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Jimin jerked awake to the sound of his brother's scream.
It was one that he'd never heard from Jihyun before. It wasn't the faux battle-cry he often did before he and Jimin tussled. It wasn't his scream of frustration when he'd had a bad day at his healing apprenticeship.
It was one of pure terror.
It was one of pain.
After only a moment of disorientation, Jimin knifed out of bed, grabbing his bow and quiver from the floor. It was only then that he realized something was wrong, even beyond Jihyun's cry.
Judging from the glance he got from his clock, the sun was far from rising, yet there was a violent glow coming in through Jimin's window. When he turned his head to look, Jimin saw flames, eating up everything in its path, engulfing people and buildings that Jimin had seen whole and in tact mere hours ago.
"Jihyun," Jimin screamed, running for his door and out into the hallway. "Mom, Dad! We have to go!"
He stopped short when he saw the blood. There was so much of it that for a moment Jimin didn't believe it was real — he didn't think that the human body contained that much blood. But his eyes followed the trail and he saw bodies on the floor that were nauseatingly familiar.
His mother was unmoving, but his father turned his head at his scream and made eye contact with him.
"Run," his father mouthed, eyes glistening with pain.
Then his body was jerking, and his eyes went dull. Numb, Jimin's eyes followed the blade digging into his father's stomach up and found a man standing above his parents.
He was shirtless, and his skin was covered in twisting, blood-red markings.
Jimin's stomach twisted with fear. Those markings were familiar.
Growing up, everybody learned that those markings meant danger. They meant death.
When the man raised his head to look at Jimin, his face twisted into a sneer, and Jimin did not hesitate to reach behind him and grab one of his arrows, nocking it within seconds.
It was impaled in the man's neck before the other could blink, and then Jimin was sprinting for Jihyun's room, forcing himself to look away from his parents lying together on the floor, coated in their own blood. If he listened past the sounds of his panicked breathing, he could hear the loud rumble of homes collapsing outside, could hear panicked screams and an eerie, melodic chanting.
They were here.
The blood-marked clan was here, adequately named for the red paint their warriors wore, and in every single story told about them, there was only one ending.
Whichever clan they decided to raid, wherever they decided to go — they almost never left anything or anyone alive.
"Jihyun!" Jimin shouted.
His lungs were aching now, and he belatedly realized that their house was also on fire. The glow of the flames cast long, demonic shadows across the walls, smoke making the air thick and heavy, and Jimin knew that if the blood-marked didn't kill them, then the fire surely would.
"Hyung!" Jihyun screamed from inside his room.
Jimin arrived just in time to find another blood-marked spear through Jihyun's body like it was nothing more than stuffed cotton.
A desperate wail left Jimin's mouth as he immediately lunged, hoping that if he came fast enough then he could do something, could somehow bring the light back into his little brother's eyes.
The blood-marked turned at the sound of Jimin's cry, wrenching the spear from Jihyun's body with a sickening squelch. Jimin reacted on instinct, reaching back once again for an arrow but this time holding it in a fist instead of nocking it in his bow. Driven by pure anger, Jimin contracted his arm and then extended it with all his might, watching as the arrow went right through the blood-marked's eye.
"You monster!" Jimin screamed.
Jimin gagged as the man went down with an agonized groan, stumbling back and shaking the blood from his now-empty hand, the arrow still punctured in the blood-marked's eye. He fell over Jihyun's unmoving body and turned him so that he could find his eyes.
"We have to go," Jimin cried. "Jihyun-ah, we have to go, please."
A large boom sounded from the other side of their home. The fire must have been eating away at it by now, parts of it collapsing.
Jimin knew he had to leave.
He heard the guttural cries of the blood-marked outside, some type of whistle echoing through his ravaged clan like a signal. Sounds of horses began receding, and Jimin realized that the blood-marked were leaving.
"I'm sorry, hyung is sorry, I—"
Jimin's voice caught in his throat, sorrow like an acid inside of his body eating away at his bones. With a shaking hand, he shut Jihyun's dull eyes, and then leaned down to press a firm kiss to his brother's forehead, tasting blood.
He wanted to say something more, whisper something comforting just in case Jihyun's soul was still there, still scared, still needing his hyung to reassure him the way he always did, but Jimin couldn't find the strength to even offer that. He trembled there for a few moments, his warmth pressed to Jihyun's bloody body, before pulling back and rising on shaking legs.
Only to gasp when he saw the blood-marked he had thought he'd killed staring right at him.
Jimin backed up as the man began to twitch, regaining consciousness, a roar of pain leaving him as his arm flew up towards the arrow lodged in his eye, fluttering around the wound but not quite touching it. In the moment, Jimin kicked himself for not making sure the arrow had gone deep enough.
The expression on the blood-marked's face spoke of wrath, of vengeance. The anger set deep in the man's face looked like a promise that chilled Jimin down to the bone.
Jimin knew he had no more arrows left in his quiver. He had gotten lazy training in the clearing by their home, and hadn't bothered to pick them all up the day before, knowing that he'd be back again for them the next day.
The lack of their familiar weight on his back made him feel empty, now.
Even though it made his stomach twist to leave his brother in the same room as the blood-marked knowing that the enemy was still alive, Jimin had no choice but to run.
He ran back to his room, coughing from the smoke. Jimin couldn't bear to allow himself a glance at his parents, just veered straight towards his room and jumped through his window.
Right outside of it was a little clementine tree, and he used its branches to help his descent towards the ground. He landed painfully on his feet, stumbling a few steps before somehow swaying and finding his balance.
Jimin found himself standing alone in the remains of his village. A sea of bodies surrounded him, all with faces that he'd known and loved and grown up with, and all he could feel was an emptiness that did not even have time to ache.
Instead, the emptiness yawned before him, as he realized that his entire life going forward would be stained with loss.
Jimin was the best archer in his clan, one of their most skilled warriors. Despite this, there was nothing he or his bow and arrow could do against the blood-marked.
They were a clan of cultists that worshipped and sacrificed to their gods through death and destruction. They raided villages in the dead of night and burned down homes and killed everybody in their path — men, women and children alike — all in the name of their so-called gods.
Despite their fanatic beliefs, they were strong, and they were plenty. Most every clan they raided were never able to recover from it.
With his house on the outskirts of the Park clan, Jimin realized that his was one of the last homes to be hit. He could see the blood-marked in the far distance, riding away into the trees, the air tinged with smoke and the metallic scent of blood.
What kind of gods are these, Jimin wanted to scream. What kind of gods would take away life so callously, so easily?
What kind of gods would force me to live, after everyone I've ever loved was taken from me?
Jimin couldn't bring it in himself to stay long enough to watch his home collapse, knowing that it would most likely kill the blood-marked still inside, but bury his family's remains along with it.
He was afraid that if he watched, his entire heart would cave in with it.
So instead — he ran.
➶
Making a loop around the clearing he used as his training grounds, Jimin meticulously collected every single one of his arrows. None had made it to the floor — all were perfectly lodged within the center of their targets, some splitting thin tree branches clean in half.
Jimin yanked them from their resting places and returned them to his quiver in a manner so smooth and practiced that it almost felt like a ritual.
The muscles in his neck and arms were burning the way they always did after he practiced, but the pain grounded him. It was evidence that he'd worked hard that day, and Jimin relished in that feeling.
"Jimin-ah," a voice called.
Jimin blinked in surprise at the interruption.
Typically, everybody knew not to bother him when he was training out here. This was where he went when he wanted to be alone — which, in the past two years that he'd lived in the Kim clan, was quite often.
But there Seokjin was, standing a few feet away from Jimin and watching him with careful eyes.
"What's wrong?" Jimin asked, shouldering his quiver and picking his bow up from the ground as he made his way over.
Seokjin was always especially respectful of Jimin's alone time, so for his hyung to seek him out here was strange. Jimin's gut twisted at the somber expression on Seokjin's face.
When he was close enough, Seokjin reached out to place a hand on Jimin's cheek. The tender gesture just made Jimin tense up even more.
"Hyung," Jimin urged, pressing his own hand on top of Seokjin's. "What's the matter?"
"Father's come to a decision," Seokjin answered, his voice somber.
It was strange to hear Seokjin sound so serious. Despite being the clan leader's son, Seokjin was seen gently smiling and shaking with laughter more often than not.
"And?"
Seokjin pressed his lips together. "He and the council members agree that...something must be done."
His words were careful, skirting around the words as if it would make the situation any less real.
"They're declaring war against the blood-marked," Jimin said it for him.
Breathing out a shaky sigh, Seokjin nodded once. "They are."
Jimin swallowed thickly. This was bound to happen sooner or later. The blood-marked were getting even more bold and destructive in their raids, and there had been far too many clans that had been completely evaporated by them and their violent religion, the Park clan just one of many.
It had to end.
But there was no way for them to find peace without shedding blood of their own.
"Okay," Jimin whispered.
"We're leaving, Jimin," Seokjin said.
Jimin cocked his head to the side, confused. "What?"
"To defeat the blood-marked, we need something that will work towards our advantage. We need something that they don't have."
"What could that possibly be?"
"Camaraderie," Seokjin replied. "We have the advantage of joining together with another clan, whose strengths lie in different areas. If we train with them, we will be strong where they are weak. They will be strong where we are weak. Father is gathering some of our strongest archers, and sending them to the Min clan."
Jimin inhaled sharply.
"The Min clan..."
"He's adamant that both of us go," Seokjin said. "Our leg up, once this war is waged, will be that we have trained to fight alongside the Min dragons. We'll have the advantage, in the skies, while the blood-marked are land bound."
There was a long pause.
"Will that even be enough to defeat them?" Jimin questioned, his voice quiet and unsure.
Seokjin's eyes softened, and he raised his hand to smooth down Jimin's hair.
"The blood-marked are monstrous, yes, but remember they are human. They are not as almighty as they make themselves out to be. The only reason they've ruined as many villages as they have is because they come in the dead of night, when nobody is ready for them, and because of their sheer number of warriors. They have almost no other occupations, while other clans do not focus nearly as much on their offensive strength."
Jimin shuddered. Despite knowing all of this logically, there was still a large part of him that associated the blood-marked with an unbeatable strength. A force that cut down everything in their path and left no survivors behind.
But — that wasn't true.
Because Jimin had survived.
Jimin was alive, and he was determined, and he was angry.
He was living proof that the blood-marked were nothing more than savage murderers, despite what they believed.
"Okay," Jimin said, eyes steely and determined. "Then we'll do what your father says. We'll go to the Min clan."
➶
There was something mournful in having to redefine happiness.
Jimin realized this, the longer time stretched on from the death of his family. It was strange, because for a while — he thought that he'd never understand happiness again. It felt like he'd stepped so far from it that he'd lost the chance to reach out and grasp it.
But then, he did.
Little by little, he found happiness in his new clan, in Seokjin's laughter and the protective warmth of Seokjin's parents, how they'd taken Jimin in like their own son. He found happiness in good weather, and budding flowers, and clusters of mulberries.
But this happiness was different from before.
Where his happiness used to live within family dinners and a childhood bedroom, it was now leaking into this new life, and at times Jimin couldn't help but feel like he was abandoning his family.
And every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Jihyun reaching out for him, face twisted with pain and fear. All he could see were his parents wrapped around each other, together until the very end. All he could see were his own footsteps, running further and further away from the Park clan, and becoming a Kim.
This redefined happiness, Jimin learned to accept, would forever come with a lot of sorrow, too.
➶
"I don't want to do this," Jimin said stiffly atop his horse.
His entire body was aching, and his skin was caked with dirt and grime from the road. They had been traveling through the forest and up the mountains for days, and despite how much he hated the inconveniences of travel, Jimin grew more and more tense as they approached their destination.
"I am aware, Jimin," Seokjin said, his voice strained. "As you have been telling me every single day, for the past month."
The day after Jimin had agreed to go along with Seokjin, he'd realized that he didn't feel worthy. Seokjin had said that they were sending their clan's best archers, but Jimin didn't know if he had that much confidence in his ability.
When he'd needed his strength the most, Jimin was unable to protect the ones he loved more than anything in the world. He didn't know if he had it in him, that hardened heart other warriors seemed to have.
So he ran to Seokjin and told him he wouldn't — couldn't go to the Min clan, but neither he nor Leader Kim would hear of it. That's how he found himself here, his horse clobbering up the mountainous terrain, his ass sore from days of riding.
"Yes, and you have not listened to me," Jimin huffed.
"Jimin," Seokjin sighed. "You know I have would happily agreed if you did not want to go because you were frightened, or wary. But I know that your reasonings for wanting to stay back are all senseless doubts of your own abilities, and I couldn't leave you alone with those thoughts."
Jimin scowled.
He realized that even if he had gotten his way and was allowed to stay back, he wouldn't have let Seokjin go here without him anyway. Who would protect his hyung if Jimin wasn't by his side?
Sulkily, Jimin said as much, lips pursed into an angry pout.
Seokjin laughed, sounding fond. It made the irritation within Jimin flare up even more, as he'd been serious in what he'd said.
"Don't be prickly just because you doubt yourself," Seokjin reached out to ruffle his hair, the motion somehow graceful despite the fact that they were both riding alongside each other on their steeds. "We're both the finest archers the Kim clan has."
Seokjin shot him a confident wink, one that Jimin would usually laugh and copy, but he didn't have that playfulness in him that day.
"I've never met a dragon before," Jimin said, changing the subject.
"I know," Seokjin answered.
"I've only heard stories," Jimin continued. "And in all of them, they are...bloodthirsty. Violent."
"They are nothing like that," Seokjin said. "I told you I used to visit the Min clan when I was young, remember? They operate a little differently from us, and are...a little more in touch with their base instincts. But they're not bloodthirsty."
Jimin's face twisted. He still didn't know if he liked the sound of that.
Seokjin let him ponder for a while in silence. The group they were traveling with had broken off into their own pairs because of the narrow and steep paths, talking amongst themselves. Nobody else looked as worried as Jimin. It somehow made Jimin even more nervous, wondering why nobody in his clan had any sense of self-preservation, to have some of their best warriors galavanting into the dragons' territory.
Despite knowing that their clans were such close allies, it was hard for Jimin to quell his paranoia.
The Park clan hadn't had many close allies. They weren't hated, but they weren't befriended either, bordering the edges of the forests and having little to no goods to offer in trade. Jimin wasn't used to socializing with people outside of his clan.
"Father and Leader Min have been friends for a long, long time," Seokjin finally said. "There is little truth to what the stories say about dragons."
When Jimin didn't answer for a beat of time, Seokjin continued hesitantly, "When you came to us, you were broken, Jimin. You were...a shell. I looked at you and thought that maybe the blood-marked had managed to kill parts of you after all. And, though it worries me, the only thing that has managed to bring you back to life was the thought of revenge. You trained and trained and you grew into the warrior you are today, driven by this desire. This is your opportunity, Jimin, to avenge your family. Your entire clan."
The thought of his family never failed to bring pain to Jimin's chest. To distract himself, Jimin said instead, "Revenge isn't the only thing I am living for. I'm glad I found you, Jin hyung."
And he was.
He had stumbled along on shaking legs the night of the raid, not knowing where he was going. He'd trekked through the dark forests and left behind the smell of blood and ash with nothing but his bow and empty quiver.
Jimin had walked and walked until the sun rose into a day that felt much too serene following the events of the night. And he had ended up on the outskirts of the Kim clan's territory, a trembling thing with haunted eyes. Seokjin had been part of the group patrolling that night, and they'd halted Jimin, wary.
The moment Seokjin had asked Jimin what he was there for, all Jimin could do was fall to his knees and collapse under the weight of his own grief. He'd sobbed, bent forward and tucked into a little ball with his knees underneath him, his forehead pressing into the damp earth. In that moment, Jimin lost his numbness and had ached with a pain he'd never known before, and it was so consuming that he could hardly breathe through it.
But then Seokjin had crouched by him, a solid hand falling to Jimin's heaving back, and patiently sat there, waiting for Jimin to compose himself before taking him into the clan with open arms. From then on, the two of them had become inseparable, and it was through Seokjin that Jimin found hope.
"I'm glad too," Seokjin responded quietly. "Hyung is glad you found me, too."
They made it to the Min clan in the middle of the afternoon. Despite the time, the air was already chillier than Jimin was used to, as the dragons resided farther up in the mountains than most others.
They were met at the border of the dragons' territory by a small group. Jimin detected Leader Min by the two bands of red circling his bicep — a tattoo that only clan leaders bore. He looked to be around Leader Kim's age, though while Seokjin's father had softer facial features, Leader Min's features were severe and powerful.
Behind him were two older men his age, and a few younger warriors.
When they were close enough, Jimin's traveling party began to dismount. As his feet hit the floor, Jimin realized that the dragons were large. Though they were in their human forms, their bodies were formidable, all solid muscle and towering heights and serious gazes. They had vambraces covering their hands and forearms, and upon closer inspection Jimin realized that they were made of a breathtaking combination of metal and dragon scales. Their ears were lined with piercings, and large tattoos painted their skin, pale from living in a climate that seemed to get less sun.
"Kim Seokjin," Leader Min greeted, his voice low.
Seokjin's chin was tilted high, looking every bit as regal and put together as a clan leader's son should be.
"Leader Min," Seokjin responded, dipping into a low bow. "My father sends his apologies for not being able to greet you personally."
"Nothing to apologize for," Leader Kim said, his voice firm. "Times have been..."
"Trying," Seokjin offered.
"Exactly that," Leader Min said.
With an extended arm, Seokjin motioned towards Jimin and the rest of the group, listing off their names. "Father has sent only our best archers."
Leader Min nodded towards them, and Jimin bowed back from his spot beside Seokjin, feeling on edge. His skin was tingling, and he kept his gaze low, strangely too nervous to look up and risk making eye contact with any of the dragons.
But suddenly, a hand was gently tilting his head up, and then a thumb was pressing into the space between his brows. His eyes raised in shock as he found Leader Min in front of him, the man's hand calloused and rough against his skin.
"Welcome, Park Jimin," Leader Min said, putting a heartbeat of pressure on the thumb on Jimin's forehead before moving towards the other Kim archers and doing the same.
Jimin blinked in confusion at the unfamiliar greeting, but one glance at Seokjin and his hyung was nodding discreetly towards him, a silent, it's okay. Then Jimin felt a presence step in front of him again, and he realized that the entourage of dragons behind Leader Min had stepped up to greet them the same way.
Out of habit, Jimin bowed slightly to the dragon in front of him, who simply smiled at him and raised his hand slowly, as if to not startle him. Jimin caught sight of dimples before his vision was slightly obscured by the dragon's large hand, his thumb pressing gently to Jimin's forehead before the dragon was nodding once and moving on.
Unused to the strange custom, Jimin wondered if there was a particular reason why dragons greeted people so...intimately. Though it wasn't quite as touchy as a hug, the process of standing there as a stranger pressed their hand to your face took a bit of trust.
Perhaps that was the reason — to greet each other with trust. Jimin supposed that they all needed to learn to depend on one another, now, despite their now-glaringly-obvious differences.
Jimin continued bowing slightly to each new dragon who greeted him, sticking to his custom as they stuck to theirs. The group wasn't very large, and Jimin was slightly relieved to find the last dragon coming up to him.
Only to look up from his small bow to find — anger.
Or, the first thought that came to Jimin's mind was anger. But the longer he peered at the dragon's face, shock making Jimin's lips part and his eyes widen, the more he realized that perhaps the anger was simply...intensity.
The dragon in front of him was a bit slighter than his clan mates who had come before him, but he still towered over Jimin, and even from underneath his clothing Jimin could see the shifting of muscles. He had inky black hair, broad shoulders and large hands, the veins colorful from underneath his pale skin. The dragon's face was angular in a way that was somehow simultaneously delicate and powerful. Jimin didn't realize he was staring until Leader Min cleared his throat and the dragon in front of him blinked at the noise.
Jimin sucked in a gasp when the dragon cupped his cheek briefly before pressing his thumb to his forehead. Everybody else had kept their other fingers above his skin, and the warmth that emanated from the hand against his cheek made Jimin shudder.
The pressure against his forehead lasted for longer than the others, and Jimin was about to shift nervously in place before the dragon finally stepped back, the same intensity in his golden eyes as they bored into Jimin's.
This time, when Jimin glanced at Seokjin, his hyung looked just as shocked as Jimin felt.
➶
They were given some time to settle in before night fell. All the Kim archers were given a few large cabins to share, ones that were obviously recently cleaned out and spruced up. Jimin and Seokjin chose a room to share on the first floor of one. It had a large window overlooking the walkway that lead towards the center of the clan's territory and two beds.
Feeling overwhelmed, Jimin left Seokjin to unpack and stepped out of the cabin. Ever since he was little, Jimin's felt the need to decompress by himself when his thoughts got too much. So, choosing a random direction into the thickness of the trees on either side of the cabin, Jimin walked.
He walked, and he thought. He thought of what his family would think of him being here. He thought of what he would do if even after all this, the blood-marked clan still triumphed. He thought of what he would do if they did defeat the blood-marked.
He thought of the dragon with the pale skin and the large, warm hands.
Jimin kept his eyes on his feet for his entire stroll, but then something stopped him. A flash of color, like a tiny rolling sun peeking at him from the ground.
Right next to his foot was a half-dry clementine.
Breathless, Jimin glanced up into a bright orange sky.
The clementine tree above him was the largest he'd ever seen — its branches and dark green leaves spanning all the sky that he could see.
Sucking in a shaking breath, Jimin felt his eyes grow hot with tears.
Though the clementine tree that had grown in his family's backyard wasn't nearly the size of this one, just the familiar smell of citrus made yearning swell in his gut. The feeling of loss was so strong that it felt like his lungs were caving in on themselves, and Jimin couldn't help but reach up and pluck a clementine off of its branch.
The cool, porous peel was familiar in his hand, and Jimin squeezed it in a palm.
He squeezed so hard that his fingers broke through the skin, the sticky juice coating underneath his fingernails and along his fingers. The smell of the fruit — suddenly so much stronger — now made him gag.
Suddenly feeling numb, Jimin let the fruit drop to the ground. A wind rustled through the leaves, making it sound like they were whispering to him.
Movement to his left made Jimin turn, and his watery eyes widened when he caught sight of who was there.
The dark-haired dragon from before stood a few feet away, watching him. The shadows of the clementine tree streaked across his face, like charcoal on blank canvas.
He looked beautiful.
Jimin stood there, trapped within the tiny world carved out in that space and time between the two of them. Strangely, instead of turning away, the dragon took a small step forward, in Jimin's direction.
The moment he did, a tear that had been curling up at Jimin's lash line fell down his cheek. The dragon's eyes tracked the movement, eyes widening as concern marred his features. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but Jimin was already turning away, wiping at the tear with a juice-sticky hand.
"Wait," the dragon said, his voice loud in the quiet of the forest.
By that time, though, Jimin was already gone.
➶
Jimin stayed with Seokjin as they walked from their cabin to the center of the clan, passing by other homes along the way. There was a feast being held that night, to welcome the Kim archers to the clan.
"Hyung, what are those?" Jimin wondered at the colorful ribbons tied to the trees.
They swayed in the wind, many of them faded and frayed from old age.
"Oath trees," Seokjin responded. "I remember learning about them the first time I visited here. They're for promises deemed unbreakable — each ribbon a physical representation of the seriousness of each promise."
Jimin's eyes widened. "They're...everywhere."
"The dragons never remove them on their own, even if the promise is broken," Seokjin said. "It's bad luck to touch them, once the ribbon's been tied on. Even if the oath wasn't kept, they still show a kind of devotion, however fleeting that devotion was."
"That's beautiful," Jimin said. "What do all of the different colors mean?"
"There's no meaning to any of the colors, except for the white ones. Those are reserved for love," a new voice said. "The promise of forever."
Seokjin gasped and turned his head toward the voice, breaking out into a large grin.
"Taehyung-ah!" he exclaimed, stumbling back a few steps as a body barreled into his.
When Taehyung pulled back after nuzzling his face against Seokjin's, rambling about how excited he was to have Seokjin staying with them for a while, he turned towards Jimin, who stood out of the way of the two, smiling softly.
Taehyung looked like the sculptures that the Park clan's artists used to create. He was perfect and symmetrical and hauntingly beautiful.
"Hello," Taehyung said to him. "I'm Jin hyung's old friend. We've never met before!"
Before Jimin could even respond, the dragon was wrapped around him, arms circling around Jimin's back.
Jimin spluttered when Taehyung shoved his nose into Jimin's cheek, pressing in hard enough that it made Jimin squirm. Taehyung took three loud and very obvious sniffs of Jimin as he flailed, staring at Seokjin wide-eyed from over Taehyung's back.
The only thing that kept Jimin relatively calm was the fact that Seokjin was merely smiling at them.
"Mmm," Taehyung pulled back and squinted into Jimin's eyes. Then he ducked back down and took one last sniff. "S'good."
"Um?"
Taehyung pulled back again, this time releasing Jimin completely. His lips were pulled into a boxy smile, and he dipped into a loose, unpracticed bow.
"I forget humans are so stiff upon first meeting," Taehyung said. "You smell very lovely, so I'd very much like to be your friend. I'm Taehyung. What's your name?"
"Jimin," he responded reflexively, bowing back. "I'm sure all I smell of is dirt and sweat. We've been traveling for a while."
Seokjin laughed, finally coming up to them after deciding that Taehyung was finished with his greeting.
"Dragons are much more driven by scents," Seokjin explained. "They can smell a lot more than we can. While Tae's sniff-tests are a lot more bold than others', all the dragons you meet will be deciding whether or not they'd like to associate with you based off of your scent."
Jimin's mind was whirling. It was startling to him, how different this clan was. Already, he could see that there were customs and norms that he was unaware of, and that simply made him even more nervous.
"You two are the same age, by the way," Seokjin added.
Taehyung brightened at that, hopping up once on his toes as if he had just been given the best news in the world.
"Don't worry, Jiminie," Taehyung said, already acting as if they were the best of friends as he slung an arm over Jimin's shoulders. "You smell very nice. Everybody will love you."
"Thank you," Jimin responded. Paused. "I think."
"You're welcome," Taehyung said, nuzzling his cheek against Jimin's ear, then reaching out to grab Seokjin too. "Come, come sit with us."
