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Years, decades - Taehyung has spent a long time living with the guilt of the things he has offered. Thinking about all the things he has taken from his family with something as deceptively simple as Idunn's golden apples. He has spent years wondering if there is ever a way to know if he made the right choice - if they made the right choice.
But then Jeongguk doesn't call him.
Yoongi comes back and Taehyung stares at his phone as he worries and worries - like he's always been prone to do. He paces and paces and paces and his brothers gather in their home in response to the scorching footprints he leaves in his wake.
An hour goes by, and then two, and Taehyung turns to his brothers with a look of desperation.
'Don't worry,' Seokjin assures, and Taehyung trusts his words. Seokjin places a hand over his racing heart and Taehyung shudders as he feels the god's power spread, warming his body as it sinks into his chest. Searching for that string, that connection. The web that Seokjin sees. His domain.
Jeongguk comes to mind and Taehyung watches as Seokjin's brow furrows, turning to the large windows spread across the wall. Taehyung's eyes follow and he too focuses on the building in the distance, the spire reaching as if to pierce the sky. I have been there before, the god thinks, remembering a meeting in his distant past. It had been a simple restaurant decades before.
But he has been there before, and that sticks out to Taehyung.
'There he is,' Jimin murmurs and Taehyung is moving, magic swelling around them. Emerald flames rise up and Taehyung feels five hands grab at his clothes just as the room disappears in a swatch of darkness.
The flames dissipate to reveal the walls of the building's reception and Jimin stumbles, a hand reaching for the elevator. This way, he groans and Taehyung's heart aches. He's here - up, up, he urges. Jimin's other hand latches onto Taehyung's wrist and the world seems to right itself, like a ship breaking through the final waves of a storm. He's here, Jimin repeats, slapping the button for the top floor, and his eyes lift to the ceiling above them.
Searching for Taehyung's anchor.
Taehyung barrels out of the elevator the moment the doors swing open, his brothers tight at his back as they follow Jimin's directions. A god of direction through storms, steadiness. Bonds.
Then there is a scream, a crash, and Taehyung explodes.
Fire bursts from his body and one of his brothers hisses as the light inside of him burns hotter and hotter, brighter and brighter. The walls peel and crumble and Jimin is forced to let him go. There is a shriek, a 'what have you done!' that makes Taehyung's blood run cold, and he bursts through the cloud of dust and smoke.
His fire runs cold at the sight of blood, bursting back into life as his heart recognizes the slumped figure of his love across the floor.
Taehyung is on his knees with a blink, kneeling beside him. Blood soaks into his clothes as his hands cradle Jeongguk to his chest, a hand pushing Jeongguk's blond locks from his eyes. Blood is starting to drip from his mouth and Taehyung feels a cry build in his chest, whimpers falling from his own lips.
'Jeongguk,' he whispers, wide horrified eyes locked on the way his blood pulses from his wound with the beat of his heart.
Jeongguk's eyes curve in a smile, eyes hazy and unfocused and drifting to the side even as Hoseok drops to his knees beside them. Hoseok's hands press hard over the wound and the human jumps, cries, but has no strength to pull away. Golden light spills from between Hoseok's fingers but Taehyung does not know if this will be enough. Hoseok's domain is over healing and small mercies, a man of small miracles, but Taehyung does not know if this will be enough.
'Jeongguk', he whispers again and Jeongguk's lashes flutter. 'I am so sorry.'
'The apple, Tae,' Hoseok urges but Taehyung cannot tear his eyes from Jeongguk's face, cannot release his grip on the boy who is slipping through his fingers- 'Taehyung-!'
Jeongguk's lips move but Taehyung cannot hear his words, lips trembling as tears streak down his face.
He did this. He did this. He did this. He did this.
'I am so sorry,' Taehyung's blood runs cold, all senses tunneling, focusing - the voice continues, rambling, but Loki cannot hear him. He turns now and locks eyes with Baldr, vision barely obscured by the red locks that drape over his shoulders now and burn with the fire at his fingertips.
Baldr was always a golden child, and Loki's lip curls as he takes in the light of purity that leaks from his very pores. A braid of valor behind his ear, beads of wars won. Tattoos of strength and steadiness and luck and victory curling over his fingers and throat, gold hanging from his ears. 'I could not stop him in time, brother,' Baldr repeats and Loki now looks to his twin cowering beside him.
Hodr's bleak visage burns as Loki sees the red that stains his hands. Jeongguk's red. No tattoos, no jewels. A single braid in a mockery of his brothers, a desperate attempt of grasping for the love Baldr has always been freely given.
Nothing to adorn him but Jeongguk's blood drying on his hands.
'I will be gone but a moment, sweetheart,' Loki presses one last kiss to Jeongguk's forehead, watching as Hoseok curls over his body, his light growing until it engulfs them entirely. Jeongguk's eyes finally meet his own, lips parting as Loki rises.
'He fled Asgard to find you, brother,' Baldr continues to speak, unaware of Loki's inattention. 'You know Hodr has always craved recognition - you know how desperate he is for the All-Father's blessings!'
