"Oh god, Taehyung, are you okay?" Jimin knelt down beside Taehyung, looking at his burned arm with concern. Taehyung watched Jimin retract his wings, and shook his head with a weak smile. "Aren't you being blasphemous?"

Taehyung chuckled, causing Jimin to look at him with disbelief. "Now isn't the time, Taehyung. Here, let me have a look at your arm..."

Taehyung extended his arm, wincing as he stretched it out for Jimin to see. The skin was burned away, to reveal pink and red bits of his muscle and it was still smoking, black around the edges and it had just hit Taehyung how badly hurt he was.

"Oh god, Jimin..." Taehyung shuddered, his arms shaking as he looked at the burn; the more he looked at it, the more worse it seemed to get. "Jimin, I'm hurt bad, aren't I..."

Taehyung looked at Jimin with struggling breaths, his eyes widened as he tried to hold on to him, his mind going in a blur as he remembered all that happened in the last few moments, sending him into panic mode.

"Hey. Hey, come here." Jimin sat himself down properly and pulled Taehyung close, holding him tightly. "You're okay, Tae. They're gone now."
"T-They- I'm- I can't breathe-"
"Sh, yes you can." He ran his fingers through Taehyung's hair, moving so that Taehyung was sitting between his legs, his head pressed to Jimin's chest as he gasped for oxygen his lungs desperately needed.

"I can't, Jimin- I can't-" Taehyung shook his head. "Help-"
"Sh, Taehyung. I promise you're okay. They're gone. You're okay." Jimin tried his best to calm the young man down as much as possible, as he took out a small white crystal from his pocket.

"Let me heal you, okay?" Jimin whispered, as he brought the crystal to Taehyung's injured arm. Taehyung whimpered, his eyes peeking at the crystal with uncertainty as Jimin held it to his arm.

The crystal began to glow, slowly, getting only brighter and brighter and almost blinding Taehyung, making him turn away from it. His arm felt a weird, tingling sensation, something that made him let out a small noise of pain, but managed to keep it in place, glancing at Jimin who was working on fixing his arm; if he could heal such a bad burn anyway.

"Hey, look." Jimin said cheerful, as the light from the crystal faded, and he tucked it back into his pocket, as Taehyung looked back, and let out a surprised noise.

"Unbelievable..." Taehyung blinked; the wound was completely healed, not even the traces of a scar were left behind. It was almost as if he had never been hurt just now, and even the burning feeling had left his arm, and that definitely did help him to relax. His breathing finally began to come back to normal, and he finally sighed in relief.

"Thank you..."
"Hey. This is what best friends do for each other, right?" Jimin patted his back, before slowly standing up. "Tae, let's go back now, I don't think I can handle any more memories tonight. It's straining my body."

Taehyung nodded, slowly standing up as he lead the way to another exit, taking them back to the main road. The two walked back to Taehyung's house in silence, save for the occasional funny story Taehyung would share to lighten up the mood. Jimin, thankfully, reciprocated well, and the walk home was not awkward, only filled with little words and comfortable silences.

"." Namjoon growled as they sat on the rooftop of some house, rubbing his neck painfully. "That angel is stronger than he looks."
"Yes, Namjoon. You underestimated him. Foolish bastard."
"Foolish bastard." Ruby, Yoongi's little dragon, added haughtily, before turning her tail to Namjoon as she huffed. Namjoon gritted his teeth as he stared at the female dragon angrily. He had never wanted to strangle something so much...

"But, Namjoon... one thing is sure from this scuffle." Yoongi laughed manically, before a twisted smile appeared on his face. "He gets angry easily. This angel, no matter how angelic he seems, he hasn't completely forgotten his human characteristics yet-"
"That only makes Park Jimin more vulnerable to us!" Namjoon interfered joyously, his anger and bitterness at their loss, forgotten.

"Yes, Namjoon... it won't be long before we have him in our hands."

-----

Once they were home, Taehyung walked to the kitchen, leaving Jimin by the stairs as he went to get some snacks for Jimin; even if the angel did not actually need any food, the habit hadn't left him and he pouted at Taehyung for food.

"Ah, you're lucky Ma's working overnight." Taehyung called out, followed by the sound of him rummaging through his cupboards for snacks. Jimin leaned against the cupboard door casually, his head feeling heavy from all the information overload and the fight with those demons and he just wanted to rest.

“Ack!” He let out a shout as the door gave way, and he fell inside the cupboard with a loud thump.