They continued walking towards the center of the clan, which Taehyung called "the core".
In the middle of the core was a fire pit, which was already lit. The flame in it didn't look like any regular flame Jimin had seen — it was more purple than orange, and it was larger and brighter than what the pit it was held inside should allow.
Surrounding the fire were long wooden tables set out in two L's, filled to the brim with food. There were groups of elderly dragons sitting by the fire, little kids weaving through legs and trees and tables, couples pressed intimately together on wooden benches.
"Woah," Jimin breathed out.
The atmosphere was somehow both intimidating and comforting all at once. It was clear to see that the Min clan were close-knit — off in the distance Jimin could see Leader Min laughing with a group of women as he helped them serve refreshments. However, there was so much going on that Jimin couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.
"Oh, there they are! Come on," Taehyung said.
He lead them over to a group of dragons that were squished onto a little picnic table, individual plates of food spread out in front of them. As they came closer, Jimin's steps stuttered when he recognized some of the dragons from the group that had welcomed them.
One was the tall, dimpled dragon that had greeted him after Leader Min, and the other was the dragon who'd cupped his cheek. The one from under the clementine tree.
They were all speaking in the serpentine, guttural draconic language before they spotted Jimin and Seokjin coming.
Smoothly switching to Korean, one of them smiled brightly and waved. "Hello!"
"Jin hyung, Jimin, these are the idiots that I unfortunately have to spend all my time with—" Taehyung cut off with a sharp yelp when the dimpled dragon reached over and harshly pinched the meat of Taehyung's arm.
"The only idiot here is him," the dragon said. "But it's nice to meet you both again — I'm Namjoon. To the left of me is Jeongguk, our youngest, and across from me are Hoseok and Yoongi."
Yoongi.
It was a strangely delicate name, for a dragon.
Jimin bit his lip. Of course Taehyung happened to be close with the dragon who had been haunting Jimin's thoughts all day. Up close, he was even more good-looking. His eyes were a burning gold, and the intensity in his gaze hadn't faded, reminding Jimin of sunlight behind a wave — rippling and bright.
Holding his breath, Jimin wondered if Yoongi would say anything about their encounter in the forest earlier. But the dragon simply nodded his head in acknowledgment, his eyes barely flickering to Seokjin before they were trained on Jimin again.
Seokjin and Jimin both dipped into half-bows.
"Come sit!" Hoseok patted the seat next to him with a huge grin. "Let me pick your brains, little humans. Is it true that your bodies can't digest raw meat?"
Seokjin lowered himself onto the bench by Hoseok, and Jimin sat in-between Namjoon and Jeongguk after the youngest smiled shyly at him and waved him over. Taehyung found a large, wobbly chunk of wood as a makeshift chair to seat himself at the head of the table.
"Of course we can't," Seokjin scrunched his nose in disgust. "Even the sight of raw meat kind of grosses me out."
"We eat raw fish though," Jimin offered. "There's lots of rivers in the Kim clan, and we go fishing a lot. Seokjin hyung is really good at it."
The dragons stared at him with disgust. "You eat fish?"
Jimin blinked. "You...dont?"
Jeongguk wrinkled his nose. "We prefer eating animals that aren't slimy and live their lives out in mossy, bacteria-infested waters."
"Fish is good!" Jimin protested. "Hyung, tell them!"
"It is," Seokjin nodded. "It's good for you, too."
"How absurd," Namjoon laughed.
"What are you doing?"
It took Jimin a moment to realize that Yoongi had spoken, and then another moment to realize the dragon was speaking to him.
"I—I'm sorry? What?"
Yoongi's golden eyes were trained on Jimin's form, specifically at his crossed arms.
"You're...vibrating."
Jimin stared at him in confusion. A gust of wind blew by, making him shiver.
"That," Yoongi said. "You did it again."
"Oh," Jimin said, laughing in half-amusement, half-confusion. "It's nothing. Just a shiver."
Yoongi cocked his head to the side, brows furrowed.
"A shiver?"
"You...don't know what a shiver is?" Jimin asked.
The dragons stared at him, expressions blank.
"It's just a natural thing our bodies do when they're cold," Jimin explained, dumbfounded at the curiosity towards such a mundane thing. "I think the extra movement warms us up?"
"You're cold? Right now?" Yoongi questioned, his voice hard.
"Not terribly," Jimin said, squirming a bit under the other man's gaze. "Shivering isn't...a big deal. It happens all the time."
"So you're cold all the time?" Yoongi grumbled, eyes beginning to narrow.
Jimin opened his mouth to explain, but looked towards Seokjin for help.
"Do dragons not get cold?" Seokjin asked, taking the attention off of Jimin.
Despite having visited the dragons a few times when he was younger, Seokjin didn't have much time during those trips to really dwell with the dragons and understand them on a deeper level.
"Very rarely," Taehyung answered. "I think I've felt cold maybe...three times in my life?"
It was Jimin and Seokjin's turn to gape.
Taehyung blinked at them. "How often have you felt cold?"
The conversation was so strange that Jimin couldn't help but let out a little laugh.
"Quite often," Jimin answered. "At night, when there's a cold breeze, when we're wet, when there are clouds over the sun..."
"And when it's winter the cold just never stops," Seokjin chimed in. "We become walking ice cubes until the spring thaws us out."
The dragons looked genuinely horrified.
"We don't actually become ice cubes," Jimin hurried to correct, unsure if they were taking Seokjin's words literally or not. "We wear warm furs and thick socks and stuff to help combat the cold."
"Eats raw slimy fish," Hoseok pretended to take notes on the palm of his hand. "Has never known warmth in their entire lives..."
Jimin found himself laughing, relaxing into the company of this table full of dragons. The way they spoke and moved around one another gave away their closeness. Hoseok casually picked food off Yoongi's plate and Namjoon reached out to absentmindedly massage the back of Taehyung's neck. It was sweet, the way they treated each other, and the more Jimin watched the warmer he felt.
"Let's go get food," Taehyung said to Seokjin and Jimin.
"The soup," Yoongi suddenly chimed in, his voice a deep rumble.
Jimin blinked at him, halfway out of the bench.
"The soup is warm," Yoongi said, eyes trained on his own empty bowl.
Smiling, Jimin nodded. "Oh...okay. I'll be sure to get some."
When they got back, Jimin couldn't help but notice the way both Namjoon and Jeongguk huddled closer to him the next time a gust of wind blew. They came so close that it became a little difficult to eat, with both of his arms brushing against the dragons with every movement.
Despite not having known them for very long, the gesture was cute, and Jimin couldn't stop smiling. And if he went back to get seconds on the soup — it had nothing to do with the way Yoongi's eyes were trained on him the entire time he ate it.
Nothing to do with that at all.
➶
The next morning, the Min clan wasted no time. They called for all the Kim archers and Min warriors and gathered them in a large room. Judging by the maps covering the surface of all the ovular wooden tables, Jimin assumed this was where all the strategy meetings took place.
Leader Min was at the front of it, talking with a woman with long silver hair and a scarred face.
When Jimin and Seokjin stepped in, Jimin found Hoseok waving them over. Grabbing Seokjin's hand, Jimin pulled him over towards the same group they'd eaten dinner with the night before. They were sitting right at the front of the room, the closest to the woman aside from Leader Min.
Jimin wondered if there was significance to that, if these dragons' rankings were somehow higher than the others. The group shuffled to the side to make room for the two archers, a space opening up right next to Yoongi.
Jimin sat down slowly, careful to not let their arms or legs brush, painfully aware of the heat the other dragon was emanating.
"Who is that?" he asked, eyes trained on the woman by Leader Min.
The atmosphere in the room was strange — not hostile, but not completely comfortable, either.
"She was born into the blood-marked clan," Yoongi responded, voice low. "She's leading today's strategy meeting."
Jimin jerked in shock at the newfound information, staring at the woman with wide eyes. Out of pure instinct, his heart rate quickened, just the mere knowledge of being in the same room as a blood-marked putting him on edge.
Yoongi glanced at him, scanning Jimin's reaction.
"Are you afraid?" Yoongi asked, eyes almost challenging.
Jimin blinked at him, defiance rising in his chest at the clear baiting.
"No," he lied. "Are you?"
The dragon just let out a dry chuckle in response.
There was the briefest flare of warmth brushing up against Jimin's hand as Yoongi shifted, their pinkies touching for a split second, but the dragon was folding his hands into his lap a second later, the touch most likely unintentional.
Jimin turned away from him and listened with rapt attention as the room quieted and the woman began to speak. It was strange, to be so close to a blood-marked. Or, rather, an ex-blood-marked. There was a flight or fight instinct within Jimin that had him on edge every time he looked at the woman, despite Yoongi assuring him that she wasn't a threat.
She introduced herself as Gyeon, her voice carrying powerfully throughout the room. She explained how she'd been born into and grew up in the blood-marked clan, the life she lead there, and the values they'd instilled in her from birth.
"The priests in power are the ones who do all the teachings," she said. "Growing up, every lesson they teach emphasizes the word of their gods, words that call for violence and sacrifice in exchange for their fertile lands and bountiful health. They silence anybody who questions their beliefs. If there is ever any whisper of a rebellion, they nip it in the bud as soon as they can. They never show mercy. Living there, it is follow along on the raids and kill, or be killed for betraying the clan and the gods."
There was a murmur through the room as they processed the information.
"I escaped the clan less than a year ago," Gyeon explained. "I fell in love with a woman outside of our clan, and she helped me leave. I'd always known deep down that the ways of the blood-marked were wrong, but...there was never any way out."
"Did you kill many people?" Seokjin asked in the slight silence that prevailed.
His tone wasn't accusatory, but there was an edge to him as well, one that was a little protective. He wasn't asking for himself, but for Jimin. Jimin noticed that Seokjin hadn't moved his hand from Jimin's knee since Gyeon started speaking. A silent, I'm here. A rush of gratitude overcame Jimin, and a piece of him settled.
"Not many," Gyeon said. "I only participated in raids when they were beginning to grow suspicious, and even then, I tried not to kill. But I won't lie to you and say that I'm innocent, that there isn't blood on my hands, because there is."
"How did you escape?"
"We had to fake my death. There wouldn't be a way to live the rest of your life peacefully otherwise — the leaders would come after you if they knew you were still alive. But I can assure you that there are many within the blood-marked that are there against their will, that were born into a terrible, cruel fate. They need help just as much as the innocent clans being raided do."
Jimin mulled over the information as he listened. Though it made sense, it was a bit of a shock to him, to learn that not all of the blood-marked were evil. Which — of course they weren't. Jimin didn't know why the knowledge shocked him. There were children in the clan, and he didn't believe that anybody could be born corrupt. The realization made Jimin almost nauseous.
His entire life, especially after the death of his family, "blood-marked" simply became synonymous with evil. Devilish, immoral. But they weren't. In a way, many of them were fighting for their own survival, as well.
"So explain to us how we will defeat them," a voice chimed in.
When Jimin chanced a glance over towards Yoongi, the dragon's eyes were trained on Gyeon, listening intently.
"The gods they worship aren't plentiful — there are only three that they believe in. These gods, apparently, call for sacrifice, over and over again. We were told that if we did not spill blood in their name, irreparable disaster would strike our lands."
"They think they can speak to their gods?" somebody asked.
"Not all of them. Only the leaders have that supposed blessing. But everybody does go to pray — in the temple that they have hidden far up in their mountains. This temple is sacred to them. They believe that the gods came to earth to create it for them, and as long as the temple stands, then they are in their gods' favor."
Namjoon scoffed. "So they can do anything, get away with murder, and believe that they are doing their gods' work, so long as an old building of stone and brick stays in tact?"
Gyeon smiled wryly. "You could put it like that, yes."
"So all we have to do is destroy their temple," Yoongi said, his voice sure and calm. "Then they'll see that their gods aren't real, or believe that the killing they've been doing is wrong."
Nodding, Gyeon exhaled slowly. "That is the conclusion Leader Min and I came to. Though we do not know for sure if it'll work, it's our best bet. The solstice is in two months' time — they count it as their most holy holiday. If their temple was not only to be destroyed, but destroyed on the day of the solstice...it would be an even harder hit for them."
"Two months' time," Leader Kim repeated. "It'll be difficult, but not impossible."
"Be warned that the temple is heavily guarded — the hardest part will be getting to it. Be prepared to fight," Gyeon said.
Looking at her, Yoongi grinned, a bloodthirsty stain across his usually serious face.
"That will be the only thing we prepare for, Gyeon-ssi. Striking back is long overdue."
➶
"The partner you leave with today will, without a doubt, become somebody important to you. You will learn to trust, rely on, and understand this person down to the ugliest parts of their soul. If we are flying into battle and you do not have that connection with your partner — your chances of survival are slim. The only way we can defeat the blood-marked is to work as a real team. The Kim and Min clan have been allies for generations. Find security in our people's history, one of unity and peace, and do what you must to learn how to place your trust in your partner. Starting today," Leader Min's voice rang through the clearing.
Jimin shivered at the power behind his words, nerves making his stomach twist. He didn't know if he'd be able to place so much trust in a dragon he's just met. Jimin couldn't remember the last time he wholeheartedly trusted anybody but Seokjin, and even that had been a long and slow battle.
"We've paired you up based off of many factors," Leader Min called out from where he was pacing back and forth.
He was in-between his dragons and the Kim archers, the two groups lined up and facing each other. Though physically they were separated by a mere few feet of grass, all of them knew that there were many differences to overcome, mannerisms to grow used to, questions to be answered.
Though the welcome feast the night before had been fun and shown the dragons' hospitality, it also had highlighted the fact that dragons and humans were so different.
"Size, agility, temperaments...Leader Kim and I have communicated back and forth and paired you up with who we think you will work best with," Leader Min continued. "Get to know each other today. There is nothing more intimate than riding into battle knowing that your life is so closely connected to another's."
"Not the type of riding I'd have thought of first, but..." one of the dragons tittered under his breath.
Jimin felt his face flush at the dirty joke, but laughter rang through the group of dragons, and Jimin noticed Leader Min's lips twitch. The action actually gentled his demeanor to Jimin — there was humor and emotion underneath his hard exterior after all.
"Kim Seokjin," Leader Min called.
Seokjin straightened next to Jimin at the call.
"You are paired with Kim Namjoon."
Namjoon stepped forward from where he was in line, and beamed over towards Seokjin. He crossed the small gap between the two lines and bent into a 90 degree bow in front of Seokjin, his left hand fisted over his heart.
"I am honored," Namjoon spoke before straightening.
"As you should be," Seokjin joked, lightening the mood. Jimin could tell that his hyung was relieved to be with someone he knew. "You were paired with the greatest archer. Congratulations."
"Don't spread lies, hyung!" Seojoon, a Kim archer with wide set eyes protested from his spot in line.
Seokjin laughed, the squeaky sound of it echoing through the clearing they were in, and the sound had Jimin relaxing. Namjoon grinned as he motioned for Seokjin to follow him, and they went off to the side of the meadow, chatting the entire way.
Leader Min called off more names, and the two lines grew smaller and smaller.
Jimin huffed, nervously shuffling his feet as he stared at the dragons in front of him. They were all similarly eyeing him and the other archers left. Jimin tried very hard not to notice how Yoongi's eyes never seemed to stray very far from him.
Jimin's heart twisted the more and more people paired off.
Finally, it was just him and Yoongi left.
Dread built in Jimin's stomach as he remembered the way Yoongi had questioned him at the strategy meeting, and the way Yoongi had seen him break down in the forest.
The dragon must think him cowardly and emotional, and maybe he'd be right. Jimin didn't know what he was doing, just knew that he'd already embarrassed himself in front of Min Yoongi far too many times in the span of twenty four hours.
"Park Jimin," Leader Min finally called his name. "Your partner will be my son, Min Yoongi."
Jimin gaped at the words. His son? Yoongi was the Min clan's next leader?
Though it did made sense, the more he thought about it — Leader Min and Yoongi had the same serious, catlike eyes, the same broad shoulders. It also explained why his group sat so close to the front at the strategy meeting — Yoongi had more power and influence in this clan than Jimin originally thought.
Yoongi made his way towards Jimin, and the way he walked towards him reminded Jimin of a predator. His eyes never left Jimin's, and suddenly they were right in front of each other, and then Yoongi was bowing, hand clenched over his chest.
Though most other dragons had offered some words at this point, Yoongi said nothing. There wasn't anything on his face that gave away how he felt, and that unnerved Jimin. To his surprise, Leader Min came up to the both of them and placed a hand on Jimin's shoulder.
"I trust that you both will take care of each other," the older man said.
Despite his stern demeanor, up close Jimin could see there were crow's feet fanning out from his eyes that showed he smiled often.
Perhaps because he saw hesitation in Jimin's expression, Leader Min offered him a small, barely discernible smile. "My Yoongi is one of our most capable warriors, Jimin-ssi. Nothing will happen to you while you're with him."
Jimin smiled in acknowledgment, though fear over his wellbeing wasn't exactly what he'd been thinking about.
No, all he could think about was the way he hadn't seen Yoongi smile once since he'd gotten here, the way Yoongi was so warm towards his friends but regarded Jimin with something stilted and stiff.
"I'm sure he will, and I'm thankful for it," Jimin replied.
Leader Min walked off with a final nod and a familial hand cupped against the side of Yoongi's jaw. Jimin noticed that the younger dragon tilted his head to the side just the slightest bit to allow his father the touch. Though Jimin was unsure what exactly the gesture meant, he knew that it was a sweet one.
Then, Yoongi turned and began walking in the other direction. Jimin gaped, staring after his back. After a few steps, Yoongi turned back towards him with a raised brow.
"Come on, pipsqueak," Yoongi said. "Keep up."
Jimin blinked at the name. "What did you just call me?"
Yoongi simply sighed, and continued walking. Jimin hated how fast he had to move his legs in order to keep up.
"You're the smallest archer in your clan," Yoongi noted. "It was comical, looking at you stood amongst them in that lineup."
"Size has nothing to do with how good you are with a bow," Jimin argued, face heating up. "Besides, not all of us can be massive, hulking, muscular dragons!"
Yoongi's lips twisted into a hint of a smirk at that, and it took Jimin a few seconds to realize that his statement sounded more like a compliment than it did an insult.
"Of course not," Yoongi said. "But we'll see how well you fare with a bow. Show me."
They'd stopped by some trees with targets hanging from the lower branches. Off in the distance, Jimin could hear the other pairs practicing as well. Yoongi motioned towards the targets with one hand.
Jimin bristled, disliking the impervious way Yoongi bossed him around, but there was a burning desire within him to show Yoongi that he was capable. So he reached back and pulled an arrow from his quiver, expertly nocking it into his bow.
He parted his feet and straightened his spine, his hand drawing the arrow towards his mouth. Breathing deeply, Jimin lined the tip of his arrow up with the center of the target and released it.
It flew and stuck in the center of the target with a satisfying thwack. Just to prove himself, Jimin didn't hesitate to reach back for another arrow to fire another, then another, then another.
All three landed directly in the bull's eye.
Jimin grinned, then glanced over towards Yoongi.
The dragon was staring at the target, then hummed in acknowledgment.
"We'll see how well you do with that hundreds of feet up in the air," Yoongi said. "We'll begin training tomorrow. The earlier the better. We're going to have a lot of work to do."
With that, he turned and walked away, without even a word of praise.
In a fit of frustration and immaturity, Jimin stuck his tongue out at the dragon's back.
"Dumb dragon," he muttered underneath his breath, reaching back to pull another arrow from his quiver, figuring it wouldn't hurt to continue practicing. "I don't get him."
Yoongi seemed like he went from hot to cold within the span of seconds, and Jimin was finding it hard to handle the intensity and the teasing all at once.
Distracted by his thoughts, Jimin's next arrow hit slightly off-center. Groaning, Jimin scrubbed a hand over his face. He thought back to Leader Min's speech, about the total trust partners would need to have in each other.
"How are we going to manage that?" he muttered to himself.
Alone in the large forest in a clan he felt so unfamiliar with, nobody answered him.
➶
"You ready, pipsqueak?" Yoongi called out as Jimin and Seokjin approached.
It was the next morning, and Seokjin and Namjoon had come along to help Jimin properly prepare for flying, as another dragon had already helped Seokjin the night before.
Though his words were taunting, Jimin could tell by the tension lining Yoongi's body that he was dreading this just as much as Jimin was. Scowling at him, Jimin forwent a reply, stopping in front of Yoongi and crossing his arms.
"If you drop me, I'll have your head."
Yoongi rolled his eyes towards the sky, his golden irises glowing like embers in the sunlight.
"If you fall off, you wouldn't survive it to have anything of mine."
"Well," Seokjin cut in warily from behind Jimin. "It seems as if you two are getting along."
"We get along perfectly fine," Jimin said primly, turning his nose up and giving Yoongi a pointed glare, which the other met with a blank face. "I'm simply telling the dragon that I won't tolerate any funny business from him."
Namjoon placed a calming hand on Yoongi's shoulder when he bristled up like a cat.
"Yoongi hyung is our clan's best warrior," Namjoon placated, saying words that Jimin's heard before. "He flies like no other, and he wouldn't put you in danger no matter how much he scowls. I give you my word."
"Alright then," Seokjin said warmly, his warm hand ushering Jimin along with a gentle nudge against his back. "Let's begin."
Jimin felt too much like he was a small child being coaxed into playing with their parent's friend's kid, and it put him in an even more sullen mood.
All of a sudden, Yoongi was shedding his shirt, and Jimin caught a glance of lean muscle and a myriad of tattoos before he was exclaiming and clapping his hands over his eyes.
"What are you doing?"
Yoongi let out a raspy laugh. Jimin flushed, his cheeks feeling hot with anger, or embarrassment — he couldn't tell.
All he knew was that this was the first time he'd heard Yoongi laugh, and heat was building in his gut, and he didn't know what to make of it. Because Yoongi had the body of...of a warrior. Jimin was a warrior in his own right, yes, but he definitely did not have the brute strength that Yoongi seemed to have.
Because just by looking at him, Jimin could tell that Yoongi was strong. Yoongi would not budge if Jimin ran at full speed and rammed into him. Yoongi's shoulders were broad and even his veined arms leading into his large hands showcased just how much power his body held.
"You think this clothing would fit my dragon form?" Yoongi responded.
Jimin heard the sound of a belt buckle and bodily turned away, mind whirring at the thought of Yoongi taking off his pants just a few steps away from him.
"You could have — you could have given a warning!" Jimin defended himself, simultaneously feeling justified yet also childish over his modesty.
Dragons must be much less bashful about their bodies, Jimin thought, as he saw from the corner of his eye Seokjin silently turning the other way as well.
"Don't be scared off yet, little human," Yoongi said, the dragon's voice getting further away as he walked. "Our training has yet to begin."
Then, Yoongi shifted.
There was something indescribable about a dragon turning. Even though Jimin wasn't looking, he was somehow able to feel it. Whatever deep, ancient magic that was infused into dragons' bones that allowed them to shift from form to form made the hairs on Jimin's arms stand at attention, made the forest around them go silent. The air was reverent, awed, like the earth recognizing a magic that has been there since the beginning of time.
Jimin turned once he heard a breath escape Seokjin.
Yoongi was — there.
In a way so physical and real that it stole Jimin's breath. Jimin knew that dragons were picky with who they allowed near them, in human form but even more-so in their dragon forms. It was why so little people had the privilege of seeing dragons fully shifted.
And though Jimin loathed to admit it, Yoongi was beautiful. His onyx scales were flecked through with color where the sun hit them, and just one of his wings easily spanned the length of five Jimins put together.
The muscles in his back and legs were corded and thick, making up the hulking mass of a beast that Yoongi was in this form. He took up over half of the clearing, his hind legs thicker than some of the tree trunks around them.
It was almost hard to believe that this creature was Yoongi, but his eyes were the same. Golden, intelligent and calm.
"Yoongi, you're..."
"Don't call him beautiful," Namjoon interrupted Seokjin with a little lighthearted laugh. "It gets to his head, and he'll start preening."
Yoongi huffed through his nose, and Jimin could physically feel the warmth of his breath blowing past him like a hot breeze.
Namjoon handed over something that looked like a leather corset. Jimin took it in his hands, tilting his head at the heavy weight of it.
"What's this?"
"It's so you don't fall off," Namjoon explained as he moved over to Yoongi, hauling a much larger leathery item over towards the dragon. "We clip riders and dragons together just in case."
Jimin watched as Yoongi let out a rumbling huff, but obediently lowered himself for Namjoon as the other dragon began twisting the leather around his body. The leather was clearly softened and good quality — it molded to Yoongi's scales from where it wrapped around his sternum and clasped together in-between the spiked neural spines on his back.
Looking down at the leather in his own hands, Jimin felt intimidated just at the mere thought of having to have protection from falling off of a dragon. He never thought that this would be something he had to worry about, and his mind swam as he tried to work through the logistics of having to balance on Yoongi's back while simultaneously nocking an arrow and taking aim, taking away the use of his arms.
"Here," Namjoon said kindly, back in front of Jimin and taking the leather from his hands. "I'll show you how to put it on. Jin hyung, I know we practiced last night, but it'd be good if you watch again too."
He wrapped the leather around Jimin's waist and cinched it tight. Jimin's breath left him with a little oof.
"The tighter the better," Namjoon explained. "We don't want you slipping out of it."
It connected at Jimin's back through a series of laces and metal clasps, and dangling from one side was a metal chain.
"This is what hooks onto Yoongi hyung's chest piece," Namjoon explained. "This is forged from our strongest metal, so even the weight of your entire body falling shouldn't be enough to break it."
"Okay," Jimin said, his voice weak.
Namjoon clasped his warm hands on Jimin's shoulders, peering down to look into the human's eyes.
"Don't be afraid," Namjoon said, voice softening. "This is all just precautionary. Yoongi hyung would never let you fall."
Jimin seriously doubted that, but he nodded anyway, not wanting to question Yoongi's morals moments before he would be airborne on the dragon's back. He warily walked over to Yoongi, who somehow looked even more menacing with the leather strapped around his chest.
The dragon's eyes flared as they tracked Jimin's movements, and Jimin briefly felt like prey, standing under this regal, gargantuan creature.
