Archive of Our Own

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“Hyung! Hyung! Hoseok-hyung!”

Hoseok had been tapping out a beat intently for the past hour or so. Bang, bang, bang-ba-bang-bang-ba. He stops at the sound of his name and twists around to face the doorway where Kim Taehyung is standing, looking gleeful.

“Have you heard the news?” Taehyung continues, bouncing up and down. Before Hoseok can answer, there’s another, louder voice from beyond the doorway.

“Yah, how would he have heard the news? It just happened.” Seokjin sounds impatient as he speaks, but he’s laughing in delight. He follows as Taehyung hops into the room and towards Hoseok’s corner, enough that Hoseok can untwist himself to face forwards once more.

“What news?” 

Seokjin takes a deep breath in. “Hoseok-ah. There is someone-” 

“Hyung! Let me say it please,” Taehyung says firmly. He knocks gently and affectionately into Seokjin, before turning back to Hoseok again. “Hoseok-hyung,” he announces seriously. “There is someone in the castle.”

“A human,” Seokjin adds meaningfully.

Well. Fuck.

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Hoseok has been a wardrobe for six years, two months and four days. 

It’s not been all bad. It hasn’t been great and he’s pretty sure that he’s forgotten what it’s like to have moving limbs, but all told, it could be worse.

Jihoon got turned into a trash compactor, after all. Things could absolutely be worse.

He spends most of his days in his bedroom, doing fun activities such as banging his doors against the wood of his body and staring at the pattern of the wallpaper opposite to him. None of the other furniture in the room is sentient, so he mostly has to wait for people to come visit him. 

Luckily, they always do.

Taehyung and Seokjin are bouncing around the room, two matching celadon teacups - beautiful and decorated with small white cranes and clouds. They’re both explaining exactly how a human had come to visit the castle for the first time since the Curse. Their stories are elaborate, although missing a number of crucial details. Namely…

“Is he… Is he hot?” Hoseok asks, fanning his doors a little in restrained excitement.

“Oh hyung, he’s-”

“He’s distinguished, Hoseok-ah,” Seokjin says. “He’s…”

“He’s hot,” Taehyung says, jumping up and down in the approximation of a nod. “Jin-hyung and I would both absolutely be interested. We discussed it immediately.”

“...So he’s old?” Hoseok says. He stops flapping his doors. 

“Experienced,” Seokjin corrects, but Hoseok is trying not to feel devastated. 

“He and Namjoon have to fall in love for the curse to be broken,” Hoseok says. “He and Namjoon.”

“Namjoon will do what needs to be done for the cause!” Seokjin says. “And if that means falling in love with a handsome gentleman in his twilight years-”

“I just didn’t think Namjoon had a DILF kink,” Hoseok says sadly.

“Maybe he’ll develop one, hyung,” Taehyung says serenely.

Hoseok sighs. “So… where’s the human now?”

“Do we have to speak about him like we’re not also humans?” Seokjin says.

“You’re a teacup, hyung,” Hoseok points out.

“Don’t remind me Hoseok-ah, I’m sensitive,” Seokjin says firmly. Hoseok wishes he had eyes capable of rolling, instead of the little enchanted wardrobe wood balls he’s been left with.

“We didn’t get to see hyung, we left to tell you immediately,” Taehyung says. He hops up to Hoseok’s leg and bumps into it affectionately. 

“Ahhh~” Hoseok says, immediately endeared.

“We left Namjoon-hyung with the others,” Taehyung continues. 

Namjoon’s sensible, Hoseok supposes. 

What could go wrong?

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“I’ve locked him in one of the basement rooms,” Namjoon says awkwardly.

Hoseok blinks. “You…”

“I’ve locked him in one of the basement rooms, yes,” Namjoon repeats. 

“Right.”

“Hyung, I’m so sorry,” Jungkook says for the sixth time since he and Namjoon had arrived in Hoseok’s room. “I saw him walk through the door and he looked so confused-”

“I know, Jungkook-ah,” Namjoon says patiently. 

“I just wanted to help,” Jungkook says. 

“It’s ok, Jungkook-ah.” Namjoon smiles down at Jungkook, whose candles are dimmer than usual. Namjoon’s smiles admittedly look more like terrifying grimaces, but that’s not really his fault. They’re all cursed in this castle, after all.

“Can we get back to the human locked in the basement?” Hoseok asks. Namjoon’s expression morphs into something that can best be described as ‘sheepish’. 

“Uh.”

“That’s not how you romance men, Namjoon-ah,” Hoseok jokes.

“I don’t want to romance him!” Namjoon exclaims. “He’s old!”

“I knew you weren’t into DILFs,” Hoseok says quietly.

“He just started yelling about Jungkook! I heard him from my study and I didn’t recognise the voice. I thought Jungkook was in trouble. So I came running down the stairs and then he saw me and he screamed!”

“I mean…” Hoseok starts to say, staring at Namjoon’s terrifying, fur-covered face.

“He started talking about calling the village guards,” Jungkook adds sadly. “And called us ‘experiments gone wrong’.”

“Rude,” Hoseok breathes.

“If it gets out, Hoseok-ah… If the village finds out that the old abandoned castle is filled with sentient furniture and a gigantic beast…”

Hoseok tips backwards and forwards a little bit in a nodding motion. “They’d try to destroy us all.”

Jungkook sighs. “I really did just want to help.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok says firmly. “He shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

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Jungkook usually spends his evenings in Hoseok’s room. 

He’s a three candle candelabra and fairly small, sprightly enough that he can move across the castle with ease. He always comes back to Hoseok with stories - gossip from the other furniture and recaps of some of the television shows Namjoon watches sometimes. It’s always the best part of Hoseok’s day.

On the evening that the old man arrives, Jungkook is quiet. It takes Hoseok a little bit of time to coax him into a place that’s a little happier, but furniture doesn’t sleep and so he’s got nothing but time. He could spend the time going non-sentient, like a lot of the furniture often does - just a close of the eyes and it’s like he’s just a plain old wardrobe again, not a trace of Hoseok at all, until he decides to open his eyes again, become sentient once more.

He asks Jungkook why he didn’t stay non-sentient at the sight of the old man, but he already knows the answer.

None of them have seen a human in six years. The key to curing their curse, the only way for the entire castle to become human again, rests solely in the fate of Namjoon meeting a human and falling in love. 

It’s a bit sick, Hoseok supposes, as far as curses go. Entirely unwarranted, too. What kind of person curses innocent castle staff members? In his more unproductive moments, Hoseok sometimes imagines locking the person in his wardrobe, jumping around and spitting her back out dizzy.

It wouldn’t help, but it would at least make him feel a little good.

But anyway.

None of them have seen even a trace of a human in six years, before the old man wandered into their lives. He can’t blame Jungkook for getting excited. Hoseok thinks, if the places were switched, he would have yelled the second the man walked through the door.

“I can’t believe we have a human in the castle,” he says to Jungkook, who is preoccupying himself by dimming and brightening his candles in a soothing pattern.

“I can’t believe Namjoonie-hyung locked him in the basement,” Jungkook replies.

Hoseok sighs. “A once in a lifetime chance to meet a human and they turn out to be a judgemental asshole,” he says sadly. “And now who knows when we’ll have another human here again.”

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A second human turns up a day later.

“What is happening this week?” Hoseok says to Jimin, who is passive aggressively sweeping his feathers across the wooden floorboards of the bedroom.

“It’s the old guy’s son, apparently,” Jimin says.

Hoseok feels a renewed sense of excitement suddenly. “Is he hot?”

Jimin makes a huffing noise.

“Oh my god,” Hoseok whispers excitedly, “he’s hot.”

“He’s fine,” Jimin confirms tersely.

“Fuck- fuck, Jimin-ah, what if Namjoon locks him in in the basement too?”

Jimin sighs dramatically. “Yes, yes, what if Namjoon locks the future love of his life in the basement?”

“Jimin-ah,” Hoseok chides gently.

“I know, I know, I need to take this seriously. I know. Namjoon needs to fall in love with this… average looking human so that we can all change back to humans, even though he was this close to falling in love with me six years ago, so I just have to… pine forever or whatever.”

“I’m sorry, Jimin-ah,” Hoseok says. He wishes he had a face so that he could look sympathetic.

“But back then he was always like, ‘oh Jimin-ah, I shouldn’t hook up with my housekeeper, there’s a power imbalance’ and ‘oh Jimin-ah, the sex is forbidden which obviously makes it hotter but it’s also problematic, even though we’re obviously, deeply in love’. I’m too hot to be doomed to a life of unrequited love, hyung!”

“You’re way too hot, Jimin-ah,” Hoseok agrees seriously. “God, you were so hot.”

“Thank you, hyung.”

“And now you’re the sexiest feather duster in the castle,” Hoseok adds.

“Exactly.” Jimin does a sad twirl, before flopping against Hoseok’s door.

“Any beast would be lucky to have you.”

“Thank you.”

“...You do need to go make sure that Namjoon hasn’t locked the hot guy in the basement, though,” he says after a moment. 

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

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Hoseok wonders, as he stares at the new human, if maybe Namjoon should have locked him in the basement.

Namjoon had brought the human up to Hoseok’s room and introduced him to Hoseok as Yoongi, then introduced Hoseok’s room to Yoongi as ‘your new home’, before running away, leaving Hoseok alone.

Alone with Yoongi the human. Yoongi the human, who has yet to stop talking at length about the human rights violation of Namjoon kidnapping his father and locking him in a basement. 

