Chapter Text
The thing about Taehyung was that he had never been the most stereotypical alpha. Sure, he had his moments. Usually when he was angry, he'd blow up, and he didn't handle his emotions well at times, but he was never like other alphas.
Taehyung had never been the most confident alpha, not even when he'd presented at age sixteen had he flaunted his status. Many alphas did. It was considered a wanted status to be.
However, he'd never rubbed it in anyone's face nor used it to his advantage. Even Namjoon had used his alpha status to his advantage before, and he'd been a teddy bear all throughout their childhood. Not at all like Seokjin, who made it a point to rub it in others' faces at all times.
Taehyung had just never seen it as that big of a deal, because being an alpha came with some very horrible things to deal with too.
A rut, being one; he absolutely hated that week he had to lock himself behind locked doors. The instincts, too, were hard to handle on a daily basis because they often bubbled up out of the blue. However, the absolute worst part about being an alpha was imprinting.
And the fact that alphas were the only ones who did it.
Taehyung imprinted very early compared to other people, because he'd already known his imprint. And he'd already known Jungkook would be who he would imprint on since the day he'd presented.
Everyone presented with their subgender when they were sixteen years old, but Jungkook was two years younger than himself and the youngest of all of their friends. Taehyung had smelt Jungkook's subgender long before the omega had presented, but he hadn't quite smelled the same to Taehyung as he did to their friends.
When he'd first seen Jungkook after he'd presented, the youngest had smelled like rain and trees, a scent so different to that of fruit Jimin described Jungkook as. Taehyung assumed he could smell much more to Jungkook due to the fated imprint. Well, that and the fact he'd been hopelessly in love with Jungkook since he was twelve and Jungkook gave him band aids when he fell off his bike.
Taehyung was a nervous puppy when it came to Jungkook. It was true. They all knew it.
“- it's just bullshit, you know?”
“Yes, bunny.” Yoongi paused to laugh under his breath, adding, “Nobody wants to see that, Kookie. Button up. You're a baby.”
At the comment, Taehyung turned his head to look over his shoulder, stopping in his spot. Jungkook was scrunching his nose up at Yoongi, a rather harsh pout slipping on his lips, “I'm eighteen. Stop calling me a baby, hyung.”
The feeling came immediately, like a shove in the chest as Taehyung's instincts readied up to bare teeth at Yoongi in Jungkook's defense. It was ridiculous of him to want to react that way, but he'd grown used to shoving the feeling down throughout the years.
Taehyung merely wet his lips and eyed how low Jungkook's button down sat. It was open enough to expose the lines of his chest and to reveal both collarbones.
“You are a baby,” Seokjin laughed and moved to take the bags from Jungkook's hand, “And you don't mind when Taehyung calls you it.”
Jungkook's ears turned red and the omega squealed an annoyed noise, “That's- he doesn't do it like that!”
The pebbles picked up when Jungkook jumped back to avoid the hands Yoongi tried to button his shirt up with, whining as he did so, only making handfuls of laughter bounce around between them all.
A hard pressure against his shoulder made Taehyung stumble out of his stare to jerk his head to look at his attacker, narrowing Jimin with an annoyed pursed-lip expression upon seeing his smirk.
“Done staring?” Jimin hummed, wiggling his eyebrows at him and Taehyung felt his neck redden when the omega added, “Take a picture, add it to your collection, weirdo.”
“I don't have a collection,” Taehyung hissed, “It's just my wallpaper. And Kookie did that himself, shut the fuck up-”
“Blah blah blah. Everytime you open your mouth all I hear is blah blah Kookie blah blah.” Jimin rolled his eyes and huffed, “Now that he's in our dormitory building, you better get your head on straight. Everyone's talking about him already. He's not our cute little bunny rabbit anymore. Other people like him.”
Jungkook was very likable. Taehyung knew that best. Jungkook was a very friendly person, although quiet at first, but he knew what Jimin was implying was far from innocent talk.
When someone's name spread across a college campus, it was usually due to bad things and bad things only. Jungkook was certainly an omega who could get himself into trouble.
All throughout school, Jungkook caused a stir. The omega had a temper at times. He'd get competitive. He'd throw fits.
One time, Taehyung had to be called out of his eighth grade class to walk the omega home because Jungkook had gotten suspended for throwing water at another student’s work just because they got a better score than him.
Jungkook caused a stir for new reasons after he'd presented. And Taehyung was far from being unaware of just how breathtaking Jungkook was. They were best friends after all. (Well, technically, Jimin was his best friend because Taehyung could share far more about his feelings with Jimin more so than Jungkook.)
“Seriously though,” Jimin began, teasing smile turning more genuine, “We're worried, Tae.”
Taehyung did not grant that with a response, mostly because the sound of grinding metal earned his attention.
Across the pebbles ground were railroad tracks, but they were rusted and untouched after all of the decades they sat. There were a number of boxcars falling apart down the track, but one boxcar was special.
They'd fixed it up. The blue paint was redone, the heavy metal door was oiled, and the interior was decorated and cleaned. It had been this way since they were kids, but it had grown much more cozy once they had more time and money to spend fixing it up.
