Work Text:
Darkness covered the fields lining the small farm. The scent of strawberries wafted over with the gentle breeze, refreshing after a day of sun and heat in the city.
There were small dots of light floating over the dark plants, mirroring the warm glow of the windows on the lower level of the house still lit.
You picked up pace and closed the last meters between you and the front door.
He opened, his backside dipped in gold, slipping over the shoulders of his cotton shirt and creating a halo in his messy hair. Had his eyebrows first been raised did they now come down, a small smile, not unkindly, taking the place of his almost-frown.
"He didn't show again?"
"He, um, texted… Said there was something. Something his Dad had asked him to do, so he… couldn't…"
Your tongue got heavier, sluggish in forming around the words, wanting to delay the ending of your clumsy sentence; hopelessly trying to cover up what was oh so very plain to see for Taehyung.
Already you could catch the way his face settled, his hands clasped beneath his chin while he watched you eating the quick dinner he'd pulled out.
The truth was you were afraid of what he might say.
You knew it was ridiculous, how Jungkook showed up, demanding all your attention for a few hours and then was gone the next day, not bothering to call to let you know he was heading to the other side of the country, unable to attend the date you'd been scheduled for. If that was what it was - it felt like it just would have been a dinner among acquaintances.
Now Taehyung's hooded eyes were laying on you heavy as a blanket, with you withering in your seat.
But he didn't say anything.
Asked if you were done -you nodded- transferred your plate into the sink and then came around the large wooden table to stand next to you.
He looked so comfy like this.
In boxershorts and a thin white shirt, lips pursed at the expression you couldn't name on your own face, one hand reaching for your cheek but settling to tug on your shirt.
"Was watching a movie before you got here. Take a shirt from my room and meet me on the couch?"
You nodded and he moved on, freeing you of his presence. The pads of his feet made soft noises on the tiled floor when he slinked away, and you followed him soon after.
The shirt was large - would be large on Taehyung, too- almost reaching the mid of your thigh.
But it was freeing, not wearing the sticky clothes from the day anymore, and you relished in the sensation of cool air around your legs when you quietly approached the couch.
You sat down on one end, folding a leg beneath you, and waited for Taehyung to resume the movie. When he didn't you turned your head, question already on your tongue until you saw his narrowed eyes.
"What are you doing?" His gaze unwavering at the distance separating you. "C'mon over here."
And he held open the arm that had lain on the backrest before.
You scooted over, tentatively settling next to him, until he tsked and pulled you closer together, thighs touching, sides leaning into each other.
He was so warm, the weight of his body familiar, and it felt so good to be here again, with him.
The movie was a colourful animation piece, with less focus on the problems plaguing you day in and out.
You guessed it had been half-finished already when you joined, but it didn't look like Taehyung was really engrossed in it.
Cuddling closer to him you tapped on one of his hands, tracing your own fingers down his until the pads of his digits, rough from work on the fields, slid over your thigh absentmindedly while his eyes followed the action on screen.
His fingers travelled higher and higher until the fabric of the shirt bunched up and his thumb hooked into the waistband of your underwear, right where it span over the bone.
His palm wasn't soft but warm, and when it came to rest on your cooled skin, held you against him, it settled your fluttering midst.
By the time the credits rolled his lips were on your neck.
The hand not busy being hooked into your underwear cradled the side of your throat that couldn't receive his love and attention just yet.
He placed slow, open-mouthed, breathy kisses from your collarbones to your cheek, diligently touching every inch of skin he could reach, never leaving a mark that would be visible in the morning.
Special attention was given to your pulse point, soft lips pressed to the spot where your heartbeat was hammering away.
Occasionally his tongue licked over a stripe of skin, causing goosebumps to race over your legs.
His breath fanned over the tingling, sensitive skin and you shuddered.
"Nng… Taehyung," You mumbled, eyes unseeing the ceiling above. He hummed against your skin, unwavering in his caress. "I really need to go pee…"
One, two, three more presses of his soft lips before he leaned back with a sigh, heady gaze connecting with yours before his hands gave you free.
You rose, but couldn't move past him without pausing to take in his face like this.
His eyes dark, looking up from under his fringe, lips plush and red and wet and so…
His palms found the back of your thighs, smoothed over the skin there, tugged you closer until he could rest his chin over your belly and stare up at you like you were someone to worship. Or to bow to.
One of your hands came up to card through his hair, enticing a sigh from him. Warmth blossomed in your middle at the sight of him leaning into your touch, the way his eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed, as if in great concentration.
When you stepped back he followed, rising to his feet with his hands never loosing contact.
They slid over the side of your legs, up, until they met with the soft flesh between hipbones and ribcage, squeezed once, held you close.
His forehead touched yours as did his nose, but you averted his searching gaze, instead rubbing over his chest through the shirt.
"How comes you're never jealous of Jungkook? You never- I always- You're always there, waiting for me, whenever he blows off. I always come to you, aren't you… unhappy... with someone's seconds? I don't… I don't deserve you, or your attention, I'm so - Why-"
A finger touching your bottom lip silenced your words, his eyes pinned on something around there when you tried to meet them.
A kiss pressed to the corner of your mouth, almost on your lips, followed by a soft sigh.
One of his hands slipped higher, brushing the first curve of a bone beneath your skin.
