(make my heart) a Better Place (NOT MY WORK)

(make my heart) a Better Place

The backstory in short: Taekook are nefarious tomb raiders, led by Seokjin. Yoongi is a 'rival' tomb raider, works with Namjoon & Hoseok and fell in love with demon Jimin who bcuz of a curse can't really leave the tomb he is currently in.

Present Day
, Hunan Province, China

Jungkook was nineteen when he first met Taehyung.

It's been a couple years since then, and while a lot has changed—dropping out of school to raid tombs and the like around the world will do that—there are certain things that are still the same.

Taehyung, for one. He's grinning at the moment, even as he's dangling off the edge of a cliff, hands twisted into the vines growing in and out of the cracks in the rock.

"You look cute when you're focused," he calls up to Jungkook, who's in the middle of trying to keep the temple guardian tied up with one hand.

It's difficult, considering that this guardian is a seven-foot stone soldier that had come to life the second they'd taken the wooden treasure box from the heart of the temple and promptly done all it could to kill them, including flinging Taehyung off the side of the mountain. Jungkook's other hand is scrambling to toss a rope down to him before he can plummet to his death.

"Shut up!" he pants, cursing when the rope falls short of Taehyung by a foot. Beneath his body, the stone guardian growls and kicks Jungkook in the ribs. "Fuck!"

"Language," Taehyung sings. Sings. With miles and miles of nothing but air beneath him.

"Fuck!" Jungkook says again, coughing when the stone guardian rips free of the whip tying him and punches Jungkook right in the stomach. He drops the rope meant for Taehyung as he skids back, dangerously close to the cliff edge.

Taehyung has the gall to whistle from below as Jungkook scrambles into a crouch, ass right over the precipice. "This view—it's very nice."

"Tae!" Jungkook seethes, can't believe he's actually blushing as he narrowly avoids the statue crushing his head between its large stone hands. He glances behind him, taking stock of how well the vines are holding up Taehyung's weight.

As it is, one of them has broken. Taehyung waves at him with the torn greenery still around his wrist.

"Hold on to another one!" Jungkook snaps. The climbing rope is behind the stone soldier now, but his long, lassoed whip is still in his right hand. He fakes right, then, when the statue falls for it, dives to the left.

It works for a second. The statue gets dangerously close to the edge, but it's quicker than it has any right to be for how big it is and manages to change direction and get a hold of Jungkook's foot.

Jungkook doesn't think. He twists, reaching for the combat knife sheathed horizontally in its holster at the low of his back. The soldier yanks him forward, surely gearing up to toss him over the mountain too, but there's a ringing clang as metal meets stone, the blade hitting its mark right in the statue's eye. Jungkook uses so much force that bits of rock fly off, smaller pieces crumbling off the statue's face.

It roars, concentration broken for a moment. Jungkook uses that moment to break free, rolling backwards for two heart stopping seconds, one wrong move from tumbling right off the edge, just a centimeter to his right. His back stings as he flips into a standing position.

The stone soldier rubs at his ruined face and roars again, the sound impossibly deep and something otherworldly, automatically bringing goosebumps to Jungkook's skin.

It charges, but Jungkook has already reeled his whip back. It flies forward with a whoosh, braided leather curling around the statue's upper body once again. Jungkook sharply twists his arm, and it catches. The statue makes another terrible, inhuman sound as Jungkook yanks again, but there's nothing it can do as it loses its balance, one foot slipping over the edge of the cliff. In the next second, it's tumbling over.