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They’re supposed to be searching for ‘items or artifacts of historical significance’ - but really they’d been hired to scare off some local amateur ghost hunters. The local council had been concerned that there’d be an influx of trespassing and vandalism while contractors excavated a recently discovered tomb at an abandoned church just on the outskirts of town.
It didn’t even really make sense as Jungkook and Yoongi were also ghost hunters - though nobody said that to Yoongi’s face, as he’d be insufferably put-out for hours.They weren’t security or police or anything of the like.
(“We’re private investigators,” Yoongi had told Jungkook irritably, after Jungkook had used the g-word on a client.
“And we hunt ghosts!” Jungkook insisted. They had, last Thursday. It had been great! The lady who’d hired them had tipped them well and had dropped off homemade dumplings at their apartment.
“We sometimes handle cases that involve spectres of the deceased, it doesn’t make us… us… fucking ghost hunters! Just because you sometimes jerk it in the shower doesn’t suddenly mean you have a fetish for running water.”
“I... really don’t think that’s a fair comparison.”)
Actually, Jungkook thought, watching Yoongi stalk ahead of him with one of the contractors, the council may have had the right idea.
Yoongi was a force to be reckoned with, all storm and fire wound tightly inside a body. How could mere human will stand against what the very elements bowed to?
“Keep up, Jungkook,” Yoongi called, looking over his shoulder with a scowl. A younger, more naive Jungkook would have taken this to mean that Yoongi was angry, and angry at him, but Jungkook was savvy to the ways of the Min Yoongis of the world now, and he knew this just meant that Yoongi was impatient.
“I’m being thorough,” Jungkook replied, deliberately slowing down to take a more careful look around while Yoongi scoffed at him.
It really was only to tease him, but Jungkook’s flashlight flicked past a headstone and a glowing light remained, flickering behind the rock, and that was interesting.
“Yoongi,” Jungkook called, carefully approaching it, his spare hand reaching down to his belt just in case. “I think… you should come look at this.” Yoongi didn’t call back and Jungkook frowned, turning back to the path. “Yoongi?”
The path was gone.
No, no, the everything was gone. The church, the graveyard, the path, and Yoongi with it. All of it gone and replaced by fog and moss covered stones, towering over him in broken formations.
“... That’s new,” Jungkook whispered, slowly turning back to the flickering light.
Yoongi had talked about ghost lights once or twice, but never in any great detail. Most of their work was in the cities and that came with its own specific problems - pained gashes to souls, malicious demons, and yes, plenty of ghosts. Ghost lights were something else entirely.
This light burned a strange sort of blue-black from within, hovering around Jungkook’s knees before drifting towards a forest that had not been there moments before. Though its colour was unlike any flame he’d ever seen, it felt warm and safe.
She called to him.
He followed the light, stepping into the treeline and then following the ghost light down a narrow path, stepping over the roots of giant oak trees as he went along. The air was different in this forest - it moved in a way that made the branches groan with dread and the leaves whisper secrets and it tasted forgotten on Jungkook’s tongue. This was a place of time and of stillness.
She awaited him.
There was no way for Jungkook to measure how far he followed the light before it brought him to a clearing, where the moon shone most delicately upon her face. It felt like awakening from a dream, everything softened and out of focus for a moment before he was hit with a sense of clarity.
She awaited him.
She smiled as she held out a hand and she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, with eyes made of starlight and lips of petals and hands of willow, as he took her hand, took her hand in his very own, and followed her deeper into the heart of the forest.
The forest bloomed beneath her feet, creatures spilling from every nook and cranny, banners flying through the lazy sunlight as a cheer went up around the two of them.
They must love her, Jungkook thought, following her through the crowd that had formed around them both as she led him towards the most ancient oak he’d ever seen, a staircase into the ground appearing among its roots.
They must love her as he loved her.
There was a feast awaiting him in this grand hall, with flower maidens to drape blossoms over his shoulders, and mischievous lords to fill his cup with sweetest wine, as merry music made the air muddled with mirth.
She sat him by her side, and made sure all he needed was given, and he loved her.
Eventually, the court began to slumber, one by one dropping away, some still seated at the feasting table, others curled up against soft cushions or each other, precious in their sleep.
