Predator | Taekook

Chapter 47

Chapter 47

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Jungkook had a hard time grasping that Taehyung had come back. It felt weird as he opened the door to his apartment for the first time in months to let Taehyung inside. And as if the awkwardness hadn't been enough, Jungkook had ended up having Taehyung's hand on his shoulder most of his way home because Taehyung was still just a little clumsy with his legs.

Jungkook really had been busy with other things back when he and Taehyung had met for the first time – one of those things being almost drowning – but now that he was looking back on it he was pretty sure that Taehyung had been a little unstable on his feet back then as well. It just hadn't been as obvious because Taehyung clearly had tried not to make it as obvious.

During the time Taehyung had been gone he had very likely mostly been at the bottom of the ocean. After all, that had been the whole point of him leaving.

"Hello, baby. Did you miss me? Do you see who is here?" Jungkook greeted Tuna as she joined them in the hallway. He could see Taehyung's head lift in confusion at Jungkook's tone and had to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing. Now that Taehyung was back he was going to have to stop talking to Tuna. After all he had another unresponding second party now.

He squatted down to pick Tuna up and kiss her nose before getting back up and carefully patting her small head. He could feel that she was a little more tense than usual, probably because they weren't alone anymore.

"Tae, I'm pretty sure you still remember Tuna, the pet you said you would take care of?" Jungkook wiggled his eyebrows. He couldn't stop himself from smiling when Taehyung grimaced a little. Jungkook wasn't even mad. That was probably the smallest out of all the sins Taehyung had committed that bothered him.

Honestly, the cat had been the one thing keeping Jungkook sane these last few months. Tuna and his television were the two things that had kept his apartment from being dead quiet.

"Wanna hold her again?" Jungkook asked, adjusting his hold on Tuna to make it easier to hand her to Taehyung if he wanted to. Taehyung nodded, his eyes surprisingly soft as he looked at the cat. Maybe he had missed her too. Maybe he had missed Jungkook... so far Jungkook had a hard time telling, but it was a nice thought. To imagine that Taehyung felt something like that towards him. Anything enough to make him miss Jungkook at least.

"Yes..." In a way Taehyung's speech felt a little more normal now. Less like he was thinking about every word. And it was weird that he felt that way after only a single yes, but in a way it had just seemed casual. He had answered Jungkook without even looking up from the cat in his arms.

"Alright." Jungkook lifted Tuna back up to hand her to Taehyung, but the second he did she started kicking her legs and mewling in protest. Jungkook hadn't ever seen her act that way around anyone really. Usually she was quite friendly with strangers. Especially with Taehyung, who she knew, and yet when Jungkook tried to hand her to Taehyung now she seemed anything but happy.

When he looked back up at Taehyung to decide on whether to still hand her to him he got a tiny, tiny bit worried. That was betrayal in Taehyung's eyes. Which was a little dramatic considering it was just a cat that had rejected being held by him, but Taehyung genuinely looked a little... annoyed to say the least. Jungkook didn't even get the chance to contemplate whether he should move away from Taehyung – of course with the cat – to make sure the siren wouldn't bite her head off, before Taehyung simply picked Tuna out of Jungkook's hands.

Tuna kicked and meowed – also just as overly dramatic as Taehyung, admittedly – and for a second Jungkook was a little scared for her. If Taehyung did decide to eat Tuna after all, how was Jungkook supposed to react? Kick Taehyung out and because of that lose the two only creatures in his life that kept him busy?

But to Jungkook's relief Taehyung decided not to bite Tuna's head off. No matter how much she scratched at his arms, trying to escape his hold. Instead, he held her tightly to stop her from escaping before pretty aggressively patting her head.

It was comedic, really. Taehyung looked so serious petting that cat that Jungkook had the strong urge to pull his phone from his pocket and take a photo, simply to capture the moment.

"It's probably because of how long you were gone." Jungkook was probably just adding fuel to the fire, but it was just too cute. Taehyung was very obviously annoyed that apparently his cat no longer liked him.

"Animals usually don't like me too much. Which is fair." Jungkook almost choked on his own spit. When he had said Taehyung felt like he was talking casually he had not meant like this. This was... almost like Taehyung was used to talking. Like this was entirely normal. Jungkook looked at Tuna, who was still biting and clawing at Taehyung's thumb, without even being able to draw the tiniest amount of blood.

"Why didn't she react like this the first time if that's normal?" Jungkook asked curiously. Taehyung was still adamantly petting the cat and after a while Tuna actually seemed to calm down. Maybe she realized that Taehyung wasn't a threat after all since he was holding her but not hurting her.

"Maybe because this is her territory now and I'm a threat? I honestly was confused the first time when she barely reacted." Taehyung lifted her up a little to look at her tiny face. Then he wrinkled his nose up in distaste. "I'm gone for a bit, and she just forgets me." He shook his head and Jungkook couldn't help laughing. Taehyung seemed a little more relaxed around him too. Maybe the break had done him well.

"Just means you can win her heart over from the start again." Jungkook joked, feeling way too light now that Taehyung was back. How could he feel this much better just because a scary person was back?

Taehyung looked up at him with the most judgmental face he had ever seen on him. "Didn't you say you would shower?"

"Do I stink that much?" Jungkook raised an eyebrow. Taehyung really seemed quite bothered by his scent even though Jungkook was pretty sure he'd had days, while Taehyung had been here the first time, he had smelled worse. But for some reason Taehyung was only complaining now.

"Yeah." Taehyung ran his hand over Tuna's head again, who had finally relaxed in his hold. Taehyung's hands were white, completely free from any hints of the vicious attacks of the cat just seconds before. For a second, he looked up at Jungkook. "You look weird too."

"Yeah yeah, alright. I'll shower now, so you can rest assured." This was a bit of a weird reunion to say the least, but Jungkook still appreciated that Taehyung was back. Especially since he seemed a little more willing to actually talk to Jungkook now.

"I'm coming with you." Taehyung dropped Tuna down on the floor before looking back at Jungkook.

Right... Jungkook had almost forgotten about that.

A/N

So I've somewhat decided that I'm going to update shorter chapters now. Not generally shorten what I write, but rather just split chapters when they can be split, but in exchange I'll update more frequently.

I think that might be fun especially because I can update more than once a week that way.

But of course there still will be longer chapters simply because some scenes are just long!