Last Girl Alive | Bangtan

18: Babies and Bonfires

You feel the cool air soothe your neck as caring hands lift the hair away from your neck. Crooked fingers search around your forehead and face gathering every strand of hair and collecting it into a loose ponytail. 

"You okay?" Seokjin asks,  kindly.  He rubs your back softly and you nod,  moving away from the sink. He hands you a glass of water but you refuse,  shaking your head.  Wrong move.  A deep headache hits you and you hold your head in your hands at once. 

"You gotta drink water. " Jin persists. "It'll help. " He pushes the glass to your mouth,  forcing you drink.  The cold liquid travels down your throat and you look at him gratefully. 

"Thanks,  Jin, " You say signing deeply,  feeling like lead  "Argh."

"Regrets? " He asks with a smile. 

You shake your head so slightly onlh he notices it.  "None at all, " You say returning his smile.

"Good, " He says,  pulling you up.  "Now come on. The water's ready. "

"What?"

"A shower. " Jin explains pulling you up.  "You need one. And Taehyung's taking pictures outside. Didn't think you'd want to model for him right now. Like this. "

You nod, getting up with his help.  He holds you firm but gentle,  allowing you to rest your weight on him as you both walk out of the cabin. You can see its about late afternoon,  showing that you all must have slept a while.  Yoongi is still passed out on deck and while things have sort of been cleaned up. 

But instead of the same blue sight,  you see a seashell shore, a stretch of sand leading up to coconut trees.  You can already spot Jungkook on his way half up one. 

The rest are gathering firewood,  pulling logs together and talking amidst themselves.

"Where are we? " You ask eyes widening. 

"Not sure, " Jin says, holding his arm around your waits to keep your securely close to him.  "Maps isn't working.  I think an island closeby?  There aren't many reserves here and it doesn't look like there are big buildings so close. However we'll explore tomorrow."

You follow Jin down to the bathroom. He opens the door and moves around,  gathering clothes and a towel. Meanwhile, you turn on the shower and warm steam welcomes you as well as the scent of fresh soap and shampoo. Too lost in this sudden aura and too drowsy to care you start to strip forgetting tha-

"Yah yah yah! " Jin reaches forward suddenly grabbing your shirt as it's halfway up your breasts. "What are yo- I'm still here,  you know?"

He suddenly turns bright red as he becomes aware of the situation.  His hands are on either side of your body,  holding the ends of your shirt,  palms cupping the side of your ribcage and the steam in the shower is making it all to hazy for him to think properly.

"Sorry, " You mumble. 

"I'm going now, " He announces clearly.  "Don't slip and fall. I'm right here,  alright?"

"I'm not a baby, " You smile, loving his care and thinking at the same time this how Jungkook must feel receiving it. 

"Of course you are, " Jin says moving towards the door.  "You're my baby. "

You roll your eyes, pushing him out and firmly closing the door behind him,  breathing out your embarassment as you realize that you almost unconsciously gave him a private strip tease.

You shower without worry,  letting the nice hot water wash away all negative feelings and the heaviness in your body.  You wash your hair for the first time in a long time and thoroughly cleanse yourself with shampoo,  soap,  body wash,  face wash and literally anything that a human can scrub onto their body to wash away dirt. 

When you walk out,  smelling like fresh laundry,  you feel like you've melted into a pool of water. 

You both climb up on deck,  narrowly avoiding waking the beast and down the rope ladder to join the rest of the group.

As you sit down on a nearby rock, Hoseok offers you some food,  a simple sandwich brimming with delicious assortment of meat and vegetables.  "Eat up, " Jin orders,  handing them out others. 

"I still wanna know, " Namjoon says snapping a stick in half and chucking it into the pile.  "What kind of sailor's ritual is that?"

"Anyways, " Jin says,  grinning.  "It was good to see Yoongi so happy for once. He even chucked his cigarette away. "

"Has he always been so down? " You mumble.

"Yeah, " Jin says. "He was the third member to join the group.  Before that there was only Namjoon and I."

"I remember when I found him, " Namjoon smiles a little "Or rather smelled him first because of the cigarette smoke.  He was lying so still I thought he was dead."

"Taehyung was the best, " Jungkook says eagerly. "He fell out of a goddamn tree like a bird. Almost killed me!"

Taehyung grins. "I was so glad to see someone else in my hurry to get down, I slipped."

"This compass doesn't work properly, " Namjoon says tapping impatiently on the object he'd had hanging from his pocket the entire journey.  "It keeps swivelling around. But judging by the force of the sails and the sun,  I think we've gone somewhere north-east."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jimin mumbles. He poses for a second in Taehyung's picture before Taehyung turns the camera towards you. He'd shown you his camera before and told you he likes taking pictures but you'd never seen him in action before.  He looked like a tourist on a cruise around the world.

"Y/N can I take a picture of you? "

"Hell no, " You say.  Was he crazy? Despite the shower,  your wet hair was still drying and your clothes which consisted of your own pink shirt tucked into comfortable ripped jeans,  you  knew how unphotogenic you were.

"She looks dead." Jungkook grins in agreement.

"Shut up or you will be, " Taehyung says  annoyed, holding up his camera.  You hold up your hands to your face in refusal and he looks at you disappointed. 

"What did I do? " Jungkook says turning to Hoseok for answer,  but Hoseok just shrugs keeping his eyes locked on you. 

"Come on! Don't be such as spoilsport! " Jimin suddenly plops down beside you, showing Taehyung a bright smile.

"Yah don't drag me into it," You say turning to him. "Especially when you're naturally good looking. "

He goes silent,  removing your hand.  You fear you've sort of upset him,  trying to think of words to take back what you said before but then-

"Y/N, do you find me good looking?" He says slowly, eyes curious.

There's a silence. You don't know what to say,  mouth dropping open wondering why it's suddenly so quiet and dramatic. 

"I- I meant... I didn't mean it like that, "

Jimin smiles wide obviously taking it in the wrong way and he winks at you. 

"What about me?" Jin demands,  betrayed.  "I'm worldwide handsome!"

"Y'all are so damn loud," A low voice grumbles.  Yoongi,  who's transported his lounging spot from the deck to the a nice sandy hole in the ground exhales a deep blow of smoke.  You can already hear Jungkook's thoughts waiting for the man to fall asleep so he can make a mermaid tail out of sand for him.  "Let's start the fire."

Namjoon chucks the matches to Hoseok who leans close to the small like of leaves and bush and twigs andsticks and paper and strikes a match.  It catched aflame immediately,  licking up its waiting dry meal with desire.

As the glow of the burning spark turns into something more heated,  Seokjin gets his assorted ingredients ready for the stew.  Contented Yoongi leans backback,  eyes lighting up from with golden embers. 

The grouchy Yoongi looks tempted to jump in and burn himself alive. But not this time.

"Infires man."

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