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The first time it happens, it's on the day that Yoongi moves in.
It's a sweltering day in mid July, the air still and thick with humidity and sweat. Hoseok is helping him move boxes in with minimal complaining, which Yoongi is grateful for. Yoongi prides himself for not keeping very many possessions. However, the boxes with his studio equipment are the largest and heaviest, so he brings them in last and stations them all in the living room before putting all his clothes boxes and bags in his new bedroom.
"Are we done," Hoseok sprawls out on the cool hardwood floor and lets out a groan.
"I just need to go get Kitten." Yoongi blows the green strands of his hair out of his eyes before going down the two flights of stairs and to his car. He grabs the cat carrier out of the backseat and turns the air conditioning off before locking the car and going back upstairs. "You shouldn't even be as tired as me. You have dancer's strength."
"Not in the middle of summer when it's as hot as Satan's fucking asscrack." Hoseok keeps his eyes closed and Yoongi sets the carrier down, undoing the latch so that Kitten can walk out. She stretches her tiny body before letting out a little yawn and settling herself on Hoseok's face. Yoongi laughs.
"Hello to you too," Hoseok grumbles slightly muffled, directed to Kitten. She says nothing, instead curling in on herself and emitting microscopic snores. "She really is yours. She acts just like you."
Yoongi remembers the first day he got Kitten. It was his sophomore year of college when Seokjin, his roommate had moved out and Yoongi found himself alone in the too big apartment. He likes being alone, of course, but not having Seokjin around to pester him about filling up the fridge with food or bother him about doing his laundry slowly got to him. So he did the worst thing possible — he called his mother.
"Get a cat," she'd suggested like it was the most natural thing ever, "it'll teach you some responsibility."
And then he did the second possible worst thing; he listened to her, and found himself at the animal shelter not very far from campus and peering at the tiniest cats he'd ever seen. The woman helping him kept trying to suggest getting a larger cat but Yoongi's eyes kept falling on the tiny snow white kitten with the little black nose and big blue eyes. He took her home that night and ever since then, he's never let her go. She's a small thing, not quite the full size of his forearm, and she likes getting into things. Namely Yoongi's favorite pair of Doc Martens. He loves her.
"Yeah well," Yoongi says now, giving a small smile towards his best friend before lifting his kitten off of his face, "what can I say. I'm a good parent."
"I hope you never have any real kids." Hoseok grumbles and pauses. "Ice cream. Let's go get ice cream, hyung."
Yoongi sets Kitten on his left shoulder, her tail swishing behind Yoongi's ear and her little claws poking through his thin shirt. "You gonna pay for it?"
"Aren't you supposed to be treating me? I helped you move in." Hoseok rolls over and meets Yoongi's unamused gaze. "Fine."
***
The ice cream shop blows amazingly cool air on their faces, and Yoongi lets out a content sigh.
"We can't stay. I can't leave Kitten in the heat for long," Yoongi says as Hoseok peers wide eyed at the menu, eyes sparkling like a kid in a candy store — or a Hoseok in an ice cream shop, which to Yoongi, is pretty much the same thing. The younger is peering eagerly at the various flavors up on the menu board with excitement twinkling in his eyes as he steps to the counter. Hoseok orders a double scoop of strawberry and vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, making Yoongi want to throw up at the thought of how much sugar Hoseok is consuming. He just orders a cup of mint chocolate chip to go and bolts out of the door as soon as they pay, leaping back into the car and speeding back to his apartment. He’d left the air conditioner on before they’d left, but he worries about Kitten more than anything. As he should.
Because when they get back to the apartment, Kitten is gone.
Yoongi is frantic, trying to connect the dots between the open cat carrier and how Kitten could’ve possibly escaped. Yoongi really really doesn’t mean to, but he immediately takes his anger out on Hoseok.
“You stupid fuck, I told you to put her back in the carrier before we left! Now look what the fuck you did!”
