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to have a bodyguard assigned to you is absolutely, annoyingly, un-fucking-necessary.
(taehyung learned that word from one of the earthlings that wound up in castle of lions, jungkook, after he heard it being shrieked when his bayard turned into a handheld canon. he had been informed that you could add it to any sentence, and it would be more emphasized if done.)
not to mention that taehyung is the blue paladin of voltron as well, one of the greatest heroes of the universe known to, well anybody.
even namjoon, who’s not only an extremely great mentor to his younger peers back on earth and in space, plus his older brother seokjin, the literal first born prince of altea, think that he’s capable enough to take care of his own well being.
so the question is, why the fuck did hoseok have the need to ask this stupid(ly fucking handsome) half-human-half-galran warrior to follow him wherever he went? he clearly could put up a fight if the ass-kicking (he learnt that from jungkook, too! his vocabulary has certainly grown much wider ever since the earthlings came!) he’s done during sparring with the specifically robots made for training and the members, and the actual battlefield has said otherwise.
his “bodyguard” also ended up being chosen to be the paladin, which raises the question of why he keeps insisting on trailing after taehyung like some lost puppy and wouldn’t leave taehyung alone? he needs his personal space!
it’s quite baffling, really, how he ended up waking almost ten thousand years later after he, along with his brother and their assistant, were hidden away in sleeping pods by the king, seokjin and taehyung’s father. and that he fell into the arms of an unsuspecting min yoongi, who dropped him on the ground immediately after, prior to stumbling out of the sleeping pod. unlike his older brother, perfectly poised with his natural silver hair styled neatly, always kind and attentive to everybody he meets, and has a knack for making up dad jokes on the spot to brighten up your day, taehyung flails like an idiot and wails when he’s unable to find their father.
(up to this day, he still cries over the memory of seeing his father smile one last time before being shut in the pod and how altea had burned and crashed before his eyes as he lay there helpless watching. they also had to destroy the only thing that was left behind by their father, memories that helped create a hologram through the castle’s system, when it had been corrupted through zarkon’s right hand man. taehyung swears he’ll end zarkon’s empire before he dies.)
it’s also quite baffling, no—bewildering, perhaps delirious, that hoseok, their long trusted assistant who grew up with them, would appoint a galra (even if he is just half , it still counted!) as his bodyguard. the galrans hadn’t always been their enemies, but ever since they had colonized and destroyed innocent planets he thinks that they are more than just enemies.
but the worst part was the fact that yoongi is to follow him hot on his heels and protect him with his own bayard even in the midst of a battle, completely forgetting that taehyung has his own bayard. his trusty energy rifle could finish the job without yoongi’s help, thank you very much. he hates it when yoongi puts himself at risk for taehyung. he feels himself go hot with rage whenever his team members — and despite taehyung hating his guts, yoongi, for some odd reason — dangers themself for him. while he knows he would’ve done the same for any of the other members, it happens way too often that he’s just sick of it.
“you’re the second altean prince,” they say, “we need to protect you otherwise prince seokjin will most definitely kill us.”
bullshit. first of all, sure his brother would have a full blown freak out if anything were to happen to him, but again, seokjin knows that taehyung is competent. he’s not some lanky teenager anymore, one who trips over thin air on the way to attending his classes or diplomatic meetings requesting his attendance. second of all, the reason for that excuse may well be because taehyung is technically one of the three alteans left (as far as they know for now, anyway) in the entire universe. his entire species had gone extinct after the destruction of the planet, and sure he only had his brother and their assistant left but still.
taehyung is not a weak damsel in distress, for fuck’s sake.
he’s nothing like the supposed weakened fair maiden portrayed quite terribly in all those cliched romance novels hoseok busies himself in after jimin, his best friend and the green paladin, managed to dig them up while programming the system from earth’s catalog. the thought to be compared with one infuriates him.
and if his teammate does get injured in the process of protecting him, he resents himself each and every single time. resents himself for ever letting his team get hurt if they do manage to injure themselves, regardless if it the scar etched into their being was physical or mental.
yoongi is no exception, especially since he breezily accepted hoseok's request of being his guard. he would blast hoseok, but there’s the possibility of getting thrown out of the castle’s airlock compartment.
today has been no different.
seokjin formulated a plan to hijack one of the nearby galran empire cruisers, located in the nearby galaxy the castle was orbiting around, in order to start the foundation of the voltron coalition and to retrieve any data concerning the galra’s plans to fight against them. of course, their plans were always precise and careful with the help of the castle’s built in system and jimin’s exceptional ability to handle the advanced technology. their team has namjoon, too. their leader, who always patiently leads them to carry out their objective in swift precision, the black paladin of voltron. he gave them their daily dose of serotonin through his lovely dimpled smile, words of encouragement and feedback on their plan to make sure everything goes as planned.
all in all, it was like any other mission on any other day. donned in their suits, each paladin goes into their respective lion. taehyung got the rush of adrenalin that pumped through his veins the moment he slid down on his seat, loving the way the blue lion always rumbled in response to his usual greeting as he got deposited from the chute.
