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The rock face rises tall and solid behind their heads. At this time of day there is little shade to be found, but Taehyung and Yoongi have had practice. There are places where the mountain looms forward, angled as if about to topple into the valley under its own weight, places where ledges jut out from its surface and offer a little relief from the sun; they know all the best spots by now.
"Up a bit," Taehyung mumbles. "Up and left a bit. See?"
Yoongi follows the texture of the mountain across the valley, finds the ledge that Taehyung means, up and left a bit from the tiny Ibex kids wobbling on their unsteady legs. It is their first journey down the mountain face, so their legs are still weak, the slopes beneath their hooves still alien. One kid bleats, afraid. The red fox waiting below twitches in reply, big ears standing tall and alert, panting mouth open in a gruesome toothy grin. A fearful meal is an easy one, and it's been a hard summer already. The fox is hungry.
Join the club, Yoongi thinks.
"Think they'll go the other way. Obviously up but — there's a. A bigger ledge. Up there." Yoongi points and Taehyung leans into his side to follow his direction. "G'na hop on that boulder and regroup on the ledge. It's obvious."
"S'always obvious to you, isn'it?" Taehyung is smiling; Yoongi can hear it. "Even when y'wrong."
"M'never wrong," Yoongi says to that. "Kids just go the wrong way. Be a lot more Ibex if they listened to me, hm?"
"Lot more hungry foxes."
"Exactly."
It's a game they play this time of year, hiding from the sun while the young kids skip and stumble down the mountainside to the precious water in the valley. They find some shade and sit and watch, wait for a hungry fox to come sniffing along, taking the kids by surprise as they drink and sending them racing off back up the mountain, instinct dictating that height equals safety. They're good at it, this winnerless game, the two of them, better than they had been as children; they know these mountains, now, know the way the animals think and move. Yoongi thinks he knows the baby Ibex's abilities better than they do, at least on these first wobbling journeys they take.
One kid's hoof skids in the dust, his leap up and left a bit miscalculated, or else just inevitably over-ambitious for one so young. It kicks and twists as it tumbles down the mountain face before regaining its footing, inches away from the fox's snapping jaw; then it skips away, back to higher ground, back to where it was and then across a boulder to meet its cousins at a larger, wider ledge. The fox growls and repositions. The Ibex peer at it from above.
Yoongi nudges Taehyung with one shoulder. "Told you m'always right."
"Hm." Taehyung lets the argument go. Usually he would push harder, longer, keep Yoongi defensive until the little bubble of energy works its way up his throat and make him press Taehyung back into the dust, growling with frustration against Taehyung's lips; the thought of it is almost enough to pull one more sarcastic reply from him, but not quite. It's hot today, their shady spot not quite shady enough for the energy it will take to work Yoongi up. Taehyung's toes are already in the sun.
Yoongi nudges him again. "Bet y'a kiss that the fox gives up."
Taehyung gives a little breathy laugh. At this point in the day it's the best he can do. He's surprised Yoongi is still so chirpy; he's usually the one to submit to the heat first. "Only one?"
"Depends if I win." Yoongi's fingertips come to rest over the pulse in Taehyung's wrist.
As children, scrawny and red with dust, the Ibex game was a scarier one than it is these days. The thought of the kids' fear, the fox's desperation (often, too, the pained cry of a too-slow Ibex and the resulting spill of crimson blood, the crunching snap of thin, young bones) left Taehyung's heart beating wildly in his chest, sweat on his upper lip. The careful press of fingertips to the thrum of his pulse was — grounding, then. A reminder that this is life, this chase, that this bloody death so close to birth prolongs the life of another. It had not taken many years' kids' first descents before Taehyung lost his fear, though the fingers at his wrist had stayed. They'd been a comfort then, and are now - or perhaps a reminder of one.
The fingertips draw away after a while. Yoongi pushes himself up onto his knees and swings himself around, a small cloud of fine red chalk following the scuff of his feet as he settles onto Taehyung's lap and grins down at him. The sun catches the top of his hair, the tip of his nose; it filters through the dust dancing behind him, and Taehyung loses his breath.
"Bored now," Yoongi announces.
"Thought we were betting?"
"Nah." Yoongi fiddles coyly with the necklace resting against Taehyung's chest, the other coming up to settle against the plane of his stomach. "Too hot f'that bullshit."
His hips, though bony, are somehow soft under Taehyung's palms, whether just in contrast to his own dry skin or down to some hot illusion, Taehyung isn't sure. He doesn't much care.
"Or did the fox get one?" Taehyung smiles at the little twitch of Yoongi's head in reply. "You little cheater."
"Never."
"G'me a kiss anyway."
Yoongi hesitates, entirely for the tease of it, cocks his head as if considering, as if he hasn't just eagerly perched himself across the width of Taehyung's thighs. Taehyung tips his head back against the mountain face, eyes closed, and waits.
"Only 'cause it's hot," he hears Yoongi mutter, a second or two before his dry lips press first to one cheek, then the other. Taehyung smiles at the attention.
"S'always hot."
"S'why m'always kissin' you," Yoongi sighs, pressing closer. "S'hot. Y'hot. What chance do I have?"
Taehyung hums into the kiss, still smiling. "That's cute. Y'hot too, 'n I manage."
Yoongi sits back and gives him a withering stare. "You literally never stop."
"I stop."
"When?"
"When I eat. When I sleep. When you eat."
Yoongi rolls his eyes and bends down to kiss him again. "Can hear that fox," he mumbles, "Crunchin' away. Slurpin' up all the baby Ibex juice. Bet he's drippin' with it, Taetae, bet there's blood and guts everywhere and hair all round his mouth-"
"Y'fucking disgusting." Taehyung rocks forward and bullies Yoongi onto his back in the dust, crowding over him on his hands and knees. Yoongi squirms, squinting in the sun but still grinning. "You're so gross."
"Kiss me anyway," Yoongi says. He twists one finger into Taehyung's hair and grins up at him, arches his back, licks his lips. "Kiss me, Taetae," he breathes, and Taehyung does.
It's hot. What chance does he have.