They had their own spaces now. Their college separated the dorm floors by sub genders, so they didn't need to come here to relax, but it had become a tradition after all these years.
Every Friday night since they were young they'd meet here, and at least a few days during the week. Nobody ever missed the Friday meetings.
“Hyung!”
Jungkook's loud yell made Taehyung's heart jump when combined with the sound of rocks shuffling under the omega’s feet as he ran towards the boxcar entrance. Excited and happy.
Namjoon had been gone for a few days. He'd recently gotten an internship with a music production company, so he'd been rather busy, but today was Friday.
Taehyung knew that, reasonably, Jungkook had missed the other alpha, but there was something especially irritating about seeing the omega near Namjoon. Perhaps it was because everyone knew when they were children Jungkook had a big crush on the alpha, but Taehyung had long grown out of that jealousy phase.
Or so he thought. But it burned to watch Namjoon jump down to tug the omega into a hug, nuzzling into Jungkook's bare neck in such a way, gripping his waist so tightly—
“Jungkook! I'm not bringing your backpack in for you!”
The omega began to whine, loudly, and as soon as it reached Taehyung's ears the alpha was spinning around to trudge back a few meters in order to go after the omega's bag.
Seokjin sent him an amused look which made Taehyung duck his head in order to avoid any other looks, mostly from Yoongi, but he still heard their amused cackles and turned red eared.
However, when Yoongi chided, rather teasingly, “Isn't Taehyung the best, Kookie?” Jungkook replied with a happy, “That's why he's my favorite,” and it sounded so honest that Taehyung smiled, boxily.
By the time the alpha finally retrieved the bag and began walking back, everyone else had climbed inside besides Jungkook leaning against the door and smiling all cheekily.
Taehyung snorted, tossing the omega's bag down beside the pile of others and murmuring, “Don't even, Kookie. Don't-”
“You're like my own little assistant,” Jungkook giggled and bounced on his toes, “You're being extra quiet today.”
“You could just say thank you like any other person.”
The omega scrunched up his nose and pretended to look sick when he chided, “Thank you, hyung,” then immediately began with a beaming, “Did you see the pictures I sent of my new room? Did you? I hung up all of our pictures and everything! It looks really pretty, alpha. You need to come see it.”
Taehyung smiled, straightening up more out of instinct than anything when Jungkook stepped closer, looking down at the omega, “Yeah? I'll come look, Kookie. Maybe after work tomorrow.”
Jungkook bit his lip and eye smiled, staring at Taehyung for a long moment without saying a word. The omega just stood up on his toes, then down again, the wind blowing his long locks from his face and opening his shirt even more.
Not for the first time, Taehyung felt entirely tongue-tied looking at Jungkook. It was unreasonable considering they'd known each other for so long and had seen each other in the worst of states. And in every single state, Jungkook had been absolutely breathtaking.
Taehyung wet his lips, moving to run a hand through his hair nervously, “What is it, Kookie?”
“Nothing,” The omega’s eyes sparkled, “Just excited that we go to the same school again. I was really lonely without my hyungs around.”
“Jungkook,” Taehyung frowned, he felt a tad sick suddenly, “You know I'm always there for you. You can always talk to me. I don't know why you waited until now to tell me that. Why-”
“Get your asses inside before you freeze them off!”
Taehyung released an irritated growl under his breath when Jungkook immediately turned to listen to Hoseok, he always did listen well to the beta. Much better than he did to anyone else. He knew it was just that the omega didn't want Taehyung to scold him right now, so he was running away.
Jungkook was a lot like him in that way. He didn't like to confront things that made him nervous.
“You're a brat, you know that?” Taehyung complained as he moved to help Jungkook into the boxcar, grabbing his forearm to steady him while he jumped in.
The metal step had broken off of the boxcar a while ago, but it wasn't that big of a step to fix it. Still, everyone continued to silently tease Taehyung for helping Jungkook in.
“You love me, alpha.”
Taehyung immediately climbed into the boxcar after Jungkook, heart jumping into his throat and practically forcing him to reply with a swift, “I do, baby.”
Jungkook began to giggle and went running for the folded blanket pile immediately, completely unaware of the way Taehyung had been forced to simmer down the emotion in his voice in order to say that.
The others were not as oblivious. When the alpha forced himself to look away and breathe, he found that everyone was looking at him with a mix of pity and irritation.
Of course they'd known for a long while about his situation. Taehyung had never had to truly announce it, he just wasn't very good at hiding it. Seokjin said he'd noticed because Taehyung always seemed to be worrying over Jungkook more than them. While Hoseok claimed it was because Taehyung was always with Jungkook, and Yoongi said it was because Taehyung never seemed to pay attention to anyone else when Jungkook was around.
They were all right, Taehyung knew it was obvious, he'd always hoped it would be obvious enough that Jungkook would finally get the hint and he wouldn't have to man up and explain himself, but years had passed.
Years.
Taehyung knew that day would never come.
“Stop.” Taehyung whispered as he moved to sit down on the mattress covered ground, hand clenching in a fist and dropping his head with a huff, “Please stop doing that look.”
