Chapter Text
It’s night when they return to the estate and Yoongi intends to run straight inside to find a hiding place because he’d melt into the ground in shame if Namjoon pointed out the love bites on his neck.
They hadn’t gone all the way—the bedroom they borrowed didn’t offer anything that could aid two men in their coupling and when a set of screaming parents interrupted them half-naked, Yoongi definitely didn’t feel like doing it anymore. Even more so when Jeongguk sliced their heads clean off.
“Let’s wait then, until I have my real body back,” Jeongguk had said. A promise.
Yoongi can’t stop thinking about it.
“You’re back,” Namjoon calls—Yoongi hadn’t seen him there, but he’s waiting right outside the entrance. He tries to pull the collar of his shirt higher.
“We are. Why are you out here? Got exciting news?” Jeongguk smiles.
“Something like that,” Namjoon responds. “There’s a guest.”
“A guest,” Jeongguk repeats. He lifts a brow, clearly having not expected anyone to come to his house. Yoongi looks between him and Namjoon in confusion, but the latter makes no move to explain. He lets Jeongguk take the lead, and so the both of them follow behind.
As they walk, Namjoon looks at him. Yoongi avoids his eyes.
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised...” the older mutters, pushes his glasses up, and looks back ahead. Yoongi flushes but doesn’t ask what he means by that. This is embarrassing, he wishes he could disappear.
Arriving inside the main house, they come upon a stranger. A stranger to Yoongi at least. He looks completely out of place in this Joseon-style house, sporting a biker ensemble and vibrant pink hair. In comparison to Namjoon’s sophisticated look and Jeongguk’s, well, somewhat outdated style, the man before them doesn’t look like someone who’d be familiar with them.
And yet his plush lips spread into a wide grin when he spots the master of the house.
“Jeonggukie!” he squeals, rushing at the man in question. He takes him into his arms and engulfs him in a bone-crushing hug. “I can’t believe the rumors were true! You’re back!”
“Jimin,” Jeongguk responds. “You’re alive.”
The pink-haired man, Jimin, pulls back.
“Of course I am. What do you take me for?” he swats Jeongguk’s arm playfully. “You think I’d die that easily? Heh, no offense.”
“None taken.” Jeongguk hums. Jimin looks past him then, and his eyes fall on Yoongi.
“You’re a new face. I don’t remember you,” he says, bringing a hand to his chin as he pretends to think real hard. Jimin steps around Jeongguk and then comes closer to Yoongi, studying his face. Yoongi shrinks a little.
Who’s this Jimin? Stupid question, obviously another sorcerer from the past, but who is he to Jeongguk? Suddenly Yoongi feels green with jealousy. With how familiar they were acting before, could it be...?
Jeongguk looks at him and gives him a smirk.
That damn bastard. Yoongi can’t believe he fell for his stupid talks about being special.
“Min Yoongi,” Yoongi introduces himself as he realizes that Jimin is still all up in his face and waiting for an answer.
“Min Yoongi?” he repeats.
“Yes,” Namjoon cuts in. “Hyemyeong Min.”
“I see,” Jimin hums. For a moment a dangerous look passes over his face, but it’s gone so soon, Yoongi wonders if he imagined it. The pink-haired man smiles brightly at him and takes his hand to shake it.
“Nice to meet you! I’m Park Jimin, a friend of Jeongguk!”
Yoongi returns an unsure smile, but Jimin quickly takes his attention off of him again. He skips over to his previous spot, where a helmet and a duffel bag rest on the floor. He hums a little tune as he unzips the bag and takes out a long, rectangular object, wrapped snugly into several layers of fabric.
“Of course, I didn’t come empty-handed. I came across this on my way here and I knew it’d make the perfect gift!”
Jimin throws the package to the floor and then gives it a little kick so it reveals itself. Out comes the missing leg of Jeongguk’s, wrapped in the familiar talismans.
“It was such a hassle transporting it, so how about a nice dinner as thanks?” Jimin muses. “Namjoonie-hyung, one of your doors lead to a restaurant?”
Namjoon smiles at that, and there’s a second of tension between them that makes Yoongi feel like he should leave. But Jeongguk is still here as well. He finds Yoongi’s eyes, so the younger moves without being told anything. He leans down to pick the leg up, cringes internally, but suddenly feels very determined to not let his disgust show as Jimin watches him touch the object with surprise.
Yoongi begins unpeeling the talismans, feeling a little smug.
“Ah,” Jimin makes. “How practical.”
