Lost And Found

Chapter Nine

To say that he was shaken would be an understatement. Never in the six years that they had been together had Seokjin, let alone any of his mates, hurt him physically. Sure there were arguments from time to time. All couples went through that. Especially with how dominating all of them were naturally given their instincts. But... Holding a trembling hand towards his neck, Taehyung looked in the mirror and observed it with a stricken expression. His skin had gone pale and there was a nervous swooshing feeling in the pit of his stomach that made him want to be sick.

Seokjin had hurt him.

All in the name of protecting that human... protecting Hoseok's actual soulmate.

Taehyung didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to feel. Let alone how to compute what had just happened within his mind. When Yoongi had dragged both him and Seokjin outside of the room the second oldest of their pod had asked both of them what happened, but neither had been able to speak let alone look at each other. So with a frown at both of them, Yoongi had sent him to the medical ward and took Seokjin away with a steely grip on his arm. It was only then that his expression had shifted. The look in his eyes was something that Taehyung had never seen before as they stared at the captain with his lips pulled into a thin line. So now here he was. Alone. Sitting here for who knows how long, wondering how to move forward from here. They would need to talk, of course, but what did this mean for their relationship? Would they want to kick him out? Replace him with the human that they all seemed so willing to allow in... Even Jungkook, the one that he had been hoping would be on his side the most, was handling it better than him and Taehyung simply didn't understand. How were none of them angry? Upset?

How was Seokjin so willing to harm him...

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the sound of the door opening until a small figure snuck inside. Their back was pressed against the door in the shadows, the candle light doing little to nothing to show their features. But with Taehyung's superior sight and senses he was able to tell immediately who it was. His will to fight against the interloper gone as he sat in the back of the room on one of the five cots and frowned. "You have no business being here, let alone out of your room." His words were soft and blunt, all of the anger and bite from them before long gone with all of the other emotions that were hidden now between the layers of hurt and confusion. He couldn't even feel the connection through his bond with the others he was such a mess. And the human was the last being that he wanted to see right then. "What if Hoseok see's you and you almost die again? The others would be upset." He wanted to be bitter with his words, but instead he sounded sad. "If that happens I'm just going to be blamed so you should go and rest. Someone's probably already looking for you."

His words didn't seem to phase the human at all as he approached. Similar to his own, there was a look of hollowness and hurt inside of his eyes. And as he grew closer his gaze transferred to the blooming hand shaped bruise wrapped around Taehyung's throat like an unforgiving necklace made of spikes. "Are you okay?" Jimin's voice was a low drawl, monotone, void of all feeling and emotion as he sat down at the foot of his cot and reached towards his neck only to pull back at the last second and place both of his hands in his lap where he wrung them together at his bouncing knees.

The question took him by surprise, and Taehyung didn't know how to answer at first before he cleared his throat and sighed. "I'm fine. Seriously though, you should go. I don't want you around me right now."

Despite what he said, Jimin ignored him and instead asked him another question of his own. "Does he do this to you often? Does he do it to Hoseok and the others to?" There was a pause as Jimin's words sunk in and it wasn't until the human continued to speak that he understood where he was getting at and his eyes widened. "Are you and Hoseok unsafe here?"