Chapter Text
Taehyung isn’t a poet, but he does love poetry. He loves the way poets can make words bend and lines break. He loves the way they use dashes and dots to hold meaning when words are meaningless. He loves the way poets leave little pieces of themselves behind on the page. And he really loves the way those little pieces find a permanent home in him like tattoos inked beneath his skin.
Tattoos like the ones he’s thinking about right now.
The ones that belong to a wolf who is probably just starting to build his nest for the night. The ones that ripple each time he folds a blanket and fluffs a pillow. The ones he sees every time he closes his eyes and—
“You know I don’t pay you to daydream,” Yoongi barks at him from the other side of the bar and that’s right.
It’s Saturday night.
And Yoongi is always in a foul mood on Saturday nights. And it’s not because the crowd gets a little bigger, a little louder, a little rougher, or because the clientele tends to be a lot younger, a lot wilder, a lot more reckless. No, it’s because the blonde wolf just showed up with a useless alpha hanging on his arm—
—again.
“You barely pay me at all,” he barks back. “I make most of my money in tips.”
The blonde has been coming in every Saturday night for the past three months with a new wolf on his arm and something that looks like dull desperation in his eyes. And every Saturday night for the past three months, Taehyung has watched his best friend suffer in silence as the wolf twirls his tiny finger in his drink and pretends to listen to whatever bullshit the wolf sitting across from him is talking. And every Saturday night for the past three months, the omega ends up leaving halfway through what he guesses some would call a date, leaving both the alpha in the corner booth and the one behind the bar high and dry for the night.
And he can tell that tonight isn’t going to be any different for any of them.
“Where does he even find these wolves?” Yoongi rumbles as he sits down on one of the stools.
He can tell the alpha is already getting himself worked up by the way his scent turns from sweet apple juice to sour apple wine. And of course, his own wolf perks right the fuck up at the thought of someone annoying the older alpha.
His restless wolf is just looking for a fight.
Too bad he has plans tonight. Plans that involve pretty poetry and a prettier wolf. Plans that involve sweet words and sweeter dreams. Plans that do not involve the knotlicking alpha across the bar smugly spreading his legs like he’s got something interesting between them.
“You’re asking me?” he says to try to break the tension.
“Good point,” the older alpha hums as he openly stares at the corner booth.
Now to be fair, Taehyung hasn’t gone on many or really any dates himself, but after bartending for the last six years, he’s seen enough to know when a date is—and isn’t—going well. And in his very professional opinion, this date may be the blonde’s worst one yet.
“It’s going to be an early night,” he hums as he pours his friend a double shot of whiskey and sets it down on the bar.
Yoongi takes it without even sparing him a glance.
“How do you know?”
“Well, you know that flirty thing he does with his finger around the rim of the glass?” he asks knowing damn well the alpha sitting in front of him absolutely knows that flirty thing the omega does with his finger around the rim of the glass.
“Yeah,” he growls as he takes a sip of whiskey.
“He hasn’t done it once.”
The blonde actually hasn’t even touched his drink, which means this date was probably over before they even sat down.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Yoongi huffs, and Taehyung rolls his eyes.
“He’s not just not flirting with him, hyung. He’s annoyed. On the verge of being pissed,” he continues as he leans over the bar. “That knotless wonder hasn’t stopped talking since they sat down. Hasn’t tried to engage him in conversation. Hasn’t even asked him a single question.”
Taehyung watches the knotless wonder lean a little further over the table, using the opportunity to not-so-subtly flash the watch on his wrist, and fuck, where does he find these alphas?
“My guess is he’s probably going to storm out of here any moment, leaving knotless wonder—and you—high and fucking—”
A sharp snarl rips through the bar, and Taehyung watches the knotless wonder in question nearly knock the table over trying to stand up. His eyes are burning silver, and he knows his scent has to be on fire. But before the alpha has a chance to do or say or think anything, a drink flies through the air and lands right on his stupid-looking face. The entire bar freezes, stunned into silence with only the soft bass in the background counting off the seconds. Everyone stares at the alpha and then at the omega and then back at the alpha wondering who is going to say something first—
—and unfortunately, it’s him.
“Well, I stand corrected,” he announces. “One of you is definitely not leaving here dry.”
The entire bar turns to face him, including the blonde who is suddenly more interested in the big mouth behind the bar than the raging wolf standing across from him.
“But he’s definitely fucking leaving,” Yoongi growls. “Right the fuck now.”