“What look?”
Taehyung barely moved when a blanket was thrown lazily over his shoulders, just sucking in a breath a few times while Jungkook took a spot against his side, snuggling closer. The omega had always been a snuggler.
Jungkook blinked, confused, at everyone while he grabbed Taehyung's arm and curled his fingers into the inside of the alpha's wrist, brushing a pattern into his skin as he shared his blanket and leaned heavily into the alpha.
The omega frowned and looked at Taehyung. Whether or not he noticed the alpha’s expression was unknown. Jungkook pouted, “Tae. Are we going to drink or not?”
“We're going to drink,” Taehyung promised, plastering a fake smile on his lips and shifting to toss an arm around Jungkook's shoulders, fingers accidentally brushing over the skin of his neck, “And you can choose the music tonight.”
Jungkook yelled, “Yay!” at the same time that Jimin began with a growl of, “Hey! It was my turn!”
***
They did end up drinking.
Too much.
Taehyung honestly didn't want to do anything the next day except sleep. He couldn't even remember what time he'd gotten back to the dorms, all he recalled was that they all walked the omegas to their floor and that Jimin had forced Yoongi and Jungkook into sleeping in his room.
Of course the alpha had forgotten that Jungkook was not the kind of person who liked to be alone. The omega had practically barged into his room this afternoon, hungover and complaining about how small their dorms were and how he smelled like Jimin.
He did. And Taehyung really didn't like that it was a little harder than normally to smell Jungkook's scent through all of Jimin's. Jungkook was also right in his complaints about their dorms, they were small.
They were just big enough for a twin sized bed and a very narrow two seater couch, but that was because they'd accepted free housing, so they couldn't complain too much. Not all of them were made of money like Seokjin's family; he lived in the much larger dormitory.
“I'm breaking out.”
“Are you?”
Jungkook was laying upside down on Taehyung's bed, legs up on the wall and fingers combing through his messy hair. The omega didn't reply to that, but as the alpha walked by, Jungkook sniffed, then rolled over to lay properly, claiming, “I stink. I'm stealing some clothes.”
Taehyung didn't acknowledge that, he opened the door and picked up the pizza he'd ordered and heard Jungkook shuffling around.
“God. I look horrible, how did you let me in like this?”
That the alpha did acknowledge. Taehyung placed the pizza on the small counter and moved to grab sodas, but he peered over at Jungkook the entire time.
The omega was tugging Taehyung's black hoodie from last night over his head and running his fingers through his hair to try and straighten it out. It did nothing. Jungkook only made the locks more wild. Jungkook huffed.
“You look pretty.”
It was the truth. Jungkook always looked pretty. Absolutely beautiful. And Taehyung quite liked him like this, a little messy and unkempt, because he liked to see Jungkook in a way not many others did. Puffy eyed, barefaced, and wearing mismatched clothes.
Jungkook bit his lip and tugged the sleeves over his fingers, wringing his hands together as he approached, “I don't feel pretty. I feel like shit.”
Taehyung chuckled, “Choose a movie on my laptop. We can rest all day. It's Saturday.”
“Can I stay the night?”
“Maybe.”
Omegas weren't really supposed to be on the alphas’ floor overnight, but the chances of being tattled on were very low. Plus, everyone knew people went against that rule.
Jungkook pouted dramatically as he chose a movie, “Mean, alpha. I'm staying the night even if you say no.”
“You can stay if you give me my clothes back, you've stolen too many, baby. I have like four shirts left. Seriously.” Taehyung laughed when Jungkook simply stuck his nose up at him, carrying their drinks over to the couch, then pizza.
Once the alpha sat down, Jungkook came plopping over, dropping himself down against Taehyung's side with a soft, “Cuddles now.”
How was Taehyung supposed to draw the line when Jungkook looked so cute today? (And every other day…)
Taehyung didn't. He turned to curl hands around Jungkook's waist and tug the omega between his legs so he could lay down too, earning a fit of giggles from the omega.
“You smell good.” Jungkook laughed breathily, making warmth spread all over Taehyung's chest.
The alpha threw an arm around his chest, swallowing hard when Jungkook took his fingers and began to fiddle with them, “Yeah?”
“Mhm.”
There was a long silence other than the cartoon Jungkook had chosen. Taehyung sucked in a breath and closed his eyes, Jungkook fit their hands together. He played with the rings on his fingers. He messed around with the edge of Taehyung's sweater sleeve where it was frayed.
Jungkook smelled so much better now, almost as though Taehyung's own scent brought out the omega's more.
Then, suddenly, Jungkook said, “I'm scared about having my heat in the dorms. What if it triggers someone?”
And Taehyung stiffened up. As straight as a board. Yanking his hand from Jungkook's just to clench around the couch cushion in fear of doing something else. Jungkook frowned.
“God. Jungkook,” Taehyung hissed and shifted to sit up, gently brushing the omega off of his lap, “Maybe you should talk to Jimin or Yoongi hyung about that-”
“But I want to talk to you.” Jungkook's eyes went round. The omega closed up on himself, bringing his knees into his chest and placing his chin utop of them. He looked dejected as he mumbled, “You said I could tell you anything.”
