Latin | noun

♦ delight in someone else's happiness; the opposite of Schadenfreude

 

---

"Why are we doing this," Taehyung grunts as the yarn turns into a tangled mess with all ten of his fingers stuck in it. Again. For the seventh time in like, twenty minutes.

He is officially done with this .

Who needs knitting anyway? 

Jeongguk chuckles and brushes hair out of Taehyung's forehead. Taehyung nestles further into the mer's lap with a groan. It's enough of a distraction for the clew of yarn to slip into the sea lazily gurgling below and-

Okay, that's a lie. 

Taehyung has been shaking his hands violently until the dumb thing flew off in a high arc. He is wasted on that handiwork stuff.

"It was your idea, Tae."

"Yeah well, maybe it was a stupid idea. Don't let me have ideas," he says, pointing an accusing finger at the mer as if it was his fault they are stuck in a cave with a pound of wool each and way too many knitting needles strewn over the moss.

Taehyung glances at the tiara still adorning Jeongguk's head, all the little diamonds and sapphires. It's twinkling enticingly, as if it wants to seduce him. Lure him into doing something... a little naughty. Or at least a little not so well-behaved. He grins.

"Actually-" 

Huh.

He frowns.

Maybe throwing his yarn into the sea was a little rash. He his lips. 

"Uh, could you maybe..." Taehyung nods in the direction of his sad wet clump that's now sinking to the ground.

Jeongguk's little laugh is music to his ears.

Moments later, the heap is resting on Taehyung's chest - courtesy of the mer who salvaged it and floated it over in all its drenched ugliness - and doing a spectacular job of soaking Taehyung's favourite pullover. Until, with a flick of Jeongguk's wrist (it's so hot when he does that), the water seeps out of it and back into the sea, leaving dry wool and cashmere behind.

Very clotted wool, though.

Taehyung frowns. Seems like there are limits to Jeongguk's superpowers. The mer can't turn back time to when things were not wet yet. He can just - as if that ever could be a 'just' case - remove the water to the last drop. But when the effect of that is not so great, well. Tough luck.

Just means Taehyung needs to do a mad good job at untangling it now before he can weave the stuff into Jeongguk's crown.

He smirks.

This is going to be fun.

 

This is no fun.

"Dammit," Taehyung curses under his breath as he gets stuck on another little diamond-encrusted wave swirl. "Babe, when I told you to not let me have ideas I meant it. This was so dumb. Let's jot it down amongst the twenty-five dumbest things I've ever done."

The mer curls his lips and raises a brow.

"Twenty-five? Wait, do I want to know?"

Taehyung shakes his head. "Nope, you absolutely don't. Trust me."

And, ah. There it is again. That tiny change of expression whenever he says something that has Jeongguk's features soften in a way which proves the mer is just as gone for him as vice versa.

Taehyung takes a breath, gulps, and steels himself.

"I do."

Bullseye.

He knew his heart would get attacked. It's always the way Jeongguk says things - with such utter devotion, as if Taehyung were a saint and he couldn't help but pray to him - that turns Taehyung's mind completely useless. And even though he's slowly getting better at seeing those lethal attacks coming, it still doesn't change anything about how a weak whine comes out of him as response.

Gosh.

Dumb fools in love, the two of them. He'd eat the entire wool-covered tiara for Jeongguk if pressed. And he has the crawling suspicion Jeongguk would do the same for him.

"I really shouldn't have brought the wool and tried to learn knitting with you together," he says, voice still raw with emotion. "That was stupid."

Jeongguk keeps sitting still patiently, waiting for Taehyung to remove the wool from his head. He lifts his arm with as few movement as possible, a neat, half-finished scarf dangling from his grip.

"Just speak for yourself. I quite enjoyed it."

Taehyung pouts and pinches his arm. "Meanie."

It earns him another cute grin.

But yeah, no, he himself very much at knitting. No hate to the activity itself though. His grandma used to knit a mad Christmas sweater each year. It's a great thing to do, just doesn't work for him.

In contrast, Jeongguk, with his clawed hands that are strong enough to smash bare stone yet gentle enough to carve intricate patterns and pry open tiny mussels - of course he excels in it. Has the fine motor skills and the patience to learn knitting.

If Taehyung gets a knitted scarf from him for Christmas he's going to cry.

 

Wait, does Jeongguk know about Christmas? Did they talk or read about it?

Maybe there is a chance for him to survive. Here is to hoping.

 

So. The thing with Taehyung being back into proper songwriting business is that he can't control how long he stays in the zone. How long the hyper focus stays with him. Best case scenario he finishes an entire song in one go. Worst case, well. He might get distracted within the first five minutes and not get back to writing for the rest of the day.

Which is not what happens tonight! Just for the records, he lasted a total of fifteen minutes. That's a lot. It can be enough to get half of the lyrics down.

(Today he managed to get down no more than one verse but that's beside the point!)

And the main reason for him to get properly distracted is, of course, his (everybody's) guilty pleasure - his phone. In other words, the Internet. Because there is so much stuff to find out there! It's fairly easy for him to get in. 

At this point he doesn't even know how he ended up from researching baby dolphin behaviour to reading weird facts about space. He makes a slight return to his original purpose - which is, obviously, writing a song about how stunning it is to watch the sunlight fall through Jeongguk's fins - when two more clicks lead him from space facts to space poetry. Kinda. Poetry and songwriting are connected, after all. He's forgotten about writing something himself though and is just scrolling trough all these posts.