“hey, blue. ready for today’s mission?” taehyung grinned. blue’s system started up in a way to answer his question, the hologram for the cruiser’s coordinates popping up and others he had left open since the last time he had been in there. the cruiser was considerably large, though it’s nothing compared to the larger ships manned by the higher ranks in the galra empire they had encountered before. it was nothing they couldn’t handle.
the black, red and yellow lions launched off to prepare for any attacks and to take in their surroundings as the blue and green lions headed closer to the cruiser. landing and breaking into the cruiser was something he’s done multiple times by now, something he remembers by heart by now. he’s considered to be one of their team’s fastest runners in team voltron, thus seokjin appointed him to accompany jimin during missions like these.
(of course, hoseok made a strangled noise of protest, but he was quickly shut up when seokjin prattled on about working on a few more experiments and possibly implying using hoseok as a lab rat.)
together with jimin, he quietly hid in the corners and slink past the few galran soldiers walking about on the ship. with taehyung onguard for any soldiers heading into the hallway, and jimin’s hurried but decisive hacking into the system of the cruiser’s main system, they found out that there had been, in fact, prisoners aboard. a couple of balmerans and puigians. the planets of balmera and puig had recently been freed of the galra not long ago, leaving them with the conclusion that they must have been the remaining captives which were whisked away before voltron could save them.
through the live footage that is displayed on one of the holograms displayed from the projection made by jimin’s suit, he saw the specific cell and the hallway it was located in. the coast was clear, no guards in sight. taehyung scoffed at the lack of security these idiots always had.
“jimin, i’m gonna head in now.”
“what? like, right now?” jimin stopped tapping on the holograms, now looking at taehyung with a confused expression. “alone?”
taehyung nods. who else was he supposed to go with at that moment in time? “yeah, nobody else is here. some of the patrol jets around the cruiser found jungkook’s hiding spot in a crater. i got a message from namjoon a few minutes ago.”
“huh? why didn’t i get the message?”
“you were too invested in hacking, as usual. at this point you’ll turn into yoongi, not even stopping whatever you’re doing to sleep and start brooding in the shadows.”
jimin smirked knowingly instead of jabbing back at him. oh no. “i don’t know, really. i don’t seem to be the hot and brooding type.”
taehyung started to choke on air. he tried hard to suppress it, though, because as much as he’d like to continue coughing his lungs out they were still aboard a galran cruiser, which had sensitive sound sensors implanted almost everywhere to any other sound that isn’t, well, galran. they had been recently implemented, and unfortunately taehyung was the one subjected to the hard way after sneezing extra loud. once he recovered, he started speaking again to defend himself. “i do not find him hot! absolutely not. never will.”
okay, it was a weak defense. anywho, it was still something.
“you say that now, but you find him hot whenever he does it. aren’t i right, prince taehyung?”
the only time jimin uses that honorific is when he wants to embarrass him.
“i’m done having this conversation, and i shall head into the cells to fetch the prisoners. i shan't be long.” he waves at jimin, blaster gun in hand.
“are you sure this is safe, though? some of them might be around, maybe you could just wait while i do a double check on the general vicinity.” jimin offered, albeit a little worriedly.
“if i come across one, i’ll be sure to shoot their head off.”
“yeah but..” taehyung knew where the conversation was going. he sighed and bid his friend farewell, knowing that an argument would break out between them if he chose to stay. turning round another corner, taehyung paused to summon his own hologram. his helmet was able to recapture the information from earlier, allowing him to project the footage. soon after, the hallway finally appeared. it was unguarded, only the cell in the middle locked shut.
one of the balmerans inside recognized him, their yellow eyes blinking in shock to see that they were getting saved. taehyung flashed his trademark boxy smile. he hoped it would calm and reassure them to know that help had finally arrived. after pressing a few buttons, the new built in galra lock picker modified into his suit broke through the lock in seconds.
the balmeran from earlier cheered happily, and had gone as far to pull him into a bone crushing hug. the two puigians behind them also let out a loud yell of content and taehyung’s body goes rigid. as if right on cue, the sound system starts to blare loudly.
