Chapter Text
The woods were dangerous, and names were powerful things. Jungkook was fully aware of these two facts, having heard them time and time again. While other parents taught their children about good manners, his parents had taught him about the fae. They had told him stories about the dangers of the trees, and people who had walked in and had either walked out completely changed or never come back at all.
But Jungkook had reached the point of simply not giving a singular fuck. So when he walked straight into the woods after a horrid shift at the restaurant and wandered into a mushroom ring, he ignored the little voice in the back of his mind telling him to run away. He just sat his ass down on the damp ground, laid down, and stared up at the stars framed by thin brown branches. And he just waited.
He wasn’t really sure what he was waiting for or whether there was even something to wait for, but at least the ground was somewhat comfortable. He hadn’t been able to afford a bed or even a good quality futon on his measly salary, so he appreciated the softness of the leaves underneath him. Jungkook was willing to risk bugs walking all over him if he could finally get a good night's rest. The possible medical bills worried him a little bit, but he was too tired. And maybe the stories he had been told were true.
Jungkook had begun dozing off and fully committing to sleeping in the woods after spending a few minutes trying to find shapes in the stars and tearing apart dead leaves when there was a shift in the air. He bleary opened his eyes a sliver and noticed that the moon was right above him, a full silver orb filling the area with soft light, and mushrooms surrounding him were glowing a faint silver. The wind picking up and suddenly howling woke him completely, and his heart started pounding in his chest.
"Well, hello," a deep voice said.
Jungkook startled, jumping to his feet. "Woah, fuck! Fuck you!"
"Excuse me?"
When the first wave of shock had ebbed, Jungkook was able to look at who had snuck up on him and immediately felt his mouth dry up. The man standing in front of him was beautiful. Long legs were clad in tight black pants that looked soft enough to be made from flower petals. He had on a loose white, almost translucent shirt that dipped low, showing a well-sculpted tan chest. Fluffy light brown hair fell over matching bright eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness. And Jungkook knew he was gone.
"Wow, fuck me," he whispered.
"Excuse me?"
“You have thick thighs,” Jungkook replied, and immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, “I’m so sorry, are you going to kill me?”
The mysterious man tilted his head. “I can if you would like me to. Is that why you came here tonight?”
“Um, no. Well. No, I mean, I don’t think I would care if I died, but I still would prefer not to be killed, you know? If that makes sense?” Jungkook stuttered and took a step back against the edge of the mushroom border.
“That completely makes sense, sweetness,” the man smiled and walked forward. He grabbed Jungkook’s hand and pulled him back into the circle and onto the ground, “What does not make sense, petal, is why you would not mind dying.”
Jungkook pulled his arm back, the man’s grip almost burning him. “Well, you know, mysterious woodman, depression and late capitalism can really crush a man's soul. ”
“Hmm, sweet, that does sound dreary. What if I told you that I could fix all that for you?”
“What are you some sort of genie? Aren’t those supposed to come out of lamps or some shit? Did you come out of a tree?” Jungkook laughed, his brain-to-mouth filter nonexistent.
The man laughed. “Wow, humans really do say the most outlandish things when they’re in the Ring. A genie, hm? Well, what if I told you I’m something much much better.”
Jungkook snorted and rubbed at his eyes. “A part-time job with paid benefits. I’m joking, that’s not possible. You’re a faerie, huh?”
When he looked up, he realized the other man had frozen, and then Jungkook was the one laughing. “Oh, holy shit! My parents weren’t joking? Oh, this is hilarious. You’re a fucking faerie!”
There had been certain moments in Jungkook’s life when he felt as though everything was completely and utterly fucked. And his reaction to many of them had tended to just be laughing his head off. That moment was one of them. He leaned back on his elbows and just started laughing, and he just could not stop. It had really been such a fucked up night that realizing faeries were real was just the cherry on top. Faeries existed in the same universe in which he had been getting yelled at by customers for eight hours straight and struggling to pay bills. Faeries existed. It was just hilarious.
When he calmed down, he was on his back again, staring up at the stars at the moon. Jungkook turned on his side to face the other. “So, what’s your name, hot faerie man?”
The faerie stared at him. “You are aware of faeries, and you expect me to tell you my name? One would think you would know the rules.”
“Oh, hotcakes, I know the rules so well. I mean, I don’t know if the rules I know are real, but I could recite them in my fucking sleep.”
“Then you should know the power names have.”
Jungkook snorted. “Coward.”
“You're very bold.”
“I guess,” Jungkook sighed, “Well, I don’t care about mine. I’m Jungkook. Nice to meet you!”
He reached a hand across to the faerie in hopes of a handshake, but the other man gently took his hand and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles instead. Jungkook felt his cheeks start to heat up, and it was obvious that the faerie was aware of what effect he was having.
“Jungkook, what a beautiful name for a beautiful human,” he smiled and continued to hold onto Jungkook’s hand.
“Listen, buddy boy, you really don’t have to try and romance me. I’ll follow you and your nice thighs anywhere,” and then he fell back on his back, unable to hold the awkward position any longer.
