Archive of Our Own

"Did you see that guy? I swear by the love of sweet baby Jesus, he had--"

Jung Hoseok rubs his face with the palm of a hand and sighs. "What did he have this time, hyung?"

"One eye, Hobi. Just one, right in the middle of his forehead!"

"Yeah, right. Finish your coffee, alright, Yoongs? We're late to class."

This is routine: Yoongi sipping his coffee one last time before throwing the empty cup on a trashcan nearby, following Hoseok in absolute silence as they walk towards the building because it's useless arguing, kicking cobblestones in his way because there's nothing much he can do.

You see, strange things have been happening to Min Yoongi ever since he was a little child, but lately, they've been getting out of control. Most people call him crazy – that's Hoseok, his best friend –, say that he's imagining things – that's his mom –, and even that he's been creating those things, monstrous things as a coping mechanism for his troubled childhood – that's his therapists.

He doesn't believe in any one them. Yoongi knows he has been seeing monsters for years, and they're all too real to ignore.

Imagine this: snakes poking out of a pretty woman's turban on his subway train, guys that only have one eye in the middle of their foreheads smiling at him from across the street, strange-looking creatures crawling up the buildings he passes through on the way home at night. He can't be that crazy, not when all of these things seem tangible, dangerous.

It's not his fault he sees things nobody else does.

Though they all seem dangerous, deadly, they've never messed with him. Not even the week before, when Yoongi bumped into a very, very ugly old woman, and he thought she was going to eat him up. She had a creepy smile full of white, sharp teeth and a snake-like tongue that peeked out her nasty looking lips. Her eyes resembled those of a snake as well.

And she wore a denim dress. Yoongi hated that, it was horrendous. Of course, all of that monstrosity was hidden under a large hat. Yoongi couldn't stand the idea of people not knowing what she really was. Everyone around them seemed to be alright with the fact that the lady had a monster on a leash – a mixture of a lion, and a goat, and a snake, all at the same time. Yoongi was sure he had seen it before, but he couldn't think straight because of the fear of being eaten alive, of course.

He thought he had grown used to it, you know. To the fear of dying every day because creatures like that walked through Seoul and he seemed to be the only one to notice. But that, Yoongi had never seen anything like that. A shrieking noise had startled him until he noticed it was him doing it.

"Keep it low, would you?" the lady told him. Yoongi almost peed in his pants. "Sonny doesn't feed on little mortals like you. He has refined taste, you know? Only half-blood meat. Best of all flesh!"

And just like that, she kept walking. Yoongi didn't understand a word she said, and stood there, frozen, there until someone bumped into him and he sighed. There it went, his record of six days without seeing weird shit.

You see, Hoseok stopped believing in him when they were around fifteen, when they were too old for the summer camp their parents have been sending them for years – where they met, of course, – and ready to enter high school. "That's just childhood stories messing up your head, you know that, right?" said Hoseok, after Yoongi called him to talk about how he'd seen a massive dog with big red eyes disappearing in the shadows on his first day of school. "Yeah, I know," Yoongi had replied, but it was a part-lie. Yes, he knew. He knew those were childhood stories, but they were jumping out of the books, tangible and real, ready to eat him up.

He'd grown tired of telling that to his best friend, and his mother, and his psychologist, and his roommate, but he couldn't help that those things wouldn't go away.

Good thing he only needed Kim Namjoon, the guy he’s been seeing for some months now – who was a total cutie, and Yoongi still didn't know how he managed to accomplish that –, to believe in him. Even though he didn't admit it.

"Oh, really, Yoongs?" Namjoon has his mouth full of chicken sandwich. He looked aghast for a heartbeat and then continued to eat as if nothing happened. "Strange. It's a bit early for Halloween, isn't it?"

"What," Yoongi furrows his brows. "What did you just say?"

"I've never seen someone wearing a Cyclops costume. The guy must be eager for Halloween, huh, reminds me of my friend Tae--"

Namjoon notices his mistake, though. Yoongi smiles: "Like the myths. Cyc--"

"Look, babe, it's homemade ketchup! Gotta love this shit..."

Yoongi snores loudly. He munches on his sandwich quietly as Namjoon rants uselessly about how he enjoys homemade condiments. See, Yoongi knows Namjoon knows he can't keep running forever. He’s always like that – changing the subject, pretending not to hear what Yoongi has to say about this matter, playing it cool. But it's nothing like everyone else does. While people legit think he's going nuts, Namjoon has something in his eyes that tells Yoongi he's on the right track to knowing the truth. He doesn't know why the other avoids the matter like plague instead of calling him nuts, but that's appreciated.

"You know what I'm talking about," he says when they're almost finished. The diner is empty if not for them and a couple sat two booths behind, so he doesn't need to talk so low. "I know you know I see weird shit, and I know you don't think I'm going crazy. You can't hide that from me."

Namjoon smiles. He has mayo on his chin, and Yoongi wipes it off with his thumb without thinking. He feels a blush creeping on his cheeks and quickly lowers his hand, avoiding Namjoon's gaze. He doesn't need to look to know the other is equally embarrassed, but God bless Namjoon's understanding little gay heart that makes him break the ice again.

"I just think that you're very creative, babe," he says. Yoongi rolls his eyes, but he likes the pet name. "Must be all the stuff you read," and sighs: "I wish I could do that. It takes me like eighty years to read a single text."

All of Yoongi's exasperation fades away. He puts his sandwich down and nudges Namjoon's knee with his own, under the table. "Cut that already, Joon. You're doing great, you know that, right?"

Namjoon sighs again. "It's ok. It's just this horrendously long book that a professor wants us to read until next Tuesday, you know? I'm like, in chapter 8 and I'm already tired."

"If you asked him for more time, though..."

"I don't want anyone pitying me because I'm dyslexic. Loser Namjoon is for high school stories, he doesn't hang out with Sociology Major Namjoon."

Yoongi smiles, and Namjoon's angry facade cracks. He munches on his food to avoid smiling back to him. "Being dyslexic doesn't make anyone a loser. Talking about yourself in the third person does, though," That earns him a kick on his chin. He rolls his eyes. "You kick ass, babe. You've been proving those dicks wrong because you're a fucking genius. And I'll read the book with you, if you want. It’s not pity. I just want to help.”

The other blushes, hard. “That’d be nice and very much appreciated,”. Yoongi thinks for a couple seconds before leaning across the table to give him a kiss on the cheek. The strange creatures could wait for now.

They met in college.

To be more specific, they met on a rushed Wednesday when Yoongi was running to class like a total clown, – still half asleep, with his shirt not tucked right, but definitely not keen on losing his favorite class of the day –, having bumped into at least two other social studies students and a teacher on his way. He carried a few books (of course he did) on his arms, his bag too full to fit them, and was already regretting his poor life choices when he bumped into another person near the stairs of the History building.