“This is awkward,” Hoseok says.

“Is there anything in this house that doesn’t talk?” Yoongi asks, dropping his head into his hands.

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Yoongi is wonderful.

Hoseok and Jungkook sit together quietly throughout his first night, trying not to make any noise so that he can sleep, before ultimately going non-sentient for a while. Hoseok is knocked back into existence when Yoongi wakes up the next morning and so he calls out a cheerful ‘good morning!’, which makes Yoongi jump about three feet in the air and scream.

Once they move past that, however, Hoseok decides that Yoongi is wonderful.

They talk about music and bond over shitty families and Yoongi tells Hoseok that it must be hard being a wardrobe and honestly, it is hard being a wardrobe, Hoseok feels like his soul has been seen. Plus, he makes Hoseok laugh constantly. If Hoseok had a stomach, he thinks it would hurt after spending just a few hours with Yoongi.

He sends Jungkook to get Seokjin and Taehyung, plus Sejin the teapot, so that Yoongi can have some tea. They arrive so quickly that Hoseok thinks that they must have done whatever the teaware equivalent of running is to get there. 

“Why are there two cups? I’m the only one here who can drink.” Yoongi says, watching as Sejin pours hot tea into Taehyung. 

“They don’t go anywhere without one another,” Jungkook says, side eyeing Taehyung and Seokjin.

“Because we’re in love,” Taehyung says simply, as he hops over to Yoongi.

“You’re teacups in love?” Yoongi asks.

“Just because we’re made of clay, doesn’t mean we don’t feel, Yoongi-hyung,” Taehyung clarifies.

“...I don’t know if I can drink out of something that talks,” Yoongi says.

“I give you my full and enthusiastic consent, hyung,” Taehyung says quickly. “It would be an honor-”

“He loves when people drink from him,” Seokjin confides. “Well. Namjoon. Namjoon’s the only other person in this castle who can drink these days.”

“Namjoon my kidnapper, you mean?” Yoongi says, huffing, although he reaches down to tentatively take a sip from Taehyung.

“I thought you volunteered to stay, Yoongi-hyung?” Jungkook asks. He’s perched on the bed next to Yoongi, arm held up close to Yoongi’s face to give him some extra candlelight. 

“I volunteered to stay so that he’d let my asshole of a dad go,” Yoongi argues. “Those are two very different things.”

“Namjoon just wants to make sure that the village guards don’t break into the castle and try to experiment on us,” Hoseok reminds Yoongi. Yoongi sighs.

“I can’t believe I live somewhere with sentient furniture,” he mutters, taking another sip. “How does that happen?”

“A curse,” they answer in unison.

“Of course Namjoon manages to get not only himself but all of the castle staff cursed,” Seokjin jokes.

“Seokjin-ah, you know he didn’t deserve that curse,” Sejin says, softly but firmly, before looking up at Yoongi. “He was cruelly targeted by a person with terrible intentions. She arrived at his house in the middle of the night six years ago, demanding Namjoon give her a place to rest in return for a single rose. She was old and he was young and recently orphaned. He was alone in this big, big house-”

“Except for the seventy members of staff, yeah,” Seokjin says quietly. 

“He was alone and his parents had died just a week before,” Sejin continues, ignoring Seokjin entirely. “Without even thinking, he said to her, ‘I need to ask my parents’ permission and they’re not here.’ She had known, it came about, that his parents had died and as such, did not appreciate the lie. He hadn’t meant to lie, you understand.” He pauses so that Yoongi can nod seriously. “It’s just that sometimes, when loss is new, we forget.”

“But she thought he was lying to her,” Yoongi says quietly.

“She accused him of treating her poorly,” Sejin continues. “She felt he’d rejected her, due to her age and her looks. She was enraged and then, within the blink of an eye, transformed into a younger, less deformed woman.”

“She didn’t even have a missing eyeball anymore,” Jungkook adds helpfully. 

“A missing eyeball?” Yoongi asks faintly.

“Yeah, it was just this big, gruesome, bloody hole in her face-”

“Thank you, Jungkook-ah,” Sejin says. “As she transformed, she denounced Namjoon and so placed a curse on the castle and everyone in it. And now here we are.” Sejin sighs. “He was so young.”

“He was nineteen!” Seokjin says, snorting. “Sejin-hyung, you need to stop telling the story like that just because Namjoon asked you to. If Namjoon told you to jump off a bridge, would you? No! Besides, it’s been six years. He should just admit that a scary old woman with a bloody, missing eye showed up at his house at the middle of the night and tried to get him to let her in and he got scared and told her to fuck-”

“Thank you, Seokjin-ah,” Sejin says. He sighs. “Yes. Well. Either way. Here we are!”

“Seokjin-hyung and I were seconds from making love for the first time when it happened,” Taehyung says wistfully. “Seconds.”

“Six years of blue balls because Namjoon couldn’t let one stranger sleep over,” Seokjin says. “He’s lucky he’s cute.”

“Well,” Hoseok says. 

“Used to be,” Seokjin corrects quickly. “Used to be cute. Now he just looks like a nightmare.”

“I think he looks nice in some lights,” Jungkook says. 

“Right,” Yoongi says quietly. “Right.”

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“Has he left the room yet?” Jungkook whispers.

“I can hear you,” Yoongi says at full volume.

“No he hasn’t,” Hoseok whispers back.

“It’s been hours.”

Yoongi makes a frustrated noise. “You know how some people grow up dreaming of moving into a castle?”

“Yeah,” Jungkook answers dreamily.

“That’s not me! I never wanted that! I want… I have plans for my life. I was going to leave my dad and his shitty inventions and go out and make music. Music that people want to listen to, you know?”

“Hoseok-hyung is really good at making beats with his doors,” Jungkook says. Hoseok laughs awkwardly and knocks into Jungkook a little, trying not to feel embarrassed. 

“I just… I want to travel between towns. I want to perform for people. I want adventure in the great wide somewhere,” Yoongi says despondently. “I want it... so much.”

“Poetic,” Hoseok says.

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On his second night in the castle, Yoongi refuses Namjoon’s dinner invitation.

This is awkward for Hoseok, who has a longstanding vested interest in the two of them finding love, as well as a new vested interest in Yoongi’s general happiness.

Eventually, Yoongi gets hungry enough that he sneaks out of his room to go find the kitchens and get some food, leaving Hoseok alone to the all-too familiar silence of his room for the first time in two days. It’s sad, how quickly he’d gotten used to having someone around every second of the day.

Fortunately, within minutes, Jungkook pushes into his room, candle lights dim in the darkness of the castle. 

“Did you see Yoongi-hyung?” Hoseok asks as Jungkook hops up towards him.

“Yeah, the cutlery are singing him a song or something,” Jungkook says. “He looked like he was having a nice time.”

“Oh good,” Hoseok says. “They like doing that.”

“Yeah.” Jungkook wiggles a little and brightens his candles more. “How are you, hyung?”

“I’m always ok, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok says.

“I’ve got two episodes of Real Ladies of the Manor to catch you up on,” Jungkook says.

Hoseok wishes, not for the first time, that he had a real face again so that he could smile down at Jungkook. As it is, he settles for shuffling a little from side to side and nudging into Jungkook a little, as he listens to him give the enthralling updates of Minha and Hyunseok’s dramatic and tumultuous divorce.

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“Yoongi-hyung escaped!” Jimin announces as he sweeps grandly into Hoseok’s room.

“Stop sounding so happy about it, hyung,” Jungkook says, reanimating from where he had been resting, non-sentient, on the dresser next to Hoseok. 

Jimin sighs. “He’s back already, don’t worry. Got attacked by wolves or something, I wasn’t really listening.”

“WOLVES?” Hoseok says.

“I’ll go check on him for you, hyung,” Jungkook says quickly. As he hops past Jimin, he waves his candle flames close enough to Jimin’s feathers that Jimin has to jump back and Hoseok has to shout out a reprimand. 

“One day he’ll actually accidentally set me on fire and then he’ll be sorry,” Jimin says blithely.

“Don’t joke about it,” Hoseok says, wishing he could drop his head into his hands - if only he had either of those things. 

“Sorry, Hoseok-hyung.” Jimin shuffles over to Hoseok and sweeps himself across Hoseok’s legs affectionately. 

“Is Yoongi-hyung ok?” Hoseok asks. 

Jimin sighs. “He’s fine. Do you think I would joke if he wasn’t fine? He looked totally unharmed. I saw him walking through the kitchens.”

“What happened?”

“Not sure,” Jimin says. “Everyone was rushing around, probably making him hot chocolate and giving him a blanket or something. I thought I should stay out of it.”

“As long as he’s ok,” Hoseok says quietly. He has a vision in his head of the last time he was in the kitchens, when the castle was full of humans and the furniture couldn’t talk. He imagines Taehyung and Seokjin running around, the chefs frantically throwing pots and pans around, wonders if it’s more chaotic or less now that the appliances are able to work themselves.

“Everything will be fine, hyung,” Jimin says gently.

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“Namjoon-ah, why are you bleeding?” Hoseok demands, as Yoongi walks back into the bedroom followed by a limping, decidedly worse for wear Namjoon.

“Oh…” Namjoon says awkwardly. “Just some wolves…”

“You are three times the size of a wolf,” Hoseok says. “I’m literally nailed to the wall, come closer and let me see.”

Namjoon shuffles over to Hoseok looking for all the world like a small child about to be reprimanded.

