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Grounded

Summary:

Taehyung's grounded but Jeongguk sneaks in to see him anyway.

Notes:

day 6!!! also OOPS i meant to write about 1k but instead i wrote 2k yikes sorry yall
hope you enjoy it nonetheless! i really struggled w writing today, and was just generally uninspired but i'm glad i was able to produce something for yall

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Honestly (and typically), it’s Jeongguk’s fault Taehyung gets grounded in the first place. Sure, he could have more willpower, but he’s always been weak for Jeongguk’s whiny hyung , especially when it’s paired with those irresistible puppy dog eyes. Not that he would ever dream of telling his younger friend that. Nope, no way, not gonna happen. Taehyung would rather be grounded for the rest of his life than admit to the stupid giant crush he has on his best friend. It’s one of those things he plans on taking to the grave, same with the time he broke his grandma’s favorite vase and blamed it on the cat, or that time he took too big of a dump in Jimin’s toilet and made the whole thing overflow.

Where was he?

Oh, right.

It’s definitely Jeongguk’s fault that he’s grounded. Monday meant it was a school night, which meant that the home by 8:30pm rule was heavily enforced. They’d finished their homework early on, thankfully, and had switched over to Jeongguk’s old Nintendo Gamecube to play Mario Kart Double Dash (the superior version of Mario Kart, in his opinion, no matter what Namjoon and his Nintendo Switch said). Either way, the minute hand on the clock had steadily moved from 7:30 to 8 to 8:20 when Taehyung announced he had to go. Jeongguk, predictably, hadn’t hesitated to pull out the puppy dog eyes, whipping his head to look up at Taehyung as he stood, and Taehyung had just sighed. Neither of them even said anything, they just went back to racing through Peach Beach.

Needless to say, his parents weren’t happy that he broke curfew, if only by an hour. So he was on house arrest for the next two weeks. Really, it shouldn’t be a big deal. The only place he goes is to school and to Jeongguk’s, and if he doesn’t go to Jeongguk’s then the younger comes over to his place. Which brings him to the next level of grounded-ness: Jeongguk wasn’t allowed over.

Okay, that was the subtext of what his parents said. In reality, they’d told him “no friends over”, which is valid considering Taehyung does have other friends who aren’t Jeongguk. He just doesn’t really hang out with them outside of school. Details aside, not being allowed to hang out with his best friend (and subject of his totally stupid giant crush) for two entire weeks (including two weekends!) is gonna suck and Taehyung’s not happy about it.

The first couple days, it isn’t so bad. On the one hand, Taehyung’s homework productivity levels are insanely high and his teachers are all impressed with him. And he’s also finding other ways to spend the time, since his parents also slipped in a “no talking to Jeongguk on the phone for hours while you guys do separate things so it feels like you’re hanging out” because Taehyung’s parents are fucking evil and don’t want Taehyung to have any contact with Jeongguk. So Taehyung has to stick to texting, but Jeongguk has always been a shitty texter, so it’s not really the same.

So in his free time, he reads a lot. He finishes an entire novel the first day of being grounded and spends the entire next day telling Jeongguk about it until the younger finally cracks and asks him to talk about something else (in the nicest way possible, because Jeongguk’s learned over the years that Taehyung is kind of sensitive and will cry over dumb things). The second day of being grounded, Taehyung actually completes the entirety of Pokemon Special Edition Pikachu on his centuries-old GameBoy Advance (he prefers playing on Jeongguk’s newer 3DS, but his parents won’t buy him one). The third day, Thursday, he breaks out his old Legos and rebuilds the Millenium Falcon. Honestly, he’s a little impressed by himself for doing that, but he also stepped on at least five Legos during the five hours it took (he didn’t have the diagram anymore so he just had to figure it out), so he figures that stepping on Legos is akin to selling his soul in order to complete the figurine.

