yoongi watches his phone, three little dots pop up at the bottom. Yoongi frowns at them, then a flurry of messages come through.
Taehyung

Here!! Where you?

You better be here

Don’t think I don’t know where you live, Min Yoongi

JK told me. Not stalking you

Much ;)
Yoongi doesn’t know where to start with that, so he doesn’t reply. Again. He slides the phone into his pocket, sucks it up, and makes his way back to the cathedral. He spots Taehyung and forgets to lift his foot up, so ends up tripping onto the curb.Taehyung glances over and his smile is brilliant. He stands out on the street with his blazer, the colour of red wine and embroidered with pastel flowers. His dark pants hug his legs closely, the burgundy stripe down the side making them seem even longer than usual. For once, there’s no dirt smudges anywhere.He’s ethereal, shining in a way Yoongi’s never seen before.And Yoongi is… not quite on that level. The only suit he’d ever worn was for his parents’ funerals, so he wasn’t going to start now. A black oxford shirt and black pants are enough for him.“Yoongi!” Taehyung says, closing the distance between them. His eyes trace down Yoongi’s body, darkening. “You came.”Then Taehyung’s lips press to Yoongi’s cheek, making him freeze. There’s an odd pause before he replies. “Was I not meant to?”“I just had a plan to drag you out kicking and screaming,” Taehyung says. Yoongi is hyper-aware of Taehyung’s hands resting on his hip bones. His eyes are hooded beneath the silver hair falling into them. His head cocks to the side, lips smirking, and Yoongi’s heartbeat is loud in his ears. “But I can still do it another time.” He draws back and Yoongi can take a complete breath again. “Come on, come meet Joonie!”Taehyung’s hand slides into his with a familiarity that feels foreign. He drags him over to the two people he’d been talking to.Yoongi sees who it is and stutters to a halt.“Oh shit.”One of them turns to him.“Min Yoongi,” Seokjin hisses. His eyes pulse red. “You little brat! I’m going to strangle you and dump you in the Hudson.”Yoongi side-steps neatly behind Taehyung. The guy standing next to Seokjin grabs his arm.“Woah, what? Jin.”“This little maggot,” Seokjin says viciously, stabbing a finger at Yoongi, “stole my favourite shirt! The Mario one.”“The one where he’s holding the tiny wrench? You said you’d lost that.”“I didn’t steal it. I won it, fair and square. And your pants, too.”Yoongi had met Seokjin a few times, actually. The last time was when Yoongi had stumbled into a bar, his clothes pretty much all burned and skin freshly healed, and challenged him to a game of blackjack for his clothes. It was one of those situations where he had to take down the biggest player to get the rest to stop bothering him, and that just so happened to be Seokjin. Yoongi actually thinks he isn’t too bad, as far as vampires go.“Give me back my Mario shirt!”“I lost it,” Yoongi says blandly. “I’m sure you can find another.”“This is your date, Tae? This gremlin?” Seokjin says, again with the angry, jabbing finger. “Why the fuck?”Taehyung’s grinning. “He’s fun. Unlike you, old man.”“Aish, little brat,” Seokjin says, a whole lot more affectionately than he had to Yoongi. “I still don’t like him.”“No one’s asking you to, princess,” Taehyung says. “Yoongi, this is Namjoon, my cousin. And you apparently already know his boyfriend, Seokjin.”Namjoon is lanky and long-limbed, but with less of the grace Taehyung possesses. The name rings a bell, but Yoongi doesn’t think he’s ever met him before.“It’s nice to meet you,” Namjoon says, holding out his hand. Yoongi, frowning, shakes it. He can’t think of the last time anyone said that to him. Namjoon’s obviously as unaware as his brother. “Good luck dealing with Tae.”“Hey! Don’t make me start on—” Taehyung breaks off, eyes catching on something in the distance. He blinks. Yoongi follows his gaze but doesn’t see anything to merit that reaction, just the street and the usual crowd. “Ah, let’s go in. I need some champagne.”Taehyung weaves their fingers together and tugs him into the cathedral, fast enough that Taehyung’s weird pause flies out of his head. The wards keeping out the non-magical slide over his skin. The noise hits him all at once – voices talking over each other, clinking glasses, shrieks of laughter. He wrinkles his nose.“Kim Taehyung and Min Yoongi,” Taehyung tells the satyr at the door. He’s standing behind a podium, an ancient book opened in front of him. His eyes flash up to give Yoongi a startled look. The satyr shifts on his hooves.“Oh, uh, Min Yoongi. Go through, yes.”“Thank you!” Taehyung sings, and tugs Yoongi into the main hall. Their hands are still connected. It’s a beautiful room with a high, domed ceiling, and stained glass. They’ve really taken liberty with the lights, lighting up the walls pink and purple and the ceiling a deep blue. Someone’s also spelled tiny sparkling lights to bob around, like stars. It’s already packed, all kinds of creatures and humans dressed in glittering colours.Yoongi isn’t really sure what the point of all this is. To dress up? Get wasted? Show off who’s levelled up in the past year? Yoongi really, truly, doesn’t know why the fuck he showed up. Already, he can feel dozens of eyes on him. Their hate and disgust. It’s like a dark smoke crawling closer, smothering. He can feel his chest tightening up with it.And Taehyung – he obviously hasn’t heard any of the rumours or stories. Why would he want to show up with someone like Yoongi? Only because he doesn’t know.“He should’ve asked for your autograph,” Taehyung says, leaning in close to Yoongi’s ear. “Talk about starstruck.”And suddenly Yoongi can breath properly again. He tilts his head to look at Taehyung. His mind slows its frantic pace.Perhaps he’s not giving Taehyung enough credit. He’s not an idiot. He probably has heard what they say about him. And for some reason, he doesn’t care. People are going to talk about how he brought Yoongi with him and they’re not going to be polite about it. He must want that. He must be wanting to piss someone off.And pissing people off? Yoongi’s pretty great at that.Yoongi snags a glass of champagne off a passing waiter.“Get me— oh.”“Get your own,” Yoongi says with a fake smile. He swallows half of it one go and winces. It’s bubbly and sugary and gross, but it’s alcoholic. Yoongi’s fingers itch for a cigarette but he’ll take the next best vice.“Don’t make me set Jinnie on you,” Taehyung says, leaning in close. His breath fans across Yoongi’s face and he feels himself unconsciously leaning closer. Then Taehyung bops Yoongi on the nose. “He’s pretty but also pretty crazy.”Yoongi’s eyes involuntarily flicker to the right. Seokjin is standing off to the side, chatting to a group. He catches Yoongi looking and directs a scowl at him.“His Mario shirt didn’t last the week. Had to throw it out.”“If you want to keep living, I wouldn’t say that out loud. Jimin!”A guy with blue hair turns from the group he’s talking to. He’s also in all black, with a fitted jacket that shines with sequins. His smile is large for Taehyung, but his eyes narrow on Yoongi.“Who are you?” he says.“Aish, Jimin,” Taehyung says, leaving Yoongi’s side to press a kiss onto this guy’s cheek. “Behave.” He pats Jimin’s head. “You look beautiful and I love the blue, but don’t spoil it with your bratty attitude.”Jimin scowls, batting away Taehyung’s hands.“I know I look good,” he says. “I don’t need your validation. I want to know who this is.” He points an accusing finger at Yoongi.Yoongi stares evenly back.“This is Min Yoongi. I told you I was bringing him!”“I don’t listen to everything you say,” Jimin sniffs, tilting his nose into the ear. Yoongi had no idea it was possible for someone shorter to look down their nose at you. Yet, here they are.“Well, this is Yoongi. Yoongi, meet Jimin. He helps out at the store.”“Helps out,” Jimin scoffs. “I end up running it half the time when you’re too busy sticking your head in the dirt.”Taehyung squawks but they both ignore him.“Nice to meet you,” Yoongi deadpans.“Oh no, the pleasure’s all mine.” Jimin’s voice is caustic, biting. His smile is saccharine sweet. “The infamous Min Yoongi. Here with my Taehyung. Why?”“What’s it to you?”“Why are you so defensive?”“Go be a pest elsewhere,” Taehyung cuts in, shoving Jimin away. Jimin rolls his eyes.“Fine,” he says. “See you later, darling.” With his eyes still connected to Yoongi’s, he slides in close to Taehyung, rising up on his toes to whisper something in Taehyung’s ear. His hands rest on Taehyung’s chest for balance. Taehyung’s cheeks tinge pink.“Should I leave,” Yoongi says flatly.“Not at all.” Jimin throws him a flirty smile as he drops back down. He pats Taehyung on the chest. “Enjoy yourselves, boys.”Then he strides off, blue hair bobbing gently.“Ah, yes,” Taehyung says, clearing his throat. “That’s Jimin. Who you’ve now met. Ignore him; he’s a pest. Don’t listen to anything he says.”“Okay,” Yoongi says, when he really wants to ask what the history is there. But it’s not his business. He’s here to pay Taehyung back and make people mad. That’s it.“Let’s head in,” Taehyung says, snagging a honey-gold wine off a passing waiter with antlers curling out of his head. “I wouldn’t want to miss Delfadessa’s opening speech.”The whole Guild of the Guiding Light is obnoxious as hell, but the worst among them is Delfadessa. And what kind of name is that, anyway? Four syllables is too many. He sounds like he’s just stepped out of Ancient Greece after sacrificing twenty virgins on a full moon.He’d also somehow been friends with Yoongi’s father. His mother, at least, hadn’t liked him. But it still gave Delfadessa leave to pester Yoongi all the fucking time. In his eyes, at least. Yoongi can’t stand the guy.They make their way through the crowd and, sure enough, Delfadessa steps onto the platform just as they edge to the front.“Mages and friends of New York!” His voice booms out across the hall, magically enhanced. “Thank you all for gathering with me on this night! It’s my pleasure as Guild Master to welcome you all to the 310th annual ball!”“Jackass,” Yoongi mutters, rolling his eyes. Taehyung nudges him but Jimin, on his other side, throws him a lightning-fast smirk. The rest of Delfadessa’s speech goes on in the same vein – praising his own work, waxing poetic about the guild, commending the next generation of mages coming out of the Academy, exaggerating about the same rising darkness Chaeseon had mentioned.He ends it in a way only someone called Delfadessa could.“Let the celebrations commence!” he booms and throws his hands up. Bright lights like fireworks come shooting out, gathering at the ceiling and turning into the outline of a herd of horses. The horses rear and start galloping, slanting down over the guests’ heads before exploding into rainbows at the end of the hall. The crowd cheers. Yoongi wants to put his head through a wall.“I need more alcohol for this shit.”Taehyung laughs. “You should have seen him two years ago. He had these giant bowls of water and oil suspended above the crowd, lit them on fire and made them dance. Except one of the bindings broke and it just so happened to be the one above him. He got soaked.”“Broke,” Jimin snorted. “By accident.”“All for a good cause.”They mingle for a while after that. It’s all somewhat anticlimactic. Taehyung seems to be friendly with everyone. No one likes Yoongi, but they’re at least somewhat polite in front of Taehyung. Watching Taehyung work the room is an experience. Yoongi doesn’t say much but never feels like he needs to. Taehyung keeps each conversation flowing as if it’s easy. He remembers things about every person he talks to and they all seem to love him. They all start off wary of Yoongi but when he doesn’t say anything, seem to settle down.It’s weird.Yoongi hasn’t worked out why Taehyung would even want him here at all. He’s not doing anything.Eventually, with a nice buzz going on from all the glasses of wine he’s downed, he has to pee. It’s on the way back that Delfadessa steps into his path.“Min Yoongi.” He’s got some kind of grandiose accent going on, despite having grown up in New York. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw you in the crowd earlier. You’ve been ignoring my invitations for years.”“Can’t imagine why.”“It’s good you’re here,” Delfadessa continues as if Yoongi never spoke. “We need a strong magic like yours with us, now more than ever. Chaeseon mentioned she’d spoken to you a few weeks ago?”Yoongi’s lips thin. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told her – I’m not interested in your bullshit.”“If you don’t feel it, you’re deluding yourself. Someone’s gathering a lot of dark magic and it’s not going to end well for anyone here.”“That sounds like it’s a you problem. Guild Master, and all that?”“The point of the guild is to pool our resources to stop any more catastrophic events from happening. It doesn’t work if we’re all fragmented and don’t come together.”“I’m not part of your guild.”“Your parents would’ve wanted you to—”“Don’t you dare talk about what they would’ve wanted,” Yoongi hisses, surging forward. “They’re dead.”Delfadessa doesn’t look concerned at all.“They are, and it’s a tragedy no matter what anyone says. Mara, too. She was a strong witch and a good ally to have on our side. A tragedy. But we have a duty to safeguard the people of New York—”“Oh god, spare me this superhero bullshit,” Yoongi groans. “Save it for someone in awe of your shitty magic tricks.”“We could use your help at the Academy. There’s a lot you could teach those kids.”“You want me to be near your precious children? You’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel here, Delfadessa. I’m sure you were convinced the dark magic was coming from me until you had Chaeseon check.”Delfadessa doesn’t address his last statement at all, instead saying, “You’re the best exorcist we have; the best at blood magic. You need to spread that knowledge around and not hoard it to yourself.”This is something Yoongi has learnt a long time ago – everyone wants something from you, no matter what. Everyone’s the hero of their own story and they’re okay trampling over you to get to the top, as long as they can justify it to themselves. “That’s because the rest are dead, possessed, working against you or sick of your bullshit. And I don’t really blame them. You’re just a knock-off Gandalf but without the cool beard.”Delfadessa’s lips thin, his mask finally slipping into annoyance.“Chaeseon’s convinced there’s light in you. That you’re not hellbound like everyone else thinks and that the blood magic hasn’t corrupted you. But mark my words, Min Yoongi – stray fully into the dark and I’ll happily put you down like the runt you are. Parents or not, knowledge or not.”Yoongi leans in close. His voice is low and thrumming with anger when he says, “I’d like to see you try.”Because that’s the thing about magic – the more powerful the magic is, the more you need to sacrifice. Your own blood is one of the most powerful sacrifices of all and Yoongi just so happens to have an endless supply of his own.And by the look in Delfadessa’s eyes, fear mixing with hatred, he knows he can’t cross Yoongi without coming out worse.“Delfadessa!” Taehyung’s suddenly there, sliding an arm around Yoongi. The atmosphere, buzzing with tension, breaks. Taehyung is a strong, steady presence beside him. “This event is incredible! The horses, the fireworks, oh my god. You’ll have to teach me one day!”Delfadessa’s eyes snag on the arm around Yoongi’s waist. His jaw clenches.“Kim Taehyung,” he says. His voice has lost that hard edge, though. Just like everyone else in the world, he seems to like Taehyung. “That display is perhaps… out of your capabilities. I’m sure we can come up with a more small-scale substitute, though. I’m always happy to share my knowledge.”Yoongi scoffs but his eyes catch on Taehyung’s face. His face still has that open, shining smile on it, but there’s lines of tension around his eyes. He’s pissed off.“Oh, only if you have the time, I’m sure you’re busy.”“Mmm.” Delfadessa’s eyes keep dipping down to the arm around Yoongi’s waist. “Does your grandmother know about this little development here?”“This development? As in me wanting to learn about the horse illusion? Well, I haven’t spoken to her yet tonight so I don’t think she knows. Do you think she’d be better to teach me? I’ll have to ask her. You know how she is, she’ll be excited about me taking an interest in any kind of learning—”“No.” Delfadessa’s brow is furrowed in annoyance but he’s obviously trying not to let it show. “You. Here with…” He waves his hand at Yoongi.Taehyung looks confused. “With…?” He looks around, glancing behind Yoongi. “Oh, wait, you mean Yoongi? This Yoongi?” He points at Yoongi. Delfadessa’s frown deepens.“Yes. This Yoongi.”“Oh, oops, sorry. I just assumed we were still talking about the illusion. So wait, what about Yoongi?”For once in his life, Yoongi struggles to keep his usual bland expression on his face. Delfadessa’s face is going red but Taehyung just looks absolutely clueless.“Does your grandmother know you’re here with Min Yoongi?” Delfadessa grits out.“I’m not sure.” Taehyung tilts his head to the side, looking like a confused puppy. “Should I tell her? Would you like me to tell her? She probably knows; she knows everything. But I haven’t seen her tonight. She hasn’t been by the store in the past few days, either, soI haven’t had the chance to tell her. Is there something going on with the guild? Is that why I should tell her?”It’s like a tidal wave of words, rushed through and leaving both Delfadessa and Yoongi blinking.“Ah, no,” Delfadessa says. “Nothing’s going on with the guild. I’m sure you’ll see her later. And speaking of, how is your little store going, anyway?”Yoongi is fascinated at this weird wrestling of power, back and forth. Yoongi’s sure Delfadessa doesn’t realise Taehyung’s playing into this ditzy stereotype, but the man just wants to feel in control of anything. Probably has a small dick.The arm around Yoongi’s waist clenches, but that’s the only indication of Taehyung’s annoyance. Taehyung’s face is nothing but open, still, a smile on his face.“It’s going so well, thanks for asking! This week we found a statue that makes the owner do nothing but masturbate until they die of starvation. Or until their dick falls off. I’d be happy to let you examine it anytime, especially if it can help further your own studies.”“Taehyung,” Delfadessa sighs. He’s really selling himself as the world-weary professor now. Maybe Yoongi should’ve called him a knock-off Dumbledore. “Once you’ve finished this childish phase of yours, you know I’d be happy to have you back at the Academy with your brother. Such a bloodline shouldn’t go to waste.”“I’m sure,” Taehyung says. “Always a pleasure to talk to you. Avoid any large pots of water and oil, especially if they’re hanging.”Arm still around his waist, Taehyung pulls Yoongi away.“Ugh,” he says. “Little store. What an asshole. He makes me want to take a shower every time I have to talk to him. Gross. I don’t know how halmeoni deals with him all the time. And he’s convinced the store is something beneath me.”Yoongi frowns. “Who is your grandmother, anyway?” Delfadessa mentioned her too many times for Yoongi to feel comfortable. Anyone that Delfadessa talks about with familiarity is someone he should avoid.“You don’t know?” Taehyung looks at him in surprise. “She’s over there talking to Jimin. She said you’d met.”Jimin’s baby blue hair isn’t hard to find in the crowd. He’s bent over slightly, flirting with a much shorter woman. Her hair is permed back from her face, three strings of pearls around her neck. All around are suits and floor-length dresses, but she’s just in a long, patterned skirt and those rubber shoes.“Choi Chaeseon? That meddling old woman is your grandmother?”Taehyung’s eyebrows shoot up. “I haven’t heard anyone ever call her that. Makes sense.”Yoongi’s mind flies back to the last time he’d seen the woman, two weeks or so ago. She’d been rambling about some dark future. She’d also mentioned a grandson.Dammit.He’s stalking over there before he realises it.“Min Yoongi,” she says, looking up from her conversation and smiling kindly. “How lovely to see you. You decided to help my grandson afterall?”“‘Help’?” Taehyung repeats, coming up behind him. “What?”“This is your grandson?” Yoongi snaps, stabbing a finger at Taehyung.“Last I checked,” she says. “I believe so. Forgive me if my memory is failing in my old age.”“Halmeoni, no,” Taehyung gasps, following closely behind him. “What did you do?”“Don’t take that tone with me, Kim Taehyung.” Chaeseon sniffs, shifting her pearls into a new position. “I did as any concerned grandparent would. I found the best person to help.”“I’m not in trouble,” Taehyung says. “I’m fine! How did you even find out!”“Wait. You’re the paranoid grandson?” Yoongi cuts in, the rest of the conversation finally coming back to him. “The one who thinks someone is following him?”“I’m not— paranoid— ugh, Jimin! You ratted me out to my halmeoni? What the hell?”“Don’t bring me into this weird clusterfuck.” Jimin’s hands fly up and he inches back. “All I did was tell your grandma about that guy that came in. He freaked you out but you wouldn’t do anything about it! I know you’ve been jumping at shadows for weeks. I’ve seen you!”Taehyung stabs a finger at Jimin. “We’re going to have a conversation later about being my halmeoni’s informant. And you.” Taehyung turns to Chaeseon. “You have no right trying to hire someone behind my back! Especially him!”Yoongi blinks then scowls. “What the fuck does that mean?”“He’s good at what he does,” Chaeseon says mildly. She doesn’t seem ruffled at all. “I trust him. I don’t trust many of the other peacocks in here. Their heads are so far up their asses they could lick their nostrils clean. Yoongi’s apart from all that.”“You hired him because you know he’s my type!”“What?” Yoongi says. He’s getting whiplash.“Oh, forgive an old woman for wanting to see both her sonja in love and out of trouble. Yoongi is two birds with one stone. A good deal, yes? And he’s here, anyway. I was right!”Taehyung makes an exasperated sound and the fight drains out of him.“Stop meddling in my life, halmeoni,” Taehyung says. He’s pinching the bridge of his nose. “Or I’ll put you in a retirement home.”“You can try.” Chaeseon leans in and pokes Taehyung with one bony finger. “But we both know I’ll be moving into your house when I’m ready. Retirement homes are a dumb American concept because their lazy kids won’t do their duty.”“Halmeoni,” Taehyung says. “Please.”She harrumphs. “You, Min boy. You’re going to help my grandson?”“For the last time, I don’t need anyone’s help.” Taehyung’s lips are tight and he looks more serious than he has the whole night. “This conversation is done. Go harass Joon. I think I saw Seokjin with a ring earlier.”Chaeseon gasps. “That devil! I told him to give me at least three days’ notice!” She frowns and hurries off.“A ring?” Jimin pipes up. “Jin’s finally proposing?!”“Of course not,” Taehyung says, following Chaeseon with his eyes until her tiny form disappears. “But there’s only a few things I can do to get her off my back. Jin and Namjoon in eternal married bliss is only for emergencies.”“Oh, he’s going to murder you,” Jimin chortles.“It’s fine. I’ll help out at the Academy for a few days and he’ll get over it.” Taehyung turns his eyes to Yoongi. “I had no idea she had approached you. Just ignore whatever she told you.”Yoongi frowns. “Okay,” he says slowly, but doesn’t feel good about it.Staying in his own lane is his personal philosophy. Don’t get involved unless there’s money involved. This is no different.But it stays with him. For the rest of the night as Taehyung drags him to talk to different people, a hand on his waist or shoulder or even stroking through his hair at one point, he doesn’t stop thinking about it. Taehyung hasn’t seemed paranoid at all. He’s not the type to make something out of nothing. That means something had legitimately scared him, enough for Jimin to seek out help.But why the fuck should Yoongi care? He’s here to piss off either Chaeseon or Delfadessa or someone else, Yoongi hasn’t quite worked out that part yet. This is just a transaction. He’s always had the ability to keep his thoughts separate before. He’s not going to trip up now.“Dancefloor,” Taehyung gasps. They’ve just come down from the balcony level, back to the main hall. Delfadessa’s ridiculous podium has been taken away and replaced with a DJ deck. Various mages and magical creatures are already getting wild. It looks like a mosh pit from Yoongi’s worst nightmares.“No,” Yoongi says.He gets an eye-full of Taehyung’s puppy-dog eyes.“Aw, c’mon! It’ll be fun!”“No.”“Just one song.” Taehyung steps closer, tilting his head and lowering his voice. “Please.”His tone sends a thrum through Yoongi, pulling deep in his gut. As if from far away, he hears himself answering, “Fine.”Taehyung’s face lights up and he wastes no time dragging Yoongi onto the floor. The lights are dim but purple-tinged, staining Taehyung’s hair violet. He wraps his arms around Yoongi’s waist and drags him close. Yoongi has no choice but to awkwardly place his on Taehyung’s shoulders. It puts their faces so close together, all he can see is Taehyung.“This is awkward,” Yoongi says. “I hate this.”“It’s not awkward! It’s fun!”They sway side-to-side to the beat, Taehyung more than Yoongi.“I feel like I’m in high school. This is horrible.”“Would you feel more comfortable if I grinded on you?”Yoongi blinks. “What? No. Ah… no. No.”A brilliant smile lights up Taehyung’s face.“You were just thinking about it!”“No, no I wasn’t.”“Min Yoongi, did I just break your brain?”“No!”“So you’re not thinking about it? About me grinding on you?” Taehyung steps in even closer so their bodies are pressed together. His lips brush the sensitive skin just in front of Yoongi’s ear. “Are you saying you wouldn’t like that?”It’s that fucking deep tone again. Yoongi lets out a rush of breath.“What do you want me to say? Yes?”Taehyung’s hands drop down his back, settling lower on his hips.“Of course I want you to say yes,” he says. His lips come up and graze along the piercings in Yoongi’s ear. “I like these. A lot.” There’s three, one stud and two hoops. The last hoop has a tiny chain that dangles off it. It’s nothing like the earrings Taehyung favours, where they’re long enough to graze his shoulders, but it’s the fanciest he has.“Me too,” he says lamely, but what the fuck else is he meant to say? Taehyung this close is making all coherent thought melt. His arms slide around Taehyung’s shoulders, drawing him even closer.Yoongi exhales shakily when he feels Taehyung’s lips ghost down his neck. With his head ducked into Yoongi’s shoulder, Yoongi can feel his breath fanning against his collar.Taehyung says against his neck, “I want—”“Gotcha!” A flash goes off. “Ha! Necking like school kids on the DF.” It’s Jimin, eyes on his phone and crowing gleefully. “Straight into the group chat! Hey Min Yoongi, what’s your number? Wait, nevermind, Jeongguk just added you in.”Right on cue, Yoongi’s phone starts vibrating in his pocket.“Jimin,” Taehyung says. “I’m going to disown you.”“Too late!” he giggles. “Damage has been done! That’s what you get! Hey Min Yoongi, I’d watch out for hickies. You’ve got pale as fuck skin and a hickey is humiliating for anyone over the age of 16.”“You brat!” Taehyung lunges at Jimin but he takes off, still squawking laughter. He turns back to Yoongi. His cheeks are pink, arms hanging at his sides uselessly. “Well, uh... the moment’s ruined I guess?”Yoongi stares at the crowd that Jimin disappeared into. Then looks back at Taehyung. Did he really just get caught almost necking on the dancefloor?He blurts something out at the same time as Taehyung.“Ah, I should probably go—”“Come.” And Taehyung’s grabbing him by the wrist and they’re moving through the crowd. Colourful dresses pass by, pointed antlers – Yoongi bumps into a scaled wing but doesn’t get time to say anything as Taehyung tugs him along. The light is still dark with flashes of blue and purple in time with the pounding music.Taehyung drags him up the stairs to the balcony, but then they keep going. Up another floor and through a door they’re definitely not meant to go through.It’s dark. Quiet. The music still thrums up through the ground, but it’s muted. The arched windows lining the wall let in enough moonlight to make out statues, paintings on the wall. Some kind of museum?“Taehyung, what the fu—”“Aren’t you meant to be a badass?” Taehyung teases. His voice is quiet to match the sudden silence. Lower. More husky. He throws a smirk over his shoulder. Yoongi’s mouth dries.Taehyung doesn’t stop, though. He glances around then leads them through the room, pace picking up. They duck into another room.Yoongi stops.“Taehyung.”Taehyung spins around with a grin.“Fine. They probably won’t find us here.”“What—”Taehyung steps forward and kisses him. Hands framing his face, head tilting so his nose just brushes his cheek as his tongue licks into his mouth. And Yoongi is—Frozen. His hands are stuck to his sides, his breath is stuck in his chest. Stuck, until he’s not, and then he’s grabbing onto Taehyung’s lapels and tugging him closer. Taehyung huffs out a laugh into his mouth.“Shut the fuck up,” Yoongi breathes between kisses. It makes Taehyung break away, throwing his head back to laugh louder. The line of his throat is long, golden. Yoongi wants to sink his teeth into it. He doesn’t, though. Not yet. His fingers clench into Taehyung’s jacket and he pushes him back. Taehyung’s still laughing as he hits the wall, eyes crinkled and warm and fixed solely on Yoongi.Yoongi closes the distance and fits their bodies together again, tilting up to catch the rest of Taehyung’s dying laughter.It shouldn’t surprise him that kissing Taehyung is just as bright and intense as the man himself. Taehyung’s full attention is a heady thing. He kisses with single-minded determination, adamant on discovering what makes Yoongi shudder. His hands are in constant motion, smoothing down his waist, tapping on his hips, skimming that curve where his back becomes his ass.“Cute.” Taehyung draws back slightly to press light kisses to the corner of his lips. “So cute.”Yoongi’s hand in Taehyung’s hair tightens into a fist, jerking his mouth away.“Don’t be patronising.” Yoongi scowls. Taehyung’s eyes are lit with fire, smirk wide. The awkward position Yoongi’s got him in just makes his jawline stand out even more. Yoongi wants to bite it.“Stop being so cute, then.”Yoongi’s scowl deepens. So he does bite him, digging his teeth into his neck for just a moment before sucking a kiss onto it. He can feel Taehyung’s breath stuttering out against his lips. He lets go of his grip on Taehyung’s hair but his head stays back like that, weak against the wall.“I should tell Jinnie that you two share a neck fascination,” Taehyung says.Yoongi stops.“Are you trying to kill the mood?”Taehyung smirks. He looks lazy and debauched leaning against the wall, lips red and wet. His knee tilts forward and brushes against Yoongi’s crotch, who jumps.“I don’t think I’ve killed any mood here,” he drawls.“Fucking brat,” Yoongi says, but pulls him close again. He ends up exploring Taehyung’s mouth again, with a leg on either side of Taehyung’s knee. They fall into each other, gaining rhythm again. Taehyung’s hands skim down to Yoongi’s ass.It takes Yoongi a moment to realise Taehyung’s nudging him and Yoongi’s hips are already following, rocking up against his leg.“Fuck,” Yoongi breathes, because it’s weird and surely he’s grown past the stage where he wants to rub off on another guy’s leg?“Problem?” Taehyung says. Yoongi cracks open his eyes – didn’t even realise they were closed – and sees Taehyung’s smirk again.And he should say yes. But Taehyung’s fingers are long and gripping his ass, encouraging him, and the friction is so good.He tries to say something. He does. His mouth falls open but all that comes out is a stuttered breath, carrying the edge of a moan. Taehyung’s face lights up.“Pretty, pretty, pretty,” he mumbles. He presses kisses along Yoongi’s jaw with the words.And then Taehyung’s hand is at his waist, skimming along, reaching his fly. Yoongi’s eyes fly up to meet Taehyung’s. Taehyung cocks an eyebrow at him.“Scared someone’ll walk in on us?” he asks, mirth heavy in his voice.And Yoongi should know better by now. He shouldn’t be this easy to goad. He normally isn’t. But… well.He shoves Taehyung back so he falls back against the wall again. And then he gets on his knees.Taehyung’s eyes widen.“I don’t think I really meant th—”“Shut up,” Yoongi says, working quickly at his pants and shoving them down.Taehyung is hard. His dick springs free. Yoongi takes him in hand, keeping his eyes on Taehyung’s face.Taehyung’s eyes are intense, staring down at him. This isn’t a good angle on anyone, yet Taehyung still looks gorgeous. Especially with his mouth open slightly, tongue darting out at the edge.Yoongi gives him a few strokes. Taehyung’s eyes darken. Yoongi leans forward and stops just far enough that only his breath fans onto him.“Yoongi.”There we go. Yoongi smiles, then tilts his head to run his tongue up the side. Taehyung lets out a breath of air that has the barest hint of a moan to it. Yoongi loves it. He wants to hear what that deep voice sounds like absolutely wrecked.He starts slowly, mouthing at the side and stroking what his mouth can’t get to. Taehyung’s hand comes down, pushing back his hair. When Yoongi finally takes him into his mouth, the fingers in his hair tighten.Yoongi loves giving head. He also loves receiving – who wouldn’t – but there’s something inherently powerful about being on his knees in front of a hot guy and still having all the power. He likes figuring out what the guy likes, what makes his eyes darken and his breath leave in a hiss. Taehyung’s no different.Yoongi bobs his head, taking him in as far as his throat allows. He fits a little more each time. Every so often, he flicks his eyes up to make sure Taehyung’s still paying attention. The look he’s sending him is borderline worshipful and Yoongi memorises it.“Your mouth,” Taehyung breaths. His fingers trail down to his jaw. Yoongi stops bobbing, instead just sucking on the head while his hand goes down his spit-slicked length. Taehyung’s fingers trace around his stretched lips. “You’re so beautiful.”Yoongi rolls his eyes.“No, I mean it. It’s not just my dick talking.”Yoongi pops off. “Keep that shit up and I’ll leave you with blue balls, swear to god.”Taehyung smiles. “There’s nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.”Yoongi’s angry rejoinder is cut off by Taehyung slipping his thumb into Yoongi’s mouth, stretching out his lips at the end.“Beautiful,” he says again when Yoongi swirls his tongue around his thumb. Yoongi tilts his head back and Taehyung’s hand falls to the side.“You’re an idiot,” Yoongi says. “I’m already on my knees for you, you don’t need to say anything else.”He doesn’t want to hear Taehyung’s reply. He bends and swallows Taehyung’s cock down again.“So, ah, misguided,” Taehyung says. His words end in a low moan.Yoongi’s done with talking and feelings and bullshit. None of that is going to take away his love of making another man come undone, especially since Taehyung is the most beautiful man he’s ever seen it happen to.There’s something delicate about Taehyung’s face normally, but now it’s flawless. His lips are bitten red, parted to let through heavy breaths. His eyes are hooded but no less intense for it. His cheekbones and jawline cut sharp angles on his face in a way that’s never the same twice when Yoongi looks. Having the complete focus of someone as vibrant of Taehyung is heady.Yoongi feels drunks off of it.“I’m close,” Taehyung gasps out. His hands are carding through Yoongi’s hair again, not guiding his head but scratching enough to make him shiver.Yoongi pulls off but keeps his lips at the end. His hand works at Taehyung’s length, stroking and twisting.When Taehyung comes, he squeezes his eyes shut, throws his head back and lets out a jerking, breathy moan. His come spills out, coating Yoongi’s lips and hand and neck.This is what’s beautiful – Taehyung boneless against the wall, head lolled to the side, eyes closed. Yoongi just watches him for a moment, chest rising and falling gently. He shifts, and winces. His own dick reminds him that he’s very much hard as hell. He presses down, biting his lip to smother any sound.“What… c’mere,” Taehyung says. His hands grasp Yoongi’s shoulders, tugging him back up.“Uh, you don’t have to—”“Shut up,” Taehyung says, grin lazy as he parrots Yoongi’s words back at him. His fingers work at Yoongi’s pants.“I can—”Taehyung’s hand wraps around his cock and all his words leave him in a sigh. After nothing, Taehyung’s hand feels amazing.Then it’s gone.“Lick,” Taehyung says, holding his palm out.Yoongi raises his eyebrows. Taehyung wiggles his palm.Yoongi keeps his eyes locked on Taehyung as he cranes his head forward, letting his tongue drag up Taehyung’s palm. Taehyung’s eyes are smokey and intense.“Why, thank-you,” Taehyung murmurs, leaning down to peck the side of Yoongi’s mouth. Before Yoongi can complain about his cringiness again, Taehyung’s hand is on him again but this time it’s wet and warm and good. Yoongi’s breath comes shuddering out.Taehyung works him fast, his hand sleek. His teeth nip down the side of Yoongi’s neck, tiny pinprick counterpoints.Yoongi doesn’t last long. Barely a few minutes pass, the only sounds Yoongi’s harsh breath and the slick noise of Taehyung’s hand. And then Yoongi’s coming, body tightening up, toes curling, panting out a moan right in Taehyung’s ear.He feels floaty, drifting. Body heavy and mind flat. He comes back down to Taehyung tucking him into his pants and… wiping his hand off on Yoongi’s shirt?“What the fuck?” Yoongi grumbles, knocking Taehyung’s hand away. He picks up his shirt. And yep, that’s come smeared on the inside of his shirt. “This is my nice shirt, what the fuck!”Taehyung shrugs, grinning. “Mine’s expensive.”“And mine’s not?”“Yoongi, c’mon. I live with Jimin. I can spot a department store shirt from a mile away.”Yoongi wants to be cranky, but he’s just come so he’s really, really not. Plus, his eyes are transfixed on a white smudge next to Taehyung’s lips. He remembers that not much of Taehyung’s come had actually made it into his mouth.“Missed a spot,” he says, leaning forward and licking up the side of Taehyung’s face. Taehyung tilts his head and they’re kissing again.Yoongi thinks he could maybe kiss Taehyung all day. Taehyung’s good at it, rhythmic, and he smells fresh and vibrant in a way that’s less to do with cologne and more just him.They jolt apart when the stairway door bangs closed. They hear drunken giggles, stumbling steps. A long-legged woman trailing glittering wings stumbles past the doorway, dragging another girl after her.They both stay completely still as they listen to the pair move further away.Taehyung snorts a giggle, thunking his head down onto Yoongi’s shoulder.“We almost got caught by a pixie, oh my god. And my hand feels crusty. Oh god.”Yoongi rolls his eyes and pushes Taehyung’s head off his shoulder. He doesn’t really think too much about it when he grabs Taehyung’s wrist and pulls him along.“We passed a bathroom. Come on.”Afterwards, once Yoongi has scrubbed his shirt and wiped down his face and Taehyung has scrubbed his hands, they’re standing across from one another outside. The post-coital bliss is fading and Yoongi… well, he knows what this is. He knew from the start what he was getting into. But now Yoongi’s paid Taehyung back and he’d even gotten an orgasm out of it.“Oh, that’s embarrassing.”Yoongi follows Taehyung’s gaze. He’s staring at the trees lining the street. The trees that are now… in full bloom.In autumn.The red leaves are still mixed in, but now white flowers are shooting out everywhere.Yoongi turns to Taehyung.“Your orgasm made the trees flower.”Taehyung bites his lip and nods, even if it wasn’t a question.Yoongi stares at him a moment before sighing. What the fuck has he gotten himself into.“That’s not very fail witch of you.”Taehyung’s eyes fly back to Yoongi’s and he grins. “Don’t tell Delfadessa. Or, actually, maybe do tell him you gave me head at his previous event. It’ll be funny.”Yoongi looks at Taehyung, at his shining eyes and smile and the way energy seems to radiate off him. And he realises he may be somewhat fucked.“I, uh… I should head home,” Yoongi says, because at the end of the day he’s hellbound and fucking ruined and Taehyung is… Taehyung.“Oh,” Taehyung says, smiling fading. “Right.”Yoongi’s mouth opens and words just spew out. “Yeah, I’m um. A few blocks away. So. Bye.”He gives a jerky wave – what the fuck – and leaves.“Wait, Yoongi!”Taehyung jogs after him, sidestepping Yoongi and planting himself in his path.“I didn’t say thank you. For tonight.”Yoongi wants to crawl out of his skin. This is shit and awkward and he’s still got the taste of Taehyung at the back of his throat, no matter how much water he gargled in that bathroom. He’s getting fantasies of slithering down a storm drain and living out the rest of his shitty existence in the sewers.“You’re… welcome? I guess.” What the fuck is the right way to answer that? Did everyone else learn this in school? Yoongi wouldn’t be surprised; Mara’s home-schooling wasn’t exactly… first-rate. “You gave me the ring information, so…”“Right, yes, of course,” Taehyung says, bouncing on his heels. “Payment. But… I know it was pretty not-fun for you, with Delfadessa and the rest of the assholes. I appreciate you coming, payment or not. This is probably the most fun I’ve had at one.”“Okay,” Yoongi says, because yeah, getting your dick sucked would make an event kind of great. But Taehyung’s eyes are wide and sincere and Yoongi knows he’s probably not talking about that. “Can’t really say the same? Never been to one. Won’t go to one again. Don’t really see why you’d want me there.” Taehyung’s smile dims slightly, so Yoongi forces himself to say, “Apart from the dick sucking. But it wasn’t, uh, bad, I guess.”Taehyung’s surprised laugh peals out into the night. His shoulder shake from the force of it, eyes shining. Yoongi feels his own mouth wanting to twitch upwards. Warmth spreads through him.“Woah, what a five-star rating,” Taehyung says. Yoongi feels light. “Can I put that on my Grindr profile? ‘Wasn’t bad, I guess’.”“Fuck off,” Yoongi mumbles, shoving at his shoulder. Taehyung giggles.“Is this a special kind of Yoongi rating system? What’d you rate the blowjob, then? I need to get a baseline.”“Fuck off.” Yoongi’s cheeks are red now. Dammit.“I guess I’ll have to ask afterwards, next time.” Yoongi blinks. Next time? “Anyway, feel free to drop by the House of Mystery whenever you’re in the area. Bring treats for Yeontan, he likes baby carrots.”“What— he’s a dog.”“Is he?” Taehyung asks, eyes sparkling. “Huh. Well, g’night, Yoongi. Thanks again. Don’t run into any monsters on your way home.” He steps in close and presses a kiss to the side of Yoongi’s mouth. Then turns and walks away.Yoongi’s left staring after him. And just like any other encounter with Taehyung, he’s left thinking what the actual fuck.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Yoongi flinches when his door bangs open and Jeongguk strides in.“What the— is that a key? What the fuck? When did you get that?”“Wait, I had a whole speech prepared but… were you just staring at the wall? The TV’s not on.”Yoongi’s sitting on the one shitty recliner in his shitty apartment. It faces a TV but he can’t remember the last time he turned it on. Had he ever watched it? Who knows.“I’m looking out the window,” Yoongi deadpans.“You don’t even have a proper window! It faces a wall and it’s tiny and shitty and it’s on the opposite side of the room!”“And yet. Here we are.”Yoongi looks at Jeongguk. Jeongguk looks back.“Can I have that key back?”“No.”“Are you here for any reason? Or just to torture me in my free time.”“You’re just… staring at a wall.” Jeongguk blinks his wide eyes and understanding suddenly dawns on his face. “Wait, this is about Taehyung! Taehyung broke your brain!”Yoongi scowls. “Taehyung didn’t do shit.”Jeongguk gasps melodramatically. “Ooh, drama! Is this about that hot and heavy photo Jimin put in the group chat?”“What group chat?”Jeongguk stares at him, then sighs.“I honestly don’t know why I get surprised anymore. You’re grandpa level when it comes to tech.” As he speaks, he rummages through Yoongi’s room, kicking aside stray clothes and frowning at random magical objects.“You have more random shit in here than Taehyung,” Jeongguk mutters, frowning at a purple-tinged conch. “But it’s okay for him because that’s his actual job. Why the hell do you even have some of this stuff?” He pokes at a glass bottle and sets the preserved eye in it bobbing around.Yoongi sighs and collapses back on the couch, settling into the grooves his body has made over the years.“Payment, sometimes. Other times it’s just… better I have it than someone else.”Jeongguk hums, fishing around in Yoongi’s bed sheets for a moment. “Have you heard of IKEA, you grandpa? We should get some boxes. Tidy all of this up. I don’t get how you live like this— ha!”He brandishes Yoongi’s phone in the air then lobs it at him. Yoongi fumbles, dropping it to the floor for a moment. When he picks it up, he sees dozens of messages on the screen. More than normal.Most are from just one group called Jiminie’s Menagerie of Majestic Minions.“What the…? Menagerie? What the fuck is this?”“Ugh, you never check your phone. You’ve been in the groupchat for over twelve hours by now. Say something or they’re gonna think I put in the wrong number! Don’t be that creepy dude in that just reads all the messages and never replies.”Yoongi frowns, scrolling up through the chat. There’s just so many messages and photos and little icon things. He pauses for a moment on a close-up of a tiny snail on a leaf. The caption is a dozen pink love hearts.Taehyung.His phone vibrates as more messages fly into the chat.“Is there a way to mute this?” He clicks around a bit, but it’s completely indecipherable.“You can’t mute group chats. It’s impossible. Not a thing. Weird, huh? Ha ha.”Yoongi gives him a deadpan look. “Really. You’re still a shitty liar, Jeon Jeongguk.”“Please, Yoongi! Respond!” Jeongguk shakes the phone at him. His eyes are wide and beseeching and he’s doing the puppy dog look. The little shit.“Give me back the key,” Yoongi says, because he’s not a complete idiot, “and I’ll respond to your precious group chat.”“Woo!” Jeongguk crows. He hands over the key without a word, which means he’s definitely got another stashed somewhere. Dammit. “Now write something!”Yoongi perfunctorily scrolls through the rest of the messages but doesn’t really read much. There’s a lot of exclamation marks.“Wait, who’s even in this?” The names are weird. TaeTae is obviously Taehyung, but they get more obscure from there.“Uh, me. You. Taehyung, Namjoon, his cousin, and Namjoon’s boyfriend. And Jimin, of course.”“Oh. Gross.”“Say something, Yoongi! You promised!”“I didn’t promise, you little brat. Give me a second!”He eventually just settles with: hwo can immhte this chat?He squints at the message.“Fuck! Why are the keys so small and close together?”“Wow,” Jeongguk marvels, looking down at his own phone. “I don’t know how you text so badly. Even autocorrect is done with your shit.”Yoongi squints more at the screen and painstakingly types out another message.

