Chapter Text
In the strangeness, in the kindness, and in everything in between; there’s magic.
It’s been 4 summers and Jeongguk grew up.
He’s become a part of his life now. He is who he is, who he is meant to be, and hopes to continue to keep doing that for the rest of this ride.
It’s been an easy thing, nowadays, when he has the space of the countryside to breathe and to hear what nature has to say about his actions, his words and his work.
It’s taught him a lot.
It has told him to trust his gut and go for a career that makes his heart sing, something that makes him feel he’s doing good by himself and the world. A small thing to give back, something to give to the energy always with him; in him.
It has told him to get a dog, because it’d be his best friend, and now he has two labradors who adore his family and him and each other.
It’s told him a lot of things over the years, and Jeongguk has always listened.
Now, when he asks the trees how they’re doing and watches the sun go to sleep behind the mountains, it tells him to propose to Taehyung and Jimin.
Jeongguk has always listened to nature.
It knows almost everything, after all.
He was right to listen.
Jimin and Taehyung say yes and the new layer adds on, lives with them, through everything. The crystal in their rings warms whenever they are apart.
On a night when the stars twinkle above and the dogs run around in the yard and the summer breeze blows past their cheeks, Jimin suggests something more.
“An energetic bond. Yoongi-hyung knows how to cast it. It’s like— it’s like mariage, but deeper. Goes into your soul. Connects us, even deeper.”
Jeongguk blinks. “I want that with you.”
He saw a star falling just moments before. Knows it’s a sign.
He’ll never get used to the way he gets covered in glitter everytime Jimin smiles.
Taehyung doesn’t smile.
Jeongguk puts his hand on his shoulder. “What?”
“It’s an intense thing.” He mutters quietly, worrying his lip with his teeth, looking at his feet in his brown sandals. “I’ve read about it. It’s a good thing, an incredible thing, but…”
Taehyung sighs and looks at the stars.
Jeongguk and Jimin wait for him to speak.
The dogs chase after each other.
“When. If . Something goes wrong. It’s just as painful to break it. Something that takes a part of your soul with it. And I wouldn’t hesitate to risk that for you guys, but,” Taehyung glances at Jeongguk, “I cannot let you carry that pain.”
Jeongguk hums. “Who says it’ll go wrong?”
“I’m not.” Taehyung promises. Looks out to the darkness of the mountains again. “But despite how this feels, how we are, things can always happen. There is never a guarantee things are going to work out the way we want them to.”
Jeongguk knows that all too well.
“That’s true.”
A little mot comes flying to the soft lamp above them. Jeongguk watches it try and try to get closer to the light.
“But maybe it will turn out alright.” He whispers, more to himself than anything. “It’s a gamble, but isn’t that the whole goal? To take risks?”
“Yes.” Taehyung says immediately. “But we calculate them, too. This is a risk that might be too big, gguk.”
Slowly, he reaches out for Jeongguk’s hand and wraps his fingers around him. Jeongguk knows his warmth now. It always feels like coming home.
“If something does go wrong,” Taehyung says quietly, looking at their hands together, “I could never live with the fact that you have to live with so much pain again. I just can’t do that to you, however wonderful that bond could be.”
“Hm.”
Jeongguk looks at their hands and the glowing crystal in the ring. Looks at the mot, and then at the dogs, and then at the mountains.
“So you’re saying no?”
“I don’t want to.” Taehyung says, softly. “But I just can’t— can’t have that happen to you. It’d break me apart.”
Jeongguk breaks the words apart in his mind and puts them in little corners of his soul. They’re kind words, above all.
“What about me?” Jimin asks, then. He’s looking at Taehyung, at the way he’s still biting his lip.
Taehyung’s eyes flick up. Jeongguk can see the way his shoulders sag.
“I couldn’t bear seeing you in that pain either, you know that.” He admits. “But it’s different.”
Jeongguk cocks his head. “How is it different?”
“Because. It just is.”
All three of them look at the mountains. At the stars.
After a while, Jimin says, “It isn’t, you know?”
After another while, when the rustling of the trees has told him enough, Jeongguk says, “Jimin’s right. You’re protecting me, in some way. I love that. You have always done that and always will. But this is the wrong kind of protection. It’s holding me back.”
He twists their hands around so his hand is on top. Taehyung watches him do so.
“We’re all equal here, remember? The lovely parts and the painful parts. If you’d do it with Jimin, you’d do it with me. That’s how this works.”
“I know.” Taehyung sighs. “But I just can’t have that happen to you, gguk. I couldn’t live.”
