Work Text:
It doesn’t take long for the knock to sound on Jin’s door after the concert.
He’s only just finished changing into comfy pajamas, and is about to wash off his face when he hears it, gentle against the wood. He already knows who it is, a coiled part of him unraveling simply from the sudden proximity.
“Hyung,” Taehyung says when Jin opens the door. He’s in a soft t-shirt and sweats, hair still sweaty damp from the concert. He immediately steps forward and wraps his arms around Jin, all cuddly barnacle arms. His body is warm and soft.
It had taken a little while for Jin to get used to this, when they first started dating. Taehyung has always been cuddly, but boyfriend Taehyung is max cuddly. Now, after over a year, he doesn’t know what he’d do without it.
“Hey,” Jin says, rubbing his good hand over Taehyung’s back. He pulls him inside and shuts the door. “Tired?”
Taehyung hums. Finally, he pulls away. His fair flops over his forehead, and it’s cute. The deadly smirk from the stage has been replaced with something a little more wide-eyed and earnest. “What do you need help with, hyung?”
Taehyung’s been so good, helping him since Jin hurt his hand. That, too, was hard to accept at first, not just from Taehyung, but from everyone. He didn’t realize how much he used his right hand for until he couldn’t. He hated not being self-sufficient; it made him feel like a burden on the others.
You’re not a burden.
Taehyung’s voice from on-stage came back to him. Seokjin looked back into present-Taehyung’s eyes.
“Could you put toothpaste on my toothbrush?” It still felt embarrassing to ask, a little, but it always helps that Taehyung seemed to enjoy doing these favors for Jin.
Taehyung nods, like he was given a most serious task, then turns toward the bathroom.
Jin pushes aside the part of him that says don’t make other people do things you can do yourself and listens as the sink turns on. He goes to stand against the doorway.
“Here, hyung,” Taehyung hands him his toothbrush so Jin can brush his teeth. His eyes look at Jin intently. He knows this is one of the ways Taehyung is saying I love you.
He takes the toothbrush.
“You know you have to brush for two minutes, right, hyung?” Taehyung says. He takes his phone out of his pocket and scrolls for a moment. A cheery jazz song begins floating out of the little speakers. “You can stop when the song is over.”
“ You don’t even brush your teeth for a full two minutes,” Jin says.
Taehyung gives him a pout. “You’re wasting time. Now I have to start the song over.” He looks at Jin pointedly, and Jin sticks the toothbrush into his mouth.
This is how he says he loves you. This isn’t exactly the stuff they put in romance novels.
Or maybe it is? Jin doesn’t read romance novels. And then you have Yoongi, going on about cheap drive-thru wedding chapels and getting thousands of marriage proposals a day. (Good thing Jimin got that sorted out).
Whatever. Taehyung is romance. And he’s all Jin’s.
The jazz music fills the bathroom and Jin thinks of a few weeks ago, when they only first got to Las Vegas.
-
“Are you sure this is where you want to go?” Jin looks at the people dancing in the photo on the website. They’re at least twenty years older than both himself and Taehyung.
Taehyung looks at him, a tiny pout on his face, as if he he’s offended that Jin needs to ask for clarification. In all honesty, Jin shouldn’t have been surprised. “Yes, hyung.”
To remedy his mistake, Jin pulls on his arm and presses a kiss to Taehyung’s cheek. “Jazz club it is, then.” Taehyung is smiling by the time Jin pulls away.
Jin would rather go to jazz club than a club club anyway, especially in Vegas. And he knows Taehyung. He really shouldn’t be surprised that this is his choice.
Taehyung puts on a nice white shirt, and Seokjin calls a car, and then Taehyung puts Jin in a nice shirt as well - not that he wasn’t going to dress well on his own!
“I’ve got it, Taehyungie,” Jin says as Taehyung unbuttons the cuff so that Jin can get his cast through the sleeve. Taehyung doesn’t pull away, and Jin doesn’t push him away as he carefully rolls the sleeve up to Jin’s elbow.
“Now everyone can see it,” Jin says, frowning slightly.
