Work Text:
[conversation with Kim Seokjin]
Why am I being punished
??
[image]
a) WHO is that and 2. wtf his delt is the size of your head
This is what I'm SAYING
That's Tae, you're meeting him on Friday if I survive
wait THAT is your high school bestie? I thought he was a twink
SO DID I
praying for you
Fuck OFF
Jimin locks his phone and tosses it onto the bedspread. Through the open door of his bedroom come the gentle strains of a bossa nova arrangement of Greensleeves, and he can't help smiling. That's so Taehyung. Beside him, his phone lights up with another text.
Cute antlers btw
Jimin snorts and shoves the phone in his pocket without replying. He's still wearing them: felt antlers on a hairband with a bow in the middle, courtesy of Taehyung, who coerced him into a mirror selfie wearing a matching pair. The heavy weight of his arm around Jimin's shoulders still lingers.
“Jiminie, are you gonna come help?” Taehyung calls. Jimin hops up to go to him.
He's aware he's got it bad, okay?
Taehyung came back to their shared apartment this afternoon with two massive shopping bags full of Christmas decor and such an excited smile that Jimin didn't have the heart to rein him in. First, reindeer antler selfies; now, apparently, lights and garlands and Jimin isn't 100% sure there wasn't somehow a Christmas tree in one of those bags. The halls of this apartment are about to be well and truly decked.
Technically the place is Jimin's, but he's got a spare room and a soft spot the size of Jupiter, so it was a no-brainer to offer to house his old friend while he looked for work post-military discharge.
Jimin enlisted straight out of high school, then came back and got an accounting certification, and he's had a stable job for a few years now. Taehyung, on the other hand, is a brilliant pianist, and not only went to university, but did a graduate degree in the US before enlisting. Privately, Jimin is pretty sure Taehyung was hoping for a prestigious competition win and an exemption. He did win several smaller competitions, but never one of the big international titles, though he was invited to participate in at least two that Jimin knows of. If he was disappointed with the outcome, he never showed it.
And now he's back, and looking at options in Seoul, and Jimin is stubbornly determined to make Taehyung's life as easy and pleasant as possible until he figures out where he's going to land.
For now, that means indulging him in decorating for Christmas, even though Jimin usually only ever puts a wreath on his door, at most.
When he gets to the living room, Tae is up on a stepladder, installing command hooks. Presumably they're for hanging up the string lights currently forming a softly glowing nest on the couch.
Jimin takes a minute to appreciate the scene in front of him: Taehyung, in grey sweatpants and a ratty old green sweater that Jimin knows for a fact he's had since junior high, reaching up to press an adhesive pad in place near the ceiling. The sweater stretches across his shoulders, showing every bulky curve of muscle as he works. He shifts his weight on the stepladder, and his ass flexes, drawing Jimin's attention to its defined contours, clearly visible through the thin sweatpants.
In many ways, Taehyung is exactly the same as the excitable, affectionate boy Jimin met in high school. And in some ways, he is very, very different.
Jimin waits until Taehyung is done and off the ladder before speaking, just to be safe.
“What can I do?”
Taehyung turns around, his face lighting up. “There you are! Do you want to set up the tree?” He points to a small rectangular box on the piano bench. “It's just little, you can put it on top of the music bookcase.”
The music bookcase sits next to Taehyung's expensive electronic keyboard, chest-high and full to bursting with books and binders. As Jimin obligingly unpacks the tree, a scant 50cm tall, he realizes it's pre-strung with lights, and the cord should just reach the outlet where the keyboard is plugged in. It's a quick setup, just some unbending and some fluffing of branches and then there's a cute little straggly looking Christmas tree in their home. It doesn't look good, exactly, but it does look festive and cheerful.
“Taetae, did you get ornaments for the tree?”
Taehyung is back up on the ladder, this time with string lights in hand. He glances down over his shoulder, obliquely lit by the bright coil in his hands, and the way it highlights his cheekbones feels like a personal attack on Jimin's inner peace.
“Yeah, they should be in the bag under the piano.”
“Why did you put them under- never mind.” Jimin retrieves the little cylinder of brightly coloured balls and starts decorating. Almost immediately, the tree looks ten times better.
