ateez one-shots

ripped denim - song mingi

"Are you going to forget me?" His tone was gentle, his voice caressing each syllable of the words he spoke, afraid of what you may say in return. You scoffed silently, continuing to comb your fingers through his hair.

"Why on Earth would I do such a thing?" The question was sincere, he could tell by the way your heart rate had quickened beneath his ear. It was obvious that you were both as concerned for the future as each other.

When you had initially met, you held full knowledge of there being a high chance of this occurring. You just didn't expect it to happen so soon. Mingi had first shown up on your doorstep just a day and two hours prior to this current moment. He had been distraught, jeans torn, hands caked in blood as tears traced pathways between the dirt on his face.

Against your intuition - against the code - you had allowed him into your home where you had cleaned him up. With no assistance at all, you had restored him to the fully capable man before you today. In many ways this had you assured he would be okay without you, yet it also made it so much more difficult to let go.

"There has never been someone to return and you know that," Mingi's voice wavered, he was only one more word from falling apart. "As soon as you walk through that door you will never come back to me."

"You don't know that for certain, I'm not like the others," your words won't do much to calm or even soothe the male in all the ways you would like. There was just nothing else you could think of as being an appropriate response or action to take. "I've told you before and I will always tell you again, no matter what I will always come home and that means I will always come back to you."

Mingi doesn't have the strength to respond, he merely buried his head into the crook between your neck and shoulder.

You smile solemnly, adjusting your arm to hold him close against you as you offer the little sense of comfort possible in this moment.

You couldn't take away all of his pain, you knew this better than anyone. It was foreign to you as to whether anyone truly could. For each day he still breathed and walked this treacherous planet, he would be stuck in the spiral of conflicted grief and hurt.

"I need you to promise me that you won't come looking for me," the tone you used suggested it were more of a threat than a simple hoped promise being brought to light. Mingi picked up on this as you felt him tensing against you.

"You can't expect me to agree to that," he sounds purely horrified at even the slightest idea that he will oblige with your words. This only provides a catalyst for the slightest hold on sanity you had. With a rough push, you manage to free yourself as you move to be standing on your feet.

"What use to me are you if you're dead, Song Mingi?" It came out harsher than what you intended, but you weren't speaking in order to cheer a forlorn child. This man before you had abilities many wished to obtain and in the wrong hands, his innocent mind could be manoeuvred into committing heinous acts.

Taking him into your home had meant placing him in the spotlight of those in the area you were about to be near-exiled to. As much as he was sheltered in your hands, he was almost completely out in the public eye.

"You have to stay here and keep yourself protected," this sentence fell in more of a pleading manner. He understood you were worried. He knew your major concern was most relevant to what may occur if he retreated to the man of influence who had stumbled across your doorstep all those months ago.

It was apparent he held a false sense of security through the faith in his abilities. Mingi had always struggled to accept how his mind could be manipulated ever so easily. Heck - he was only here after you had manipulated it for your safety and advantage.