“My Yoongi is really one of a kind, isn’t he?” Jeongguk chuckles. Yoongi has to resist the urge to smile stupidly—he’s still upset after all!
“So, how about that dinner?” Jimin claps his hands. “There’s sooooo much to catch up on!”
“Count me out,” Jeongguk says. Yoongi shakes his head quickly when Jimin looks at him.
“Just you and me then,” Namjoon says. Jimin grins and skips over to him, wrapping himself around his arm like a koala. They disappear without another glance at them, leaving Yoongi and Jeongguk alone.
When Yoongi sees Jeongguk smirking at him, he tosses the leg and stomps away.
“Aw, don’t be like that!” Jeongguk calls after him. Yoongi feels a sudden pull at the back of his clothes, Jeongguk’s magic beckoning him to return, but Yoongi stays strong. Two can play this game and so he twists around. He doesn’t hold back when he tears at him, after all, even if this body broke, Jeongguk would be fine. But he doesn’t pull his body apart, he just throws him across the room and into the next wall.
Jeongguk even lets out a surprised yell. Yoongi smiles, satisfied with himself as the older crashes into the wall.
“You’re jealous, huh?” he asks but Yoongi waves him off.
“So what? You should’ve told me you had an ancient boyfriend before buttering me up with all that special talk.”
Yoongi huffs and prepares to walk away, but Jeongguk crosses into his path faster than he can make it out of the room.
“Me and Jimin aren’t involved. Never were. But you’re adorable when you’re jealous. This violent side of yours is exciting. Wanna relieve some stress? Kill some more vermin?”
“What if I want to kill you?” Yoongi asks.
“You can try. Let’s see how good of a fight you can put up, hm?”
Yoongi studies him for a moment. They both know that Yoongi is no match for him—maybe, technically he could be if he knew anything about his clan's sealing magic, but he doesn’t. He lifts a brow at Jeongguk, who returns the expression with a grin.
“No...” Yoongi says carefully. “I’d actually rather go to bed.”
“Alright,” Jeongguk returns, almost sounding disappointed. Yoongi doesn’t react fast enough to evade the kiss that comes his way, so he blushes profusely and quickly rounds Jeongguk to run away. He hears the older laugh.
“You’re the one with my heart, Yoongi!” Jeongguk calls after him happily and Yoongi is just glad that no one is around to hear.
✦
“A Hyemyeong Min Bastard, huh?”
A voice from the door cuts through the night. Yoongi looks up and sees Jimin standing in the dim light of the lantern—still no electricity in this damn estate, and with Yewol wiped from the map, there probably never will be. Yoongi was about to blow out the light and settle on his futon but it looks like he’ll have to stay up a little longer.
“I suppose?” he offers. Jimin isn’t in his biker gear anymore, but instead some loungewear. He struts into the room and looks around as if Yoongi had done anything to make it his. He just picked one at random and stuck with it.
“Quite awful to find out your traitorous clan has survivors even five hundred years later.” Jimin scoffs. “So many families were wiped out of existence completely but you are still here.”
“I’m sorry,” Yoongi says, but he doesn’t feel particularly sorry. “But I didn’t even know there was some ancient sorcerer society up until a few months ago. I don’t feel any more related to them than I feel to you.”
Jimin forces out a laugh.
“You don’t really think I’ll believe that, do you?”
“Huh?” Yoongi makes. In the next moment, Jimin suddenly draws a sphere of water out of thin air. Yoongi has barely enough time to lift his hands in front of his face before he throws it at him with the power of a violent wave. The wall behind him—thin enough as it is, doesn’t stop his fall. Yoongi goes flying straight through it. The next time he opens his eyes he’s in the gardens.
Jimin follows through the hole in the wall. His hands move through the air like he’s performing a dance and the water follows his movement. Pulling, Yoongi realizes, briefly fascinated and in wonder about where the limits of magic could possibly be. But Jimin leaves him no time to marvel at his way of using the pulling magic, because he attacks him with it, moving the water through the air like a whip.
Yoongi ducks away underneath it and swallows when the water-whip leaves a deep wound in the tree behind him, sending splinters of wood wildly up into the air.
“Stop! What are you doing?!” Yoongi yells, really not in the mood to be decapitated by Jeongguk’s mysterious friend.
“Getting rid of you before you decide to switch sides!” Jimin hisses back.
The water suddenly freezes and splits into several icicles, that Jimin shoots at him with deadly intent. Yoongi breaks out into a sprint and ducks behind the tree from before. He feels it shake with the force of the projectiles when they force themselves into the bark.
