"Taehyung, don't think I can't see you behind that cupboard," Yoongi the kitchenhelp said, drying the dishes with a stale, unamused expression. "Stop acting like a creep and tell me what you want."

The nineteen-year old butler peeked from behind the cupboard with large, terrified eyes. He swallowed thickly, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks as he revealed himself fully to the kitchenhelp. "Hello."

"It's not like you to spy," Yoongi murmured with squinted eyes. "What's going on with you? You can't miss master Park that much, he's only been gone for a month."

"I... have... I have a question," Taehyung said softly, looking around the kitchen to make sure there was absolutely no one else in the room other than him and the kitchenhelp. "But... it has to be a secret."

"You came to me with a secret?" Yoongi asked, sniggering at an evil tone. "Since when are the two of us friends?"

"We are not, I think," Taehyung said, fumbling with the hem of his shirt quite like a little kid. "But that is why I came to you. I do not care what you think of me."

Yoongi huffed, but he couldn't get mad at the statement. "Alright, spit it out then. You've got me interested now."

Taehyung avoided Yoongi's eyes like the plague and, instead of the calm, relatively self-assured man he usually presented as, now looked like nothing but a shy, stuttering mess. "I... I wanted to ask how it is done between men," the butler said after a while, biting into his lower lip until it began to hurt. "The s-sex."

Nothing could have prepared the butler for the amount of rage he'd accidentally catalysed after uttering those difficult words.

"The fuck are you on about!?" Yoongi yelled, immeadiately giving Taehyung a shove that sent him flying into the glass cupboard doors he was standing behind. "You know what? I knew having a person like you in this house was strange. You a pervert or what? The fuck is it to you what we do in the bedroom, you prick!? Think you can sit there and judge us? Think you can pretend you're better than us? You're fucking outnumbered in here pal!"

"P-please I am s-sorry, p-please," Taehyung cried, seeing double after his harsh fall into the cubbart. Shards of glass pierced his arm in different places, and his nasty wounds bled streams of crimson red. "I want no trouble, please, I'm sorry, I'm s-sorry!"

Yoongi blinked at the shattered glass and the growing bloodstains on Taehyung's shirt, his anger suddenly pulling away like the clouds on a sunny day. "Shit," he cursed under his breath. "Fuck, I didn't-- I didn't mean to do that..."

Taehyung winced away when Yoongi tried to come to his aid. "I'm not-- I-I'm not-- a man w-who can l-love women," the boy sobbed as he tried to make himself as small as possible. "I am wrong, n-no? I am a p-pervert?"

"What? W-what are you talking about? That isn't-- but you never--" Yoongi's eyes fluttered with the realisation of what he'd done, guilt crashing down on him with a terrible, terrible weight. He hurried to wet his drying towel and crouched down before the crying butler, doing his best to clean the boy's painful wounds as carefully as he could.

Taehyung sniffed and trembled, beyond distraught by what had happened.

"One day when I was fifteen, a group of older kids asked me the same question you did," Yoongi said, carefully picking pieces of broken glass from Taehyung's arm. "They beat me to a pulp afterwards..."

Taehyung wiped his runny nose, his face red and shiny with tears. "I w-was not g-going to beat you."

"I know that, idiot." Yoongi frowned at the pain he'd caused the young man and shook his head at himself. "You're sure?" He asked after a moment of silence. "About you being... about--"

Taehyung nodded, taking slow, shuddering breaths. "I was c-confused... my entire life. I thought every man felt the same. I thought every man loved men, but chose to be with women because they had to. But... but that is not true."

Yoongi chuckled, and this time, there was no evil edge to it. "No, that is not true."

"T-there is a reason why I have to know it," Taehyung whispered. "How it is done with men, I mean. But I can not tell you the reason yet."

Yoongi sighed, before slowly reaching out to pet Taehyung's head in an awkward attempt at showing affection. "Alright..." he said, giving the butler the smallest of smiles. "If you really want to know. It goes up the--"

____________

"I've packed your bags, sir," Gonzales said, carrying my heavy suitcases into the livingroom with ease. "Do you need to be carried to the car?"

I made a strangled sound from the back of my throat and slowly shook my head. I was covered in countless bruises, and even moving my fingers made zaps of pain shoot throughout my body.

After a full month of training, my knife-fighting skills still hadn't improved and I could barely fight off Gabriel. Marco had failed me, which meant that I'd truly gotten off to a great start with school this year...

I forced myself to get into the car without any help from Gonzales, but knew that I would be sleeping like a rose for the next 168 hours. All I wanted was to get back to Manhattan. To get back home. To get back to him.

___________

When the car finally pulled up to my estate, I felt like my journey to Calabria had aged me with about twenty years.

My bruises had healed quite a bit and it no longer hurt to move, so I was glad I wouldn't have to explain any injuries to the servants. Despite that however, I still wasn't looking forward to lying to them about where I'd been for the past two months. They were like a family to me now. I wished to tell them nothing but the truth at all times.

Gonzales opened the door for me and went straight up to my room with my luggage. The man truly was a rock. He'd taken wonderful care of me during the boat-ride and never complained even though I vomited all over him twice during the journey.

"Mój anioł?"

The voice that greeted me encompassed all the loveliness of an angel's song.

My butler was standing there, his uniform ironed straight, his long hair combed into a neat bun, and a bouquet of purple flowers clutched in his hands. He looked like a gentleman. A true gentleman. And I could barely stand it.

I drew a sharp breath, the butterflies I'd said goodbye to two months ago making a swift and sudden return like they'd never been gone to begin with. How dare he still make my heart race? I thought. How dare he still make me so flustered?

"Welcome back," Taehyung said, walking up to me with a warm, welcoming smile.

