"What's going on? Why is there so much ruckus outside of Prince Taehyung's quarters?"
The gaggle of restless servants standing in the hallway all turn to look in the direction of the newcomer's voice, most of their previously panicked expressions relaxing upon seeing who has arrived.
"Oh thank goodness, Marquess Jimin!" The head maid immediately bows in the noble's presence, the rest of the servants quickly following suit. "Forgive us for the disturbance-"
"It's no problem," Jimin smiles gently, more interested in exactly what nearly half the palace's east wing staff is doing crowded in front of his friend's bedroom. "I'm just curious as to what you all are doing out here."
The head maid looks rather embarrassed, but explains the situation nonetheless. "Ah, well you see, his Majesty assigned some paperwork to Prince Taehyung to complete a while back, but because his Highness has been so busy traveling back and forth between here and the human world, he failed to complete the paperwork and as punishment, his Majesty forbade his Highness from returning to the human world until the paperwork is completed."
Jimin rolls his eyes at the ridiculousness of his friend's actions. As much as he loves Taehyung to death after all but growing up alongside the prince, his friend has always been terrible at time management and prioritization. It's a good thing his brother and crown prince Namjoon is pretty much the exact opposite. "And? Why are all of you standing out here like a herd of cattle?"
The head maid sighs, knowing that what she is about to say is going to sound absolutely absurd yet one hundred percent expected. "His Highness... didn't exactly take too well to his Majesty's punishment. He's locked himself in his quarters since yesterday and has refused any service of the kind. He hasn't left his room and has not eaten since. We were hoping that if more of us were here to plead him he may reconsider endangering his health in such a way, but all he says is that he wants to be with a 'Wheeinie'."
Jimin can't help but shake his head. That fucking idiot. "Thank you, you are all too kind. I will do my best to coerce him, so please, return to your stations and conduct your duties as per usual. Those that normally attend to his Highness regularly, feel free to take a break for now."
The servants all bow once more before taking their leave, and Jimin makes sure to wait a couple of minutes until he's sure all of them are out of earshot before stomping up to the door and pounding on it loudly with his fist. "Yah, Kim Taehyung! Don't you think you're too old for this kind of childish behavior?! How fucking old are you?! Is this the kind of example you want to set for future royalty?!"
There's a brief pause, before a muffled whine sounds from behind the massive decorated oak doors. "Go away, Jiminnie, I'm not in the mood to play."
"I'm not here to play with you!" Jimin pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I thought I'd stop by to say hi since I had some business here earlier but I show up and here you are acting like a child when you were the one that didn't finish your work!"
"I want Wheeinie," Taehyung all but whimpers.
"You can see her once you finish your goddamn paperwork!" Jimin seethes. "Didn't you see her just the other day?"
"That was too long ago!" Taehyung moans. "I want to see her now and hug her and hold her hand and snuggle with her and-"
"Okay, ew, spare me the details of your all's physical intimacy," Jimin wrinkles his nose. "Your father's not going to let you leave until you finish your work. The longer you complain like this the longer it will take before you can see her again, you know that."
"I'm not going to do my work until I can see Wheein again!" Taehyung cries out loudly in rebellion, making Jimin roll his eyes. If there's one thing Taehyung inherited from his father and the current fox spirit king, it's his stubborn streak. "Give me Wheein or give me death!"
"You're so dramatic, oh my god. I know you have a stash of snacks in your closet so it's not like you're going to starve anytime soon, anyways!" Jimin crosses his arms. Arguing like this with the other for any longer clearly won't be of any use, but there's also no way he goes to the king himself to try and sort this out. He could run the problem by Namjoon hyung but knowing the older, he has probably already heard of the issue and simply doesn't have the time to deal will something as silly as this with all the training he has to get completed before his coronation ceremony. An idea suddenly crosses his mind. "Tae Tae."
"Hmm?"
Jimin takes in a deep breath. He can't believe he's actually suggesting this. He has better and more important things to tend to back home than this, goddamnit. But he also knows Taehyung like the back of his hand. He knows the prince is perfectly capable of completing the work if he simply tries, but growing up in a pampered environment has allowed him far too many opportunities to get what he wants, no matter how ridiculous the request. "If... if I go to the human world and bring Wheein back here, will you get your stupid fucking paperwork done?"
