Tomorrow│YM

[18] Creature Comforts

"No police."

Yoongi's statement clung to the air around them.

"Of course, sweetie," Seokjin recovered quickly. "It's your choice. But you may want to consider keeping that door open if you change your mind down the road."

"I won't."

As soon as he uttered his resolution, Yoongi evacuated the room, leaving the rest stunned in his wake.

A few seconds later, Yoongi's door slammed shut, the sound causing the three on the couch flinch.

Seokjin grimaced and turned to Jimin. "Sorry."

"It's ok," said Jimin as his mind scrambled for his next steps. "I'm... I'm gunna try to talk to him."

He rose from the couch, unsteady. He desperately wished he knew what he was doing as he stumbled to the kitchen. He approached Yoongi's den and knocked gingerly.

"Yoongi? It's just me. Can I come in?"

After a few beats of anxious silence Yoongi grunted, "Okay."

Jimin thanked his lucky stars and turned the doorknob. Carefully he crawled under the bike to sit beside Yoongi, who had his legs folded and arms crossed. He stared into the middle distance and did not acknowledge Jimin's presence.

"We won't do anything you don't want to, okay?" Jimin improvised, pressing his back to the same wall, mirroring his position. "But Jin has a point, we may want to think about keeping our options open," he admitted, treading delicately along a bed of eggshells. "I can't see how taking a few photos would hurt. We don't even need to involve the police for now."

"I escaped once."

The quiet confession dissolved the remaining words on Jimin's tongue. He swallowed their remnants down. "Yeah?"

Yoongi dipped his chin once, but continued to look forward. "A couple months before you came to the house, I think," he elaborated. "Time is... uh, a little jumbled since then." His cat ears twitched and he bowed his head. Suddenly he was pulling at the roots of his freshly cropped locks with tensed fingers. "Cops... they brought me back. To him. They don't care about hybrids. I was just... a nuisance."

Jimin had so many questions, but he could see how affected Yoongi was just by providing the bare minimum details.

He exhaled slowly, cacophony of emotions ringing through him at once; rage, sadness, helplessness. Having little information to go on, he pictured Yoongi, dirty and hungry in an alley, likely scavenging for food - suddenly thrown into the back of a white van by an officer, like animal control would a stray, who then unceremoniously dumped him on Steve's doorstep with a misguided sense of accomplishment.

Yeah, Jimin felt a lot of rage.

"It's - it's not easy for hybrids to leave their caretakers. It goes against all your instincts," Yoongi pushed through his explanation, gripping his hair tighter. "It was after I got-" he faltered, then swallowed. "That's why he kept me in a crate."

Jimin's stomach dropped.

The crate was new.

And it was likely installed around the same time he and Steve started dating.

If Jimin had only demanded to visit his boyfriend's home sooner - if he had cared enough when Steve spouted weak excuses as to why they hadn't - he could have saved Yoongi from possibly months of mentally scarring confinement.

"I'm so fucking sorry, Yoongi," he swore, hanging his head.

Yoongi released his tresses and dropped his hands into his lap. "You have nothing to apologize for."