“Jimin?” Taehyung called out with concern, but Jimin couldn’t hear; a numbing feeling suddenly shot through his whole body, blurring his vision from one to two of everything. Taehyung appeared in front of him, his eyes alarmed as he knelt down in front of Jimin, asking him if he was okay.

However, Jimin couldn’t hear him, the ringing in his ears only growing as he looked at Taehyung hazily, and a memory flashed through his head right before he passed out.

Jimin knew he shouldn’t have come to Taehyung’s house that night.

He knew things weren’t so good between his best friend and his mother. Going to Taehyung’s when his friend wasn’t allowed to have anyone over was social suicide. Not only would he get in trouble himself, he would get Taehyung in trouble too.

Jimin knew he shouldn’t have come. And yet, he did, because Taehyung was so insistent on having him over because his mother wasn’t over. She wouldn’t be home for the whole night, and Jimin could stay as long as he liked. And, this worry wasn’t over Jimin getting in trouble; he was afraid of it, yes, but he wouldn’t have cared about that as much as Taehyung getting into deep over him.

But, that didn’t happen. Something worse did.

“, it’s Ma!” Taehyung hissed as they stood by the kitchen door, hearing the car pull up in the driveway. Jimin gasped, immediately asking if he should grab his stuff and leave out the back door, but Taehyung shook his head, pushing open the door to the cupboard that was under the stairs.

“No time! Listen, hide here. We never use this, she wouldn’t dream of looking for anything in here.”

Jimin nodded, walking inside and having the door quickly close behind him, leaving him alone in the dark, heart palpitating as he waited anxiously, for Miss Kim to leave.

“Hey, Ma. Why are you back?”
“Well, I just left some work, right here.” The sound of paper rustling; Jimin remembered a white box file sitting at the foot of the stairs, on a heap of old newspapers.

“Oh, I could’ve brought it over, Ma, you know I only have some more things to work on so I'm not that busy-”
“No, I needed to talk to you as well.”

The tone of her voice was urgent and stern; Jimin gulped, he did not have a good feeling about this.

“...About what?”
“Taehyung. I got a call from your teachers. She’s told me she hasn’t seen you in school for a while. Or at least, she sees you for the initial attendance, and then you just… vanish.”
“Oh. Yeah, um-” A long silence. Taehyung was struggling with his words, and unfortunately, he could be bad at lying at the worst possible times. This seemed to be one of them.

“Yeah. I’ve been skipping, Ma. I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t cut it, Kim Taehyung. Why have you not been going to school? You think you can just become an artist as you please? Even if you do turn out to be one, you won’t get any placements or anything of the sort if you don’t graduate from high school. Don’t you want to go to university?”
“What do you know about art? You’re a businesswoman.”

There was a tense silence, it had become so quiet that Jimin had started to hold his breath, fearful that he would be heard.

“Don’t become overconfident. Why have you not been going to school?”
“School makes me anxious, Ma… I can’t concentrate.”
“Not this again, Taehyung… what is it now, you’re too scared to write in your notebook?” Jimin gritted his teeth angrily; he knew Taehyung’s mother was horrible when it came to understanding that her son did have issues regarding his mental health, but this seemed to just make her seem worse than ever.

“No- Ma, you’re not understanding! How many times do I have to say this… I have a problem. My anxiety, my growing depression, it’s keeping me from this, I don’t do it on purpose. I can only do my art now and even that’s hard…”
“Stop that. Just stop it.” Taehyung’s mother interrupted. “No more. No more of this “I’m depressed, I’m anxious” talk. Everyone gets anxious at times, we all learned to get over it. Why can’t you? Are you that convinced something is wrong?”
“Well, maybe if you were a bit more aware and considerate, you’d see that something is wrong!” Taehyung snapped.

“Wow. Alright, Taehyung. Obviously, I have to make some things clear for you. If you don’t start going to school, I’ll have to take severe action. Starting with your art. I’ve been pretty lenient with you, Taehyung. Letting you choose what you want to do with your future. However, if you think I’m going to send you to school only have you play hooky, I won’t even allow you to pick up another drawing pencil for as long as I live.”

Taehyung gasped, followed by a shout. “No! M-Ma, you can’t do that!”
“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Kim Taehyung. Get a grip. Fix that head of yours, it’ll do you some good.”

There was a stunned silence, as the front door slammed shut. Jimin sat there quietly, not sure if he should come outside and say anything, or wait for Taehyung to open the door.

There was a light thump, and Jimin gasped as Taehyung fell against the door, hearing the shaky sigh escape him through the wood.

“Taehyung, I’m coming out-”
“Don’t.” Taehyung’s voice broke, as he spoke with heavy breaths escaping him. “D-Don’t. You can’t see me like this.”

