Chapter Text
The palace was surrounded by a high stone wall. On the wall were three gates; one facing south, another west and the final east. They had decided on taking the east gate. To enter, they first needed to get past the guards.
“This better work,” Yoongi mutters, watching as Jin walks up to the guards all alone.
“It will,” Namjoon assures, having complete faith in his friend. Yoongi’s magic never failed.
Jin was pretending to be a merchant, selling perfumes and aromatic oils. The others look from their hiding spot as he rummages through the satchel to find the right bottle. He makes the guards smell it, and almost immediately they fall to the ground, sleep taking over.
The first part of their plan was a success.
They quickly enter the palace garden, looking out for more guards. There is one at the backdoor of the main building, and they use the cover of the plants to get closer. When they can’t move further without being seen, Namjoon takes the pouch hanging by his waist and opens it carefully. Out flies a swarm of wasps, heading straight towards the unsuspecting guard.
Luckily for them, the guard doesn’t scream too loud, only alerting one other guard. They watch both of them run away as the wasps chase them.
“Will they be okay?” Jungkook asks quietly, feeling bad.
“Don’t worry, I told them not to sting,” Namjoon smiles.
They were now inside the palace. It was huge, fitting for a power-hungry king. Next they needed to find the throne room and do it as fast as possible. Jimin had told them it was right in the middle; back when he met with Taehyung, he had noticed there was an opening in the roof to let the midday sun shine right on the throne.
The corridors formed something of a maze, most likely built to make things harder for intruders like themselves. Hoseok is using his good hearing to ensure the route was clear, and so far they haven’t run into anyone.
“The noises are getting louder, we’re almost there,” he whispers.
Jungkook can hear it too now, a crowd cheering. The ceremony must have already begun. He prays to the stars that they’ll make it in time.
✵✯☾✯✵
Taehyung knew it. Knew that the king would want to humiliate him like this.
“Bring me the elixir,” the Sun king orders.
“You promised to remove the mark,” Taehyung reminds him.
“I will fulfil that promise after I have drunk the elixir,” the king smiles wickedly.
Taehyung doesn’t say anything, his skin prickling from disgust. There is a pedestal in the middle of the space between him and the king, and on that pedestal is a small box made of silver. Taehyung walks up to it slowly, feeling everyone’s eyes burn holes in him. These people all thought that he was vile and disgusting. Just like they thought his mother had been. There was no such thing as love in the room, no compassion nor remorse.
He opens the silver box and takes the crystal bottle from it. It’s beautifully crafted, and Taehyung lets himself admire it for a moment before facing the king.
Taehyung’s face is void of any emotion as he makes his way to the throne.
“Pour three drops into my wine,” the king orders, holding a golden goblet filled with wine.
Taehyung opens the bottle, staring into the king’s eyes to see how his world falls apart when Taehyung raises it to his own lips.
✵✯☾✯✵
They burst into the throne room, and Jungkook barely notices all the people lining the walls or the ring of fire that Yoongi creates around them as a shield. All he sees is Taehyung, drinking the elixir of life.
Jungkook screams but he doesn’t even hear the sound of it. He doesn’t hear the crystal bottle crack when it slips from Taehyung’s hands and hits the ground. It feels as if time has slowed down when Taehyung turns to him, face pale like he’s just seen a ghost. Jungkook sees how the strength leaves his legs, making him drop to his knees.
Someone—he thinks it’s Jimin—shouts, drawing Jungkook’s attention to the body moving towards Taehyung. The Sun king.
Jungkook runs, heart in his throat. The king stands tall, looming over the fox spirit. He unsheathes his sword and raises it high in the air, the sunlight reflecting off the blade. Then he brings it down, tearing into flesh.
It hurts. It hurts so much that Jungkook thinks he might actually die. This time it’s Taehyung who screams, and it pierces him the same as the actual blade sinking into him.
“You’d protect filth like him?” The king mocks him, pulling the sword off. “How repulsive.”
Before the king can utter another word, an arrow pierces straight through his heart. He falls backwards, crashing to the ground with a loud thud. Jungkook sees Hoseok put away the bow and rush towards them.
“Why Jungkook, why?!” Taehyung cries, pressing on the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Jungkook has questions too.
“You’re…still alive,” he wonders, confused yet relieved.
“Jungkook-”
“Came here to stop you…but you’re not dying, that’s…good...”
Jungkook’s vision is becoming cloudy, it feels as though he's looking at the other behind a foggy window.
“The elixir,” Taehyung breathes out, frantically looking for the bottle. Taehyung didn’t drink all of it. Just one drop, that’s all he needs. He can save Jungkook with that.
He finds the bottle and picks it up hastily just to see the long crack on it. The rest of the elixir has leaked out onto the floor.
“No…it was not supposed to be like this.”
Jungkook can’t see anything, but he hears Taehyung’s cries. He sounds so desperate and Jungkook wants nothing more than to comfort him.
Hoseok and Jin are there, he hears them talk but can’t make out the words. Everything fades to black, dark like a starless night.
✵✯☾✯✵
Jungkook goes unconscious and Taehyung is so scared, more scared than he has ever been. He was supposed to do this by himself so no one else would be in danger, but instead he has led them to doom.