However, by Sunday night, the whole being grounded thing has lost its novelty. It’d taken him exactly twelve hours to regret breaking curfew and admit to himself that he’ll never be seduced by Jeongguk’s puppy dog eyes again, so he doesn’t know why he has to atone for his crimes for another entire week. His teachers don’t even assign enough homework to keep himself entertained, and he’s taken to asking for extra credit assignments.

Yeah, you could say he’s desperate.

He’s almost finished with the third book of the day (yes, three books) when there comes a tapping on his window. At first, he dismisses it, knowing the old oak tree outside sometimes brushes up against the glass when it gets windy (a sound that had terrified younger Taehyung when they first moved into this house). But then it sounds again, and he notices how calculated the taps sound and looks up from his book.

He nearly screeches when he sees Jeongguk’s face pressed close to the glass. The younger has a finger against his lips, knowing Taehyung’s loudness would probably blow it for them both if his parents heard. So Taehyung gets up from his bed as quietly as possible, sneaks over to the window on his tippiest tip-toes, and slides the glass open (they both wince when it squeaks a bit).

“What are you doing?” Taehyung whispers, furious that Jeongguk hadn’t at least texted to give him a heads up.

“I tried texting you, but you didn’t reply,” Jeongguk replies, voice a little breathless.

“Oh,” Taehyung whispers back sheepishly. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sees that Jeongguk had indeed texted to give him a heads up.

“Did you get caught up in a book?” Jeongguk asks accusingly, but he’s smiling so Taehyung knows he’s just teasing. He nods and Jeongguk just rolls his eyes. “Let me in, hyung. This branch is really fucking uncomfortable on my balls.”

It takes a lot of whispers, maneuvering, and several close calls to get the screen off Taehyung’s window. After a lot of struggling, Taehyung gets it to pop off, only to panic when it starts falling towards the ground. Jeongguk, thankfully, catches it with one hand and hands it back to Taehyung with a scathing look that just screams “you’re an idiot, why am I here”. Once the screen is safely stored, Taehyung steps out of the way so Jeongguk can climb in.

The younger has always been more physically adept than Taehyung. He could dance, he was good at sports, hell, even his hand eye coordination was better (as in, he usually beat Taehyung at video games). So seeing Jeongguk climb in through a window shouldn’t be as amazing as it is. But Taehyung’s just a little bit weak and gay for his best friend, so seeing the younger carefully slip a muscled leg in, easing his body through the small square of space before pulling the other leg through just as gracefully does things for Taehyung. He feels just a little bit of pride that his best friend is hot and skilled enough to emulate AOA’s Like a Cat without even dancing the choreography.

“You gonna tell me why you’re here now?” Taehyung asks after he and Jeongguk settle on the bed as silently as possible. “You know I’m grounded. Lowkey because of you, too. If my parents find out you’re here, I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life.”

Jeongguk just shrugs. “I missed you,” he says simply. Taehyung’s not really sure what to make of the statement, so he scoffs and they lapse into silence. Jeongguk pulls out his 3DS and Taehyung goes back to finishing his book. He’s, like, five pages from the end and feels a twinge of annoyance when Jeongguk speaks up again, but he puts down the book anyway.

“I’m sorry I got you grounded,” Jeongguk speaks lowly, because they still have to be quiet. “I realized I haven’t said that yet.”

“It’s okay,” Taehyung whispers back. “I could’ve just left and gotten home by curfew, so it’s partly my fault.”

“Why didn’t you?” Jeongguk shuffles over so he’s sitting knee to knee with Taehyung, facing the older. “Why’d you stay?”

“I like being around you,” Taehyung says. It’s the truth, albeit not the whole truth perhaps. “I was having fun.”

“Me too,” Jeongguk replies, and then they’re back to silence. Taehyung finishes his book, Jeongguk whispers curses at his game, so quiet that Taehyung can’t actually hear what he’s saying.

“You should go soon,” Taehyung tells him around eight. They both have school in the morning and even though Jeongguk is the type who could survive on three hours of sleep, Taehyung is not .

“I like you,” Jeongguk says in reply, not looking up from his DS though his hands have gone still.

