•|Outbreak🔞|•

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"ARE YOU SURE you'll be alright?" Taehyung asked M/N as he watched the boy prepare for his outing with Namjoon.

M/N nodded his head, fastening a hunting knife (courtesy of Jimin earlier that morning) to his thigh over his pant leg, and hummed, oblivious of the straps of his backpack slipping off of his shoulders.

Taehyung hurriedly fixed them for him.

"Yeah. I'll be fine, Tae."

Taehyung chewed on his bottom lip nervously, his eyes flickering between the young boy and the leader of his group who stood there waiting for him to finish getting ready, and he clicked his tongue, still unsure.

"Are you sure that you don't want to sit this one out too? I mean—"

He had been asking the same question for the past ten minutes, but neither M/N nor Namjoon said anything about it or got annoyed because they knew that he was just worried about the tween (and Namjoon too, of course, but Namjoon doesn't have an injury).

Yoongi sat on the bottom of the stairs with his arms crossed and his head leaning against the rails. His black hair, tousled from heavy sleep and oily from lack of wash—three weeks—fell into his half-lid eyes that watched the interaction in front of him. He was in the middle of a long-overdue nap that was running on a little bit over 10 hours (well-deserved after several nights of switching shifts, mind you), but he was woken up by Hoseok who had the decency to let him know that M/N requested to fill in for him on his job with Namjoon that day.

"You haven't even healed yet, kid." Yoongi sighed before a yawn escaped his mouth.

Taehyung glanced over at Yoongi.

'There he goes again,' Taehyung's eyes narrowed, yet non-maliciously. 'That same nonchalant caring...'

M/N finished getting himself together and smiled at the two men, his head subtly shaking from side-to-side.

"I'll be fine, guys. Really. It doesn't hurt anymore, and I was getting a little anxious staying in the house these past few days. I want to make myself useful."

"But," Taehyung pouted uncharacteristically for a grown man, "you are useful!"

The man approached M/N, wrapped his arms around the boy's head and pulled him into his body for a tight, protective embrace.

"Looking at your face eases my anxiety!"

Yoongi rolled his eyes, but otherwise didn't say anything.

M/N, knowing there was no use in fighting it, simply pat Taehyung's back in comfort.

"Mhm," M/N replied. "I know, but I need to pull my weight around here." M/N stepped away from Taehyung and glared playfully. "Physically."

"Alright, M/N," Namjoon cut in, taking a look outside behind the curtains, "we have to go now. We're losing daylight."

"I'll see you guys later, yeah?" M/N raised a brow, a half-grin playing on his face splotched in random specks of dirt that the boy probably hadn't been bothered to wash off.

Or, were those freckles? It was hard to tell.

Yoongi nodded, too tired to utter a response and Taehyung pursed his lips.

"Okay... Be safe!"

"We will," Namjoon answered.

Then, the two left.

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"So," M/N pulled a face as he leaned against a pharmacy counter, staring down at Namjoon while he rummaged through the cabinets behind it, "what are we doing again?"