Hoseok reels back, a look of anger and annoyance in his eyes. And he knows Yoongi doesn’t mean it, but Yoongi also knows how Hoseok hates to be yelled at.
“I didn’t do this, you said you were gonna put her back in there with her bowl of water, dickhead! You did this!”
“I didn’t--”
Their argument is interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door over the roar of the air conditioner, and they both still. Hoseok crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow at Yoongi before nodding towards the door.
“Well? Go fucking answer it.” he practically growls and Yoongi flips him off before opening the door.
His eyes trail down barely an inch, to an obviously younger looking man with bright orange hair parted very nicely but weighed down a little but because of the humidity. He’s wearing a tank top that was really obviously a white shirt before but the sleeves are just cut off and a pair of very short shorts. Yoongi has no time to appreciate his nicely shaped thighs or cute smile or slightly pinked cheeks because his eyes are too focused on the white kitten in the boy’s arms.
His kitten.
“Hi,” the boy starts out, a little nervously, and continues. “uh, I don’t know if this is your cat but? She got out and was walking around in the hallway and I didn’t want to leave her out in the heat. Do you know whose she is?”
Yoongi swallows and reaches out to take his cat from the mysteriously adorable boy. “Mine. She’s mine, I mean. Thanks for bringing her back.”
Orange Head gingerly hands Kitten over, Yoongi instantly plopping her down inside of his apartment where Hoseok goes over to her and scoops her up so she can’t get out of the open door.
“Are you sure she’s yours?” Orange Head asks. Yoongi furrows his brow in annoyance.
“What the hell do you mean, am I sure ?”
“I don’t know. You just don’t seem like the type of guy to have a cat. A kitten, at that, too.”
Yoongi is fuming by now. Who the hell does this kid think he is? Mesmerizing thighs or not, he’s gonna give this little shit a piece of his mind.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean --?”
And behind him comes Hoseok with Kitten in his arms, eyes instantly brightening when he sees the orange haired boy in the doorway.
“Jiminie!” he exclaims, and Yoongi rolls his eyes. Of course Hoseok, his best friend, would know this asshole. It amazes Yoongi how many people Hoseok actually knows and talks to, through dance or school or work or whatever he’s up to. Yoongi and Hoseok once took a ride to the convenience store and Hoseok said hello to and hugged at least six random old ladies on the street. Yoongi is still confused.
“Hi, Hobi hyung! What are you doing here?”
“I’m helping this asshole move his stuff in. What about you? Shouldn’t you be in school?”
“No class today. And I live across the hall, remember?” ‘Jiminie’ says, brushing his hair out of his eyes in a way that definitely doesn’t make Yoongi’s throat dry. It’s the heat. Definitely the heat. He needs to interrupt.
“Well not that I’m not loving this conversation that I’m not apart of, but the two of you are letting all the cold air out so can you finish up?”
Hoseok nods understandingly and waves. “See you around, Jimin. You coming to dance tomorrow?”
Jimin nods and takes a step away from the door and heads in the direction of his apartment, his door also ajar. “Yeah, see you.” He turns his attention to Yoongi now, giving him a once-over before smiling a little bit. “You too…” he trails off at the absence of knowing Yoongi’s name, so the elder fills it in.
“Yoongi.”
“Right. See you around, Yoongi hyung.”
***
Summer continues on and it’s as hot and humid as ever, some days dryer than others but no less scalding. Yoongi continues on his music and goes to work, having Hoseok come over more and more often to watch Kitten and eat up all the food in the fridge.
(Yoongi actually doesn’t invite Hoseok over to eat all of his food, but that’s what ends up happening anyway. Secretly, he doesn’t mind. Hoseok is good company.)
Yoongi is sitting at his desk, the big wooden one right under the largest window so he can have a lot of good lighting, when he looks down to the street below and sees Jimin. He’s getting out of his car with grocery bags, a lot of them, and even from the far up window he can see Jimin struggling a bit with the bags. The younger blows his shining orange hair out of his eyes before sighing and looking up towards the windows, catching Yoongi’s eye.
