Chapter 14

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When Jungkook woke up the next morning the pillow bed next to him was empty, which was not exactly unusual. After all, Taehyung had learned how to use the TV while Jungkook had been in bed sick.

What he hadn't expected though was to find Taehyung sleeping in the bathtub when he entered the bathroom to brush his teeth and go through his morning routine, which consisted of some makeup and brushing his hair to make it look less like a mess.

But since there was a Siren in his bathtub he decided to first drink some coffee before he'd deal with that. Because even after a week of living together... waking Taehyung up was a scary thing.

He wasn't all that lucky though because unlike he had hoped for Taehyung did not wake up on his own. Jungkook would have prolonged waiting, but he had to go to uni and he didn't want to leave Taehyung here on his own. Who knew what kind of fit he would throw.

"Hey, Taehyung?" He ended up saying softly, a good meter away from the bathtub... just to make sure he wasn't in reach of the claws that were in their natural form right now. Jungkook wondered whether it actually was hard to stay in that human form. After all, it seemed like Taehyung preferred his natural form and he sometimes he did slip up a bit. Not much. Just the scales on his feet and sometimes his eyes changed, but aside from that, he seemed pretty well in control.

There were so many questions he probably should have asked Jimin when he'd had the chance to. But then again, he also had the other siren's phone number - which was so weird to think about - so he could just go ask him if he really got curious about something.

The siren in front of him opened his eyes and looked at him with those unsettling empty, grey eyes again. Jungkook still couldn't quite grasp how this guy had this much of an effect on him, how Jungkook couldn't look away but then at the same time he felt so unsettled by the way he looked. Siren magic, probably.

Taehyung was like a magnet, but now that Jungkook was aware of that, he could fight it. Probably.

"We have to get ready. Let's live onhrough an interesting day in the life of a human." He clapped his hands, really not feeling enthusiastic, but maybe it was going to annoy Taehyung too.

The siren stretched its arms, yawning, and Jungkook moved a step back at the sight of sharp teeth. So unsettling.

"Should I get you clothes for the day?" Jungkook offered, not like he was going to take Taehyung with him naked, but he could at least create the illusion that Taehyung had a choice in this.

The boy nodded, leaning back against the bathtub.

Jungkook really didn't give much mind to the clothes he picked out for Taehyung. It wasn't like the ocean boy was going to have any preferences in clothes and colors so Jungkook just chose stuff he would wear together and that was it.

When he returned to the bathroom Taehyung was human again. The claws and teeth and luckily also the grey hue on his eyes gone. "Today I only have to go to uni because I need to talk to one of my professors. It will take about an hour and then we can spend the rest of the day... doing human things." He chuckled, putting the clothes on the floor.

Taehyung got up, once again very naked. The siren really didn't seem to have any common sense for privacy, but Jungkook could deal with seeing dicks, especially ones that didn't look like shrimp.

"Is that alright with you?" He grabbed the towel, holding it up for Taehyung to grab. Yep, no touching. He'd understood that that was a complete no go for Taehyung. The boy took it and started drying himself off, still not really caring that he was showing everything to Jungkook.

Jungkook took that as a yes and moved to brush his teeth. Taehyung didn't need his supervision to get dressed anyways.

"I'm just making sure you're not going to be hungry so you won't get any ideas of how tasty I might be after all." Jungkook stated as he put the sandwich and the caramel latte he had just bought at the counter down in front of him.

Taehyung grinned, like that was actually funny, before grabbing the sandwich and taking a bite. At least he didn't show off his scary teeth in public and looked pretty normal eating like this, aside from the fact that he practically inhaled the food.

He seemed really content with his salted caramel latte though, closing his eyes whenever he took a sip and slowing down just for a few seconds.

Jungkook let his eyes wander in the meantime since Taehyung seemed too distracted by the food to actually listen to anything he had to say... not that he had much to say anyways.

He watched a girl standing by the counter talked to the cashier. A lot longer than would be necessary. She was laughing way too loud and that seemed to be catching Taehyung's attention too, who first looked up at them and then sent Jungkook a questioning look.

"It's a mating ritual."

Jungkook had no clue why he had said it like that, but Taehyung snorted before choking on his drink and half dying on the other side of the table. It looked so human as Taehyung gasped for air, still kind of laughing, and Jungkook realized that this was the first time he had ever seen him laugh.