With a racing heart, Yoongi peeks around his cover and already sees Jimin preparing the next attack, so his eyes land on the roof of the estate. More precisely the tiles. With a forceful move of his hand, he orders them to come off.
Jimin, having not expected him to possess any skill at all, stops his next attack and turns around in surprise, but doesn’t have the time to evade the flying stones that come to crash down on him.
Yoongi winces when the tiles break apart and bury Jimin underneath a pile. He hopes he didn’t accidentally kill him—would he get in trouble if he did?
But Jimin turns out to be resilient. Of course, Yoongi should’ve expected that from a five-hundred-year-old sorcerer. The pink-haired man reappears in a bubble of water, pushing the broken tiles off of himself with ease. He gets up with a mean smile.
“Well, if that’s all you’ve got, I might not have to be worried after all,” Jimin says. “But better safe than sorry.”
Jimin prepares to attack again, so Yoongi lifts his hands in front of his body as well, ready to fire all he’s got—
“Yah, what are you doing?”
Jeongguk stands in the gardens, looking quite unimpressed with the ongoing fight.
“Jeonggukie!” Jimin calls in surprise and Yoongi rolls his eyes, blowing his cheeks out in annoyance. With Jeongguk’s arrival, the fight suddenly seems forgotten.
“We’ve got to have a talk,” Jeongguk says. “In the morning.” He adds.
“Jeonggukie, do you really trust him? He’s—” Jimin begins but Jeongguk cuts him off.
“The Hyemyeong Min are all dead. Does Yoongi have any reason to betray us?”
“Revenge?” Jimin suggests.
“I told you I didn’t even know about my supposed family until recently!” Yoongi sneers at him, and Jimin takes a step forward like he means to punch him instead of using his magic. Only now does Yoongi notice that Jimin isn’t much taller than him at all.
“Stop, Jimin,” Jeongguk sighs. “We’ll talk. In the morning.”
Now it’s Jimin’s turn to blow his cheeks out. Yoongi wants to laugh at him—with his pink hair and the expression, he really looks like a child.
“Come with me, Yoongi,” Jeongguk says then. He offers him a little smile that Yoongi regards skeptically. Jeongguk waves his hand at him, motioning him to follow.
Does he mean...to share a bed again? Yoongi flushes and doesn’t move at first. But then Jeongguk has disappeared around the corner and he’s alone with Jimin again who’s glaring at him like he means to kill him with his gaze alone.
Jeongguk it is then.
Yoongi eyes Jimin and carefully moves away until he can dash around the corner and follow the master of the house.
✦
Jeongguk takes a long time to explain everything to Jimin, but even at the end of it, Jimin won’t stop glaring at Yoongi over his breakfast, so Yoongi glares back.
The next point of discussion is Jeongguk’s head. Well, his original one.
“Apparently some sort of sect has gotten a hold of it. They’re worshipping the thing,” Namjoon explains his findings. “They wouldn’t let me in so I couldn’t prepare a door for you.”
“They’re just humans, why’d you let them stop you?” Jimin asks.
“You know I’m not one to pick fights. And I’m not bulletproof either.”
“They had guns?” Yoongi swallows. He isn’t bulletproof as well, and he doesn’t like the idea of infiltrating some sort of cult. He looks across the table to find Jeongguk’s eyes, but the older seems to be in thought.
“Probably. Or some other weapons. They don’t take kindly to outsiders either way.” Namjoon says.
“So, we just blow the place up then,” Jimin shrugs.
“No,” Jeongguk cuts in. “It’s not quite unlikely that a sorcerer may have taken up residency there. If we don’t know who they are, entering into a fight headfirst could be dangerous.”
“Even for you?” Yoongi asks with a tilt of his head. Hearing Jeongguk speak like that is so unlike him.
“No, of course not,” he is quick to reply. “If this body dies, I’ll just go find another to possess. It’s a hassle but not dangerous. As long as my heart is safe, I won’t be killed.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Jimin asks. Jeongguk looks at Yoongi and grins.
“I can’t have my Yoongi die, can I?”
Yoongi flushes and splutters, embarrassment flooding him.
“What? Then leave him here,” Jimin complains.
“He needs to be there to transport the head back. Something as important as the head will be covered in enough seals to kill you,” Namjoon says with a small smile.
“So, Yoongi,” Jeongguk’s wicked smile spells danger. “Are you feeling religious?”
✦
Sneaking inside the place is easier than anticipated. One of Namjoon’s doors lets them out at a gas station a few miles from the sect compound, and from there they take Jimin’s motorcycle—a pink beast of a machine that made Yoongi’s head spin as they rode it.