One in particular catches his attention.

It's about the blue veins on one's wrist and how they contain something-

What was it again? Hermo- uhh...

He scrolls back up. Reads 'haemoglobin' for the second time and instantly forgets the term again. Eh. Whatever. The important part is that it contains iron and that iron appears only in one place naturally: space. It's forged in the core of dying stars. So in other words... the iron in humans' veins equals stardust.

And, wow. 

Taehyung needs to sit back for a moment.

Now that is some revelation.

Humans have stardust flowing in their bodies.

The sound of raindrops hammering against his window turns into billions of tiny shooting stars knocking hello before falling onto the soaked grass outside as burning pebbles. Taehyung's mind is running a mile a minute as he thinks about space and stars and Jeongguk and him.

'Star child', he jots down at the top of the next page.

 

Some more deep thinking and scribbling down disconnected verses later - it's late and he is tired, okay, the waning days are eating away on him - he comes to a realisation. If he is made of stardust at least partially... and Jeongguk used to be an entire star himself... then, they are not that different. Well. Leaving aside the huge (gorgeous) fish tail, gills, tremendous magic powers and claws.

But they both have a star in them.

And that's incredibly sweet and encouraging to know.

Taehyung clings to that particular thought for the rest of the day. Spins it over in his head again and again until he is positive it's engraved in his brain.

Jeongguk and him respectively are star children of sorts.

With one of the pearls Jeongguk gave him clasped in his hand and a warm smile on his face, Taehyung falls asleep.

 

The next day, Taehyung is proud to learn that his hands are not completely useless when it comes to crafting. Sure, knitting was a dead loss. But origami, as it turns out, isn't.

He's already folded twenty-seven paper cranes, a fox, a penguin and is now working on a little star to the steady splatter of heavy raindrops spilling into the sea outside their cave. Ha. Jeongguk is not the only one with nimble fingers here. (Taehyung dutifully ignores how the mer has already folded double the amount of cranes.)

Once he is done with his three-dimensional star, he's memorised the steps well enough to shift his attention elsewhere.

Like that little fun fact he learnt yesterday.

"Did you know?," he asks, stretching his leg out to nudge Jeongguk's tail with a fuzzy sock-clad toe.

Jeongguk hums and looks up at him. Different to Taehyung, his attention shifts to the other completely, gaze intense as he looks at Taehyung through a few strands that have gotten out of the elaborate braiding.

Taehyung takes a long moment to bask in that scorching, all-asive attention like a a flower in sunlight. It's so vastly different to what he was used to before Jeongguk. The paparazzi, his fans, the haters, the many celebrities asking him for collaborations, they all had their focus on the idol identity he crafted. Always looking at him like behind a tinted glass panel. Jeongguk, however. He's seen him and only him for who he is as a person from the start. And has given him his full attention as just Kim Taehyung. It's humbling.

And also addicting.

He doubts he'll ever get tired of the razor-sharp focus the mer always has on him. As if Taehyung were his earth and Jeongguk the moon orbiting around him.

"Yes?"

Taehyung's tongue darts out to quickly wet his lips.

"Uh..."

He forgot what he was about to say. What a classic. Taehyung rubs a hand over his face and takes a moment to collect himself. Which is not easy, given he can't break their eye contact. And it's so very difficult to think of anything else than the otherworldly beauty of Jeongguk when he looks at him the way he does.

"I, uhm..."

Now what was he going to say again?

The mer's features soften when the corners of his mouth tug up into a smile. He stretches out a hand and gently flicks one of Taehyung's pearl earrings.

"Yes?" Jeongguk says again, voice even warmer this time. Like a blanket wrapping around him.

And, damn. Now Taehyung feels like he's making a big deal out of it. Just because he never has his together around Jeongguk and can't even nonchalantly drop a little piece of trivia. Seriously, he is embarrassed by his total lack of focus.

"Ah, nothing, it's just... yesterday I read something nice," he mutters. Feels his cheeks burning already.

The mer nods at him encouragingly.

Taehyung recalls the post he read last night and the giddy excitement returns. He grins.

"I too have a star in me!"

Well. It's a far stretch, but the gist remains the same, right?

Jeongguk's eyes widen.

 

Telling Jeongguk turns out to be a horrible idea.

Not because he is not understanding or anything, no, none of the sort.

Rather, it's because after he listens to Taehyung's little story, he first gives him a blinding smile, then pulls him in his lap to pepper his face with kisses, and lastly - fatally - gives Taehyung a new nickname.

"My little star," Jeongguk whispers in his ear, hands squeezing his waist.

Taehyung is an instant goner.

 

"I am so soft for pet names, it's absolutely super duper terrible," he whines when he's on the phone with Hoseok later that evening.

His friend does not react with the anticipated verbal pat on his back. Instead, he opens a questioning. 

"And you know that how?"

"Well, because Jeon-"

Taehyung bites his tongue. Wait. He is not supposed to tell anyone. As far as everybody knows, Jeongguk does not exist.

"Jeon?"

He can almost hear the raised eyebrows in that one. , , , think, quickly...

Taehyung's palms turn clammy.

"B-because jeons are the only thing my landlord can cook and uhh, he likes to call his frying pan pet names and changes them every week. And I noticed I like it!"

