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Christmas can make even the busiest of cities seem frozen in time, the falling snow the only thing that hints at the seconds ticking by. Taehyung can walk around and admire all of the pretty lights and decorations and imagine that he’s in his own personal snow globe scene, just for a moment.
Yet, like the snow, some things never stop. And so, Taehyung finds himself working Christmas evening.
He remembers being disappointed when his father used to be scheduled to work on Christmas. Imagines how sad it must be to sit at an office cubicle typing away as the world is frozen around you. Especially when that day could be spent embracing the warmth that always comes with being home and with loved ones.
He’s not mad at the fact that he has to work, though. Crime doesn’t wait for anything, he supposes.
At least he doesn’t have to be cramped up in some boring office. At least he’s still able to watch as the lights of Christmas displays flicker on and off, as the snow continues to fall, not leaving a single inch of sidewalk uncovered.
It’s cold, but the excitement all around the city leaves Taehyung’s insides all warm.
He’s veered away from his normal patrolling route to take a more scenic route through a shopping plaza. All of the stores on either side of this street are decorated so brightly that he almost misses the flash of light in the corner of his eye.
Taehyung whips his head around, eyes scanning around, listens carefully for the crunch of boots on snow.
There’s barely anyone else around, everyone else either settled at home with their families or locked up inside working. Everything is decorated so heavily with lights that he fears he’s missed what he’s looking for already.
Then, from behind the giant tree in the middle of the shopping square, a streak of light shoots up from above it. Taehyung follows it with his eyes and finds the masked ones he’s stared down so many times before.
Flying above the tip of the tree, feathered wings spread out behind him, is the man Taehyung’s been chasing down for weeks.
“Ah, V!” He calls out from above. His voice rivals the brightness of the lights around them. “I didn’t expect to meet you here. No Christmas off, it seems.”
“Angel.” Taehyung straightens, doesn’t flinch when he watches him dive down to land just feet away. “I don’t suppose you’re up to anything tonight, are you?”
Angel genuinely smiles at that. Taehyung can’t help but be taken aback by how much it reminds him of the twinkling displays behind him. He takes a step closer, Taehyung takes a step back. He takes another two steps, pulling Taehyung closer before he can move away.
“Actually,” he starts, “I was thinking we could do something special today. It’s Christmas, after all.”
“And what you’re thinking is…?” Taehyung tries to step away again, but Angel’s grip grows tighter around his waist. He has half a mind to actually fight back, but he can’t help but be curious. They’ve never gotten this close for so long before.
“I’m calling a truce. Just for tonight.” Taehyung can’t help but raise an eyebrow at that. Angel laughs. “What? Can’t a villain enjoy Christmas as well?”
A second later, he finally pushes away from Angel’s hold, still on guard for whatever he might pull next. Then, there are vines growing out from underneath the tree, jumping out to wrap around Angel’s wrists and ankles from behind.
“Oh, V! Not going to lie, I didn’t think you had this in you.” Angel playfully pulls at the vines, as if he’s the one that has Taehyung trapped instead. “This doesn’t seem much like a truce, though.” He pouts his lips at Taehyung.
Taehyung narrows his eyes at him. Angel has a way with words, knows how to use them to get people exactly where he needs them. Anything he says could have some hidden motive.
“Tell me something, then.” Taehyung crosses his arms. “Tell me something to show you’re serious, and then maybe I’ll let you go.”
Angel hums at that. Taehyung can almost sense the vibration of it through the vines.
“I don’t feel like hurting anyone today, flowerboy. The Christmas spirit really seems to have gotten to me this year.” His wings flutter a little bit. Taehyung’s noticed that to be something reflexive. It happens enough times that he doesn’t even know what it’s a reflex to.
Taehyung waits for him to continue, though he seems to be content with standing there all tied up. Taehyung distracts himself by studying the ornaments decorating the tree behind him.
“Call me Jimin. Just for tonight.”
It’s so sudden that Taehyung doesn’t think he’s heard it correctly the first time.
“What?”
“Jimin. That’s my name. I want you to use it when you talk to me tonight.” Angel (Jimin?) seems serious about this. Taehyung’s so surprised that he’s just admitted his name to him that the vines retreat all by themselves as he continues to stare.
Angel walks back up to him. Tilts his head.
“So, what do you say? How about we hit the town?” He extends a gloved hand.
Taehyung really knows he shouldn’t, but his biggest rival had just admitted his real name to him. He doesn’t find any malice on his face—the mask makes it hard to tell, but he thinks his eyes are as earnest as he’s ever seen them.
Well, it is Christmas, he reasons with himself.
He takes his hand, narrows his eyes at Angel.
“You better not pull any shit. If you do, I’ll make you regret it… Jimin.” Even to himself, he sounds so unsure, but Jimin simply laughs. He seems to be amused by this whole situation.