They park and leave it behind some bushes before they set out into the surrounding wilderness until they reach a lone spot at the wall surrounding the place.
“Are you sure this is smarter than just attacking?” Yoongi whispers. Their plan isn’t particularly smart or well thought-out. They’re supposed to get inside, split, and search with Jeongguk doing all the heavy load by leaving his current body to possess one of the cult members instead.
It’s a risky endeavor if there turned out to be a powerful sorcerer here, especially if Jeongguk was without a body.
“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but I agree with him,” Jimin mutters.
“It’ll be a quick affair. And less messy than starting a fight,” Jeongguk grins at them. Yoongi sighs. He’s not so sure about that, considering Jimin and he would not be afforded the luxury of disguises. They’d have to rely on stealth alone.
“Fine, let’s get it over with,” Jimin sighs and takes the hand Jeongguk offers, and Yoongi lets himself be pulled in by an arm around his waist. Jeongguk catapults them into the night sky and over the wall. Yoongi thinks he’ll never get used to the feeling of flying as his stomach turns and his dinner threatens to come back up.
The compound has some traditional buildings, serving as temples but the rest of it is a modern structure of several apartment buildings as well as communal areas. Jeongguk carries them through the sky until they land on the roof of one of them. An office? A meeting spot?
“Wouldn’t they keep the head in one of the temples?” Jimin asks when they land, with no sign of being affected by their short flight. His eyes fall on Yoongi, and he snickers at his state. The younger glares back.
“I feel it here. It’s weak but here.” Jeongguk hums.
“I can’t feel it at all...” Yoongi mumbles and Jimin has no smart remark. He seems unable to feel it as well.
“Let’s split and search,” the pink-haired offers. “When do we meet again?”
“Two hours should suffice. Anything longer and they’re bound to notice our presence,” Jeongguk replies. Jimin nods and is the first to turn to the door that probably leads downstairs but before Yoongi can follow, Jeongguk stops him.
“You’ll be safe, won’t you?” he asks in a voice so soft that Yoongi blushes.
“I don’t want to die, so...” Yoongi replies shyly. Jeongguk grins and leans towards him, stealing a quick kiss from Yoongi’s lips.
“Good. I’ll see you in two hours.”
With that, the person before Yoongi suddenly collapses into a pile of lifeless limbs. He feels Jeongguk’s presence rise from it and leave a misshapen hollow puppet of a person behind. It seems to curl around Yoongi one last time, brushing his cheeks like a soft kiss, before it disappears from him and into the building.
Yoongi shivers a little. He steps away from the body and takes a deep breath before he goes into the hallway with the stairs that lead down—just this one last thing, he tells himself. Just this one time and he’ll be done with it.
✦
The building has six floors, and the upper two appear to be empty. Yoongi checks them thoroughly for any signs of the head, steels his sense to pick up Jeongguk’s energy or even one akin to his own—but nothing.
It gets trickier on the fourth floor. There are people here as it seems to function as some kind of office. Yoongi sneaks past the closed doors behind which he hears voices and searches through the empty rooms he finds. Nothing again. But he didn’t expect to find the object of worship inside someone’s desk drawer.
Yoongi sighs. Will two hours be enough? They may have to put their hopes in Jeongguk, considering he’s the only one able to feel the presence of the head.
Just as Yoongi slips out of a room and closes the door quietly, he hears footsteps behind him. He glances over his shoulder, seeing two men that have spotted him as well. For a split second he considers his options—he could use his magic on them to leave them unconscious or he could run. Either way, their cover would be blown sooner or later.
He picks a third option. As casually as he can, he walks into their direction. Act natural, he tells himself. There must be so many people in this compound, there’s no way they know everyone’s faces, right? Full of fake-confidence and with a racing heart, Yoongi intends to waltz past the strangers. He nods his head at them in acknowledgment, but they just share a look with each other.
Alright, busted.
“Yah! Stop!” one of them yells, as Yoongi takes off running. He makes a beeline for the stairs and bolts down, hoping to find a hiding spot on the third floor. The two men run after him with shouts and commands to wait.
Yoongi flicks his wrist and the two of them are pulled forward—they scream as they fall down a set of stairs, but Yoongi pays it no mind. He arrives a floor below and bursts into the hallway.
Right into the next group of people.
Worshippers, clearly. Yoongi doesn’t know what this floor is for, but the people he interrupted are dressed in ceremonial robes and he interrupted them on their way somewhere. They stare. He stares. Jeongguk would simply kill them all if he was here. Maybe Yoongi should too.
