Taekook || Siren!AU / Mermaid!AU / Deaf!AU
The Pacific Ocean holds secrets beneath its waters. Secrets like sirens, hunters that lure their prey into the deep with their Voices. But when a diving accident renders Jeon Jungkook deaf, Kim Taehyung fin...
Jimin was a bratty kid growing up, and that trait led to whininess in adulthood. It was his insistent badgering that finally earned the small town's market some hair dye, and his scheming little hands thanked the shopkeeper for his weakness by buying new strains of the stuff at least once a month. Since adolescence, Jungkook had been bombarded with vibrant hues of blue, orange, pink, red, and blonde, though he himself never partook in the practice. The one time Jin gave in to Jimin's chaotic plans had seen the elder's head turn bright pastel pink, and though Jungkook laughed whenever he saw his brother for the next two weeks, Jin insisted it brought out the color in his eyes.
As much as he pretended it annoyed him, Jungkook didn't really mind Jimin's innate neediness. If anything, he loved giving in to the whims that sometimes overtook his friend, though the months since the accident had seen those whims grow fewer and farther between.
The man in question gave Jungkook's shoulder an insistent tap, and he glanced over with a cocked brow to read Jimin sign, "What's he doing here again?"
Taehyung was a patient teacher, though not lax. He had only been visiting Jungkook for six days now, but in that short time, Jungkook had learned to combine many words he already knew into phrases and sentences that could actually aid in conversation. Sometimes, when they studied too long, an invisible hand would reach into his skull and jumble his brain into a motionless pulp, but the feeling would ebb after a few minutes and they'd get back to work. Taehyung was gentle during those times, rubbing soothing circles in the younger's back as he bent over his knees and waited for the pain to dissipate. The first time that happened, Jungkook forgot his headache for a moment in shock. Taehyung's hand was warm against his skin, and in such close proximity, Jungkook could catch a light scent of the sea - not the gross stuff like rotting seaweed and fish, but the fresh salty air that blew in from the Pacific. As soon as he straightened, the hand was gone and Taehyung backed a respectful distance away before resuming his lesson, and Jungkook would forget the peculiar perfume as he focused on Taehyung's hands.
The three of them had been sitting on Jungkook's porch in what he had perceived as companionable silence for the better part of the past hour. Taehyung had been swaying back and forth mindlessly on the swing, gazing out at the sea in thought, but the other two had been battling each other in a silent game of Yahtzee on their phones. Somehow, Taehyung had gone through life without a device so far, and he had politely declined when Jungkook had offered his own, so Jimin and Jungkook played quietly, perched on opposite sides of the railing that wrapped around the porch, until this particular moment.
