.
When Jungkook jolts awake to the thunder of his own pulse in his ears, skin drenched in a cold sweat and bedsheets tangled around painfully restless legs, feeling so f*cking ravenous that his stomach might actually be trying to eat itself, all he can do is roll back over in bed and groan his weary frustrations into the nearest pillow.
f*ck. His Cycle’s come early.
Again.
Dragging his aching ass out of bed and into the kitchen to rustle up some food (he’s so hungry right now he can barely think), Jungkook places a call to his boss, putting his phone on speaker and leaving it perched on top of the rice cooker so that he can eat and pace at the same time, cradling a large plastic mixing bowl of hastily-reheated leftovers against his chest as he uses chopsticks to shovel the hodgepodge of noodles, dumplings and banchan into his mouth like he hasn’t eaten in days.
“I wasn’t due for another six weeks, hyung,” he apologises fretfully between aggressively large mouthfuls. “Otherwise I would’ve already started clearing my schedule-”
“Hey, shh, it’s fine,” Wonho reassures him, as kind and easy-going as ever despite the fact that Jungkook’s call had clearly woken him up. “Premature Cycles just happen sometimes - and to us rabbit hybrids more often than most. Mine was a month early just last year. Nature’s all about balance, so you and I get killer quads and peak stamina, but we’re lumped with the short end of the stick when it comes to hormone regulation - it’s a fair trade, if you ask me. And don’t worry about your work schedule; you’re one of my best, but I promise the gym can survive eight days without you. We’ll just cancel the weightlifting workshops until next week, and I’ll ask Eunwoo to cover your Spin classes in the meantime. I’m sure Binnie and I can handle a few extra PT sessions between the two of us if any of your regular clients aren’t cool with skipping a week. We’ve got it covered, Kook.”
Jungkook purses his lips guiltily as he swallows another bite of food. He hates inconveniencing his friends and colleagues like this. Even though he knows there’s realistically nothing he could’ve done to accurately predict the exact start date of his annual Cycle (stupid f*cking fluctuating rabbit-hormones), he still feels like a bit of a sh*t for springing it on his boss last-minute. He’s only been a trainer at GymBunnies for ten months now, but Wonho’s already the coolest employer ever, and Jungkook really doesn’t like the thought of disappointing him in any capacity.
“I can hear you pouting, bun,” the older rabbit teases him gently. “We’ll be fine. Just forget about work and enjoy your Cycle, you’ve earned the downtime. Go pick some berries, climb some trees, make yourself a pretty nest - all that fun stuff.”
Damn, Wonho really gets it. That’s exactly what Jungkook’s itching to do. All of the above, yes, f*ck.
“Thanks, hyung,” he murmurs, calming a little, and inhales the last few bites of noodles before dumping the mixing-bowl in the sink and turning back towards the fridge for round two; breakfast-dessert.
Pre-Cycle munchies are no joke.
On the plus side, it means there’s rarely anything perishable left sitting uneaten in his apartment that’ll go bad during his week-long absence. He hates wasting food, and he’s f*cking starving right now, so it’s a win-win.
“Have you contacted Cycle Support yet?” Wonho prompts after several moments of determined rummaging.
Jungkook answers with a vague hn-nn sort of sound, busy guzzling a full pint of strawberry yoghurt straight from the carton and idly eyeing up the contents of the fridge’s top shelf. He wonders if it would be acceptable (within the somewhat broader scope of pardonable culinary offences that tend to occur as a result of pre-Cycle munchies) to scarf down that jar of pickles as mid-dessert palate cleanser, or if that’s veering a little too close to feral behaviour.
“Haven’t even opened the app yet,” he admits when he pauses long enough to take a breath, and then ploughs on before his hyung can start scolding him, “Don’t worry, I’m gonna. Just wanted to update you first since I’m supposed to be teaching a Spin class in, like, an hour and a half.”
“And I appreciate the heads-up,” Wonho acknowledges fondly. “But CSA regulations come first, bun. Go register your Cycle and book yourself a burrow before you wind up with Enforcers knocking at your door.”
A very unlikely scenario, given that Jungkook’s so early - he won’t even be on CSA’s radar for another month, and Enforcers generally only drop by for a ‘wellness check’ if someone has overshot their predicted Cycle date by more than a week (or in response to an anonymous tip-off from a concerned neighbour regarding ‘abnormal’ behaviour).
It’s technically a legal requirement for all citizens to report the onset of pre-Cycle symptoms within the first hour (to allow sufficient time for transportation and accommodation to be arranged before the rapid progression of said symptoms creates a potential public disturbance), but as a government-run organisation, CSA aren’t exactly keen to draw negative attention to themselves by dragging reluctant citizens from their homes kicking and screaming simply because a hybrid fails to check in on time.
Cycle Support might send an officer to gently encourage cooperation if someone fails to comply with standard regulations, but it’s rarely a necessary step - the vast majority of hybrids don’t want to remain trapped within the high-tech concrete jungle of the city (or confined within the same four walls) once their Cycle is in full swing, compelled by that ancient, irrepressible impulse to return to the wilderness and make peace with their more animalistic selves; to give free rein to their primal instincts and make full use of all those heightened senses that normally lie dormant.
Being cooped up indoors starts to feel physically painful after a while, any enclosed space (that isn’t designed to look and feel like a burrow) becoming claustrophobic to the extreme, and even though Jungkook’s barely halfway into the first hour of his own pre-Cycle stage, that cagey restlessness is already a near-unbearable itch beneath his skin.
Jungkook wants to climb trees and run through meadows and dip his bare feet into cold streams; to dig his fingers into good, damp soil and breathe in fresh air and feel the wind tickling at the soft fur of his ears; to chase butterflies and feel the warmth of the sun on his face without the dulling screen of dust pollution and smog that lingers in the cities. He wants to build himself a cosy nest in a little woodland cabin, a small safe space carefully padded out with blankets and pillows where he can burrow down after a long day of hiking and foraging for the deepest, most restful sleep he’s had all year.
“Jungkook-ah,” Wonho prompts, a touch more firmly. “Hang up the phone and go register, bun.”
Wrenching himself from his pleasantly wandering thoughts with a wry grin, Jungkook rolls his eyes fondly.
“Yes, eomeoni,” he simpers, and is rewarded with an inelegant snort crackling from the phone’s speakers.
“Brat,” his boss grunts. A brief pause, then, “Call me once you’re discharged; I can come pick you up if you don’t wanna take the shuttle home. We’ll go out for dinner, hyung’s treat, and you can tell me all about your Cycle adventures. Have fun, okay? And happy hunting!”
The call ends, and Jungkook slumps back against the kitchen sideboard with a sigh, sensitive ears twitching where they accidentally brush against the lip of the overhead cabinets.
Happy hunting.
Sometimes he gets so caught up in his excitement at the thought of green meadows and wild forests and clean air and tree-climbing that he briefly forgets about the primary purpose of a hybrid’s annual hormone surge - to find a compatible bondmate.
And today marks the beginning of Jungkook’s fifth Cycle.
Suffice to say, he hasn’t had much luck in finding his other half these past four years. He tries not to take it personally.
Jungkook doesn’t actually mind being single most of the time. He’s only twenty-four, and he’s got a ton of amazing friends who hug him often enough to meet his biological lagomorph-hybrid need for tactile affection, and an absolute dream job that he genuinely loves, and half a dozen creative hobbies that keep him so busy that he rarely even notices the lack of romance in his life.
Sure, sometimes on quieter evenings his nest feels a little empty, and he occasionally watches his mated besties exchanging sweet kisses or adoring glances and feels a faint twinge of envy, but Jungkook has a collection of very nice pillows and plushies that make excellent snuggle-buddies, and it’s not like he’s desperate for reciprocation or anything. He’s coping just fine on his own, thank you. Who needs a mate? Not Jungkook.
Alas, his inner hybrid disagrees.
With every passing year, that bone-deep yearning during his cyclical hormone surge only grows stronger and more desperate - a pining sort of heartache that he can never fully satisfy with physical activity or adrenaline-fuelled fun.
Jungkook wishes he could block it all out, to focus on the thrill of outdoor activities a little more and the whole mate-hunting side of things a little less, but his inner hybrid’s desire for lifelong companionship is as much a part of him as his proclivity for tree-climbing and nest-building.
