Work Text:
❧
It becomes a sort of attraction spot for tourists and foreigners who walk along Busan’s beach, to look upward at the third story apartment, to the balcony that’s covered in nothing but greens, yellows, and pink lights. It’s a pretty sight, especially at night when the twinkling of tiny lights blink like stars for neighbors and strangers to admire.
Amidst the small balcony garden, there sit dozens of tiny houses, hand painted and crafted with careful hands by the creator and owner of said apartment, Min Yoongi. If anyone were to ask, he’d say he’d never believed a hobby of his would turn out to be creating homes for the tiny fairies—the ones that are rare to see, scarcely spotted by most people in their populated areas.
Barely the length of his forefinger, Yoongi thinks of the first fairy he ever saw. He remembers the first time he’d been startled by one, eyes wide and mouth gaping. Such a tiny thing, hair wild and pink, eyes sparkling blue. “Taehyung,” the fairy had introduced himself as, laying weak and injured at the sill of his window.
“Taehyung,” Yoongi murmured back, leaning over his drafting table and furrowing his brows at the bent wing, iridescent and fluttering weakly in the moonlight.
“I can’t fly,” the tiny creature had sniffed, curling in on himself. “My home, it’s—they destroyed it.”
They had turned out to be the very company Yoongi’s own team worked for. Business men who’d hired his team to create new buildings in the location where trees once stood. Forests destroyed for more man made creations; Yoongi never once gave thought to the creatures and critters affected by the deforestation. His guilt pushed him to take the tiny creature in, tending to his wing and building what he could to keep Taehyung comfortable. First it was a tiny bed, stuffed with cotton balls and covered with a piece of fabric he’d snipped from an old coat he no longer cared for. After that, he found peace in the time he’d spend building a tiny home for the fairy, placing it in his balcony’s small garden when complete. It spiraled from there, Yoongi finding how warm his chest became with each new creation Taehyung gawked and fawned over. He’d been building things all his life, creating what he could for the people he loved—but Taehyung’s reactions were different to the impressed nods and hummed appreciations of his colleagues.
Taehyung’s reactions were...magical. Smile so wide, eyes curved like crescent moons. He radiated joy and gratitude, despite knowing Yoongi was the reason he’d needed a new home in the first place. Taehyung was endearingly innocent.
When Taehyung’s wing healed, he’d flown off in the dead of night, only the tiniest of indentations on Yoongi’s pillow as proof he’d actually been there and not as a figment of his imagination. If he’d sulked for the next four days, then so what? He’d never seen a fairy before and to have spent three weeks around one, subjected to its kindness, childlike wonder, and fascination with the human world, well, it wasn’t something to be easily forgotten.
But Taehyung had returned as quietly as he had left, and not alone.
“They’re hurt, Yoongi! Please,” Taehyung had pleaded, wings flitting fast as he landed and climbed on Yoongi’s work collar, heaving himself up and tugging at his earlobe. “Please help us!”
And so he does. Yoongi crafts what he can, tiny homes and furniture that reflected each new fairy he’d been introduced to, some resembling tiny tree stumps like the ones from the forest they’d been forced out of by the greedy men he was contracted under; he carves stairs into cheap clay pots and hollows them out to later fill them with things the fae claim cosy and beautiful.
Yoongi quite likes the result of his balcony, covered in plants and tiny homes. It’s a small village, he thinks, wondering how on earth he’d ever come to be the one to create it. Taehyung likes to praise him over it, deep in the late hours of night when Yoongi is hunched over his drafts for work, shoulders tense and hand cramped from writing.
“They’re not a trusting folk,” Taehyung says to him, tiny fists gripping dark locks to heave himself up and nestle at the crown of Yoongi’s head. Yoongi doesn’t have to ask to know he’s referring to the fae outside. His window is open and the shine of string lights he’s hung around his balcony glow peacefully into his room, the ocean in his immediate view.
“You trusted me.” he points out in a hum, carefully laying his chin over folded arms as he droops forward in exhaustion over his drafting table, mindful of the fairy on top of him.