Almost immediately, the door in front of him is cracked open. Taehyung's hopeful face peeks out, his eyes shining in far too much excitement. "You'd do that for me, Jiminnie?"
Jimin resists the urge to roll his eyes again. "Tae, why would I suggest it if I wasn't going to do it?"
Taehyung throws the door open so hard it makes a heavy thud as it slams against the poor wall, his fox ears and tail wiggling happily as he all but hurls himself at Jimin to hug his friend. "Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Eugh!" is all that comes out of Jimin's mouth before Taehyung crashes into him, the two childhood friends toppling onto the ground. Thankfully the halls are lined with plush carpet. Jimin's own fox ears twitch in exasperation. "Geez, you're still a spoiled brat even after all these years."
"But you love me anyways," Taehyung sings, his mood a complete 180 from earlier. "Don't forget to remind Wheeinie when you go pick her up that she is my everything and that I can't wait to see her!"
Jimin makes a gagging noise. "Fuck no, I'd rather die than repeat that to someone I'm about to meet for the very first time! Just tell her yourself when we return. You better get started on that paperwork once I head out or I'm sending her back immediately!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll start on the dumb paperwork," Taehyung grumbles as he scrambles up off the ground and helps Jimin back up, his tail drooping rather sadly at just the thought of having to do work before being able to see Wheein first. "Hurry up and go get her! The sooner you get her the sooner I can see her again!"
"Ugh fine, I'm going, I'm going," Jimin waves his friend goodbye before making his way back towards the palace's main parlour. As he crosses the pristine marble floor, a familiar voice stops him in his tracks.
"Jimin-ah, is that you?"
Jimin is quick to spin around and bow in greeting. "Your highness."
Namjoon lets out a sigh. "You know you don't have to do that unless there's others around, Jimin. Having you act all formal around me feels weird, you're practically my younger brother."
Jimin looks up to see the older and his husband Seokjin walking in his direction. "Jin hyung, hello!"
"Jiminnie!" Seokjin all but flies from Namjoon's side to pull Jimin into a tight hug. "I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?"
"Why didn't I get that kind of greeting?" Namjoon mutters under his breath as he watches the two talking, a fond smile on his face despite the fact.
"Good, just rather busy," Jimin throws them a tired but genuine smile. "I was here for some business earlier and thought I would stop by and say hi to Taehyung as well."
"Any luck getting him out of his room?" Namjoon snorts. "I heard the east wing servants were all just about worried to death trying to figure out what to do."
Jimin rolls his eyes. "He's the same age as me but acts even younger than Jungkook sometimes, I swear. He's practically obsessed with that human girl, Wheein. Only came out and promised to get started on his work after I promised I'd bring Wheein to come visit him here."
Seokjin's face lights up. "You're going to go to the human world to retrieve Wheein? I'll come with you!"
"Oh no you don't," Namjoon tugs his husband back by the collar of his shirt like a mother cat picking up her kitten. "If you break into her house again, I have no doubt she'll actually call the police on you and I'm not about to break you out of human prison. Besides, if you skip another meeting as important as this one like you did last month, Yoongi's going to be very upset."
"I don't want to go to the meeting today, it's going to be so boring," Seokjin whines. "And Yoongi has no right to complain, I've caught him falling asleep at a meeting on more than one occasion!"
Namjoon ignores the other's complaining and smiles at Jimin. "Thank you for doing this, I know you probably have better things to do than to go along with my brother's silly quest in wooing a human girl, but it's something- or rather someone he truly cares about deeply. You should probably take Jungkook with you though, I don't think Wheein will come here as willingly as you think."
"Wooing a human gir- you mean to say Taehyung hasn't even won over this girl's heart yet?!" Jimin sputters indignantly, his face turning red. "He- he said they've held hands and cuddled before! I thought- I thought..."
"They have a rather... interesting relationship." Namjoon muses, rubbing circles with his hand against the small of Seokjin's back to comfort his pouting husband. "I'll tell Jungkook to meet you by the south gates and you all can head out soon. If you excuse us, we need to go make our meeting. Yoongi hyung has been rather stressed with recent events and will not be too forgiving if we're late."
