Work Text:
Recovery was slow.
Jimin and Yoongi talked a lot .
They talked until their mouths ran dry, baring their souls to each other.
It was hard.
Jimin hadn’t expected it to be so hard relearning how to love.
There were days when Jimin snapped without thinking, and moments where Yoongi greeted him with a glare and a rough “what?” Instead of a smile.
But they kept trying.
Jimin apologized, sometimes leaving the room first to calm down but he always came back to talk it through.
Yoongi paused, apologized and they talked about it.
They saw a therapist, and agreed that a temporary separation was important to healing.
So Yoongi visited his parents for a month, and then Jimin went with Taehyung on vacation for the summer.
That had been hard.
They still talked on the phone but not everyday. And at first Jimin felt as if he had lost a part of himself. His body fighting the separation on such a visceral level Jimin almost gave up mere hours into it.
But slowly, very very slowly, he started to learn that there could be a life outside of Yoongi.
He started to dance again and had even picked up painting classes with Taehyung.
And somehow the separation made the moments with Yoongi so much more sweet.
There were still times where Jimin would get anxious because he and Yoongi hadn’t talked for a few days but Taehyung no longer had to take his phone to stop Jimin from messaging the older man.
Now Jimin was able to set his phone down, and do something outside without the overwhelming fear and anxiety of wondering if Yoongi was calling, or if he should call Yoongi to make sure the producer was fine.
Jimin had once found comfort in the fact that he needed Yoongi to live, and that Yoongi needed him just the same. He feared that if Yoongi no longer needed him, then the older one would leave him.
And Jimin feared not needing Yoongi because what if those feelings disappeared?
What if when Jimin no longer needed Yoongi, the life he planned with Yoongi would be gone forever?
But Jimin learned over time that yes, while needing and wanting are very different things; that didn’t mean that wanting was any less powerful.
Jimin started to find himself again in wanting instead of needing.
Because Yoongi wasn’t water.
And Jimin wasn’t the sun.
The less Jimin needed Yoongi, the more the pain and anger faded.
The more that talking became a choice instead of a craving the more Jimin started to feel like himself again.
Nothing was perfect, life never was.
But Jimin and Yoongi swore to keep trying. To talk things through instead of fighting.
They keep choosing to be loving.
They keep choosing to be patient.
They keep choosing to be supportive and good and healthy.
And most of all, they keep choosing to be kind.