Work Text:
Jungkook pressed open the door, sighing tiredly as he locked it behind himself. He’d finally gotten home at ten, an hour later than he had originally planned. The lights were off inside, the apartment dark and quiet like much of the surrounding city outside.
Taking his hat off, he hooked it on the coatrack and trudged into the living space, pulling a chair out from the dining table and plopping down heavily into it.
Jungkook loved being a policeman. He loved doing something good for the community, liked the feeling of importance and accomplishment, anticipated the action, and didn’t even mind the paper work he had to do during desk jobs.
But being a hybrid police officer could be hard. The rights of hybrids had expanded over his young lifetime, but he still noticed things in his line of work that bothered him. Hybrid officers weren’t offered as many breaks or days off by their superiors as purely human officers, and were the first to be called in to cover shifts on their off days, no matter how many hours they’d worked before that. They were also given some of the most boring or troublesome jobs.
Jungkook could handle that, of course. He was a hard worker, always had been. He did what he needed to do as efficiently as he could manage with minimal genuine complaint.
But other things took a toll on him at times. Hybriphobia was less common nowadays, but it was still somewhat prevalent, particularly in rougher areas of the city. When he faced conflict during patrols, it wasn’t uncommon for the offending persons to spit slurs and target the ears and tails of hybrid officers when in physical altercations. And at the station, people in holding cells sometimes shouted insults. Jungkook had even caught human officers whispering vile, offensive things before.
Jungkook wouldn’t trade his job for any other, but parts of it, big and small, piled up and often exhausted him.
Running a hand lazily through his hair, he pulled the strap of the duffel bag hanging at his side up over his head, wincing when the fabric scuffed a little roughly against his tall ears. Laying the bag down and reaching up to rub away the slight burn, he bent down, undoing his shoe laces and sliding each shoe off in turn before putting them away on an empty spot on the shoe rack by the front door hallway.
Collecting his bag, he shuffled across the room and down the little corridor, opening the bedroom door.
As he expected, curled up asleep in the bed was Taehyung. The elder was tucked under the duvet, the bangs of his dark hair fanning over his face and the sheets. With his mouth parted as he snoozed, little fangs peeked out, and Jungkook smiled at the sight of the tip of the elder’s striped tail twitching and bobbing like a charmed snake.
He quietly went about getting undressed, leaving his duffel bag by the door. He unbuckled his duty belt with a muffled snick of the latch and laid it down before moving on to his normal belt and untucking his uniform shirt.
By the time he was done and changed into his pajama shorts, his eyelids were drooping. He crawled into bed with a yawn, avoiding accidentally putting any weight on Taehyung’s thin, sensitive tail. He finally collapsed down beside his boyfriend, exhaling as he pressed his nose again the elder’s shoulder, grounding himself and letting himself relax into the mattress.
Taehyung stirred at the movement, a weak moan escaping him as he twisted around to look at the source of the disturbance. Eyelids shuttering sleepily and lips smacking, he peered at Jungkook. “Home?” he sleepily inquired - mumbled, really - making grabby hands.
Jungkook smiled softly. Sliding closer, he drew Taehyung’s hand to rest against the younger’s hip, leaning his head down to nuzzle against the boy’s brow. “Hi, baby. Yeah, I’m home. I missed you.”
Taehyung hummed, cuddling closer. Sometimes Jungkook swore the boy had koala DNA in him, because the elder loved to cling, and tight. “Missed you, too. H’was your shift?”
Jungkook sighed. He leaned back a little to watch the cute blinking his boyfriend was doing. Running his hand up to slide his fingers through the elder’s hair and scratch behind little round, orange and dark ears, he smiled fondly as the tiger hybrid’s eyes slid closed contently and he chuffed at the pleasurable sensation.
“Not the best,” he finally admitted. “When I first came in, Officers Choi and Jo were shit talking about hybrids again, not even bothering to shut up when I walked in, so I was already kind of in a sour mood. Then me and Yoongi-hyung got called out to a fight outside a bar a good couple of blocks away from the station. Started as an argument, they were drunk and it escalated, the usual. They were definitely rambunctious. Didn’t wanna listen to us at all, tried to fight. One of them got hold of my tail and twisted it pretty damn good. Hurt bad enough at that moment that I thought he’d broken it at first, but it’s fine, just a little sore.”
Hazel eyes cracking open, Taehyung frowned. His lips pushed into a pout as he slid his hand across Jungkook’s back until he reached his tail, tender fingers gently rubbing over the brown fur. “Bastards. Shouldn’t be badmouthing or pulling my puppy’s tail,” the elder muttered. Jungkook sniffed a grin.
“At least that dude didn’t give my ear another nick,” he reasoned, chuckling when Taehyung shuddered and nodded hard in agreement.
“I’m sorry your work is such a shitshow sometimes,” Taehyung whispered.
Jungkook frowned. “You don’t have to apologize for it, baby. I knew what I was getting into. And some rough days aren’t going to make me hate my job; I still love it. Besides, how many other hybrids get to say they were the first hybrid at their police department? Not many, but I get to.”
Taehyung laughed at his arrogant tone, fangs glinting in the weak light that filtered in from the window. Jungkook could see his eyelids drooping again, so he curled his arms around the boy, holding him snuggly against his chest. “Time to sleep, Hyung,” he murmured.
Taehyung went without protest. He pressed a messy kiss against the underside of Jungkook’s jaw, nuzzling his throat before tucking his head down against his collarbones with adorable little chuffs and half-purrs escaping him. Jungkook smiled, kissing the top of Taehyung’s head as a spindly tiger tail curled around his ankle.
“Goodnight, Hyung.”
“G’night, Kookie.”