House of Cards | Bulletproof book 2 | A BTS Gang AU

32: Triptych

I stood in the open grassy field at the edge of the trees beside the mansion, chewing my fingernails to stubs as I watched Jungkook, Taehyung, and Jimin make their way towards us. Yoongi was beside me, poring over the reports he'd been compiling on his tablet. The sun was just beginning to set and yet my powers were still MIA. Twelve hours had passed since I'd taken the serum and still nothing had changed. I was still as useless as I had been that morning. And with the deadline on Kai's life looming ever closer, I was becoming more and more convinced that nothing we did was going to bring me back.

For a year, I had wondered what it would feel like to be normal. To not have powers like everyone else and to just live an everyday life. But the longer I went without the one thing I'd been able to rely on even when everything else around me went to shit, the more I realized how much I'd come to enjoy the power I had. Maybe it was some sick superiority complex, but it was as much a part of me as those powers had been up until that morning.

"I don't know how this could have happened," Yoongi mumbled around the pen sticking out of his mouth. "I checked and double checked everything. The dose was right. It should have doubled your powers, not canceled them out."

"What are we doing here, Yoongi," Jungkook asked, looking between the distracted scientist and me. When his eyes met mine, he gave me a sweet smile. The one I got from Jimin was much less so. He rolled his lip between his teeth and bit down as his eyes wandered over my body. I had dressed for battle and apparently it appealed to Jimin in a visceral way.

Were it not for the fear threatening to make me lose the last twenty-four hours' worth of meals, I might have enjoyed the attention. Taehyung just tipped his head back, oblivious to the eye-fucking his friend was giving me while he enjoyed the warm, pine-scented evening breeze and the soft peach-colored sky. If I knew Taehyung as well as I thought I did, the whole setting was appealing to the artist in him.

"I need to test some things with the serum I made for Morgan." It wasn't a total lie, so when Jungkook looked back at him again with narrowed eyes, he had nothing to hide from the observant maknae.

"Okay," Jungkook said simply as he twirled the practice sword around in his hands. Taehyung tossed one to me and I caught it easily. I twisted my neck as I turned the shinai around in my own hands, doing my best to release some of the tension before we got started.

"I have a theory," Yoongi added, "and I need you to test it. I want you three to try and push her as hard as you can."

"All three of us," Jimin asked. I didn't miss the suggestive look in his eyes and neither did Tae. He laughed and shoved Jimin in the shoulder, not even coming close to knocking him off balance. He grinned like a hunter eyeing his prey.

"One at a time at first," Yoongi said, completely oblivious to the double entendre playing out in front of him. Even Jungkook snickered at that, though I was too wound up and simply rolled my eyes.

"I'll go first," Jungkook said, dropping his chin and looking at me through his dark lashes in a silent challenge. I crouched down in my ready stance and waited for him to charge. Jungkook and I had been fighting long enough that we knew each other's habits and tells like we knew our own. Within minutes, I had worked up a sweat, but nothing else.

"Taehyung, you go. She knows what to expect from Jungkook."

With a groan, Jungkook stepped out of our makeshift ring and Tae stepped in. Jungkook rubbed his forehead with a towel Jimin gave him, then turned to watch the show. Taehyung was not what I'd expected him to be. I'd seen him fire guns on multiple occasions, but never had I seen him fight. I had expected him to be somewhat gangly and slow, but he was fast and surprisingly nimble, staying on the balls of his feet like he was preparing to take flight. He kept moving around our ring so much, I was nearly worn out just trying to keep him in front of me. When he launched into an attack, it was all I could do just to block his hits.