"How about this?"

The gentle murmur of breath tilted Taehyung's head upward and nudged his attention in Jungkook's direction. Taehyung peeled his temple away from the glass next to him in order to twist his head around and gaze down at the drawing presented to him.

The notebook was grasped between Jungkook's fingers, the tips were painted black by the charcoal he had used to draw. He drank in the crisp lines and shading - eyes glazing over with amazement at the sketch of him Jungkook had been doing the past hour, while Taehyung was coughing and slouching against the glass separating them.

"That's my talented bun, huh?" A gruff chuckle bloomed from Taehyung's lungs, followed by a smile climbing onto the throne of his lips. His eyes bounced up and dug into the owlish ones Jungkook possessed, the smile on his face widened along with a tint of redness seeping into the chub of Jungkook's cheeks, "You never seem to stop amazing me. Although..." Taehyung trailed off with a tint of mischief nibbling at his tone of voice, "...perhaps next time you can skip the clothes and we can-"

"Shut up." Jungkook cut him off with a small huff, no teeth or claws visible in the words he shot back at a smiling Taehyung. He lowered his notebook back into his lap and tried to keep the smile plastered on his face as his eyes slid down and the tip of his finger traced Taehyung's jaw. The man was gazing up at him from the page of the open sketchbook- slitted, obsidian eyes and an arrogant quirk of his lips, broad chest wrapped in harnesses and inky strands of hair framing his face.

"What are you..." Taehyung spoke up, only to be caught off by a small cough. He turned away from Jungkook as he wheezed and splattered blood into the palm of his hand, leaning forward in his creaky chair and hunching over as if that would make the sickness escape his lungs. Yet turning away and shielding his face didn't prevent Jungkook from looking up and catching a glimpse of the scarlet blood tainting Taehyung's fingers once he pulled his hand back and glanced down at it, nor did it prevent Jungkook from averting his eyes with a glint of concert glossing over them.

"Stop that." Taehyung huffed with a lazy smile stretching his lips apart, he pressed his bloody palm against his chest and wiped the blood off on his shirt. Taehyung turned towards a frowning Jungkook - eyes briefly faltering on Jungkook's bunny teeth gnawing on his bottom lip and mind tangling in the sheets of a memory he had brushed into the back of his mind.

Taehyung shook his head to clear his mind and blinked a few times in order to see the question hanging behind Jungkook's eyes, "Stop looking like I'm standing one foot in my grave. You said it yourself, Daryl and the rest will be back soon with the cure." Taehyung's lips curled in what he hoped was a comforting smile, despite the fear and doubt replacing the blood in his heart with a poison of negativity, "You have to trust me that I'll hold on long enough for them to return."

"That's not something you can guarantee." Jungkook grumbled back, wiping away the plastic smile on Taehyung's face. His fingers clenched around his notebook and cheeks hallowed as he sucked them in with a small shake of his head. Jungkook could feel Taehyung's bottomless eyes caressing his skin as he looked down and flipped the notebook shut - shielding himself from the piercing gaze directed at him from the sketch version of Taehyung.

"I know."

Jungkook's eyes flickered up just as he pushed against the chair and stood up, looming over Taehyung's still-sitting frame. A golden thread of determination sewed through Taehyung's features, glimmering softly in the light illuminating them as the latter stumbled up to his feet with a small wince. Taehyung's hand clutched at the armrest of his chair, he ignored the way Jungkook's eyes widened with concern and he took a step forward as if the glass wouldn't prevent him from catching Taehyung if he began to fall.

Raven strands of hair swayed against Taehyung's temples as he shook his head and straightened out, he dropped his hand from the chair and took a step forward until he was facing Jungkook and peering into his eyes. They stood there, a glass wall separating the heat of their bodies and longing touches, yet sharing an unyielding gaze and soft exhales of breaths.

"I can try." Taehyung breathed out the words, leaning forward and laying his body weight onto the glass. His forehead pressed against the wall and eyes threatened to slip shut under his trembling legs and waves of exhaustion rocking through his limbs, "For you."

Jungkook gulped down the ball of saliva stuck in the back of his throat and licked at the corner of his lips, his eyes followed the pearly bead of sweat as it rolled along Taehyung's temple and left behind a path of moisture on his sickly skin, "Okay." He nodded after a few seconds ticked by, causing Taehyung's eyes to flutter open and a small smirk to curl around his lips. The sudden appearance of pure mischief that erupted from Taehyung's eyes made Jungkook's eyes narrow in suspicion and lips part, "I swear to god if you say something stupid in this situa-"

"The last time we were this close, it ended up with my dic-"

"Oh, for fuck sake." Jungkook's face scrunched up and cheeks lit up with the colour of ruby red roses. He tried to mask the smile threatening to fall on his lips and the red butterflies landing on the tip of his nose by scoffing and turning away from a smirking Taehyung.

