Work Text:
1:7
There was something off about what he was seeing. He blinked and stared at the sink, confused. With a small a pout, he examined the scene more carefully. Before he could figure it out, gentle fingers ruffled through his hair, taking him off guard and making him freeze up on the spot.
“What’s wrong?” A low chuckle brushes by his ear and sends a shiver down his spine.
“I feel like I’m forgetting something…” Taehyung admits, tongue snaking out to wet his lips.
“If it’s the dishes, I did them,” Yoongi shrugs. “It was getting bad, you know?”
“Oh…then…no chores for me!” Taehyung grins, doing a stupid little victory dance. So that was what he’d been forgetting. No wonder the kitchen looked so clean. Well, that just meant he had more time to play video games, or do basically anything else.
“And not a word of thanks.” With a sigh, Yoongi leaned against the counter, raising an eyebrow.
Taehyung makes a peace sign, scrunching up his face the way he did when he faked being cute. “Thanks, hyung. You’re the best. Now I can-“
“Go study. Do productive things,” Yoongi finishes for him, laughing. “Right?”
“Hyuuuung,” he whines.
With one stern look, Taehyung holds up his hands in defeat. There’s no way he’ll win this one. But it’s still a surprisingly kind gesture from the infamously “lazy” Min Yoongi. Not that he was actually lazy, since he’s always working on lyrics or some kind of beat and he’s crazy when it comes to music. But it’s true he’d be the last person who’d willingly do extra chores.
It really was kind of…sweet.
“I won’t even say you owe me one. So go do your stuff.”
Taehyung’s jaw dropped. “Why are you being so nice?”
“Don’t act like I’m not nice normally!” Yoongi makes a motion to hit him and Taehyung just laughs.
“Thanks again!” he says before going back to his room. Yoongi merely watches him leave and shoves his hands into his pockets, fighting the urge to shuffle his feet, when he catches Hoseok staring at him from the side with a huge grin on his face.
“Whoa, what the- you scared me. How long have you been standing there?”
“I mean, I was here the whole time but I didn’t feel like interrupting anything. Plus, it’s not like anyone actually noticed little old me.”
Yoongi scowls. “You didn’t interrupt anything.”
“You, doing the dishes? For someone else?” Hoseok’s eyes are wide with dramatized shock, his mouth as open as it could possibly be. “You’ve got it bad.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yoongi pulls his beanie forward and he tries to ignore the burst of laughter. For one thing, he wasn’t gay – he has nothing against gay people but he’s fairly sure he’s straight. Sure, Taehyung’s kind of cute with that wide smile, and his sarcastically cute gestures are actually kind of cute, but that was completely objectively speaking. Also, Yoongi wasn’t too good with the whole “love” thing. He might even be asexual. So take that, Jung Hoseok.
“Sure, sure,” Hoseok says, interrupting his thoughts, smile so bright it only made Yoongi want to grimace in response.
He can hardly contain a growl as he grits out, “Why are you still here?”
The brunette quickly moves towards the cabinets for a glass, holding it up defensively. “I just wanted some water, but I happened to get a lot more than that, seems like.”
“Shut up.”
“I mean, you of all people? You hate doing the dishes-“
“Shut up!”
2:7
Taehyung’s in the middle of taking off his shirt when the door bursts open with a “I thought of the perfect lines for you-“
He tenses involuntarily, muscles becoming more defined. It’s just changing between a couple of guys (it’s not like BTS didn’t often change in front of each other) but he’s feeling surprisingly nervous this time.
He shivers.
“Uh, hyung…”
Yoongi’s eyes finally lift from his paper and he nearly drops everything he’s holding, pen and all. He has trouble breathing for just a little bit, but he attributes it more to shock than the sinfully well-built body in front of him. He coughs and turns around, roughly combing through his hair with his fingers, strangely flustered.
“My bad.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll just keep my shirt on then,” Taehyung says casually, voice not betraying any of the strange panic he’s feeling. “I was just a bit cold so I was going to change into a sweater, that’s all. I can just pull on a sweatshirt instead.”
Yoongi swallows hard.
Taehyung was lean but that was most definitely a six-pack. It was easy to forget just how nice a body he had, with all the sweaters and long jackets he wore.