Shit.
Jimin smiles a little and waves, Yoongi raising a hand in acknowledgment and tries to look away. But before he can he sees Jimin’s mouth open like he’s saying something, plush lips mouthing the words, help, please?
Shit .
It’s not like Yoongi can pretend not to have heard him, he already saw Jimin and can very easily read lips. Yoongi sighs and slips his shoes on and goes to his bedroom. Kitten is burrowed between his pillows asleep, and he leaves the door slightly open before leaving out of the front of his apartment.
“Thank you so much,” Jimin says immediately when he sees Yoongi emerging from the front of the building. “You really don’t know how hard this would’ve been to do alone.”
Yoongi doesn’t say anything but lifts a few bags, holding the door open for Jimin who’s got the bulk of the shopping and a case of water. They trudge up the stairs and Yoongi really. Really . Tries hard not to even give a glance at Jimin’s ass.
(He slips up. He looks twice.)
Once they’re in Jimin’s apartment, Yoongi plops the bags down on the counter and takes a look around. It’s the same size as his, much cleaner, though. There are two small sofas in the living room area and a television and a stack of books next to a sidetable with a stereo on it.
“Hyung?” Jimin’s soft tone distracts Yoongi out of his thoughts.
“Sorry, what?”
“If...if you’re not busy,” Jimin starts, “can you stay for like a few minutes and help me put these away? Only if you want, I mean.” The shy and cute demeanor Jimin gives off is so contrasting to his muscular and sweaty face and body that it almost throws Yoongi for a loop. He agrees nonetheless.
“Whatever, fine. You owe me.”
***
Yoongi kind of wishes he didn’t say that.
Because now Kitten keeps escaping, and the only person that keeps bringing her back is Jimin. He’ll show up at the door, sometimes in the middle of the night, but mostly during the day, holding her in his arms. He always smiles, that one smile that Yoongi absolutely hates because it makes his heart clench when his eyes curves up into crescents, and say, “does this count as you owing me now?”
Yoongi is beginning to think that Kitten is doing it on purpose.
He’s also now seeing more and more of Jimin, not just when he shows up at Yoongi’s doorstep, but everywhere else. At 3 am in the building’s laundry room when Yoongi doesn’t have enough quarters to do his dark load, but Jimin is there for him with an extra seventy-five cents.
At the park across the street from the building where Yoongi goes to sit under the old oak tree to get inspiration for writing, and when he looks up Jimin is there jogging around the pavement with earbuds in and sweat on his brow.
(Yoongi will never admit it on his life, but Jimin looks amazing in his running shorts.)
It’s beginning to become a problem how much he’s running into the orange haired male, and he just wants to live his life in peace without turning around and seeing Jimin standing there looking like an angel straight from hell. Yes, hell, because that’s what Yoongi’s life is now like.
Hoseok is the first to notice, one night when Yoongi has him over to watch the new Marvel movie accompanied by some beer and popcorn. There’s a soft knock on his door just as he’s popping the movie in the DVD player, and he sighs before straightening up to answer it. Hoseok is standing in front of the microwave eagerly watching the popcorn bag inflate with every snap of a kernel.
Yoongi unlocks the door and opens it without looking through the peephole, which generally is a bad idea and it would be if he didn’t already know who was going to be standing on the other side.
“What do you want Jimin,” he says before the door is even all the way open.
“Hi hyung.” Jimin is standing there in gym attire and smiling that stupid smile and his hair is perfectly parted and styled as if he’d never even broken a sweat. How the fuck does this kid do this? “Our mail got mixed up.”
“Did it really.” Yoongi deadpans, because their mail never gets mixed up. They don’t even have the same surname, so there’s no way someone could’ve gotten it wrong by putting it in the mailbox. He crosses his arms at the exact same time Hoseok shouts from the kitchen, “popcorn’s ready!”