“What do you mean,” Taehyung asks, wide eyes locked on Jeongguk’s bowed head. He watches as the younger shrugs. “Hey! You can’t just say something like that!”

“I mean that I like you, hyung,” the tips of Jeongguk’s ears turn bright red as he speaks. “I mean that I feel happy when you’re around and that I like you in a totally romantic, non-bro, gay way.”

“Oh,” Taehyung replies weakly. He can see Jeongguk take a shuddering breath, hear the hitch in his throat. He’s known the younger long enough to know what’s gonna happen if he doesn’t say something like right now . “Hey, don’t cry Jeonggukie. No crying, please.”

“‘M not crying,” Jeongguk replies thickly, accompanied by a telling sniff.

“No crying,” Taehyung repeats firmly, reaching out and plucking the DS from Jeongguk’s hands and tossing it aside before pulling the younger towards him. He can feel Jeongguk shaking, sniffling every now and then but never actually crying out. There’s a wet spot on his shoulder from the tears, but he doesn’t say anything about it. “Don’t cry, Guk. There’s no reason for crying.”

“You’d cry too if your crush rejected you,” Jeongguk shoots back miserably and Taehyung pulls back, blinking confusedly.

“I didn’t reject you?”

“You didn’t say anything back.”

“I didn’t?” Taehyung’s confused. Definitely confused. He’d never reject Jeongguk in a million years. Hell, he didn’t realize he’d ever be in a position to reject his best friend.

No , you just said ‘oh’,” Jeongguk sniffs again and Taehyung reaches out to wipe the trailing tears off his cheeks.

“So the whole oh my god Jeongguk I’ve been in love with you since like fourth grade but have always been too terrified to say anything about it but rest assured I’m madly in love with you was all in my head?”

Now it’s Jeongguk who’s blinking in confusion. “ What ?”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Taehyung says blankly. “Anyway, Jeon Jeongguk, I’ve been in love with you since, like, fourth grade. I’ve always been way too terrified to say anything about it because you’re my best friend and I’d never want to decimate a friendship so good. But believe me, I’m so fucking madly in love with you.”

“Oh,” Jeongguk breathes out, before sucking in a huge breath. Taehyung watches in slow motion as his best friend’s face gets closer and closer, Jeongguk’s eyes sliding shut as he nears Taehyung and then they’re kissing. They’re kissing, and Jeongguk’s lips are so soft, as soft as Taehyung always imagined, and the hands cradling his face are so gentle despite the callouses Taehyung knows are there and Jeongguk is kissing him holy shit .

“Screw best friends, be my boyfriend?” Jeongguk asks, a small smile on his face, and he looks so cute that Taehyung can’t resist pressing another kiss against his lips.

“Hell yeah,” Taehyung replies.

They both freeze when the floorboard outside Taehyung’s room squeaks. There’s a smack and they hear Taehyung’s mom through the door, berating his father saying “goddamnit, you ruined their moment!”

“Um, mom, dad?” Taehyung calls out, and it’s silent before door is flung open to reveal his parents.

“We’re so happy for you guys!” his mom sings out while his dad stays quiet.

“If you’re so happy, can he be ungrounded a week early?” Jeongguk asks quickly, ever the opportunist.

“Nice try, hon,” Taehyung’s mom scoffs, but she’s still smiling. “Your mom is on her way to pick you up, by the way.”

“Cool,” Taehyung says, because he knows this is a lost battle. “Anyway, do you guys mind… like, leaving? Just holler when his mom is here.”

“You just want us to leave so you can make out more,” his dad accuses. Taehyung feels his face go red, and chooses to stay silent.

Jeongguk, however, doesn’t. “Yeah, exactly. I really like kissing your son.”

Taehyung’s parents laugh and walk out the door, shutting it behind them. Jeongguk snickers, and Taehyung groans in embarrassment. He feels his blush intensify when Jeongguk leans in to press another few kisses along his jaw and across his cheeks.

Maybe being grounded isn’t so bad.

Notes:

i've just been feeling super fluffy recently ok

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