Locomotive 🚉 BTS AU | Park Jimin (On Hold)

Ch 1: off the beaten track

The small child ran in the dizzying haze of faces that peered down from above. He raced in search of a known face in this cacophony of intimating unfamiliarity, but no matter how far or long he ventured he was unable to find his father.

Separated from the cold outside world by layers of metal and glass, he chose to tuck himself away in a corner of one of the carriages, wanting to stay warm and remembering a lesson his grandfather had taught him long ago.

"Stay put," he had said, "if you are ever lost just stay put and we we will come to find you".

At the time he had been crouched down before him, a stern look on his face to detail the serious nature of his words, before he smiled looking between the small boy and his loving wife.

But he wasn't with his grandparents today. His father had come just this week to pick him up from his extended stay with them. He had been in their care for so long that he had almost forgotten the faces of his own parents, recognizing his dad only from one of the many photographs that he had been shown.

The man had come then to take his son back with him, no longer needing to rely on the aid of his parents to care for his only child now that he and his wife had established themselves and secured their lives in the big city up north.

So now, the boy was away from the two family members of which he had grown the closest. Scared and alone he wondered if his father would be able to find him, to find a child he barley knew. Wondered if he would ever see his family again.

As he sat, tucked away in the corner of this great metal machine, tears began to roll down the soft skin of his cheeks, staining them as his eyes reddened with emotion.

He waited. Waited for what felt like hours to the little boy. His fear heighted his senses and set his mind into a state of anxiety, submerging itself into the dark, empty stream of dissociation in attempt to save his panicked heart.

Then, from nowhere, a small light appeared in his soul, soothing his heart into a gentle rhythem and guiding his mind back from the depths as he once again found himself aware of his place in the train.

He looked about, peering from above his knees, the two legs held tightly to his little chest by the desperate hold of thin arms. Again, he saw a blur of unknown faces, but this time the feeling of fear wasn't drowning him and through the sadness and desire for his family's hold he felt a curiosity, a calling to whatever it was that calmed his soul.

Soon his teary eyes found him. A boy who looked around almost desperately as he held onto the hand of a man.

When this child's wide and panicked eyes met with the shaken pair before him, he dashed forth through the crowd of people to meet the lone boy.

He crouched gently upon the floor beside him, placing a hand upon his small back as he leaned in closer.

◇◇◇

At the man's abrupt loss of his son, the small hand's instant departure from his own caloused but gentle hold spurs him and his beta to rush through the filling carrage.

They reach the small pair, the unkown boy sitting with legs tucked under himself as he cries in a corner. Their own crouching over him protectivly as his warm fingers work to thumb tears away. As his hand gently caresses the soft cheeks, his other appendage moves to take hold of the boy's weak hand.

The men sigh in relief as they draw near and the boy turns up to glance pleadingly at his father, "he is lost. Can I help him?"

His father instantly nods but as the boy turns away he checks his watch worriedly, eyes briefly meeting those of his comrade.