Archive of Our Own

The thing is, Yoongi has never especially loved fishing. 

It’s one of those sports that he’s not sure how it’s even been called a sport to begin with because it is, as much as an amateur like him can tell, 90% based on luck. You cast a hook out into the sea with a little nugget of something tasty on it in the hope that a fish will be dumb enough to bite. If you catch it, half the time you throw it back in again. It’s an odd sport. He’d rather be throwing hoops where he has some control over the outcome.

Seokjin though, positively lights up when it’s ass o clock of the morning, freezing in temperatures he’d normally complain about and pulling up seaweed from the depths of the ocean in the hope that it’s edible. Even when it is only the seaweed and no fish, he looks so delighted with the entire process. 

And it’s enough to make Yoongi think twice, give this whole fishing thing another try after he does it once and files it away to ‘not awful but not great’ as an experience.

“The gulls make me feel small.”

So he’s sat on a boat, in two coats and many more layers underneath, holding onto his rod in the hope that something will bite whilst he’s zoning out at sea, when Seokjin starts talking. He’s mostly been doing to same as Yoongi for the last half an hour. And honestly this might be the reason he’s come back fishing again.

“They sound angry.”

“They’d peck us to death, if they needed to. They’ve got it in them.”

“It’s in the eyes.”

“Hmm.”

It’s a load of fucking nonsense. And Yoongi really misses it since they broke up from being eternal roommates. Broke up makes it sound like a relationship. It wasn’t in the traditional sense, but it was a relationship and perhaps you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. 

He’d never want to admit that. Maybe he’d admit to Seokjin himself, but not to anyone else. It’s an eternal roommate thing. 

Yoongi loves having his own room. There’s nights he’s not sure how the hell he shared a room with one person, let alone many. It feels good to breathe and not hear someone else breathe back sometimes. Nice to decide on the temp of the A/C without wondering if it’ll be too cold for a certain somebody who’s always shivering and pouting cutely because Yoongichi, he’s so cold. 

But there’s the talks they used to have some nights when neither of them could sleep. There’s silences they used to share, and yeah, Yoongi misses them. 

For some reason, he’s discovered that being on a trawler out at sea doing a ‘sport’ with Seokjin feels the same. Like a little bit of that eternal roommate magic has come back in the shape of Seokjin telling him that gulls are murderous. 

So Yoongi likes fishing too. 

--

Neither of them are anywhere near what you’d call good at fishing. If you asked Yoongi, he’d tell you that they’re both reasonably bad at it. They get tiny fish when they’re lucky and caught on a rock with a snapped line when they’re not. 

If fishing were a real sport, both Yoongi and Seokjin would be at the bottom of the league. 

Yoongi tells Seokjin this just because he knows he’s going to find it fucking hilarious. He’s rewarded with a laugh that goes through his whole body, laugh too loud for six in the morning but Yoongi’s smile is too big for six in the morning too, so what’re you gonna do about it when it works so naturally like this. 

“How many leagues at the bottom of the sea Yoongi-yah!”

“Twenty thousand.”

“Wow, that seems pretty high up. What did I catch to get me there?”

“The tin can. You get twelve points for a tin can.”

“I’m gonna get another tin can.”

“Go Team Kim Seokjin.”

He doesn’t get another tin can (getting the first one had been a delight in itself), but they do manage another couple of tiny fish, and the guys who actually own the boat and know what they’re doing catch enough decent fish to let them both get in on having sashimi for breakfast. 

Yoongi’s busy eating it, sat close to Seokjin for body heat, knobbly knees from them both knocking together periodically and Seokjin holding out morsels of fish for Yoongi to wordlessly eat. He’s mostly wondering if fishing is actually a sport if there’s people out there who’ve just been fishing in the same part of the ocean to them, from the same boat, who can actually catch something. He’d been thinking it’s all luck, but nobody is that lucky.

He’s going to get a book. Find out the mysterious art to it. There’s got to be some kind of logical sense to it.