“You look really good with your sleeves rolled up, hyung,” Taehyung says instead. “You should show off your arms more often.”
It sounds like a good thing to do after half of his arm is not encased in a giant cast, but Jin dutifully takes note. If there’s one thing he’s noticed, it’s that Taehyung tends to remember the things he tells Jin to do, especially if it’s something he believes is for Jin’s own good. Or Taehyung’s own good, judging by the way he’s eyeing Jin’s forearm. Jin feels his ears heating up slightly.
Sure, whatever. Jin will take it.
Jin knows being in a relationship isn’t all bouquets of flowers and romantic dinners. They’ve been together long enough to see the ugly sides of each other - they’ve known each other long enough to see a thousand ugly sides of other. And the best sides, and the silly and stupid sides.
But it’s the vulnerable side Jin still has trouble with. Just when he thinks he has it down and gets used to being vulnerable with one thing, life throws something else at him, like a broken limb.
It’s silly, that Jin has such a hard time with this. Especially when Jin wants to show Taehyung his heart. And this is just a hand!
“You’ll dance with me, won’t you, hyung?” Taehyung says as they walk down to the car. Taehyung holds his good hand, pulling him down through the hallway to the parking garage.
“Sure, Taehyungie,” he says, not really thinking about it. Often, they can’t get away with this kind of stuff in public. And the entire city knows they’re here. Jin only feels a little guilty for knowing he probably won’t be able to dance with Taehyung, but that’s just how it is.
As they ride to Taehyung’s jazz club of choice, Jin watches out the window out at the city lights, colorful and glitzy. Las Vegas feels different from anywhere else in America – anywhere else in the world – and it feels different from the last time they were here. Last time, they were visitors, this time, they are the city.
Just when Jin thinks he’s used to it all, they get a little bigger, and he’s not always sure how to feel about it. Elated. Anxious. Relieved. Terrified?
One more important difference from last time - a most important difference: he didn’t have Taehyung like he does now.
Jin looks over at him. He’s on his phone, face lit by the screen. Even in the washed-out light in the darkness, he’s handsome. Devastatingly.
The love rolls around in Jin’s chest, sweet and a little painful all at once. Jin glances up at the driver. He always feels weird about being couple-y in front of other people – especially drivers or staff – but they never pay much attention, and he and Taehyung are usually discreet regardless. To be fair, Jin hardly enjoys being couple-y in front of the other members, but Taehyung has no reservations for their actions in front of them.
Jin realizes he’s a little lost in his head about it when Taehyung’s phone screen goes dark. He looks up at Jin, eyes still visible in the darkness of the car, lights passing over his face. Jin doesn’t let himself think much more, and holds out his hand.
Taehyung immediately takes it. Jin is glad his good hand is the one facing Taehyung by the way Taehyung laces their fingers together. The touch is so familiar by now – he knows Taehyung’s hand so well it feels strange whenever he finds himself holding anyone else’s. He knows the length of his fingers, the softness of his palm, the calluses of his fingers. He knows how their hands fit perfectly.
They hold hands the entire way to the club, and Jin thinks that this would be good enough for him. But this is Taehyung’s choice of date night, and he was always the more adventurous one, anyway. When they get out of the car, Jin watches the way his eyes glow in the Vegas streetlights, the wide smile coming over his face as he looks up at the sign displaying the name of the club. Jin can hear jazz music, muffled by the closed doors. Taehyung looks at him.
It was always worth it, to see Taehyung so happy.
“Hyung,” Taehyung says, bouncing on the tips of his toes. He reaches for his arm. “Come on.”
Once they’re through the doors, the full force of the music hits them, piano and saxophone melding around each other in a blend of smooth, sultry sound. Before he started dating Taehyung, Jin wouldn’t have been able to say that jazz was one of his favorite genres of music - if one he particularly liked at all - but since then, jazz hasn’t sounded quite the same.
Before, it sounded like cool rhythms and glitzy voices. Now, it sounds like evenings with Taehyung, driving in the car together, or the two of them in his apartment. It sounds like meals together, it sounds like waking up in the morning in warm sheets, it sounds like falling asleep with an arm around him. It sounds like getting ready for work. It sounds like coming home.
