Chapter Text
The house was absurd.
That was Jungkook's first thought when the van pulled up to it — a sprawling white villa tucked into the LA hills, all glass and warm light and a pool that caught the last of the evening sun like something out of a magazine that nobody actually lived in.
His second thought was that Taehyung was already standing in the driveway taking photos of it before the van had fully stopped.
"Yah — we're still moving," Namjoon said from the front seat.
"The light is perfect right now, hyung, I can't wait."
"You're going to get your foot run over."
"Worth it."
Jungkook climbed out behind Jimin, dragging his carry-on across the gravel. Seven people, one house, two weeks of album writing in LA before the world tour picked back up. The company had called it a creative retreat. Hoseok had called it a vacation with extra steps. Yoongi had not called it anything because he had been asleep since Seoul.
The inside of the house was somehow more ridiculous than the outside — high ceilings, a kitchen the size of a small concert hall, and a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the city like it was something they owned.
"Dibs on the room with the view," Taehyung announced, already halfway up the stairs with his suitcase bumping loudly behind him.
"There are four rooms with a view!" Seokjin called after him.
"Then dibs on the best one!"
Jimin appeared at Jungkook's shoulder. "You okay? Long flight."
"I'm good." Jungkook dropped onto the nearest couch and let himself sink into it completely. "I'm not moving for one hour. Tell the others I died."
"I'll have flowers sent."
Dinner was takeout eaten standing up in the kitchen because nobody could agree on the table and everyone was too tired to care. Yoongi had found the best counter stool and wasn't moving. Seokjin was already critiquing the chopstick quality. Hoseok and Namjoon were debating the studio schedule over the boxes of noodles.
Taehyung came downstairs in a different outfit. He had changed. For takeout. In their rental house.
Jungkook stared at him. "Did you change clothes?"
"I was sweaty from the flight."
"It's takeout, Taehyungie hyung."
"Food tastes better when you feel good." Taehyung stole a piece of tofu off Jungkook's plate without asking and ate it with complete serenity. "Also your room is next to mine. I checked."
"Why do you know that?"
"I was being a good neighbor."
"We've been here forty minutes."
Taehyung pointed his chopsticks at him. "Forty very productive minutes, Jungkookie."
Jimin was watching this from across the island with an expression Jungkook chose not to examine.
It was Taehyung's idea to do the live.
It was also, in hindsight, entirely predictable that it would be Taehyung's idea.
It started because he couldn't sleep — he appeared in Jungkook's doorway at eleven thirty, phone already in hand, hair doing something gravity-defying, wearing a shirt that was definitely Jungkook's from three tours ago.
"Go live with me."
Jungkook looked up from his laptop. "No."
"Jungkookie."
"I just got comfortable."
"You're sitting upright on a bed. That's not comfortable, that's just existing."
Jungkook looked down at himself. He was, in fact, sitting upright on a bed with his laptop open and a half-eaten banana on the nightstand. Taehyung had a point, which was annoying.
"Fine," he said. "Ten minutes."
Taehyung's face did the thing where it went from persuasive to genuinely delighted in the space of a breath. He was already crossing the room, already dropping onto the bed beside him, already pulling up the app.
"Don't make it weird," Jungkook said.
"I never make things weird."
"You make everything weird."
"That's called personality, Jungkookie."
The comments started flooding before Taehyung even said hello.
TAEKOOK LIVE AT MIDNIGHT
THEY'RE IN THE SAME ROOM
JUNGKOOK'S WEARING A GREY SHIRT HE LOOKS SO GOOD
TAEHYUNG WHY IS YOUR HAIR LIKE THAT
"Hello ARMY," Taehyung said warmly, tilting the phone so they were both in frame. "We can't sleep. Jungkookie is keeping me up."
"You came to my room," Jungkook said.
"Same thing."
IT IS NOT THE SAME THING
SAME THING??? TAE???
Jungkook laughed despite himself. The chat was already moving too fast to read. He leaned back against the headboard while Taehyung narrated the house to ARMY with the energy of someone hosting a property show — the pool, the kitchen, the truly unacceptable number of throw pillows in the living room.
"Jungkookie picked his room in thirty seconds," Taehyung reported. "He said and I quote, 'this one is fine.'"
"It is fine."
"It has a view, Jungkookie. The whole city. You said fine."
"I was tired."
Taehyung turned to ARMY with an expression of deep suffering. "Twelve years. I have known this man for twelve years and he looks at a view of Los Angeles and says fine."
TWELVE YEARS TAE IS GOING TO CRY
HE'S SO OFFENDED ON BEHALF OF THE VIEW
The ten minutes became forty. Jungkook stopped tracking time somewhere around the point Taehyung started showing ARMY his own hands for reasons that remained unclear, then angled the camera to catch Jungkook's by comparison.
"Look," Taehyung said, holding their hands up side by side without warning, fingers loosely parallel. "I have long fingers."
Jungkook looked at the screen. The comments detonated.
HOLDING HANDS
THEY'RE HOLDING HANDS
TAEHYUNG GRABBED HIS HAND SO NATURALLY
"We're not—" Jungkook started.
"It's a comparison," Taehyung told ARMY solemnly. "Completely scientific."
SCIENTIFIC. HE SAID SCIENTIFIC.
I'M GOING TO PASS OUT
Jungkook shook his head, but he was smiling. He could feel it and couldn't quite stop it.
He just reached over and stole Taehyung's phone to say goodnight to ARMY himself.
Taehyung let him. Leaned his chin on Jungkook's shoulder to wave at the camera from behind him.
THE CHIN ON THE SHOULDER
TAEKOOK IS REAL AND I HAVE PROOF
After the live, Taehyung didn't leave immediately.
He lay on his back on the opposite end of Jungkook's bed scrolling through the clip compilations ARMY had already made — somehow, impossibly, in the fifteen minutes since they'd ended — and read the comments out loud in a voice that suggested he found the entire thing deeply entertaining.
"The hand comparison was not casual, Taehyung knew exactly what he was doing —" He laughed. "They think I planned the hand thing."
"Did you?"
A pause.
"...I thought it would be funny," Taehyung said. Not quite an answer.
Free marketing," Taehyung said cheerfully, dropping their hands and grinning at the camera. "We're very good at our jobs."
It landed lightly. Jungkook registered it the way you register a small thing that shouldn't bother you — a pebble in a shoe you adjust around without stopping. He said nothing.
Jungkook looked at the ceiling. Outside the window, Los Angeles glittered indifferently below them, entirely unbothered by whatever was happening in this room.
"Go to sleep, Taehyungie hyung."
"Five more minutes Jungkookie."
He stayed for another hour. Jungkook fell asleep first.
When he woke up at 3am, Taehyung was gone. The blanket had been pulled up around Jungkook's shoulders.
He didn't think about that. He went back to sleep.