Chapter Text
Taehyung hears the sound of the front door opening, then paws immediately running across the hardwood floor. “Hi, guuuuuys,” he hears Jungkook coo. “I missed you too. Okay, okay, Bam, stop.” Taehyung smiles at Jungkook’s giggle as he finishes scooping the rest of the cookie dough out of the bowl. He shapes it into a perfect ball in his hands, then he sets it down on the cookie sheet and gently presses it down with his palm. “Where’s our Tae, huh? Where is she? Let’s go find her.”
Taehyung’s stomach flips, monarch butterflies fluttering inside of him. They dance even more just a few seconds later when Jungkook walks into the kitchen with Yeontan in his arms. His hair is a bit of a mess from being outside on this particularly windy autumn day. Since the breeze ruffled it out of the way he styled it this morning, it’s a bit fluffy as it falls down the sides of his face, making him look like a reverse onigiri. The combination of his messy hair and his laid-back outfit of baggy black sweatpants and a black sweatshirt makes him look so boyish right now.
“Hi, pretty baby,” Jungkook says. He walks up to Taehyung and pecks his lips. “Missed you.”
Taehyung chuckles. Jungkook was gone just long enough to pick up milk from the grocery store. “Missed you too, silly boy,” Taehyung says. He silently requests another kiss before Jungkook sets the jug of milk in the fridge.
Jungkook leans against the counter, scratching Yeontan’s head as they watch Taehyung fix some of the balls of cookie dough so they’re more even with the others, then he makes sure they’re placed apart from each other enough that they won’t meld together when they expand as they bake.
Once he slides the cookies into the oven and washes his hands, Jungkook sets Yeontan down to let him go live his life. Jungkook wraps him in a hug, tight and close as if they haven’t seen each other in weeks. He kisses his temple, then again and again. “Sweet baby Tae,” he says, then he kisses him there once more.
Taehyung’s so content. He doesn’t feel the familiar butterflies or his blush even though he knows they’re there; he just feels pure happiness, genuine contentment, healing warmth.
And thinking of those things, how they’re such a constant in his life that he never considers that they might not be there, he thinks about what’s been on his mind since autumn arrived. So he says, “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Okay,” Jungkook says. He doesn’t show any nerves at all despite Taehyung’s unsure tone. He hops up onto the counter, and he pulls Taehyung between his spread legs. He wraps his arms loosely around his neck and waits patiently.
“So… it’s October,” Taehyung says.
“My smart little Taehyungie,” Jungkook says, his voice almost a coo.
Taehyung gives him a blank stare and reaches up to twist his nipple over his sweatshirt. Jungkook shrieks and jolts away, rubbing his chest with a whimper.
“It’s October,” Taehyung continues. “And Halloween will be soon. And I… I know I’m kind of a wimp about Halloween things, and because of that, you don’t get to do a lot of the things you’d like to do during Halloween time. We almost never watch scary movies, and we don’t go to haunted houses. You have to do all of that with Jimin, but I… I want to do it with you this year. Because I’m your best friend and I want to do best friend things with you.”
Jungkook’s bunny smile is so sweet and endeared. Taehyung feels autumn leaves rustling in his tummy. “You’re the cutest, sweetest baby girl in the world,” Jungkook says, voice so fond as he brushes his tattooed fingers through his husband’s dark hair. His hand travels down to hold onto the back of his neck, fingers resting just beneath the fabric of his dark burnt orange sweater. “You don’t have to do things that make you uncomfortable just for my sake. I don’t want you to.”
“I want to though,” Taehyung says. He really doesn’t; he knows it’ll just be constant suffering through most of the things – especially a haunted house. But it’ll be a new experience, and he has Jungkook there with him. And he can probably talk himself into not dreading it when he thinks about how festive it all is. “It’ll be… fun.” The scent of baking cookies is starting to swirl around their kitchen, and he thinks that maybe the thought of these things can tie itself to the comforting smell of something sweet, and he won’t want to die every time he thinks about these things in dreaded anticipation.
Jungkook laughs at the grimace he’s very poorly concealing. “We’ll do easier things then,” he says. “We won’t watch the scariest movies there are, and we’ll find a haunted house that’s–”
Taehyung cuts him off. “I already made a list of things for us.” He leaves Jungkook on the kitchen counter and runs to their office, then he returns with a piece of paper. He decorated it with Halloween drawings and fall stickers as if it could take the scariness away, and Jungkook smiles as he looks down at it.
Then his smile slowly drops. “Tae,” he says. “You are going to literally hate all of these things. Then you’re going to hate me for putting you through it.”
On the list are some scary movies he’s heard Jungkook talk about wanting to watch. There’s a haunted house a couple of hours outside of town, the scariest one he could find in their area. Even a few abandoned buildings to explore if Jungkook wants to.
“I won’t,” Taehyung says. “Well, maybe a little. But I want to do this! It won’t be so bad because I know you’ll be having fun. And it’ll get us in the Halloween spirit.” Jungkook laughs at how fake his enthusiasm sounds, his smile a grimace again.
“We’ll go slow,” Jungkook says. “Ease ourselves into it. And if you want to back down at any time, we will. I care about you more than I care about anything else. Okay?”
Taehyung nods. “Okay. It’ll be fun! It’ll be fine.”
It’ll be fun. It’ll be fine.