Taehyung bit his lip and looked away with a heavy breath, bringing a hand to rub his temple as he whispered, “I'm still an alpha, Jungkook. You can't just… bring that up.”
The omega whispered a quiet noise under his breath, “Just… I thought… you're Taehyung…”
All at once, Taehyung was filled with conflicting emotions, because Jungkook was upset which upset him and Taehyung wanted to comfort him, but he was also upset at such a comment, because it felt as though Jungkook was ignoring his subgender.
Because, of course, Jungkook would never see him as an alpha. Not Taehyung.
“You're my Taehyung…” Jungkook’s voice grew softer, more shaky and soft, “And… I thought I could tell you anything, because you're my favorite alpha…” he sounded near tears. So scared.
“Of course you can,” Taehyung released a breath, opening his arm, “Come here. Come here, bunny.”
Jungkook scattered closer, throwing his knees over Taehyung's lap and whimpering softly as he nuzzled against the alpha’s chest, fingers clutching his shirt. Taehyung's hair stood up at such a reaction. He'd really scared the omega into thinking he was angry.
“I overreacted.” Taehyung assured, swallowing hard, cupping Jungkook's head against his chest, smoothing his thumb over his cheek, “I'm sorry. You shocked me is all. Go ahead, Kookie. What are you worried about?”
“Just worried,” Jungkook mumbled, “There are many alphas just upstairs from my dorm.”
“Do you think I would ever let anyone hurt you?” Taehyung asked, voice firm, “Of course not. Don't worry about such a thing, baby. Not at all. I'll be outside your door making sure nobody bothers you all heat if you need me.”
For a long moment, Jungkook didn't reply, but when he did it was something mumbled that Taehyung did not hear and shifted his whole body to snuggle even closer, turning to hide his face in the alpha's neck and releasing a soft noise.
Taehyung's shoulders stiffened up, his hand slipping to cup Jungkook's nape, holding him close.
“Nap?”
“Okay.” Taehyung replied, resting his chin on Jungkook's hair. “Let's take a nap, Kookie.”
***
Taehyung majored in photography and Jungkook majored in art. Which meant they were often in the same building for classes at college, which Taehyung loved.
The issue was all of their friends were also creative majors, ranging from music to dance, the only one who wasn't was Seokjin, who had chosen cooking instead.
It annoyed Taehyung that he couldn't have Jungkook alone during the weekdays, because, recently, everyone had been acting rather strange around Jungkook.
“Because you're such a pretty omega, Kookie.”
Taehyung really didn't mean to overhear their conversation, honestly, but they were in the middle of an art history lecture, and he hadn't realized Jimin wanted to be this talkative today. Especially about such topics.
Everyone was staring at Jungkook this week. He was new to college, so Jungkook was nervous about all of the looks and was worrying, but Taehyung had no idea how Jungkook still worried over attention.
He was beautiful and people tended to stare at beautiful things.
“But,” Jungkook was whispering, head down and pen drawing aimlessly on his notebook, “It doesn't feel like that at all. Look, that girl in the front won't stop.”
Neither Taehyung nor Jimin looked. Jimin was already leaning over to his left and wrapping an arm around Jungkook's waist, leaning over to nuzzle against the omega’s cheek. It made Jungkook whine and tug his bucket hat down to keep it on.
Taehyung curled his hands into fists on his desk at the sound, peering over Jimin to watch Jungkook sink into the older omega and murmur, “I don't like it.”
“Jimin.” Taehyung said, firmly, reaching over to tug the omega’s wrist, ordering, “Switch me spots.”
The lecture hall they were in had bench seats seeing as there were over fifty students enrolled and it was a course where all they had to do was listen and take tests online. The professor likely couldn't even see them this far up in the rows.
If he did, he said nothing of them, nor the other students messing around, so Taehyung practically tugged Jimin over and shifted to climb over him, earning a complaint from the omega when he shoved him off of Jungkook.
Jimin whined, huffing, “You never do that when people look at me.”
Taehyung pretended he didn't hear that and threw an arm around the back of Jungkook's seat, feeling his ears turn red when the omega turned to look at him through his hair, bucket hat blocking his eyes.
“Is this okay?” Taehyung asked quietly, eyes flickering to look around before back at Jungkook, “Nobody is looking at you anymore.”
The omega didn't say anything for a moment, he was biting his lip, but Jungkook reached up to remove his hat and put it on the spot beside him before shifting closer to Taehyung, leaning into his side with a quiet relieved noise and whispering, “Perfect.”
Jimin eyed them both, Taehyung could feel his gaze burning into them and turned his head to send him a narrowed eye look.
Instead of his gaze being judgemental, Taehyung found it to be pitying. The alpha immediately felt his expression drop and gave a small shake of his head. Jimin gave him a look, one that made Taehyung tense up and quickly turn his head to look away, shifting to drape his arm around Jungkook's shoulder.
The omega under his arm immediately reached up to play with his fingers, eyes scanning the huge projector screen that was flickering with artwork. Taehyung felt a little sick.
He knew what was wrong.
