The war // BTS AU //

Chapter Sixteen

Jungkook watched as Harper tried to regain her strength again, and he wasn't even talking about the magical kind. She was still incredibly achey, days after the incident and she wouldn't really move from the social area or the room she slept in. But today, Jungkook hadn't seen her since breakfast several hours ago.

"Could she have ran off to America again?" Taehyung asked with a slight pout, he and Harper had been getting along really well lately, despite the smack around the backside of his head as punishment for nearly killing his own countries civilians.

"If she went back, they'd kill her." Namjoon spoke. "She'll be in Korea somewhere."

"Somewhere isn't helpful." Jungkook piped up. "If the American's are now likely to kill her on the spot, shouldn't we keep an eye on her and protect her?"

"It's not our job." Yoongi looked up at the younger boy who was stood in the doorway. "She should be grateful we even saved her life."

Jungkook felt a pang in his chest, knowing that to some extent it was true. It wasn't their job to babysit the American mage who had tried to kill them and take Jungkook, but Jungkook couldn't help but feel indebted to her and he didn't know why.

He left the social room, Jimin and Taehyung looking at him with slight concern in their eyes.

"That was harsh." Seokjin scolded him. Yoongi shrugged.

"It's the truth."

—

Jungkook headed outside into the back, onto the tarmac that was once a car park for the warehouse and he stood there looking up at the sun and squinting slightly at the sheer brightness.

He softly sighed, his body relaxing and his muscles unwinding as he basked in the sun, enjoying the warmth.

That was until he heard a full thump to his right and with that his head snapped in that direction and he looked over. His vision was dotted with white after looking at the sun so it took him a few seconds to be able to source what caused the sound.

His eyes widened when he saw the redhead on her hands and knees on the floor, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

"Har-"

He was cut off by her pushing herself to her feet and taking a deep breath, her hands flew about making magic symbols before her body was covered in flames for not even thirty seconds before they spluttered and went out, causing the woman to gasp and drop to her knees again.

"Harper." Jungkook forced his voice through this time, and she didn't look at him but dropped her head in defeat. She didn't fight her way into her knees and he slowly approached her. "Harper what's up?"

"I'm so weak." She whispered softly, still not lifting her head. "I need to be able to fight and protect myself, otherwise you will all get hurt."

"Harper..." He coo'd gently and knelt beside her. She then lifted her head to him and he sighed softly seeing the tears slip silently from her eyes. "You've just drained yourself from every bit of magic you possessed. Don't be pushing yourself."

"How can I be a mage when I can't even keep a simple barrier around myself?" She whispered, hopelessness filling her.

"You start back from basics, the hand movement you used was complicated for the lack of magic you can use currently." Jungkook reached out and wiped her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "I'm not saying you've got no magic anymore though, don't get me wrong. You have plenty, I can sense it. But you tired yourself out and the amount you can use now is very little. It's like a muscle, at first you can't lift the heaviest weights because you need to train it."

Harper kept her eyes locked with Jungkook's as he spoke, her heart and mood lifting word by word.

"I'll show you the most basic shield spell and we can start from there okay?" He offered and stood up, then offering his hand out to her.

She hesitated for a second before taking his hand, and standing up.

"Okay. Teach me the basics Jungkook."