For Longer Than Forever

"Taehyung! Taehyung!"

Taehyung startled, his webbed feet splashing in the water as he turned at the sound of Yoongi's frantic mewling. The black cat stood on a large rock overlooking the lake, body trembling and panting.

"Yoongi?" Taehyung quickly and stretched out his wings and kicked his legs to rise to fly up to the rock. "Yoongi, what happened? Are you all right?"

Yoongi heaved a breath and then froze slightly and quickly turned as he hacked up a hairball. Taehyung turned away to give him privacy and was amused at the disgusted curses tumbled out of Yoongi's mouth following the event.

"So what is so important you were running for?" Taehyung asked him.

Yoongi's back arched in his discomfort, but then he shook himself out and looked Taehyung in the eye.

"He's here."

Taehyung froze. "What?"

"In the forest. Jungkook. He's here, looking for you."

"How - how do you know?" Taehyung's heart raced.

"I spoke to him, last night."

Taehyung just about fell off the rock.

"What?"

Yoongi nudged him with his head. "Tae. We have to go get him later and bring him back here. It's your chance. Before the moon rises, so he can see you transform and break the curse."

Taehyung was stunned into silence. He lowered to sitting, his legs tucked under his body and neck curved downward as he stared unseeing at the grey of the rock they were atop.

"Tae?"

He came. He came for me.

Emotion swelled in him and if he could have cried, he was certain tears would stream from his eyes.

"He came," he whispered, looking up at Yoongi.

"He did. I followed him all day. He's been looking for you all this time, I overheard him and that Jimin, I think, talking."

Taehyung's wings and feathers ruffled with excitement and happiness that he couldn't contain. He rose, his wings fluttered and he took off to the air, not hearing Yoongi's startled noises of protest.

It wasn't until he felt a hand wrap around his leg and stop his flight that he honked, afraid. But it was only Jin.

"And where are you going?" Jin asked him with a frown. "You must wait, Taehyung. Don't be a fool, don't rush in. He's here, and he won't leave until he finds you. Trust that, okay?"

Taehyung honked again, his wings flapping wildly until he calmed himself down because Jin was right. He pulled out of his grip before he huffed and glided down to the lake again. Yoongi and Jin stayed at the shore, watching him with amusement as he floated over the water, unable to stay still in his restlessness, holding in all the shouting inside of him to go to him.

He came.

Elation soared his chest, and his mind spun.

He came for me.

*

They set off in the late afternoon. Taehyung was flying low, so it was slow-going as he manoeuvred through the trees. His eyes didn't stop scanning the trees, straining to see any sign of Jungkook. Yoongi bounded through the forest below him, meowing every now and again when they needed to change direction.