“He was attacked by a whole pack of wolves, hyung,” Jungkook says, following and climbing his way up the dresser next to Hoseok, providing him with plenty of extra light to be able to see the claw marks.

“Well, if Yoongi-hyung hadn’t run away-”

“You’re the one who yelled at me!” Yoongi says.

“You went into my study! The one place that I asked you not to go into! You’ve been here two days and left your room once, how did you manage to ignore my one boundary in that time?”

“Well, you shouldn’t have made it sound so mysterious! ‘Oh Yoongi-hyung, you can go anywhere except my study, because I keep all my most personal and private stuff in there.’ You couldn’t have made it sound any less tempting?”

“You can’t just look through a person’s private things!”

“You kidnapped me, I’m pretty sure I can do what I like!”

Hoseok turns to Jungkook. “Have they been doing this all evening?”

Jungkook tilts his main candlestick forwards in a nod. “All evening.”

“...Would you like to go home?” Namjoon says and he sounds far less irritated suddenly.

“No!” Yoongi says. “I would like to go to sleep!”

Namjoon huffs. It comes out like a growl though, because of course it does. Most of the noises Namjoon makes sound like a growl. Yoongi yelps in response and recoils.

“STOP DOING THAT!” Yoongi yells after a moment. He leans angrily up into Namjoon’s face, despite being only as tall as his shoulders.

“I CA- I mean. I can’t help it. I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to scare you, I’m sorry.”

“Sometimes Namjoon-hyung will try to sigh and it will sound like a ferocious growl,” Jungkook says sagely. “But he doesn’t mean it to sound scary. It’s just how his beast suit works.”

“His what-”

“Stop calling it my beast suit,” Namjoon says, groaning.

“Well you wouldn’t let me call it a fursuit,” Jungkook reasons. “We’ve got to describe it somehow, hyung.”

In the dim light of the room, Yoongi somehow looks even more perplexed than he did when he first arrived. 

“Ok, everyone leave,” Hoseok says decisively. “Let’s let Yoongi-hyung sleep. Jungkook-ah, can you please make sure someone cleans Namjoon’s wounds?”

“I already did,” Yoongi says stiffly.

“Thank you for that, by the way,” Namjoon says. His voice is quiet and Hoseok has to strain to hear it.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, Namjoon-ah,” Yoongi says, just as quiet.

There’s a pause as they stare at one another. “Well,” Namjoon says eventually. “Sleep well, Yoongi-ssi.”

“Sleep well, Namjoon-ssi.”

Hoseok watches as Namjoon leaves. As soon as the door closes behind him, Yoongi flops down on his bed with a sigh. Hoseok looks over at Jungkook out of the corner of his eye. He imagines, if they were two beings with faces, that this would be the moment where they’d smile furtively at each other.

Instead Hoseok just stares at the flickering flames of Jungkook’s candles, then turns back to Yoongi and asks him if he'd like some pyjamas.

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Yoongi starts leaving his room the next day. He wanders around the castle, or so Hoseok is told, looking for things to do.

“Have you shown him the television?” Hoseok asks Jungkook one day. 

Jungkook makes a small, offended noise. “Of course not, hyung. That’s just for us.”

“I don’t think we can claim an entire form of entertainment as ours, Jungkook-ah,” Hoseok says gently, trying not to feel charmed. “He’s probably bored.”

“Well, shouldn’t that be up to Namjoon-hyung to fix?” Jimin says from where he is standing upright on the floor, sweeping around in delicate circles. “Tell him to entertain him.”

“I think Taehyung-hyung… tried,” Jungkook says carefully, “to tell Namjoon-hyung, that is. Well, he had some recommendations. They all sucked, but...”

Hoseok wishes, not for the first time, that he were not beholden to people coming to visit him in order to have conversations with them.

He sighs. “Jimin-ah, could you-”

“Don’t say it hyung,” Jimin says firmly. “I’m not doing it.”

“I know-”

“I’m not telling the man who should be in love with me how to flirt with someone else.”

“Park Jimin,” Hoseok groans, but he already knows he’s going to have to go to Plan B.

Plan B being summoning Namjoon to his room like Hoseok is a bedridden and terrifying but beautifully regal grandmother.

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“I haven’t fought any more wolves,” Namjoon says quickly as he walks into the room later that day.

“Well thank heavens for that,” Hoseok says, voice flat and unimpressed.

“And Yoongi-hyung has been checking my wounds and redressing them,” Namjoon says. He looks so starry-eyed at just the mention of Yoongi that it distracts Hoseok entirely, just for a moment.

But only for a moment.

“Namjoon-ah, do you want to make him fall in love with you or not?” He says firmly. Namjoon starts to sputter but Hoseok ploughs on. “It’s all very well having a few sexually charged moments over the fact that you almost died to save him, but if that were enough, I’d be dancing around the room with human legs by now, so I’m going to need you to work a little harder.”

“Uh,” Namjoon says.

“Romance him, Namjoon-ah! Take him on a nice date. Make a nice gesture, something he’ll like. Anything. What does he like to do?”

“He… uh... he sneaks into the kitchens a lot looking for tangerines.”

Hoseok makes an encouraging noise, then waits for Namjoon to continue.

Namjoon does not continue.

“Ok, what else?” Hoseok prompts, because Namjoon must have something else.

“Uh.”

“You don’t have anything else,” Hoseok says.

“No.”

“So the grand sum of what you know about this man…”

“Yes.”

“...is that he likes tangerines?”

“Correct.”

They’re going to be cursed forever.

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“He gave him the what?” 

Hoseok isn’t shouting. He should be. But he isn’t. He’s definitely not shouting.

“The library,” Jungkook repeats patiently. He’s using his right metal arm to pat gently against one of Hoseok’s doors. It admittedly does feel soothing.

“He gave him the library,” Hoseok repeats weakly.

“It was incredibly romantic, hyung, I swear!” Jungkook says. He’s still patting Hoseok and Hoseok hopes he never stops.

“He’s known him for five days,” Hoseok says. “I told him to invite Yoongi-hyung to dinner or something…”

“I think Yoongi-hyung really liked it,” Jungkook says.

“...The entire library?”

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It turns out that Kim Namjoon is a genius in ways that Hoseok has not been giving him credit for, because Yoongi is genuinely enthralled by the gigantic library.

“There’s so many books,” he coos, hugging one of the books in question to his chest as he leans his back against Hoseok’s doors. 

“So you… uh… you like books then?” Hoseok asks carefully. 

“I mean. They’re fine,” Yoongi stutters out, which Hoseok knows by now means that he loves books. 

“Did you tell Namjoon this? Before he gave you the library?” Hoseok asks.

“No,” Yoongi says emphatically. “I don’t know how he knew.” He sighs, very quietly but dreamily. Hoseok would describe it as a dreamy sigh. 

Kim Namjoon must be the luckiest bastard alive.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Jungkook shows up later that night to talk about the latest episode of ‘La Belle et Les Bachelors’, whilst Yoongi is at dinner with Namjoon.

“Don’t they need you on the table?” Hoseok asks, although he doesn’t actually want Jungkook to leave.

“I sent some of the smaller candles out to give them lighting hyung, please,” Jungkook says dismissively. “Anyway, Belle is in the castle, twelve men standing before her.”

“Weren’t there only ten last season?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I guess they’ve beefed it up this year.”

“Interesting.”

“Right?” Jungkook says, before launching into detailed descriptions of each man, enough that Hoseok can start to form opinions on them. It’s almost like watching it for himself.

Better, really, because Hoseok can’t imagine anyone could make reality tv as enthralling as Jungkook makes it. Six years have passed and it’s almost like he’s never missed tv at all.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

“I want a library gifted to me,” Jimin says sadly. Taehyung moves his little teacup body into the Jimin’s feathers, his best approximation of a hug.

“There there,” he says. “I’ll get you a library, Jimin-ah.”

“You’re a teacup,” Seokjin reminds him.

Taehyung shakes his teacup handle nose back and forth. “Logistics, hyung.”

“Also, what would you do with a library, Jimin-ah? You’re a feather duster,” Seokjin says

Jimin swivels to face Seokjin and then stares for one, terrifying silent second.

“You don’t have arms, you can’t even hold a book,” Seokjin continues. “What would you do?”

“Dust it.” Jimin says loudly, in his most threatening voice.

“Since when do you dust things?” Jungkook asks from where he’s perched on the dresser next to Hoseok.

“Ok, monsieur judgy, at least I wouldn’t burn it down with my candle hands,” Jimin says. He sounds suddenly like he’s trying not to laugh and that in turn makes Hoseok have to clamp down on his own laughter.

“Wait until my candle hands burn you down!” Jungkook says, leaping off of the dresser with a herculean yell and hopping around the room, chasing Jimin as he shimmies quickly across the floor.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Jungkook is largely absent for the following few days and Hoseok misses him quietly but terribly, although the others come to see him often enough to keep him occupied. There’s a near constant stream of furniture people coming in and out of Hoseok’s room, really, just to say hello or keep him company. 

When Jungkook shows up eventually, it’s at the tail end of a dramatic performance by some of the cutlery, a retelling of a play they swear is Shakespeare. Hoseok doesn’t quite believe them, because he can understand all the words they’re saying and usually he doesn’t understand Shakespeare at all, but he cheers loudly once they’re done and bangs his doors in applause. 

“That was nice,” Jungkook says, dodging the cutlery as they make their way out of the room and hopping over to stand in front of Hoseok.