If stupidity could hurt he'd have a massive headache now. Taehyung wants to slap himself so bad his entire hand is itching. That might have just been the dumbest excuse in human history.

The long pause and Hoseok's dry "You do know I'm aware you're not telling me something big, right" just confirms it.

And because Taehyung does nothing half-assed, that also applies to being an idiot. Which is why his solution in that fight-and-flight kind of situation is to mimic static noise and hang up on his friend.

He immediately gets spammed by angry messages from Hoseok but decides to ignore them for the night.

Phew.

That was close.

So close it's not even funny.

He should probably not rant about what a weak man he is to his friend who is not allowed to know of Jeongguk. Or anybody else. Which, now as he thinks about it, . Because doesn't that mean he has nobody to pour out his heart about how fricken cute and y and terribly lethal in 156 different ways Jeongguk is?

Great.

Taehyung tilts his head back and groans.

Seems like he'll just perish at some point.

 

"Forget knitting and folding," Taehyung declares the next day once he arrives at the pier. It's still raining and he is both impressed and a little disappointed that Nakseongdae has not just gotten flushed into the sea at this point. Everything is mud. If he takes but one step off the path to his landlords' entrance door, he feels like he's sinking a metre into what used to be lawn. Also how the heck did he not catch a cold in that weather yet? Anyway. Back to his announcement. "We are going to make pompoms!" 

Again his bag is filled with loads of colourful yarn. And scissors and cardboard and a large piece of canvas rug backing he ordered online.

The mer gives him a mischievous little grin. "I wouldn't mind some more knitting, you know."

Taehyung rolls his eyes but still accepts the outstretched hand and lets himself get lowered into the unnaturally warm water. "You are such a show-off."

A sharp nip to the shell of his ear is the answer he gets. "Only for you."

He swats Jeongguk's chest and pouts, entire body going all tingly and cheeks heating up. "No heart-endangering lines first thing in the morning, you !"

Jeongguk frowns. "...?"

And, gosh, Taehyung can't even begin to get annoyed at him when that stupidly charming love of his life doesn't even know human swear words. 

"Just bring me to our cave, idiot," he mutters, burying his face in the mer's shoulder before it can actually catch fire.

"Yeah, about that..."

It's Jeongguk's turn to turn away sheepishly. Not that Taehyung lets him get far. When the mer looks to the left, he just lifts his head and fits it on Jeongguk's left shoulder until the tips of their noses almost touch. 

"Yes?" Taehyung grins, burning cheeks a thing of long-lost memory.

Shy Jeongguk is a rare occurrence and he is hell-bent on savouring it.

"Err..."

The mer blushes. His eyes dart somewhere next to Taehyung. The tiny stars under his eyes seem to glow faintly.

Taehyung dies a little inside, heart wilting and blooming at once. He forgets about teasing Jeongguk, too busy watching the way his eyelashes flutter softly and lose strands of black hair fall into the mer's face, tickling his cheeks until he scrunches his nose adorably.

It's only when a wave crashes against one of the wooden poles from the pier and some droplets of salt water get into Taehyung's eyes - he has nothing but his own stupidity to broadcast for not blinking in time - that they snap out of it. Taehyung shakes his head and squeezes his eyes shut against the burning salt. 

And Jeongguk finds his voice again.

"I, uhm, I may have discovered a new place," he says quietly. He's still not looking at Taehyung and his nails are clicking together, something Taehyung doesn't remember seeing the mer do before.

To say Taehyung is intrigued would be a massive understatement. He thinks he might be gaping.

"Oh. Uh, okay." He nods dumbly.

Wow. This is awkward.

Why does he feel so jittery and nervous? Almost like... hm. Would his chest strain that much when Jeongguk would propose to him?

Oh, no.

That's not-

That's not even a remotely related topic.

What the heck.

Get your together, man. Jeongguk just said he wanted to show you a new place. No biggie. Don't- don't look in his eyes now. Or at the tiara. Or his stupidly pretty tail, or-

Oh gosh.

This is all too much.

With a low groan, Taehyung buries his face in Jeongguk's shoulder.

"Just... just take me there," he pleads and feels about as weak as on the day of his first press conference. Good thing he's not standing on the pier anymore. In the water he doesn't need steady legs.

Jeongguk's gills scratch against his cheek as the mer gulps. Then his hold tightens around Taehyung's waist and he gives a little squeeze, reminding Taehyung to take a deep breath.

The mer pulls him into the steel-grey sea. For a moment Taehyung can imagine the shock from ice-cold water crashing over his head before everything turns a muddy brownish-grey. But of course the temperature shock never comes. With Jeongguk, the sea is always pleasantly warm for him.

Taehyung's throat tightens just that little bit more. His fingers dig firmer into Jeongguk's skin. The mer answers him with a slow of his thumbs up and down Taehyung's sides.

 

They have to come up for fresh air once.

When he looks around, Taehyung has not the slightest clue where they are and in which direction Nakseongdae could be. There is just lots of dark water and distant spectres that might be the coast, an island or just some ships. And of course, rain everywhere. He's starting to get real sick of the constant rain.

At the horizon, the sea is churning in a way that makes Taehyung really grateful he is with a strong and powerful merman capable of protecting him from those forces.