Taehyung had stopped praying for himself a long time ago. Now, completely helpless, he prays to the stars once more and does the only thing he can think of: he kisses Jungkook.
He drank a lot of the elixir, maybe, just maybe…
“Please…don’t take him away from me. Let me save him this time,” Taehyung whispers.
A dark cloud covers the sun.
✵✯☾✯✵
The news of the Sun king’s death spread like wildfire. Because the king had no children or siblings, the crown was given to his cousin. The new king was nothing like the Sun king, and he harboured no ill feelings towards the southern kingdom.
The mark below Taehyung’s wrist faded when the king died too. It never disappeared completely since the king didn’t remove the curse, but it was good enough. Taehyung could cover it with paint.
These days he really loves painting. Sometimes he sells his paintings at the marketplace, next to Jimin and Hoseok’s stall.
Those two are still deeply in love, and Taehyung has heard they’re dreaming about getting married someday soon. Taehyung will make sure to attend the wedding.
Jin and the others visit sometimes. Namjoon is still healing from the wound he got at the battle in the Sun palace. Taehyung didn’t see how it happened, but he’s been told that Namjoon had bravely protected both Jin and Yoongi. The three of them have an interesting relationship, and Taehyung is rooting for Namjoon and Yoongi to confess their feelings—not only their feelings for Jin but each other too.
As for Taehyung, he is still waiting for Jungkook to wake up. They had brought him back to his home in the forest, and Taehyung stayed there with him and the bunnies. They had all returned home safely, and Taehyung made sure to look after them.
The wound had been lethal, and it was a miracle that Jungkook was still breathing. Taehyung prayed for a second miracle every day.
Taehyung is playing with the bunnies when it starts raining, and he hurries back inside. It’s raining a lot lately, and the rain has already ruined two of his paintings. The thing he hates the most, however, is that during the night the rainclouds cover the stars. Taehyung likes stargazing because it reminds him of Jungkook’s eyes. Eyes that have been closed for so long now.
Taehyung takes off his wet clothes, and changes into something more comfortable. Then he turns to the bed, only to see Jungkook sitting up and looking at him with entire galaxies in his eyes.
Taehyung was finally home.
✵✯☾✯✵
It wasn’t easy to recall all those painful memories, but Taehyung felt he needed to tell Jungkook everything. He told him that he knew the Sun king wouldn’t keep his word and remove Taehyung’s mark even if he got the elixir. That’s why Taehyung decided to drink it, not only to free himself of immortality but to take his revenge on the king.
Jungkook cried while telling him how he had thought Taehyung would die if he drank the elixir, not knowing it only took away his immortality. He was the maker of the elixir, yet he didn't remember its effects at the time. The memories of his past lives were still hazy and incomplete.
“How did I survive?” Jungkook asks, wiping away his own tears and then Taehyung’s.
“I’m not sure… but I think the stars must have heard my prayer,” Taehyung says.
Jungkook smiles at that, remembering something Nabi had told him when he was leaving.
“I missed that smile,” Taehyung confesses softly, hugging Jungkook tight.
“Then I’ll make sure you’ll never have to miss it again. I’ll be here in every life I live. But rabbits aren’t good at being alone, so I’ll need you to be here with me.”
“I’m done with being alone too. I just want to be together with you. Always.”
“Always,” Jungkook agrees.
Jungkook was just about to leave when he thought of something.
“Why did you call me ‘dear’?”
Nabi smiled, petting her snake.
“Because that’s what the stars call you.”
-
Epilogue
"...and that's the myth of the rabbit on the Moon,” Mr. Kim, their literature teacher, concludes. Today’s topic was supposed to be Korean poetry, but the teacher had gone off on a tangent that lasted the entire class.
The whole class turns to look at Jungkook.
"He does look like a bunny," someone says and everyone agrees.
“Just because I have the same name doesn’t mean the myth has anything to do with me,” Jungkook complains. He has heard this story many times before, it’s his mother’s favourite. She has even admitted to naming him Jungkook because he had a moon-shaped birthmark.
Unlike his mother, Jungkook doesn’t believe in old fairy tales or reincarnation. But, supposing that it were true, that Taehyung dude must have really been something for the Moon Rabbit to keep reincarnating on Earth for centuries now in hopes of spending yet another lifetime with them.
Jungkook is just about to leave the classroom when he overhears his classmates talking about a new student.
“Did you hear? There’s a new transfer student who apparently looks out of this world.”
“Really? What was their name?”
“Wait, it’s just on the tip of my tongue…”
There’s a crowd of students in the corridor passing by their classroom, all of their attention on the boy in the middle. The boy is laughing at something, and Jungkook swears he can hear the bells.
“Taehyung,” Jungkook answers his classmate. He can’t explain how he knows that, but he does.
Jungkook doesn’t believe he’s the reincarnation of the Moon Rabbit. But, supposing that it were true, he would make the same choice as he must have done in all his previous lives. Heart beating wildly in his chest, he runs out into the corridor, turning towards the direction the crowd had gone. Most of them had already gone their way, but there was one person looking out of the window at the end of the corridor. Jungkook is only halfway there when that person turns and smiles at him.
“It just stopped raining,” Taehyung says.
-
The End