Hoseok hums in agreement. “They’re so talented.” 

“They’ve been practicing for you for days,” Jungkook says sweetly. 

“Is that where you’ve been?”

“Hm? Oh, no. No, I’ve been with Yoongi-hyung.”

“What?” 

Jungkook sighs wistfully. “He wants to spend all his time in his library reading these days. He says that reading books by candlelight is aesthetic.”

“Ah,” Hoseok says, trying to picture Yoongi curled up in a soft chair with Jungkook perched next to him, leaning over the book and trying to read along. It’s a very sweet image and it makes Hoseok feel warm and a little empty all at once.

“He started to feel really guilty about making me stand for hours while he read, though, even though I told him I don’t mind-”

“JUNGKOOK-AH, IT CAME!” Yoongi bursts into the room, carrying a large box and wearing a huge smile.

“Hello, hyung,” Hoseok says pleasantly. 

“Hello, Hoseok-ah. Did you enjoy the cutlery play?” Yoongi asks, placing his box down carefully onto the bed.

“Does everyone know about the play?” Hoseok asks, bewildered. 

“Oh, the topic’s been all the rage in the kitchens, ever since Jungkook suggested-” 

Jungkook makes a throat clearing noise, despite not having a throat. “How did you know I’d be in here, Yoongi-hyung?”

Yoongi levels a look at them both. “When are you not in here? Uh. Except for the past few days.” He sounds a little sheepish and Hoseok wishes he could smile reassuringly at him or something.

“What’s in the box, Yoongi-hyung?” He asks.

“Hm? Oh!” Yoongi bends over and starts ripping the box apart, then pulls out another, smaller box. “It’s a light!”

“How did you get that?” Hoseok asks, breath in his chest. Outside of Yoongi himself, they haven’t had anything new in the house in years.

“Something magical, Hoseok-ah,” Yoongi says, clutching the light to his chest. “Something wonderful called ‘Amazon Prime’.”

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

“Namjoon did what?” Hoseok asks for what he thinks might, at this point, be the fiftieth time that month.

“He heard about Yoongi-hyung’s Amamazon Prime thing,” Jungkook repeats. “So he bought him a piano.”

“He bought Yoongi-hyung a piano?”

“Next day delivery,” Jungkook says.

“Wow,” Hoseok says. 

“Hm. Hyung is really happy,” Jungkook sighs dreamily. “It’s so romantic.”

Hoseok tries to work out if it is actually romantic, but he supposes that if Yoongi is happy, then it must be.

He looks at Jungkook for a moment. “What would you want someone to buy you? From Amamazon Prime?” 

Jungkook flops onto his back and splays his two metal arms out to the side. “Art supplies. All the art supplies.” He pauses. “Also hands. With thumbs. So I can… use the art supplies.”

“I’m sure you could find a way to make beautiful art even without hands,” Hoseok says.

Jungkook makes a happy noise. “What about you, hyung? What would you want?”

Hoseok thinks about it for a second, then answers far too honestly. “A wider bedroom door.”

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

It’s only two days later when Namjoon and Yoongi are standing in front of Hoseok, Yoongi holding a tool kit.

“Are you sure this isn’t going to hurt?” Hoseok asks fearfully.

“What would make you think I could be sure of anything in this situation?” Yoongi asks, blinking.

“It’s going to be ok, Hoseok-ah,” Namjoon says quickly, nudging Yoongi with an elbow. “Nothing has ever hurt you before, right? Wardrobes don’t have pain receptors, right?”

“Just because we don’t have pain receptors, doesn’t mean we can’t feel, Namjoon-ah,” Seokjin says from where he’s perched with the others on the bed. Namjoon ignores him in favor of continuing to smile reassuringly at Hoseok - or at least provide his closest approximation of a smile. It looks a little terrifying.

“It’s gonna be ok, hyung,” Jungkook calls over.

Hoseok isn’t sure that that’s true, but he doesn’t say anything as he watches Yoongi kneel down and crawl around, screwdriver in hand. It takes just a few minutes, until Hoseok feels something snap behind him - not painful, not at all, just the sensation of being released.

Like he can move, suddenly.

He’s not expecting it, really, so he starts to tilt uncontrollably forwards, directly over where Yoongi is splayed out on the floor. He yells as he falls, but then he’s suddenly not falling, instead suspended in midair, Namjoon’s paws supporting him.

“...Thanks Joonie,” Hoseok says sheepishly, as Namjoon pushes him back up to his rightful standing position. He keeps his gigantic fur paws pressed against Hoseok’s doors until Yoongi is able to scamper away, to the other side of the room.

“You can let go now, Namjoon-ah,” Yoongi says eventually. 

“...Can you balance?” Namjoon asks, staring dubiously at Hoseok.

Hoseok, if he had a face, would be making an expression of extreme self doubt masked in something much jokier, but he doesn’t have a face, so he just says, “Yeah?”

Namjoon lets go slowly and Hoseok rocks himself even further back towards the wall all at once, just to be safe. It’s weird, the sudden ability to move his stumpy wooden legs after six years of forced stillness. He thinks it should take longer to get used to it, but then... Hoseok used to be a dancer. An incredible dancer - it’s not egotistical to think, it’s just fact, he was born to dance. He was born to dance and when you’re born to do something you don’t lose it and that knowledge is all it takes to have Hoseok pacing across the floor, all four short legs moving in perfect synchronicity. 

“Ok, ok, slow down,” Yoongi says, as he makes his way back over to the side of the room where Namjoon stands. “I’m sorry I can’t make your door wider yet so that you can get out, but hopefully this is enough for now.”

Hoseok wishes, more than anything else, he could hug Yoongi. He can’t, though, so he settles for making enthusiastic whooping noises as he crosses the room, saying ‘thank you’ over and over and over.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

That night, Yoongi and Namjoon have a dinner that the entire house have decided to describe as their first date. Jungkook has been tasked to provide the romantic candlelight. He mentioned a few times to Hoseok that he might hum a soft tune as they eat, for mood music.

Jungkook has a wonderful voice, so it seems like a lovely plan to Hoseok.

Jungkook had, in his planning, also banished Taehyung and Seokjin to Hoseok’s room.

“Teacups don’t inspire romance, he says,” Taehyung says indignantly to Hoseok. “That’s not true at all, is it hyung?”

“It’s not true. Taehyung-ah, we’re very romantic,” Seokjin agrees. He knocks his little handle nose against Taehyung’s.

“Jungkook says he’s cultivating a vibe,” Hoseok explains patiently, looking away from them both to stare back out at the expansive grounds. 

“Teacups could be a vibe!” Taehyung says. “Has he never heard of cottagecore?”

Hoseok hums, not quite listening.

The bedroom has a window, it turns out. Hoseok has known it’s been there the whole time, it’s just that when he was nailed to the wall, he didn’t think too much of it. Now though, it’s become the first view of the room that doesn’t involve the wallpaper and Hoseok has become enamoured with it.

“Look at that tree, guys,” he says quietly. The tree in question is blowing gently in the wind, the twigs branching out and the leaves rippling dramatically. It’s lovely.

Seokjin and Taehyung are both perched on the window ledge, so they twist dutifully to stare at the tree too. Hoseok thinks that Seokjin, at least, is probably desperate to point out that it’s just a tree, but he doesn’t say anything at all.

Taehyung makes a wistful sort of noise. “It’s really nice, Hoseok-hyung.”

“I can’t believe Namjoon managed to fall in love with someone who knows how to use tools,” Hoseok says. “I can’t believe I get to see all of this.”

“It’s just a- I mean, yeah,” Seokjin says, shuffling backwards from the force of Taehyung’s shove. “Yeah. All of this.”

Hoseok huffs out a laugh. “I know it’s stupid,” he says and he tries not to sound too embarrassed.

“It’s not stupid at all, Hoseok-ah,” Seokjin says, sighing quietly. He sounds a little sad. “Not at all.”

“How did Yoongi-hyung even know?” He says - he mutters it to himself really, but Taehyung and Seokjin are right underneath him, so they twist up to look at him anyway.

“To unscrew your screw? Jungkook asked him,” Taehyung says. “I thought he mentioned it?”

“Technically, he asked Yoongi to order a bigger door from the Mamazon Prime thing,” Seokjin says, laughing. “But Yoongi said that it didn’t quite work like that, so this was the next best thing.”

“Oh,” Hoseok says after a moment.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

When Yoongi comes back from dinner, he looks so subtly starry eyed that Hoseok can’t help but immediately bring it up.

“Namjoon’s not even here, why are you still blushing?” He asks, as he picks his way through pyjamas that Yoongi might want to wear that night.

“I’m- I’m not- shut up!”

“But it was a nice date?” Hoseok presses.

“I mean. Yeah, it was. I mean, it wasn’t disastrous. No one got eaten by wolves, am I right? Haha.” 

Hoseok throws his carefully selected pyjamas directly at Yoongi’s head. 

“I hear you’re still enjoying your library,” he says. “Must be nice. An entire library just for you.”

Yoongi sniffs. “It’s fine.”

When the castle had originally been cursed, the lady who did it didn’t really take the time to explain the ground rules very much. 

Namjoon must fall in love with someone was the first. 

They must, in turn, love Namjoon back. That was the second.

They must not know that their love is critical to the curse breaking was the third.

