serpents and sons | taekook

Interlude: Jeongguk (The Sacrifice)

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Years, decades - Taehyung has spent a long time living with the guilt of the things he has offered. Thinking about all the things he has taken from his family with something as deceptively simple as Idunn's golden apples. He has spent years wondering if there is ever a way to know if he made the right choice - if they made the right choice.

But then Jeongguk doesn't call him.

Yoongi comes back and Taehyung stares at his phone as he worries and worries - like he's always been prone to do. He paces and paces and paces and his brothers gather in their home in response to the scorching footprints he leaves in his wake.

An hour goes by, and then two, and Taehyung turns to his brothers with a look of desperation.

'Don't worry,' Seokjin assures, and Taehyung trusts his words. Seokjin places a hand over his racing heart and Taehyung shudders as he feels the god's power spread, warming his body as it sinks into his chest. Searching for that string, that connection. The web that Seokjin sees. His domain.

Jeongguk comes to mind and Taehyung watches as Seokjin's brow furrows, turning to the large windows spread across the wall. Taehyung's eyes follow and he too focuses on the building in the distance, the spire reaching as if to pierce the sky. I have been there before, the god thinks, remembering a meeting in his distant past. It had been a simple restaurant decades before.

But he has been there before, and that sticks out to Taehyung.

'There he is,' Jimin murmurs and Taehyung is moving, magic swelling around them. Emerald flames rise up and Taehyung feels five hands grab at his clothes just as the room disappears in a swatch of darkness.

The flames dissipate to reveal the walls of the building's reception and Jimin stumbles, a hand reaching for the elevator. This way, he groans and Taehyung's heart aches. He's here - up, up, he urges. Jimin's other hand latches onto Taehyung's wrist and the world seems to right itself, like a ship breaking through the final waves of a storm. He's here, Jimin repeats, slapping the button for the top floor, and his eyes lift to the ceiling above them.

Searching for Taehyung's anchor.

Taehyung barrels out of the elevator the moment the doors swing open, his brothers tight at his back as they follow Jimin's directions. A god of direction through storms, steadiness. Bonds.

Then there is a scream, a crash, and Taehyung explodes.

Fire bursts from his body and one of his brothers hisses as the light inside of him burns hotter and hotter, brighter and brighter. The walls peel and crumble and Jimin is forced to let him go. There is a shriek, a 'what have you done!' that makes Taehyung's blood run cold, and he bursts through the cloud of dust and smoke.

His fire runs cold at the sight of blood, bursting back into life as his heart recognizes the slumped figure of his love across the floor.

Taehyung is on his knees with a blink, kneeling beside him. Blood soaks into his clothes as his hands cradle Jeongguk to his chest, a hand pushing Jeongguk's blond locks from his eyes. Blood is starting to drip from his mouth and Taehyung feels a cry build in his chest, whimpers falling from his own lips.

'Jeongguk,' he whispers, wide horrified eyes locked on the way his blood pulses from his wound with the beat of his heart.

Jeongguk's eyes curve in a smile, eyes hazy and unfocused and drifting to the side even as Hoseok drops to his knees beside them. Hoseok's hands press hard over the wound and the human jumps, cries, but has no strength to pull away. Golden light spills from between Hoseok's fingers but Taehyung does not know if this will be enough. Hoseok's domain is over healing and small mercies, a man of small miracles, but Taehyung does not know if this will be enough.