Jimin doesn’t let himself get taken to a retirement home. His nieces and nephews try, they try really hard, they try so hard that there’s one afternoon that Yoongi thinks Jimin might just crack and sign the papers that will ‘condemn us both to a live as a pair of overblown cash cows living out some pathetic excuse for our golden years in someone else’s home’ just to get the ‘useless little s’ to leave them alone. 

Jimin’s words, not Yoongi’s.

In the end though, Jimin stands proud, his back straight enough for a spirit level. Yoongi swears he can see the header of a ‘Sunny Days Retirement Village’ letter poking out of the top of the recycling bin one morning and after that Jongmin and Seoyu don’t bother them but for ‘family gatherings’. 

Yoongi doesn’t stand very tall these days. His spine has curled in ways that a lifetime as a dancer and a moderately successful stint in the military have never permitted Jimin’s to, in ways that mean that after all these years height difference is an issue once again. 

“Even if you’re short and old and you need a cane to walk, you know I still love you right?” Jimin mumbles into Yoongi’s thinning hair,

“I don’t need the cane it’s a stylistic choice.”

Above him Jimin sighs deep and his arms wrap tighter around Yoongi as he sways the both of them to the music. It’s an old pressing that Yoongi bought half a lifetime ago, he can’t remember the composer’s name or the title of the piece, if he’s being honest it’s a little bland for his tastes but Jimin likes the gentle waltz and Yoongi has never been anything but indulgent when it comes to Park Jimin.

Unlike Yoongi, Jimin still goes for early morning strolls and the stairs are not an epic war that he must wage – or at least not yet. Yoongi’s not sure he’s ready to see that side of Jimin, it feels like as accommodating as he’s ever been as the elder of the two of them he’s always been a little on the frail side and Jimin has always been so very well put together. 

“I love you too,” Yoongi mutters, allowing Jimin to lead him like its dance practice sixty years ago, except this is as hard as either of them can dance these days.