Hoseok woke up with a pounding headache and a bone dry mouth.
He groaned when he realized that what had woken him up was the glean of sunlight shining on his still tightly shut eyelids.
"Hyung, get up," a voice that was starting to become sickly familiar whispered from above him.
"Don't wanna," Hoseok muttered. His tongue stretched oddly around the handful of syllables due to his severe dehydration. "Hey, get me some water."
"What am I? Your butler?"
Hoseok knew the complaints were all for naught once the tell-tale sounds of retreating footsteps entered his hearing.
Deciding he should get up and try to remember what happened the previous night, Hoseok shifted his head away from the sunlight and slowly peeled his eyelids open.
He was still in Taehyung's penthouse.
Hoseok jolted upright at the startling revelation but quickly crumpled back down onto the couch's cushion when a rush of blood swelled inside his head. The utter mortification that came with the acknowledgment of having been sleeping on his manager's living room couch was too much for Hoseok to handle with his overwhelming hangover.
"Feel like throwing up yet?" another familiar voice called out.
Hoseok grimaced as he observed Taehyung pad over to him; bedroom wear wasn't supposed to look good on a person once they've slept in it for eight hours, right?
"I feel like going back to bed," Hoseok admitted.
Taehyung chuckled good-naturedly. "Please, by all means. I'll be busy most of the day delivering gifts, but I trust that you can stand guard of my house." His smile melded into something more mellow. "But are you sure you're feeling alright? One of the other guests found you passed out on the balcony railing last night."
Huh. That explained the feverish warmth that was clouding Hoseok's mind.
"Damn, I wanted to tell you that before anyone else could." Hoseok's gaze traveled away from Taehyung and toward Jungkook, who held a clear glass filled to the brim with water. "I wanted to make sure you didn't get sick or anything."
Hoseok slowly pushed his body into a sitting position, nearly losing his balance when the back of the couch ended up being farther away than he had expected.
"I'm fine, Taehyung-ah," Hoseok assured. He signaled toward Jungkook with a desperate sort of gaze to put the glass down somewhere Taehyung wouldn't find it. "And I should probably go home; I've got some reports to finish up."
"I can drop you off," Taehyung offered, a giddy note lifting his voice an octave too high for Hoseok's abused head to handle.
"No, that's fine," Hoseok insisted. "Just, um, lemme drink some water and I'll be out of your hair..."
"Oh, let me get it for you!" Taehyung whirled around and sauntered back over to the kitchen, only to stop short upon noticing Jungkook's hastily placed glass sitting atop the kitchen's island. "Huh. I guess this was left out last night."
Hoseok released a nervous trill in the back of his throat as his gaze swirled over to where Jungkook stood from behind the kitchen island. The demon caught his eye and smiled that sadistic smile that Hoseok has learned to associate with ensuing mischief.
"Oh, it's still cold," Taehyung mused softly. His tone revealed a muted curiosity, but he decidedly shrugged off the strangeness of the situation and wandered back over to where Hoseok sat on the couch. His movements were careful and deliberate as he focused to not allow the sloshing water to make its escape from the brim.
"Are you sure you don't want to crash here?" Taehyung questioned once delivering the glass to Hoseok's awaiting hands. "I don't want you to be left alone at home while still hungover. It's a little bit of a sad scene to imagine, honestly."
Hoseok eyed Jungkook's sunny smile from his peripheral while taking a slow sip from the glass.
"I think I'll manage," Hoseok replied, barely repressing the exasperated sigh leaking out of his lungs. "And are you saying it's sad because that's what losers, like me, do, or because it's Christmas?"
Taehyung blinked in momentary surprise at Hoseok's bluntness (Just blame the alcohol, Taehyung-ah.) before smoothing over the crease in his forehead caused by his arched eyebrows with a gentle ridge in his cheeks paired with a tender smile. "You are not a loser, Hoseokie."
Hoseok refrained from laughing outright when he noticed the lack of humor in Taehyung's eyes and the serene tone of his voice.
"Ah. Okay," Hoseok muttered into the glass he still held upon his lips. He was flustered and didn't have the means nor brainpower to hide the fact, so he resigned himself to the heat encasing his cheeks and the cackle of laughter drifting from the kitchen.
--
Hoseok bid farewell to Taehyung, not feeling the least bit better after draining the entire glass in an attempt to avoid further conversation with the manager. He walked the bustling streets with his arms wrapped tightly around his middle and his breath coming out in either shallow puffs or suppressed shudders.
"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Jungkook murmured from beside him.
Hoseok ignored the genuine worry in the demon's voice. "Peachy, Kook."
"Well, just let me know if you need any of that frog extract."
"You are not feeding me that shit!"
If his little outburst had gained attention from the wandering strangers around him, Hoseok didn't notice. He was too busy decidedly doing everything in his power to ignore Jungkook's blinding smile.
--
Hoseok enjoyed spending Christmas alone. The social pressure that came along with the joyous holiday to spend one's days with their family and loved ones had ceased to effect Hoseok ever since he started working for his current company. Working over the break wasn't something foreign to Hoseok as well, so he didn't actually have the time nor energy to care about what society thought of him.
That is-until Mister Whiney Man-Child Demon came along.
"Why don't you want to do anything?" Jungkook moaned from his spot on Hoseok's bedroom floor.
"Working is doing something, believe it or not," Hoseok replied tersely. His patience with Jungkook was beginning to run thin, and he thought it a miracle that he hadn't snapped at the demon after minute thirty of his childish whining. "If you don't want to watch me work, then just go outside and find something fun to do." He paused to save and print a report he had just finalized. "I'm sure there's plenty to do that'll entertain a child like you. You still like Santa, right? He's hanging out at the mall around this time; go bug him."
