The smile which answered him was out of this world, uncontainable and bright. A bunny smile if he'd ever seen one. Tae felt his mind stutter to a stop as he finally took in how beautiful the younger man was.

"Hey you," came the answer he'd been hoping for seemingly forever.

Two words which he hadn't know he'd been waiting his whole life for.

They broke down barriers, tore at every inch of wall built around their hearts. Lips met lips, softly. Shyly. Interrupted by gasps as they realised what their shared kisses before had been missing: human warmth, real, tangible skin to hug and caress and love.

One peck turned into giggles and a longer kiss, one which was delicate but filled with so many emotions it made goosebumps spread up their arms. From the front seats, Jimin and Jin gawked at them. Glanced at each other when Jin stopped at a red light.

Until finally, Jin raised his voice, causing Jimin to crumble into laughter next to him.

"Yah! I'm happy for you two, whatever the hell is going on here, but could you please keep that for a more private setting?"

The two lovers pulled apart and burst into raucous laughter, holding onto each other as they apologised through gasping breaths, and despite the outburst, Jin stared fondly back at them.

The rest of the short trip back had Taehyung and Jungkook whispering their names to each other over and over, foreheads pressed together and hands intertwined, feelings spilling out from unguarded eyes. When they finally pulled up to the building they all currently worked in, Jimin jumped out, grabbed his best friend by one hand, lifted his bag in the other and forcefully speed walked them all the way to Jungkook's office, where he proceeded to scream questions at his catatonically happy friend.

In the car, Jin pointed an accusing finger at his beaming young charge.

"You have a lot of explaining to do mister."

***

It turned out being apart from each other for even a couple of hours was too much. They had only just found each other after so much searching and longing, and so, through a lot of begging, Taehyung managed to get his caring manager to go ask the man from his dreams out for dinner on his behalf.

They planned to meet at a small family restaurant Tae knew wouldn't spread information about them. What he didn't expect to see when he arrived however, was five other men sitting with a flustered Jungkook.

Jin had obviously made his own decisions and invited Hoseok, Yoongi, Jimin, and Namjoon.

He took it all in stride, too happy to see his ghost boy, forcing his way to Jungkook's side so he could wrap his arms tight around the younger and bury his head into the crook of his neck. Felt tears of sheer adoration and relief try to escape his eyes, but wiped them away before they could. 'Hey you's were muttered under their breaths, so only they could hear them, and they shared the smallest of pecks before the boys around them burst into complaints and pulled them apart with their laughter.

Drinks went round, and the DreamScape pair beamed at everyone the whole evening, eating with one hand as they held onto the other's fingers under the table. Questions poured their way, and they did their best to recount everything that had happened to them.

They kept some of it to themselves, moments too special to share. Some things were just theirs to know about, just their secret, a relationship not meant for others.

And from the shadows, two figures glared at the group.

***

It was the next day that it happened. Something which had been building for months finally reached its boiling point.

People streamed into work, the city continued its bustling life the way it always did. Teams at BigHit Entertainment arrived early to deal with emails, a maddening filming schedule, long lists of editing processes waiting to be tackled.

It was normal, everything was fine.

Until it wasn't.

It was early afternoon when the event the goddesses had been fretting about happened.

Mother Fate appeared at the exact second the Singularity star gave into its fate.

And she gasped. Shuddered at the sight.

Inside the building, two humans were sat in a locked room, fingers fumbling with something, adrenaline spiking as they tried to fix their mistake.

They weren't supposed to be there; the building was supposed to be empty when they set the bomb off; it was only supposed to be a warning. But it was unstable, homemade. A countdown showed less than a minute left, so they dropped it, running out the room, no longer caring if anyone saw them.

Down and out they ran, with about twenty seconds to spare as people watched them escape, unaware, unprepared.

They warned no one. Selfish, afraid, pitiful little humans. Fate couldn't stop them.

She propelled herself forward, air whipping around her furiously as she aimed for the heart of BigHit Ent., preparing to faze through solid matter. Shock filled her as she collided with the building, sending her careening backwards. Desperate, she grit her teeth and tried again, thinking about the soul lights she could see suddenly flickering with life inside. But the Singularity Star fought her, throwing her back out again, far away, crashing to the ground onto her back.

And when she looked up she froze.