“Hi Hobi-hyung!” Jimin shouts from the hallway past Yoongi as he hands his mail over. Yoongi takes the envelopes and instinctively sifts through them. Bill, bill, magazine, bill. He tosses the papers on the table beside the door and sighs. Hoseok gives Jimin a happy and light greeting before setting the popcorn down on the table and taking a seat on the couch.
“Thanks.” Yoongi quickly says to Jimin. The younger ducks his head a little in response and waves goodbye, taking the few steps across the hall to his apartment and closing the door behind him once he’s in. Yoongi ruffles his green hair and plops down next to Hoseok, careful not to disturb Kitten who is sleeping on the armrest of the sofa. The movie starts up and for a while they’re both quiet for a while, until the popcorn is halfway gone and Yoongi can feel his best friend burning holes in the side of his head with his eyes.
“What?”
“You like him.”
The statement is so fucking absurd that Yoongi actually turns to look at Hoseok, who now is wearing a shit eating grin and has his eyebrows raised.
“I what ?”
“I can’t believe I didn’t notice it earlier. You’re totally into Jimin!” Hoseok exclaims and laughs, spilling the popcorn slightly out of the bowl and onto his lap and couch cushions. “This is amazing. I have to set the two of you up.”
“Hold the fuck up.” Yoongi shakes his head and pauses the movie. “First of all, like hell I’m letting you set me up with someone ever again. And two–”
“I didn’t know he was gonna be overly obsessive!”
“And two,” Yoongi continues, “I am not into Jimin.”
“Not yet anyway,” Hoseok wiggles his eyebrows suggestively and it earns him a smack to the side of his head. “Come on, hyung, don’t act like you don’t like him just a little bit.”
“I don’t. He’s an annoying brat who’s always everywhere I fucking turn looking like a goddamn godly sculpture and I’m pretty sure he’s trying to steal my cat with the amount of times he’s brought Kitten back here.” Yoongi starts the movie back up and settles back into the couch cushions before letting out a sigh. Hoseok says nothing more for a while, eyeing Yoongi suspiciously.
“You think he’s hot though,”
Yoongi rolls his eyes. At this rate they’ll never finish the fucking movie.
“You can think what you want.”
“I’m not thinking what I want , I’m thinking about what’s true .”
Yoongi throws a handful of popcorn in Hoseok’s face as the latter dodges it with a pillow and a laugh, the two of them turning their attention back to the movie playing on screen. He’ll never give Hoseok an inkling of satisfaction if he were to say that he thinks Jimin really is hot. Which he does think. But Hoseok doesn’t need to know that.
***
When Yoongi wakes up with someone knocking gently at his door a few days later, he instantly becomes pissed. Because it's ass-o'clock and he should still be sleeping, at least for two more hours before he needs to feed Kitten. He gets up with a groan and goes to the door, opening it while rubbing his eyes.
"Can I help you," he says without looking up. There are stars on the backs of his eyelids from rubbing his eyes too hard to wake himself up. What he doesn't expect is to see is Jimin, cradling Kitten in his arms. He also doesn't expect Jimin to be shirtless, hair disheveled and lips a bit swollen from sleep. Yoongi's heart stops a little.
"Um, hi." Jimin says once Yoongi blinks a few times to adjust his eyes. "I found Kitten in my bed this morning. I don't know how she got out but I figured I'd return her before you flipped out."
Yoongi thinks hard.
He did go out for drinks with Hoseok last night, and he did come in at 3 am. And he may or may not have left the door open by accident while he used the bathroom, going back to close it when he heard Jimin's door open from across the hall to take out his trash. Then Yoongi frowns. Who the fuck takes out their trash at 3 am?
"Yeah I think I know how she got out," Yoongi says finally and reaches into Jimin's arms — his toned, solid, slightly tanned arms — and takes his white kitten out of them before placing her on his left shoulder. "Thanks."
"Sure."
They stand there for a second, just looking at each other, not really sure what to do.