He blinks. “Wait, did you just say it was cold?”
“Yeah,” Taehyung shivers slightly. “Can we turn up the heat a little?”
“Come here.”
Before Yoongi realizes what he’s doing, he pulls Taehyung closer by the shoulder until their foreheads are touching. They stay that way, neither really thinking anything of it. But Taehyung’s breath is unnaturally warm, brushing by Yoongi’s lower jaw.
“Damn, I think you have a fever.”
“You know, hyung, I don’t really think you can tell by doing something like that,” Taehyung laughs, though his voice sounds a bit weak. Or maybe it was Yoongi’s imagination filling in the blanks.
“Fine then, here,” Yoongi stretches out a hand to touch his forehead and this time, Taehyung can feel himself flushing, ears turning hot. “You’re definitely too warm, Taehyung. Go to bed.”
“No, I have to do something first,” he argues, since it’s just a fluke. When he sees Yoongi’s face, though he quickly follows up with a “But after that I’ll go to sleep, okay?”
“I’ll bring you some medicine, so take it easy and…yeah, put on a sweatshirt. Don’t…take off anything,” Yoongi gestures vaguely before heading out, closing the door behind him. He misses Taehyung’s awkward fidgeting behind him.
“Here, hyung.”
Yoongi blinks, surprised to say the least at seeing Jungkook hold out a bottle of water and a box of pills. At first glance, he looked completely sincere and Yoongi was going to thank him when the corners of Jungkook’s lips quirked up.
“Bastard.”
“What?” Jungkook lets out a laugh. “I was going to give it to Taehyung hyung because he didn’t look that good earlier but it looks like I won’t have to now.”
“Don’t make fun of me,” Yoongi brushes a hand past his now burning cheeks.
“I’m not. Taehyung hyung isn’t good at taking medicine, you know that. So it’s good that I won’t have to do it,” Jungkook says innocently, patting Yoongi’s hands now holding everything. “Thanks, hyung!”
“Argh, whatever. Thanks.”
Yoongi turned back around to go back to Taehyung’s room when-
“For the record, no disrespect or anything hyung, I think you two would be cute together.”
“Fuck off.”
3:7
“Yo, hyung, if you weren’t gonna focus, we didn’t have to take the time to do any of this, you know?”
“Shut up, Namjoon, I’m trying to think.”
At that, the slightly fluffy pink hair shakes with Namjoon’s barely contained laughter. “I’m kidding, don’t be mad. But, uh, I don’t know what your definition of thinking is, since that’s not gonna help us at all.”
Yoongi looks down at his paper in dismay. There are “tae”s written (in his handwriting, damn it) everywhere, along with scattered “I hate you”, “I love you”, “I can only see you”, “why does it have to be you”.
“I was just debating between taepyung* and taeyeon** that’s all. Leave me alone. I don’t give you any crap about your lyrics,” Yoongi rips up the paper, viciously running a hand through his hair. “Damn it.”
Neither of them say anything about Namjoon’s half-used notebook, one that was blank before the start of the trip. “If you’re that worried, we can just go back you know?”
Yoongi sighs. “This is just a three day two night trip, and we’re heading home tomorrow. Plus, he’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s having fun with the others.”
“I didn’t say anything about a person but alright, whatever you say, hyung.”
Yoongi opts to ignore that comment and thinks hard. It was strange, since the lyrics kind of…flowed out earlier this week when he wanted to show-
He shakes his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
Not being able to come with something kind of feels like being constipated. He doesn’t like it one bit.
“You feeling anything from looking at the ocean?” Namjoon asks seriously. “You might just not have any inspiration right now. Hyung, you know you don’t necessarily have to produce anything from this trip, right? We can just chill out until something comes.”
“I know,” Yoongi groans. He surprises himself by admitting, “I just feel kind of lost, actually.”
“Or maybe you’re just distracted with other things. It happens to everyone,” Namjoon shrugs. “It’s not like you haven’t had those moments before, right?”
“That’s true. I’m not sure what I’m getting so worked up over,” Yoongi admits, staring at the bits of paper scattered over the table. That’s right, all he needs to do is calm down. Deep breaths and all that. “Hey, do you think the others are having fun?”