“I didn’t have much of a choice.” Taehyung responds, his voice too low and rich for someone so small. “My wing was injured. You’re on the third floor. Where would I have gone?”
“Some people don’t like your kind.” Yoongi says with a frown, not wanting to think of what might’ve happened if Taehyung had landed on the window sill of one of those people. He hears the gentle hum of wings before Taehyung is near his cheek, tiny hands pressing against the curve of his skin and eliciting a burn of affection there.
“You aren’t like them.” the pink haired fairy says thoughtfully, flying back so they can see each other, eye to eye. “You’re kind. Good. A little dorky.”
Yoongi frowns, his heartbeat picking up and losing it’s shared beat and rhythm to the clock strung up on the wall. “‘M not.”
“Min Yoongi,” Taehyung coos quietly, moving those tiny fingers over the curve of his cheek, “my kind human.”
“Your kind human?” Yoongi raises a brow as his head turns slightly, catching the delicate blush blossom in those golden cheeks caressed already by loose pink tendrils.
Taehyung huffs, crossing his arms and spinning in the air until he’s facing away in a jerked, flustered manner. “You know what I mean.”
It’s true that Yoongi has grown a soft spot in his heart for the tiny creature, and he doesn’t push any more as he lifts his arm and holds his hand out, until Taehyung routinely settles into his palm, wings flicking indignantly in his embarrassment as he crosses his legs and leans his head against the slope of Yoongi’s thumb.
He turns his gaze back to the ocean view before closing his eyes, hearing the faint buzz of fairies chattering away on the balcony, and waves crashing onto the shore.
“They appreciate what you’ve done for them, you know.” Taehyung says quietly, voice thoughtful as his hand spreads out over the pad of Yoongi’s thumb, tracing idly at the ridges of his print there . “I do.”
Somewhere in the back of Yoongi’s mind, he wishes faintly that the tiny fairy wasn’t so small—that he could wrap his arms around him and hold him close, letting his actions speak his feelings like words always failed to, to let him know that he was also appreciative. Just for different reasons.
❧
It’s at the tail end of winter when Taehyung’s voice rouses Yoongi from sleep, small hands tugging at wild strands of hair peeking from his duvet.
“Yoongi,” he calls out, wings humming as they flitter in a fast speed. “Yoongi, wake up.”
The drowsy man groans from under his blanket, blinking into consciousness and narrowing his eyes in confusion to Taehyung’s hovering form. “ W’is it? ” he asks through a yawn, sitting up when he notices the flecks of white peppering the fae’s hair and clothes. “Wh—”
“It’s snowing!”
It’s only a faint falling of snow when Yoongi pads quietly across his apartment to the balcony, opening the door and shivering instantly at the chill of the air. Most of the fae are in their homes, asleep, but a few are out, flittering about to admire the rare snowfall.
“It’s too cold.” Taehyung whines cutely, and Yoongi doesn’t need to look at him as he sits atop his head, to know the little one is pouting. “Jiminie kept kicking me, and his feet were frozen like ice.”
It’s not that Yoongi is jealous of the blue haired fairy that lives with Taehyung in the home he built for him, but he’s envious of the way he can cuddle the other, can hold him close and pet his hair softly until Taehyung succumbs to sleep. He looks at the two fairies hovering near the railing, their hands playing with the snow gathering there with childlike excitement.
“Would candles help?” He asks the two, feeling a fond smile creep onto his face when the youngest of the fae smile brightly at him with his doe eyes.
“It would be nice to have extra warmth,” the little one says, turning to the red-head beside him. “don’t you think so, Hoseokie?”
“Jeonggukie is right.” Hoseok smiles, his blue tinted wings flickering at every brush of every falling snowflake. “Extra warmth would be very nice. Thank you for your kindness, Yoongi-ssi.”
Yoongi ignores the urge to deny the compliments, having already gotten used to the incessant politeness of the fae there, and instead only nods. The two there on the balcony are still new, still getting used to him. Taehyung settles himself on his shoulder as Yoongi walks back into his apartment, leaving the door cracked in case any of the fairies have a desire to come in. He shuffles through some drawers, searching for candles he knows he has but never uses.
