look.

"it'll be fine." taehyung said. his hand was clutching jungkook's tightly, and together, they were shaking. taehyung thought he might have been shaking a lot more than jungkook, but he didn't care; he couldn't help it. he was ing terrified.

"you'll be with me and yoongi." taehyung said. he folded his palm across jungkook's leg. "as long as you stay really close to me, everything's gonna be okay. I won't let you get hurt. me and yoongi won't let anything happen to you."

"hyung, I'm not a child." jungkook whispered, but he didn't sound too convincing. taehyung didn't respond, just kissed his cheek instead. and then he closed his eyes and leaned his head against jungkook's forehead, because he was so scared he thought he was going to pass out.

"namjoon and hoseok are out first line." seokjin began announcing. he was shuffling through a cabinet in the van, most likely looking for extra bullets and the backpacks they always kept in there. "they'll call in when the first floor is clear. then jungkook, yoongi, and taehyung will go in while hoseok and namjoon make their way up to the second floor. taehyung, yoongi, and jungkook will find all the goodies on the first floor and follow hoseok and namjoon up to the second. me and jimin will be the last ones in; we'll head straight up to the fourth. by then, hoseok and namjoon should already be looking on the third, and yoongi taehyung and junkook should be heading up. everyone got that?"

there was a chorus of various "yeah"'s from the thiefs. taehyung was the only one who didn't say anything, too busy fixing up jungkook's clothes with trembling hands to respond.

"got it, taehyung?" seokjin asked, to which taehyung just nodded, because he didn't think his voice would be steady enough to answer with words. jungkook- the boy was always so good at reading taehyung- leaned in slightly and kissed taehyung on the tip of his nose, so soft, so innocent, and taehyung wanted to cry, because what if he lost that? what if that was the closest kiss to his lips that he got from jungkook because he loses the boy in that building?

"you're panicking." yoongi said, suddenly right next to jungkook and taehyung. taehyung nodded. there was no use denying it. yoongi tugged on taehyung's sleeve, and taehyung pecked jungkook's cheek temporarily goodbye.

"look at him." yoongi whispered once they were a good distance away from jungkook. jungkook was curled up, staring at the floor, glancing at namjoon every once in a while. yoongi continued, "jungkook isn't a child; he told you that. he may not be able to defend himself like we can defend ourselves, but that's why we're there; we're going to protect him. he's going to be okay."

"it's really hard to believe that when seokjin says it, too." taehyung said. "seokjin always tells lies."

"had seokjin said it was going to be okay?" yoongi asked, but he didn't let taehyung answer. "no, he has not. all he's done so far is explain our mission and crawl up my bad mood tube."

"bad mood tube." taehyung laughed, relieving some of the pressure in his chest. yoongi smiled a little bit, but he didn't let it turn into sound.

"just keep your eyes on jungkook in there, okay?" yoongi asked, and taehyung nodded.

and then they were in the building.