At breakfast the following morning, Yoongi was on the lookout. Someone had to be responsible for what had happened the night before, and the evident surprise the Dauntless leaders were displaying at seeing him enter the hall completely unharmed was... well. Satisfying. He met their gaze unflinchingly, before turning away to speak to Hoseok.
"The looks on their faces almost makes it worth it."
"You almost died, hyung," Hoseok muttered, as the two of them weaved through the tables towards their usual spot. "Not worth. Not at all."
"Aw, come on, I'm fine now."
"Don't ever do that to me again," he replied, with a small chuckle. "You scared me."
"Sorry. Hey, look."
Yoongi had caught sight of a few members of the army who looked pretty battered and bruised, and he gestured towards them. Hoseok followed his gaze, and smirked.
"You think they're your guys?"
"Has to be," he responded, before his eyes wandered towards the head of the army, who was watching him in thinly veiled confusion. "What's ironic is Subin is completely fine. Guess he sent his subordinates to do the dirty work."
"He'll be thankful he did, by the looks of it," Hoseok chuckled, as he followed his friend's gaze over to the head of the army.
"Right? Tayeon did a number on all of them. Imagine flattening five guys in one go. Five of the strongest from the army, no less. Damn."
Hoseok glanced at him in amusement.
"You're already proud of her," he stated.
"Aren't you? She might have been out of control, but she had to be giving it some sort of direction. That wasn't just an explosion of power, or it would have knocked me out as well."
"I never thought of it that way," Hoseok mused.
The two of them reached their table and sat down, greeting Jimin, Taehyung, Jin, and Jungkook who were already seated there.
"Morning," said Jungkook, smiling sleepily at the two of them, whilst the others echoed him. "We kept you breakfast, since you're kinda late."
"Don't tell me you slept in, Yoongi," said Jin, raising an eyebrow at him. "Dreadful behaviour."
Yoongi was of the opinion that he had every right to sleep in, considering what time he'd gone to bed the night before, but he said nothing, merely grinned at Jin.
"Let him enjoy it, hyung," Tae complained. "We get one morning off training a week. He'll be waking us up at the crack of dawn again tomorrow."
"With a hammer against the water pipes," Jimin added. "I'm gonna have nightmares about that for years, you know."
"It's nothing the rest of us haven't gone through, and you know it," Hoseok told him.
Taehyung departed to get coffee, and Hoseok took advantage of his absence to make the fruit and bacon strips on his plate appear somewhat more appetising, the soft green light emanating from his fingertips infusing with the food and making it look much fresher.
"Hyung are you crazy?" Jimin hissed at him. "Taehyung was right here!"
"You need to tell him, Jimin, if you don't want us to," said Yoongi, eying the young initiate. "Be reasonable. If you think he's Divergent, better he finds out now than when he's being shot at because of it."
"Zero to one hundred real quick," Jin raised an eyebrow. "Can we not talk about my little brother being shot? Thank you."
"If he's even half as difficult to deal with as you were, I've got a problem on my hands," Yoongi shook his head at his hyung. "You do remember your initiation, don't you?"
"Of course I remember it," Jin rolled his eyes. "Of all the traumatic experiences I've been through, my top three are breaking my leg as a six year old, high school, and initiation. In that order."
"You are the most dramatic person I know," Taehyung spoke from behind him, grinning at his brother. "And that's also a complete lie, you loved high school."
He sat down between Jimin and Jin once again, wrapping both hands around his mug of steaming coffee. When he looked up, he realised every single one of them was looking at him, and he raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"What?"
Yoongi shook his head, clearing his thoughts.
"Don't you hate coffee, Tae?" He asked.
"Yah, that concoction he's drinking looks so bland it can hardly be called coffee," said Jin.
"I do hate it," said Tae, ignoring his brother, "But I genuinely need the caffeine after the night I had," he glared pointedly at Jimin. "Someone decided not to show up at the initiate dorm until two in the morning, I was more than a little concerned."
"I'm sorry for not telling you," Jimin pouted at him. "I told you, we lost track of time."
Taehyung shook his head.
"Jimin, I adore you, I really do, and you don't have to hide things from me. Besides, I think it's cute."
"What's cute?" Asked Jungkook, glancing between them curiously.
"Have you not seen Jimin and Tayeon? They literally cannot take their eyes off one another."
"Is Tayeon an initiate?" Jin wanted to know.
"She is," Jimin rolled his eyes at Taehyung. "Just let whatever's gonna happen, happen, Tae, I'm begging you. Don't try to set us up or something, please!"
"Alright, alright, I wasn't planning to anyway," Taehyung chuckled.
"You better not," Jimin grumbled, raising wide eyes to look straight at Yoongi.