He had to admit it was humbling, being in front of a creature so much more powerful than him. Yoongi could easily reach out and squash Jimin like a fly, but all the dragon did was slowly lower himself so that his torso touched the floor, making it easier for Jimin to climb on.
For a moment, Jimin wanted nothing more than to reach his hand out and trace it down Yoongi's face. He wanted a brief moment of reassurance, wanted that connection Leader Min had spoken about before he slid himself on top of Yoongi's back.
But they weren't close like that, and all they've done so far was bicker, so Jimin fisted his hands to restrain that urge.
"Step on his wing and he'll lift you up," Namjoon instructed.
"Step on it? Won't I hurt him?" Jimin fretted, looking at the wing that was laid out on the ground before him.
Though Yoongi's wing was framed by what looked to be hard bone, scales and spikes, in-between those were a leathery, thin-looking skin.
Yoongi made a noise as his tail lashed back and forth behind him, as if daring Jimin to call him weak again.
"Trust me, you could tap-dance on his wings and he wouldn't feel a thing," Namjoon said drily.
Shifting a bit, Yoongi's wing suddenly lashed out, jabbing Namjoon harshly in the stomach.
Jimin jumped at the sudden movement, but all Namjoon did was groan, clutching at his stomach and laughing.
Yoongi took measures into his own hands as he swept his wing underneath Jimin's feet, urging him to climb on. Jimin stumbled a bit, wobbling as he tried to find his balance. It felt strange, walking on the dragon like this, but he supposed that there was no easier way to hoist himself up.
He teetered as he went, his gait slow and clumsy as he determinedly walked towards Yoongi's back, and he wondered if this would ever get easier. If this would be something that he'd get used to, climbing onto Yoongi like this.
Once he was within reaching distance, Jimin grabbed onto one of Yoongi's neural spines and used it to pull himself up. He settled with a small yelp in-between two of them, safely wedged right in the spot where Yoongi's long neck met his back.
The heat emanating from Yoongi's scales was immense — that feeling of almost-too-much-warmth before you pulled your hand away from a fire, except it simply simmered there, never getting too hot.
"Great job, Jimin!" Namjoon called from the ground. "Now find the clasp on Yoongi's chest piece and hook yourselves together!"
Jimin didn't realize that he was shaking until he looked down at his own hands and saw them trembling. Taking a steadying breath, Jimin tried to calm his heart as he grabbed onto the chain attached to the leather around his waist and found the clasp at the end of it. Then he reached down and clumsily patted at Yoongi's chest piece to look for the ring that it would attach to. After a few attempts, he successfully locked them together.
"Okay," Jimin said, voice sounding weaker than he wanted it to be. "Okay, I'm ready."
He expected Yoongi to immediately take flight right then and there, but instead, Yoongi twisted his neck and peered at him. For a moment, Jimin assumed that the dragon was checking to see if he'd properly hooked himself in, so he motioned towards where he'd connected them.
But Yoongi's golden eyes didn't even stray there. Instead, he maintained eye contact with Jimin, his face completely serene.
Then, Yoongi's right wing bent all the way back, almost as if he was stretching, its leathery parts arching over Jimin like a rainbow. Slowly, gently, Yoongi lowered his wing down so that it rested on top of Jimin's head, a steady weight.
Jimin stared wide-eyed at the dragon, wondering what Yoongi was doing. As quickly as he'd felt it, the pressure was gone, and Yoongi was stretching his wings out on either side of himself.
"Alright, Jimin!" Namjoon called up to them, eyes gleaming even from where he was on the floor. "Remember to lean with Yoongi, and duck down as low as you can against the wind! Clench as tightly as you can with your thighs, and since you're not flying with your bow today, wrap your arms around the spine in front of you for balance."
"Okay," Jimin responded, though he wasn't sure if he'd be able to remember everything the moment they were airborne. He felt like his entire body was trembling with nerves now, and he reached forward to clutch at the spiked spine in front of him, hugging it like a lifeline.
"And Yoongi, go easy," Namjoon said.
"Good luck, you two!" Seokjin called out. "Don't kill each other while you're up there."
With that, Yoongi took a few steps back, Jimin's body jostling with the movement, and Seokjin waved at Jimin cheerily from his spot next to Namjoon. Jimin couldn't help but yearn with everything within him that he was standing beside his hyung, on the floor, where it was safe.
Yoongi let his head tip back and he let out a loud, terrifying roar.
Jimin audibly yelped and clenched his thighs around the warmth of Yoongi's scales as hard as he could. Then, Yoongi was leaning back on his hind legs, and then took off.
The flap of his wings was loud, louder than Jimin thought that they'd be, and he screamed as they shot straight up towards the clouds, Yoongi's body tipping almost completely vertical as he gained momentum.
When they were so high that the trees began to look like dots, Yoongi straightened out, and suddenly they were soaring forward, going so quickly that Jimin could barely keep his eyes open against the wind.
Jimin felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He clenched his thighs together and wrapped his arms around the neural spine in front of him just like Namjoon had directed.
It was noticeably colder in the sky, Jimin's nose and ears and fingertips growing pink from the chill. They soared through clouds, and Jimin felt — Jimin felt —
Open.
He felt like he'd somehow carved his chest open and shown the sky his heart. He felt like a door that had been sealed shut by ivy but was now able to let the wind through. Jimin felt breathless and bare and suddenly his tremors were no longer from nerves but from excitement.
Jimin slowly opened his eyes wider, and slightly loosened his death-grip on Yoongi. Yoongi was flying them in steady circles, soaring up and down to go through clouds in a manner that was almost...playful.
All around them was blue, the sunlight beaming down at them through the puffy clouds, and Jimin thought to himself that even if he lived to see one-hundred years, he'd never see a sight as beautiful as this.
"We're flying," he said quietly, then the words filled him up and he seemed to explode with this feeling, this breathlessness, this joy. "We're flying!"
Yoongi let out a happy noise of his own, and it only added to Jimin's euphoria. It almost sounded like the dragon was laughing, and for this brief moment, Jimin could forget about it all.
He could forget about the grief that never stopped weighing him down, he could forget about the culture shock of coming to this strange clan, he could forget about the impending war that was upon them.
All Jimin could feel was free.
Reaching out, Jimin dared to stretch his hand out to let his fingers run through the clouds. He couldn't feel them, light as they were, but he laughed nonetheless. Growing braver, Jimin took his other arm off and spread both of them wide, leaning back against the spine against his back and letting his eyes shut.
"This is beautiful," he whispered to himself, chest swelling with emotion.
Then, suddenly, Yoongi was turning, unknowing that Jimin had let go of him, and then Jimin was falling.
He was too stunned to even scream, just sucked in a startled breath as he was tipped off balance and dislodged from his perch on Yoongi's back. Jimin heard Yoongi's roar of alarm right before a tight, sharp pain wrenched at his waist as the chain connecting them held.
Yoongi tipped his body almost completely sideways, maneuvering so that his body was underneath Jimin's, and then tipped his wings back to wrench them back upwards again, Jimin landing harshly against the dragon's side.
He scrambled to grab a hold of Yoongi, his fingers catching on blunt scales before he managed to wrap his hand around a longer neural spine and hoist himself back up. Once he was settled again, legs trembling on either side of Yoongi's body, the dragon began descending.
Stunned after feeling so many things all in such a short amount of time, Jimin slumped against the spine in front of him, eyes shutting. His entire body was shaking as they landed back in the clearing where they'd taken off, Namjoon and Seokjin no longer there.
It took Jimin a moment to realize that he was okay to unlatch himself now, and he did so with fumbling hands. He clumsily slid onto Yoongi's wing, which was held out stiff and straight for him, and then the dragon slowly lowered him to the ground.
Once solid ground was underneath Jimin's feet again, he sank to his knees, not even bothering to take off the stiff leather around his waist.
He was stunned silent as Yoongi shifted back, inhaling and quickly shutting his eyes. He wasn't quick enough to avoid the expanse of pale skin that was exposed to him.
"Are you an idiot, Park Jimin?" Yoongi hissed once he was dressed, the dragon marching up to Jimin and reaching out to take his jaw in one hand.
He maneuvered Jimin's face upwards so that he'd look at him, but the human kept his eyes squeezed shut.
"Why would you let go?" Yoongi snapped. "You were so afraid of falling off when we began that I never even dreamt that you'd take both hands off of me! That was dangerous, and idiotic, and you—you—are you laughing?"
And, shockingly, Jimin was.
He let the laughter escape, then, unwittingly leaning his cheek into Yoongi's palm as his body shook with mirth.
Finally opening his eyes, Jimin couldn't help but beam up at the dragon, who looked down at him as if he were a crazed, wild thing.
"That was so fun," Jimin said, grinning. "These chains really are strong!"
Yoongi stared at him for a beat, before he was shutting his eyes and sinking to his knees in front of Jimin, his hand dropping from Jimin's face.
"I thought you were trembling in fear, you idiotic human," Yoongi said, voice sounding weary.
Jimin realized, for the first time, that maybe Yoongi had been just as scared as he was. But he was fine — Yoongi hadn't let him fall, had almost immediately reacted and got Jimin onto his back again, and Jimin was exhilarated.
"At least now that I've had my first fall over with, the other ones won't be as scary," Jimin offered.
Yoongi's eyes flashed as he opened them, leaning in so close to Jimin that he could see the dark amber flecks around the dragon's pupils.
"There won't be a next time," Yoongi said lowly. "Don't make falling from my back a regular occurrence, pipsqueak."
Suddenly feeling cheeky, Jimin shrugged and reached back to undo the laces keeping the leather around his waist.
"Perhaps I wouldn't have fallen if you'd been a better flyer," he said daintily.
Yoongi sucked in a shocked breath before a low, rumbling growl escaped from the dragon's chest. Jimin peered up at him, shocked at the animalistic noise.
Yoongi held eye contact before he reached out and dipped his thumb into the vulnerable space between Jimin's clavicles, the touch intent and purposeful in a way that had Jimin reeling.
"You tease, yet you tense up at the slightest touch from me," Yoongi murmured.
Then the dragon was rising to his feet and rounding Jimin to stand behind him, unlacing and unclasping the leather corset for him with skilled, quick hands.
Once he was free, Jimin twisted his torso to see Yoongi's broad back facing him, the dragon already leaving the clearing.
"Meet me here again at dawn," Yoongi called to him without looking back. "And bring your weapon this time."
➶
It was just Jimin's luck to wake up the next morning with a slight cold. His head felt heavy and his nose and throat were clogged with congestion. Jimin sighed down at his bed, sure that he'd caught the illness because of how frigid it got here at night. He'd only packed a single cotton blanket, not realizing that the nights in the mountains were much colder than they were back in the Kim clan.
The morning passed in a haze, with Seokjin fussing over him and pressing his palm to his forehead before leading them both to breakfast, where Jimin was half-slumped over his food the entire time. He wasn't so sick that he couldn't function, though, and the warm potato stew brought a little color back into his cheeks.
An hour later, he was back with Yoongi in their designated clearing, but this time with his bow and arrow on him.
"You didn't eat much at breakfast," was what Yoongi said first.
Jimin blinked, surprised that Yoongi had paid any attention at all to what he'd eaten. Throughout the meal Yoongi had simply looked sleepy and uninterested, letting Jeongguk lean his head on his shoulders with no argument despite the almost-violent way the younger dragon was nuzzling into him.
Nobody else had reacted to the cuddling, so even though Jimin was surprised that Yoongi had put up with it, he tried not to stare too hard and wonder what it would be like to be in Jeongguk's position.
"Wasn't very hungry," Jimin responded.
Yoongi stared at him, and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say more. But it seemed like he thought better of it, because he sighed and picked up a familiar piece of leather. He strode over to Jimin, only stopping when they were inches away from each other. Jimin peered up at him, wide-eyed, and Yoongi simply sighed again before he was using a warm hand to spin Jimin around.
Then the dragon was placing the leather around Jimin's waist, and tightening the clasps and laces in the back for him. Jimin was so shocked by Yoongi's gentle handling of him that he stood still, pliant.
"Does that feel good?" Yoongi asked, sticking a hand in-between the leather and Jimin's waist to check that there was enough breathing room.
Warmth rushed to Jimin's already heated cheeks. "Um—yes. It's fine."
Jimin turned once he felt Yoongi retreat. "Thank you."
"One last thing," Yoongi said, holding out a new quiver.
Jimin tipped his head to the side, eyes questioning. "My quiver's perfectly fine."
"Maybe on a normal day," Yoongi said, reaching in close to grab one of Jimin's arrows out of the quiver on his back. "But when we're flying, there might be times when you're not completely upright."
Yoongi dropped the arrow into the new quiver, then turned it upside down. The arrow stayed inside.
"How...?"
"The bottom's magnetic," Yoongi explained, reaching over to grab the rest of Jimin's arrows to transfer them over. "This way you won't lose any precious arrows during the battle, even if we have to do loops in the air."
Jimin scoffed, but accepted the new quiver gratefully.
"When would we possibly ever have to do loops?"
Yoongi simply raised a brow, and Jimin gaped at him.
"Really? Wait, are you serious?"
Instead of responding, Yoongi just shucked his shirt over his head.
Jimin visibly flustered, his hands flying to cover his own eyes before he could stop himself.
"Stop doing that!" Jimin exclaimed.
Yoongi let out a small sound of amusement. There was a clinking of a belt, fabric rustling to the floor. Jimin was sure that his face was beet red at this point.
"I set up targets all along the mountain," Yoongi said. "They're bright purple. We're going to practice shooting while flying. You need to learn how your arrows will move in the air — how close we need to be to a target for your arrows to land, and account for any wind that might blow them astray."
"What are you going to be practicing?"
"I'm going to be making sure my pipsqueak partner doesn't fall off my back, again."
Jimin huffed at that.
"You also need to get my gear on for me once I shift," Yoongi said. "Namjoon isn't here this time to do it."
"Got it," Jimin replied, having to resist the urge to hop from foot to foot nervously.
Jimin knew when Yoongi had shifted by the large, scaled head that nudged against his back. When he turned, Yoongi's face was right in his, and the dragon blew out a hot breath to tickle Jimin's face before crouching down to stretch his legs and wings.
Strangely, Yoongi was a bit easier to interact with in dragon form — maybe it was the fact that he couldn't speak, reducing their bickering down to zero.
Jimin made his way over to the large leather chest piece that Yoongi had to wear. It was massive and heavy, and not for the first time Jimin marveled at the dragons' strength when he recalled Namjoon moving it around like it was nothing.
After watching Jimin struggle to lug the gear closer for a few unsuccessful minutes, Yoongi walked over to it instead.
"Okay, put your feet in the holes," Jimin said, feeling like he was dressing an overgrown child.
He twisted his head around, surveying the leather and trying to remember how exactly Namjoon had gotten it on the dragon.
Yoongi sent him a look, one that somehow looked deadpan even with his draconic features. Jimin couldn't stifle a giggle, then, which made the dragon huff. Yoongi placed his feet into the holes, and Jimin tried to pull it up towards the dragon's chest so that he could close it around Yoongi's back.
It was too heavy, and Yoongi was too in this form, even when he was crouching down.
"How did Namjoon do this?" Jimin panted after his third try lifting the chest piece and failing.
Yoongi let out a groan, one that sounded like he was extremely disappointed in Jimin. Or embarrassed to be around him. Or both.
"Archers don't do much heavy lifting, okay?" Jimin defended himself.
He was also feeling a bit under the weather. It was a valid excuse, he told himself. It wasn't his fault — he was just a little sick!
After a few more minutes of trying, Jimin gave up and stepped back, assessing the scene.
"...I'm gonna need you to roll onto your side."
Yoongi shot him a venomous look.
"It's the only way we're gonna get it on!" Jimin said. "Just roll onto your back with your arms through the holes, it'll fall into place and then I'll clasp it up against your back!"
For a few moments, Yoongi didn't move, looking like he was contemplating shifting back to human form to walk back to his father and ask for a new partner. But then, begrudgingly, the dragon went down onto his belly, then rolled onto his side, lifting his large, scaled arms in the air so that the chest piece fell towards his chest with the help of gravity.
There was a beat of silence, then Jimin couldn't help it.
He doubled over and laughed, clutching his stomach, his giggles echoing through the trees.
Yoongi roared at him, which made Jimin startle and jump. But when he opened his eyes to gape at Yoongi, the dragon didn't look murderous like he'd expected. He just looked...grumpy.
"Okay, sorry, wait a second," Jimin giggled, pulling himself together.
He made his way towards the back of Yoongi's neck and leaned over, dragging one side of the chest piece up over the dragon's shoulder and towards the center of his back. With some shuffling, he was able to get the other side up as well, and Jimin hooked the metal clasps together in-between Yoongi's neural spines.
"There we go!" Jimin said. "Little baby's all dressed and ready for the day."
Yoongi growled and used a wing to knock Jimin over as he stood up with as much dignity as possible, head held high.
Jimin fell with a yelp, palms hitting grass.
"I don't think your father would count knocking me off my feet as good partnership," Jimin huffed, standing.
Looking like he was seriously refraining himself from doing it again, Yoongi simply growled deep in his chest and lowered a wing for Jimin to clamber on. Jimin could have sworn he saw Yoongi's golden eyes roll. The action looked ridiculous in his dragon form, and Jimin couldn't help but let out another laugh.
Once he had his quiver secure against his back and his bow slung over his shoulder, Jimin climbed on, feet still slipping clumsily.
He clasped his leather corset to Yoongi's chest piece, tugging at the chain to make sure it was secure.
"We're good," Jimin said.
Yoongi made another noise of acknowledgment, and then he was crouching down and launching them both into flight. After the initial knee-jerk reaction of surprise at the sudden movement, Jimin couldn't help but tip his head to the wind, smiling to himself.
Yoongi circled for a while, and Jimin was unsure if he was trying to get used to the feel of Jimin's weight on his back or allowing Jimin a chance to get used to flying again. But after a few minutes of that, Yoongi was flying higher, towards the mountain's peaks. Then Jimin was seeing bright purple, and on instinct he was reaching back for an arrow.
He tightened his legs around Yoongi's back, squeezing them tight to try and keep his balance without his arms hanging on.
Yoongi had secured the targets off the gray edges of cliffs and rock faces — a perfect training ground for a dragon and their rider.
Jimin wondered when Yoongi had time to set this all up. In the distance, Jimin could see another dragon and their archer training, but he paid them no mind, focusing on the target they were soaring past.
Jimin aimed, drew, then released.
His arrow missed the target altogether.
Yoongi huffed out a sound akin to a laugh as Jimin stared mournfully at the arrow plummeting towards the ground.
"Get closer next time!" Jimin said.
Yoongi took a turn, and then there was another target. This time, Yoongi took his advice and flew closer, and Jimin followed the target with his arm as they flew past, arrow nocked. Waiting for the right moment, Jimin let the arrow go once he thought it was centered.
The wind knocked it off its course and it bounce off the edge of the target.
Jimin cursed.
"This is impossible!" Jimin shouted, frustrated.
Yoongi looked back towards him, his eyes glinting. There was something determined in those vertical pupils, one that told Jimin everything he needed to hear, despite Yoongi not being able to talk in this form. It was a silent, keep going.
So Jimin kept going.
Atop Yoongi's back, straining his legs and core to keep his balance, Jimin tried again, and again, and again. Yoongi placed the targets in so many different spots — between massive, lumbering trees, within shallow caves, on vertical cliff sides.
Though Yoongi teased, he took training very seriously. Yoongi veered around the mountain expertly, following Jimin's instructions as the archer called for him to come closer, fly slower, angle upwards.
Most of Jimin's arrows landed on the sides of the targets every time, and he counted it as a small victory every time he heard the satisfying thunk of them hitting the surface.
They circled the course Yoongi created four times before the dragon began descending.
"Wait, let's do it one more time," Jimin insisted, reaching forward to tap at the scales on Yoongi's neck.
Yoongi let out a sound that was probably a firm no, because the dragon didn't even falter in his descent towards the ground.
"I'll do it better next time, I can," Jimin muttered, slouching to lay down on his stomach, finally relaxing every muscle that he'd been holding taut for the past few hours.
Letting out a breath of air, Jimin couldn't help but stew with self-deprecation the entire flight down. He'd wanted to prove himself as a worthy partner to Yoongi today, but he hadn't hit the center of the targets once. Jimin never thought that shooting would be so much more difficult while flying.
They landed, and Yoongi gently got onto his belly so Jimin could slide down. Now that he was no longer running off of adrenaline and was constantly being attacked with cold air, Jimin felt even more sick than he did that morning.
Sniffling, Jimin rubbed an arm across his nose before unhooking himself and sliding off. Like the first time, Jimin found it hard to support himself on his legs after, so he landed on his butt with a miserable thump.
He rid himself of the weight of his bow and quiver and sighed, dreading the walk back to his bed.
Yoongi nudged him gently with his head.
Shocked, Jimin looked at him. The dragon had nuzzled his head underneath Jimin's arm, as if asking for pets.
"What do you want?" Jimin groused, but then he hesitantly reached out and placed his hand gently on the delicate scales between Yoongi's eyes.
Jimin stroked him a few times, watching as Yoongi's piercing eyes closed and a low, contented sound grumbled out of him. And for a moment, Jimin felt better. He didn't know if Yoongi had just needed him to scratch an itch or something, but Jimin could almost pretend like Yoongi was doing this to reassure him.
The moment was broken when Jimin leaned to the side and let out a violent sneeze. Yoongi backed his head away, then lumbered off to shift back to a human.
He came back with water.
"You're sick," Yoongi said, crouching in front of Jimin to place the back of his hand on Jimin's forehead.
Since dragons ran so much hotter than humans, Yoongi's hand still felt warm on Jimin's skin. Yoongi's brows furrowed, as if he'd forgotten this, and then he placed the back of his knuckles against Jimin's flushed cheeks instead.
"I can't tell if you're warm or not for a human," he muttered.
"I'm not," Jimin argued stubbornly.
"You need to take care of yourself," Yoongi ordered as he handed over the water. "There's no time for you to get sick right now."
Annoyed, Jimin swiped the water from Yoongi and took deep pulls from it.
"It's not my fault the nights here are so cold," Jimin said once he finished the entire bottle, per Yoongi's demand. "I didn't bring enough blankets."
Yoongi stared at him, irritation flicking across his face. Thinking the dragon was about to argue some more, Jimin sighed and staggered to his feet, picking up his bow.
"Let's go," Jimin said, grumpy at their unsuccessful training and not wanting to look at the disappointment on Yoongi's face anymore. He was also too tired to bicker, and he wanted nothing more than to roll into bed and sleep.
Yoongi followed, a half step behind Jimin as they began walking.
"Wait!" Jimin halted abruptly, and Yoongi cursed when he ran into Jimin back.
"What?" Yoongi's hands reflexively caught Jimin's waist, and the dragon scanned Jimin's face with an expression of what looked like concern.
"My arrows...we left them all in the targets," Jimin moaned, turning in Yoongi's hold. "We need to go get them."
"Don't worry about it."
Jimin scowled up at Yoongi. "I'll have no arrows to shoot tomorrow if we don't collect them. They'll weaken if left out overnight, the morning dew makes the shafts all soggy. And it's about time that I sharpened their broadheads, so—"
"I'll get them before night falls, don't worry," Yoongi used his hands on Jimin's waist to gently urge him forward, finally letting go once Jimin was walking again. "It'll be quicker for me to collect them without you on my back."
After a few moments of silence, Yoongi said, "You did better than I thought you would, up there."
Jimin scoffed. "I didn't hit the center of a single target."
"I didn't expect you to."
"Your expectations in me are lower than I thought, then."
Yoongi let out a long breath. "It takes time, to be able to do that. Nobody expects you to get it all on the first try. None of the other Kim archers are, either. We'll keep practicing, and we'll both learn and get better."
Jimin sniffled, his head beginning to pound. Though he realized that Yoongi was trying to reassure him, he couldn't help but fixate on the fact that Yoongi hadn't expected much of him at all.
In the Park clan, Jimin had been the best archer there. Once he'd begun training in the Kim clan, Jimin always believed that he was among the better archers there, too. It was the only thing he knew that he was good at, but was that even true, now? Was that true in the face of a battle where his own life, where Yoongi's life, depended on Jimin and his abilities?
After a few moments of Jimin not responding, Yoongi sighed. Reaching out, he lightly pressed his thumb to the space between Jimin's brows, the same way the dragons had formally greeted Jimin and the Kim clan when they'd arrived.
"Go eat, moondine should be ready by now," Yoongi said, steering Jimin towards the direction of the dining hall. "Spend tomorrow resting. We'll continue training the day after."
"What? No," Jimin shook his head adamantly. "I'll be fine after tonight. Let's meet tomorrow."
Yoongi's mouth stretched into a stiff line. "I'm busy tomorrow, pipsqueak. I'll see you the day after."
With that, Yoongi sauntered off with quick strides, not bothering to turn back at Jimin's call of his name. Looking up, Jimin realized that Yoongi had walked him directly to the dining hall. Despite his arguments, Jimin did feel horrible. Part of him debated skipping dinner altogether and just going back to his bed to knock out. But he knew that he'd feel even worse upon waking up if he did, so he trudged into the dining hall — dirty clothes, weapons and all.
It was no surprise that, due to how poorly Jimin was feeling, he ended up running face-first into a stranger's back. Stumbling back in surprise, Jimin immediately dipped down into an off-balance bow.
"I'm so sorry," he muttered. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's fine," the dragon replied. "Ah, you're Yoongi's partner, aren't you?"
Looking up in surprise, Jimin nodded. "How did you know?"
The dragon laughed, reaching up to run a hand through his light brown hair. He had tattoos along his arms, just like all the other dragons in the Min clan, but Jimin couldn't help but notice that Yoongi and Leader Min had the most. He wondered what the tattoos symbolized, or if they didn't mean anything at all.
"Everyone paid attention to who Leader Min deemed good enough to be his son's partner," he said. "We were all thinking that it'd be Leader Kim's son."
Jimin blinked, wondering if Seokjin would have been a better match for Yoongi. Seokjin was so easygoing and personable that he probably wouldn't have this strange tension with Yoongi the way Jimin did.
"My name's Chinhae," the dragon introduced himself. "I'm paired with Sanghoon."
"Ah," Jimin acknowledged.
Sanghoon was a skilled archer with a serious demeanor. He was born to be a warrior, strong and quick on his feet, and Chinhae was lucky to have him as a partner.