"D'you–" Yoongi clears his throat. God, why is he so nervous around this brat? "Do you wanna come inside for coffee or...something?"
Jimin looks as stunned as Yoongi feels, his brows furrowing slightly before answering.
"Um. Sure. Let me just, uh, go grab a shirt." Jimin turns and pads back to his apartment, Yoongi standing nervously in his doorway holding the door open so Jimin can come back inside. He's sporting a ratty Star Wars t-shirt and now some black socks under his sweats, a pair of round glasses perched on his nose.
Yoongi goes to the coffee pot and starts it up, filling the filter and setting the timer.
"I don't know how you take it, so. You'll have to make it yourself." Yoongi crosses his arms and smiles a little when Kitten meows from his shoulder and licks his ear. Yoongi uses his pinky to scratch under her tiny chin before placing her down on the floor to fill her food and water bowl. He hears the coffee pot beep and he straightens up, seeing Jimin make his way over to it with Kitten trailing at his feet before rubbing affectionately against his sock clad ankle.
It all sort of feels strangely and oddly domestic, how Jimin is in Yoongi's kitchen making a cup of coffee at 9 am while his cat purrs against the younger's foot. It's weird.
"Do you want me to pour you some?" Jimin says to Yoongi, the older boy shrugging.
"Sure. I take it black."
Jimin (cutely) scrunches his nose, pouring coffee into a plain white mug and handing it to Yoongi who thanks him. Kitten walks between them, her little tail swishing back and forth happily as she stretches and paws at Jimin's leg.
"She's great." Jimin says after downing half of his coffee in two sips. Yoongi looks down affectionately at Kitten, her little white paws making microscopic holes in Jimin's sweatpants at where she's scratching at them.
"Yeah." Yoongi agrees. "She's just got bad taste in who she tends to like."
Jimin eyes Yoongi playfully.
"Including you?"
"Hm. Got me there." Yoongi says with a small smile which broadens unconsciously when Jimin laughs. It's a light sound, warming Yoongi's skin like the sun on a warm spring day. Jimin picks up kitten and holds her to his nose, which she licks a few times which makes Jimin fucking giggle . Yoongi can't help but to stare, at both Jimin and Kitten and he tries to ignore how his heart slightly swells.
"I should," Jimin points to the door. "I should probably get going. Thanks for the coffee."
"Thanks for bringing Kitten back." Yoongi replies, putting his mug down and Jimin nods. The latter begins to make his way to the door, Kitten trotting quickly behind him and circling his feet.
"I have to go now," Jimin tells Kitten in a sweet voice, scratching in between her ears. "I'll see you later, okay?"
Yoongi clears his throat.
"You can stay longer, if you want. Up to you." He can't believe he's saying the words as they leave his mouth, biting his lip because he's slightly embarrassed. Jimin straightens up, clearly surprised at Yoongi's sudden nice behavior.
"I – you sure?"
"Yeah, why not."
"Oh. O-okay."
***
Yoongi is really beginning to question his life choices right about now.
Because he and Jimin are sitting together on his couch in the dull gray morning light watching a movie, Yoongi feeling Jimin's body heat radiating off of him and into his side. The sounds of Captain America shoot through the television speakers and into the living room, the movie playing out as Kitten walks between their feet. Yoongi picks her up and holds her close to his face so she can lick gently at his nose. He smiles, a real big one, and he hears Jimin giggle a little next to him but Yoongi says nothing.
She stretches out of Yoongi's grip and pads over to Jimin's lap, clawing up towards his face and sniffs at his chin before licking at it. Jimin's eyes curve up as he smiles and he giggles again and Yoongi would rather have his left foot cut off before he admits to anyone that it's the most adorable thing he's ever seen in his life.
He doesn't even know who he is anymore. He's gonna throw up.
Some time later into the second movie (read: Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier) they end up slouched together, Yoongi resting with his back against the armrest of the couch and Jimin almost curved onto him, the younger's head on Yoongi's shoulder. He's warm, really warm, and if it weren't for the air conditioning it would've been uncomfortable. Then again, he wonders if anything Jimin did could bother him. Probably not.