The girl must have been offended by how little he cared about her wellbeing after watching, practically in slow motion, as his belongings flew out of his hands and down the staircase. Yoongi stopped just in time of not falling down as well, mouth agape as Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" and Ha Joon Chang's "Economics: The User's guide" fell by a stranger's feet, who looked confused as he tripped over them.

He could help the stranger, apologize and gather his things, or he could run to class and pray that someone would take his books and leave them in the lost & founds box.

Yoongi thought that it was too early in the morning to be making those choices.

"I AM SO SORRY FOR THAT," and, like that, he sprinted in the direction of his class.

What he didn't expect, you see, was to be sitting at the back of the class revising his notes after the lecture ended only to be interrupted by two books being dropped in front of him on the table, with a loud noise, alongside with a man sitting in front of him. His knee bumped into Yoongi's and the world suddenly fell quiet, as if people around them weren't talking out loud as they gathered their belongings to move to the next class of the day.

"You dropped this," the man said, and Yoongi knew it was about his books, but he thought he might as well have been talking about his heart, too. He flashed him a smile full of dimples and good intentions. "I'm Kim Namjoon, Sociology."

"Min Yoongi, History," he replied, feeling brave. "Thanks a lot for the books, do you want to grab a coffee later?"

"I sure do!"

Almost a year later, Yoongi doesn't know how he managed to date Kim Namjoon, but it happened as naturally as falling asleep. They'd see each other after class, grab lunch sometimes, walk together until they reached Yoongi's doorstep and Namjoon would leave him with a peck on the corner of his mouth and a shit-eating grin of someone who knew exactly what he was doing. He can't really tell what their relationship is  – none of them has said the b-word yet, less alone the l-word –, but they are happy, at least. It works.

Alright, it works pretty well when you think that Namjoon doesn't have a phone, nor a Facebook account or any kind of social media they could interact through. When Yoongi mentioned it, his friend Jimin called him crazy, but he thought it was just fine. Of course, he doesn’t know where Namjoon is most times, and this sucks, but they've grown used to it.

Their meetings consist of very specific planning, no getting late, no last minute changes. One time Yoongi got stuck on the subway and Namjoon thought he had died. He came home to a very preoccupied boy sitting on the couch with Seokjin, his roommate, who had texted him saying Namjoon was there. It was complicated at first, but they got used to it. Plus, it was funny, because every time someone asked why he didn’t have a phone, Namjoon said that he didn’t want to "contribute to the cheap and precarious labor in China, and hail the great Marx".

Sometimes, although, the lack of instant communication between them had Yoongi worried. He first thought that Namjoon didn’t really want to go out with him, but stopped one day when the later showed up at his part-time job completely soaked and apologizing that he didn’t meet Yoongi for lunch because the rain was awful and he had no way to warn him. Far from the eventual insecurities it caused, Namjoon’s lack of a cell phone had Yoongi missing him like crazy. Not many months ago, Seokjin, his roommate, has made an intervention and had Yoongi admitting to himself he was pretty much into Namjoon, he had laid in bed all summer break and wondered what the latter was up to.

From what Namjoon's mother – who owned a nice bakery that Yoongi frequented even before meeting the other, and who made an incredible hot chocolate he liked to drink while typing out his late essays – told him, he knew Joon has been going to a summer camp since he was twelve. It's been years already, and he's far too old for summer camps (at least Yoongi had stopped going to his at age 14), so he's an instructor now. Yoongi doesn't know exactly where the camp is, nor its name, only that Namjoon stays there to the very last minute, right until their classes begin again.

When that summer ended, he came back patched up with bruises and strange scratches that he didn't explain to Yoongi, but strangely he looked good. Glowing, even, like staying in camp invigorated him like nothing else could. Yoongi had taken him on the train station, drove him home using Hoseok's car, and he got to see how his energized gaze softens when he reaches the city. "It's always good to come back home," Namjoon had told him, and Yoongi didn't understand why it sounded much deeper than it should.

He kissed Namjoon on the mouth that day. They hadn't done it many times before. He just thought that Namjoon looked the prettiest like that, he wanted to crystalize that emotion with his mouth.

The thing is, it’s months until next summer yet, but Namjoon has been called in, for Yoongi’s dismay. He’s sitting on Yoongi’s couch with a teacup on his hand and a packed bag by the door. “It’s only a week, Yoongs,” he says, but there’s something in his eyes that tells he’s not really sure about that.

“I know,” he sips his own tea. “It’s just a bummer that we’ll lose that concert you wanted to go.”

They’d bought the tickets weeks ago, but Namjoon doesn’t seem so upset. He fidgets a little and Yoongi's heart is daring to crawl up his throat. He wants to tell Namjoon about the things he saw earlier, the half human and half bird creatures stealing food from his garbage bin when Yoongi came home. He doesn't like how he's been seeing monsters frequently, but something about Namjoon's preoccupied eyes tells him that it wouldn't be a good idea to worry him even more.

Yoongi slides his hand onto the other’s thigh and squeezes it, a reassuring touch. “You'll be back before we even notice it, I'm sure,”

It's a perfect strike. Namjoon smiles as he leans in to peck him on the cheek, making Yoongi's cheek blush pink momentaneously. “I’ll miss you lots, Yoon.”

"I know," he replies. "I'll miss you too."

After a checkup list and goodbye hug, Yoongi is left alone again.  

His apartment looks too big now. Seokjin is gone too — it's something about his family's business. His roommate comes from a big family full of businesspeople. They kind of own a fashion empire, see. Even though Jin is majoring in Cinema, sometimes his father needs a little help, so he got an emergency call too. And Yoongi is alone at home, with only his thoughts to make him company.

And his dog, Holly, of course. And Jin’s tiny sugar gliders, Eomuk and Odeng. Not that they’re of any help, of course. “Do you know something about greek monsters in the modern age, Eomuk?” he asks while cleaning his cage. Eomuk says nothing, only chews on the fruit Yoongi gave him, looking at him with big eyes. “Yeah, I figured.”

He’s gathering in his new grade schedule when something inside his mind clicks, like a machine that just got put to work. Of fucking course, Yoongi thinks, brushing the tip of his finger over his brand new subject where it is written on the paper.

“Introduction to Greek and Roman myths,” he whispers to himself, folding the paper and tucking it inside his binder. “Right in time, SNU, right in time.”

Kim Namjoon has been fighting monsters since he was thirteen. You can think that somewhere in the middle of it, slaying greek nightmares had become easier — but you’re terribly wrong.

It never gets easier. You just get better. That’s what an older demigod told him on his first year, and he never forgot about it.

“Watch it, Namjoon,” someone cried on his left. “You can’t just blow things off like that, man! I feel like burned toast!”

“I’m sorry, Tae,” he replied. “Kind of hard to see where the thing goes.”

