Work Text:
moodboard by: milo
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Yoongi lets out a breath, his head gently thumping against the padded wall behind him. It's only been a few minutes, but the sharp pain behind his eyes has already tapered into a dull ache.
The grounding energy that radiates from Hoseok helps. There’s a gentle pressure along his side, strongest where their bare skin meets as their arms and legs press together.
Yoongi lets himself slump into it, extending his senses by a fraction to accept Hoseok's energy while keeping the fact that he's already feeling better to himself a little longer. He'd protested when Hoseok originally suggested they come to the sensory recovery room, but the sentinel managed to drag him here anyway.
Now, Hoseok hums, something smug and knowing, and Yoongi would have rolled his eyes if they were open. Instead, he settles for scrunching his face.
The moment of peace doesn't last.
Yoongi catches the faint change in Hoseok's energy moments before Hoseok tenses next to him. The air around them shifts, and Yoongi opens his eyes. He swallows down a groan and immediately snaps his eyes shut as he's met with the blade of light that pierces the darkness of the space they're in.
The ache in his eyes swells slightly, and Yoongi flinches as pain cuts through the back of his head with the familiar voice that follows.
"Yoongi-hyung, I've been looking everywhere—"
"Jeon Jeongguk, it took me everything to get Yoongi-hyung in here to rest, I will not have you undoing that progress," Hoseok hisses, voice pitched down for Yoongi's sake. "Shut the door."
There's a pause, then a quiet rustling.
"Sorry, hyungs." Jeongguk's voice is pitched lower this time, but the urgency Yoongi detected in his first few words is still there.
The corners of Yoongi's lips turn up as Hoseok huffs beside him. It's not the first time that Jeongguk has announced his presence like this. Even as a bonded guide, he regularly forgets to soften himself for the sentinels he's surrounded by at the safehouse. Still, none of them would ever ask Jeongguk to suppress his very nature.
Yoongi takes a deep breath and slowly opens his eyes, subtly shaking his head when Hoseok starts to reach for him.
"What is it, Gguk-ah?"
As he quietly voices the question, he extends his senses just far enough to detect the anxious energy rippling through Jeongguk's body.
"Jiminie-hyung and I were scouting, and we found two sentinels. They're almost feral — if not already there — and we need your help, hyung," Jeongguk reveals.
Yoongi stiffens.
"You couldn't help them?" Hoseok questions. This time, he reaches for Yoongi, a soothing warmth chasing the threatening chill away from where their palms meet.
Jeongguk huffs. "Hyung, you know how I feel about guiding anyone who isn't Seokjin-hyung, much less two sentinels."
"You also promised that it wouldn't get in the way of any emergencies like this one," Hoseok counters. "You know how to form temporary bonds—"
"This is different."
There's a slight shift in Jeongguk's tone that has Yoongi straightening. He clears his throat.
"Lights, half-dim."
Light subtly powers on, the barest change. Still, for Yoongi's sentinel senses, it's more than enough for him to take in Jeongguk's harried appearance. His hair is in disarray, his cheeks are flushed, and his brow is creased. His eyes are almost glassy, his fingers twitching at his sides while his body trembles, angled towards the door.
It's a familiar sight, one belonging to a guide that needs to be with their sentinel.
Yoongi's heart stutters. "Is Seokjin-hyung okay?"
"Yes— No— I mean." Jeongguk exhales harshly, lifting a trembling hand to run through his hair. "One of the sentinels is his brother."
Hoseok gasps, and Yoongi swallows through the brief dizzying wave that cascades over him.
One snapshot flickers through his mind: the moment he found Seokjin, who was searching desperately for his brother. Seokjin, worn down by years of guilt and regret, blamed himself for losing his brother, for not being able to protect him from the harsh reality of being a sentinel.
Not a day has gone by where Seokjin hasn't hoped to find him, and now—
"Are you sure?" Hoseok breathes.
"He hasn't left his side — their side," Jeongguk confirms.
"The second sentinel is there too?" Yoongi questions.
"They're bonded."
Yoongi's skin tingles and he immediately pulls his senses back to ground himself.
"They're bonded," Jeongguk continues, "and their condition immediately worsened when we tried to move them apart."
Hoseok gnaws his lip. "Has Jimin tried?"
"He barely attempted before the sentinels' mindscape kicked him out." Jeongguk falters, his gaze sharpening for a second as he meets Yoongi's. "Jimin-hyung said to find you, Yoongi-hyung. That only you would be able to help them."