“Oh,” an old woman says. “Are you our new brother?”
“Um,” Yoongi can only make.
“He must be!” a man exclaims. “Did you get lost? Where are your robes?”
He should get rid of them and make his way out of here as soon as possible. But if they think he’s a new member, here to get initiated...there would be a ceremony, right? The chances of the head being brought there would definitely be a lot higher! And Jeongguk should be able to find him there...
Oh, Yoongi hopes this isn’t a bad idea.
“Yes, I got lost...my robes...”
“Oh dear, you’re far from the temple! Was there no one to guide you? Let us take you there so you can change for the ceremony!”
That’s how Yoongi ends up getting dragged across the court of the compound and off to the temple he’s seen earlier. The people chatter happily around him, but Yoongi is distracted by a flash of pink. There, behind a tree, is Jimin. He stares at Yoongi in confusion, but all he can return to him is a shake of his head and hopes that he got it across that he needs no saving.
Not right now anyway—he might face a sorcerer in there. Yoongi gulps.
“There you are!” the old woman hanging off of his arm says as they reach a closed door inside the temple. “Just change and come out when you’re ready, someone will be there to guide you.”
“Thank you...” Yoongi says a bit awkwardly, glad his cover wasn’t blown until now. He slips into the room and shuts the door behind him. For a moment he leans against it and takes a deep breath. What the hell had he gotten himself in here?
“Who are you?”
Yoongi jumps. There’s a person already in here, another young man in white ceremonial robes—probably the guy whose role Yoongi had been assuming until now.
Like it’s instinct, Yoongi lifts his hands, ready to snap this man’s neck, but the door opens behind him again and the next thing he knows, the other’s head is splashed with water and then frozen to the wall. Yoongi twists around and sees Jimin shut the door behind himself.
“What the hell are you doing here?! We were supposed to be stealthy,” he hisses.
“Too late now. Help me undress this guy,” Yoongi responds and walks over to the unresponsive man.
“What?!”
Quickly, he explains what’s about to happen here as his hands untie the ceremonial robes. Jimin helps him after he breaks out of his stupor mumbling something about Yoongi being crazy. In the end, he turns around so Yoongi can change his clothes.
“And if the head isn’t there? Then what?” Jimin asks.
“Hyung could just...kill them all?”
Yoongi manages to surprise himself a little with how easily that slips across his tongue. With how little the thought of Jeongguk massacring this whole cult bothers him. It’s Jeongguk’s influence, definitely. His bad, bad influence and yet Yoongi knows he had given up the fight about morals when he killed Moon Sera’s bullies.
Right now, he just wants to get this done and relax. As he thinks about it, he finds that he doesn’t care about a single life around here but his own.
“I’m going out there,” Yoongi announces, smoothing out his white, ceremonial robes. Jimin just huffs in response and makes no move to follow him.
✦
Jeongguk infiltrates the initiation ceremony, wearing the skin of someone else. He doesn’t expect to see Yoongi of all people infiltrate the ceremony as well, as the new initiative, no less. How did he even pull that off? Jeongguk has to chuckle under his breath when he is led to a podium to be presented to the eyes of his new brothers and sisters. It seems he and Yoongi had the same idea—finding the head here would be more likely than anywhere else.
And Jeongguk feels it. Feels his own energy call out to him weakly, suppressed by the seals of the Hyemyeong Min.
They make Yoongi sit. A priest drones words Jeongguk doesn’t care for. His eyes are on Yoongi and Yoongi only. He almost looks like a ghost in the white robes, with his milky skin, pale lips, and dark eyes. His black hair had gotten a little longer ever since he’s met him. A style that suits Yoongi.
Yoongi vaguely looks in his direction. He feels Jeongguk there, but he can’t tell who he is. He smirks when their gazes meet and Yoongi’s eyes shine with recognition.
Then two sets of hands grab Yoongi’s shoulders and tip his head back and under the watchful eyes of hundreds of cult members, Yoongi’s pale face is doused in blood.
The people clap so Jeongguk does too. What an odd custom. Might be animal blood, or would these freaks use a supply of human blood for their ceremonies? Either way, when Yoongi is led to sit back up straight, he is red.
He looks a little startled and his lips smack together, making Jeongguk unsure if he’s trying to get rid of the blood on them or trying to taste. Their eyes meet again.
Yoongi is a vision.
“Under the eyes of our lord—”
Jeongguk snaps his head back to the priest standing behind Yoongi. He holds up a round object, wrapped in several layers of fine fabric but Jeongguk knows it’s because no one but Yoongi can touch the seals that hide beneath. It’s his head and the eyes of their lord are his.
