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"Oh my god..." My round eyes snapped back up to Jimin.

He was absolutely destroying his hands. Who knew how long he'd been in this dark room, taking out his anger on the punching bag. Blood streaked the leather surface. His Outworlder healing factors struggled to close up the wounds along his knuckles before he slammed them back again into the bag, reopening the wounds.

"Jimin stop."

He didn't even slow down. I could see the way his eyes were glazed and unseeing even in the dim lighting of the room. Part of me wondered if he was even hearing me. If he even realized what was happening.

It was as if he was in an entirely different world. A world locked with grief and pain.

"Jimin." I hesitated before inching even closer to him. I reached out and carefully brushed his upper arm, only to leap back with a yelp as he abruptly lashed back. His arm flinging out momentarily to strike away the touch.

I retreated back to a safe distance, breathing hard. So this was what Namjoon had meant that Jimin wasn't in a good mindset. This was why Namjoon had warned me to be careful.

I pursed my lips, a little trickle of resentment at the boys flowing through me. Yes, I understood why it seemed an impossible task to try and help Jimin. But he was destroying himself with our realizing it. And the boys had just left him alone to do it.

I suppose I couldn't really blame them; but honestly, wouldn't three boys with deep connections to each other somehow manage to reach out and find Jimin in whatever dark place he'd locked himself into?

I took a deep breath and went back towards the door, shutting it all the way and sliding the small lock into place. Things might get ugly in here real fast and I didn't want anyone else on the outside to get involved.

Now that the little light from the hallway had been extinguished I walked back to the boy with luminous Marks. I stopped a couple feet away from him. Calling his name wasn't going to do any good. He wasn't even here at this point.

I needed to get him away from the punching bag. Get him to break himself free from the destructive mantra-like actions he'd fallen into.

Taking a deep breath, summoning my strength and courage, I approached him until I was right beside him again.

And then I hooked his legs out from underneath him and slammed him to the ground.

His hands were on me in an instant, flipping me and pinning me with expert skill against the floor, hands at my throat.

He wasn't choking me, but he was putting a dangerous amount of pressure that it was painful to inhale. All the same I gently grasped his wrists, running a thumb on the inside. Trying to reach him. Trying to coax him back out from the place he'd hidden deep within his mind.

"Jimin," I whispered hoarsely, my voice rough from his hand pressing down. "Jimin, it's me. Come back to me."

A shudder ran through him.

I could just make out those eyes from the luminescent glow across his cheek. They were wild and unseeing. I continued to stroke the inside of his wrist. He needed to come back. I needed him to come back.

"Jimin..." I whispered.

Another shudder violently shook his body and he slowly blinked. Once. Twice.

His hands fell away. "I'm sorry..." He reeled back, a broken sob escaping him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't know... I didn't—"

I immediately sat up and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Shh, it's alright. You didn't know what you were doing." I pulled him against me, holding him tightly.

"I wanted to look for him," he said, voice cracked and jagged like a piece of broken glass shattered from its frame. "If only they'd let me look... I know I'd find him. I know it."

I didn't quite know who 'they' were but it was probably the higher ups of the Capital Base. Maybe the cursed Infinity Council members themselves— who had locked themselves away in a confidential part of the base like cowards.

I just ran my hands through his hair, down his neck in soothing, long luxurious strokes to try and bring the most sparse of comfort to him.

"We'll find him," I whispered. "Whether it be in this world or the next, we'll find him again."

"I don't want to find him in the next world," Jimin choked. "I want to find him in this world. He was too young to die! Too young."

I forced myself not to flinch at the word 'die'. I wouldn't cry. I wouldn't cry, not now. Now, I had to be strong for Jimin. I would hold him, pull him close to my heart, support him, until he could begin finding the pieces of his own broken heart.

I didn't know how long we sat in the dark as he clung to me tightly and let out his pain in a river of tears. Eventually his sobs quieted until only his uneven breaths filled the air. His Marks, almost blinding white moments ago, finally began returning to their usual silvery streams.

He was exhausted. Physically, emotionally, and mentally. Perhaps beyond exhausted. I knew he already was under a lot of stress from training and having to continually be the ruthless trainer that everyone expected him to be. It was harder and harder for him to maintain that light-hearted, carefree boy I'd met.

Now this death was just another piece of luggage for him to bear upon his shoulders. I only wished I could somehow reach him and let him know that he could share that baggage with me.

Maybe that's why I began to softly kiss him. Gentle kisses along his forehead to tell him that he was safe; butterfly kisses along his cheeks to know that I cared for him deeply; little kisses along his jaw to let him know that he was imperfectly perfect.

At some point he stirred under my lips and soon I found his lips against mine, kissing me back. The salty taste of tears lingered upon his lips. I cradled his face into my palms as I used my tongue across his lips, tasting him, holding him.

He slowly leaned back until I found him lying beneath me. One hand cupping the back of my neck to lock our lips together as we explored each other's mouths in deep, loving strokes. His other hand ran through my hair when I began to kiss down from his mouth to his neck and collarbones.

I ran my hand down his sides hesitantly, asking. He shifted and arched his back to help get his shirt off. Beneath the shirt his chest rose and fell in ragged breaths and I dragged my lips down from his collarbones to his softly sculpted pectorals, letting my lips intentionally run across several of his ornate Marks.

His hand in my hair tightened as I worked my way slowly down his body, pressing my mouth against his hardened stomach muscles, until I reached his lower abdominals where his Adonis belt plunged down. I lingered on the dips of muscle, waiting.

He groaned and swiped a thumb over my cheek. "Please baby..."

I unbuttoned his pants, fingers fumbling slightly in the dark, and resumed my kisses downwards.

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