Even though Taehyung’s hair was the color of charcoal now, he had a grin on his face. He placed another arrow on his bow and, in a matter of seconds, had four monsters vanishing in the air. Blessed arrows, other campers had said when Namjoon arrived, never missing a shot. A gift from Apollo himself for his birthday.

Namjoon was almost relieved. He cut off the hellhound’s head with a flourish, didn’t even blink, but tiredness was getting to him. His adrenaline rush only lasted a few hours, and they’ve been like that for what seemed like ages.

See, when he got an Iris message from Chiron — yes, that Chiron, from the myths — saying that the camp was under attack, it took all of his willpower not to fly there in a heartbeat. He had to say goodbye to Yoongi. He didn’t like to think about that, but deep inside he knew that there was a possibility, even if it was this little, of never seeing him again.

That pretty much sums up his entire life. Switching between being the son of a Greek god, fighting monsters and saving the world and all that stuff, and living an almost-normal life in Seoul, with his mom, his mortal friends, with his studies and, well, with Yoongi. His mortal almost-boyfriend. His everything. Namjoon has a theory that he’s pretty much the reason he hadn’t been eaten by a monster yet. The idea of going home to Yoongi, and pretending to have a normal life, has always been driving him around most times.

“This one’s mine,” shouted a boy from the Ares cabin. He jumped over a pretty big telkhine, fast and ferocious, burying his battle spear on the monster’s back. He didn’t even see that coming.

This time, Namjoon allowed himself to sigh. There was only one monster left, a really nasty looking dracanae. He raised his weapon and everything went silent.

A part of him liked that — how that thing had an effect like this on monsters and people as well. Fifty centimeters of high-grade celestial bronze, a cylinder capped on both sides with out-of-this-world electrical explosives. Just a flick of his wrist and it would assume its real form. The other part dreaded the moment he needed to use it – it just reminded him of how everyone expected him to be just like his father. But he didn't let himself drown in those thoughts. The dracanae didn’t even have time to blink before he throws the lightning bolt and pulverizes her.

“I’ve said that before, and I’ll say it again,” Taehyung says to him, that night when they’re sitting by the fire. “You’ve got the best gift of them all. No son of Zeus has had a copy of his Master Bold before!”

“You’re like the Jesus of demigods,” completes Jeongguk, mouth full of marshmallow. “I don’t even know if we can say this kind of thing. Might be an anagram.”

Namjoon laughs. "He plays with one of his rings absentmindedly. “Anachronism, Gguk. And I guess I’m not a terrible son after all.”

With a shrieking noise, Taehyung grabs his own chest. “Oh, the modesty! Mighty Joon is human, after all.”

“It’s a pity Medusa didn’t see that before having her head cut off!” Jeongguk laughs. Namjoon has his face hidden on his hands, but he laughs too.

“And the Nemean Lion, he didn’t even know who got him. Bastard! Didn’t know how to appreciate Olympus’ golden hero.”

“Aish, it’s not like that,” Namjoon nudged the younger boys with both his elbows. He was glad no one was paying attention to them, too busy with their smores and songs and healing battle wounds. “Everybody knows you got the last shot, Jeonggukie. I just distracted him.”

Jeongguk doesn’t say anything, but his half a smile tells Namjoon he knows he’s right. Gods, he remembers that mission like it was yesterday, not almost six years ago. He still can’t believe they’ve taken down a high-class monster like the Nemean Lion, the both of them. Jeongguk never wears the golden brown duster, rather leaving it as a spoil of war on the Big House, but no one’s forgotten how a fourteen-year-old boy sent that lion straight to Tartarus just like Heracles did. Namjoon had just made the beast open his mouth so that Jeongguk could send his battle spear down his throat in a clear shot.

Good times, he thinks, and for a moment he misses that. Going on missions with other campers. Risking their lives for a matter of glory, to be recognized by the gods. To be seen as a hero. Good times, indeed, when he was younger and had nothing to lose or care about.

The feeling is gone just as soon as it came. Namjoon loves going home and pretending to have a normal life. Nothing can beat the feeling of letting his guard down for a few months, not a monster in sight, tasting what it's like to be a common guy in the city. But he surely misses going out to defeat monsters, the worst ones, in high-class missions around the country. That’s how he got his bolt, anyway, when Zeus noticed that he was no ordinary demigod.

Made for glory . That’s what his mama said, the first time he left for Camp Half-Blood. Just like your father .

Thing is, Namjoon doesn't want to be his father. That’s why he dumped the stupid bolt, disguised as a golden ring, on the trash of his cabin as soon as it appeared on his bed. He remembers Zeus got so mad at his insolent ass that he sent one of Korea’s worst storms right to camp. Most times it doesn’t rain there, but you can’t compete with Zeus. And Namjoon remembers he was so mad at that as well, he took his bolt and sent it right to the sky, hoping his father would take it back.

He didn’t. He let it fall right on Namjoon’s head, in the lightning form. Everyone thought he had died. Namjoon did, too, for a few seconds, but all he had was a tiny little headache and a slightly lighter streak of hair that doesn't disappear as his hair grows or gets dyed. Yoongi thinks it's cute, probably assuming he dyes it every time. He's never going to tell him how he got it.

“You can’t die from what you’re made of,” Chiron had told him, across the pinochle table, that very same day. “You are no god but you’re made of the same raw power your father was born with, you know,”

“What,” Namjoon asked. “Am I made of thunderstorms or something like that?”

“No,” replied the centaur. And then he whispered: “I meant stubbornness and great stupidity, but, most of all, self-respect.” pause. “To kill you would mean killing a part of him as well,”

Namjoon played with the marshmallows on his hot chocolate. Chiron stared at him for a long time. He was so young back then. “I’m still writing  to my mom, though. She’ll be really angry but she made me promise I would tell when I almost get myself killed. This is going to be my ultimate record.”

He thinks of that meeting, a long, long time ago on the following day, when Chiron calls him in. They're sitting exactly like many years before, across from each other at the pinochle table. Chiron's on the wheelchair, a knitted blanket over his enchanted legs. He looks just like his Urban Anthropology professor.

His heart aches. Namjoon really misses Seoul.

"You've done a great job yesterday, Namjoon," he says. "We had it under control before, but that dracanae gave us a really hard time. The Labyrinth is awake one more time. It’s been decades since I last saw our entrance open like that,”

"I can close it," he says, without hesitation. "I can blow it off like--"

Chiron smiles, and Namjoon immediately stops talking. He laughs at his own foolishness. He has always been so so eager to do things. "I'm afraid the boys from Hephaestus have already done that. Besides, I thought you wanted to go home?"