Jimin knelt down by the door, looking at it helpless as he heard his best friend break down into a bitter fit of tears. He had never heard them have such a bad argument before, and he knew just how much his mother’s words must have affected him for him to have such a violent breakdown.

“Jimin-” Taehyung sobbed, breathing heavily, crying again, alternating between the two as he whispered, “I’m- I’m sorry I’m a mess-”

“NO!”

Jimin yelled as he bolted up, gasping and choking for breath as he looked around frantically, searching for his friend.

“Jimin-?” Taehyung, who was at the foot of the bed, was looking up from his phone at him with surprise, his eyes slightly widened despite how tired how he was from waiting for Jimin to wake up.

“I- I’m- no, you’re-” Jimin spluttered out, immediately pouncing on Taehyung in a relieved embrace. He let out a shaky sob into his friend’s shoulder, whispering an apology over and over, making the blond very confused as he put his phone back on the bed, slowly returning the embrace as he began to pat Jimin’s back reassuringly.

“Hey, hey, calm down… it’s okay, Jimin.”
“N-No, you’re- your mother-” Taehyung raised a brow as he withdrew himself, looking at his tearful best friend, the guilty knot that formed in his chest from exhausting Jimin too much beginning to make his heart ache.

“What do you mean, my mother?”

Jimin gulped, as he looked away, sighing slowly. “The memory… it was of you pushing me inside the closet, and your mum saying horrible stuff…”
“She told me to fix my head. That one…?” Taehyung gulped as he remembered the incident, and how he had been a crying mess all night, even after Jimin was forced to leave; that had made him feel even worse, because he had pushed his friend away when he needed him most.

“Yeah. That. I’m-”
“Sh-” Taehyung smiled kindly, shaking his head. “I’m over it. It was a long time ago.”
“But she- she’s that bad… I didn’t think-”
“Well…” Taehyung laughed, but he looked so sad and unaware of what to do with the situation and even Jimin didn’t know what to say. “You remember now, how bad she is.”

Jimin gulped, nodding slowly as he opened his mouth to speak, but Taehyung shook his head. “Go back to sleep, Jimin. You need to rest.”

Don’t hide things from me… Jimin thought to himself as he nodded, falling back on the pillow. It was something Taehyung always used to do when Jimin was first aware of his friend’s depression. It would take immense amounts of effort for them to talk to each other over the matter, and those were usually when Taehyung would be so overwhelmed with suppressed emotion that he would burst into fits of tears, and at the most horrible of times too.

Jimin had been gone for too long… hadn’t he?

The last thought Jimin had, before he fell asleep again, was to make sure that he could fix Taehyung before he had to go back to heaven. Or at least, have his best friend start to lead a happy life, even when he wasn’t around.

Taehyung, however, was unable to sleep that night, his mind ridden with worry over Jimin’s body and how much he had worn it out with one memory after another. He couldn’t sleep for he was overcome with guilt, and also worried that somehow those two demons would try and take Jimin away from him that night. He wasn't going to let them.

With a sigh, he powered up his phone with the portable charger, as he sunk to the floor, leaning against the bed. He kept scrolling through his phone in a weak attempt to keep himself from falling asleep. His head kept lolling to the side, but somehow Taehyung would thankfully manage to wake up just before he fell asleep.

It was almost ten when Taehyung's phone finally finished charging, and he looked back at Jimin, a worried smile on his face.

"I think he'll be fine for the day..." Taehyung stood up, grabbing some clothes and a towel. He felt filthy, and a shower would definitely help him stay awake as well.

And soon, Taehyung was in a fresh pair of clothes; for some reason, he thought dressing a bit nicer would be a nice lift-me-up for himself, so he pulled on his favourite shirt and oversized cardigan with his blue denim jeans and boots to match, and thought it would better to just go out and distract himself. Knowing how bad Namjoon had been hurt by Jimin, he knew it was safe to leave the latter on his own. The demons wouldn't come for him anytime soon.

It was with these nervous thoughts that Taehyung left the house, locking the door behind him and gently tracing the edges of his wallet in his pocket as he walked down the road to wherever his feet would leave him. His chest hurt whenever he thought of last night; Jimin fainting as he fell into the cupboard, and having to carry him upstairs and put him in bed; all the time, Taehyung was blaming himself for overworking his friend's head by making Jimin remember too much, and he was too tired and unhappy to feel like it really wasn't a big deal as he was making it.

