𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐗

Blazing

Hi y'all :) welcome back to another chapter of Phoenix, thank u for supporting my fic<3

> Stuff happens, obviously. And there is an entire conversation in Russian that my buttercup Lula so willingly and helpfully translated for me. I would be floundering without her and going to Google and eventually screwing up. So send her your thanks for that. :) And the translation is in the end as always.

Happy reading!

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It felt like someone had clubbed her skull with Thor's hammer. Well, if anyone else could lift that hammer apart from that alien god, and well if that hammer did exist. This world was not of The Avengers. But her skull did not agree. It was adamantly telling her with every throb that it had been that hammer that had made out with her head. And her cheek felt bloated, swollen, just below her eye. She was not having a good day, apparently.

Asking her body to move, Chaeyoung turned a little with a groan, her mind slowly letting go of the remnants of unconsciousness, becoming aware of the soft soil beneath her body, and the carpet of grass ticking her skin. She blinked her eyes open. It was dark, moonless, and windy. Her arms were littered with goosebumps. She heard some sounds coming from her right, and with effort, slowly turned her neck towards it, her head spinning madly and admonishing her for moving it. She closed her eyes, trying to calm her mad head and focusing on her breathing. Eventually, she opened them and looked at the blurry scene, squinting her eyes and trying to discern what was going on. She really wanted her glasses, damn it!

Little blobs of light were coming on at the entire house before her. It looked vaguely like the back of the mansion. Which would then imply that she was lying on the lawn near the back gates. But why was she lying on the grass in the middle of the night? She sure had some crazy urges once in a while but just out and out horizontal chit chat with the ground was really not her thing. At least she had never thought it was. Her head throbbed again and with sudden, blinding clarity she remembered. Her heart stuttered. There had been someone in her room. That someone had been huge and tried to muffle her breath in an attempt to kidnap her. And she had broken the lamp in her last ditch effort before going out for the count. And if she was lying outside the mansion then either his attempt at kidnapping her had not gone very well, or her attempt at not being kidnapped had.

Her eyes flickered to the blur of movements she could not clearly see, but was hearing, sounds of grunts and groans and yells in pain. Two men were going hand to hand not very far from her. She squinted her eyes more and could suddenly make out the huge man, still blurred, pushed to the ground by Jungkook. Shirtless Jungkook in his pajamas. She had the sudden urge to giggle. Shirtless Jungkook in his pajamas inducing fear in men at night and saving unsuspecting wives from abduction attempts. Well, only one wife. Her.

But she could not deny the way she could feel herself relaxing, her heart slowing down in relief, her eyes tearing up just a little that he was there, that he had come for her, like she had hoped he would, but still uncertain. She wasn't uncertain anymore. He had come. He was there and fighting for her. Her emotions suddenly overwhelmed her, not understanding this man at all. Who was he? Was the man who was landing an impressive uppercut on her would-be kidnapper the same man who had ruthlessly walked all over her heart? Was the man who had come to her rescue at the sound of breaking glass the same man who had blackmailed her into marriage, but for her own protection as he claimed? Was the man who was hitting the man with a violence that should have scared her but did not the same man who had wrapped her so tenderly in his arms when she had just scraped her palms? Who was this man? How could he inflame her with his mere presence and still become the safe anchor she unknowingly sought?

She watched as Jungkook got the man in a tight choke hold, his lithe grace and agility no match for the other man's size, just like once she had seen him take down two men years ago, his body tight with tension, his arms wrapped around the other man's thick neck and coiled to spring and she suddenly knew he was close, very very close to dropping him on the ground without a pulse and she didn't want that. After knowing the way he never killed unless in defense, unless in protection, she didn't want him changing that, not for her. Slowly summoning her efforts, she opened her mouth, praying her voice reached him and croaked out. "Jungkook?"