Yoongi

M U T E

In that time, a few messages have popped up.
Chimichangas

AAAAHAHAHAHAHA WHOSE GRANDPA IS THIS?

TAKE HIM BACK TO THE RETIREMENT VILLAGE
Yoongi’s not impressed to be on the receiving end of this joke.
KOOKIE

THERE’S NO MUTING THE GROUP CHAT

THE GROUP CHAT IS FOREVER.

We got him boys
“Ugh, do you have to shout? Capitals are offensive.”“You started it.” Jeongguk shrugs, still tapping away on his phone.“Who called me a grandpa? Who was that?”“Jimin. Smile!”Jeongguk doesn’t really give him any time to decipher that sentence, just snaps a photo. It appears in the chat a moment later. Yoongi is scowling, hair sticking up everywhere, half-off the couch and surrounded by his mess.A moment later, another photo appears. It’s of a cat who looks like it’s… frowning? Or something? Angry? The sender is TaeTae.“What the fuck is that? Jeongguk, what does this mean.”Jeongguk bursts out laughing.“Jeongguk— did you just quote what I said into the group chat? What the fuck!”Jeongguk’s bent over, wheezing. Yoongi grumbles and throws his phone across the room.“Why are you even here?” Yoongi says after a few minutes, when Jeongguk’s gotten a handle of himself.“What, can’t I visit my favourite Yoongi?” Jeongguk slumps onto the bed, leaning back on his hands.“I am the only Yoongi you know.”“You don’t know that.”“What? It’s not a common na— No, I don’t care. Answer my question.”“Are you and Taehyung dating now?”Yoongi blinks. He hesitates for a moment too long.Jeongguk gasps. “No! I knew it! I picked it from the start! Just ask Jimin!”“We’re not dating,” Yoongi corrects, scowling. He feels antsy and doesn’t like looking up at Jeongguk, so he goes over to the window and lights up. “Why would we be dating? I’m not going to see him again.”Jeongguk’s face falls. He trails behind like a sad puppy.“What do you mean? I thought you really liked him.”Yoongi’s face twitches.“What gave you that impression?”“You like him! Your face is doing that weird thing that happens when you can’t deal with emotions.” Jeongguk points an accusing finger at him and Yoongi tries to smooth his expression. Jeongguk huffs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you interested in anyone. Outside of hooking up, that is. Still haven’t managed to bleach my eyes from last time I walked in on you doing… you know… that.”“Oh my god, Jeongguk,” Yoongi groans, head thudding back. “Fucking. You can say the word.”Jeongguk’s face is pink. He looks a bit like he’s about to spontaneously combust. “No thanks, I’m fine, but thank you. I don’t really want to think about you and that in the same sentence.”“You were just harassing me about Taehyung.”Jeongguk brightens again. “Does that mean you’re dating?”“Fucking is different from dating. And,” Yoongi makes a sound of frustration, “it doesn’t matter, anyway. I won’t see him again.”“Why not? He likes you. You like him, don’t deny it. You went to that ball for him! So why not?”Yoongi’s lips thin.“That ball was payment.”Jeongguk rolls his eyes. “Was necking on the dancefloor part of that payment?”Yoongi doesn’t say anything. Jeongguk throws up his hands. “Why can’t you admit you like him?”“Because I don’t.”“Are you serious? We just went through this!”“Jesus, Jeongguk,” Yoongi groans. “Let it go.”“No, I won’t.” Jeongguk’s face scrunches up in determination. Yoongi hates it when he gets like this. “You do this all the time. Something good comes into your life and you won’t give it a chance.”“I didn’t realise you were a shrink.”“No, shut up, you don’t get to talk yet. You’re not even giving Taehyung a chance here, which is so stupid because you obviously like him and he obviously likes you. It’s stupid! And I don’t need to be a shrink to know you, Yoongi. I know all that other shit that happened in the past, but you don’t have the monopoly on fucked up pasts, okay. You don’t have to treat any signs of happiness like a cancer and cut it out. You have a martyr complex and… and it’s dumb!”Yoongi’s jaw is set like concrete.“I don’t have a martyr complex. Or a monopoly or… whatever the hell else you said. Why are you so focused on this Taehyung thing anyway?”“I do! You want so badly to punish yourself but it’s getting out of hand. Especially with someone like Taehyung involved! He’s one of the best people I know. And he’s interested in you!”“Wow, thanks.”“Well, obviously I think you’re the best, but you’re still an asshole. And yet, he still likes you! What’re you going to lose?”“I don’t like him that much.” Yoongi avoids Jeongguk’s eyes by ashing his cigarette out the window sill. He’s so uncomfortable. Talking about feelings and emotions makes him want to jump out the window. Especially when Jeongguk gets upset like this. “He’s hot as fuck, though.”Jeongguk’s face scrunches in distaste. “Ew. Gross. Stop deflecting, I know what you’re doing.”“What do you want me to say, Jeongguk?” Yoongi’s fingers clench on the cigarette. “That I’m going to date Taehyung and we’ll fall in love and he’ll ‘fix’ me and everything will be right in the world? That we’ll be a happy family? Don’t try and put me in place of your own shitty parents.”And… probably not the best thing to say. Jeongguk’s face reddens, fists clenching at his sides.“Leave them out of this,” Jeongguk says. “They’re not my family. You’re my family, you and the priest, and even if you won’t admit it, I know you think the same. Don’t do that with your face, I know you do. And... I just want you to be happy, okay? I want you to stop punishing yourself for something that wasn’t your fault.”“Don’t be so fucking naive. That’s not the way life works. There’s nothing between Taehyung and I other than good sex, and there never will be.”“You’re just being a coward again! Same as before.”“There’s a difference between being a coward and not being a naive idiot.”“Yoongi! You deserve happiness too! You gotta stop using your mother’s death as an excuse for why you can’t be happy!”The words ring out in the apartment and bounce around the empty places in Yoongi’s mind. Jeongguk is red-faced and panting. His eyes are wide, but he’s stubbornly staring Yoongi down.Yoongi glances down at the cigarette between his fingers and realises his hands are shaking. Ash is sprinkling off the tip.He’d had an inkling Jeongguk knew about the whole, shitty tale in its entirety, but had never confirmed it. Yoongi had had a phase where he’d tried to drown his ghosts at the bottom of a cheap vodka bottle. It would’ve been on one of those nights he’d opened his dumb mouth and said that the rumours were true. That he had killed his own mother.But they’d had an unspoken understanding to never bring it up again. Yoongi had thought so, at least.“Get out,” Yoongi says. His voice is flat, even.“Yoongi—”“Get the fuck out.”“Fine. But… don’t do any stupid shit, okay? You better call me before you do.”Then he slams out of the apartment. A few moments later, a hesitant knocking comes from the door. Yoongi’s staring out his window at the wall.“What?” he calls.“Uh…” He’d know that hesitant voice anywhere. It’s Len, the friendly neighbourhood demon. “Is now a bad time for Pizza Jenga?”“Fuck off.”“Right-o, we’ll leave it for next Sunday, then.”His apartment is dead quiet after that. He can feel the hush beating against his eardrums. Sometimes, silence is the loudest sound of all.“Fucking hell,” he mutters, stubbing out his cigarette. He can’t be here at the moment. He grabs his phone from the couch and scrolls through his messages. It doesn’t take long to find a job. It’s from one of his contacts in a church up in the Bronx.
Father Hennessy

