By the time the pizza arrived Yoongi was already near to checking out, eyes threatening to flutter closed and stay closed. He didn't want to sleep yet, though. He was hungry, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to stay asleep if he didn't at least somewhat satisfy his deprived stomach. So he urged himself to remain awake. And what a struggle that was. He honestly didn't even know why he felt so tired - after all, he had taken a cat nap before everyone else got here, so that should have been able to hold him off for a while but it seemed not to have done him much good after all.

A couple slices of pizza and off to bed he would go. On the floor, on the couch, it didn't matter to him. He just wanted to sleep.

"Yoongs, I think we have some of that soda water you told me you liked," he heard Namjoon say shortly after setting the stack of pizza boxes on a coffee table in the living room.

"Hm?"

"Soda water. In the fridge. It's in a clear bottle I think. Or maybe a can. Not sure."

"Mm." Yoongi got to his feet seemingly in slow motion and turned to face the kitchen.

"Oh, and can you bring out the regular soda, too?" Namjoon added. "There should be a couple liters. Just grab 'em."

"Mm."

Like a zombie Yoongi trudged his way to the kitchen as though he were walking through a quagmire, slow, labored steps accompanying the sleepy yawns that would escape his mouth every few seconds. With continuous blinking he somehow managed to locate the fridge and open it with some difficulty. He blinked again. "Clear bottle? Can...?" Too tired to read any labels, Yoongi grabbed the first clear thing his barely functioning eyes caught sight of and held it in his hand while at the same time reaching for one of the easily identifiable soda bottles Namjoon had mentioned.

"Yoongi? Need help?"

He lifted his head. Jimin was peering over the top of the fridge down at him.

"I can take the sodas out," the boy offered, and Yoongi just muttered a quiet sure in response and allowed Jimin to take the large bottles from him. Then he, struggling to get to his feet again, sluggishly retrieved a glass from one of the kitchen cabinets and dumped all of his "soda water" into it.

"Yoongi? Hellooo?? Did you die out there?!"

"I'm comin', quit yelling!"

He rejoined the group in the living room after another journey through the quagmire.

"D'you find the soda water?"

"I think so," Yoongi replied under his breath, lowering himself carefully to sit on the floor by the coffee table. Everyone was sitting on the floor at this point. And everyone was eating, too, except him. So he grabbed the nearest slice of pizza and joined in the eating, ignoring Namjoon's scolding about him not grabbing cups for everyone else as he drank from his own.

Bitter. Not extremely so, but it tasted a touch different than he remembered. Then again, perhaps it was a different brand. Or flavor. Or something. It didn't concern him much. He just drank it anyway. All of it. Every last drop.

"Yoongi? You doing alright?"

Jungkook, who sat on the opposite end of the coffee table from Yoongi, was the first to take notice of it. Yoongi's subtle swaying, the odd expressions he would make that seemed to be of disgust but no one could really tell, not even Yoongi, who wasn't all there. He didn't even register he had been spoken to right away.

"Yo. Yoongs. Hello?"

Now Namjoon was waving his hand in front of the boy's face.

"Is he sick or something?"

"I don't think so, Jin. Maybe sleep's just tryna take h-"

"I'm--'m not...not sick. Shick. Sh-...sugar." Yoongi suddenly cocked his head to one side and furrowed his brow. "Sugar? Sweet. The drink, I thought it was bitter, but I...it's sweet like sugar. Suugar, I am suga~..."

Silence. There was dead silence.

"Oh my gosh, Yoongi's drunk."

They all just sat there for a long moment, watching the dark-haired boy rock his head back and forth as he hummed softly to himself and tapped his fingernails against his glass. His tall, empty glass.

"Yoongs..." Namjoon whispered to his friend in a low voice. "What did you drink?"

"Soda water," Yoongi replied in his slurred voice. "Well, it was s'posed to be." He pursed his lips, licked them, then pouted. "Wait...did...did, agh, my tongue...Joon, d'you spike it? My soda water. I can't believe you'd do that to me..."

"Y-...Yoongi?"

He spun his head around quickly.

"Ah, Jimin." A drunk, crooked smile slipped itself onto Yoongi's face. "Cute. Always so cute..." He breathed the softest of laughs and caressed Jimin's cheek. "Can you believe Joon? He's...I mean, I thought he was...y'know, a good guy, at least, kinda? But he went an' spiked my soda water. Uncalled for."

He scooted himself closer to Jimin, and before the latter realized it, Yoongi was clinging to him, once again humming but it hardly sounded like a real song anymore, just random noises. Jimin could feel as his face flushed with color, heart beating faster as Yoongi squeezed him even tighter. Everyone was watching. And that just made it a thousand times worse.

"Y-Yoongi, what are-"

"Sshhhh..." Yoongi pressed a finger to Jimin's lips. "Like I was saying, Joon's a freakin' jerk. I wanted plain ol' soda water...now look what he did...ugh, I feel weird..." With the arm he had wrapped around Jimin's back, Yoongi took hold of the boy's arm. "Honestly...you wouldn't do sumthin' like that, wouldja, Jimin? Nah. Nah, 'course not. You're an angel. Angel, my angel, Jimin...protect me from Joonie..."

Taehyung's jaw was on the floor. Jungkook felt himself blushing and he didn't know why. He could be teasing Jimin right now but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to. This was too shocking a scene.

