“Nope. Absolutely not.”

“Jungkook, this is the best way,” Namjoon said, swiveled around to look at the maknae from the driver’s seat. Taehyung was insisting on giving Jungkook a piggy-back ride up to their hotel room, so Jungkook wouldn’t have to walk. Taehyung had already opened Jungkook’s door and gotten into the squatting position. All Jungkook had to do was hop on. But in Jungkook’s view, all he had to do was annoy them into leaving him alone.

Jungkook crossed his arms, “No.”

Namjoon let out an exasperated sigh.

Taehyung peeked over his shoulder with a pout, “Pleeeaaasse? I’m just trying to help.”

“If you really want to help, then get out of my way,” Jungkook used his hands to support him as he began to get up.

“Don’t walk! It will get worse! You might fall!” Taehyung cried, turned around now to keep a better watch on Jungkook’s movements.

“He’s trying to walk on his own?” there was a soft thud as Namjoon let his head fall against the steering wheel, “Oh my god, Jin is going to kill me.”

Taehyung pleaded with his eyes, but Jungkook merely gave him a glare. Taehyung let his eyes close in defeat as he stepped aside to make room. Jungkook grinned as he took his first step. The second was wobbly. The third had him toppling over. He braced himself for the concrete.

But he didn’t fall. Taehyung caught him and swooped him up into his arms, wedding-style. “You fell, I called it,” Taehyung teased with a smirk.

Jungkook was staring at him with wide eyes, not believing this, “You can’t carry me.”

“Too late for that.”

“This isn’t a ing honeymoon, no need to treat me like some damsel in distress, Kdrama female lead, helpless little thing. At least give me the ing decency of a piggy-back ride then,” Jungkook bargained.

“Too late for that,” Taehyung said, laughing now.

“But…” Jungkook looked away to think, “I’m hard to carry. Super muscular means I’m super heavy.”

“Then I guess I’m super strong,” Taehyung shoots back, looking back when he hears Namjoon getting out of the car.

“Just let me walk, please,” Jungkook whispers.

Taehyung shakes his head, “You must really be crazy. I’m not letting you get hurt, it’s not up for debate.”

Jungkook scoffs, “Not letting me get hurt?” He puts on a mocking, way-too-deep voice as he echoes, “’Too late for that.’”

Taehyung laughs harder now. Pressed close to him like this, Jungkook can hear it bubbling up in his chest. It’s surprisingly pleasant to listen to. Jungkook is gently rocked as the three two of them walk to the lobby. Jungkook decides to surrender on this one.

“Yah,” Taehyung says quietly, his low voice a little raspy. He looks down at Jungkook, who suddenly feels very exposed, “Don’t worry about me dropping you. You’re not that heavy. You’re lighter than Joshua,” he chuckles.

Jungkook raises an eyebrow and says nothing. Oh…kay….then.

“Also,” Taehyung leans down to Jungkook’s neck, close. Too close. Jungkook frantically looks over at Namjoon, attempting to telepathically communicate that Taehyung is about to turn him into a ing vampire. Taehyung stops when his mouth is maybe two centimeters from the place where Jungkook’s shoulder merges into his neck. Jungkook suddenly feels far more exposed. Namjoon, anytime now. Taehyung inhales, and lifts his head, smiling down at a very confused Jungkook, “You still don’t smell like old cabbage, so don’t worry about that either.”

Jungkook pauses to absorb this. Then he clucks his tongue, “And you say I must be really crazy? So now I’m the crazy one?” He scoffs, “Un-ing-believable.”

Taehyung laughs even harder, eyes crinkling up. Jungkook focuses on how it sounds in his chest, with Taehyung’s surprisingly strong as all hell arms tightening around him to combat the way they shook with the laughter.

Secretly, hidden in the crook of Taehyung’s arms, Jungkook let himself smile like a fool.

Taehyung finished setting Jungkook down on the bed. He reached for the blanket to pull it over Jungkook, but Jungkook slapped at his hand. He tried to fix a stray hair but Jungkook ducked away. When Taehyung tried again, Jungkook swatted his hand away. Taehyung laughed softly in amusement and Jungkook jutted out his chin in a challenge. Try that again , I dare you.

Sure enough, Taehyung did. And sure enough, Jungkook continued ducking and swinging at him. Taehyung began laughing harder as the two fell into a scuffle of childish slapping.