He thinks he gets why the sea in autumn is a dangerous thing. Maybe not to the same extend as all those coast villagers like Jimin and the others, but. He definitely wouldn't want to be there, where the clouds are almost black and water masses are rolling in a way that makes him feel tiny and helpless.

Jeongguk follows his line of sight.

"Don't worry," he mumbles. "Nothing's gonna happen to you."

Taehyung tightens his hold and nods. "I know. I'm safe with you."

The mer presses a kiss on the crown of his head. 

"That's right. I'm glad you know."

Taehyung has to squint his eyes shut for a completely different reason than a few minutes before.

 

At some point after they got swallowed by the sea once more, Taehyung's eyes get covered by a large hand.

Which is completely unnecessary because at this point he can't see a single thing underwater anyway. Everything is just... dark.

It's a cute gesture to make the whole thing more of a surprise though.

They break through the water surface and Taehyung takes the chance to gasp for breath while he feels Jeongguk shifting around him until the mer is hugging him from behind with one arm.

He lowers the other arm and nips at Taehyung's neck.

"You can look now, little star."

Taehyung tries to ignore how his mouth turns dry at that stupid nickname and focus on whatever it is Jeongguk wants to show him. Which works. Except. When he sees what looks like a lavish Roman villa hewn high up into a stone cliff, with the entire front made of pillars and curtains billowing between some of them, his mouth goes dry right again.

"Whoa!"

He turns around, attention momentarily caught by a chain of tall stones (geography lessons from ten years ago, don't fail him now, what was the term again for those things? Piles? Stacks?) towering between them and the open sea and, oh. Well. That explains why Jeongguk hasn't even tried being subtle with the place he created. No ship passing by would be able to see a thing.

And at this point Taehyung is positive to know the mer well enough for betting his left leg that there hasn't been an entire colonnade in that cliff a week before.

Just to be sure though, he checks with Jeongguk.

"You did all this?"

The mer bites his lip, shrugs, then nods.

As if it's no big deal. As if he didn't just admit to having carved an entire huge, mansion-like cave into a cliff. And where the does a merman get curtains? Taehyung doesn't even know where to start wondering.

Luckily, Jeongguk takes that decision from him - or rather, makes it even more difficult - as he summons one of his water jets to carry them up there and safely set them down in what definitely reminds of an ancient textbook lodging. Jeongguk has finished shifting into his humane form before the water is even done seeping out of Taehyung's clothes and bag. Which allows Taehyung to stare at the mer's feet padding over a big Persian rug (one of the things that make the inside look less Roman-style) and curling his toes into the fluffy material.

Now Taehyung is no longer busy staring at the colonnade. He is staring at everything!

At the sheer curtains moving with the sea breeze between the pillars that, upon closer inspection, don't look very Roman or Greek at all. But instead a lot more Jeongguk with how they are twisted around their own cores like entwined ropes and capitals similar to stone-turned cresting waves.

The floor is even and smooth, like polished marble, with shallow steps that lead up to a pedestral for what seems to be a seating area. Rugs of various size and pattern are randomly covering the floor in a way that makes Taehyung smile as he pictures Jeongguk all alone up here, trying to figure out where humans usually put these things and which would be the strategically best places. One of the rugs that was clearly initially meant for laying on the ground is covering what seems to be an archway to another room, the metal bar holding it up bowing under its weight.

 Above the colonnade runs a trim of more or less rectangular holes along the entire wall, each hole filled with colourful shards of glass, creating small makeshift stained-glass windows. If sunlight falls through them, it must look magnificent, the whole room - or hall, with that high ceiling and the size and all - speckled with bright dots and patches of blue, yellow, orange and green.

They'd probably light up the ceiling too, together with those long panels of blue fabric fastened to it. Taehyung has trouble counting how many of them there are, with how slightly different the hues of blue are and how the panels overlap where they are fastened to the ceiling every few metres, sagging in elegant sweeps in-between each point of contact with the stone. Like shallow ocean waves seen from beneath. The blue fabric is covering up most of the ceiling but where Taehyung can see bare stone, it looks just as impeccable as the floor.

He barely notes how Jeongguk gingerly takes the bag off his shoulders and carries it over to the seating area. He is still too busy staring at the splendour of everything. Because as if it weren't enough with the pillars and ceiling and side walls covered in a funny mixture of algae and moss, the large wall across from the colonnade is made of one giant wave carving. His jaw drops. One would expect a sculpture like that in a museum, given the size, delicacy and astounding craftsmanship that's gone into making it.

How the is Jeongguk real? How can he come up with those things from scratch and make them within days?

Taehyung has so many questions.

The wind picks up and sways the fabric on the ceiling, setting those textile waves alive. When Taehyung looks back at the huge- wave carving, he thinks it is moving, too.

With a choked sound, he sits down on his bum.

He needs time to process.

Jeongguk, however, misunderstands completely.

"Tae? Are you alright, do you want to sit down and rest? Is everything okay," the mer asks as he bounds over with worry written all over his face.

"I, uh, no, yeah." Taehyung pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. He chuckles. "It's just. You are amazing."

Jeongguk is back to blushing beautifully and, oh. Taehyung could die on the spot happily to a sight like that, he thinks.

"So... you like it?"

Taehyung splutters.

"That's a bit of an understatement, aish!"

 

Taehyung spends half an hour inspecting the place and discovering more and more endearing details.