"But there's still so much to do," he replies, even though he does. "We need to fix the damaged cabins. Demeter's was completely destroyed and none of her children is here, we've got to fix it before they come home to nothing. And as I walked through the stables today, I noticed most pegasi had their wings burned... "

The centaur has a funny look on his face. Namjoon is just telling him about the problem with the cleaning harpies when he notices it and stops talking. "Chiron, I'm serious?"

"You're a true leader, aren't you," Chiron laughs. "Everything is going to be fine, kid. We've been through worse before, haven't we?"

"Well, yes."

"Go home tomorrow, child. Go home to your other life and rest. We have plenty of good heroes to take care of this camp, your friends included,"

Namjoon smiles. "I guess I can trust Tae and Jeongguk that. Just don’t let them have too much fun, or else they're going to be spoiled and next thing you know they're leading the camp to anarchy and Mr. D will kill them both!"

He agrees on having a round of pinochle, and a cup of hot chocolate. Suddenly he feels thirteen again, and not twenty-three. He can't believe he's been living like this for ten years already. Ten years! And Medusa told him he wouldn't get past sixteen, all those years before. He happily takes a sip of his hot cocoa. Look who's laughing now, you beheaded bitch.

Before he leaves for dinner, although, Namjoon hears Chiron calling him again. He turns to see the centaur with another funny look on his face like suddenly Namjoon has turned into a very complicated puzzle he can't solve.

"You know," he says, and Namjoon knows that tone. He knows that unrequested advice is coming, and Chiron always gives the harshest advice. "You should think about telling that boyfriend of yours about, well, about everything. He sees through the Mist, doesn't he?"    

Namjoon's stomach drops to the floor, and he doesn't even reply, not even to tell him Yoongi technically isn't his boyfriend. It would only make things worse – how most times he thinks he won't even live to ask the big question. He can't let Chiron know that.

"Think about it, child. It's like the mortals say. Better safe than sorry."

He says that like he's asking Namjoon what kind of flowers he thinks Yoongi would rather put on his grave. And, being a demigod, he knows Chiron means just like that.

Yoongi haven’t seen any monster for a few days, and for the first time he eagers to see them. He’s made progress at last.

“No, no, I said pale green skin,” he says, leaning over the table. “That’s blue-ish green.”

“Oh, sorry,” his friend, Park Jimin, picks another pencil. “Hey, thanks again for inviting me to do this project with you. It’s cool that you have to make an illustrated book about the Greek myths.”

Alright. He might have told a little lie or two. The thing is Jimin would never believe him anyway, even as imaginative as he is. See, Yoongi had bought all the books his professor recommended him about Greek gods, heroes, and monsters. His only problem was: all the illustrations on the books were old, confusing things. He couldn’t possibly see the difference between Echidna — who he discovered to be the denim dressed, snake-like lady he met some time ago — and Kampe. So he had the best idea ever: invite Jimin, Illustration major, to draw all the crazy stuff he’s seen so he could learn how to classify them, with the excuse of a class project.

“No, thank you ,” he says. “I would be lost without you, Jiminie. I can’t draw for shit!”

He takes a look at the drawings scattered over the table. Yoongi now has Medusa — the lady with snakes poking out of her turban, dark-skinned beauty hiding her dangerous eyes behind Dior sunglasses walking past where he does grocery shopping —, Cyclops — the one-eyed dudes that always hang out near the pizza place — and many sketches of other monsters he’d seen. He hadn’t been able to see what they are yet. Jimin had drawn a lot so far — they’ve been at it for almost two weeks now. Two weeks in which he hadn’t seen or heard of Namjoon, which preoccupied him to death, but his mother reassured him he’d be just fine when Yoongi stopped by the bakery to some sweets and updates on Namjoon.

She didn’t seem much sure, although. Yoongi tried not to lose his mind about it.

“This one’s looks pretty nasty,” Jimin comments. “Part woman, part snake.”

“Yeah, I was terrified to see her the other day,” he replies, without thinking.

Jimin looks at him confusedly. “What?”

“I mean. In the book. The book I’m reading. She’s way uglier there,”

“Oh, right.” the other laughs, eyes turning into half moons. “You’re so funny, hyung. You talk like you’ve seen these things in person, not in books!”

He laughs, too, instead of replying. He wishes he’d seen them in books only. He heads to the kitchen to get coffee when a noise right outside his kitchen startles him. He lives on the first floor, being used to the noises of the city, but that sounded more like a growl than traffic noise.

Jimin doesn’t seem to notice, which is a bad sign. Yoongi takes a look out of the window just in time to see a teenager on full battle armor — like those Yoongi had seen in museums —, swooping down a sword — a real sword —, so fast he almost misses the way the monster’s head pops on the floor like the beast was made of butter. His body disappears in ochre smoke with the smell of sulfur, but the head is still at the teenager’s feet. When the stranger takes off their helmet, Yoongi sees it’s a girl. And then he noticed the nasty scars on her arms and face like she’s encountered many other monsters like that before.

His heart is beating like crazy against his chest. Before he even thinks about saying anything, the girl has vanished, taking the monster’s head with her.

"I didn't need you to follow me, Jeongguk," he repeats, for what it seems like the tenth time. "I'll be just fine. I've been doing just fine my entire life,"

"That Laestrygonian almost burned your stubborn ass," replies the boy. He's panting, cinder smudged on his cheeks and arms. "Had it not been for me--"

" And I would have blown him up like a firecracker! "

Namjoon keeps walking, even when the younger boy stops dead on his tracks. He's got more to worry about than hurting Jeongguk's feelings, at least for a moment.

Listen, he's pissed. And he lied. He hasn't been doing just fine his entire life – his entire life has always been filled with plans gone wrong, near-death experiences, being beaten by bullies and being beaten by monsters. Growing up without his father, moving out of schools because he wasn't "good enough", being called a freak, an abomination, an outcast. Monsters on his kitchen, monsters on dead-end streets, monsters disguised as his bosses, his teachers, the pizza guy. And then understanding why things are like they are only to know his father is the king of the skies, with so many people expecting him to be just as big when he spent most of his life not knowing who he really was.

Namjoon hasn't been doing just fine, but he's pretty fucking good at keeping himself alive. He doesn't need protection, less alone it coming from Jeongguk.

"You were this little," he rants, endlessly. The younger boy rolls his eyes again, not a bit impressed but in fact delighted with his friend's anger. "It's like I've wiped your ass. I taught you everything I knew. And now you want to protect me from..."

They've been at it for hours. It's past eight, dark, and they're still walking in the middle of nowhere. Jeongguk wipes the cinders from his skin, and he feels tired, but Namjoon's strength seems to be a result of his neverending rage.

"You taught me to protect what I love, what I cherish," he comments. "Well, it's not my fault I love you, hyung, is it?"

This time, Namjoon stops. He turns around and put his hands on his hips. Gods, he loves him, but he won't let Jeongguk get away with that. "Don't pull that on me, Mr. You could've been killed if you missed your shot . You stopped having the ability to guilt trip me at age fifteen. I've grown immune to your puppy eyes."