At this point a gull lands on the window right behind them both and cries out so loudly that Yoongi finds himself clinging to Seokjin in fright, fingers wrapping around his arm and shoulder because there’s plenty of that to hide behind. Seokjin’s hands are clutching onto his zip up jacket in return as if Yoongi might save them both.

Unlikely, because all Yoongi manages is to scream back at them. “Fucking gulls!” 

“See? They’re going to eat us! What did I tell you!”

The other men on the boat look on in bemusement. Undoubtedly entertained by the strange idols they’ve allowed onto their vessel who cling to one another and can’t catch anything, but if they think Yoongi’s going to pay any attention to them, they’re sadly mistaken. He’s been weird most of his life. Some manly fishermen will just have to deal with him and his friend being friendly. They both deal with it by brushing down their jackets, hair and going back to eating in silence for a while again.

“I still say they make me feel small. They only see a small part of the world. Which makes me a small part of it.”

Yoongi doesn’t entirely follow. Chews for a bit longer and takes a sip of water whilst he thinks.

“Shouldn’t it make you bigger? A smaller world, you’re a bigger part of it.”

“No. If you think about it....they’re up high. To them, we’re the ants. Stuck to roads and paths when they can go anywhere.”

“I didn’t think of it like that. Interesting.”

“Makes them more destructive.”

Given the heart attack the gulls have already given them, Yoongi finds himself nodding in agreement with a hum. He doesn’t give it much thought until a couple of days later either, watching the birds fly around outside their apartment complex through the windows.

They’re small. But they’re roaming around their world as if it’s their world and they own it all. They can swoop down low to the people on the ground or fly up to Yoongi’s eye level. He thinks he gets it then. Gulls can make you feel very small, can make you question what you’re doing in their world.

He messages Seokjin to let him know this, despite him being in the room next door. Texting doesn’t require moving, and that’s something they both can appreciate.

Seokjin doesn’t reply but the next morning whilst they’re both sipping on coffee leaning against the kitchen counter in silence, there’s a caw from some birds outside that turns both their heads. Seokjin reaches out one of his long, well manicured fingers and gently taps Yoongi on the temple in a way that makes him blink and pay attention. He taps his own temple again after.

Ah. They understand one another. 

Yoongi nods.

--

“You ever imagine what it’s like to be a fish?”

At least the sun’s out today. They’re a bit later setting out than usual, and it’s warm enough out that Yoongi can even wear shorts even on a breezy boat. Shorts and a healthy layer of sunscreen, he knows himself better than anyone else. Seokjin’s gone the other way, deciding that sweatpants are still needed but he’s actually taken off his jacket to show off the ratty old white t shirt he’s put on underneath. Somehow, even with the wind blowing his hair in every direction and with a pair of sunglasses on borrowed from a member of the crew that age him twenty years, he still looks infuriatingly good. 

Happiness suits him too. Seokjin’s bucket has a single decent sized fish in it and when he actually had a bite, started reeling it in, the whole boat came out to watch. Everyone smiled, including Yoongi, gifting his Hyung with a round of applause because he deserved it. He’d been really patient for that catch. 

They’re back playing the waiting game again. Yoongi has tried not to gloat that having actually read up on fishing now and slightly upped his skill levels, he has two decent size fish and a tiny one. He tried not to gloat. He keeps accidently mentioning it. 

“I imagine the world in the air seems a lot like the ocean seems to us. It’s too much for them to explore.”

He’s thought about it before and the answer is easy. The answers are always easy when it’s Seokjin. Treading the line somewhere between genuinely thoughtful and insightful into life, or just plain silly. Yoongi thinks his mood today is the first one. He’s not quite so loud, a little soft around the edges. 

Not being rude, but Seokjin’s mood simply seems genuine today. No bells and whistles attached to it. 