The older alpha seems to magically materialize beside the booth a few moments later, and Taehyung watches him grab the alpha by the arm and drag him across the bar. The wolf in his hands is too busy snarling and snapping to even notice he’s being taken out the back door and into the alley.
The one without any cameras.
By the time the back door slams shut, everyone has picked up their conversations where they left off before they were interrupted.
Well, everyone except one wolf.
One very blonde wolf.
Taehyung watches the omega toss his head back on his shoulders until it hits the back of the booth, and fuck, does he know that feeling.
Another night completely wasted on a waste-of-time wolf.
And as much as his restless wolf would love to join whatever fun is happening in the back alley, something tells him he needs to go and talk to the blonde and ask him—
“Are you okay?”
And okay, it’s a stupid fucking question given what just happened, but it’s all he’s got. The blonde doesn’t look at him. He doesn’t pick his head up from the back of the booth. But he does answer him—
“Is this where I say something like do I look okay?”
—well, kind of.
“Is that what you want to say?” he asks as he starts to towel off the booth.
“No,” he sighs.
“What do you want to say then?” he pushes because something tells him the blonde wants to be pushed.
The omega finally picks his head up and puts it back on his shoulders. There’s a certain kind of sadness swirling in his eyes. A particular kind of loneliness hanging on the corner of his lips. And Taehyung offers him the smile of someone who knows that sadness and lives with that loneliness. The smile of someone who has had one too many nights like this one.
“I want to say alphas are fucking knotheads,” the omega sighs before adding, “No offense.”
“None taken,” he shrugs because honestly, he’s not wrong.
He’s seen the way alphas come into the bar all sex and swagger, looking for a quick, easy fuck. He’s seen the way they treat omegas like toys for their amusement and trinkets to show their friends. And he’s unfortunately seen what happens when they don’t —and can’t— get what they want.
“I’m really sorry about the mess,” the blonde wolf tells him. “Can I help you?”
“You already did,” he laughs as he drops the bar towels on the booth and mops up the mess. “Your aim was spot on.”
“Lots of practice,” the omega sighs. “Unfortunately.”
He finishes cleaning the booth and goes back behind the bar. Yoongi is already there, smelling like death itself, and Taehyung knows better than to say or do anything until the older wolf calms himself down. He busies himself with making a gin and tonic and thinking about the wolf with the tattoos waiting for him at home.
“On the house,” he announces as he sets the glass on the table in front of the blonde wolf.
“What for?” the omega asks.
“Because alphas are fucking knotheads,” he shrugs.
“I’ll drink to that,” the omega smiles right before he downs the entire thing. “You don’t seem like a fucking knothead.”
“Thanks?” he growls.
“You’re welcome,” the omega smirks, and fuck, does it look dangerous. “You aren’t single, are you?”
And the blonde is objectively beautiful. He smells like warm vanilla, and he’s looking at him like he can and will eat him alive if he begs hard enough.
“Single, yes. Interested, no,” he smiles before adding, “No offense.”
“None taken,” the omega smiles back. “Not into omegas?”
“Too much into omegas, actually,” he confesses. “Decided to take a break after having sat in too many corner booths on too many Saturday nights wishing I wasn’t.”
“Well fuck,” the omega laughs. “Right wolf, wrong time.”
“Story of my fucking life,” he laughs back.
And it’s true. His entire life has always felt just a little off. He has always felt just a little off. And maybe that’s because his timing had never been right. A wolf born too soon who still arrived too late.
“Mine, too,” the omega sighs. “But I’m trying to rewrite the ending.”
“Not a fan of open endings?” he smirks.
“Not when they’re mine,” the omega laughs. “So you’re not a fucking knothead. Does that mean you happen to know other alphas who also aren’t fucking knotheads?”
And gods, goddesses, demons, and devils—
“As a matter of fact, I do,” he smiles. “His name is Min Yoongi. He likes blondes, whiskey, and cats.”
“Fuck, I’m allergic to cats,” the other wolf pouts.
“Not a dealbreaker,” he shrugs. “He’s basically a cat himself, so if you like them, I’m sure you two could find a way to make it work.”
“Kinky,” the blonde purrs, and okay, this might have been a mistake. “Where is this little kittycat?”
And okay, definitely a mistake, but he’s in too deep now—
“Behind the bar,” he says as he flicks his head to where he left the brooding alpha.