Yoongi barely registers the questioning noise that Hoseok makes as his heart sinks, and the world around them blurs out of focus. It's enough to bring the very thing he's buried deep inside him to the surface, the energy calling to him.
Yoongi desperately wants to shove it back. But Jimin, the only one in their group who knows about his past — lived it with him — and knows what he's left behind in their escape, has made the one request he never expected from him.
He swallows harshly, and the world smooths back out.
"There's no time," Jeongguk is whispering, the edges of his voice quivering with distress, "Their mindscape is already collapsing and—"
"I'll help them," Yoongi quietly says.
Jeongguk and Hoseok's heads snap toward him, both speaking at the same time.
"Yoongi-hyung, you're a sentinel—"
"They're in the fifth block, I can take you there—"
Yoongi smiles apologetically to Hoseok, squeezing his hand. "I'll explain everything later. To all of you."
Hoseok's eyes dart over his face, lips turned down, before he exhales quietly and helps Yoongi to his feet. Yoongi squeezes Hoseok's hand once more before letting go and turning to Jeongguk.
"Let's go."
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Jimin is waiting outside the fifth block, pushing himself off the wall to close the distance when their group appears. He reaches for Yoongi's hands and pulls him off to the side. The gentle, sweeping currents of energy that flow through Yoongi are a sharp contrast to the clammy palms pressed to his and Jimin's shaky inhale as he prepares to speak.
"Hyung—"
"I know," Yoongi whispers, voice still cracking. "I know, Jimin-ah."
"I wouldn't have asked if I had any other choice," Jimin pushes on.
Yoongi gives him a weak smile, the most he can manage at this moment. "Nine years is long enough, isn't it?"
Jimin bows his head, hair hiding part of his face, but Yoongi simply squeezes his hands.
"Ggukie said there's no time. Let me try."
Jimin exhales, his answer coming in the form of a few final pulses of calming energy. Tension slowly seeps out of Yoongi, and he squeezes Jimin's hands once more before sliding out of his grasp.
"You all should wait out here," Yoongi murmurs as he steps away from Jimin and walks past Jeongguk and Hoseok.
The door to the fifth block silently slides open, and Seokjin whirls around. Yoongi glances down to see his hand wrapped tightly around another belonging to one of the figures on the bed.
The snapshot from all those years ago overlaps Seokjin like a thin layer of film, the guilt and regret magnified in this moment.
Yoongi slowly crosses the distance, hesitating slightly before he lifts a hand and rests it on Seokjin's shoulder. Deep inside, he tugs at the shadows, the dark barriers falling away to release new energy. It's familiar, the way it courses through him and out through his fingertips then into Seokjin.
Seokjin sighs, unable to do more than slump slightly even though Yoongi can sense the surprise filtering through him.
"What's his name?" Yoongi keeps his voice hushed, adding a subtle layer of new energy to it.
"Taehyung," Seokjin whispers. "Kim Taehyung."
Yoongi nods. If time were on their side, he would ask other questions, if not to help calm Seokjin down then maybe to learn something that would help when he attempts to enter the sentinels’ mindscape. He settles for squeezing Seokjin's shoulder, sending one final wave of calming energy through his fingers.
"Ggukie's waiting in the hall for you, hyung. I'll take care of them."
Seokjin opens his mouth to protest, and Yoongi braces himself to have to find a way to quickly get Seokjin out of the room.
"Seokjin-hyung."
Yoongi quietly exhales, shooting Jeongguk a grateful smile as Seokjin stands and crosses the room to tuck himself into Jeongguk's side.
Only after the door's shut behind them does Yoongi turn to face the bed and the two figures on it.
He takes in their matted hair and dirt-smudged faces, heart clenching at their thin forms. But what really wrecks him is the way they're tangled up in each other, even in this unconscious state.
He leans back into his sentinel side, breath leaving him at the overpowering energy that coils through the room from their forms. He throws a glance over his shoulder, suddenly unsure how Seokjin withstood the sheer force without going into a zone out.
It must be because one of the sentinels is his brother.
Yoongi rolls his shoulders, knowing that he can't waste any more time on details that may be pointless at this moment.
He steps forward and reaches out, bracing for a sensation he hasn't felt in over nine years.
The world spins out.
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The world keeps spinning.
Yoongi tumbles through it, squinting as an intense barrage of flashing lights tears through the dark.
There's no sign of either sentinel, nor what exactly the mindscape is meant to be.
Ribbon-like shapes twist in the shadows around Yoongi, and it takes pressure on his chest, neck, and thigh for Yoongi to realize that the ribbon is quickly wrapping around him. Yoongi jolts, his heart pounding as he reaches down to yank at the strip. His lips part around a silent gasp as his fingers slip, and he finally recognizes what the ribbons are.