Seokjin had almost shyly asked if he’d wanted to come out fishing rather than telling him that he ought to come out. And Yoongi had said yes on all occasions because it’s Seokjin, asked or told that he’s going to come out. Nobody else seemed interested in coming out with him, and it seems a shame to him. They’re missing out on Yoongi’s favourite part of one of his best friends. 

He’s settled on that as summing Seokjin up. A person who just gets him and accepts him. Best friend, eternal roommate. It doesn’t mean he loves any of the others any less, it’s just that over the years it feels like his and Seokjin’s edges have eroded around one another until there’s none. It’s a comforting thought.

More comforting than the topic of conversation, though it’s getting more entertaining.

“But without hooks coming down from the sky. Can you imagine that, as a fish? Sometimes you’re minding your own business, but then this giant piece of metal hangs above you with your favourite food on.”

For better or for worse, Yoongi finds himself imagining it. Like some sort of Dali painting, imagined by Kim Seokjin.

“Do you think they know it might kill them?”

“Some of them might. The ones that keep eating the bait, the really smart ones.” Seokjin’s lips curl up into a grin even if he’s still looking out across the ocean, both of their hands mimicking the other as they try to stir some interest up from the fish by wiggling their rods. “Yoongi-yah, imagine a hook the size of your head came down from the sky right now and it’s got grilled meat on it.”

“It’s on a hook, I’m not biting.”

“You might be able to sort of, nibble around it.”

“Why would a hook come down from the sky though?”

“That’s what the fish think too. But it’s tempting, when you don’t have to cook it yourself isn’t it?”

“I’d risk it, if it was lamb.”

“Hook’s kind of like a skewer.”

“Exactly.”

Yoongi spends the rest of the fishing trip pondering if he really would go for it. Seokjin keeps holding the hooks up to his eye and he thinks he’s probably trying to figure how big they’d be, what it would really look like to be offered possibly deadly food.  

A real thought provoker.

--

Yoongi’s trying not to grin too hard. But there’s a huge fish dangling off his line and it feels like justice because everything else about today’s trip has kinda sucked. Getting stuck on the shore, not sure if the water was too choppy out. The rain that keeps trying to lash at them both, but never long enough to make them give up. The way it probably is too choppy out and Yoongi’s stomach does keep doing some churns that don’t bode well.

Hoseokie would have been violently sick by now. Probably within the first five minutes after departure. It might be a good thing that nobody else has ever seen through the puppy dog eyes and pouts that Seokjin gives them. 

There’s still a huge fish on the end of his line despite the bad day, and a body barrelling against his, grabbing him in for a hug and jumping him around. Seokjin’s face, ruddy red from the cold and the wind, beaming at him less than an inch away.

“Look at that! It’s huge! It’s a feast!”

They both pause to marvel at it. The wriggle, the shine of it’s scales. That weird feeling that comes from knowing that within the next hour it’ll be on his plate. But the mastery that he caught it. 

“It’s the best one yet.”

“Best yet? Yoongichi, this is huge, this is enough to keep me full all day!”

“It’s not that big hyung.”

“Yoongichi, it’s enough to keep me full for a week! It might be enough to feed us all for weeks. It might be enough to feed JK for a month!”

He’s cold, wet, bone tired and laughing. The sort where he can feel the wind touch his gums as if to tell him that it’s such a huge smile he’s lost his lips and he’s laughing. Bone tired, but laughing down to the same bones.

“Maybe not Jungkookie. Anyone but him.”

God, it’s what he needed. Somehow this stupid sport is exactly what he needed to relax away from a schedule that’s been never ending lately and a pressure that doesn’t seem to stop building. You’d think spending most of your time staring into the depths of the ocean hoping for a bite would give time to think, but it feels more like meditating.  

Yoongi doesn’t find himself thinking about his worries on a trawler. He finds himself mostly sitting zoning out with his friend. The companionship he thinks has a lot to do with it. If he was alone he’d drift into his thoughts, but instead he stays present. Listens, passes comment on the weather, on how different reels on rods work and what new ones Seokjin wants to buy and try out. 

