Blight - [JJK]

V

"Y/n," Jungkook called as he grabbed your right hand with your tattoo below your palm with his own left tattooed hand. Holding it tightly he slumped over, putting his forehead on your shoulder as he sighed. It wasn't a sigh of resignation, nor was it a sigh of someone who was being forced into a situation. It was a sigh of comfort in which he breathed.

"Y/n," he repeated as he held your hand in his own, "I'm ready to be your Familiar now."

XXX

"What?" You asked in a small, whispered breath. Were his head not on your shoulder with his ear so close, you doubt he would've heard you at all. "You're ready- I- what? What do you mean?" You stuttered around your words, suddenly becoming far less fluent in the language you were speaking since you were young. Jungkook remained silent as you soon grabbed his shoulders and pushed him off you, tearing your hand out of his grasp in the process.

As you held him away from you, his eyes seemed almost glassy. Did admitting- saying that- make him emotional? Did he regret it? Or was he lying to you and he couldn't hold back? You retracted your hands slowly from his shoulders, dropping them to your lap.

"You're a liar," you accused. Jungkook stiffened as he took a sharp intake of breath through his nose.

"I'm a lot of things, Y/n," he started with a firm voice, "but I am not a liar," he defended himself.

"No. No, just- no. You hated me two days ago. So, you can't just-"

"People's minds can change. Mine did."

"Jungkook-"

"No, listen to me. I mean it, Y/n. I do."

You just huffed as you brought your hands to your face. Feeling the fabric of your bandage on your face, something occurred to you. Sparked to your mind. "Jungkook," you called as you lowered your hands from your face slowly. Your gaze locked onto your palms as your hands hovered in the air. "Are you just saying all this because of this," you gestured to your bandaged, covered and infected left arm. "Is... is this all just pity from you?"

Jungkook didn't speak. He wanted to refuse immediately, but his throat locked up. It was like something had cursed him into silence when in truth it was just his conscience halting him and his words. He wanted to deny it, wanted to say it was his own decision and now the fact that you got hurt that changed his mind. However, if he took a step back, that's really how it appeared.

Jungkook's attitude only changed on the courtyard, after you lost consciousness as your blight worked its way into you. He changed when he carried you into Parrish's medical room. He changed when you woke up and Yoongi was scolding you and he felt relieved. He changed when you went to dinner as a group and he finally got to see you smile and actually talk to him as Jungkook, but not as the snotty, stuck up dragon-shifter. Was it all for pity?

He shook his head. No. Surely it's not, it's his decision and while he knows you're injured, it wasn't his fault. There wasn't anything he could've done to stop what Zaros did, and furthermore, there was no cure for a blight. In this situation, he couldn't do anything. Nothing but accept that he is your Familiar.

"It's... not pity. It's not," he whispered to you and to himself as well. You doubted him and he could feel it. If he were you, he'd doubt him too. "Please trust me and listen. I- yes maybe I felt bad when you got hurt, but that's not the reason I've finally come to terms with all of this. I've- for the longest time- hated Spellcasters and their system with binding a Familiar."

"Yes, I'm fully aware. You made that clear to me anytime you saw me. And I mean anytime. You'd kick sand at me if you walked by me or called me something rude if you just barely saw me across the halls."