So far he hadn't even been aware that the boy was capable of that. After a few seconds, Taehyung seemed to catch himself again, but he was still smiling and suddenly his eyes usually devoid of any emotion seemed a lot more welcoming and friendly.

"Let me guess, you wouldn't use mating ritual?"

Taehyung shook his head, still smiling, before taking another sip from his drink.

Before Jungkook could continue talking to him a girl entered his range of view. She was pretty. Long brown hair, a friendly smile and stunning black eyes. She had to be slightly younger than Jungkook, maybe she'd just finished high school or maybe in her last year.

"Hey." She moved to their table, smiling at both of them before turning to Taehyung, who was suddenly sitting a lot stiffer than he had been before. "You looked really cute before so I thought I could give this a shot and ask for your number?"

She didn't do anything that Taehyung usually perceived as a threat from Jungkook. She wasn't trying to touch him, although she might have been standing a bit too close for comfort. Jungkook watched Taehyung's hand twitch on the table.

The siren was clearly anxious. Tense. And Jungkook knew that that was not a good thing with Taehyung. Because when it came down to fight or flight he couldn't picture Taehyung reacting with anything but fight.

A second passed and Taehyung's hand twitched again, his fingers turning black, just for a split second. Jungkook knew he had to do something, the girl had no idea how dangerous Taehyung was. He quickly reached out, putting his hand on top of Taehyung's, mainly to stop him from moving and slitting her throat like he had threatened so many times with Jungkook. But also because this was just the next best thing he had been able to come up with.

Taehyung startled, his hand twitching under Jungkook's, but no claws.

"Uhm sorry. We're dating."He apologized, squeezing Taehyung's hand, who looked confused. But at least he hadn't clawed Jungkook's eyes out yet, so that was a good sign.

The girl turned around to him, her mouth forming a little 'oh' before she nodded slightly. Then she smiled. "Good for you."

Without any further questions she turned around and Jungkook quickly let go of Taehyung's hand. "Sorry. Did that because I was scared you'd kill her." He quickly explained, hoping that Taehyung wouldn't decide that Jungkook had disrespected him or something.

But Taehyung just stared down at his hand before closing it and nodding. Then he grabbed his drink and started sipping on it again, back to watching the coffee shop. He seemed to actually be curious about the people living their lives, ordering drinks, and chatting loudly.

"How about we think of some sort of plan of what to do? You said you wanted to see the human world, right?" Jungkook asked and Taehyung turned back to him, fixing him with these eyes. For a second Jungkook got lost in his face again, in Taehyung's ridiculous beauty, but then the boy nodded and Jungkook managed to snap out of it.

"Okay so... where do you wanna go?"

Taehyung just shrugged his shoulders. It wasn't much of a surprise. Jimin had told him that Taehyung had practically no experience with the human world aside from visiting Jimin every once in a while for years.

"Wanna go see one of the bigger cities? We'd have to go by train, but Seoul is a couple of hours from here." Jungkook offered first because that had been the first thing that had come to his mind. People went sightseeing a lot. That was a typical human thing.

Taehyung nodded, waiting for Jungkook to continue. But Jungkook was pretty much at the end of his creativity already.

"Have you seen all the animals that exist on land?" Taehyung shook his head.

"How about we go to a zoo too? That's a place where pretty much all the animals that exist on land with us humans are found."

Taehyung looked a bit confused but nodded again. Okay, so Seoul and a zoo. Those were the plans for now. "If anything comes up that sounds interesting, tell me... somehow. I trust you to find a way." Nope, he was totally not pushing the communication onto Taehyung to deal with.

Maybe he was being a bit cheeky, but the whole being careful thing was so annoying. It just wasn't him and if this guy decided to kill him after all... great, at least that would end the weird situation he was in. Actually no, he really didn't want to die, but he really couldn't tiptoe around Taehyung forever. They had to find some sort of compromise and meet in the middle.

"Sounds good?"

Taehyung nodded, sipping the last bit of his caramel latte before giving Jungkook a little thumbs up. Whether that was for his choice of drinks or regarding the whole situation wasn't quite clear to Jungkook, but he decided to just accept it as it was.

"Now let's get going. I should be on campus in half an hour."

A/N

I genuinly love this story<3