He shouldn’t be happy. When they’re sat down eating his catch, huddled next to a heater and Seokjin pointing his phone at him to video it all, he shouldn’t be happy. 

He pulls his best grumpy Yoongi-hyung face knowing that it’s going to go to the other guys. 

“Here he is! The fishing champion, eating his victory!”

He shouldn’t be happy, but he’s really, really happy right then. Camera pointed at him and big idiotic smile of the man behind it beaming at him, it’s hard not to be. 

--

“Where’s Jin-hyung?”

“Bed?”

“No. He left really early this morning, I thought he might have gone out with you. He mentioned fishing.”

It’s odd. Because Yoongi hasn’t heard anything about it and he’s always the first to hear about it, not Taehyung. Taehyung seems to accept the shoulder shrug and move on, but there’s a swooping feeling in the pit of his stomach that doesn’t move on in the same way. It’s a mild irritation. It’s a bit of jealousy. It’s worry that makes him – not chew his finger nails. He finds one of Jungkook’s hair ties and fiddles with that instead.

He’s not around for when Seokjin does come back. When he gets back late that night himself though, Seokjin’s jacket is hanging on the back of the chair and he knows it’s weird but he finds himself bringing the sleeve to his nose and sniffing it. It’s Seokjin’s fishing jacket and it smells like the trawler. 

That’s just...really sad. 

So Yoongi shuffles his tired self off to their rooms, knocking on Seokjin’s door and shuffling in to sit on his bed once there’s an OK. He thought he was going to do that anyway, but instead he lays down over the top of it, head relaxing into the pillow. It’s too tempting, the bed looked too comfortable. 

Seokjin’s gaming, in the zone but still paying attention. Subtle hints, like his eyes flickering to look at the reflections on the screen and turning the volume down a couple of notches.

“How was fishing hyung?”

Tries to hide the little infliction of hurt in his voice.

“It was good. I didn’t get a lot, but it was good.” 

There’s a tiny smile, but not a full one.

“You didn’t invite me.” No point in pretending this isn’t the subject Yoongi figures, carefully watching as Seokjin sucks in a small breath and bites his bottom lip. It’s a subject and they’re best friends who work through problems, not avoid them. 

“You don’t like fishing really, I didn’t want to make you come.”

“Who says I don’t want to come?”

“Well, you said it yourself, you don’t really like fishing, I saw it on the show. You don’t have to do things like that for me.”

Ah. Yoongi remembers being interviewed and feeling relaxed, in a good mood, had mentioned the whole thing about fishing being something he does because Seokjin likes it. It isn’t a lie. He isn’t going to plan a trip without him any time soon, but it doesn’t erase that he goes because Seokjin likes it. 

Seokjin sounds a little small and hurt himself. But it makes Yoongi make the tiny smile now. Neither of them move, Seokjin still focused on the screen and Yoongi with his eyes going fuzzy around the edges laid on the bed. 

“Don’t be a big head. I don’t really get anything out of fishing, but I like going with you – the experience. You like it. And I like spending time with you. So invite me next time, it kind of hurts when you don’t.”

Seokjin’s ears are red and his answer doesn’t come for several breaths. Just the tapping of keys and 8bit of his game music floating through the air. Yet Yoongi’s not uncomfortable, closing his eyes and treating it as one of their many conversations that used to happen in their room, sometimes going minutes, nearly hours between answers. They both need time sometimes.

“OK. I like going with you more. I’m sorry.” There’s more, even if a couple of minutes stretch out. “It kind of hurt me to think you were pitying me.”

“I pity how bad we are at fishing, that’s as far as it goes. I’m sorry too.” He doesn’t want to move. The bed feels really comfortable, but forces himself to his feet, glancing over at the figure at the screen. “Invite me next time hyung.”

Just for the extra clarity really. So he can’t find any way to question it. 