“Don’t worry about a thing. I promise I won’t destroy any buildings or cause anyone any pain.” He pulls Taehyung close again with a smile. “Tonight, there’s no fighting. Just us and the lights. I’ve always wanted to see the city lights from above with someone else, you know.”
And before Taehyung can say anything, Jimin leaps, an audible whoosh of his wings sounding out. And then, they’re flying.
┈┈┈┈․° ✽ °․┈┈┈┈
Jimin finally lands them on the rooftop of one of the taller office buildings in the city. Taehyung’s stomach continues to churn around even after he has both feet planted against solid flooring. He allows himself to crouch down, with his head to his knees as he takes a few deep breaths. Jimin’s laugh rings out from above him the entire time.
As Taehyung continues to breathe through his nose and out through his mouth, he thinks about how he’s never heard Jimin laugh like this ever before. As Angel, there was always some sort of cunning edge to it. As Jimin, he allows himself to let everything out in something closer to a guffaw than his normal evil chuckling while he continues to enjoy Taehyung’s suffering.
Taehyung squeezes his eyes shut to make the world stop spinning, and sees twinkling lights as Jimin keeps laughing.
It takes a few minutes, but Taehyung finally feels steady enough to stand back up. He glares at Jimin, who is wiping away at tears from laughing so hard.
“You probably enjoyed that, didn’t you?”
“Of course!” Jimin holds off from laughing then, but still continues to break out into a few giggles.
Taehyung watches him walk along the edge of the rooftop without any fear, continuing to giggle to himself as he sits down. Jimin allows his legs to dangle over the city as he leans back to rest on his hands.
“You know,” Jimin says, staring off into the distance. “My parents used to take my brother around to see all of the lights every Christmas when we were younger. Obviously, we stopped, but it was nice. Back when things were simpler.”
Taehyung walks closer to the ledge but doesn't dare to sit like Jimin does. The view is still nice from where he’s standing, he reasons to himself.
“I would help my mom and grandma in the kitchen while my other siblings helped our dad decorate the living room.” Taehyung laughs just thinking back to then. “There was never a quiet moment in that house.”
Jimin nods at that, and Taehyung almost starts laughing at the absurdity of this whole situation.
He’s watching as the city lights shine through the night while snow continues to fall, talking to his evil nemesis as if he's an old friend. Taehyung still has bruises all over his back from when Jimin had sent him flying through an alley just last week.
Not even minutes ago he was actually flying with Jimin.
“What’s on your mind, flowerboy?” Jimin asks, still eyeing the city lights. “You're thinking pretty loudly over there.”
Taehyung shrugs. Then, he realizes Jimin isn't looking at him and didn't see him shrug, looks down at his boots.
“Nothing, it's just—What’s different today? Why not just cause more trouble?”
“Even I get tired sometimes.” He can hear Jimin sigh from here, sees his breath rise up in a little cloud. “Besides, what better time to hang out with my favorite hero than Christmas day?” Jimin jokes, turning to him with a smile.
“Am I not the only hero you know?” Taehyung decides that he can let himself get comfortable around Jimin—not just Angel, or someone he’s only known in fights and clashes, but Jimin, maybe just this once. “I thought we had something special.”
“I’ve met a few others, but not as much as I meet with you.”
“Oh really? Who?”
“Well, there’s RM.” Jimin holds out a finger. “He’s very… steady, knows how to hold his ground. He gets a little boring sometimes, though.” Jimin holds out a second finger. “Then there’s Hope.” Jimin laughs at whatever memory must have popped up. “He was fun. Don't really know what he’s up to now, though.”
“I think he's actually away on a personal trip,” Taehyung says without thinking. He really is just casually talking to Jimin like this, and he's actually not having a bad time. He’s relaxed, barely on guard. Like this, he can almost pretend they haven’t had multiple near death experiences at the hands of the other.
Taehyung shakes his head to stop his thoughts.
Jimin makes a noise of acknowledgement. “I see.” He taps his fingers to his lips, pursing them while he thinks. “Who am I missing, there was one more… Oh! Golden? Is that his name? Oh, he was absolutely adorable. Like a little puppy, maybe. But he was pretty strong too, made a nice fight.”
“What about me makes me your favorite, then?” Taehyung doesn’t know where the question comes from, but it’s too late to take it back now.
Jimin’s wings flutter in place again. Taehyung thinks he should try and figure out what makes them do so, maybe it’d help later on.
“Well, you’re fun to tease, for one. You give me nice reactions, makes me feel like I’m actually that big of a deal,” Jimin says. The tone of his voice suggests he’s smiling, but he’s currently focused on a particularly bright set of decorations outside a department store, and Taehyung still doesn’t want to step too close to the ledge in order to look at him properly.