We’ve got a far darrig up in Woodlawn. How soon can you be here
---“Shit,” Yoongi says, pushing himself upright. His body spasms in phantom pain. “How long was I out?”Father Hennessy peers at him, then checks both his arms. He grunts. “Good as new. Lucky bastard.”Yoongi manages to push himself up enough to rest against the headboard. He remembers coming up to the Bronx and tracking down the far darrig with Father Hennessy. It’d left a trail of brutally murdered bodies in its wake, part of some sick game, so they’d had to dodge police at the same time. It hadn’t taken too long to track down the far darrig and Yoongi had dispatched it. What they hadn’t expected was the second one and the goddamn booby-traps it’d set up.Long story short – Yoongi had lost an arm.Father Hennessy shuffles to the table, pours two glasses of whiskey and shuffles back. Yoongi takes a whiff and wrinkles his nose.“What is this? Smells like methanol.”“Life of a priest doesn’t exactly pay.” His frown is deep under his severe eyebrows.“Don’t give me that shit.”The Father shrugs. “Last time I gave you my nice whiskey when you’d just woken up, you spewed it everywhere.”Yeah. That did tend to happen sometimes. One of many pleasant side-effects from his hell-magic. He takes a sip and winces, even as the heat spreads through his limbs. His fucking arm. He’s lucky it was only Father Hennessy there.“So?”Yoongi slants him a look. “What do you mean ‘so’?”“You’re in your head about something. What is it?”“It’s a bit late for the caring routine,” Yoongi says, wrinkling his nose. “Are you gonna make me confess my sins too?”“Knock it off. There’s something messing your brain up. If I’d’ve known that, I would’ve called someone else. You off your A-game is dangerous for the rest of us.”“I can truly feel the love.” Yoongi swallows the rest down. He fights not to heave everywhere. The whiskey makes him feel a little less like he’d just gone ten rounds with an electric fence.“Is it the boy?”Jeongguk. Father Hennessy had known Jeongguk longer than Yoongi – he’s the reason they met at all. Two fucked-up orphans, one run away from a broken home, one with a trail of dead bodies.“No. Yes. Kind of, fuck, I don’t know.”“Stop the swearing. Not in my house, boy.”Yoongi has learnt that pointing out Father Hennessy’s hypocrisy is a quick way to get a slap upside the head. He’s also had a lot of experience trying to wiggle out from his questions. Hasn’t worked once.So Yoongi is the first to break, of course.“We had a fight, I guess. He brought up some sh—stuff I didn’t wanna hear. Told him to get out.”Father Hennessy makes a sound deep in his throat. He sits down in a chair next to the bed, knees cracking.“That boy’s the only thing you have left in this world.”“You’re not gonna count yourself?”Father Hennessy had done his best to put him back together after both his parents and Mara had done a number on him. Stitch back pieces that didn’t fit anymore. Shove building blocks into holes they didn’t belong. Yoongi’s the first to admit his head is pretty fucked, but he’d probably be dead by now if not for the Father.“Me?” Father Hennessy scoffs. “A retired, backwater exorcist? There’s a reason exorcists don’t last long. We’re a fucked up sort to want this kind of life. I’ve had my glory days and sent many demons packing. But my time’s almost up. One of those demons or monsters will get lucky one day. So yeah, Jeongguk’s the only thing you have left in this world. You should listen to him.”Yoongi looks at him sharply. The priest’s hairy brows are furrowed low, eyes intense.Yoongi scoffs. “You already know what we fought about, don’t you? What’d he tell you.”“Yoongi, you two only ever fight about one thing: your bullshit martyr complex. He doesn’t need to tell me anything.”“I don’t have a martyr complex.” Great, only a few minutes in his presence and he’s already reverting back to sulky teenage mode.“You’ve a masochist streak a mile wide. You live to make yourself miserable. Let me guess – you blew a chance to make yourself happy and Jeongguk threw a fit about it?”“I didn’t blow anything. It’s just… run its course. It’s done.”“Ah.” Yoongi hates this tone. “So it’s a man, then?”“Not in the way you’re implying.”“I think exactly in the way I’m implying. In the biblical sense, if you will.”“Okay, I’m done here.” Yoongi levers himself up, blinking to clear his sight. “Thanks for the shitty whiskey—”Father Hennessy’s walking stick whips out and shoves him back down. Yoongi goes down with an oomph! His walking stick packs a punch – it’s covered in hundreds of different sigils, all etched into metal. Physical sigils are the way most exorcists work. It’s less effective, but safer. Not everyone has an infinite supply of blood to draw on. Works on demons and also works on putting Yoongi back into his place, apparently.“What’d I say about swearing, eh? You’ll mind your manners in this house.”Yoongi rolls his eyes. The walking stick thwacks into his shins and he jumps.“Ow, fu— fudge, okay!”“Here’s what you’re gonna do, boy. You’re gonna message Jeongguk and whoever else has been sending you hundreds of messages that you’re okay, because your phone hasn’t stopped vibrating. Then you’re gonna go unfuck everything you fucked up. With Jeongguk and whatever other idiot you’ve reeled in with your sparkling personality.”“My personality’s just fine,” Yoongi mutters.“You’re a right ball of sunshine, you are. It must be your endless optimism and positivity that drives people off.”“Hilarious.”“So what’s the plan? Eh? What are you going to do now.”Yoongi scowls, but dutifully says, “Reply to whoever’s been messaging me. Apologise to Jeongguk. Talk to Taehyung.”“Taehyung? As in Chaeseon’s boy?”“How does everyone know that except me?”“Because you’re a miserable bastard no one wants to talk to. Except for someone literally descended from angels. Makes sense, when you think about it.”“Oh, a hell-magic joke? Hilarious. I also have angelblood, okay.” His brand new arm tingles but Yoongi avoids looking at it. He keeps seeing it as a stub, blood pulsing out onto the floor in waves. Just the thought makes him feel nauseous again.“Yeah, you’ve got traces in you, sure. But Kim Taehyung is actually descended.”“Wait. Are you saying Chaeseon…?”“Yeah. That batty old crone has enough angelblood in her to take back her wings and halo, and live out her days swanning around the pearly gates. Instead she slums it here with the rest of us unworthy.”Yoongi blinks. “Which angel?”The Min bloodline went back to Raphael, if somewhat obscurely. Ironic, considering he can now heal any wound on his body or someone else’s. Maybe that’s why he’d been targeted by Mara, back then. He’s never cared enough to find out – he’s cursed now and it won’t bring anyone back.“Muriel,” Father Hennessy says. “Peace and harmony. Makes sense. Chaeseon’s always sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong in the name of harmony.”“Did she come to you with her fake psychic bullshit too? Something’s coming on the horizon, end is nigh, repent all your sins, etcetera?”“She did, but… I wouldn’t ignore it all as delusions this time, boy. Something doesn’t feel right in the city. I can feel it all the way out here. Some dark shit’s going on.”“Not you, too,” Yoongi groans. He gets stabbed with the walking stick again, this time deliberately in his newly formed arm. It prickles like the worst stage of pins and needles.“Listen to your elders and your betters, kid. Keep your head out of your ass and your eyes peeled. Got it?”“Yeah.”“What was that?”“Yes, Father Hennessy.”“Good. Now reply to your messages and get out of here. I slept on the couch and need a proper bed.”—Yoongi isn’t really sure what the fuck baby carrots are. Are they just smaller carrots? At the beginning of their life? Or are they different like corn and baby corn? Two completely different things?Yoongi tries to ask for it at the Chinese grocer next to the House of Mystery, but the old lady just chuckles, pats him on the arm, and hands him a bag of full-sized carrots. Yoongi figures he can just cut them up.When he enters the House of Mystery, he’s hit by the smell of ozone. It’s as if a rainstorm just swept through the store. There’s a surprising number of people in here, especially since it’s evening. Surely they’re closing soon?“Famous exorcist Min Yoongi, gracing us with your presence again?” Jimin steps out from around a shelf, Yeontan bundled up in his arms. The flowers on top of it all tilt so they stay facing him. His hair is back to cotton candy pink. Yoongi could swear it’s also a few inches longer, curling around the sides of his face in messy waves.He’s got to be some kind of shapeshifter. Or he’s just driving his hairdresser nuts.“Jimin. Hi.”The grin on Jimin’s face is feline-like. Yoongi once again feels like he’s being scouted by a predator. Yeontan just blinks his wide, liquid eyes at him.“What can I help you with? I just found a pair of boots down in Honduras that make you seem a whole foot taller. We’ve also restocked the angelicus laora, if you need that. You know, for any STDs you might have floating around.”It’s a lot to take in. Yoongi doesn’t know where to begin. Can someone shorter than you call you short? “I, uh… carrots?” He holds up the bag. Something starts tickling his foot and he shifts to the side, away from the creeping vine.“Ooh, yum. Don’t mind if I do.” Jimin reaches over and plucks it from Yoongi’s hand. “Thanks, was that all?”Yoongi frowns. Jimin looks sincere, but he’s definitely being played here. Jimin’s attention isn’t really on him anymore – he’s dangling the carrots above Yeontan, who’s sniffing and licking at the plastic.Yoongi thinks of the Father’s walking stick thwacking into his shins. He huffs out a breath.“Is Taehyung here?”The smirk on Jimin’s face says yes, he has been fucking with Yoongi.“Oh, Tae? No, I don’t think so.” Yeontan twitches, lips pulling back from his teeth and growling. Jimin rolls his eyes and dumps Yeontan on the ground, grumbling, “Get out of here, snitch.”“Where is he?” Yoongi crosses his arms.Jimin rolls his eyes. “Where do you think, lover boy? Out back, elbow-deep in dirt like the sweet summer child he is.”Yoongi snatches his carrots back on his way past, ignoring Jimin’s laughter.The magic shivers over his skin as he exits out the back door. Unlike the dreary evening in New York, here the sun is intense and bright. It’s dry, too, the air seeming to shimmer from the heat. Taehyung is in coral-coloured shorts, a linen white shirt open at his throat. The shirt is rolled up to his elbows but still has dirt smears, like the rest of his lower arms.Jimin was pretty correct in saying he’s elbow-deep in dirt. He’s kneeling next to a flower bed, scooping out a hole. A line of tiny seedlings look freshly planted next to him.Taehyung looks up and his smile blooms wide and bright. Yoongi finds it hard to swallow.“Yoongi! Hello. You came back!”Yoongi feels himself relax slightly. Taehyung looks nothing but happy to see him – no awkwardness, no confusion. He looks like he’d wanted Yoongi to come back. Genuinely.It’s a new feeling.“Uh, yeah. I was in the area. And I have carrots?”Taehyung’s mouth parts and his smile turns into something softer.“Yeontannie will be so happy. Give me a moment? I’ll just finish this one.”Yoongi is sweating in his leather jacket. He shrugs it off, making sure to keep his sleeves over his forearms. It’s just Taehyung here to see them, but it’s habit now.He comes over and crouches next to Taehyung, leaning his elbows on his knees.“I’m creating a veggie garden,” Taehyung says. He gently unpots the seedling then fits it into the hole. “I haven’t actually grown one before, really? Not properly. I’ve been more into flowers. But now I just think it’d be yum to cook what I’ve grown myself? I’m not a very good cook. Jimin says I’m getting old and boring.”Taehyung’s eyes flicker to Yoongi, a bit nervous. When Yoongi says, “What vegetable is this, then?” Taehyung relaxes. A happy smile spreads across his face.“Eggplant! I’m having a big eggplant moment. You know, like gaji bokkeum? I’m not that great at it but I’m trying. We’re in the Southern Hemisphere here, I think, so it’s the perfect time.” Taehyung goes on, pointing out all the others in the bed and saying what they are, what he’s going to cook with them. Yoongi watches him evenly. Taehyung’s eyes light up when he’s talking about something he lives, whole body vibrating with excitement. He’s always moving, fiddling with the dirt, making sure the soil is sitting correctly around the seedling, fixing how his shirt is sitting.Yoongi doesn’t think he’s ever found gardening interesting before. But there’s a thought at the back of his mind, a niggle that he hasn’t been able to get rid of for days. The problem is that he’s not good at this shit. He’s never had to convince someone before that they need his help. People are always coming to him, never the other way around.And it’s never been someone he cares about, either.“Taehyung,” he says, so abruptly he cuts Taehyung off mid-word.Taehyung’s head flies up, eyes wide. His hands are both deep in the soil. The plants around him seem to shiver for a moment.“Uh… yes? Why do I feel like I’m in trouble?” He laughs weakly.“The stalker,” Yoongi says, watching Taehyung carefully. “The one Chaeseon was talking about. I can actually help you, you know? This is what I do.” He has to stop himself from shifting nervously.“Ah, Yoongi…”“I want to help you,” Yoongi blurts, then wants to facepalm himself.“It’s, uh… it’s nothing. Well, not nothing, but it’s no big deal. My halmeoni just likes to blow things out of proportion? It’s not a thing. I just overreacted and it set off a chain of overreactions? Jimin and halmeoni can get super protective. But it’s nothing.”Yoongi feels so awkward he wants to claw out of his skin. His insecurities are whispering at the back of his brain – see? Why would he want your help when he has much better people around him? Good people like him only use cursed people like you as a last resort – but he tries to ignore them and persist. He can’t stop thinking about Taehyung’s pale face when he’d thought he’d seen something outside of the ball. He’d been scared.“It didn’t sound like nothing.”Taehyung glances down at his hands, brushing the dirt off.“Okay, it was something, but nothing’s happened in weeks. Really,” he adds when he sees Yoongi’s sceptical look.Taehyung’s jaw is set, as stubborn as he’s ever seen him. Yoongi feels a bit like he’s talking to a brick wall. Or Jeongguk when he gets in one of his moods.He huffs out an annoyed sigh and counts it as a loss. He doesn’t have much to offer anyone, but he has this.“Fine,” he says. He tries to modulate his gruff tone. “But you’ll tell me if it becomes something, right?”“Yoongi…”“Right?”Taehyung sighs, but a smile spreads across his face.“Fine,” he says. “I’ll tell you if it becomes something.”Yoongi’s eyes narrow. “I feel like you’re just placating me.”Taehyung stands and brushes his shorts off. Yoongi’s eyes are caught on his legs, skin golden and barley dusted with hair. They’re smooth and lightly muscled, unlike the knobby catastrophe of Yoongi’s own.“I will!” he says. “I promise. I’m certain nothing will happen but if, for some very ridiculous reason, it does, I’ll call you. Okay?”It’s the best he’s going to get out of him. It still doesn’t feel like he’s taking Yoongi very seriously.“Okay,” Yoongi says. Then, “What?” when Taehyung starts laughing.“Nothing, it’s nothing, just… you’re so cute when you’re protective, you know?”Taehyung steps forward, leaning in close and pinching Yoongi’s cheek. Yoongi jerks back, but he doesn’t go far because… it’s Taehyung. Even if he’s covered in dirt. Even if he’s definitely left a dirt smudge on Yoongi’s face.“M not cute,” he mumbles, scowling. He rubs at the smudge on his cheek.“You so are,” Taehyung coos. “Like a kitten. I just want to bundle you up and cuddle you close.”Yoongi’s face floods with colour. “Taehyung!” he strangles out.Taehyung laughs, tinkling and loud across the clearing, and the trees shiver in response.“C’mon, let’s get some tea,” he says, and Yoongi can’t do anything but follow.As Taehyung leads him through the store, they see Jimin leaning against the counter. He rests his chin on his hand and smiles slowly, saying, “Let me know if you want more company, mm?”“Jimin,” Taehyung huffs.“You said not to be weird about sex! You didn’t say anything about tea.” Jimin wiggles his eyebrows, as if tea is a common euphemism for sex.“This is you not being weird about sex?” Yoongi says slowly. Taehyung groans.“Why?” A playful smile curls Jimin’s mouth and his head tilts to the side. “Would you like to find out?” His eyes go hooded and his lips part in a way that exudes sex. The air shimmers a little bit between them. Yoongi leans back, as if trying to avoid smelling whatever wack pheromones Jimin’s putting out.“No. Thank you.”Taehyung grabs Yoongi’s hand and tugs him along, saying over his shoulder, “Go do something productive.”“Be safe! Wear a condom!” Jimin calls. A nearby woman with tiny horns curled in her hair looks up at him, startled.“I think I spend half my life apologising for Jimin,” Taehyung murmurs as they ascend the stairs.“Ah, I don’t mind.”Unlike downstairs with its cramped shelves and overflowing plants, it’s open and airy up here in Taehyung’s apartment, all clean white lines and growing vines. A huge window lets in the gloomy light from the street across the couch in the corner. The kitchen is nestled into the corner, but still open to the rest of the living room.Yoongi isn’t quite sure how Taehyung fits perfectly into both, despite them being so different.Yoongi’s eyes follow Taehyung like a magnet as he washes off his arms in the sink.“How do you feel about green tea?” Taehyung says, grabbing two mugs out of a cupboard. “One of my clients is based in China and brings over longjing tea whenever he visits. It’s pretty good! I’m out of buckwheat.”“Uh, green tea is fine,” Yoongi says, shifting from side to side. His eyes are somewhat preoccupied with how Taehyung’s ass looks in those shorts. His hands twitch. “So. Carrots,” he says, for something to say. Just because they played around last time, doesn’t mean Yoongi has any right to anything now. Taehyung doesn’t seem upset to see him, but how can he really know? “Does Yeontan just… eat them whole? Should I cut them up?”Taehyung looks over his shoulder at him.“I definitely said baby carrots, didn’t I?”“Baby carrots are just normal carrots chopped up.”Taehyung’s mouth drops open. “No way! They’re so different!”“I’m sure it’s just a marketing campaign.”Taehyung waves a teaspoon at him. “Yeontannie will know the difference, just you watch. He’ll eat them, but he won’t be happy.”Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Sure. Just give me a knife.”Taehyung sets up a chopping board and knife for him. They work next to each other quietly. Their elbows brush. The air feels charged with static. He’s aware of every movement Taehyung makes.Taehyung finishes steeping the tea first and pours out two mugs. He slides one to Yoongi and leans against the counter. Yoongi can feel his eyes on him, but he keeps his head down.“Would you like to talk about it?”Yoongi frowns, glancing at Taehyung for a moment. “About what.”Yoongi focuses on chopping off the top of the carrot, but he can still see Taehyung’s head tilt out of the corner of his eye.“You seem… off. And my plants are good at picking up on vibes sometimes and they seem a bit stressed out.”“What?” Yoongi stops mid-chop. What a weird fucking sentence.“Look.” Taehyung nods at the window sill in front of Yoongi, where as many pots as possible are crammed in. Yoongi hadn’t even really noticed the flowers tilting to face him, a few of the succulents shivering in place. No vines trying to feel him up, for once.“Are you trying to tell me your plants are empathetic?”“Are they right?”As Yoongi stares, a shrivelled leaf drops to the counter in front of him. He thinks of the far darrig. Of his arm growing anew. Of Jeongguk slamming out of his apartment. He’d come to Taehyung before Jeongguk.But he’d come here for sex, not to think about any of that shit.Injecting lightness into his tone, he says, “Maybe I’m just feeling particularly angsty today.”Taehyung is silent for a moment. His eyes feel like a physical weight on him. He hums softly.Yoongi takes a sip of his tea and places it down with finality, turning to face Taehyung.“So,” he says, head cocked to the side. Yoongi takes a step and it closes the distance between them. Taehyung has a small smile on his face, but he doesn’t make a move. Yoongi places one hand on the bench next to Taehyung’s hip, the other curling up to play with the small hair on Taehyung’s neck.“So?” Taehyung says, shivering. His voice is deep enough to rocket straight into Yoongi’s core.“So I’ve been thinking,” he says. “About what happened last time.”Yoongi keeps a close watch on Taehyung, whose eyes are dark and hooded. He reaches up on his toes and presses a kiss to the corner of Taehyung’s mouth. Feels Taehyung’s breath leave him in a whoosh.“And mostly,” Yoongi keeps going, other hand leaving the bench and sliding up Taehyung’s back, “about how I didn’t get to feel you properly. Inside me.”“Yoongi,” Taehyung groans. “Fuck.”Between one breath and the next, Taehyung’s lips are on him. Yoongi, for a moment, thinks how bad of an idea this is. Then his hands are grasping at Taehyung’s back and he doesn’t care anymore. The slide of their lips together is hot and perfect and Yoongi can feel the past week washing off him.“Technically,” Taehyung pulls back to say, “I was inside you.”Yoongi makes a disgusted noise and steps back. Taehyung laughs and draws him back in by the hips, kissing him again. He’s a hard line against Yoongi and Yoongi melts against him.“Say stupid shit like that again,” Yoongi breathes between kisses, “and I’m leaving.”Taehyung huffs out a laugh again then slides his hands down his back, past his ass and down to hike one of his legs up. Yoongi’s gasp breaks their lips apart, but only for a moment. The new position means his dick is pressing against Taehyung, getting the friction he’s craving.Yoongi closes his eyes. “Bed,” he groans, squirming away from Taehyung and grabbing his hand. Taehyung laughs again, his whole face become brilliant as the boxy grin takes over, then locks their fingers together. He leads them to a hallway, the first door on the left.Yoongi doesn’t really care much about what it looks like, only looks enough to see where the bed is and push Taehyung onto it. Taehyung lands with an oof but a grin curls up his mouth. Yoongi stares down at Taehyung and draws in a deep breath. His skin feels on fire. Taehyung’s eyes on him, so intense and dark, make him feel powerful. He strips off his shirt and sees Taehyung’s eyes dart down to his chest. At the burnt out hell-magic tattoo, carved into his chest and shiny like scar tissue. And then down to his forearms, at the dark half-glyphs on each forearm. They’re the only marks on his body, his curse healing all the others. No trace of the claw marks down his front from days ago. Or the time a chollima had kicked him so hard his thigh bone had shattered through his skin. Or even when Mara had set him against the bulgae and they’d ripped through half of his waist.Only the two tattoos remained – one burnt out, the other still black and pulsing with power for when he needed it.Taehyung had noticed his hesitation and sat up on his elbows, brows quirking together.“Yoongi—”“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he says, shucking off his sweatpants and climbing on top of Taehyung. It’s enough to shift Taehyung’s focus away from his tattoos. The feel of Taehyung’s clothes against his naked skin makes him shudder. Taehyung’s hands reach out to bring their lips together again. He can feel Taehyung hardening beneath him, his hips rolling upwards.“Yoongi,” Taehyung groans. “You’re so fucking hot.”“Good,” Yoongi says, hands skimming down the long lines of Taehyung’s body through his sweater. His fingers reach the waistband of his shorts and edge along. Taehyung shudders.“These fucking shorts,” Yoongi says, sitting up and looking down at Taehyung. “Why are they so goddamn small.”Taehyung looks on his way to being wrecked, eyes glazed and lips parted. Yoongi’s hips circle a little, pressing down. “They make my legs look amazing and you can’t deny it,” Taehyung replies, grinning. Taehyung’s hands are on his ass. When he squeezes, Yoongi’s hips jump forward. Taehyung’s shorts are abrasive on his dick but he’s at the point where the right amount of pain translates as pleasure. The feeling of Taehyung between his legs is almost too much.“I want you to ride me,” Taehyung says. “You look so good like this.”Yoongi’s lips part at Taehyung’s tone, deep and low, hitting him straight in his belly.“Fucking hell,” Yoongi breathes. He shimmies down Taehyung’s body, falling to his knees on the floor between his legs. His fingers scrabble at Taehyung’s jeans and then Taehyung’s lifting his hips, helping him tug them down and off along with his shoes. Taehyung lets out a long moan when Yoongi gets his mouth on him.“How… the fuck… is your mouth so good,” Taehyung pants above him.Yoongi pulls back enough so the tip rubs against his lips. “Practice.”Taehyung’s eyes are heavy on him. Yoongi lets his dick slip lazily back into his mouth, the skin slick and so hot. He plays with it for a bit, hand on the base, until Taehyung’s hips shift impatiently. Then he ducks his head and takes him in to the back of his throat. Taehyung groans and his hand reaches down, tracing Yoongi’s stretched lips. Yoongi keeps eye contact as he lifts almost off then drops back down.“You love this,” Taehyung says, a note of wonder in his voice. “You really like sucking dick.”Yoongi rolls his eyes at him. One of Taehyung’s fingers dips into his mouth, stretching his lips even further. Yoongi’s pants out heavily through his nose.“I bet you could take so much more, couldn’t you,” Taehyung says. “I’d love to see how much your mouth can take.”Yoongi shifts. One of his hands slips off Taehyung’s thigh to palm at his own cock. It feels like half the blood in his body has made its way there.“Don’t you dare,” Taehyung breathes, and then he’s being picked up and tossed back onto the bed. Yoongi smiles smugly as Taehyung tosses off his shirt and crawls over to him. Yoongi’s hand skims down his chest to his groin again. “Don’t be a brat,” Taehyung says, snatching Yoongi’s wrists and pinning them above his head, hovering over him. It makes Yoongi’s chest arch up. Taehyung’s eyes are dark as they drink him in.“You can’t stop me,” Yoongi taunts. He enjoys the way Taehyung’s eyes flash before his head drops down, sealing their lips in a bruising kiss. Their teeth clink together and it’s rough enough that spit is sliding out of his already stretched lips, but it’s perfect. Yoongi wiggles enough so he can get his legs around Taehyung’s slim hips, pulling him in even closer.“Lube?” Taehyung pants in his ear.“Bedside drawer.”Taehyung lets go of his wrists to stretch across the bed, fingers just grabbing the drawer handle. Yoongi enjoys the stretch of muscle in front of him. Taehyung’s body is sleek, his skin making it look like he’s been dipped in golden silk. Yoongi wants to run his mouth across every part of it. He wants to have Taehyung’s dick in his mouth again. But more than any of that, he wants to watch Taehyung’s face as he bottoms out inside him.Taehyung’s back a moment later, throwing the condom next to him. He sits back on his knees. Yoongi holds his hand out for the lube, but Taehyung holds it closer to him.“No way,” he says. “I’m going to enjoy this.”Yoongi blinks at him. He’d learned that if he wanted to be prepped properly, or even at all, he had to do it himself. But Taehyung seems determined. He’s warming up the lube with his fingers so Yoongi shrugs and props his leg up on the bed, opening himself up further.Taehyung ducks to kiss the tip of his knee, then reaches down to the circle Yoongi’s rim. Yoongi breaths out slowly as the first finger breaches him, spreading the lube. It makes shivers race across his body. He shimmies his hips, pushing Taehyung’s finger deeper.“I’m not a doll,” Yoongi says. “Give me more.”“I’m trying to take my time and enjoy it. Patience is a virtue, Yoongi.”“I don’t have time for patience. Especially when fingers up my ass are involved.”Taehyung rolls his eyes. “You’re so good at dirty talk,” he says dryly. “Sure know how to get a guy going.”“No one’s ever complained about my mouth before,” Yoongi says with a smirk. “Are you gonna start?”“Brat,” Taehyung says. “Up.” Yoongi shifts his hips up and Taehyung shoves a pillow beneath him. “Much better,” he purrs, sliding down the bed so he’s between Yoongi’s legs. Yoongi’s mouth goes dry.Taehyung adds two fingers. He softens the burn by leaning forward and kissing up Yoongi’s thigh. Yoongi’s cock twitches. Then teeth bite down into his thigh and his head falls back.Yoongi’s lost to the mix of pleasure and burn, writhing on the bed as Taehyung opens him up. He’s careful with it, eyes always watching Yoongi closely. It makes something warm settle in Yoongi’s chest that he doesn’t want to think about.“I’m ready,” he gasps instead.“Are you now?” Taehyung’s fingers retreat until there’s only one, tracing around his rim.“Don’t be dick,” Yoongi grits out, hips shifting.“What an interesting phrase,” Taehyung says. He taps his finger against Yoongi’s rim and it makes him jolt.“Taehyung.”“Well, when you put it like that.” Taehyung grabs the condom, ripping it open and sliding it down his length. It’s a sight and Yoongi can’t help his own hand trailing down to his dick again. Taehyung knee-walks over and slaps Yoongi’s hand away, tsking. “Not yet.” Then he grabs one of Yoongi’s legs and stretches it up, resting it on his chest. His other leg falls to the side – he’s completely open.Taehyung’s eyes are burning with fire. Yoongi watches him line himself up, feels the blunt head of his cock pressing against him, then his rim gives. He lets out a deep breath in time with Taehyung’s low groan.“Fuck,” Taehyung moans, head lolling against Yoongi’s ankle. “You’re so tight. You feel so good.”“Don’t be such a stereotypical top,” Yoongi says. He’s frowning, but the deep pain is easing quickly. Taehyung’s going slow, easing in a bit at a time before pulling back. “You’ve got better than that.”“Would you prefer I call you a bad boy and list out all your punishments?” Taehyung says with a smile. Yoongi watches a bead of sweat roll down off his collarbones, gathering speed before disappearing down his leg.“Do that and I’ll bite your dick off next time I’m giving you head,” Yoongi replies.Taehyung half-groans, half-laughs.“That should be a boner-killer,” he says. “But I think I just got even harder.”“You idiot. Less talking,” he says, planting his other foot on the bed for leverage. “More fucking.” He uses that leg to push his hips up, taking Taehyung in fully. He can’t help the groan that falls out of his lips. He swirls his hips around before falling back.Taehyung seems to take the hint. Finally. He leans down so both his hands are on the bed. Yoongi’s leg, still resting on his chest, is stretched to the limit. But when Taehyung starts fucking into him properly, it doesn’t matter.He makes some kind of strangled sound but doesn’t know what. The mix of sensations is incredible – Taehyung deep inside, the stretch of his leg, the slapping of Taehyung’s hips against his ass. Then the angle changes when Taehyung shoves his leg to the side, hauling up his other one so they make a V and thrusting in harder.Yoongi sees stars. He’s sure he shouts, but he can barely hear it.His whole body is shaking with Taehyung’s pistoning hips, the bed as well. He doesn’t realise his eyes are shut until he cracks them open to stare at Taehyung’s face hovering above him, dark and hungry. He rolls his own hips up, matching Taehyung’s pace.“Fuck,” Taehyung snarls. “Look at you. You love this.”“Who, ah, doesn’t love o-orgasms,” Yoongi pants out, nowhere near as steady as he liked.Taehyung’s answer is to duck down and sink his teeth into Yoongi’s neck. Taehyung’s name leaves his lips in a gasp. His fingers clench into Taehyung’s silver hair, holding him there. A hand slides down his waist, finding his cock and stroking. Yoongi whines.“Are you close?” he pants into Yoongi’s ear.Yoongi can’t talk. He nods his head though, frantically against the pillow. More, he wants to say, but the words won’t form. Taehyung seems to get it anyway. His hips work harder and the rest of the room fades for Yoongi. He can hear his heartbeat echoing in his ears, the sound of the lube in his ass, the thud as their hips meet. It all builds, builds, until Yoongi can’t take it anymore and he’s flying apart. Taehyung’s hand tightens on his cock and it sends him higher, clenching down and shuddering. He feels his come splatting against his body. Wave after wave hits his body, making his stomach twitch and clench.He feels Taehyung’s cock slide out and he realises his eyes are clenched shut. Opening them, he sees Taehyung has ripped off the condom. His hand is flying over his dick. His body is long and curved over Yoongi, the light playing over his skin like molten gold. The muscles in his arms and torso flex and relax in a ripple.“Here,” Yoongi grunts out, making grabby hands. Taehyung’s hair is a mess, lips bitten to hell. He gets the message though, at least somewhat, and crawls up Yoongi’s body to kiss him. Yoongi kisses him back for a moment before tilting his head away, reaching down to grab Taehyung’s ass and tug him forward. “Come here.”It’s Yoongi’s turn to slap Taehyung’s hand away, replacing it with his own. Taehyung stops but Yoongi keeps urging him forward. Finally, finally, Taehyung’s dick is at Yoongi’s lips without him having to strain off the pillow.“Took your sweet time,” Yoongi grumbles, lips brushing against Taehyung’s cock. Taehyung shudders. Yoongi opens his mouth, sticking out his tongue slightly and urges Taehyung with a hand on his back to feed his cock in. Taehyung groans and falls forward, arms catching himself on the headboard. He’s hesitant at first, which is nice but Yoongi feels like he’s proven his dick-sucking abilities by now. And now he just wants Taehyung’s come.“Yoongi, oh fuck,” Taehyung says. His head falls back. His hips surge forward. Finally, finally.He doesn’t last long. Less than a dozen thrusts into Yoongi’s mouth and he’s shooting down his throat. Yoongi breathes through his nose and swallows through it. He feels his own dick pulsing with heat at how Taehyung looks wrecked above him.“Fucking hell,” Taehyung groans, flopping down onto the bed next to him. Yoongi’s lips are slick with drool and come. Taehyung’s eyes seem magnetised to them. “Your mouth. You. Incredible. Oh god. Your mouth.”Holding Taehyung’s eyes, he deliberately runs his tongue over his lips. Then he reaches up with a delicate finger and catches the bit that had run down his chin. He sucks it into his mouth. Taehyung gives a shattered moan.“I want to take a photo of you like this to keep for all future jerk-off sessions,” Taehyung says.Yoongi snorts. “Hell no. You’d end up sending it to the group chat.”“You’re probably right,” he says with a slow grin. “Jimin’d enjoy it, at least.”“Don’t mention Jimin when your come’s still in my mouth.”Taehyung grins and rolls out of the bed. Yoongi’s eyes reverently watch his ass as he crosses to the bathroom, grabbing a towel and wetting part of it. Honestly, Yoongi gets the photo thing because he wouldn’t mind having one of Taehyung’s ass. It’s a masterpiece and those dimples.Taehyung wipes him down, lingering over the burnt out tattoo on his chest. Yoongi huffs and snatches the towel, finishing the job properly. Taehyung’s eyebrows rise up, but he doesn’t comment. Instead, he drops onto the bed next to him.Yoongi takes this as his cue. He begins shifting off the bed but Taehyung’s voice stops him.“C’mere,” he says drowsily, eyes barely open. One hand waves imperiously at him.Yoongi freezes.“What?”“I’m sleepy.”“It’s not even 8pm.”“Sex makes me sleepy, don’t you judge me. Just get over here.” Taehyung makes grabby hands at Yoongi. It’s cute.Cuddling with Taehyung doesn’t sound half-bad, but the warmth in his chest stinks of budding emotion.The words tumble out of his mouth before his mind catches up. “What are we doing?”Taehyung’s eyes shoot open. His arms drop down to the sheets.“Yoongi. It’s just fucking, yeah? No deeper than that.” He’s giving Yoongi a cautious look. “I just like cuddling. Any warm body will do, honestly.”Yoongi is… not disappointed. Being disappointed would mean he wanted something else, which he very much didn’t. Taehyung didn’t seem to be involving any feelings. And Yoongi hates feelings, so… perfect.So he rolls his eyes, mutters, “Brat,” and flops down next to Taehyung, who immediately octopus-sprawls across him.“G’night,” he mumbles against Yoongi’s chest, and is out like a light.Yoongi blinks, just lying there.“Fuck,” he says at the ceiling.---He doesn’t get to sleep after that. Sleep has always been somewhat of an elusive thing for him, especially when his mind is buzzing. But he can’t stop either staring at the ceiling, or staring at Taehyung’s face. The words stick in his mind – it’s just fucking.Yoongi is no stranger to casual sex. It’s more like an itch he needs to scratch every so often, but he has no problem separating emotions from the act. He’s done it before, and he can do it now.Looking down at Taehyung, his eyes trace over red lips and sharp brows. He’s definitely one of the most beautiful men to show any interest in him. But it’s more than that. He doesn’t mind listening to Taehyung ramble on about weird shit, even when useless talk normally annoys him.Perhaps this is what becoming friends with someone is like? Jeongguk is the last and only person he’s really made friends with, and he doesn’t mind listening to Jeongguk go on and on about random things. He normally ends up tuning him out, but he’s known Jeongguk for years.And Yoongi… Yoongi just hates his fucking mind, sometimes. He should be exhausted from healing his arm earlier and the good sex, but his mind feels electric.He wiggles out from under Taehyung’s sprawling grasp. Taehyung frowns, mumbling something under his breath. His hands make grabby motions and Yoongi shoves a pillow at him. Taehyung’s golden limbs curl around it instead. Yoongi starts gathering his clothes.When he opens the door, it creaks. He freezes. Glances back at Taehyung. His legs kick out at the sheets, but he seems to snuffle closer to the pillow and drop back into a deep sleep again. Yoongi breathes a sigh of relief and closes the door behind him.“Walk of shame, huh?”Yoongi startles, maybe lets out a squeak and drops his jacket on the ground. He has his mageblade out in front of him in an instant.Jimin is curled up on one of the couches. The iPad in front of him lights up the smirk on his face, his eyes creasing into half-moons.“Fucking hell,” Yoongi mutters, putting away the mageblade. He snatches his jacket off the ground and shoves it on. Jimin watches him the whole time, stupid smirk still on his face.“There’s a notepad and pen next to the door,” Jimin says after a long moment of staring at him. “So you can write a note or something, since you’re obviously not just ditching Taehyung in the middle of the night like a total scumbag.” Jimin leans forward, head cocking to the side. “Or are you a total scumbag, little dark exorcist boy Min Yoongi?”Yoongi… hadn’t really thought about it in those terms. About how Taehyung would feel in the morning waking up alone after he’d specifically asked him to stay. It’d be a pretty shitty thing to do, feelings or not.Yoongi scowls at Jimin but goes over to the notepad, ignoring the smug look on his face. The first page is filled with things like out for groceries sweetie xoxo and ariadne’s diadem → syukri in brunei??? and even a small drawing at the bottom of… dicks growing out of the ground? And sprouting flowers?Yoongi just rips off a blank sheet and doesn’t look too closely at it. He scrawls across it: enjoy the carrots – mygHe’s not really sure of what else he can say. Thanks for the sex? Sorry for leaving in the middle of the night? So he just leaves it there.“How chivalrous of you,” Jimin purrs, and Yoongi shoots him the middle finger as he leaves.---He doesn’t end up at home. That same electricity is still buzzing through his body and he ends up switching lines on the subway to head to the hospital. He debates in his head for a while, but ends up messaging Jeongguk on the way. If Yoongi did this by himself, after everything else, Jeongguk probably wouldn’t talk to him again. And Yoongi needs him – he doesn’t particularly want to keep getting the subway out to obscure places like Hoboken.Yoongi’s been sitting there for about half an hour before Jeongguk shows up, striding towards him in his clunky Timberlands and a shirt that’s definitely not his. Jeongguk solely wears white shirts and black jeans like it’s some kind of uniform. And this shirt is black with tiny bananas all over it.“Did you mug a pretentious hipster on your way here and steal his shirt?” Yoongi says. His voice is rustier than normal. Could have something to do with the cigarette stubs littered around him and the fresh one in his hand.Jeongguk’s neck goes splotchy red, cheeks darkening, as he scowls. “There’s nothing wrong with this shirt. It’s cute!”Yoongi tilts his head when he sees a dark blotch on Jeongguk’s neck, right next to the collar. “Are you… did you come straight from a hookup?”Yoongi didn’t think it was possible, but Jeongguk goes more red.“I— we’re not— ugh, don’t you have something you want to say to me?” His fists are clenched at his side. It’s cute.Yoongi’s eyes shift away from Jeongguk and alight on the hospital again. It’s a depressing building, all miserable beiges and squares. If Yoongi had to pick a colour that represented complete and utter boring monotony, it’d be beige. The worst colour. Probably the colour of his aura, if he’d stuck around to find out.Jeongguk deliberately steps into Yoongi’s line of sight. His hands are on his hips, like an adorable cartoon drawing of an angry person. Even his mouth is set in a cranky pout. Jeongguk may be able to bench press Yoongi without breaking a sweat, but there’s no making his face intimidating.“Thank you for coming straight from your hookup,” Yoongi says. He can just about see the steam coming out of Jeongguk’s ears.Jeongguk takes a deep breath, still looking at him narrow-eyed. There’s a beat of silence. Jeongguk, as usual, is the one to break first.“Are you trying to be ironic? Smoking cigarettes outside a hospital? People are probably being treated for lung cancer inside.”“Maybe it’s a metaphor.”“What? For what?”Yoongi sighs and stubs it out on the bench. He flicks it on the ground where it joins several of his other used butts.“And littering now, too. Great.”Yoongi raises both his eyebrows and deliberately keeps eye contact with Jeongguk as he lights up another cigarette. Jeongguk huffs out an annoyed sigh but finally moves his ass out of the way. Yoongi goes back to staring at the hospital. Jeongguk sinks onto the bench beside him.“So? What’s wrong.”“Nothing’s wrong.”“You only ever come here when you’re upset.”“I’m not upset. And I don’t always come here when I’m upset.”Yoongi’s fingers itch for another cigarette.“Okay, yeah, we have our set hospital day,” Jeongguk says. “But that’s not today. You know what I mean!”Yoongi thinks of Taehyung, golden skin barely illuminated by the moonlight, sprawled across the bed. Thinks of how badly he wanted to stay.“Father Hennessy called me,” Jeongguk says. Yoongi can feel his eyes on the side of his face, but he keeps his locked on the shitty hospital. “So I know something’s happened since then.”An ambulance rounds the corner, lights flashing but with no siren. Yoongi watches as it heads into the emergency entry. He wonders about the person inside – drug overdose? Shooting? A stabbing? Maybe a heart attack?“Do you, now,” Yoongi says flatly.“It’s been long enough since our fight that I know this isn’t about it.”“Did I call my therapist instead of my driver?”“You don’t even have a therapist. You should, though.”“I don’t need a therapist.”“Yoongi, someone could write a whole paper on what’s going on in your fucked up mind!”“Thanks, Jeongguk.”“Anyway, I’m your friend. And I care.”“You’re my driver.”Jeongguk rolls his eyes. “I’m your friend and your driver. And apprentice!”“Not for much longer,” Yoongi mutters, blowing out smoke in Jeongguk’s direction. The boy flinches back, muttering under his breath and waving the smoke away.“You’re so annoying,” Jeongguk says, disgruntled look still on his face. He shoots a glare at the cigarette cradled in Yoongi’s fingers still.“Cool. Leave, then.”“We’ve gotten off-track – something happened that you’re upset about and you need to tell me.”Yoongi rolls his eyes. “Why?”“So I can fix it.” And Jeongguk’s face is so determined, so stubborn, that Yoongi can tell he believes what he’s saying. Jeongguk would try and fix anything bothering Yoongi. Yoongi’s not sure how he feels about that – it’s unfamiliar. When has anyone cared enough to try, before? Yoongi doesn’t exactly inspire protectiveness in others, and he’s more than happy about that. Wouldn’t want it any other way.But Jeongguk…He feels himself softening, rigid tension leaving his body. No longer prepared to fight at the drop of a hat, which is his normal state.“Don’t worry about it, Guk,” he says softly. Jeongguk’s eyes shine wide and sincere in the streetlights. “Just… in my own head.”“About Taehyung?” Jeongguk prods gently.Yoongi forces himself to not react to the name – to only blink languidly.“Don’t worry about it.” His voice is a bit more forceful this time and Jeongguk flinches back. Yoongi makes an effort to tone it down a bit. “Another time, okay?”Jeongguk looks at him, scanning his face. He nods. “Fine. But I’m on your side always, okay? Always.”Yoongi doesn’t want to look too closely at the warmth pooling in his chest. He rolls his eyes. “If anyone pisses me off, I’ll make sure to set you onto them. You’re very intimidating. Like an adorable chihuahua.”“We have to stick together,” Jeongguk says. “No matter what others say and no matter what you think. I don’t care. Also, I’m not a chihuahua, what the fuck, that’s the most offensive thing you’ve ever said to me.”“Mmm, you’ve got the same googly eyes. All big and ridiculous looking and completely harmless.”“I’ve gotten into fights, okay! I’m not harmless!”Yoongi makes a sceptical noise, then pushes off the bench. Drops his cigarette on the ground and crushes it out with one boot.“Let’s get this shit over with,” Yoongi says, heading towards the hospital. “I need a shower, bad.”“No one is forcing you to do this, you know,” Jeongguk says, jogging to catch up. “You don’t have to do it.”Yoongi grunts. Jeongguk gets like this, sometimes.“I know you’re helping people. I know they need it. But I don’t like it when you do this, like it’s some kind of catharsis?”“Well, if you say so, Jeongguk. I guess I’ll just go home and let the person I can save die, huh?”“Don’t twist my words,” Jeongguk mutters. “And don’t make me call your bluff.”Yoongi begins to regret calling Jeongguk along, even though he doesn’t really have much choice. When he draws the sickness or injury into his own body and it’s bad enough, he’s out like a light. He’s managed to lock himself in a janitor’s closet a few times before, but it’s an unpleasant experience. Better to let Jeongguk deal with his unconscious body. “I’m careful, Guk. It’s fine.”“You always say that. You’re always fine until you’re not and then what do I do?”Yoongi shrugs.“It’s not your call to make.”---Yoongi doesn’t have the energy the next day to do anything but lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. And think, which is never a good thing. He thinks about the ring sitting on his bedside table. He thinks about Taehyung’s eyes on him, the way he seems to look inside him. He thinks about his silver hair catching the light in his garden. He thinks about Jeongguk’s earnest eyes.Eventually, he decides he’s had more than enough of fucking thinking and goes to grab his cigarettes. Jeongguk unhelpfully threw them on the other side of his apartment when he’d carried him in last night.He’s lighting up on his bed, considering his sheets and wrinkling his nose at the smell of sweat and sickness rising off it, when a banging comes from his door. He startles so hard he drops the cigarette. It hisses as it makes contact with his sheets.“Ouch, fuck,” Yoongi says, picking it up and swatting at the tiny fire until it goes out. Icy prickles flow down his palm as it heals. “I’m coming!” he yells at the door. “Shut the fuck up!”“Mr Min! Help!” Bang bang bang. “Help!”“For fuck’s sake,” Yoongi mumbles, stumbling off the bed. He throws open the door. “What.”It’s his neighbour, the demon Pizza Jenga buddy. His glasses are askew on his face, eyes wide and frantic. Sweat is pouring off of him, darkening his shirt in big patches. He’s the picture of desperation.The glasses always annoy Yoongi – he’s a demon, why the fuck does he have glasses? But whatever comatose patient Len possessed was short-sighted. He could apparently heal whatever coma the guy was in, but not his own eyesight.They strangely suit his personality.“I knew you were in! You need to help me! It’s back!”“Len,” Yoongi says, sighing and leaning against his doorframe. “You’re a demon. You’re the brother of one of the big bads of hell. Take care of it yourself.”“I can’t, I can’t! It’s bigger than before.” His hands wave in front of him. A sweat drop goes flying. “Worse! It’s after me and it’s after my cats! You need to help me. If not for me, then the cats!”“I don’t like cats.”“Wh-What? How can— but you look like— but cats. They’re innocent!”“Mmm. Innocent doesn’t pay the bills.”Len’s head swivels back and forth, from his apartment back to Yoongi. A cat runs past the doorway and Len makes an aborted move to go after it.“I, I, heck, oh, stinking heck. I’ll pay for pizza next time!”“It’s your turn anyway.” Yoongi crosses his arms.“The next time, too!”“The next three times I’m meant to pay.”Len’s mouth works for a moment, before he huffs and says, “Fine! Yes! Agreed! Now help my cats from that monster!”“You are the worst demon ever,” Yoongi says, closing his eyes against his pounding headache. “Let me put on pants.”“And a top, too,” Len says, hovering behind him as Yoongi sorts through his pigsty of a room.“Don’t push your luck,” Yoongi grumbles, but he grabs a shirt anyway.Len’s apartment next-door constantly smells like cat piss and Yoongi isn’t a fan. Len runs a cat shelter but ends up adopting half of them anyway. All the cats are either sitting in the hallway or the far corners of the apartment, watching him with beady eyes. They all steer clear of the bathroom.“It’s in there.”“Mine mine mine allminemine,” comes drifting out of the bathroom.“Hey,” Yoongi snaps. He kicks the bathroom door open. “What did I fucking tell you last time?”“Oh. Shit.”The liderc has half-crawled out of the bathtub drain. It froze as soon as Yoongi came in, with its gnarled black fingers outstretched towards the cat hiding under the sink. The cat streaks out of the bathroom.“Noooo!” the liderc wails. Its voice grates on Yoongi’s ears like an ugly cawing. “Mine!”Lidercs are ugly creatures at the best of times but this one, half in a drain, takes the cake. It has somewhat humanoid features, but more like what’d happen if a toddler tried to make a person out of playdoh. All squished together and weirdly round, with creepy eyes. The black-green colour of its skin isn’t doing it any favours, either.Dumb as hell, too.“Hey. Answer the question.”Its orange eyes focus on Yoongi.“Min Yoongi! Oh, oh no. No, I wasn’t doing anything. No. Not at all. I haven’t left the basement in years. I was sucked up here! It’s not my fault!”“No, that’s not what I think happened,” Yoongi says, stepping in close. “I think you saw me get carried in last night, unconscious, and you thought you could toe the line and maybe chew up a few tasty kitties. Am I right?”“Noooo?” the liderc says, in a way that definitely means yes.“I thought we had an arrangement worked out, you and me,” Yoongi continues. He squats down but keeps his mageblade out of sight when he slices his finger open. “You get an endless supply of nightmares. Even some gold every now and then. You don’t try and eat any living thing. Including cats.”“But hungry!”“And do you remember what I said would happen if you broke the rules?”The liderc stares at him, orange eyes glimmering and wide.“Kill it!” Len yells from outside the bathroom. The liderc hisses at him.“I said I wouldn’t hesitate to throw your ass back in hell. Remember?”“I… remember,” the liderc says. “But I still here. No hell, then?”“I like to keep my word,” Yoongi says. He finishes the last glyph on the ground he’d been drawing with his blood. Activates it.“Nooo mine!” The liderc lunges at Yoongi. Its claws disintegrate inches from Yoongi’s neck. The glyph flares again then falls to ash. The liderc is gone.Len pops his head cautiously around the door. His eyes are wide behind his glasses.“Is it… is it gone?”“Yes,” Yoongi says. “You could’ve sent it back yourself.”Len shudders. “No, thank you. I do not like those things. No.”“You’re the most useless demon I know,” Yoongi mutters, getting to his feet. “I don’t know how you’re related to your brother.” His knees creak. He feels vaguely nauseous – too much magic in the past twenty-four hours.“I know you don’t mean that as a compliment, but it is one. Thank you!”“You owe me.”“I will pay my debt to you in pizza!”“Good,” Yoongi says. He drags himself back to his room and collapses face-down on the bed.---When he next wakes up it’s still light outside. His phone is vibrating non-stop on the bedside table, the wood reverberating loudly. He grumbles and knocks it to the ground.It continues.He lasts about thirty seconds before rolling over and reaching out for it. Before he can, his stomach rolls violently. He barely makes it to the toilet in time, hurling up nothing but stomach acid.His head thunks down onto the toilet seat. Phantom pain shivers across his body – the woman he’d healed had had blood poisoning and her organs had started failing. Nothing quite feels right in his body, not yet. It tends to feel like this after a healing – his chest tattoo feels warm, too, but that could just be in his head.Eventually, he drags himself into the shower. When he feels more like a functional person, he checks his phone.The screen is filled with messages. From some kind of new group chat? It’s named something incomprehensible – s3ndn00dz (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ – and Yoongi has no idea why the fuck he’s in it.It takes him a bit of clicking around to realise why. It’s the same group chat that he’d definitely put on mute, after Namjoon had sent him step-by-step instructions. In a gross misuse of power, Jeongguk must’ve gone into his phone and unmuted it. And changed his phone background to a picture of an angry cat.Yoongi scrolls through the hundreds of messages without really looking at any of them. The most recent post is a poll.
Taecup

Are baby carrots just normal carrots chopped up small?

Yes

No

Yoongi, frowning, of course clicks yes. The poll expands to the answers – 33% yes, 66% no. When Yoongi peers closely at the tiny profile pictures above the ‘yes’ option, Namjoon is the only other person to have voted for it.At least that means Yoongi knows he’s right about this.Messages have started flooding in since he looked at it.
Chiminy Cricket
HAHAHA THEYRE SO DIFFERENT WTF@NAMJOON WTF IS WRONG WITH U 😠😠
daddy long legs

Link: www.washingtonpost.com/news/2017/06/14/baby-carrots-liars-5783buwhd93jsn

It’s actually really interesting – a good example of manipulating the masses into thinking something is ‘new’ and ‘different’, when it’s really just the same old thing

Kind of like how orange juice wasn’t a thing until orange sales went down

Also who changed my name again

xoxo gossipjin
Classic capitalism amiright 💁
Lol do u really need to ask bb

Namjoon

But seriously, the orange juice article is really good, did anyone read it when I sent it last week? We’re going through an orange crisis again and they’re reducing how much juice goes in one carton

Chiminy Cricket

READING IS 4 NERDS

Taecup
We’re getting off track here 🙄
ZaDdY LoNG LeGZ~~

Let me find it again

JIMIN.

KOOKIES N KREAM
Umm did anyoen else notice ghost man min yoongles voted? 😱
Chiminy Cricket

AHAHA BACK FROM THE DEAD
👻👻👻👻👻
he clicked yes

U WOULD @Min Yoongi

Taecup

Video proof that you nerds are wrong
Yoongi clicks on the video. Taehyung’s deep voice rings through the apartment and he startles, clicking the volume down. It looks like Taehyung is standing in his kitchen, facing the bedrooms – Yeontan comes skittering into view, claws loud on the slate. His tongue is lolling out, legs moving fast, but he’s so small he’s not really going anywhere too fast.“Tannie!” Taehyung greets, kneeling down. His long fingered-hand appears, holding out a carrot cut down to size. Yeontan takes a few cautious steps and sniffs the carrot. His tongue darts out, poking at the carrot, then his head rears back. He sneezes. Delicately, he leans forward again and takes a nibble. He eats it, but he doesn’t look happy about it. At all.“Yeah, not a real baby carrot, huh chicken? Big difference, right?”Then the video cuts out.Yoongi rolls his eyes and starts typing out a message slowly.

exorcist, badass and groupchat ghost YOONGBOIII

You r dob is a drama Queen

Taecup

He’s a discerning pup!