The other man just looked at him intensely for a few seconds, as if he was staring deep into his soul to try and figure out what made Jungkook tick. And very much judging whatever it was that he had found there. Which was embarrassing, but Jungkook was also feeling very indignant that this random magical faerie was spending his time judging Jungkook. Shouldn’t he be looking for bowls of milk or something?
“You’re fascinating, Jungkook,” he said, “Cry for me.”
Jungkook sat up so quick he saw black dots for a second. “What the fuck? Why? Does seeing people cry make you faeries hot or something? Cause, like, I mean, I feel like I could sort of be into that. Maybe. I mean, for you, I can try, but I’ve cried so much in the past week, my tear ducts are dry as fuck.”
“You’re not crying?” he asked, surprise coloring his voice.
“Um, no? I don’t want to.” Jungkook replied, “Listen, I’m tired of not knowing what to call you. Can you give me a fake name or something?”
The man clenched his jaw, tongue poking the inside of his chin. Jungkook was a little worried that he had crossed a line, and for a second, he wanted to run away. Then the other suddenly pulled out a knife from seemingly thin air and flicked it open.
"Woah, dude! A little warning please."
The faerie grabbed his arm and pulled him in. That close to him, Jungkook could see that there were soft golden sparkles seemingly glowing from underneath his skin as well as feel the other's breath on his skin.
“You are very strange, Jungkook,” he said in reply, “So, here’s what’s going to happen. Give me your hand.”
“Um. No?”
The faerie clenched his jaw again. “Give me your hand, Jungkook.”
Jungkook was about to tell the other off for trying to order him around, but his hand froze for one second before moving right into the faerie’s outstretched hand as if it wasn’t part of his body anymore. The faerie smirked before taking the iridescent knife and pricking Jungkook’s index finger and his own before pressing them together and muttering something under his breath.
“What the actual fuck?” Jungkook yelped, pulling his finger back, “Dude, you can’t do something like that!”
He smiled again. “No worries, petal, it was just a small spell. One needs to make sure they are protected before entering uncertain situations.”
Jungkook was no stranger to uncertain situations. Moving out of his parents' house at sixteen with no degree and no money made it very hard not to do some risky things to just survive. And yet, he had never done some sort of blood spell with random strangers. The risks of blood-borne infections absolutely beat out any possible benefits! Did faeries have blood infections they could pass on? Was Jungkook fucked? His medical costs were going to fucking bury him. Could he make the faerie man pay his bills for him?
“My name is Namjoon. Try and tell me to do something, Jungkook.”
“Pay my medical bills.”
Namjoon grinned, looking pleased with himself. “No.”
Jungkook pouted at the very quick refusal. Why couldn’t he bag a sugar daddy faerie? He had absolutely no luck.
“No reason to worry, sweet. You don’t need to worry about any bills or any of these idiotic human creations anymore,” Namjoon said, pulling up Jungkook with him.
Jungkook made a noise of utter confusion, but before he had the time to try and figure out what the hell Namjoon meant, the other had kissed him on the forehead, and it felt as though the world was dissolving in front of his eyes.
It was as if everything around him was bleeding tar, turning the world pitch black in a matter of seconds. He blinked rapidly and aggressively rubbed his eyes in hopes of fixing everything, but it was futile. The darkness felt more and more oppressive, and Jungkook reached out his arms, trying to grab onto Namjoon, who had been right in front of him before the darkness had taken over. After a panic-inducing moment, his fingers hit the soft fabric of what seemed to be Namjoon’s shirt, and he pulled himself close until he hit the faerie's chest.
Strong arms wrapped around him, keeping him there. Jungkook tried his best to focus on the warmth surrounding him instead of what was happening around him. He had never been afraid of the dark, but at that moment, his heart was pounding out of his chest, and he felt frozen. He was regretting not listening to the rules and messing around so much.
After what felt like forever, Jungkook was able to see faint flickers of light flashing behind his eyelids. He slowly opened his eyes, somewhat afraid that he was simply imagining everything, and gasped.
They were still in the woods. The mushroom ring was still there, and so were the trees. But everything felt off-kilter. It looked as though someone had edited the universe and pulled the color saturation up to its maximum. The leaves were too green, and the branches a brown that hurt his eyes. The mushrooms were still glowing but were ivory instead of off-white and now had silver speckled that appeared and disappeared in an undulating pattern.
Jungkook caught a quick glimpse at the sky and shut his eyes again before taking another glance. His town had by no means been a dense light-polluted city, and he had seen his fair share of constellations, but he had never seen anything like this. It looked as though the sky was caught in an infinite firework explosion. Stars and moons seemed to completely fill the horizon, creating a changing kaleidoscope of bright colors, some of which Jungkook didn’t even have the names for.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Jungkook turned around and found Namjoon with his head tilted back also looking at the stars. Whatever Jungkook had thought about the faerie before fell away. He was absolutely breathtaking and even more otherworldly. His ears had elongated to a sharp point, and the muted freckles he had seen a glimpse of before were a brighter gold now that dusted his face and arms.
Namjoon smiled at him. “It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. I still lose myself in the beauty of the land during the Full Moon.”
“Where are we?” Jungkook whispered, afraid to make too much noise.
“With the Fae, petal.”
Well, fuck. How had he not seen that coming.