"Namjoon," Hoseok whispered at some point, "just how strong was that drink??"

"I...have no idea." He swallowed his breath and glanced at Yoongi's empty glass. "It couldn't have been that bad. I guess he just has a really low tolerance..." His eyes drifted gradually over to his friend.

"Jimiiin...lay down, won't you?"

"Whoa, okay, now hold on there, Yoongs."

Jimin's shoulder was pushed gently back by Yoongi's hand until he was lying flat against the floor. And Yoongi just laid his head gently against Jimin's chest and closed his eyes.

"I feel like I'm invading their privacy by being here."

"Yeah, same. But can I just say that I love how Jimin is doing absolutely nothing to stop him."

"Hobi, sshh."

"What did I do??"

The main reason Jimin wasn't doing anything to stop Yoongi was because he couldn't process what was happening. Yoongi being drunk, for starters, and the careless, slurred words that drifted out of his lazy mouth, and...

"Heartbeat..."

A sleepy whisper. Yoongi draped one arm over Jimin's stomach. Taehyung audibly gasped. Eyes not moving from the two boys lying on the floor, he leaned over to Jungkook to whisper something in his ear, not realizing that Jungkook was doing the same exact thing. The two bumped heads - lightly, but it startled both of them and urged their gazes to be relocated.

"Ah, s-sorry," Taehyung blurted. Jungkook just laughed.

"It's fine. Were you going to say something?"

"I don't know, were you?"

"What?"

"...I forget."

"Something about Jimin and Yoongi maybe?"

A light bulb lit up above Tae's head. "Oh right! Jiminie." He swung his head around to look at his dear friend again. Jimin hadn't moved. But Taehyung could see the boy's eyes were still open, and even from across the table he could also see how red Jimin's face had become, and he thought of how conflicted his friend must have felt about the situation, and whether or not he should try to get Yoongi to move or just give in to his heart's innocent desires again and fall asleep with him.

"You think he's enjoying himself over there?"

"Jiminie would kill me if he heard me say this, but yes, probably immensely so."

"He likes Yoongi, doesn't he?"

It was somewhat of a spontaneous action, just as his hugging a rain-drenched Jungkook had been, but Tae felt the need to grab Jungkook by the wrist, bring him to his feet, and take him swiftly out to the kitchen where no one else was at the moment. There, he promptly pressed a finger to his own lips and whispered a harsh, Sshhh!"

Jungkook deadpanned for a second but then cracked a small smile of amusement. "Is it really that much of a secret, Tae?" He chuckled. "He does, right? It's not just an admiration thing. He actually likes him."

Now Taehyung was the conflicted one. Turning away from Jungkook, he folded his arms and thought deeply about the boy's question and considered that perhaps answering him honestly wouldn't be an issue. Perhaps it was as obvious as Jimin feared.

"Yeah." He sighed. "He does. Very much so. But you can't tell him I told you. I don't want Jiminie to be upset with me."

"I won't say a word to him. Or to Yoongi. I promise." As a way of 'sealing' that promise, Jungkook pretended to zip his lips shut, and he smiled, which in turn made Taehyung smile, too.

"Thanks. I know I can trust you."

"I do have a question, though," Jungkook added. "Why won't he say anything? Jimin, I mean. If he likes Yoongi so much then why doesn't he ask him out?"

Boy, that sure hits home. "He's scared, I think," Tae answered honestly, letting out a quiet breath. "It's not strange to be...he hasn't said it directly to me, but I'm sure he's afraid Yoongi doesn't feel the same, and that he's been misinterpreting things, and that Yoongi only sees him as a friend...you know, those kinds of doubts. I've been encouraging him along the way but truthfully I don't really know, either. Misunderstandings can be scary things..."

Jungkook didn't know what to say at first. Tae's voice had slipped into somewhat of an empathetic tone, smile having been replaced by a troubled expression. It puzzled Jungkook. And made him just a touch sad, too, though he didn't know why. Perhaps because he could relate to Taehyung's empathy, but also because he found it an upsetting thing that Tae empathized in the first place.

"For what it's worth, I'm rooting for him."

Taehyung looked Jungkook in the eye and found the boy smiling at him.

"As much as I tease Jimin, I do see him as a good friend. After all, he kinda forced me out of the antisocial bubble I'd slipped into at the start of college, introducing me to you guys and whatnot."

"I'm glad he did."

Something about the pure sincerity in Taehyung's voice, and the soft smile and his warm eyes and the way Tae looked at him...it made him blush. He wanted to look away, or at least cover his face so that he wouldn't be noticed, but all of sudden his embarrassment was overtaken by the realization that Taehyung had pretty eyes. Not just pretty, but calming, and that was probably the only thing that kept Jungkook's blush from deepening.

"So, uh...are you staying, Jungkook?" Tae asked after a few long seconds of silence had passed. "Namjoon said we could crash here for the night if we were too lazy to head home or whatever. I have a class early tomorrow morning, though, so I think I'm gonna head back soon."

"Me, too."

"You have a class tomorrow morning?"

"No, I mean I'm gonna head back soon. I'll go with you."

"Oh. Right. Of course."

A quiet giggle crawled up Jungkook's throat. "Although..." He began, "...are you gonna be leaving Jimin behind?"

"That depends," Tae laughed. "If he finds the strength to push that giant paperweight off himself."

"...so that's a 'yes', then."

"Yeah, pretty much."