Namjoon has been arguing for six years that these rules are vague, verging on contentious and do not set out enough definitive boundaries to be effective, but it’s what they’ve been left with, all of them attempting to infer the most airtight interpretation they can. Still, it’s hard to say if the feeling of love is enough, if romantic love is the goal or if friendship could be just as effective, if both parties need to say the words to break the curse.

What Hoseok does know, as Yoongi puts his pyjamas on and tries to avidly dodge every single question about the date, is that if they’re reliant on Namjoon and Yoongi saying ‘I love you’ out loud in order to be set free, they might as well resign themselves to a life without opposable thumbs and legs right now.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Namjoon is crying in Hoseok’s room.

Ok, technically the room is also Yoongi’s room now, but Yoongi is not here and Hoseok is and Yoongi already has a library, anyway, so Hoseok is keeping the bedroom as his own. Not that that is particularly important, given that presently, Namjoon is sitting in the room in question, crying.

“I’ve missed them so much, Hoseok-ah,” he says, a soft tear rolling quietly down his cheek. 

“The birds,” Hoseok confirms. “You’re talking about the birds.”

“Yes, the birds!” Namjoon says, sweeping his arms out dramatically. “I’ve spent six years going out into the grounds without any birds, because they would always fly away whenever I got anywhere near!”

“And now, Yoongi-hyung-”

“Yoongi-hyung made friends with the birds!” Namjoon sniffs. He’s not a very dramatic crier, which is impressive because everything else he does is at all times incredibly dramatic, but his eyes are wet and the fur around his cheeks is matting a little and his voice is soft, slightly choked up. “Well. He didn’t really do anything, he just sort of stood under a tree and then the birds all landed on him. His mouth flattened out into a nice little line.” Namjoon laughs wetly.

“And then he brought the birds over to you?” Hoseok prompts gently.

Namjoon makes a sobbing noise. “And they all stayed. None of them flew away. I haven’t seen birds in six years.”

“Oh-”

“I’ve missed them so much.”

“Ok,” Hoseok says. He wishes he could reach out to comfort Namjoon in some way, a pat on the shoulder of something. “I’m glad you saw the birds again.”

Namjoon nods. “Me too.”

They sit in companionable silence for a moment, Namjoon pressing his back into the wall and staring sweetly at Hoseok. “I’ve missed you, Hoseok-ah,” he says. “I feel like I haven’t been able to speak to you in forever.”

Hoseok hums in acknowledgment. “Well, this is Yoongi-hyung’s room too now.”

“It’s kind of awkward to just invite myself in, right?” Namjoon says sheepishly. 

“I invited you in,” Hoseok says. “Anyway, there’s like a hundred bedrooms in this castle. You’re the one who put him in here. We could have been talking this whole time, if you’d put him in a different room!”

“I just wanted to make sure he wasn’t lonely,” Namjoon says. He pauses for a moment, looks at Hoseok consideringly, before continuing. “And you.”

“‘And me’, what?” 

“Nothing… I just. I didn’t think you’d mind having someone else move in.”

Hoseok hums again. “I like Yoongi-hyung.”

“I do too,” Namjoon says softly.

“Hyung has been really good for the castle, right?” Hoseok prods. 

And Hoseok should have just known better, really, because this somehow leads to Namjoon having an extended breakdown about the potential legitimacy of his feelings when said feelings are so contingent on their freedoms. 

“Can I really love someone in a pure and well-intentioned way if I need to use them?” He says for the seventh time. He’s pacing across the floor. Hoseok is sitting next to his window, staring at Namjoon as he walks back and forth. “Also, I’ve only known him for two months. That’s not how love works!”

“Namjoon-ah, overthinking this is going to accomplish nothing,” Hoseok says firmly. “We don’t know how the curse works.”

“You can’t make love happen when there’s nothing,” Namjoon mutters. “They’ve been writing songs about that for centuries.”

Jungkook hops in whilst Namjoon is lying down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

“...How long has he-”

“Too long,” Hoseok says. “I think we just need to let him get it out.”

“I can hear you,” Namjoon says, not moving.

“It’s gonna be ok, hyung,” Jungkook says cheerfully. “Do you want me to ask Yoongi-hyung to get the birds again?”

There’s a pause.

“Yes please.”

Jungkook sighs, then looks at Hoseok briefly. “I’ll come back later.”

As he starts to make his way out, however, the door swings open, revealing a pink-cheeked, windswept Yoongi.

“Hoseok-ah- oh.” Yoongi stares into the room, at Namjoon’s gigantic, fur-covered body, where it lays spread out across the floor.

Namjoon sits up in shock and stares back.

“Hyung!” He says, trying to sound very much like he hasn’t just spent most of the afternoon having a Yoongi-related meltdown.

“Hello,” Yoongi says carefully.

“I- uh,” Namjoon stammers. “I didn’t expect to see you here. In your room.”

Yoongi blinks. “Ok. What are you doing here?”

“Namjoonie was just saying hello to me,” Hoseok says quickly. “That’s why he was here. He just… waited until you weren’t here to come in.”

“I missed Hoseok!” Namjoon said. His voice sounds too loud and awkward. “He’s my friend!”

“Oh…” Yoongi looks between them both, beast and wardrobe, then nods. “Well. Uh. Sorry for taking away your Hoseok time then, I guess,” he says eventually to Namjoon.

“Maybe… maybe next time we could. Uh. Coordinate?” Namjoon says.

“Or you could just… come while I’m here,” Yoongi offers. “If you want to, that is.”

“This is painful to watch,” Jungkook mutters quietly to Hoseok.

“Maybe you could both go somewhere else?” Hoseok says loudly. “Namjoon was just saying how he wants to go see the birds again.”

Yoongi laughs and it’s not an unkind noise. “We’ve seen them twice today, Namjoon-ah.”

“Hyung, it’s been six years!” Namjoon says, standing up suddenly, awkwardness falling away in favor of sheer, bird-driven enthusiasm.

“Ok. Ok, yeah, let’s... Lets go and see the birds again,” Yoongi says and then they leave. Finally.

“They’re a lot of work, huh?” Jungkook says, once the door is closed and the room is quiet once more.

“Maybe we should just stay furniture forever?” Hoseok jokes.

“Not unless Yoongi-hyung makes that doorway bigger,” Jungkook says. His voice sounds a little dark and he glares over at the offending doorway in question. “How did they even get the wardrobe in here in the first place? If it’s too deep to fit through the doorway?”

“Flatpack, probably,” Hoseok says quietly, thinking about all the things he could say to Jungkook instead, things that are sweet and grateful and filled with feelings he’s never been able to really put a name to.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

It takes a few more weeks, but Yoongi does, in fact, somehow, manage to widen the bedroom door.

It’s the best moment of Hoseok’s life, the whole affair. He doesn’t even know how Yoongi does it, but there are tools and there’s dust, so much dust, but then as it settles, the doorway is a foot wider and just a little taller and Hoseok can suddenly shuffle his huge wooden frame out of it entirely.

Hoseok feels like he’s waiting on bated breath the entire time Yoongi works. Jungkook sits next to him quietly, making sweet little jokes to distract Hoseok from how long the whole process takes. It feels like time is treacle slow, slower than all of those moments where Hoseok has been left alone in his room, nailed to the wall, staring at the pattern of wallpaper in the silence, mind slowly unravelling and rebuilding itself over and over. 

Those moments, at least, are all punctuated by visitors, an endless stream of people to keep things from getting too deadly silent and still for too long. 

And now he can be the visitor.

It’s like a whole new world.

Admittedly, it’s a small world. Hoseok can get out of the door and into the hallway, but he can’t get into any of the other doors on the second floor, all of them still a little too short and a little too narrow. He can’t leave the second floor either, confronted by the question of how to climb down the stairs with only his short wardrobe legs to get him down. Everyone stops him from even trying. Jimin starts yelling about Hoseok ending up as a pile of scrap wood at the bottom of the staircase until Hoseok shuffles all the way backwards, to what Jimin identifies as a safe distance away.

So it’s not perfect.

But it’s still wonderful.

Hoseok spends the entire day walking up and down the hallway, spinning in circles and zig zagging from wall to wall. He pauses in each of the doorways, tries to see if there’s any other sentient furniture on the floor. There’s a few beds, a dresser, a couple of side tables that visit him sometimes. He greets them all happily and feels lighter than he has in years.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Hoseok, having spent six years in one room, essentially moves out into the hallway immediately. There’s a little window at each end of it that he can walk over to and stare out of, plus a railing along part of it that looks over the downstairs lobby. He stands by it for long periods at a time and watches the castle move beneath him. He marvels at the way the inhabitants move throughout it so carelessly, like they’ve never had to consider how wonderful it is that they can do so. It’s like they’re going about their daily lives, thoughtless towards the magic of it in a way that Hoseok finds charming and enthralling. This must be what it’s like to actually watch television, he thinks, watching the castle staff walk from room to room. With fewer fights, maybe, and fewer breakups. 

The consequence of this is, of course, that he doesn’t really get to see Yoongi as much. Yoongi, who flits around the castle, in and out of his room and the library and the kitchens and the expansive, snow-covered grounds. It’s just that now Hoseok is too busy as well. He’s got hobbies. Like people watching and staring out of windows.

Jungkook adapts his own existing routine around Hoseok’s brand new one. He spends a lot of time now skating on trollies across the castle lobby for Hoseok’s own entertainment and probably also his own. He makes the ground floor furniture put on an entire musical number for Hoseok and then, after Hoseok mentions that he might be able to join in on the musical numbers sometimes now, makes everyone coordinate the routine again to incorporate Hoseok. They decide to try and perform for Yoongi, but then Yoongi overhears the rehearsal and wheels out his piano to join in, so then they end up with no audience, really, but they all have a nice time at least.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Duty does eventually call, in the form of another romantic dinner between Yoongi and Namjoon.

