AFFINITY.

forty-two

Taehyung woke up slowly, his eyes blinking open as he focused on the leaves above him. He frowned a little. He didn't remember falling asleep. He had went into the garden to study for his exam, deciding that the slightly chilly autumn air would be the best thing to clear his head.

Above him Doris' leaves flickered in a million shades of red, yellow and brow.

"You're awake," Yoongi said and Taehyung leaned his head back to look at the man he loved sitting next to him, so close Taehyung could feel the warmth of Yoongi's thigh against the top of his head.

"Hi, love," Taehyung breathed, not being able to stop himself from smiling. He might be a smitten idiot, but he swore Yoongi got even prettier every time he saw him. At the use of Taehyung's new nickname Yoongi's cheeks got a little red. After Yoongi had confessed he'd never had a proper nickname before Taehyung had decided to give him one.

The face Yoongi had made the first time he called him 'love' for the first time had been priceless.

"Weren't you supposed to study?" Yoongi smiled, hand reaching down to stoke Taehyung's cheek.

"Whoops," Taehyung grinned loving how Yoongi just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Pressing his feet against the root besides him, Taehyung pushed himself forward, casually sliding into Yoongi's lap. Yoongi's cheeks got a little more pink, but other than that he didn't say anything. He simply began to play with Taehyung's hair.

"What are you doing out here?" Taehyung asked, blinking lazily as Yoongi's fingers drifted over his scalp. He loved when Yoongi caressed him. "I thought you had to look through the books," he said, clearly remembering Yoongi saying something about this morning before he went to look after the shop. While they had hired a nice little earth elemental girl to take care of the shop most days, Yoongi still preffered to be there in the mornings. Taehyung knew it was because Yoongi prefered to take care of his own regular customers.

"Namjoon beat me to it," Yoongi muttered, sounding a little sour. Taehyung couldn't help but smile. Ever since they all started to help out, ensuring that Yoongi wasn't left with all the work of the garden on his own Namjoon and Yoongi had been having a secret race about who got to do the accounting for the month.

So far Namjoon was in the lead.

"Well, I'm glad you came to see me now your afternoon cleared up," Taehyung grinned, closing his eyes in pleasure as Yoongi found an especially good place to scratch.

"I'm mostly here to make sure Namjoon doesn't over water my garden," Yoongi scuffed. Thayung frowned, opening his eyes to look around. Only now did he notice the sphere of clear water hanging over his head, shielding him from the pouring rain on the other side. Above them the clouds were deep grey, the rain hammering rhythmically against the earth just a few meters from Taehyung.

But Yoongi's magic was keeping them both dry.

His heart made an odd flip. Of course Yoongi would come out to find Taehyung, using the excuse of nagging Namjoon to keep Taehyung dry. Taehyung smiled wider, his whole chest feeling warm. Yoongi was hopeless.

Tahyung loved him.

"I'm glad. I love when I get to have more time with you," Taehyung said, knowing that Yoongi would get embarrassed if he pointed out that it was really romantic being kept dry like this. Taehyung reached up, fondling a little with the open collar of Yoongi's shirt. He didn't miss the charms. He had noticed immediately when Yoongi didn't put the charms back on, but he hadn't said anything. Taehyung was just glad Yoongi seemed to finally be beginning to accept his own magic.

Besides now you could see the little vial of river stones and the medallion from Yoongi's grandmother a lot better. Taehyung poked at the little burned out charm Yoongi had kept, now hanging from a silver chain. Taehyung's knew it was a reminder about that night he lost control and almost hurt Taehyung. A promise Yoongi had made to himself that he wasn't about to ever lose control like that again.