“Probably?” Namjoon leans back against his chair. “You sayin’ you’re not having fun with me?”
“Shut it,” Yoongi grins. Out of all them, sometimes, he feels the most comfortable with Namjoon. It’s easy to go into a high when it seems like hands won’t move fast enough to keep up with the flow of words seeping out of his mind. Namjoon understands the rush better than anyone.
“You know…maybe if you’re more honest with yourself, the block will go away.”
“Maybe it’s just a sign I need a break,” Yoongi says stubbornly. It stems more from the fear that a lot of artists have, that their muse will just disappear one day for good.
It has nothing to do with Kim Taehyung.
“Hyung, actually, I was hoping to stay out a bit longer, make it into a four day thing maybe. You wouldn’t mind heading back to the apartment first, right?” Namjoon asks, face unreadable.
“That’s fine with me,” Yoongi responds, deciding to give up for a bit. Both of them stretch, cracking sounds coming from all directions.
“Also, Namjoon, wipe that grin off your face.”
4:7
So maybe he really should have taken those pills.
Back then, he had pretended to put the medicine in his mouth and promptly spat it out when Yoongi had left. Now, several days after that, Taehyung’s feeling infinitely worse. Everyone has left for trips, but he’d had to stay behind. Both Jungkook and Jimin had offered to stay behind, but that wouldn’t have made Taehyung happy at all, so he’d urged both of them to go.
To be honest, he’d been hoping the first night that once he slept, he’d feel better, but the next day, he woke up with a splitting headache that rendered him bedridden for the entirety of the day. And day two, he’d thrown up what little he’d managed to eat (Seokjin’s leftover cooking and some fruit).
By this point, he’d given up on trying to get out of bed, which meant that he was left mostly to daydream. Or sleep. He couldn’t really tell the difference between the two anymore.
It was only when he heard a familiar voice singing loudly that he decided he was dreaming.
“Baby, baby you’re my caramel macchiato!!”
Taehyung laughed softly to himself. That was most definitely Yoongi. He sounded happy.
Somehow that made him happy too.
Yoongi was often…not that happy. At least outwardly anyway. But recently he’d been smiling more, which was always a good thing. Taehyung liked Yoongi’s smile. He was a nice person, but people misunderstood him a lot. Maybe it was the way he looked, though Taehyung didn’t really get it. Yoongi was…
Well, Yoongi was Yoongi.
“Hey, where are you guys? I think I finally came up with something good on my way here.”
There were some noises, like Yoongi was trying to find something. What a vivid dream Taehyung was having. It had been such a long time that he’d gotten this sick-
The door flies open.
“Taehyung?!”
“You know, I thought of you kind of a lot for the past few days but now I’m even dreaming about you. It seems so real,” Taehyung muses, getting out of bed. His limbs feel heavy, but it’s just a dream so he trusts his dream self to be strong.
His knees disagree though, and he slumps, only to be caught by Yoongi, who pulls him closer, holding him up. A lean arm is wrapped around his waist, the other hand supporting his rather limp neck.
“What the hell, Taehyung! Why is no one here? You’re burning up!”
Taehyung chuckles. “Yup, you sound just like that.”
“You didn’t take the medicine that day, did you.” Yoongi sounds mad, and that only makes Taehyung smile wider.
“I’m only telling you because you’re dream-Yoongi, okay? So shhhh,” he whispers, putting a finger against Yoongi’s lips, half-delirious. “I didn’t take the medicine.”
“Idiot.”
“Knew you’d say that.”
Before he knew it, he was being lifted and placed straight back into bed.
“Stay. Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Alright, I’ll make something. Stay,” Yoongi repeats before leaving.
Taehyung smiles. Dream-Yoongi is a little different, he notes, since Yoongi doesn’t cook in real life.
He remains blissfully ignorant of the fact that Yoongi is actually there with him in the apartment, closing his eyes and smiling.
Meanwhile, Yoongi looks down at his phone, blinking with notifications about messages from everyone other than Namjoon and Taehyung. They were all variations of staying one more night.
Damn it.
So he does the one think he can think of. He goes to the kitchen, opens the refrigerator, sighs, closes it, and calls Kim Seokjin.