“I’ve been planning all day, hyung,” Jungkook says proudly.

“Are you going to ban Taehyung and Seokjin-hyung again?” Hoseok asks, laughing. They’re standing by one of the windows in the hallway, Jungkook perched on the window ledge. He’s tall enough here that it brings them almost nonexistent-face to nonexistent-face. It’s nice for Hoseok not to have to look down quite as far.

“No,” Jungkook says. “Sejin-hyung is going to sing a romantic song at the end of the meal, so Taehyung-hyung and Seokjin-hyung are going to provide backing vocals. They’ve been practicing really hard.”

“Wow,” Hoseok says. “You’ve really thought of everything, huh?”

Jungkook sucks in a breath. “Do you think it’s enough?”

“It’s going to go wonderfully,” Hoseok soothes. 

“Well. You’re going to need to dress Yoongi-hyung in something pretty,” Jungkook says. He pauses for a second, then giggles. “He’s been wearing the same clothes for a week now.”

“What?” Hoseok says, feeling mildly scandalised.

“He didn’t want to interrupt your hallway time,” Jungkook says. “And he was right, hyung. You deserve this time. Yoongi-hyung can survive for a week in the same clothes! I made sure they were washed for him every day, don’t worry.”

“You washed his clothes every day?” Hoseok asks. His voice is quiet, he knows, but something about the moment feels too big and too close around him all at once and he doesn’t want to disturb it.

“Of course I did, hyung,” Jungkook says simply. He hops off the window ledge and starts hopping down the hallway. “You do need to get back to work now though. Our human bodies are riding on everything going perfectly!”

Hoseok has to take a few moments, just watching Jungkook hop slowly away, before he’s able to follow.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

They walk in on Jimin sitting on Yoongi’s chest.

Hoseok yells, but it’s a quiet and restrained yell and not at all dramatic, despite the looks everyone else gives him.

Jimin’s feathers are splayed out across Yoongi, who is lying propped up on his bed, smiling back at Jimin quietly. 

“Do you mind, Hoseok-hyung?” Jimin says, sounded offended. “I was just telling Yoongi-hyung about my childhood.”

“He wasn’t,” Yoongi says. There’s a faint blush on his cheeks and Hoseok doesn’t even want to start dealing with that. “He was talking about him and Namjoon-”

“You can’t embarrass me with this hyung, I’ve already told them everything in intimate detail,” Jimin says, but he sweeps his way off of Yoongi’s chest onto the bed and then finally down to the floor. 

“Were you telling him sex stories?” Jungkook asks.

“Oh, which ones?” Hoseok asks, immediately intrigued in spite of himself.

“Why are you even here?” Jimin demands.

Jungkook is silent for a moment, as if he’s forgotten. “Uh,” he says stupidly.

Hoseok takes over. “We need to get Yoongi-hyung dressed for his date.”

Yoongi groans. “Let’s not call it-”

“I have some beautiful suits, hyung,” Hoseok says instead of listening to whatever half-hearted argument Yoongi is going to try to throw out. “Stand up!”

Yoongi keeps groaning until he’s been fully made over and is out of the door.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Hoseok and Jimin stand together in the dark of the hallway. They can just about hear the music below them, pouring out from the ballroom. 

“Sejin-hyung has a lovely voice,” Jimin says vaguely. “And Seokjinnie-hyung and Taehyungie, of course.”

“They’ve been practicing for hours,” Hoseok says. 

It all feels liminal, somehow, the darkness of the hallway and the music and the emptiness around them, all the other furniture waiting from their own dark, hidden corners. Jimin is perched on a bar cart that he pushed from one of the bedrooms, just so that he might be able to stand tall next to Hoseok’s towering frame. They’ve been quiet for most of the night, stood together, holding their breaths, waiting for something.

“I hope they’re having a nice time,” Jimin says and he sounds more sincere than Hoseok had expected.

“You do?” He asks.

Jimin hums. “Yoongi-hyung is nice.”

“He is,” Hoseok agrees. “This must be horrible, I’m sorry.”

Jimin shakes his body a little; a small expulsion of energy, maybe, or a headshake, Hoseok can’t quite tell.

“You’ve been in love with Namjoon for six years,” Hoseok says. It feels important to talk to Jimin about it, finally. He doesn’t think he’s been able to before, hopes hung too heavy on Namjoon and Yoongi being the it for one another. Now that all feels inevitable, somehow. Like they’re steps away from the one thing they’ve all waited for. That hope is heavy, still, but his wooden and metal insides feel lighter. Anxious, but lighter. 

So maybe he should really make room for what Jimin needs. Or maybe he should have done it a long time ago. He’s really not sure.

Jimin sighs. “I never mentioned love.”

“You’ve mentioned love at least once a day.”

“Ok, fine. Well.” He keeps staring out into the dim light of the empty lobby. Shadows dance across the wall, figures moving large and stretched over the panelling. Hoseok thinks it looks like two people spinning. “I didn’t want to like him, you know? Yoongi-hyung.”

“I know,” Hoseok says.

“But… but he bought a lamp so Jungkook wouldn’t be forced to sit in the library with him all the time and he always offers to make hot drinks just so that Taehyung can have someone drink out of him while Seokjin-hyung watches. And… last week, he spent fourteen hours making your doorway bigger.” Jimin is whispering now, small sounding and Hoseok is happy they’re standing so close, so that he can still hear him. 

Jimin sucks in a breath and Hoseok waits. 

“He gave you something that none of us have ever been able to give you, hyung,” Jimin says eventually.

“You’re a feather duster, Jimin-ah,” Hoseok says sweetly. “I don’t think feather dusters are physically capable of making doors wider.”

“No- no, Hoseok-hyung. You’ve been trapped in the same room for six years. He gave you freedom. And ok, Jungkookie asked him about seventeen times a day to do it, for weeks and weeks he asked him, but Yoongi still did it.”

“He did,” Hoseok says and there it is again, miles of feelings that he’s not sure how to even start traversing. It feels too dangerous, somehow. Like a road he’s better off not travelling down at all.

“And he gave Namjoon-hyung birds!” Jimin continues, bolder now. “And he makes Namjoon-hyung smile and they talk about books and… I think they’re happy.”

“I hope so,” Hoseok says and he means it. Even if Namjoon and Yoongi somehow never say I love you out loud and Hoseok never changes back from a wardrobe, he’d still mean it. 

Besides, wardrobes can still dance. He’s been dancing all week. 

“It still must hurt,” he says eventually. 

“Not really,” Jimin says, voice suddenly as confident and bold as ever, in that comforting way Jimin talks sometimes. “I’ve always wanted to try being in a throuple.”

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

If Jimin and Hoseok’s moment in the hallway felt liminal, then the angry mob that bursts in immediately afterwards feels like whatever the opposite of that is. 

In the commotion, it becomes clear that the mob was sent by Yoongi’s asshole father. Mostly it becomes clear because Yoongi yells it repeatedly as he bodily tackles members of the mob. In an act of stupid heroics, Hoseok vaults himself down the grand staircase and lands brutally on a man. This wasn’t how he had been expecting to return to the first floor of the castle, but the mob are loud and waving torches, so he doesn’t get too much time to ruminate on it. 

Luckily he doesn’t smash into hundreds of wardrobe pieces. Maybe the mob guy is the thing that breaks his fall.

When the crowd has thinned out a little, people running back to the village in horror and defeat, Hoseok takes a moment to lean against the ornate stair rail, staring sadly at the way one of his doors has become loosened from its hinges. Jungkook lies across the floor next to him, staring up at the tall, gold ceiling and laughing the adrenaline out of his system. 

If candelabras can have adrenaline, that is.

“Did you see how many people I set on fire, hyung?”

“You did a wonderful job,” Hoseok says sincerely. 

“You were so cool, you jumped on so many people,” Jungkook gushes. “How does it feel to be on the first floor again?”

Hoseok shifts from one set of legs to the other, left to right to left again. “I don’t know yet,” he says truthfully. 

“It will be ok,” Jungkook says.

“I don’t think I’m getting back into my bedroom any time soon.”

“Your bedroom will survive. We can go on tours around the house! There’s so many cool windows!”

Hoseok feels very much, in that moment, like a saturated sponge, too filled with emotions to be able to unpick any individual one and examine it or understand it. Windows feel simple though, he thinks. One window at a time, maybe.

“I’d like that,” he says.

Jungkook makes a happy noise. 

And then Hoseok asks Jungkook about his favorite window and the entire castle starts to glow.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

Hoseok remembers, though it happened six years ago, how instant it had felt, changing from human into wardrobe.

He’d been cleaning the bedroom, his bedroom, putting away sheets, arms stuck inside what would eventually become his drawers. He’d been humming, he remembers, some sweet song about being under the sea. One second, his hands were smoothing over a pillowcase and the next, the pillowcase was inside him, in a body made of painted wood.

Six years later, the change back feels torturous and exultant all at once, as each wooden leg stretches and grows into skin and bone and his outer frame shrinks into something more human sized. The wardrobe had been over two meters tall and so Hoseok feels, once his bare feet touch the cold marble of the floor again, so much closer to the ground that it almost makes him sick. He grabs onto the railing beside him, grips it and uses it to keep himself propped up, before collapsing into a seated position on the floor.

