Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down | TK

25 | Memories

"What are you talking about? I would love to start a family with you! To have little pups running around the house and calling you daddy." Then Taehyung opened his mouth and began to laugh full out. A clean pure sound, so unlike his usual cynical chuckle. Soojin felt the tightness in his chest loosen. Soon, they were both laughing so hard that the alpha felt tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. Looking at the omega, pure childlike humor on his face, the alpha saw him as he might have looked, had he grown up away from the lonely hardship of the forest.

"Should I assume you've been thinking about it, too?" Soojin asked, it was a soft whisper, so close and trapped between their lips with little-to-no space remained. Taehyung was trying not to smile like an idiot, he really did try to kiss his mate, but he couldn't stop the grin that morphed on his face.

"Ever since we mated." Was his only answer, admiring the alpha. It was evident how taken he was by the illustration of him like this - vibrant smile against his pale complexion and brown locks.

Taehyung would be lying if he said he wasn't completely and utterly feeling over the moon right now.

The alpha chuckled at this; the sound was like pebbles in a lake. You could hear them resonating throughout, calming your soul. He wrapped his arms tightly around the omega's small frame and hugged him.

In Soojin's embrace the world stopped still on its axis. There was no time, no wind, no rain. Taehyung's mind was at peace. How could it be that he hadn't seen the alpha's love for what it was before? Pure. Unselfish. Undemanding. Free. He felt his body press in, soft and warm. This was the love he had waited for, prayed for. Taehyung inwardly thanked God and hugged all the tighter. A love like this was to be cherished for life. Finally, he was home.

***

Taehyung knew something was wrong when the first wave of anxiety washed over his body. He nearly dropped down the book he was holding, one hand reaching out to cup the mate mark on his neck. It was weird, never had he felt this distressed and panicked.

His mate had been out for over two hours now. Usually, the omega wouldn't mind if Soojin wasn't around, after all he knew how much his mate loved to go out for a run in the forest. But now he wished for him to be here, safe and under his look.

Things didn't stop only there and after ten minutes Taehyung grew extremely worried. The foreboding made the omega feel pretty sick, as if the entirety of his innards could just leap from his body at any given moment.

He couldn't just ignore the unsettling feeling in his guts and decided to go out and search for his mate. The clouds were the kind of grey that would make any quarry rock proud, as if they were so pleased to echo the earth. All the grey, all that swirling water in the sky, condensation was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

The trees were veiled in the lightest of mists, their trunks sombre brown with sable cracks that gnarled the bark. As his eye traveled to the edge of the woodland, they became silhouettes against a blanket of white, as if it was only daylight where he stood, as if he was encircled by twilight.

The omega didn't bother to shift in his wolf form, preferring to wander around the forest as a human. He wrapped his cloak tightly around his shivering frame to protect himself from the harsh winds, despite the fact it was the middle of the summer, the weather was freezingly cold.

The dark woods stood as noble black knights, fresh from the fields of legend. The footpath was rutted, the soft mud had dried in the first heat of the new season, leaving casts of every shoe. Taehyung picked his way over with care, mindful of what a twisted ankle would mean to the rest of his journey.