Jungkook looked up at Taehyung with wet eyes.
"Just... touch it. Please. Maybe if you touch it, the pain will go away."
Taehyung stared at him. His heart was beating so fast. His mind was screaming at him to leave. To run. To close the door and never speak of this again.
But Jungkook was crying. He looked like he was hurting.
"Appa... please. It hurts so much."
Taehyung squeezed his eyes shut. He told himself this was just medical. Just helping his son. Nothing more.
He opened his eyes and reached out slowly. His fingers touched Jungkook's skin. Jungkook let out a shaky breath.
"That's it, appa. Just like that. See? The pressure helps."
Taehyung did not say anything. He kept his hand still. His face was burning. His whole body was tense.
"Move it. A little. Please," Jungkook whispered.
"Jungkook, I..."
"Please. It hurts."
Taehyung moved his hand slowly. He kept his eyes on the wall. He could not look at Jungkook's face. Not while doing this.
"A little faster, appa. Please. The pain won't stop if you go too slow."
Taehyung obeyed. His hand moved faster. His chest felt tight. Every cell in his body was telling him this was wrong. But the tears on Jungkook's face kept him rooted.
"Wait," Jungkook said suddenly.
"What?"
"I need you closer. When it's bad, the pressure in my stomach hurts too."
Taehyung did not understand. "What do you want me to do?"
"Sit between my legs, appa. Facing me. It'll be easier to help me that way."
Taehyung hesitated. He stared at Jungkook's face.
"Just move my legs, appa. Please."
Slowly, gently, as one touches a needy child, Taahyung lowered himself.
The sheets around them pushed cool and heavy.
Everything else in the room drifted away.
"Thank you," he breathed. And his breath wasn't the frightened hitch of relief Taehyung expected.
"It still hurts, here. Inside." Jungkook took Taehyung's free hand and pressed it against his taut lower belly
"I don't think—
Taehyung moved closer until he was sitting between Jungkook's spread legs.
"No. Closer."
"If you go further back anymore... up..."
"Doesn't help." Jungkook shifted a leg. It nudged Taehyung flat to a stop when it hooked him. "Need you nearer."
Taehyung crept up to him. Their legs intertwined.
"I like these hands the best, dad." Jungkook's grip slid low at those words. Pulled Taehyung tight against him by the waist. Front against front.
"Jungkook—"
"Shh." Jungkook's mouth was at Taehyung's ear. "You feel it? The pain is already getting better."
Taehyung felt it. The heat between them. Jungkook's skin against his. The hardness pressing into his stomach through the thin fabric of his sleep shirt.
He realized then how close they were. Too close. His legs were tangled with Jungkook's. His hands were on Jungkook's body. And the boy was holding him like he was something to keep.
"We should stop."
"It still hurts, appa." The whimper came back. Fragile. "You can feel it. It is still hard. Still painful."
Taehyung's face burned against his will. "This happens during... release. Your body needs to finish."
"But I can't. Every time I get close the pain gets worse. I think I need..." Jungkook's voice dipped. So soft it could break.
Taehyung felt the kiss before he understood it happened. Gentle pressure against his neck. Warm.
"Jungkook!" Taehyung yanked back.
But Jungkook kept his grip at his waist.
"Appa. You have medicine. You. You are my medicine." Each word trembled, sincere and filthy.
"A kiss won't fix anything!" Jungkook's forehead dropped to Taehyung's shoulder. His big arms secured him. "You heal me. Your smell. Your hands."
He nuzzled there slowly. Taking him in.
"Does Kookie know you're like this?" Jungkook murmured into the line of his throat. "No. Just Kookie when he wants to look young and hurt."
"But our Jung—" Taehyung started and then caught Jungkook's weight all by himself.
"Have an apple?"
A laugh punched out. Weak at his mistake.
But then he watched Jungkook sniff.
The boy was genuinely whimpering against his throat.
"Stop. Look at me." He pulled Jungkook by the chin. "Look at me."
Jungkook obeyed. Red eyes. Wet lashes. Lips trembling so naturally it looked real.
Taehyung moved first.
He went silent and leaned slowly into
"Help how?" he whispered to the skin. And that was enough for Taehyung
Because against his thigh...
He gave a deep quaky sigh the breath against the column of the small pulse and everything from Jungkook went
Fingers found Taehyung's sleep shirt.
The thin cotton gave at the neckline.
"Jungkook... not my clothes..."
"Please let me touch you." A sound punched out from Jungkook's mouth between hiccupping broken little noises. "Skin against skin helps the most. That is what healing is. Appa."
His neck felt cool.
Jungkook pulled from him.
The torn cotton pooled at Taehyung's shoulders.
He should have pulled it back up. Should have covered himself. Should have stood up and walked out.
But Jungkook was looking at him. Not crying anymore. Not whimpering. Just looking. Those dark eyes moving slowly. Taking in the exposed skin like it was something he had waited a very long time to see.
"You are so beautiful, appa."
"Don't say that." Taehyung's voice was thin.
"Why not? It's true." Jungkook's hands slid up Taehyung's sides. Warm palms flat against his ribs. His thumbs traced the curve of his chest.
Taehyung flinched. His breath caught. "Jungkook. We went too far already. This needs to stop."
"It will. Soon. Just let me..." Jungkook pressed his forehead against Taehyung's chest. Right in the center. Where the pain had been. The pain Taehyung felt every morning without knowing why.
Firm lips dragged against skin.
Taehyung did not move.
He knew every reason this was wrong.
Jungkook pulled the shirt higher and he could not make his hands push Jungkook away. Could have stood. Let the cotton fall.
Instead he let his shirt ride up under his arms and Jungkook was shaking now.
Not from pain. He moved his head and Taehyung was so startled when lips kissed the side of his chest that his hand came up
— and landed in Jungkook's soft dry hair.
Like gentle comfort a parent gives to a wounded thing.
And it was if the hand let some wordless permission break
because Jungkook moved all in sudden and pressed up his body along Taehyung and tumbled them both down
Taehyung ended up below him in one fluid motion and his knee landed between Taehyung and now Jungkook was above him but he had expected the tears again
All signs of his distress had slipped off like a mask tossed aside
And so his hands now gentle stroked along Jungkook
And it stayed when Taehyung could find no reason for Jungkook.
"You're so soft, appa."
"I am not soft," Taehyung retorted blindly then shut his lip. He had said that wrong, but before he could correct a leg slid home between his
"Mm appa says one true thing tonight."
In confusion, between Jungkook's grin
"Wh... Jungkook, no."
The word meant to fall sharply
But like Taehyung the legs slid.
At the edge
He pressed it at the neck opening and got another layer up: not a barrier anymore.
When those hot fingers smoothed over his bare stomach
The instinct that the night carried pulled against him so