The trainer startled, not having expected Jimin's gaze to fall on him, but he smiled softly at him. In every circumstance, Yoongi hid his softness under a hard and cold exterior, but Jimin was capable of drawing it out with merely a glance. Yoongi wondered what the gaze meant. Jimin's aura was filled with apprehension and uncertainty, and he reached out instinctively to calm his fears. Jimin welcomed the emotion, his expression relaxing, and he returned Yoongi's smile.
Yoongi cleared his mind of all thoughts of Tayeon and Jimin. He still needed food in his stomach, and had initiates to train later on.
"Coffee's not a bad idea, you know," he stated, standing up. "Hobi?"
"Sure," his friend nodded. "Thank you."
"Wow, you get Hobi coffee but not me? I see how it is," Jungkook complained.
"I've only got two hands, Kook-ah," said Yoongi, reasonably.
"It's fine, I'll come with you," said Jungkook, rolling his eyes in a playful manner.
Yoongi shook his head in disbelief, and ruffled Jungkook's hair, something Jungkook automatically objected to, and the two headed for the coffee station.
Yoongi couldn't help thinking that these moments with his friends would be gone, if the Dauntless leaders succeeded in wiping out Divergents in their faction. He himself saved Jungkook from an untimely death during the younger's initiation the previous year, and Jungkook had all but worshipped the ground he walked on ever since. Jin had been pretty much the same situation, and Hoseok had been through thick and thin with Yoongi since they were kids. Jimin had crashed unceremoniously into their lives pretty recently, and they'd been forced to let him in on the secrets surrounding Divergents. Despite how young he'd been, he'd shown the kind of maturity Yoongi would have expected from someone twice his age, and Yoongi was already proud of how in control he was of his abilities as an Enhancer. And Jimin and Taehyung had been best friends from the moment they'd met in pre-school, these days proudly declaring they were one another's soul mates. So, of course Tae was an integral part of their group, despite the fact that Jimin was so fiercely protective of his slightly younger friend that he wouldn't even let Jin mention the word 'Divergent' in front of him. It spoke volumes about Jin's regard for the younger boy that he actually did as Jimin asked.
Yoongi knew it was only a matter of time before Taehyung found out, but Jimin was insistent that he wanted to know for sure if Taehyung was divergent before trying to introduce him to the concept. Yoongi had his suspicions. If Jimin was protective of Taehyung, Taehyung was even more so of Jimin, and he had actually wondered if Taehyung knew already, and was just waiting for Jimin's own timing. Yoongi hoped he'd tell him soon.
"What you thinking about?" Jungkook asked him, as they began making their coffees. Yoongi shrugged.
"We should make the most of our time, you know," he said, glancing at the younger. "Things won't be like this forever."
Jungkook sighed, his eyes returning reluctantly to his coffee.
"I know," he mumbled. "I'm worried about you, hyung. Please be safe."
"Hey," said Yoongi, laying a hand on his shoulder. "I'm not going anywhere, yeah? We're all gonna be in this together, I promise."
"Okay," Jungkook sighed, giving him a small smile. "I know what you're doing, by the way, which is totally not fair. What's the point of being a shield if you can still worm your way underneath it?"
Yoongi held up his hands defensively, giving the younger a smirk.
"Sorry for calming you down, would you rather I left you to freak out over your coffee?"
"Shut up," Jungkook laughed, punching him in the arm playfully.
~.~.~.~
Tayeon was making a conscious effort to keep her powers in check, now that she finally understood them. The following day was spent using throwing knives, and the day after that, pistols, rifles, and other big kids' toys, giving the group a break from the one on one battles. Nu-ri had lost her first battle, and the dark haired girl was stressing about it no end. Every so often, Tayeon would notice Yoongi looking intently at her, and understood that he was trying to keep her as calm as he reasonably could, all things considered. Upon being asked, Yoongi had told Tayeon that he didn't like to use his power a lot during initiation, as part of it was learning to deal with emotions clouding your judgement, but sometimes his compassion got the better of him. When Tayeon had stared at him in surprise, Hoseok had laughed, and asked her if it was really so surprising that Yoongi had a compassionate bone in his body?
Yoongi could obviously do nothing to help Tayeon in this regard, but having Hoseok present during training was helping. When the group eventually moved back to working on hand to hand combat, that was when Tayeon struggled to keep her emotions in check, but Hoseok was somewhat of a calming presence, and she appreciated him being there to remind her, and give her silent encouragement that she could do it, she was capable of staying in control.