With the lights up around the perimeter of the ceiling and the tiny Christmas tree by the piano, the place already looks more festive than it ever has during Jimin's tenancy. And still more festivity is yet to come, apparently, as Taehyung unpacks swags of fake greenery and bows of ribbon.
“I can tell you have a plan and a vision,” Jimin says, helping him unsnag an evergreen bough from the shopping bag. “Do you want my help, or should I go make hot chocolate?”
“Definitely hot chocolate.” Taehyung's beaming face beneath the reindeer antlers looks so joyfully childlike that Jimins heart gives a squeeze. His hair has barely grown out at all in the two weeks since his discharge, so there's nothing to balance his round cheeks and the wide rectangle of his smile.
Helplessly drawn, Jimin moves the boughs aside and steps in to give him a hug. Taehyung's arms eagerly embrace him, and he lays his head on Taehyung's shoulder and closes his eyes, just for a moment. What if they could stay like this? What if he could have what he wants?
There have been times, as they've gotten used to each other again in physical space, where Jimin has wondered, has hoped... but it's hard to tell what's just an outpouring of the deep frienship they've maintained for so many years, distance and asynchronous military service notwithstanding, and what might be signs of more, or might just be a magnification by Jimin's hopeful, lovesick heart.
It caught him off guard, this feeling. He's already loved Taehyung so much for so long that, even confined to texts and calls and video, they felt like extensions of each other, secure in the bedrock of their friendship. He wasn't worried about things being awkward. He wasn't worried about anything at all. He certainly didn't predict that when they reunited Taehyung would pick him up and swing him around in greeting, that post-military Taehyung would have bear shoulders and thighs like tree trunks. He didn't know Taehyung, only slightly taller, would make him feel small, delicate, precious; he certainly didn't know how much he would like it.
Now, held so comfortably in Taehyung's arms again, he lets the yearning swell up, just a little, just for now. Eventually, Taehyung will find his place in Seoul and get his own apartment and keep his own schedule, and they'll see each other much less often, and it will be fine, because it will still be much more than they've seen each other for the last eight years.
But it won't be this.
Eventually, far too soon, he pulls back with a sigh.
“Okay. Hot chocolate. I'll bring you a mug when it's ready.”
“Thanks, Minie.” Taehyung looks like he wants to say something more, but then just smiles at him again and turns to the evergreens.
In the kitchen, Jimin pulls himself together. He's making hot chocolate, and that means real hot chocolate, sugar and milk and cocoa in a saucepan, whisking occasionally as it heats. He pulls out his phone.
Hyung, be proud of me
I'm being normal
I'm so proud of you, my son
you might wanna be less normal if you're trying to hit that tho
hyunG
I'm not going to make him uncomfortable, he lives here now
and?
dslfjkhasjk
I come to you for moral support and this is what you have for me
you're right, you're right
be normal, stay strong, scream to Papa Jinnie if you need to
literally never call yourself that again
but thanks
Jimin is up on the counter rooting around the top shelf for marshmallows, cursing past-Jimin for throwing them up there in the first place, when Taehyung's voice comes from the doorway, startling him.
“Hey Jiminie, I just need your help with one- whoa!”
As quickly as Jimin has lost his balance, flailing, Taehyung is across the kitchen to steady him, wrapping both arms around his waist and lifting him down to safety. Jimin gets his feet under him, commands his knees not to wobble, and turns around to whack Taehyung on the shoulder.
“I said I'd bring the hot chocolate out to you!”
Taehyung looks sheepish. His arms are still around Jimin's waist.
“Sorry. I didn't mean to endanger your life like that.”
Jimin sighs, mollified. “It's my fault anyway. Thanks for saving me.”
“Literally anytime,” Taehyung says solemnly.
Jimin looks away, trying to hide his smile. He can be chill, he can be normal, this is fine.
“What did you need my help with?”
“Oh, uh.” Taehyung lets go of him and reaches into his pocket. “I just have this one last thing to go up and I was hoping you could tell me how it looks.” He pulls out a tiny little sprig of green leaves around a cluster of white berries. Before Jimin can parse the sudden knot in his stomach and fully register what it means, Taehyung takes the sprig delicately between his thumb and forefinger and lifts it until it's dangling above his own head.