It was then that she brought him to his feet, guiding him even deeper into the great cavern, and she smiled at him with such brilliance, with such adoration, that he knew this was something of intimate significance and it made him swell with pride.
She brought him to a crib, and showed him, showed him the most precious thing she wished to give to him.
A child.
Their child.
An infant, sleeping and lovely, with rounded cheeks, and hands curled into soft fists around a blanket, so delightful and young. He felt that pride surge even more as he gently scooped this child up, looking to her. He would protect this child for her, so soft and pure. He would protect this child with his life.
“Jungkook?”
… So young.
He had not seen a single child during the feast.
“Jungkook?”
“Oh,” Jungkook said, finally finding his voice, and the sound of his humanity was harsh and unnatural, as the illusion shattered around him, as he held this sleeping human child and turned to face the fae queen who stood before him, with tears in her eyes.
Her face twisted, no longer as beautiful as he’d thought it to be, sorrow mixing potently with something darker, something more akin to rage. She had been cheated and she did not like the taste of it.
“There’s a hook in your heart,” she said. “You’ve already been trapped by another.”
She flung her hand out and the cavern shivered around him before he was thrown out into the forest. Not violently - it was as if he were a feather, touching down so lightly on the dirt and moss.
Not all felt so benevolent as she, though, as a snarl came from behind him. Jungkook glanced briefly at the baby still nestled against his chest, before reaching to his belt and yanking the first charm his fingers touched - he prayed, he prayed, he prayed it was one that would help rather than hinder, though Yoongi would scold him for entrusting himself to such fickle entities as the Fates.
Still, this forest was old and full of power that Jungkook could not begin to fathom. The charm sparked and grew in his hand, and it had not been the crystal sword he’d been hoping for, but an iron shield that twisted up to his elbow just in time for him to whip around and smack the - pixie? leprechaun? - that was attacking him to the ground.
He was surrounded by them, some of them hissing from the branches or behind rocks, but Jungkook wasn’t Yoongi. He wasn’t drowned in this world, so much that he could see it on his own, and walk through it unphased, the way Yoongi could. He did not know how to invoke an enchantment of protection, of safe passage.
No… but Jungkook did know how to punch his way out of a problem.
He roared, leaping forward to smash against several of the little men charging him, the iron making everything smell acrid as they shrieked in pain upon contact. He laid them out, not pausing before he slammed the shield against a charging knight, shoving him off what was either a horse or a dragon or a sentient plant, and barreling out of the clearing and into the forest, creatures jeering at his exit.
It was disorienting, crashing through the forest without a guide, though Jungkook was careful on his feet, his charge still fast asleep against his chest. Every tree looked the same, though Jungkook never returned to the clearing of sunlight and music.
“Jungkook?”
“Yoongi?” Jungkook called back, turning towards the sound of his name.
It was as if a flame had been extinguished. The forest, with its ancient air and trembling woods, vanishing, to be replaced by rotted church and cemetery alike.
You have a hook in your heart.
“Jungkook, what’s-” Yoongi began and then stopped because he realized that Jungkook was holding an actual baby and covered in mud.
“... I saw something,” Jungkook offered, looking down. Amazing. The baby was still asleep.
For what it was worth, Yoongi looked surprised. “Fuck.”
It was many hours later, dawn about to break above them, when Yoongi rejoined Jungkook, leaning casually against a gravestone.
“Well, the police say they’ve brought her back to her parents,” Yoongi told him, pulling out a cigar from somewhere within his coat and lighting it. (It always looked like a regular cigar when Jungkook looked straight at it, but sometimes when he glanced at it out of the corner of his eye, he could see the green flames and the strange smoke.) “I’m told she was taken from her crib three days ago - isn’t it lucky that you and I were very publicly three thousand miles away at that time?”
“Right…” Jungkook said slowly, turning to step into Yoongi’s space. “Lucky.”
You have a hook in your heart.
Yoongi paused, cigar inches from his mouth, quirking an eyebrow as he looked up at Jungkook. “You okay there, Kook?”
You’ve already been trapped by another.
“I’m not sure anymore.”