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The water was nearly as warm as the air. Jimin put his arms out and flopped backwards into the next wave, making it splash up around his back.
Seokjin looked over and grinned. He flicked a hand in Jimin’s direction, splashing water in his face.
Jimin ducked under the surface, making sure to kick back towards Seokjin as he dove away. Water streamed down his face when he surfaced. He shook his head to get his hair out of his eyes, feeling a laugh bubbling out of him.
He wasn’t tired, for the first time in months. Jimin was pretty sure if he could just swim in the ocean every day, he wouldn’t need to sleep ever again. He would just be rejuvenated by the salt water. Like sharks – they never slept, he remembered hearing.
Or was it that they slept with their eyes open? Jimin didn’t remember. Maybe that was ducks.
Taehyung broke off his own splash war with Jungkook and Hoseok to wade over, throwing both sopping wet arms around Jimin’s neck. Jimin had stripped off his shirt to swim, but Taehyung’s long-sleeved top was plastered to him. Jimin lost his balance under the sudden weight and Taehyung's arms fell away from Jimin's shoulders as they both went under another wave.
Jimin’s eyes were stinging when he came up. He finger combed his wet fringe up out of his eyes again, blinking the salt out of them.
A few feet away, Taehyung grinned bright enough to blind. Then he fell to one knee. He threw an arm up as he slipped beneath the surface. In a moment he came up again, gasping, before going under again with as much splashing as possible.
It took a second for Jimin to get past his instinctual jolt of cold fear. Then he shook himself, his head clear enough to join in the game.
He splashed over and grabbed Taehyung under the arms as he surfaced again. Taehyung immediately made himself as heavy as possible, throwing his head back against Jimin’s shoulder in an exhausted half-drowned pose. He coughed, weakly, to drive the point home.
“Taetae!” Jimin cried. “Don’t drown!” He shook Taehyung’s shoulders. Tae let his head tip to the side, pressing his cold nose into Jimin’s neck.
“Jiminie …” Taehyung croaked, a weak exhale against Jimin’s skin. A bit of water dribbled out of his mouth.
Jimin patted Taehyung’s cheeks, making his head loll from side to side.
“I’ve swallowed a lot of water,” Taehyung said. “My lungs are full. I’m dying.” He coughed again.
Jimin took the hint. He slung one of Tae’s arms around his shoulders and pulled him close by the waist.
Taehyung stumbled against him as Jimin dragged him towards shore. Yoongi and Hoseok called out commentary on their acting as they went by. Jimin dropped to his knees in the shallow wavelets where the beach started, letting Taehyung fall with him.
The staff were camped out further up the beach. Namjoon was up there too, stretched out on a towel with his earphones in. Someone was probably filming, or if they weren’t they’d probably start, now that Jimin and Taehyung were messing about on the sand. Jimin didn’t feel like playing to the camera, but he didn’t mind if it was there. It was just the camera.
He laid Taehyung down on the line of tiny shells and pebbles at the waterline. The wet fabric of Taehyung’s sleeves lifted gently as a wave reached them. Jimin leaned over him, pressing his ear to Taehyung’s chest to listen for a heartbeat.
He actually couldn’t hear one; he had to shift his head twice to find the right place.
He felt Taehyung poke at his shoulder, impatient.
Jimin lifted his head again, grinning. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ll give you CPR.”
Taehyung dropped his head to the side, his mouth falling open. There was sand on his other cheek now.
Jimin reached down and brushed it away, carefully. Then he put his fingers under Taehyung’s jaw and tipped his chin up.
He leaned down and hovered over Taehyung’s mouth. Taehyung cracked his eyes open, meeting Jimin’s. They were very close. Taehyung was doing that thing he did during a joke sometimes, where he went intent and watchful and unsmiling.
Jimin made a feint at his mouth, jerking away at the last minute with a giggle.
Taehyung’s lips twitched and his eyes began to crinkle up at the corners.
Jimin lunged towards Tae’s mouth again, and this time Taehyung rolled to avoid him. Jimin followed, rolling Taehyung the rest of the way so he wound up under Jimin once more.
Jimin was giggling, helpless with it now. Taehyung smiled, boxy and irrepressible, like – like a dog that was also an angel, or something. His shoulders shook with laughter, his eyes soft as he met Jimin’s.
He had wet sand plastered over one side of his face, high on his cheek and crusting his eyelashes on that side.
It wasn’t even – there was nothing that was new about any of it. Taehyung’s hair was half smashed flat against his head and half sticking up in wet spikes, and he was blinking sand out of his lashes, but it didn’t make him look new or unlike himself.
There was no reason for the way Jimin suddenly wanted to lean down and kiss him.
He could feel himself swaying forward, as though he was magnetised. Taehyung’s mouth was a little open, and there was a tiny bit of sand on the divot of his top lip.
It wasn’t as though Jimin had never thought about it before. They’d been idle imaginings, though. It was natural to think about kissing beautiful people, and he and Taehyung already did everything together other than make out, so of course he’d think about Tae.