Four years. Four years was far too long to keep this hidden, but it was far too long to suddenly burst out and say he'd imprinted on Jungkook.
At first, it was so easy to ignore it. When Taehyung had imprinted, Jungkook had only been fourteen, and the truth was that Taehyung had always had a crush on Jungkook, so not much changed in his feelings or behavior towards him.
It just became so much easier to focus on Jungkook, because Jungkook was all that Taehyung could focus on.
It had gotten him into issues in the past, like when he'd tried to date. Taehyung physically couldn't put someone else before Jungkook. If Jungkook called, he'd answer no matter what. If he wanted him to come over, Taehyung dropped everything.
Jungkook had always been his priority. Jungkook's feelings had always been his priority and if Taehyung just came out and admitted the truth—
It could ruin their friendship. It could ruin everything.
So Taehyung forced himself to look away from Jimin. He forced himself to suck in a breath of the scent of fresh rain Jungkook always had on him and he stayed quiet. Like always.
“Hyung,” Jungkook laughed quietly, and it sounded like bells jingling. The omega tilted his head to look up at Taehyung, eyes shiny and beaming, “College is fun. I just have to sit here and do nothing all class? This is amazing.”
Taehyung wanted to kiss him. On his forehead. On the tip of his shiny nose. On the curve of his cheek. Mostly, he wanted to kiss Jungkook right on his bunny smile.
The alpha did not do that.
“Just wait until finals, bunny,” Taehyung replied, rubbing his fingers over Jungkook's shoulder, “You're going to regret saying that.”
“Sounds like a challenge.”
***
“Because you're a fucking idiot, that's why.”
Honestly, Taehyung did not want to go to work and spend the entire time being scolded or threatened, but with his hyungs there was little he could do or say to make them leave him alone.
Most of them had part time jobs seeing as not all of them could be as lucky as Seokjin, or Hoseok, and had parents that were more than willing to pay for their classes and any expenses they had. In fact, some of their parents couldn't afford to give them much of anything. Or didn't have that great of a relationship with them.
Taehyung didn't talk to his parents much. He'd been raised by his grandma and only saw his mom on holidays and his dad sporadically throughout his life. When his grandma passed away, he'd been left with more money than he could manage, but that did not make him irresponsible.
He still tried to work for his money.
Taehyung worked a few hours a week at a corner restaurant, serving tables after dark when it was least busy. He didn't mind it at all, most of the time he was getting paid to just sit around.
Tonight he was getting paid to get scolded, apparently.
“The issue is,” Yoongi continued, using his hands to talk, “That you two are hopelessly in love with each other and you're a big bitch about the entire situation.”
Taehyung straightened up, immediately narrowing his eyes on Yoongi and raising his eyebrows, “And did Jungkook ever say he felt anything like that about me? No. So why should I risk everything and-”
Jimin cackled and smacked the table so hard one of the salt shakers fell over which only made Taehyung even more annoyed as he reached over to fix them.
“What Chim means to say,” Namjoon huffed, reaching over for another dumpling, “Is that it's obvious. He's never had to say it, Tae.”
“You don't understand.”
“We don't?” Seokjin looked a tad annoyed as he sent Taehyung a firm look, “Listen. I know we didn't go to school together, so you think Yoongi and I don't know much, but Tae. We literally spent every single day running around together as kids, it's pretty fucking obvious when Jungkook screams my TaeTae instead of Taehyung.”
“He was like twelve,” Taehyung rolled his eyes and ducked his head to rub his temple, “And I was his first friend. That doesn't count. Give me one good reason to throw everything out the window and risk ruining our entire group to confess.”
Immediately, everyone began to talk, spouting out things so quickly that Taehyung could only pick and hear a few of them.
“Jungkook only ever hangs on you.”
“He gets mad when we say baby, but he loves it when you do it.”
“He only ever answers the phone when you call.”
“When Jungkook is upset, he only wants you.”
“As soon as you're around, he only looks at you.”
“Every two seconds he's making an excuse to get your attention.”
“Jungkook-”
“Okay, stop.” Taehyung hissed, sucking in a breath and abruptly standing up. The alpha was reaching over to collect a few empty plates, jaw tensed. Everyone went silent.
They stayed quiet and stared at Taehyung worriedly while he collected their dishes before Jimin hit Hoseok and nudged him with a raised eyebrow towards Taehyung.
The elder sent a why is that my job? look to Jimin, and then the omega soured and Jimin said, quietly, “Tae. We're just tired of seeing you so upset-”
“Can you just stop?” Taehyung breathed. He never yelled, but the breathiness in his tone must have been enough to quiet everyone. “None of you understand. It's easy for you guys. None of you imprinted and never felt like you were going to. I always knew, I just…” Taehyung pursed his lips, “Just… not today, alright? You know today is a bad day for Kookie, let's just… not today.”
Today was a bad day for Jungkook. A very bad day.
Jungkook's relationship with his family was strained at best. It was one of the reasons why they'd taken the omega into their friend group when the truth was the last thing any of them had wanted was to take care of an eight year old.