He’s got to get medicine down Taehyung’s throat no matter what.
A few beeps later, he hears a “Hello?”
Relief sweeps over him. “Hyung, thank god, can you tell me how to make porridge?”
There’s silence for a few moments and Yoongi panics. “What is it?”
“Sorry, I don’t think I heard you properly. What did you say?”
“I need to know how to make porridge.”
“So I did hear you right.” Seokjin sounds incredulous. “Is it for Taehyung?”
“Well, yeah, since none of you are here and the kid is starving in his room,” Yoongi mutters.
“Aw, is he not feeling better?” Seokjin seems genuinely worried and Yoongi sighs.
“Yeah, he’s…a lot worse. Anyway-“
“Okay, I understand. Here’s what you do…”
After a long conversation that involved Yoongi writing down the smallest detail of what was actually the simplest recipe Seokjin could remember, Yoongi hangs up on him with a barely audible “Thanks”.
Seokjin stares at his phone in disbelief. Min Yoongi, cooking for someone?!
5:7
Taehyung’s about to do the dishes, phone in hand, buds in his ears, ready to sing along to the music when he realizes Yoongi’s asleep on the couch nearby. He closes his mouth and finds his lips moving of their own according, stretching out into a big smile.
Yoongi looks peaceful.
Taehyung doesn’t remember much of last week. At some point, real-life Yoongi had managed to force him to take drowsy medicine, and combined with his high fever, made his memory a complete haze. But he feels much better now, so he shouldn’t complain.
He still hates medicine though.
Yoongi groans.
Taehyung stares, approaching the sleeping figure. He doesn’t really know what to do, but Yoongi looks cold so Taehyung goes back to his room to grab a light blanket that he often uses as a cape, and settles it gently over Yoongi. The elder mumbles out something incoherent and Taehyung grins.
An arm flies from one side to another and Taehyung is only a few centimeters away from being smacked in the face.
He exhales, cheeks puffing out in surprise. That’s enough watching for now, he supposes, when he sees the band-aids on Yoongi’s right hand. Peering closer, he realizes that there are a lot of scars on Yoongi’s left as well, and there’s even a welt on his wrist.
What did he do, grab a porcupine with his two hands?
Taehyung frowns, confused at the sudden pang in his chest. Without really understanding himself, he leans down and presses his lips to the scars. Suddenly scared that he might really wake Yoongi up, he quickly stepped away from the couch, heartbeat pounding loudly in his ears.
“Hey, have you seen my-“
“Shh!”
It’s harsher than Taehyung intends but it’s because he’s surprised.
Jimin immediately looks apologetic as he brings his voice down to a whisper. “My bad. I was just wondering if you saw Jin hyung’s grocery list. It’s my turn to go shopping.”
“It should be on the counter,” Taehyung says. “Have fun.”
He goes back into his room in a hurry, and Jimin looks at the retreating figure in confusion, when a raspy voice from the couch startles him.
“Jimin, can you bring me that bottle of water?”
“Yeah sure, hyu-“
Jimin’s eyes start to crinkle into a smile as he realizes that a One Piece blanket is draped over Yoongi, though whether or not his hyung has realized it yet, he’s not sure. He goes to the counter, grabs the bottle when a crumpled sheet in the recycle bin catches his attention. Thinking it’s the list – maybe someone threw it away on accident – he opens it up, only to see Yoongi’s handwriting. He immediately dismisses it when he realizes it’s a recipe. For porridge.
He brings the bottle to Yoongi, whose eyes are still shut.
“Here,” Jimin says quietly, grinning widely.
“Thanks.” Yoongi reaches out for the bottle and Jimin puts everything together as he realizes exactly what the scars are from. His face starts hurting from grinning so hard.
This is just too much.
It’s not like the other members haven’t noticed the little things Yoongi and Taehyung have been doing for each other since day one. But it’s getting more noticeable, more blatantly obvious…
Especially this? It’s like the plot of a bad K-drama, one so bad that people can’t stop watching.
Jimin chuckles quietly to himself, leaving the kitchen and forgetting all about the reason he went in the first place.
6:7
“Hey, Jin hyung? What does it feel like to love somebody?”