The younger grins. "I never miss a shot, hyung. It's a son of Niké thing. Victory is my middle name."

Namjoon sighs. He walks up to the boy and punches him lightly on the shoulder, then gives his jacket to him. Asshole left camp without any coat on. "Hubris is going to be your downfall, you know that, right?"

"I don't eat Arab cuisine, so I'm not worried."

"Jeongguk… I..."

"I know that's not what you meant, I know what hubris is, hyung. It's just a joke!"

They both laugh so much it physically hurts. It's stupid, to be making this much noise in the middle of nowhere. Namjoon doesn't really know, but he guesses they're somewhere near Buan-gun. It's a long way home, and he doesn't want to encounter any other monster. A Laestrygonian was really bad luck. He's afraid of what might come next.

He takes a look inside his backpack, or what's left of it. There's a big, burned hole in it, and most of Namjoon's belongings had fallen along the way. He still has a bunch of drachmas. That should be enough.

"You hate car rides, right?" he asks. Jeongguk nods suspiciously as if he knows what he's thinking. "What a bummer. You can puke inside my bag if you want to,"

That being said, he drops a drachma to the road in front of them and says: " Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês "

Yoongi is laying on his back on the floor, dog on his belly, an empty bowl of ramyun near his head. He’s been there for a while, thinking, thinking, thinking.

He had gone to his psychologist today. He’s been going there since he moved to Seoul, eight years before. She knows everything about him because Yoongi tells her everything. He talks before his head processes what he’s doing because he trusts her. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t spill his beans like that. So, obviously, he decided to tell her about the monsters again. Not “I think I’m seeing monsters” like all those times before, but “I see monsters”. Those are two very different things.

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she asked why.

Why . Yoongi suppresses a laugh, startling Holly. God knows why. He doesn’t. He wishes he did. But he couldn’t reply that, so he spilled: “I’m seeing monsters ever since I was a child. I can see them better now, I guess it has something to do with age. They look just like the greek monstrosities from my books, and they do me no harm. I’ve never seen them doing anything, but something about them screams “danger”. And two days ago I saw a girl slaughtering a monster that was at least two times her size like she was cutting butter, and I swear to God I am not going nuts. I don’t know why I see them, but everyone else seems not to do so. Also, the guy I kind of like has disappeared for two weeks and he is the only one I know that sees them too, even though he doesn’t say it, and I have a really bad feeling about this.”

He doesn’t really remember what she replied. Something about his mind tricking him and how the idea of going after Namjoon would end up bad. He thinks that she said that like you say “this could end in death”, but it didn’t freak him out.

“What the FUCK am I going to do,” he says to himself. “Nobody believes me, and Namjoon has vanished. That bastard, what an asshole, a fucking idiot--”

A voice from his window says: “I see you missed me a lot, huh?”

It’s no exaggeration to say that Yoongi almost dies. He can feel his heart beating two times faster and is afraid it might stop because right there, sitting on his living room window, is Kim Namjoon. Yoongi doesn’t even think before getting up from the floor and running to him.

“You’re gonna fall off your ass, do you want to die?” he tugs on Namjoon’s jacket with enough force to get him to the ground. The other is smiling, laughing even when Yoongi punches him hard in the chest. “Where the fuck have you been, honestly? One week, one week my ass!” and then he places his arms around Joon’s torso and hugs him close. “I thought you had been eaten by those fucking monsters, Kim Namjoon,”

He stops laughing. “Monsters,” he repeats. “Yoongs, not again, please.”

Yoongi leans away. He drops his arms to his side, and there’s so much anger on his eyes that it makes something inside Namjoon twist. “I’m not kidding. Why can’t you understand that I am not kidding? Jesus fuck, seriously?”

And just like that, he storms out of the living room, leaving Namjoon with an overexcited Holly at his feet and his heart on his throat.

“I’m not going nuts,” Yoongi tells him, mouth full of cheeseburger, voice full of a determined tone. “Everyone says that but I am not , and you know that because you see them too.”

See, Namjoon isn’t stupid. He knows better than to leave Yoongi alone when he’s mad like that. So he did what he could: brought him cheeseburger and fries, ice tea and a sincere apology. Yoongi always cracks with those. And he might have used his dimples too, which got him talking.

He sighs and passes him a napkin. “I’m not ready to tell you about this yet, babe.”

Yoongi almost chokes on his burger. He takes two long sips of ice tea and pokes Namjoon’s chest with an oily finger. “So I am right. I knew it.”

“I didn’t say you were?”

“You never say anything at all so I guess I’m at Disneyland here, sweets.”

Namjoon ponders. He takes a bite of his food and says “It’s for your best?”

“Ah, cut that already, Kim Namjoon!”

He doesn’t. It takes him a few hours to convince Yoongi it is not safe to talk about this now. His boyfriend seems as suspicious as ever, pouty and even a little irritated, but he agrees with his terms. They’ll talk about it soon, when it’s safer, when Namjoon has everything figured out.

Yoongi doesn’t know what he means with “everything figured out”, but as much as all of this pisses him off, he trusts Namjoon more than anything.

“I was worried, you know,” he says, when they’re curled up in bed. Namjoon can’t stay over — something about his cousin staying over by his mom’s request —, but they stay like that for a while. “You’re always so… True? To your promises? I went to pick you up at the station and you weren’t there. I couldn’t talk to your mom for days. I really thought something bad happened, Joonie.”

“I can take care of myself,” Namjoon replies, and it sounds like he’s saying it to himself rather than to Yoongi. “And I’m sorry for worrying you. I promise I won’t be getting anywhere far from you for a while.”

Yoongi snores. “You better. I missed a hell lot of you. I didn’t even have Jin to bother. I can’t function without you both.”

Pressing a kiss to the top of his head, Namjoon says “I’ve missed you too, babe,” then, he asks “Where’s Jin, by the way? Were you alone here all this time?”

“Family business. I think he’ll be back next week, though,” Yoongi replies, but he doesn’t miss the way Namjoon’s body has gone stiff. “What’s wrong?”

He relaxes. “Nothing. I was just thinking of inviting you around for a few days. I think you’d like my cousin, he’s a great kid.”

“I’ll need to take Holly, Eomuk, and Odeng with me, though, if it's not a problem,”

“No problem. Alongside Jeongguk, we’ll have our own personal zoo.”

“Hey, don’t talk about the kid like that…”

“So,” Jeongguk is leaning against the fridge, arms crossed, as Namjoon waits for their coffee to be done. The older sighs. “How exactly do you plan on protecting your boyfriend from monsters if you are the ultimate monster lightning arrester?”

“Did you just make a pun about me being a son of Zeus or was it unintentional?” pause. "Also, not my boyfriend. Yet ."