Working with guns and knives hadn't been such an issue. The blonde was naturally talented with both of them, picking up the skills much quicker than she'd expected to, and every so often she caught Yoongi giving her an impressed smile. If Tayeon had had time to feel anything other than a combination of fear and determination, she'd have wondered what exactly was going on with him, but the thing was, she didn't. It couldn't be denied, however, that she was viewing him in a different light to the way she used to. She just wasn't sure if she was still scared of him, or if her heart beating faster whenever he was around was due to something else.
Pretty soon, one on one fights were due to take place once again, and everyone was a little on edge because of it. When Namjoon called everybody over to the mat, Yoongi took Tayeon's arm gently, halting her progress. She turned to look at him, frowning in confusion.
"You ready?" He asked her, seriously.
Tayeon nodded, knowing what he was really asking.
"I've got it under control."
"Good. I'm proud of you, you know."
Her eyes widened a little, in surprise.
"You are?" She wondered. "I'm not really that great at hand to hand."
Yoongi shook his head with a chuckle.
"I can tell you," he said quietly, gesturing to the group of several Dauntless borns who were congregating together. "That lot at least? They're scared of you. And they don't even know how powerful you really are."
Tayeon turned to look at where he was pointing, and her eyes ran over Yejun, Haneul, and a few others, before returning to meet his gaze once again.
"What if I'm scared of me?" She asked, in a small voice. Yoongi felt his heart clench at her words.
"You have no reason to be," he stated. "Believe in yourself, yeah? You can do this."
Tayeon joined Ae-cha, Aeri and Nu-ri, who were standing together in a group, waiting for the fights to begin. Nu-ri gave her a look as soon as she arrived, mouthing 'you okay?' The blonde nodded, and Nu-ri, satisfied, turned back to look at Namjoon, who was clapping his hands.
"Tayeon. Yejun. You're up first today."
Tayeon felt her stomach drop at his words, and her eyes shot straight to Yoongi's in alarm. His expression was calm, however, and he nodded to her confidently, and somehow, this made her feel a little better. At least there was someone who didn't see this ending badly. It crossed Tayeon's mind that she would have the opportunity to beat up one of Jimin's bullies and perhaps this spurred her on.
The blonde stepped up onto the mat, eyeing Yejun who had taken the floor in a determined stance, confidence oozing from every pore on his body. If what Yoongi had told her was true - if he was genuinely afraid, he was an amazing actor.
The defensive stance was second nature to Tayeon by now. She remembered the feeling of winning her first fight against Junghyun, and took in Yejun's size and build. The brown haired Dauntless born wasn't a lot different to Junghyun, but he was taller. Added to that, Tayeon knew him to be a bully. She'd witnessed him in action the first morning of training, and had noticed it a few times since then as well. She prepared to direct her annoyance into her fists, and stared him down, willing her composure to hold up for the duration of their time on the mat. And then, they were fighting.
She quickly realised Yejun was a lot stronger than Junghyun. He was landing his punches harder, and much more accurately, leaving Tayeon little time to react. He also knew all the tricks in the book, managing to hook his foot behind her heel and trip her up. Tayeon felt her nose collide with the floor painfully, but quickly rolled over, kicking out at him desperately. She managed to get him in the stomach, allowing her time to get to her feet again, which she quickly took advantage of.
It was a long fight, and both of them were growing increasingly exhausted, running only on adrenaline. Tayeon managed to successfully get in a jab to his throat, but Yejun reacted quickly, grabbing both her arms, and pinning them behind her back so she was unable to use them, before delivering several quick blows to the side of her body. The blonde closed her eyes, trying to regain her focus. Her telekinesis was once again roaring in anger, demanding to be let lose on whoever was attacking them, and she knew she wouldn't be able to hold onto it for much longer.
Suddenly, she heard Yoongi's voice calling time, and had never been more relieved. She collapsed to her knees, Yejun releasing her arms suddenly, and took her head in her hands. She'd lost her fight, and that thought alone made her angry, but she had managed to keep a grip on her telekinesis, and that in itself should have been classed as a victory. As she finally looked up, her eyes met Yoongi's, and although he didn't smile, there was a warmth in his eyes that told her he knew it too.
She stood, finally, and staggered off the mat, falling into the embrace of Jimin and Taehyung, who were immediately there to support her, along with Ae-cha, Aeri and Nu-ri.
"You alright?" Ae-cha asked her quietly.
"I will be," Tayeon gave her a wry smile.
"Next fight! Jimin and Haneul!" Called Namjoon, startling everyone who hadn't been paying attention. Tayeon groaned instantly.
"Why now," she sighed. "Go on Jimin-ah, you got this."
"I'll avenge you," he chuckled humourlessly, releasing Tayeon and stepping up onto the mat, and cracking his knuckles.
Tayeon sincerely hoped he would.