"Ha, ha," Jungkook replied, his voice flat and stale. "Y'know, I think you sometimes forget I'm an actual demon."
Hoseok snorted, and he filed the freshly printed report away into his work bag. "You've got me there."
Jungkook groaned and wailed some more; there was a mixture of murmured words that vaguely went along the lines of "take me seriously, hyung" or "you're so mean," but they were hard to decipher amongst the other noises that had the displeasure of escaping the demon's mouth.
Around minute ten of this, Jimin decided to make his presence known.
"Jungkook-ah, seriously, just go outside by yourself." Jimin's voice revealed the suppressed agitation Hoseok knew was broiling in his blood by then. "Do you seriously need Hoseok-hyung to babysit you where ever you go? Are you that much of a child?"
Hoseok watched as the repetitive twitch that had invaded Jungkook's eyebrow contort the demon's earlier sour look into one of utter annoyance.
"He does not babysit me!" Jungkook roared. His denial of the obvious fact did nothing to Jimin, who merely raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "In fact," he continued, "I'll prove it to you both that I don't need anybody to watch over me!"
Hoseok startled at Jungkook's words. A nagging voice in his head told him that he should stop Jungkook before the demon got himself into any trouble, but he was reluctant to follow through with the internal advice; he hoped that avoiding any interference with Jungkook's determination would allow him to see the demon crash and burn when left alone.
"So?" Hoseok drawled, refraining himself the urge to smile at Jungkook's deeply rooted scowl. "Are you just gonna aimlessly wander the streets of Seoul by yourself?" In freezing cold weather? he wanted to add, before remembering that Jungkook was a shadow who probably wasn't affected by trivial things such as temperature. But even then, the hazy memory of Jungkook's chattering teeth from the night before echoed inside Hoseok's mind, and he found himself wondering for the third time why the demon was becoming more human-like.
"Well, I mean," Jungkook blustered, effectively shooting Hoseok out of his trance. "You said yourself that there's plenty to do on Christmas, right?"
Hoseok nodded his head in confirmation but left out the fact that his words were teasing and only held such promises toward gleeful little children.
"Then, I'll just go find something fun to do!" Jungkook concluded. "That way you won't have to worry about 'babysitting' me for the rest of the day!"
Hoseok processed the words Jungkook spout and found himself frowning at the glaring problem that the demon had yet to mention-or, more likely, remembered.
Hoseok opened his mouth, ready to inform and disappoint Jungkook of and with the somehow forgotten information, but he caught the eye of Jimin from across the room, and the angel was hasty to shake his head the moment Hoseok took notice of him.
Hoseok tightened his jaw and shut his lips upon Jimin's warning. He hoped his confusion spoke through his eyes and prompted a subtle explanation from the angel.
His wish was granted, for Jimin called about Jungkook's attention with a brief clearing of his throat.
"Well, since you're obviously a fully capable, big boy demon," Jimin spoke, batting his eyelashes coyly, "why don't you go get some Christmas gifts for Hoseok-hyung-as a sort of thanks for putting up with you and an apology for actually sucking the life out of him."
Hoseok couldn't help the light laugh that fell from his lips.
Jungkook, who had looked, begrudgingly, like the personification of a lit up Christmas tree, deflated at the scrutinizing tone that escaped alongside with Hoseok's laugh.
"Am I really that unreliable that you don't think I could get you some simple gifts?"
The soft tone of muted hurt didn't go unnoticed by Hoseok as he stifled his laughter. He felt a twang of momentary guilt for his outburst when noticing the sullen expression on Jungkook's face.
"Oh, Kook," Hoseok sighed while leaning into the back of his chair. "It's not that I don't believe you could do such a simple task"-under normal circumstances-"it's just that you could, uh, get lost? In the Christmas crowds, I mean." It wasn't the whole truth, but it was an honest worry that still had Hoseok snorting when visualizing the imagery.
Jungkook's glum look instantly washed away as his features bathed in an obnoxiously bright smile. "Don't be silly, hyung! You should know by now that humans don't have any effect on me, so I highly doubt an increase in the amount of them will do anything to me."
Doubt, was the only thing that filtered into Hoseok's mind, but he held his tongue for the sake of Jungkook's pride.
"Right," Jimin announced with a clap of his hands. "Now that that's settled, do you mind actually getting out there and showing off your demon prowess?"
Jungkook growled at the pompous tone of Jimin's words but stood up from the floor all the same.
Hoseok pursed his lips in an attempt to not call the demon back to save him from embarrassment but found himself blurting out to Jungkook as he walked out the bedroom's open doorway, "Get me some coffee while you're out!"
Hoseok watched with a rapidly beating heart as the demon paused, poked the top half of his head back through the doorway, and sent Hoseok a cheery grin with his eyes.
"You can count on me, Hoseokie!"
There was a moment where the only sounds in Hoseok's apartment were Jungkook's rapidly retreating footsteps, before the scuffle of shoes being put on and the moan of the front door opening and closing marked his departure.
Hoseok turned toward Jimin.
"You felt the need to let him forget other people can't see or hear him why?"
Jimin shrugged noncommittedly, but his eyes glimmered in the wash of desk-lamp light with mischievous glee.
"Wanted to see him crash and burn, I guess."
Hoseok sighed.
"Took the words right from my mouth."
A/N - happy Sonic the Hedgehog movie day, guys! <3