“Will you two be okay alone?”

Both boys immediately freeze at that. They had forgotten Namjoon was still there, but he was, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and lips pursed into an expression of suspicion, or perhaps he was already regretting this.

Jungkook cleared his throat, “We’ll be fine.”

Taehyung snorted at how quickly Jungkook attempted to regain his dignity. Then Taehyung went off to look in the cabinets. This was done to go check for medicine, and totally had completely nothing to do with how Jungkook just punched him in his ribs, quick so Namjoon wouldn’t see, for snorting. Nothing at all.

“Okay,” Namjoon replied, stretching out the word as if he was still trying to figure out if it was an accurate reading of the situation. “Well I really have to get back to practice to teach the dance. I let Hoseok decide what they would do in the meantime, and considering that I got 47 text messages and 9 missed calls while we were in the car, that was maybe not the best choice. You guys chill here, I’ll text you when I’m heading back to get you.”

“Uh huh,” Taehyung sing-songed, scrutinizing the labels on some containers in the cupboard over the sink, trying to decipher the English.

“Taehyung, be responsible. And Jungkook,” Namjoon turned to said boy, giving him a stern look, “Listen to him. He was kind enough to come take care of you, so let him. You’re in his hands.”

Before Jungkook could vocalize his immense opposition to that idea, they were interrupted with a chhhh sound. The pair looked to see that Taehyung had accidentally sprayed shaving cream all over his hand. He tried to wipe it off with his other hand, laughing good-naturedly. The action only made things worse, and he giggled in childish excitement as the cream engulfed both hands. He rubbed them together and watched in amusement as he realized that widening and closing his fingers made the shaving cream spread out like he had webbed fingers. Suddenly aware that he was being watched, he laughed harder and turned his palms outwards to show off for the other two.

Jungkook merely gave Namjoon a look. He didn’t even have to say anything to prove a point after that.

“Kookie, you’re in his hands,” Namjoon repeats.

Jungkook whimpered, “But hyung, they’re sticky.”

Taehyung stopped laughing and flushed slightly, beginning to scope out the room for a towel to wipe off the mess.

“And I-“ Namjoon stopped abruptly as his phone made a high-pitched ding sound, “I just got a text from Jimin. It just says emergency in all caps. There’s a row of red siren and skeleton emojis. How am I supposed to-“ His phone begins ringing and he rolls his eyes before he presses the phone to his ear, “Look, Jimin I-whoah, okay slow down I can’t understand what you’re….he did what? Put him on the phone right now.” Namjoon gives a brief wave to the duo in the room and closes the door without another word.

“Yah! Hyung! No no no no please!” Jungkook reached out an arm toward where Namjoon had just been standing, desperately reaching for someone who wasn’t there anymore with a pout.

“Don’t worry!” Taehyung chirped with a grin, “I’m here to help.”

Jungkook closed his eyes, “God, if you’re listening,” he whispered, “Please, save me.” (author’s note: (  ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡°) lmao)

“Do you want any help?” Taehyung nibbled at his lip.

Jungkook had just taken a nap, and Taehyung had awoken him to show him something in the bathroom, insisting that he walk over to check it out. Only, he was hesitant to let Jungkook do that last part alone.

“Nope,” Jungkook replied in English, popping the p sound confidently. Slowly, he shifted his weight from the bed to his feet, and began limping to the bathroom. His hip bumped into the corner of the bed and he stumbled slightly, so naturally Taehyung ing teleported to Jungkook’s side to catch him.

Jungkook heaved a sigh, “Taehyung relax.”

“But what if you fell?” Taehyung’s hand subconsciously tightened on Jungkook’s hip as he considered the possibility, “What if you got hurt worse?”

“This isn’t my first injury,” Jungkook points out.

“And how is that supposed to make me feel any better?” Taehyung’s eyes begin skimming Jungkook’s body, as if double-checking for some scar or deformity that he might have missed.

“Because you don’t have to treat me like I’m made out of glass, I can ing handle myself,” Jungkook says, a bit more angrily.

“Jungkook,” Taehyung’s eyes settle on Jungkook’s, his gaze earnest, “I respect you as a person, so much. I know what you’re capable of. But there’s nothing wrong with letting the people who care about you help you. A single snowflake is beautiful and unique, but alone it could never create an avalanche.”

Jungkook blinked. “Yo, Socrates, you can ing chill.”