When Jungkook moved onto their block, the eight year old spent most of his time out in his front yard. For a good two weeks the eight year old had watched the six of them come and go, always yelling his hello, hyungs! when they walked by and tried to get their attention.
Of course, they were kids. They were much too old to play with a pup like Jungkook, despite Taehyung and Jimin only being two years old.
Until one night it was rainy out and Jungkook was still waiting outside just to say hello. Jungkook's mom came out and yelled at him, they could see it all from where they were having their weekly sleepover at Hoseok's house, directly across from Jungkook's.
It was so loud. The way she'd yelled at Jungkook was scary. Piercing. Scolding the pup like he was nothing more than an idiot for being outside in that weather.
They’d felt bad for Jungkook, so the next time they walked by they asked if he could come play, because Jungkook hadn't said hello to them at all and it was strange.
Taehyung could still remember that look on Jungkook's face. The pup had been digging holes in the ground and looking for worms, so he was covered in dirt, but had practically raced inside to ask his mom.
When Jungkook returned, it had been with the biggest bunny grin. He'd been such an innocent pup then with dirt-covered fingers and messy hair, so cute that Seokjin hadn't complained when the pup had curled his dirty hand into the eldest’s with a giggly, “Do you like worms, hyung? I found big ones! Really big!”
Jungkook had been rather easy to take care of. He was a pup, he found everything funny and he loved to play games. Sometimes he got tired out quickly and they took turns giving him piggy back rides home. But, on days without Jungkook and his innocent rambles, the days were rather quiet and dull.
They loved Jungkook. All of them.
And today would be a very bad day for him. This morning, Jungkook texted saying he was going to visit his mom and he'd meet them later for dinner. Jungkook's mom was, for lack of a better word, a bitch.
Nothing Jungkook could ever do was enough. If he got an A- on a test, she said it wasn't an A+, so Jungkook would spend hours trying to get that next time. When Jungkook joined the basketball team and they won, she would point out how close the scoreboard had been. Even when Jungkook had earned his art scholarship, she'd been unimpressed.
In her eyes, Jungkook was good, but he wasn't perfect, and that was an issue. It made Taehyung sick.
“It is a bad day today,” Yoongi drawled quietly, but it was under his breath, “But is there ever going to be a day where you just stop caring about everyone else's feelings and care about your own, Taehyung? Doesn't it get tiring always putting Jungkook’s feelings first? Doesn't it hurt?”
“Don't you-” Taehyung wet his lips and clenched his jaw to suck in a breath, “Hyung, please don't do this to me- of course I'm hurt. I've had to sit back and watch him be with other people. I've had to sit back and watch him cry. I've seen him get his heart broken so many times and I just want to say, I'm right here and I want you, but I can't. I fucking can't. Because I'm… I'm so scared. I'm so tired of this. I'm fucking tired, hyung!”
The shocked looks on everyone's faces were warranted, because Taehyung couldn't recall a single time he'd burst quite like this.
Although he hadn't been yelling, the alpha was breathing hard and his face was red. Taehyung could feel his eyes watering too. God, he was just so tired.
Yoongi didn't understand and Taehyung knew that, but just the idea that someone could imply that he wasn't tired of all of this was frustrating.
“Why are you tired?”
Everyone jerked towards the sound of the door alarm jingling. Jungkook was shrugging off his backpack as he walked to the booth in the corner.
The omega's nose was red from the cold and his cheeks were blotchy. Jungkook sniffled and dropped his backpack on the ground before moving to grab the bowls from Taehyung's hands.
Hoseok made a passing snort of, “Jungkook, you don't work here,” but the omega ignored it.
Jungkook just smiled, a small one, at Taehyung and spun around to walk towards the front counter. The alpha released a relieved breath and calmed down purely at the sight of Jungkook.
Taehyung rushed to walk around the register, slipping behind the counter and stacking the plates in his hand onto the shelves before turning around to accept the bowls, jerking back upon finding Jungkook standing so close.
The omega had dropped his smile, “Why are you tired, Tae? Did something happen?”
“What?” Taehyung frowned and shook his head, shifting to lean back against the counter, feet brushing Jungkook's, “No. No. Nevermind that. How did things go?”
Jungkook's lack of a smile said enough regarding that, so the omega did not reply to the question directly, Jungkook just said, immediately, “You can tell me anything, alpha. You know that, right? If something is wrong, you can tell me.”
If only you knew.
Taehyung swallowed, hard. He eyed Jungkook's face. Took in the small dry patch by his nose from the cold air and the way his eyelashes stuck together a bit. The alpha frowned, reaching over to collect his cheek, “Did you cry?”
Jungkook huffed, “Tae-”
“Were you crying?” Taehyung demanded, furrowing his eyebrows together, both hands holding Jungkook's face and smoothing fingers over his cheeks, “Tell me, Jungkook. Did she make you cry again? That bitch. I-”
“She didn't.” Jungkook sighed and curled fingers around Taehyung's wrists, stepping closer, pressed up against Taehyung's chest, “She didn't. I swear… can we just… not talk about that right now?”
Abruptly, the omega shifted to toss arms around Taehyung's waist, forcing him into a much needed hug and mumbling, softly, “Hi, alpha. Sorry I'm late.”