"He's my favorite, I think." Jimin speaks up softly and Yoongi almost doesn't hear him. "Of the Avengers I mean."
"He's okay. Iron Man is better." Yoongi shrugs and keeps his eyes trained on the screen. Jimin shifts his head over so that he's looking at Yoongi, eyebrows furrowed.
"No way. Iron Man only has powers because he has a suit, that's different."
"We literally just watched the first Captain America, and you saw how he got his powers. He's not that special."
Jimin squints at Yoongi a little but says nothing else, going back to the movie.
Right at the beginning of their third movie (read: The Avengers: Age of Ultron) they end up perfectly horizontal. Yoongi is on his back with Jimin half on top of him, half resting on the couch with his head tucked into the elder's neck and Kitten resting on the top of the couch cushion above their heads.
It's well into the afternoon now but neither of them clearly have any plans of going anywhere.
"See," Jimin says now (continuing their Captain America v. Iron Man debate), "iron man is smart but he has no sense. He's gonna kill all of his friends."
"He isn't. He's going to save them because he's a genius. And he's better." Yoongi shakes his head. He can feel his eyelids getting heavier and Jimin's comforting weight and body heat isn't helping him stay awake. Yoongi's fingers are scratching gently at the nape of Jimin's neck and playing with the short hair there, and Yoongi gets that weird domestic feeling in his chest again.
Jimin turns his neck to fully gaze up at Yoongi. "You're a jerk. That's why you like Iron Man so much." His voice lacks the venom that he intends it to have, and it makes Yoongi smirk.
"You got me."
It's quiet for a minute.
"I think we're a lot like Steve and Tony," Jimin says, running his small palm lightly up and down Yoongi's worn t-shirt. "Because they act like they don't like each other."
"Are you saying you don't like me?" Yoongi raises a brow. "You've been in my apartment and on my couch for way too long not to like me."
"Shut up, you didn't let me finish." Jimin says with a giggle. "I was going to say that they act like they hate each other but they don't, really."
"That's not true. I do hate you." Yoongi laughs and Jimin hits his arm lightly. The movie hits the midway point and Yoongi can feel Jimin’s breath evening out slowly like he’s falling asleep, warm breath tickling the side of the elder’s neck. He shakes his shoulder a little to stir Jimin awake and the latter apologizes and wiggles a little to wake himself up. He keeps wiggling and moving around, Yoongi beginning to get uncomfortable and a little too hot.
“Jimin, stay still.”
“I can’t,” the younger huffs, blowing his hair out of his face. “I’m too antsy.” He says the rest of his sentence while scooting up a little further on Yoongi, now hovering over the green haired male’s face and their noses almost brushing. Yoongi swallows hard because what the fuck, no, this isn’t supposed to be happening and Jimin is so close that he can count all of his eyelashes and this is so bad for Yoongi’s health and well being.
“What are you doing,” Yoongi is so nervous he can’t even ask a proper fucking question .
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You’re a little too close to my face, Jimin.”
“What, you don’t like it?”
Yoongi wants to smack that stupid little smirk right off of Jimin’s cute face.
“No.”
“Mm, you’re lying,” Jimin laughs and gets a little closer, this time their noses do brush and Yoongi’s pulse jolts. Jimin gets even closer now, and Yoongi’s heart is beating so fast he can barely feel it. “This okay?”
And what the hell, this is so much more than okay, Yoongi wants to say, but just nods instead.
Then their lips touch. Yoongi likes that it’s light, like Jimin is nervous and how he fists his little fingers in Yoongi’s t-shirt as he presses in harder. yoongi likes the little breathy noises that jimin lets out when he threads his fingers through Jimin’s orange hair and pulls him closer, and how soft Jimin’s lips are. Yoongi likes that Jimin’s a good kisser.
But Hoseok doesn’t have to know that.