"I keep telling him to go out and get laid, but does he listen to me? No, Mr. Workaholic- Oh, bye Jimin! Come by again soon and we'll schedule a time to sit down and talk properly alright?" Seokjin blows the younger an overdramatic kiss as Namjoon drags him away, making Jimin laugh.
It doesn't take too long for him to find Jungkook by the gates, and after a quick hug and brief moment of catching up, they head to the human world to an address provided by Namjoon, bless the man. It appears to be the middle of the night in the human world, and while Jimin does feel rather bad for intruding at such an inconvenient hour, he knows Taehyung's patience won't last long. Besides, it's not his fault that time flows differently in the fox spirit kingdom than it does out here in the human world.
"Nice house," Jungkook comments as they step up onto the front porch.
"It's pitch black out here, how can you even see what the house looks like," Jimin hisses, nearly tripping on one of the steps.
"I said it as a formality, stop exposing me, it's just the two of us here," Jungkook hisses back, before raising a fist and knocking on the door.
There's a brief pause of silence and Jungkook suddenly turns back to look at Jimin, eyes wide. "Wait, does this girl know that we're... not human?"
Jimin hesitates, his own eyes growing large in uncertainty. "Shit, I have no idea. Taehyung didn't exactly give me a chance to ask."
Jungkook starts to panic. "Hyung, what should I do? My ears and tail are all still out!"
"Hide them then, what else would you do, you idiot?! Hurry, before-"
The door suddenly swings open with an aggressive whoosh, and both Jimin and Jungkook let out very manly shrieks of surprise, fox ears and fox tails still very much out in the open and very obvious as they grab onto one another in fear at the woman standing in the doorway. "Taehyung! For the last time, I told you that you need to stop banging on my door in the middle of the night! It's not romantic and Byulyi unnie- who the fuck are you guys?"
Jimin relaxes at the mention of Taehyung's name and at the woman's lack of surprise seeing a pair of fox spirits on her front porch. It seems she was aware of Taehyung's true identity after all. "Miss, are you Jung Wheein?"
Wheein crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at the two unfamiliar fox spirits at her door. They look to be around Taehyung's age, but you can never be too careful. "Depends, who's asking?"
"Who's- me. I'm asking." Jimin cocks his head in confusion.
Beside him, Jungkook throws a hand over his face and groans. "Hyung, it's a figure of speech, she wants to know who we are."
"Ah," Jimin rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Forgive me, my name is Park Jimin and this is Jeon Jungkook. We are friends of Taehyung. You see, he's been uh... tied down at the palace with some paperwork and wished to see you, so he asked me to come and bring you back to the fox spirit kingdom so he could be with you."
"What the hell- that brat! Just because I refused to go back with him that one time, he thinks he can-" Wheein runs a hand through her hair and huffs. "I'm sorry, but it seems you two have come here for nothing, I'm not going to the fox spirit kingdom all because that spoiled kid is whining for me again. Have a good night."
As she goes to close the door, Jungkook takes action. Before the door has closed all the way, he jams his foot in the doorway, preventing Wheein from shutting the door all the way. "You-"
Before she can react properly, the knight yanks the door back open and takes the human girl by surprise, wrapping his arms securely around her thighs and tossing her over his shoulder like a bag of rice. "I- hey! This is kidnapping!"
"Hyung, let's go before she wakes someone else up in the neighborhood."
"Are you two listening to me?! Put me down right now! You little-"
"Ow! She bit me!"
"I see, so this is what Namjoon meant," Jimin mutters to himself.
"Hyung, help me!"
"Kim Taehyung, you're dead meat the next time I see you!"
author's note;
just for clarification, a marquess is the son of a duke. jimin is in training to take his father's position and become a duke while jungkook is a knight. yoongi is going to become the future king's (aka namjoon's) advisor.
this chap ended up being longer than planned but i had way too much fun writing it tbh hahaha
and i know there wasn't a lot of cute wheetae fluff but i thought it'd be fun to get a look into the fox spirit side of the story! more wheetae to come next chap!
thank you all for the support! hope you all enjoyed reading <3
happy saturday!
Less than three,
PalmerPie