Chapter Text
Taehyung stared at the bright green parrot as it hopped about its cage. It chirped nonsense at him and happily flapped its wings whenever Taehyung stuck his fingers between the rusting yellow bars. It was probably the only colorful thing in the entire bland motel lobby.
“Thank you for staying with us,” the receptionist at the front desk said to Yoongi. Her voice was full of fake cheerfulness.“Comeback soon.”
“With these roaches you got running around? No thanks,” Yoongi grumbled back.
Taehyung made a silly face at the parrot, giggling at the way the bird tilted his head. It was almost like he was trying to figure Taehyung out.
“You want to be free, don’t you?” Taehyung whispered. “I know what that’s like all too well.”
“Free! Free!” the parrot suddenly squawked, making Taehyung jump in surprise. “Free! Free!”
Taehyung regarded the hyper bird for a second, before bursting out into a wide grin full of laughter.
“We should keep moving,” a voice from behind him said.
It was Yoongi.
Taehyung paid one last farewell to the excited parrot and sighed, before moving away from the cage. Yoongi was waiting for him at the front doors of the motel, pale hands tucked into the pockets of his light blue denim jeans.
“Where to next, Hyung?” Taehyung asked with a smile, hands coming up to rest at the back of his head as he walked alongside the shorter male.
“I already told you not to call me that,” Yoongi grimaced. He tugged the bill of his black baseball cap further down, obscuring the angles of his face even more.
“But we’ve know each other for so long, Mister,” Taehyung frowned. It was probably the hundredth time they’ve had this conversation. It always ended with Taehyung staring forlornly out the car window, and Yoongi gritting his teeth beside him.
“Look, Kid, do you think I want to be here?!” Yoongi suddenly whirled on him. They were at the car now, but neither of them had gotten in yet. Taehyung stood and stared as Yoongi snapped. He nervously started to chew on the sleeve of his burgundy hoodie, a habit he had never been able to break. “This is all your fault! No, scratch that, it’s my fucking fault for having a fucking conscience!”
With that, Yoongi yanked open the driver’s side door and got in. The door closed with a slam and Taehyung felt his shoulders sag even more. He already knew he was a burden, but to hear Yoongi say it out loud kind of stung.
Cautiously, he opened the door of the passenger’s side and hesitantly got in.
He was met by the sight of Yoongi resting his forehead against the steering wheel. His ears were red and his knuckles were white. The older male took a few deep breaths and then sat up again.
“I’m sorry for yelling,” He mumbled, eyes trained on the car parked in front of them.
Taehyung swallowed thickly. “It’s ok. I’m not mad.”
Yoongi sighed and switched the gear stick into reverse.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
-Four Weeks Ago-
“Eat up, 00V6!”
Taehyung watched from his tiny cot as the little slit at the bottom if his door was opened and mashed food was slipped through on a metal tray. He waited until he heard the clunky shoes of the guard retreat, before scrambling off of his bed and going to his only source of nutrients.
It wasn’t enough, probably never would be, but he scarfed it down in seconds.
After placing the empty tray close to the door, Taehyung stood up and wandered back over to his cot. When he was younger he used to be more inclined to doing activities. They provided him with paper and crayons to draw with. He was even given a deck of cards at one point.
But all those things were stripped away the more he performed his tests.
“Getting too strong, too powerful for toys,” they said. “You’re a big boy now.”
Taehyung didn’t feel like a big boy. He felt extremely exhausted most of the time.
“It’s in our food,” one of the other inmates had told him a few months back. Very rarely did any of the inmates ever get to interact with each other, but for some reason the people in the white lab suits wanted Taehyung to perform tests with this boy. “The food they gives us makes us sleepy.”
Taehyung didn’t doubt what the boy had said, but he also knew he couldn’t just stop eating. That would mean dying all together.
But what exactly did he have to live for anyway?
That place, those four white walls, were all he had known since he could remember. There wasn’t much to look forward to in a place like that.
The sound of heavy shoes clunking against the floor could be heard outside again. Taehyung instantly knew it was one of the guards. The labcoat people who pulled him out for tests usually wore much lighter shoes.
“Hello... Mister,” he hesitantly called out.
Taehyung had grown to memorize the guard shifts, so he knew exactly which guard was on the other end of the door.
“... Hello 00V6,” was the reply that finally came.
Taehyung smiled softly to himself while chewing on the hem of his paper thin white shirt. He didn’t know why, but he had started to grow more and more fond of that kind voice. It never held any of the disgust the other guards had.
It gave Taehyung something to look forward to.
“I… I…” Taehyung struggled to find something to talk about. He desperately wanted to make this visit from his favorite guard a memorable one. Plus, it was nice having someone to talk to. “I did very well on my tests yesterday. They say i’m almost ready… whatever that means.”