"Jungkook's not like me. He's a city boy, and he breathes the asphalt and glass and chrome… And he has your heart somewhere… In one of those suits his father has tailored for him, and I know you won't stay here. But I know what I have, we; us… he never will."
He walked you backwards through the room until your shoulders met with the wall, pressing featherlight kisses to your temple, your forehead, your cheek.
"Can your Jungkook do this?" He mumbled, dipping down to your neck again, and the words were vibrating on your skin when his lips already pressed against the formerly untouched skin before he could've finished his sentence.
"Does he know you like it when I-"
"Mh- Ah-ah-ah, Tae…"
You bend away from the ghost of his teeth dragging over your skin and yet held him close by his elbows, leaning into his touch as soon as he started to withdraw.
He knew you too well, knew too well how to make your knees weaken, but you loved it.
He pulled back after your fingers tightened in his hair, attempted to get him closer.
For the second time he placed his forehead against yours, but this time there was no smug look lurking in the edges of his features, no self-assurance lining his moves.
"I know what we have will end. Every time you come out to me could be the last - Once we finish Uni, there'll be no more reason for me to come to the city, and you'll no longer study with me and won't have a reason to come see me here. I know. But I'll never complain about what you give me, what you choose to show only me - I don't care if Jungkook is the one you'll end up with, I just know it won't be me, but until that day…"
His hands left your sides to come up to your face, and he cradled it so softly you were afraid of breaking him with an abrupt movement.
The pads of his thumbs touched the thin skin below your eyes, rubbed over your cheekbones.
In this moment, here and now, it felt strange to even imagine ever going this far with anyone else but the farmer's boy in your arms.
"You think I'll choose Jungkook?" You whispered, searching his face. He was still looking down, not meeting your gaze.
You had thought about it. Of course you had. But hearing it put into words, by Taehyung…
It didn't sound right.
"Why should I give up everything I have here, for someone that slips through my hands as easy as water? Why should I…"
But the questions were directed at yourself, and not Taehyung, even as you traced his features with a nimble finger.
He closed his eyes at your touch; tried to follow your movement, chased your hand and wanted more.
When you lowered it again, placed it against his heartbeat, a single tear rolled down his cheek.
"I love you." He whispered into the hair above your ear, wrapping his arms around you in a tight hug.
And then he was gone, slipping into the shadows towards the bathroom, leaving you against the wall with the quiet house surrounding you.
You had suspected it, with the way his smiles would widen or shrink a tiny bit when directed at you. With the way he was so forgiving, with how he didn't mind your intrusion of his home or privacy.
But to hear it like this.
You trailed after him and found him under the harsh white light in the bathroom, scrubbing at his teeth already.
There was your toothbrush, and Taehyung's eyes that followed your movements when you wetted the brush and put toothpaste on it flitted back to his half of the sink. Under the light, with clear defined shadows, you were both almost different people.
He left before you, without having said a word.
The door to his room was ajar, allowing the sight of him in his shirt, his shoulders broad while putting sheets on a second blanket.
You didn't hesitate when approaching.
Your arms closed around his middle, your cheek rested against his spine, and he froze in his movements.
"I love you, too." You whispered to his shirt.
You could feel his steady breathing, how the tension left his body bit by bit, until all that was left was himself.
He turned in your grasp, half a smile on his face.
"Let's go to bed."
In the darkness only a thin sliver of grey, from the diffuse light of the moon somewhere outside, showed on his skin.
"Are you going to lose this?" He mumbled, finger hooked into the shirt still covering your upper half.
Some nights you would, and some nights you wouldn't, and Taehyung knew what it meant when you shed the last layer between him and you.
You looked into the pools that were his eyes and reached for the hem of the shirt.
With your head on his pillow, the expanse of his chest before you, you reached for his hand. His fingers threaded through yours, squeezed them tightly.
"I don't want to leave in the morning." You whispered. "I don't want to be surrounded by stone and people that don't care."
"What if you'll regret it? What if you'll say 'I wish I would have gone with him instead'? There is a whole world outside. You don't have to stay behind, here."
"But the world out there doesn't have you."
He kept quiet after your last word and you tilted his face towards yours, wrapping him in slow, steady kisses that never lasted long enough. He grew impatient at some point, rolled on his side to mirror your position and buried his hand in your hair to finally keep you close.
You were alone when you woke up the next morning.
The early sun touched the mist wafting over the fields outside, where Taehyung and his parents and their helpers would be now.
His closet was full of faded shirts that had turned pastel under the unrelenting sun, and with a straw hat on top of your head you set out to find them in the countless rows, breakfast in hand.
The morning air was cool and the dewy plants around your ankles wet.
He saw you before you saw him, and he came to the end of the row, hands flecked with dirt and bits of leaves and a little bit of red from the strawberries.
"Good morning." He said, voice low but with a smile on his face.
"Good morning." You said back, leaning forward and placing a smooch on the corner of his mouth - almost not on his cheek anymore.
He grinned into the affectionate kiss, grabbed your head and pressed one of his own kisses on your cheek, uncaring about his dirty hands.
Your muffled protest fell on deaf ears, but it was nice to have the warmth of his body against yours in the morning cold.
"Screw city people." You said quietly, head leaned against Taehyung's shoulder in his break.
His arm around your middle tightened, and the hum he gave off when his second hand held your head in a hug close to you, radiated happiness.