Jungkook's words bounced between the walls of Taehyung's mind - again and again and again until they left behind permanent scars to decorate his thoughts. Taehyung was aware that by revealing his feelings Jungkook had created a change in their relationship, a change that would prevent them from ever being only friends again.

Taehyung was conflicted about the opportunity he was given. While giving Jungkook and their potential relationship a chance wouldn't harm anyone and would only create a strain there, the same strain that would now taint their relationship if he decided to be just friends, a part of Taehyung was still reluctant to do so.

That tiny part manifested from the feeling of fear rooted deep inside the veins of his heart. Trying to sniff out the source of the fear, Taehyung began to think of all the things that scared him. Jungkook hugging him and kissing him? No. The pair cuddling and sharing a bed? No. Perhaps it was the label boyfriends that emitted the feeling of fear? But as Taehyung thought more about it, about looking at Jungkook and being able to call him his boyfriend, or telling other people that they were boyfriends, Taehyung didn't feel scared or uncomfortable at the thought. But then what caused it?

Perhaps it was the fact that Taehyung was living a lie and Jungkook only liked the version of him that Taehyung allowed him to see? After all, Jungkook knew nothing about his past or trauma, he knew nothing about the inner demons he was slaying during the night and he knew nothing about how to lend a helping hand to Taehyung to slay them together. And perhaps that feeling of fear came from the realisation that one day his mask would slip and Jungkook would find out the person that got moulded in the palms of abuse. Perhaps the reason why Taehyung was so reluctant was that he was scared of baring his heart and soul to Jungkook, the younger boy would leave him as soon as he was introduced to the demons hiding inside the crevices of his mind.

Or perhaps Taehyung was digging too deeply into the main issue and clinging too harshly to the past? Perhaps the reason for his hesitation was that he didn't want to lie to Jungkook and give him false hope because Taehyung has never been in a romantic relationship before and he didn't know how it felt to have feelings for someone. Taehyung didn't know if he liked Jungkook like that, he just knew he cared for him greatly, so he didn't want to break his heart when he realised that his love for the boy was purely platonic.

Jungkook presented Taehyung with a choice - lie to the bunny boy and shatter his heart by telling him that he didn't want to give them a chance, or unravel the secrets he had been keeping and allow Jungkook to catch a glimpse of the person hidden beneath his iron skin. Taehyung was tempted by both options, making him wonder which one was stronger - the fear of possibilities or the rawest forms of love.

⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅

   Despite stabbing the shovel into the ground and digging graves the entire evening, Jungkook's mind was plagued with the rotting images of what had occurred in Taehyung's cell and how he had left the latter alone right after he had woken up. The ribbons of guilt wrapped around Jungkook's wrist the entire day - tightening with each grave he dug and hour that ticked by.

The guilt especially worsened when Jungkook realised that he was currently avoiding and being scared to face something that he had created by opening his mouth and spilling what he was feeling. Jungkook knew that he had to face Taehyung like a man, rejection wasn't the worst thing he had encountered in his life, especially not after he just buried 12 people.

Right now, Jungkook was sitting on the metal stairs of the infected block, a bowl of ramen squished between his tights and his fingers twirling the metal fork before raising it up to his lips. Jungkook chewed on the bland noodles, wincing at the lack of salt yet still swallowing to fill his growling stomach. He would've continued to sulk and frown down at his plate of food as he listened to the prisoners around him quietly murmur with one another and some sharing a comforting silence between them if it wasn't for Maggie who climbed up the stairs and plopped down next to him with a bowl of her own grasped in her hands.

"The antibiotics are here, Taehyung is safe and the rest are too, the prison is a bit bruised and the consequences of the virus will soon catch up, but instead of enjoying the little shred of peace we have been given, you've been slouching and glaring at everyone all day." Maggie rambled under his breath, keeping her voice down in order to not disturb the other prisoners. She raised a fork with noodles up to her lips and mumbled before pushing them into her mouth, "Why?"

A heavy sigh tumbled past Jungkook's lips - sucking out the tension in his shoulders and making him curl further into himself. His face soured and lips pursued, fingers tightened around the fork before he stabbed it into the bland noodles as if to kill them, "Nothing." He grumbled lowly, sparing a brief glance at Maggie, but it was enough to catch the way her eyes squinted and travelled up to the cell behind them where Taehyung resided, "Fine!" Jungkook hissed and straightened, turning to fully face the girl, "I told Taehyung!"

"Told him what exactly?" Maggie mumbled in confusion blinking rapidly to try and understand the flush of embarrassment on Jungkook's cheeks.

