****
They travel the world for years, he and Yoongi. Side by side, brothers in arms. Family in all but blood.
Taehyung is familiar with the cold distance that comes with unwanted relatives, but he feels nothing like that with his newfound companion. Even after they pass their first decade together there is no awkwardness, no tension. Nothing but comfort and solidarity and a sense of love that Taehyung has never experienced before.
He keeps it to himself for a long time- the gratitude he feels. The joy Yoongi's presence brings him. He lets the challenge of their daily life push him forward, distracting him.
It became quickly apparent that Yoongi could not read or write, and Taehyung did not think twice to offer up his knowledge. The gladiator is a quick study and is adorably eager to learn, their nights filled with lighthearted lessons around campfires and wrapped in blankets under the stars. Their days are just as educational, filled with swordplay and verbal jabs.
Taehyung was not a master swordsman in Asgard, but his skills were nothing to scoff at. A blade is a blade, he tells Yoongi, what truly matters is the weight and your physical strength. So he walks Yoongi through the slow steps of the training he had gone through as a boy, miming the sharp swipes of an invisible blade and offering himself as a willing victim to Yoongi's practices.
The Æsir have abandoned him, and he them, but perhaps their teachings shall come in handy to keep those he cares for, safe.
And it is years later, when Yoongi makes good on his promise to take his teachings to heart. When they approach their twentieth year together. When 'Taehyung' reveals his immortality. His godhood. His familial connections and his emotional betrayals.
He lays it all out, and then he offers Yoongi a choice in the form of a golden apple.
He respects Yoongi to a degree he has never felt towards another being, and he tells him so. Taehyung knows he won't take it, but he offers it regardless. Taehyung knows that he is not a being worth the torture that comes with immortality, that he could never wish to spend his eternity with a liar, a thief, a -
He stares as Yoongi takes a bite, face scrunching at the taste.
'Not very good is it?' Yoongi asks as he chokes over the next bite. 'Couldn't have been something I actually enjoy?'
Tears are in his eyes, threatening to spill over his sunburnt cheeks, but he holds them at bay for now. Taehyung only laughs in disbelief and says he'll look harder next time.
The rest of their days alone are astonishingly easy. They spend centuries together, growing closer than he ever knew brothers could be - his own experience filled with betrayal and ego.
The warrior is determined to protect him, he says. Not as his master, but as his friend, as family. And so he does, keeping him from the front line of battles they stumble upon, clan disputes they accidentally cause, even a street fight of children.
Weeks, months, years, centuries. A millenia passes- and then some.
It isn't until they find themselves surrounded by a band of outcasts they've gathered, staring into the face of an imperial army, that they truly find themselves in the midst of war.
Of course they had seen it on the horizon, the countries around them vying for control over land they couldn't control. The soldiers traveling from border to border, and weapons that seem to be on every able body they pass. They even dodge a few, skirting around the edges of battles that end in nothing but bloodshed.
But now, it seems, they have finally found a fight they cannot dodge.
And it is here they meet Namjoon, just as he gets a blade to the chest.
****