“Maybe we can go to the shop tomorrow.” Taehyung speaks conversationally as Yoongi hums, finding a few good candles but now on the hunt for matches. “Get some fabric,” he continues, “for these chillier nights.”
“You want to go to the shop again?” Yoongi questions, raising a brow as he thinks of the last time he’d went in with the fairy nestled comfortably in his breast pocket. There’d been many curious stares, but some had been downright rude, no doubt trying to show their displeasure in the creature without speaking it out loud.
“Only if it’s with you.” Taehyung says, his candid honesty disarming Yoongi as that feeling rushes through him again, tapering out through his veins and burrowing heavily in his chest.
He holds his hand out, and Taehyung settles himself into his palm, looking up at him with those eyes he’s come to wake up longing to see as he stirs from his dreams, where remnants of them gazing at him cling to his mind. Taehyung blinks at him, perhaps confused by his silence. “Yoongi?”
Pulled away from his impossible thoughts, Yoongi gives himself a mental shake and smiles slightly, hoping to put the other’s worried gaze at ease. He leans down and plants a gentle kiss atop the fairy’s head, chuckling at the tiny gasp the action elicits.
“We’ll go tomorrow then.” He says softly, reveling in the blush the creature burns with. “After work, okay?”
Taehyung’s wings flitter anxiously, the tips of their curved arch catching moonlight and reflecting a soft glimmer. He bows his head and wraps an arm around Yoongi’s finger before nodding, a shy but bright smile stretching across his face. “Okay.”
When Yoongi sets the candles out on the balcony and heads back to bed, he’s unsurprised to Taehyung’s question of staying with him. He settles himself in the pillow unoccupied to Yoongi’s left, messing with the pillowcase before it folds up, covering him like a blanket.
Yoongi rolls over and stares at the fairy, feeling so close to him, yet also a million miles away. It’s a particular kind of torture—having someone so beautiful, so dear, near to him, and being unable to do much about it.
They lay in quiet for a bit, the sound of the wind whistling keeping the room from being completely silent. He doesn’t startle when he feels tiny hands grabbing his hair, moving tousled locks until a weight settles itself atop his head, Taehyung’s body curls until his head rests just at the tip of his forehead.
“Is this okay?” Taehyung whispers, hesitant and hopeful, sending Yoongi’s heart into overdrive.
He blinks into the darkness, feeling heavy suddenly, like his body’s made of lead. “Yes,” he whispers back, the single word spoken coarsely, like it’d gotten caught in his throat on the way up. It’s more than okay. He enjoys the warmth Taehyung’s small body gives him, memorizing the feel of tiny fingers loosely gripping his hair and twirling the strands idly.
“I wish I could hold you for real.” Taehyung whispers a short while later, so lowly that Yoongi, in his sleepy state, almost misses it. “I wish—I wish…”
Yoongi doesn’t know if Taehyung finishes his sentence, doesn’t learn of what it is he wishes for before sleep claims him.
❧
Taehyung disappears on a Wednesday.
Yoongi frets, checking every crook and crevice of his apartment. He asks around to every fairy on his balcony, and none of them give an answer. Jeongguk looks slightly pale at the questioning, but Yoongi presses enough to know the youngling won’t give an answer. Perhaps at Taehyung’s behest.
He tries to stay calm for the first three days, his eyes peeled for any movements or hints of pink in his vision. There’s not much he can do but wait. If Jeongguk weren’t so glaringly obvious in his knowing of the other fairy’s whereabouts, he’d panic, but as it is, he knows the youngling is hiding something. By day eight, his patience wears thin and he storms out onto the balcony, giving the group of fairies tittering about a fright. They collectively come together in anticipation to his next move, the air of their little village there somber since Taehyung’s disappearance.
His eyes search for Jeongguk, and when one of the fae points to the home Taehyung once called his own before giving it to Jimin, Yoongi kneels down and raps one finger against the wooden door, knowing full well the two fairies are aware of his presence.
“Jeongguk!” He grunts unhappily, the need to know where Taehyung is at — if he’s safe — burning too incessantly through his veins.
