flame.

taehyung left the haze of the city and headed back to his own little town. he took his time getting home, taking in the scenery and the smell of rain on the pavement. taehyung thought it was too cold for rain, that it should be snowing instead, but he wasn't exactly a weather man. he wasn't exactly anything.

taehyung stared at the ground as he walked. a thin, thin, thin layer of water splashed beneath his feet. it was kind of amusing to watch, and taehyung didn't know why until a fly buzzed by his ear. "a little bug. and little bugs are fun to crush." sadism. the world is made up of sadism. taehyung stopped walking for a moment. he closed his eyes and fought the thoughts that were trying to break into the walls around his mind.

when taehyung opened his eyes, he realized he hadn't actually stopped. he was standing a few feet away from his house, just across the street from it. but he couldn't see his house. the haze was back, just as it had been when he was with namjoon a mere twenty minutes ago. but this haze was a dark, dark, dark grey, not a light grey-white color. when taehyung began to choke, he realized it wasn't haze at all. it was smoke. black smoke. taehyung was breathing it in.

taehyung panicked. not because he was suffocated, not even because he couldn't see, but because he knew where the smoke was coming from before he even saw the source. he blindly ran across the street. the smoke was thick, and everything he would be able to see was blurry thanks to the tears in his eyes. but he didn't stop running.

"jungkook!" taehyung called, finally calling his someone by his name like a normal person. there was a fire truck outside of his house, and there were a few firemen hosing it down. it didn't seem like the whole thing was on fire, just a couple of rooms on the first floor. taehyung's heart jumped. he spun around, around, around, searching, searching, searching. His heart pounded, desperate, desperate, desperate. where was his someone? where was his jungkook?

"jungkook!" taehyung called. his blurry vision still didn't allow him to see very far, so he didn't know if jungkook was three feet away, eight yards away, or still burning inside the house. he began to run blindly again, bumping into various people. he caught glimpses of their faces; they weren't recognisable.

his someone was nowhere to be found.

"jungkook!" taehyung screamed, panicked. his whole world was crashing around his aching body. his whole world was probably stuck, burning, inside of that house. his whole world. taehyung looked around again. his whole world. please, please, please.

"excuse me," taehyung croaked, tapping on the shoulder of a fire-fighter. he wasn't busy, just standing around and watching- probably waiting. the man turned to him. he looked kind enough to ask. "have you... did anyone come out of the house? did they find anyone in there?"

"no, sir, we're still looking. are you the owner of this house?" the man asked, his voice plain- void of emotion. taehyung was sure he looked the same way beside the tears in his eyes.. he was used to pulling a straight face when he was panicking.

"yes." taehyung answered, wiping tears from his eyes. they burned, most likely because of all the smoke he kept blinking against. the tears that kept coming out involuntarily weren't helping all that much, either.

"and I assume you have a relative in this house? a loved one?" the questions of the man reminded taehyung of an interviewer. he didn't have time for interviews, but he needed to know where his someone was, so he nodded.

"male or female?"

taehyung could have screamed. did it ing matter? the type of s they had did not prevent them from burning to death. taehyung fought the urge to say this and said, "male."

"just one?"

wouldn't I have said otherwise by now, er? "just one."

"can you describe to me what he looks like?" the man asked. okay. this was a good question.

"he's beautiful." taehyung said before he could stop himself. he cleared his throat. "um. he's got black hair. and bangs. you can't see his eyebrows. his face is kind of small. his teeth are... a little crooked? the front two stick out a bit more than the others. his nose is a little bit big. he's about my height. have you-you seen him?"

"no, sir, I'm sorry. but I also haven't been looking." the man said. he blinked a few times, the same way many did when they were confused or taking in too much information at once. "is this person your brother? does he look like you?"

"no, he's my someone." taehyung needed to stop talking about his some- jungkook like that. he cleared his throat. "sorry. he's my... his name is jungkook. if you see him, please tell me. m-my name is taehyung."

"of course." the man said, and taehyung thought this was a good time for him to start looking for jungkook again. he nodded to the man, bowed, and took off again, searching for his someone. glass crunched under his feet from what taehyung could only assume was the broken window on the second floor of his house. taehyung blinked through tears and smoke, looking, looking, searching.

"jungkook!" taehyung called, spinning around a few times. where was he? where, where, where? there!

taehyung spotted jungkook walking down the dirt path leading away from the back of the house. he was holding onto his side; taehyung wondered if he was wounded. their cat was following him, keeping close to his feet. she didn't look hurt, but the tip of her tail looked slightly burned.