When Jimin said so, Chinhae hummed dismissively, eyes roving over Jimin's face, then dipping down to his neck. Jimin blinked at the blatant way Chinhae was looking at him.
"There are luckier dragons," Chinhae said after a brief pause, eyes flicking back up to meet Jimin's.
An arm was being slung around his shoulders before Jimin could respond.
"Chim, you look dead on your feet," Taehyung said, waving dismissively to Chinhae as he lead Jimin towards the food. "Let's eat."
Jimin blinked, a bit disoriented, then mindlessly grabbed a bowl of steaming soup, the building ache in his throat needing something warm to soothe it.
"What was Chinhae-ssi saying to you?" Taehyung asked, grabbing a plate of broiled chicken and pointing towards Jimin to let him know that it was also for him.
Normally, Jimin would protest and try to carry the plate himself, but he was feeling congested and pouty and his throat was burning and it felt nice to let the other dragon dote on him, just a little bit.
"Nothing important," Jimin dismissed, still a bit confused at the interaction himself.
Jimin was fussed over at the table once Seokjin announced that he'd been feeling sick since the morning. Jeongguk got up to get him a second serving of soup once Jimin realized that he couldn't stomach the flavorful chicken all too well.
Dinner passed by in a blur, but Jimin found comfort in the way their voices drifted around him, in the way Taehyung stayed sitting pressed to his side as if he was offering a shoulder for Jimin to lean on if he got too tired, in the way Hoseok kept wiping the table where droplets of Jimin's soup sometimes spilled, in the way Seokjin held his hand as they walked back to their cabin.
When Jimin slid into bed that night, he was so tired he didn't even notice that his blankets were piled higher than usual. That there was the softest fur pressing up against his skin. He had the soundest sleep he'd had since they'd arrived at the Min clan, and even as sick as he was, Jimin stayed bundled up and warm in his bed that entire night.
The next morning, Jimin sat up in bed, running his hands over the new blankets in awe. There were three of them — a tangerine colored quilt embroidered through with magnolias, a plain white duvet, and a luxurious, furry blanket that looked handmade. Jimin was especially pulled towards the furry one, couldn't help but run the soft material over his cheeks, through his fingers.
He stayed in bed that day, Seokjin bringing him food and medicine between his training sessions with Namjoon. With nothing else to do but lay there with his own thoughts, Jimin couldn't help but fixate on the fact that the only person he'd told about being cold at night was Yoongi.
He thought about the way Yoongi wasn't there for dinner the night before. It was just the right amount of time for the dragon to collect some blankets and drop them off on Jimin's bed before he and Seokjin got back.
When Namjoon popped his head into the room that evening, Jimin couldn't help the shy blush that rose to his cheeks when he saw Namjoon's nostrils visibly flare as he sniffed the air, eyes pointed directly at Jimin's blankets.
"Yoongi hyung visited?" Namjoon asked, coming into the room with a tray full of food.
"No," Jimin responded.
"Oh," Namjoon said. "I just assumed, because..."
Jimin fisted the furry blanket.
Because he could smell Yoongi on them.
Because Yoongi had taken the time to silently pile Jimin's bed with blankets, mere minutes after Jimin had complained about cold nights.
"Can I come in?" Namjoon asked. "I brought you food for moondine. Jin hyung was going to, but I told him I could go instead. He's been complaining about a sore ass all day."
Jimin laughed and motioned the dragon in, humming out his thanks as Namjoon placed a tray on his bedside table.
"Yoongi hyung doesn't hate me, does he?" Jimin blurted.
Surprised, Namjoon stared for a beat before he let out a sharp laugh. "I promise you, Jimin, what he feels for you is far from hatred."
"We argue a lot, though. And...I feel like I'm a burden on him," Jimin said, reaching out for a cloth to blow his nose. "It's not even one week into training and I'm already sick. I just...I guess I just don't know why Leader Min chose me to be his partner."
Namjoon grimaced sympathetically. Sighing, he gingerly sat himself down on the side of Jimin's bed, looking like he was contemplating his next words carefully.
"There's a saying in our clan that we learn from when we're young," Namjoon said. "'A burden is nothing more than a heart well cared for'."
Jimin mulled the phrase over in his mind, but couldn't quite glean the meaning of it.
"It's something that we all attribute different meanings to," Namjoon explained. "But I, and most of the other dragons here, see it as this. If you think yourself a burden, if you are somebody that sometimes needs help or assistance to the point where you feel like you're dragging others down...it simply means that you are loved. Loved enough for others to pour their energy into helping you. And there should be no shame, in being loved. There should be nothing but relief, in reaching towards your loved ones for help when you're struggling. And besides, aren't we all a bit of a burden at some point or another? There's nothing wrong with needing a little help."
Jimin didn't realize his brows were pulled together in a frown before Namjoon was reaching out with a large hand, pressing a thumb to the crinkle.
"You are a heart very much cherished, Jimin," the dragon said. "Not only by Jin hyung, but...by the rest of us, too. I hope you can see that soon."
➶
The next day, Yoongi and Jimin left breakfast together and walked to their designated training clearing. Jimin was feeling much better after an entire day of rest, and he'd gotten through another night soundly with his new blankets.
Despite Jimin's good mood to be in better condition, however, Yoongi kept eyeing Jimin's outfit with a pinched lip. It was drizzling slightly that morning, and Yoongi had wanted to call their training session off for another day. Jimin thought that was ridiculous and practically dragged the dragon towards their clearing.
"Stop looking at me like that," Jimin finally said, exasperated. "A little rain won't kill me."
"Wearing a few more layers wouldn't kill you, either," Yoongi was quick to retaliate.
"You're wearing a short-sleeved tunic!"
"Dragons run hotter than humans. Look — you're doing that strange human shiver again!"
In a flash of immature teasing, emboldened by his good mood, Jimin mocked Yoongi's words, making his voice deeper and lumbering in his steps to imitate the dragon. To his surprise, Yoongi reached out and lightly pushed him, making him stumble to the side.
"Hey!" Jimin shouted, looking towards Yoongi quick enough to find the dragon laughing.
"You're a child," Yoongi said.
Jimin let out a scandalized gasp. "I am not."
"I call it as I see it," Yoongi said nonchalantly. "It seems like your mentality is aging backwards."
"Not all of us are stuffy know-it-alls like you," Jimin said with a sniff.
"At least one of us has to have common sense," Yoongi said. "And based off your fall from my back our first flight, I'm thinking that it's definitely me."
"You'll never let that go, will you?" Jimin sighed, though he was smiling.
"I don't think I can, pipsqueak."
He realized that bantering with Yoongi was kind of...fun. Especially when the dragon looked at him with that teasing glint in his eyes.
Yoongi began turning away to undress and shift, but he paused when Jimin called his name.
"I just wanted to...thank you," Jimin said shyly, the teasing atmosphere now dissolving into a quieter sincerity. "For the blankets."
Yoongi was silent for a while, and then Jimin felt a hand on his head, not quite ruffling his hair but pressing in with a comforting pressure.
"Don't get sick anymore," Yoongi said, his voice gruff. "And ask for things when you need them."
"I didn't want to bother anyone..."
"Just...you can just come to me. For whatever it is," Yoongi said, withdrawing his hand.
Peeking up, Jimin flushed at the look of determination on the dragon's face.
"Whatever I need?"
"Yes."
"...I need you to stop calling me pipsqueak."
Yoongi smiled at him, all teeth.
"Sure thing, little one."
A week passed, and as the days went on, Jimin got better and better at hitting the targets during flight. He knew now how much to lean into Yoongi's turns, knew how to time the arrows with the wind, knew how to accurately gage the distance in which he could properly hit the target.
The better he got, the more relieved he felt. He hadn't lost his touch after all — it was all simply a matter of re-learning archery, of understanding the skill that he'd taken on so passionately in a different light. It was like meeting an old friend and loving them for who they were, but also for all the ways they'd grown, as well.
When Jimin tumbled to the ground that evening, limbs trembling with fatigue (though he was even getting used to that — his soreness was no longer unbearable, his legs a little less wobbly), he couldn't help the elated smile he threw towards Yoongi, who was still in his dragon form.
"That was amazing!" Jimin exclaimed. "We hit the center so many times!"
Jimin didn't know when it had started, but recently he and Yoongi had begun talking in plurals instead of singulars. It was always, 'we'll try again' or 'we'll do better next time' instead of 'I'. It reminded Jimin of the cheesy way couples said things like, 'we're pregnant!', but Jimin enjoyed the sense of solidarity too much to stop it.
Throwing his arms around Yoongi's thick neck, Jimin hugged the dragon in joy. Though there was always the stress of the upcoming battle they were all going to have to eventually face, this feeling of accomplishment wasn't one Jimin's felt in a long time. So he let himself relish in the happiness, however fleeting it was.
Yoongi nudged his snout into the side of Jimin's neck. He stayed there for only a second, washing Jimin's neck in warm air, before he nuzzled his head against Jimin's jaw. There were tiny, sharp spikes on the top of Yoongi's head that dug into his cheeks, but Jimin didn't say anything about the slight pain, letting warmth fill his heart at the affection.
Once the dragon had slunk away to shift back to human form, Yoongi returned with a gentle smile and a water bottle.
"You're improving so much," Yoongi said. "I told you all we needed was a little practice."
Jimin beamed up at him, and Yoongi reached out again to touch his hair. His hand jerked downward, as if wanting to touch someplace else, but he kept his palm flat on Jimin's head as he drank the water.
A droplet of water escaped the corner of Jimin's lips and rolled down his neck. Yoongi's eyes followed the path it made, his gaze searing. The dragon's eyes stayed on Jimin's neck as he swallowed, and for some strange reason Jimin followed the instinct to tilt his head even further back, giving Yoongi a better view of his throat.
Jimin saw Yoongi's Adam's apple bob as he swallowed thickly, but the dragon's golden eyes flickered up towards Jimin's when he was finished drinking.
"Jimin-ah. You did well."
With this, Jimin found something new to add to his collection of little joys.
"We did well."
➶
"What do they mean?"
Yoongi tilted his head at Jimin's question, his eyes focused on Jimin's plate. "What?"
Jimin huffed, stabbing a steamed radish with his chopsticks and shoving a piece into his mouth, rolling his eyes at the way Yoongi kept staring at his plate that still wasn't half done.
"All your tattoos."
Blinking, Yoongi finally looked at Jimin's face. They were eating breakfast earlier than usual, all their friends still sleeping. Both of them had run into each other by the core of the village that morning, both of them claiming that they couldn't sleep any longer.
"They're symbols," Yoongi drawled.
His voice was rougher in the mornings, slow and lazy in a way that made Jimin want to curl back up underneath his blankets.
"Symbols?"
Yoongi scratched the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.
"They're not really a big deal. We all have them. They just...they represent accomplishment. Lessons learned. Experiences lived. Every time we overcome something, or do something worthwhile, the elder in the village sees it in a dream, and comes to us to have that accomplishment tattooed onto our skin, so we can remember it forever."
Jimin blinked in shock.
"You...you have a lot."
Yoongi grunted, shoving a piece of meat from his plate onto Jimin's.
"You have a lot," Jimin repeated. "More than any other person here, except for your father!"
"Finish your plate," Yoongi groused. "And that's not true. There are many other dragons who have just as many as I do."
"Who?" Jimin challenged.
When Yoongi struggled to come up with a name, Jimin made an awed noise.
"What does this one mean?" he reached out for the tattooed rope on Yoongi's forearm, tracing it over once with a finger. The tattoo showed the rope tied in a meticulous knot.
Yoongi's arm flexed underneath his touch.
"When we were fledglings — that's what humans call teenage years, I think — Taehyung and I got caught in a storm," Yoongi explained. "It was a bad one — I don't think there's been one that harsh since. It was raining so badly we couldn't find our way back to the clan, and the rain washed away scents, too. Your first night here, when we were talking about the few times in our lives that we've felt cold...that was one of those times, for Tae and I."
Jimin listened with bated breath, brows pinched together with concern, despite knowing that both of them were alive and well today.
"Taehyung was younger, and smaller. He got so tired and cold that he couldn't fly anymore. One second we were side by side in the air and the next he was shifted back to his human form, hurtling towards the ground. I just barely caught him, and somehow I tossed him onto my back. It took me some time, but luckily I was able to find our way back home. "
"Yoongi hyung," Jimin breathed out, voice shaking.
"We were both okay, just shaken," Yoongi shrugged nonchalantly. "We laugh about it now. But the next day, Elder was at my door and gave me this tattoo. The knot symbolizes the way I'd held onto Tae, about the loyalty that I'd shown to our friendship."
It shows how you risked your life to save someone you loved, even as a fledgling, Jimin thought to himself. It shows that you are brave, and strong, and selfless. It shows how much love your heart holds, even if you show it in such quiet ways.
Admiration for Yoongi swelled in Jimin's chest, blooming like a garden in the hollows of his ribs.
"It must have been scary," Jimin said instead. "You were very brave."
"We were fine," Yoongi waved it off.
Jimin cast him a deadpan look. "Just accept my compliment."
Yoongi barked out a short laugh, but didn't retaliate.
"Hurry up and finish," Yoongi said, looking back down towards his plate. "I want to go before it gets busy in here."
Scrunching his nose, Jimin shoveled food into his mouth. "Don't be bossy."
Yoongi just peered pointedly at Jimin's plate as he ate, and Jimin felt fondness swell up in him. Now that he was growing more and more used to Yoongi's mannerisms, the dragon was often...cute. It was funny, now that Jimin realized Yoongi was all bark and no bite.
Neither of them said anything about the way Jimin's hand was still resting on Yoongi's arm, fingers lightly tracing over the numerous tattoos there.
➶
Jimin slumped down at their usual dinner table, muscles unendingly sore from training. He was exhausted, but everybody in the Min clan seemed to be humming with some unnamable excitement.
He and Yoongi had split up at the entrance of the dining hall, Yoongi going off to get both of them food, ushering Jimin towards their seated friends. Lately, the dragon had been insisting upon getting Jimin's food for him, and it made Jimin feel too warm for him to truly resist. Yoongi came back and settled in across from Jimin the second the doors to the dining hall opened.
Seokjin seemed to be in an especially giddy mood that day, because he strode to the table beside Jeongguk, he leaned down to playfully kiss Jimin's head.
"Hyung," Jimin fake-grumbled.
"What is that you do?" Taehyung suddenly asked. "Are you smelling him?"
"Oh no, are we about to have another 'shiver' conversation?" Seokjin groaned, sitting down.
"I just want to know! You and Jiminie do it to each other all the time, I want to do it too!"
As if proving his point, Taehyung clumsily leaned over and mouthed at Jimin's ear.
"Get off!" Jimin shrieked, laughing at the ticklish sensation. "You're not doing it right!"
"So it is something, then! Tell us!"
"It's a kiss," Jimin laughed. "It's something you do with someone you really adore."
"Oh," Jeongguk exclaimed. "That's nice!"
"Why wasn't I doing it right?" Taehyung pouted, leaning in as if he wanted to try again.
Jimin's face flushed. Never in a million years would he have thought he'd be sitting there teaching dragons how to kiss.
"Well...you have to pucker your lips. Like this," Jimin demonstrated, puckering his lips and then leaning over to give Taehyung a kiss on the cheek.
The dragon looked so delighted that Jimin couldn't help but laugh.
"I want one too," Hoseok complained. "Give me a kiss!"
Seokjin rolled his eyes but acquiesced, leaning over to peck Hoseok on the forehead.
"These kisses are platonic," Seokjin explained. "But don't kiss any humans on the mouth unless you're...hm, how do you dragons say it? Courting? Mated?"
"Ah," Namjoon said. "Kisses on the mouth are romantic, kisses anywhere else are platonic? What strange rules."
"And don't kiss anybody you've just met, either," Jimin laughed. "It's an affectionate thing."
Jeongguk leaned over to kiss Namjoon clumsily on the arm, and the two of them laughed at the new sensation. Namjoon paid it forward to Yoongi, pressing a sloppy kiss right on the softness of Yoongi's cheek.
"Joon-ah," Yoongi complained, though after he wiped his cheek with his arm, there was a small smile on his lips.
"Anyway, are you two ready for tomorrow?" Taehyung glanced between Seokjin and Jimin.
"What?" Jimin asked. "What's tomorrow?"
Hoseok scrunched his brows at him. "Does Yoongi hyung tell you anything?"
Squinting his eyes at Yoongi, Jimin shook his head. "As a matter of fact, he doesn't! What's happening tomorrow? Hyung, why haven't you told me?"
Seokjin rolled his eyes with a fond smile. "Tomorrow is their little dragon olympics. They're all very excited about it."
"Hyung!" Jeongguk protested. "I told you not to call it that!"
"That's what it is!" Seokjin cackled as Jeongguk jumped on him, pressing him into a gentle headlock.
Jimin squinted at them, noting how much closer the two of them had gotten lately. They were always sitting by each other, and Jeongguk spent every evening in their room until it was time to sleep, cuddled up next to Seokjin as they read together.
Seokjin caught his eye, and Jimin raised an eyebrow. The tips of Seokjin's ears flushed red, but he didn't say anything more.
"What is an olympic?" Taehyung asked, tilted his head to the side in confusion.
Jimin didn't answer him, trying to get a response to his own question. "So you're all going to...what? Compete in sports tomorrow? Play games?"
"Play games," Namjoon intoned. "Play games! You can't diminish tomorrow to mere games! Yoongi hyung, tell him!"
"It's just a competition we do each year," Yoongi replied. "Dragons get restless and competitive by nature. In ancient times, these sports actually determined your ranking within the clan. Now, though, it's more just to show off how much you've been training for the past year and to joke around with friends."
Jeongguk rolled his eyes. "He says that as if he's not the most competitive out of all of us."
"It's not that," Hoseok shook his head. "It's just that Yoongi hyung always wins. It's unfair."
Eyebrows raised with surprise, Jimin looked towards Yoongi. "Really?"
If Jimin didn't know any better, he'd think Yoongi was blushing. "He's exaggerating. I don't compete in all the sports anyway, just the ones they pull me into."
Taehyung made a snorting noise under his breath, but the dragons let it go.
Yoongi nudged the food a bit closer to Jimin, motioning for him to eat.
He didn't look away until Jimin took a big bite, and something like a satisfied smile played along the edges of Yoongi's lips.
The next day, Seokjin and Jimin walked to the core together after breakfast. There had barely been anybody in the dining hall, which was an unusual sight, and all the food options were chilled leftovers from the day before.
"I guess even the cooks are participating today," Jimin noted.
Seokjin hummed. "I wonder if we'll get to participate in anything."
"Do you want to?" Jimin asked, voice incredulous.
"I suppose not," Seokjin laughed, groaning as he stretched his arms up to the sky. "I don't remember what my body feels like when it's not sore."
"I don't either," Jimin complained. "We need a massage."
Suddenly feeling mischievous, Jimin flashed Seokjin a little smile. "Though, I'm sure if you asked a certain baby maknae, he'd be sure to give one to you."
"Of course he would," Seokjin said. "Anybody would if I just batted my lashes prettily enough."
"Your ears are on fire, hyung."
Seokjin avoided eye contact with Jimin. "Because you're staring at me."
"I'm staring because you have a crush."
"Don't call it that!" Seokjin finally hissed, reaching up to smack his palms against his own cheeks. "That makes it sound...childish. Besides, don't think I haven't noticed what's going on between you and Yoongi."
Genuinely stumped, Jimin stopped walking and stared. "What?"
Suddenly aware that he was on higher ground now, Seokjin threw him a gloating look.
"What to you mean, what? He coddles you so much, it's sickening."
"No, he doesn't!" Jimin argued, baffled. "He picks on me all the time!"
Rolling his eyes, Seokjin said, "Yes, because every time he teases, you smack his arm and lean into him, giggling your sweet little giggle. Please pay more attention, little one."
Jimin suddenly regretted teasing Seokjin about Jeongguk. As if seeing this realization on Jimin's face, Seokjin laughed and hooked an arm around Jimin's shoulders, urging him to keep walking.
This entire time, Jimin thought that the strange attraction he felt towards Yoongi was one-sided — so much so that he never even considered that there might be something between him and Yoongi. But if Seokjin noticed something, maybe Jimin was a little more oblivious than he thought.
When they made it to the core, they heard commotion coming from a nearby clearing. The two of them followed the noise and suddenly stumbled back with twin yelps when two dragons cut through the air right in front of them. If their wings had been extended and not tucked in close towards their bodies for a faster flight, they would have knocked Jimin and Seokjin right over.
The crowd was screaming, watching the two dragons whirl through the air. They were diving and dancing around each other, looking like they were trying to knock their opponent out of the air.
"...This doesn't look like the type of thing we can participate in," Seokjin breathed out, eyes wide as they tracked the dragons.
The smaller one with azure scales finally got the upper hand, using his tail to knock the other off balance mid-turn. He flew up towards the clouds as his opponent crashed down, shaking the ground with his weight.
The crowd went ballistic as the winner did a victory lap over their heads, tipping his own head back to spurt out three breaths of fire. Jimin found himself laughing and clapping along, caught up in the sheer excitement that permeated throughout the clan.
When the dragon landed and shifted back, Jimin gasped when they found Jeongguk grinning at them, waving happily.
The dragon Jeongguk had knocked to the ground also shifted back, and the two of them patted each other on the back with fond smiles before they were pulling their clothes back on.
"Hyung, did you see?" Jeongguk bound up to them, practically vibrating with excitement. "I won!"
"We saw," Seokjin laughed, reaching out to smooth out Jeongguk's messy hair. "You were amazing, Jeongguk!"
Jeongguk absolutely beamed at that, leaning into Seokjin's hand like a puppy.
"Let's go, the other hyungs were preparing for the sparring ring. I'm still too young to compete in it, but we can go watch!"
"Sparring ring," Seokjin repeated, looking towards Jimin with wide eyes.
Jimin widened his eyes back, intrigued. He didn't know what he'd imagined when he pictured this day, but it wasn't this.
All around them, he could hear different crowds of dragons scattered about, all cheering and laughing and talking. Their sounds echoed through the forest like nymphs jumping from tree to tree, and it made Jimin feel like the entire world was happy.
He got sucked into the feeling as Jeongguk pulled them both through a bustling crowd. Strangely, the dragons parted for them to let them near the front. They got there just in time to see Yoongi and Hoseok bowing to each other. They were in a makeshift ring, and it took Jimin a few seconds to realize that the boundaries were marked by fire.
The large circle of flames was what was keeping the both of them within the ring. Both of them were shirtless, their tattoos prominent against their skin.
When they rose from their bow, they reached out to grasp each other's forearms.
"That shows that they're not actually fighting," Jeongguk whispered, explaining. "All spars have to start out with that contact, or else their dragons might get a bit too aggressive and lose control."
Then, Yoongi and Hoseok were letting each other go and grinning at each other ruthlessly, baring their teeth with mock-growls. Jimin saw Hoseok jerk his head to the side, in his direction.
Yoongi seemed to stiffen, then the dragon's eyes slowly wandered over and found Jimin. When their gazes met, Yoongi's face hardened with conviction.
There was a familiar laugh, and Jimin broke eye contact with Yoongi to find Namjoon standing on the very edge of the circle, beside Leader Min. Namjoon was grinning towards him, something sly in his eyes, and Jimin shot him a confused look, unsure why everybody was suddenly looking at him.
When he glanced back at Yoongi, the dragon allowed their eyes to meet for a few more seconds before he was turning back towards Hoseok. The younger dragon seemed to say something to tease Yoongi, because he reached out to playfully shove at Hoseok's shoulder before the match even began.
"We're all familiar with the rules, but I'll repeat them for our guests," Leader Min called out, his voice carrying throughout the clearing. "First dragon to break the circle is out. There is to be no shifting, and no outside interference. Warrior Min and Warrior Jung may now pick up their weapons."
"No shifting?" Jimin asked, intrigued.
He'd automatically assumed that they would be sparring in their dragon forms.
"We like to train our human bodies too," Jeongguk explained. "Yoongi hyung and Hobi hyung are among the strongest in this form. They both have a marking for it."
Jimin watched in awe as Yoongi and Hoseok both began stepping back, never turning their back on one another. They both bent at the same time, picking up their weapons and rising again as if in a synchronized dance.
Swallowing thickly, Jimin noted that Hoseok had picked up a glaive, and Yoongi two long swords.
"They're...not really going to hurt each other, are they?" Jimin asked nervously.
Jeongguk hummed. "Not too badly, of course."
Worried, Jimin stepped a bit closer, wary of the fire keeping him out of the ring but feeling a pressing urge to call something out to Yoongi, or to at least let the dragon know he was there, that he was watching.
But with the way Yoongi's eyes cut towards Jimin, maybe he didn't need the reminder.
Leader Min called something out that was echoed by the rest of the crowd, and then Yoongi and Hoseok were crashing towards each other like two opposing tides.
Jimin lost his breath at how fast they were — it was clear to see that neither were human, despite being in their human form. They moved too quickly and too powerfully, their blades colliding with deafening clangs.
His eyes tried to track their movements, but Jimin couldn't look away from the corded muscle bulging underneath the skin of Yoongi's back, his arms. Yoongi's face was twisted with a warrior-like determination, sweat making his black hair stick to his neck and temple.
He and Hoseok twisted away from each other for a moment, then Yoongi swung one sword over his head as he spun back towards the other dragon, his blade soaring through the air with a clear, powerful arch towards Hoseok's head. His other sword was hurtling towards Hoseok's torso, essentially trapping him in-between the two blades.
Hoseok was quick, however, and ducked below one sword while using his own weapon to intercept the other.
There was a growl of frustration from Yoongi at that, and despite the distance Jimin could hear Hoseok laugh. He didn't know how the other dragon could be so carefree in the middle of his spar when Jimin was only a bystander and his entire body was tense.
The two of them danced back and forth to the cheers of the crowd, Jeongguk cheering for both of them so he was shouting non-stop.
Moving their bodies like this, spinning around each other in tight half-moons and just barely missing each other with their weapons as they lunged and retreated, Jimin could tell that they sparred often, and were familiar with each other's fighting styles. They seemed to know the other's next move as if they were their own.