“Give me the risk of that pain. And if you couldn’t live with that, then that’s the risk you have to carry.”
“That’s too much.” Taehyung bites his lip again. It’s soft now, red. Jeongguk wants to kiss him, more than anything.
“But—”
“Tae.” Jimin interrupts, gently. He’s always kind enough to keep quiet during conversations that are not his, but is also kind enough to help them out when they can’t get there. “Sleep on it. You don’t have to decide now.”
With a smile, Jimin taps his crystal three times. Jeongguk feels it warm around his finger. Knows Taehyung feels it, too.
“We have forever.”
Taehyung smiles softly and squeezes his hand tighter before he lets go. “We have forever.”
He pushes himself off his chair and sighs, looks at them both.
He leans over to kiss Jimin, a finger under his chin, lips kind. “I love you.”
Jimin whispers, “I love you,” back.
Then leans over to Jeongguk and does the same. To Jeongguk, it feels like eternity until he pulls away again. Taehyung’s eyes are dark and the flowers have grown and the field has become more endless. “I love you.”
Jeongguk smiles. Knows his own soul is reflected in that.
“I love you. See you in the morning.”
Times change and leaves start to turn orange and Taehyung doesn’t change his mind.
He doesn’t change his mind until he’s fixed the cold part of his heart and doesn’t change his mind when the ice is on the trees, the landscape coloring white.
But when the first green leaves start to grow and the first insects crawl out of the ground, something warms. Awakens. Like nature does.
And he paints.
Jeongguk has seen a lot of beautiful things in his life.
This may trump it all.
(All except for how beautiful Jimin and Taehyung are. Nothing trumps that.)
In awe, he stares at the huge painting above the couch in the living room. Its width takes up almost two of the couch pillows, and it goes up to the ceiling.
It’s bright. It’s living. It’s home. It’s him.
Wordlessly, he steps forward and climbs on the couch on his knees, looks at all the details up close. Along the edges, there are flowers, all sorts, all kinds, red and blue and yellow and all the colors flowers can be. He traces his fingers over them, finds vines and four-leaf clovers in between.
When he gets to the edge of the flower frame, his fingers land in a lake. The lake lives, he can feel its soul through the painting. His hands move with the waves and the tips warm from the reflecting sunlight.
When his hand trails up, he finds fields, and mountains, and birds, and clouds, and the sun.
It’s warm under his touch.
He kneels in front of it.
When he does, he sees a tiny note sticking out from under the painting.
He reaches for the folded paper carefully and opens it.
To Jeongguk.
This is a part of what your soul is worth. It’s marvelous, and strong, above all.
I want the risk.
Yours.
He holds it to his chest.
Jimin finds him there like that, just gazing at the beauty in front of him, at the beauty in the note.
He too, stills.
Jeongguk wordlessly hands him the note.
Jimin sits down next to him and holds his hand.
“How did you always know?” Jeongguk asks him after a while, when the sun has set a bit lower.
Jimin rubs his thumb over the back of his hand. “Know what?”
“That it was him. With everything.”
And slowly, Jimin starts to smile. He gestures at the painting.
“You see this?”
Jeongguk sees it.
“That’s why. And it’s why you know it, too.”
When Taehyung comes home, he finds them there on the couch.
He slowly comes over, lights the candle on the small table in front of them.
Jeongguk turns around and sees his everything.
Taehyung smiles, softly. “What do you think?”
A heavy swallow. Something too big.
“It’s beautiful.” Jeongguk whispers.
“Thank you.” Taehyung whispers back.
It’s an eternal moment. The light of the candle dances over Taehyung’s face and a tear glistens on Jimin’s cheek and Jeongguk clenches the note tightly between his fingers like it’s the only thing keeping him alive in this timeless eternity.
Taehyung chuckles softly when his eyes flit to his hand. “Don’t ruin it.”
“I’ll keep it forever.”
“You can have me forever.”
Jeongguk can’t wait anymore.
“Please come here.”
And when he does, when they take Taehyung in their arms and kiss him and hold him and get kissed back and get tears wiped and get hold in return, it’s a love thing.
An everything, thing.
“I— Tae, Jimin, I love you, so much, I—” Jeongguk stutters out at some point and Jimin quiets his lips.
“Shh.” Taehyung whispers into his hair, kisses his temple. “We know it. You know it. We all know it. We can live it, now. No more words are needed.”
And so, no more words are needed.
The end,
(but also the promise of a forever.)