A barely audible groan is heard through the door before it creaks open, Jeongguk’s guilty face peeking out before Jimin pushes his shoulder, forcing the younger to shuffle forward.
“He deserves to know, Guk.” the older fairy chides, not unlike a disappointed parent. “We all do. Now out with it.”
“I...” The fuschia haired fairy fumbles at first, hands clasping in front of him as Yoongi tries to reign his impatience in. He’s angry, yes. Worried, yes. But he doesn’t want to frighten the youngest. Jeongguk purses his lips and looks up nervously to the crowd gathering around them all, his shoulders hunching forward as the guilt rolls off him in waves. “I told him not to go! But he wouldn’t listen!”
“Where did he go, Jeongguk?” Yoongi asks, scooting forward to hear clearly, fingers gripping at the cuffs of his sweater. “Why did he leave?”
“There’s these fairies in the city—I,” he bites his lip, obviously distressed in having to tell a secret Yoongi has no doubt Taehyung made him swear to. “He went to find City fae.”
“City fae!?” Jimin gasps, doing nothing for the knots of anxiety in Yoongi’s stomach. “Why on earth would he visit City fae? They dabble with the human world too much,” he shakes his head, “It’s not natural.” the fairy gives a guilty glance to Yoongi before quickly adding, “No offense, Yoongi-ssi.”
“What business would he have there?” Yoongi questions with a grimace.
“He met a couple in the forest; two City fae, Namjoon and Seokjin. They have ways to be like you,” Jeongguk says hastily, as though speaking fast will wane his guilt. “Blend into society, make themselves like the humans.”
Yoongi jerks back, his mind short circuiting for a moment as his breath hitches. That’s a thing? “That’s…that’s possible?” he whispers incredulously, eyes wide and heart hammering furiously.
He can hear the shocked murmurs amongst the creatures, the energy spiking as the news buzzes around the tiny community. Jimin’s eyes are wide and Hoseok whistles lowly, setting Yoongi’s nerves alight.
“It costs a great deal to do magic like that, though.” Jimin speaks worriedly, brows creasing.
The weight settles back in Yoongi’s stomach, and the fear is back. His emotions are running rampant and he’s not sure what he feels, but he knows worry is at the top. “What,” he clears his throat, his tongue dry as his eyes fall to Jimin. “What cost…?”
“Life, Yoongi-ssi.” Jimin answers sadly, though his features have softened to somber resignation. “The cost for that kind of magic is life. A fairy’s immortality.”
Yoongi clenches his fists, thoughts swirling like a blurred haze in his mind, only one thing crystal clear in the midst of them all, Taehyung, Taehyung, Taehyung. “Why?” his whispers, voice breaking. The thought of Taehyung sacrificing such a vital part of him hurts. He hurts to think of where the other is at, if he’s okay, if he’s in pain...
“Yoongi-ssi,” Jimin looks up at him, wings twitching. “you know why.”
And he does. Yoongi knows exactly why.
He goes to bed early that night, but is kept awake by his restlessness.
❧
His body aches and his eyes are puffy from the lack of sleep, bags underneath them, dark like the bruises he feels littering his heart. It’s been days since Jeongguk’s confession, and Yoongi’s willed himself to not overthink—to not drive to every city he knows and search for glittering wings and pink curls.
His apartment feels empty without Taehyung’s presence. He finds himself lifting his palm throughout the days, hoping to feel a weight there, to hear Taehyung’s voice, listen to his hums and stories, listen to his questions about the human world and what certain things feel like.
Yoongi would be lying if he said there wasn’t the tiniest flicker of hope in his chest. He feels guilty for feeling it, knowing that if what Jimin’s said is true, then Taehyung truly has sacrificed a great deal. But still, he’s selfish, and he allows himself to dream. Allows himself to hope. He cries in the shower, conflicted over his feelings.
It’s his thirteenth day without Taehyung, and Yoongi crawls into bed, his chest emptier than his bed currently feels. He misses him so much, can barely comprehend how he managed to live a full twenty six years without the fairy who carries so much life and joy in his tiny body. He tosses and turns, sheets tangling around him. He’s glad to have the other fairies there, Hoseok keeping him company and filling the silences that drag as he works at his desk.