It takes him five seconds to say: “I am Iris messaging Chiron--”

“Hey,” when Namjoon grabs his left arm, Jeongguk grimaces. Hurt his arm back then with the Laestrygonian. He lets him go. “Fuck, I'm sorry. But listen, how do you think I’ve survived this long without having my ass kicked?”

Jeongguk shrugs. “I don’t know. You do play with the Mist very well.”

Namjoon smiles. He really does, but that’s not the point.

The coffee’s ready and he pours it in three mugs. He sees the top of Yoongi’s head where he’s sitting on the couch, working on an essay. He’s been here for three days already, and even if they’re having a good time, with enough time to chat and cuddle and drink lots of coffee and have... fun — if you know what I mean —, Namjoon can tell he’s been worrying a lot about his roommate. Says Seokjin was supposed to come around two days before. Whenever he mentions it, a little voice in the back of Namjoon’s mind tells him there’s something wrong. He doesn’t say anything, of course, not wanting to preoccupy Yoongi even more, so he always spills the beans to Jeongguk and hopes the younger will know what to do. He doesn’t. He’s as clueless as Namjoon, but every time he mentions it, Jeongguk always mouths “monster snack” to him. It doesn't light up the mood quite well, you know.

“This place’s enchanted, Jeonggukkie,” he says, finally. “Hecate owed me a favor after I gave her dog a bath. No monsters, no worries. Of course, it’s different once I set foot some meters from the door but--”

“You gave her dog a bath,” Jeongguk repeats. “You never told me that! I didn’t know she had a dog. What kind of dog was it? Was it cute? Did it had a name?”

“Greek harehound. The biggest I've ever seen. She was named something horrible and ridiculous like Destroyer3000 or something. I ran into Hecate's temple that one time Mr. D sent me to the Labyrinth because I accidentally blew up the kitchen, remember? She was like, “ Clean my dog or I’ll cut you to pieces and feed the remainings of your mortal body to her ”. And the poor thing stank , Jeonggukie, I bet she’s never given her a bath before…”

He stops talking when he hears Yoongi’s voice from the living room. “Yes, honey?”

Jeongguk fake gags. “Gods, disgusting. ”

“I don’t want to pick fights,” Yoongi has gotten up from the couch and was looking out of the window. “But I fucking told you two hours ago that there was a cyclops on the sidewalk and you two assholes laughed at me but now he called a buddy, so who the fuck is laughing now, huh?”

hobi (3:37 pm)

hi

why did you leave a note on my fridge

telling me not to leave the house

it kind of freaked me out ngl

myg (3:38 pm)

uhhh

monsters could eat you?haha

hobi (3:38 pm)

ah thank fuck it was a joke

i thought i was going to die

n e way u up for pizza

Yoongi sighs. At least Hoseok hasn't been eaten by the gross hellhounds in his street that Yoongi saw on his way to class.

myg (3:40 pm)

sure just lmk when & where

One week and a few slain monsters into it, Namjoon starts to think about bringing Yoongi into his apartment without telling him the truth was a little bit of a bad idea.

Jeongguk needed to get back to camp — he asked someone to send him a pegasus because Namjoon didn’t want to risk him finding monsters on the way again —, so they are alone now. Well, alone as you can get with all those monsters waiting at his door. Namjoon had never seen so many; he thinks it might have something to do with Jeongguk passing by. Or… Nah, he ain't thinking about that.

“Why do they keep coming back?” Yoongi demands while they have dinner. “You gotta tell me before they eat us up when we go to uni, you know.”

Namjoon knows he said it as a joke, but it reminds him of his talk with Chiron, and it leaves a sour taste on his tongue.

He sighs. “Tell me about that new lecture of yours,” he starts.

Yoongi sends him a death glare. “Don’t change the subject.”

“I am not. Tell me about it, babe. What do you learn?”

“I’ve been learning about Greek mythology. All the gods and monsters. That’s why I’ve recognized those baddies down there. They’re just like the ones from the Greek myths. Now I ask you: why the hell?”

Namjoon shifts on his seat. That doesn’t seem a really good subject to discuss while you’re having dinner.

"What exactly do gods do, um, did, on their free time?" he asks, midbite. Yoongi watches him as he munches.

"Well, they fucked, didn't they," Yoongi replies. "They had god-like children, saviors of the world, stuff like that. Heracles, Perseus, Achilles, those guys."

"Exactly. So, if I told you..."

"So you're telling me that you're like one of these guys here?" Yoongi points to an illustration of Heracles defeating the Erymanthian boar on the book he checked out of a library the week before. Namjoon sighs, he'd met her already. It wasn't pleasing, he stopped eating pork after that.

"You can't compare me to Heracles, babe," he replies. "He kind of has a hurt ego. He'll kick my ass on the next family reunion,"

He has to say he's kidding before Yoongi asks if they really do family reunions or not. They kind of do, of course, at Camp Half-Blood, but it's not like famous guys like Heracles show up. Namjoon has never seen him. Last time he heard, Zeus had made him a minor god and now he must live at Olympus as well.

With dinner long finished, they have a hard time getting the facts straight. He takes his time explaining why Mount Olympus is now located at Lotte World Tower, but Yoongi is majoring in History, so he gets it fast. He looks far more interested in how being a demigod in the modern world works though and looks shocked when Namjoon shows him his own version of the Master Bold.

"Jesus fuck, I bet you can blow out this entire building," he says, astonished, holding the cylinder in his hands. "I've seen this before. I always thought you carried a lava lamp in your backpack and it was fucking weird so I never asked. I mean, it's weirder now, but you get it,"

"A lava lamp-- dad would be pissed if he heard you, gods , Yoongi,"

Yoongi laughs, but when Namjoon stands up and heads to the kitchen to get a drink, he can't help but frown a little at the book on his hands. First things first, his (soon to be) boyfriend is a demigod. As in, the son of a god. As in, the son of the king of all gods. Secondly, all the monsters Yoongi had been asking Jimin to draw him are out there to eat people like Namjoon. And he's been living like that his entire life – fighting monsters, saving the world, being a badass. All of this while Yoongi thought his trips to that summer camp were basically babysitting children and teaching them how not to flip over a canoe.

Goddamnit  – well, gods damn it –, it was like he had his own personal Clark Kent. Except that instead of kryptonite, his Namjoonie has ADHD and dyslexia because his brain is programmed to function in ancient Greek. Ancient Greek. And he had never helped Yoongi with that subject, not even once.

"You're so doing all my Greek homework from now on," he informs him, as soon and Namjoon sits down again. "Hey, can I ask you a question?"

"I told already told you, I can't get you an autograph from Artemis, even though I am her favorite brother after Apollo she doesn't like being around guys too often."

