FAKE FUTURE ⌲ MYG + JHS (WITHHELD)

; the five elves

water dripped from the trees onto their pounding heads. yoongi's feet were beginning to drag behind him and taehyung's eyes were beginning to close as he walked. there was no time for rest - not when you are in the middle of the forest as it pours with rain. especially when they were all on the brink of exhaustion.

"how much further do we have to walk?" jimin complained, holding onto taehyung's hand to keep the boy from either collapsing or wandering off because he saw a pretty flower. not like he did that. maybe.

"i have no idea, but they can't be that deep in here." yoongi shrugged and looked around briefly, scratching the back of his neck. every rustle of a leaf in the trees made him jump, the black camouflaged easily into the lightless forest and he didn't want to risk not paying attention. his knife was gripped between his fingers, pointing it slightly forward in case of an emergency. seokjin and jeongguk were walking backwards, eyes on every nook and cranny they could see.

"hey, hyung, can i ask something?" jimin had finally agreed to let go of taehyung's hand so now he was on watch duty alongside yoongi as the other three rested. the pair were leaned against a rock a few feet from a cave in which seokjin, taehyung and jeongguk were sleeping. it took effort but taehyung had charmed seokjin into letting them rest.

"course you can." yoongi nodded and spun around slightly to face the blue haired, a delicate smile indicating he was listening.

"how long have you liked hoseok hyung?" jimin asked.

"well, a short time, i think. i honestly don't know when it started. we were originally just friends, all i wanted to do was make sure he was going to live then be okay." yoongi admitted, letting out a pitiful chuckle. "turns out it didn't work, huh? i fall in love too easily, but that's okay. we're soulmates."

"really?" jimin exclaimed, mouth agape and eyes widened.

"yeah, really! i was just as surprised as you are. i thought he wouldn't like me back because i am a peasant boy and he's a prince, but he's not like that. i thought he'd reject me when i found out i was a half blood, but he didn't." yoongi said. "he did all the things i wasn't expecting."

"that's never been said as a positive thing before..." jimin muttered, looking sadly at taehyung. "i don't think we're soulmates."

"you two are practically perfect for each other. if you aren't soulmates, i'll eat my own left shoe." yoongi pointed to his tattered shoe. "there are a lot of rules to soulmates, you know."

"really? like what?"

"well, you need to not have a death aura, for one. you need to be of age. also, soulmates only begin to notice they are soulmates when they're close to being together. for example, if i had known hoseok since i was a child, i wouldn't have experienced it until a few days before we got together."

"i don't want to wait around forever." jimin admitted, legs tucking under each  other and sweaty hands folding in front of him. "you're lucky yours happened to quickly. i've liked taehyung for a year and nothing. absolutely nothing."

"hey, he'll come around. if hoseok can fall for a peasant boy, taehyung can fall for his best friend."

ㅡ

ravens. yoongi was becoming scared of them. the same bird was continuously following them and now he was extremely suspicious, as were the rest of his companions.

"if i see that bird again i'm eating it for my damn dinner." jeongguk moaned, and yoongi slapped him up the head with the palm of his hand. "ow! hyung!"

"we're not eating raven for dinner. we have deer, we are fine." he tilted his head to look at the raven flying above their heads, wings endlessly flapping at a scarily quick pace. "we're taking a break before i purposely trip jeongguk up."

"but-" seokjin began but taehyung had already crumbled, lying on the floor and letting out a relieved cry of anguish.

"too much walking! too little time!" he whined at a higher pitch, chest heaving and an overdramatic yawn leaving his wide open mouth.

"if i see one more tree i'm going to smash my head off it." jimin complained next, dropping himself next to taehyung and being quick to accept the offer of lying on his outstretched arm, cuddling up so that his head was resting near his shoulder.

"if i get five meters nearer to either of you i'm going to murder myself." jeongguk whispered and yoongi send a violent kick his way.

"violence will not be tolerated in the forest." a voice none of them recognised spoke, gentle and calm.

"who on earth are you?" yoongi pulled the knife from his holster and pointed it at the blonde boy.

"mark. who are you?" mark spoke, soon being accompanied by four other boys. one black haired boy raised his finger and pointed at taehyung, who was wearing the necklace. "you have the necklace."

"you guys are the elves, aren't you?" yoongi asked and taehyung and jimin sat up. taehyung's hand wrapped around the necklace dangling from his neck.

"indeed we are. these are yugyeom, bambam, jackson and jinyoung. it's nice to meet you." mark introduced the boys one by one. now that they looked properly, their ears were pointed, as all the tales told.

"it's nice to meet you too. youngjae and jaebum said you could help."

"we can, but we need to do a few checks first." jinyoung took his turn in speaking. "first of all, spell checks."

the five elves looked around, and yugyeom's eyes settled on the raven, which was now sat on the branch.

"why is there a shapeshifted bird following you?" he asked.

"what?"

the bird fled.