"Hello," I said, my voice cracking and awkwardly giving away my nerves.

Taehyung handed me the bouquet of bright purple flowers in his hands, a soft sigh of relief escaping him when I accepted it with a giggle.

"African Violets," the butler said. "I planted them in the garden. It is spring now, so... that is possible."

A timid smile came to my lips, and I couldn't stop myself from blushing at the incredibly romantic gesture. A handsome boy had given me flowers. My handsome best friend had given me flowers! Oh, what a wonderful way to come back home. "They're gorgeous, Tae," I said softly, sniffing the flowers with closed eyes. "Thank you."

It fell silent between us after that, and when I looked up at the butler, it seemed as though the man was just as, or even more nervous than I was. I began to question the flowers in my hand as my thoughts grew a little somber. Were these flowers a goodbye? I thought. Was the butler going to tell me he was no longer capable of being my friend? Had he met a girl while I was gone? Had he fallen in love?

"Jimin, can I talk to you in private?" Taehyung asked, looking up at me through his lashes.

I pressed my lips together, and nodded. I was extremely tired and wanted nothing more than an hour-long bath, but I knew that postponing this conversation wouldn't lead to a different outcome. I had to let the butler strip the bandaid off.

Taehyung and I stepped outside and began our walk through the gardens. The Manhatten sun was quite different from the one in Calabria. It was mild and pleasent instead of overwhelming and scorching. It was easier to tolerate.

"I've missed this place," I whispered, pressing my bouquet close to my chest.

"You have?" Taehyung asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Why wouldn't I?" I chuckled. "This is the only home I've ever had. I've never felt safer anywhere else."

"Even after our fight?" Taehyung asked quietly, his head hanging low as we strolled past a variety of flowers and bushes I'd never even noticed were there. The longer I looked around, the more foreign my garden became, and it slowly became clear to me that it had been transformed into something unrecognizable.

"Tae? Did-- did you do this?" I asked, taking a closer look at the new and exciting plants my once dead garden now displayed. Magnolias, buttercups, roses, strawberries, apples, orchids, and countless other plants I didn't even know by name. My garden had been transformed into a utopia. A wonderful gathering of insects and flowers like the garden of Eden itself.

"You were right, Jimin," Taehyung said, still looking bashful. "About how men do it..."

A shocked chuckle rolled off my toungue as I looked back at Taehyung. All I'd been trying to do in Calabria was forget we'd ever had that conversation. I was hardly prepared for the butler to bring it up again.

"I was wrong to not take you seriously, and I am sorry I--"

"Tae, please don't apologize," I said, grabbing onto the butler's shoulder. "I never should've pushed you when you were already giving me so much. I was being greedy and selfish. I mean, God, you're a ladiesman for crying out loud, and the fact that you even agreed to help me at all is--"

"No," Taehyung said, rapidly shaking his head. "No, I am not."

"Taehyung, please. Didn't I tell you not start doubting--"

"There is not doubt," Taehyung said, cutting me off. "There has been fear, and confusion, but never doubt."

"Tae, don't-- don't say that. This is only because I'm the first person you've ever touched. You're not thinking clear--"

"I dreamt of you while you were gone," Taehyung said, grabbing my hand and holding it in his own like it was a valuable freshwater pearl. "I dreamt of how things used to be. Of us waking up together, and having silly discussions, and teasing each other, and m-messing around, and- and kissing for hours. I spent sixty days thinking of you. Not a girl. Not a woman. I spent sixty days thinking of a boy with soft, pale skin, short, black hair, and-- and a very nice tasting cock."

My lips broke apart and I covered Taehyung's mouth in pure shock. "Tae!" I shrieked, only for the butler to grab me by my waist and pull me in until I could feel his heart beat against my chest. He removed my hand from his mouth and gave it a peck instead, gazing into my eyes with an admiration I never managed to understand. "Believe me," he whispered. "That is all I ask of you. Take me seriously. I am barely worthy of you, I know that. But if you would just--"

I threw my arms around Taehyung's neck and kissed him the I'd wanted to ever since I saw him standing in the entrance hall of the house. I kissed him deeply and passionately, and with a longing so intense it made me dizzy, as I had missed him terribly while in Calabria. I had missed him like our bodies were made to be conjoined at all times. "You've gotten terribly good with words, mio amore," I breathed, Taehyung's purple bouquet falling from my hand as his lips turned my body to jelly.

The butler pushed me up against the outside wall and nuzzled his nose into the crook of my neck. "I had a wonderful teacher," he purred, his hands sliding down my body until they found my butt and rejoiced with a light squeeze.

"Let's do it now," I panted as my pants grew tighter and tighter around my crotch. "Let's do it all the way."

Taehyung immediately slowed down, and stopped fondling my butt. Instead he wrapped his arms around me, and embraced me in a tight hug. "I want to wait," he said, sounding apologetic when didn't really have to.

"Why?" I asked, feeling drunk on Taehyung's touch and nothing else. "You don't want to fuck me?"

"I want us to make love," Taehyung said, raking his fingers through my hair and lovingly kissing my temple. "If the first time is so special between a man and a woman, I do not see why it can not be the same for us."

"But I am impatient," I sulked, resting my head on the butler's shoulder. "I want to feel you... to be as close to you as physically possible."

"Let's do it after your next trip to Calabria," Taehyung proposed, slowly beginning to sink to his knees. "I promise everything will be perfect if we take it slow, mój anioł."

I nibbled on my lips as the butler unbuttoned my trousers and exposed my flushed cock. "Fine," I sighed, tangling my fingers into his hair as he began to lick and suck on my cock like it was the sweetest candy in a candystore. "I s-suppose this will satisfy me for n-now..."