Jimin gasped when Hoseok nicked Yoongi's arm. Blood flowed down, a stark contrast to his pale skin. The pain didn't seem to deter Yoongi — instead, it seemed to make him fight back even harder. Shock filtered across Hoseok's face when Yoongi retaliated with double the force, pushing Hoseok back several steps as Yoongi relentlessly advanced, his blades catching sun with every swing.
Hoseok guarded with his glaive, but it wasn't enough. Yoongi pushed him back until Hoseok's back was right by the flaming border, then stopped with both his arms fully extended, the tips of his twin swords a mere centimeter away from Hoseok's neck.
They both stared at each other, breathing heavily, sweat and blood trickling down their skin. For a second, it seemed like neither of them would move, but then Hoseok was grinning again, all seriousness gone from his face, as he acquiesced and took a step back, exiting the ring and extinguishing the fire.
There was a cry from somewhere, signaling Yoongi's victory. He and Hoseok bowed to each other again, before slinging their arms around each other's shoulders in a friendly, rough hug.
Jimin let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, eyes wide with awe. It was one thing to see Yoongi's agility and strength in his dragon form, but it was completely different seeing that he was just as strong in his human form.
Just as capable.
It made attraction churn in Jimin's gut, the way Yoongi was striding towards them now, his pants slung low on his hips, uncaring of the small injuries he'd attained during the spar. There was a cocky grin on his face, one Jimin had never seen before, and he couldn't seem to look away.
Stopping right in front of Jimin, Yoongi immediately reached out and swiftly rubbed a warm thumb across Jimin's blushing cheek. Jimin blinked at him in shock.
"There was ash on your cheek," Yoongi said. "From the fire."
"Oh," Jimin said, dipping his eyes to the ground as he wiped his own hand across his cheek. "...I never knew you knew how to wield swords that well, hyung."
"Impressed, pip?"
Scowling, Jimin reached out to shove Yoongi back a step, but the dragon's step back was delayed. Annoyance flared up in him knowing that Yoongi only budged because he was humoring Jimin.
"Not anymore."
"Oh, but you were before?"
"Not at all," Jimin sniffed. "I thought Hoseok was much more impressive, actually. I've never seen anybody wield a weapon like his so gracefully."
To Jimin's surprise, actual annoyance seemed to flash through Yoongi's eyes.
"Plenty of others know how to wield a glaive," Yoongi muttered.
Humored by the reaction, Jimin grinned towards Hoseok, who was bounding towards them after breaking off from a different group.
"Hyung!" Jimin said. "You were amazing!"
He could feel Yoongi glowering at him, and Seokjin had to stifle his laughter with a firm cough behind his fist.
"Jimin-ah, this is why you're my favorite," Hoseok leaned in and pressed an obnoxious kiss to Jimin's head.
He leaned back and winked, his face still close enough to Jimin's that Yoongi couldn't see the expression.
Yoongi glared at the spot where Hoseok kissed, arms crossing in front of his chest.
"You lost quicker than you usually did," Yoongi addressed Hoseok with a scowl, though just moments ago the two had been hugging and laughing. "Maybe you need to train a little more."
Hoseok rolled his eyes at the older dragon.
"You were trying especially hard today," Hoseok quipped. "Someone you trying to impress?"
Yoongi lunged for Hoseok then, and the two of them tousled playfully, the air filling with low, rumbling growls.
Jimin pointedly looked away from the way Yoongi's muscles flexed as he manhandled Hoseok into a headlock.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to stop staring at the way the dragon's tattoos wrapped around his thin waist and broad shoulders. Or the way Yoongi's arms were lined with veins, extending down to his large hands.
"Hyung, I won my race!" Jeongguk announced once Hoseok and Yoongi had let go of each other.
They were on the way to watch Taehyung compete in an agility course now, and Jimin was still buzzing inside with how happy everybody seemed. Though the Min clan seemed tight-knit and close on a regular day, today solidified how much of a real family they all were, sharing these traditions and customs.
"To no one's surprise," Yoongi teased, but his voice was fond as he reached over to ruffle the younger dragon's hair. "You've always been the best at everything."
"Next year when I can finally spar, I'll have you beat then too," Jeongguk goaded, nose crinkling as he ducked away from Yoongi's punch to sidle onto the other side of Seokjin.
"Don't get too cocky," Namjoon laughed. "Yoongi hyung's never lost a spar since he's turned of age."
"Never?" Jimin asked.
"Not once," Hoseok affirmed. "I knew I would be losing going in today."
Jimin was undoubtably impressed, and he let it show on his face. Yoongi reached over and chucked a finger underneath Jimin's chin. Flushing, Jimin pushed Yoongi's hand away, but stayed walking beside the dragon anyway, not saying anything when Yoongi leaned over for a split second and nuzzled into his hair.
Jimin didn't know what the action meant. All he knew was that he couldn't stop thinking about it for the rest of the day.
➶
Though difficult, training was also exhilarating. Jimin found his heart rate picking up in excitement every time he wrapped the now-familiar leather around his waist, hoisting himself onto Yoongi's back and hooking himself in with steady hands.
Now that they'd both gotten the hang of hitting the targets, they began training with other pairs every other day. This time, they were with Namjoon and Seokjin, and Jimin squeezed his legs around Yoongi's scaled back to let the dragon know that he was secure.
"I'm ready," Jimin said, winding a bandana around the lower half of his face to protect his nose and mouth from the cold winds.
Yoongi let out a noise of acknowledgment, but flicked his body to the left to situate Jimin more securely in the middle of his back. Now that he was more used to the feeling of Jimin's weight, Yoongi was getting better at telling when Jimin was off-balance.
"Hey," Jimin groused at the jostling, but kept steady with a hand on the neural spine in front of him, his other hand clutching his bow.
Seokjin gave him a thumbs up to let him know that he was also situated, running his hand down Namjoon's scales once, and then the dragons were crouching down and shooting into the sky in unison.
His and Seokjin's quivers were full of blunt arrows — ones that would bruise their targets but not pierce through skin. They would be acting as each other's enemies today, and were going to 'spar' with each other in midair.
"Don't cry too hard when you lose today," Seokjin goaded, shouting at him from atop Namjoon's back when they were stopped high enough in the air.
Namjoon's dragon form was slightly broader and larger than Yoongi's, his scales a rich jade.
"If you needed to give yourself a pep talk, you should've done it on the ground," Jimin teased back, nocking a blunt arrow into his bow and holding it in place with a single practiced hand. "There's no time to be scared now."
Yoongi rumbled underneath him, the sound vibrating through Jimin's entire body. Namjoon made a sound back, a playful type of roar, and then they were once again ascending.
There was a second where Jimin felt himself lose balance, but he leaned forward with practiced ease and stayed close to the dragon's warmth, centering himself again. Using the muscles in his thighs to clutch at Yoongi's back underneath him, Jimin slowly took his hand off of the spine in front of him and pulled back the arrow, taking no time at all to aim and shoot it towards the other pair.
Namjoon deftly pulled himself to the left, making the arrow whiz past them harmlessly. Jimin grabbed onto Yoongi again with both hands when he felt himself lifting slightly from where he was seated, a startled shout escaping his mouth as the dragon dove downwards faster than Jimin could comprehend.
A blunt arrow just barely missed Jimin's head.
"Don't aim for the face, hyung!" Jimin shrieked.
Namjoon let out a smoky, rumbling laugh, one that sounded like a faraway clap of thunder. As if in retaliation, Yoongi flew straight towards Namjoon then, getting so close that Jimin thought they'd barrel into each other.
All of his instincts wanted him to hang onto Yoongi for dear life, but Jimin swallowed his trepidation and tightened his legs again, reaching back for another arrow.
As if in sync, Yoongi and Namjoon both jerked to their left before they could ram head-first into each other, but they were so close that their scales brushed. For a split second, Jimin and Seokjin were face to face, too close for either of them to fire their nocked arrows.
All Jimin could focus on was a bead of sweat trailing down Seokjin's temple before they were flying past each other. Jimin turned back towards them and released his arrow, this time watching as it bounced off of Namjoon's flank.
Namjoon let out a faux roar of anger as he felt the impact.
Yoongi responded to it with a haughty sound of his own, and when he flew up through a cloud with a gentle spin, Jimin had a feeling that he was being complimented.
The day passed like that, and it was only when the sun was beginning to set did they begin descending.
Jimin was coated with sweat despite the colder air up in the sky, and his entire body was aching. Once Yoongi finally found his feet on the ground again, Jimin took a moment to catch his breath, slumping over and pressing his face onto the neural spine in front of him. None of Yoongi's blood ran through it, so it was cool to the touch and felt good on his overheated face. He hoped that dragons didn't have any sensory nerves there, because he didn't want Yoongi to be able to feel that he was practically nuzzling into him.
Yoongi made a questioning sound when Jimin didn't immediately slide off, twisting his neck around to peer at Jimin, though he couldn't get a proper look. Instead, he gently shook his body like a dog shaking off water and propped a wing back, and tips of it grazing Jimin's sweaty hair.
"Okay, wait a second," Jimin groaned, popping his neck from side to side to hear the satisfying cracks.
He clumsily unhooked himself and then clambered onto Yoongi's wing, stumbling still as he tried to go back onto the ground. Jimin wondered if he'd ever learn a graceful way to get off of Yoongi's back.
Like after every training session, Jimin slumped onto the floor by Yoongi's feet, underneath his soft belly.
He fumbled with the heavy leather around his waist and took a huge sigh of relief once the laces of it were loosened, his lungs feeling like they were expanding back to their normal size.
Seokjin was laying on his back in the field, but he lazily tossed an arrow over in Jimin's direction without looking. Jimin batted it away, too sore and exhausted to retaliate.
"What's wrong, Jin hyung?" Jimin said, his voice tired and lacking any of the exuberance they'd held earlier. "Are you crying over there because Yoongi hyung and I got more shots in than you?"
"That is untrue and you know it," Seokjin muttered, his voice muffled.
Jimin laughed, but didn't argue. He and Seokjin had always been evenly matched in terms of their archery skills, and that hadn't changed. Seokjin had gotten in just as many shots, and Jimin belatedly wondered if Yoongi was bruised from them.
Yoongi and Namjoon had slinked off to shift back, but then they were collapsing back by their respective humans, having only tugged on pants, their torsos bare and sweating.
Yoongi held out a bottle of water to him, his other hand reaching over to cup Jimin's jaw, moving his face so that he'd look at Yoongi.
"Drink," Yoongi said. "You need it."
Silently, Jimin took the water from Yoongi's hand, allowing himself to graze Yoongi's fingers as he did. It was full but already open, its cap twisted off and laying in the palm of Yoongi's hand.
Yoongi's eyes were intent as he watched Jimin hydrate, and Jimin had to concentrate so he didn't somehow choke under the dragon's intense stare. Jimin pulled the water away from his lips when it was halfway gone, and held the rest out for Yoongi to drink.
The dragon shook his head, reaching out to bring the bottle back towards Jimin's mouth, his entire hand enveloping Jimin's over the bottle.
"Drink it all," Yoongi said. "I'll get more for myself later."
"I'm fine," Jimin said. "You've got it harder anyway, you've literally been carrying me on your back. You need it more than I do."
"Your weight is negligible in my dragon form," Yoongi said. "I barely even feel you. Drink it all."
Jimin did so, only to distract himself from doing anything stupid, like reaching out to squeeze one of Yoongi's toned biceps, or pecking his cheek. Yoongi moved even closer as he drank, and reached out to the leather that was still draped loosely around Jimin's waist.
The dragon deftly unlaced it entirely, getting it off of Jimin's waist and setting it down beside his legs. Then he was reaching over to take the quiver from Jimin's shoulders, and set that down as well.
With every lightened burden, Jimin felt himself gravitating more and more towards Yoongi. He wanted nothing more than to shut his eyes and lean into the dragon's broad chest. The way Yoongi touched him so delicately and carefully made Jimin's cheeks burn.
"Done," Jimin said quietly, reaching his hand out for the water bottle's cap.
Yoongi took the bottle instead, capping it himself and then standing to get himself some with a satisfied rumble.
With his back turned, Jimin could stare openly at the muscles rippling underneath Yoongi's skin as he moved. There was so much strength within Yoongi's body and Jimin couldn't help but feel protected by the sight.
When his eyes wandered over towards Namjoon and Seokjin, he found both of them staring right at him.
Staring at him stare at Yoongi.
Jimin flushed beet red, and Seokjin let out a loud laugh.
"Are you good to stand up now?" Yoongi asked once he was beside Jimin again. "Once the sun sets the chill comes in fast. You should shower and dry off before then."
"I'm hungry," Jimin said, a bit of a pout to his words when he put a hand to his belly and pressed against the hunger pangs.
There was a low grumble from the back of Yoongi's throat, and then the dragon was helping Jimin up with a hand under his arm.
"Shower first," Yoongi said. "If you get sick again, I'm finding a new partner to train with."
Glaring, Jimin huffed and yanked his arm away. "You wouldn't."
"I would."
"Nobody else is as good of an archer as me," Jimin boasted, feeling bratty.
"Nobody else has as big of a head either," Yoongi quipped. "Perhaps whoever they are would be lighter to carry around without all that weight on their neck."
"You said you couldn't even feel me!" Jimin exclaimed.
Yoongi rolled his eyes to the sky. "Let's go, Jimin."
➶
When dusk cast the clan in a pretty shade of pink a few evenings later, Taehyung found Jimin and grinned, wordlessly grabbing his hand and leading him to towards his home. Jimin had never been to Taehyung's place before, and he looked around with awe when the dragon explained that he'd built it himself.
"The new moon is a very important time for us," Taehyung explained as he sat Jimin down at his vanity and helped dab a fragrant rouge onto his lips and cheeks. "It's a time to welcome everything new that the past moon had granted you, and a time to say goodbye to the things that have run their course."
"That tastes gross," Jimin complained about the rouge.
"It'll be a warm night," Taehyung ignored him, stepping back and pressing an obnoxious kiss on Jimin's forehead. "It wouldn't hurt to shed a few layers. And please, for the love of my sanity, leave your quiver at home."
"There's not much of your sanity left to love, I'm afraid," Jimin rebuked, but sighed and removed the quiver from around his back anyway, carefully leaning his bow against Taehyung's wooden writing desk.
"Is everybody coming tonight?" Jimin asked.
"Everybody who's healthy enough to leave their houses, yes," Taehyung laughed. "The new moon festival always calls for a big feast, and there's dancing and drinks! It's the most fun night of every month."
"Oh, okay," Jimin smiled, glad to understand more of what was going to happen that night. It did sound nice, to let loose a little bit. He couldn't remember the last time he'd done anything just for fun.
Once it was dark enough outside, Taehyung lead them towards the core, explaining that Seokjin had gotten ready with Jeongguk. Jimin stuck close to the dragon's side, reveling in the warmth that emanated from Taehyung's body.
"We'll meet everyone at the fire pit," Taehyung explained. "That's where all the food and dancing will be."
"I'm hungry," Jimin announced.
Even in the darkness of the night, Jimin could see the white of Taehyung's grin.
"I'm sure there's somebody who would love to get you some food, Jiminie. As usual."
Jimin was saved from retorting by a certain, distinct sound. Head turning towards it in confusion, Jimin peered into the trees, the darkness not allowing him to see a thing.
Taehyung whistled. "Guess some of them are starting early tonight."
"What?"
Jimin almost couldn't catch onto what Taehyung was insinuating, until a very loud moan interrupted his train of thought.
Jimin's jaw dropped, looking immediately towards the dragon for confirmation.
"They're—?"
Taehyung laughed, slinging an arm around Jimin's shoulders and leading them a bit quicker away from the trees.
"The last thing we celebrate during the new moon," Taehyung explained over Jimin's sputtering, "is fertility. Without the light of the moon, it's dark enough to...really be a lover."
"That's what you weren't telling me at breakfast!" Jimin screeched, recalling the way the dragons had all been so vague that morning about what would be going on at the festival. "You're — you're all unbelievable!"
Taehyung threw his head back and laughed. "You don't have to participate in anything if you don't want to! Just try not to venture into the trees too much, if you're trying to avoid running into any mates. It really is a night for fun in the other ways, too."
Jimin finally spotted a tiny ember of light, which got larger and larger as they came closer to it, away from the lewd sounds. The flame in the fire pit was roaring, warm and beautiful.
"There you are," Hoseok called out. "We were beginning to think that Jimin was putting up a fight."
Jimin and Taehyung slotted themselves into the gap the group had made for them, and for a moment Jimin's heart warmed, at the easy way they all moved to accommodate a space for him. Like it was natural, something they didn't even need to think about, Jimin's inclusion. Jimin was standing right by Yoongi, and he felt the dragon lean a little bit into him, their arms brushing.
"You are all insufferable," Jimin deadpanned, motioning out towards the dark tree line. "One of you should have told me!"
"We wanted to see how you'd react," Namjoon admitted, his dimples prominent even in the low light. "You're too easy to tease, Minnie."
"Dragons are a lot more open with that sex humans are," Seokjin explained. "I think it's kind of nice, how they aren't afraid to show their love."
"Among other things," Jimin sniffed, causing the others to break out into raucous laughter.
"Oh, Jimin, you mentioned you were starving, didn't you?" Taehyung asked innocently. "Should I go grab you some food?"
Yoongi sucked in a sharp breath at that, and Jimin turned towards him at the noise.
"You're hungry?" Yoongi asked.
Jimin wet his lips, unable to look away from the gold of Yoongi's eyes, something hot and jittery coming to life in his stomach.
"I could eat," he responded.
A deep, rumbling sound started from the center of Yoongi's chest, almost like a purr, and in the next blink the dragon was spinning on his heel and taking long strides towards the food.
Taehyung and Jeongguk laughed so hard they had to lean on each other for support, and even in the darkness Jimin could see tears of mirth glittering on their bottom lashes.
"It never gets old," Taehyung said.
"I'll start forgetting how to plate my own food, if he keeps this up," Jimin commented.
"Oh, I think that's what he wants," Jeongguk snorted.
Feeling victimized, Jimin made a little noise before leaning into Seokjin's space, making a noise of concern.
"Oh, hyung, your stomach just growled," Jimin pouted up towards him, rubbing a gentle hand over Seokjin's belly. "Should I shout and ask Yoongi hyung to make you a plate, too?"
Seokjin squinted at him, fully aware that his stomach did not rumble.
"I'll do it! Jin hyung, I'll try to remember your favorites, stay here!" Jeongguk perked up like a puppy, bounding over towards the food and playfully hip-checking Yoongi out of the way.
Jimin laughed at the way Seokjin's cheeks reddened.
When Yoongi found his way back, they'd sat down at an empty wooden picnic table set close to the fire, and the dragon set down a heaping plate in front of Jimin.
Piled on the plate was a selection of foods — half of which Jimin had notably tried and liked, and the other half were things that he'd never had before. Jimin realized that Yoongi had done this intentionally, as he had put everything Jimin was familiar with on the left side, and the new foods on the right.
Something about the silent thoughtfulness had Jimin glancing up in shock, but Yoongi wasn't even looking at him, simply beginning to dig into his own food.
When Jimin took his first bite, however, he caught Yoongi glancing up at him through his lashes, and Jimin couldn't help but beam.
"Thank you, hyung," he said quietly, underneath the noise of their friends' conversation.
Yoongi averted his eyes, but reached over to point at the juicy cubed pieces of meat in the selection of things Jimin's never had before.
"Try these," Yoongi said. "You'll like them."
And Jimin did. He liked everything Yoongi put on his plate. There wasn't even any of the normal cabbage salad that they usually had with every single meal, a dish that Jimin could eat, but wasn't particularly fond of.
This attention to detail made Jimin wonder just how observant Yoongi was. He wondered if he was like this with everyone, or if he paid special attention to Jimin.
It made sense, Jimin concluded in his mind, how dragons stayed so close. If there was one new fact that clicked into place for him that night, it would be the knowledge that dragons might be temperamental, and at times overly competitive, but they cared with an intensity that Jimin never knew existed, until now.
Jimin finished his entire plate, almost used to the way Yoongi kept watching him, and he noticed that there was something hungrier in Jeongguk's eyes now too, as the younger dragon continuously pushed the food from the corners of Seokjin's plate towards the center once Seokjin cleared any of his portion.
"How is training going?" Taehyung asked.
Since he and Jeongguk were younger dragons, they weren't paired up with an archer from Seokjin and Jimin's village to train with, much to their dismay. With Hoseok as one of the mentors that was helping to train younger dragons, he hadn't been paired with a rider, either.
"It's going well," Namjoon answered. "Jin hyung's a fast learner. He no longer has jelly legs once we're back on the ground anymore."
"Oh, I still do," Seokjin quipped. "I'm just better at hiding them now."
Jeongguk frowned at that. "You should take it easy on him, Namjoon hyung. Don't push him too hard."
"We don't have much of a choice, Jungkookie," Seokjin answered instead. "The solstice is approaching faster and faster.
Their table fell into a somber silence at the reminder of the impending battle, until Hoseok slammed his palms down on the table and stood.
"Enough of this," he said. "It's a new moon — we shouldn't be talking ourselves into a sulk. Let's dance!"
Seokjin eyed the dancers uncertainly when Hoseok held his hand out towards him.
"We don't really know your dances, Hobi..."
"Don't worry, hyung," Jeongguk reassured him. "They look complicated from the outside, but once you're in the thick of it, you'll see that there's a simple pattern of footwork that everyone follows. We'll help you!"
Despite his protests, Seokjin was pulled up, and Jimin felt a hand at his elbow too, urging him out of his seat. The more Jimin peered at the dancers around the fire, the more apprehensive he became.
The music that was playing had a heavy drumbeat, one that the dancers were clearly leaning into as they spun and stepped, but from afar Jimin couldn't discern an obvious pattern to their movements.
When they made it to the crowd of dancers, the beat was fading into something new.
"Oh, this one's fun!" Namjoon beamed.
The dragons settled around Seokjin and Jimin, and despite his nervousness Jimin felt a pit of excitement in his stomach, too. There was a cry from the musicians who stood by their instruments a few feet away, something that sounded like a question in the dragons' language, and Hoseok raised an arm and shouted something back.
Something was thrown to him and the few others who had responded, and Jimin blinked as Hoseok twisted a long, brightly colored fabric around his wrist.
"Follow Hoseok's lead," Yoongi's voice pitched right by Jimins' ear, making Jimin shiver.
Before Jimin had a chance to respond, the music intensified, filling the air, and Hoseok began dancing. It was a simple movement at first, a spin and a few shuffles to the right. Jimin realized that a beat after he began dancing, the other dragons did too, following his exact movements, just one count later.
The music stalled, allowing Hoseok to as well, as if the musicians were allowing the humans participating to get the hang of it. When it picked up again, Hoseok did the same exact move, and this time they both followed along, a beat after.
"There you go," Yoongi said, encouraging, his hand brushing Jimin's hip for just a beat.
Jimin glanced over at him, smiling shyly.
The stall in-between the moves was shorter the next time, and Jimin did his best to keep up. He could hear his friends laughing around him, their arms and legs brushing as he and Seokjin stumbled through the movements, their eyes never straying from Hoseok.
Jimin noticed a few other dragons who had the fabric around their wrist were similarly leading their own little group, making up their own moves to the beat.
Yoongi, Jeongguk, Taehyung and Namjoon followed along effortlessly, looking like they've been dancing along to Hoseok's movements their whole lives. And they probably had. That knowledge dredged up something grateful and elated within Jimin, at being included in something that was so clearly a beloved tradition to them.
A hand was suddenly brushing against his, and Jimin looked over at Yoongi to find the dragon smiling at him, his face illuminated by the purple fire.
"Focus," Yoongi said.
The music picked up right as he said that, and all of a sudden they were no longer allowing for stalls in-between the movements. It was all continuous now, Hoseok no longer pausing, but instead leading them in a fluid, powerful dance. Jimin focused on the other dragon with an intensity he usually reserved for training, keeping Hoseok's movements in his mind as he replicated them a beat later.
He and Seokjin stumbled a few times, righted again by their friends who cried out whoops of encouragement to them as they moved around them easily. After a while, however, following Hoseok became almost instinctual. It became something he didn't have to think about too hard, and he was able to put more of himself into the dance, thrilled at the way their little group was moving with such synchronization.
Hoseok flicked his wrist in the air, and they all did the same. He leaned his weight into his right hip, stomped with his left foot. Then he threw his head back and let out a loud bellow, and Jimin instinctively did the same, leaning his head up towards the dark sky and hollering with the rest of them, his chest opening and expanding with happiness. Jimin heard his laugh echo above the loud music, and during a spin Jimin caught a glimpse of Yoongi's grin, large and happy.
The music crescendoed and Jimin was panting for breath, then all of a sudden Hoseok was spinning and grabbing Taehyung by the waist, lifting him in the air and twirling, Taehyung's hands gripping his shoulders.
Jimin didn't have time to think before large hands were on his waist, too, and then he was being lifted, and he gasped and fumbled for a split second to steady himself on the strong muscles of Yoongi's shoulders. Yoongi was looking up at him, shooting him a breathless grin before he was spinning them both, and Jimin tipped his head back to the sky and beamed.
When he glanced over, he noticed that Seokjin had attempted to pick both Namjoon and Jeongguk up, hugging them both to his body as he leaned back to get their feet off the ground with a strained cry, and Jimin couldn't help the explosive laughter that erupted from his throat.
Then all of a sudden the dance was over and Jimin was placed gently on the ground again, Yoongi's arms coming around his waist to steady him.
"I'm dizzy," Jimin laughed softly, still smiling up towards Yoongi.
Despite being the one spinning them, Yoongi didn't look off-balance at all.
"I've got you," Yoongi said, voice tender.
They broke apart when Hoseok hollered in joy, pulling the bright fabric off his wrist, his smile so large Jimin could see the white of his teeth.
"You're naturals!" Hoseok shouted, stumbling to wrap his arms around Seokjin and Jimin's shoulders and pressing a dramatic kiss to both of their heads.
"That was fun!" Jimin beamed, unable to keep the smile off his face. His cheeks hurt from laughing, and he felt as if he could feel the drum right alongside his heartbeat.
