BLOOD MONEY || bts mafia au

two.

The weight of the cash bumping against his hip was a welcome one as Jungkook strode into the Purgatory's den with Hoseok on his heels. There was something darkly satisfying about having so many heads turn his way, following him everywhere he went. They were holding their breaths, waiting for a command. He was important to them. Here, he mattered like he had never mattered anywhere else.

He bypassed all of them, his head high and proud. Here, he was a god.

"Hoseok," Jungkook started in a low voice. The other boy quickened his pace expectantly. "Take this to the safe," Jungkook instructed, handing him the bundle of money. As loathe as he was to see the money leave his possession, he had other things to attend to.

His footsteps echoed in the corridor as he walked, his soldiers poking their heads out to watch him pass. He offered them nothing. No smile, no wave, no nod. As their boss, he didn't need to do anything he didn't want to. They weren't the ones to question him.

Jungkook came to a stop at the end of the hallway, the only door on a little wing branching off from the rest. He met the gaze of the soldier he'd placed in front of it. "How is he?"

His gang member made a face. "As well as can be expected, boss. Keeps saying he's fine and tries to get out of bed. I've had to call for help quite a few times to restrain him."

Jungkook wasn't surprised. Even poisoned, Jimin was a force to be reckoned with.

"And Taehyung?"

"Hasn't left his side all day," the soldier responded. "I assume he's been waiting for you. Wanted to know when you'd be back."

Jungkook sighed as he shook out his shoulders. "You can take a break and get something to eat. I expect someone to be back on this post within half an hour. I don't care who."

Without waiting for a response, Jungkook shoved open the door, propping it open with his foot. His eyes took in the room carefully, sweeping over every detail.

"You're back!" Taehyung's sweet face spread into an easy smile as he picked his head up.

A small part of Jungkook melted at the sight of the older boy's unburdened excitement. Not that he'd ever admit it.

"How did the meeting go?"

Jungkook stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Jiho put up more of a fight than we hoped, but we still made a pretty good cut." His gaze drifted to the boy lying in the small bed carelessly pushed into the corner of the barely decorated bedroom. "Jimin's asleep?"

Taehyung nodded, reaching out a hand to touch the unconscious boy as if to reassure himself that he was still there. "He hates resting. He wants to be back out there with you."

Jungkook chuckled a little, imagining Jimin trying to strap on his army of guns and knives with a frantic Taehyung attempting to hold him down. "He'll have to get used to it. He won't be leaving this room until he's recovered."

Taehyung frowned, tightening his grip on Jimin's arm. "How... How does he look?" he asks hesitantly.

Glancing away quickly, Jungkook studied Jimin for longer than necessary if only so he didn't have to look back at the expectant boy in front of him. Sometimes it was easy to forget. Forget the events that made up Taehyung's past, forget that he didn't quite belong here. Forget that he couldn't see.

"He's pale," Jungkook forced himself to start. "A little sweaty. And I think the stain on his shirt is vomit."

Taehyung stood quickly, yanking open one of the drawers on the dresser against the wall. "I thought I'd cleaned it all up," he muttered to himself. Addressing Jungkook now, he said, "He tried to prove that he felt fine by eating a big lunch but threw it back up. I tried to clean it up but..."

He trailed off. He didn't need to say the rest.

Although once he had memorized his surroundings, Taehyung could move around as easily as if he still possessed working eyes, it didn't make up for the fact that he couldn't, in fact, see anything. But he was determined not to let his blindness keep him from doing what he wanted to do. And usually, that was to help his friends.

The thing was, Taehyung could remember what it was like to see. He remembered a time before he was blind and he missed it so bad that sometimes it hurt. But he had accepted his fate. After Jungkook had found him wandering around helplessly on the streets, he had tried everything he could to help the older boy regain his eyesight. None of the treatments had worked and the doctors didn't think that any ever would.

"What are you going to do about the Cobras?" Taehyung asked suddenly, abandoning his mission of finding Jimin a clean shirt to look up at Jungkook with sightless eyes. Jungkook had to admit that it was eerie how he could do that. "Are you going to retaliate, after what they did?"

After the news had reached him that his biggest rivals had managed to take down his best soldier, Jungkook had been furious. His room still bore the results of his anger; dents from where he had punched the wall, the shattered remains of his mirror, and an upturned table. Jimin was his right hand, sure, but he was also his friend.

Jungkook's answer was given through a clenched jaw. "When I get my hands on those filthy serpents, they'll wish I had poisoned them back."

Taehyung shivered at the glacial tone of his threat, his big eyes full of worry.

The only ones that should be worried are the Cobras, Jungkook thought. Once he was through with them, they would know true fear. And then they wouldn't think twice before thinking they could take on any one of his soldiers. Unless they wanted to wind up staring down the barrel of Jungkook's gun.

He wouldn't tolerate this kind of attack.

Especially not from them.