Don't Call Me Angel || VMIN

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"It's Taehyung, nobody else is here. I'm trying to help you, not hurt you," the elder reassured, rubbing his thumb delicately over the back of the smaller's hand.

"Tae," Jimin cried hopefully, wanting to believe what he was being told and get rid of the other voices ringing in his ears, "I'm scared -"

He was cut off as another shudder washed over him and he flinched so violently that he pulled his hand free of the comforting grip. The panic returned to him, swamping his mind, drowning him in its murky depths, and the dancer recoiled away from the other. All the images haunting him contradicted what he was currently seeing and he didn't know what to believe. He wanted nothing more than to trust the soothing words that flooded his ears and yet, at the same time, he had no idea whether they were actually there.

There was an intake of breath next to him, followed by a rueful sigh, and he wasn't given time to prepare himself for what was about to happened. A gentle hand scooped under the crook of his knees, another slid itself around his shoulder, and he was lifted from the bed. Immediately, his body let out a scream of protest, trying and failing to escape from the hold that encompassed him so securely. Pushing against the firm chest, the ravenette realised he had used up all of his strength while pointlessly struggling earlier and a wave of terror hit him again.

"No, no, please," he sobbed, tears streaking down his face, "I can't do it."

Even as the words tumbled from his lips, he took note of the tenderness of the hands that were carrying him and the support of the arms around him. This person wasn't trying to hurt him. He couldn't be sure of it though and, to worsen his doubt, more memories piled themselves behind his eyes. These weren't Ryung's hands, they couldn't be, they were too soft. None of the reasoning helped and he sunk deeper into the shadows of his mind.

"I don't want to, please don't make me do it anymore."

Quite suddenly, Jimin felt the tender hands reposition themselves underneath him and he took the opportunity to throw himself from their grip. He discovered that he was actually only a few inches above the soft carpet and he relished in the absence of the touch, his skin slowly losing the burning sensation. As the pain dwindled, however, he became aware of the other emotion that had been tucked away in the corner of his mind and was now expanding to fill the emptying space. 

It was longing, longing for the security that the hold had brought him, even if it was paired with other torturous feelings.

He tucked his legs right up to his chest, able to feel the steady pummelling of his heart, and tangled his fingers into the tassels of the rug he had fallen onto. Tightening his grip in an effort to ground himself, wanting nothing more than to return to reality, he found that his body had started to rock gently. The swaying did in fact help, if by helping it meant he was partially distracted, and he continued to focus on the steady motion. He didn't care if he looked stupid or not, there was no room in his mind to care.

A downside was that it also worsened the sickening knot in his abdomen and, after a few minutes, he had to stop out of fear of throwing up. Due to the fact that he had screwed his eyes tight shut and buried his head in his knees, the dancer couldn't tell what was going on around him. It wouldn't have made much of a difference if he turned to face anything though, because his perception of the physical world was still extremely warped and he didn't trust his eyes to tell him the truth anymore.

He was aware that there was someone else in the room and whilst the soft tones of their voice had pointed all evidence to the fact that they probably weren't going to hurt him, he didn't want to let his guard down only to find that it wasn't Taehyung.

Having curled into a ball, he knew he was already rather defenceless; it was stupid to leave the majority of his body exposed to whatever might be thrown at it. As the seconds slowly ticked by, his brain continued to pick at the countless number of flaws in this supposedly protective position. He might have ignored them and stayed tucked away in his own little world, but the unmistakable noise of someone else shifting nearby made him come to his senses.