When they left the dancing to get water, the drop in temperature as they moved away from the fire made Jimin shiver. Then Yoongi was there, stepping closer to him and walking side by side. The dragon's body heat radiated like a furnace, and Jimin had to stop himself from pressing himself into Yoongi's side, wanting to burrow into the dragon's chest and feel his tattooed arm warm and steady around his shoulders.
"Jimin-ssi!" a voice called through the darkness.
Yoongi visibly stiffened, and Jimin turned to find Chinhae waving at him. Jimin was so full of residual elation from the dance that he waved back enthusiastically, bouncing a bit on his toes. His excitement seemed to bolster some confidence into Chinhae, because the dragon strode towards their group, beelining towards Jimin.
"I saw you dancing, you were amazing," Chinhae said, ducking his head down to Jimin's height so that he could speak into his ear.
"Oh, thank you!" Jimin leaned back to put some distance between their faces, effectively bumping into Yoongi, who hadn't strayed from his side.
Chinhae glanced up at Yoongi, his smile dimming just the slightest bit.
"There are a few partner dances coming up later in the night," Chinhae said to Jimin, still leaning far into his space. "I'll find you when it's time?"
Though he posed it like a question, there was something in his voice that made Jimin think that the dragon wouldn't like no as Jimin's answer. He could smell something alcoholic on Chinhae's breath, and Jimin didn't appreciate the way he so brazenly invited himself into his personal space.
There was a pause as Jimin tried to sort out his answer, but then a warm, calloused hand was tucking itself against the side of Jimin's neck. Chinhae stroked his thumb against the soft skin right underneath Jimin's jawline, leaning in to whisper, "It'll be fun. Don't worry."
A rumbling, explosive growl ripped from Yoongi's chest, and Jimin could feel the vibrations of it against his back as the dragon stepped up behind Jimin and wrenched Chinhae's hand from his neck.
"You disrespectful shit," Yoongi's voice was dark.
Jimin blinked at the anger in Yoongi's tone, and brought a hand up to cover the skin that Chinhae had just touched. There was clearly something deeper that he was missing here, though he assumed that Chinhae had crossed some boundary or other.
Jimin could vaguely recall other dragons touching each other on the neck, and the gesture seemed tender, even intimate.
"He's not upset," Chinhae said, his nostrils flaring.
"He doesn't know what it means," Yoongi snapped back, his hand coiling around Jimin's hip and pulling him away.
When he looked around, Jimin exchanged a wide-eyed look with Seokjin, and noticed how the rest of their group looked just as upset as Yoongi.
Noticing that Chinhae was still staring at him, Jimin dipped into a tiny, uncomfortable bow, even as Yoongi began herding him away.
"Maybe next time, Chinhae-ssi," Jimin muttered, coming up with any excuse he could to escape the strange situation.
Yoongi made another gravelly sound in his throat at that, one that Jimin was beginning to wonder if he could control.
"That was the rudest thing I have seen in a long time," Hoseok exclaimed the moment they were out of earshot.
"He thinks he can take advantage of Jimin hyung just because he's human," Jeongguk scowled, his hand reflexively reaching out to twist into Seokjin's sweater. "It's disgusting."
"What are we missing?" Seokjin butted in, eyes darting from dragon to dragon as he and Jimin attempted to understand.
Namjoon winced. "That area of the neck is...reserved for lovers, typically. It's an extremely sensitive area for dragons. If another dragon touches it for long enough, it can cause a scent-high. It's why we only let our most trusted person touch that area — it's a spot of weakness."
"But...I'm not a dragon," Jimin argued. "That can't happen to me."
"And that's probably why he was bold enough to touch it," Taehyung explained. "But the implications weren't lost on us — that touch was calculated. It was him pushing his intentions on you, whether you accepted them or not. His scent is on you, now, and everyone can smell it."
"Oh," Jimin said quietly.
He felt a little violated, which was strange, because just a few minutes ago he hadn't thought that the touch was too big of a deal.
Yoongi still hadn't let go of him, his hand having drifted from his hip to his waist. Jimin could feel the warmth of his fingers even through his shirt, and it made tiny shivers run up his spine.
"If he'd done that to another dragon, there's no way that he wouldn't have gotten decked in the face," Hoseok huffed.
"It's okay," Jimin tried to calm them down, shifting uneasily at how upset they all were. "Now I know, so I won't let him touch my neck again."
"Unless you're interested in him," Yoongi suddenly cut in.
Jimin turned wide eyes towards Yoongi. "What?"
"If — if you're interested in him, then it'd be fine if he...touched you there. I didn't mean to...to explode like that and take away your choice," Yoongi sounded sincere in his statement, yet the scowl on his face let Jimin know exactly how he felt about Jimin being interested in Chinhae.
Yoongi's hand left his waist, but before the dragon could withdraw it, Jimin's own hand shot up and pressed it back to where it once was.
Face flaming, Jimin stared at a spot near Yoongi's collarbones as he took a leap of faith and said, "I'm...not. I'm not interested in him."
He could feel Yoongi's gaze on his face, but he refused to look up. His heart was pounding with nerves, and he nervously licked his lips when Yoongi stepped a bit closer to him. In the corner of his vision, Jimin could see their friends start scooting away, and the overly exaggerated wink Taehyung threw him made Jimin want to bury his face into the ground in embarrassment.
"Can you still smell him? On me?" Jimin asked, peeking up at Yoongi.
The flames from the fire pit made Yoongi's eyes especially molten — his golden irises looked like they were melting, two bursts of warmth in the dark night.
"Yes," Yoongi said gruffly.
"Does that bother you?" Jimin whispered.
Yoongi let out another low, rumbling growl, one that cut off abruptly, as if the dragon was trying to hold the sound back.
Swallowing thickly, Yoongi stepped even closer, the toes of their shoes now touching.
"Yes."
The heavy drum beat of the music matched the pounding of Jimin's heart, and in that strange, intense moment Jimin wanted nothing more than to have Yoongi's arms wrapped around him, to bury his face into his chest.
"I don't want to smell like Chinhae," Jimin said, brave enough to reach out and curl his hands into the bottom of Yoongi's shirt. "I want to smell like you."
Inhaling sharply, Yoongi arms pressed against either side of Jimin's waist, squeezing. Jimin's toes curled in his shoes.
"Fuck, you can't—" Yoongi cut himself off with an incredulous laugh. "Jimin, you can't say things like that."
Tipping his head to the side, Jimin's shoulders dropped, frustrated at how he never knew how to properly behave in this clan.
"Why not?"
"It makes me want to eat you up," Jimin could tell Yoongi was trying to sound teasing, playful, but the intensity in his golden eyes had Jimin thinking otherwise. When he spoke again, his voice was raspy.
"Makes me want to ravage you."
Jimin's eyes were locked with Yoongi's now, and he wordlessly took one of Yoongi's hands within his own and lead it up to his neck. Yoongi's nostrils flared, and the heat emanating off of his body was so intense that Jimin felt a trickle of sweat roll down the back of his neck.
In that moment, backlit by the firelight, Yoongi looked every bit the dragon he was. Strong, filled with intensity and flame and desire.
When Yoongi pressed a calloused palm over the side of his neck, Jimin gave a full-body shiver at the heat of it.
"You're beautiful, Jimin," Yoongi croaked out, his voice sounding wrecked. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
With that, he swiped his thumb against the soft part of Jimin's throat, and Jimin had to bite back a keen. There was heat growing in his belly, and when Jimin tipped forward into Yoongi's chest, burying his face against the dragon's pounding heart, Yoongi simply wrapped his free arm tightly around Jimin's waist, and dug his finger a bit more insistently into his neck.
A new moon means a new beginning. An ember turning into a flame, a bud blossoming to greet spring.
Jimin inhaled, the scent of Yoongi coating his tongue, the back of his throat. He wondered, for a few long moments, if this would be his ruin.
The future was so uncertain, and there were more unanswered questions than there were answered. But there was one thing he knew for sure — that new moons would forever taste like smoke to him, would feel like dancing along the edges of a fire and not getting burned, would look like a melting, golden thing.
Jimin was knee-deep in it all, and all he could do was keep walking.
➶
His mother's birthday snuck up on him, a guileless sunny day.
Jimin smiled and laughed and trained until the sun was lowering in the horizon, and then he was picking his way through the forest to get to the clementine tree. The further he got from everybody's company, the stronger his melancholy grew.
If his grief was wet paint, on a normal day he could ignore it until it dried into something he could attempt to mop up. But on days like today, some part of him couldn't help but stick his hands in it, spreading that sadness over everything he did and touched.
Breath shaking, Jimin picked a plump clementine from its branches, then sat at the base of the tree. When he peeled it open, it felt like a tiny world held between his hands. If he segmented it, which parts would taste like home?
The sound of soft footsteps came, and when Jimin looked up to find Yoongi there, it felt like his very first day there again.
But this time, Yoongi didn't hesitate to go to Jimin's side.
Crouching down in front of him, Yoongi took the clementine from Jimin's hands and split it in half. Giving the bigger half back, Yoongi watched as Jimin painstakingly peeled off one slice and popped it in his mouth.
Tears dripped down Jimin's cheeks as he ate, silent.
"It's sour," Jimin deduced, but breaking off another slice and eating it anyway.
Yoongi didn't ask questions. Just sat down with his knees touching Jimin's and ate his own half.
"Do you want me to find a sweeter one?"
Jimin didn't answer, just continued eating.
Finally, he said, "We had a clementine tree in our backyard."
"Your family?"
"Yea," Jimin said distantly. "My parents planted it the week they moved in. It grew up with my brother and I, and I can't even see the color orange without...without hurting."
"They're gone?"
Though posed as a question, there was something in Yoongi's tone that made it clear he already knew the answer.
"They were killed in a raid by the blood-marked," Jimin said. "I was the only one from my clan to survive, so I ran until I found the Kim clan. I wasn't born there."
"I knew you weren't," Yoongi responded gently. "I would have noticed if you were."
Jimin pondered over what that meant.
"They took my mom, too," Yoongi suddenly said.
Blinking in shock, Jimin raised his eyes to meet Yoongi's. There was grief swimming in his eyes, an emotion so vulnerable flashing across Yoongi's face.
"Our clan lived a bit further down the mountain when I was a child. We had to relocate up here because of a raid that wiped out nearly half of us, my mother included."
"Yoongi hyung..."
The dragon brought a warm hand up to cup Jimin's cheek, stroking a thumb over Jimin's flushed skin.
"This is why we're doing this, right?" Yoongi asked. "To make sure nobody else ends up like our families. To make sure nobody feels pain like ours for some bullshit gods."
Jimin nodded. Reached up to cup a hand over Yoongi's.
"I'm sorry."
Yoongi let out a chiding tsk.
"Be sorry for stepping on the soft part of my wings every time you climb onto me. Be sorry for never layering up enough when it's cold. But never, ever be sorry for grieving."
Jimin exhaled, and tentatively took one of Yoongi's hands in his own. Longer fingers intertwined between Jimin's, and squeezed.
"I want to go home," Jimin whispered after a few minutes, but didn't move to get up.
"Where's home?" Yoongi asked, infinitely gentle.
Shaking his head, Jimin averted his eyes. "I don't know."
For a moment, with his back pressed against the bark of the clementine tree, he thought he could find a piece of it here, sitting next to Yoongi like this.
They stayed there until night fell, and then Yoongi was wrapping his leathery jacket around Jimin's shoulders and pulling him to his feet. He walked Jimin all the way to the guest cabin, not stopping at the front door, but leading Jimin all the way to his bed. Seokjin wasn't in the room yet.
When Jimin sat down, Yoongi pulled off his shoes, making sure to keep his socks on. The dragon silently moved to the connected bathroom, and came back with a damp washcloth.
He picked up Jimin's right hand, and delicately cleaned off the sticky clementine juice. He wiped in-between Jimin's fingers, across his palm, even under his nails.
Jimin's hand was dwarfed in Yoongi's. Yoongi's broad palm curled Jimin's clean hand into a little fist and he squeezed it for a second, completely enveloping it, before moving onto his other hand.
"I want to eat a sweet one," Jimin said, voice soft.
Yoongi didn't answer, just concentrated on cleaning Jimin's hand.
Part of Jimin was embarrassed at having the dragon wipe his hands like a baby. But a larger part of him was just...tired.
"Sleep early tonight," Yoongi said once he'd set the washcloth aside.
Jimin laid down on his side, and Yoongi moved to grasp each side of the leather jacket around Jimin's body. For a moment, Jimin thought the dragon was going to gently slide it off of him so he could get it back, but Yoongi simply pulled it closed over Jimin's arms and torso, cocooning him in the warm fabric.
"You too," Jimin whispered.
Jimin shut his eyes, feeling a little bit raw inside but so so warm, and when he woke, morning had come and Yoongi was gone.
In his place was a bright orange clementine, sitting on Jimin's nightstand. It was the sweetest breakfast Jimin's ever had.
➶
"You won't need those today," Yoongi motioned towards the arrows that Jimin was arranging neatly into his magnetic quiver.
"What?" Jimin asked, confused.
They were in their clearing, Yoongi's chest piece laying where it always did in the center of it.
"I figured you needed a bit of a break," Yoongi said, avoiding eye contact. "Just for today."
"I don't," Jimin protested. "I'm good to go."
"The first time you rode on my back...I could hear you laughing the entire time," Yoongi said. "But since we started training, riding doesn't seem fun for you anymore. I thought we could just...do a repeat of what we did the first time. Flying just to fly. What you like."
The hesitancy in Yoongi's voice was sweet, and Jimin beamed, remembering how free he'd felt flying through the sky for the first time.
"Oh. Really? You really want to, hyung?" Jimin asked, excited.
Yoongi smiled, then reached out to run his knuckles once across Jimin's cheeks. Jimin leaned into the touch.
"To hear you laugh like that again, I'd do many things."
Jimin flushed, but bounced on his toes in excitement. "Let's go, then! Let's go, let's go!"
Laughing, Yoongi's eyes were so fond Jimin could hardly believe that the look was directed towards him.
So they found themselves in the sky moments later, Jimin whooping and laughing the entire way. Yoongi was flying through the clouds, going towards the ones Jimin pointed at. He circled the mountaintops and skimmed low over the trees, allowing Jimin to lean to the side and brush his hands over the tops of their canopies.
Though they couldn't communicate when Yoongi was in this form, their happiness seemed to bounce off each other's and multiply.
When Yoongi tucked his wings in and spun, Jimin saw puffy clouds whirl past them like white ribbons floating in the breeze, and he lost his breath to the sheer beauty of it all.
They only landed once the sun was setting, and everything was awash in a gold so similar to Yoongi's eyes it took Jimin's breath away. It looked like the entire sky was smiling at him, shrouded in that familiar hue.
Jimin's cheeks hurt from laughing, and Yoongi himself looked more relaxed than Jimin had ever seen him.
"I think I really needed that," Jimin confessed once Yoongi was shifted back, noting the way his heart felt so much lighter. "Thank you, hyung."
In response, Yoongi took one of Jimin's small hands in his and lifted it to his lips. Puckering them, Yoongi pressed a lingering kiss to Jimin's knuckles.
Jimin stared, mouth parted.
"Did I do it right? The...kiss?" Yoongi asked, eyes intent on Jimin.
Wrapped in a golden sunset, Jimin bloomed. "Yes. It was perfect."
I adore you.
In a way I've never adored anyone else, I adore you.
Yoongi walked Jimin back to his cabin, and before they parted ways, the dragon pressed something metallic into his palm, then gave his hand one last sweet kiss before walking away.
Jimin opened his hand to find a necklace.
It looked handmade, and Jimin's stomach exploded with warmth at the image of Yoongi hunched over this little necklace at night, fiddling with the tiny chain with his large hands.
There was no charm on it, but Jimin liked it this way. He quickly clasped the silver chain around his neck, already envisioning the way it must match his silver earrings.
He wondered if Yoongi had done that on purpose.
With a blush staining his cheeks, Jimin couldn't bear the thought of taking it off even for a moment, so he fell asleep with the necklace sitting snug underneath his sleep shirt.
➶
Just when Jimin thought that he was getting used to dragons and their customs, Taehyung came bounding up to him one day with a large grin on his face in the dining hall, joining Jimin at the table.
"Jimin-ah, look!" he exclaimed, holding up a hand right in front of Jimin's face. "I found a new ring!"
Jimin ooh'ed and aah'ed appropriately, though he didn't know which ring he was meant to be looking at. There was four on the hand being shown to him, each as shiny and beautiful as the next.
"Beautiful," Jimin said, reaching a hand up to touch the gem.
Before he could, however, Taehyung was pulling his hand away with a threatening growl. Jumping at the sudden aggressive sound, Jimin stared at the dragon with his hand outstretched in the air, eyes wide.
Yoongi growled back in retaliation, a chastising, "Hey," escaping his lips.
"You growled at me!" Jimin exclaimed at Taehyung.
Suddenly pouting, Taehyung shoved his hands behind his back. "You can't touch it, Jimin! I was just showing you."
"You put it right in front of my face," Jimin scowled back. "I didn't know you didn't want me to touch it."
"Taehyung, he didn't know," Hoseok chided, slinging an arm around Jimin's shoulders. "Stop being so possessive."
Taehyung let out a little huff but brought his hands back to his sides.
"Tae's just touchy with his jewelry because that's his item," Hoseok explained to Jimin.
Blinking, Jimin cocked his head to the side.
"His item?"
"You know," Hoseok gestured towards all of Taehyung's rings, the earrings gleaming in his ears, the necklaces around his neck. "What he hoards."
Jimin's mouth popped open.
He'd completely forgotten that dragons had a deep instinctual need to hoard things. It was one of the most commonly known facts about dragons, but he hadn't overtly noticed anything when they'd first arrived at the Min clan, so it'd slipped his mind.
"Oh, I didn't know," Jimin breathed out. "I'm sorry, Tae."
Relaxing, Taehyung grinned at him sheepishly. "It's okay. I shouldn't have expected you to know."
Jimin smiled teasingly at him. "In hindsight, it's pretty obvious now. You always have an eye on shiny things."
Tapping his earrings, Jimin shook his head from side to side so the silver crosses on his lobes swung and caught the light. He'd noticed that Taehyung was often looking at his earrings when they spoke instead of his eyes, but he thought that it was just another unique Taehyung-quirk.
As expected, Taehyung's eyes immediately shifted towards the movement, going wide and childlike as he stared at the jewelry.
"Careful," Hoseok laughed. "You're going to wake up one day and find them gone if you keep goading him like that. None of us have been able to keep any of our jewelry for more than three months."
Jimin's handed drifted up to his throat at that, his fingers sliding over the silver chain hanging there. When he and Yoongi caught eyes, Jimin smiled shyly, and satisfaction sat heavily on Yoongi's face.
"What do you hoard?" Jimin asked Hoseok.
"Ooh, we're talking about hoards," Seokjin said as he walked up with Jeongguk and Namjoon. "Has Joon shown you his libraries yet?"
"Libraries? As in plural?" Jimin gaped.
Namjoon flushed. "Books are easy to come by, and thicker than little things like jewels...I need a lot of space for them!"
"Hoseokie hoards fabrics, of all kinds," Yoongi belatedly answered Jimin's question. "He always says he's going to learn how to make them into clothes, but he still hasn't."
"One day I will," Hoseok sniffed. "Besides, if we're talking about out-there hoards, we should talk about yours, Yoongi hyung."
Curiosity piqued, Jimin leaned into Yoongi and nudged him with a shoulder. "What is yours, hyung?"
"Yes, do tell," Jeongguk laughed. "What do you hoard, hyung?"
Scratching his temple, Yoongi shrugged. "Nothing important."
"I bet it's weapons. Or something practical, like chopsticks or cutting boards or something," Jimin guessed, leaning in.
"Nope," Namjoon laughed. "You'll never guess it."
"What is it, Yoongi hyung?" Jimin wheedled, leaning his head briefly on Yoongi's shoulder and batting his lashes up at the dragon. "I'm so curious!"
"You've seen my hoard already," Yoongi said, scratching at his nose in what seemed to be embarrassment. He couldn't meet Jimin's eyes, no matter how much Jimin ducked to find them.
"No I haven't, I would have noticed!" Jimin protested.
"It's...the clementine tree."
Jimin blinked. His mouth popped open, getting ready to say something, anything, but then, against his will, a tiny little giggle escaped.
"Do not laugh," Yoongi growled, shoving his face into his hands.
"I'm not," Jimin laughed, smacking his cheeks to quell the amusement in him. "I'm not. Just...just...you hoard clementines?"
Yoongi let out a low grumble, and Jimin was endeared. Yoongi rarely showed this flustered side of himself, but Jimin found it extremely cute.
"But how? It's not really something you collect, is it?" Seokjin asked.
"Hoarding is different for every dragon," Yoongi said, rubbing a harsh hand over his face, looking like he wanted to be talking about anything but this. "In the end, it all boils down to the instinctive need to have. Hoards don't always have to be growing in size, though most dragons do expand their hoards as they grow older. As long as I see the tree slowly getting bigger and the clementines growing well, my dragon is sated."
"I love that," Jimin said softly. "Whatever makes you happy, hyung!"
"Wait, Jimin hyung, did Yoongi hyung say that you've seen his hoard? He took you to see the tree?" Jeongguk gaped.
"Well, I found the tree by chance on our first day here. Since then, I've been going there whenever I need to clear my head...I never knew it was hyung's hoard though. No wonder you're always there when I go."
All the dragons were looking at Jimin as if he'd sprouted another head.
"What?" Jimin asked defensively.
"Hyung never lets anybody near his hoard!" Taehyung exclaimed. "Last time I got within a five foot radius of it Yoongi physically picked me up and moved me away! You—you—this is betrayal! Pure and utter betrayal! You've known us for our entire lives, Yoongi hyung, and we don't get a whiff of that dumb tree, but all of a sudden Jimin comes skipping in with his cute face and delicious scent and he gets to see your hoard? The nerve!"
Through Taehyung's rant, Yoongi slowly moved so that he was resting his head on his arms folded over the table.
"Taehyung," Yoongi said, his voice pitched low. "Please be quiet."
Glowering, Taehyung fiddled with one of his rings. "I want a clementine too."
"I'll get you one next time I go," Jimin tried to soothe him.
Taehyung gaped at him, then glanced over to Yoongi, as if expecting the other to explode. Yoongi just sighed, sitting up and picking his chopsticks back up to continue eating.
"You're just gonna let him take one of your clementines away, hyung?" Jeongguk asked. "This is just disturbing. I'm very alarmed right now."
"My dragon doesn't feel possessive over the damn clementines with Jimin, okay?" Yoongi finally said. "I noticed it when I found him under the tree on the very first day."
Jimin smiled shyly at that, peeking over towards Yoongi and reaching out to run his fingers over the dragon's arm.
"Thank you for letting me come near your hoard," he said. "I know how sacred they are for dragons."
Yoongi glanced over at him. Then, as if he couldn't help it, he reached over to run his palm along the side of Jimin's neck, lightly scenting him.
"Nothing to thank me for, little one," the dragon said. "There's no way I can eat all those clementines by myself anyway."
Feeling playful, Jimin teased, "Does that mean I can pick some for everybody next time I go?"
Yoongi's right eye twitched. "...If Taehyung lets you wear his new ring for the rest of the day, sure."
Taehyung squawked, clenching his hands into two fists as if Jimin would lunge for the ring any second.
"No way in hell."
➶
Jimin was beginning to put things together.
Dragons, by nature, were a bit...materialistic. And that wasn't in a bad way — though they hoarded and often got greedy with their item, this instinct also transferred into the way they showed love.
Jimin believed that they found so much happiness and calm in hoarding that they wanted to share that pleasant feeling however they could.
So, yes, Jimin realized that Yoongi enjoyed giving him things. It began with the blankets. Then there were the clementines, the necklace, the jacket that he'd never asked for back that Jimin now wore almost every day.
Sometimes Jimin thought that Yoongi enjoyed getting his food for him so much solely because the physical act of placing it in front of Jimin sated some gift-giving urge inside of him.
So he'd deducted that gifts were a big deal. He just hadn't stopped to realize that, despite loving him, none of the other dragons ever really gave him anything the way Yoongi did.
When Chinhae waved him over one morning during breakfast, Jimin reluctantly approached the dragon. He knew to keep his distance, now, but he didn't want to be rude and flat out ignore the other.
"Jimin-ssi," Chinhae said, his head ducked sincerely. "I just wanted to apologize for what I did on the new moon."
"Oh," Jimin said. "Well...I'm not going to say it's okay, because you crossed boundaries that I wasn't even aware of at the time, but...I forgive you. No hard feelings."
Chinhae glanced up at him, a grateful little smile on his lips.
"I also made you this," Chinhae held up a hand and offered Jimin a leather water bottle. "I know how thirsty humans get after training, so I thought it'd be good for you to have."
"Oh!" Jimin reached out and took it, not mentioning the fact that Yoongi always made sure he had enough water to drink once they were done training for the day. "That's really kind of you. Thank you."
Smiling, Chinhae nodded at him, and waved when Jimin began making his way towards his usual table. He slid into a seat in front of Yoongi, who was staring at the water bottle with an eerily blank face.
"Jimin..." Namjoon said once he sat down.
"Umm...maybe you should throw that away," Taehyung urged.
Jimin tipped his head to the side. "What? I can't, that'd be rude! Chinhae-ssi is sitting right there, he'd see."
"Really, hyung, you don't need it," Jeongguk said nervously. "Yoongi hyung makes water bottles that are way nicer than that, you could only fit like two gulps into that one, you should—"
Yoongi was standing, then, a scowl twisted on his features.
"Hyung?" Jimin asked.
Yoongi looked like he was going to say something, but then he thought better of it and made for the exit.
"What—hyung!" Jimin called after him.
He'd known that Yoongi didn't like Chinhae, especially after what happened on the new moon, but this reaction was extreme. He didn't even give Jimin time to explain that he was just going to toss the water bottle in his nightstand anyway, and had only accepted it to be polite!
Huffing, Jimin left the bottle on the table and stormed after Yoongi. He had to do an embarrassing half-run to catch up with the dragon and his longer legs, but when he finally caught Yoongi's elbow, he steered the dragon towards the trees, away from anybody who might pass by.
"Why are you mad?" Jimin asked, crossing his arms and glaring up Yoongi.
Yoongi scowled back, lips pursed. "Why am I mad? You—! Humans are so confusing."