It isn't as though Jungkook hasn’t tried to find someone to bond with over the years.
And not just during his annual Cycle, either - he’s trialled all the popular meet-your-mate apps available on the market (other than Rutter and LovesMeKnot, which are both catered specifically towards no-strings-attached intimacy and don’t really appeal to Jungkook’s asexual-leaning preferences), hooked up with friends-of-friends for casual coffee dates to see if there was a possible spark, and even picked up an evening painting class at his local university in the hopes that he might encounter a fellow art enthusiast to vibe with. He’s met some of the nicest people that way, several of whom remain close friends to this very day; Eunwoo and Binnie are his forever-besties, and Wonho had almost immediately become the doting-big-brother figure Jungkook never knew he needed (but absolutely couldn’t live without) after their first date-slash-impromptu-job-interview where they’d realised they weren’t the right match for one another as bondmates but were both super into weight-lifting and tattoos and homemade protein snacks, and had immediately exchanged numbers and recipe ideas and workout goals. Two weeks later, Jungkook had started working at GymBunnies full-time; Binnie and Eunwoo had joined him there (at his urging) less than a month after that.
So while he remains woefully single with a zero-percent success rate when it comes to scoring second dates, at least Jungkook’s bagged himself the job of his dreams and the best colleagues ever.
Navigating the dating field would be so much simpler if he was more in-sync with his inner hybrid all the time; basic instincts like scent compatibility are so crucial to identifying a potentially-successful mating bond. Cycle-triggered intuition is both a blessing and a curse in that regard - usually hybrids in the throes of their annual hormonal flux can tell at the first whiff of a person’s scent whether or not they’ll be a compatible match worth pursuing. Dozens of popular dramas have recycled that particular concept, variations of the age-old classic ‘lovestruck office workers start dating six months before their annual Cycles but suddenly discover their inner hybrids hate each other’ plotline. Those particular dramas all tend to end rather tragically, either with a catastrophic traffic collision involving a large white van (resulting in death, serious injury and/or a very convenient case of amnesia for one or both lead protagonists), or the fallout of an unstable love triangle (or love-octagon, depending on the hybrid species involved and whether or not they’re pack-orientated) where the emotionally inept main character inevitably chooses to settle down with the wrong damn mate and leaves everyone else heartbroken and the audience enraged on their behalf.
Jungkook definitely doesn’t need a plethora of rich businessmen in their fancy suits coming to sweep him off his feet - but just one genuine romance with a mutual spark would be nice. A hybrid around his age or perhaps a few years older, someone kind and fun-loving (and maybe a little handsome), who’s looking for love and companionship and who doesn’t immediately want to get in his pants for a one-nighter or settle down for life and have pups.
Still, there’s no use in trying to force relationships that aren’t going to work. He’ll either meet someone this coming week who piques his inner hybrid’s interest, or he won’t - and even if he does meet someone who smells nice, that doesn’t necessarily mean their personalities will click in the right kind of way. That’s only step one of the courting process, after all.
No matter what happens, Jungkook’s confident that he can enjoy himself at the nature resort regardless, satisfying all those other niggling instincts - like the need to run and climb and explore and forage and nest. Those are the things he really cares about.
Although first he needs to actually get to the nature resort.
And he still needs to pack. And shower. And find a soft hat to tuck his sensitive ears into because right now everything’s too loud (even the sound of his own breathing) and it’s setting his teeth on edge. It’s one thing to be bombarded on all fronts by the sounds of nature, and quite another to be forced to endure the low bzzzt of his kitchen’s overhead light fixture. It normally doesn’t bother Jungkook at all, he rarely even notices it, but with his Cycle progressing rapidly and his dormant senses growing stronger with every passing minute, right now he's ready to rip the damn thing out of the ceiling just to make it shut the f*ck up.
Stupid heightened instincts.
With a sigh, Jungkook swipes his phone from its perch on the rice cooker and sets to work.
He needs to register his Cycle with the government app: confirm the onset of symptoms, update his health information, and put in a request for solo transportation (because there’s no way in hell he’s taking the bullet train or the shuttle bus after how torturous it had been the first couple of times - surrounded by so many overpowering scents, hyper aware of every tiny noise or flicker of movement around him, he'd been unable to sit comfortably for the full duration). Cycle Support offers a private taxi service for hybrids who experience increased sensory sensitivity, and while it isn’t free like CSA’s bus or train network, it won’t put too much of a dent in his monthly budget either. And it’ll be so worth it to have a solid hour of peace and quiet to himself on the journey into the countryside.
Often the taxis even provide complimentary refreshments (usually whichever food and drink brands CSA has formed a partnership with that month), and there’s always a soundproofed privacy screen between the front and backseats so that Jungkook won’t even need to talk to the driver if he doesn’t want to.
(And he doesn’t want to. He might be a social butterfly roughly fifty-one weeks out of the year, but in pre-Cycle he’s tetchy as hell and prefers not to interact unnecessarily with other people until he’s safely out in the open wilderness, with the wind in his fur and the delightful crunch of dry foliage beneath his feet.)
f*ck, he wishes he were already there.
…
“Now, Jungkook-ssi…”
Briefly pausing in her typing, the kindly-looking deer hybrid who had introduced herself as Jiwon regards him closely from the opposite side of the registration desk, carefully adjusting her glasses, the soft lines of her wrinkled face deepening as she smiles at Jungkook politely.
“I notice you’ve deviated from your previous Cycle preferences by requesting a placement in Zone C,” she remarks. “Generally speaking, the central zone and its various amenities are catered more towards the needs of predator hybrids, you understand.”
Jungkook nods keenly, fidgeting in his seat a little and trying not to let his gaze wander away to stare longingly over the woman’s shoulder towards freedom; her spacious office (one of many that occupy the upper floors of the nature resort’s registration building) has an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the countryside beyond, boasting a veritable sea of greenery and gently-sloping hills. CSA has clearly done its best to make the registration building feel less enclosed with all the glass walls and high ceilings and the somewhat overzealous use of potted plants scattered about the place, but being stuck indoors going through tedious paperwork still sucks. It’s almost worse here than in the city, because right now he can see just how close he is to the object of his desires, but he still isn’t allowed to experience it, not just yet.
And after he’s finished here, Jungkook still needs to be processed through the medcentre on the ground floor for his mandatory health evaluation, which always takes forever.
Gods, he just wants to be outside.
The gentle swaying of the trees in the distance is an alluring sight, but Jungkook manages to wrench his gaze away again to focus on the CSA worker.
“I just thought I’d go a little deeper into the forest this year,” he explains, rubbing his hands against his thighs restlessly. “Try something new.”
Then he pauses a moment and flicker of uncertainty runs through him, his ears twitching nervously beneath his bucket-hat.
“That’s allowed, right?”
The elderly hybrid smiles at him kindly.
“Of course, Jungkook-ssi,” Jiwon reassures him. “Guests are welcome to choose from any of our four habitat zones. My role as your Placement Counsellor is simply to verify the specifications of your request, and to ensure that you’ve been provided with the necessary details to make an informed decision regarding your Cycle preferences. Your comfort and satisfaction remain our top priority.”
Jungkook’s briefly-tensed muscles relax once more, although he shifts a little in his seat once again at the way his jeans are pinching at his thighs. He’s rapidly beginning to regret his choice of attire; somehow he always manages to forget how uncomfortable normal everyday clothing starts to feel on his body once his Cycle fully kicks in - the stiff denim of his jeans is too coarse against his skin, the stretch across his thighs too tight, too restrictive. Even his favourite hoodie (normally a comfort item) currently feels too heavy, almost like the fabric’s trying to suffocate him.
He can’t wait to peel it all off. To jump into a nice warm shower and sluice off the unwanted scents of the city before changing into the soft, breathable CSA-issued apparel that all guests of the nature resort are required to wear outdoors.
Implementing a modest dress code across a five-mile radius would be impossible to enforce, so guests simply aren’t allowed to bring any clothing with them beyond underwear, a few pairs of outdoor-appropriate shoes, and a limited number of comfort-items (usually nesting essentials) that must be kept within their assigned accommodation at all times. The nature resort supplies everything else - seven practical outfits (with additional sets delivered upon request) usually comprised of cotton slacks, t-shirts, shorts, playsuits or dresses depending on personal preference, available in a wide range of soft pastel colours and various sizes, designed to ensure uniformity throughout the resort and provide a measure of economic equality for all guests during their stay.
