bts ao3 stories (smut)

paint - vmin (6)

"Jiiiiiin, pleaaase," Taehyung hears as he steps into the Queen with his laptop case tucked under his arm. He's a little sweaty from standing out in the sun for the past 20 minutes, which he'd spent talking himself into entering the coffee shop.

("It'll be weirder if you don't go," Jin had told him the night prior.)

"Look, Jimin," Jin sighs, setting down his mug on the countertop. "As an independent consultant, I'm the face of my own brand. Personally? I love drag. But some of the owners of the restaurants I work with are uberconservative assholes who would take their business elsewhere if they saw it."

Jimin pouts, clearing away Jin's empty cup, and moving to stand back behind the counter. As he moves, his eyes catch Taehyung's, and his brows twitch upwards almost imperceptibly. Jin follows his gaze and gestures to Taehyung. "Do it with Taehyung!"

There is a beat of silence where Taehyung and Jimin just look at each other. "Uh, do what?" Taehyung asks as lightly as he can.

"Jimin needs a new face to paint on his YouTube channel."

"You do?" Taehyung asks curiously, thinking back to some of the videos he'd seen.

Jimin shrugs nonchalantly and very clearly tried to busy himself with work. "I just uh, wanted to do another drag transformation video. They're really popular, and I've done them for everyone else already."

"I mean... I'll do it. If you want me to," Taehyung tells him gently.

"Oh, you don't have to," Jimin dismisses him quickly, looking extremely embarrassed. "I don't want to like pressure you into anything."

The way he says it makes it feel like he's talking about a little bit more than just the video.

Taehyung sighs, because this is not how he wants it to be between them. "Okay let me rephrase. Would it be helpful to you if I did it?"

"I mean... yeah," Jimin allows reluctantly.

"Then I wanna do it," Taehyung insists with a smile. "I want to help. Hey, maybe it'll even be better. I mean some people even argue that I'm hotter than Jin, so-"

"Nobody argues that," Jin interrupts.

"You can never once just let me have that, can you?" Taehyung asks, and Jin just shrugs as he takes a delicate sip of coffee.

"You sure, Tae?"

"Positive," Taehyung confirms aggressively. He's going to make this fucking work. "What are friends for?"

-
-

Taehyung has been over to Jimin's place several times before, but somehow this time he feels like an intruder when he steps through the door. Jimin greets him with a tight 'hey,' which Taehyung returns quietly.

"Uh. Thanks again for doing this," Jimin says as he leads him into his main room, which is currently set up as a very legitimate looking studio setup. There is a prescribed distance between them and an uncertainty in the air that has never been there before, not even when they were practically strangers. "These are my most popular videos, by far. I'm truly blessed to be surrounded by pretty boys. Yoongi's video broke 2 million."

"Really??"

"He's got kind of a following now. Weirdly, lots of schoolgirl fanart. Probably because of the wig."

"Hot."

They catch each other's eyes for a quick moment, and an ensuing awkwardness follows as they both just kind of stand there, scrambling for their next move.