Yoongi moves without a word, eyes and fangs like the lionsblood that runs through his veins as he pins Hodr to the wall behind him. A blade of damascus steel digs into his shoulder, just a hair's breadth away from drawing blood. The Æsir shakes, lips parted around his cries as the god of blood and iron snarls. 'You bastard!' he snarls and Hodr only cries.
'Loki, Bróðir, I didn't-'
'Help Jeongguk, Yoongi,' Loki murmurs and in an instant Yoongi is rushing to Jeongguk's side, assisting the others.
Hodr's throat flexes under the grip Loki pulls him close with, tears dripping down his cheeks in a mirror of Loki's own horror. 'Bróðir,' he whimpers but Loki shushes him, a blade appearing in his hand. He cuts the fabric from Hodr's face, staring into the petrified eyes of the younger.
'Trial by fire, my kin,' Loki feels the chill of Hodr's skin fight the searing grip of Loki's palm. 'A heart for a heart seems fair, does it not?'
'I believe so,' Baldr whispers and Loki watches as Hodr shakes and cries in his hold.
Loki freezes as he feels Yoongi's curl around his own, the one gripping the blade. 'Don't,' his brother suddenly says breathlessly and Hodr's eyes grow wide.
'Yoongi...,'
'A lie,' the gladiator bites and Loki's heart stutters. 'Baldr is spinning lies. Jeongguk told me - Baldr forced his hand.'
'No!' Loki's eyes dart to where he stands wide eyed, fury building as the light that bleeds from his skin burns even hotter.
But Hodr nods, throat flexing in Loki's grasp. 'I would never,' Hodr gasps and Taehyung blinks, slowly releasing him. Hodr's hands dart out and grip at Taehyung's shirt, chest heaving with a gasp as he catches his breath. 'He would kill me if I disobeyed,' Hodr chokes out, 'I am imperfect, useless. A pawn. Loki, Bróðir, I would never-!'
'Ease,' Taehyung says quietly and Yoongi finally takes a step back. He looks down at the dagger in his hands. 'I cannot atone for what I almost did, Hodr.'
'You cannot believe him!' Baldr now shrieks-
But the god of ice and winter and darkness shakes his head. The god of imperfection and discord, the god of warriors, gently takes the dagger from Taehyung's hands. 'You have done nothing wrong,' he says, and Taehyung watches wide eyed as a soft, blue light envelops the blade. 'However, if you must,' milky eyes rise and Taehyung finds his own hand reaching for Hodr's, 'guide my hand?'
The twins burst with fire and ice and Taehyung nearly tumbles to the floor if not for Yoongi's grip on his shoulders, the familiar grasp of Jimin's hand at his waist. There's shout and Taehyung doesn't think, lifting Hodr's hand and throwing-
Baldr stumbles in his sprint towards the windows, the fury of the sun bursting from his body, singing the carpet and burning spots in Taehyung's vision-
Hodr screams, a javelin of ice propelling the blade through the air-
Taehyung spots a smear of blood along the handle and his own magic pushes, emeralds and life and fire cutting through the air-
The blade sinks deep into Baldr's back and his scream shakes the room, no doubt shaking the very foundations of Asgard itself.
Flowers bloom from his blood, tiny sprigs of green and white berries growing at a rapid pace. Taehyung feels his own magic drain as it unknowingly fuels the plant.
'Mistletoe,' Hodr gasps and his pale skin glows almost blue in the light, the veins under his eyes more pronounced than ever. 'The only thing Móðir could not convince.'
Taehyung is given no chance to ponder Baldr's cooling body, the leaves now encompassing his torso in entirety, as another yell reaches his ears.
Hoseok looks up with exhausted eyes, skin pasty from overexertion, 'Tae, we can't-,'
'The apple!' Namjoon shouts and Taehyung's throat constricts, legs carrying him to Jeongguk's limp body. His love's chest rises and falls so slowly, frost melting at the edges of his clothes, steam lifting from his singed boot soles. Blood cakes his chest and hands, crusted under his nails. Hoseok's sleeves are soaked and Taehyung fights back a gag, dropping to his knees yet again. 'He needs the apple - you know this!'
There was not a source in this world Taehyung could trust more than Namjoon - not knowing the depths of his domain, his knowledge. Knowing the unfathomable depth of his wisdom and love.
'I can't,' Taehyung's voice catches as Jeongguk's heavy eyes meet his, lips almost blue from the blood lost, 'sweetheart, I-,' the seed appears in his hand, pulled from the dimension only he can reach, and Jeongguk slowly, so slowly, reaching for it.
It grows in his palm in the blink of an eye, manipulated by his magic, and Taehyung chokes on his sob as Jeongguk's lips part.
'I want it,' he rasps, and it is the last words he speaks.
The last words of a human, the last words of the thief who had stolen Taehyung's heart and swore to never give it back.
The first words of the god born in Taehyung's arms, blood stained teeth tearing into the apple's flesh until nothing but the core remains.
The first words of a leap of faith, of a sacrifice.
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