“Maybe you just like the attention.”
Jimin huffs out a laugh at that. “Maybe I do.” He hums again as he continues to think. Taehyung is starting to like the noise more and more.
“Second, you have your own style. Compared to everyone else, your moves are pretty unpredictable. It gives me a kick. No fight with you is the same. I like that.”
Taehyung’s never been told anything like that before. Probably because he never actively tries to talk to the people he fights, but still. It’s nice to know that someone really notices him and what he does to the point where they can talk about it like Jimin does.
“Another thing would probably be your voice.”
He blinks at that. “My voice?”
“Yeah.” Jimin finally looks away from the city, spinning around so quickly Taehyung is worried that he’ll fall off the building.
He shouldn’t be worried. It would be a good thing for him to have gotten rid of Jimin. Besides, Jimin can fly, it wouldn’t have led to anything bad, anyway.
Jimin starts talking again, breaking him away from his thoughts.
“There’s something about your voice. Alluring, maybe?” Jimin tilts his head, his eyes still a little lost in thought. “Not annoying for me to hear over and over again at all. It’s very recognizable, too. That makes it easy to know when it’s you yelling at me to stop doing bad things. I’d think I’d be able to recognize it anywhere, at this point.”
“Oh.” Taehyung’s kind of dumbfounded. He didn’t expect his voice of all things to be on this list Jimin apparently has of reasons why he’s his favorite hero. He didn’t think Jimin had put any thought into having a favorite hero in general. “Thanks. I guess.”
“Consider this a Christmas present. Me choosing to admire the lights over inciting violence all over the city on this very fine Christmas night.” Jimin says. He seems comfortable here. Taehyung wonders if he does this often.
“It’s a shame I didn’t prepare you a present, Jimin. This really has been surprisingly pleasant.” Taehyung admits.
“Don’t worry about it. Your company was nice enough. I never knew how nice you were to talk to when you aren’t trying to tear my head off.”
Taehyung laughs at that. “Same to you.” He looks around the rooftop, his eyes catching on some weeds growing in between the cracks on the ground. Walking toward them, he wills a flower to bloom next to them. He gives the flower a silent apology as he plucks it from the crack, twirling it around in his fingers as he approaches Jimin.
“Here. A proper Christmas present, even when we’ll probably be back here fighting to the death again next week.”
Jimin smiles. “That’s just how things are, I guess. You on one side and me on the other.” He takes the flower from Taehyung’s hand and Taehyung finds that his fingers are unexpectedly warm when they brush his own.
“I guess so.”
They stand like that for a while. Like this, Taehyung learns that Jimin is actually a little bit shorter than him. It’s a little dark being so high above the rest of the city lights, but Taehyung thinks Jimin might be staring at him as well.
“Well, I think this was pretty nice. Thanks for spending the night with me, flowerboy.”
“You’re welcome. Though be prepared for me to kick your ass the next time we meet.” Taehyung says, a mix of a threat and a joke. Jimin smiles back.
Then, Jimin slips his mask off, which manages to surprise Taehyung even more than when he’d shared his name.
“Jimin—” Taehyung really doesn’t know what to do right now. It’s dark, yes, but he’s close enough that he can take in almost every detail of Jimin’s face. He feels like he’s violating some sort of hero-villain code just by looking, but he can’t tear his eyes away.
“V, you wanna know a secret?” Jimin seems to be enjoying this a lot. Taehyung’s still so surprised that all he manages is a small nod. “I can do more than just fly and light up.”
Before Taehyung can even question what he means by that, Jimin grabs his cheeks and pulls him into a kiss.
For a moment, Taehyung is frozen, eyes wide as Jimin continues to kiss him.
He’s kissing Jimin, who is Angel, who is the villain he’s been fighting for weeks. Or more like he’s being kissed by the villain he’s been fighting for weeks. He’s being kissed by Jimin. He’s being kissed, until he chooses to ignore all the voices of reason and the sirens going off in his head to kiss back.
And now he’s kissing Jimin.
It’s slow. That’s the first word that comes up. Taehyung wraps his arms around Jimin’s waist and it's slow and sweet and maybe this is actually why they call Jimin ‘Angel’.
He doesn't know whether it's seconds or minutes until they pull apart. All he knows is that now he's been left breathless and when he looks up into Jimin’s eyes there might as well be a city’s worth of lights hidden inside.
What he also knows is that he's tired. As if all his exhaustion from the day has been holding off on him only to slam into him with full force right now. Taehyung sways on his feet, feels warm hands on his arms as they steady him. Opens his eyes, except he hadn’t realized they had fallen shut in the first place.