Ostensibly, it’s because social class and material wealth aren’t supposed to mean anything out here in the wild, where the formation of true mating bonds should be left up to instincts and mutual attraction and scent-compatibility. Although literally everyone knows that celebrities and politicians and the truly wealthy don’t actually visit public Cycle facilities to mingle with the masses - they sign up to bespoke matchmaking services and pay annual fees to attend fancy private nature retreats on remote islands, neatly circumventing the usual mandatory placement at a CSA-funded resort (often with a few well-placed bribes).
“Would you like me to give you an overview of Zone C and its various amenities?” Jiwon continues pleasantly, drawing Jungkook once again from his wandering train of thought as she begins to angle the tablet towards him.
Jungkook shakes his head with a smile he hopes doesn’t look too strained (goddess above, please no, he really can’t bear to sit inside a minute longer than he absolutely needs to).
“No thank you, I’m good,” he answers quickly. “I already read through all the habitat info on the app. I know the central belt is a little more… rustic than the outer zones, but that’s kinda what I’m craving, y’know? Just me, my burrow and the woods.”
That, and hopefully some outdoor activities that might actually be physically challenging enough to get his blood pumping - to leave him sore and weary and sinking gratefully into his cosy nest at the end of a long day. If Jungkook fails to find himself a mate, he at least wants to fill that empty void with a bucketload of healthy, adrenaline-fuelled fun. From what he’s read about Zone C, there’s a good chance he’ll have more than enough of that to keep him occupied - and he already knows from previous experience that he’ll struggle to find it elsewhere in the nature resort.
Many hybrids (particularly those already mated) feel the pull of nature far less than others during their annual Cycle, and prefer to treat the government-mandated week off like more of a paid vacation with a side of casual romance, rather than allowing their primal instincts to fully take over. Zone A has been designed with those particular guests in mind, and is equipped with all manner of modern comforts - the sort of luxury accommodation they offer is essentially just an upscale hotel room, with a king size bed, satin sheets, twenty-four hour room service and a widescreen TV. There's a small cinema complex in Zone A that shows all the latest releases, a bowling alley and arcade, a state of the art gym with both an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, and a wide variety of health-and-beauty treatments (available for a small fee, of course) offered at the various spa facilities dotted throughout the otherwise-naturalistic habitat.
What the government has invested in the upkeep of the country’s primary nature resorts over the past century, they easily make back in triplicate thanks to the numerous ‘upgrade’ options available to guests (most of which apply to Zones A and B). Anything from popular corner-shop snacks to a personal sushi chef can be requested ahead of schedule and delivered to a guest’s doorstep with the click of a button at any time of day.
Jungkook doesn’t want modern comfort and convenience, though.
He’d tried that once already, and the make-peace-with-your-inner-hybrid style yoga and pilates classes that Zone A offers hadn’t even come close to meeting his needs during his first Cycle at nineteen. Jungkook had spent most of that week feeling restless and frustrated and regretting his decision to start out with the ‘gentle’ placement option, unable to fully satisfy the adventure-seeking side of him that craved physical exertion and the tranquillity of a peaceful forest without all the frills and fancies. Whereas at least Zone B (the habitat of choice for prey hybrids who aren’t as interested in modern comforts) had been marginally less populated and offered a much wider range of outdoor activities. Being situated a little deeper into the forest had provided much better terrain for hiking too, which had satisfied Jungkook’s instincts well enough these past few years.
However, that growing desire to truly be one with nature and to forage for his own food (out in the wilderness, like his ancestors; not just by taking a wicker basket to Zone B’s sprawling vegetable gardens and conveniently-planted berry groves to merrily pick out his supper) had niggled at him constantly during his last visit. He’d still enjoyed his time in Zone B, but for the latter half of his stay he hadn't been able to stop thinking about what else lay deeper in the forest, and whether the predator hybrids who typically ventured there might prove to be more compatible as mates for someone as adventure-loving as Jungkook.
Hence his decision to request a placement in Zone C this year.
One thing’s for sure - adventurous though he may be, Jungkook knows he isn’t ready for Zone D’s wild-camping ways, where guests apparently prefer traditional fabric tents or literal caves carved into the hillsides (or just put down a bedroll out in the open to sleep beneath the stars in all manner of weather conditions), and wash in cold streams and cook over campfires, and really let go when it comes to their instincts. Perhaps as a one-off Day Pass that would be an interesting thing to experience, but as a bunny hybrid, there’s a part of him that still needs some small measure of comfort and security, and he’d struggle to relax enough to sleep without the safety of an enclosed burrow.
Also, he absolutely cannot survive without hot running water.
Jungkook doesn’t mind getting mud-splattered during the day, or dragging half the forest home in his hair after a good hike, but a bath or a shower is an absolute must before he beds down for the night. Dirt inside his nest is strictly forbidden.
Just the thought of it makes his skin itch, and Jungkook rubs at his arms with a faint shudder, trying not to let the phantom discomfort show on his face.
“I see you’ve opted for a standard accommodation pod with basic provisions,” Jiwon tells him, turning her attention towards the tablet once again, carefully adjusting her glasses as they begin to slip down her nose. “I imagine you’ll find the layout a little different to the bunny-burrows you were accustomed to in Zone B, but all our standard cabins are clean and well-maintained, and fully enclosed to ensure the safety and comfort of our guests. And of course, you’re welcome to upgrade your package to a luxury gold or platinum suite at any time - we have three of each available in Zone C at the moment, and we’re currently offering a ten percent discount to first-time upgraders. Is that something you might be interested in?”
“No, thank you, the standard package is fine,” Jungkook declines quickly, offering Jiwon his own (well-practised) customer service smile, because the elderly hybrid seems like a gentle soul but goddess help him, if she decides to go through every available upgrade option CSA has to offer he might just have to yeet himself out of her wall of windows.
“Of course, Jungkook-ssi,” the deer acknowledges, fingers tapping away on the touchscreen. “And I appreciate you taking the time to update your list of allergens and sensitivities on the app; I see there’s nothing new we need to account for this year, so I’ll go ahead and confirm your basic provisions package. Naturally, if you grow tired of self-catering and wish to make use of our meal-kit service, or if you’d like to order a dish from one of our restaurants in Zone A, simply access the support terminal in your cabin and submit a request for drone-delivery. However, we do advise that you place orders in advance whenever possible, as our drones are often in high demand during peak hours.”
Jungkook nods in understanding, even though he doesn’t really plan on getting anything delivered. He’s always requested the standard package and found it more than adequate. Basic provisions are free, and usually include staples such as bread, rice, eggs, milk, tofu, and a selection of sauces and spices - and the forest should provide everything else he needs. Also cooking is fun.
Foraging in the wild might prove to be more of a challenge this year without the convenience of Zone B’s vegetable gardens and fruit groves, but he’s eager to try, and if push comes to shove he can always just purchase supplementary provisions from the nearest supply hub. Hopefully he won’t need to use the drone system at all.
Unless Zone C is entirely devoid of berries. That could be a problem.
He’s a bunny after all, he has needs.
“If there’s nothing you’d like to upgrade at present, that’s your cabin request accepted and confirmed, Jungkook-ssi,” Jiwon announces, turning the tablet towards him with a broadening smile. “If you’re happy with the specifications we’ve discussed, I’ll just need a quick signature and your thumbprint, and then I can escort you downstairs to one of my colleagues in Medical…”
…
A pleasantly cool breeze gently rustles the leafy canopy overhead as Jungkook steps out of his cabin, the door swishing closed behind him with a soft hiss, mechanical lock slotting audibly into place as the thick ID bracelet on his wrist buzzes twice to confirm his exit.
Free at last.
With a happy sigh, he leans back against the sealed door, closing his eyes and tilting his face upwards to feel the warmth of the sunbeams dappling his skin where they peek through the overhanging tree branches high above him.
Goddess, he’s missed the woods.
There’s a tightness in his chest that’s eased entirely; a coiled tension in his muscles finally gone lax; a heavy weight that’s been lifted from his very bones. Barely an hour into his stay in Zone C, and Jungkook already feels so utterly at home here.
f*ck the city. f*ck modern amenities. This is where he lives now.