Seokjin chokes on his tea, burning his tongue and probably his throat, too. He’s struggling to breathe for a while and Taehyung just watches apologetically until he can sneak in a “Sorry, hyung.”
“Why do you ask?” Seokjin asks brightly. If this went well, he’d win the bet. Right now, it was two versus three, him and Jungkook against Namjoon, Jimin, and Hoseok. He had faith in the younger.
“Well, you’re the oldest, right? I just assumed you had more time to experience stuff,” Taehyung shrugs.
“I think it varies from person to person,” Seokjin answers honestly. “No one can say it feels the same way. You know how some people do crazy things for ‘love’ and some people don’t really go past feeling platonic stuff, but that’s still ‘love’, so…”
“Huh,” Taehyung muses.
“Why?” Seokjin repeats subtly, wiping at his face with a napkin.
“You promise not to tell?” Taehyung licks his lips nervously.
“Of course.”
“I’m not sure…it’s just…the thing is…” Taehyung looks lost.
Seokjin waits patiently.
“I watch anime, you know?”
“Uh…?”
Taehyung bites his lip. “I mean, I watch a lot. So I’ve watched stuff that’s romantic, too, you know? And it’s always so…flowery. The heart-pounding, butterflies-in-stomach stuff. I don’t really feel any of that. Maybe they’re exaggerating?”
“Probably,” Seokjin agrees quietly.
“So, then how are you supposed to know?”
Seokjin taps his chin with a finger. “I think…if you really like someone, you’ll look at them and you’ll…just know. You’ll get a feeling. Maybe the ‘heart’ and ‘butterfly’ stuff is just a way of expressing that feeling but it might be different for you.”
“Huh.”
“Wanna try telling me what you feel?” Seokjin looks down casually at his tea, trying not to smile. Taehyung was being completely serious, after all.
“It’s hard to explain,” Taehyung makes a face. “I’m trying…”
Seokjin takes the chance to suggest, “Isn’t that it, then?”
“I…I never thought about it that way,” Taehyung admits, jaw dropping.
Seokjin laughs, only to be interrupted by a “Hey, they were out of the manga you wanted.”
The eldest slips away as subtly as he can, trying to avoid eye contact with Yoongi, containing his laughter as he inches towards the door, texting fellow members furiously.
princessjin: kookie and I win~
rapgod: what?!
oranjimin: no way!
hoshikie: yoongi hyung’s *weak*
jungcookie: taehyung hyungs just more honest
rapgod: I was so sure yoongi would say something first
rapgod: I mean from that trip I thought yoongi realized…
rapgod: well dammit
“Thanks, hyung! I think I understand now,” Taehyung says brightly, all of a sudden, bringing attention to Seokjin’s existence in the room. Damn.
Yoongi scowls slightly.
“No problem,” Seokjin grins. “Good luck!”
Taehyung looks confused again but this time Seokjin grabs the chance and walks away as fast as he can.
“What was that?” Yoongi asks, brows furrowed.
Taehyung feels his cheeks heat slightly but he just decides to smile. Yoongi has done a lot for him lately but it goes back farther than that too. He’s heard various things from various people just by sneaking around like he normally does.
It’s both embarrassing to think about but it makes him happy.
Especially the porridge.
“Nothing.”
He gets it now. It feels like he’s drinking something warm, like hot cocoa. He thinks of the sun.
It feels nice.
7:7
Weeks later, they’re at an ice rink, enjoying the whole place to themselves. It’s not such a big space but with only the seven of them there, it’s plenty of room. There’s no staff but the concession stand has been left open for them and, with the agreement that only Seokjin would handle any of the food, there’s plenty of options for snacks.
“Idiots,” Namjoon laughs, sipping at his coffee.
“I’m not sure they’ve noticed that everyone else has stopped to take a break,” Hoseok sighs. “How can they be so…dense…”
“Well, it’s really only one person who’s dense,” Seokjin says in defense. “Or rather, in denial.”
Jimin’s smile is huge. “It’s a little hard to watch.”
“Then stop watching,” Jungkook grins.
“But I can’t. Bad K-drama, I’m telling you,” Jimin holds up his hands in show of defeat. “It’s been getting so much worse lately, I don’t have a single spot of skin that didn’t get goosebumps.”