Sidenote tho

Anyone want some carrots

exorcist, badass and groupchat ghost YOONGBOIII

CHANGE NH NAME IMMMEDAITLY

xoxo gossipjin
🤩🤩 SO CUTE I just wanna eat him up
Chiminy Cricket

no that’s yoongi’s job

oh u were talking about the dog
😏😏😏😏😏😏
KOOKIES N KREAM

CAN U NOT

Chiminy Cricket

sidenote to the sidenote tho

tae why you have so many carrots in the first place huh

is it a COURTING GIFT

because i don’t think ive vetted this suitor yet so…
😏
@Min Yoongi
😏
@Min Yoongi @Min Yoongi
Yoongi’s phone is going crazy with vibrations and dings and he’s about the throw it out his fucking shitty window. When he smashes enough buttons and gets it to mute – after finding Namjoon’s instructions again – the silence is almost eerie.He falls back on his bed that still stinks of sickness and sweat, and stares at his phone. He thinks for a bit. And then a bit longer. Then decides fuck it, and opens up his messages.---Yoongi pushes open the door to the House of Mystery with its purple glowing windows and shivers as the wards slide over his skin. The inside smells strongly of patchouli and—Is that Justin Bieber? What the fuck.Yoongi hovers at the entrance. The shop has once again changed layout; the winding staircase is in the centre of the room, now. He can’t see where the cash register is. One of the people browsing does a double-take and sneers at him. Yoongi shoots him a dismissive look back – he’s used to it.“In all black again, lord supreme exorcist?” Jimin pops up, startling Yoongi. “Groundbreaking.”“Where’s Taehyung?”Jimin leans against a shelf, crossing his arms. There’s a formation of tiny skulls on top of the shelf – they wobble, but don’t fall. Yoongi can feel the weird energy coming from them. He keeps one eye on the shelf.“Aw, what about me?” Jimin taunts. “Don’t you wanna come talk to me?”“Jimin,” Yoongi grits out.“He’s not here.” But Jimin is smirking. His eyes are full of mischief. “Thanks for stopping by, though. Anything I can help you with?”Jimin leans forwards and Yoongi tilts back. He’s not stepping back, though – he can hold is ground against one tiny guy with lilac fucking hair.“I know he’s here.”“But why are you here?”“Seeing Taehyung,” Yoongi snaps. “Like I said.”“Why?”“Why is it your business?”“Everything about Taehyung is my business. Answer the question, little exorcist boy.”Yoongi rolls his eyes, exasperated. “I’m selling the ring to him. Naberius’s Ring.”“Wow, how convenient. You’re just here to sell the ring?”“Why are you interrogating me?”“Why are you upset I’m interrogating you? Do you have something to hide?”“I’d say everyone knows my business pretty well already.” Yoongi gestures at the man who’d sneered at him before, who’s been steadily inching closer to eavesdrop. The man pales and acts like he’s seen something fascinating on the other side of the store. “Ask anyone.”Jimin rolls his eyes. “I’m not an idiot. This lot talks all kinds of shit, hardly any of it ever true.”“And what if it is true?”“If you hurt Taehyung, I’ll rip out your liver with my bare hands and eat it. And I’ll enjoy it. A lot.”Yoongi snorts. “As if I’d be able to hurt him.”Jimin frowns.“Taehyung is the best person I know. He’s my best person. And I won’t let anyone hurt him.” Jimin leans forward, right into Yoongi’s space this time, and his glamour flickers. Yoongi gets the barest impression of dark eyes and pointed teeth, something swaying behind Jimin’s back, before the glamour snaps back into place. “I don’t know what’s going on in your twisted mind, but remember that Taehyung isn’t like the shit people we’re used to dealing with. He’s good. Through and through. So you being here better mean you’re getting your shit together, no longer leaving in the middle of the night, and finally helping with that stalker. Yes?”Yoongi’s mind is half on Jimin’s words, and half tearing through the bestiary in his head. He blinks. It was a tail he’d seen behind Jimin.“Gumiho,” he blurts. “You’re a gumiho.”Jimin smiles, but it doesn’t look very friendly. He reaches out and taps Yoongi on the cheek with one manicured finger. It feels like a claw.“Yes, sweet sad boy,” Jimin coos. “Which means I’m very well-equipped when it comes to ripping out internal organs and leaving no evidence. Understand?”But Yoongi’s brain is catching up with the rest of Jimin’s melodramatic villain speech, and—“What do you mean, finally help with the stalker? Taehyung said it was fine.”“And you actually believe him?”Yoongi opens his mouth, then frowns. Before he can think about it too hard, Taehyung steps around the shelf.“Are my ears burning?”Jimin directs his scowl to Taehyung, stabbing a tiny finger into Yoongi’s chest. “You told little demon boy over here not to worry about your stalker? The one who’s, you know, stalking you?”Taehyung rolls his eyes and comes toward Yoongi, ruffling Jimin’s lilac hair on the way.“Hey!” Jimin ducks away, angrily patting his hair down. “That was artfully tousled.”“Now it’s even more artfully tousled.”“You can’t—”“Business time,” Taehyung sing-songs, grabbing Yoongi’s wrist and dragging him away. Jimin makes a frustrated noise and then Yoongi can hear him angrily stomping away. Taehyung leads them, once again, up the stairs which are now on the far side of the store. Yoongi’s eyes are caught on the bright silver bracelets clinking gently on Taehyung’s wrist.He feels like he’s floating for a bit, catches himself falling into Taehyung’s mesmerising aura, and halts in the middle of the living room.“Mmm?” Taehyung looks back, arching one eyebrow. Silver glitters at his ears. His shirt, billowing and white, has patches of dirt where he’s rubbed his hands off. Yoongi isn’t quite sure how he can look both glittery and grubby, and still be appealing.“The ring?”“Oh, yeah,” Taehyung says, as if they hadn’t discussed this at length over text message earlier. As if Yoongi is here for anything else. “Later.”“Wha— oh,” Yoongi says, when Taehyung grins and just keeps dragging him into the bedroom.As if Yoongi is here for anything else.---After, Yoongi is staring up at Taehyung’s ceiling. The man himself has his long limbs draped over him, snoring softly. Yoongi is somewhat amazed at Taehyung’s ability to just fall asleep anywhere. It’s not even late in the afternoon, and he’s knocked right out.Yoongi can barely even sleep at night.So once again, he’s left alone with his thoughts while Taehyung octopuses-out next to him. He knows he should wriggle out from under Taehyung and leave, but he can’t make himself. He’d forgotten how good it can feel to have someone so close, breathing the same air, skin warm on his.Yoongi lets himself have this. It’s only for now, anyway. They’ve both gotten what they wanted out of this.It’s just fucking.
Any warm body will do.
And this is why he fucking hates sleeping, especially in the middle of the day. Thoughts like these worm their way in. Useless fucking thoughts that don’t help with anything.That’s all he and Taehyung are – warm bodies. How many times does he have to say he’s happy with that? Because when his hands are on Taehyung, his lips skimming warm skin, he’s more than happy. He’s great.It’s just the rest of the time that sucks, but what’s new?Yoongi can feel the coldness seeping into his soul and he greets it with familiarity. A long lost companion. One that you hate, but can’t quite ever get rid of. What are those little fish that suck onto the bigger fish and get a free ride?It’s like that, except called depression. Yoongi doesn’t like putting labels on it.He just knows it as that coldness, where he feels like all the wounds he’s ever healed are wide open and gaping just beneath his skin, like a heavy weight. Where he wants to claw his skin off to see if the inside of him really is as festering as it feels. Sometimes he wonders if that’s all there is to him – him and his curse, making sure he keeps one foot in hell wherever he goes.Taehyung’s just next to him, but the warm glow of him seems further than ever.Yoongi’s not alone. He knows this. He knows he has Jeongguk and Father Hennessy, and he might even have Taehyung for fleeting spans of time. His body, at least. But he knows he’s not alone.And yet he still feels this gaping, yawning fucking emptiness.With a frustrated sigh, he pushes out of bed and begins grabbing his clothes. The nearest hospital isn’t too far from here, but it’s next to Wall Street and being in a five block radius of that place gives him hives. He might be hellbound, but at least he’s not in corporate hell.And then Yoongi’s phone rings. It’s on loud, because Yoongi’s shit at knowing how to turn the sound off. And that ring is piercing. Taehyung stirs, mumbling. Yoongi scrambles through all the pockets in his jacket until he finds the fucking thing.“What,” he answers. The effect is somewhat ruined by him whispering.“Ah, help?” It’s Jeongguk. “One of the kids at the shelter, he’s, uh… crawling on the walls? I think he’s possessed? I’ve got him locked into a room with holy water but I don’t know how much longer that’ll keep him. He’s loud, Yoongi.”Yoongi sighs, eyes trailing back to the bed. Taehyung has woken up and rolled onto his back. He’s peering at Yoongi, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. His hair’s ruffled and he looks soft and inviting and everything Yoongi can’t have.“What’s he saying?” He doesn’t bother whispering anymore.“I don’t know, I don’t understand it.”“Put the phone closer.”There’s definitely shouting going on in the background and it grows clearer after a moment. Yoongi frowns, listening. The voice is hoarse, like it’s being ripped from the boy’s throat. The words are following a rhythm, he realises, different words hitting the same beat.“Dactylic hexameter,” Yoongi says.“What? Did you say something?” Jeongguk asks, voice coming clearer.“Why are you talking about ancient epic poetry,” Taehyung says, yawning.“Who was that?” Jeongguk asks, voice wary. “Are you with someone? Who’s not me?”“You,” Yoongi says, jabbing a finger at Taehyung. “Keep quiet. You, Jeongguk, stay put. Don’t let anyone in that room. I’ll be there soon.”“Is that Taehy—”He hangs up.“Emergency?” Taehyung props himself up on his elbows. His gaze drops down Yoongi’s body as he starts pulling clothes on.“Ah, something like that. Demon possession.”“Nasty. A demon using dactylic hexameter, though? Haven’t heard that one before.” Taehyung’s openly checking him out until he pauses, eyes caught around Yoongi’s shoulder. He frowns. Yoongi has a sudden memory of Taehyung biting into it as he came, sucking a mark there.A mark that’s no longer there. Yoongi goes cold.He shoves his shirt on quickly, shrugging into his jacket and turning the collar up.“Uh, The Iliad. He’s quoting The Iliad. A demon with a flare for the dramatic, happens sometimes.” He feels jittery, weird. The coldness has retreated, but he can still feel wisps of it around his soul. And now this. He shifts from foot to foot. It was a lot easier leaving when Taehyung had been asleep, fuck what Jimin had said. “Uh, okay. Bye.”“See you soon, Yoongi,” Taehyung says, voice amused. Yoongi doesn’t look back.On his way out of the apartment, he leaves the ring on the table. He doesn’t pay any attention to all the pot plants lining the window sill, bursting with new colours.---Yoongi is smoking a cigarette outside his building and impatiently waiting for Jeongguk to show up. He’d had a frantic call earlier from one of the Harlem exorcists about being overrun by daevas. Apparently he’d managed to trap and secure most of them in a church basement, but he was struggling to banish them all. When he’d started going into that same superstitious bullshit Chaeseon had gone on about – something is coming, more possessions than normal, dark magic gathering, etcetera – Yoongi had hung up the phone.Enter Jeongguk, who was meant to pick him up ten minutes ago but still hadn’t shown up. Yoongi finishes his cigarette and stamps it out, giving it a vindictive twist with his boot and imagining it’s Jeongguk’s face. What’s the point of a driver if he doesn’t actually show up?Cigarette gone, his only other option is to go back to staring at the messages Taehyung had sent him. One is a video of Yeontan tearing into an actual baby carrot, making happy noises. Another is an arty close-up of a seed sprouting out of the soil, so clear he can make out the individual grains of dirt. And the last, the one that’s giving him the most trauma, is a selfie from that morning. Taehyung’s hair is pushed back from his face by some kind of multi-coloured silk fabric and he’s grinning, wide and rectangular, both rows of teeth on display. His eyes are scrunched up happily, just crescents, as Yeontan’s tongue licks up his cheek.It’s so, so cute. And Yoongi can’t handle the emotions inside him. He kind of wants to throw up? But also go for a run. And maybe pee, a little bit?He’s not dealing well.A car horn blares and he flinches, fumbling the phone and almost dropping it. He looks up with a scowl. Jeongguk is grinning at him, window of the car rolled down. He’s leaning across the passenger seat – and a guy sitting in the passenger seat?“Jeongguk,” Yoongi says. He doesn’t move. “And friend.”“This is Hoseok!” Jeongguk chirps. His neck is red, spreading up to his face. “I offered to drop him off since it’s on the way. In my car. That I own.”Yoongi still doesn’t move. He deliberately looks at the backseat, then back to Jeongguk.“Hi!” Hoseok says, waving and grinning. Yoongi feels like he’s been wacked across the face with sunshine. Who the hell smiles that brightly? Jeongguk also looks a bit stunned, gazing at Hoseok adoringly. “I’m Hoseok! I’ve heard a lot about you!”Yoongi’s distaste intensifies. “I’ve heard nothing about you.”“Yoongi,” Jeongguk hisses, teeth gritted but smile still in place. “How about hopping in and then you can find out more about Hoseok?”“I didn’t say I wanted to know about you.” He’s still staring at Hoseok. Hoseok’s still smiling cheerfully back. He looks like he belongs in a Disney movie with talking birds flying around his head.No thanks.Okay, so Yoongi is miffed. Jeongguk is his driver. He’s meant to get the front seat, at least. And not only that, but… who the hell is this guy that apparently knows Jeongguk so well? He could be anyone. Yoongi doesn’t trust him. No one’s that happy.Yoongi doesn’t want to get in the car. But he doesn’t want Jeongguk alone in the car with this weirdo even more, so he begrudgingly gets in.He also can’t stand the subway. He slams the door so everyone knows he’s not happy about this and settles in for an excruciating car ride.“So Yoongi!” Hoseok twists in his seat, blinking back at Yoongi with a happy expression. “Guk said he’s dropping you off at work?”Yoongi grunts in response.“What do you do?”Yoongi tilts his head to the side. “This and that.”Hoseok doesn’t seem bothered in the least by Yoongi’s flat answers. Jeongguk, on the other hand – his hands tighten on the steering wheel. Yoongi watches with perverse glee.“Yoongi is like a fixer,” Jeongguk says, voice slightly strained. “He helps people out.”“Wow, cool! And you too, right, Guk? You said you assist him sometimes?”Jeongguk’s face is tinged pink and his entire body is tense. His shoulders are just about at his ears from the tension. Jeongguk with a crush is a nightmare. Jeongguk around anyone he wants to impress is horrible and awkward. He never had a crush on Yoongi, but the hero worship phase was just as bad. He gets all shy and painful and constantly red-faced.“Ah, yeah. Yeah! I do. Help Yoongi out, here and there. When he lets me.”“Nice! So what’s the job today? Way uptown, right?”“Um, it’s ah—”“Pest extermination,” Yoongi says. “In the basement of a church.”“Oh.” Hoseok’s head tilts like a puppy, small frown on his face. “Aren’t you meant to have gear? Like a suit? And pesticide, or whatever?”Yoongi shrugs. Thinking up a lie is too much effort and he really just can’t be bothered.Jeongguk shoots him a wide-eyed look in the rearview mirror.“It’s, well, Yoongi’s just examining the site first, you know, and then he’ll—”“How do you know Jeongguk?” Yoongi asks, leaning forward suddenly.“I met him at the shelter helping out with lunchtimes, you know the one in Soho? With all the colourful handprints on the wall outside? On Broome and—”“When?”Hoseok doesn’t look too fazed at being interrupted. “Hmm, I only started there… a month ago? And I met Gukkie like a week in. So what’s that – two, three weeks ago? Guk, how often do you take shifts there? You normally do dinners, right?”Jeongguk’s eyes are frantically shifting from the road to Yoongi and back again.“Ah, like… three times a week? I think. I’ve started doing more lunch shifts—”“—I bet you do—”“—but yeah I think it’s three times a week.” Jeongguk glares at Yoongi. Yoongi ignores him, turning back to Hoseok. With Hoseok twisted around, and Yoongi straining forwards, no seatbelt on, their faces are only a few inches apart. Hoseok doesn’t seem bothered by this in the slightest. He doesn’t seem bothered by anything. That’s not normal.“And you can’t get your own way home from the shelter?”“Oh, Guk offered and was pretty insistent. I don’t mind the subway, though. Actually, I quite like it! You see such a range of people on there, one time I saw a man with this pet mouse that sat on his—”“What intentions do yo—”“Hoseok!” Jeongguk cuts in, voice somewhat shirll. The smile on his face is like a caricature of someone in pain. “Why don’t you tell us about your job! I’ve been trying to convince Yoongi to create a website for his job.”Yoongi sits back, recognising the angry ticking of Jeongguk’s jaw. He crosses his arms and tries not to sound like a petulant child when he says, “I have a website.”“You have a shitty Craigslist ad that you rarely even reply to.”“I’m a front-end dev!” Hoseok says, smile widening. “Which is just a fancy term for saying I build websites, all that HTML and CSS and JavaScript stuff. Coding! I freelance, though, so I can set my own hours when I want. Kinda like you guys, hey?”“I have no idea what you just said.” And I don’t really care, Yoongi doesn’t add, but his tone implies it.Hoseok doesn’t seem to notice. He just bulldozes on, dropping more and more jargon that Yoongi isn’t even bothering to listen to. He makes grunts here and there until the conversation is back to being just between Hoseok and Jeongguk.Yoongi’s arms are still crossed, though. He’s still looking at Hoseok suspiciously. He holds back on interrogating him further, at least, so Hoseok gets dropped off somewhere swanky on the Upper West Side without further incident after kissing Jeongguk sweetly on the cheek. He waves cheerily at them as they pull away. Yoongi doesn’t wave back.He climbs, elegantly and gracefully, into the front seat.“Ouch, you— Yoongi, ow, can’t you— wait until I stop! At least!”“Too late,” Yoongi says mildly, buckling himself in so the car stops beeping at him.The car is silent for a moment. Yoongi turns the radio on and flicks through stations at lightspeed until he finds something with aggressive lyrics and a hard bassline. It crackles through the car’s speakers. Jeongguk’s hands are still clenched on the steering wheel and Yoongi leans against the car window and watches as he works himself up.Finally, “You didn’t have to be so—”“I don’t trust him,” Yoongi cuts in, because he’s a dick.“You don’t trust anyone!”“I don’t trust him the most. Out of anyone. I’d even trust that vampire drama queen Seokjin more than I trust little miss sunshine.”“His name is Hoseok. And you didn’t need to be so mean to him!”“I don’t trust him,” Yoongi repeats. “What do you even know about him?”“A lot, actually. He doesn’t really stop talking.” Jeongguk looks dreamy when he says this, and Yoongi wants to throw up.“Gross. What’s he got to say about that little girl following him?”“What?”Yoongi rolls his eyes. “You didn’t notice the spirit attached to him? Jeongguk.” Jeongguk’s face goes red and his eyes wide, upset. And Yoongi’s not weak for many things, but he certainly is for Jeongguk, so he says, “She’s faint. Hard to detect and not malicious. Don’t beat yourself up.”Jeongguk is still flushed, but his jaw takes on that stubborn set again.“I’ve only known him a month and we’ve only been on a few dates. He’ll tell me if he wants to. I trust him.”“He thinks we’re in pest control.”“I’ve only known him a month!”“He’s human and boring.”“He’s not boring! Yoongi, I like him and I don’t care what you say, I’m still going to see him. Okay? Okay.”Yoongi’s phone pings. He glances down at it and frowns. “What does the little purple bean picture mean?”The car swerves. Yoongi bangs his elbow and drops his phone. Muttering, he reaches down to pick it back up. Jeongguk is staring at him.“Who is sending you the eggplant emoji.”“Uh… Eggplant?”“No, you’re just trying to distract me with the one thing you knew would work. But not this time! We’re talking about Hoseok and your stubborn, gremlin stubbornness.”Yoongi frowns. Gremlin. “Have you been talking to Seokjin?”“Yoongi!”Yoongi rolls his eyes, groaning. “Ugh, Hoseok. He thinks you own a car. Does he think you own a house, too?”“I’m not going to sabotage this before it’s even begun,” Jeongguk says, shooting him a look. Unlike you is unsaid, but still loud in the car. “Be overprotective all you want, but everyone else likes him.”Yoongi sits up straighter.“What do you mean ‘everyone else likes him’?” His voice is low, dangerous.“Maybe if you read your messages.” Jeongguk smirks. “He taught Taehyung how to shimmy and fixed up the store’s website. He likes him.”Yoongi crosses his arms, frowning. “I don’t trust his judgement,” he mutters.“You’re going to be nice to Hoseok,” Jeongguk says, “whether you like it or not. Okay?”“You can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do,” Yoongi declares, and he wonders when he turned into a five year old child. He doesn’t really care.“Yoongi.”“Oh look, we’re here.” Yoongi jumps out of the car just as it starts rolling forward at a green light. Jeongguk swears and slams the brakes on. The drivers behind beep. Yoongi sticks up his middle finger.They’re not really here, technically. The church is still two blocks away, but most importantly, he doesn’t have to listen to Jeongguk berate him anymore. By the time he’s made it to the church, Jeongguk’s found a park and is waiting outside with his arms crossed, muscles bulging.Banishing the daevas go as well as they usually do – a lot of blood, a lot of swearing, a lot of almost getting attacked. The exorcist has them all wrapped up in light-infused steel which was good, since he wasn’t exaggerating about the number. There’s about a dozen of them, all recently summoned from hell.Daevas were like a demon’s sidekicks. They weren’t anywhere near as powerful as a demon, but they didn’t need to possess humans to cause shit. It’s worrying. Not “end is nigh, run for cover” worrying, but Yoongi is starting to think Chaeseon isn’t quite as off the mark as he’d first thought. Daevas appear every so often, one or two following a demon when it buys its way out of hell, but this many?Something’s going on. And Yoongi really isn’t in the mood to figure this shit out, not unless someone is paying him.By the end, he’s quite a lot lighter on blood and unsteady on his feet as his curse tingles its way through his veins. The exorcist is jabbering on in front of him.“...going on, I’ve never seen anything like this before. They kept saying this line, do you know it? ‘The sun casts the darkest shadows.’ I couldn’t get a straight answer out of any of the ones I caught. We’re overrun, though. I’ve brought it to the guild but we’re stretched, we need you on the frontlines—”Yoongi’s phone rings and he happily takes the excuse to get the fuck out of there.“Don’t forget my payment,” he says, taking the steps two at a time. “Send it to the usual account.”“But what about—”Yoongi answers the call without checking the screen.“What?” he says, coming out into the daylight with Jeongguk on his heels.The line is silent for a moment. Then, “Ah, Yoongi?”Yoongi’s spine goes rigid. Taehyung’s voice is thready, not at all the rich tone he’s used to. He sounds scared.“Taehyung? What’s wrong? Where are you?”Jeongguk freezes next to him, eyes wide.“Just… home. I’m fine. But… can you come over?”“On my way,” Yoongi says. He frowns at Jeongguk who bursts into action, jogging to get the car.“Okay, good.” Taehyung breathes out. It’s shaky. “That’s good.”Yoongi’s fingers clench around the phone.“Is anyone else there? Jimin?”Jeongguk pulls up in a different car than before and Yoongi jumps in.“No, he— he had a date. I’m alone.”“Okay. Are you safe?” Yoongi does his best to make his voice soft, but he’s not sure he succeeds. His body is wired, trembling.“Yeah, it’s fine now. Everything’s fine.”But it doesn’t sound fine. There’s none of Taehyung’s usual energy. He sounds flat, small. Like he’s trying to convince himself more than Yoongi. It makes Yoongi want to scream.“Stay on the line, Taehyung,” he says softly. “Got it?”Jeongguk takes a corner like a maniac, throwing Yoongi against the door.“Okay,” Taehyung says softly.They’re on the other side of town and it takes too long to get to the House of Mystery. Yoongi’s antsy the whole way, just about vibrating out of the car. He keeps his tone soothing and even for Taehyung’s benefit, who sounds a little less thready after a while.Yoongi can’t remember the last time he felt terror like this.When they make it to the store, Yoongi’s flying out the car door before Jeongguk’s even got a park.The store looks normal from the outside and it’s not until he steps inside that he feels the complete absence of the wards. Maybe not absence, but a strong sense of wrongness. As if acid had burnt through it.“Taehyung?” he calls. The layout is different once again, but all the shelves look undisturbed. The plants, though – they’re all curled in on each other, hiding. Each one shivers as he passes. None reach out.“Here, Yoongi.”Yoongi weaves quickly through the shelves after his voice. He finds Taehyung leaning against the cash register, back to him, head drooped.“Hey,” Yoongi says. He dodges around the counter and grabs Taehyung by the arms. “What’s—”Taehyung’s chest is covered in blood. His shirt is half-open, the bottom of it dripping red onto the floor. The blood is dark and congealing now, but the skin underneath is raw and blistered. Almost in a… pattern? Yoongi frowns and peers closer.“Shit. Are these wards?” Yoongi can make out the sharp edges of a Seal, flared up on Taehyung’s blistered skin. Much bigger than Yoongi’s own and definitely not visible normally.“Yoongi. You came.” Taehyung’s face is pale and drawn from the pain, but his eyes are bright when he smiles.“Of course I did, you fucking idiot. What happened? What attacked you?” Yoongi wants to shake the answers out of him. His hell-magic is pulsing under his skin, itching to transfer Taehyung’s wounds onto Yoongi.But he can’t.“Yoongi,” Taehyung says again. “I think I might need to hire you after all.” He chuckles weakly. “Don’t say I told you so, kay?”“Taehyung—”“I want you to find the guy who’s been stalking me.”The door slams open and Jeongguk’s worried voice rings out.“Yoongi? Taehyung?”“Over here,” Yoongi calls. To Taehyung, “Upstairs?”Taehyung nods. He lets Yoongi wrap an arm beneath his shoulders and support him up the stairs. An anxious Jeongguk buzzes around behind them.In the kitchen, Yoongi crouches in front of Taehyung and gently wipes off the blood with a wet towel. Jeongguk twitches and shifts behind him until he gets him to rinse out the towel.“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Yoongi says. He keeps his eyes focused on Taehyung’s chest. “Because it looks like a demon tried very hard to possess you.”He’d only ever seen wards blister and bleed like this when they were under great stress. Without all the blood, he could see it was the Third Pentacle of Saturn. It still thrummed with power. Normally it was tattooed onto the skin, like Yoongi’s own ones, but Taehyung’s were somehow underneath his skin. Chaeseon, probably.“Jeongguk, grab the tequila from above the fridge,” Taehyung says instead. Jeongguk hurries to comply, placing it and a glass in front of him. Taehyung fills the glass up halfway then throws it all back. His head stays back, looking up at the ceiling, and Yoongi’s eyes trace down the long column of his throat. “A few weeks ago, a guy came in asking about a compass. He didn’t say it, but he was describing Croydon’s Compass.”Yoongi frowns. “Why does that sound familiar?”“It’s a compass that points to the two hidden gates of hell, no matter where they appear. So, not something you want falling into anyone’s hands.”“The hidden gates are a rumour.”Taehyung chuckles, picking his head up to lock eyes with Yoongi.“A rumour? Not so much. Unfortunately. Just very hard to find when they don’t stay in the same place for long.”“Does that mean you have the compass? You keep it here?”For a demon, there was only one way out of hell and it was policed heavily. Only the strongest manage to claw their way out and they pay for it in the only currency hell has – human souls. If the other gates were real, whoever in control of them would have power over who can get out. Anyone can open a portal down to hell themself. It’s what Yoongi made a living out of – sending demons back to hell. But getting out of hell is the real problem.“Why, do you wanna steal it?” Taehyung asks, edge of his lips quirking up. Yoongi frowns at him. “Not the time for jokes, fine,” Taehyung huffs. “I don’t keep it here. I don’t have it, either. There are a few parts hidden in different places.”“Do you have one of those parts here?”Taehyung raises an eyebrow. “The guy seemed to think so. He asked about it, I said we didn’t have anything like that, but he obviously didn’t believe me. I’ve seen him hanging around a few times since then.”“Has he broken in before?”“No. The House would’ve told me.”“And tonight?”Taehyung sighs. “He came back with some blonde white girl. Held me down. The demon in her tried to possess me.”Yoongi’s skin feels too tight, almost itching. He’s heard stories like this a thousand times before from a thousand different clients. Normally worse. But he’s struggling now to stay in the right headspace.“How did you get away?”“Aren’t you going to ask me if she succeeded? If I’m possessed?”Yoongi rolls his eyes. “I put holy water on the cloth I’ve been cleaning you with when you weren’t looking. If you were possessed, you’d be screaming by now.”Taehyung blinks. “Oh. I guess you can do your job.”“Yes, Taehyung. I’m not bad at my job. So, how did you get away?”“Yeontan.” Taehyung’s eyebrows flicker down, concerned.“Your dog?” Jeongguk interjects.“Tannie is a haechi. A guardian. He chased them off but they wounded him. He’s sleeping it off.”“A haechi?” Yoongi repeats. “How the fuck did you get a pet haechi? I thought he was a pomeranian.”“He likes being a pomeranian. He can’t exactly go around in his true form, can he? And my grandma got him for me,” Taehyung shrugs. “He’s been with me since I was little.”“Chaeseon. Of course.” It always comes back to that old crone.“He’s fine, though. He should be fine. He’s in my room – Jeongguk, can you check on him?”Jeongguk ducks his head into Taehyung’s room and immediately blanches.“Is he meant to look like some kind of unicorn lion?” he whispers. He shuts the door quietly, eyes still wide. “That thing looks sharp. Oh god, I’ve patted him.” If possible, his eyes go even wider. “Oh god, I made him dance to Britney.”Taehyung laughs, then winces when it pulls the skin on his chest. Yoongi feels sick. One touch and he could heal it for him. Taehyung wouldn’t be in pain anymore. But then he’d know. And what does Yoongi really know about him, anyway? He likes him. But does he trust him? Yoongi doesn’t really trust anyone. Trust gets people killed.He can’t do it.He stands up abruptly and clears his throat.“Do you have a description for either of them?”Taehyung looks confused at the sudden change. He glances down at where Yoongi’s hand had been resting on his knee, then back up.“Oh, uh… she looked like any other blonde college student. Wearing jeans and a khaki jacket. He had this ridiculous mohawk? Shaved on both sides, dark purple hair sticking up a few inches. White, dresses like he stepped out of a time capsule from an 80s punk concert. Distinctive.”“Okay. I’ll see what I can fi—”“Taehyung?” Jimin’s voice floats up from downstairs, sound frantic. “Tae!”“Up here,” Taehyung calls down.Jimin races up the stairs, bursting into the room.“What’s going on? Is that blood? Fuck, Taehyung, are you okay? What happened?” His eyes are wide, face pale. “Who the fuck hurt you?” His eyes land on Yoongi. “Don’t tell me this had something to do with you and your demon shit.”Yoongi flinches.“No,” Taehyung says sharply – the sharpest Yoongi’s ever heard him sound. His hand reaches out to grab Yoongi’s. Yoongi shifts out of the way. “This has nothing to do with Yoongi.” Jimin still looks like he wants to rip someone’s throat out – his eyes are dark. “It was the mohawk guy. The one hanging around.”“You mean the one stalking you?” Jimin strides forward. He snatches the wet cloth from the table and dabs at the new blood trickling down. He shoots a glance at Yoongi – somewhat apologetic, somewhat still pissed off.“Don’t tell me ‘I told you so’,” Taehyung says, and his voice is muted. It seems to melt Jimin, and his stance loses some of its tension.“I wouldn’t,” Jimin says, voice softer now. “Doesn’t make it less true, though. What happened to the guy who did this?”“Yoongi’s going to track him down.”Jimin looks at Yoongi and nods firmly. “Good. About time.”“Uh, I’m gonna head out,” Yoongi cuts in. He can’t look at Taehyung’s chest. He can’t even look at Taehyung without feeling the guilt want to overwhelm him.Three pairs of eyes blink at him.“Now?” Jimin says.“You’re not staying?” Taehyung’s voice is small. He wavers for a moment and his eyes catch on the blistered ward. It looks nightmarish, burst blisters open to the air, blood and other things still leaking out.“Jimin’s here,” Yoongi says. His tone stays hard, even if he’s weakening on the inside. “I should get a headstart.”“At 10pm at night?” Jimin demands.“You don’t need me here.” Yoongi finally meets Taehyung’s eyes. They’re wide, lost, sad. It tears a hole in Yoongi’s determination.But he can’t stay. He can’t. He has a job to do, and the guy he fucks sometimes should come second to that.“Okay,” Taehyung says after a moment. The apartment feels cold and silent. Jimin’s eyes are angry. Taehyung looks down.The plants in the windowsill shudder. A few dead leaves rain down.“Ah…” Jeongguk says, gaze darting between the two of them.“I can find my own way back,” Yoongi says. He heads to the stairs but hesitates on top of them. Looks back. Taehyung’s face is blank. “Um, take care.”Then he leaves.---He doesn’t go straight home. He ends up in front of a shitty bar, just off 42nd and near Koreatown. The fluro pink lights spell out The Siren. Some of the letters are flickering, and not in any kind of cool way. More like how a light flickers when it’s about to die. It’s a fitting metaphor for the place, either way.Yoongi sighs and heads down the stairs. The actual bar is dimly lit and shitty. Okay, maybe not exactly shitty. Everything that’s there is of good, sturdy quality, but it’s just somewhat… utilitarian. It’s filled with New York’s magical underbelly, anyway. Without glamours, there’s so many horns and wings and sparkles that the actual bar doesn’t need anymore decoration.People and creatures alike give him a wide berth as he pushes his way to the bar. He snags a seat pretty easy.“Order?” the waitress asks, jerking her head at Yoongi. Her hair is frazzled around her head like a halo. Sweat streaks it. She looks like she’s having a rough night, but that’s the weekend for bar workers.“Gin and tonic.”She makes it quickly and slings it across the bar at him. When he goes to pay, however, someone steps in.“On the house,” Sunmi says. Her long fingers rest on the waitress’s shoulder. The girl bobs her head and understands the non-verbal dismissal. She heads to the other end of the bar. “Min Yoongi,” Sunmi says. “At my bar? Colour me amazed.”“Sunmi. I need information on a person.”Sunmi leans across the bar, arms crossed in front of her. She’s got dozens of bangles up one arm. They clink together, but Yoongi can barely hear it over the pulsing music.“That’s going to cost you.”“How much?”“Depends on the information. You should know this, Yoongi. I’m not one to enter into a business deal without knowing all the details.”“Fine,” Yoongi says. “Payment later. I’m looking for a guy.” Sunmi leans across the bar, eyes intent, as Yoongi gives the description. She hums and tilts her head afterwards, thinking. Her long hair falls in a waterfall down to the bar.“I’ll get this information for you, Min Yoongi,” she says. Her painted red lips twist into a smile. “I’ve even worked out a payment. There’s someone I want you to lift a curse off of.”Yoongi shrugs. “Easy enough. Once I have the information, I’ll work on it.” At this, Sunmi’s eyes narrow. “You don’t trust me to keep my word?” Yoongi baits.“I trust that your word is the only thing you have of value, anymore. Other than your skills,” Sunmi says. “So yes, I’ll believe you. You know exactly what’ll happen to you if you break it.”Yoongi doesn’t really believe in titles or any kind of authority, really. It’s all a social construct. But if he had to pick one person with the greatest web spread across the city, it’d be Sunmi. The queen of New York, if you subscribed to such hero-worship bullshit. Yoongi’s not into it, but he knows Sunmi doesn’t fuck around.“It’s a deal,” Yoongi says. He reaches out his hand. Sunmi places her more delicate fingers in his, then squeezes the shit out of him.“Always a pleasure,” she purrs. “Feel free to stick around. I can send one of my girls over?”Yoongi barely manages to contain his distaste. “No, thank you.”“A boy, then?”And now Yoongi’s just thinking of Taehyung. Again.He doesn’t bother answering Sunmi. Just takes a big swallow of his gin and tonic, and she leaves him alone. It fits, really. He should be wallowing in his own pity and despair, alone, like an antihero out of a hardboiled novel.Yoongi gets it. He’s more than happy to sit in the bar for a while and soak up the genuine misery of the place. And not think about Taehyung.It suits his mood, anyway.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Yoongi keeps himself busy for the next few days while he waits. There’s an influx of calls for his help. He can’t think of a time he’s ever had so many jobs. On the Upper East Side, someone broke an ancient Egyptian canopic chest, causing dozens of trapped ghost to flee into the world. Yoongi spends a while tracking each one done and sending them back. He runs into a group of other mages doing the same and ignores their hisses of “power-hungry murderer”.He’s heard it all before. Nothing new. Sometimes he wonders how Taehyung is, but he doesn’t let himself think about it too much. His mobile is silent. He’s tempted to look in the group chat, which is still muted, but he resists the urge every time.He also doesn’t hear from Sunmi.It’s about a week later when he breaks his silence with Taehyung’s group. And it’s only because he has no other choice.“I was in the middle of cooking, what the fuck,” Seokjin says. He doesn’t look happy at all, cranky pout on his face. It’s hard to be intimidated by the temper tantrum of someone so pretty, even if he is one of the most powerful vampires in New York. Also when he’s wearing yet another dumb t-shirt, this time with a pikachu dressed up as Mario. “Wait, are you… covered in blood?” Seokjin sniffs delicately, leaning forwards. “I’m not helping you bury any bodies, Min Yoongi.”Yoongi rolls his eyes. He turns and heads back into the abandoned warehouse.“Like I’d need your help with that.”“Did you make me come here so you could rob and kill me? I’m too pretty to die. Again.”“Seokjin,” Yoongi snaps. “Hurry up.”He hears Seokjin’s footsteps quicken as he catches up. Deeper into the warehouse, to the back where an office used to be.Inside, Seokjin comes to an abrupt halt.“Yoongi,” he says, voice low and dangerous. His cheer from before is gone in an instant. Yoong can kind of see where the reputation has come from, now. “What the fuck is going on.”Yoongi also realises that he perhaps should’ve explained the situation before showing Seokjin the three vampires he has tied up with silver. Too late now, anyway.The vampires are drowsy and swaying, the silver sapping their strength. The blood loss would also have something to do with it. Yoongi had come in hot with his mageblade.“I don’t know whose coven these baby vamps belong to,” Yoongi says, “but you’re the only vampire I know that won’t try and kill me on sight.”“I don’t blame them.”“Calm down, tiger mum. They attacked and almost killed a teenager. Looks like someone was starving them and then setting them loose on the public? Which is the only reason they’re still alive.”Seokjin’s aggressiveness fades and he looks less like he’s about to jump Yoongi. Which is good, because Yoongi feels hollowed out at the moment. The frown’s still hanging around Seokjin’s eyebrows, though.