"That's not it, dumbass. "Yoongi sighs. He takes one of Namjoon's hands in his just for the sake of it. "Do I have to wear a toga or a suit? I can always rent those and I think nice togas are harder to find, but it would be nice I guess,"

Namjoon frowns. "Pardon me?"

Yoongi shrugs. "See, I know your mom is cool about us already, and I thought you didn't have a dad but I do take these things seriously--"

"Yoongi, what the hell are you talking about?"

"Well," Yoongi tilts his head, a slight blush over his cheeks. "My mom always said I should make my intentions pretty clear when I meet the parents of someone who I want to be my boyfriend,"

It takes nearly ten minutes to Namjoon to calm down. He laughs so hard his drink ends up spilled all over his carpet, but it's not like he cares anyway. When the boy's finally done, but still giggling a little, he drops his gaze on a pissed off Min Yoongi staring at him.

"Are you making fun of me--"

"No!" he says. "No, babe, I would never. It's just that I've talked my dad, like, three times in my entire life and the second one was when I belittled a gift of his and he literally threw a lightning bolt at me. We don't-- gods don't do that, you know. They don't talk to their children, and surely don’t meet up with their boyfriends and girlfriends. Also, when the fuck did you decide you were going to pop the question? I was going to do that!"

"You thought I was going to let you do it first?" Yoongi laughs. He presses a kiss to Namjoon's cheek. "You can't beat me, boyfriend. But, I do have some things to say about your dad..."

They end the night with a long discussion about negligent parenting and a horrible thunderstorm forming in the sky because as much as Namjoon asks for him not to use those words, Yoongi does end up calling the king of gods a bunch of names that would put a sailor's mouth to shame. And then they kiss. A lot. And do other things as well, but that's history.

They're sitting in an ice cream parlor, shoulder to shoulder, and Yoongi has a chocolate stain on his newly bought jeans. He tries to clean it with his thumb but it only spreads the stain. He sighs.

"I just bought this," complains. "Damn, your dumbass is starting to rub off on me"

"You wound me, really. If only my demigod excellency rubbed off on you..."

"People thinking you're cool is children of Zeus privilege. You're my favorite moron, though,"

Namjoon rolls his eyes so hard it hurts, earning a laugh from his boyfriend. Boyfriend . The word feels good against his tongue.

Yoongi takes the one last bite of his cone and starts trying to steal some of his. They chat for some time while watching people go by. Even though he didn't tell him, Yoongi kind of assumed a job here. He knows Namjoon can't see things like he does – he only sees the monsters when they're too close, as in, when they're right about to kill him, and it's something due to his mortality –, but Yoongi sees them even from afar, so he takes his time keeping an eye out to creatures that could possibly eat up Namjoon. He's been taking him to class almost every day, always offering to accompany him when he has something to do out of home. Besides that, it's not like Yoongi is a busy person – he's almost done with his subjects in uni, having done the final exams already –, and his apartment is too big and lonely for him.

After all, following Namjoon around is getting him to the edge of knowing what he's keeping from him. He'd thought they were past secrets – no secret can be bigger than Namjoon being a son of Zeus –, but Namjoon has been acting weird lately, and Yoongi knows it has to do with Kim Seokjin, his roommate that hasn't shown up for almost two months already.

He knows it because he caught Namjoon talking about this with Jeongguk when the latter showed up by the city a few days before. Yoongi is dead worried about Jin, tried to contact him a hundred times already, but his father's secretary has grown tired of telling him that everything is fine, Mr. Kim is busy with his job, and Yoongi stopped believing her a long time ago.

“I’m worried about Jin,” he repeats, somewhere between Namjoon’s second cone and the orange juice he bought. “ Really worried. What do I do?”

Namjoon shakes his shoulders, and there are little droplets of chocolate ice cream on his shirt. Yoongi wipes them off without even thinking. “Wait,” he replies. “I think you just have to wait,”

He says it like his words are harsh against his tongue. Yoongi places a tip on top of the table before they leave, and goes home with a funny feeling on his stomach.

"Hey, hey , Jeongguk!"

Over time, Yoongi started being proud of the fact that Namjoon's cousin – that wasn't really his cousin, but whatever – had taken a like in him. Jeongguk adores him. When he drops by Namjoon's apartment, he's always wanting to hang out with Yoongi and hear what he has to say. He, although, doesn't seem too happy to see him right now.

"Hi, hyung," Jeongguk replies,  as he holds up a monster's head. "I would love to talk but can you please go home? Haha,"

Yoongi frowns. He takes a look above the other's shoulder to the disintegrating mess that once was, probably, a chimera.

"Why, will it come back?"

Jeongguk looks down at his hand. It looks pretty gross but the overall picture looks straight out of a comic book – him, in a dark alley, dressed in Supreme, with a sword in hand and a decapitated head in the other, bleeding from the eyebrow. When Yoongi takes a step ahead to take a better look at it, Jeongguk raises a hand to stop him. "Hyung, go home. It's fine, really. I was just walking home,"

"Why are you here so late in the night? Namjoon told me you guys are not supposed to leave camp whatever so often."

The other boy sighs. He swings the decapitated head back and forth while thinking about it, but Yoongi arches one brown at him and he sighs.

"There are a lot of monsters here in Seoul," Jeongguk tells him. "They don't mess up with mortals most times so we're afraid they're hunting down a demigod."

Yoongi's heart skips a beat. "Joon?"

"Ah, no. As much as they'd like to get him, most monsters know it's useless going after him. I thought..."

Jeongguk pauses. He mutters something under his breath and the monster's head disappears from his hand, and he cleans it on the back of his jeans. "I thought," continues. "That this might have to do with another demigod in town."

"Well, who is it?"

When Jeongguk sends him a half-hearted smile. "Trust me, hyung, you wouldn't like to know."

And, like that, he disappears into the air.

Turns out Yoongi doesn't have to wait for Jeongguk to get back in town to have an answer for his ominous words.

He's cleaning his living room, a very wild Holly attached to his ankles demanding attention, Suran playing softly on his stereo system when his missing roommate barges into the apartment – and promptly falls face first on the floor.

“What the fuck,” is what Yoongi manages to say, dropping his broom. He rushes to Seokjin in lightspeed, pulling him into his lap. “Jin? Jinnie? Dude, the fuck, talk to me!”

You see, Seokjin never looks awful – he's always pretty and clean, always smiling and laughing at everything Yoongi does, walking around with his sugar gliders on his shoulders like some kind of fairytale prince and such –, but he does now , as it's what startles him first. Yoongi taps his pale cheeks lightly and Jin rolls his eyes, licking chapped lips before saying "Long time no see, dear,"

Yoongi is sure he's going to pass out himself. "What the hell happened?"

Lots of glass of water later, they're sitting by the countertop and Yoongi has his roommate's hands in his as he carefully cleans and patches up the funny looking cuts in them. He hadn't realized Jin was hurt until he saw the blood stains on his clothes. Looking at his friend like that makes his heart feel really tiny, but he tries to remain calm.