The blonde leans to his right to look around him, and he watches the moment the two of them make eye contact. His eyes flash a brilliant gold, and Taehyung swears he hears fucking bells start to ring.
Not that he believes in that kind of thing.
Fated mates weren’t real no matter what his halmeoni told him. Or Namjoon. Or Hobi. Or Jin. The whole idea was just a fairytale that mated wolves told unmated wolves just to make them feel even more miserable.
Not that he is miserable.
Quite the opposite.
He’s unbothered, moisturized, happy, in his lane, focused, and flourishing, and he intends to fucking stay that way thank you very much.
“And he’s really single?” the omega purrs.
“Really really,” he smiles. “Bonus points if you can take it as good as you can give it.”
“As a matter of fact, I can,” the omega smiles back, and Taehyung absolutely believes him.
And of course, he did all of this for his best friend who has spent too many Saturday nights staring wistfully at the corner booth pretending he isn’t and for the blonde who has spent too many Saturday nights sitting in the corner booth wishing he wasn’t and maybe he also did it a little for himself because that means he’ll finally get to—
“Go home,” Yoongi tells him the moment he gets back to the bar.
His eyes are set on the blonde wolf sitting in the corner booth blissfully and blessedly alone.
“But I close tonight,” he half-heartedly argues.
“Not anymore,” the older alpha growls, and Taehyung doesn’t need to be told twice.
He wipes his hands off on a bar towel before grabbing his bag from under the bar. If he hurries, he just might be able to see the wolf with the tattoos before he falls asleep.
“Finally going to make your move?” he laughs when he sees the alpha rolling up his sleeves and running his hands through his hair, and fuck, he wishes he had more time to stay here and tease him.
But he can’t.
He has plans.
“Finally going to make yours, pup?” Yoongi bites back.
And okay, fucking ouch.
Taehyung’s dating life or lack thereof is not exactly a sore subject, but it’s one he tries to avoid. Yoongi and his other hyungs have opinions about how he spends his time and who he spends it with, and unfortunately, those opinions aren’t exactly wrong. They’re just unwelcome at the moment.
And forever.
“I would if I had someone to make a move on,” he defends himself.
“Yeah, well you spend an awful lot of time and money on a certain someone you don’t have,” the older wolf says, and okay, he does spend a little time and a little money on the wolf with the tattoos, but—
“It’s not like that,” he shakes his head. “We just talk.”
“Like hell,” the alpha huffs. “You never smile like that when you just talk with one of us.”
“Well maybe I would if you talked about the things he does,” Taehyung smiles as he thinks about last night’s conversation.
“See, this is exactly what I mean,” the alpha growls. “I definitely do not want to know the things you two talk about when just thinking about it makes you smile like that.”
“Would you believe me if I said it’s just poetry?”
Yoongi looks him up and down for a long moment before answering, “Unfortunately, yes, I fucking would.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Taehyung watches the blonde wolf stand up, grab his glass, and start to make his way to the bar. He walks with a kind of confidence you earn from deciding not to put up with being put down. Yoongi smoothly steps in front of him, knocking him out of the way to intercept the blonde as he sits down on one of the stools.
“I’m Park Jimin,” the omega announces as his empty glass hits the wood. “I’m blonde, I like whiskey, and I’m allergic to cats.”
The wolf shoots him a quick wink, and he can almost hear the wheels in Yoongi's brain come to a complete stop.
“You fucking owe me,” he whispers in the alpha’s ear.
“Well, fuck,” the alpha huffs.
It takes Taehyung ten minutes to get home and then another ten in the shower. He thinks about taking his phone into the shower with him, but is he really that desperate? A notification pops up that the subscribers-only stream has started, and it turns out that the answer to that question is yes, apparently, he is.
“Fuck,” he growls as he trips over himself trying to pull up the channel on his way into the shower.
He turns on the water just as his screen fills with the tattooed omega of his literal dreams. The wolf is busy gathering all of his blankets and pillows, ready to build his nest for the night. Taehyung watches him as he washes the smell of bar off his body, raking his fingers through his hair a few times before turning off the water and toweling down. He’s still dripping wet as he types a message in the chat and jumps into bed. He knows he’ll regret the wet sheets in the morning, but it’s worth it to hear—
“Hey, sweets,” the omega whispers in his soft, sleepy voice.
And okay, maybe he’s a little taken with the wolf falling asleep on his screen, but he just can’t help it. He’s never seen another wolf who looks and sounds the way poetry makes him feel. His skin is the rhythm. His sighs the rhyme. His purrs the perfect punctuation.