"That I have feelings for him!" The bunny boy huffed with a matching facepalm, slouching against the metal stairs and pushing his half-eaten bowl on the step above him.

Jungkook glared down at the rips in his jeans with a growing frown, while Maggie's face scrunched up in confusion, "You didn't talk about that before? Didn't you two have sex a year ago or something?" She pointed out with another forkful of the bland noodles pushed between her lips.

The red dust on Jungkook's face became thicker after hearing Maggie's words and spine straightened as if it had been nudged by the memory of Taehyung laying above him with their lips pressed together and bodies connected by the older's dick, "Yeah..." Jungkook winced and turned away, his eyes accidentally connected with a sickly pale girl who offered him a nervous smile in return. Jungkook bobbed his head in her direction before twisting his attention back onto Maggie, "Yeah, but that was, you know, more like a one-night stand? And we didn't talk about our feelings before or after because we didn't think much of it and when I did realise that I liked him, Taehyung was always going on these little trips that became longer and longer, until he was gone for three months."

Maggie hummed and swallowed the last bits of ramen she was chewing on, she brushed away the leftover sauce from her lips before placing her empty plate next to Jungkook's half-eaten one, "Glenn and I were the same, you know." Jungkook's head whipped up at that, catching Maggie smile to herself as she reminisced, "Lori had asked Glenn to get a pregnancy test, while I needed medicine for Carl - he was shot when the group came to the farm."

Jungkook remembered hearing snippets of the story about how Rick had met Hershel and Maggie, it was a rocky road, but they had made it work, despite their different ways of thinking.

"I don't remember exactly how it went down, but when we were in the pharmacy I agreed to have sex with Glenn. He was a virgin, by the way, and we thought that there won't be any harm or strings attached if we did it this one time. No one had to know, no one had to remember, it would stay between us like a shared memory." Maggie's lips lifted into a gentle smile and eyes smoothened with love as she spoke to Jungkook, her fingers trailed down to her left hand and tugged on the ring wrapped around her finger, "It didn't stay that way for long though." Maggie glanced at Jungkook and lifted her hand to show off the glimmering ring decorating her hand, "A mere stem grew between us, a stem that bloomed into a flower of love that wasn't easily hidden from those around us."

"Daddy didn't like it at first, but he learned to tolerate it, then he accepted it and now he could never picture a better man for me than Glenn." Maggie huffed out a small laugh, catching the attention of the few people around them, earning herself tiny smiles. Jungkook, himself, smiled at her light tone, smiled at the clear warmth of love radiating off her voice and spilling through her eyes as she told him about her love story. He wondered how it felt to love someone so much, but perhaps if they were brave enough, Taehyung and he could love each other just the same.

Maggie sighed and ruffled her short hair, hunching over and gazing at the wall on the other side of the stairs, "Daddy wasn't always the man that you met on that farm or the man you know now. My mother's death affected him greatly, he lost sight of what was truly important. But, believe it or not, Rick and the rest helped him open his mind and heart, helped him hear the rest of the world, not just his own thoughts."

"What I'm trying to tell you by saying this is that people change all the time - the little things they hear, see, smell, the people they meet, all of it changes the person they are. Sometimes you don't feel it, other times the change is so big that you feel like you're gonna shatter under the force of it. But in the end, the change is necessary for us to grow and become the people we're supposed to be." Maggie glanced at Jungkook and smiled at the sight of the bunny boy sinking into the pond of deep thought, "The people in our lives are big influences and are the main source of our growth. I like to believe that whether bad or good, we still need to encounter these people in order to learn something from them. We meet everyone for a reason, it's up to you to figure out what that reason is."

"No offence, but I don't see what this has to do with Taehyung and me." Jungkook pointed out, trying to tie the topic together with his current worries, only for the strings to not match in colour or size when they tried to tangle together.

Maggie blinked for a second before rolling her eyes and shaking her head, shoving a finger over her shoulder and into the direction of Taehyung's cell, "My advice is for you to not think so much and just head in there to talk. If he says no, at least you tried and then you can rebuild your friendship until you find someone else for yourself."

Jungkook was left gaping at Maggie's blunt advice, yet, weirdly enough, that was exactly what he needed for him to huff out all his worries and stumble up to his feet with a groan, "You know what? You're right." Jungkook nodded in Maggie's direction, missing the way she smirked in surprise and watched him stomp up the steps.

The butterflies of anxiety increased with each stomp of his boots against the metal steps, while the worms of fear crawled along his spine and tried to cover his skin with the possibilities of how the next few moments could go down. Jungkook would much rather prepare himself with the images of Taehyung being angry and disgusted at him for even suggesting such a thing, to make the rejection easier - even though his rational mind told him that Taehyung could never be so cruel - rather than for him to go in there with a glaze of sugar around his heart and the expectation of Taehyung eagerly accepting his suggestion.