A deep chuckle built up in the pit of Taehyung's stomach and crawled through his chest, he pressed his forehead back against the glass and didn't allow his eyes to leave Jungkook's apple cheeks as he chuckled at his flustered expression. Jungkook huffed once more, not bothering to hide his eye-roll or the snarky comment carving itself in the back of his throat, only for Taehyung's laugh to get interrupted by a cough ripping itself through his throat and droplets of blood splattering onto the window in front of his face - right where Jungkook's face was hovering in front of Taehyung's.

Jungkook flinched as the blood flew towards him, only getting stopped by the glass between them, and blinked back at Taehyung owlishly. He wasn't fast enough to wipe away the look of shock on his face before Taehyung's horror filled eyes bounced up to his. The previous light-hearted atmosphere in the room was extinguished between the cold fingers of tension. The smoke of the leftover candle of amusement rose through the air and merged with the horror seeping into the room.

"Tae-" Jungkook breathed, sensing the shift between them and noticing the way Taehyung stumbled back as if the glass hadn't protected Jungkook from Taehyung and he had just breathed death into his lungs. Taehyung's eyes didn't stray from the droplets of blood as they rolled down the glass and left behind stains of red - tainting the sight of Jungkook on the other side of the glass.

"You need to leave." Taehyung gritted lowly as he straightened out and allowed his expression to harden from the cold seeping into the room, "And don't come here again, Jungkook. Move into the watch-tower, stay away from others until Daryl is back with the cure." Taehyung advised sternly without removing his obsidian eyes from Jungkook's bambi ones.

"Tae-"

Taehyung didn't listen or wait for Jungkook to even finish uttering his name, merely turned around and stumbled towards the door to the best of his ability. His hand brushed against the doorway and vision fogged with black spots, harsh pants rocked his chest up and down, sweat trailed along his skin, his ears strained and heart stuttered as another desperate call of his name shadowed his footsteps, followed by Jungkook pounding his fist against the glass.

"Taehyung!"

But Taehyung didn't turn and meet Jungkook's eyes, he left the room with his heart stuck in his throat and mind carved in stone with the realisation that he shouldn't have taunted Jungkook with his presence, instead, should've allowed the bunny boy to sit still on the other side of that glass and wait for him to get better.

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   Taehyung didn't even notice when he had slipped into the gentle arms of exhaustion and been rocked into the slumber of serenity by the sound of coughing and choking. But what he did notice, was the cold fingers brushing against his forehead and the rim of a cup pushing against his parted lips before the taste of mint caressed his tastebuds and slid down his parched throat.

That's how Taehyung was tugged out of his sleepy state - tea pouring down his throat and a hand holding the back of his neck up so that he wouldn't choke. Taehyung gulped down the tea with his eyes squeezed shut, thinking that it was Caleb who came to check up on him to make sure he hadn't died in his sleep. But when his eyes peeled open and he blinked away the veil of blurriness with the flutter of his raven lashes, Taehyung was greeted by Hershel's wrinkly face peering down at him with a ghost of a smile.

The response to the older man was immediate, Taehyung choked on the tea and coughed it back into the metal cup before pushing against Hershel's hold and scrambling back on the bed as far as he could. The smile on Hershel's face was replaced by a frown at Taehyung's reaction, followed by him lowering the cup and staring at the wheezing man with a pinch of concern tugging at his features.

"You shouldn't be here." Taehyung whispered with a hand pressed against his pounding heart and lips parted to exhale his shallow breaths. He pushed himself to sit straighter and pressed his free hand against his mouth as if that would shield Hershel from the virus swimming in his lungs.

Hershel's brow lifted and lips curled, "I can easily tell you that the faces staring back at me when I came in here were the same faces I had seen outside. I've spoken to them and greeted them, passed by them and even touched hands with them, hours before they were plagued with coughs and this illness before getting sent here into isolation." He murmured easily, "But if it makes you feel better..." Hershel trailed off, hooking a finger around the rag hanging around his throat and pulling over his face to shield his nose and mouth. He extended the cup towards Taehyung once more and smiled behind the mask, "Now drink some tea, it has natural antibiotics in here that could help with the virus' symptoms."

