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Jungkook had been warned about humans.
Oh, they could be fun, no selkie would dispute that. Good to spend a summer with, before slipping back into the sea and heading for warmer shores. But they wanted things a selkie wasn’t suited for. Every herd had someone with a story, someone whose human got too attached and started talking about skin.
Most of the time, a selkie would take that as a sign to get out of dodge before things turned sour. There was a whole ocean out there for a reason; it wasn’t like the human could follow you once you were in the water and heading south. Sure, they had the means, but Jungkook had never met a selkie whose human had been able to tell them apart once they were in their skin.
“Jungkook-ah!” Park Jimin is already scrambling down the stairs cut into the side of the cliff, little stones skittering in his wake. His partner follows behind him a little more sedately, although Jungkook has noticed the way his fingers dig into the old wooden handrail every time the two of them make this journey.
He doesn’t blame Taehyung for being scared. Jungkook is kind of dubious about this whole ‘gravity’ thing too.
He chuffs, dragging the heft of his body forward across the rocks as Jimin’s feet hit sand. He stumbles a little from too much momentum, and his laughter as he catches himself is like swimming through a warm current. It’s almost enough to make Jungkook forget that he’s annoyed at them.
Almost. Jimin starts to slow as they get closer, but Jungkook keeps charging forward. There’s a part of him that wonders if maybe - will there be doubt? A flicker of uncertainty? - but there’s no concerned warnings from Tae, no fear in Jimin’s voice when he skids to a stop and starts yelling.
“What are you - oh my god, Jeon Jungkook, don’t you dare!”
Jeon Jungkook does dare. His weight under his skin is more than twice as heavy than without it, and he relishes the opportunity to drop every single pound on Jimin as he tries to run back to Tae for safety. There’s a squeak of protest before Jimin is flat on the sand with Jungkook wriggling triumphantly over his body; he barks his victory at Taehyung, who has reached the bottom of the stairs and is heading towards him.
“Very impressive,” Tae agrees, a faint smile playing about his mouth. It has taken Jungkook most of this summer to learn this human’s mannerisms, but it’s worth it to know that he’s amused now.
Small human hands heave at him to no avail; Jimin is very strong for a human, but he’s got nothing on a selkie the size and age of Jungkook.
“If you don't--” Jimi wheezes, “if you don’t get off me - I’m not - gonna give you your present.”
Jungkook is already shrugging out of his skin before Jimin can finish the sentence. He ends up naked and splayed over Jimin, which is not an entirely unpleasant position to be in, even if Jimin does have pointy little knees.
“I don’t need a present,” he huffs, draping his skin over his human shoulders. Taehyung had said it looked like a cape, last week. Taehyung had called him a prince. “You’re lucky it was me. What if it was some other selkie? Or a real seal? You’d be dead, and Taehyung would be sad.”
“Oh, but you’d be fine with it?” Jimin thumbs fondly at his chin. “I knew it was you.”
Humans say things like that. Things that can’t be true, even if they insist they are. But Jungkook’s insides squirm uncertainly, seeing Jimin’s face. He just looks so soft, so sure of himself. It’s almost enough to make Jungkook think he’s the strange one for doubting, when he sees it.
“Can I come closer?” Taehyung asks politely. They’ve had their hands all over each other’s bodies before, but Tae is always very careful to maintain some sense of propriety about the situation they’ve found themselves in. Jimin rolls his eyes and says it’s because he’s a ‘scientist’, teases Tae for treating Jungkook ‘like a wild animal’, but Jungkook thinks he likes that too.
He likes both of them, Jimin’s easy affection and Taehyung’s careful admiration. That’s sort of the whole problem.
“I’m not sure,” Jungkook admits. “I’m not happy with either of you.”
Underneath him, Jimin stills. Taehyung frowns, but not like he’s mad. Jungkook thinks he might be confused, or maybe worried, and his heart sinks to his stomach like a carcass in the deep. There’s no sense in none of them being happy.