"jungkook!" taehyung half-sobbed, half-shouted, bolting forward. a few people tried to grab him, yelling for him to get away from the house, but taehyung dodged their hands and their words. he didn't care about the fire or getting hurt, he cared about his someone.

"jungkook!" taehyung slammed into him, but neither of them fell over. he locked the boy in a tight hug; one arm lay across his shoulders, his hand on the back of jungkook's head, the other around his waist. jungkook immediately curled into taehyung, his arms trapped between their bodies. taehyung's shoulder soaked with water that he thought was coming from the sky, but it was jungkook. he was crying.

"thank god, thank god, thank god." taehyung whispered into jungkook's ear before he thought to asked what was wrong, if he was hurt. his own tears fell into jungkook's hair. "jungkook, what's wrong? are you okay?"

"just... shocked." jungkook answered shortly, coughing once, twice, thrice. he took a shaky breath after that, and more tears slipping out of his eyes. "I didn't even hear them. they just came in. and they kept hitting me-"

taehyung pulled jungkook off of his shoulders, praying he was wrong, his thoughts were wrong. but they weren't. jungkook had plenty of bruises- his neck, his collar bones, his jaw. one of his eyes was swollen, and the other had a red ring around it. his bottom lip was bleeding at the corner.

"tell me what happened. everything. who hurt you?" taehyung held jungkook's face gently, looking deep into his eyes. he was sure he was still pulling a straight face; he never cracked under pressure. but his eyes told a different story. they always told jungkook a different story.

"I don't know. they just came in." jungkook said briefly. taehyung could tell he was leaving parts out, that he didn't want to talk about it, and he really didn't want to push jungkook right then. but he still had one more question to ask; he had to ask.

"what did they do?" taehyung felt like the devil when a few more tears fell from jungkook's eyes.

"they just kept asking questions, but they didn't let me answer." jungkook choked on a sob. taehyung pat his back, told him to let it out. jungkook just kept talking. "they set the kitchen on fire. they tied me to the counter before they left, but I got out."

taehyung thanked god he'd taught jungkook how to get out of knots.

"do you need to go to the hospital?" taehyung continued to fret. he wiped blood off of jungkook's bottom lip. he lifted up the boy's shirt to see why he was holding his side. there was blood pouring out of his hip, down his thigh, soaking into his pants. taehyung cursed himself for paying more attention to being relieved than jungkook himself.

"m-maybe?" jungkook said; it sounded like a question. "they didn't stab me, they just cut me. I think it-it'll be okay."

"okay." taehyung whispered. he pulled jungkook back into a hug, holding him tight. he needed to get jungkook medical attention, whether or not he actually needed it. the cuts could get infected. he could be sick now; he was outside without a jacket of shoes.

"are-" taehyung went to say, but his eyes landed upon someone in their bushes. the person was watching them through binoculars. taehyung could see the pistol in his hand, could see the threat in his eyes. taehyung gulped.

"kookie, we need to get out of here." taehyung said. he took off his jacket and put it on jungkook, because it was freezing cold out there and he didn't want jungkook to catch hypothermia or frost bite or something like that. he pulled the boy up; jungkook wrapped his legs around taehyung's waist.

"why?" jungkook asked, looking back at the house. "they've almost gotten the fire out."

"we just need to go, okay?" taehyung said. he turned his back to the man with the pistol and began to walk, turning around to call for their cat. jay walked beside him, following his feet. she stayed silent as she walked beside them.

"keep your head down." taehyung said, tucking jungkook's head into his shoulder. he made sure none of jungkook was exposed behind him other than his legs and arms; a gun shot there would only hurt him, not kill him. he could get those treated. he kept his hand on the back of jungkook's head and his arm crossed over his back just in case they were attacked from the front. taehyung prayed they weren't attacked at all.

"where are we going to go, taehyung?" jungkook asked, shifting slightly. taehyung glanced down at him; jungkook was looking up at him now. taehyung was about to say he didn't know but he'd figure it out when he remembered the envelope that he'd shoved into his back pocket right after his encounter with namjoon. an idea popped into his head.

"we're gonna get your cuts fixed up." taehyung said. jungkook didn't say anything. their cat meowed, and taehyung looked down at her. he rolled his eyes; his cat always made random noises for seemingly no reason at all.

"we'll be there soon." taehyung said for no particular reason. jungkook nodded against his shoulder. taehyung kissed him on the forehead and walked a little bit faster, praying, praying, praying that nobody would hurt his someone.