• Children of Winter• || NamMin

12.2 Nunpyobeom choice

Walk along the cleared forest trails. Used by horses and carts. Namjoon walks quietly and unhurriedly. He has all the time in the world now that there is no war. He assumes that back home, everything will be very quiet and lovely to experience after so long. He takes a deep breath, leaning against a tree to rest for a few minutes. He has been in this process since morning.

He looks back the way he came, almost wanting to go back and get the person he would like to be here with him. However, he is adamant about returning home. His adventure is over. He did what he had to do and if he is alone now, it must be what fate did for him.

Quite sad and disappointing.

In his mind he poses a thousand scenarios. Each one just as fatalistic, if not worse than the last at each one they insist on coming up. He imagines Jimin asleep in his room, happy to return to his luxuries and refusing to abandon them; he imagines him having an encounter with that apparent suitor and Alpha who wanted to betroth him; he imagines him locked up screaming for help in a cellar, punished for having failed to follow the directions of his relatives.

That maybe that same suitor kidnapped him and is now looking for him back in the capital?

"You're being paranoid." Namjoon grumbles to himself with droopy ears and a still tail. His long hair flutters gently in the winter breeze and his gesture is one of sorrow.

Perhaps he is not as good a suitor as he thought he was. In Jimin's life, he is someone who helped him see the animal inside him, embrace and enjoy it for a short period of time and now he must resume his entirely human life.

Namjoon lifts his right ear, hearing the gallop of a horse in his direction. Its claws come out and its fangs tingle under the sensation that they are going to bite flesh. It would make a good lunch. Whoever is coming alone around here. Is it a dangerous place? Because of the likelihood of wolves, bears and foxes emerging to attack, possibly thieves as well.

If it's a lone traveler, it's doubtful what to expect. Namjoon turns his head, watching the horse approach. He barely has a saddle; the person wears a dark cloak on his head and on the pack animal brings luggage.

Namjoon stands up and maintains his composure. The horse stops beside him and his pupils dilate, with the rider pulling down the cloaked hood. Jimin smiles wide, showing his fangs and his face with a faint blush, his ears perked up and hair braided over his shoulder.

"I thought you'd gone off into the woods! I couldn't find you, I was beginning to get scared."

"You took too long to come out." defends Namjoon and Jimin shrugs.

"Hoseok insisted on giving me some things. He didn't want to let go of me." he communicates with a chagrined smile. "Are you coming up?" he offers and Namjoon shakes his head.

"I like to walk."

Jimin gets off the horse, takes the rein and walks next to Namjoon. The tiger gives him sidelong glances, involuntarily trembling and being excited, incredulous that he is actually next to him despite his fatalistic thoughts a moment ago. Jimin gives a long yawn and Namjoon chuckles, shaking his head.

"I don't think I slept at all," Jimin admits ruefully. "The nerves were killing me."

"Are you still nervous?"

"A little."

"You're already here and I doubt you want to make it all the way back."

"It's the first time I've ever done something I wanted to... at this level and.... nervous or excited, both feel the same now; very different from anxious to go home." replies Jimin and Namjoon curls his tail with Jimin's.

They last all day walking, stopped at a village for lunch at noon and close to night, but sleep outdoors with a makeshift tent and more so as not to kill the horse from the cold.

"What did you bring?" asks Namjoon, curious about the backpacks the horse was carrying.

"Gifts I was given while growing up, some clothes I didn't want to leave behind and paint." answers Jimin. He checks the backpack with fabrics, paint, brushes, jewelry, the music box Namjoon gave him; Namjoon closes his eyes, resting his cheek on Jimin's shoulder.

"Those I can buy for you..."

"These are new, I've been wanting to use them for months."

Namjoon purrs sulkily and Jimin laughs, giving him a kiss on the temple.

The journey to Namjoon's territory is long, perhaps too long due to their lack of hurry. Just like every moment together in the past, they spend it talking. Be it about occasional nonsense, things left unsaid or imaginations that came during the night.

Little is the silence. Jimin being very talkative and enjoying being listened to. Namjoon is attentive, with goofy leave and enamored by the leopard. Arriving at the house, Jimin smiles in excitement, with a huge smile. So long did they delay, that winter is over and now in spring, the house is surrounded by a huge field of pink flowers.

"It's like the house of my dream!" exclaims Jimin full of joy, turning to Namjoon as one who wants him to believe his story. Namjoon removes the saddle and reins the horse to roam as much as he pleases.

Mon comes out of the house and puts his two front legs up on Jimin's shoulders, licking his face with excitement to have him here. Jimin hugs him back, squeezing his lips and eyes shut to keep from feeling tiger slobber. When the tiger releases him, the Alpha holds him from behind.

"Do you like the house?"

"It's beautiful! Can I really live here with you?"

"Of course you can. I'll enlarge it a bit, so you'll have somewhere to paint and whatever you want."

Namjoon manages to catch a deer for dinner and they dined among the pink flowers. Jimin has been unusually quiet all this time. In the garden enjoying the flowers and not once entering the dwelling, not even when Namjoon offered it to him. Having finished eating and taking dancing steps, Jimin enters the house, having his hands behind his back.

"You stay outside." warns Namjoon to Mon, who yawns and lies on his belly, his belly round from having eaten too much.

"I wanna be with you" Namjoon's ears stay up all the way, listening to the singing inside. Passively and charmingly gliding around the dwelling. "And I wanna stay with you. Just like the stars shining bright" Namjoon opens the doors to the room, finding Jimin leaving the jewelry he was carrying in a small gold and jade jewelry box. "You're glowing once more."

Right here beside you, I'm still
Walking wherever you go
You will live forever in me
Breathing deeply, within me

Jimin grabs Namjoon's arms to pull him closer and around his waist. Namjoon lays his forehead on Jimin's, closing his eyes and curling his tail with Jimin's, purring.

Just take it all
I'm nothing without your love
I promise I'll never leave your love
My heart is beating 'cause of you

Jimin gives him a faint kiss on the lips and as he pulls away a little, Jimin smiles at him, purring with his ears laid back. The Omega turns in the arms of Namjoon, who notices the hair out of the way, just over Jimin's right shoulder and that Jimin tilts his head down. Discreetly and delicately.

Namjoon opens its jaws and closes in, driving its fangs so hard that it penetrates deep into the nape of the neck, rupturing the gland and drawing a whimper from Jimin, the Omega smiles despite the pain; its hands clutching Namjoon's arms. It tears the flesh and threatens to take everything, that not being the case.

"Forever and ever and ever Only you can take my heart" he hums as Namjoon slides his tongue across the broken and bleeding skin. For the first time, he soils Jimin with this crimson liquid and does so with the blood that makes him spill. "Dear my love ..." He closes his eyes with a smile, receiving Namjoon's insistent kisses on his head. "I wanna stay with you."

They end up falling on the futon stretched on the floor. Jimin hugs him by the shoulders, his eyes dilated just as the opposite ones. Finally home.