Jeongguk can’t help but crack up. They’re worshipping him? If he knew this before, this whole business could’ve been over a whole lot sooner. But no matter—at least he got to see Yoongi look like a beautiful, little sacrifice meant just for him.
The people around him look at him strangely. Jeongguk twirls his fingers with a smile, and they fall into pieces around him.
A symphony of screams breaks out immediately.
Confusion. They don’t know what happened, so they start running in circles like the bugs that they are. Jeongguk can’t stop the laugh that escapes him. With a swipe of his hand, several more of them fall and yet the screams only get louder.
He sees Yoongi elbow the old priest in the sternum, and with a wheeze, he drops the head. Yoongi catches it and jumps off the podium with a silly, proud smile on his face.
Gods above and below—Jeongguk wants him.
“The head! He stole the head!” the priest coughs. Jeongguk feels a faint energy coming from him, a sorcerer old but not quite powerful. Perhaps his magic had dwindled over the years. And yet as Jeongguk makes his way through the crowd, the priest points a bony finger like he is aiming a firearm. He watches him curiously for only a short moment. Then a bolt of energy ripples through the air and shoots through the masses, ripping through several of the worshippers who fall like dominos.
Jeongguk almost laughs at the poor aim of the old man until the attack finds its intended target. He hears Yoongi cry out. Jeongguk whips around to see him fall as well, but doused in blood as he already is, he cannot tell where the younger had been hurt. The head rolls away from his grasp and the panicked vermin threatens to trample him in their attempt to flee.
He must’ve grown fond of Yoongi in their time together. Quite fond. Because in that moment he decides to kill them all.
“Yoongi!” he shouts and parts the crowd with deadly slashes. Yoongi turns his head and finds his eyes. “Lend me your body!”
The younger hesitates not even for a moment. His lips move and though Jeongguk can’t hear it, he knows he said ‘yes’. In an instant, the flesh around him drops like it’s no more than a disregarded costume and Jeongguk is nothing again.
✦
Yoongi wakes and it is quiet. He feels no pain even though earlier, he felt something rip through his shoulder like a bullet. Then he remembers handing Jeongguk his body. He must’ve healed it.
He looks around and finds that he’s lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He thinks he’s never seen as much blood as he had today and still, the most he finds himself bothered by is the way his clothes are heavy with wetness.
Jeongguk is sitting by his side, entirely nude and probably wearing yet another skin. There’s the head by his side, waiting to be unraveled by Yoongi.
“It’s over?” he asks and sits up. He reaches for the bundle without having to be told to do so. With practiced ease, he removes the talismans until a frightening grimace is revealed beneath it. Yoongi looks at it and wonders how this and the handsome face Jeongguk wears could be the same.
“You were beautiful,” Jeongguk says to him. His hands find their way to Yoongi’s cheeks, then up into his hair, down his neck where they settle to pull him close. It almost feels wrong for Yoongi to be the one soaked in blood, while Jeongguk is clean like he was just born into this world.
He brings their lips together regardless and they share the taste of iron in their kiss. Yoongi opens his mouth to let him in, so Jeongguk eats him up. His gut grows hot too fast with need, and excitement. It’s over now and all that’s left is this. Yoongi didn’t know how excited he was for it until it was brushing his fingertips.
Jeongguk runs his tongue over Yoongi’s lips and then draws back to let their eyes meet.
“You were so beautiful,” he says again. “Now there’s one more thing I need from you.”
“Everything,” Yoongi mutters without wasting even one thought on it. He lets his eyes fall shut and waits for another kiss. Jeongguk’s lips brush over his, but they never quite touch.
Yoongi chokes.
He rips his eyes open in terror. Jeongguk is smiling at him, but his hand is buried deep inside Yoongi’s chest. After a short burst of pain, he feels absolutely nothing but the sensation of blood clogging up his throat. He moves his lips to speak yet nothing but endless streams of red run out. Like a waterfall over Jeongguk’s hand that he retracts with a satisfied expression on his face.
He tears his heart out and catches Yoongi around the waist when he falls backward.
“Thank you for keeping it safe all this time,” Jeongguk hums. His smile spells what Yoongi already knew—evil. He shouldn’t be surprised at all. He lets out a gurgling laugh as Jeongguk leans in and kisses his eyelids shut.
And he laughs and laughs and laughs at his own stupidity until his final seconds have passed him by.
