UGH! / SOPE & VMIN.

TWENTY SIX, OH, WHAT'S IT CALLED? (LOVE!)

 OH, WHAT'S IT
CALLED? ( LOVE! )

  EMPTY CUPS OF tea and cups of paint water litter the paint-stained wood of jimin's floorboards, various items of clothing—some his, some not—strewn about haphazardly. the room is pleasantly warm; or maybe that's just the weight of jimin's arms around taehyung's body. he doesn't really care to know the difference.

"your tattoos..." jimin's voice is deeper when he's just woken up, raspy. his black fingernails trace one of the many small, black tattoos littering taehyung's body; the one on his hipbone depicts a dove with a burning rose in it's mouth.

"you've seen them all, min," taehyung yawns softly, shuffling around so he faces jimin. his bed is crumpled and messy from the many hours of kissing messily while elton john played in the background, and they're both laying shirtless, taehyung's underwear hanging low on his hips, body heat keeping them warm. jimin shakes his head, looking down at that same tattoo.

"what does this mean?" he asks, soft, stroking over it tenderly with his thumb. taehyung bites his lip, taking jimin's hand in his own. it's calloused, but somehow perfect, small fingers sparkling with heavy metal rings and nails painted black, fitting perfectly in taehyung's own.

"i've— i guess i've been hopeless for a lot of life. doves mean hope; the burning rose means there is no hope..." taehyung shrugs, kissing jimin's palm softly, lips gentle. jimin looks at him with warm eyes. "i dunno, really, uh... it's stupid. but jett drew it for me. i like it cause of that."

"it's beautiful," jimin murmurs, glancing fleetingly at it, and then back up at taehyung. "you're beautiful."

he leans in and kisses taehyung gently, taehyung smiling into it, his hand resting on jimin's hip to pull him closer. skin to skin like this, it's become familiar, lips on lips ( hips on hips ), adoration radiating between the two celestial bodies masquerading as boys. jimin is the sun; taehyung likes to think he is the moon, forever observing the effervescent and effortless beauty that jimin has. jimin kisses him breathless and his heart beat quickens, chest constricted by the pure adoration floating in jimin's eyes.

taehyung swore he'd never fall in love. after observing his parents' broken marriage, the fights and petty arguments which became screaming matches at the dinner table, bruised cheeks under the guise of "oh, i opened the cupboard too hard, taehyung dear", broken plates and cracked glass on family photos—he swore. swore he would never fall in love if that was the result of it. surely love wasn't worth his time.

and so he became a heartbreaker with commitment issues and a self-esteem lower than the mariana trench. noncommittal sex, no emotional attachments, just him, booze and drugs, no room for love in this cocktail combo bound for disaster.

but oh god, what now?

jimin slips a hand into his hair and scratches lightly at his scalp, taehyung sighing contentedly at the sensation. jimin pecks his forehead, brown eyes infinitely deep with adoration. "d'you want a cuppa?" he asks, still scratching taehyung's head. the boy nods, closing his eyes momentarily, breathing in the smells of jimin's apartment. spices seep through the cracks in the old londoner building from the indian curry shop downstairs, mixing with the smell of turpentine from jimin's paintings and the sandalwood he's been burning for the whole time taehyung's been here, thick and heavy, and then there's jimin's cologne. spicy, woody; masculinity in all its essence, but not overbearing. he smells it again as jimin rolls over him to get off the bed, grabbing taehyung's hand as he does.

"c'mon. we hafta' get out of bed at some bloody point, right?" he smiles, and taehyung can't find it in himself to refuse, not when his eyes crinkle up like that and he looks so illuminated from the inside out.