Seokjin’s cheek hitch up in a genuine smile.

“You got it, soulmate.”

It’s the new term he’s added to their arsenal recently and Yoongi finds that he doesn’t hate it. If anything, it feels right and he isn’t one to question anything that feels right. 

--

With the date of Yoongi’s shoulder surgery fixed, they plan one last trip out to sea. It’s one of the few things they’re still allowed to do, so long as it’s pre-planned and the crew is deemed to be safe. It doesn’t quite feel like the same freedom like before, but once they’re out again, they’re both glad they’ve done it.

Not that either of them say as much. Yoongi just knows it. It’s a sort of telepathy, even if it’s been a relatively quiet trip. They’ve got a fish a piece, and the waters are calm. Seokjin’s leant against the rails to the front of the boat, gazing out into the empty beyond like it might hold life’s answers.

Or just the answer to this.

“Yoongi-yah, you played The Sims didn’t you?”

“A little.”

“Did you ever make someone drown in a swimming pool by taking away the ladders?”

To be honest Yoongi played The Sims more to design rooms than to play with the avatars, so he tells him as much. “But everyone has done that.”

“If this boat capsized, it’d be just like that. A swimming pool with no ladders.”

It’s given with no infliction, but it makes Yoongi come to sidle up against Seokjin at the rail, leaving his own fishing gear to see if being away from it makes the fish want to come and play. Feels right to be by your friend when the thoughts are morbid sounding, even if he doesn’t feel like they’re  intended that way. 

“Maybe, but we have life jackets. We’d stay afloat for a while.”

Somehow that feels more profound too even if it’s not intended that way.

“You ever wonder, what if we’re just a big game like that. Not God but...this whole world is someone’s play thing. What if I only do what I do, because I’m programed that way. What if I say what I say because someone told me to?”

It’s too deep to answer right away, so Yoongi checks on his line first before he comes back. Deep and a little scary even if he doesn’t believe in it. But then the world can be scary sometimes. So he reaches out and digs his hand into Seokjin’s pocket, where he finds three heat packs and one soft warm hand to wrap his own around.

If he knew all those heat packs were in there he would have done it an hour ago.

“If that’s the case, then I’m programmed too.”

“They couldn’t control you...” He’s pleased to see Seokjin’s lips curl up into a little smile. “But you kind of look like you’re waiting for instructions sometimes.”

“Yeah yeah. I’m glad I’ve been programmed to be with you anyway. Somebody has to keep you in check.” Seokjin’s other hand digs into his other pocket and produces another heat pack, handing it over to Yoongi’s free hand. It’s hard to be annoyed, when you get the feeling back in your fingers again, but the fact that he let them get cold in the first place... “The fuck, hyung. Next you’ll tell me you’ve got them down your pants too.”

“My groin is on fire.”

His eyebrows wiggle at Yoongi’s before they’re both shaking with laughter. 

Yoongi thinks the creator of their sims life together has a weird sense of humour giving him a soulmate like this. But it’s appreciated. 

--

Whilst he is officially off fishing duties, Yoongi appoints Jungkook to take his place and does it with a small air of seriousness. If he can’t go himself and enjoy Seokjin’s company, he doesn’t want him to go out on his own and get trapped in whatever nonsense thoughts roll through his head.

He says it’s because he doesn’t want Seokjin to try talking to the owners of the trawlers and put them off letting them back on board, but really he just doesn’t like the thought of Seokjin being alone. Jungkook seemed like he would do a really good job of it too, actually showing some interest in taking up the sport (Yoongi still isn’t sure that it’s a sport, but he tells Jungkook it is and that he can compete) and he took the solid squeeze of his shoulder whilst being told to “be a good replacement” seriously.

Only Seokjin sends Yoongi a message whilst he’s recovering, of a picture of Jungkook laughing, with a fucking massive fish on the end of his line and eyes beaming with glee. Seokjin has captioned the photo with his own messy handwriting across the screen ‘I hate it, come back’. It makes Yoongi laugh, but if he’s honest it makes him more eager to get well enough to come back himself.