Obsidian eyes gazed down at the cup without blinking, each flutter of the eyes dropping a passing second down to the ground. Then, Taehyung looked up with a sour scowl and squinted eyes, a protest already dangling on his lip as he spoke once more, "Still..." Taehyung exhaled softly, wincing when his lungs squeezed painfully and vision blackened for a split second before returning to normal, "If you're not infected, by being here you're risking your life. You're more vulnerable than others..." Taehyung paused mid-sentence as he reached for the cup Hershel extended towards him and looked up to offer Hershel a trembling smirk, "..due to your age obviously."

A small chuckle bloomed along Hershel's ribs and wrapped its vines around his lungs. Taehyung watched his eyes scrunch up as he breathed a chuckle into the cloth tied around his mouth. Hershel tamed his smile and replaced it with a more gentle twist of his lips, the look in his eyes danced along the lines of amusement and fondness and was tied together with a bow of knowledge.

"You step outside, you risk your life. You take a drink of water," Hershel's eyes dropped down to the cup Taehyung had lifted up to his lips and taken a gulp out of, "you risk your life. And nowadays you breathe, and you risk your life. Every moment now, you don't have a choice."

It was true, what Hershel said, even without the walkers outside and deserted shelves in stores, Taehyung's life would have been at risk even if the world was alright. He could have gotten hit by a truck on his way to work or choke on a piece of chicken while watching tv in his apartment. It seemed as though before shit hit rock-bottom and the world got overrun by corpses, death seemed to be shielded by a veil of ignorance- allowing everyone to forget that their lives were fragile and could be shattered under the lightest brush of death's fingers.

Yet there was a part of what Hershel said, that Taehyung didn't agree with, "Wise words." Taehyung snorted after gulping down a mouthful of tea and licking away a droplet of honey from the corner of his mouth, "But just because all of us could die any moment, doesn't mean that we shouldn't preserve the life we were given for as long as we can. If not for ourselves, then for the ones we love."

"That's why it's important to remember that the only thing you can choose, is what you're risking it for."

Taehyung paused with the cup pressed against his lips and eyes peering over the edge of it to connect with Hershel's kind ones. The words Hershel had uttered swaddled him into a blanket of memory, the memory of Jungkook standing behind that glass wall- bouncing from foot to foot as if he was restraining himself from ripping open the door to the cell block and marching inside to help them.

"I hope...I hope Jungkook doesn't deem me worthy to risk his." Taehyung murmured with a hesitant flicker of eyes into Hershel's direction.

"Ah, yes, young love." Hershel chuckled once more, reaching out to take the cup from Taehyung before sitting closer to him on the bed.

Taehyung choked on his spit, which caused him to burst into another fit of coughs and splatter a mouthful of blood into his sleeve once more. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes and his lungs curled into themselves as he leaned forward and coughed until his lungs were soothed by the oncoming pants brushing through his nostrils.

A white handkerchief was whipped out of Hershel's pocket and offered to a wide eyed Taehyung. He numbly grabbed the white handkerchief and wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth, "Young love?" Taehyung whispered under his breath before shaking his head and snapping his head towards Hershel.

Hershel merely offered him a wordless lift of his shoulders and an inscrutable smile before reaching to grab his med kit and jutting his chin into the direction of Taehyung's shoulder, "While I'm here and not needed by anyone, I should check on your wound and see how it's been healing."

Taehyung hummed and lifted his shirt to reveal his healing scar where the stitched-up cut had once been. His eyes didn't leave the concrete between his boots, not even when Hershel pulled on his gloves and inspected the wound, nor when he opened a container and smeared a bit of cream along the red line.

"It's healing nicely, but it will leave behind a nasty scar. I suggest not sleeping on it like you had been doing when I came into this cell. Don't sleep on your back either, you could choke on your blood and suffocate."

"Do you truly believe that Jungkook likes me?" Taehyung swatted away Hershel's words by pushing out a question of his own. That's when his eyes finally left the ground in front of him in order to focus on Hershel's wrinkly face and snow-coloured hair.

The old man smiled behind his mask, screwing his containers shut and placing them back into his med kit. He stood up from the bed with his kit hanging off of his fingers before pulling his mask under his mouth and finally meeting Taehyung's curious eyes, "And what if he does?" Hershel murmured with a raised brow before twisting around and leaving the cell just as his name was called out by another prisoner.

But Taehyung could not gather the answer to his question, he could only watch Hershel leave before falling back on his bed and blinking back at the bars of the cell.