Hell, this is where all hybrids are supposed to live. The wilderness is meant to be their natural habitat, and he doesn’t understand how society as a whole somehow manages to collectively forget what it feels like to truly connect with that innermost part of themselves. How can they so easily move on from this overwhelming sense of freedom that comes with being surrounded by nature? This euphoric feeling of rightness, of wholeness?
It’s little wonder that most hybrid species have evolved (or devolved, rather) over the past century to the point where their instincts now lie all but dormant fifty-one weeks out of the year; nature adapts to survive, after all, and no hybrid in full possession of their heightened senses could thrive in a high-tech, overly congested concrete metropolis.
Right now, it’s hard for Jungkook to fathom how he’d ever found city-living tolerable. It feels like he’s finally able to breathe for the first time in almost a year.
Sure, he loves his job, and his friends, and his tech-dependent hobbies like gaming and digital art, but he’d give up his computer and his drawing tablet and his comfortable modern city apartment in a heartbeat if it meant getting to live in a tiny little woodland den surrounded by fragrant greenery for the rest of his days.
Much like the bunny-tailored accommodation pods available in Zone B, his assigned cabin has no windows, and the door comes without handle or latch (or any other means of forcefully prying it open), programmed to respond only to the swipe of Jungkook’s wristband against the access panel, and to report any other guests who might try to gain entry. In effect, it provides a semi-impenetrable burrow where even the most paranoid of hormonal rabbits would feel safe enough to nest.
Jungkook, who isn’t paranoid in the slightest, has already made himself quite happily at home.
Freshly-showered and dressed in his comfortable CSA-regulation clothing (black cotton joggers and a light t-shirt today, because the weather is pleasantly mild enough that he doesn’t need additional layers), he’d spent a very satisfying hour plumping up all the soft, unscented cushions in his new nest and arranging the blankets he’d brought from home just-so to create a cosy little space where he’ll be able to burrow down for the best sleep ever at the end of the day. He likes to plan these things ahead of time - both to give himself a delightful homecoming to look forward to, and to save himself the effort of trying to build something at the last minute tonight when he’ll likely (hopefully) be too achy and tired to make anything quite so extravagant.
Just the simple act of building himself a nest and scenting all the fabrics in his new burrow has helped to coax his reawakened hybrid instincts closer to the surface - already the fidgety restlessness that had been brimming beneath his skin all morning has settled into a warm, solid sort of certainty, a familiar confidence in his body and its capabilities.
And his inner bunny is already purring with satisfaction to find himself so deep in the wilderness, so very far from the hustle and bustle of the outer zones.
In contrast to Zone B’s pod-clusters, the guest accommodation here is spaced so far apart that it’ll take several minutes at a brisk walk before he encounters another cabin, at least according to the zone-map Jungkook had eagerly poured over during transit.
“It’s a territory thing,” his young-faced shuttle driver (a fellow bunny hybrid called Soobin) had helpfully explained as they sped along the narrow access road that ran past the high-fenced borders of Zone B. “We prey hybrids generally find comfort in community-structured living, but it can be a little stressful for certain predator species to be housed too close to other guests during their Cycle.”
At Jungkook curious hum, Soobin had willingly elaborated:
“Marking out territory is as important to bears and wolves and cats as nesting is to us bunnies. That’s why Zone C’s our biggest habitat - it’s about three and a half miles from border to border, so there’s more than enough space for everyone to feel comfortable. There’s a lot of wild woodland to trek through if that’s your thing, but make sure you stick to the marked trails until you get your bearings. Are you sure you don’t want me to contact Residential Support to ask for a guide?”
Jungkook had cheerfully declined the younger rabbit’s offer, fairly vibrating in his seat at the prospect of such a vast area of wilderness to run and climb and forage through.
Tomorrow morning he’ll seek out the nearest support hub to enquire about the zone’s various activities and guest events (because he does, alas, eventually need to turn his mind towards mate-hunting), but all he wants to do right now is explore and maybe munch on some wood sorrel.
With a smile, Jungkook stretches his arms above his head and draws in a deep breath to fill his lungs full of fresh, clean air (so utterly, blissfully devoid of dust pollution and vehicle fumes - f*ck, how does he even breathe in the city?), rising up onto his tiptoes as he flexes his muscles, priming himself for a nice long run.
Then a faint, unfamiliar scent registers, and Jungkook’s nose twitches.
Oh.
Another hybrid already?
He isn’t necessarily disappointed by the interruption, but Jungkook hadn’t anticipated scenting anyone just yet, and certainly not so close to his own burrow. Especially with the accommodation spaced so far apart. According to Soobin, the two cabins nearest his own are supposed to be vacant at present (the most recent guests apparently having departed the previous evening), since the self-cleaning technology of each enclosed pod requires at least twenty-four hours to fully eliminate all traces of the previous occupant’s pheromones.
Then again, the newcomer’s scent is still quite faint, and clearly being carried on the breeze; Jungkook must be standing downwind of whomever it belongs to. With how heightened his senses are at the moment, it’s possible that the other hybrid isn’t actually as close as he thinks they are.
Nose twitching again, feeling curiously eager for more, Jungkook steps a little further away from his cabin and lifts his chin, sniffing the air curiously as the gentle breeze ruffles at his dark fringe and teases the soft, sensitive furr of his ears.
Something in his chest stirs.
f*ck. They smell good.
A complex aroma that seems to deepen and expand with every inhale - honey and cinnamon, soft citrus, pleasant floral notes, and something earthy and rich and good that makes Jungkook feel warm right down to his core.
He’s never encountered a scent quite so interesting before.
Jungkook’s heartbeat begins to quicken, something strange and electric coursing through him, and he’s suddenly acutely aware that his own scent (usually muted and only mildly sweet) is blossoming thick and caramel-sweet in response.
That’s…new.
Years of casual dating in the city, four annual Cycles spent searching fruitlessly for a mate, and Jungkook must have encountered hundreds if not thousands of potential partners and a broad spectrum of various semi-appealing scents, but none of them have ever resonated with him quite like this one.
Jungkook knows (from an academic standpoint, at least) what it’s supposed to feel like when you finally meet a truly compatible hybrid - he’s read about it before, both the dull-as-dishwater factual accounts written in biology textbooks, and the flowery descriptions found in the sappy romance novels he’d secretly devoured as a teenager going through his pubescent nesting phase.
And he doesn’t want to get his hopes up prematurely, but there’s something about this scent that’s calling to him in a way he’s never experienced before - stirring instincts within him that he didn’t even know existed - and he absolutely needs to find out who it belongs to. Right the f*ck now.
This could be them. This could be his mate.
(And they could also turn out to be an insufferable asshole within the first ten seconds of meeting them, but Jungkook refuses to even entertain that possibility right now, not when every fibre of his being is screaming at him to go hunt them down before any other bunnies get there first because mine-mine-mine .)
Taking another deep breath to commit the scent to memory, Jungkook angles his body towards its source and shifts his weight in anticipation, foot thumping against the ground a few times in his excitement, before he sets off into the forest at an eager sprint.
Happy hunting indeed.
…
The ‘source’, as it turns out, isn’t just one hybrid.
It’s a whole damn wolf-pack.
“f*ck,” Jungkook breathes for perhaps the third time in as many minutes, still a little wide-eyed, his knees feeling unsteady beneath his weight (in a way that has very little to do with him being up so high) as he peers down at the group from his vantage point at the edge of the wide clearing.
Having somehow stumbled across the pack without attracting their attention (bunnies can move silently when they want to, and approaching from downwind had clearly been to his advantage), Jungkook had quickly scaled as high into a towering oak tree as he dared in order to observe them in secret a little while longer, and now finds himself perched in a stable V of branches some twenty feet up, hidden behind a green-yellow curtain of whispering leaves as he hugs the narrowing trunk tightly for support (both physical and emotional).
Seriously, a whole pack. Goddess help him.
It makes sense now, why the scent carried on the wind had been so wonderfully layered - this close, the distinct citrus, cinnamon and floral notes are far more prominent (although he can’t identify which specific scent belongs to whom, especially given the way all six of them are either wrapped around one another or grappling playfully together), and the pleasant earthy-sweet-spice combination is even more intoxicating from such a close proximity.
But f*ck, Jungkook hadn’t been prepared for so many of them.