Jungkook winced at the countless possibilities of how this could go down before coming to a screeching halt right behind the wall that prevented him from seeing inside Taehyung's cell. The light from the candles pooled between the bars and the soft exhale of breaths could be heard behind the wall. Jungkook stood still, thinking about returning and talking with Maggie for a few more minutes, before finally stepping forward and sinking into the light of the candles.

"I was wondering if you were gonna stand there the entire night like a creep."

Jungkook's head snapped at the amused snort and eyes immediately tied together with Taehyung's obsidian ones. The man had pulled himself onto the abandoned bed- laying on his fluffy pillow with Jungkook's lavender blanket thrown over his legs and a book grasped tightly between his hands. Taehyung's once sweaty and bloody shirt had now been changed into a wool sweater to keep him warm and cosy, and unruly locks had been swept away from his forehead to allow him to read his book peacefully.

Taehyung looked healthier than he did before, his skin had absorbed the healthy glow of the evening sun and the blueish tint of exhaustion under his eyes had been wiped away by a few hours of sleep. Jungkook would be lying if he said that he didn't feel bad for missing out on the important parts of Taehyung's recovery, but at least the man was still alive and breathing.

"I've been thinking about what you said." Taehyung exhaled the sentence and slammed the book shut, it got thrown into his lap, while Taehyung pushed himself up into a sitting position to face Jungkook better.

"Me too." Jungkook muttered weakly, shuffling into the room until he was able to sit down on the edge of Taehyung's bed, "I mean, I thought about what I told you and I just wanted to clarify that I meant every word I said." Jungkook stated confidently, staring into Taehyung's eyes with a mask of defensiveness glossing over his features - heart already wilting at the thought of the worst outcome coming true.

Taehyung's lips parted to release a breath of amusement, followed by him swallowing down the chuckle in the back of his throat and tilting his head down to hide his smile, "I would hope that you meant every word because, as I said, I thought about what you told me and I thought things through. I realised.." Taehyung paused mid-sentence, giving himself the opportunity to stop and think before giving Jungkook any false hope that could hurt the boy. But after noticing the blooming hope in Jungkook's eyes and the tamed smile threatening to appear on his thin lips, Taehyung thought fuck it and continued, "We can try."

Jungkook's eyes flung open and breath flew back into his lungs, the rush of excitement made him still for a split second before his face split apart by a blinding smile. The pure happiness radiating off of Jungkook lit up the cell more than the candles did, it even spilled over the doorway and dripped into the cells next to them. The relief was momentary because Taehyung hadn't finished speaking, he thought a lot and he had quite a bit of words collected in his hands.

"But-" Taehyung started with a low tone, shooting Jungkook a look that made the bunny clear his throat and push his emotions back in order to act a bit more professional, "I want things to go slowly. Before we call ourselves boyfriends, I want us to get to know each other, truly, get to know each other. Families, dreams, fucking favourite colours, maybe the meaning of tattoos, what we would've done if we weren't in the apocalypse, perhaps even something traumatic that occurred to u-"

"Taehyung."

Taehyung's anxious rambling was cut off by Jungkook calling out his name. Obsidian eyes flickered away from the loose strand of lavender thread Taehyung was twirling around his finger and focused on the gentle smile and glimmering eyes he received from Jungkook, "Hmm?" He hummed numbly, not fighting against the warmth that spread through his body and swatted away the negative emotions trying to drown him.

"We can go slow. I don't expect us to suddenly start kissing and having...sex, or holding hands and being together every second of the day." Jungkook trailed off with a small shake of the head and a nervous twist of his lips - bringing relief to Taehyung with his words alone, "We can go as slow as you'd like, even if it takes years for you to hold my hand."

Taehyung's fingers curled at his words and eyes trailed down to Jungkook's hands resting limply against his thighs. He exhaled a breath and reached forward to grab one of Jungkook's hands, causing the bunny boy to jump in surprise and snap his head down, "See?" Taehyung breathed as he intertwined their fingers, allowing the warmth of their skin to mould into one, "It looks like it didn't take me years to hold your hand." The man purred, while Jungkook huffed with a playful eye-roll, quickly nudging the topic back into the right track.

"Maybe not, but I want you to know that I meant it. Even if it did take you years to touch me and yet you still tried but something was stopping you, I wouldn't force you or leave you because of it. I want you to know that until you try, I will try too and until we both try together, then whatever we're trying to achieve, it won't fail."