“Where’s the teenager? Is he still alive?”“She’s fine.”And that’s all Yoongi is going to say on that. Seokjin looks at him, and Yoongi looks back. It’s her blood he’s covered in. And his own, which Seokjin probably knows. He’d had to subdue the vamps quickly before healing the girl and passing out himself. He’s still feeling shaky from it.“Taehyung might be into your ‘air of mystery’,” Seokjin says, wagging a finger at him. “But let the record show that I don’t find it cute at all.”Seokjin doesn’t wait for a reply. He turns around and goes over to the vampires, pulling on gloves as he looks at the silver bindings in distaste. Yoongi leaves him to it.He steps outside the office and lights up a cigarette. He’s angry with himself. Just the mention of Taehyung had him perking up. He’d almost asked how he was doing. What they’d had was meant to be fun, not any real feelings bullshit.Yoongi has made a nice life for himself, separate from all the other feelings and caring drama. Jeongguk had managed to worm his way in, but he’s helpful. He drives him places and hauls his unconscious body up to his room after a bad healing. He has use.Taehyung, on the other hand? With his golden skin and delicate collarbones and sparkling eyes? A pretty face and nothing more.To love is to be vulnerable and Yoongi’s had enough of being vulnerable to last him a lifetime.“You need a shower,” Seokjin says, nose scrunching up as he steps outside the office. “Some people can pull off the bloody look. Not you.”“Gross, leave me out of your weird vampire fantasies.”“Namjoon seems to like them well enough—”“No.”“—and speaking of Namjoon.”Yoongi turns on him with narrowed eyes.“That better not be a shitty segue into talking about Taehyung.”“Taehyung? What?” Seokjin’s mouth drops open in a pantomime of shock. “Well, now that you’ve mentioned him—” he speaks over Yoongi’s grumble, “—would you like to know how he’s doing? After he was attacked and reached out to you? And then you left?”“Are you going to tell me anyway.”“You’re a shit friend, Yoongi, but you’re not a shit person. I think you have a little marshmallow soft spot deep inside that you’re afraid to let out. And you know why I think that? Because Taehyung’s crazy over you and he may be happy-go-lucky off-with-the-fairies, but he’s not a complete idiot. So stop doing this cold asshole thing. It doesn’t really hold up.”“I’m getting real sick of people thinking they have a say in my decisions,” Yoongi grits out.“Then stop doing dumb things and no one would need to help,” Seokjin snaps back. “Simple.”“I didn’t call you here for a lecture. Are the baby vamps alive or do they need to be put down?”“They’re weak. Just turned, but alive. Someone was keeping them in their basement for entertainment.”“Good luck finding them. Keep me out of it.”Yoongi turns to go.“You should go see him, Yoongi!” Seokjin calls after him. “Find it in your shrivelled, gremlin heart to stop being a dick.”Yoongi gives him the finger over his shoulder.---Yoongi wants nothing more than to fall into a nice, gin-fuelled haze, but even Sunmi wouldn’t let him into her bar covered in blood. And this may be New York, but the line has to be drawn somewhere. He has a shower, changes into sweats and is searching for his phone charger when someone bangs on his apartment door.“Len, swear to fucking god, I’ll message you when I can do Pizza Jenga—”It’s not Len on the other side of the door. It’s Taehyung. He’s dressed in tight jeans and a grey turtleneck. Yoongi thought turtlenecks were for old people, but the way he feels seeing Taehyung in it says he was wrong. There’s a small pocket on the left side of his chest, a delicate white flower peeking out.It’s… weird seeing him here in Yoongi’s shitty apartment building. It’s dingy and lowlit here, nothing at all like the golden sun of Taehyung’s garden or the bright white of his apartment. Taehyung carries his own light with him, though, graceful and golden-skinned.Yoongi feels it deep in his chest, Taehyung’s presence here.“How’d you get in?” he blurts. For a building with a security door, it does a pretty hopeless job of keeping people out.“Your neighbour let me in. The demon? He was walking two cats on a leash, it was weird. Are you going to let me in?”Yoongi’s mind is still catching up. He’s not prepared at all for Taehyung. He’s like the sun – a presence that’s always there, always known, no matter where Yoongi looks. Even if he looks away, he’s always drawn back.Yoongi needs time to prepare, but Taehyung’s here in a turtleneck that should look terrible on him and Yoongi has to keep up. Somehow.He shuffles out of the way and Taehyung sweeps in. It takes him a moment to remember that his apartment is a shithole and he definitely does not want Taehyung seeing it.Too late.Taehyung’s stopped, staring at the piled up pizza boxes. His head tilts.“Oh my god,” he says. “Is that a leaning tower of pizza?”“Um…”“This is amazing,” Taehyung says. He whips out his phone and snaps a photo of it. “And definitely going in the groupchat. Jinnie’s gonna love it. Food and puns?”Yoongi still hovers at the doorway. His arms are crossed defensively, as if that’s enough to keep Taehyung from affecting him.“What are you doing here?”Taehyung finishes fiddling with his phone and slides it back into his jeans. “What do you mean?” He peers around the Pizza Jenga setup, then pokes at it with one long finger. “An employer can’t check on his employee? I’m fine, by the way. In case you wanted to know.” Taehyung turns and faces him, and for the first time he sees the anger in his eyes. Maybe not quite anger? Something softer. Something sadder. Bitterness?Yoongi can’t count the number of times he’s had his mobile out, ready to call Taehyung. Message him. Anything. But he hadn’t done that. That’s not what they do. Taehyung isn’t one of Yoongi’s people.It’s just fucking.“That’s good,” Yoongi says. He’s not sure what script he should be following here. He’s off-balance to the extreme, not ready for Taehyung to show up here of all places. It’s a slap in the face, to be honest – Taehyung’s golden presence in Yoongi’s mess. It makes something awful swirl in the pit of his stomach. Shame?Taehyung waits a beat. When Yoongi doesn’t say anything more, his lips thin. “I was throwing up for the next two days, though. That demon was strong.”“Uh… how are the, uh…” Yoongi gestures towards Taehyung’s chest. “The burns?”“Fine. Almost healed. Joonie made me a salve that helped.”“That’s good,” Yoongi says again.“Yeontan is also doing better,” Taehyung says. His foot is tapping against the ground in a staccato beat. He’s looking at Yoongi expectantly. Yoongi has no idea what the fuck is going on. “Not fully recovered yet, but getting there. He can hold up his glamour again, so I’ve let him out of the apartment.”“That’s—” good, Yoongi almost says, but catches himself in time. Taehyung’s face twitches, just for a moment, like he knew what Yoongi was going to say. “Uh, I’m glad he’s okay.”Silence falls again. Taehyung crosses his arms. Yoongi wants to crawl out of his skin.“Do you care?” Taehyung bursts out in a rush, arms flinging up. “Do you care at all?”Yoongi flinches back. “I…”“Sometimes I think you do. I really, really think you do. But then sometimes I’m not so sure. You’re hot and cold, but when you’re cold, you’re so, so cold. And I know we’re not married or dating or anything like that, but we’re friends, aren’t we? And you just left me there.”Yoongi’s arms wrap tighter around himself. He’s feeling a lot, a mess of bitterness and shame and hurt deep in his gut. His arms are holding him together, but he can’t answer Taehyung at the same time.So he shrugs and mumbles, “I don’t know. I don’t know what you want me to say.”“Anything? Anything at all?”“I had a job to do. Have a job to do. Fixing things is what I’m good at. You didn’t need me there.”Taehyung’s eyes are wide, lost. His mouth parts, then he licks his lips and starts again. “The job. Right. And how is that going?”Yoongi’s never seen Taehyung angry, or even slightly upset. This isn’t the red-hot anger that Jeongguk flares up with sometimes. It’s deeper, sadder. And it’s all there to see on his face.“Nothing to report, yet.” Yoongi shrugs one shoulder, more of a jerk. “Some leads.”Yoongi’s not sure what he’s said, but Taehyung’s expression changes. Falls, saddens, for just a moment before his gaze drops down to a point at Yoongi’s feet.“Right,” Taehyung says softly. “Of course.”“If something comes up, I’ll tell you,” Yoongi feels compelled to say. He has no idea what he’d said to give Taehyung that expression, but he just wants to fix it. He needs to – his mind is a mess, but he at least knows that.“Sure,” Taehyung sighs. Taehyung looks around Yoongi’s apartment, at his unmade bed, the clothes piling up, the empty takeaway containers scattered around. “Do you think of us as friends, Yoongi?”And Yoongi—Blinks. Not what he was expecting at all. Friends? Yoongi has no fucking clue and all he can see is that devastated look on Taehyung’s face.“We’re just fucking,” Yoongi says, because that’s what Taehyung had said back then and maybe that’s what he’s after now? Yoongi doesn’t know. All he wants is to get that fucking look off Taehyung’s face. To not see him with his shoulders hunched in like this. He’s desperate. “Right? That’s what you said.”Taehyung stares at him and Yoongi can’t really read the expression on his face. It makes him nervous.“Yeah, of course,” Taehyung says eventually. “That’s what I said.”“Yeah…” Yoongi shifts his weight. Was that the wrong thing to say? Fuck.“Probably not good to keep that up if I’m employing you, huh?”It doesn’t really feel like a question. Yoongi says, “Yeah, maybe not?” because he may still crave Taehyung’s touch and even just the sight of him, but that doesn’t mean Taehyung wants him.And Yoongi’s feelings may be a shitshow at the moment, but he knows this – there’s not much he wouldn’t do for Taehyung. The sad, cold truth of it.Taehyung nods and it has an air of finality. “So I guess you’ll call? If you find out something.”Yoongi frowns. Taehyung doesn’t sound certain at all.“I’m good at my job, Taehyung,” he says, and now he feels back on even ground. “I’ll find the demon.”Taehyung looks at him, eyes flicking back and forth over his face. “Right. Yeah.” He clears his throat and takes a step towards the door. “So… I’ll see you around, I guess? You’re welcome to the store whenever. Jimin’s always around.”Yoongi’s frown deepens – why would he give a fuck about Jimin?“Okay,” he says slowly, because Taehyung seems to be waiting for an answer.“Ah, good luck and all the rest. Take care.” And then Taehyung slips out the door and Yoongi is left staring at the peeling hallway paint. Alone.His apartment is a mess. His emotions are a mess. But one thing he knows for sure – that sounded a hell of a lot like a goodbye. And that’s definitely not something Yoongi wants.But… what can he really do? He needs to focus on finding whoever it is threatening Taehyung. Then he can fix whatever it is they have between them.---Yoongi stubs out yet another cigarette and lets it fall to the ground, lighting up another. It’s the middle of the night, again, and he’s out front of the hospital, again. They should probably put a plaque on this park bench with his name on it, with the amount of time he spends here.He hasn’t texted Jeongguk, but he doesn’t need to. He’s not going to do any healings that’ll make him pass out. It’s just… a good place to think. Or not think.Taehyung’s face keeps appearing in his mind’s eye, the expression as he’d slipped out the door. He can’t stop thinking of the finality of it all.Yoongi huffs out a frustrated breath, lighting up another cigarette. His eyes catch on a man slowly limping through the park. Headlights light him up for a moment – long, tangled hair, ragged blanket over his shoulders. Ghost of a teenage boy drifting along beside him. Not malicious or upset. Just neutral.The man shuffles closer and closer, and stops in front of Yoongi.“Spare change?” he says, voice rusty and hoarse. He’s only got one shoe on. There’s a jagged cut along the bare foot, crusty and old, and his whole foot is swollen with infection.Yoongi digs out his wallet and takes out all the cash he has in there. He hands it to the man.“Thanks—”Yoongi latches onto the man’s wrist. His power works quick, sucking in the illness from the man’s body in the few moments before the man stumbles back. Bruises bloom across Yoongi’s body, lungs filling with liquid, foot blowing up. Swearing, Yoongi kicks off his boot. Pain rips across his body in waves as he hacks up phlegm. Everything tingles. His vision blackens at the edges.When it recedes, Yoongi’s left curled up on the bench. His cigarette is still lit, smoking on the ground. He’s alone. His boot is gone. He doesn’t really mind.His mind feels still, quiet. Exhausted.Slowly, breathing deeply through the nausea, he limps his way home.---Yoongi’s out with Jeongguk getting skewers a few days later when he hears back from Sunmi. They’re at the rundown hole-in-the-wall, where the food is incredible but the waiters do the absolute least. This time, at least, no skewers roll off the plate when it’s unceremoniously dumped in front of them. The person Yoongi’s squished in next to, though, has a serious case of the chicken wings and Yoongi keeps catching elbows.“So,” Jeongguk says, mouth chewing furiously. Yoongi is treated to a view of half-masticated meat. Yum. “Remember how you wanted to know what the eggplant emoji means?”Yoongi spoons more chili oil into his vinegar for his dumplings.“Emojis?” he says, distracted, trying to get the perfect ratio.“The little pictures, c’mon.” He doesn’t need to see Jeongguk to know he’s rolling his eyes. “I’ve explained emojis to you so many times.”The idiot sitting next to him digs his elbow into Yoongi’s arm and an enormous glob of chili oil goes into the vinegar. “Do you fucking mind?” Yoongi hisses, hand clenched around the spoon like it’s his mageblade.The guy rolls his eyes, saying, “Chill, dude,” around his skewer. Yoongi is about ready to stab him with the skewer when Jeongguk kicks him under the table.“Jeez, what is up with you today?” Jeongguk says, narrowing his eyes. “You’re acting more angry gremlin than normal.”“I’m not a fucking gremlin,” Yoongi grumbles. He abandons his ruined vinegar and chili oil mixture, snagging Jeongguk’s instead. “Stop talking to Seokjin.”“Besides the point.” Jeongguk rips the final piece of lamb off a skewer with his teeth then stabs it at him. “I want to know who’s sending you eggplant emojis.”Yoongi should’ve just Googled it. He’s regretting this. But Google takes him a while to navigate and he somehow always ends up clicking onto a video and then it chewing through the rest of his data. Plus, he’s not convinced that Google isn’t tracking everything he does on the Internet and selling it off to someone. Just avoiding it entirely where he can is ideal.“Oh, my god,” Jeongguk says, eyes wide. “Is Taehyung booty calling you?”Yoongi coughs on the dumpling he’d been chewing, spitting it out into his bowl. Chicken wings next to him gives him a disgusted look, scooting away.“What? The fuck?” he coughs out. “How did you come up with that?”“Don’t treat me like an idiot, Min Yoongi. I know what the eggplant means, okay, and I know you’re only seeing Taehyung at the moment.”“But I don’t know what the fuck it means,” Yoongi snaps. “And I’m not seeing Taehyung, jesus.”Taehyung hadn’t sent him any of his usual messages. Radio silence, ever since the demon attack. Yoongi hadn’t even noticed at first. But now he had, it was like a glaring absence.“Duuuude,” the guy with the flying elbows cuts in, as if anyone had asked for his opinion, “everyone knows what the eggplant emoji means.”“Did I ask you,” Yoongi says flatly.The guy doesn’t seem to hear him. “It means she wants the D!” He pauses and squints at Yoongi. “Or he.”“Fuck off,” Yoongi says. He twists so his back is facing him. Once again, people refusing to mind their own business. “Translate,” he says to Jeongguk.“Taehyung wants the Yoongi D.” Jeongguk wiggles his eyebrows.“It means sex, doesn’t it.” Yoongi isn’t impressed at all. Jeongguk crows and gives a high-five to the idiot Yoongi’s stuck next to. “Stop that.”Jeongguk is cackling, still shovelling lamb skewer into his mouth.“I knew it! I knew you two were dating!”“We’re not dating.”“Sleeping together!”“No.”“He sent you the dick emoji! Don’t lie to me, Yoongi.”“I’m not lying,” Yoongi grits out.“What? But the emoji— and the ball— you were definitely— oh.” Jeongguk deflates a bit. He finally puts his skewer down and that’s how Yoongi knows he Means Business. “You mean not anymore, right?” Yoongi stays silent, but he must give something away because Jeongguk softens even further. “Oh. What happened? Was it your choice? Did he do something?”And maybe this is why Yoongi never managed to keep Jeongguk at a safe distance. He says things like this. Things that show he’s on Yoongi’s side, first and foremost, without needing to hear any other sides. It’s the kind of unwavering faith Yoongi’s never had. And never deserved, frankly. He’d left Taehyung bleeding and hurt when he could’ve healed him. He’d not been able to fix anything the other day, either. Taehyung had left looking shattered, and Yoongi…Yoongi just ruins people. He can’t help it.“Don’t worry about it, Guk,” Yoongi says.Jeongguk leans forward, forehead creased. “Yoongi…”“It’s done. Okay? Wasn’t really much to begin with.”Jeongguk’s quiet for a moment. It makes Yoongi uncomfortable how well Jeongguk can read him, sometimes. No one should be able to. He’s got a damn good poker face, okay. But Jeongguk scans his face, and whatever he sees is enough to make him settle back in his seat and say, “Okay. But you’ll let me know, right?”“Probably not,” Yoongi grumbles, stabbing a dumpling somewhat viciously with a chopstick. The liquid seeps into his chili oil and vinegar mixture.“You can always—”Yoongi’s phone rings. He jumps to answer it by the second ring.“What?” he says. Jeongguk rolls his eyes and picks up a skewer again.“Wow, that has to be the quickest response I’ve ever gotten from you.” It’s Sunmi, her voice low and amused. Yoongi’s pulse ratchets up a notch.“You’ve got the information?” he demands.“I do. But I need the payment first.”Yoongi grits his teeth. He didn’t like paying without seeing if she’s actually delivered. But Sunmi had always kept her word before, and you don’t get to her position by fucking people over. Well, not someone like Yoongi, at least. Sunmi had definitely stepped on others on her way to the top.“Fine,” he says, mostly because he doesn’t have much of a choice. “Now?”“Yes. Come down to the bar. I’ll be waiting.”She hangs up.“Gotta leave,” Yoongi says, getting up and throwing some bills on the table.“Again?” Jeongguk whines. “Ugh. Am I driving?”“Yes. Let’s go.”Jeongguk drops their earlier topic of conversation, thank fuck, so the ride to The Siren is pain free. Sunmi’s waiting outside the bar, long legs crossed at the ankle as she leans against the brick building and smokes a cigarette.“Jeongguk,” she smiles slowly, predatorily. Her lips are painted dark red. “How lovely to see you.”Jeongguk’s eyes get a little white around the edges, the same way a rabbit does when confronted with something bigger with sharp teeth.“Sunmi,” he squeaks. “Hi.”“You don’t come around very often anymore.”“Ah, nope! Busy. With stuff. And Yoongi.”“Sunmi,” Yoongi says sharply. “The payment. Someone with a curse?”Sunmi rolls her eyes, dropping the cigarette and stubbing it out.“If he’s not interested in a threesome, the least you can do is let me have a little fun with the kid,” Sunmi says. “But you’re allergic to fun.”“I want my information.”“Nothing but business with you, Min Yoongi. Fine. Let’s go.”They don't enter the bar. Instead, Sunmi leads them to the apartment building next door. Her apartment’s on the third floor and they take the stairs up. Outside the door, Sunmi stops. When she turns to them, the carefree Sunmi drops away. Her shoulders tighten with tension, face tightening in a way that deepens lines on her face.“Breathe a word to anyone about what you see here,” she says, voice cold and hard, eyes like steel, “and I’ll take a blood oath to destroy your lives.”Yoongi blinks. Jeongguk pales.“Discretion is part of the job,” he says, scowling. “Don’t fucking threaten me. Or Jeongguk.”Sunmi shakes out her hair, a quick, agitated move. “This is my bar, my city, and I’ll do whatever I like. Right now, I need you to understand that I’m serious.”She stares at Yoongi, tall and imperious and haughty, and Yoongi is reminded of why he hates dealing with her. He rolls his eyes and bumps past her, pushing open the door.“Sunmi?” comes a voice when they enter the apartment. It’s thin, wavering. Sick.Yoongi stops in his tracks. Sunmi strides in after him, one boney elbow shoving him out of the way.“Olivia, I’ve brought friends with me,” she calls. She toes her high-heeled boots at the rack next to the door, then glares at them until they do the same. She leads them to a room, and Yoongi’s steps stutter.“Oh, hello,” the woman says. She’s propped up on the bed, lamp next to her on and book in her hands. She looks wasted away, though – limbs skinny, skin saggy, eyes sunken in. Her hair has fallen out in places so she has large bald patches. She looks like a skeleton, steps away from death.And… it’s not immediately obvious, but as soon as Yoongi notices it he can’t un-notice it. He can see through her. Just faintly, when the light hits her right, you can see the bed and pillows beneath her. And now that Yoongi knows what he’s looking for, he can see the crease on her forehead hiding her third eye.Sunmi goes over and smooths back some of her hair, pressing a kiss to her temple. Her eyes flash at Yoongi, daring him to react.“This is Yoongi and Jeongguk,” Sunmi says. “They’re going to help.”The woman’s smile fades a bit. “Oh,” she says. “More people.”Sunmi glances over at her for just a moment, eyes wide and trouble, before focusing back on Yoongi.“She’s been like this for a month,” Sunmi says, all business. “It started off slowly but now it’s just… eating away at her.”Sunmi brought him to heal a sick woman. Jeongguk’s eyes are wide when he meets Yoongi’s.“We need to talk. Outside,” Yoongi says. Suspicion is like an ugly coil around his insides.Sunmi nods. Her painted lips are pressed tight together.“I’m cursed, not deaf,” Olivia says after them, dissolving into a hacking cough. Jeongguk darts a look between them before hesitantly stepped forward and introducing himself. Yoongi and Sunmi slip out while she’s distracted.When they’re alone in the hallway, door shut to Olivia’s room, Yoongi faces Sunmi with his eyebrows raised.“She’s almost dead.”Sunmi’s jaw clicks.“Yes, thank you, Yoongi. I’m aware.”“She’s a spirit elemental.”“Also correct. Two from two, congratulations.”“You have one of the rarest creatures locked up, dying, above your bar.”Sunmi’s eyes flash bright in anger. “She’s not locked up.”Yoongi’s eyebrows arch up. “You’re telling me she’s here of her own free will? No compulsion involved. At all.”“She’s my wife,” Sunmi says. “Of her own free will. And I need you to break the curse on her.”There’s a wild edge to Sunmi that he should’ve seen earlier. That he probably would’ve noticed if he hadn’t been so caught up in his own emotional bullshit.“There are dozens of other curse breakers better than me,” he says in the end, after realising it’s not his problem if Sunmi’s wife is here of her own will or not.“I’ve tried them,” Sunmi says, crossing her arms tightly. “Trust me, you’re my last option.”“So you’re desperate.” Yoongi’s eyes narrow. “Whatever information you have, it’s not exactly an equal deal in exchange for your wife’s life. A bad deal.”“I have the information.”“I could get it from someone else at a fairer price than this,” Yoongi says, waving his hand at the room.Sunmi leans forward, eyes flinty and dark. The air swirls behind her as her wings sink into visibility, dark and enormous behind her.“We had a deal,” she says, each word enunciated clearly. Yoongi can feel her pulling in energy.“I haven’t reneged on it,” he replies. “Yet.”Sunmi bares her teeth. The landing feels cloying, hot. “You’re just as much of a bastard as they say you are. I’ve shown you what condition she’s in and you’d walk away from that? Do you really not feel anything?”“It’s a bad deal and you know it. And—” The sucking feeling gets worse. “Sunmi, stop pulling this compulsion bullshit. You know it won’t work on me.”Sunmi’s jaw tightens but she stops pulling in energy. It suddenly gets a little easier to breath without the humidity of Sunmi’s compulsion pressing down on him.“What the fuck do you want then?” Her wings rustle and settle down.“I don’t need anything from you.” Yoongi shrugs.“What about the information? We had a deal.”Yoongi examines her. Her face looks mostly carved of marble, pale and blank and strong, but anger is vibrating over every inch. The desperation’s there in the tilt of her brows. He doesn’t think he’s being played here – she’s only mentioned curse breaking, nothing about healing – but you can never be too certain.And yet… he really shouldn’t fuck over someone with as many connections as Sunmi, even though it’d probably only add to his reputation.That’s most of what surviving in this fucked up world is – your reputation. Yoongi had a headstart on his and people tend to judge him badly anyway, but he’s never actively done anything to dispel it. His reputation opens doors easier and quicker. The other side-effects don’t matter, next to that.But Yoongi’s not sure why he’s even arguing with himself over this. He’s already made the decision to help before he’d left that room. Sunmi doesn’t need to know that, though. He refuses to be seen as soft by anyone, but he’s not gonna let a woman die over it.He’d already left Taehyung to suffer when he could’ve helped. He can’t do that again.“I’ll break the curse,” he says. Sunmi’s eyes narrow. Smart woman. “And I’ll take the information. But you’ll be in my debt.”“What does that mean?”Yoongi shrugs. “You’ll owe me a favour. I don’t know what. I’m sure I’ll think of something.”Sunmi’s mouth tightens and her head tilts as she thinks it over. If she notices the role reversal, she doesn’t say anything about it.“I won’t do anything that puts anyone in danger,” she says after a pause.Yoongi muses that over in his head. “Anyone innocent in danger,” he amends.“Fine. And it’s only once. One favour and we’re even.”“Done.” The relief on her face is fast and instant. She blanks her face again quickly, though. “Now, do you have a bathtub?”“That’s not going to work. I’m not an amateur, Min Yoongi.”“You can either do as I say, or I’ll leave and get my information elsewhere.”Sunmi’s mouth tightens at the edges. “Fine. I have a bathtub.”“Good. Run the bath, and I’ll also need sage, hyssop, and five candles.”Sunmi leaves without saying a word. Jeongguk is shifting awkwardly next to the spirit elemental. Both are staring at Yoongi – Jeongguk with wide eyes, the elemental a little more suspiciously.“You,” Yoongi says. “Any idea who cursed you?”Her eyebrows shoot up.“Are you sure you’re a professional?”“Just answer the question.”“No. I don’t.”Worth a try, at least. He goes over and holds out his hand. Grimacing, she puts her hand in his. For a moment, it flickers, and he gets the nausea-inducing image of her hand partway through his. Then it snaps back into tangibility.“What are you doing?” she asks, frowning. It’d be a bit more intimidating if she had the energy to sit up.“Be quiet,” Yoongi murmurs. His hell-magic itches beneath his skin, wanting to reach out for the sickness it feels. Yoongi could heal her, except the curse would start attacking again as soon as he did. He can feel the curse inside her. It’s the same sensation as lying with your eyes closed in the sun, but amplified. As if you’re lying in the desert. It feels hot and sticky and heavy. Like sludge oozing over his skin. Yoongi gets the aftertaste of blood in his mouth.“Congratulations,” Yoongi says, opening his eyes. “You’re cursed.”“Wow. Thank you,” the elemental replies. “Are you being serious? Where did Sunmi even find you?”Yoongi ignores her. The amount of times someone’s been convinced they’re cursed when they’re actually sick are uncountable. And he hadn’t been entirely sure this wasn’t Sunmi’s fault, with her compulsion magic.“How long have you been like this?” he asks. When he lets go of her hand, it thumps into the bed and fickers see-through for a moment.“About a month.” She’s still eyeing him suspiciously.“In exact days.”“About… twenty-nine days ago? That was when I began to feel weird. Didn’t realise it was more than a cold until day seven.”“Symptoms?”She lists off several, but it’s nothing really out of the ordinary. Lack of hunger, exhaustion, wasting away, the usual. Yoongi asks a few more perfunctory questions before Sunmi comes back in the room.“The bath’s full. Salt and hyssop’s next to it.”Yoongi catches Jeongguk’s eye and jerks his head at Olivia, then goes into the bathroom. He’s never been too bothered with measuring shit out, so he just pours in the salt until it looks like it’s about enough. He strips off his jacket and rolls up his sleeves, then dips his arm in the water and swirls it around.“Put her in,” Yoongi says to Jeongguk. “But— my clothes—”“I think we’d all prefer it if you weren’t naked,” Yoongi says. Jeongguk’s lips clench to hide a laugh, but both Sunmi and Olivia glare at him. Jeongguk lowers her in.“We’ve tried this already,” Sunmi says, annoyed. “Every combination of it. Even the hyssop.”“That’s nice,” Yoongi murmurs. Olivia’s submerged up to her chin. Her flannel pyjamas float in the hazy bathwater. “Hand?”She reaches out and Yoongi clasps her hand. He closes his eyes and centres himself again. The curse burns just as hot as before.“Jeongguk,” he says, eyes still closed. “Burn the hyssop.”“Uh…”“Lighter’s in my left jacket pocket.”He hears fumbling around for a bit then the hisssnap of his lighter. A sweet, vaguely minty smell fills the room. Yoongi waits for a few minutes for the hyssop to properly permeate the room.He reaches out again. The curse is unaffected.“Mmm,” Yoongi says to himself. He fishes his switchblade out of his pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, Sunmi takes an aborted step forward. Yoongi turns Olivia’s hand over so it’s facing palm up. Then he swipes the blade across her palm. Except—The blade falls through her hand, stabbing into his palm.“Ouch, fuck,” Yoongi says. “Fucking spirit elementals.”Olivia’s eyes are wide and guilty. “Sorry! It’s hard to control when I’m like this. Mimi, help him clean it up!”Sunmi rolls her eyes, but the affection is obvious. Yoongi doesn’t really have time for any of this, though, because his palm has already healed beneath the blood.“Here, let me wrap it,” Jeongguk says, stepping forward and blocking Yoongi’s view of the two women. Yoongi offers him a tight smile as Jeongguk gets out a bandage and wraps it efficiently. This isn’t the first time it’s happened.Olivia offers up her palm with a rueful smile. Yoongi goes a lot slower this time, making sure she doesn’t phase out again. He wipes off the blood that wells up first, then peers closely at the rest. It’s got a strange cast to it. Almost… purple?Yoongi drops Olivia’s hand and it plunks into the bathwater.“Ow!” She snatches her hand to her chest. “Little bit of warning?” The end of her sentence is strangled by a cough. She fickers for a moment and Yoongi can see the tub through her body.Yoongi turns to scowl at Sunmi.“Did you know?”“What?” she says, small frown creasing between her eyebrows. Yoongi searches her face. He really wishes he had Taehyung’s haechi here with him to scent out lies. “The type of curse it is.”“I wouldn’t need your help if I knew,” she says, anger underlying her tone. “And she wouldn’t still be sick. What type of curse is it?”Yoongi eyes her. She doesn’t look like she’s lying. But it’s a hell of a coincidence, and Yoongi doesn’t believe in coincidences.Yoongi almost laughs to himself. He’d need a hell of a lot more proof to believe there’s a god out there. An actual god, like in the stories. Not one of the creepy ones, like the pagan god that manifested last month and went on a killing spree before Yoongi stuck his mageblade in its chest.Anyway, it’s too late to back out now. He’s committed.“It’s a blood curse. You’ve got someone out there that really hates one of you.”Sunmi’s face goes slack, colour fleeing. She looks nauseous.“A blood curse?” Olivia says, struggling to sit more upright. The blood is staining the bathwater. “Why?”“Not my job to know the why. Jeongguk.” He nods again towards Olivia and leaves the room, snagging his jacket along the way. Sunmi follows him. He fishes around in his pockets again for the chalk he keeps wrapped up in there.“Blood curses are unbreakable,” Sunmi says. “What are you doing?”“Myth. They’re not unbreakable. We can reverse it on the wielder. It’s just hard.” And it also often kills the bearer or the curse breaker. Yoongi, luckily, has his own failsafes for that. He’s one of the very few people that’d be able to do it. Coincidence.Yoongi kicks the rug in the living room out of the way. He crouches down, places the chalk at a point, then draws a perfect circle around himself. He starts sketching in the rest while Sunmi hovers.“Get the candles,” Yoongi says, because her stress is beginning to feel like a physical thing. “And lay them out at the five points.”Jeongguk comes in a few minutes later, still carrying Olivia. She’s wrapped up in towels now. She looks tiny in his arms. Fragile, with her translucent skin and deep bruising under the eyes.“Place her in the middle,” Yoongi says, barely sparing them a glance. “Don’t fuck up the circle.”His mind is five steps ahead, to when he’s broken the curse. Whether the recoil comes onto him or her, the endgame is the same – he’s risking his secret getting out. Why is he so willing to do it for this woman he doesn’t even know, but not Taehyung? “What is this?” she whispers, head swivelling back and forth.“Gotta find out the parts of this curse,” Yoongi says absently, crouch-walking to light the candles. He drops some of his blood into each flame. They hiss and each flares a different colour. The glyphs beneath them begin to throb, at least to Yoongi’s heightened senses. “If we break it down to its pieces, we can send it back. Place your cut palm down where the space in the circle is.”It’s the basis of any defensive magic. You have to understand everything about the spell. Exorcism’s the same – it won’t work unless you know what demon it is, where it came from.“What’ll happen—”“No more questions,” Yoongi says. The good thing about his job is people think there’s some witchy, magical reason they should shut up. There generally isn’t.Yoongi murmurs some words then pushes the bandage up to cuts his palm again, using his finger to paint a few quick strokes with the blood.The circle hums, then the candles start to flicker. It gets more frantic, turning into hissing and spitting, like water dumped into hot oil. The colours begin to flicker, too. One flares bright, green in colour, then all die out.“Is it… gone?” Olivia asks, looking around nervously. Sunmi hovers on the edge of the circle, but she’s not dumb enough to cross.Yoongi snorts. “No. I know it’s based in wood, though. Wood turning to fire,” he mutters to himself. “Okay. I have some ideas. As soon as I start working on this, the person who cursed you is going to know. I have to find the right glyph quick.”“And if you don’t?” Sunmi says.Yoongi shrugs. “She only has a few days left anyway,” he says. The room is eerily silent and he looks up. Sunmi looks devastated, Olivia tight-lipped. Jeongguk is glaring at him. “Uh… sorry?” That doesn’t seem to help. Yoongi can just about feel the emotions pouring off the two of them. He can’t look again or he’ll cringe. Emotion? No thanks.Yoongi decides to just get on with it.He shuffles into the circle, making sure not to break the outer line but not worrying about the rest. “Jeongguk,” Yoongi calls. Jeongguk shifts around until he’s in Yoongi’s line of sight again. “You’ll need to help me afterwards.”Jeongguk gives a firm nod.“Let’s get this over with, then,” Olivia says. Sunmi hasn’t crossed into the circle, but they’re both clasping hands. Olivia draws one to her mouth and kisses it before letting go. “I’m ready.”“Okay. Stand back.”The first glyph he sketches out on the ground he takes his time with. He re-cuts his hand but hesitates.“This is going to hurt,” he says, looking at the spirit elemental. “I’ll get over it. If I’m alive,” Olivia replies.Yoongi can respect that attitude. He shakes out his shoulders, cracks his neck. The next part isn’t something he does often, only twice before, and each time it’s a blur. He has to move fast. It’s a challenge, and one he probably shouldn’t like so much when everyone else in the room is already devastated.Read the room, Yoongi.So he places his bloody palmprint to the glyph and activates it. His body tingles with adrenaline. The glyph flares hot underneath him and… nothing happens. The room is silent. He can hear the fridge humming in the next room.Then Olivia convulses and starts screaming.Yoongi’s drawing the next glyph with quick movements. He shifts the wood rune, moves it against heat, adds in a glyph for wormwood. Her screams continue. He tries another combination of herbs, barberry and chicory this time. Her voice has gone hoarse, he can hear her throat being torn apart. He flips the wood rune around, adds safflower. Sunmi’s yelling at him, but Yoongi knows Jeongguk will keep her from interrupting.Doing so many glyphs at once is draining him. His head is pounding and he can feel something wet trickling out of his ears. Blood. He has to keep going. Next glyph, next one.He feels the curse catch on something. Safflower. He’s almost there.His vision starts to go black. He can’t hear anything anymore. He gives one rune a tiny flick and curl at the bottom right. Tormentil.A quick slice reopens his palm. He activates the glyph. He can’t count how many he’s done, but he feels when this one clicks. The blood gets sucked from his body. The completed glyph burns hotter, hotter, before sparking and falling to ash.The room echoes with silence. His ears are ringing. The job isn’t over yet.His limbs feel weighed down, hard to move. He drags himself closer to Olivia. Her wasted body is still. He can’t even see part of it. Her third eye is open, black and unseeing, and he avoids looking at it. He grabs her closest limb – arm – and she feels close to incorporeal underneath him. The curse is broken.She’s still fading, though.His hell-magic takes longer than usual to find. It’s at work repairing the damage he’s already caused, but there’s no time for that. He can feel Olivia fading. She’s almost at the point where he can’t bring her back.He forces his magic out into her. It races through her body, spilling through her veins. Her senses flood into him. He’s lying on the floor— no, he’s kneeling next to Olivia. Fuck.Then the pain slams into him. His body feels like it’s being twisted in a vice, screwed tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter—He forgets everything. His name, who he is. All there is is pain. Stinging, biting, clawing pain. It’s everywhere.He loses himself.---He comes to, parched and starving, in his bed at home.“Mphm,” he groans into his pillow. His face is lying in a pool of spit. It’s dry and crusty at the edges.“Yoongi! Oh, thank god.” He hears someone rustling around, then the bed dips down. “Water?”Yoongi pushes himself over and squints at the light in the room. He doesn’t have a headache. And he’s not in pain, exactly. But his limbs feel like rubber, as if someone’s wringed all the energy out of him.Jeongguk’s face pops into his vision, expression concerned.“How long was I out?” Yoongi groans.“Almost eighteen hours.”“Dammit,” Yoongi mumbles. He pushes himself up so he’s propped against the headboard. He grabs the water out of Jeongguk’s hand.“And, um. Taehyung came by.”Yoongi freezes.“You didn’t let him in, did you?”“No, give me some credit,” Jeongguk says with an exasperated eye roll. “I told him you were sleeping. And he knows your shitty sleeping habits, so he left you to it. Didn’t seem quite like a friend with benefits.”Yoongi groans and throws his arm across his eyes. “That’s because we’re not.”“Yeah okay. Whatever you say. Here.”Something lands on Yoongi’s leg with a thump. He peers out underneath his arm. It’s a file.“Sunmi held up her end of the bargain.”Yoongi makes grabby hands at it and Jeongguk obligingly hands it to him. He begins flicking through it, scanning.“Did she suspect anything? About my… you know.”“I don’t think so. She was more focused on Olivia.”“Good,” Yoongi mumbles. He flips through photos of the guy – Anders Holt – and his known associates. He doesn’t see a woman with blonde hair.“You’ve got messages, too.” Jeongguk chucks the mobile at Yoongi. He fumbles the catch like he’s in an infomercial but eventually gets it.Yoongi opens the phone and scrolls through his messages. He sees a few from Taehyung.
Taehyung