So caught up in his thoughts, Taehyung didn't realise that he had reached the convenience store, and once he had, he thought it wouldn't hurt to walk inside and buy himself some breakfast, since he hadn't eaten any that morning.

Or maybe you just want to see Hoseok again.

"No, what the ." Taehyung hissed to himself, shaking his head as he picked up a sandwich from the shelf. "No, stop thinking about him. He's probably just some old geezer anyway."

Taehyung walked to the cashier, standing in line to have his item billed, and as the queue started to get smaller, Taehyung saw the employee that was checking out the items, and his heart skipped a beat as the blush on his cheeks began to spread.

Hoseok, today, wasn't wearing a snapback, his honey brown hair, bleached at the tips and black at the roots. His hair was tousled, as if he hadn't combed it properly but it still looked good on him and he looked a little tired, but in a weird way, the sleepy attitude made him look so much hotter than he normally did-

Get a grip! Stop thinking about him!! Taehyung yelled inwardly as he realised he was only one person away from being at the front of the line. Taehyung was unsuccessful in regaining his composure in time to have Hoseok attend to him, and he found himself facing the tattooed male once more.

"Back so soon, Sunshine? Even I didn't think you'd be here the very next day."

Taehyung looked down at his hands as he passed his sandwich over to Hoseok to bill it, traces of embarrassment remaining on his cheeks.

"Just a sandwich for breakfast?" Hoseok gasped.
"Oh, yeah, a bit tight on money at the moment." Taehyung laughed nervously. Which was true. He was scrounging his money as much as possible, and had to walk everywhere he had to go to.

Taehyung was snapped out of that thought, though, when Hoseok spoke softly, his voice slightly teasing but also concerned. "Hey, you're really shy today. Look at me."

Taehyung pretended not to hear him, as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket, when suddenly, Hoseok leaned forward, bending down to look him in the eye. Taehyung was not expecting the sudden closeness, and instantly turned just as pink as he was a while ago.

"Ah, what's this?" Hoseok chuckled as Taehyung turned even more red, blinking at Hoseok, surprised and shocked at the situation. Why was Hoseok getting so close?

"You look very nice today, Sunshine." Hoseok murmured, a small smile forming on his face. "Are you going on a date with someone, today?"
"N-No-" Taehyung stuttered, as he finally mustered the courage to look up at Hoseok, who was giving him a small smile.

"100 Won. That's good. That means I can take you on a date when I'm done in ten minutes."

Did Taehyung hear right? A date? Hoseok laughed at the startled look on the younger male's face, and grinned enthusiastically.

"What about it, Sunshine? You seem dressed for the occasion. You were expecting this weren't you?"
"I- um, I wasn't- but-" Taehyung opened his mouth to refuse, simply because he was scared of making a fool of himself in front of this handsome stranger. But, something stopped him, the beating of his heart only increasing in momentum the more he looked at Hoseok. This was, of course, the first time Taehyung had been asked out, period. He had always been too shy to ask a girl out, but here was a boy asking him on a date? And he didn't seem to mind it?

And he couldn't deny that he really wanted to get to know the man in front of him a bit better than he already did.

"O-Okay. I'll wait for you outside." Taehyung nodded, as he paid for the sandwich and smiled nervously at Hoseok's face, which lit up with excitement as he grinned with glee.

"A-Alright! I'll get off right now!" Hoseok nodded, and Taehyung was surprised (and also pleased) to see a tint of pink on his cheeks, the older male was obviously flustered that Taehyung had agreed without complaint.

"Take your time, I’m not going anywhere.” Taehyung smiled, giving Hoseok a small wink as he walked out the door, and immediately turned beet red at his own actions.

A date with a boy… is this okay? I mean… it can’t hurt, can it… He is kinda cute, too... Taehyung mused to himself how the day would unfold, as he waited outside the convenience store for Jung Hoseok to make an appearance.

19.02.2017; #happyharuday
I really hope this chapter hasn't disappointed! >.< it made my heart too tho T.T #ProtectTaehyung2017
as it's my birthday (was, it's the 20th in England) today, I decided to do three story updates! One is of course for Stigma. The other two as as follows;

LTRDMV (YoonMin, , , mature)
Fifty Shades of Bangtan (BTS X OCs, , mature)

FSOB is a story that me and Kai (HeadToToesLove) have been working on for almost two years! Can you believe it? >.< We updated the first chapter today too, so yay! We're very excited to share it with you, so do go check it out <3

Also worth checking out is our child Amatsumal's story Mama, which is Yoongi centric and from what I have read it is absolutely killer. I'm so proud of you, Amwu! <3 <3 <3 

- Haru.