Jimin blinks at it. 70% of his brainspace is roaring white noise, and the other thirty percent is going mistletoe? Mistletoe. Mistletoe it's mistletoe it's MISTLETOE IT'S MISTLETOE IT'S MISTLETOE
“What do you think?” Taehyung looks at him with a hopeful expression. “Does here work?”
Jimin's brain forces a hard shutdown on all thoughts and does a quick reboot. The information at hand resolves quickly into: Taehyung is in front of Jimin, holding mistletoe over his own head and smiling at him.
Even for Jimin, a champion overthinker, the message is clear as day.
“Right there is perfect,” he manages to say, before he closes the short distance between them, reaching up to take Taehyung's face in both hands and bring it down to himself, to get that sweet mouth onto his own.
Taehyung makes a little sound at the first touch of their lips, halfway between a whimper and a sigh, and Jimin loses every ounce of hesitation. Sliding his arms around Taehyung's neck, he crushes their lips together, moaning when he feels Taehyung pull him even closer, strong arms enfolding his body.
“Tae,” he gasps, pressing their foreheads together to take a breath, “Taetae, I need you to mean this.”
“Of course I mean it,” Taehyung protests, pouting a little, and Jimin has to get that fat bottom lip back in his mouth. When they break to breathe again, Taehyung skims his nose over Jimin's temple and cradles the back of his head, encouraging him to tuck his face into Taehyung's neck. Oh, he smells like Taehyung here, like the boy who offered to share his lunch and didn't care if people saw them holding hands or hugging, like the boy he saw twice in five years because of school and service, like the man who picked him up and twirled him around in the train station two weeks ago. He smells like comfort, like safety. He smells like home.
“I've been in love with you for a really long time, I think,” Jimin chokes out.
“I think we've probably been in love for years,” Taehyung says, so matter-of-fact that Jimin snorts a laugh and pulls back to look at him. “I wish I'd realised sooner.”
“I don't know,” Jimin says slowly, his eyes roaming over Taehyung's face. “I think maybe the timing is exactly right.”
Taehyung kisses him again. Jimin falls into it, increasingly desperate, chest heaving against Taehyung's with every breath, every gasp. Taehyung's mouth on Jimin's, his hands on Jimin's hips, over his ribs, are lighting a fire under his skin, a crackling blaze that feels like it might consume him.
“Jimin, shit,” Taehyung groans, pulling at Jimin's waist, encouraging the arch of his spine, the press of their bodies together. “Have you been waiting? I thought I was so obvious but you ignored all my hints.”
“Couldn't trust myself,” Jimin admits, dropping his head back to let Taehyung kiss down his throat. “Wanted you so bad, I didn't want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Mm, I should have put your mind at ease sooner,” Taehyung breathes. “Like maybe at the train station.”
Jimin's hips kick forward at the memory, and he groans. “I could barely handle you as it was, I might have actually passed out if you'd also said 'and by the way, I love you and we should kiss'.” He laughs breathily, and Taehyung giggles into his shoulder.
“Yeah, maybe that would have been a bit much. But for the record,” Taehyung drops a swift peck on his mouth again, “I love you,” a slightly longer kiss, “and we should keep kissing.”
“Just kiss?” Jimin says, feeling both secure in the inevitable and also a little as though he's stepping off a cliff. “Anything else you'd like to be doing? You know, while you have me here.”
“We're already well past my hopes for today,” Taehyung says honestly. “I wouldn't even know where to start asking. You better tell me what you want.” He runs his hands up and down Jimin's back, settling right at the top of his ass.
The crackling heat is in his veins now, pooling in his stomach. “I want to take you to bed,” Jimin says, running his hands over Taehyung's shoulders, down his chest, “and show you how much I missed you.”
Taehung hisses when Jimin squeezes his pecs, hunching in on himself slightly, somehow bashful even now. “Only if I'm allowed to touch too,” he says, sliding his hands down. Jimin sticks his ass out in response, pushing into the touch, and grins.
“Of course. Anything for my Taetae.”
🌟
I was wrong, turns out I'm God's favourite
[image]
WHAT DID YOU JUST MAKE ME LOOK AT
MY EYES
Oh calm down
It's nothing you haven't seen before
oh yes it is
what is on your neck, was he trying to EAT you
[kissy face emoji]
your days are numbered, Park Jimin
i mean, get it, obviously
but keep me OUT OF IT
...hello??
oh god you're fucking again aren't you
.