“What do you mean?” Jimin asks, shoving at his shoulders. This time, he can push Jungkook up, until they’re both seated. The good part about being out of his skin is that it gives him hands that Jimin can clutch. He winds their fingers together, and Jungkook can’t help but squeeze them.
He’s not very good with words. It’s hard for him to explain what he wants right now, what he’s missing from them.
“Did something happen?” Taehyung asks. He’s settled down in the sand nearby, legs crossed, palms on his knees. Jungkook regrets, immediately, not saying he could come closer. He wants to sit on him.
“No!” Jungkook bursts out. “No, nothing happened, and that’s the whole problem!”
Jimin and Taehyung exchange a look, the wordless language of people who have known each other for much longer than a summer. Jungkook’s heart has slipped out of his body entirely, is burying itself under the sand and attempting to return to the water. Jungkook can’t blame it, frankly.
“You haven’t asked for it,” he mumbles miserably, looking down at his hands locked with Jimin’s. It doesn’t feel right, only having one of them taken. He thrusts his arm towards Taehyung. “I like you both so much, and you haven’t even brought it up.”
Taehyung is already shuffling through the sand to reach him, but the frown hasn’t gone anywhere. Despairing, Jungkook turns to Jimin, whose pretty mouth has formed a little circle, like a fish trying to breathe.
“Your skin?” he asks. “You want us to take your skin?”
“No!” Jungkook says immediately, because that’s what he’s supposed to do. His heart, halfway between himself and the sea, pauses. “I mean - I don’t know. I want you to want it. Does that make sense?”
“You shouldn’t want that,” Jimin argues. “We can’t take your freedom from you Jungkook, it wouldn’t be fair. I’d never agree! And I’d leave Taehyungie if he did!”
“I’d support you,” Taehyung agrees. “But, Jimin-ah, I don’t think that’s what our Jungkookie means.”
It’s not, but Jimin’s little outburst does serve to provide some clarity that Jungkook had maybe been missing before. Freedom is nice and all, and he’s glad that Jimin and Taehyung want him to have it, but--
“What don’t you want me to stay with you?”
It sounds plaintive even to his ears, but - Jungkook has heard his whole life that all humans want to do is take your skin, make you stay with them forever, and it’s nearly the end of summer and his humans haven’t even mentioned how nice it would be to have him around more.
“Baby,” Jimin says. Tae picks up their conjoint hands, presses a soft kiss to Jungkook’s human skin. “Jungkookie. Of course we want to be with you, but it’s only been a summer. Even if you wanted to give up your skin voluntarily - which is the only way we’d want it, by the way - that’s a big decision.”
Jungkook feels his mouth pull down into a frown. “You don’t want to make a big decision with me?”
“We love you,” Taehyung says, simple and steady, lips still pressed to Jungkook’s hand. Jungkook’s heart is inching its way back from the show. “It’s because we love you that we couldn’t ask you to be anything else than what you are. Even if it means losing you forever.”
“Oh.” Jungkook isn’t sure what he was expecting when he swam into this conversation, but he thinks he likes what he found. He looks at Jimin, who is nodding furiously, even if they both look kind of sad about it. “Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
He mulls over it for a while, and they let him sit with it. It’s one of the things he loves most about these two humans; they don’t pressure him. They know that he likes to pick things up, turn them over and look at them from weird angles before he’s willing to commit his thoughts.
“There are more summers,” he offers finally. “We could all come back here. I can come back here. I’m here every year.”
“Baby,” Jimin says again, and Jungkook likes that so much. It makes him feel like he belongs to them.
“We’d go anywhere to find you again,” Taehyung says, and the truth of that settles in Jungkook’s chest. Right next to his heart.
(He demands his present after that. It’s a little crushed from the whole ‘lying on Jimin thing’, but Jungkook decides he’s a big fan of chocolate cake).