It is their sport after all.

Which is why he’s out in a boat with Seokjin before his shoulder’s fully healed. It’s taken quite a lot of persuading on his part, and Seokjin is still shooting him nervous glances, but he makes a point of showing that he has no intention on fishing. He’s got a chair. Seokjin’s going to put up the chair next to him and Yoongi is going to doze in it because it’s 4am and not even light out. But he’s going fishing dammit. 

It’s how he thought it was going to go, but once they’re out to their location, Seokjin’s got two rods in hand that he’s setting up.

“You don’t need to cast it, I’ll get it all set up.” He’s murmuring as he works on it. “But you can hold onto it, hyung’ll help if you get a catch.”

“You really don’t have to, I’m happy just sitting.”

“We won’t have enough to eat at all if there’s just one of us fishing!”

“Should have bought Jungkook too.”

“No, I don’t like it, he’s too good.”

“Thanks. Glad to be your level.”

Seokjin’s smile is pleased as he settles the rod in Yoongi’s good hand and starts on his own. It isn’t that much different to falling asleep really, only he doesn’t let himself drift quite as much just in case. He figures if he ends up catching a load then all of his reading and logic that’s brought him to being a level above dire at fishing would be a load of bullshit and it’s really just luck that brings you in catches. 

He’s grateful that it doesn’t seem to be, as an hour in, Seokjin has changed the bait on his line twice and he’s still caught nothing edible. He’s caught twenty minutes of sleep though, and he’s trying to stretch out without really stretching, blinking out at the skyline. The sun’s rising, and it’s that magical time where everything starts to glow through the grey mists. Some extra orange lighting up the boat more than just their life jackets. 

“I caught a shark whilst you were sleeping.”

“Yeah? How big was it?”

“It was a great white, we had a scene like Jaws on the ship where we thought it was gonna gnaw the leg off of the captain.”

“Mine don’t have enough meat on them.”

“We’ll need to do something about that for the next shark attack.”

“They might still eat you or the captain first.”

“But what if they want a snack. You’d be a really good size snack to start with, I’d eat you, even with your less meaty legs.”

Yoongi would like to say it’s too early in the morning for it, but the laughter washes over him and it’s easier to keep up when his brain hasn’t entirely powered back on for the day. He vaguely wonders if Jungkook had these conversations with Seokjin too, but he can’t picture it. Not in the same way. And there’s a small warmth in his heart that likes that thought a lot. That it’s theirs. 

He’s still thinking of it when the morning comes to an end and they’re both huddled into the cabin of the boat, listening to the motors whirl underneath them and the wind clatter the windows. They’re full and have claimed two lengths of uncomfortable seating for themselves to stretch out on and try to sleep. Only Yoongi definitely won’t sleep. Doesn’t know if he should incase he rolls over and hits his shoulder. Instead he’s wriggling. He doesn’t like wriggling when he’s tired, he’s too tired for all of that movement. 

It’s just hard to get comfortable.

“Yoongichi.”

“Yeah?”

“Sit up a moment.” He does as he’s told, even with his eyes glued together with attempted sleep, only to feel a warm body sit down next to him. A hand presses gently down on the top of his head, which nestles back down into Seokjin’s lap. Safe, secure, warm and soft. “I’ve got you.”

Oh. 

“Thanks.”

“Anything for my soulmate.” 

“That’s cheesy.”

“Yeah, it is.”

The small warmth in his chest isn’t that small after all. 

--

It’s in the car, slowly rolling their way back home with their driver safely behind the wheel so they can drift off in the backseats, that the word comes up again. Seokjin’s head is resting on Yoongi’s and it’s warm and normal and he feels like he’s going to drool if he goes to sleep. That sort of deep sleep is beckoning. 

Only not yet.

