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It’s quiet in the hotel room, the only sounds the humming of the fan and his own breathing, but Jungkook lies on the bed in a haze of echoes, sweet melodies and the airy roaring cheer that is ARMY filling up an entire stadium. He’s lost in swaths of purple lights and rainbow confetti, swirling galaxies of ARMY bombs, smiles, laughter, and tears.
He’s so deep in the world of memories that he doesn’t hear the door open to let in a slight figure. It’s only the clatter of something - a phone? - dropping to the floor and the subsequent frustrated muttering that jolts him awake again, sitting up from the pile of white pillows to see Y/N squatting in the doorway with one shoe still on, peeking out of the wide leg of her jeans, carefully scanning her cell phone for damage.
He slides off the bed and comes to crouch next to her, grunting a bit as the soreness from a long night kicks in. “Hey, clumsy.”
Y/N huffs, leveling him with a glare, which he counters with a smug grin. She shoves him over.
“Hey! Be careful. I’m sore.” He whines, picking himself up delicately.
“Eh,” she says, setting the phone down, apparently satisfied, and wrenches her other sneaker off. “You’re not the one whose neck is in knots because someone kept ripping their jeogori open and I had to stitch it together because safety pins were too delicate. Not everyone wanted to see your entire torso, Kook.”
“Why, are you jealous, dear?” He grins, but reaches over and rubs at her neck under the collar of her (his) plaid shirt. The collar’s so big on her he can just slip his hand right under- and her neck is indeed tight. “Whoa, there are actual knots-” he muses, as she yelps and slaps him away. “I haven’t even gotten into the room yet! I want to get out of these sweaty clothes.”
“Poor stylist noona.”
She gives him a mock glare.
“Poor head stylist noona.” That, at least earns him a shy grin along with the glare, and he kisses her forehead as he rises. “You want to shower? I’ll get your pajamas.”
“I would, yes,” she rises too. “My workout shorts and the big black t-shirt, please.”
“Correction: my big black t-shirt that you stole. And workout shorts. Are you working out in the morning?” He asks, digging through her suitcase. Her legs look amazing in those shorts.
Y/N nods, mouth full with some chocolate snack from her duffel bag. “Sports bra, then?” Another nod. “Okay. I’ll work out with you.”
She waves her hand energetically, disappears to the ensuite bathroom. Water runs; then she pops out of the door, swallowing water and wiping at her face, just as he’s walking over with the pile of shower supplies. “You should sleep in,” she says, eyes earnest as they gaze up at him.
“I was going to get up anyway. When do you need to be up?” The pile of clothes transfers, their hands brushing.
“Oh, not too early, I’ll probably be down at the gym at eight-thirty. I’ve got a meeting with a couple designers at ten to source some things for next week’s concert.”
“Okay, wake me up. I shouldn’t sleep too late.”
“I will if we get to bed before one,” she wags a finger at him before smiling her sunny smile and reaching up on her toes for a kiss. Her mouth still tastes like chocolate.
“I can join you in the shower,” he offers as they break apart, “give you a neck rub.”
“No! No shenanigans!” she laughs, taking the double meaning. “We’re both so dead on our feet we’ll slip and fall!”
“True,” he scrunches his nose. She’s right, they’ve both had a long few days of it. Only three weeks into tour and they’re here; what will two more months of it bring? “Anyway, the offer stands for a neck rub. It seems painful.”
“Thank you, Jungkook.” She kisses him again, this time on the tip of his nose. His eyes flutter shut, and it’s suddenly hard to open them again. Gosh, he’s tired. He can hear her chuckle. “I’ll return the favor, too, if you want a back rub, or whatever’s hurting. Oh, I can put arnica on the bruises from when you fell over the ball.”
“That sounds good,” he says, forcing his eyes open again to see hers sparkling back up at him. “I love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Okay, go shower now.”
She goes, laughing.
It’s really a love-hate relationship Y/N has with the buttons on Jungkook’s clothing. Because they do come off at very- nice times, but- then, she is at risk for whiplash when he stops performing and returns to his weird, funny, adorable self.
She laughs to herself even as she imagines his various escapades of the day. First he is the fierce muscle bunny on stage, running offstage with his shirt off, bouncing around with so much energy- it’s not even fair. The next second he’s giggling, or doing a meme dance, or imitating one of his hyungs with killing exaggeration, or being teary and shy when things get emotional. She caught him falling asleep in the middle of a game of Piano Tiles this morning. (Who even plays Piano Tiles anymore?)
Ah, all this just- she wants to protect him- guard him fiercely in return for his comforting self. He’s the big teddy bear- she’s the armor. Well, they’re armor for each other, that’s so.
She wants to hug him forever.
Y/N exits the bathroom to find him sprawled out on his stomach in bed, phone in hand and feet kicking in the air, like a nearly six-foot tall toddler. (Except that his t-shirt exposes the very muscular arm with its full sleeve of tattoos. See? Whiplash.) Jungkook can’t sit still, or he’ll fall asleep.
Her lotion slips off of her pile of things to put away, clattering to the floor (deja vu?), and Jungkook looks up, black doe eyes sparkling when he sees her. He slides off the bed as soon as she’s put everything away and scoops her up, Y/N throwing her head back and laughing in spite of herself at his mischievous giggle, and he climbs up on the bed after depositing her there. Their limbs are all atangle as they pause to gaze at each other. And then Y/N’s fingers are carding through his fluffy black hair, combing it away from his forehead so she can press a kiss there, and then, with a little growl, she’s tackling him in a hug, pressing her cheek to his. “See, I told you you act like a dog!” Jungkook announces as he's pinned under her body, his big hands coming up to rest at her hips. “You just growled, baby.”
“Maybe I bite too,” she suggests in his ear.
He pulls her chin up and kisses her, and they lay like that, mixing drags from each other’s lips with giggles they can’t seem to stop. “I love your smile,” Y/N says, kissing the corner of his mouth as it stretches into a full-on bunny grin. Then she snuggles down, tucking her head under his chin, arms wrapping around his neck, and sighs, finally relaxing against him.
They’re quiet for a long time, the sound of the fan once more mixing with breaths, and Jungkook rubs her neck like he promised.
He'd would be lying if he said that he doesn’t want two months more of this, lying here together in the afterglow.