But that wasn’t – it didn’t – it wasn’t dangerous.
Not the way this, staring wide-eyed down at Taehyung, felt dangerous.
Taehyung was watching him, a small furrow in his brow. The smile had fallen away from his mouth.
Jimin laughed, abruptly, and rolled away to sit up on his heels.
“Race you back into the water,” Jimin offered. If his voice was a bit breathless, he still managed a grin.
Before he could scramble the rest of the way to his feet, Taehyung grabbed his arm. He leaned in to give Jimin a searching look. Then he lurched to his feet, tugging Jimin with him.
“Wha – you have to let go of me for it to be a race, Taehyungie!” Jimin objected. Taehyung just towed him into the water, crashing through the first breakers.
Jimin laughed and gave up. Taehyung must have been able to tell, because he let Jimin tug his arm free of Taehyung’s grip so that he could throw it around Taehyung’s shoulders instead.
They stepped into a dip in the sand and Jimin stumbled. Taehyung kicked at the inside of his leg, making him fall the rest of the way onto his knees. The water sloshed up around Jimin’s chest and his arm fell away from Taehyung’s neck, even as Tae dropped to his knees next to him.
Taehyung grabbed him by both shoulders. Jimin raised his eyebrows, laughing a question. Taehyung pushed down, tugging them both underwater as a wave rolled above them.
Jimin only just managed to keep himself from breathing in the water that filled his open mouth. He found Taehyung’s face through the flurry of white bubbles in the clear green, the salt stinging his wide-open eyes. Taehyung was already dropping his hands from Jimin’s shoulders, curling them around Jimin’s cheeks instead to pull him closer.
Then Taehyung’s mouth was pressed against Jimin’s, a swift moment of warmth in the cooler water. Bubbles escaped his mouth and tickled against Jimin’s parted lips.
Taehyung pulled back, and Jimin reflexively sucked in a breath. Water rushed into his lungs.
He pushed up and broke the surface, gagging and coughing. Salt water stung his throat and his eyes and his lungs.
“Yah,” he heard Yoongi call. “Don’t drown our Park Jiminie, Taehyung-ah.” He sounded only mildly concerned.
Jimin coughed harder, standing up and pressing a fist against his chest.
After a moment he felt a hand push his hair off his forehead, fingertips cautious against his skin. He opened his eyes, blinking furiously through the tears, until Taehyung started to come into focus.
Taehyung’s expression was as cautious as his touch.
“Yah,” Jimin said, hoarsely. He curled his fingers into Taehyung’s wet sleeve, tilting forward as he tried to look at Taehyung through his streaming eyes. “Don’t – don’t drown me. Oh my god.” He coughed again, wiping the back of his hand across his nose and mouth. “Why would you – that was the worst way to – you could have done that any other way!”
Taehyung stared for a moment, his face at its blankest. Then his mouth began to curl in a tiny, heartbreaking smile. Jimin was transfixed.
Tae had kissed him.
First kiss, Jimin thought. He could feel the phantom warmth on his mouth, still tingling. First, not last.
For a moment his thoughts raced ahead, back to the hotel, back to their room. To climbing into one of their beds in a tangle of limbs like normal, and leaning in not like normal. To kissing Taehyung for real, Taehyung's mouth slanting hot and open over Jimin's. To everything else that was newly, giddily possible.
Jimin felt as if he had bubbles in his lungs, buoying him up and making it hard to breathe.
“The camera is – is all the way up on the beach,” Jimin said, more weakly now. He swallowed. “Even if someone happened to be zooming in, you could have – anything would have been a better option!” He twisted his hand tighter in Taehyung’s sleeve. “You could have done that any time before.”
A low wave buffeted them. Taehyung leaned in with the swell of water, tipping his forehead against Jimin’s.
“I wasn’t sure,” Taehyung said. There was a shakiness in his voice that Jimin had only heard when Taehyung was almost overwhelmed. Jimin felt him drag in a breath. “I know you think I always do – whatever I think of. But I try not to be m-more than you can handle.”
Jimin wanted to kiss him so badly it almost hurt.
He threw his arms around Taehyung, making as much of a splash as he could as he knocked them both onto their knees again. He pushed his face into the crook of Taehyung’s neck, pressing a kiss into the chilled skin there.
He drew away in the next moment, lifting his head in time to see Taehyung break into a soft, brilliant smile.
Taehyung's grin widened a moment later and he swept his arm through the water, splashing water into Jimin’s face. Jimin yelped with laughter and threw himself forward, tackling Taehyung about the waist. Taehyung made a grab for his ankles, laughing even louder as he attempted to tip Jimin upside down. Jimin kicked water into his face, squirming free and back onto his feet.
Hoseok bounced over to join in just as Taehyung managed to smack Jimin on the butt.
Jimin shouted in protest. Then he recruited Hoseok to grab Taehyung’s shoulders while Jimin grabbed his feet, and swing him laughing and yelling into the next wave.