it was ironic, really, asking them to be silent when he himself felt at the brink of bursting from how overwhelming it had been that time. his blaster gun was loaded and aimed forward, taehyung was ready to shoot at anything that was to attack them while they crawled back to the spot jimin had been in. the blaring had not ceased, and it was only a matter of time until galran soldiers came running towards them. if taehyung was alone and did not have any captives behind him, it would be easy to take them all down.
however, most of the time the universe doesn’t set it’s course like that.
it needed, wanted even, to make his life difficult.
a cluster of galra soldiers cut their path before he managed to reach jimin. fear had taken over and rooted taehyung to his spot when the first galra soldier aimed their gun at him. he didn’t have anything to deflect the attack with, and his suit would’ve gotten burnt through it if he were to get shot.
in that moment, he knew there would have been a point in time where he faced a near-death situation. it was something made known from the moment he was chosen to be a paladin. to be a paladin of voltron was to continue defending the universe until the very end.
the balmera and puigians had huddled behind him, and may have looked like a funny sight as they were almost the same height as him. taehyung readied himself for the blow, but it never came. instead came the tell-tale sound of a sharp object stabbing into the metal body of the galra soldier.
when he opened his eyes, yoongi was standing in front of him, his bayard (a sword that taehyung wished he had gotten) lodged into the arm of the galran.
the soldier was destroyed a second later.
before taehyung could utter a single word, yoongi targeted a different soldier and ran off. he began to fight the soldiers off one by one with skillful precision, almost as if he was merely doing a sparring exercise back at the castle. taehyung knew yoongi was a remarkable fighter, the galran blood that ran through him made him a lot stronger compared to most humans and allowed him to have a strong endurance to push through difficult situations.
difficult situations like during that moment, where taehyung watched on in a daze whilst yoongi drove the sword into the galran’s soldier metal stomach. the wiring crackled loudly in the air, the sparks barely missing him by a hair. jumping back, he finally snapped out of the dazed stupor he was in.
“yoongi? how did you get in here?” like namjoon and jungkook, he was supposed to be outside of the cruiser and chasing the fighter jets, which were extremely annoying to get rid of once the castle of lions took off. afterall all, the red lion ranks the highest in terms of agility and speed. the blarings had died down, enabling him to hear yoongi’s response through the communicator in his helmet.
“jimin sent a distress signal while he was working on disabling the turrets,” said yoongi. “why are you just standing there? go lead the prisoners out of here.”
“prisoners?” taehyung jolted when he felt a hand on his back. he glanced behind him and saw the captives still huddled together. “oh, right. but what about you?”
taehyung had no idea why he said that. he knew yoongi could fend off the soldiers long enough for taehyung to escape. yoogi looked taken aback for a moment, an understandable reaction since taehyung did not often worry over yoongi.
“uh, yeah i’ll be okay. red will break through the walls if i need saving. you should go now, prince taehyung.” taehyung thanked the stars for whoever modified their helmets lately, for the helmet dimmed his features and the flush threatening to bloom on his face. he made a sound of affirmation to yoongi and continued his previous mission to guide the prisoners out of harm’s way.
yoongi vigorously fought against the galrans, granting taehyung the opportunity to direct the prisoners without bringing too much attention to themselves. multiple spar matches with namjoon or the ai late into the night has done him good, thought taehyung.
jungkook was waiting at the end of the hallway for them, the yellow lion’s head opened in a hole in the wall. he could have gone off with jungkook, but there was something in the back of his mind making him turn the corner and into yoongi finishing off the last soldier.
“prince taehyung?”
“why do you still call me by that?” all the members, except for yoongi, greeted him casually by now. even seokjin was now “seokjin” to yoongi.
“‘s because i’m supposed to be your bodyguard.”
“haha very funny. it’s fine to call me ‘taehyung’, you know. you practically call my elder brother by his name.”
“i’ll think about it, prince taehyung.” yoongi laughed, his gummy smile on display. taehyung rolled his eyes in feigned annoyance to push down the fluttering feeling in his stomach.
“ugh. anyway, the prisoners are now in the yellow lion with jungkook. only the both of us are due to leave this place and return to our lions since there’s nothing left, and—”
“prince taehyung,” yoongi’s eyes trailed to something behind taehyung, his gaze unwavering. “i think we should leave.”
“that’s exactly what i’ve been saying. were you not listening to me?”
“no, um, like right now.” panic began to seep into taehyung from seeing how distraught yoongi had looked.