For whatever reason, Jeongguk seems to know what a chimney is and has built one on top of a fireplace that, from the look of it, could even function.

...If there were wood here to burn, that is.

He also finds several gouges in the floor and walls that are filled with some kind of oily substance. When he dips his finger into it, Jeongguk skirts over to him until he stands right behind him and perches his chin on Taehyung's shoulder.

"I, uh, figured we'd need artifical light at some point, so, yeah..."

Taehyung coos. He lifts his clean hand to blindly pat the mer's head somewhere behind the crown.

"So that's actual oil then?"

Jeongguk nods. Rubs their cheeks together with the movement, then turns his head to give a peck to Taehyung's cheekbone. "Yeah. It's olive oil. Will it work?"

"Sure." Taehyung shrugs. "Oil is oil. We just need a helluva lot of wicks, probably. Good thing I just so happen to have packed tons of wool and yarn!"

With that, he concludes his sightseeing tour - for now - and pads over to where Jeongguk left his bag. He gets out two balls of thick yarn (which he only brought to be thorough but was in doubt whether they could use it for today's project anyway) and hands one over to the mer, followed by a set of scissors. Does he even need scissors, with his sharp nails and all? Is it mean of him to think that way? Hm.

"Okay, so. We'll need to cut little strings off that are long enough to peek out of the oil when we put them in," he explains and rolls off a bit from his ball to show Jeongguk how long it should be. "We'll also need to fasten them to the ground of those gouges and make them stay upright so they get the chance to stay upright like proper wicks and don't just flop down into the oil, cuz that'll probably bring a whole lot of nothing."

Jeongguk keeps nodding along like a dutiful student, eyes wide and determined. Which is just plain cute.

Taehyung takes a moment to smile, then continues his Oil lamp DIY crash course. Good thing he watches the most random stuff on Youtube whenever he is in a creative low. From anime weapon reforges by professional blacksmiths to lock picking contests to shark fin soup documentaries to Marvel film reviews to, well, tutorials on anything that he could ever need in some kind of survival scenarios. (You can't be too careful of sasaeng fans and criminals. Maybe at some point he'll get kidnapped and manages to run away but has to spend a night in a forest. Who knows?)

They get to work and put in wicks everywhere -and maybe end up a bit too enthusiastic because they keep going until both yarn balls are gone.

Then, when they turn to each other victoriously, something dawns on Taehyung.

"Wait a second." He slowly turns around himself to look at all those wicks everywhere. "How are we supposed to light the wicks?"

"Well..." Jeongguk crouches down to play with one of the wicks until he pulls it out and holds it up, then sheepishly puts it back as if nothing happened. "Can't you just light it?"

"I can't shoot lasers out of my fingers, babe," Taehyung deadpans. Entertains the thought for a moment and thinks that yes, it would be real cool if he could do that, actually.

The mer pouts. "I know. But don't you humans need fire all the time? Shouldn't you have some fire-making thing with you wherever you go, then?"

Taehyung shakes his head and smiles. That guy is so darn innocent.

"Mosts of the stuff nowadays uses electricity and not real fire. People only carry around a lighter when they smoke - which I don't. And before you ask, smoking is really bad for you. So don't ever try."

"I wouldn't even know how."

"Good."

That still doesn't solve their problem. Unless Taehyung miraculously finds some flint stones here and figures out how to use them, they'll have to go without their army of candles today. He'll have to make sure to buy a couple lighters from Yoongi's store tomorrow.

Seems they'll have to utilise the pure excuse of today's daylight to its full extend and then just... chill in the dark. Or something.

...Taehyung secretly hopes the sky will clear in the evening and have moonlight filter into the cave-mansion (mansion cave? Cave hall? Cliff villa retreat thingy? Colonnade room? Sea temple makeshift living room? Honestly, he has no idea how to call it) so Jeongguk becomes all night triumphant sparkly again. That would be so darn awesome.

For now however, they'll concentrate on making The Best Pompom Rug. Which is a little ironic, seeing how this superior cave (maybe he'll go with that as name for now) already has rugs. But he didn't know that when he made the plan for today. And none of those other rugs is self-made by them. So there is that.

"Okay," Taehyung says, completely dismissing the entire 'we need fire but don't have any' matter for now. "I'll show you how to make the perfect pompom, now."

With an excited little "Alright", Jeongguk follows him to the seating area.

Taehyung plops down onto what seems to be a couch - and curses.

"What the f- what's this?! That thing is hard as !"

"Uh, I thought, for sitting?"

Taehyung gets off the poor excuse of a couch, crouches down to lift the fabric covering it where it pools on the ground - and comes face-to-face with solid stone.

"What-"

He stares. And then stares some more.

And then, slowly but surely, begins to laugh. A little chuckle that turns into loud, boisterous full-belly laughter until he's got tears pricking at the corner of his eyes.

"Jeonggukkie, that's... that's really cute of you... but," he wheezes out, still laughing, "but I'm afraid that's not how furniture works."

Not that he knows how to make a proper couch. But shaping some stone, throwing a thin layer of fabric over it and calling it a day sure ain't it.

Jeongguk, upon hearing that, immediately looks miserable. Which is understandable. After all he probably put lots of thought and effort into that 'couch'. And Taehyung just laughed at it.

He properly sits down on the floor and gestures for the mer to join him, then takes Jeongguk's hands in his and begins rubbing soothing circles into them.