Hey can we talk

??

I’m coming over

Ok you’re either actually sick or just getting JK to do ur dirty work?

Feel better soon.

Or if it’s the second thing, man up

No i hate that saying, delete

Grow the fuck up

That’s better. Chim helped me

I gave JK some calendula tea for u. Use for either: 1) getting better, or 2) growing up
And silence after that. Yoongi isn’t quite sure what he protocol here is. Something else lands on the bed. It’s a packet of some kind of dried yellow flower. Dandelion?“A present from your no benefits friend, Taehyung.”Oh. Calendula.Yoongi nails him with a pillow to the face. Jeongguk splutters backwards. Satisfied, Yoongi goes back to his phone and scrolls through his other messages. The rest aren’t important. With some effort, he struggles out of bed and begins searching for some cleaner clothes.“What? Where are you going?”“Brooklyn, apparently,” Yoongi says, peeking into the folder for the address.“You’ve been in a coma for almost a day!”“Exactly. I need some fresh air.”“You shouldn’t go after this guy until you’re recovered.”“And you’re gonna, what? Stop me?”Jeongguk stares at him, jaw clenched.“Fine,” he relents. “But I’m coming with you. And you’re having some of Taehyung’s healing tea.”Yoongi glances at the packet. It doesn’t look appetising at all. Why the fuck would he want to drink flowers?But… Taehyung.“Fine. Tea first, then you can drive me.”“Drive you and come with you. The whole way.”“You can stay in the car and count yourself lucky.”“You’re not doing this alone, Yoongi.”“I don’t think you quite get what the deal is here.” Yoongi looks him dead in the eye. “Either you stay here. Finish the rest of the tea off. Or you drive me and wait outside.”Jeongguk narrows his eyes.“Fine,” he mutters. “Tea first, though. Do you even own a mug?”---Anders Holt lives on the third floor of an apartment building. It’s pretty shitty looking, somehow missing out on the rest of the gentrification of Brooklyn. Still nicer than Yoongi’s place, though. Jeongguk had helpfully pointed this out to him when he’d dropped him off.Jeongguk was currently waiting outside in his stolen car. A BMW this time, one of those big ones that are just stupid to have in the city. Jeongguk always finds reasons to justify his thieving choices.Yoongi slips into the building after another resident leaves and finds the elevator broken. Of course. He takes the stairs and ends up pausing on the third floor landing to get his breath back. Because you know what’s not intimating? Someone who can’t even catch their breath.It takes a few minutes to get himself under control again. He finds the apartment and knocks on the door. A cockroach skitters across the door, down to the floor and out of sight. Yoongi grimaces, getting out his mageblade and activating it. He shapes it like a bat this time. The blade can come later.He hears some thumps in the apartment then feet padding nearer.“Who is it?” The voice is gruff, hoarse. Maybe woken up from sleep?“Pizza delivery.” Everyone opens their door for pizza, right? He’s sure he’s seen that in a movie.“Wrong apartment, dude. I didn’t order pizza.”Yoongi rolls his eyes. He sketches a glyph in the air – probably the least powerful way to do it, but he’s out of time – and punches it into the door. Yoongi’s knuckles sting. Part of the door crumples inwards, blasting off its hinges and smacking into Anders.Anders goes stumbling to the side. Yoongi shakes out his hand, the residue of the glyph tingling like pins and needles. A fun one, but not overly practical.“Who doesn’t open their door for pizza,” Yoongi mutters, delicately picking his way through the debris. “Hello, Anders.”“Wha the f-fuck—”Yoongi twirls his mageblade bat up into position, takes two quick steps, then slams it into Anders’ head. Blood flies up in an arc. Anders goes down with a heavy thump.“Bit different when someone can defend themselves, huh?” Yoongi says, glaring down at him and his stupid mohawk. “Hey, you piece of shit.” He nudges him with his boot. He’s not dead – Yoongi can still feel his spirit. “Wake up.”Yoongi nudges him a bit harder, enough to roll him over onto his back. His eyelids are fluttering. Anders groans. Blood is sluicing down from the wound on the side of his head.“Wakey, wakey,” Yoongi sings. “I’ve got questions for you.”With a thought, his mageblade dissipates into mist. It reforms in its normal state – shining blue-tinted blade, about two feet long. It hums in his hand. Yoongi can feel its mindless hunger in the back of his mind.Yoongi slaps Anders a few times with the flat of the blade. This seems to finally rouse him.“Good morning,” Yoongi says. “How you feeling? You tripped over.”“Who the f— you.”Yoongi pauses. He wasn’t expecting that.“Yes. Me.”“Yoongi Min,” he says, making Yoongi grimace. The Americanisation of his name is so gross. “She was right.”Anders’ mouth twists, forming into a grotesque smile. His teeth are stained red. Must’ve bit his tongue when he fell.“What? Who was right?” Yoongi frowns, not liking the feeling of being least informed in the room.“She told me you’d find me, or one of us.” The man’s eyes are lit up, fanatic. Cold slithers down Yoongi’s back. He hates fanatics. They freak him out like nothing else.“Who?”“She’s always right. I didn’t think she would be this time, but she was. Always right. Right about it all.”His eyes aren’t even really focused on Yoongi anymore.“Hey!” Yoongi snaps, leaning over. He reaches down and slaps the man on the cheek a few times. “Screw your head back on properly. I asked you a question. Who?”“Oh, she’s gonna love this. She’s gonna love it!”“Are you talking about the blonde? The demon?”“She said you’d be like this! She said you’d come after us! She was right.”Yoongi’s mageblade is to the man’s neck but he doesn’t feel so in control anymore. Who the fuck would know Yoongi would hunt down Taehyung’s attacker with such certainty? Did Sunmi betray him?“Who are you talking about?” Yoongi hisses.“You have no idea!” The man starts laughing. It’s a chilling sound, loud and braying and hoarse.“Hey!” Yoongi kicks him in the side. It stops him for a second. “Cut it out!”“You have no idea,” he repeats. Tears are streaming from his eyes now and he curls over onto his side. “The sun—” He’s laughing too hard to say the rest.“What?”“The sun,” he says, giggling now, “c-casts the darkest shadows.”Yoongi frowns. It sounds familiar. Had he heard that years ago?“What the fuck does that mean?”“Tell her I said she was right,” Anders says, deathly serious all of a sudden. Yoongi frowns at him. In a blur of movement, Anders’ arm flies out. Yoongi’s mageblade tumbles from his hand. The blade dissipates into mist and the hilt clatters to the floor.Yoongi casts a defensive glyph in the air, reaching for his switchblade. But—Anders isn’t going for him.He’s rolled out of the way, across the room. He reaches for something. A gun? Yoongi ducks out of the way, flinging himself behind a wall.But the gunshot doesn’t come. And then—A choked grunt. A slick sound. A thump.Quiet.Yoongi can taste bile in his mouth. He can feel the moment the spirit parts from the body and flees.Fuck.He steps out from behind the wall.Anders’ body is crumpled on the floor like a discarded manikin. His throat gapes open, hot red blood creeping out in a distorted circle around him. The gaping hole in his neck echoes the crazy grin frozen on his face.He’s dead.He killed himself.Yoongi stands there. He can’t tear his eyes away. Anders killed himself. Why the fuck would he kill himself? The fire escape stairs are just there. He could’ve run. But instead he went absolutely batshit and slit his own throat open.A door slams closed out in the hallway. In a rush, Yoongi remembers that he’s standing above a dead body in an apartment with the door blown open. Anyone could walk past and see it. And Yoongi knows a hell of a lot of spells, but he’s got no Men in Black alien technology at his disposal. And those fully in the human world naturally forget about the magic they rarely witness, their minds like sand in sieve, but this isn’t magic so much as a dead fucking body.He killed himself.Yoongi can’t be here.He grabs the hilt of his mageblade on the way out, pocketing it. He keeps his head down as he jogs down the steps.Being outside of the room clears his head, somewhat. The image is still burned into his retinas, appearing every time he blinks. But he can’t, at the moment.Fuck. Fuck. Anders was his only lead.The blonde demon is the key to this, but how the fuck is he meant to find her?It’s not much, but when he reaches the door he kneels down, pushes the doormat aside, and sketches a few glyphs in chalk. He keys it with his blood. It’ll alert him if any demons step into the building. It’ll fade in a few days, but it’s better than nothing. It’s all he fucking has, now.He almost walks past Jeongguk’s car until he sticks his head out the window.“Hey! What happened?”Yoongi gets into the car, slamming the door. “Drop me off in Chinatown.”“To Taehyung’s? Does that mean it went well? You found something out?”“Just drive, Jeongguk,” Yoongi grits out. Jeongguk glances at his face and falls quiet. The ride back into the city is silent, except for the radio playing some top 40 trash. Yoongi sees Jeongguk glance over periodically, even open his mouth a time or two, but he never ends up saying anything.Yoongi’s going crazy. His mind keeps going in circles – did he miss anything? What did he do wrong? He could’ve stopped Anders from slitting his own throat if he’d tried. And he can’t get his voice out of his head – she was right.The sun casts the darkest shadows.Where the fuck had he heard that before?The car’s not even stopped when Yoongi throws open the door and jumps out.“Jesus chr— bye, Yoongi! Message me!”Yoongi waves a hand over his shoulder and walks quickly to the store. He opens the door somewhat more forcefully than he intends. The scent of pine cones hits him in the face. His eyes find Taehyung across the room, pruning one of the hanging vines.“Yoongi,” Taehyung says, wary smile on his face. Yoongi’s heart lifts into his throat. “I came by earlier. Did Guk tell you?”“Yeah, I, ah… got the tea. Thanks.”“I love calendula, it’s always good for energy. It’s also got anti-inflammatory properties, too. Did you steep it for at least fifteen minutes? I should’ve told you that. Did you get my messages?”Yoongi blinks and feels overwhelmed by Taehyung’s everything, the smell of the shop, the plants swaying in an intangible breeze around him.“Can we, uh… upstairs?”“Oh.” Taehyung blinks. “Sure.” His head tilts, eyes narrowing. “Is everything okay?”“Are your plants reading my emotions again?” Yoongi laughs humourlessly.“I don’t need to be a mind-reader superpower to tell when you’re upset, Yoongi,” Taehyung says, rolling his eyes. There’s still tension thick across his shoulders, and Yoongi is reminded of everything unsaid between them. That horrible, shitty last meeting. When he’d thought of talking to Taehyung again, it hadn’t been like this. But he can’t stop his brain from churning up that image over and over again, and there’s a sick dread building in his stomach. That he knows exactly who she might be, impossible as it is.He hasn’t felt this paranoid in years. Not since the aftermath of Mara’s death.“I didn’t come here to be psycho-analysed,” Yoongi snaps, because he’s nothing if not emotionally intelligent. “I came here to fuck.”Taehyung stills his frenetic energy and gives him that same, assessing look. Yoongi twitches. Taehyung’s long silver earring, feather-shaped today, sparks in the purple light from the window. His shirt gapes enough at the throat to get a glimpse of his golden skin and Yoongi wants, wants, wants. He wants his lips on Taehyung’s skin. He wants Taehyung’s shattered moans in his ear. He wants to set his mind to rest by burying it in the oblivion of Taehyung’s body.And it’s probably not fair to him, and definitely not fair to Taehyung, yet here he is.“I thought we agreed that wasn’t a good idea.” Taehyung’s eyes are blank, guarded.“It’s not.”Taehyung stares at him. Yoongi can’t read him. The plants in the store shiver, but don’t reach out to him.“Come on,” Taehyung says.Yoongi glances around the floor. There’s no one else there. Probably should’ve checked that before propositioning Taehyung.“Is Jimin here?” he asks.“No.”“Are you just… leaving the shop unattended?”“Would you prefer I leave you with blue-balls? Yeontan will guard it.”It’s… perhaps the shortest Taehyung has ever been with him. Yoongi shoves the thought away, along with the weird feeling in the pit of his stomach.Yeontan’s beady eyes follow them as they climb the stairs. Finding out he’s a haechi hasn’t made Yoongi any more comfortable around the tiny ball of fluff.Taehyung doesn’t ask him again how he is. Yoongi’s grateful.Words are still swirling unsaid between them. It’s just fucking. Everything descends into sweat-soaked skin and shaky gasps soon enough. They’re beginning to learn each other’s bodies, what makes the other arch, moan, tremble. Taehyung’s found out how much Yoongi loves using his mouth. How being manhandled will get him from zero to a hundred in seconds. It’s a familiarity he’s never had with a lover before, not with any of the dozen faceless guys in his memory. Yoongi refuses to dwell on that too much.Afterwards, come mixed on his belly and Taehyung sprawled out next to him, Yoongi feels… different. Not better, exactly. But not any worse. His brain is just a grey haze. Being with Taehyung should have made him feel better – it has every time in the past. But not today.Taehyung, normally mimicking an octopus, isn’t touching him at all. He’s curled up, still facing Yoongi, but hands tucked under his chest and legs folded close. Not reaching out at all, not even in sleep.It’s just fucking, Taehyung had said.Yoongi wants to reach out, curl his arm around Taehyung’s back, bring him closer. Breathe the same air. Feel his warmth.But that’s not for him.He gets up and leaves. He hesitates at the door, staring down at the notepad. His chicken scratch message is still there amongst many more messages: enjoy the carrots – myg.He leaves without picking up the pen.---The rest of the file Sunmi gave him is very thorough. He chases down a few of Anders’ associates mentioned with single minded intensity, but nothing comes of it. Everything is a dead end. That’s how he ends up at the Academy, waiting to speak to Chaeseon.It’s the last place he wants to be. The Academy makes him uncomfortable. Kids make him uncomfortable. And when they’re all tiny little mages running around? Some pumped full of angelblood? No.He can see the need for it, at least. Yoongi learnt everything he knew from his parents and then that psychopath Mara. Maybe if he’d been to a place like this from when he was young, he wouldn’t have been conned into trying that spell—Yoongi wrenches his mind away. It’s too late now, anyway. The past is better left dead and buried.It’s amazing Chaeseon manages to run a place like this and make it actually work. Mages are notoriously close-guarded with their spells – to know a mage’s spell is to know how to disable it. But Chaeseon managed it. To be fair, if anyone was going to do it, it’d be that old hag.“Yoongi?”The voice is unfamiliar, but it’s not hostile. Yoongi looks up. Namjoon stands in front of him, long-limbed and wearing glasses. Yoongi blinks.“What— Namjoon?”An earnest smile brightens his face. “Yeah! Nice to see you. What are you doing here? Do you need any help? I teach here.”And he couldn’t look more like a stereotypical professor if he’d tried – elbow patches, thick-framed glasses, sharp tie. He looks like he should be teaching economic theory, rather than spells.“I’m waiting for her,” Yoongi says, jerking his head at Chaeseon’s door. Her name is printed in fancy gold lettering on the opaque glass.“Oh, yeah. She’s probably going to be a while. Delfadessa’s gone missing.”Yoongi’s brows shoot up. “What? That old bastard?”“Yeah. Disappeared without a trace a few days ago. That, along with the exponential increase in supernatural activity, has her and the rest of the guild feeling a bit nervous. You heard about the daeva outbreak, right? A lotta weird stuff. But anyway – I’ve got a free period; can I help you with anything?”An automatic rejection is on the tip of his tongue, but he pauses. He’d already guessed so before, but his job here confirms it – Namjoon is smart as shit. Yoongi’s sure he’s heard his name around before, but he tries to ignore anything associated with the Academy.“‘The sun casts the darkest shadows’. Do you know anything about this saying?”Namjoon frowns, thinking.“Well, taking it literally, it’s not wrong. The brightest light source for us is the sun. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. I can’t think of anything in particular it’s referencing. As a metaphor, I’m sure you get the references to good and evil. Such a binary way of thinking traces back to Zoroastrianism with its dualistic cosmology—”“Okay, Namjoon,” Yoongi says, trying not to let his amusement show. “Keep in mind I was homeschooled and never went to college.”“Oh, sorry! Cut me off if I get too scholarly. Seokjin does it all the time.” Yoongi barely refrains from rolling his eyes at the mention of the vampire. “Zoroastrianism is generally thought of as one of the world’s oldest religions, as well as the first time this good versus evil duality came up. The whole religion is based on it – as most religions are, actually. Even the Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with it. I find it quite a narrow way of looking at things, especially since it’s always used as a moral justification to pander to one’s own narcissism—” Namjoon sees the look Yoongi’s giving him and cuts himself off. “I did it again. Sorry. What’s the context of the quote?”Anders’ body, broken on the floor, two grinning smiles.“Someone said it to me. A fanatic. I don’t know of what, though.”Namjoon hums, eyes narrowing behind his glasses. “I can’t give you a clear cut answer. If it’s a fanatic, some kind of cult, it would make sense as one of their tenets. Many cults have their ideology rooted in black and white beliefs like good versus evil. It also sounds like a commentary on perceived ‘good’ figures – saying that someone who seems the brightest is actually evil at their core. Very revolutionary, yeah? Next up, guillotines.”Yoongi’s phone starts ringing in his pocket. He ignores it.“Do you know of any cults that use it now?”“Not off the top of my head, no. I’ll look into it, though. Ask around with people who are a bit more connected to the outside world than me.” He gives a rueful smile, adjusting the strap of his shoulder bag, then glances down at Yoongi’s pocket. “Are you gonna get that?”Yoongi’s phone stops ringing. It starts again almost immediately. He grimaces.“Sorry,” he mumbles, fishing it out. Pauses – it’s Father Hennessy. They don’t really make a habit of calling each other. Never before, really.“Hello?” he answers, turning away from Namjoon.A gasp echoes from the other end. A wet cough.“Y-Yoongi.”Lightning courses through his body, hand clenching around the phone. He’s moving without thinking about it, not sparing Namjoon a glance.“Father? Where are you? I’m coming.”He runs out of the Academy, dodging around students.Another hacking, wet cough. “It’s too late. T-too late. Not much time.” His voice is weak, failing. It sounds like it’s taking all he has to say these words.“Are you at the church?”“Yoongi. My b-boy.” He drifts off.“Hang on,” Yoongi says. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’m coming.”He flags a taxi, gives the driver the Bronx address.“Stay on the line, you old fuck,” Yoongi hisses. “I’ll be there. Just hang on.”“Sh-She’s back,” Father Hennessy says. His words are barely more than sound on a breath of air. Weak, faint. Fading.They hit Yoongi like a semi-trailer.“Who.” His heart feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of his throat.“She’s back. G-get the… tattoo—”“Who? Father Hennessy, who?!”But the line is silent. He can hear the rattling of abused lungs, one breath, two—Silence.“Father?” Yoongi whispers down the line. He hunches over in the backseat of the cab. His hand shakes so badly he almost drops the mobile. He presses it even harder to his ear. Is that breathing he can hear? Father Hennessy’s probably just passed out.He stays on the line.The cab ride takes too long. Yoongi doesn’t even look at the money he throws at the driver as he lunges out. It’s a sunny day – the church looks normal, run down around the edges but well-cared for.Except for the doors. They’re hanging off their hinges.“Father Hennessy?” Yoongi calls, racing in. He looks around. The inside is a mess. The pews are all flung about like a child’s toys. Some are partly exploded into just splinters. And at the front of the church, a body in black robes is collapsed on the stairs leading up to the altar.Yoongi feels like he’s a step outside his body, watching himself stumble forward. Watching himself fall to his knees.He reaches out and tries to force his hell-magic into Father Hennessy’s body. It’s eerily similar to the same scene fifteen years ago, kneeling next to his father as he died with a smile on his face.It didn’t work then. And it doesn’t work now. Father Hennessy is dead. His body is there, familiar worn hands, familiar wrinkles in the corner of his eyes, but all the parts that make him him are gone.He’s dead. His spirit is gone.And that’s just it, isn’t it? Everyone dies. You love people, and then they die. Yoongi knows this better than most, knows it deep in his soul. He’s made to be left.Father Hennessy is gone. Quick or fast, Yoongi isn’t sure. What he is sure of: he’s alone, again. He’s next to the dead body of someone he loves. Again. He doesn’t even have a ghost to haunt him.He’s alone.Yoongi bends his head over Father Hennessy’s body and cries.---He goes home. What else can he do? The world doesn’t stop just because his did. He can’t be there when the cops arrive, so he just leaves the closest person he had to a father to bloat on the church steps.He goes through the motions. He’s good at this, being functional even when it feels like he’s drowning.It comes to him in flashes, like he’s not quite present for most of it. Scanning his pass at the subway station. Staring out the window as apartment blocks flicker past. Seeing blank when they go underground. In his head, on repeat:
She’s back. She’s back. She’s back. She’s back.
He’s a hollowed-out husk of a person. Crack him open and he’s nothing inside but dust and bone, and the bitter regret of others.He blinks, tries to focus, but the world refuses to cooperate. He’s stuck in a haze. Words slither into his ears, ones he’d buried so deep you couldn’t find them with a flashlight.
Say the words, darling. Complete the ritual and you’ll be more powerful than anyone.
In the next flash, he’s on the subway platform, dry-heaving onto the tracks opposite. No one gives a shit. He can feel her nails pushing his hair back. Her voice surrounding him, cocooning him, creating that false safety.Fuck. Fuck.His mother’s screams, echoing in his ears. Loud, loud. His father yelling out. Trying to claw his way into the burning house, burns healing almost as soon as they form.He needs to stop. He needs to stop.“Yoongi?”He blinks and he’s got his phone pressed to his ear. He’s shaking, gasping, crouched on the platform. He can’t get enough breath, he can’t breathe.“Yoongi.” It’s Taehyung, voice deep and soothing even through the shitty line. Yoongi latches onto it like a lifeline. “I need you to breathe for me, okay? Try taking a deep breath.”“C-Can’t—” Yoongi can barely force the word out.“This will pass, okay? Just breathe as deeply as you can. Four seconds in, can you try that with me?” Taehyung counts out the seconds. Yoongi’s not really listening. But the sound of Taehyung’s voice, that warm timbre, keeps the rest at bay. The heat of flames licking at his skin recedes. He no longer feels the painted nails scratching along his skin.He breathes and breathes until he can take a full breath and the oxygen settles back in his bones. He sometimes wonders how long it’d take him to die from strangulation if his body just kept repairing himself. There’s a limit to his healing, he’s seen that first-hand. But just how long would he need to be without air to actually die?Slowly, Taehyung’s words filter back in. He’s talking about Jimin, complaining about his thriftiness. His words are exasperated but his tone is fond. Yoongi’s calmer now, but he lets him keep talking. His limbs are still weak. He doesn’t think he can stand up yet.Eventually, Taehyung catches on that he’s better.“Yoongi? Still there?”“Mmm.” He has his head buried in his arms, eyes closed. He likes the illusion that he’s surrounded by nothing but Taehyung’s voice.“Can you tell me where you are?”Yoongi glances up, squinting in the sunlight at the sign on the pillar close to him.“167th street station,” he says, voice hoarse. He sounds like he’s been screaming.“Okay. Stay there for me, yeah?”“Okay,” he says softly. His brain feels broken, like it’s not firing properly. He wants to see Taehyung. He needs to see him.Taehyung talks more about his day. His voice is soothing, calm, rhythmic. Slowly, slowly, without Yoongi even realising it, he draws him into the conversation as well. Not about what happened today – he doesn’t go near that. But other things. Jeongguk. Yeontan. The store. Namjoon. Even Chaeseon.Haltingly, Yoongi tells him about the first time he met Chaeseon. How he was just an angry kid, lashing out at everything, and she refused to rise to the bait. Her ridiculous rubber shoes that she always wears, even now.Yoongi’s not in the best frame of mind to judge the passing of time, but it seems to take only minutes for Taehyung to appear in front of him. For a moment, Yoongi feels vertigo at hearing Taehyung on the phone and seeing him in person.“Hey.” Taehyung crouches down in front of him. His eyes are earnest. “Wanna grab something to eat?”Yoongi thinks of his vomit splattered on the subway tracks.“Not really.”“Okay,” Taehyung says, measured and calm. “Let’s get out of here, though. Sound good?”“Yeah,” Yoongi says. His knees creak and strain when he gets up. He wobbles slightly. Taehyung puts out a hand to steady him.There’s a car waiting for them out the front of the station. They slide into the back. Taehyung keeps a hand on Yoongi’s knee the whole time, the connection warm and comforting. Flashes of brownstones zoom past, people on the sidewalk, other cars, bright yellow cabs.Between one breath and the next they’re in Taehyung’s apartment. Yoongi’s kicking off his shoes by rote. Taehyung leads him into the bathroom and wets a towel. He holds out a hand and Yoongi is surprised to see red caking his own hands.Father Hennessy’s blood.He feels nauseous and keeps his eyes fastened onto Taehyung as he wipes it all away.“Done,” he says quietly, letting Yoongi’s hand drop to his side. Yoongi is left just staring at Taehyung blankly. “Would you like to talk about it?”Yoongi’s mouth opens and he wants to say something. Wants to say anything to let out the bubbling emotions in his chest.But he can’t.He shakes his head. Taehyung doesn’t look upset. He smiles, small but genuine, eyes concerned. Taehyung reaches and intertwines their fingers.“That’s okay. Let’s just go to bed, okay?”Yoongi nods, but it’s jerky. Moments later, they’re in bed. Yoongi’s in a pair of Taehyung’s sweatpants, too long on him. They cover his feet entirely. Taehyung is sitting with his back against the headboard, propped up, but Yoongi’s curled next to him with his head on the pillow. Their feet intertwine. Taehyung’s fingers card through his hair.The room is still, silent, save for the sound of their breathing. Yoongi’s mind is floating.“Sleep,” Taehyung murmurs.Yoongi does.---Yoongi drifts. Consciousness seeps in slowly, then all at once. He feels the unmistakable pull of dread in his stomach. It takes him a few moments to remember why.Fuck.He cracks open his eyes. The bed’s empty next to him, but the spot’s still warm. He doesn’t know how much time has passed. He rolls onto his back and sees… green?In a shell above him, spreading out from the window, is a mess of vivid green plants. Vines weave back and forth, tendrils creating the arched shape. Different leaves are swaying in the gentle breeze, big green ones, purple-tinged pointed ones, one that looks more like long grass. Tiny white flowers are dotted through it as well.It’s like a shield curved above him. Taehyung. He hears murmurs from outside the door, getting closer. Jeongguk’s voice?“—resting, Guk,” Taehyung is saying. “He needs it. I don’t want to disturb him.”Jeongguk. Shit, Yoongi had forgotten all about him. He had to tell Jeongguk.“I need to talk to him and he’s not answering his phone!” Jeongguk’s voice is quiet, almost a whisper, but harsh. “He needs to know about Father Hennessy. He shouldn’t hear it from someone else.”Yoongi should’ve known the news would tear through the magic community like a wildfire. Father Hennessy had touched a lot of lives. And to be brutally murdered in the sacred grounds of his own church?“Jeongguk, take a breath,” Taehyung says. “I think he already knows, okay? He’s not in good shape. He just needs peace, at the moment. You’re welcome to stay but just… don’t mention any of that.”“I— Okay. Okay, I can just. Wait out here? Yeah, I’ll do that.”Yoongi rolls out of the bed – the other side, careful not to disturb the plant shield. He shuffles to the door and nudges it open the rest of the way. Taehyung and Jeongguk both turn to him in surprise.“Don’t talk about me behind my back,” Yoongi mumbles.“Yoongi!” Jeongguk flings himself at Yoongi. Yoongi stumbles back a step, letting out an ooft. Jeongguk squeezes tight. “I couldn’t find you anywhere.”“You, uh. You heard?”“Yeah,” Jeongguk whispers. “I did. Murdered in his own parish. Were you there?”“No. I mean... yes. I was there. But afterwards.”Jeongguk pulls back. His eyes are red-rimmed, glassy.“Do you know who did it? Or what did it?”Yes.“No,” Yoongi says. Because he doesn’t really know, does he? All he has are some cryptic messages. Nothing concrete that could point to her still being alive. And it doesn’t make sense, anyway – he’d killed her with his own hands, inside a protection circle. She’s dead. He’d felt her spirit leave.This is just his paranoia playing up. It can’t be anything else.“I’m glad you’re okay,” Jeongguk says. “When I heard about Father Hennessy and couldn’t find you…”Oh. Yoongi hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t thought of much, actually. He feels better now, more centred, the sharp panic no longer clawing at the edges of his vision.He clears his throat. “Uh, sorry.”“So long as you’re okay,” Jeongguk says, hugging him tight again. Yoongi awkwardly pats his back. His eyes find Taehyung, who’s hovering to the side. Taehyung smiles and Yoongi feels an answering warmth rush through him.Ah, shit. Not this. Not now.“I, uh. I should probably go,” he says, pushing Jeongguk back. “Jobs, things to do. Yeah.”Taehyung’s smile drops from his face. “Of course, yeah. Sure.” His hands twitch and he hides them behind his back. “Jeongguk’s driving?”“Always!” Jeongguk chirps, but it falls a little flat. “Don’t forget your actual pants, Yoongi. Your legs are too short for those ones. You’re gonna trip over.”Yoongi glances down at the sweats covering his feet. He still doesn’t quite feel like he’s here.“Uh, gimme a second.”He hides back in the room. The arch of vines isn’t as big as before – slowly, each tendril is receding out the window. His jeans are folded up neatly at the foot of the bed. As he’s tugging them on, the door cracks open and Taehyung slips in. He leans against the door and watches Yoongi, head tilted back.“Are you feeling better?” Taehyung’s mouth is tight, tone more guarded than before.Shame rushes through him and he busies himself with buttoning his jeans. He can feel his cheeks going red. Fucking pale skin.“Uh, yeah. Um. Thanks, I guess. For dealing with me.”“You don’t need to thank me.”Yoongi looks at his phone to avoid Taehyung and mindlessly scrolls through the dozens of notifications.“Yoongi.” Taehyung’s voice is suddenly closer, softer. Yoongi glances up, startled, and Taehyung’s right in front of him. “I think of you as more than just… the exorcist helping me out. And more than just someone I’m sleeping with. I want to help you, okay? You can call me. Whenever.”Yoongi wants to shrink and disappear through the floorboards. Before he can glance away, Taehyung’s hands come up and cup his jawline.“Anytime,” he repeats, voice serious. Yoongi’s eyes are wide, body rooted in place. It’s impossible to look away from Taehyung. He’s ethereal, always, but now he’s looking at Yoongi so openly it makes his breath catch in his throat.Taehyung bends down and presses a kiss to the corner of his mouth, then steps away. Yoongi’s frozen.Taehyung looks at him for a long moment, then smiles and backs out of the room. It takes Yoongi a long time to move, even longer to reorient his brain. More than just someone I’m sleeping with.Fuck. Fuck.---Yoongi hears a voice talking at him and he must be grunting in the right places, because it keeps going. He doesn’t really know what he’s doing here. Or how he even got here, to this cramped two-bedroom flat in Soho.Jeongguk had driven him home. He’d sat there for a while. All night, actually. He’d thought about Taehyung. About Father Hennessy. About Mara.When someone had called him about a job, he’d gone.He blinks back into focus.“She’s in there?” he asks, interrupting the woman wringing her hands in front of him. He jerks his head at the closed door. He can hear something thumping around.“Yes, yes, in there. Will my daughter be alright? Will she be okay? Normal?”Yoongi grunts and heads into the room. The girl, about twelve, is tied down to a chair. She’s gagged. Her eyes are streaming tears, hair a frazzled mess around her head. Yoongi rips the gag out.“Please, sir, help me! She’s gone crazy! P-Please!”Yoongi grabs her on each side of her face, holding her still. He peers into her eyes. If the human isn’t strong enough to fight off the demon, it can be hard to tell if someone’s possessed at first glance. But eyes are a window to the soul and a possessed human’s eyes always have something gaseous leaking out.There.Yoongi doesn’t say a word. He drops onto a knee and begins sketching out a glyph.“Whatever she’s paying you, I’ll pay you more,” the demon says, dropping the facade. It’s still the girl’s voice, but the tone is all wrong. It’s harder, like gravel, with some weird accent tinting the consonants.Yoongi doesn’t reply.He tries out one glyph, cuts his palm and activates it. It throbs but does nothing. He’s gone wrong.The demon laughs. “Jeez, you call yourself an exorcist? Awkward.”Yoongi frowns and tries again. Same result. Being worried would mean an actual emotion piercing the grey cloud he’s floating in right now, so he’s not worried.The demon is fucking annoying, though.“Are you sure you can handle this?” it coos. “Where’s your teacher? Maybe you need to go back to school.”Yoongi ignores it, sketching another glyph.“Too bad that priest carked it, eh? Maybe he could’ve—”The glyph finally catches and burns. Yoongi watches impassively as the demon is ripped out and sucked back into hell. It hasn’t taken him this many goes to get the right exorcism glyph in years.The girl’s passed out. If she hasn’t been possessed for long, she’ll be fine. But if not…Not his problem, anymore.“It’s done,” he says to the mother when he leaves the room. She cries and tries to hug him, but Yoongi heads straight to the door.He hasn’t been paid.He doesn’t really care.He walks for a bit, letting his mind drift and his feet take him where he wants. Like this, it’s almost a meditative state. The sounds of the city, the smells, melt into his brain and settle there like honey.He frowns. Stops. This looks familiar.He looks up. The House of Mystery is in front of him.