His earlier enthusiasm at having identified the source of that wonderful scent had initially faltered, albeit only for a brief moment, when he’d first realised his potential One was in fact a potential Six .
Somewhat embarrassingly, his knee-jerk instinct had been to turn around and run back to the safety of his burrow, but Jungkook knows that’s just the spooked bunny in him talking; the recently-awakened part of his hybrid hindbrain that occasionally gives him uncharacteristically prey-like impulses that are completely at odds with his usual adventure-seeking self. Those had been easy enough to ignore. He’s never been one to back down from a challenge.
Sure, he’s maybe a little out of his comfort zone here, and apparently very outnumbered, but these wolves seem nice enough and they smell so f*cking good, and he refuses to run away from what might very well be his destined bondmates.
Besides, it’s not as though he’ll ever be in any real danger out here in the woods.
Like all guests of public CSA resorts, this wolfpack would’ve undergone the same thorough criminal background checks and annual psych evaluations that Jungkook himself had been subjected to - any citizen with a history of violent offences, or those deemed to be a potential threat to the public, are immediately barred from accessing the country’s primary Cycle resorts and redirected to one of the smaller high-security facilities where their interactions can be more closely monitored. After all, it would reflect badly on the government if they made Cycle-segregation mandatory and then were lax with the screening process to the point that they allowed volatile hybrids to be set loose among the masses at a time when rapidly-altering body chemistry has already diminished an individual’s capacity to solve conflict peacefully.
The Cycle Protection Act had only been passed some thirty years ago for this very reason, and had effectively cut down national crime rates by more than two-thirds within the first eighteen months, serving as an immediate deterrent to many would-be first time or repeat offenders who did the maths and realised that their chances of finding their true bondmate would be greatly reduced without access to CSA bonding resorts. Nobody wanted to risk getting a criminal record if it meant being kept apart from their potential life-partner, and even wannabe criminals apparently weren’t keen on the idea of finding a mate among other violent offenders. As a result, society as a whole had cleaned up its act fairly quickly in the years that had followed.
Nowadays, violent crimes are almost unheard of, and street gangs are practically non-existent even in the larger cities.
Sure, there are probably a few dangerous individuals out there who simply don’t get caught or slip through the net during the screening process, managing to pass as regular peaceful citizens and access public nature resorts, but that’s why CSA have made wrist-monitors mandatory for all guests.
The high-tech tracking bracelet secured to Jungkook’s left wrist is far less clunky than it had been in the past, thank f*ck - the interactive touchscreen is now a three-inch square rather than the awkward phone-sized panel that in previous visits had taken up most of his forearm (and made climbing really awkward), so the part of Jungkook's bunny-brain that seems to hate restrictive clothing is far less bothered by it.
Although this year, the thick silicone wristband is an unnecessary gaudy purple, and Jungkook really isn’t sure that’s in his colour wheel.
Still, its presence is a reassurance. Equipped with a tracking chip and highly advanced scanning technology that monitors his vital signs, the bracelet feeds information about his wellbeing directly back to Cycle Support. If he keels over from a sudden heart attack mid-run, CSA operatives will have med-evac dispatched to his location almost before he hits the ground. And if he gets lost, he can simply pull up a map of the habitat zone with a quick tap of his touchscreen to receive step-by-step directions back to his burrow.
Most importantly, with the press of a button on the side of the device, he can call for help 24/7, and Zone’s C’s nearest support team will be able to find him within minutes.
So even if this wolf-pack turns out to be a gang of underground criminals (unlikely, but it’s always good to think of every possibility) Jungkook knows he’s relatively safe.
Although he can’t imagine how anyone who smells so perfect could have bad intentions.
His brain just keeps cycling back to the pack’s scent, because f*ck, the things it’s doing to him.
Jungkook wants.
Hell, he doesn’t even know what he wants, this is all so new to him, but he yearns for it all the same.
Realistically, even without their enticing pack-scent calling to that innermost part of him, Jungkook likely would’ve been curious enough to snoop on the wolves all the same. Pack-bonds simply aren't the norm for prey-species; bunnies in particular tend to be monogamous as a rule, and none of his close friends have felt particularly inclined to seek out more than one mate (not yet, at least), although Jungkook himself has always been open to the idea of multiple partners (and had even hooked up with a cat-hybrid throuple for one particularly disastrous first-and-last date that he likes to pretend never happened because he’d spilled hot coffee all over himself and accidentally elbowed one of his dates in the boob mid-flail hard enough to knock the wind out of her and oh gods, it had been bad).
So all in all, he’s never really spent much time around bonded packs.
Watching them interact with one another is fascinating.
He's met wolves before, of course, but only in the city where hybrid-typical social behaviours are generally reserved for behind closed doors - outside of nature resorts or the privacy of one’s home, it simply isn't socially acceptable to go about indulging one's animalistic inner-hybrid instincts by scenting other people, or rumbling a gentle growl in greeting, or nipping at your bondmate’s throat affectionately.
Or rolling around on the forest floor half-naked like those wolves are doing.
Which is…an impressive display, to say the least.
The two slightly younger-looking of the wolves (who are currently shirtless) soon switch from wrestling with each other to teasingly jostling their larger packmate, bumping into him and then darting away again with high-pitched laughter to avoid a clearly-gentle retaliatory swipe. After several minutes of this, the bigger hybrid apparently decides to give his younger bondmates the attention they’re asking for, tugging off his own t-shirt in one smooth motion and turning on the spot in a flash, his low growl echoing across the clearing (and vibrating through Jungkook’s body in the most exhilarating manner) as the wolf braces his feet and pounces.
Between one blink and the next, the larger hybrid has his mischievous packmates sprawled facedown on the ground, where the duo immediately shriek out giggling protests and try to scramble to their knees in an effort to crawl away from him.
Jungkook’s breath actually catches in his throat as he watches big-and-beefy casually hook a hand around the nearest ankle of each escaping wolf and effortlessly drag them back towards him (the pair screaming and scrabbling at the ground desperately), strong back muscles flexing with the motion.
Oh.
f*ck.
That’s a lot of bare skin and solid muscle mass.
And sure, Jungkook sees that kind of thing on the daily working as a personal trainer right beside the muscle-mountain that is Wonho, but wow, this particular wolf has some serious biceps.
It’s professional appreciation, that’s all - a healthy sort of admiration from one weightlifting enthusiast to another.
Or at least that’s what Jungkook tells himself as he eagerly leans a little further forwards in his perch and squints through his leaf-shield to get a closer eyeful of the trio’s rough-and-tumble playfighting.
Big-beefy-biceps now has the two slightly smaller wolves on their backs and trapped within the cage of his arms as he crowds over them, snapping his teeth near their throats with another growl. Under under different circ*mstances, Jungkook might have mistaken this for some sort of genuine predator-hybrid dominance struggle, if not for the high-pitched giggling of the duo beneath him as they struggle (ineffectively) to free themselves.
“Hobi-hyuuung!” one of the squirming captives wails, voice echoing high and plaintive across the clearing. “Save us!”
A short distance away, seated between two of his packmates on a wide bench that looks to have been hand-carved from a fallen tree trunk and sanded smooth, a grey-eared wolf rolls fluidly to his feet with a grin, reaching up to drag a hand casually through his dark hair as he saunters towards the trio.
“I’m here, Tae-baby, hyung’s coming.”
Without preamble, ‘Hobi’ launches himself on top of big-and-beefy’s back with an enthusiastic war-cry, but instead of rolling sideways to deflect the attack, the larger wolf simply allows the added weight to press his body downwards, laughing as he sprawls out on top of his younger bondmates.
Jungkook feels his own lips twitch upwards at the sight of them, at the sound of the other packmates’ laughter and gentle ribbing that ensues, their overlapping voices so full of warmth and affection.
Despite the shirtlessness and wrestling, the whole scene feels almost… domestic.
Thoroughly charmed, Jungkook finds himself leaning out of the tree even further to get a better view, ears perked up, straining to hear as the larger of the two still-seated wolves heaves an audible, clearly exaggerated sigh of indulgent longsuffering and rises to his feet, brushing off his clothes as he strides towards the impromptu pack-pile with an air of authority.
“Don’t wear my puppies out, please,” he chides fondly. “This is supposed to be their rest period.”
