Yoongi grins down at the oblivious Jimin from his vantage point above the ground. Yoongi watches as the younger shifts on a middle placed branch, turning his head every now and then to-Yoongi assumes-try and catch a whiff of one of them. Yoongi shakes his head at the thought, knowing that he and Jungkook smell like death to this pack. Yoongi narrows his eyes watching as Jimin sighs, leaning against the tree trunk, sliding down to sit on the branch and pull his legs to his chest sighing again before resting his head on his knees.

Frowning at the sight Yoongi quietly lowers himself to a closer branch, careful to stay downwind of the young werewolf, leaning in closer and allowing himself to freely study Jimin’s soft features, now that they’re alone, away from noisy and overprotective family questioning Yoongi’s every move. Really, he’s glad Hoseok is so willing to allow Yoongi and his little brother to roam freely in their territory but Hoseok’s mate and alpha was a pain in the . Every time Yoongi’s tried to so much as talk to Jimin alone (which Yoongi will grudgingly admit is quite a bit; Jimin’s presence seems to call to Yoongi and its driving Yoongi insane.)Namjoon literally appears out of nowhere, frowning disapprovingly at Jimin and with poorly hidden mistrust at Yoongi. He doesn’t have to worry, though they’ve only been here a little over nine weeks, every fiber of Yoongi’s body flinches at the thought of a hurt or legitimately upset Jimin(another fact pushing on Yoongi’s suddenly fragile sanity).

Yoongi snaps back to reality when he realizes Jimin is talking, panicking slightly before he determines Jimin is talking to himself and not Yoongi.

“Stupid, stupid. Papa would kill me. Mama…mama would be happy right? I…I think he would be, I mean. Of course, I could be wrong. I probably am. Yes. I’m wrong. I’m just confused, is all. They’re new and curious, of course I’d want to spend as much time as I can with them. I mean, yes, he’s gorgeous. Th-They’re gorgeous,” Yoongi watches Jimin stumble over his words as he turns red and, though Yoongi’s confused about Jimin’s going on about, he can’t help but think about how….adorable Jimin is, especially when the younger ruffles his hair in frustration sighing in defeat with a pout on his pretty, pretty, lips, “That’s why I want his attention. Because he’s hot and new and odd and curious because he mocks us but still plays with us and looks at his brother with such care and…and he can’t be…there’s no way…” Jimin laughs sadly to himself and Yoongi feels an uncomfortable twinge in his chest at the sound, “I’m trying to convince myself he’s not-can’t possibly be-my mate and I feel like the words are clawing at my soul…”

Yoongi in a breath before making a decision he can’t see himself regretting, dropping down onto the branch Jimin’s on, startling the poor wolf.

“Y-Yoongi!”

Yoongi ignores Jimin’s stuttering, focusing on his red face and erratic heartbeat, reaching down to stand him up before cornering him against the tree, leaning down to rest his head on Jimin’s, closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of Jimin’s warmth. He opens his eyes slowly when Jimin lets out a whine bordering between cautious and curious, looking into the confused wolf’s eyes and dropping a good portion of the walls he’s built, his master’s words of life partners-of soulmates-tumbling around his head. He remembers scoffing at the notion, angrily denying Seokjin’s sorrowful explanation that “Yes, Yoongi. There’s someone out there for even us. Someone that’ll make you put their happiness and health first. Someone that’ll make you feel alive. Someone you’ll never want to let go.” He hadn’t believed there would ever be someone like that in his life, even though he was considered young by “vampire standards”, Yoongi was still pushing well over two centuries now. He can’t be angry at how long it took him to meet Jimin, though, Yoongi muses as he stares at Jimin’s wide eyes slowly being filled with purple in an obvious show of some form of high emotion. Yoongi sighs again, dropping his head on Jimin’s shoulder, giving a small rumble of reassurance, smiling slightly when Jimin hesitantly reaches up to fist the back of Yoongi’s jacket. Yoongi breathes in Jimin’s warm, pure, smell, “Found you.”

-----

“No. I don’t remember most of the people from my birthplace. I barely remember Jungkook’s and I’s parents.” Yoongi smiles at the younger, the two of them sitting side by side on the branch now, Yoongi letting Jimin ask any question he wants and Jimin giving Yoongi the same privilege.

Jimin looks at him in slight surprise, “So Jungkook’s actually your brother? Like genetic brother before the change?”

Yoongi nods, smile still in place, “Yeah. I turned him as soon as he turned eighteen.”