“What the fuck,” he snaps, kicking the pavement. “I was twenty blocks away!”This isn’t where he wants to be. This fucking city with its fucking magic. Why did Taehyung have to put his shop in such a potent place?He turns and leaves. Five minutes later, going the other direction, he ends up in front of the store again.No. He won’t.He jogs away this time. Thinks he’s made it out, but when he lets his guard down for a moment—He’s back.Yoongi groans. He refuses to be bullied by an inanimate fucking city. Instead, he fixes his eyes on the sign for a seedy bar and empties his mind of everything but it. This time, the city minds its own fucking business and leaves him alone. He pushes into the bar, the smell of stale beer hitting him in the face. Some old school rock song is playing. A few career drinkers are littered around, one group of old friends huddled around a table. Yoongi takes a seat at the bar and orders a gin and tonic. He sets himself to drinking like it’s a competition.From his reputation, you might think Yoongi’s a hardcore drinker. He’s had a phase or two of it, but he mostly sticks to one vice now – smoking. Either way, back then or now, he’s a lightweight. Two drinks in and the bar has a hazy glow. He remembers he hasn’t eaten anything in a while. The gin is going straight to his head.Perfect.Someone slides onto the stool next to him. A woman, he can see her heeled boots.“You come here often?” she says. Yoongi wants to punch himself in the face.“Not interested,” he says, not even looking up.“Sugar, you haven’t even seen me. How would you know?”“Unless you have a dick, I don’t care.”The woman laughs, throaty and loud. Completely unrestrained. It’s rare you meet someone that laughs like that, with their whole being. It’s something you don’t forget about a person.Yoongi glances up. She looks much too fancy for a shithole like this and a mess like Yoongi. Her lips are painted bright pink, vibrant, and her blonde hair shines in waves around her. She’s still chuckling.“All the guys in here and I choose the gay one? What luck.”“Mmm,” Yoongi says, taking a big sip of his drink.“When did you decide you were gay, darling?”Yoongi chokes on his drink.“What the fuck?”“Gay, darling. That you only liked dick. It’s the first I’m hearing about it.”Ice creeps up his spine.“Do I know you?”“You haven’t recognised me yet, Min Yoongi?” She tuts. “What a sad way to greet an old friend. I guess our last meeting left a lot to be desired.”“You…” Yoongi’s voice fails him. He has an awful, sinking feeling. He can’t draw proper breath.“When you stabbed me in the heart and sent my soul to hell. Remember that?”“No,” Yoongi whispers. It’s not so much a denial as it is just disbelief.“Yes, you do. That kind of thing stays with a person, especially after all I did for you, sugar. Now, say my name.”Yoongi can’t breath.She leans forward, her pink lips pulling back from her teeth in a snarl. “Say it.”The name leaves his mouth in a rush of breath, thready and thin.“Mara.”Her face clears in an instant, a pleased smile spreading across her lips. She sits back and twirls the straw in her multi-coloured cocktail. Her nails are painted dark red, long and hard.“That’s it, darling. I knew you remembered. Wasn’t so hard, hmm? I was awfully hurt there for a moment.”“You’re dead,” he says. “This isn’t real.”“Don’t be slow,” she chides, stabbing her straw at him. “I didn’t raise you that way. Check for yourself – there’s no enchantment going on here.” She licks the tiny droplets of liquid off the other end of the straw before plopping it back in the cocktail.“I killed you.”“You thought you killed me. But give me a little more credit, love – I had failsafes in place.”“So you’re here for… revenge? Father Hennessy, too?”“Revenge?” Mara blinks, looking surprised. “Why would I want revenge? It’s what I would’ve done in your place. I don’t blame you. It’s all part of the game.”“Then what about Father Hennessy?”“Oh, the priest?” She waves a hand dismissively, fake nails catching the light. “Unrelated. Unfinished business, actually. The same that brings me here to you, my dear.”Yoongi’s hand inches towards his mageblade. He doesn’t care that they’re in a public place. But before he can grab it, her hand shoots out and grabs his forearm, nails biting tight. Right above his tattoo.His skin tingles.“No, no, none of that now. A little exorcism isn’t going to work this time, sweetheart, you think I’d make the same mistake twice? And anyway, I’m trying to have a civil conversation here, hmm? Least you could do is listen. Especially after I told you I’m not here to drag you to hell.”“Fine,” Yoongi grits out.She grins, lightning quick. “Good. I need you to get something for me. A compass lens.”“And you can’t just buy one?” Her hand is still on his, biting, and it’s making him feel nauseous. Mara, here.“Not one like this. This one’s special. And you seem to be getting pretty cosy with the guy who has it – Kim Taehyung.”Yoongi’s mind flashes back. Croydon’s Compass. The one that locates and opens the hidden gates of hell. And the blonde demon.“You tried to possess him,” Yoongi says, frowning. Of course – blonde, nothing too distinguishing. Yoongi doesn’t know why it took him so long to put two and two together.“I did indeed. But your precious darling’s a strong one. So I need you to take it from him.”“Why the fuck would I do that? Last time I saw you I killed you.”The grin drops off her face as quickly as it appeared. This was the thing with Mara – Yoongi’s not entirely sure she feels any real emotions. She can shift between emotions lightning quick, but there’s always something missing to it. A deadness to her expression that you only notice after a while. That she managed to fool so many people, especially those in the guild, is incredible to him.“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill him and then I’ll kill you. And it won’t be quick.” Her eyes are flat, voice factual. No emotion. Alien. “Even better, I’ll drag your little boy toy right to the gates of hell and let the other demons fight over his soul. He’ll spend eternity screaming in pain while his body gets torn apart, over and over. Just think about all that pain you’re in when you heal yourself. Think about that, but for eternity. So.” She leans back, takes a sip of her cocktail. “You can either help me or you can get in my way. But I won’t be stopped, darling.”“Straight to threats, huh?” Yoongi forces out.She shrugs, bird-like and pretty. “I wouldn’t call them threats. They’re facts. Cause and effect. You do this, I do that. And you know I always follow through, don’t you? We don’t need to bring your mother into this, mm?”Yoongi’s jaw clenches so tight his teeth creak.“You fucking bitch.”She rolls her eyes. “Ugh, don’t make me go through this angsty bullshit again. You seem to be doing okay for yourself now. Master of the dark arts, huh? Feared exorcist, Min Yoongi! You’d be nowhere without the power I gave you.”“You knew exactly what it’d cost me,” he hisses. His hands are shaking. He can hear screams echoing in his ears again.“True power requires sacrifice. I showed you the path; I didn’t push you down it.”“I was nine years old!”“And you killed your mother for power, blah blah blah. Everyone’s got a sob story.”“I was nine. I didn’t know,” Yoongi whispers. Her words are crushing him, squeezing the air out of his lungs and making him want to scream. Anything to block them out. Because she’s right – he did kill his mother. Everyone knew it then. And they still know it now. He’s not the most hated exorcist in Manhattan for now reason.Mara may have whispered the ritual in his ear, but he was the one who went up to the attic at midnight and set it up. Light the candles. Bleed onto the pentagram. Whispered the phrases. The master bedroom had gone up in flames before he’d even finished speaking. Screaming, screaming, his dad dragging him out of the house. Trying to get back in. Screaming.“Oh, grow up,” Mara snaps. “Look where you are now. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the power. You wouldn’t be able to banish demons nearly as easily without me. You can thank me by finding my compass lens and bringing it to me. Especially if you want to keep your little obsession breathing. And don’t make me hunt down that stray you’ve taken in, either – the one with the nimble fingers.”Jeongguk.Yoongi’s lips are tight. “Fine,” he says. “I’ll see what I can do.”“No.” Mara says, leaning forward again. This close, he can see the mist rising from her irises. She taps one long nail against his cheek. Revulsion shudders through him as he flinches back. “You’ll get it because you have no other choice. If I have to torture it out of him, I will. It’ll be no hardship – I like watching the life drain from a human’s eyes.” She smiles then, teeth perfect and brilliant. “Just like I watched your mother’s.”Yoongi feels it like a punch to the chest.She stands up, pushing away her cocktail and getting the bartender’s attention. She throws several bills on the bar. “For me and for his next two drinks. Seems like he’ll need it.” She turns to him. The smile doesn’t reach her eyes. Cold and dead. “Don’t disappoint me now, darling. I’ll be in touch.”She saunters out, hips swaying and throwing a wink over her shoulder at one of the old men staring at her ass.Yoongi stares at the door long after she’s gone.---He’s thought about it before. About what lines he draws in the sand, about what’s too far. He’s got a reputation as someone willing to sacrifice anyone and it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it. Not even just for his mother, but the people in his life he considers transient. Jeongguk is someone he’d give his life for. Father Hennessy is another— was another. He knows this about himself. For them, he’d fuck over any amount of people to save them. Fuck the trolley problem, fuck all that optimistic superhero bullshit.He’s done a goddamn lot to save people in this city. But he’d sacrifice all of them for the two people that mean more to him than anything. This is something he knows about himself and it’s not pretty or idealistic by any stretch. But he likes to be honest with himself. Brutally honest.And anyway, the hero always goes for the person they love over the greater good. Yoongi’s just more real about it.Okay. But when the fuck did Taehyung become one of those people?
It’s just fucking.
When had Yoongi realised he was in too deep? At the beginning, probably. But his good intentions had fled at the sight of Jeongguk’s puppy dog eyes.Taehyung’s perfect ass had helped too, obviously.But that was all Taehyung was meant to be – a pretty piece of ass he could sleep with, one that didn’t make Yoongi want to stab himself in the eye whenever he spoke. Maybe that’s all a relationship is, after all.That’s no help now, though. Yoongi’s real with himself. He knows this. He’s said this. So he knows he can’t just walk away from this whole mess like he wants to.Mara’s not even interested in him. She seemed to truly not give a fuck that Yoongi had tried to kill her. She only wanted him for his connection to Taehyung.And what’s the best thing to do when being threatened? Just walk away. Half the time, showing that you really, truly don’t give a shit seems to work. Especially paired with his reputation.But that’s not an option because Yoongi’s realised he really, really wants to keep Taehyung around. Preferably intact.There’s a burning beneath his skin, a simmering. He throws back his drink. Leaves the bar. The air is thrumming around him, as if reflecting his fears.It’s a bit ironic now how close he is to the House of Mystery. Nothing for it, though.He pushes into the store. The wards feel sticky as he crosses the threshold. It’s like wading through honey. “Taehyung?” he calls. The store is quiet. The plants rustle when he passes, but don’t reach out. Not that he misses being constantly felt up by vines. He hears movement from upstairs, then Taehyung’s feet appear on the stairs.“Yoon—”Yeontan comes racing around the shelves, yipping madly. He halts a few feet from Yoongi, still barking.“What the fuck,” Yoongi says, wincing. “I didn’t even say anything!”The yipping grows deeper in timbre, more growling. Before his eyes, Yeontan gets bigger. His body rounds out, face flattening. A squat horn appears. There’s no mistaking him for anything but a haechi now.Taehyung appears a moment later. His brows are pulled together.“Yoongi,” he says carefully. “Where were you before this?”Yeontan’s barks have settled down now but he’s pacing back and forth in front of Taehyung. Yoongi doesn’t even try to step closer.Mara.Oh, shit.He drops to his knees, fishing out some chalk and drawing a glyph on the ground. He cuts his palm then sprays a few drops on the lines. He doesn’t have time to worry about Taehyung seeing his hand healing.The blood droplets shiver for a moment, then zing together in the middle of the glyph like magnets.“Oh, fuck,” Yoongi whispers. He thinks of her nails biting into his skin. Of her tapping against his cheek. “She cursed me.”Taehyung pales and he has his phone out in an instant, yelling, “Jimin! Need help here, now!”Now that he knows it’s there, he can feel it. He’d thought he was just out of sorts before, but it’s more than that. That bubbling feeling under his skin, itching heat. That’s a curse. He can feel it starting to boil, recognising that he knows it’s there.“Joonie,” Yoongi hears Taehyung say, as if from a distance. “I need you here. Now. It’s Yoongi.”Yoongi can’t think, he can’t think, but he needs to break this curse. He sketches frantically, frantically. He knows it’s touch-bourne. He has no idea what element it’s attached to. He doesn’t have time to research anything, he has to act.The simmering feeling from before – water? It’s all he has. He didn’t see her murmur anything, so safflower is pointless. Bindweed? He sketches it out.It doesn’t work.But what’s the point of this curse? He was going to try and steal the lens. But she must’ve needed him inside the store. And the wards – they’d tried to keep him out. Taehyung’s in danger, then.He stumbles to his feet and lunges towards the door. He needs to get as far away as possible.“Yoongi!” Taehyung jumps between him and the door, arms wide. Yoongi skids to a stop so he doesn’t touch any part of Taehyung. “Stop. We can fix this!”Simmering, simmering, bubbling. Like thousands of ants crawling beneath his skin. It’s getting stronger. Fuck, he can feel it at the edges of his vision.“Based in water,” Yoongi gasps out. “I think a poppet. Sympathy magic.”Then the curse hits properly.He blacks out, but only for a moment. He slams back into his body, screaming. Every limb is on fire. He’s on the floor, curled up. Blink and he’s on his back. Taehyung’s face hovers above him, mouth moving.He can feel his body ripping apart like tissue-paper. Torn with so much power his skin breaks easily.Straining to get a glance down, his worst fears are realised. The curse is ripping his body open in long, jagged stripes. But his power is working just as fast, stitching him together.Ready to be ripped into again. Just like Mara promised.The pain is twofold and doesn’t stop – being torn open, being stitched back together. Again and again. His lungs feel frozen. Maybe now it’s time to see how long he can survive without breath.He doesn’t really want to die, though. Not yet, not fucking yet. But the pain is intense.It’s everything.He blacks out for a moment but the curse drags him right back.He floats like that for a while, screaming in his mind. He sees flashes of Taehyung’s worried face, then Jimin. He doesn’t know how much blood he’s lost, but his whole body feels wet with it. Ragged, like he’s been run through a barbed-wire fence. Dragged back and forth.Then it stops. He hears nothing but his ears ringing for a moment. Then-– “Yoongi? Can you hear me? Please, Yoongi.”He cracks open his eyes. Hadn’t realised he’d closed them. Taehyung’s above him, face creased, lips parted.“Mmm, so beau’ful,” he mumbles.Taehyung’s eyes widen like he wants to cry. “What the fuck, not the time!”“Y-You broke the curse?” he says. He can’t catch his breath properly.Taehyung shakes his head.Yoongi freezes. “Fuck, you need to—”The door, only feet from them, slams open. Yoongi drops his head to the side, catching sight of a familiar pair of heeled boots. Several boots follow her in.“Hello, darling,” Mara purrs. “Long time no see.”“You,” Taehyung says. “I strengthened the wards!”“Yes, I noticed. Which is why I had to send in my little Trojan horse here to—”Yeontan lunges forward, snarling, leaping over Yoongi’s body. One of Mara’s goons flies out to meet him, half-shifted into a wolf. They smash together and fall into one of the shelves. Snarls erupt.“No respect for a villainous monologue, hmm?” Mara says. Her voice is raised to carry over the snarls. “The absolute cheek of it.”“I don’t have the compass,” Taehyung says, voice tight. He’s hovering next to Yoongi, so close he can feel his heat, but still not touching. “I told you that before.”“And I told you, I know you’re lying. Croydon was your grandfather. I know he gifted you with the lens, just as I know he gave the needle to Father Hennessy and the dial to that pompous asshole with the long name. Now, tell me where it is or I’ll keep ripping apart your beloved Yoongi before your eyes. He’s almost impossible to kill, you know, just to be clear. We’ll be here for a while.”He can still feel the curse simmering under his skin, waiting to boil over. It’s quiet, though, other than Yoongi’s panting breaths – the snarls are gone. Yeontan.“How do I know you won’t just kill him when I give it to you?” Taehyung asks. “And me?”“You don’t,” Mara says, shrugging. “Just trust that I don’t actually want to kill you or Yoongi. You’re too pretty by far to go to waste and I don’t particularly want to deal with your grandmother in revenge mode. She’s a prickly bitch enough, as is. And I have a soft spot for Min Yoongi. I taught him everything he knows, after all, and I’d like to see that legacy keep breathing.”She crouches down, coming into Yoongi’s field of vision.“You were one of my brightest students, did you know that?” She smiles kindly down at him. And the face isn’t familiar, but the expression hits him deep. Because he really had latched on to Mara after his father’s death, thinking her just another family friend and not the demon that had set him up to kill them. He hadn’t loved her, but it’d been close.And then he’d found out she was just a demon possessing a powerful mage’s body and it’d all come tumbling down.“Go to hell,” he groans out.“Oh honey.” She pats him on the cheek. “Been there, done that. Now I’m going to make hell come here.”“The sun casts the darkest shadows,” comes the murmur of several of the others still behind Mara. At the same time, Jimin snaps, “Don’t touch him.”Mara glances up. Her smile turns predatory.“Ooh, hello little fox. Would you like to play a game of catch?”“You want me to give you the lens so you can open both of the hidden gates?” Taehyung says. Yoongi can’t see him, but he hears him shift in front of Jimin. “And create hell on earth?”Mara rises smoothly back onto her feet.“Why not?” she says, smiling, dead in the eyes. “Humans have had it good for too long, being on top. We need to shake it up a little. And heaven closed its pearly gates years ago, Him and his angels don’t give a shit. What better time?”“I can’t do that.”“Well,” Mara says. “I hope you enjoy seeing him in pain.”Yoongi only has time to draw a quick breath before wounds rip open across his chest like claw-marks, one after the other. It lasts— god, he has no idea how long it lasts for. But one moment he’s writhing in agony, willing to do anything, anything, to make it stop. And then it does.Words fade back in softly.“...can’t.”Taehyung’s voice, soft and broken.“Oh, darling. He was ready to sell you out. He was coming here to steal the lens for me already. You’ve heard the rumours about him, surely. He killed his own mother for power. Why wouldn’t he do the same to you?”No, Yoongi tried to say, but all that comes out is a sticky groan.The world is wavering in and out around him.“No,” Taehyung says for him. “I know Yoongi. I’ve seen his soul and it’s one of the most beautiful I’ve ever come across. Stop lying.”“Those are pretty words for someone willing to watch him be tortured.”And the pain starts again. Unending, eternal, completely encompassing. The floor must be flooded with his blood by now. His lungs freeze up from the pain and he’s left gasping, clawing for each breath. Every time his vision wavers he’s brought back to consciousness with a vicious yank.The pain stops.Yoongi doesn’t even realise it at first. He swears he can still feel the ripping, his skin tearing apart, but it’s just phantom pain. The memory as his skin knits itself back together.There’s a high-pitched whine in his ears. He’s curled on his side now, forehead pressed to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches Mara’s heeled boots turn and walk out. The rest follow.Then Taehyung drops to his knees in front of him, covering his view of the door. He gets rolled onto his back. “D-Don’t,” Yoongi stutters out, “touch.”“Yoongi,” Taehyung breathes. His cheeks are wet. “We’ll get you somewhere more comfortable. Namjoon should be here soon, okay? Jimin!”Yoongi feels himself being lifted, carried like a bride in Jimin’s arms.“The curse,” he gets out. “Touching.”“I won’t touch your skin,” Jimin says. Yoongi’s head lolls around as Jimin walks through the store, up the stairs. “Jeez, you barely weigh anything. I think your general sunny disposition makes you seem larger.”His body is aching a little less with every passing second. He picks his head up a bit and keeps it there.“Don’t eat my liver while I’m weak,” Yoongi says with a feeble chuckle.Jimin walks Yoongi’s legs into the doorframe.“Oops.”“Jimin,” Taehyung says, exasperated. “Can you cool it for the moment?”“The liver thing is a rumour,” he hisses. “Mention it again and I’ll walk you balls first into a pole.”Yoongi laughs, then coughs. A little bit of blood dribbles out of his mouth.“Taehyung?!”It’s Namjoon, calling out in a panic in the store below.Jimin dumps him on Taehyung’s bed, saying, “I’ll grab him and explain.”Yoongi and Taehyung are alone. Taehyung crawls up onto the bed with him.“We need to go after her,” Yoongi says, struggling to sit up. He only ends up a few inches higher on the pillows. “And steal the lens back.”“She doesn’t have it yet. I told her where it was hidden.”Yoongi frowns. “Then we need to cut her off there. Why the fuck aren’t you more worried?”“Because it’s a decoy halmeoni and I planted when her cult first started sniffing around about the compass. If she survives the traps we planted there, she’ll come back here and we’ll be ready for her. And Namjoon will have broken the curse on you by then. But, Yoongi… how do you know her? The demon?”“It doesn’t matter,” comes out of Yoongi’s mouth by instinct.Taehyung’s eyebrows rise. “It kind of does? She almost killed you. In my shop. When she was threatening me.”Yoongi shifts, awkward, because of course it does. It’s the least he owes Taehyung, anyway.“Aeshma. That’s her real name. She’s an ancient demon associated with Zoroastrianism, mostly. But I knew her as Mara.”The name’s familiar to Taehyung, as Yoongi thought it would be.“Mara… she was in the Guild of the Guiding Light. The… the one the rumours say you killed.”“So you do listen to the rumours,” Yoongi says. “Yes. Her. I killed Mara’s body, at least. I have no idea how long she’d been possessed or how she hid it from everyone so well, but the real Mara’s spirit was long dead.”Taehyung’s eyes are intent on his face, scanning.“And what she said about your mother. What did she mean?”Yoongi feels weak, open, laid bare. He didn’t want to ever have this conversation with Taehyung, and especially not like this.He opens his mouth.Namjoon bursts in.“Yoongi!” he says. His hair is a mess, eyes wild behind his glasses. “What do you know about the curse on you?”Seokjin and Jimin follow on his heels. Seokjin’s eyes are glowing red, nostrils flared from all the blood. Yoongi’s been told the combination of angel and demonblood in his veins makes his blood smell delicious (this from a vampire he later stabbed through the heart with a stake).Yoongi explains as best he can what he’d worked out before the curse had taken hold. It isn’t much.Namjoon is frowning.“Jimin told me it looked like your body was being clawed open, then sewed back up. I’ve never heard of a curse that heals before, and certainly not a bloodcurse like the one she’s got on you.”Fuck. Fuck. Yoongi had been so out of it he hadn’t even thought of that.Namjoon watches him, head tilted to the side.“It makes sense,” he says, voice low. “I’ve always wondered how you managed to be such a powerful exorcist, with the amount of blood magic it involves.”“I don’t get it,” Jimin cuts in, head darting between Namjoon and Yoongi. “What?”“You can heal,” Namjoon says.“I…” The words are hard to force out. After all this time, he’s never actually told anyone. He’d healed Jeongguk the first time they’d met, but they’d never spoken about it. “If you tell anyone about this I’ll drop you straight into the lowest circle of hell.”“Why are you glaring at me?” Jimin yelps.“A healing ability is rare, I’ll give you that, but both Jimin and Seokjin have regeneration abilities. Why’re you scared of it getting out?” Namjoon asks.Yoongi’s lips press tight. He could pretty easily get away with not saying anything, letting them believe healing himself was all he could do. But he remembers when Taehyung’s chest was blistered and raw. How he’d been too afraid of giving away his secret to help.He never wants to feel like that again.So he turns to Taehyung when he says, “I don’t just heal myself. I can take the wounds of others onto myself and heal them too.”It’s quiet for a beat.Then, “What?!”Seokjin, previously minding his own business leaning against the wall, comes forward.“You could be helping so many people, but you keep this a secret?” he snaps.“I do what I can,” Yoongi grinds out. “I don’t give a shit about your opinion on it.”“You could be saving lives everyday but you hunt monsters instead?!”“Rich from a vampire,” Yoongi sneers.“How sel—”“Enough,” Taehyung says, voice final. “Yoongi says he does what he can? I believe him. We don’t know what it’s like to live with a power like that. Imagine what would happen if others knew.”Seokjin scoffs. “Of course you’d say that, you’re fucking him.”Taehyung straightens up, frowning. Before he can say anything, Namjoon steps between them.“We can argue about this later, okay? For now let’s just break this curse. Halmeoni should be here soon, too.”Yoongi’s experience in sympathy magic is somewhat lacking. People don’t usually go to the trouble of creating a poppet. You had to really know a person to get it right. And then there’s the problem of the blood it needs to work at all effectively. Yoongi has no idea how Mara got that. It could from years ago, he has no clue.So he’s not surprised when Namjoon tries method after method, and fails.Yoongi has a plan forming in his mind. Taehyung wouldn’t like it, but he also refuses to be used against him again. Being helpless on the ground was the worst feeling in the world. Yoongi is not helpless.And anyway, it’s been an hour and Chaeseon still hasn’t shown up. Whatever that old bat’s doing must be important, but Yoongi can’t just wait around forever.Mara’s his fault. This is all his fault. If he’d killed her properly the first time, they wouldn’t be in this shit. Taehyung would be safe. Mara and her cult need to die, and he’s not going to sit around with a target on his back and wait for her to show back up.He’s got a job to do.It takes some time to find his opening. He realises pretty quickly that Taehyung’s glued himself to his side and the others aren’t leaving any time soon. Jimin and Namjoon drop in and out, searching for different items and ingredients. Seokjin is still simmering angrily in the corner, shooting Yoongi narrow-eyed glares as if he personally let his parents die or something.Eventually, he decides being blunt is the way to go.“Fuck this,” he says. “I need a cigarette.”His energy has slowly been seeping back in, so he shuffles off the bed easily enough now.“I can co—”“Alone,” Yoongi cuts Taehyung off.He blinks. “Okay,” he says slowly. “You might want to change, though.”Yoongi glances down. His clothes are crusty with dried blood. He’s maybe more tired than he thought if he didn’t even notice.“Oh.”He scrubs everything off in the shower, the drain water turning the colour of rust, and ends up in a pair of Taehyung’s too long sweatpants again. His boots, at least, are salvageable. His jacket less so. He wipes off all he can and the blood doesn’t really show up on the black leather, but it’ll need a better clean later.He hesitates at the door. He feels the others’ eyes on him as he leans over and gives Taehyung a quick kiss.“Thanks,” he breathes against his lips.Taehyung gives him a confused smile. “You’re… welcome?”And then Yoongi’s out of there. ---Yoongi didn’t hear the address when Taehyung gave it to Mara, but he’d overheard him talking to Namjoon about it.He doesn’t head there yet, though. He ends up in The Siren, waving Sunmi over. She’s bent over a table talking to two older men, shimmering gold dress with her hair falling down her back, and nods when she seems him.His phone vibrates in his pocket and he slides it out to glance at the caller ID. It’s Taehyung. Yoongi turns his phone off.“You look like shit,” she says a few minutes later, sliding onto the seat next to him. “Did you also get stuck in that shitstorm in Tribeca?”“What?” Yoongi frowns, then decides he doesn’t really care. “I need Olivia’s help”.“No,” Sunmi says immediately, standing up. “That wasn’t the deal.”“The deal was for any favour. The terms only said no innocents were to be hurt and they won’t. That includes Olivia.”“Why would I trust you?”“Because I saved her life already,” Yoongi says. “And almost killed myself to do it. She wouldn’t have lasted the day.”Sunmi sits back down. Her lips are pressed tight.“What do you want from her? I can go in her place.”“Are you a spirit elemental?” Yoongi rolls his eyes. “She can phase through anything solid and bring someone with her. I need that.”“Who have you told.” Sunmi’s voice is low, dangerous. “About her being a spirit elemental.” She’s gripping the edge of the bar tightly.Yoongi’s not good with people. Not like Taehyung is, who can make anyone feel welcome. Who’d made him feel welcome, always. Sometimes it’s the softer hand that achieves better results, rather than the Min Yoongi bludgeon approach.“I haven’t told anyone,” Yoongi says. “And I won’t. I know what it’s like to have a power that others would abuse if they knew of it.”Sunmi stares at him. He watches the understanding slowly dawn across her face.“Jeongguk said you were the only person who’d have been able to save her. And I’ve never seen someone recover instantly from a curse being lifted.”Yoongi doesn’t say anything. He feels sick about this but honestly, what’s new?Sunmi is measuring him. He has no idea what she’s thinking. He’s chafing at the delay. Every minute that passes is another that Mara could finish getting the lens, realise it’s fake and come back. And let’s not forget that fucking curse that’s still hanging around.Then she says, “Fine. I’ll call her and ask. But it’s up to her if she’ll do it and you better not be dragging her to whatever the fuck is going on in Tribeca.”---They’re on East 18th Street, Yoongi frowning down at the ground. He crouches down and places his hand on the pavement, feeling the vibrations of the subway below.“We should be right above the platform,” Yoongi says.Olivia snorts. “If we land in front of an oncoming train, I’ll be pissed. I didn’t get free of that curse just to be flattened in Manhattan’s rat-infested subway system.”She looks a hell of a lot better than when he’d last seen her, but that wouldn’t be hard. Still very skinny, but her skin no longer sticks to her bones. She’s chopped her hair shorter than before so the bald patches are less noticeable. Yoongi tries not to stare at her closed third eye.“Are there really no other entrances?” she asks. “Phasing through the ground gives me the heebie-jeebies. I keep thinking I’m gonna phase all the way right through to China.”Yoongi stares at her. “I’m sure that’s not the way it works.”“Other entrances, though?” she insists.“Not up on street side, not anymore. You can access through the tunnels but that’s the way Mara’s going. And it’s heavily warded against anyone with magic.”Olivia looks down at the pavement, frowning.“This is gonna hurt, isn’t it.”“Yeah,” Yoongi says. “Probably. Shouldn’t break any bones, though.”“That’s not the vote of confidence I was after,” she says, raising her eyebrows at him.“I’ll fix you if you break any bones,” Yoongi says. “Happy? Can we do this now?”Olivia looks around at the people passing them on the sidewalk, frowning. Yoongi’s not really worried about anyone seeing them. They’re behind a hotdog stand, which shelters them somewhat, and if a human ever does see magic, it tends to fade from the mind.“Okay.” She takes a breath and her third eye blinks open, completely black. The pupil is a pinprick of white and it moves on its own, separate to her two other eyes. It’s creepy. “Don’t let go,” she says, reaching out to grab his hand.Yoongi shivers. If he lets go, he’ll be torn apart by whatever object he’s halfway through. It’s not a pleasant thought.Olivia looks at him, then closes her eyes. They wait until they feel the vibrations of a train approaching below their feet. There.Then they’re falling through the air. Wind rushes past his ears. The world blurs around him, brown and grey and dark, and he’s falling—Bam.He hits the ground. His knees give out and he rolls to the side. His stomach lurches and he wants to hurl, but he stumbles upright. Icy needles stab his knees as he heals whatever damage he did.He looks around frantically, but it’s dark. He reaches for his phone and turns it back on. The white light blinks on, blinding him until he focuses it away from him. Olivia’s rolled over onto her hands and knees, panting. The ground is covered in dirt, but it looks like it was once white tiles. They’re not on the platform level, but the vast, empty room above. Graffiti covers everything. The steps down to the platform are across the room from him and he can see a faint, warm light.He hears a noise and freezes, listening hard. The murmur of voices drift up from downstairs. Arguing? He can’t make out what anyone’s saying. They don’t seem to have heard them.Yoongi stumbles over to Olivia. “You okay?” he whispers. He touches her shoulder lightly and reaches out with his hell-magic. There’s some pain in her palms and one of her ankles. He draws it into himself and his breath stutters at the sudden wash of pain. It’s over in moments, though.He’s missed whatever she’s said, but her eyes are shining at him in the light of his phone.“Thanks,” she whispers back. The light disappears and Yoongi stabs blindly at the buttons, lighting the screen back up. “They’re still here?”Yoongi jerks his head at the stairs. “They’re arguing. Can you see where they’re standing?”Olivia nods. Then, her top half melts through the ground. She’s bent at the waist, her torso cut in half by the ground. Yoongi feels nauseous just looking at it. His body had been doing that a second ago.Then one of her hands comes back up through the floor and pulls the rest of her back up. Yoongi can’t even imagine the control it’d take to master phasing only certain parts of your body through a solid object. He tries not to show how grossed out he is, but by the amused quirk of her lip, she knows.“There’s four of them,” she whispers. “The blonde demon, a werewolf, and the other two look human. They’re digging through the wall over there. She’s standing a little back. There are a few dead bodies close to the tunnel.”Yoongi nods. “Lower me down as close as you can to her, then get out, okay? They’ll be too busy with me to keep an eye on the tunnel.”Her lips are tight, eyes narrow.“I’m not going to leave you alone with that demon. She’s so strong I can feel her from up here.”“I’ll be fine.”Olivia rolls her eyes. “Stubborn. What a surprise. How will you get out, though?”“I’ll follow after they’re dealt with,” Yoongi lies. “Just get back to Sunmi. I don’t want her to hate me more than she already does.”“Oh, she’s fond of you,” Olivia says. “She just won’t ever admit it. Come by The Siren after, though? So we know you’re okay.”Yoongi blinks at her. This is… strange. And unexpected.“I’m always fine,” he says. “Healing, remember?”Her eyes dart between his. For a moment, he thinks she’s going to call him out on his bullshit. But she doesn’t. Instead, she stands and moves over to the wall.“About here. I can’t guarantee it’ll be exact, but should be close enough.”Yoongi follows her, rolling up his sleeves. It feels weird to have his forearms bare after so long hiding them.“What are those?” Olivia asks, eyes catching on the tattoos.“Magic,” he says flatly. Olivia gets the hint not to ask, rolling her eyes.“Fine,” she says. “Just… don’t die, okay? I don’t wanna be the one who helped you to your end.”“Kind of you,” he mumbles, fishing out his mageblade and activating it. A dagger forms out of the mist.Olivia eyes it warily.“Don’t stab me on the way through,” she says. They get into position, kneeling in front of each other, Olivia clasping both his wrists. “Good luck,” she says softly.Then the solid ground beneath his knees disappears and he’s flying through the air. Olivia’s grip on his arms halts him and he swings. He has a moment to see everyone’s startled faces looking up at him before Olivia drops him.He lands on his feet this time, stumbling forward then lunging at Mara. She gives a startled yelp. Crashes to the ground.In a moment, he has her arms pinned beneath his knees and his mageblade at her throat.“Don’t fucking move,” he says to her followers. They’re all frozen, heads swiveling between them.“Really, darling? Has desperation truly made you this stupid? Your little magic blade isn’t going to do much. Neither will those symbols you’re so attached to.”“Where’s the poppet?”Mara rolls her eyes.“Left pocket,” she says, bored. Yoongi fishes it out. It’s made of wax, malleable in his hands. He feels sick from the proximity of the curse.He throws it to the side.“Is this your genius plan?” she asks. “Did your little boyfriend lie to me about the lens?”“I’m sending you back to hell,” Yoongi says. “For good, this time.”“You can try—”Yoongi stabs the knife into her shoulder. Her words choke off into a startled gasp. Blood begins to bubble up, seeping onto the ground.“Yoongi!”Yoongi’s head flies up. There, running along the tracks, is Taehyung. A few figures follow behind, but he’s the only one lit up by the lights. Yoongi’s grip goes slack. Mara surges up beneath him but he throws his weight back down again.He’s almost out of time.“I can’t banish you,” Yoongi says, gritting his teeth and wrenching the blade out of her shoulder. “But I can drag you to hell with me.”Yoongi barely sees Mara’s suddenly wide eyes as he slices the blade deep across first one wrist, then the other. Blood pours down. Lifeblood, more potent than anything else. His hell-magic starts working instantly, but he loses grip on the knife.It clatters to the floor.His hands flop limply. But most importantly, his blood mingles with Mara’s down his forearms. Over the tattoos.He’s swaying, losing strength, but he forces his forearms together.The world wavers around him. Hot wind rushes through the station, sending his hair flying. The platform warps and wobbles.
