[more a fun, light-hearted chapter this time folks, enjoy :) ]

[ chapter 44 ]
together we fight

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

THE question still hangs in the air as they stumble up the flights of stairs to taehyung's apartment, heavy and weighted with possibilities that promise both heartache and warmth. it follows them like an ashen cloud that rained doubts and hailed rejection, so dark that no rainbow could eve pass its skin.

still, taehyung feigns cluelessness as well, despite the itching sense of remorse that he knew would follow soon when the moon would slip back into the blue and their words would follow, tucked beneath the pillows of the dawning skies.

"fuck, where's your light?" he hears jeongguk curse and when he squints he spots the outline of the man clutching his toe to his chest, the scowl of his misery wrung across his hisses.

stepping forward, his fingers skim the walls until they stop at jutting plastic and the room is flooded with white.

"jesus christ, it hurts."

"you okay?"

"yeah," he groans, "just tripped over one of tannie's toys."

the said canine as if the mention of his name had conjured its furry frame, barrels into the living room, a rapid flurry of tripping paws and excited barks.

dropping to his knees, taehyung opens his arms to collect the yipping mess he called his dog, the animal making a fuss of licking the entirety of his face much to jeongguk's mild disgust.

"misun never acts like this when i come home from work."

"what do you mean?" he asks past a mouthful of fur.

"she couldn't care less if i came home or not, absolutely unbothered. always in the same spot, on the couch with her belly up and refuses to move till i give her a rub."

taehyung laughs, fingers sifting in yeontan's fur until he slips them between his belly and rises to his feet, the dog pressed closely to his chest.

"well you're in luck, yeontan loves you too so you can get the greeting your craving."

jeongguk scoffs, "he barely batted an eye when i walked through the door."

he raises an eyebrow, a smile gracing his lips, "watch."

and shooting the younger a playful wink, he leans down once again and sets yeontan to the floor, the dog shooting off towards the ceo before both men could even blink.

stumbling back, jeongguk laughs loudly as he too succumbs to the canine's friendly antics, slipping to the floor to coo lovingly at its smiling face.

"he's so fast!" he praises, puckering his lips and bouncing yeontan in his arms, stopping briefly to smile affectionately down at him.

taehyung doesn't realise he's smiling until his cheeks begin to ache and he nods, chest warm as he watches two of the most important people in his life converse.

"even when jimin comes over, he first showers me with doggy kisses then bolts to say hi to the visitor. i'm flattered, really."

he smiles, affectionately rubbing behind the dog's ears, "you should be. it's not every day you've got a handsome young chap like him wrapped around your finger."

"two actually." taehyung smirks.

"huh?"

"why i'd count yourself as well peasant, if i recall you confessed your underlying love to me just a while ago-"

he laughs as he watches jeongguk colour, the younger's lips drawing back in a flustered frown, "oh shut up."

stilling snickering quietly to himself, taehyung rummages through the shopping bags on the counter, his own scowl heaving at his lips as he pulls out a lengthy receipt.

"you didn't have to pay for me you know." he berates, setting the paper down to frown down at the younger.

jeongguk rolls his eyes, ruffling yeontan's head a final time before he rises to his feet, much to the animal's disappointment.

"it's fine, it's not like i was going to leave all your shopping there, that'd be a waste of your time."

"and a waste of your money." he points out.

"it wasn't even that much." he shrugs and then catching the elder's narrowed eyes he adds quickly, "i mean not much of a big deal, i'd do it any day."

taehyung huffs, "jeongguk!"

"look if you're that upset about it," he says, a teasing grin curving across his lips, "you can just repay me with a date."

jeongguk tries not to burst out in laughter as he watches taehyung's expression; eyes comically bulging from their sockets and jaw dropping in a slacked 'o'.

"w-what? that was so random!" he splutters, his face burning with embarrassment, "you have to warn me before you say something like that!"

jeongguk grins, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around the elder's waist, "so is that a yes?"

taehyung lets his gaze roam the room, anywhere else other than jeongguk, his cheeks hot and scowl threatening to fall, mumbling a quiet, "yes."

"sorry," he smirks, "i didn't quite catch that, mind saying that again?"

"get stuffed." he huffs, biting down a smile once he successfully untangles himself from the other's grasp, "you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

he hears jeongguk gasp in mock offence behind him before there's arms hauling him back against a firm chest and a chin nuzzling between his shoulders, and this time taehyung can't keep the grin off his face as he listens to him whine.

"don't do this to me," jeongguk pouts, swaying them lightly, his hands resting across taehyung's belly, "i treated you like a royal, piggybacked you all the way to the car and carried all your shopping. i'm literally everyone's ideal man."

"and i'm a prince and you're the peasant so..."

he huffs against his neck and taehyung stills, the warmth of his breath enough to colour the entirety of his skin once again.

"and i paid for all your stuff." he sings teasingly, swiftly dodging the elbow that attempts to spear his stomach, "damn, i've gotta feisty one on my hands-"

he doesn't miss the next elbow.

"aw fuck!"

a pinch of guilt worms its way in his chest as taehyung turns around and surveys the younger man, his body curled into his stomach, hands clutching his victimised area of calculated revenge.

"sorry," he mumbles after a few beats of groaning, "but you were asking for it."

"what the fuck are your elbows made of?" jeongguk gasps, "steel?"

he rolls his eyes, lips twitching, "stop being dramatic."

a few moments pass before jeongguk straightens once again, seemingly fine of any serious injuries but his eyes are narrowed accusingly down at the veterinarian.

"you're an evil prince," he says.

"okay?"

