NECROMANCER

2

How the elves managed to have a plumbing system run on magic was byond him. Really, the entire set of circumstances that he'd gone through the past few days was byond him. He'd woken up on a stone table covered in only sheets like some type of sacrificial ceremony in a horror movie. The only familiar thing in the stone room was Jungkook who crouched over him looking years older than he had the last time he'd seen him.

Taehyung had expected to see bright fluorescent lights, the smell of rubbing alcohol, and hospital gowns while a nurse watched over him attentively, not the dungeon of a mid century castle lit up by dim candlelight while everything around him smelled like mold and stagnant water.

Laying in a giant cast iron tub he found a piece of mind in knowing the maids wouldn't be in to bother him the way they were with Jungkook. It was a shallow form of piece of mind considering they feared him. The boy who was brought back from death using only his ashes. Everywhere he went people stared and murmured as if at any moment he'd turn into something deformed and rotted ready to pick them apart with his teeth.

This was what was weighing him down and causing him immense stress. A bubble bath would have been just the cure if Jungkook hadn't come bursting through the doors. Taehyung didn't even have to open his eyes to know it was Jungkook. He could tell by the way his steps were heavier than everyone else's, how he swung the door open without a care how hard it slammed shut. No one else would be barreling through the door unannounced like him.

"I beat Seokjin again today, I've gotten very good at handling my sword. You should come out next time, maybe I could teach you.." Jungkook trailed on breathing heavily.

Taehyung could hear him shuffling and opened one eye. He'd perched himself up on the edge of the sink looking down at him with big round eyes and a smile that showed off his bunny teeth. Sweat dripped off his hair, his clothing clung to skin mapping out the planes of muscle underneath. Taehyung couldn't remember the day Jungkook had grown into his features it had just happened.

"You look like you need this bath more than me." Taehyung remarked not at all bothered by Jungkook's presence. They'd known each other since they were small, he could remember back to a time when their mothers would throw them both in the tub together. Jungkook hopped down from the sink and peeled the cotton poets short from his skin walking towards the tub.

Not that comfortable.

"No, not in my tub! Go find your own." Taehyung sat up shooing the younger male away, pushing his butt away from the edge of the tub.

Jungkook giggled, which was nice considering that everyone around them seemed to think Jungkook was incapable of laughing. Taehyung had known him long enough to know otherwise. "You should get out anyway, you're turning pruny." he pointed out poking Taehyung's toe that stuck out from the edge of the water.

Groaning, he stepped out of the bathtub wrapping himself in a towel as Jungkook got ready to run new water. "Are you sure you're alright?" Taehyung stopped to ask, worried about him. Jungkook had been through hell and back. There was something different in the way he spoke. The lines in his face were always tense. His usual boyish charms slipped away while Taehyung was gone.

Everyone in this plane of existence seemed to think the soft side of Jungkook was new and strange. Taehyung was the only one who would have been able to tell there was something wrong. If he hadn't been dead.

"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that question?" Jungkook answered with a question by sliding a hand through his hair. Taehyung's eyes followed the pattern of his tattoos over the defined muscle. "I feel great. Trust me I'm fine" he finally answered.

Taehyung left the bathroom before he had to watch Jungkook take his pants off. He was sixteen when he finally realized he loved Jungkook more than anything else in the world. He was twenty when realized that love was more intimate than it was brotherly. Taehyung usually kept those feelings locked up tight but it seemed being resurrected from the dead stirs up a lot of emotions.

That's what the dragon had told him. They'd talked once, it was brief yet helpful in understanding everything that he was going through. He'd told him how most people raised from the dead are perfectly fine for the first few hours until their emotions take hold of them and start eating away at them. Piece by piece their soul eats itself and their bodies begin to deteriorate until there's nothing more than mindless flesh eating zombies.

He was something that had never been done before. Even though the time frame for him to turn had already passed, Taehyung still couldn't help but wonder if he'd start to fall apart if he let himself feel too much. That his love for Jungkook would turn him into something more terrifying than dead.

Taehyung dressed quickly into silky striped pajamas and plopped down onto the large sofa that sat in the middle of the bedroom. It felt more like a hotel room than a bedroom. A hotel room decorated in rococo decor. 18th century theatrical french decor, oddly european for a race of korean elfs to be using. Seokjin had tried to explain that their last king had changed everything about their kingdom to suit his human wifes desires. He also learned that Jungkook's great great great, something or other, aunt was French. The king's wife loved this type of architecture, Taehyung couldn't blame her, everything about stood out and caught your attention. So much time was put into gilding each molded, sculpted, piece of architecture that had Taehyung in complete awe.

Jungkook had called the building an eyesore on multiple occasions since Taehyung had woken up but he could stare at the gold all day long and not get bored of finding each little design. He couldn't believe one man had an entire castle built for a woman who couldn't have lived long enough to see the day it was finished.

"You're still staring at the ceiling?"

The sudden voice startled him out of his trance and he turned his attention to the man standing in the doorway of the bathroom. No matter how beautiful the room was, it didn't compare to the sight of Jungkook stark naked towel drying his wet hair. Taehyung soaked in the sight of him as if he hadn't seen him for years. His usual self control failed him. Smooth toned skin covered every surface of Jungkooks body showing every inch of muscle. The great masters would have loved to use him as a still life model, painting every perfect edge, plane, and curve of his body.

"Hear me out, I think these symbols hold meaning." Taehyung peeled his eyes away, craning his head back to look at the pattern above him. "These are constellations, see there's Orion's belt, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Ursa major and minor."

Taehyung pointed to each constellation as he searched for them again, only looking down when he felt Jungkook plop down in the love seat next to him fully dressed. He stared up at the ceiling with squinted eyes trying to see what Taehyung was seeing.

"Oh I see.. That's the big and little dipper." he pointed up at the Ursa constellations.

Taehyung smiled, "the only two constellations you know." He teased, pretending to be disappointed.

Jungkook plopped his head down against his shoulder smiling up at him with happy bunny teeth and a wrinkled bunny nose. Mocking him for knowing so much about constellations and art. It was a tender sort of teasing that Taehyung had grown very fond of. He petted Jungkook's wet hair, cursing the lack of hair dryers. His own damp hair held back with a ribbon tied around his head he'd made into a headband. Jungkook's hair had gotten shaggy over the past few months and looked due for a trim. The younger male didn't seem to care, it had always been Taehyung who had cut it for him.

"What's the name of the guy with the red skin? By that I mean his skin is actually red." Taehyung asked, having been curious since he'd talked to him.

Jungkook sat up looking surprised that Taehyung even knew who he was. "You mean Namjoon?" he asked as if there was another man with skin the color of a middle school girl's dear darling lip tint running around.