The guard was silent.
Taehyung pressed on. “Moved a whole two ton cube! Can you believe that, Mister?”
“Yes, I can.”
The brunette had learned a while ago that his favorite guard was more inclined to respond if a question was involved.
“Doctor was very pleased. I’ve never seen him smile so much.”
Taehyung flopped backwards onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling.
“Mister?”
“Yes?”
“Are you proud of me?”
Taehyung crinkled his brows, impatiently waiting for an answer.
“You should sleep now, 00V6.”
The brunette smiled softly. That response wasn’t what he was hoping for.
But it was something.
-End Flashback-
The open road was a scary place.
Sure, nothing but wide fields and a single strip of never ending asphalt should seem harmless, but for the two sitting in the rusty old Cadillac, it felt like watching a fuse burn out on a ticking time bomb.
It took a lot to get to where they were now. The sky was blue and everything was calm, but none of that would last forever.
Those people would find them again.
Those people would try to take Taehyung away.
Those people would kill Yoongi in the blink of an eye.
Not to mention the police who were probably looking for this stolen car. Although Yoongi constantly mumbled under his breath about the owners not being stupid enough to waste their energy on a piece of junk, Taehyung knew what it was like to have something stripped away and desperately crave for it back.
Here’s to hoping the car wasn’t of sentimental value.
“Stop doing that.”
Taehyung blinked. “Doing what?”
“You’re staring again,” Yoongi answered tersely. “It’s distracting and i’m trying to drive.”
Taehyung quickly faced the window. “Sorry.”
Yoongi sighed. He seemed to do that a lot around Taehyung. That, and cracking his knuckles. He didn’t get to crack his knuckles much while driving, so it wasn’t uncommon to see him squeezing the steering wheel tightly.
Taehyung started to think of other ways to entertain himself. He stared at the fuzzy red dice that hung from the rearview mirror for a bit, but when he ran out of stains to count he turned his attention towards the window again.
His gaze landed on the door lock.
Up.
Down.
Up.
Down.
Up.
D--
“Stop that,” Yoongi snapped. He glanced at Taehyung briefly with an ‘i’m serious’ look before looking at the road again.
Taehyung pursed his bitten lips and slouched lower in his seat. He didn’t know what Yoongi expected him to do. The older male didn’t even tell him what the plan was, or if he had one. It felt like they would just continue to run for the rest of their lives, with no clear goal in sight.
“Mister?”
“Yes, 00V6?”
Taehyung frowned. He turned fully in his seat until his entire body was facing Yoongi. The cracked leather interior of the cadillac groaned as he shifted.
“Why do you still call me that?”
Yoongi readjusted his hands on the steering wheel, eyes blinking several times within seconds, before gaining his composure again.
“Because you’re--”
“I’m Taehyung,” the brunette insisted, voice leaving no room for argument. “I’m Kim Taehyung.”
“You wouldn’t have even known that if I hadn’t snatched those files,” Yoongi argued.
“But you did… and that’s who I am.”
Yoongi shrugged, and readjusted his hands again. “Ok… Taehyung.”
Taehyung smiled warmly. He felt like he was finally getting somewhere.
“Why did we come here, to America? They’ll just follow us, won’t they? Will we have to run forever?”
“This is starting to sound a lot like an interrogation.”
Taehyung snapped his mouth shut and sat back. His already soaked sleeve came up to his mouth again.
“Don’t do that,” Yoongi grimaced, reaching out a hand to yank at Taehyung’s arm.
Taehyung whined and pulled away in retaliation.
Yoongi ultimately gave up and put his hand back on the wheel with a roll of his eyes.
“I don’t plan on just aimlessly running. I have a friend in New York who will help us. He’s very good at creating new identities for people and getting them off the grid. Enjoy being Taehyung while you can, because you might be a Tom next week.”
Taehyung scrunched up his face like he just tasted something sour. “Tom?”
“Just an example,” Yoongi assured him in exasperation. “He can even send you anywhere in the world. You don’t have to stay in America. Probably would be best if you don’t, anyway.”
“Japan!” Taehyung blurted, a look of pure delight taking over his face. “Back home one of the inmates was from Japan! He always told me cool stories about it whenever we got paired together for tests!”
Yoongi glanced at him. “You do realize that place wasn’t a home, right? It’s a facility designed to test and weaponize your powers. Nothing more.”
Taehyung nervously scratched his nose. “Yes, I know. It’s just that… well… that place is all i’ve known.”
Yoongi didn’t say anything more after that.
Taehyung didn’t push him though. He was beyond satisfied with himself for the day. He got Yoongi to say more than he ever had since they started running.
