The Hybrid Whisperer KTH+JJK

Ten

"Don't overthink it, Guk. Just say it." He sighed, closing his eyes and reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "You know I won't make fun of you. If I don't understand, I'll ask."

"Ok, um, if I gave you my shirt you'd smell like me." He began hesitantly.

"Mmhmm?" Tae hummed in encouragement. "Isn't that what you want?"

"Yes, but it's different on your skin." He looked away and down, gaze focused on the carpeted floor to beside the bed. The hand still planted on his chest was now drawing nervous patterns on his sensitive skin with a blunted claw. Making him want to shiver.

"Different how?" He pressed, keeping his voice calm and neutral with difficulty.

He fought the urge to roll Jeongguk off him and cover himself. Usually he was able to ignore his physical attraction to Jeongguk. The boy was such a handful that he spent most of their time together trying to walk that delicate balance between protecting Jeongguk's obvious emotional fragility while keeping a firm reign on his mutinous attitude. Now, with Jeongguk's muscular thighs gripping his hips, the weight of him both comfortingly familiar and excitingly alien, he was reminded of just how attractive Jeongguk was. How hard and masculine his body was beneath the concealing bulk of his baggy shirts and sweats. How pretty his face was, with the innocent softness of his wide brown eyes and the perfect cupids bow of his little pink mouth. How silken and warm his skin was under his hands.

He'd only ever been this close and vulnerable with one other person and the mere memory of him made Taehyung's chest constrict in rising panic. He closed his eyes and clenched his fists, fighting for control of his traitorous body.

"I think you should get off." He whispered shakily.

"No!" He heard the slight edge of panic in Jeongguk's shouted denial. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you." He promised. "It's hard for me to explain, is all. It's like... Ok. So when I scent your skin it changes the smell. You don't smell like me exactly but you don't smell like you anymore either. It's an us smell."

"Does that really matter?" He asked. "This seems needlessly intimate." He admitted honestly.

"It tells people you're mine. But also that I'm yours? Like we belong to each other." Jeongguk tried to explain.

Taehyung blinked, his discomfort increasing. "Guk, that's not the kind of relationship we have. I'm fond of you, but we're not a together, you know that, right?" He clarified gently.

"Not like that! I mean, sometimes like that, but not always like that. It's hard to explain. It's like you're a part of my family. But not exactly. Like you belong in my home?" His face twisted with frustration. "I scent things that belong to me, but I mix scents to make you part of my herd."

"Like a nest mate?" Taehyung offered, drawing on his knowledge of rabbits.

"Yes!" Jeongguk's eyes lit up at his understanding.

"You want me to be your nest mate?" Taehyung asked, his voice deep and thick with emotion.

Jeongguk looked away, self-consciously. "I don't have anyone else, Tae." He whispered. "No one else wants me."

"Oh, bun." He whispered, his heart clenching at the words. He reached up to wind his arms around the lonely boy's neck, pulling him down to the crook of his neck. "You can have me and I'll have you, ok?" He promised, falling back down on the bed with Jeongguk gripped tightly in his embrace.

Jeongguk nodded shakily, his hands curling against Taehyung's chest as he began gently kneading, his blunted claws flexing and retracting.

Taehyung endured the procedure as best he could, but his skin was starved for touch, hot and responsive to even the lightest of touches. He kept his hands relaxed and gentle in Jeongguk's hair as he nuzzled around his face, resisting the desire to tighten his hands into fists and guide his perfect pink mouth to roughly meet his own. He didn't shift and arch when that cheek slid across his chest, and swallowed his moan when those kneading hands brushed a sensitive nipple. He willed his hips to stillness when arousal punched through him, ignoring the urge to rut and grind when he felt Jeongguk's own arousal press down on him.