“We could probably leave this place and they still wouldn’t notice,” Hoseok’s voice is laced with disbelief.
“Yeah, but I kinda wanna see where this goes.”
“Perv.”
“I didn’t mean it like that! Just…maybe something will finally happen. It’s the perfect setup, you know?”
“Hey, I think Taehyung’s starting to get the hang of it,” Seokjin says proudly. “Good for him.”
He’s met with a few confused stares and he blinks, equally puzzled, until one of them finally ask him. “What are you talking about?”
“Haven’t you noticed he’s having trouble skating?”
They all stared at each other until-
“Drama, I’m telling you!” Jimin laughs, a sound so infectious that the others join him.
From the opposite side of the rink, Yoongi frowns as he hears the laughter. They better not be laughing at the two of them or, worse, at Taehyung.
“Ignore them,” he mutters.
“Ignore what?” Taehyung asks softly, too focused on trying to stay upright. Yoongi’s glad Taehyung can’t really hear much.
“Here, take my hand.”
Before giving Taehyung the chance to respond, Yoongi grabs his hand and starts to skate. Taehyung’s hand is surprisingly warm.
“Hey, hyung, wait-“
“I’ve got you,” he says simply. “I won’t go that fast.”
Pretty soon, they’ve gone halfway around, coming to a stop in front of the group. Yoongi lets go reflexively, immediately missing the warmth in his hand.
“Do you want to stop?” Yoongi asks, tilting his head towards the other members who are enjoying various drinks. There’s a strange silence now.
“Let’s go one more time?” Taehyung grins, oblivious. “It feels nice to actually move. I’m jealous you can skate.”
“You can learn,” Yoongi insists but Taehyung says nothing in response, just smiling.
He looks cute.
Taehyung’s got a scarf around his neck, one so large it’s covering parts of his face. His cheeks are flushed with cold and his eyes are shining like a little kid’s. His tongue peeks out to flick across his lower lip and for a second, Yoongi’s transfixed. He has to tear his eyes away to respond.
“O-Okay, let’s go.”
Taehyung slips his hand into Yoongi’s, smiling innocently. Yoongi’s ears turn red but he says nothing as he starts to skate again. They’re halfway across again when Taehyung pulls hard enough that he nearly loses balance, but as Taehyung looks like he’s about to fall, Yoongi catches him.
“Hey, hyung?”
“What is it? You nearly fell, you idiot-”
At the lack of response, Yoongi finally looks at him.
Taehyung’s…glowing.
Yoongi mentally slaps himself. Pretty soon he’s going to see flowers and sunshine and rainbows and fucking unicorns-
“I love you.”
Yoongi blinks. They stare at each other for a good while, when Taehyung makes a face that should be accompanied by a lightbulb turning on.
“Well, at least, I think I do? I’m not really sure. But, you see, I get this warm feeling in my chest and at first I didn’t really think much of it because it just felt natural but then I realized that it might be something more so I decided to wait it out to makes sure and yeah I think I’m pretty sure so-“
He doesn’t really know what he’s doing either, but Yoongi grabs Taehyung by the sweater and pulls him into a kiss. It’s innocent, just lips pressed against each other. But Taehyung’s lips are impossibly soft and just slightly wet and Yoongi can’t believe what he’s doing.
Taehyung parts his lips slightly, pressing Yoongi back against the rink.
As expected, it’s a disaster as Taehyung abruptly ends the kiss, gasping for balance, and nearly falls again. Yoongi yanks him up and switches their positions easily.
“That’s what you get for being cheeky,” Yoongi grins. He ignores the groans and cheers coming from the members. Fuck them.
All that matters is Taehyung’s smile makes his chest ache. In a good way.
So maybe all those idiot members making fun of him were right.
“Uh…I…I love you, too. I guess.”
Taehyung pouts. “I did a way better job than you.”
“Don’t look down on me,” Yoongi growls, pulling him in for another kiss. It’s not perfect but it feels that way.
He takes a deep breath and the words easily slip out of his mouth.
“I love you, too.”
Taehyung’s next smile is blinding.
“Much better.”