"I'm sorry," he says with low voice. Shifts a bit forward until he can bump his forehead against the mer's. "I didn't mean to laugh. You really did a great job, considering you've never seen a couch in your life. And I know you worked super hard on all this. Maybe spent the entire last few nights here. Which, actually-" Taehyung squints at him- "now that I think about it, did you even sleep?"

Jeongguk looks away. His hands stay securely in Taehyung's grasp though. 

"...I did sleep, yes."

"How much?"

"I closed my eyes and opened them at a later point."

Taehyung whacks him on the arm. "Jeongguk! You need to sleep!"

The mer arches an eyebrow and finally locks eyes with him again. "I... don't, though?"

"What-"

He misheard that. Taehyung absolutely misheard that. That did not just happen.

"I'll be fine without a couple night of sleep, if I have to. Merfolk can sleep, but doesn't necessarily needs to, in order to survive. Just like eating."

Okay, he didn't mishear. 

It's just... just another crazy aspect about Jeongguk he didn't know.

He's cool. Yeah. He knows Jeongguk is nothing like Taehyung, and full of mysteries and wonders. To now discover that he doesn't have to fulfil the most basic human needs to stay alive is no biggie. Taehyung is absolutely chill with that.

"You are so fricken cool!"

Yeah, no, he is not chill at all.

 

"Don't worry," Taehyung says while working on his fourteenth pompom - a big, purple one - and glancing at Jeongguk to see if he's doing alright. They have moved one of the Persian rugs right in front of the couch to sit on and are using the stone couch as back rest now. "I'll buy some thick cushions we can put on the couch. It'll be fine."

Then he eyes Jeongguk, how he is tightly wrapped in one of the blankets Taehyung always brings, but stark- beneath.

"And I'll bring clothes for you, too."

He nods to himself and adds 'packing some clothes' on his mental to-do list.

 

They end up going a bit overboard - again - and make way too many pompoms. When Taehyung assembles all the colourful little fluff balls on the rug backing it becomes apparent they will never fit all onto it.

And because growing up and becoming a responsible adult really is just a social construct, the best thing they can think of to do with the spare pompoms is, throw them at each other.

Almighty entity and wonder-turned-reality Jeongguk is the first one to break out into contagious giggles. Taehyung follows suit not long after, and soon enough they are running around the room, throwing pompoms and tickle-attacking each other, delightful shrieks filling the silence.

They go down together on a rug placed right in front of the colonnade. Taehyung ends up sprawled half over a burrito-wrapped Jeongguk, the two of them gasping for breath and still shaking with faint laughter.

One of the curtains swishes over them and sweeps against Taehyung's nape. If he'd turn his head a bit, he could look down the ledge and see the vortexes sloshing between their cliff and the stacks obscuring them from sight. He doesn't. Why should he, when the sight right in front of him is so exquisite?

The red cuddly blanket has wrapped around Jeongguk's torso and one of his shoulders several times in a weird mixture of an ancient toga, nowadays' runway couture and the iconic 'I failed to get out of bed' look. He's just. Bundled up around the middle real well, like a big, beefy fluff ball with four limbs and head poking out. The bump of the blanket wrapped around Jeongguk makes it a bit uncomfortable for Taehyung to lay on top of him, but he's not complaining. Not when the mer sees it as reason enough to sling both arms around him and pull him closer against all that cushion.

And. Jeongguk's entire face is alight with joy and giddiness, flush sitting high on his cheeks, eyes crinkling and the stars etched into his skin shrinking into tiny dots from the force of his bright smile.

It's the most beautiful view.

Taehyung is so very, very weak for it.

That's why he turns his back to the sea with no remorse whatsoever and instead bends down to pepper the mer's face with kisses. Have those adorable giggles keep coming. They die down eventually, into something more muted and lazy, when one of Jeongguk's hands slides up to grip Taehyung's jaw and capture his lips, turning it into a proper kiss. Taehyung is all too happy to sink into that all-encompassing heat and let go of everything.

They indulge into each other for as long as their lungs allow it and then some more, until they are breathless yet again. 

The curtain keeps brushing over them while daylight wanes. It's not before long that everything turns into grey spectres around them and Jeongguk too slowly gets obscured from Taehyung's sight.

It doesn't keep him from looking where he knows is the mer's face and leaning down to chase after his mouth.

After one more heated kiss that has Taehyung silently thanking himself for wearing a loose-fit sweater today instead of something tight where he'd melted by now, he props his chin up on his hand and gazes down at the faint glimmer that gives away Jeongguk's eyes.

"You are staring, love," Jeongguk mumbles and nips at his side.

Taehyung blushes fifty shades of pink.

"W-well, that's because I can!"

"Yeah?"

He hears, rather than sees the smile in that single word. It makes his chest tingle.

"Yeah." Taehyung nods, and manages to slip off his own grasp, chin thumping on the mer's sturdy chest before he can catch himself. The mer reaches out and slides a hand under Taehyung's head to gently lift it back up to where his own hand is still hovering in the air. A thumb, followed by a sharp nail, slowly over his bottom lip. Taehyung's breath hitches.

"Also! Don't you know? You are supposed to appreciate beautiful and attractive things. And you, Sir," Taehyung pokes the mer's chest, "you are very attractive. Therefore I will stare at you."