God, he hasn’t sat down in six years.

That’s the first real, conscious thought he has as a human, that it’s been six years since he’s sat down. It’s a thought almost as unremarkable as the last wardrobe thought he’d had, a musing over Jungkook’s favorite window. It’s not how he’d expected to turn back, really. He’d thought it might be a little bit more dramatic.

Although admittedly everyone floating into the sky, glowing golden and then sinking back to earth, totally fucking naked is, all told, a pretty fantastical experience.

“Oh my god!” Jungkook yells from beside him. Hoseok whips his head around and comes face to face with a scrambling, naked Jungkook, who is scampering back behind - oh, Hoseok’s old wardrobe body. The door is still a little broken, Hoseok notices. He reaches out to touch the hinge, just for a second, then turns back to Jungkook and his marvellous, incredible, beautiful human face.

“Hi,” Hoseok says to Jungkook, breathless.

“We’re naked!” Jungkook yells.

“We’re human!” Hoseok yells and he stands up and throws his arms in the air in a victorious dance.

“Hyung, your dick-”

“WE’RE HUMAN!” Hoseok yells and he runs ten laps around the room without stopping.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

A little later, once they’ve raided Hoseok’s old wardrobe for clothes, they wander through the castle, searching for the others. Hoseok knows he’s being loud as he walks, making noises of awe at everything, but Jungkook just keeps staring down at him with the biggest grin on his face and grabs Hoseok’s hand tightly. 

As he does it, Hoseok realizes something he thinks he probably should have thought of immediately and tugs them both to a stop. Jungkook has about a second to look at Hoseok in confusion before Hoseok is throwing his arms up and around Jungkook, pulling him in tightly and squeezing so hard that Jungkook makes a little oof noise.

Jungkook doesn’t complain; he brings his arms up immediately, hugs Hoseok back just as close. Hoseok feels like a dam about to burst, really. He tucks his nose into Jungkook’s neck and feels a shudder run through his chest and up his arms - a chest that he has now, arms that are real and moveable and human and perfect because they’re his - before he starts crying. It’s embarrassing, or it should be, but Jungkook is practically sobbing against him so it doesn’t feel that way. Jungkook keeps whispering how much he missed this, the contact of a warm, alive body pressed against another.

As they hug, Hoseok thinks of another thing and starts laughing, pressing his open mouth to the soft cotton of Jungkook’s shirt as he does.

“Do you think Seokjin-hyung and Taehyung-”

“Oh, they’re definitely already having sex,” Jungkook says, laughing loudly. His chest moves up and down against Hoseok’s and the movement of it feels like a miracle.It is a miracle, really, all things considered.

“They’ve waited long enough, I guess,” Hoseok says.

Jungkook sucks in a breath. “Yeah.”

“If this hug is anything to go by, I bet sex feels mindblowing,” Hoseok says and he’s sort of joking but also he’s definitely not, because fuck, human contact after six years of nothing is like a high he’s never experienced before. He can’t imagine what it’s like amped up to one hundred, naked skin pressed against naked skin. Jungkook’s breathing picks up, but he doesn’t answer, just presses his face further into Hoseok’s shoulder, pulls their bodies a little closer together.

Hoseok’s going to have bruises on the sides of his ribs from how tight Jungkook is gripping him and even that feels thrilling. He feels like he’s tumbling through the air and has his feet planted firmly on the ground all at once, like every bone in his very real body is pressing its weight into the floor of the castle, firm and sturdy.

They stay there until Hoseok feels a tap on his shoulder and the tell-tale sound of a throat clearing and they have to pull apart to greet Sejin, who looks tall and human and wonderful.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

The entire day is a mess of people and emotions and tears and laughter. It’s exhausting, becoming a human again. Hoseok and Jungkook find Namjoon and Yoongi eventually, sitting either side of Jimin who looks so happy he might as well be floating. 

Taehyung and Seokjin eventually emerge from the bedroom they’d barricaded themselves in too and they all cry some more as they walk together through the castle. Yoongi complains just once about wanting to sit down and Hoseok tries to tell him that they should. They should all stop and sit and regroup, it’s just that he can’t, Hoseok can’t stop moving for a second, not until he’s run the pads of his fingers over every surface in the building. The others don’t argue and they don’t sit down, they just follow him through the castle, a bundle of bodies reaching out to touch things, remembering the feeling of textures and what it’s like to hold things in a closed fist, what it’s like to contort their own bodies into shapes and what it’s like to smile or frown or roll their eyes. 

Hoseok feels like the tallest and most capable newborn baby in the world, wandering through the castle and looking around him at everything. He barely even notices the way the sky starts to light up through the windows, he’s so enraptured by the sensation of being firmly, undoubtedly alive.

Jungkook tugs on his sleeve as the sun grows a little higher in the sky, pale pinks and oranges flooding across the still white, snow-covered ground outside.

“Hyung,” he says gently. “Hyung, we should go to sleep.”

Jimin yawns loudly from a little way back, as if to prove a point. 

“It will still all be here when we wake up,” Jungkook says and Hoseok feels his heart, the real muscle of it that sits assuredly in his chest, thump heavily.

He doesn’t know how to say it without sounding ridiculous. It feels like a spell that could be broken the second he closes his eyes. Bodies need sleep, he remembers that much. They need sleep and they need food and they need at least two to three liters of water a day, all these things that help them to effectively function. He can’t not sleep.

It’s just that there’s a part of him that’s terrified he’ll wake up a wardrobe again.

“It’s ok,” Jungkook says quietly, like he can read Hoseok’s mind. “You don’t need to be afraid.” 

Hoseok stares at him for a moment, then nods.

“Let’s all sleep in the same room,” Jungkook says, louder this time and to the group.

“That sounds wonderful, but you’d get in the way of mine and Seokjin-hyung’s morning sex,” Taehyung says breezily and with that, he and Seokjin leave once more, making their way upstairs, shouting out joyous ‘I love you’s as they go.

“Ew,” Jungkook says. Hoseok elbows him in the side, then grins at him.

Yoongi and Namjoon stand in front of them, looking at each other and Jimin and then at Hoseok and Jungkook, clearly trying to work out how to also excuse themselves for sex purposes. Luckily, Jimin clears his throat delicately and grabs one of their hands each.

“I clearly need to help them through this,” he says, then pulls Namjoon and Yoongi away, both of them looking a hilarious mix of thrilled and terrified. 

“Uh,” Jungkook says. The room around them is large and empty and his voice echoes off the tall walls.

“Let’s go find a bed,” Hoseok says. “I don’t want to be alone.”

Jungkook looks at him with wide eyes. “Do you… uh…”

“...What?”

“Want to… Uh. Because I think if we’re going to have sex then we should probably go on a date first hyung, maybe we could go to town or something, but I just think-” He speaks so quickly that it takes Hoseok a moment to parse through his words. His eyes widen once he does and he stares up at Jungkook’s panicked, blushing face in wonder.

“You want to have sex with me?” He asks, because it feels important to clarify.

“Uh… Did you not…?”

“I was talking about sleeping!” Hoseok says and today has been too much, it’s been so much, he’s a sponge full of feelings ready to burst, it’s been so much. “I meant we should sleep in the same bed. Actual sleep.”

“Oh my god,” Jungkook whispers, sounding horrified. Hoseok sees, very suddenly, opportunity falling away in front of his eyes, the potential for something wonderful melting into nothing and his heart beats faster still, panic growing in a different way and he knows he needs to fix it.

“No, I mean! I would! I’d love to! I just meant… today. Sleeping today. And then… fuck. Uh.” 

Hoseok used to be good at this. He used to be so smooth, fuck, he used to set his sights on someone and just go for it, low voice filled with promise and body hot and electric. He’s so fucking out of practice. Six years out of practice.

Fuck.

He takes a steadying breath in.

“We should go to sleep,” he says, trying again, voice sitting low in his throat this time in a way he knows sounds hot. “Just sleep. It’s been a long day.”

Jungkook starts nodding, his eyes still wide.

“And then tomorrow,” Hoseoks says. “Uh…” Hoseok’s brain suddenly catches up to the rest of what Jungkook had been trying to say. “A date?”

“A date?” Jungkook says.

“If that’s what you want,” Hoseok says. This feels important. He grabs at Jungkook’s hands, which are hanging by his sides, fingers extending and contracting as if grabbing pointlessly through the air.

“What do you want, hyung?” Jungkook asks.

Hoseok sucks in a breath. “Jungkook-ah, you’ve spent the past six years doing things for me.”

“Well, you were nailed to a wall for most of it, hyung.”

“Yeah,” Hoseok says, snorting. “I think… I think if I didn’t have you, it would have been the worst experience imaginable.”

“...Wasn’t it anyway?” 

Hoseok shakes his head. “It wasn’t great, but… You gave me tv shows and musical numbers and you stayed up and talked with me. So. It could have been a lot worse, that’s all.”

“Oh,” Jungkook says.

“And I think a date would be nice. Really nice. Nicer than nice. If that’s… if you wanted to.”

Jungkook nods, a small movement of his head as he stares back at Hoseok, eyes still round and wide as two disks. “I wanted to take you on a date six years ago,” he says.

“You were sixteen,” Hoseok says, scrunching up his face. “There’s no way I would have gone on a date with you. Ew.”

Jungkook starts snickering delightedly

He slings an arm over Jungkook’s shoulder and tugs him close, pivots them both so that they can start walking up towards the bedrooms.