“Forever eighteen? I can’t tell if that’s a blessing or a curse.” Jimin laughs, Yoongi watching as his whole body moves with the action. “Okay your turn.”

“I’m curious. How old are your parents? We’ve come across packs before in a place and then come pass by the same place twenty or so years later and the pack looks the same.” Yoongi wonders, grinning at the pout Jimin gives him.

“Mama and Papa are the same age. I think…three or four something. From what I remember.” Jimin shrugs, blinking in confusion at the look of shock on Yoongi’s face, “What? What did I say?”

“Three or four hundred?!” Yoongi will deny forever how high pitched his voice gets with the question.

Jimin looks at him weirdly, “Yes? We’re not immortal like your kind but we age a lot differently than people think we do. It’s different for everyone. But only when we find our mates.”

“What do you mean?” Yoongi whispers, ignoring the way Jimin’s smile makes him feel light.

“When we find our other half, our bodies adjust to the lifespan of the dominant partner.” Jimin explains promptly and precisely enough that Yoongi grins at him, “Like for Mama and Papa. Papa is a second generation born-shifter, so his lifespan is longer than newer generations and changed-shifters. His year equals to about twenty, or so, human years after he hits, um, puberty. Mama is a seventh generation born-shifter, so while his life is longer than a humans, Papa is the dominant partner so Mama’s life has been slowed to match his. There’s old lore about the reasoning for it but it all basically amounts to the same thing.”

“Which is?”

Jimin side-eyes his with a pout, “This is your fourth question in a row, Yoongi.” Jimin sighs when Yoongi just grins at him, rolling his eyes and ignoring the way his cheeks heat up, “Well, we’re family orientated creatures by nature, right? How do you think we’d fair if our dominant partner is taken from us and we keep living? Or if we die and our partner keep living? Werewolves are monogamous by choice and instinct, Yoongi. When we find our mate, that’s it. There will never be anyone else for us. Ever. We don’t live without our mates. We can, we just usually choose not to.”

Yoongi nods before looking at Jimin intently, a small smirk on his lips, “And, what are you?”

“What am I?” Jimin echoes, not understanding the question, tilting his head slightly in confusion, eyebrows furrowing.

“Yeah. Will you be matching someone’s lifespan or will they be matching yours?” Yoongi snickers at the way Jimin immediately turns red, whining in the back of his throat in embarrassment.

 Jimin pouts at the other when he hears Yoongi, before looking away from him, “I thought it was obvious…”

“Humor me, Jimin. Please.” Yoongi’s grin gets bigger, enjoying how embarrassed Jimin is getting a little too much.

Jimin grumbles under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest, pout deepening, “…I’d be matching my mate’s lifespan…”

Yoongi nods smugly, “I thought as much. So if your mate was human?”

Jimin flinches at the question, looking at Yoongi in slightly hurt confusion, he knows Yoongi heard him, knows Yoongi knows. Why is Yoongi asking about Jimin’s mate like he doesn’t know it’s him? Is he…is this Yoongi’s way of rejecting him? Does, does Yoongi not want him? But-But Jimin hasn’t done anything wrong! Has he? Does Yoongi actually hate him? Is he not what Yoongi wants as a life partner? Jimin doesn’t know how it works for vampires but Jimin’s inner wolf, his soul, has already recognized Yoongi as his mate and he doesn’t know what to do with the knowledge that his mate doesn’t want him. Jimin flinches harshly at the thought, feeling like someone’s taken hold of his heart and is slowly squeezing it with building pressure; he feels like someone’s ripping at his soul. Jimin doesn’t understand…why? What has he done so wrong to have Yoongi ending something before it’s even started?

“Hypothetically, Jimin!” Yoongi throw his normal demeanor away as Jimin starts shaking, whining and whimpering like he’s in pain, quickly pulling Jimin into his lap, cradling Jimin against him, wrapping his arms around the younger and bringing his legs up to cradle against Jimin. Jimin flinches at Yoongi’s voice before latching onto Yoongi, turning to straddle the other, wrapping his arms and legs around the older vampire, burying his head in Yoongi’s shoulder, trying to let the other’s smell calm him down.

Yoongi hesitates briefly before rubbing up and down Jimin’s back the way he used to do for Jungkook, letting the younger nuzzle into him, “I meant it hypothetically, Jimin. Not towards you specifically. Towards your kind as a whole. Not you. Werewolves in general, okay?”