Jeongguk hums under him. "Does that mean I am allowed to stare at you however long I want too, then?"

Taehyung splutters. "It's not- it's not like you're not doing that already!"

"Hm, true."

"...Idiot."

The mer laughs, entire body moving along and shaking Taehyung. When he speaks next, his voice is impossibly soft. Almost as soft as the faint kiss he brands Taehyung with, right atop of his forehead. 

"Your idiot."

Taehyung melts. 

"My idiot," he repeats, then leans down for yet another kiss. Lifts a hand to bury it in Jeongguk's hair and trace over the crown holding on for dear life at this point. He'll have to redo the braids soon if he doesn't want Jeongguk to lose it.

 

The last bit of daylight vanishes behind the steel-grey clouds and for a while they just lay together in complete darkness. Talk about this and that.

Like, why Jeongguk owns lots of olive oil, for example.

"In case we need it."

 "Need it? But I'm a really bad cook, Gguk."

"Huh?"

"What?"

The misunderstanding gets cleared up eventually, which then leads to Jeongguk asking Taehyung what his favourite positions are, and Taehyung imploding at least thrice within twenty minutes.

He has to admit that it's cute, though. The way Jeongguk goes out of his way to do research on the topic and even asks him things with actual interest in the answers instead of assuming to know what's best. They end up having an in-depth discussion about in general, the gender differences and all kind of pleasurable things that don't involve going all the way. Jeongguk makes a mental list of it which he then asks Taehyung from top to bottom, with all the things Taehyung does and does not like, sometimes even double-checking just to be sure.

When Taehyung asks him if he would like to try out something now, the mer declines.

"I just wanted to talk to you about it first. So I don't make any mistakes. Also from what I gathered it's important to happen naturally, right?"

"Yeah," Taehyung sighs and snuggles into Jeongguk's embrace, blindly nosing up the mer's neck until he reaches thick long hair and almost has to sneeze from how it tickles.

They also talk about how Jeongguk made this entire place come to be. The mer traces patterns and swirls up Taehyung's arm as he explains how he formed the pillars. Tries to mimic the process somehow. It, too, tickles.

...It also turns him on a little.

At some point they run out of words and Taehyung, after learning that Jeongguk's sight in the dark is much better than his, asks the mer to get him the phone so he can turn on some calm background music while they sit at the ledge next to each other with dangling legs and listen to the sea far below.

The rain has stopped somewhen around noon.

And then, like a hesitant child peeking around the corner, the clouds part and slowly give way to a bright moon. 

First it is no more than a faintly glowing cloud, but once the heavy blanket decides to open up at long last, silver light bleeds into the night sky and drips onto the sea in a murky reflection. Bringing along myriads of stars when finally, finally a strong wind high up in the skies blows away all those clouds.

Taehyung is so preoccupied staring at the clear sky for the first time in what feels like weeks that at first he forgets to look at Jeongguk.

Once he does, however.

Once he does, it's the most splendid sight. Of course. Jeongguk is as much a child of the day as he is one of the night. Gorgeous without fail and beyond doubt.

"Look at you," he mutters with reverence and cups Jeongguk's glowing face with one hand. Caresses the now twinkling stars under his eyes and watches the silver seep into his irises. "They are calling you again."

The mer gives him a soft smile that has Taehyung's breath hitch in his throat. He looks like a lunar God, with how his entire body is pulsing with the faint glow of moonlight and the veil sweeps over his bare legs that now take on a hue of blueish green, as if his scales are lingering just under the surface and waiting to break through skin. The diamonds and sapphires of his tiara sparkle amidst the lush raven hair.

A gentle and ethereal entity that has descended from the Heavens. 

"They can call all they want. I have no ambitions to join them up there."

Taehyung bites his lip and looks down to where scales are pulsing like colourful shadows under Jeongguk's skin. Their shapes become more clear by the minute. He cautiously traces one of them under the mer's knee.

"Does it hurt? That you are not in your real form right now?" 

If he lays his palm flat on Jeongguk's leg, he can feel it throb faintly.

Jeongguk takes his hand and guides it up to press a kiss on each single knuckle. "No. What would hurt were if I'd one day be unable to see you any longer. This here is nothing compared to that fear, little star."

Taehyung's heart flutters against his ribcage like a wild bird. He swallows.

"You are so very bad for my heart, you terrible sweet-talker."

The mer chuckles into Taehyung's palm and presses another kiss there. "You make me that way."

"I don't know if that makes things better or worse."

The corners of Jeongguk's eyes crinkle as he smiles even broader and kisses the little pout right off Taehyung's mouth.

"...Would you prefer to change back though?"

Jeongguk arches an eyebrow at him. Taehyung revels in the fact that he can see it, many thanks to the night sky. Watching the mer raise a single eyebrow is a fine kink of its own he wishes to never miss out on.

"I'm pretty much a fish out of water up here, Tae."

"Oh. Right." Taehyung nods. "That doesn't sound comfortable."

He keeps staring at Jeongguk and once more silently bemoans the fact that he cannot paint to save his life. Jeongguk at night deserves to be captured - not only with a few snaps from his smartphone, but properly.

For now he'll just have to keep looking and try to soak it all up. From the apex of the glittering cresting wave in the tiara's centre to the raven hair framing his face with a few loose curls. The mutedly glowing skin, the ring of silver now embedded in his irises and the tattooed stars reflecting their shine. The pulsating pink of his gills, the twinkling silver chains peeking out of the blanket where they are fastened to that broad necklace, and his legs that seem to have scales breathing under their surface. The way he slowly curls his toes the longer Taehyung stares but as always lets him.