Taehyung's face lit up with a smile and fingers squeezed Jungkook's slightly colder ones. He pondered over his words and silently agreed with him, until they both tried, they wouldn't fail, not even if their progress was slow. Another thing that made him smile, was the contrast between the Jungkook sitting across from him right now and the Jungkook from a year ago, "You've changed. When I first met you, you wanted to kill me, now look at you trying to persuade me into a relationship." Taehyung chuckled lightheartedly, making Jungkook wince at the memory and turn away.

"You came to me at the wrong time, but at the same time, you came to me at the perfect time. At that moment, when I was grieving and stuck in a twisted state of mind, I didn't need someone who would remind me of the person that I used to be and the monster I turned into." Jungkook smiled as he breathed out in realisation, remembering Maggie's words about how people entered their lives for a reason, "You didn't know me before that, you didn't know the old me so you never looked at me like I was broken or like I was missing something. You treated me like you treated everyone else, that's why I liked spending time with you because you helped me release the old version of myself and helped me embrace the new one."

"Is that why you like me?" Taehyung questioned with furrowed brows, eying Jungkook with curiosity and a silent question hovering over his head.

Jungkook huffed out a short laugh and shook his head, "A part of it, yes, but you're also very good-looking and the closest to my age. So my choices were either you, Hershel or Daryl, and no offence to Hershel and Daryl but you're the obvious choice." Jungkook snickered to himself, while Taehyung's lips spread apart into a wide grin and a baritone laugh bloomed between his ribs.

Their laughter intertwined just like their fingers, they glided along the monotonous walls of the cells and filled the prison with the warmth of happiness. The two boys continued to smile to themselves with a fresh layer of peace tangled into their locks, even as their laughter died out and bodies melted into the creaky beds.

"What now? Do we hold hands or some shit?" Taehyung mumbled through a grin, gazing down at Jungkook, who was leaning against the wall with his legs tugged on top of the mattress.

The younger rolled his eyes playfully, "Careful, Hyung, I don't want you to start gay panicking only because you're holding my hand."

"I don't gay panic." Taehyung squinted his eyes with a small smirk curling around his lips as he pushed out his foot and shoved it against Jungkook's thigh - rocking the boy out of his comfortable spot and making him glare back at him.

"Pretty sure that wasn't what happened when I confessed my feelings for you." Jungkook smirked in retaliation, feeling the veins of satisfaction climb along his limbs after seeing the tint of redness soak into Taehyung's cheeks.

The latter tried to mask the embarrassment by clearing his throat and reaching down to pick up the book he was previously reading, "It was a trick of the eye, badasses like me don't gay panic." Taehyung grumbled through pursued lips, squinting his eyes down at the random page he had flipped open as if he was reading it.

"Right." Jungkook drawled and crawled off the bed, causing Taehyung's head to whip up and eyes to narrow even further. Jungkook raised his arms above his head and stretched with a small yawn before twisting around to glance down at Taehyung, "I'll go to sleep and you should too, reading in such horrible light is horrible for you-"

"Or you could simply shut up and we could talk shit about people in Korean." Taehyung sliced Jungkook's words apart by a string of words in their mother tongue. Jungkook immediately perked up at the familiar language - looking like an excited child as he beamed and bent down to blow out the candle.

The darkness flooded into the room and filled it to the brim as soon as the candle was blown out - leaving the pair to sink into the darkness and slowly get used to it. Jungkook could still hear the hushed murmurs coming from others somewhere in the cells, just like he could see the lingering traces of light peeking out from the corner of the room from another cell. The lighting was low, but it was enough to allow Jungkook to see where the bed was.

"Gossiping in Korean sounds great, Hyung, it might even become our thing." Jungkook snickered in delight, while pulling his shoes off his feet and shuffling over to the bed until his knees were brushing against the edge of it.

A warm hand reached forward and curled around Jungkook's wrist, tugging him onto the bed and causing him to fall on top of Taehyung with a huff. Taehyung hissed in pain when Jungkook's elbow jabbed into his ribs, followed by a cough coming out of his throat. Jungkook instantly went rigid and grabbed Taehyung by his cheeks and despite the darkness, Taehyung could feel the warmth of Jungkook's nose brushing against his own and strands of his red hair gliding across his forehead.

"Are you okay?" Jungkook hissed into the darkness, massaging his thumbs into Taehyung's cheeks, earning himself a low grunt in return, "Maybe I should call Hershel." He trailed off and began to pull away

"No need." Taehyung exhaled softly - warm breath fanning against Jungkook's lips, making him rip himself away after realising how close they were, "For a second I thought we were gonna kiss and weirdly enough, I wasn't against it." Taehyung forced out a small chuckle, all while rubbing his bruised ribs and shuffling closer to the wall to leave space for Jungkook.