“When I say soulmate, you know I don’t mean like – like a –“ 

He’s too tired to really think about it, but it’s Seokjin so Yoongi’s eyes squint tight closed trying to regenerate some extra energy to process it. And he falls into what he thinks he’s trying to get across pretty quickly.

“Lover?”

“That’s romantic. But yeah, I guess.”

It’s a complete non issue as far as Yoongi is concerned since he first heard the word come out of Seokjin’s mouth. It’s felt special, yes. It’s warm and tingly, and it feels like a good thing to have everyone know. The more they use the phrase, the more it feels like it manifests itself. Words are mightier than anything else in the world, and that is something he deeply believes in. 

But as for soulmate meaning that Seokjin is his destined lover in his world and that it could have been considered a declaration of romantic intent? Not at all. There’s been no reason to ever assume that. 

“I know.”

“OK. Good.” Still feels a bit awkward, and for one tiny second he does question it to himself until. “It isn’t that I don’t love you. I do really love you and if you ever needed anyone to marry you I’d do it.”

Usually Yoongi knows he’d let this one go. He knows the answer to this is to simply agree that he too would marry Seokjin if he needed him to, but it’s going to be a long journey and he is interested to find out what more the other man’s been thinking about this. It is interesting. What does he mean by soulmate, what does anyone mean when they call someone their soulmate?

“Why would I ever need to marry you?”

“I don’t know. Tax purposes? You need to fake that you’re already married to someone to get out of a bad relationship and they demand papers? Work want you to marry someone or you won’t inherit the company? The point is, I’d do it.”

“OK. Same. I don’t think that’s going to happen though.”

“Just know, I’d be the first person to offer myself. I’d even sleep with you, if I had to.”

“For the same reasons?”

“That and to save the world.”

“I’d give you a world saving blowjob too, hyung.”

It’s not exactly a thought he relishes, despite the fact that his friend is insanely good looking, but he’s still his friend. He lifts his good arm up just to pat Seokjin comfortingly on his thigh. In many ways, he supposes it’s good to know how deep the love goes. Someone who in spite of a lot of things and not for his own gain, would do anything for you. It runs through both of them really. They’re talking nonsense, but hidden underneath it, as there always is, runs a current that means a lot more. 

Yoongi, when he was younger and first met Seokjin would never have predicted it. Nobody would have done. But if you’re going to think of a soulmate as someone who you have an unbreakable bond with then, yeah. And it means a lot more to him than just somebody who he loves romantically. 

Like some sort of telepathy, Seokjin’s voice sleepily cuts in again, softer. That lilt he gets when he’s on the cusp of giving into sleep but stubbornly refusing it.

“I just think. When I imagine myself really old and sat in an old people’s home not able to move. I imagine you there too, listening to anything I say. Not because you can’t move, but because, maybe you don’t want to.”

And yeah, that’s it. That’s really it, summed up in it’s entirety. 

The world may whirl around them and spin them in different directions eventually. It more than likely will. Lovers may come and go, hearts might get broken and fortunes could be completely lost. At the end of it all, Yoongi can see it too. Him and Seokjin, old and falling apart, memories starting to fade on them, but somehow everything would still be okay. They’d never feel lonely and never feel misunderstood. 

By that point, who knows how eroded they’ll be fitting into one another. As they are right now, it feels like they couldn’t be any closer but it’s only a matter of time passing. Pebbles on the shore will always keep butting against one another, getting smoother still. For humans too. For Yoongi and Seokjin too.

“I don’t want to move.” Yoongi eventually finds the words to say that feel right. Seokjin’s hand comes to lay over his, sandwiching it to his thigh. “Love you too, soulmate.”

Yoongi is not going to cry. 

“Yoongi-yah. You’re not going to cry are you?”

“Maybe another day.”

“OK. Me too.” 

Maybe when they’re old and grey. At a time when Yoongi still doesn’t like fishing, but still loves going on fishing trips.