“alright, uh, i guess? but why—”
“fuck, you’re gonna hate me but—”
taehyung should not have stalled for time.
his vision swam when a warm body collided against his, the distinct sound of a laser gun being fired followed by the pungent, metallic scent of blood filling his nostrils.
was it his blood?
or was it—
“sorry, taehyung.” yoongi winced.
taehyung would have dropped yoongi if his hands weren’t holding onto his waist for dear life. he didn’t know if it was because of the way yoongi painfully said his name or if it was because he only said taehyung . but there were still pressing matters. yoongi was hurt.
“what did you just do?”
“i’ll tell you later, but we really need to go back to the castle of lions like, right now ‘cause my leg—”
“your leg!” taehyung gasped at the wound on yoongi’s leg. blood trickled down the stark white color of the armor, the edges of the hole the blast created jagged and slightly burnt. the sound of something heavy hitting the floor reached his ears, and taehyung saw the gun on the floor by the side of a galra that must’ve been still active for a bit longer.
the shot was meant to be for taehyung .
“you now how much i hate it when you—”
“—injure myself to protect you? look, i know you’re mad at me right now but can we please just go—”
“i’m just saying, it’s really annoying when you—”
(they made it back to the castle of lions shortly after jimin found them squabbling as yoongi was being hoisted around on taehyung’s back.)
back in the present time, taehyung is pacing around outside of hoseok’s lab, which also acted as the castle infirmary. yoongi has been in there for a good hour or so, whereas taehyung has spent the entire time waiting for any updates on yoongi’s condition.
as soon as he arrived, hoseok informed him that the wound wasn’t severe enough for yoongi to be placed in a sleep pod. he only needed a few stitches and some ice for the bruises formed from when yoongi had been fending off the galra.
if yoongi only needed those, then why hasn’t he stepped out of the room yet?
perhaps taehyung may be overthinking it a little too much, but how could he not when yoongi took a shot to his leg for him? it’s the first time yoongi’s wound had been an actual blast, usually it only grazed his skin by a whisker, other times it would only be a bruise to his arm. they were all injuries taehyung hates yoongi for having to take, but this time it’s a whole other wound.
“tae, you’re going to burn a hole through hoseok’s door if you don’t stop looking at it like that,”
his brother’s melodious voice rings out from beside him, “i know you were worried over yoongi but didn’t know you’re actually this worried, little brother. jimin must be right then.”
“jimin must be right about what?”
seokjin laughs, amused at taehyung’s piqued interest. “nothing.”
seokjin pulls him along and sits on the couch beside the lab door. his legs relax, tired out after taehyung’s constant paces.
“hey, jin?”
“mm?”
“do you know the reason as to why hoseok needed to appoint a guard to me?”
“yes.”
“are you going to tell me?”
“no.”
taehyung groans. “i’m being serious.”
“i’m being serious, too, tae. it’s not really my place to tell you.” says seokjin, with a huff. “hoseok told me not to tell you, and you know that i am a keeper of the promises i make. you’ll find out eventually, little brother, since that idiot can’t really stay away from you.”
“what idiot? jimin?” seokjin flicks his forehead. “ow! what was that for?”
“no reason.” taehyung feels like strangling his brother when he just shrugs it off.
“you really need to stop hanging out with jungkook.”
“only if you stop hanging out with jimin.” his brother ignores his offended gasp, foregoing to pet one of the space mice that ran up to his feet. “anyway, i’m just here to tell you that yoongi has actually been up above on the bridge this entire time.”
taehyung blinks. yoongi has been where now? “the bridge? i thought he’s in the lab?”
“did you even try to knock?”
“um, no.”
“you’re annoyingly dense, are you aware of that?” seokjin exasperatedly pinches the bridge of his nose. “just go up to the bridge already before i make you eat a bucket full of space goo in one go.”
upon arriving at the bridge, taehyung finds yoongi resting on his assigned seat. he grimaces when he spots a pair of crutches next to him. yoongi is staring out into the vast space of the galaxy, still unaware of taehyung’s presence in the room.
“hey, yoongi.”
“prince taehyung?” yoongi spins in his seat, eyes (adorably) wide.
“ugh, not this again.”
yoongi laughs. “it’s kind of a habit by now.”
“and here i thought you finally could say my name without the honorifics.”
“i did earlier, didn’t i?”
taehyung frowns at the reminder of the memory. “i guess so. but don’t forget that you got really hurt in the process, yoongi. how many times do i need to tell you to get you to stop jumping in front of me whenever i get into trouble?”
yoongi stays quiet, picking at the skin around his nails.
“you don’t need to be my bodyguard, even if hoseok appointed you as one. it irks whenever i have to see you get injured because of me. it’s like you disregard my feelings every single time i ask to stop risking yourself, to the point where you might even die! today, it nearly happened in that cruiser, remember? if the gun was aimed a bit higher, you could have…” taehyung stops, taking a deep breath. his heart twinges in pain at the thought of what almost had been.
