"Tae," you gasped as he squeezed you. When he finally let go, you shook your head. "Missed me already?" you asked. He nodded and let you in. "Cute."
"Says the one who hasn't even been married for a day and is already back." You rolled your eyes and smiled.
"Oh, shut up." Your eyes landed on the few bottles scattering the coffee table. "Don't tell me you drank all of that last night." He scratched the back of his head.
"I missed you?" he guessed as you picked them up to take to the trash.
"Are you still feeling hungover?" He shook his head a little before nodding. You raised an eyebrow.
"I'm feeling fine, y/n-- my head hurts a bit, that's all."
You pushed him to the couch and he chuckled, running a hand through the mess he called his hair. "I think it's time you found a girlfriend to take care of your drunk self." He rolled his eyes.
"This is what you came for?" You smiled, handing him a pill to take to make him feel better with a glass of water.
"I missed you." He smiled. "Don't you have work in a bit?" He nodded, chugging the water. He wiped his chin.
"I do-- I was gonna take a nap but you've interrupted." You smiled.
"A nap when you probably woke up an hour ago?" He gave you a grin and you shook your head as you sat on the couch. He sighed.
"Why aren't you at the palace?" You shrugged.
"I got bored."
"Where's Yoongi?" You shrugged again. "Did you walk here?" You nodded.
"I was gonna ask Jimin to get me a carriage or something but I couldn't find him so I just walked." Taehyung nodded.
"He's treating you okay?" You raised an eyebrow.
"Jimin?" Taehyung shook his head. "Oh." Yoongi.
"Is he?"
"It's been a day," you sighed, "what much is there for him to do?" Tahyung shrugged.
"Has he been nice?" He hadn't been mean. You nodded. "Has he talked to you?"
Don't touch those.
The bacon.
You nodded. "Yeah." Taehyung smiled.
"Did you sleep well?" You looked up quickly. He groaned. "No-- I don't want to hear about that; did you sleep well?"
It'll hurt your back."
"Yeah." He smiled and you smiled back. "Headache any better?"
"Maybe if you made me lunch?" You rolled your eyes and stood. "And some milk would be nice, pumpkin."
"Oh shut up and get ready for work."
---
"You good walking home alone?" You frowned at the word home. "Your new home," he said, correcting himself. You sighed and nodded.
"This is will always be home," you said, gesturing to the house. He smiled and kissed you on the cheek.
"Lock the door on the way out?" You nodded and waved bye as he headed down the street, turning back a few times as you waved.
You headed home soon after Taehyung had left. You decided to get a few of your extra old dresses to tear up; you needed something to do. Maybe you could set up your sewing stuff somewhere and get started on that. You'd talk to him about that.
Soon.
Eventually.
Now that you've walked back and forth from the house and the palace a few times, you were pretty used to it. You wouldn't really need a carriage unless it was an emergency or anything.
You met up with Jimin and Jungkook during tea that afternoon, just to talk. You had nothing to do and when you'd ran into them bickering in the corridor of the east wing, you'd decided to break up their fight with an offer of tea (banana milk for one) and some cookies you'd been able to try earlier.
Jungkook offered that the two of you (Jimin invited himself) have tea every day from then. And of course, you'd agreed-- you had nothing better to do and they were always free during that time. And since neither of them had enough time to go home and back, they ended up arguing and fighting until they were called back to duty.
You spent the time until dinner organizing your threads and needles by colour and size. While you'd once thought that maybe living in the palace would allow you to get more of the stuff you wanted, you now felt awkward asking for anything.
You'd make do with what you had.
Then dinner rolled around and Yoongi was missing once again. This time, however, so was Namjoon. N/W explained over sushi (she had to have a vegetarian version that she wasn't enjoying so much) that the men were at one of the conferences that took place at the beginning of each month.
This made you feel better about the absence of your husband and you and n/w spent much longer than it took to eat sushi talking about her baby, your brother that she, too, found oh-so-handsome, and what you'd done all day.
"He didn't show you around?" You put on a smile and shook your head.
"It's okay; he was busy I'm sure." N/W sighed.
"He's been closed off since I met him a few years ago." You smiled, leaning in.
"How did you meet the pri-- Namjoon?" N/W grinned.
"It was love at first sight." Of course it was. "I was with my brother-- Seokjin?" You laughed at the memory of his daughter. She nodded. "Exactly who you're thinking of."
You laughed even harder. "Your niece is super cute."
"She is-- isn't she? She's pretty excited for a cousin." N/W looked down at her stomach and sighed. "Anyway, what was I saying?"
"You were with your brother..."
"Yes-- so I was with him at a plant shop, greenhouse-- I'm not sure-- not far from here, and Joon walked in. And we aren't royalty-- not really, we have some royal blood in us and we're pretty close with our cousins who happen to be princes and princesses of the kingdom we come from but not us ourselves, right?" You nodded, taking a sip of your water. "And we were in this kingdom here with our cousins-- perhaps they were attending the same conference the boys are at today, I can't remember. And there he was."
"You saw him at the conference?"
"No, no, it was early in the afternoon and I'd asked Jin to take me to a flower shop and we ended up in a greenhouse with a lot of plants and he was looking at some trees." You smiled. "He was really cute, and then I, of course, wanted the same exact plant he was looking at." You laughed.