For she was transfixed, mouth open in a silent scream as she watched the fates of hundreds of souls shift. There were four hundred and eighty-two souls in the building. In Mother Fate's eyes, their lights slowly shifted, in unison. Swirling colours of the rainbow all joined into one, brilliant red beam. All but a few now burned the colour of imminent death.

She choked on a sob, as she peered at hundreds of crimson fates.

And the bomb went off.

Snuffed out twenty souls in the immediate vicinity. She watched them go black; felt every dying life hit her at her very core. Walls exploded outwards, a cloud of dust rising from the building as the flames were born in its centre, unstoppable. Humans starting pouring out the building, alarms blaring. The fire spread, devouring everything in its path, trapping people in corners and their lights flickered black.

"HAN!!" she screeched, and a figure swirled into existence.

"I'm here," Lady Han said, her eyes burning icy blue.

"They're all... they're all red. All doomed I... I can't do anything."

The goddess of the Present peered up at the skies, greeting the new arrivals without her usual sneer.

"What about you, Universe?"

Verse and Ture landed by their side, both shivering at the unfamiliar feeling of their feet touching the ground.

"If I do anything, the humans will notice. It could have devastating consequences."

Han sneered at the all-powerful deity, their leader.

"Of-fucking-course. What about you, Brother?"

Brother Future turned is iris-less eyes on her.

"Why would I?"

Han snarled and Fate sobbed.

"I am not attached to the humans like you lot. My power is to see what will happen to this planet as a whole, my purpose greater than a few miserable souls."

"This is MORE THAN THAT!!" Han screeched in return. "This is a Singularity; a moment in time that we /have/ to have on our side!"

"He's right," Fate said despite herself. "And so are you, Han. You are the only one who has power to change this present. I am bound by Singularity Stars, but you are not. Go, do something, anything. /Please/."

The creature looked at her with something akin to pity, but before she could move, a sound pulled them all back into the human realm.

More explosions, something within the building crumbling under the rising pressure, huge plumes of smoke bursting out from the windows, sucking in air which only made the inferno stronger.

Fire trucks started arriving, people escaped the burning structure and lights went out. The emergency response trucks parked like a great barrier parallel to the building, yellow-wrapped men and women jumping out and rushing forwards, orders being belted out. So began the desperate attempt to save what they could.

Before long, camera crews were pulling up, reporters joining the craze and standing at a distance. Amidst the new arrivals came a familiar car.

Taehyung jumped out of it as it screeched to a halt and stumbled forwards. Seokjin jumped out after him and gasped at the building engulfed in flames.

"Jin, Tae! Over here!"

Namjoon was waving frantically from behind a fire truck, taking cover from the debris flying out at them, and they ran over, ignoring the fire-fighters swearing at them and the security lines which they were setting up.

"Where's Kookie?" Taehyung gasped as he approached Namjoon at a run. "Isn't h-"

"What happened?" Jin interrupted.

"I don't know... something like an explosion and before we knew it, alarms were blazing and we were running out."

"WHAT ABOUT KOOKIE?" Tae screeched, and they turned to him.

His chest was heaving, terror swimming in his veins and he could hear his own pulse.

"He... I haven't seen him yet" Namjoon said, clearly trying his best to hold back his own emotions.

Tae turned towards the building, hearing nothing else anymore. Frozen. Cold.

No, the building was truly on fire, flames licking out from every window on the fourth floor, plumes of smoke darkening the sky.

And then doe eyes.

Fluffy hair.

He emerged from the building's front doors, and Tae's chest constricted under the tsunami of relief.

"Oh my god, Kookie!" he whined, still unmoving, as their eyes met.

His arms opened up, a silent invitation.

The boy came flying his way, feet barely touching the floor as he launched himself into the singer's arms, and they wrapped themselves around each other, tears of relief flowing down, unstoppable. The familiar feeling of the young boy in his embrace feeling like finding home.

"Tae? What are you doing?"

The two separated so they could turn towards the hyungs, who were staring, confused.

"What?"

"Who are you hugging?"

Blood stopped churning in their veins. They turned, slowly, to each other.

Stared at the other's eyes. A sob tore from Taehyung's chest.

That's when he first noticed that the boy had a slight transparency to him. Nothing very noticeable, but if you looked into his eyes, no galaxy was reflected there, and Tae felt his tongue flatten under the weight of desperation.

"Kookie... you're still inside?"