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It had been a simple thing, really. Nothing ground breaking. There was no losing his breath. He didn't fall to his knees in realization, hadn't staggered from the weight of it all. No, no he had just. Breathed. It was a moment, a whisper of a feeling brushing past his ear. He inhaled, and existed before it. And with the breath escaping him that next moment, it had all transpired in the seconds crammed into his lungs in between. That sudden awareness that, perhaps, he was not quite the same as he was before his breath in.
A silly little crush. Breathe in, exist, linger. Fingers pressed into his knees; a worried frown pursing at his lips. Oh. Taehyung thought, as he watched Yoongi watch him. Oh. When had Taehyung even pressed himself into Yoongi's side? When had he, in all of his panicked haze, sought him out? All Taehyung could remember of before was the knots in his stomach; the anxiety pushing his shoulders down, down. It had only been a nightmare. He couldn't even remember what it was, but it had shocked him awake; pulled him from his bed. How many times had Taehyung made the trek from his room to Yoongi's? He'd lost count years ago. It had mattered years ago, when they were all trainees; awkward and hesitant around each other, even after debut. But now? Now.
Yoongi was still staring at Taehyung as he set his notebook on the bed beside him. Yoongi's glasses were slipping down his nose as he peered down at Taehyung's head on his shoulder. "Another nightmare?" Yoongi asked, voice quiet and lilted just the way Taehyung needed - just the tiniest bit like home. Just enough for Taehyung to find purchase on, to cling to when his mind felt far away. Soon there were fingers running through his hair, careful of knots, careful of being too rough. He was always so careful that it hurt. "It's alright."
Oh. Taehyung's heart hammered against his chest, and even with dreams still hovering at the edges of his mind he felt a startling clarity in that moment. He stared up at Yoongi, felt the thumb rubbing his temple, felt everything click into place. Taehyung breathed in, shaky, uneven. Before. Or maybe before had been a long time ago. Yoongi was still frowning at him. A slow, natural exhale. And there he was. The Taehyung of the present. Intensely aware, and so overwhelmingly okay with it all that it should have scared him. But then again, this was him. This was Yoongi. "I know," Taehyung said, but it felt like it meant more to the seconds-before-inhale Taehyung than the now-Yoongi. "I know, hyung."