Taehyung tilts his head.

"You can't visit someone in their dreams by any chance?"

Jeongguk's raised eyebrow stays where it is. "And how would I do that?"

Taehyung shrugs. "Just... curious."

He wants to write a song about Jeongguk basket in starlight. Something with moonlight sonata character. Something soft, ethereal and spherical, that sounds both clear and muted at once. He'll need at least five drafts before he can get to work properly. Catching the essence of nighttime Jeongguk won't be an easy feat.

At some point his hand started tracing random patterns on Jeongguk's calves. He watches, no less fascinated than before, how the scales seem to retreat from his touch just to get back into place once his fingers moved on. 

The fish in Jeongguk really must be screaming to get out.

With a wistful sigh, Taehyung tears his eyes away at last. It must be well past ten now. Jimin is going to shred him in the air for being so late. And don't they say you should quit when you're still having fun? So maybe he should just do the both of them a favour.

"You know I don't want to say this but I should probably go back."

The warm and understanding smile Jeongguk gives him is more than enough to keep the dread of parting ways and missing out on all those visuals at bay.

"Alright," the mer says. Then pulls Taehyung in for a languid kiss. 

Taehyung can't even begin to feel mad when he loves kissing Jeongguk so damn much. And so his voice is missing any bite when he complains that they're not going to get anywhere like this.

"Just one more," Jeongguk mutters.

And who is Taehyung to deny him anything?

 

"Where have you been?!"

Taehyung flinches.

Two things.

One, the high pitch and amount of pent-up anger Jimin shrieks those words with throws him right back into that one scene from Harry Potter where Mrs. Weasley carpets her sons for rescuing poor Harry. For a moment Taehyung feels ready to follow up with the script dialogue for the next ten minutes of screen time.

And two, while he is still having that thought, his body is busy processing that he got shot. With a ping-pong ball. Because for whatever reason, Jimin has been waiting with a ping-pong rack and ball in the living room, just to cleanly attack Taehyung with a killer serve the moment he enters the house and walks by. And very effectively hit his mark.

Taehyung's side throbs in confusion as it can't quite decide yet whether it's hurt or not. Taehyung looks down at it and gives it a few more seconds to before the pain belatedly registers.

"Ow!"

The armchair next to Jimin snorts.

"Wow. That was late," Yoongi drawls where he's completely obscured from view.

Taehyung squints at him. Thanks for nothing.

Jimin already has another ball in his hand and looks about ready to explode.

"You are late for DINNER!"

Again, the verbal attack immobilises Taehyung. This time he gets hit on his belly.

"Yah!"

"Don't 'yah' me!" The fisherman picks up a third ball. "Do you know how long I've been cooking that stew today? And then you don't show up-"

Taehyung evades that one-

"and don't show up-"

He jumps away from the fourth ball and almost falls over his own limbs when he lands-

"and don't show up!"

The last ball Jimin hits with so much force it flies straight up to the ceiling, shoots back down and goes haywire for a few seconds before Taehyung catches it mid-air.

Jimin's chest is heaving as he keeps glaring daggers at Taehyung. Yoongi leans forward enough to give him a loud and clear 'You done ed up' look.

"Uh... I'm sorry?"

Jimin explodes.

"You could at least have called, you daft, gormless !"

"...Lawsuits," Yoongi grunts from his hiding place.

Jimin's eyes go wide as saucers. With that one word, he snaps out of it, mouth slowly falling open as he stares at Taehyung, then at the bat in his hand. 

"Oh . Oh , you're right! He's an idol. I hurt a super rich and famous celebrity. I'm gonna go to jail! , I'm so sorry!"

In the next moment he's running towards Taehyung and throwing himself at him to very violently beg for forgiveness.

Taehyung awkwardly pats his back and tells him it's okay.

As if he'd sue his landlord for being worried and maybe only a little too much of a mother hen. Whatever.

The glance he catches from Yoongi tells him that he really doesn't want to get Jimin in trouble, ever. Smart decisions have been made this evening.

"Hey, is there anything left from your stew by any chance? I'm absolutely famished."

Not a lie. He sometimes forgets to eat properly when he is with Jeongguk because he is too busy with all of his... Jeongguk-ishness.

"Yes, yes of course!" 

Jimin tugs him into the kitchen and all but shoves him down one of the chairs, then hands him a huge bowl of still warm stew. And man, is it tasty.

Once he has cleared the first one and waits for Jimin to refill it, Taehyung speaks up again.

"You do know I can't call you, right?"

Jimin pulls the bowl away before Taehyung can grasp it, expression turning stormy.

"Why the not-"

"You never gave me your number. I needed to send you all the paperwork about becoming your lodger and stuff per actual mail cuz I only know your address, remember?"

"...Oh."

This time when Taehyung makes grabby hands, Jimin hands him the bowl with a sheepish smile.

"Right. My bad."

 

Funnily enough they don't end up exchanging numbers afterwards. Taehyung doesn't know whether he finds it funny or dumb once he realises it an hour later, alone in his room.

Whatever. He's a grown man. He'll just ask for Jimin's contact... tomorrow. Or something.