He tries again, fingers finally latching around the ribbon, and tugs, lifting it to his face.
He makes out vague impressions of a ribbon with perforations along its edges, the flashing lights granting a second's glimpse of moving figures within.
As another ribbon latches onto his ankle, he takes a deep breath and throws his arm out, grateful when his fingers wrap around yet another ribbon. It allows him to steady himself, and he ignores the other ribbons twisting around him to squint into the strobing light.
The first look around reveals nothing but endless coiling strips and the silhouettes within them.
The second look around, Yoongi pauses, then looks again.
The ribbons wind into a large reel surrounded by a halo of light, flashing tendrils extending from it.
Before he can do anything, a new ribbon quickly loops around him, binding his arms at his sides. Yoongi immediately strains against it, trying to call on his guiding power, but the ribbon only tightens, continuing to circle him and cutting into his skin.
It's when the ribbon covers his eyes that he finally understands and he goes lax, letting the ribbon carry him to the heart of the mindscape. Light spills through the ribbon over his eyes, the impressions now forming image after image in the back of his mind as the ribbon spirals around him.
Each snapshot is of the two figures he'd only seen unconscious, of the lives they've lived even before they bonded.
Yoongi's heart tugs, reaching for something, and his lips part around names he's come to know in these photographs.
Kim Taehyung.
Kim Namjoon.
My sentinels.
The flashing lights shut off.
The weight of the ribbons falls.
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Yoongi opens his eyes to low, amber light and the gentle whirring of film gliding through a reel. He's in a room now, standing next to a deep basin of water. Film strips spill over the countertops that surround his sides. Photos hang from the ceiling, holding the same images he'd seen only moments before. On the far side, other images click onto the wall.
At the edge of the room, wrapped up in each other behind the counters, sit—
"Taehyung," Yoongi whispers. "Namjoon?"
Both figures turn, expressions shifting between relief and confusion. It's Taehyung that moves so that he's slightly in front of Namjoon, chin jutted out in a silent promise of a world of hurt to Yoongi if he dares to try anything.
Yoongi bites back a smile and holds his hands up in front of him. "My name is Min Yoongi. I am a sentinel… and guide."
As the words leave him, there's a tranquil humming inside. For the first time, he's at peace with his guide side, something he'd hidden right after the war.
He exhales.
"I am a sentinel and guide. I am here to offer myself, my energy to yours, to keep you, your body and spirit whole."
He bends so that he's not towering over them, but still maintains his distance as he waits for their answer. It's then that he notices the empty rolls of film on the floor, the strip extending off the blank. He reaches for one, breath hitching when shadows bloom over the film. Pulling it closer, he realizes that it's of a moment from the past, of a memory he's long buried.
Yoongi takes a deep breath as he moves his fingers down the film strip, pressing image after image into the glossy ribbon. He carefully moves to the far side of the room, discovering the current film reel in the projector and replacing it with the one in his hand.
"They discovered my ability shortly after I was brought in for training. It was something I didn't even know I had, and—"
Slowly, the two of them unfold, still leaning closely into each other as they close some of the distance between them and Yoongi to look at the images being projected.
The story pours out from him — of his past, of a newfound, then exploited, ability. When the war ended, Yoongi was more than ready to suppress that part of him, the guide part that drained him. He didn't want to be used to save the sentinels, an empty shell, then left behind when they got what they needed.
He would never believe that he could be here, in a shared mindscape, ready to give these two sentinels whatever it takes to save them.
The film reel spins to a stop with a click, light spilling across the wall. Yoongi gasps quietly as subtle warmth presses against his arms, Taehyung and Namjoon on either side of him as their hands reach to rest beside his own hand on the film.
He looks up just as Namjoon pulls out a camera, setting the viewfinder on Yoongi. Taehyung holds the other side, both of them pressing down on the button.
There's a flash as the mindscape melts away with one final tug on Yoongi's heart.
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The world returns in soft light, and Yoongi finds himself now being held between the two sentinels.
He exhales as the space in the back of his mind holds a new presence — a single snapshot of the three of them. The persisting ache behind his eyes is gone, a filter giving way to frame after frame of life up to this point, surrounding the new snapshot.
His guide and sentinel senses flow through him, Yoongi extending both to blanket his two sentinels in calming energy.
Even with the grounding weight of his sentinels’ arms draped over him, Yoongi feels light.
He no longer needs to hide who he is.