“i’m sorry. but,” yoongi looks up at him, a fiery gaze in his eyes, “i won’t apologize for protecting you.”
“are we in a romance novel of some sort? real life isn’t fiction, yoongi. i know how to protect myself. you have clearly seen how i, this weak altean prince everyone seems to think i am, kicked all of your asses when we took turns to beat the gladiator bot. there’s no reason to become my guard or protector during battles, isn’t there?”
yoongi giggles out of nowhere. it’s a cute laugh, but what exactly was he laughing at?
“sorry. i just thought it was kind of funny you used that phrase, i’m just used to you speaking really formally.” he says, in between small fits of giggles.
“you’re so annoying.” taehyung attempts to restrain the smile pulling at his lips. “did you even listen to me?”
“you’re smiling.”
“that’s not my question.”
“so? it could be the answer to your question.”
taehyung’s face contorts in confusion. “huh? what do you mean?”
“well, the reason why i want to protect you, taehyung, is because of your smile.”
taehyung’s face grows hot. is it usually this sweltering when you stand underneath the power core crystal? “my smile?”
“protecting you means i'll be able to recognize your silver mop of hair out on the battlefield while kicking more galran ass (“sometimes i hope that you’ll kick mine too since i’m half galran y’know”, he quietly adds. taehyung is not amused.), hear your lovely voice break into an altean song at random parts of the day, find you sneaking the space mice some treats seokjin hides away or exploring new planets together with you. it means having you here with us, the team, and a paladin of voltron for another day. most importantly, i will see your smile again for another day.”
no, taehyung is not on the brink of tears. didn’t he hate yoongi just a couple of days ago, when he literally put himself in between the broken space goo machine and taehyung? it was so stupid that taehyung burst out laughing when the green goop got onto yoongi’s face.
“yoongi, you’re a paladin of voltron, too. don’t go protecting me when you’re not taking care of yourself.” taehyung sniffs. he’s getting emotional and for what? yoongi takes his hand, holding it oh so gently he may cry from the adorableness of it.
“i protect you without thinking of my well-being, because i know that you’ll always have my back, even if you do hate me. i know you asked jimin and jungkook to modify that lock picking mechanism into our suits after red and i nearly got captured for good. but anyways, i know you don’t actually hate me, taehyung. i’ve seen how you act to people you genuinely despise. you’re not a very good liar.”
“y-you can’t just say that.” taehyung covers his reddening face with his free hand, mildly flustered. “it’s like you have a crush on me or something.”
“oh. so you saw through me, too?” yoongi’s cheeks tinged a light pink hue.
“what? you have a crush on me?”
“was it not obvious? i practically spouted a bunch of reasons on why i jump in to protect you all the time and one of them is because of your smile. i’m so fucking cheesy, oh god please save me from this obvlivious idiot—”
“i thought you were saying all those reasons just to be nice and because you’re obligated to since you’re my bodyguard and all.”
yoongi burst into giggles again. this time around taehyung is puzzled and exasperated.
“no one ever specified whether or not i was your guard. all hoseok said to you was that you had a new protector on the team.” yoongi grins, mischievously.
“oh. wait, so why do you insist on accompanying me to places and pair up with me for almost every mission because you’re my guard?”
“because i like you?”
“oh.”
“aren’t you going to say anything else beside ‘oh’, prince taehyung?”
“oh. i just did it again.” taehyung is positively making himself out to be a blundering fool in front of yoongi, who literally just confessed his true feelings for him. “but, i think i might like you, too, yoongi. i hope you’ll give me some time to think about this though, since i’ve never really done this type of thing even before i woke up ten thousand years ago and falling into your arms.”
yoongi stands up with the help of his crutches, his hand still entwined with taehyung’s. a hopeful look beams on his face. “i understand. well then, as i wait for your answer i’ll continue to protect you, even if you end up rejecting me anyway. and i know you’ll continue to protect me, too.”
“i will hold you to that promise, then.” smiling, he wraps his arms around yoongi’s in a tight hug, underneath the stars, the only witnesses to the beginning of their story.
taehyung thinks having a bodyguard is unnecessary.
he’s the blue paladin of voltron, the legendary defenders of the universe.
he’s an altean known more for kicking ass compared to the magical abilities his brother is expertized in, though he’s starting to develop those skills day by day.
not only that, but he has his half-galran boyfriend, who’s there to protect him, and someone he protects wholeheartedly, till the end of the universe.