And then there are the tattoos.
The crown on his finger. The snake on his wrist. The flower on his forearm. The clouds on his shoulder. They look like lines of a poem he can’t quite decipher written in a language he doesn’t understand.
But he wants to.
He wants to be able to read those lines and understand their poetry. He wants the wolf to teach him the words written on his skin. He wants to speak to him in his language.
It’s just a dream, of course.
A safe little fantasy that he can get lost inside for a few hours every night. A harmless little imagining that helps him feel a lot less alone. Taehyung watches the wolf snuggle down into the sheets, and he knows by now that means they don’t have much time to chat. He leaves him his normal tip, smiling when he sees the wolf turn toward the screen.
“Thank you, sweets,” the omega whispers into the microphone. “You’re here early for a Saturday night.”
It’s true. On nights when he works, he’s lucky if he manages to get home and into bed before the wolf is already sound asleep. He still leaves a tip and a message, but it’s not the same as actually getting to chat.
sweetnsour (12:28am)
My boss let me out early
“That’s nice of him,” the omega purrs, and Taehyung can’t help but roll his eyes.
sweetnsour (12:29am)
Its definitely nice of him
and I’m sure it has nothing
to do with the pretty wolf who
was there when I left
“Pretty wolf?” the omega growls softly. “Prettier than me?”
And Taehyung can’t help but laugh at the pout he hears in the wolf’s voice. He loves the way the omega can be confident one moment and shy the next. The way he fishes for compliments and blushes when he gets them. Most wolves are either and or, but sugarbaby is both and and.
sweetnsour (12:30am)
Obviously not
Im here arent I
“You’re more sweet than sour, mister sweetnsour,” the omega giggles. “I think I’m going to make you change your handle.”
It’s exactly the reaction he knew he would get. The one he hoped he would get. And he and his wolf can’t help but preen a little when they do get it.
The omega reads a few more responses from the chat before he starts to yawn again. He stretches out long and lean, flashing his tattoos at the camera just long enough for him to get lost in the loops and lines.
“What’s our poem tonight, sweets?” the omega laughs softly, and it’s his turn to blush this time.
He spent all day thinking about what he would type tonight, finding the lines somewhere in the back of his brain hiding among the faded pages of his memories.
sweetnsour (12:37am)
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
“A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allen Poe,” the wolf hums. “An easy one tonight.”
sweetnsour (12:38am)
Theyre all easy for you
“Flattery will get you everywhere,” the omega laughs. “But you know that, don’t you, sweets?”
And he does.
Of course, he does.
After all, the two of them have been playing this little game for months.
──・☁︎・──
It started when Taehyung came home from yet another closing shift at the bar and found himself tossing and turning in his bed instead of sleeping in it. It wasn’t particularly unusual for him not to be able to sleep after his shift. The bass from the music pounded inside his head for hours after the last call while the smell of beer and liquor and smoke and sweat lived on his skin no matter how many showers he took.
It was like he was hardwired into the place.
But that night there had been four fights. He had barely cleaned up after the first one when the second one started which started the third, and the usually unshakeable Yoongi was shook.
And his alpha couldn’t allow that.
So maybe he started the fourth fight when he threw a punch or two at an alpha giving Yoongi grief. And maybe he landed a punch or seven before Yoongi tossed him out the back, told him to ‘get your shit together, get some fucking sleep, and don’t come back here until you do.’
And that sounded really fucking great, but the problem with all of that was he didn’t know how to do either of those things because if he did then he fucking would.
Luckily, the internet seemed to have a lot of opinions about how to get your shit together and even more on how to get some fucking sleep. His restless alpha growled inside his chest as he read article after article about ‘Taming Your Untamable Wolf’ and ‘Getting Your Wolf to Submit to You.’ And sure, he could probably spend time ‘Embracing Your More Primal Self’ and ‘Reconnecting with Our Ancient Ancestors,’ but he had another shift in less than twelve hours, so he needed something that wasn’t going to completely change his entire fucking life. So he decided to go the easier route and looked up sleep streaming channels.
And it changed his entire fucking life.