"What was it called?"
"Who the hell knows-- some plum tree." You laughed. "And he looked quite shocked to see me, eyebrows raised and whatever and that's where it all began."
"That's cute," you said with a smile. She nodded.
"And you with Yoongi?" Your eyebrows raised.
"We met at the ball." She smiled.
"How'd you meet meet?" You shrugged.
"He came and asked me to dance and I said yes, I guess." She smiled. "Nothing real exciting happened."
"Well, we both married princes-- that's pretty exciting." You nodded and gave her a small smile as you both finally cleared your plate. "Done?"
"You?" She nodded.
"I was going to wait for him to get home but I am way too tired," she sighed, standing. A maid rushed to her side. "Upstairs, Marie." She nodded and you waved as the table was cleared. You looked around.
You decided to go for a walk.
Inside of the palace, of course. It was way too dark and there was no way you were risking running into Yoongi in the courtyards when he returned home. You'd just have to face him when he came into sleep. That is, if he came in.
You walked for a long time, still having left so much more of the palace to explore. You'd made your way through the east and north wings, left and south free to roam. You'd also ended up at the kitchen earlier in the day-- hence the cookies you were allowed to try prior to tea.
When you returned to your bedroom, you hadn't expected him to already be home. And it was as if he'd forgotten that he'd married you because he hadn't expected you to walk in either.
"Shit," he grumbled. You gasped as he set the boiling water down, waving his hand over the mess in an attempt to-- cool it down?
"I'm sorry," you gasped, looking around to see what he was doing. He shook his head and set it all down, taking a step back as he headed to the towel for a rag.
When he returned you looked to his dresser, where he'd been using the water. "Are you-- are you making tea?" you asked. He didn't respond as he tried to blot the water from the table you neared him, closing the door behind you. "I can help," you muttered, taking the rag away from his hands.
He let you and watched as you blotted up the water. You frowned, touching the water on the dresser. "This isn't that hot," you whispered. He frowned and you wiped it all away, taking the cloth to the bathroom to wring out. He was standing where you left him when you returned, hands clean.
"Did you boil this?" When he didn't respond you looked up at him. He nodded. "But it isn't-- boiled." He frowned.
"It was." You set the kettle back down and sighed.
"You could've asked someone to make you tea-- they'd do that for you, ri--"
"No." He took the kettle back from you, fingers brushing, and set it back down. You took a step back as he pulled a familiar little bag from the top drawer. You blinked as he dropped a pinch of the mixture into the mug he had and added water.
"The water needs to be boiled," you whispered. "Or else the tea won't steep as well." He stared at you. You took the kettle from the dresser. "'I'll be back."
You headed downstairs and poked your head into the kitchen. Only one chef was left and he was washing dishes. "Hello," you said, bowing your head. He bowed properly to you, hands wet from the sink.
"Your highness, what can I do for you?"
"Could I get some hot water?" He nodded, drying his hands off quickly. He took your kettle and smiled, looking at it.
"Your majesty-- I think this one's broken." You frowned.
"Really?" He nodded and took another. "Oh."
"We already have boiled water-- would you like me to boil it once more?" You shook your head.
"As long as it's hot." He nodded and poured it into a glass jug for you.
"If you need another kettle we could get one to you in the morning." You smiled.
"I'll let you know." He nodded and you thanked him, wishing him goodnight before carefully heading back up the stairs.
Approaching your bedroom door, you swallowed and took in a deep breath. He turned around at the sound of the door opening. "I got water," you whispered. You took his mug and shook your head as you went to dump it out in the bathroom sink.
"That--"
"You need more tea leaves than that," you murmured, adding a bit more than before when you returned. Then you poured the water in as he stared. You turned, holding the mug. He stared at you. "Here."
He took it and frowned as he took it to the couch. You waited and rocked on your feet. When he didn't say anything at all, you headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. It was only then that you realized you hadn't showered.
You sure as hell weren't going to do that with him a room over.
Deciding to shower early in the morning, you brushed your teeth, changed and headed back into the room. He was staring at some parchment, sipping his tea as you walked to the bed. You sighed, looking at the missing pillow.
"Are you sleeping?" you asked. He didn't lookup. "Shall I turn off the light?" He didn't say anything again and so you just slipped into bed, staring at the ceiling.
You laid there for a while before sitting up again. He was writing in what looked like a notebook now, tea half done. Your tea. Your tea that you'd given him.
It'd lasted him so long. You smiled to yourself.
Probably because of how little he'd been using.
When his hand stopped moving across the page, you fell back into bed with a gulp. He turned back to look at you and you shut your eyes tight. Gosh, that was so creepy of you; to be staring at him like that.
He stood up and you opened one eye to see him get up. He turned the light off and looked over at you. You shut your eye but were almost sure he'd seen you. He headed to his dresser but you couldn't see what he was doing.
He returned to the couch and a flicker of light presented itself back as he lit a candle to continue writing what he had been before. You looked up and he turned a little, looking at you the slightest over his shoulder. You weren't sure if he could see you or not but you smiled anyway.
"Thanks," he whispered. You frowned, not knowing whether or not to respond. You chose the former.
"For what?"
"The tea."