Lifetime

Orange Soda

While Taehyung busied himself pulling items from the refrigerator and cabinets I slipped into a pair of leggings to cover myself for the walk to the next floor up. There was a room in the building that had formerly been a studio apartment. Jungkook paid extra to use it for painting, an agreement made so he had the freedom to paint the walls without consequence and our landlord didn't have to make any upgrades to the rundown space.

It was my first time inside, the heavy smell of paint hitting me despite the two open windows and my eyes not knowing where to land, nearly every corner of the wall covered with art. There was no furniture, empty and complete canvases leaned against the walls, and tubes of paint that would have been easy to kick over if I wasn't paying attention littered the floor.

An easel sat by the window, a painting where only the background was complete, hues of purple and blue blending into each other sat on display. Jungkook was oblivious to my presence, facing a wall where he spray painted an object I couldn't yet make out. Almost his entire face was covered, a respirator mask, goggles, and oversized headphones shielding him from the world.

I relaxed against the wall a foot away from him, watching until he felt that someone's eyes were on him. He met my eye before looking down, unhooking his mask and pulling off his headphones so that they hung around his neck. He used the hand towel draped over his shoulder to wipe away the thin layer of sweat on his face before taking a seat against a dry wall.

"Why are you upset with me?" I sat across from him, trying to reach out but he put his hands on his lap, evidently still irritable. "Do you think it's working in your favor?"

He sucked at his teeth, creating an annoyed sound. "I can tell you're going to say no." He muttered.

"And here I was thinking you knew me." I emphasized my sigh.

There was a small thud as he tilted his head back, groaning and reaching out to grab my ankle. I yelped as he tugged me by my calf so that I slid across the floor to the space between his legs. "Say it." He glanced down, our faces so close that his nose bumped against mine.

I moved from where I rested against my palms, lacing my fingers around his neck. "You want me." I teased. "Say you want me and I'll say yes."

He didn't hesitate. "I want you."

My words were bold but hearing him say it made me bashful. He giggled at the pink tint of my cheeks, peppering them with kisses and pecking at my lips. "Yes and for the record, I was always leaning toward yes." I spoke between his lips on mine.

He held onto me so that it felt like I was completely wrapped in him, his hands spread so that they reached around my waist to my back. We were so close that a dime couldn't have fit between and there was something healing about the embrace. He carried every emotion in his body and I felt the transition from tension to relief in his hold.

"Thank you." My lips flitted by his ear.

"Hmm?" He breathed in response.

I pulled away slightly, his hands distracting as they moved down my hips to my legs. "You've already shown me what you're like when you're upset. Taehyung will take me by surprise when he gets mad at me." I smirked. As much as his temperamental attitude was frustrating, I'd already decided to accept that part of him. "Speaking of, we should go. He's making lunch." I traced my fingers down his arm and into his hand, standing to guide us to the door.

He didn't want to detach from me yet, tugging me back so that we were next to each other and slipping an arm around my waist. "So, getting upset did work in my favor." He chaffed.

Back at the apartment Taehyung prepared simple sandwiches that we ate while watching the drama he'd been sucked into, Jungkook and I asking questions until he became exasperated with us. My phone started to buzz loudly from the coffee table in the middle of the third episode, a photo of Faye sleeping with her mouth gaped open appearing on the screen.

Jungkook chuckled at the picture from beside me, Taehyung's attention only pulled away from the TV when I excused myself to my bedroom.

In my room I turned the radio on low in case they could hear our conversation and plopped onto my bed, my head landing against the pillow with an excitable exhalation.

"How was the party?" She asked, following up from where we left off the night before, my last message a photo of my outfit that Taehyung took while we stood in line for the rave.

I wasn't sure whether to start from the beginning or end, but couldn't stop from blurting out the words. "It ended with two boyfriends."

Her initial gasp turned into full on amused cackling, so loud that I had to pull the phone from my ear until she calmed down. "Okay, okay. I can breathe. Now tell me how you ended up with two boyfriends in less than twenty-four hours. Spare no detail."

After making me swear to never complain about the prophecy again since I'd apparently won at life and questioning the events so that there wasn't a sliver of information left out, we ended the call with confessions of missing each other.

Jungkook cooked a light dinner, the three of us slightly full from lunch as we sat around the table while Taehyung tried to recall the name of a song he'd enjoyed dancing to the night before. It all felt normal, like nothing really changed until I finished getting ready for bed, tugging another old tshirt on and braiding my hair to sleep in.

Just as I finished sending my dad a goodnight text I turned to find Taehyung leaning into my doorway, dressed in the softest looking pajama set I'd ever seen.

"Do you want to sleep with us tonight?" He asked cutely.

I knew they'd respect whatever boundaries I had, setting my phone down and taking his hand. He led us across the hall to their bedroom, the diffuser Jungkook kept running constantly spreading a light, fresh scent over the room. Jungkook laid on one side of the bed, face down and already half asleep. His arms were crossed so that they hugged his pillow but when he felt me climb in he pulled the one nearest to me out, searching for one of my hands to hold in the dimly lit room.

I laid on my side, facing him, but glanced over my shoulder to see Taehyung crawl in behind me, his lips pressing to the corner of my mouth as he wrapped an arm around me in a spooning position. I held onto his hand and moved my other so that it curled around Jungkook's bicep. We slept without a blanket and with two bodies around me I'd never been warmer or more eager for two.