Seven Minutes of Heaven {various}
Title: Seven Minutes of Heaven
Fandom: FBRP Verse....?
Pairing: BarKookHo - Jungkook/Rome, Jungkook/Chanho, Rome/Chanho ..... (if you squint.)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,640
Summary: Jeon Jeongguk gets seven minutes of heaven.
A/N: So lets just pretend here that Kookie never joined Shadow and then therefore Chaos in this alternate version mmk?
I blame this entirely upon how this particular RP has taken over my life.
This story... ended up significantly different than I had intended originally. You can blame a certain line from Inception/my downtrodden mood lately for this. Sorry, not sorry.
Also- completely unbeta'd so apologies for abundance of grammar errors.
Death isn't quite what he expects it to be- and if his memory of laying in the wet and deserted alleyway- bleeding out on the pavement is of any indication, then this is exactly what it is. The lead weight in his limbs, throbbing ache in his lower abdomen, and bone deep coldness seemed to fade away, and then there was only brightness and warmth.
It took several long moments for Jeongguk to realize that the light and warmth were radiating from a source, and not just some indeterminable location at the end of the figurative tunnel. He blinked once, twice, three times before his surroundings seemed to settle and ground him in the moment. Brows furrowing he glanced around in confusion. He had imagined hell being a lot more fire and brimstone instead of…. modern and all sharp angles. Sprawling wood paneled floors were polished and beautiful in their dark stain, the furnishings simplistic but tasteful.
A shadow falls over him then, and years of lessons and instincts literally beaten into him cause Jeongguk to tense and turn to face the threat- only to take in the sight of another male, standing several paces from him with his hands raised and easy smile on is lips. "Easy there, Kookie. I'm not here to hurt you. My name is Barom- you would've known me as Rome."
Confusion washes over him like the slow licking of the incoming tide, did he know the other male? The familiarity and warmth with which he was addressed certainly seemed to indicate that the other knew him.
“I’m dead.” Jeongguk stated, his voice detached and matter of fact as his gaze wandered down to himself, vaguely noting that his clothing is in perfect condition- nothing like the torn and dirtied state he has been living in them for the past week or so since he was last able to swipe another hoodie. He blinked down at his abdomen, conspicuously free from the large and dark stain of his blood from where one of his assailants had managed to slip the blade into his soft stomach. His dark eyes remained staring at the fabric for several long moments before raising and settling on the still smiling man in front of him. “Are you my grim reaper or?” his words taper off in uncertainty.
The laughter drawn from the other male is deep and rich, pleasing to the ears and Jeongguk can feel the curling of warmth that settles in his stomach that has nothing to do with the blood he distinctly remembers to have soaked through his shirt as he had laid on the filthy ground of the narrow alleyway.
“No, nothing of the sort little princess-” Jeongguk blinked, frowning slightly at the odd choice of nickname. Before he could open his mouth to say anything however, his attention was diverted when Rome’s expression sobered and he suddenly stated, “Six Minutes.”
Jeongguk’s confused expression must have displayed clearly on his face, for without him even needing to vocalize a word, Rome continued on. “You had seven minutes, but we’ve already lost some time.” He sounded remorseful, his expression twisted into something almost mournful. Jeongguk was pretty sure he had never met this man before, but in that moment, he had this undeniably strong feeling that that expression was not one that should ever belong upon the features of someone such as Rome. “I had seven minutes of what?”
The taller male’s gaze flickered down to Jeongguk’s face before stating simply, “Seven minutes of Heaven- or rather what you could have had.”
Jeongguk stared at Rome, slightly disbelieving, but then there was suddenly a series of rapid clicking sounds on the hardwood floor. Jeongguk looked up when he caught movement in the corner of his eye, just in time to have a pair of huge paws to firmly plant themselves right at his hips. He went down to the floor rather gracelessly, falling firmly onto his rear end with a resounding thud. Having raised his hands in a half hearted attempt to defend himself, he found his fingers buried in soft, thick fur. In the next moment, there were suddenly two wet pairs of tongues all in his face. Sputtering, Jeongguk recoiled, only succeeding in allowing one of the big dogs- an akita from the looks of things, to plop itself entirely on his torso. The other, another huge and white ball of fur moved to accommodate the space taken by the akita and then pressed it’s muzzle and cold nose right in the crook of his neck, snuffling softly.