Jin likes jazz now.
When they enter, they’re easily the youngest ones in the club, other couples either middle aged or older. They get a few glances, but it’s not because they’re BTS. Taehyung looks at him, delighted.
Jin puts a hand on his wrist and leans forward so he can speak into his ear. “Let me buy you a drink?”
If possible, Taehyung looks even more delighted.
So Jin buys them drinks, and Taehyung finds a table by the band because he’s never been one to sit in the back row of a show. Seokjin holds his hand under the table, and Taehyung brings them to rest on the surface, and for a moment Jin looks around, nervous, because hey, isn’t that BTS over there in the front holding hands?
But no one seems to care, or have any idea who they are, and they’re just two young guys who are in love and get to hold hands in public.
It makes Jin feel a little weightless.
“Hyung,” Taehyung says after a second drink, leaning in close to the side of Jin’s face so he can hear him. His breath is warm against Jin’s cheek. “I want to dance!”
“Then go dance,” Jin says.
Taehyung tugs on his hand. He looks so stupidly good in the white shirt he’s wearing. He’s rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, arms on display, and he makes it look a thousand times better than Jin ever could, no matter what Taehyung says. “Come with me!”
It’s one thing sitting in a corner, holding hands, and another dancing where everyone can see. Sure, Jin has danced under a spotlight for hundreds of thousands to watch, but this is- completely different.
The floor is filled with couples old enough to be their parents - some, their grandparents - and Taehyung has no hesitation about stepping right up and joining them.
“Hyung,” Taehyung says, turning around. “I want you to film me so I can post on Instagram.”
“You torture your followers, Taehyung-ah,” Jin says, and immediately lifts up his phone, because to be honest, as a famous, handsome musical artist in a boyband, what other point is there to Instagram than torturing your followers? Jin loves and respects his boyfriend’s content unshakably.
Taehyung grins, as if he knows Jin is exactly on the same page as him, and walks onto the dance floor.
Jin films him dancing and it’s- a lot, him in his white shirt and black slacks loose over his hips. Taehyung has more confidence than he has ever had before, at this point in his career, and he knows how to flaunt it. He smiles at the phone as if he knows exactly how good he looks, which he does. The other couples on the floor don’t pay much mind to the guy dancing alone on the floor, being filmed. But this is Vegas, Jin supposes. They’ve probably seen stranger things.
So Jin watches Taehyung, half in amusement, half turned on, and half a little in love. It’s dizzying, which means Jin’s allowed to have three halves of emotions right now.
Taehyung motions for him to put down the phone, already reaching out before Jin can do anything about it.
“Tae, no-”
“You said you’d dance with me!”
“No I didn’t-”
“Yes you did! Back at the hotel!”
Which- he did, didn’t he. Jin curses his past self. Then Taehyung pouts at him, and Jin remembers that this was Taehyung’s date choice, and if he wants to dance with Jin-
Well, Jin will.
Jin remembers their first date, after they filmed the episode of Run BTS during which Taehyung kissed him on the cheek. It had taken no convincing at all to get Jin to go on a date with him afterwards. It was kind of embarrassing, but on the other hand, playing hard to get was dumb, in Jin’s opinion.
And whatever, so maybe Jin was stupidly in love with Taehyung even then. So what?
So he sticks Taehyung’s phone in his own pocket and lets Taehyung drag him out onto the floor by his good hand.
Taehyung takes him by the hips, like they’re any other couple here, and pulls him close. For a moment, Jin doesn’t really know what to do with his hands, until Taehyung takes his good one again and makes Jin twirl him. Taehyung spins around, grinning and sweet.
“Taehyung-ah,” Jin says, loudly over the music, once they’re face to face and close again. Taehyung’s breath is against the shell of his ear. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You dance for hundreds of thousands in stadiums,” Taehyung says back.
“Oh, so would you like me to break into the DNA choreography right now?” Jin says.