“I know,” Jungkook says. “Didn’t stop me from wanting it though.”

“I don’t know how to feel about this,” Hoseok says, but he’s laughing too now.

“I mean, I’m twenty-two now,” Jungkook says. “A whole adult!”

“Yeah,” Hoseok breathes out. “And you got really hot.” 

“You were always hot,” Jungkook says, grinning like he knows just how annoying he’s being, how disquieted he’s making Hoseok.

“Shut up,” is all Hoseok says and then he changes the subject.

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

It takes them a few days, in reality, to even really make plans to go on a date, although they talk about it enough, Hoseok unpicking Jungkook’s newness to flirting as they go. It feels like taking strings of something that already exists within Jungkook but that he’s never had to use before, then untangling them in the space that exists between them, the act of teaching Jungkook to flirt. It’s fun and interesting and Jungkook seems thrilled by it.

Hoseok wonders, briefly, why they bothered waiting to turn back into humans to do this. Although maybe it’s so good now because the flirting comes with the actual ability to follow through and do something about it.

The castle is golden and lush in a way it hasn’t been in six years, filled with life that permeates every inch. It can’t last, the incredible persisting happiness, Hoseok knows as much, but it’s nice while they have it. It feels like a celebration.

It is a celebration, he supposes.

A snowstorm hits the day after they become human again and it lasts for days. Days that feel almost endless. It’s a little cruel, the ability to leave the house being gifted to them and then taken away immediately. It’s temporary though and eventually the weather quietens and settles into something less dangerous. 

On that first storm-free morning, the entire castle pours out into the snow in an avalanche of cheers and music and awe.

Jungkook and Hoseok walk through the grounds, Jungkook’s hand tucked neatly into Hoseok’s. The sun against their skin is the warmest thing Hoseok has ever felt; it makes him feel like he’s glowing all over. They’re with the entire group; Jimin is wrapped around Taehyung, the two of them penguin walking together through the snow, leaving two sets of footprints that melt into one. Namjoon and Yoongi are just behind, elbows brushing as they walk. Seokjin is next to Hoseok and Jungkook, tugging at Jungkook’s puffy coat and making jokes about stealing it for the warmth. 

Hoseok’s cheeks hurt from smiling.

“Namjoon-hyung?” Jimin says suddenly, pulling away from Taehyung to turn backwards. “Will you show me your birds?”

Namjoon breathes out a noise that sounds so excited that Hoseok feels it in his chest.

“Do you think the birds will come straight to me instead of Yoongi-hyung now?” 

“I hope so,” Yoongi grumbles, but then a small bluebird lands on his shoulder and twitters pointedly.

Hoseok and Jungkook laugh so loud that the bird flies away immediately. Jimin loops an arm around Namjoon’s waist in sympathy, but he’s giggling too. 

Yoongi sighs. “Sorry Namjoon-ah.”

“It’s ok, hyung,” Namjoon says and he’s sighing dramatically but Hoseok can tell he’s just joking around. “You’ll have to keep bringing the birds to me.”

“I can do that,” Yoongi says, very quietly. Jimin reaches out and puts a soft hand on Yoongi’s cheek. “Do you want birds too?” Yoongi asks him, raising an eyebrow.

Jimin shakes his head and smiles, hand still on Yoongi’s cheek and side still pressed against Namjoon. “Definitely not.”

Yoongi makes a soft humming noise, then steps in closer towards them both. He stares at them both quietly, face open and happy in a way that Hoseok is becoming more and more used to seeing. 

“Should we be watching this?” Jungkook whispers. Hoseok doesn’t really see the problem, but then he thinks that when being a wardrobe made him rather accustomed to watching everything and that’s maybe a hard habit to break.

“Taehyung-ah, let’s go find the flowers,” Seokjin says suddenly, dodging around to go to Taehyung and pulling him away.

“Are you going to pick them for me hyung?” Taehyung asks delightedly.

“No- no picking flowers from the garden!” Namjoon yells. 

“The gardener is terrifying,” Hoseok reminds them.

“What was he again?” Taehyung asks. He swings himself around so that his arm is wrapped around Seokjin, their bodies pressed close together. Seokjin shivers happily.

“Watering can,” Jungkook says. 

 “Another holder of liquid!” Taehyung says. “Seokjin-hyung, we can bond with him.”

“Can we?” Seokjin asks, but then he’s being tugged away from the group, across the snow covered field.

“Can I show you something?” Hoseok says to Jungkook, who is still staring at Jimin, Namjoon and Yoongi. They’re all staring at one another a little too intensely, Hoseok thinks. Besides, he has a plan for his first trip outside in six years and it’s a plan he thinks Jungkook will like.

Jungkook nods quickly. “Yes please.”

They walk hand in hand for a little while. Jungkook’s thumb moves back and forth over Hoseok’s skin constantly, a compulsive little twitch that Hoseok finds thrilling. He squeezes Jungkook’s hand and brings it up to hold in the air between them.

“You’re always twitching,” he says, smiling. “I forgot that about you.”

Jungkook blinks his big eyes for a moment, then smiles a small smile back. “Yeah, well. It’s hard to do when you’re stuck in metal.”

Hoseok squeezes his hand again and shuffles a little closer. “It must be nice to have it back.”

Jungkook makes a considering little noise. “Yeah,” he says and he doesn’t say anything more but Hoseok gets it, all the same.

Eventually Hoseok comes to a stop in front of a tree - the tree, the one Hoseok could always see from his bedroom window, then tugs Jungkook’s hand to make him stop too.

“I always thought Namjoon was so strange for liking trees so much,” Hoseok says, giggling, as he reaches a hand out to brush against the rough texture of the trunk. “Feel this, Jungkookie.”

Jungkook puts his hand out obediently, knocks it against Hoseok’s as he rubs the bark. “Give it a month, hyung,” he says. “You’ll go back to thinking he’s weird.”

“You think we’ll forget that quickly? How wonderful everything is?”

Jungkook shrugs. “It doesn’t matter if we do, just a little bit, I think.”

“Maybe only a little bit,” Hoseok says quietly. “Maybe some things we’ll just get used to again.”

Jungkook takes a breath in that’s so deep and steadying that Hoseok can hear it. He glances over to see Jungkook looking down at him and smiling.

“The day I realized you’d turned into a wardrobe was probably the worst day of my life, you know?” He says conversationally. Hoseok raises an eyebrow.

“I know it was worse for you,” Jungkook continues quickly. “But… Uh. I was so used to having you everywhere. I was so used to just following you around and listening to you talk to all the staff. Anytime I needed you, there you were. And then suddenly you weren’t. I mean, you were only a few rooms away, but… but then things would happen outside your room and you wouldn’t be there and I wouldn’t be able to show them to you and I just. Wanted that. I wanted to show things to you.”

“Oh,” Hoseok says quietly. If there really has been a dam inside him for six years, he feels like it might finally, finally be breaking. 

“I just wanted you to be there for everything and you couldn’t be and it made me sad,” Jungkook says and before he has even finished speaking, Hoseok has folded himself into Jungkook. Jungkook’s arms come up over his shoulders and then they stand there, by Hoseok’s tree, hugging and crying together for the second time in a week. 

Hoseok makes a noise of low frustration, eventually, then disentangles himself a little. “If getting used to being a human again means less crying, then I’m all for it.”

“Crying is probably a little more common in human form than wardrobe form,” Jungkook says quietly. “Only one of those forms has tear ducts.”

“Urgh,” Hoseok says. He swipes a hand across his stupid, still-leaking eyes.

“Wanna switch back?” Jungkook asks, grinning.

Hoseok takes a moment to feel the ground beneath his feet, the quiet warmth of Jungkook underneath his hands, the pulse of his own heartbeat sending blood through his veins, a quiet and quick proof that he’s a living, breathing person. He feels the sun against his skin, hears the voices of people further away that he could run to right now, just to say hello to them. He looks up at Jungkook, whose face is lit up and happy, smile big. His body and Jungkook’s body, two living things in a living world. 

He shakes his head, rolls his eyes, takes a moment to appreciate the ability to do both, the incredible possibilities of non-verbal communication that he’d spent so much time missing.

“I’m good,” he says lightly. “I’ve still got so many more things to try.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” Jungkook is still looking down at him and Hoseok is smiling, because of course he is. He’s never been fucking happier. 

“Will you kiss me?” Hoseok asks. 

Jungkook’s chest expands on an inhale of breath and for a moment they just stare at one another, but then Jungkook is leaning down and pressing their mouths together. The wind picks up around them a little bit; Hoseok feels it shift through this hair, feels Jungkook’s arms wrap closer around him, feels their chests knock heavy into one another. He feels the rough of the tree as Jungkook pushes him gently into it, feels it dig into his shoulder blades and his ass and the back of his head. Jungkook’s breath huffs out gently over Hoseok’s skin, his hands grip and release Hoseok’s body, their fucking heartbeats pound against their chests. 

Underneath it all, he still feels the dam, feels it press against his skin at different points, ready to finally, truly spill over and make a mess everywhere, maybe. It will be a lot to clean up, he thinks, but he doesn’t mind. He’s not scared anymore, of the dam breaking or of having to clean up the mess. Happiness and tears and mess and standing in the sun feeling too much or not enough, it all feels worth it, suddenly. It feels like everything he’d spent six years desperately, and to his very core, missing.

He feels, he thinks, in all the best and worst ways, completely and wholly human. 

The end.