Rome stepped to Jeongguk’s side with a wide grin, the previous seriousness nothing more than the smallest glint in his dark eyes. “That would be Kitsune, Kitsu for short, and her mate Russel.” he gestured to the two canines before turning his head slightly to look deeper into the living area. “And those would be Russel’s litter mates- they would have been yours.” Jeongguk turned his head from his place on the floor, eyes widening at the sight of four more white dogs sitting in a neat little line, bodies seeming to quiver with barely restrained excitement and desire to move. They remained where they were however, and before Jeongguk could really begin to wonder as to why, Kitsu all but headbutted him in her rush to nuzzle herself against the lower half of Jeongguk's face. A surprised huff of laughter bubbled up past his lips, and he raised his hands to stroke wonderingly at the soft, pointed ears of the two dogs- one on top of him, and the other perched just at his shoulder. He always had wished to have a puppy- or pet dog in any case, and from the looks of things he seemed to have landed a living and breathing oversized teddybear. The big akita snuggled herself more firmly against him, nosing at his cheeks and yipping softly- settling her head on his chest and giving a slight wag of her curled tail as Russel chose that moment to paw Jeongguk square on the forehead rather firmly.
“Four minutes” came a soft voice, and suddenly the two dogs seemed significantly more downtrodden. Kitsu raised herself up off his body, watching for a moment as her mate began to pad over in the direction of the other dogs before turning startlingly intelligent eyes up to Jeongguk as he was easily helped up by Rome. The canine’s head was suddenly pressed into Jeongguk’s hand, rubbing the top of her head and ears affectionately before leaving a parting lick at his open palm and turning to join the other dogs.
A tightness seemed to form in his throat, tiny little needle pricks materializing behind his eyes as Jeongguk was left to blink away the odd and sudden urge to cry for some reason as he watched the dogs retreating. He was about to take a step towards them when a small and high pitched voice of a child called out, followed by another childlike but distinctly different voice. “Daddy!” “Daddy you’re here!”
He froze in place then, turning to stare in confusion at the two small children run up to him and came skidding to a precarious halt pretty much right at his feet. Two small children- no more than four to five at the most were staring up at him through innocently large eyes. Almost in tandem, they both raised their arms in clear expectation, before turning childishly annoyed glances at one another. “Daddy! Me first! Sebyul can wait-” “Thats not fair! Kanghyun is a big dummy! Me first, me!”
The back and forth banter was adorable, but he was too busy staring down at the two in wonder before stiffly turning his head to look up at Rome- the unspoken question already clear in his face. Children- he would have had children one day according to this supposed “could haves/should haves” thing. He himself was only about several months past his seventeenth birthday, the idea of parenthood so far away that it had never really occurred to him to even consider it while he had been too busy trying to survive alone on the streets. But seeing these two kids staring up at him expectantly, and knowing he wouldn’t be able to pick both of them up, he decided to just settle down in a crouch at their level. Two pairs of thin and small arms threw themselves around his neck tightly, the ringing of carefree and youthful laughter reached his ears as the two bounced on their feet- clinging to Jeongguk and shaking him slightly with the force from their exuberance.
He brought his arms tentatively around the two children, holding the two of them close to him for a moment before releasing them and allowing them to pull back several steps. “So, Sebyul and Kanghyun huh?” he murmured, smiling at the excited response of chatter from the two children. “So, what are-”
“Three minutes Kookie.”
Jeongguk bit at his lower lip in reluctance, unwilling to dismiss the two children quite yet but it seemed clear that there was still more that Rome wanted to show him. In the end, the children themselves made the decision for him. “It’s okay daddy, we’ll go now.” little Sebyul grinned up at him, before grabbing her brother’s hand and taking the initiative to wander away. Jeongguk eyed their small retreating forms, slowly rising to his full height and turning to face Rome. “So all of this- the dogs, the children, I could have gotten that…?” His voice trailed off, a clear note of pronounced frailty in his tone as he looked up into the dark eyes of the other male whom had been serving as guide and time keeper of sorts.
A sigh escaped the taller male before he closed the distance between them, tipping Jeongguk’s face up to him with his thumb and forefinger. “These are your could have beens, Jeongguk. The Penthouse, The dogs, The children- Your seven minutes of heaven before-” he paused, eyeing Jeongguk briefly before continuing, “before you really leave. For good.”