Whether or not Jungkook was late to the dinner they'd all scheduled hardly mattered to Taehyung. The only thing that mattered right now was the fact Jungkook had cried.
Maybe tonight wasn't the night to talk about that either.
Taehyung wrapped him up in a hug and heard Jungkook breathe deeply, feeling the warmth of his breath against his chest. “Hey, you.”
“I'm happy to see you,” Jungkook whispered, so genuinely that Taehyung felt his heartbeat jump. “I missed you.”
The alpha smiled, huge, and playfully tugged Jungkook up off the ground, making the omega squeak and burst into giggles as he clutched Taehyung's shirt. “Alpha! I'm not a baby, stop picking me up!”
“You'll always be my baby, Kookie.”
***
“Stop it.”
“Stop it, hyung. You're annoying.”
“He said stop it.” Taehyung said, sending Jimin a firm look, and it wasn't that Jimin was scared of Taehyung, but the omega moved to release Jungkook from where he'd been pestering the youngest in the corner of the boxcar.
It was getting colder out, so they had brought more blankets into the boxcar this Friday, along with more batteries for the portable heaters. A Friday night wasn't complete without a few beers and someone complaining so much that everyone else zoned out.
Tonight that person had been Hoseok who was whining about being required to dance with a girl in his class who he hated. Everyone had stopped replying a while ago. Yoongi had been trying to nap, Namjoon was reading and Seokjin was playing a game on his phone.
Jimin had made it his life's mission to annoy Jungkook as much as possible despite the youngest trying to study and Taehyung had been trying to pick out some of his still life photographs.
Until Jimin decided they were all to be annoyed and claimed, “Lets play a game.”
“What game?” Hoseok suddenly seemed interested.
Yoongi didn't move a muscle from his spot lying across a pile of blankets, “No. I'm not moving.”
“We’ll come to you,” Jimin beamed, snatching Jungkook's beer and chugging it as he went to Yoongi, earning a loud yell from the youngest who went scattering after him, whining.
“Spin the bottle,” Jimin beamed, “Like when we were kids and we used to play it to see who had to ask their parents for pizza money. Hurry up. Come here.”
Jungkook stopped whining as he snatched his bottle from Jimin, but pouted when he saw it was empty and huffed, sinking into the blankets, “What are we playing for? If I get you, can I hit you?”
“Yah, Kookie,” Seokjin tried not to laugh as he turned his phone off and took a seat closer, forming a circle, “Don't be violent. Say sorry.”
“No, thank you. Jimin deserves it.” Jungkook hummed.
Seokjin sent Jungkook a glare and chided, “You need to call him hyung, Jungkook,” and the youngest merely smiled and placed the bottle down.
Jimin rolled his eyes and elbowed Jungkook once, then twice just to annoy him, then his eyes flickered to where Taehyung was looking through his camera and said, “Jungkook, spin the bottle first. Whoever it lands on you have to kiss, I'll buy you pizza.”
“Yay, food!”
“What?” Taehyung instantly lifted his head, sending Jimin a wide-eyed look and quickly moving to drop his camera and come crawling over, but by then Jungkook was already spinning the bottle.
The weight of Taehyung's movements made the bottle spin towards the alpha, leading it to stop spinning with the top pointed at Taehyung and settling in that spot.
Jimin began to cackle when Seokjin whistled teasingly, Taehyung instantly turned red and said, “I just came over! I wasn't even sitting here yet.”
“A game’s a game.” Namjoon drawled, suddenly interested, making Taehyung yell, “Hyung! You aren't even playing!”
He hadn't been, but things had suddenly gotten a lot more interesting. All of them were now hooting and whistling and maybe if they hadn't all been drinking then everyone would have dropped it, but even though Taehyung was blushing, they continued.
Jungkook was smiling too, shifting to sit up on his knees, giving a small shrug, “You don't have to, Tae. But Jimin said he'd buy me food, I'll share it with you.”
Taehyung glanced at Jimin and wanted to throttle him when he saw the smirk on his face. It pissed him off so much, so badly, but… god, had he been wanting an excuse to kiss Jungkook…
“Okay,” Taehyung wet his lips, running a hand through his hair as he shifted to straighten up, earning a handful of even louder chides, but he ignored it. It was easy to block out everyone else when Jungkook was around.
Jungkook's smile grew less bright and carefree then, slipping a tad as he said, handing Jimin his drink, “I didn't think… I didn't think you'd actually, um,” the omega shook his head, “nevermind. Let's just…”
Taehyung had to release a breath when Jungkook came crawling over, the omega planted himself on his lap and held his shoulders, and Taehyung completely forgot everything he'd been thinking.
He'd held Jungkook so many times. They'd all held Jungkook before, they'd all held each other before, but it wasn't quite like this. The air didn't suddenly feel thicker just because they were close to one another. It did now.
Jungkooks adam’s apple bobbed a few times as he swallowed, the omega's smile was now gone and replaced with a rather nervous expression, but there wasn't a word he said as he cupped Taehyung's nape and leaned in. Taehyung sat still for a moment, breathing in through his nose as Jungkook's lips brushed feather-like against his own.