Jimin nods against Yoongi’s shoulder but makes not move to leave the elder’s embrace, heart still racing at his previous assumption, even though Yoongi’s said he didn’t mean Jimin. Jimin sniffs quietly and returns to nuzzling against Yoongi’s shoulder and neck, ignoring the tears leaking passed his closed eyes.

“…we’d match the lifespan of the human, if they were the dominant one…” Jimin whispers a few minutes later, body relaxed from its previous tension, slumping against Yoongi, making him support both of them as he balances on the branch, “We’d live the eighty or so years with them and most likely wait until they passed away before going ourselves.”

Yoongi nods, not pushing this subject anymore, now that he’s upset Jimin as badly as he has. He’s content to just hold Jimin the way he is, though, when Jimin takes a deep breath he can’t push his curiosity away as Jimin relaxes further into Yoongi’s embrace, “Jimin?”

“Mmm?”

Yoongi smiles at the tone, the sound so similar to Jungkook or Seokjin when they fought off their urge to sleep once every decade, “You keep smelling me. I don’t mind, it’s okay. I’m just curious is all.”

Jimin relaxes once more from where he’s tensed up again when Yoongi first started speaking, thinking Yoongi wanted him to stop. Shuffling closer, Jimin noses against Yoongi’s chin before running his nose along the length of Yoongi’s neck, “…it’s a…pack thing. Plus, you smell really good.”

Yoongi chuckles at the answer, deciding to ask Hoseok when they get back to town since Jimin doesn’t seem very forthcoming with information now, “I smell good? Don’t I smell like dead things?”

Jimin shakes his head, “No. Neither does Jungkook, if you’re curious. He doesn’t smell like anything, to me, actually.”

“Oh?” Yoongi fights the smile forming on his lips at the statement.

“Yeah, but Tae says he smells good so you can ask him.”

“What do I smell like to you?”

Jimin breathes in deeply again, eyes still closed, before slowly letting out a sigh, curling into Yoongi more, voice just above a murmur, “The way the woods smell in the middle of spring. Like new trees and flowers and wet grass directly after it rains, the crisp new kind of rain, not the wet dirt kind of rain. You smell like that.”

“Okay.” Yoongi whispers, smiling when Jimin’s breathing evens out, gathering the younger carefully before dropping to the floor, cautious of moving Jimin too much. When Yoongi’s satisfied Jimin is still sleeping, making his way back to the town, feeling slightly bad for abandoning their game but mentally promising to make it up to Jungkook another time.

-----

Namjoon paces in the living room, ignoring the way Hoseok rolls his eyes at him, angrily muttering under his breath as he once more catches the fading sunlight through the balcony window. Turning to Hoseok and, once again ignoring his mate’s amused smile, glares, “It’s going to be dark soon. They know better than to be out past that.”

“Move.” Hoseok pushes Namjoon gently aside before making him sit as he walks onto the balcony, shifting as soon as the cool air hits him. Closing his eyes Hoseok lets the sounds around the forest fill him before he throws his head back, letting out a howl, summoning his wayward children back to the house.

“We’re here, Mom.” Taehyung grins, pulling a pouting Jungkook behind him. “And it’s not dark yet, right?”

Hoseok ducks his head, glancing at the pair on ground level before hopping onto his hind legs, resting on the balcony’s banister, tilting his head, making a questioning noise before glancing back to the forest.

Taehyung follows his gaze, dropping Jungkook’s wrist, looking back at Hoseok with a shrug, “I don’t know, Mom. I found Jungkook arguing with a squirrel. I haven’t seen Jimin since we started playing hide-and-seek.”

Before Hoseok can so much as blink Namjoon is rushing to his side and over the banister, landing swiftly next to Taehyung, eyes flashing, “When was that?”

“A while ago. It’s fine though. You know him, he probably fell asleep somewhere.” Taehyung shrugs nonchalantly, turning to the front door when it’s slammed open, revealing an annoyed Hoseok.

“What have I said about jumping from the second story?!” Hoseok growls, hands on his hips as he glared at Namjoon, “Setting a bad example for your children is not okay. We have doors for a reason. Stop glaring at the world. Jimin always loses track of time when no one’s there to remind him where he needs to be.”

“The sun is setting. He knows he needs to be home before the sun-”

“And, look. There they are.” Hoseok points to Yoongi walking up to them, “And, like Tae said. He’s asleep. See? You need to calm down, Nam. Now, since everyone is home, how about we start dinner?”