✦
The feeling returns to Jeongguk’s limbs agonizingly slow. Even after his body is put back together and he has settled back into it with his heart intact in his chest, it takes a considerable while for his limbs to respond to his commands. Opening his eyes then, in his own body, for the first time in five hundred years is exhilarating.
Power surges through him. The room he woke up in is empty so no one can shoot an odd look his way when he breaks out into maniac laughter. Fantastic. Absolutely amazing.
No kings, no queens, no Hyemyeong Min scum to get into his way. A world lies before him ready to be taken or burned down, all depending on his whims.
Well, there’s one Hyemyeong Min left.
Jeongguk gets up and stretches his limbs. He grabs one of his robes nearby and pulls it over his naked body, tying it close quickly before he opens the door to step out into the hall. He isn’t surprised to find Namjoon waiting for him. The other pushes his glasses up when he sees him.
“You look good,” he says.
“I look the same as in any other vessel,” Jeongguk hums back, but can’t stop a little smile from spreading over his face.
“Maybe,” Namjoon smiles back. “But your power is back. It’s radiating off of you.”
“Good,” Jeongguk replies. He begins to walk and Namjoon walks with him for a little while.
“Jimin cleaned him up. The heart is in the jar.”
That’s all he says before he falls behind and lets Jeongguk continue on his own. He doesn’t need any direction, somehow, he knows exactly where to go, feeling the remnants of familiar magic in the air, almost tasting like the lips he got to know in their time together.
Opening another door, Jeongguk finds him. Yoongi lies motionless on the futon, his decency protected only by a thin sheet pulled over him. Jeongguk steps closer and lets his eyes wander over the small frame. Yoongi is pale as a ghost, plush lips colorless and eyes rimmed with dark circles. His hair had gotten quite long in their time together, so now it parts on his forehead.
If it wasn’t for the gaping hole in his chest, one may think Yoongi was simply sleeping. He looks peaceful like this.
Jeongguk finds the jar Namjoon mentioned and kneels. Inside is the heart Jeongguk switched out with his own all that time ago when an oblivious Yoongi stumbled into his estate and freed him. He takes it out and ponders for a moment.
The smartest thing to do would be to let it be. Yoongi is possibly the last of the Hyemyong Min. The only one in this new world with the power to harm Jeongguk, the only one who’d be able to cut him back apart and seal him for another five hundred years.
But oh. Jeongguk’s heart must’ve grown a little soft while it was resting in Yoongi’s chest.
He wants Yoongi to be with him for a while longer.
Like a puzzle piece, Jeongguk places the heart back inside Yoongi’s chest. Above the hole, he places his hands and lets the magic flow into the body. It intermingles with the foreign energy that is Yoongi, uneasy about his intruding, but then it lets him pass as if it had recognized the familiarity. Underneath his fingers, he feels the body stitch itself together. The heart is accepted back into its rightful place without fuss.
Once it is done, a soft beat appears under Jeongguk’s palm.
All of a sudden, Yoongi startles awake with an audible breath. His eyes snap open, then they dart around the room in a mixture of confusion and panic. Jeongguk wonders if he could convince Yoongi that it was all a bad dream.
“Good morning, sweet thing,” he says, despite it not being morning. Yoongi stills and looks at him and for a really long moment, he says nothing and just stares.
Jeongguk hopes the lack of oxygen his brain must’ve suffered under due to the, well, being dead, hasn’t caused some kind of amnesia in him. He opens his mouth to ask him about it when a fist connects with his jaw.
The force behind it is surprisingly strong. It throws Jeongguk sideways as he hears the shuffling of sheets. The next thing he knows, Yoongi is standing over him and has grabbed him by the collar.
“Bastard. You goddamn bastard!” he yells. “You killed me!”
“I did,” Jeongguk admits with a small grin. Yoongi is alive, well, and energetic on top. There seems to be no lasting damage, so how can Jeongguk not smile?
“I can’t believe you! I did all your fucking dirty work, and you repay me by ripping my heart out!” Yoongi screams and shakes him. “I’m going to kill you, you fucking bastard, I’ll put you back where you came from!”
“Feel free to try. I do deserve it.” Jeongguk says. “But first you may want to put some clothes on.”
Yoongi’s grip slackens as his eyes wander down his own body and he realizes that he is naked as the day he was born. His body seems to work as intended because within just a few seconds, Yoongi’s face is adorably red. He scrambles away from Jeongguk and grabs the sheet, then he wraps himself in it like a cocoon.