"Shut up, we're taking it slow." Jungkook pointed out in a hushed murmur of breath, blinking into the darkness as he touched the edge of the blanket and pulled it back. Jungkook shifted forward and slid underneath the blanket until his head was resting on the pillow and shoulder was squished against Taehyung's, "This is awfully intimate, aren't we taking things slow?" Jungkook pointed out with a frown of confusion, yet didn't dare shift from his comfortable spot.

"Maybe." Taehyung yawned and shifted before sinking into the mattress with a satisfied sigh. Now their outer thighs were pressing together and all they had to do, was shift more and their hips would be pressed together too, "But I'm comfortable. Are you comfortable?" Jungkook felt Taehyung lift his head and could feel him squint at his face through the darkness.

"Yes." Jungkook breathed with a tiny smile.

"Cool."

And then there was silence, the words they had previously desired to exchange were now snickering in the back of their thoughts, watching them both struggle with saying something to break the looming silence above their heads. But as the seconds got sprinkled over them one by one, the tension leaked out of the silence and left behind the honeyed serenity that made their smiles melt into one with the darkness.

"You know..." Taehyung whispered quietly as if he was afraid to speak and shatter the peaceful atmosphere. The man paused with a trembling breath and clamped his lips shut after that, Jungkook's eyes fluttered and head tilted to the side, and for a split second he began to wonder if Taehyung had even spoken or if it was a trick of his mind, but then the man's lips were peeling open once more and he was shoving out the heavy words in his chest, "I'm afraid of starting something with you. I could tell you that it's only because of the..possibility of one of us dying and the other one being heartbroken, but it's not only because of that. And while, yes, I'm terrified of getting attached to you to the point where being apart from you would feel like I can't breathe, a part of me desperately craves that type of connection because sometimes I just feel so numb that even the pain of being apart from you would feel better. You know?"

"Yes." Jungkook exhaled shakily, sucking in his cheeks and blinking away the tears nipping at his eyes.

Taehyung nodded in return and continued to speak, "Another thing is, I haven't told you anything about myself and I'm scared that when I do tell you, that you're gonna look at me differently. Perhaps not with disgust, more like with sympathy, I don't want you to stop looking at me like I'm the reason the earth rotates or the water in the river constantly chases itself, I don't want your eyes to shift and for you to look at me like I need to be shoved behind steel walls for protection."

"Why would I-"

"You'll understand when I tell you and I'll do so when I'm ready." Taehyung sighed and raised his hand to push his fingers against his eyes. The pads of his fingers collected the lingering traces of tears before being wiped off of the collar of Taehyung's wool sweater, "Something happened a long time ago, but despite the years that have passed, the scars on my soul haven't fully healed and I still suffer from the aftermath."

Jungkook swallowed thickly and waited for Taehyung to say something, but when he didn't, he decided to take over the reins of their conversation, "Was it something you did?" Jungkook asked cautiously - afraid to push against a sore spot.

"More like something someone else did to me. Sometimes it feels like what he did to me tainted me and scarred me for the rest of my life." Taehyung chuckled bitterly.

"Taehyung." Jungkook immediately pushed against the mattress to sit up with a creak. He twisted around to hover over Taehyung and speak sternly to the male, "No one can taint you, perhaps scar you, but not taint you. By doing something bad to you, they only taint themselves, never you. The only person who has the power to do so, is you, don't give someone the power to do something that they can't."

"Where were you when I needed to hear that a few years back?" Taehyung pushed out an empty chuckle to try and ease the small tinge of tension between them.

And despite the tension lingering and the heavy topic still weighing them down, Jungkook played into Taehyung's weak try and smiled back at him, "We meet people and hear things when we're supposed to meet and hear them. Perhaps if I told you that a few years back, you would've decked me." Jungkook mumbled and plopped back down on his back, trying not to dwell too much on the heat of Taehyung's body wrapping around him and the sound of his silky exhales of breath filling the room to the brim.

"Perhaps." Taehyung breathed in agreement, allowing his lips to lift and eyes to flutter shut. The feeling of relief and, oddly enough, comfort settled in Taehyung's skin and sunk into the blood rushing through his veins. Maybe giving their relationship the opportunity to blossom and bloom wasn't a bad idea, perhaps with the help of Jungkook, Taehyung could finally get his feet moving and wounds to heal.

"Thank you, Koo."

"Hmm?"

"Thank you."

This is the last chapter of my original writing, from now on these are gonna be new, never-seen-before chapters 😈🫡