He maintains the garden, tends to the flowers and herbs, keeping peonies at his bedside because he knows they’re Taehyung’s favorite, and the color is the same shade as the color Yoongi’s become so fond of. Pink like his hair, pink like the blush on his cheeks, pink like the hues of the sky they stare at every night when the sun sets.
He’s at the cusp of sleep when the loud rapping of his front door nearly jolts him straight out of his skin. His heart races and he grabs his phone, blinking at the time; 02:43 A.M . Something twists inside him, his body starts to tremble as he rushes out of his room, his foot getting caught on the tousled sheets and nearly sending him head first into the doorway.
Bare feet slap against hardwood floor as he sprints to his front door, peeking through the peephole and seeing pink.
Pink, pink, pink.
Taehyung.
Yoongi nearly throws himself as he fumbles with the locks and flings the door open. His throat closes and words escape him. He looks up (looks up ) to meet Taehyung’s eyes, the once tiny fairy now taller than him. Yoongi’s vision blurs and he grips the doorframe tightly, nails biting into the wood.
Taehyung fiddles with clothes that are unfamiliar on his body, lips pursed and cheeks pink, pink, pink. “H-hello, Yoongi,”
Yoongi wonders if he’s a bad person for feeling the rush of elation that runs through him, but he pushes it to the back of his mind and steps forward before throwing his arms around the now broad man before him. Taehyung responds in kind instantly, holding him tight and nestling his nose against dark locks. They hold each other, and Yoongi melts at Taehyung’s warmth, breathes him in and prays he’s not dreaming.
When they’re a heap of tangled limbs later, both drowsy and content, Yoongi runs his fingers over the scars on Taehyung’s back, two long strips down his shoulder blades. “Did it hurt?”
“Yes,” Taehyung answers honestly, tightening the fist already squeezed around Yoongi’s heart.
His face pinches and he feels some of the warmth slip away, shame and guilt taking its place in the space between their bodies. “I’m so sorry. You—Tae, you shouldn’t have...I—”
“I know what I did, Yoongi.” Taehyung frowns, pulling away just slightly to look at him as properly as he can in the dark room. “It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time, even before meeting you. You…you just made my decision that much more final.”
“But it’s true, though?” Yoongi grimaces, “about the sacrifice? About your...mortality?”
“Yes.”
“...why, though?”
“Living forever is a very lonely thing, Yoongi.” Taehyung whispers, scooting closer until their bare chests are pressed together. Yoongi shivers at the feel of it, tightening his hold on him. “I don’t want to be lonely anymore. I’m not; not when I’m with you.”
“You’ll get old, you know.” Yoongi murmurs, perhaps voicing an obvious and vain fact, as if Taehyung doesn’t already know this information.
“I will.” Taehyung replies, reaching behind him to tug Yoongi’s wrist, and tangling their fingers together. God, even his hands are larger, Yoongi thinks as he presses his nose into the other’s neck, giving himself a moment to discreetly inhale the distinctly Taehyung smell there. The fairy’s next words absolutely take the breath from him, leaving him dizzy, warm, and so filled with love and adoration, that he physically tightens his grip over the other.
“Growing old seems a bit scary, but I’m not scared. Not really,” he shrugs lightly, a timid smile on his lips. “not if it’s growing old with you.”
Yoongi won’t cry. He won’t.
Taehyung’s fingers tremble beneath his as he whispers tentatively, “Will you let me, Yoongi? Will you let me grow old with you?”
Maybe a tear or two slips loose. Yoongi closes his eyes, thinking of how life can be with Taehyung growing old with him. Thinking of getting to hold him close every night, and be held in return.
“Why?” he croaks out. Why ?
“Because I love you.” he answers softly, honestly. “I want my one life to be our forever.”
I love you. I love you. I love you.
When they kiss, Yoongi can taste the magic on Taehyung’s lips. He can taste rosewater and strawberries, and he tastes like forever.
“I love you, Taehyung.”
Yoongi wants their one life to be their forever, too.