Without delay, big-and-beefy obligingly shifts his weight to one side (taking Hobi with him in a truly impressive show of core strength that Jungkook can’t help but admire, supporting their combined weight in an angled-plank on one braced forearm) to allow his giggling prisoners enough wiggle room to free themselves. The two younger wolves are on their feet and scampering away within seconds, making a beeline for their lone seated packmate, clearly seeking shelter in the arms of a more merciful lover.
“Yoongi-hyung, you saw that, right? We were viciously attacked,” the one Hobi had called ‘Tae-baby’ laments tragically, flopping down onto the bench and plastering himself against the petite wolf seated there.
“Unprovoked!” his blond-haired companion agrees, dropping directly into Yoongi’s vacant lap with an ease of familiarity that suggests he occupies that space frequently.
With a visibly fond grin, Yoongi gathers his younger mates close, rumbling a low, soothing purr that Jungkook can hear even from twenty feet up, and the sound of it makes something within him ache with silent yearning.
It looks so cosy, the way the elder wolf unhesitatingly offers such gentle tactile affection to both his bondmates - broad hands settling over their napes to tuck their heads down against his chest as he rubs his chin against their hair, first one packmate and then the other, casually scenting.
Yoongi’s lips move as he speaks again, hushed now and far too low to overhear, although the gentle cadence of his voice sounds so pleasantly soothing that Jungkook finds himself leaning even further forwards, only one forearm looped around the tree trunk to tether himself as he tries to catch a snippet of their conversation. Judging by the way the younger wolves have immediately snuggled into him, Yoongi must be saying such nice things.
"We don't usually see bunnies so deep in the forest," a loud, cheerful voice suddenly remarks from the foot of Jungkook’s tree.
With a startled yelp, heart shooting up into his throat, Jungkook gives a full-body jerk that successfully unsettles his footing, and in a split second of horribly bad luck, he loses his grip on the tree trunk and goes pitching forwards.
As the ground rushes up to greet him at an alarming speed, Jungkook has just enough time to regret his past-self's decision to climb so high in the first place and acknowledge, with a grim sort of resignation, that this is really going to hurt…
There’s a choked cry of alarm, and his rapid descent is suddenly interrupted by a pair of strong, muscular arms that catch him mid-air with a jarring sort of impact, the force of it knocking the wind from Jungkook’s lungs for a moment.
"I've got you," his rescuer reassures him, rushed and breathless, sounding even more shaken than Jungkook himself as he adjusts his grip to cradle the rabbit more securely. "Gods, I'm so sorry, I never meant to startle you like that. Are you hurt?"
Hands having automatically darted out to grasp at the wolf's (big, broad, bare) shoulders for balance, Jungkook shakes his head wordlessly. His heart is racing, and he’s feeling faintly dizzy both from the unexpected fall and the shock of being caught so abruptly, but otherwise he’s miraculously unharmed.
All at once, the pack-scent hits him anew; the same one that had first drawn him here like a siren's call to his primal mating instincts, only a hundred times more potent than before. That earthier note is richer now, more discernible from the pack’s combined scent, and clearly belongs to the hybrid in front of him.
His gaze darts up to meet the wolf's deep brown eyes, which widen fractionally, and a shared sense of wonder passes between them, Jungkook’s own scent blooming sweeter and more welcoming in response.
Mate, that little voice in his head insists, smug and exaltant. Mate mate mate mate-
"Hi," Jungkook manages, with a shakiness that has nothing to do with his recent treetop plummet.
The wolf blinks at him rapidly, as though the bigger hybrid is pulling himself out of a daze, before a gentle smile curls handsomely at his mouth, a dimple popping in the softness of his cheek and oh.
Pretty.
"Hi," the wolf echoes, equally as hushed. Then after a beat, his smile stretches wider into something easy and almost teasing, his gaze flickering up towards the branches of the towering oak tree above them, then back down again. "It was nice of you to drop by."
A startled laugh bursts from Jungkook’s lips even as he feels his cheeks flush (he had been spying on the pack like weirdo, after all), ducking his head a little in embarrassment, only realising a moment too late that it puts his nose perilously close to the scent gland on the wolf's neck and the source of that gorgeous earthy scent.
He has an overwhelming and entirely inappropriate urge to lick it.
Seriously though, how can anyone smell this f*cking good? It’s driving Jungkook crazy, and his inner hybrid’s never felt so feral before. He wants to rub that scent all over himself. He wants it in his nest. And yes, that’s completely unhinged of him because they’ve literally only just met, but the instinct-driven bunny side of him is coming through strong right now, and Jungkook’s barely clinging on to coherency.
Swallowing, forcefully derailing that train of thought, he directs his gaze upwards again (away from the tempting bump of the stranger’s scent gland), his throat suddenly dry.
Jungkook’s fingers flex against the wolf’s shoulders, acutely aware that the bigger hybrid is still shirtless (and currently cradling Jungkook in his arms like the valiant hero of one of those sappy romance novels his nesting-teenager self had once been so emotionally invested in), the air between them growing strangely charged as their gazes lock for a second time.
Fortunately, an urgent beeping from his tracking bracelet provides a very necessary distraction.
"You’ll want to answer that,” a new voice remarks from nearby, and Jungkook’s head comes up sharply, finding another (tall, handsome, broad-shouldered, but mercifully fully-clothed) wolf smiling at him over his rescuer’s shoulder from a few paces away, bringing with him a faint waft of sweet honeysuckle scent. "It's probably Cycle Support. Joon, love, put him down."
'Joon' blushes beautifully as he startles, perhaps only now realising just how long he’s been cradling the rabbit in his arms, offering Jungkook a wincing, apologetic little smile as he carefully sets the prey hybrid back down on his own two feet.
"Sorry," the wolf apologises softly, keeping steadying hands on Jungkook’s upper arms just long enough for the bunny to regain his equilibrium. Then he clears his throat and takes a deliberate step backwards (a sad loss for Jungkook), gesturing towards the rabbit’s urgently-beeping wristcomm. “Jin-hyung's right, bun, you should take that."
Nodding, faintly flustered, his own cheeks still a little warm and his head feeling more than a bit fuzzy with the potency of the pleasant scents surrounding him, Jungkook quickly activates the tracking bracelet’s touchscreen to accept the call.
And it's a good thing he does - the Cycle Support officer sounds faintly panicked when the line finally connects.
"Sir, your tracking data indicates that you recently experienced a rapid fall from an unsafe height," the CSO tells him urgently. "And your current vitals appear to be unstable - do you require medical assistance?"
Fully aware that his rapid, fluttering heartbeat and continuing breathlessness has precious little to do with falling out of a tree, Jungkook manages to croak out a hurried but embarrassed:
"No, it’s fine! I’m okay, sorry for the false alarm.”
“Are you certain? Because these readings suggest a fall of up to twenty feet.”
Goddess, Jungkook’s cheeks must be beet-red. He can feel his ears twitching downwards in embarrassment, and if he were alone he’d give into the urge to tug them further down to cover his face entirely.
“Yep, all good,” he manages, forcefully cheerful. “No injuries here, thanks for your concern.”
"I’m glad to hear it," the CSO responds, and he does sound audibly relieved. Jungkook assumes there must be a horrifying amount of paperwork involved whenever a guest goes toppling out of a tree and breaks multiple bones. "However, for your own safety, and in line with CSA’s injury prevention policy, an alert will be sent to your nearest residential support team."
"Oh, that really isn't necessary-" Jungkook tries to reassure, because that seems a little overzealous when he never even hit the ground to begin with.
"I’m afraid it’s protocol, sir," the voice from his wrist-monitor insists, back to polite customer-service neutrality. "But they'll only make contact if your monitor identifies further medical concerns. Thank you for your understanding, and have a pleasant afternoon."
The call ends abruptly.
Almost immediately, a series of soft chimes echo around the clearing as multiple wrist-monitors are pinged simultaneously.
Ears twitching up to pencil-points at the sound, Jungkook’s gaze comes up sharply to stare at the two wolves directly in front of him.
"Hello," Jin's smile is both kind and amused as he taps his own tracking bracelet to acknowledge the notification, moving closer to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Joon. "It's very nice to meet you, JK-97. Welcome to Zone C."