And it felt like Taehyung had just been shocked. Like a burst of electricity and energy moved under his skin and before he knew it, his fingers were curling into Jungkook's hips and pulling him closer.
His lips were parting to collect Jungkook’s soft ones, releasing a quiet, barely there, sigh against the omega’s mouth. Jungkook's approving noise was much louder, and the omega immediately curled a hand into Taehyung's hair and pulled him closer, nose brushing when he turned his head to the side.
Taehyung knew his grip was incredibly tight when he moved hands to Jungkook's waist, curling his fingers up in the omega's shirt, and he knew that his kiss was much too deep to be innocent when he tasted the alcohol on Jungkook's tongue.
“Oh my god,” someone whispered, but Taehyung blanked it and everyone else out.
Right now he could only feel Jungkook's warmth all over him and he could only hear the wetness of Jungkook's lips against his own and he could only taste himself on Jungkook and—
“Jungkook,” Taehyung growled against his mouth, hand moving to cup the omega’s cheek, angling their lips to brushing his tongue along Jungkook's bottom lip, “Baby-”
Abruptly, Jungkook was shoving him. Hard.
The omega pulled himself off of his lap, making Taehyung snap his eyes open and sink back a bit to catch himself on the blankets. Jungkook looked furious. Downright furious.
Jungkook breathed hard, but Taehyung didn't know if it was from their kiss or his anger, because Jungkook's expression was pinched and his eyes looked damp and his lips were swollen and wet and he smelled of Taehyung. So, so good. It was difficult to focus.
And then the omega leaned over and shoved Taehyung. Again. Hard in the chest. Taehyung didn't move, he just stared. Shocked.
“Jungkook!” Yoongi yelled and instantly moved to grab the youngests arm, “What are you doing?”
“Fuck you.” Jungkook whispered at first, but after breathing in again, the omega was scrambling to stand up and yelling, “Fuck you, Taehyung! Why would you do that? Why- Why-”
Jungkook was crying. Tears were building up in his eyes as the omega hissed and ran a hand through his hair, “Why would you kiss me like that? Like you want me? Why? Why… Fuck you.”
Everyone stared at Jungkook, shocked, and Namjoon quickly said something along the lines of it was a game, kookie, but the youngest was already yanking open the boxcar door and jumping out into the darkness.
Taehyung breathed hard. He sat there for a second. Then two. Hands clenched up and expression pained. His thoughts were racing. Jungkook was mad. He was mad. At him. His imprint was upset. At him.
“Jungkook! Jungkook!” Taehyung felt tears well up in his own eyes as he went running after Jungkook, jumping out into the darkness so quickly that he couldn't see a thing for a full moment, but followed the sound of the omega’s footsteps.
And the sound of him crying.
Taehyung felt like someone had just hit him in the chest, like his heart was going to beat so quickly it would run away, he couldn't think.
“Jungkook. Kookie.” Taehyung reached out for his arm, eyes huge, “Jungkook. Can we talk? I'm sorry. I'm sorry, okay?”
Jungkook spun around, arms crossed. Hands clenched. The omega glowered at him, face red and covered in tears. “Now you're sorry for kissing me?”
“I never said that.” Taehyung sighed, trying to breathe, hands out placatingly, “Can we just… god, please stop crying, baby. Can I just-”
He reached out to wipe Jungkook's tears, but the omega swatted his hand away and released this heart wrenching cry, grabbing Taehyung's shirt in both fists and yelling, “Stop talking! Stop it, Taehyung! Shut up! Don't say another word!”
Taehyung had to listen. Physically.
Jungkook had never ordered him to do something under such circumstances, not when he was so upset, and Taehyung knew immediately that he wouldn't be able to disobey what Jungkook said, not now. Because his imprint has just demanded it.
An imprint order only worked when they were really upset. Taehyung didn't know it would make him feel so helpless though, because he physically couldn't speak even though the sound of Jungkook crying grew.
“Y-You're sorry for kissing me now,” Jungkook laughed, humorlessly under his breath, wiping away his tears only for them to be replaced with new ones. He sniffled, shaking his head, “Great. This is just fucking great. I thought- you know… I thought it would be fun. I'd never get to kiss you, so it would be fun to see what it was like, just this once. But then you go and…” The omega touched his lips and his fingers were shaking, “Kiss me like that.”
Jungkook's eyes were devastated when he met Taehyung's, whispering, “Like you loved me as much as I loved you, Taehyung.”
Taehyung's entire expression crumbled. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. His own tears gathered in his eyes as the feeling of helplessness set in and Taehyung began to cry, hard enough for a sob to crawl its way out of his mouth and he reached for Jungkook's hand, but he'd let the silence gather for too long.
“Don't- Don't cry because you feel sorry for me,” Jungkook sounded defeated, his head was down and the omega stepped away, “I always knew, Taehyung. I always knew you'd never understand.”
Those words echoed so familiarly to Taehyung that the alpha could only run panicked hands through his hair and shake his head, but Jungkook was already walking away.
Taehyung didn't know that silence could hurt this much.