16

He wanted to believe that Taehyung was different, he wanted to trust him. And some part of him did. As Jeongguk watched him work he expected to hear or see something that confirmed his paranoid suspicions. That he would be betrayed as he had been before. Humans showed their true colors when they thought that they were alone, he knew that all too well. But Taehyung only continued to defy his expectations. He didn’t need to pretend for anyone, that only made his actions all the more telling. How he fussed over Jeongguk’s results like a doting parent, doing everything he could and not stopping for one moment. No matter how much time passed, Taehyung remained the same. And that was different.

            Taehyung is different

            Taehyung is different

            Taehyung is different

Taehyung continued to work while Jeongguk appeared to be asleep, mumbling to himself and chewing on the pad of his thumb. He had a hundred questions that no one could answer, because the only person who held the truth lacked the voice to share it.

Jeongguk.

Jeongguk could see the damage, he sifted through error messages regularly. His retinal display catalogued every single detail of his disrepair, all of it. But his display was a hidden treasure, something that was hard to notice, undetectable by machines. There were things that Jimin would never be able to find on his own, much more than either of them initially realized. If communication continued to be a barrier in the process—he would never be fixed.

Over the next few days, this struggle became evident. Taehyung wasn’t used to running tests on models as old as Jeongguk, the readings were printed out in code that had died long ago. It might as well have been written in a different language. Repairs eventually came to a complete stop since Taehyung couldn’t figure out what to do next. Despite being confident in his skills as a mechanic, he didn’t want to risk breaking Jeongguk even further. His parts were familiar, but his processes were completely foreign to him.

“Shit.” Taehyung uttered underneath his breath as he hung up the phone. “No matter who I call, no one has a fucking clue. No one knows how to fix a Canary. Even Namjoon—fuck, what am I supposed to do?”

Watching Taehyung beat himself up over something he couldn’t control made Jeongguk’s chest tighten. He did his best to pull his emotions in his presence, but Taehyung was a very pure honest person. Even when he didn’t want to be. There was absolutely no reason for him to be so critical, Taehyung had accomplished more than Jeongguk thought possible in the month they had been together. Jeongguk could move his arms again, he could clench his first around things he didn’t want to let go. That alone was a miracle to him. Those smiles,mumbles,pouts, innocent ideas —they made Jeongguk the happiest he had ever been.

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