Even though he knew he wouldn’t like it, Taehyung drank Yoongi in with his big brown eyes. He stared at the way the fringe of the older male’s jet black hair tousled widely in the wind beneath his baseball cap. He stared at the way his piercing brown, almost black, eyes paid one hundred percent attention to the road. His gaze traveled down to the plaid dark blue and gray shirt on his shoulders, and the denim blue jeans hugging his legs. No one would ever think a gun was hiding in the waistband of jeans that tight, but maybe that’s exactly what Yoongi was hoping for.
Taehyung stared at his savior, took him all in, before closing his eyes and falling into a dreamless sleep.
-CC-
Taehyung startled awake to the sound of a car door slamming.
He jumped up and glanced all around him, noting how the vehicle rocked slightly.
Breathing deeply, he glanced to his left and clutched his chest in relief when it was just Yoongi getting back into the car. There were plastic bags in his hands, and that’s when Taehyung noticed they were in a Rest Stop parking lot.
Taehyung nervously ducked his head as families with restless kids passed. Couples got out of their cars and stretched too. Meanwhile the loners, who were traveling on their own, phoned home to say they were almost there.
“Don’t worry. We’re still in the clear,” Yoongi said, noticing the way Taehyung was practically trying to become one with the seat. “Here.”
Taehyung barely had time to register that Yoongi was giving him something, before a bottle of cherry Coca-Cola was being thrown his way. He managed to stop it with his abilities just before it reached his head, but quickly let it fall before anyone outside of the car could witness the phenomenon.
“Mister!” he squeaked out in alarm.
Yoongi didn’t spare him an apology. The elder was too busy stuffing his face with a giant cinnamon pretzel and gulping down scolding hot coffee.
Their cash was starting to run low, and this would be their first meal since eating the motel’s stale complimentary breakfast. Yoongi couldn’t use his credit card, because that would just alert their pursuers to their whereabouts even sooner, and Taehyung never owned a penny to his name.
Uncurling from his protective position, Taehyung reached down to the floor of the car and grabbed the cherry Coke bottle. There was also a pretzel waiting for him, but he was especially thankful for the drink, and pleasantly surprised that Yoongi remembered.
“Thanks, Mister,” he said with a grateful grin.
Yoongi shrugged as if to say, ‘no big deal’.
But to Taehyung, it was.
-Two Weeks Ago-
“What do you want to drink?”
Taehyung stared passed Yoongi at the massive menu of items. He had never been to a drive thru before, but he understood that he had to be quick. A line of cars were steadily starting to pile behind them, and that one vein in Yoongi’s neck looked like it was about to burst.
It wasn’t Taehyung’s fault he only knew about meals on metal trays that came sliding through the door!
“Um-- Uh…”
A car behind them honked loudly. Taehyung jumped in his seat and quickly picked the first thing his eyes landed on.
“Cherry coke, please!”
Yoongi added it to the order and stepped on the gas.
They got their food quickly, and Taehyung didn’t see much of a difference between the fast food place and how he used to get his food back at the facility. But the taste, oh the taste, was so much better. He took three, large bites out of his burger before remembering to reach for his drink.
One sip, and he was in heaven.
“Keep groaning like that and we’ll get kicked out of the parking lot for indecency,” Yoongi reprimanded, but Taehyung merely giggled at the appalled look on his face.
“I really love it, Hyung! The best drink ever!”
“I told you to stop calling me that.”
-end flashback-
Taehyung’s eyes turned into happy crescents at the memory. He quickly started to uncap the bottle, ready for complete and total bliss, but didn’t stop to take into account how roughly the drink had fell.
It wasn’t Taehyung’s fault he had never been educated in the art of opening up a shaken soda bottle.
“Taehyung!”
“I’m sorry!”
“Shit, it’s everywhere!”
“I’m really, really sorry!”
In Taehyung’s panic, he started to pull tissues from the bag with his powers at rapid speed. They flew across the seat and landed on any wet spot they could find.
“Don’t!” Yoongi scolded.
Taehyung quickly dropped his telekinetic hold on the napkins, still mumbling apologies under his breath.
Yoongi waved away his stuttering mumbles and tried to make sure the leather seats weren’t sticky.
“We should go. Anyone could have seen that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yes, I know.”
Taehyung swallowed thickly before taking a bite of his cinnamon pretzel. He chewed for a bit and then glanced at Yoongi for a moment.
“Thank you for calling me Taehyung.”
Yoongi froze for a second. Taehyung almost missed it, but he was sure he saw the older male’s frame stiffen.
“Well it is your name.”
Taehyung smiled around his pretzel and took a sip from what was left of his cherry coke.
They still had a long way to go before they reached New York, but the open road was clear and there was nothing standing in their way.
For now…