"You think humans are confusing? I've been confused since the very second I stepped foot in this clan!" Jimin exclaimed. "You dragons have so many habits and customs and traditions that some days I felt like I couldn't understand left from right!"
"You don't have to humor Chinhae and talk to him every time he calls you over," Yoongi said. "You don't owe him anything, Jimin."
"I'm just being polite."
"Dragons don't do polite. If we don't like someone, then we aren't afraid to show it."
"Well I'm not a dragon! Humans are different, and I'm sorry if I took Chinhae's stupid water bottle! What, are you afraid that I'll start using that one instead of the ones you fill up for me after training?" Jimin let out a harsh laugh, incredulous at the ridiculous thought.
When Yoongi didn't respond, however, Jimin's face dropped.
"Wait...are you serious?"
As if suddenly realizing how dramatic he was being, Yoongi let out a groan.
"Hyung," Jimin began laughing a little. "You're jealous of a water bottle?"
"It's not the damn water bottle, Jimin," Yoongi spat. "You just...I don't like how he gave you anything at all."
"It's fine," Jimin tried to soothe. "I wasn't going to use it anyway."
"I just...I just don't like it."
"You don't like what?"
Jaw clenching, Yoongi gritted out, "I don't like it when you accept courting gifts from anyone other than me."
Jimin faltered.
A few moments of silence passed, where Yoongi's words passed through his head with no comprehension.
"What?"
Yoongi shut his eyes, pained. "Don't make me repeat it."
"You were...you were courting me?" Jimin asked, just to make sure.
"You really didn't know?"
"How would I know?" Jimin exclaimed. "You never...you never told me!"
Dragging a hand down his face, Yoongi said, "Dragons usually just...understand, when they're being courted. Why else would I give you so many gifts? Make sure you're warm and eating? Do you think I do this for everybody?"
"Again, I'm not a dragon," Jimin reminded gently. "I didn't grow up with this culture, hyung. Everything was so new and confusing when I came here, and I never wanted to overstep or assume anything."
"You're right," Yoongi said after a beat, groaning in realization. "I shouldn't have assumed that you would understand as easily as a dragon would. I'm sorry."
"It's alright," Jimin said. "Just don't do it again."
"I'll lay it out for you, then," Yoongi said. "When dragons are courting, it's...taboo to accept a gift from another. Gifts have a very...romantic connotation to dragons. There's rarely any gifting between friends or family."
"Oh," Jimin said, thinking back to the way the other dragons had reacted when he'd shown up at their table with the water bottle.
"To give a gift to somebody who is already being courted...it's an implication that you want them to break off their courtship and allow you to court them instead."
Jimin gasped, his hand flying to cover his mouth. "So when I took Chinhae's gift..."
Yoongi winced. "It...was like you were breaking it off with me and accepting him instead, yes."
"I didn't know," Jimin was quick to say. "I swear I didn't."
Yoongi's face softened. "I know you didn't. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. It just...my instincts just wouldn't let it go, seeing that happen."
"I never would have taken it if I'd known," Jimin said.
"Does that mean you'll throw it away?" Yoongi asked, face lighting up.
"Hmm," Jimin pretended to ponder. "I don't know. It's really well-made..."
A growl erupted from Yoongi's chest. "I can make you one even better. Twice its size. Throw it out. Better yet, toss it into the fire at moondine tonight, for everyone to see."
Jimin laughed. "I'll just give it back to him and say 'no thank you'."
"You can leave out the 'thank you'," Yoongi said petulantly.
"Don't pout, hyung. I'm sorry I took the water bottle. If I'd known you were courting me this whole time...I wouldn't have taken it."
Jimin paused, then fidgeted nervously, thinking about his next words.
"I guess I just didn't know if...you were serious. About this. Us."
Yoongi's expression grew serious. "Of course I am. I...from the moment you got here, Park Jimin, there's been something drawing me towards you."
"Not from the beginning, surely," Jimin protested. "You were so...surly at first."
"I thought you were small, and weak, and peculiar," Yoongi lists. "Well — I guess that isn't very far from the truth."
"Stop," Jimin grouches, face twisted into a scowl. "I'm none of those things!"
"You were smaller than anyone else in your clan," Yoongi said. "And I saw you crying at my hoard on that first day, and my dragon just...couldn't bear the thought of you in battle. I wasn't purposely being cold, my dragon just wanted to protect you so badly despite us being strangers, and it confused me."
"What does your dragon think of me now?" Jimin asked.
Yoongi laughed. "All it does is think of how strong you are. Stronger than anyone else. I never thought you to be weak, but...your courage is limitless, Jimin, sometimes I feel like it could swallow me whole."
Jimin laughed, shaking his head. "That is exactly how I think of you, hyung."
"You and Jin hyung and the other archers came and it was so...strange. We've always thought of dragons as the strongest creatures on this side of the world. But...it wasn't until you came that we truly began to feel hopeful."
Jimin looked up at Yoongi, heart pounding.
"There is something about you," Yoongi whispered, ducking low to meet Jimin's eyes. "That makes me lose my breath. Even from the very beginning, all I could think about was you."
"I don't believe that, Mr. Grumpy."
Yoongi rolled his eyes. "I was like that because you were confusing. You humans need a lot more verbal communication than dragons do. If you were a dragon, you would have understood that everything I was doing for you meant that I liked you."
Jimin thought back to all the times Yoongi had made sure he'd eaten, that he was warm enough, that he had the first sip of water after training. Even in the beginning, when he and Yoongi were fluttering around each other like moths, afraid to come too close to the flame, the dragon was always nudging him towards the warmth, taking care of him.
"You like me?" Jimin teased, grinning up at Yoongi.
Yoongi's eyes burned, roving over Jimin's face as if he couldn't commit the sight to memory fast enough.
"I like the taste of warm soup in the morning. I like flying through the mountaintops. I like leather-bound books. What I feel for you, Park Jimin, is much, much more than like."
Breathless, Jimin couldn't help the happy little giggle that escaped him.
"How much more?" Jimin whispered, stepping closer.
He could feel the heat emanating off of Yoongi's chest, and this time, he allowed himself the luxury to reach out and touch it. Scrunching his hand in the material of Yoongi's shirt, Jimin could feel the pounding of the dragon's heart underneath his fingers.
"There is no word for it in our language," Yoongi whispered. "We show this feeling through action, through years of devotion. But...I believe you humans call it love."
Jimin barely allowed him time to finish his sentence before he was pressing forward on this tip toes, his hands moving to Yoongi's shoulders to stabilize himself.
"I'm going to kiss you," Jimin said.
Yoongi brought a hand up to Jimin's neck, but hesitated. "I don't know how."
Smiling, Jimin leaned in until their lips were almost brushing. "You're a fast learner. Don't worry, hyung."
His lips met Yoongi's. The dragon was stiff at first, unused to the sensation, but then Jimin was moving his lips against Yoongi's and Yoongi relaxed with a sigh. His arms wrapped tightly around Jimin's waist, dragging him impossibly closer.
Yoongi tasted like smoke, like late night campfires and burning stars. Jimin dragged his tongue across Yoongi's bottom lip and reveled in the way the dragon gasped. Yoongi instinctively relaxed his jaw, allowing Jimin to kiss him deeper.
The dragon's fingers tightened around Jimin's waist, digging into the soft flesh there, as if he was trying to hold all of Jimin in his hands and never let him go. Jimin felt consumed in the best way, the strands of Yoongi's hair soft between his fingers, the press of his body so warm against his.
Pulling back, Jimin let out a small, breathless laugh when Yoongi followed him with a tiny growl.
"I like it when you make my plate for me at mealtimes. I like it when you hold my hand when it's dark, and when you make sure I drink first," Jimin listed. "I like it when we're flying and I can feel how free you are. But it's you, Yoongi hyung, it's just you that I love."
Yoongi kissed him again, and Jimin could physically feel the dragon's smile against his.
"No more complaining when I do any of these things, then," Yoongi directed.
Jimin rolled his eyes. "I like it when you go five seconds without teasing me."
Pressing close, Yoongi kissed Jimin's forehead. The space between his eyebrows. The tip of his nose.
"I like it when we're us," Yoongi whispered. "I like every moment with you."
Suddenly overwhelmed, Jimin lowered himself off of his toes and wrapped his arms around Yoongi's waist, burying his face into the dragon's chest. Yoongi wasn't bothered by his silence, simply hugged him tighter and buried his face into the top of Jimin's hair.
There was something mournful in having to redefine happiness.
But there was something beautiful about it, too.
With the taste of Yoongi on his tongue, the stretch and pull of Yoongi's name now so familiar in Jimin's mouth, Jimin buried himself a little deeper into Yoongi's embrace.
And if Jimin's happiness was a jagged stone, a painful thing for him to have and hold, Yoongi was the ocean that had crashed over it again and again, smoothing the stone over.
"It doesn't hurt anymore," Jimin whispered so quietly into Yoongi's chest that he doubted the dragon could make out his words. "Not with you."
➶
"Jimin-ah. Jimin, wake up."
Jimin jerked awake to find Seokjin kneeling over his bed, his hyung's hands warm but firm over his shoulders.
"Put your gear on," Seokjin said, his face twisted into something solemn that didn't fit his typical carefree demeanor.
"What? What's happening?" Jimin questioned, knifing out of bed to hurriedly tug on his shirt and boots.
He noticed that Seokjin had on his riding chains, his quiver strapped tightly to his back and his bow held in his right hand.
"We can hear them," Seokjin said, helping Jimin with his own chains and waist piece, tightening them firmly. "Listen."
Jimin held his breath and listened, and realized that the usual stillness of the night was broken with distant screams, and the unmistakable booming crackle of a fast-spreading fire.
"The blood-marked—?" Jimin's heart leapt to his throat.
"They're at the neighboring clan," Seokjin said.
"No," Jimin whispered, hands beginning to shake. His breath began coming too quickly but he fought to keep them under control. "Will they come here?"
"We don't know," Seokjin grabbed his hand and placed Jimin's bow inside his grasp. "But if they do, we'll be ready."
"We haven't trained for long enough," Jimin whispered, peering into Seokjin's eyes to see if he could find any fear there.
All he found was determination. Jimin wished he could bring that same confidence up within himself. But all he could think about were the memories of his parents' bodies laying discarded on the floor of his childhood home. All he could think about was Jihyun's bedroom floor stained with blood. All he could think about was the feeling of driving his arrow through his brother's murderer's eye, of thick blood coated in-between his fingers, of his entire clan burning to the ground with him just outside of it.
They ran towards the clan's core, where they could already hear Leader Min shouting directions, their chains swinging with every step. Jimin could see children being ushered in large, hurried groups towards the safe houses, warriors scenting their spouses on the neck, a million what-ifs shining in their eyes.
Yoongi and Namjoon found them then, as if they'd been looking for them, and Yoongi immediately went to Jimin and tugged on his riding chains, making sure they were tight enough. He ran his hands over Jimin's torso, tightening the leather corset just a smidgen, as if Yoongi physically had to feel for himself that Jimin was secure.
Then, he was slipping vambraces up Jimin's arms, the metal armor heavy but flexible enough for him to have full usage of his arms.
"Hyung," was all Jimin could get out.
His voice was pitched strangely, as if he was hearing himself from underwater.
"They might not even come to us," Yoongi reassured him. "For now, we're keeping quiet and have extinguished our lights so we don't draw attention to ourselves. They usually never raid more than one clan in a night anyway."
"We're not going to help the other clan?" Jimin asked, unable to keep his eyes off of his hands, which were trembling.
He couldn't help but flinch every time a shriek rung through the night, every time the blood-marked's guttural cries and chanting to their gods echoed through the mountains. It was all too reminiscent of the night that Jimin lost his family, and he didn't know how badly being confronted with these memories would affect him until then.
"It'd be best if the blood-marked don't find us tonight," Yoongi said solemnly. "Ideally, our battle with them will begin on our terms."
Jimin released a shaking breath.
"Another clan is dying, hyung" he said, voice breaking.
"I know." Yoongi said. "Jimin, I know."
The dragon pressed a hand over Jimin's neck, leaving it there as if in comfort.
"It's horrible," Jimin continued. "Innocent children, and—"
"Hush," Yoongi quieted him. "This is why we've been preparing for this battle in the first place. But we need to understand when to lie low and when to attack. Now...now is a time when we need to stay quiet. Tonight isn't the night."
"I know that," Jimin said, squeezing his eyes shut and leaning forward to rest his forehead on Yoongi's shoulder. "I know that."
Yoongi tugged him closer, then, one arm wrapping around his waist and the other coming up to cup the back of his head, as if wanting to hold Jimin together with the warmth of his arms alone.
"This needs to end," Jimin said, voice shaking. "It needs to end now."
"Soon," Yoongi said. "Once we destroy their temple and they realize that their gods aren't real...they'll stop the senseless killing."
"What if they don't?" Jimin whispered.
"We'll make them," Yoongi whispered back, voice fierce. "It's you and me, isn't it? It's us. There's nothing we can't do."
Though his tone was tinged with a bit of playfulness, Jimin didn't have it in him to laugh.
Yoongi sighed and pulled back, his arms slipping from around Jimin's body.
"It sounds like they're retreating," Yoongi said. "I should go talk to Father."
"Okay," Jimin said dully, his heart still pounding despite the noises of the blood-marked growing further away.
He felt displaced and directionless, unsure where he should go, what he should do. The screams were dying down now, and Jimin felt nauseous at what that meant.
"Go back to sleep, okay?" Yoongi urged. "I'll come get you in the morning."
Jimin looked around and realized that everybody was going back to their homes, their weapons no longer drawn, eyes tired and sad. So he followed them, slowly pulling his vambraces off and helping Seokjin remove his gear in their room.
Neither of them spoke, Seokjin simply ducked down to press a kiss to Jimin's head before they were slipping into bed, exhausted.
But even as the rest of the clan settled down into a fitful sleep, a suffocating feeling within Jimin forced him to rise. He slipped from his bed silently, shallowing his breathing so that nobody could hear his panicked pants. He strode out of the cabin and didn't stop walking until he was deeper into the trees, where nobody could hear him.
The moment he knew could smell clementines, a sob ripped from his throat.
Jimin allowed his knees to buckle, didn't care that the damp of the earth was now pressing into his sleep pants. His saliva thinned the way it did before he got sick, and he swallowed convulsively, trying hard to breathe through his sobs.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Jimin had hoped for a grounding darkness, but instead all he could see behind his eyelids was blood. All he could think about was the fact that his family's bodies were there, reduced to ash, residing without a proper burial because Jimin was too much of a coward to go back and face them.
He didn't know if he'd ever be able to walk past a family again without feeling enraged jealousy. He didn't know if he would ever stop wishing that it was a different clan that had been attacked instead, selfishly and desperately wishing that it was somebody else's family who'd been killed.
"—min, Jimin-ah. Jimin."
Jimin jerked back to awareness with a choking gasp. His head was now in-between his knees, and he was curled up in a ball on the floor.
There was warmth wrapped all around him, pressing him in tight, squeezing him like something that needed to be held together, and it took him a few moments to recognize Yoongi's scent, to find pale fingers wrapping around his own.
"Sorry," Jimin immediately apologized on reflex, his breaths gasping.
Shame made him curl into himself tighter. Everybody else in the clan had pulled themselves together after that night, had gone to sleep in their beds and not let the scare affect them. But Jimin had to fall apart, only for Yoongi to find him again.
"Go," Jimin whispered.
Yoongi didn't.
He was sitting, wrapped around Jimin, pressed flush to his back. His legs were on either side of Jimin's and his arms were firm in pressing Jimin's own against his torso.
People say that grief weighs you down, but for Jimin it's the opposite.
It made him feel like his body was going to float away one day and never come back. Like he'd shake apart and not have anything that would hold him together.
Yoongi squeezed him small against his chest, bundling him up small as if to make sure that Jimin stayed there with him. The warmth he radiated made Jimin shudder violently, his skin so cold in contrast.
"I'm here," Yoongi whispered, his voice a croon. "What are you doing out here all by yourself, pip? You should have come to me."
Jimin shook his head. He was shaking so hard it felt like he was vibrating, but Yoongi was so solid behind him, all around him. He couldn't help but burrow deeper, tucking his head underneath Yoongi's chin, his nose grazing the dragon's neck. Yoongi's arms tightened in response.
"It's stupid," Jimin said, voice weaker than he wanted it to be. "I should...I should be over it by now."
"You're not alone, Jimin. I feel it too, I do. This isn't something that you'll ever get over," Yoongi said. "It'll ache, and it'll hurt, for the rest of your life. But there are ways to make it hurt less. There are people you can run to who will hold you through it."
Jimin noticed his own breathing become less ragged as he listened to Yoongi's voice. Breathed in his smoky scent. His body felt grounded, now, surrounded on all sides by Yoongi.
He was glad to be here, tucked inside the warmest arms he's ever known.
"Weren't you scared, earlier?" Jimin asked.
"Yes," Yoongi said. "But I've had years learning how to tamp that fear down, to reduce it like taking away oxygen from flame until it's just a small ember, easily contained. It just takes time, pip."
"Do you miss her? Your mother?" Jimin whispered.
Yoongi pressed a kiss to Jimin's sweaty temple. Spread a soothing palm flat over Jimin's stomach, rubbing at the softness there.
"Every minute," Yoongi whispered back.
"I wish..."
Jimin couldn't finish his sentence.
He didn't know what he wished for.
He wished for too many things.
"When this is over," Jimin said instead. "When this is over and we all go back home...I'll miss you, hyung."
Yoongi's breath hitched at the confession, then he dipped his head and pressed a soft kiss to Jimin's neck.
"You annoying little imp," Yoongi said. "Of course you won't. You can stay, or I can fly to you whenever you want. There'll be no reason to miss me."
Jimin huffed out a little laugh. Something in him warmed at the thought of getting to stay in the Min clan, but another piece of him knew that Seokjin would have to return to the Kim clan eventually, and continue in his training towards becoming clan leader.
As if he was thinking the same thing, Yoongi said, "Maybe if Jin hyung and Jeonggukie work out, our two clans can merge."
"They're disgustingly enamored," Jimin laughed a watery laugh. "I don't think they'll be letting go of each other anytime soon."
"Yea," Yoongi said, voice wistful. "I don't think so either."
They sat underneath the clementine tree until the sun rose.
Once it was light out and the clan began making its usual morning sounds, Yoongi was gently spinning Jimin in his arms, so that they were sitting face to face with each other.
He tenderly reached out and dabbed at the tear tracks marring Jimin's cheeks. He meticulously ran his fingers through Jimin's tangled hair, slowly working out the knots. Now that he was no longer pressed against Jimin's back, acting as Jimin's personal furnace, Yoongi took off his jacket and wrapped it around Jimin's shoulders. Then, he leaned in and pressed a slow, delicate kiss to the soft base of Jimin's neck.
A full-body shudder made its way through Jimin, and Yoongi pressed in again, so warm against Jimin's cold skin. The dragon's tongue lapped at Jimin's delicate skin before Yoongi was kissing the spot again, ignoring the way Jimin trembled and gasped in his arms.
"Yoongi..."
"Next time," Yoongi spoke without moving, his voice vibrating into Jimin's neck. "Next time come to me."
Then, they were both rising, Yoongi supporting most of Jimin's body weight, and the dragon tucked Jimin under his arm before he was leading him back towards the cabins.
Seokjin was already gone from the room. Yoongi walked him all the way to his bed again, and tucked him in like he was a little child.
Jimin said so, and Yoongi let out a little chuckle. The dragon ran a hand over Jimin's hair, dragging the furry blanket up to Jimin's chin.
"Sleep, little one," Yoongi said, voice lilting in that gentle way Jimin realized that he's only ever heard directed towards him.
"Stay," Jimin said, reaching out to grab Yoongi's waist. "Stay with me."
Yoongi looked surprised at the offer, but only hesitated for a moment before he was pulling off his own boots and scooting under the covers Jimin held up for him.
He wrapped a heavy, warm around around Jimin's waist, tucking him underneath his chin. Jimin snuggled in, slotting a leg between Yoongi's and holding the dragon close.
"I love you," Jimin whispered. "Hyung, I love you so much."
"You're silly," Yoongi whispered. "You don't even need to say it."
"I do," Jimin argued, feeling like his chest would expand and expand with the feeling if he didn't let it out.
Yoongi pressed a kiss into his head, then his breathing relaxed into sleep.
Jimin was following soon after, falling into a deep, dreamless slumber.
➶
Things truly clicked into place soon after. Now, Yoongi and Jimin understood each other in a way that was hard to ignore, hard to come by.
Jimin now knew the cadence of Yoongi's footsteps. Familiarized himself with the pattern of Yoongi's breathing. He could tell Yoongi's wingspan apart from the other dragons, could recognize the feel of Yoongi's hand on his shoulder, his back. He knew the exact color and shade of Yoongi's scales in the sunlight, knew the precise smell of smoke and citrus that seemed to linger on the dragon's body all the time.
With this newfound bond, training became easier. Though they had slowly gotten better the more time passed, now it felt like they were almost telepathic with understanding the other's needs.
They leaned through the turns together. Yoongi now understood the exact distances Jimin needed to land a shallow shot compared to a deeper one, and Jimin memorized the way Yoongi's back muscles tensed underneath his thighs right before Yoongi descended or turned.
As they made their way through the obstacle course Yoongi set up for them, Jimin's arrow made every single mark. Yoongi even began making things harder for him, swerving at the last minute or going against the wind.
Even when they trained with Seokjin and Namjoon or other pairs in the clan, Yoongi and Jimin as a team were good. Jimin was able to knock Seokjin off of Namjoon's back and before Seokjin even had the chance to be jerked up by his chain, Yoongi was underneath Namjoon, catching him before the chain could go taut.
Leader Min watched them one day, shadowing them in his dragon form as they flew through the mountainous terrain, dodging in and out of mountain passes and hitting every mark.
When they landed, Yoongi and his father shifted back to their human forms, and before Jimin could say anything, Leader Min was bowing to them both.
"Father," Yoongi said, surprise coloring his tone.
"Though seeing you hit every target was a pleasure to see," Leader Min said, nodding once towards Jimin. "I already knew you two would do well just by watching you, like this."
Jimin blinked, and suddenly became aware of the way Yoongi's hand was pressed against his back, absentmindedly rubbing right where his spine ached from his leather waist piece.
"Yoongi-yah," Leader Min reached out and ran the back of his knuckles over Yoongi's jaw. "Your mother would be proud."
Jimin heard Yoongi's breath hitch. He reached out to grab at the dragon's waist and squeeze reassuringly. When Leader Min left after pressing a friendly hand to the top of Jimin's head, Yoongi's face was twisted into an expression that Jimin hadn't seen before.
Jimin rubbed his hand down Yoongi's back once before stepping away, this time grabbing and offering the water to Yoongi first, uncapping it for the dragon the way he always did for Jimin.
He didn't comment on Yoongi's reddening eyes when the dragon, for once, drank the water first without a fight. Yoongi still saved half of it for Jimin, pushing it towards Jimin's lips and only letting go once Jimin's hand was holding the bottle up himself.
"He's right, you know," Jimin said once they were beginning to pack up. "She would be proud."
Yoongi didn't say anything for a few moments.
"Do you really think so?"
There was something so vulnerable, so scared in Yoongi's voice when he said that, that Jimin couldn't help but step up to the dragon and wrap his arms around his waist.
"Of course," Jimin stressed. "No matter what you were doing, she'd be proud of you. Mothers are like that, you know."
Yoongi huffed out a laugh. "So you're saying that even if I was a murderous bastard, my mother would still be cheering me on from the heavens?"
"I'm saying that you aren't. You're strong, and you're good, and you're the best warrior your clan has."
Yoongi hummed, wrapping his arms around Jimin and ducking to rub his nose along Jimin's neck.
"And, you're paired with me," Jimin said cheekily. "That's your biggest accomplishment yet."
Jimin let out a cry when Yoongi leaned back and flicked his forehead. "Don't ruin the moment."
"You ruined the moment by flicking me!" Jimin whined, both his hands smacked over his forehead to shield the tender skin. "I was being so nice and this is what I get!"
Yoongi rolled his eyes, but pulled Jimin's hands away to press a kiss to the tiny red mark. "Little one needs me to kiss his owie better?"
"Oh my god, you're insufferable," Jimin leaned back and wiped at his forehead with his arms, getting rid of the warmth leftover from Yoongi's lips.
Yoongi's laugh echoed through the cheers, loud and unbidden. Jimin pretended not to love the sound of it, pretended to pout and stomped towards his weapons and slung them over his back.
"Acting this cute after I tease you just makes me want to do it more, you know," Yoongi said, voice happy.
"Kiss my ass!" Jimin retorted, walking swiftly towards the clan and not caring if Yoongi caught up.
As always, the dragon did.
"Ah, is that another place humans enjoy kissing?" Yoongi asked, slinging an arm around Jimin's shoulders and tugging him in close, grabbing Jimin's bow from his hand and carrying it for him.
Jimin groaned, turning his head away.
"For the record, your family would be proud too," Yoongi's voice gentled, his hand coming up to cup Jimin's jaw tenderly.
"You think they're with your mom right now?" Jimin asked, finally glancing over towards Yoongi, smiling lightly.
Yoongi blinked at the question, but let out little huffing laugh, as if everything within him relaxed at the thought.
"I hope so, Jimin. I really hope so."
➶
If Jimin thought he was afraid for the solstice before, that was nothing compared to how he felt now.
Now, when he's just gotten to hold Yoongi in his hands, when he's just begun to peel Yoongi apart and understand what sweetness lived inside of him. Now, when Jeongguk kisses his cheek and Hoseok dances with him after dinner. Now, when Namjoon let Jimin see his libraries and Taehyung cried in Jimin's bed after losing one of his earrings, only for Jimin to cave and give the dragon his to make him feel better.
If Jimin was afraid before, when he only had Seokjin to lose, that fear was infinite now, spread into the hearts of six others.
In the cracks of light, all Jimin could see were their faces, and though he knew loss was an inevitable thing, he sorely wished that it wasn't.
The morning of the solstice was still, as if everybody was afraid that if they spoke too loudly or moved too quickly, the world around them as they knew it would shatter.