…
Any other week of the year, Jungkook would have the wherewithal to calmly, rationally acknowledge that a fully-bonded pack of six wolves who also happen to be working professionals are highly unlikely to be looking for a seventh mate, and that his time would be better spent hunting for companionship elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the Cycle-borne, instinct-driven hormonal bunny that normally lies dormant within Jungkook currently has both hands on the steering wheel and doesn’t give a flying f*ck about common sense or logical reasoning, because this wolfpack smells heavenly and they’re clearly destined to be his mates.
His inner hybrid has never felt so sure about anything in his life .
“Jeon Jungkook,” he says, once the pack (now fully clothed, sad times) have finished a round of cheerful introductions. “But my friends call me Kookie.”
Technically speaking, guests aren’t supposed to use their legal names for privacy reasons (in case a prospective mate-hunting goes horribly wrong and one side wants to cut all ties while the other can’t take no for an answer). CSA actively encourages the use of pseudonyms and nicknames, and the general rule of thumb is to exchange contact details only at the end of the week, once a compatible bond has already been established and the desire to pursue the relationship further has been mutually agreed upon.
Purely because he can’t be bothered to think of a new nickname every damn year (in another somewhat unnecessary security measure, they aren’t allowed to keep the same one), Jungkook tends to leave the optional moniker-preference blank, so he’s simply registered on the resort’s official database under his initials and birth year. (Which in his opinion is more of a security risk than using the same nickname, but whatever.)
Still, he’d much rather be referred to by something boring and unoriginal than suffer the embarrassment of receiving a delivery under a ridiculous nickname - during his first Cycle, he’d witnessed the horror on the face of poor, unsuspecting ‘KnotDaddy69’ when a hovering messenger-bot had swooped by to merrily announce (in front of the entire outdoor yoga class) that the tiger hybrid’s private masseuse was waiting for him in his suite.
That moment has stuck with Jungkook ever since, and he’s been more than happy to stay as boring old JK-97.
But the wolfpack had all been so willing to offer up their own full names that Jungkook couldn’t help but feel compelled to return their show of trust. Besides, as current employees of a CSA nature resort, it’s safe to assume they’ve all been vetted a little more thoroughly than the average guest, so the risk of one of them turning out to be a creepy stalker if things don’t work out is probably minimal.
Also, he really wants them to like him.
Like, really really.
And judging by the pack’s pleasantly-surprised expressions at Jungkook’s introduction, he made the right choice.
“Kookie,” Yoongi echoes, offering him another of those soft little smiles as he presses a cup into Jungkook’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, bun. You’ll stay for lunch, won’t you?”
Jungkook wraps both hands around the cup as he dips forward (as best he can without overbalancing the camping chair) in a shallow bow of thanks, trying not to look too eager.
“Oh, thank you, but I wouldn’t want to impose-”
“You won’t be,” big-and-beefy - ah, Namjoon - reassures him, all easy warmth as he scratches his fingers idly through Jimin’s hair where the younger wolf sits on the ground between his feet. “We’d appreciate the company, to be honest - it’s been an unusually dull morning.”
“So dull,” Taehyung agrees, shifting restlessly where he’s settled himself sideways in Hoseok’s lap, his grin bright and his eyes fixed eagerly on Jungkook (as they have been from the very moment the bunny first joined them in the clearing). “More than a dozen guests from our quadrant got discharged last night, so we’ve hardly seen another soul all day.”
Jungkook tilts his head curiously, feeling his ears twitch with the motion.
“Your quadrant?”
He admits that he doesn’t know much (or anything, really) about residential packs and how they function. He’d been aware of their existence, of course, but only in the sense that he’d known there were hybrids who lived and worked in the various habitat zones full-time (usually comprised of individuals who simply felt more at home in wild than they did among the rest of civilisation), but he's never actually met one in person before, and he hadn’t realised they were actually pack- packs; like, the fully-mated kind. Zone B has always been largely staffed by fellow prey hybrids, most of whom seemed to be either bonded couples or small groups of unmated professionals who simply worked well together (specialist instructors for various activities and classes, or teams of gardeners who tended to the vegetable patches and fruit groves).
But it makes sense, certainly from a health-and-safety point of view with the sheer size of the central habitat belt (and how far they are from the emergency medcentre near the registration building) to have slightly larger, fully-cohesive support teams stationed here 24/7.
“Zone C spans a little over three miles, so it was necessary to divide the habitat into established territories under a number of residential packs," Namjoon explains readily, the deep timbre of his voice pleasant to listen to. "There are four support teams in total - two bear clans who guard the quadrants on the other side of the river, and another wolfpack that patrols the mountain trails further eastward.”
"But they all answer to Namjoon," Seokjin adds from his seat beside the bigger wolf, slanting an amused look towards his mate. “He likes to downplay his importance, Jungkookie, because he’s far too modest for his own good, but don’t let his pretty face fool you - our Joonie’s the one in charge.”
With a sigh, Namjoon glances heavenwards as though seeking patience, but his lips are twitching up at the corners - it's clearly an old argument between the two of them.
"I was appointed Habitat Guardian in a purely professional capacity," he clarifies for Jungkook’s benefit. “And it sounds a lot more exciting than it actually is. It’s mostly paperwork-related, to be honest. And I’m not in charge of the other residential packs, hyung; I’m pretty sure they only nominated me as Zone representative because none of them wanted to sit through health and safety briefings every Saturday morning.”
“Valid,” Jimin and Taehyung mutter in tandem.
"Yes, Alpha," Seokjin placates, patting Namjoon’s knee soothingly. "Of course, Alpha."
Namjoon just looks vaguely long-suffering, albeit in a fond sort of way.
"Joon-hyung’s our primary field medic, too," Jimin pipes up cheerfully, one arm now looped around Namjoon’s leg, his cheek squished comfortably against the Alpha’s hella thick thigh, practically snuggling into it (Jungkook isn’t jealous, he’s not, he works with muscles every day and is a tougher bunny than this and he refuses to be so easily distracted, but why does Namjoon have to look so good in shorts?), "He can spot a good vein from fifty paces."
Jimin mimes throwing a dart, and from the opposite side of the little circle the pack members have formed around the bench with their camping chairs, Taehyung dramatically clutches at the crook of his elbow and promptly feigns a dead-faint in Hoseok’s arms.
"Pups," Namjoon sighs, but he’s smiling openly now, clearly endeared.
"And Jin-hyung is Zone’s C’s residential counsellor," Jimin continues brightly. "Although you wouldn't think it from the way he likes to bully us."
"Lies and slander," Seokjin denies, calm and unaffected, casually taking Namjoon’s free hand and interlacing their fingers as the Alpha continues to stroke Jimin’s hair idly with the other. "And if I do, sweetness, it's entirely for your own good."
Then he sends Jungkook a warmer, more genuine smile and adds in a gentler voice:
"But in all seriousness, Jungkookie, I’m here if you need me. Cyclical hormone fluctuations mess with everyone’s emotions; sometimes it helps to have a listening ear to vent to, or a shoulder to cry on. Or chocolate."
“Chocolate?” Jungkook parrots, because it’s all he can think to ask in the face of so much kindness (also, Jin’s shoulders do look like they’d be a sturdy and comfortable place to have a good cry and honestly, there’s a needy-clingy part of him that’s genuinely considering it).
"Hyung's got crates of it packed away down in the storage cellar," Taehyung reveals in a loud stage-whisper, hand cupped against the side of his mouth and eyes fairly glinting with mischief. "I can hook you up any time, but you have to keep it a secret from the wolfpack in the eastward quadrant because JB-hyung has troubling a cocoa habit-"
"Kim Taehyung!" Jin scolds laughingly. “He does not!”
Grinning, unrepentant, Tae neatly dodges the playful, gently-swatting hand aimed at the back of his head by a fondly-smiling Yoongi, and scoots out of Hoseok’s lap to sit on the ground between the wolf’s feet in a position that directly mirror’s Jimin’s, giving Jungkook his full attention as he hugs his knees.
"I'm an activity instructor," he tells the bunny eagerly. "Me and Jiminie both. We're here to make sure you have fun.”
Jimin nods, utterly serious. "Fun is compulsory in Zone C. No boring Cycles allowed."
"That is absolutely not true," Jin refutes, amused but exasperated as he leans down to flick the younger wolf's twitching ear, smiling when Jimin wrinkles his nose and pouts up at him cutely. "Rest and relaxation are just as important."