Crrrrrack!
The subway floor splits in front of him.“No!” Mara screams. She pushes him off and tries to scramble away. The crack widens towards them.“Not this time,” Yoongi grits out. He uses the last of his strength to tackle her into the crack.They’re falling. Hot air, all red.Then he hears a faint, “Tae, no!” and another form is flying down after them.Yoongi only has a moment to process this.Then they slam into hell.---Yoongi’s mouth is dry as dust. His throat clicks. His skin feels like it’s being flayed by the hot wind and he wants to just lie there and die, but he can’t.He pushes himself upright, swallowing and trying to wet his mouth. Then—Something slams into his side, knocking him down. Everything blurs. Then Mara’s there, snarling on top of him.“You, fucking…” she groans. He can barely hear her over the ringing in his ears. Her teeth are covered in blood and she coughs, spraying Yoongi with some. Her shoulder is still leaking. “What have you done?”Yoongi feels a vicious grin spread across his face.“Looks like that spell to tie you to your human body is backfiring,” he says. “Hell’s harder as a human, huh?”“No!” she screams, punching him in the face. His head slams into the ground and his vision blackens for a moment. “No, no, no!”His healing is sluggish down here in hell, strangely, but he can feel it starting to knit together his skin again. He struggles up, tries to push her off, but she punches him again. Her hands tighten around his throat.“Open the portal back up! Take me back or I’ll choke the fucking life out of you.”“One way… ticket,” Yoongi chokes out, grin spreading across his face.“No!”“No demon… is gonna deal with… you as a… human.” Yoongi hacks out a laugh. “You’re stuck here. Forever! Bottom… of the food chain.”“You’re here forever too,” she hisses, leaning in close. Bits of blood and spit hit him in the face. “You’re in the exact same situation.”Yoongi chokes out another laugh. “The difference,” he says, “is that I don’t care. At all. Fuck you and… your fucking cult.”She screams and squeezes even tighter, nails biting so hard into his skin it draws blood.Yoongi’s vision starts to grey around the edges and—She’s gone. Air flows back into his lungs with a startled gasp. He curls to the side, coughing, throat tingling and sees… Taehyung?“Fuck you,” Taehyung snarls, kicking Mara in the stomach. She’s not moving. Taehyung has a gnarled piece of wood in his hands. Blood splatters the side of it.“Taehyung?” Yoongi breathes.Taehyung drops the wood and turns, falling to his knees next to Yoongi.“Are you okay? Your neck? Shit, you’re still bleeding. Sorry, I passed out for a bit,” Taehyung babbles.“No,” Yoongi says. The horror is an insidious, sinking feeling, starting in his stomach and spreading up his throat. “No, you can’t be here. Why did you jump after us?! What the fuck is wrong with you!”“What’s wrong with me?” Taehyung says, brows snapping down. “What’s wrong with you! Running off to confront her alone, what the fuck? And trying to sacrifice yourself? No one likes a martyr, Yoongi!”“I wasn’t trying to be a martyr,” he hisses. “Your plan was stupid. I had a way to take care of her and I did.”“Yeah, by sacrificing yourself to eternity in hell! What kind of fucked up plan is that!”“Apparently not a foolproof one, since you jumped in after me. What the fuck!”“Of course I did! How else are you going to get out of here? I’m the only one who can get you out!”Yoongi freezes with his mouth open. “What?”“The compass, you fucking idiot. It works hell-side as well. And you need my blood to power it.”Yoongi stares at him, wide-eyed.Taehyung rolls his eyes and stands, offering a hand to pull Yoongi up.“Stubborn, self-sacrificing shit,” Taehyung mutters. Despite his angry words, when Yoongi’s upright he brushes the dirt off him. “Let’s hope she has the needle and dial on her, or we’re really fucked.”“You don’t even know?” Yoongi blurts. “And you jumped in anyway?”Taehyung won’t meet his eyes. “You didn’t exactly give me much time,” he mumbles. “I had to move fast.”“Why?” Yoongi’s still stunned. Taehyung crouches down and starts digging through Mara’s pockets.“It doesn’t take a genius to work out why,” Taehyung says. “Don’t play dumb.”“I don’t…” Yoongi trails off.Taehyung stands up, fists clenched. “How are you the only one that doesn’t know? Because I have feelings for you, you idiot. And if that means jumping into hell after you when I’m not even sure either of us can get out, then yeah, I’m gonna do it.”Yoongi feels numb. “But… But you said it was just fucking.”“Of course I said that! That’s what it was meant to be! And look what happened – the first sign of feelings and you ran the other way. Even my plants know I’m obsessed with you!”“I… I don’t—”Taehyung rolls his eyes. “Let’s not do this now. I’ve got the compass. Are we just leaving her here?”The switch makes his head reel. He’s still focused on what he’d said before. I have feelings for you, you idiot.Shit.“Yoongi,” Taehyung says. “Snap out of it, come on.”Yoongi blinks and forces himself to push the last few minutes firmly to the back of his mind. Now’s not the time to deal with this shit.“No, we, uh… we gotta make a stop first,” he says.Yoongi ends up with Mara slung across his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. He wobbles a bit at first and Taehyung looks worried, but then he’s got it. He’d also found his mageblade closeby, which must’ve dropped into the crack.They’re in the Eighth Circle, which explains the dry heat eating away at Yoongi’s sanity. It’s a ruined landscape, all dead trees and cracked dirt stretching for miles around. It’s exactly where he wants to be. He’s lucky he doesn’t have to drag Mara’s limp body through other Circles.“How can you tell where we’re going?” Taehyung asks. “It all looks the same.”“We’re not lost,” Yoongi grunts.“Not what I asked,” Taehyung says, turning to raise an eyebrow at him. “I’m not—”Something catches Yoongi’s eye. In a second, he’s dropped Mara to the side and is shoving Taehyung out of the way. The demon thumps to the ground right where Taehyung had been standing, black wings extended.“Three tasty humans? With no one’s mark on them?”Yoongi’s got his mageblade out in front of him in an instant. It solidifies into a short sword.“You don’t wanna pick this fight,” he says, shifting further in front of Taehyung. He doesn’t really care about Mara’s still-unconscious body on the ground next to them.The demon eyes the blade, shifting back slightly.“I think I do, though,” it says. “You smell wonderful.”“Try it—”In a blur of black scales, another demon slams into the ground. Dust flies everywhere, catching Yoongi in the throat. He bends over, coughing and eyes watering.“Not these ones, Chino.” The voice is deep and slow, measured. Familiar. Yoongi wipes his eyes and squints at the demon in front of him. Enormous, towering over Yoongi by a few feet. Black, scaly wings, eyebrows so long they flow into jet-black hair. “Mal,” Yoongi greets. “A little less dust, next time?”Mal laughs, the sound more like thunder rumbling in his chest.“So weak. I forget, sometimes. Speaking of weak, how is my brother?”Yoongi thinks of Len, with his glasses and his cats and their Jenga nights. He snorts. “Same as usual. Alive, at least. Not been eaten yet.”“Good. So why are you in my domain, little exorcist?”“I’ve come to collect on the favour you owe me.” He grabs Mara by the shirt and drags her limp body over, dumping her at Mal’s clawed feet. “I want her locked up for eternity in one of your bolgia.”Mal crouches down, wings rustling behind him. He makes a noise in the back of his throat as he peers at Mara. “This is no simple human you’ve brought me, little exorcist.”“It’s a demon. Aeshma. Locked herself in this human body.”Mal’s eyes go wide, a vicious smile spreading across his face. It reveals two overgrown, pointed teeth like fangs.“Locked, you say,” he rumbles. “How delicious. I will do this for you, exorcist, and we shall be even.”Yoongi nods. He relaxes, slightly, but not all the way yet.Mal jerks his head at the other demon, who picks up Mara’s body and shoots into the sky. Yoongi’s a bit more prepared for the dust storm this time.“And now for the other matter,” Mal says. “The elephant in the room, if you will. What do you plan on doing with your soul, little exorcist? And that one next to you? I can guarantee you safe passage out of hell, as long as the other one stays behind.”Ah. He should have expected this.“A kind offer,” Yoongi says. “But I won’t need it.”Mal looks closer.“You have another demon who owes you a favour? Who can get you out of hell?”“You’re not the only demon who owes me,” Yoongi says, which is technically correct. None of them are as high up the hierarchy as Mal, though. He doesn’t need to know that.Mal’s head tilts to the side, examining him. Yoongi’s breath catches in his throat. Their deal has been closed, which makes Yoongi and Taehyung fair game. Yoongi’s not sure how long he’d be able to fight him off. Enough for Taehyung to get away, at least.“Fine,” Mal says abruptly, leaning back. “You’ll have safe passage through the Eighth Circle while the sun is still at its zenith. Out of respect for what you’ve done for my brother. Afterwards, though. You and your delicious friend will be fair game.”Yoongi schools his features so the fear doesn’t show.“Good doing business with you,” he says. “Maybe we’ll get the chance another time, if we don’t get ripped apart by demons.”Mal laughs, grating and loud. “Good luck, little exorcist. Keep an eye on the sun.”Then he jumps into the air and with a big gust of wind, is out of sight. Yoongi peers at the sun. Mal didn’t give them much time.“Taehyung—”“Knife?” Taehyung says, hand out. Yoongi silently hands his switchblade over. Taehyung slashes across his palm, then drips it into the compass until enough has pooled to cover the needle. Yoongi reaches out and touches his wrist.Taehyung watches as the cut disappears from his own palm to appear on Yoongi’s. It slowly knits together, blood dripping sluggishly out.“Thanks,” Taehyung says softly. Yoongi shrugs, uncomfortable.The compass begins humming in Taehyung’s hand. They watch as the needle spins around for a bit, then locks onto a direction.In the distance, the wind carries the sound of animalistic screams.“We gotta move,” Yoongi says.They set off at a jog. It’s completely barren, open and desolate. They’re running, but nothing is really getting any closer. It’s like being stuck in one of those nightmares.Yoongi grits his teeth and tries not to think too much about it.Taehyung, half a stride ahead, skids to a stop. He throws an arm out to catch Yoongi.The ground has dropped away. Suddenly, it’s just darkness.“Are we meant to be going down?” Taehyung asks, frowning. He checks the compass again.Yoongi glances up at the sun, then behind them. Is that a black figure flying in the distance?“Don’t have much of a choice,” Yoongi says, putting his mageblade away. “Let me go first.”It’s not completely vertical, but Yoongi still keeps four hands on the ground as he feels his way down. It doesn’t take long for the black to completely envelope him. He hears Taehyung above him, crumbling rock sometimes hitting him in the face. He’s going by feel alone, the only sounds their own.Then it starts to lighten.It’s not a bright light like the sun in the Circle above. It’s more muted, grey. Yoongi goes to feel out another foothold and realises he’s on solid ground.He stands, helps Taehyung the rest of the way down, and looks around. It’s cold, his breath misting in front of him. The cold feels deeper than just temperature, though – it sucks at his very soul.It’s eerie. The darkness blankets all sound. After the constantly whistling wind above, the silence beats against Yoongi’s ears.The grey light shows a crumbling city. He can make out the vague shape of skyscrapers in the distance, but their silhouettes are strange. Twisted.They’re on a highway. Cars are abandoned all around them. Some have rusted away, only half the car remaining. There’s also skeletons. Dozens and dozens of skeletons.“Oh, fuck,” Taehyung says. Yoongi follows his gaze to the wall behind him, the one they’d just crawled down.It’s all skulls.Yoongi barely stops himself from flinching.“Where now?” Urgency thrums through his veins.Taehyung glances at the compass. Some of his blood is dripping down the sides, spilt from the climb down.“This way,” he says.It doesn’t look like any city Yoongi is familiar with. It seems to go on forever around them. Completely still. Silent.Yoongi had visited hell once before, when his parents were alive. They didn’t go past the First Circle, but he remembered it being filled with life. Like an actual city, except teeming with demons in their natural forms rather than humans.Nothing like down here.The silence is getting to him. I have feelings for you, you idiot. What the hell is Yoongi meant to say to that? He doesn’t get it. Why, he wants to ask. Why would someone as vibrant as Taehyung like him? He’s bitter, mean-tempered, and won’t help anyone unless there’s something in it for him. He knows this about himself and he’s fine with it.But… why else would Taehyung have jumped into the portal after him? When he didn’t even know for sure he could get him out?None of this makes any sense.He almost bumps into Taehyung when he stops abruptly.He frowns, follows Taehyung’s gaze.A demon, skin blackened and half its skull missing, is peering at them around the side of a car. Yoongi assumes it’s looking at them – it doesn’t have any eyes, sockets hollow and sunken in. “Huuuuuuman,” it whispers.Yoongi gets out his mageblade. The thing flinches back and scuttles off on all fours.Taehyung breathes out.“There’ll be more,” Yoongi whispers. “They’ll come back in force. Maybe with daevas. Run.”Abandoning all quiet, they take off. Yoongi can hear the scuttling. Can hear sibilant hisses, closer and closer. They dodge around cars, jump over skeletons.Then the world becomes a whole lot smaller as they run into the city, buildings rising on either side of them. Yoongi glances behind him – at least a dozen are following them, running on all fours, some climbing the buildings.“Left!” Taehyung calls, ducking down a side-street. Yoongi stumbles, follows.Something blurs out at him from the side. He moves on instinct, shearing the demon in half. His mageblade hisses happily.He’s panting loudly but the scuttling is still louder. He doesn’t want to look behind them now.They zigzag several more times. Four more demons have a go at them, Yoongi getting to each of them just in time.Taehyung leads them deeper into the city. The same grey light illuminates it all flatly, never changing. There’s no shadows.Yoongi sees it before Taehyung does. The demon lurking under the car.“Tae—” he yells, but it’s too late. The demon lashes out, catching Taehyung’s leg as he passes. He stumbles to the side. Yoongi’s there a moment later, cutting through the arm entirely.His pants are torn at the calf, showing the bloody, raw skin beneath.“Don’t, Yoongi—”But Yoongi reaches out anyway, taking the wound onto himself. He hisses out as his calf tears open, the blood hot and filling his boot.From far away, he can feel Taehyung tugging him along. He tries to make his legs move, but he’s almost passed out.The pain grows, and grows, and then—It settles. The stabbing feeling becomes manageable. He comes back to himself, realises that Taehyung’s got an arm slung around him and is doing his best to drag him along.He gets his feet back under control.“I told you not to,” Taehyung growls.“Bit late for that,” Yoongi replies. Then he has to push Taehyung away and spin, using his mageblade like a bat against the demon leaping at him.Almost instantly, another is jumping at him. And another. Yoongi swings, kicks one in the head, gets a shallow slice across his forearm batting another away.For a moment, there’s a break. Using the blood from his arm, he crouches down and sketches a glyph on the ground, activating it just as another demon leaps at him.A wall of flame shoots up into the air, catching it mid-leap. Its screams echo down the street. The wall of flame disappears as quickly as it appeared, but it’s created a break in the wave of demons.“C’mon!” Yoongi says, and they’re running again. They turn down another street and stumble to a stop.In the middle of the road, an enormous version of the smaller demons chasing them turns around and looks back at them. It’s so big the ground vibrates a bit as its fists touch the ground. Its skin is cracked in places, showing glimpses of fire. It has to be about two storeys tall.“Got any more of those fire tricks?” Taehyung says, backing up.“Not enough for that. Fuck.”The thing opens its mouth and roars.“This way!” Taehyung yells, grabbing Yoongi’s arm. He drags them back to the street they were on, heading for the next block instead. Yoongi slices a few demons on the way past.The ground shudders as the big demon behind them takes off after them.They’re all-out sprinting now, Yoongi just behind Taehyung and guarding his back. He can hear the demon getting closer and closer. They zip down streets, again and again, until Yoongi realises—“Are we going in a circle?!”“We went past it,” Taehyung pants. “It’s not an exact art, okay. It’s a fucking compass not a map.”“Do you even know how to open—”“Here!” Taehyung says. They skid to a stop in front of one of the many crumbling buildings. This one has a set of stairs going down, a door off its hinges at the bottom. Taehyung jumps down the stairs as Yoongi chops the head off a demon.The huge demon is rounding the corner, head swinging back and forth. Yoongi leaps down the stairs after Taehyung.It’s dark down here, but Taehyung has his phone out with the flashlight on. It’s just a big, empty room, caved in on one side.“No reception down here,” Taehyung says with a grin over his shoulder as he searches around. “Weird, that.”“Do you know what you’re looking for?” Yoongi asks. He’s standing in the doorway, keeping an eye on the outside door to the stairs. He can hear the big demon thumping around outside, but he won’t be able to get through the entrance.“If I see it, I’ll know it.” Taehyung crouches down, peering under a table. “This is the right place, though, I’m sure—”And then the doorway is ripped completely open by huge claws and the demon shoves itself inside.“Faster, Tae!” Yoongi yells. He lunges forward, plunging his mageblade into the demon’s arm. It hisses and draws back for just a second, before shoving its way in again. The entire building shudders as concrete rains down.Yoongi’s blade isn’t that helpful. With a thought, he changes it into a battleaxe. He dodges out of the way of the claws, spins around and catches one hand with the axe. It slices a few fingers cleanly off.The screech pierces Yoongi’s eardrums.“I think I’ve got it!” Taehyung calls. “It’s on the ground, I didn’t think to look there, and there’s this formation—”“Tell me—” Yoongi cuts off, jumping to the side then under claws. “Tell me when it’s open!”The demon roars. Part of the ceiling falls down. Yoongi just manages to duck out of the way but he swallows a few lungfuls of debris. He’s coughing as he dodges again and swings. Some of the smaller demons are crawling around the hole the big fucker’s made. Yoongi backs a little farther into the room so they can only come at him one at a time through the doorway. They swarm in, and Yoongi realises the big demon is gone from the entrance. There’s a sound like all the air being sucked from the room — phwoomp.“It’s open!” Taehyung calls. “Let’s go!”Yoongi turns and is running towards Taehyung’s voice before he even sees him. Taehyung has his hand on the ground, a portal the colour of blood below him. Tiny bolts of lightning shoot through it.Yoongi’s only steps away when the ceiling collapses. Something knocks into him and he’s pinned to the ground, gasping. His ears are ringing. He scrambles frantically, but something’s pinning his leg down. He can’t crawl away.He blinks the dust out of his eyes, streaming, and looks down. His leg below the knee is stuck beneath a chunk of rock. He kicks at it frantically with his free foot, but it doesn’t budge. He can’t feel it for a moment, then the pain slams into him. His power boils under his skin, trying to heal it but unable to.“...ngi! Yoongi!”Taehyung’s voice pierces the pain. Yoongi gasps and looks up. The roof is caved in over what had been the doorway. The demon is on the level above, tearing off bits of concrete like it’s tissue paper and throwing it aside. The hole is almost big enough for it to slip through.Whipping his head back, he sees Taehyung yelling at him. One arm is stretched towards him, the other stuck keeping the portal open.His mageblade is on the ground next to him, just the hilt. He grabs it. An axe forms out of the mist.The demon rips up one final chunk and roars. The hole is big enough.Yoongi takes a deep breath, lifts the axe up high. Brings it down just below his knee.He screams.The demon jumps down into the room.Yoongi crawls towards Taehyung, drags himself one arm over the other. Closer, closer. He can feel the heat from the demon behind him.Taehyung’s fingers stretch towards him. Yoongi’s head is swimming. He’s about to pass out. He grits his teeth, pulls one last time and then his fingers touch Taehyung’s. Taehyung latches on immediatly and yanks him forward. They dive headfirst into the portal. Yoongi’s leg bangs against the edge and he passes out.---It’s a familiar scene to open his eyes to, feeling completely wrung out and nauseous, seeing Jeongguk collapsed on his sofa. The boy’s limbs are sprawled out, one leg hanging off the back of it. Soft snores echo through the apartment.Yoongi’s bladder feels like it’s going to burst. He levers himself upright. His stomach rolls but he forces it down.He’s done pissing and is washing his hands when he loses the fight with his stomach. He ends up dry-heaving into the toilet. There’s nothing to even throw up, just yellow bile. After, he sits with his head resting on his forearm, collapsed against the toilet.Something nudges him. He blearily looks up. Jeongguk’s next to him, hair standing up everywhere, glass of water in hand. Yoongi accepts it, washing his mouth out and spitting into the toilet. He flushes it then collapses on the floor, back against the cabinet.“Where’s Taehyung?” Yoongi asks. His voice is rough. He takes another sip of water.The last thing he remembers is cutting off his leg and Taehyung dragging him through the portal. And then… nothing. “You’re hopeless,” Jeongguk says, rolling his eyes. He plonks the toilet seat down and sits on top of it. “Tae’s fine. He was here for the first day you were passed out then left when your leg had finished healing.”Yoongi frowns. “He left?” he mumbles.“Yes, Yoongi. He has his own shit to deal with too, you know.” Jeongguk must see something on Yoongi’s face, because he says, “Something happened with Chaeseon. When you two were off on your adventure.” He leans over and punches Yoongi in the arm, making him whine. “Thanks for the invite, by the way.”“An invite?” Yoongi asks incredulously. “To hell?”“It’s nice to get an invite, is all,” Jeongguk mumbles. “You left me here again! Without saying a word! Do you wanna know when I found out that not only Mara was back, but you’d almost died? When Taehyung called me! Frantic when you weren’t waking up!”“Jeongguk…”“Stop leaving me out of the loop! Least you can do is send me a text, like, ‘hey, about to go martyr myself, see you if I get out of hell’. But with a lot more spelling mistakes because this is you we’re talking about.”“I wasn’t exactly thinking,” Yoongi says with a frown, because he’s not that bad at texting. “And no, I’m not going to do that. You get in enough shit just being as close to me as you are. I won’t risk you more than that.”Jeongguk stares at him with his mouth dropped open.“That’s… ugh… that’s stupid! And nice! But also stupid! Yoongi, you need to let the people around you make their own decisions. You have this weird delusion that everyone around you is gonna die. Which, I can see where that comes from, but you’re not like… cursed or something. You’ve just had a really shit time of it. And… and you should let people be close to you if you want. And not try and martyr yourself at the first sign of feelings.”Yoongi stares at him. He kind of wants to puke again.“You want me to go after Taehyung.”“Yes.” There’s a stubborn jut to Jeongguk’s jaw.“And confess my feelings.”“Yes.”“Even though I just puked in the toilet you’re sitting on.”Jeongguk rolls his eyes, saying, “It’s called mouthwash. Duh.”“And you think it’ll end well?” Yoongi’s a bit disbelieving. “He didn’t even stick around.”“He went to hell for you. Literal, actual hell. And he only left because of his grandmother. C’mon, Yoongi, you’re not this much of an idiot.”“Huh,” Yoongi says, head thumping back against the cabinet. “I guess he did already say he has feelings for me.”Jeongguk kicks him in the leg with his sharp little toes. “Ow!”“He already said it?!” Jeongguk yells. “And you’re still here?! What the fuck!”“Ow, too loud!”“Get the fuck out! Get out right now! I know you, Yoongi, and I know you would’ve just stood there like an idiot!”“Not like an idiot…” Yoongi grumbles.“You’re unbelievable! He bared his soul to you and I bet you were just like ‘thanks’!”“Well, no…”“Why are you still here! Get out of here! Put some proper pants on and get out!” The last two words are punctuated with kicks.“Ouch, fine! Fuck, get your gross feet away from me. Gross.”---He smokes three cigarettes on the other side of the street before he works up the courage to enter the store. But when he goes to twist the handle, it’s locked.“Oh,” he says. Awkwardly, he knocks on the door. He hears thumping from inside, then footsteps coming closer. The door opens. It’s Jimin.“Wow, don’t look too excited to see me,” Jimin says, rolling his eyes. “The love is suffocating.”“Is Taehyung here?”“I carry your heavy ass up a flight of stairs and this is the thanks I get?”“Uh… thanks?”Jimin opens his arms up and cocks an eyebrow. “C’mon,” he says, waving his hands, “bring it in.”Yoongi manages not to cringe as he awkwardly steps forward and hugs Jimin. It’s weird and stiff and he hates it. Then Jimin clasps onto him and breathes into his neck and it’s… not so bad, maybe.“You dick,” he mumbles, hitting him with a fist. “Going outside for a smoke, then dipping? You’re lucky we got there in time.”“Uh… yeah,” Yoongi says, because what the fuck else is he meant to say.Jimin pulls back.“You’re terrible at hugs,” he says frankly. “Taehyung’s upstairs with Chaeseon. I’m going out to get boba, don’t have sex in my room or the kitchen again, please and thanks.”“We didn’t—”But Jimin’s sailed past him, waving over his shoulder and swiftly turning the corner. Yoongi stares after him for a moment, then enters the shop. All the lights are off, but today it smells like pine trees. He takes the stairs up, knocking hesitantly on the door as he steps into the apartment.Chaeseon and Taehyung are on the white couch, holding hands and talking with their heads bent close. They both look up when he enters, Taehyung surprised, Chaeseon with a smirk.“Boy!” she says, standing up and brushing off her pants. Yoongi frowns at her – she looks smaller than normal, older. More frail. She’s dressed the same as usual, with her rubber shoes and colourful shirt. All the same except for her string of pearls – where before she had three strings, now there’s only two. “About time you showed up!”“I only woke up half an hour ago,” Yoongi says.“Lazy!” she scolds, hobbling over. She reaches up, standing on her tiptoes, and wacks him on the side of his head.“Ow, everyone needs to stop hitting me!” Yoongi whines.“You didn’t tell me Mara was possessed by a demon! Eh? That’s important information! And you forgot? For how many years?”Yoongi scowls.“You wouldn’t have believed me. She was part of your weird cult’s inner circle, why would you take my word over hers.”“I would have checked it out,” she snaps. “Unthinking boy! I would have tested her and we could have avoided all this.”“I did the right thing,” Yoongi says, face stubborn. “You all wouldn’t have believe me when she was alive, and you definitely wouldn’t have believed me afterwards.”“Aish! No cure for stupidity,” she says, going past him to the door. “Treat my grandson right, or I’ll chop your balls off, boy.”“Get back to the nursing home okay—” The door slams in his face.Yoongi turns to Taehyung. “Is she, ah… okay?”Taehyung, who’d been looking amused this whole time, finally gets up off the couch. “Yeah… apparently Mara set up a series of traps all over Tribeca that kept the whole guild occupied. She’s fine now. But… can we not talk about my grandmother?”“Ah, yeah. Sure.” All of a sudden, the nerves come rushing back in, and he has no fucking clue where to start.“Did you… come here for something?” Taehyung asks after the silence stretches on. His eyes are guarded.“I wanted to see if you’re okay,” Yoongi blurts.Taehyung’s shoulders slump the tiniest amount.“I’m fine,” he says, turning to his kitchen. “You could’ve just messaged me.”“I’m not great at texting.”“I know,” Taehyung says, getting just one mug out of the cupboard. The plants on the windowsill are blooming again, the flowers tilting to follow Taehyung like he’s the sun. “Is that it?”“No, I, ah…”“Yoongi,” Taehyung says with a sigh, thunking the mug down and turning back around. “You can forget what I said, okay? When we were in hell. You have no obligation to me, it’s fine. I’d like us to still be friends, though.”“Do you want us to just be friends?”“What do you want me to say, Yoongi? That I still really like you? More than I’m meant to? Yes, of course I do, shit like that doesn’t just go away. But you don’t have to force yourself to be nice to me or whatever it is you’re doing now. It’s fine. You don’t do feelings; I got the message before. I still want to be friends, though. Just maybe avoiding the sex from now on. For real this time.”This isn’t going how Yoongi pictured it going at all.“No, I want the sex,” he blurts. “Wait, no, that came out wrong. Kinda? I want the… you.”“The me?” Taehyung repeats, eyebrows raised.“Yes, you, all of you.” Yoongi waves to indicate Taehyung in all his… Taehyung-ness. “I, uh. I like you?”“Is that a question?”“I like you a lot!” Yoongi says loudly over the top of him. “I like you more than most other people. Except Jeongguk. But not the same way. This is… so fucking hard. I just… spending time with you makes me happy in a way I haven’t felt in a long time. I like you and I like who I am around you. You’re all I think about, really, and it’s annoying but it’s also not really that annoying and I just want to see you all the time?”Taehyung’s mouth has dropped open slightly. “It sounds like you love me.”Yoongi cringes at the word. “Ew, no, not that word. No.”A slow smile spreads across Taehyung’s face.“Well, I think I love you, Min Yoongi. And it sounds like you love me too.”“Nope, no, definitely not.”Taehyung’s stalking forwards and Yoongi backs up a few awkward steps. He ends up bumping into the wall with Taehyung caging him in, arm on either side.“Do you love me, Min Yoongi?” Taehyung whispers, eyes intense. “Do you want to take me on dates and spend all your time with me?”“No?” His voice wavers.“That’s not very convincing at all.” Taehyung leans down so his lips are a breath away from Yoongi’s. “Say it.”“It’s not… that.”But it’s become very clear that is that. Yoongi’s pulse is thundering in his ears and he wants Taehyung’s lips on him now.He leans up but Taehyung pulls away. Yoongi lets out an annoying sound.“I won’t believe you like me if you don’t say it.”“I like you.” Yoongi can feel his face scrunching up at the words.“Not quite the L-word I was after. Try again.”Yoongi stares at Taehyung. There’s a smirk on his face, but there’s a seriousness behind it that belies the words. A vulnerability. Taehyung had already laid himself bare. And Yoongi had somewhat stomped on his heart. Not intentionally, but he hadn’t really tried not to, either.But now?Yoongi thinks of the feeling in his chest he gets whenever he sees Taehyung. The feeling of being the focus of Taehyung’s intense stare. Taehyung jumping into hell after him. Taehyung not once listening to the rumours about him.This feeling in his chest. It’d have to be that, wouldn’t it?“I, uh.” Yoongi clears his throat. “I love you? I guess.”A brilliant smile spreads across Taehyung’s face and the tension bleeds out of Yoongi’s limbs.“Not very convincing,” Taehyung says. “Let’s try it with a little more gusto.”Yoongi knows his face is bright red.“I love you,” he says forcefully, scowling. “I said it. Now give me my fucking kiss.”Taehyung grins and ducks his head back down, capturing his lips. He sighs into it, arching up and pushing into Taehyung’s silken hair.“Yoongi,” Taehyung sighs after a while. “About time you sorted your shit out.”Yoongi tries to frown, but it’s hard with Taehyung placing tiny kisses along his mouth and jaw.“I don’t like emotions,” he says. “Messy.”“If we’re going to make this work,” Taehyung says, pulling back so they lock eyes again. “Then you need to at least start acknowledging them.”“I’m here, aren’t I?”“And you could also try smiling every once in a while.”“Too much,” Yoongi says. He feels the corners of his lips trying to twitch up, so he frowns harder.“And you’ll have to get on with Seokjin now.” Taehyung goes back to placing small kisses down his neck. “And take me on dates. And go to Guild functions with me. And help out in the store, every so often. And actually text me back, for once.”“This sounds horrible,” Yoongi says. But he’s a shitty liar and they both know it.Here, in Taehyung’s arms, surrounded by him and drowning in him, is the happiest he’s ever been.---