Jimin was silent as Yoongi stood behind him, tightening the bindings on his leather waist-piece. It was such a familiar feeling, and the normalcy of it on this day made Jimin's mind spin. The dragon was dressing him up with firm, sure hands, a serious expression on his face. When he was done, Yoongi dipped down and pressed a kiss to the back of Jimin's neck, right where his freckle was.
"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you today," Yoongi said, wrapping his arms around Jimin's waist and leaning his chin on Jimin's shoulder in a tight embrace. "You know that, right?"
Turning, Jimin wrapped his armored arms around Yoongi's waist and nuzzled his face into the dragon's chest.
"You can't make promises like that, hyung."
"I absolutely can."
Pulling back, Jimin frowned up at him. "Nobody knows what will happen today, hyung. And I definitely don't want you being reckless with your own safety if you're too busy worrying about me."
Cupping Jimin's cheeks, Yoongi leaned down to kiss him. "We're a team, pip. Nothing will happen to either of us."
"Okay," Jimin said, letting Yoongi's assurance grow in his stomach and bolster his confidence. "Hopefully we'll make it to their temple undetected and just...be able to destroy it without anybody noticing."
Jimin knew that it was wishful thinking, but he truly didn't want to hurt anybody if he didn't have to.
All the warriors and archers gathered on the edge of the Min territory, and Yoongi pulled Jimin in for one last kiss, hand scenting his neck once before he was shifting. Jimin ran a hand down Yoongi's large scales before he returned the favor and helped Yoongi gear up, and when Yoongi willingly sprawled onto his back to allow Jimin to slip on his chest piece, Seokjin laughed so hard at the sight that he had to sit down.
The Kim archers took a moment to gather, holding their bows in their hands and tapping them together in the middle of their huddle. Their faces were grim, but determined. Knowing that it might be the last time he might see some of them, Jimin made sure to look at each and every one of them before they separated and made their ways to their respective dragons.
When Jimin was settled in on Yoongi's back and Seokjin on Namjoon's, the two of them exchanged a nod.
They had slept in the same bed the night before, Jimin tucked into Seokjin's broad chest, his arms encircled around his hyung's waist.
"We can't focus on each other tomorrow," Seokjin had whispered into Jimin's hair. "It wouldn't do either of us any good."
"I know," Jimin whispered. "I'm not worried. Namjoon hyung has you. And Jeongguk will probably be somewhere near you at all times."
Seokjin had huffed in amusement at the last statement, but didn't deny it. Both of them knew that Jeongguk would defend Seokjin to his dying breath.
"You're one to talk, with Yoongi hovering over you all the time even when we're not in battle," Seokjin laughed.
"I love you, hyung," Jimin had said into the fabric of Seokjin's shirt. "When I needed a family most, you...you were there."
Seokjin had squeezed Jimin in tighter. "You showed up when I most needed you too, Jimin. Hyung loves you more than you know."
Now, glancing to his right, Jimin found Taehyung beside them, and Hoseok on his other side. Jeongguk was by Namjoon, stretching his wings as they all waited for Leader Min's signal. Though they never explicitly stated it, Jimin knew that the other three dragons would try their best to stay close, flanking Namjoon and Yoongi.
Now, with one last look at them all, Jimin allowed himself to face forward, knowing that his friends were by his side, but choosing not to focus on them. It would do more harm than good, having to spread his attention out towards so many others.
Jimin pressed a hand against Yoongi's warm scales, resting it there as a reassuring pressure. Yoongi looked back towards him, and even in this form his eyes were warm.
Leader Min threw his head back towards the sky and roared, and the warriors in his clan mirrored him.
Then, there was a familiar sensation in his stomach of being lifted, and they were going. The dragons stayed high in the sky, trying their best to stay out of sight. They rode silently, and Jimin clenched his sweaty hand around the familiar weight of his bow, leaning in close to Yoongi's warm body.
Time passed in strange, sticky increments, with Jeongguk sweeping past and nudging his body against Yoongi's, and Hoseok passing by and allowing his wing to brush gently against the top of Jimin's head.
Jimin could tell when they entered the blood-marked territory by the way the dragons tucked in tighter together, settling into an instinctual formation that was driven by Leader Min. On his back was Gyeon, who knew the way to the temple best.
Minutes passed as they flew over the terrain, and Jimin could see cabins every now and then, even homes built in the trees. It was strange, how normal the blood-marked clan looked from above. One could almost pretend that they were a clan like any other.
The longer they flew, the more hopeful Jimin grew — maybe they truly would be able to sneak by, undetected.
The silence as they passed overhead was almost eerie, and Jimin shivered every few seconds, combatting both nerves and the cold.
But then — the quiet was broken by a shrill, shrieking cry.
It undulated and echoed through the clan, seeming to be picked up by anybody who heard it, growing louder and louder as the blood-marked warned each other of the danger until the sound was almost deafening.
"No," Jimin breathed out as he peered down at the sudden rush of blood-marked running below them on the ground, gathering weapons and shouting, pointing up towards them.
Leader Min seemed to understand that their cover had been blown, so he tucked his wings into his body and began flying faster, all attempts at stealth now gone.
It was the blood-marked who fired the first shot, an arrow that came up and forced a dragon to swerve out of the way, breaking their formation. There was a brief moment's pause, then more arrows followed.
While avoiding the onslaught, Yoongi dove closer to the ground and Jimin shouted, clenching his legs to keep his balance while nocking his own bow.
He knew that the dragons were hesitant to burn anything, afraid that they'd harm innocent people or destroy homes. Jimin let an arrow fly towards a blood-marked warrior on the ground, made visible because of the bright red paint streaked over his body. He didn't stop to see if he hit his target — Jimin was sure that his aim was true. Instead, he reached back to grab another arrow, leaning with Yoongi as the dragon veered toward the left.
Jimin didn't glance at what Yoongi was trying to avoid — he was completely honed in on what he could do to keep both himself and Yoongi safe. All around him, past the wind in his ears, Jimin could hear screaming, the guttural roaring of the dragons, trees being splintered and cracked as some of the Min dragons without riders used their tails to make them collapse over groups of the blood-marked.
The entire time, they continued flying in the direction of the temple.
Leader Min was still leading the way there, four dragons flanking him to keep Gyeon safe so she could continue to guide them.
"We just have to get there," Jimin said out loud to himself. "We just have to get there."
He was surprised his hands weren't shaking as he discarded the empty quiver on his back and reached for a new one, attached to a belt on Yoongi's flank. He took off the cap used to keep the arrows inside and slung the new quiver over his shoulder.
From the corner of his eye, Jimin saw a dragon fall.
He turned away, heart pounding.
All he could do was nock his arrows, aim, and remind himself of the pain he felt when he'd lost his family. For them, for Yoongi, he could do this. He could do anything, no matter how much it scared him.
Suddenly, there was a strange whistling sound, and before Jimin could look towards the source, there was a scream.
"Yoongi, move!" Seokjin's voice was distant, far away. He must have bellowed at the top of his lungs and then some, for his voice to carry like that.
Jimin didn't have a chance to glance over before he and Yoongi were struck by something, knocking them out of the air.
They plummeted, the chain between Yoongi's chest piece and the leather around Jimin's waist being the only thing keeping them together.
Yoongi roared, a frantic noise, as he tried to flap his wings and get them to stop falling, but there was blood falling from somewhere, splattering onto Jimin's cheeks, and it took him only half a second to realize that it was Yoongi's blood
"Yoongi hyung!" Jimin cried.
The dragon wrapped his wings around Jimin, giving up on trying to get them in the air again, and took the brunt of the fall.
Jimin screamed when he felt Yoongi collide with the ground. He was pressed so hard into the soft of Yoongi's stomach that it hurt, Yoongi's wings making sure that there was no way Jimin could have flown out upon their impact with land.
There was a harsh buzzing in Jimin's ears, and his breathing was erratic. This wasn't good — Jimin knew that most of their advantage came from being airborne. Now that they were on the ground, separated from the rest of the Min clan, surrounded by the blood-marked —
Yoongi was letting out ear-piercing, resonant cries. It wasn't anything Jimin's ever heard the dragon vocalize before. They were high-pitched and pulsing, almost like an alarm.
Jimin struggled underneath the weight of Yoongi's wings, and caught sight of the wound on Yoongi's side. Jimin couldn't tell how deep it was, but blood was still gushing from it, staining both Jimin's clothing and Yoongi's scales.
From somewhere up in the air, Jimin heard Yoongi's vocalizations being repeated back. Jimin realized that those noises were Yoongi calling for help. That struck fear into his heart — not for himself, but for Yoongi.
The entire time Jimin had known the dragon, Yoongi was always self-assured. Not only in his capabilities to fight and protect himself, but to protect Jimin. How injured must Yoongi be, to call for help like this?
Jimin tried to reach out and place pressure on Yoongi's wound, but he couldn't get close enough to it. Before he could try to wriggle closer, however, Yoongi's wings were being wrenched open and a rough hand was grabbing onto Jimin's hair.
Yoongi bellowed. A growl so loud and threatening ripped through the air that even Jimin flinched. But the blood-marked who was dragging Jimin away didn't seem fazed.
Jimin fought, wrenching his arm back and knocking the man in the head with his heavy bow. But then there were more of them, swarming Jimin and Yoongi like ants, and Jimin saw some sort of net casted over Yoongi's body.
"Stop," Jimin screamed, fighting against all the hands wrenching him away from his dragon. "If you touch him, I will cast my arrow through your heart, you—"
Jimin was wrenched back, but lost his breath by the chain that still connected him to Yoongi. For a split second, there was relief. But that was short-lived as one of the blood-marked effortlessly swung an axe and severed it. The chain was strong, but it was only meant to keep Jimin from falling off of Yoongi's back. It wasn't meant to withstand blunt force like that.
Yoongi struggled, the forest filled with his growls and roars. His tail was swinging side to side, a clear sign of his anger, and Jimin could see sparks shooting from his mouth.
Jimin's bow was pried from his hands and Jimin felt the straps of his quiver being cut from his back. Completely defenseless now, Jimin only had a moment to feel relief as Namjoon landed right over Yoongi's body with an angry roar, lashing out with a streak of flames.
Then, there was pain against the back of his head, and Jimin's unconscious body was hauled away.
➶
When Jimin regained consciousness, there were only a few moments of grogginess and pain before he realized that he was in danger. He felt rough stone sliding underneath his body as he was dragged carelessly.
Immediately, he screamed, kicking free from the hold on his leg that was being used to tug him along.
He wasn't tied up at all, as if the blood-marked were so confident that he wouldn't run. Or confident enough to think that he was too weak to fight back.
Jimin pitched to his feet, and immediately began running. He saw stone in his peripherals before he was running in the opposite direction, towards the trees.
In the distant horizon, so far he could barely make them out, Jimin could see dragons in the air. They were close, but not close enough.
"No!" Jimin screamed as somebody tackled him to the ground.
He thrashed his body as hard as he could, but he couldn't escape the weight holding him down.
"Shut up," a voice rasped in his ear. "You should count yourself lucky, that you will get to die on sacred grounds, on our holiest day."
And — that voice.
It was familiar, too familiar, and Jimin felt bile rise to the back of his throat as he turned his head and looked up.
The blood-marked who murdered his brother was missing an eye, now, the socket empty and grotesque.
Nausea swelled in Jimin when he saw recognition bloom across the man's face, too.
"You're — how are you still alive?" Jimin breathed out, dread and shock filling his body.
Similarly, the man looked just as surprised to see Jimin underneath him. Then, he threw his head back and let out a loud, bellowing laugh.
"The gods are mighty!" he roared to the heavens. "To have brought you back here for my revenge, on the sacred day of our Solstice...what a gift they have given me, right on the grounds of their temple!"
Finally looking up, a few beats passed before Jimin realized he was staring up at a grand, stone temple.
The temple.
The temple they'd been searching for, the temple they needed to destroy.
It wasn't a temple like he'd ever seen, however. If one looked too quickly, it would only look like an innocuous mountainside. It was built so carefully and naturally into the mountain that it was easy to miss.
Now, however, Jimin couldn't take his eyes off of it, finding all the arched doorways carved into the stone.
"You're crazy," Jimin said. "You're all crazy."
"You will pay for taking my eye," Jihyun's murderer spat. "You deserve no swift death."
"You know you cannot take him," another man cut in. "He will be sacrificed at the altar."
Jimin was shoved to his feet, which were somehow now bare. His vanguards were gone, too, leaving him in nothing but his thin clothes and the leather around his waist, the severed chain still dangling. They began ascending stone steps, and Jimin shivered at the cold underneath his toes.
"Our gods are thirsty for blood," another one of the blood-marked said. "Our gods deserve our offering, on this holy day."
Jimin wanted to shout that he wasn't an offering, he was a person, a life that had no desire to die out yet. But he couldn't get out anything other than an enraged scream.
He was dragged into the temple, and Jimin hated how beautiful it was inside. He hated the marble walls, the high windows, the finely carved wooden furniture.
"Your gods are not real!" Jimin screamed, his voice echoing throughout the temple. "And if they were, what kind of gods find pleasure in senseless murder? Those are no gods, those are devils—"
"Silence!" the one-eyed blood-marked roared, beating Jimin's face with a fist so hard he felt his neck crack. "You speak blasphemy!"
"I speak the truth that none of you are willing to hear," Jimin spat out, even with his ear still ringing in pain from the hit.
He was dragged into a large room. There was a stained glass ceiling letting in rays of colorful light, and Jimin was promptly lead to an elevated platform directly underneath that window and chained to a stone table.
"You'll regret this," Jimin was panting in fear as he saw groups of people come in and sit, as if his death would be a fun evening of entertainment. "The Min clan will destroy yours, they will never let you live in peace if you kill me."
"You will be granted a beautiful afterlife once you leave this body. Our gods thank you for sating their hunger."
Jimin screamed as he saw a robed man coming towards him with a jeweled dagger, held delicately in his withered hands like he was extending an olive branch instead of the end of Jimin's life.
Fighting hard against his bonds, Jimin felt blood dripping down his hands and ankles as the chains cut into his skin.
"You can't," Jimin tried again. "Listen to me, just for a moment, please!"
Nobody seemed at all fazed by his cries.
With a last, desperate effort, Jimin tilted his head towards the stained glass ceiling, eyes squeezed shut and burning with tears, and screamed, "YOONGI!"
The ceiling shattered.
Glass rained down on the room like the gods were answering Jimin's cry. There was a familiar roar that shook the temple, and then — the room was erupting into flame.
"Burn it," Seokjin's voice was suddenly there, angrier than Jimin's ever heard it. "Burn it all to the ground."
Jimin hadn't felt relief like that before in his entire life. His body went limp with it, silent, shocked tears continuing to stream down his face.
There was more glass shattering, and suddenly the room was full of dragons and archers alike. From the corner of his eye, Jimin saw Gyeon hopping down from Leader Min's back and going straight for the old man who had been about to kill him, presumably one of the leaders of the clan.
"Jimin-ah, Jimin," Seokjin was above him then, sobbing, pressing a wet kiss to his matted hair.
He freed Jimin with trembling hands.
"We thought you were dead," Seokjin said, voice quivering. "We thought you were dead."
Jimin couldn't respond. His throat felt so tight it was hard to breathe. He clutched onto Seokjin, breathing in his hyung's familiar scent past all the blood and smoke. Seokjin squeezed him in tight, despite the chaos that was happening around them.
Then he was moving away, and Jimin whined, trying to tighten his grip.
It was getting hard to breath, with all the smoke in the room, or maybe that was just the underlying adrenaline and fear. The dragons were burning and destroying everything they could, both inside and outside of the temple.
The entire earth shook with their wrath.
Then there were calloused, familiar hands on his face, and Jimin's head was being tipped up and Yoongi was there.
"You're okay," Yoongi breathed out like a prayer. "You're okay, you're okay."
The way he was looking at Jimin was reverent, like he'd never seen anything more beautiful.
"You came," Jimin said, lunging forward to get as close to Yoongi as possible, wrapping his arms around the dragon's neck. "They were about to kill me, and I called your name, and you came."
Like a god answering a prayer. Like finding a lone clementine tree in the middle of a large forest. Like a human and a dragon falling in love.
"Of course I did," Yoongi murmured, his lips pressed against Jimin's forehead. "I'm sorry I let them take you, I promised I'd protect you and yet—"
"There was nothing you could've done," Jimin shook his head.
Yoongi pulled back and studied him, face so full of emotion Jimin couldn't bring himself to look away.
This is what it feels like, to be a man loved.
How terrifying and lucky all at once.
"We have to go," Yoongi said when Jimin let out a cough. "The smoke isn't good for you. Either of you."
Yoongi grasped Jimin's hand in a firm grip and then took Seokjin's hand in the other. He lead them over towards Namjoon, who was still shifted and roaring angrily at a group of blood-marked who were attempting to close in on him with long serrated spears.
Namjoon let out a string of fire, forcing the blood-marked to back up, but from the way the dragon was holding himself, Jimin could tell that he was tiring.
"Go," Yoongi ushered Seokjin towards Namjoon, who lowered a wing for Seokjin to climb on.
Namjoon barely even waited for Seokjin to clip himself in before he was airborne, flying through one of the holes in the roof and leaving the smoking temple.
Jimin felt Yoongi shift back into his dragon form, and then suddenly he was clambering onto Yoongi's wing, as well. Since his chain had been severed, he was preparing himself to hold onto Yoongi as tightly as he could.
But before he could make it all the way on, there was a hand grabbing his leg, yanking him back roughly, almost a replay of what had happened the first time they'd separated him from Yoongi.
Jimin fell off of Yoongi's wing and was dragged backwards. Jimin kicked out with an angry scream, tired of being manhandled.
"You will pay," the familiar voice growled. "You have caused enough havoc, you demon."
Instead of fear, pure rage boiled up in Jimin.
Yoongi roared and spun once he realized Jimin was no longer on him, but Jimin had found his feet and was stalking forward towards his brother's murderer, hands clenched into tight fists.
"Your sacred temple is a sham," Jimin gritted out, anger burning hot through his veins as he reached out and shoved the man back. "You murdered my family for these so-called gods that are letting this temple burn to the ground!"
The blood-marked stumbled back, his face contorting with emotion. He looked around at the temple, which was beginning to audibly collapse as the Min dragons and Kim archers destroyed it.
"That's right," Jimin said, fists shaking at his sides, aching with how much he missed his family. "You think your gods would allow this to happen if what your clan has been doing was favorable? You think they would allow their temple to burn down if they didn't hate you for all the people you've killed?"
"Well the gods were certainly not on your side when they allowed me the strength to sacrifice your pitiful little brother," the man sneered.
His words ripped like a storm through Jimin and he didn't even recognize the feral scream he let out until he was on top of the man, punching him as hard as he could. He wished he had his bow and arrows, wished that they hadn't been taken away. A savage part of him wanted to take the man's other eye out as well.
From the corner of his eye, Jimin saw a glint of something sharp and metal, but before the blood-marked could use his weapon Jimin was being lifted by the back of his shirt and lightly tossed to the side.
Then Yoongi was crushing the man's arm in his massive jaw with a sickening crunch, and using it to toss him away like a limp rag doll.
The man fell right on top of the altar where Jimin had laid mere minutes ago, screaming in agony.
Surging towards him, Jimin didn't hesitate to grab the chains that had previously held him down on the stone table, and wrap them around the man's writhing body.
"If you cherish your so-called gods so much," Jimin spat. "Then burn with them."
He and Yoongi escaped the temple right before it collapsed in on itself.
➶
When Jimin woke, he was floating in a sea of warmth.
There were scales pressed to the plush of his cheek and a low rumbling in the background. Jimin pushed himself up, every inch of every limb sore, and realized that he was wrapped up in the middle of Yoongi's curled-up dragon form.
Yoongi had situated Jimin against the soft of his warm belly, and curled his tail and legs around him like a nest. His wings were draped over Jimin as well, their massive size not allowing anybody to peer around Yoongi's body to catch a glimpse of Jimin.
He was so utterly encompassed that he couldn't even see Yoongi's face. But the dragon must have felt him shift, because suddenly his wings were lifting, and the dragon was craning his neck to peer down at him.
Jimin offered a tired smile, inspecting all the neat and clean bandages around his body. Yoongi grumbled, repeatedly nudging at Jimin with his large head.
"Why're you shifted?" Jimin asked, voice raspy. "We're inside."
"Oh, is Jimin finally awake? Let us see him, you greedy oaf," Seokjin's voice was loud and clear from somewhere outside of Yoongi's protective little circle.
"I'm awake," Jimin called out to his hyung.
"Yoongi hyung, shift back, you're taking up all the room," Jeongguk complained.
"Jimin-ah, can you breathe in there? Do we need another rescue mission?" Hoseok called.
At that, Jimin laughed, clambering clumsily to his feet and swatting Yoongi's wings away, when they tried to wrap around him again.
He stood on wobbly feet, but when greeted with the sight of all his friends, Jimin let out a sob of relief.
"Everyone's okay?" Jimin asked, voice shaking.
"We're okay," Taehyung confirmed, engulfing him in a hug. "We're all okay."
He had a bandage over his head, and from the corner of his eye Jimin could see that Jeongguk's right arm was in a sling. They were all patched up in one area or another, but they were all there.
Jimin couldn't be more grateful.
"Yoongi hasn't shifted back since we got home," Namjoon said. "We treated his wounds as best as we could in his dragon form, but it'd be better if he shifted."
Scowling, Jimin reached out to shove gently at Yoongi's large head. "Why aren't you shifting?"
"It's not entirely his fault," Hoseok defended. "When their mate is in danger, dragons tend to get...overprotective. He's in this form because his instincts still think you're in danger, and it's easier for him to protect you when he's a dragon."
"Oh," Jimin's voice wobbled with realization.
Yoongi had wrapped around him and stayed in this form, refusing to have his wounds properly healed, because he was trying to keep Jimin safe.
"Hey," Jimin breathed out, reaching up to press his forehead to Yoongi's.
The dragon met him halfway, dipping his neck down low to allow his face to reach Jimin's height.
"I'm okay now," Jimin closed his eyes and nuzzled his head against Yoongi's. "You can shift back."
Yoongi let out what sounded like a suspicious grumble.
"I promise I'm fine," Jimin said, stroking a hand down Yoongi's scaled cheek. "You got to me in time. We're all okay, Yoongi hyung. Please shift back."
And, ever-weak to Jimin's demands, Yoongi shifted back to his human form. Almost immediately, he was stepping into Jimin's space, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and nuzzling his face into Jimin's neck, scenting him.
"If you ever pull anything like that again," Yoongi rasped out. "I will never let you fly on my back again."
Rolling his eyes fondly, Jimin squeezed his arms around Yoongi's waist, and then pressed his hand to the side of Yoongi's neck, the way Yoongi did to him when trying to comfort him.
"I'll try never to get kidnapped by a clan of cultists ever again," Jimin intoned dutifully. "But I make no promises."
Yoongi pulled back to glare at Jimin, but then his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and then he was unconscious, slumping forward into Jimin's arms.
The six of them stayed by Yoongi's side as the healer patched him up, claiming that the dragon was fine, just overly exhausted and a little low in iron. Thankfully, the gash in his side that he'd gotten from the explosive that had knocked them out of the sky wasn't too deep, and hadn't hit any internal organs. Yoongi's thick scales in his dragon form had protected him from the worst of it.
Jimin swiped a damp washcloth over Yoongi's forehead as the dragon slumbered, holding his hand underneath the blanket.
"The blood-marked clan is dispersing," Seokjin sat beside Jimin and laid his head on his shoulder. "We're taking some of them into the Kim clan."
"...Are you sure it's safe?" Jimin asked.
"We're letting the children in no questions asked," Seokjin explained. "Father is allowing the adults to build their own homes and integrate into our clan, if they wish to."
"There are so many of them who are happy to be free, just as Gyeon-ssi said," Namjoon said from Seokjin's other side. "Much more than we thought."
"But what about the blood-marked who refused to back down, who continue to seek revenge?" Jimin shivered, thinking of the anger in the face of the blood-marked he'd chained to the burning altar.
"We're giving them no choice but to leave this side of our land," Seokjin said, his voice and face steely. "They're aware that if they refuse, then we'll show them no mercy. Not after everything they've done. There aren't enough of them to begin a new clan, and most of them are so stubborn and individualistic that I doubt they would band together anyway."
It was during moments like these where Jimin was reminded that Seokjin was going to lead the Kim clan, one day. Looking towards Jeongguk, who was wrapped around Seokjin's back, Jimin allowed himself to smile a bit.
Seeing the two of them, Jimin had a feeling that their two clans really might be merging, sometime in the future.
It was a lovely thought.
Jimin nodded, and ducked down to press a kiss to Yoongi's shoulder, taking a second to breathe and relish in the fact that everything was finally over.
When he opened his eyes again, he found the Min clan's Elder standing at the doorway of the infirmary, peering at all of them with her misty eyes.
All the warriors were tattooed that day, a flaming arrow drawn right on the skin over their hearts.
"You're one of us now," Yoongi laughed as he ducked to kiss Jimin once the Elder was finished with his. "A mighty Min warrior, with the mark to show for it."
➶
Sunset painted the world peaceful and pretty, and Yoongi felt his hand being engulfed in tiny fingers.
Heart warming, Yoongi looked down to see Jimin smiling shyly up at him, and the human began leading him towards the trees. Jimin smelled like sunshine and honey, everything about him golden and sweet.
"What is it?" Yoongi asked, squeezing Jimin's hand gently.
"I just...couldn't stop thinking about how you said that dragons don't have a word for love," Jimin said. "That your kind showed it, rather than saying it out loud."
Yoongi hummed in agreement, wondering what this was leading to.
"I don't mind saying it," he responded. "I don't mind saying I love you at all."
Smiling, Jimin reached over to run a hand over Yoongi's neck. Though the human couldn't smell scents the way dragons do, Jimin had gotten into the habit of scenting Yoongi back, adopting the draconic affection the way Yoongi had adopted kissing.
"This is me showing you, hyung," Jimin whispered, looking up at him like he was the first streak of light on a misty morning. Like Yoongi was everything he'd always look forward to, no matter how many dark nights passed.
They stopped in a familiar clearing, and Yoongi's breath caught.
There, on a low-hanging branch, was a single white ribbon — tied right where the clementines grow.