"unfit to be a king!"

for a moment taehyung just stares at the younger, a single eyebrow raised before he presses the back of his hand to his forehead and feigns defeat, "you've got me! the horror of my insufficiency, oh what fate will come to me now?"

"to the prisons, we go!"

and then in a rush, jeongguk's barreling towards him and taehyung's screaming as he's flung onto a sturdy shoulder, his stomach receiving its fair side of the die as he groans at the discomfort and for the sake of their mini-play (mostly his own mild anger), pummels the younger's back with retaliatory punches.

they're laughing - at both the immaturity of their actions and the poor imitation of olden court laws -, cheeks full with mirth and chest warm with something the two were yet to discover.

behind them, yeontan barks in confusion despite being swept by the enticing urgency of it all, hazardously tripping in hopes of witnessing a promised chastisement of some sort.

"to the left good peasant!" taehyung shouts from his place on jeongguk's shoulder, snorting when the younger stumbles across his laundry.

"many merits to you dear prince!"

at last, they stride into his room and taehyung's thankful he'd left it rather neat before he'd gone to work that morning - other than a couple of shirts dumped in the very left corner of the room -.

before he's given a chance to sweep the rest of his bedroom of anything embarrassing he may have left out in the open, there are hands slipping behind his back and behind his knees and he's let down - rather gently, a bit too gently for a convicted prince - onto his bed.

a few moments pass in all they do is stare at another, slightly breathless from their play-arrest. and taehyung notices the faded scar on his left cheek and the way his nose rounds at the tip. how his eyes are far wider up close, so bright as if he held the stars of the milky way within them.

"you're beautiful." he breathes, fingers rising to cup the younger's cheek, "why haven't i told you that before?"

jeongguk flushes from the tips of his ears down to his neck and taehyung saves the sight safe in his heart, thumbing at his skin.

"i don't know," he smiles coyly, "why haven't you?"

but taehyung shakes his head, his eyes glazed over as if he were in a trance merely gazing up at him and for a moment jeongguk thinks he could live like that, with the veterinarian staring at him as if he were his whole world.

"snap out of it my prince," he says once the silence goes on for a bit too long, his skin terribly hot, "you've got a bit of drool there."

if it were anything another moment, taehyung would blush a stark red from the roots of his hair to the tips of his toes but there, with jeongguk hovering over him, hands holding him down so gently as if he were worried he would hurt him, he knows something he had felt so many times before.

can finally put his finger down on the warmth that pools in his chest when they're this close. and the butterflies that never cease when jeongguk's staring down at him as if he were precious gold, jewels of inestimable worth.

"i love you."

he watches as jeongguk's eyes widen and for a moment his heart stops, brimming with doubt. but he's quick to disperse the insecurities, he hadn't been surer of anything more than this in his life, it didn't matter whether jeongguk loved him too, taehyung knew he did. maybe his love would be enough for both of them. for now.

"t-taehyung-" he stammers, lips parting as he struggles to grapple for a reasonable answer.

"you don't have to say anything," he intervenes, smiling, "i just want you to know."

a beat of silence.

his tongue feels heavier than it had ever been in his life as if had painted with thousands of coats of iron until it weighed down his jaw and hauled his gums, he doesn't know what to say.

he'd never thought it possible. for someone to love him the way he was, the broken puppet of a man his father had strung. yet the thought makes his heart soar in his throat and there's this feeling of happiness, something really, really good - in his chest.

"say it again."

"what?" he furrows his eyebrows.

"what you just said," jeongguk says, a twinge of desperation stringing his voice, "say it again please."

vulnerability eats away at his chest and for a moment taehyung doesn't want to open his heart out again, wants to crawl into a hole that would hide his glazing eyes. i trust him. he wouldn't do this to embarrass me.

"i love you." taehyung says, a bit louder this time.

quiet.

all jeongguk does is stare, his eyes burning with something taehyung can't put his finger in. he feels himself getting angry, he'd just poured his heart out and all he was returned was with silence? there are tears pricking at his eyes now and in fact, he's about to open his mouth and put the younger in his place when jeongguk's leaning closer, close enough that their nose bump against one another and their breathing begins to intermingle.

he looks up at him, beneath his lashes, and all taehyung can do is watch, his body not his own but jeongguk's who keeps a hand on his waist and one cupping his cheek.

"thank you."

jeongguk's lips are as soft as they had been the first time they'd kissed, softer even as they glide against his and he melts in his arms, eyelids fluttering closed. this time there is no shyness in their embrace, it's slow and passionate, but bruising nonetheless. even as they pull apart, taehyung's knows his lips must be as swollen as the younger's, maybe even more.

taehyung thinks he could live without jeongguk ever saying the three words to him if he were to be kissed like this every day. because he didn't need words to voice what jeongguk felt for him, he already knew.

and maybe that was okay.

~

[a/n]

[words count: 2225]

i keep changing my tense, it's honestly horrific so please excuse that mistake, i'll try to stick to present tense from now on. 🥺

in a normal occasion, i wouldn't introduce 'l' words so early in their relationship (ahem ange begs to differ), especially when they're not even dating yet but something about that moment just screamed confession and softness, i couldn't let that moment go. and besides, we are 44 chapters in with their first kiss literally the previous chapter so i thought i might feed you guys a bit more this time. ;)

i've been thinking writing an old royal-au taekook recently, i love the language of the past, it's just so rich and lovely. what do you think?

i'm starting school tomorrow again, so updates won't be as regular (if you even consider the other consistent that is)! i hope you all are having a good year and if you're not i want you to know that's okay, we all have our bad days and i wish you the best, may you overcome that hurdle very soon! ♥️