“Thanks again for the flower, V.” Jimin’s voice is soft and smooth, yet it’s the only thing that properly cuts through this haze of tired he’s found himself in. “You’re gonna get home all nice and safe, yeah? You can’t sleep just yet.” He faintly registers Jimin readjusting his hold on him into something more secure.
For a second Taehyung is weightless, feels just the slightest bit more awake as cold wind cuts at his face. Then he hears Jimin grunt as his feet hit ground again.
“Thanks again,” Jimin tells him. “See you next week.” Taehyung doesn’t know why he seems so calm about all of this, wishes he could look at him and try and figure out what he’s thinking, his eyelids are closing all by themselves and when he opens his eyes, he can’t seem to focus on anything for long.
He blinks open his eyes one more time, and there’s a bright light right in front of him. As he watches it, he feels awake enough to follow as it leads him through the snow filled streets.
Jimin watches as Taehyung stumbles his way home, supposes that he’s done enough good tonight alone to last him through next year. He spins the flower in his hands as he turns the other way. V would be touched to know that he didn’t take the chance to follow him home, he thinks.
┈┈┈┈․° ✽ °․┈┈┈┈
Taehyung wakes up easily. There’s barely any feeling of sleep left to leave his eyes sticky and heavy. He’s not as cold as he usually is when he wakes up in the morning, either. As he stares up at the ceiling, he tries to remember the nice dream he just had.
He tries, only remembers Christmas lights and what he thinks is a kiss. He laughs to himself at that. He hasn’t had the time for dating for a while, and gave up hookups a little bit ago. Maybe this is a sign that he should find someone already.
Sitting up, he stretches a little bit. After, he pulls up his shirt to check his bruising.
He thanks the higher beings that he didn’t run into anyone last night. He doesn’t want to know how much worse off he’d be right now if he did. Thinks of it as a little Christmas gift that he got to relax a little bit.
Washing up wakes Taehyung up properly, though now he finds that he can’t really remember anything from his dream except this lingering warmth in his chest.
As he begins to water some of his plants, he checks his phone to find that he has most of the day free. Right then he decides that he’ll take himself out to the cafe that Jeongguk had told him about in the afternoon.
The cafe is lovely. Taehyung comes to that conclusion the second he walks in. The scent of coffee isn’t too overbearing, paired with the scent of pastries and sugar that follow him all the way to the small table he sits at after ordering.
Taehyung appreciates the assortment of hanging plants the cafe has as decoration, begins to sketch them in his journal as he waits for his order.
As he moves on to draw in the stray cat that’s been napping right outside the window, someone comes up to his table.
What he expects to see when he looks up is one of the workers he saw at the counter bringing him the chocolate bun and tea he’d ordered. What he does not expect is someone who looks like a star had fallen and blessed a mother with a child.
“Sorry to bother,” the man in front of him starts. His voice is soft, somehow it reminds Taehyung of the city lights at night, the way they seem like their own night sky when you look from above. “But there’s no other seats available. Would it be okay if I sit here while I wait?”
There’s something familiar about him that Taehyung can’t seem to pinpoint. Like he’d at least seen this person somewhere before.
“Yeah, of course. I don’t mind.” The man practically lights up at Taehyung’s words. Not just in gratitude, though. There’s something else in his eyes that Taehyung can just almost place.
“Thank you so much.” Taehyung watches as he sits down without making a sound. “I’m Jimin.”
Now that he’s sitting, Jimin seems to already be comfortable with him. “Taehyung,” he replies. Jimin smiles again, even brighter this time.
Taehyung thinks he might go crazy with how familiar this man is. He feels like he’s seen all of this before. The way he talks, the way he smiles, the way he moves. He knows how common of a name Jimin is, but he almost knows that there’s something important he’s missing. If he had that one piece, he’d be able to put everything together.
Maybe he’s just having one big deja vu moment.
“Sorry, I don’t know if this will sound weird, but, have we met before? You just seem really familiar,” Taehyung says, all in one breath. He doesn’t know if he would be able to ask if he didn’t ask now.
Jimin tilts his head, looks at Taehyung with an intensity that he knows he’s seen somewhere else.
“I don’t think so? I really don’t go out much and I only moved here a little bit ago.” Jimin laughs and Taehyung thinks he sees the stars twinkling above him. “But maybe, we could get to know each other?” He presents his offer as a question, as if he was afraid of coming off too strong. Taehyung doesn’t think he’d ever think that.
“Yeah, I think I’d like that.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Taehyung clears his things off the table as a worker drops off his order, thanking them as they walk away. “How about you stay here after your order comes, and we can talk over some nice cafe food?”
Jimin beams. “That sounds great.”
They end up leaving the cafe with each other right as the sun sets, spending even longer walking around to admire the leftover Christmas lights as it begins to snow.