Taehyung pulls back and smiles, widely. “No!” he says. “This is jazz .” Then he twirls Jin around without any warning. Jin nearly loses his footing, but he doesn’t. By the time he completes the spin, Taehyung’s in front of him again, keeping him steady.
Taehyung pulls him close by the waist, and Jin still doesn’t quite know what he’s doing, feels self-conscious in a way he tries very hard not to let people see, but this is Taehyung. It’s a strange contradiction, how he has the simultaneous urge to be his very best in front of Taehyung, while also secretly, terrifyingly, hoping he’ll see Jin’s imperfect parts and fall in love with those, too.
Taehyung kisses along his ear, lightly, but enough that it sends shivers down Jin’s back. Jin hooks an arm around his neck and leans into it. This doesn’t require much dancing skill at all. This is just being close. He strokes the hair at the back of Taehyung’s neck. He isn’t sure how long they stay like that, the music and Taehyung’s touches blending together in his brain into beautiful sensations of noise and feeling.
“Ah, Taehyung-ah!” Jin says, once they’re off the dance floor. “That was excruciating.” It was fun, and much more intimate that Jin expected, but this is just the kind of thing he says.
Taehyung’s eyes are sparkling, full of joy. “I know, hyung,” he says. “But you do it, because that’s how you love me.”
It is. God, it is. Jin glances around for only a moment, but no one is watching them, no one here has been watching them at all (which, admittedly, is mildly insulting to their good looks), so he puts his hand on the back of Taehyung’s neck, stroking the warm skin there only for a moment, and pulls him in for a gentle kiss.
It’s exhilarating, out in the open like this. It’s exhilarating, always, with Taehyung. Jazz music wraps around his ears and it wraps around his heart.
He’ll do it, he’ll do anything, always, because that’s how he loves Taehyung. He didn’t realize it would be a relief, for Taehyung to recognize that.
When they pull apart, Taehyung’s eyes are terribly bright. He leans in again, pressing another kiss to Jin’s lips, harder this time.
It’s excruciating and fun, and Jin will remember this night for a long time. Amidst the Grammys and concerts and the busyness that is a constant in their lives, he’ll remember this.
“See?” Taehyung says, once they’re back at their table with more drinks. Jin can feel sweat beneath his shirt from the dancing, but it feels good. “I told you this would be a good idea.”
A jazz club full of people decades their senior? It’s genius, Jin realizes now. A place where no one knows them, and a place where Taehyung can indulge one of his greatest passions. A place they can be together without restraint.
“You’re right, Taehyung-ah,” Jin says. He leans over the table and kisses him again. “And you better get that in writing, but I don’t say it often.”
“You say it all the time, hyung,” Taehyung says. He giggles a little around his drink. Jin loves a buzzed Taehyung.
“I do not,” Jin says, even though he probably does, because he likes how praise makes Taehyung’s eyes light up. It’s embarrassingly soft of Jin.
“You do,” Taehyung says. His eyes glitter in the dim lights of the club. “And you’ll be saying it until we’re as old as everyone else here.”
The two of them together, decades from this moment. Now that was a thought.
Jin kisses Taehyung again, because he can, and to quell the sudden beating of his heart inside of him. And because his boyfriend looks super hot tonight, and because Jin loves him.
Mostly because of that.
-
In bed, Taehyung wraps his body around Jin, pushing his face into the crook of his neck. He smells like soap and toothpaste, and his warmth makes Jin drowsy.
“I’m glad I get to do this with you, hyung,” Taehyung says through a sleepy yawn.
Do what, Jin is tempted to say. Concerts? BTS? Sleep in the same bed after a long day of work? Be in a relationship? Be in love ? Take care of each other even when one of you has an annoying broken hand?
It was probably all of that. No, Jin knows it’s all of that, because he feels the same.
It hasn’t been easy, having to take a backseat to dance practices and not being able to participate in the concerts as normal. You’re not a burden.
“Me too, Taehyungie,” he says, and kisses the crown of Taehyung’s head.
Taehyung smiles into Jin’s skin, already half asleep.