He had clicked on a few dozen channels, but none of them clicked with him until he found a channel called Sweet Dreams run by a streamer named sugarbaby. True to his handle, the wolf’s profile was a picture of him from the neck down wearing a white sweater that looked exactly like a cloud of sweet cotton candy. But it wasn’t the fuzzy sweater or the pink leather collar that actually caught his attention. It was what was written in the omega’s About Me section. Where the other streamers had their handles, ages, subgenders, and scents, sugarbaby only had a single line:
In the world of dreams I have chosen my part.
Taehyung recognized it immediately. It was a line from one of his favorite poems as an angsty teenager. One he had written over and over again in the back of his notebooks alongside song lyrics that made him cry and the names of wolves who he thought had broken his heart.
In the world of dreams I have chosen my part.
To sleep for a season and hear no word
Of true love’s truth or of light love’s art,
Only the song of a secret bird.
And it made him wonder.
sweetnsour (12:01am)
Did someone break your heart @sugarbaby
The omega who had been in the middle of whispering about his favorite places to make a nest abruptly stopped, and Taehyung felt a deep blush blooming on his face.
“sweetnsour?” the omega softly spoke his name. “I don’t remember seeing you in the chat. You must be new here.”
And the whispered words in that breathy voice had him nodding at the screen as if the wolf on the other side could see it.
“I’m curious why you think someone broke my heart?”
sweetnsour (12:03am)
Your bio
He couldn’t see the wolf’s eyes, but something told him that they were staring at him through the screen, that they were trying to figure him out, that they were assessing him. And even though the wolf couldn’t see him, he still felt the need to sit up a little straighter.
“You like poetry,” the wolf finally said.
“I do,” he whispered into his dark room.
“Me, too,” the omega purred.
And that seemed to be the end of it because the wolf pulled back from the screen and started making himself a nest. Taehyung watched him silently. Mesmerized by the way the wolf folded each blanket and positioned each pillow. The way he moved them this way and then that way and then back again. The way he huffed and hummed and purred each time he put something down. The way he sighed when he finally seemed to get it just how he wanted.
The way he sighed in response.
And he didn’t know how or when or why, but watching this wolf settle into sleep had settled his own. His alpha who had been on edge since the first fight broke out was finally calm.
And fuck. The internet had been right.
He immediately subscribed to the channel, signed up for the highest tier, and left the wolf a sizable tip.
“And the answer to your question, sweetnsour, is yes,” the wolf whispered right before he turned away from the camera. “Just once. But once is enough, isn’t it?”
The words twisted his heart inside his chest, and even though he knew the wolf wouldn’t see it until the next morning if he even saw it at all, he left him a few lines that helped him once upon a heartbreak.
sweetnsour (1:07am)
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime
Though this might take me a little time.
He had taken a little time himself —and then maybe a little more.
──・☁︎・──
And maybe he’s still taking some.
Although as he looks at the wolf on the screen in front of him, he wonders if maybe it’s taking him. Especially when his own restless wolf chuffs hard inside his chest as he watches the omega building a nest that he would like to be their own. A dangerous thought for something that’s supposed to be safe.
Too dangerous.
He shakes his head and pushes away his wolf just in time to see sugarbaby sinking down into his blankets, and he curls up in his own. Unlike his cold, empty apartment, his soft furs are warm and welcoming, and he wraps them around himself just as the first yawn of the night breaks free.
“Poe asks a very good question,” sugarbaby whispers in his soft, breathy voice. “Maybe we should find out.”
“Maybe we should,” he sighs into his empty room.
“Sweet dreams, everyone,” the omega purrs just before he turns away from the camera.
Taehyung knows that in just a few moments, he’ll hear a soft sigh right before the wolf’s breath evens out. So he waits. He pushes away the sleep trying to settle over him. The heaviness in his arms. The darkness in the corners of his eyes. The calm inside his chest. He pushes and pushes and pushes until he hears it.
The sigh.
And a moment later, he stops pushing and lets sleep pull him under.
His dreams are sweet.
They write themselves across the darkness in lines of poetry. They speak themselves in words that sound like swirling clouds and blooming flowers. And they taste so sweet on his tongue that he forgets that they are just dreams.
That they will always be dreams.
So when the morning comes and the darkness goes, when the clock cries out and the dreams fade into silence, he’s surprised to find a private message waiting for him.
sugarbaby (9:01am)
So are you just a dream?
He reads the words once and then twice and then again and then again. He feels them like sounds and hears them like colors and tastes them like shapes. And he accidentally lets them find a permanent home in him like tattoos inked beneath his skin because fuck, even though Taehyung isn’t a poet, he knows poetry when he sees it.