"I had… Business to take care of," Seokjin says, wincing a little when Yoongi presses an alcohol-soaked cotton to the last cut in his palm. "And I might or might not have hurt myself with barbed wire. I'm fine, though!"

"Cut that shit," he replies. "You almost passed out in our living room. Who were you with? Who took you here? Please, don't lie to me,"

Seokjin flashes him a bright smile that should be reassuring, but Yoongi is tired of secrets. His scowl is enough for Jin to sigh and get up from his stool. "A little bird told me Namjoon finally talked to you about him being a demigod,"

"What? How do you know about that and I didn't?"

Seokjin sends him a lopsided grin. Yoongi slaps his own forehead. "You're a demigod too," he says. "You're the demigod Jeongguk was talking about, aren't you?"

"I don't know what Jeongguk has been talkin' about. Good things, I hope. But I guess I am."

Yoongi drops the used cotton on the countertop. "Is there anything else you guys want me to know? Is Hobi a demigod too?"

"Nah, he might be looking like Apollo but he's just human."

"Good. And what have you been up to?"

Shrugging, Seokjin turns around in his stool and heads for the fridge. He takes two cans of beer out of it and sits back, handing one to Yoongi. "I told you I had a family business to take care of, but it wasn't my dad's business. It was my mom's, Aphrodite."

When he really stops to think about it, there is no reason why Seokjin wouldn't be a child of Aphrodite, so there's no use in being shocked by that. Yoongi opens his beer and takes a sip, motioning for him to continue. His roommate smiles.

"She got me a mission. To retrieve the Apple of Discord from some giant who stole it from her, you know, mom's kind of attached to gifts. So I was there, inside the Labyrinth of Daedalus and all, got the Apple of Discord, was gonna come back home in a day or two when... " he motions vaguely. Yoongi frowns. "I pissed off a giant and he sent all of his monster army to get me. But don't worry, you're safe, dear."

"Safe?" Yoongi repeats, groaning. "Jin, we're gonna die. I've been seeing monsters every day. We should call for Namjoon's help."

Seokjin nods, a hand coming up to squeeze Yoongi's.

"Darling, my power of persuasion is amazing. To all those monsters, we're as appetizing as dog poop. We're good, really. Once I get a little rest, it's all going to go back to normal."

When Seokjin finally goes to sleep – after three beers, for good measure –, Yoongi sits by his window and looks at the streets drenched in dark. He wonders when his life had turned into a comic book, and then realizes that maybe it has always been like that.

One thing he knows, though, is that there's no way things are going to go back to normal. Not after all the monsters, the secrets, everything.

When he stops to think about it, though, Yoongi doesn't really mind.

(The very next day, though, he squishes Namjoon's face in between his hands and says "Please, no more secrets between us?" which only earns him a kiss, and, well, he's not complaining.)

"Yoongi, sweetie, feel free to get the cake in the kitchen. I have to get back to the bakery, so I'll leave you two to it."

He nods happily, getting up from his place at the table to bid Namjoon's mother goodbye. "Absolutely. Thank you for lunch."

She pats his cheek with her tiny hand, smiling. He hears Namjoon snorting somewhere at his back.

"You're a really good boy, I'm glad we have you around," she tells him. "Well, I'm going now. If you find a problem, call me."

Yoongi doesn't know how to behave in this kind of situation, so he just nods a little shyly and heads to the kitchen while Namjoon takes her to the door, searching for the right cutlery.

Truth be told, if he was going to tell Yoongi from three years before that he'd end up dating a demigod, that Yoongi would probably say he was nuts. He doesn't mind about it, though, because Yoongi is pretty much happy with his gods-damn of a demigod boyfriend. They've been officially dating for two years now, and Namjoon still doesn't have a phone, and sometimes Yoongi is worried shitless that he's just going to die somewhere in the hands of some gross greek monster, but he honestly would not have it any other way.

See, what Namjoon has been teaching him for the past months is that being half-mortal, half-god grants you many things. High chance of death, sure, but also the undeniable right that you can live a normal-as-it-can-get life because half of you is as normal-as-it-can-get. So Yoongi controls his worries, leaves them sitting quietly in his room and takes Namjoon to Camp Half-Blood ("What a cheesy name," "Well, what do you prefer? Camp Jupiter?" "Your father has a camp for himself?!" "Uh, well…") every year, watching as he waves happily before disappearing behind a pine tree with a gigantic dragon sleeping under it, knowing that he's going to come home to him one way or another. And when they have time, they're here, having lunch at Namjoon's childhood home, like a normal family would.

Not to mention his roommate, who never fails to give him a heart attack every time he goes on a mission. Or his newest demigod friends, Jeongguk and Taehyung, who once spend Christmas with them, happily lying about their identities to Yoongi's human friends, Jimin and Hoseok – "Yeah, Jeonggukie here is an awesome soccer player. He never loses!" "Well, Tae kills it with the bow and arrow, he's going to the Olympics someday".

Yoongi's lucky. Really, he sees it now. Maybe seeing monsters isn't so bad at all, now that it has granted him so many people he'd fight them for, human or not.

"Hey," Namjoon says, snaking an arm around his waist when he notices Yoongi lost in his thoughts mid-search for the dessert forks. "What are you thinking?"

"Uh-- nothing, really," the other replies, shaking his head. "No, in fact, I was thinking about you. Us. I don't know."

Namjoon giggles, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek before turning to get the cake from the fridge. "Yeah? What about us?"

He shrugs.

"Do you think that we'll go to the same place when we die?"

"That's… Ominous," Namjoon replies. He frowns at him for a couple of seconds, then smiles. "Let's hope it takes us a while to find out, right?"

"No, sure, absolutely. I was just thinking, although I don't go to church, I was baptized, right?" Namjoon nods, with a ghost of a smile on his lips that distracts Yoongi a little before he gets back to his rant. "So, when we get married and there's the whole "Till death do us part" shit, what if I go to a whole different place and we won't meet in the afterworld?"

Namjoon puts the cake down on the countertop. "We're getting married?"

Yoongi laughs nervously. "Hypothetically speaking, of course,"

"Wait, you don't want to marry?"

"Babe, of course, I want to, but--"

The doorbell rings. Namjoon tilts his head. "Do you think my mom forgot something?"

Yoongi shrugs, already making his way to the door. When he opens the door, although, he's not greeted with the sight of Namjoon's mother, but that of a pair of expensive shoes and a dark blue pinstriped suit, and the stranger brought with himself a slight smell of ozone. Before Yoongi can say anything, the man at the door speaks:

"Hello. You'd be my son's boyfriend, I assume."

Yoongi whistles. He looks over his shoulder. "Joonie, babe, you won't believe who's here."