Taehyung only laughed at that. But he backed away to allow Jungkook to limp the rest of the way by himself.

Safely leaning on the doorway of the bathroom, Jungkook gasped.

Taehyung leaned his hands against the wall, tapping his fingers, suddenly anxious. He watched Jungkook’s face, “Do you like it?”

“Whoah,” Jungkook breathed.

Taehyung had drawn him a bath in the large tub of their bathroom. It was bubbly, giving off a faint lilac hue. Taehyung had managed to dim the lights to a comforting warm glow, which enhanced the tranquil look of the bath.

Taehyung fidgeted with his hands at Jungkook’s lack of reaction, “Warm baths are supposed to make muscle pain go away. My mom used to do it for me when I got hurt as a kid. It always helped, so I was hoping it could do the same for you.” He chuckled nervously, “I even put in some bath salts. At least…that’s what I hope they are.” He shook a container of what appeared to be purple pebbles, giving off a lavender scent. He cleared his throat, “Do you like it?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook said slowly, tearing his eyes away from the fantasy before him to look at Taehyung, “Yeah I do. Thank you, so much. Really.”

“Yay! I was so scared you wouldn’t like it-what a relief!” He claps his hands happily, beaming. Then he jogs excitedly over to the side of the tub to point out a small panel of buttons, “Did you know we have a Jacuzzi?”

Jungkook snorted, “I didn’t even know we had a tub.”

Taehyung giggled, “My god, you really never bathe, do you?”

“Shut up or I’ll drown you,” Jungkook threatens, smiling anyway.

Taehyung giggled again, but dutifully shut his mouth and silently left the room, softly closing the door behind him.

Jungkook rolled his shoulder’s back with a sigh. He could feel his fingers turning into absolute raisins at this point but he didn’t care. It felt so nice in here. He slowly stretched his legs out in front of him, moving them gently and smiling to himself when he felt no pain or resistance to the movement.

There was a knock at the door and Taehyung stuck his head in, “Hey, Doctor Taehyung reporting for booty.”

Jungkook splashed water at the intruder, “Leave.”

Taehyung chuckled, “I just wanted to check in on you. Are you feeling better? Is the bath good? Is it too shallow or too cold or too hot or too lonely?” He wiggled his eyebrows cheekily on the last part.

He barely managed to close the door in time to avoid a sudsy loofah to the face.

Author's Note: heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy long time no see darlings hah hah *sweating nervously* 

^me @ me for not updating for so long

LOL I'm so sorry guys it's been a super stressful time, the end of the school year is never fun, and I need your love before I fail (fail) ( (  ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) hah).My teachers are BUGGIN tbh. I can see it now, them all huddled over the coffee machine in the teacher's lounge, snickering, chanting "Fail, fail, fail" under their breath with the blinds drawn. My math teacher doodling out extensive game plans as to how to drop my grade most significantly before summer frees me. Lmao it's in bull

But ey that's enough on me and SPEAKING OF BULL !! BTS RELEASED SAVE ME ARE YOU ING KIDDING ME I HAD /JUST/ GOTTEN OVER FIRE AND YOU HAD TO RELEASE THAT BEAUTIFUL SONG WITH A TITLE THAT SO SUCCINCTLY SUMS UP MY ENTIRE BEING ???? bye. Lol when I first saw the mv I was flippin over Jungkook's thighs and voice omg (I'm like *finally* understanding the whole Jungkook-as-bias-wrecker now, like, wayyy too well) Jhope's voice got deep too like wow okay so all of you had to hit puberty at once that's in gReAT thanks for THAT. BUT MORE SPECIFICALLY ??? the end pose s me UP y'all. It's the one where they're all kneeling and looking down and it strikes me as so helpless and vulnerable that everytime I see it I like really want to just koala/spoon the out of all of em so like idk yo idk but I feel that way most of the time anyway so idk yo i d K

^this child in pARTic U LAR done hath edeth me up with the last pose i just wanna kiss his neck so in hard yo like yo somebody SAVE ME deadass i d KKKKK

I WILL NOT TAKE AS LONG TO POST THE NEXT UPDATE LOL I SWEAR IT ! Subscribe to read more :DDD and comment with any reactions to the mv or the chapter or the story in general :DDDDDDDDDDDD I love alllll of you guys, take care stay happy and save me lmao nah but fr i'm boutta fail math hah

<3 <3 <3