Jeongguk stared up in shock at the handsome male, and before he could even think to stop them, he could feel tears welling and spilling over down his cheeks. He had already acknowledged the high likelihood of him either being dead on pretty much on death’s doorstep, but hearing it spelled out so plainly for him was still- well, it was upsetting. So this is all that this was then? Some mind game where all of his deepest dreams and desires are paraded in front of him as he lays dying.
His teeth pressed painfully into his lower lip now, just shy of breaking the skin, but still hard enough for it to hurt. For the first time in their brief meeting, Rome seemed legitimately startled for several moments before he scrambled to soothe the other. Wiping at the tear tracks now traveling freely down Jeongguk’s cheeks, he opened his mouth to speak but got cut off by a new voice.
“Are you serious? Rome, I trusted you with him for five minutes and I come now to see that you've made him cry?!” Jeongguk shifted his attention to the newcomer, taking in the slightly smaller stature and just genuinely pretty nature of the other young man.
“In my defense it hasn’t been quite five minutes yet Chanho-” Rome seemed almost sheepish now- yet another new emotion to flit across the other’s handsome face.
Jeongguk was summarily pulled out of Rome’s arms, and wrapped in the slim but decidedly strong ones of the newcomer. “Don’t listen to that dumb bull, I knew I should have been the one to greet you- you’re my best friend after all.” Chanho exclaimed, pulling back and grasping lightly at Jeongguk’s hands, pressing a soft, chaste kiss on Jeongguk’s lips.
He was too far down the figurative rabbit hole at this point to really be entirely too surprised at anything anymore, especially after the apparent materialisation and following disappearance of the dogs and two children. Some small voice in the back of his head chimed that Chanho’s greeting seemed awfully friendly to just be simply a “best friend”, though at this point Jeongguk wasn’t about to reject any sort of affection or friendliness when it was so freely offered. He was (apparently and probably) dead after all, and this was all in his head from the sounds of things.
Another pair of arms snaked their way around him while he had been internalizing his thoughts, and glancing up he realized that Rome had enveloped both he and Chanho in his arms. An inexplicable feeling of peace settled over him then, his past two encounters had involved being embraced in some manner, but this time it felt different. Jeongguk’s eyes seemed to settle on some distant point in a sliver of space visible between the arms of Chanho and Rome, and he allowed himself to savor this calm- this peace in the arms of the two males standing near him. If this was what could have been awaiting him in the future, if he had known, he would have tried so much harder to be good boy, to have survived and truly have met these two.
Rome’s hand slowly slid up his back, the warmth of it settling on the back of Jeongguk’s neck with an underlying clarity of his restrained strength as his hand tightened subtly, and drew Jeongguk even closer to himself and Chanho.
The breath caught in Jeongguk’s throat at the action- he always had liked being with those stronger than him physically when it came to intimate relationships. Before he could expend any further time in dwelling on the small point however, Rome lowered his head, pressing his forehead against Jeonguuk’s with his eyes closed before breathing softly, “Jeongguk… one minute left.”
It was the first time that Rome had actually called him by his given name, and in that moment Jeongguk’s hands fisted, grabbing handfuls of both Rome and Chanho’s shirts tightly. He attempted to steady and center himself, savoring the company and presence of the two men with him. “Stay with me…?” he asked, eyes flicking up to flit between Rome and Chanho’s faces before he released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding when the two unanimously nodded.
Blinking away at the renewal of tears, Jeongguk leaned forward slightly, trying in vain to commit everything to memory. He didn’t know if having any memories would even make a difference, but he needed to try. He had an idea of who they were, who they could have been, but he needed to know for sure. Jeongguk’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it was clear as day to the three present. “Who are you, both of you?”
Jeongguk raised his head then, in time to realize that the soft illuminating light that had filled the penthouse was intensifying, becoming blinding in it’s brightness. Wincing, he ducked his head, squeezing his eyes shut in time to hear Rome exhale harshly, the muted growled words escaping from his lips in a clipped tone as the arms around him seemed to tighten. “10 seconds…” The words processed just as the surrounding light seemed to peak, and suddenly everything began to begin draining away.
Jeongguk drew in a breath, heard it transform into a desperate gasp for air as the warmth and light began to fade. He could already see the blackness beginning to encroach on the edges of his vision. His fingers tightened on the grounding texture of cloth in his hands, desperate to hear the answer before the darkness took him.
It was Chanho who ultimately answered him, voice soft and already beginning to fade along with everything else around Jeongguk.
“We’re your could have been.”