“You’re the worst. The absolute worst! I hate you!” Yoongi yells at him like a little, angry kitten. Jeongguk can’t stop smiling even though his jaw aches. He still clearly remembers how timid Yoongi used to be when they met, and Jeongguk can’t fault him for it, because he did his best so that it would stay that way. But now Yoongi had finally, fully come out of his shell. He likes this Yoongi a lot.
Yes, he really likes him a lot.
“I brought you back, didn’t I?”
“Because you probably need something else from me! I’m not doing it! You said I could sit back and relax after your body is complete!”
“I did,” Jeongguk responds. “I’ve got no work for you. I just like having you around.”
Yoongi’s face is still red, and he refuses to look at Jeongguk. All he does is huff once. Jeongguk shuffles closer.
“I mean it, Yoongi. I want you by my side when I burn this world to the ground,” Jeongguk says and sticks one of his hands into Yoongi’s cocoon to grab his hand. He takes it into both of his. Yoongi doesn’t pull away, which he counts as a win.
“Come on, don’t be mad anymore. I’ll make it up to you. How about I find your parents and kill them for abandoning you?”
“What?!” Yoongi splutters and spins his head around, finally meeting Jeongguk’s eyes. He grins at him. He didn’t exactly mean it, he just wanted Yoongi’s attention but maybe he really should do it.
“Yeah?”
“No!” Yoongi exclaims. “Don’t bother. I don’t care about them. And I deserve to be mad at you, so let me be.”
“Fine,” Jeongguk can’t help but laugh. “But you’ll stay, right? Here with me?”
Yoongi sighs, then blows some hair out of his face. He looks like he’s trying hard to keep a smile off his face.
“I guess so,” he says it so quietly like he’s hoping Jeongguk won’t hear. But he does. Jeongguk hums, pleased, then reaches out to swipe the hair out of Yoongi’s face and behind his ear. The younger jumps at the sudden contact but doesn’t pull away.
Jeongguk plants a kiss on the corner of Yoongi’s lips.
“I’ll leave you to your brooding, then,” he teases, narrowly evading the sudden punch aimed at his gut.
Yoongi glares at him when he leaves the room, but Jeongguk is happier than he’s ever been in the last 500 years.
✦
“Are you sure about this? This estate has stood for centuries!” Jimin has his hands pushed into his hips and a look on his face that reads as a strange sort of sadness. Yoongi gets it, he thinks. He had spent merely a few months in this estate, and still, it had grown on him.
“It’s about to fall apart any day now,” Jeongguk replies. “And there’s nothing for us here anymore.”
It’s been a few days since Yoongi returned from death and Jeongguk had asked him to stay. That day as he sat brooding by himself, a cold panic flooded him as he realized that he helped return Jeongguk to his full strength and now there’d be no stopping him ever again. The path ahead is destruction and death and Yoongi said that he’d stay. But then, the panic ebbed away and turned into acceptance and even relief.
The hard and tedious part is over now. Yoongi can relax and he has nothing to worry about. If Jeongguk said he loved him, Yoongi would never believe it, and yet he thinks the older had come to cherish him enough to not harm him. And Yoongi had come to cherish him in return.
There’s mutual fondness there. He knows it when Jeongguk announces that they’ll move on and now is preparing to burn his very home down to remove even the last trace of what once was the town that brought Yoongi up.
“What about Namjoon’s doors? How will we travel?” Jimin asks.
“I’ve prepared a door a few miles down the road. It’s a bit of a walk, but you’ve got your bike and...” Namjoon trails off. Jimin lifts his eyebrows, then a smirk appears on his face.
“Oh, you want me to give you a ride?” he winks at him. Yoongi drags his eyes away from them.
“Where are we going?” he asks Jeongguk.
“To meet some old friends,” he replies, and Yoongi must’ve pulled a face without realizing because Jeongguk laughs. “Don’t worry, they’ll love you. They’re much more agreeable than Jimin.”
“I heard that!”
Jeongguk ignores Jimin and grins at Yoongi as he produces a flame with a snap of his fingers. He throws the flame towards the old estate, and they watch it spread like they’ve doused the building in gasoline before. In a matter of seconds, all of it is engulfed in fire. Yoongi watches quietly for a while, feeling like a heavy weight is falling off his heart.
Now it’s really over. All of his past, gone.
“Ready?” Jeongguk asks as he takes Yoongi’s hand. The younger turns around and finds that Namjoon and Jimin had already disappeared.
“I think so,” Yoongi responds with a little smile, looking down at their intertwined hands.
“Good. Let’s go make a new world together, Yoongi,” the older says like there are any good intentions behind it. Yoongi can’t help but giggle.
“Sure.”
✦