"Ugh," Tae groans, flopping sideways against Hoseok’s thigh dramatically. "No, I'm allergic."
Jungkook hides a dopey, thoroughly enamoured smile behind the rim of his cup, taking another sip of the refreshingly cold and pleasantly sweet beverage.
"I’m totally up for having fun," he offers keenly. (Ah. Maybe that came across a little too strong.) He clears his throat and raises his cup. "Also this is delicious, thank you. What is it?"
The pack as whole appear visibly pleased by his approval, their smiles broadening as their combined scent blooms somehow richer and deeper than before.
Yes, Jungkook’s inner hybrid preens. Mine.
"Elderflower cordial," Taehyung answers. "It’s good, right? Yoongi-hyung makes it from scratch. He and Hobi-hyung are Zone C’s hunter-gatherer outdoorsy experts; Hobi-hyung’s into trapping and tracking and making hideaway-dens out of sticks and stuff, and Yoongi-hyung can teach you all sorts of bookish woodsy knowledge - he knows, like, every species of fungi ever, if you're into that sort of thing."
Yoongi and Hoseok both look amused by the introduction, the smaller of the two wolves slanting a look at his youngest bondmate, receiving a kissy-face in return that has him rolling his eyes fondly before he glances back up again to give Jungkook that soft little half-smile.
"Hobi and I teach basic wilderness survival skills," Yoongi elaborates with a nod towards Hoseok, who offers Jungkook another brilliant sunny smile. "Foraging, wild camping, hunting, herb-lore - and yes, mushroom identification if that’s something you’re interested in.”
All of that sounds miles better than anything Zone B had to offer - in the other zones, there had been various signs dotted about the habitat specifically asking guests not to eat anything they picked in the wild (for health and safety reasons) and to instead make use of the vegetable gardens and fruit groves. Jungkook had ignored the warnings on a few occasions (only when he was absolutely sure that the plant he was picking was edible), and he always found that the wild-grown vegetation somehow tasted better than the carefully-cultivated kind.
"I’d love to learn how to forage in the wild," he tells the duo cheerfully, feet feeling restless again in his excitement with the growing urge to thump, which he thankfully manages to redirect into a less obvious leg-jiggle. "The other zones had greenhouses and vegetable gardens, but wild-picking is way more fun."
Hoseok and Yoongi both brighten at his enthusiasm.
"Couldn't agree more," Hobi enthuses, leaning forwards a little and bracing his elbows on his knees, both hands now idly scritching behind Taehyung’s ears (the younger wolf tipping his head back with a happy sigh in response). "There's a special sort of satisfaction in gathering your own food, isn’t there? We can offer you individual or group sessions depending on your preference. And Yoongi-hyung hosts cooking classes too, if you’re interested in learning how to prep and pickle and preserve everything we forage."
Jungkook nods immediately, ears bobbing with the motion. “Sure, that sounds amazing! I love to cook.”
Yoongi’s eyes crinkle a little at the corners as he blesses Jungkook with the softest of little grins. Oh f*ck, he’s cute.
“We’ll go over our schedules after lunch and get you booked in for another day,” Yoongi promises. “We’ve already got reservations for this afternoon, I’m afraid, but the rest of our week is fairly uneventful at the moment, so…book as many sessions as you like, bun.”
Jungkook’s leg trembles imperceptibly as he once again suppresses the urge to thump.
“And speaking of lunch,” Seokjin announces, standing abruptly as he glances down at the touchscreen on his tracking bracelet. “The quiches should be just about done by now. Excuse me.”
Yoongi glances after him as the elder wolf begins striding away. “Hyung, you need a hand?”
“Probably a few, but give it ten minutes,” Jin calls back over his shoulder without turning around. “The quiches need to sit for a spell.”
Jimin leans over to nudge Jungkook’s leg, drawing his attention.
“Jin-hyung’s the best chef in Zone C, too,” he reveals with a grin. “He does things with tree bark and acorns you wouldn’t believe. He and Yoongi-hyung are writing a wildcrafting recipe book for wilderness lovers because they’re cute and nerdy like that.”
With a snort, Namjoon tugs at Jimin until the pup leans back against his thigh, gently tweaking the younger wolf’s ear to make him settle, before flashing Jungkook another dimpled smile.
“If you don’t already have a prepaid catering-package in place, you’d be more than welcome to join us at mealtimes,” the Alpha offers, both Jimin and Taehyung perking up keenly at his suggestion. “We generally take an hour’s break at noon for lunch and finish for the day around seven-thirty, and there’s always room for one more at our table. Although we tend to eat outdoors most days, especially now that the weather’s improving.”
Oh. An open invitation.
Success.
“This clearing kinda serves as our unofficial hangout zone,” Taehyung adds with a vague gesture at their surroundings. “You’ll usually find a couple of us here even if the rest of the pack have bookings, so don’t be afraid to come say hi. Most guests tend to avoid coming here unless they’re lost because it’s scent-marked as belonging to an Alpha, and it’s close enough to our pack-den that other predator hybrids kinda get the ick , and also everyone expects hyung to be this big scary boss who doesn’t like sharing-”
“Tae,” Namjoon sighs, fondly exasperated.
“-when he’s actually just a great big teddy bear,” the younger wolf concludes with an adoring coo, flashing his Alpha a cute boxy grin.
Namjoon glances at Yoongi, who obligingly leans over and flicks Taehyung’s ear on the Alpha’s behalf, earning himself an indignant squawk that has Jungkook hiding another smile behind the rim of his cup.
“Where’s your cabin, by the way?” Jimin queries. “They usually assign first-time visitors to the pods nearer the central marked trails, in case you need help navigating. Are you staying somewhere closeby?”
“Mm,” Jungkook confirms brightly, and gestures with his almost-empty cup towards the towering oak tree on the far side of the clearing. “My burrow’s maybe a five-minute jog thataway.”
“Woo, neighbours!” Tae crows, and leans over to offer Jungkook a high-five that the bunny laughingly reciprocates.
Then Taehyung suddenly shifts up onto his knees between Hoseok’s legs, looking excited.
“We need to give you a proper tour!” the wolf insists. “Outline the other territories and take you eastward to visit the Im-pack; they’re all f*cking crazy in the best kind of way, you’re gonna love ‘em. And we’ll show you where the supply-hubs are located in case you want snacks that aren’t chocolate - they’re built to look like regular log-cabins, but they’re full of vending machines or fresh-produce lockers, you just have to swipe your bracelet to purchase stuff. Oh, and you need to meet Sowon! She’s the leader of one of the bear clans across the river, they can take you spelunking or gorge-walking or rafting or spear-fishing, and they have the best karaoke parties if that’s more your style-”
“And don’t forget the challenge-trail!” Jimin interrupts keenly. “It rained for a couple of hours last night so the ground’s gonna be perfect .”
Tilting his head curiously, long ears twitching up in interest at the word challenge, Jungkook glances between the two of them.
"Challenge-trail?" he echoes.
"It's like a giant obstacle course," Jimin elaborates eagerly "And I mean giant - the trail takes you through almost half a mile of woodland. Tae and I designed it for adventure-seekers who like to climb over things and crawl under things and swing on ropes and get really, really muddy.”
Holy f*ck.
That might just be the most enticing thing Jungkook’s ever had described to him in his whole damn life, and he’s maybe a little bit in love with the idea (and Jimin, and Taehyung, and their glorious pack-scent) already.
The prospect of pushing his body to the limit doing something genuinely physically challenging, getting hot and sweaty and muddy (with these wolves, specifically), appeals to every single instinct within him, and great goddess above, Jungkook wants.
"I like mud," he says, breathless and eager, like an intellectual. Then, internally flailing to correct his no-filter reaction, he hurriedly continues, "And challenges! Any kind of extreme physical exercise, to be honest. That’s kinda why I got bored of Zone B, you know? The activities just weren’t doing it for me anymore, it made it hard to settle down at the end of the day.”
Jimin and Taehyung both nod in sympathetic understanding.
“Tae’s the same - he can’t sleep unless he’s worn himself ragged,” Hoseok supplies with a grin, gently petting the younger wolf between the ears where Taehyung’s dark hair is already thoroughly mussed from his earlier ministrations. “Otherwise he gets the zoomies.”
“Hyung!” Tae whines, dismayed. “Don’t call it that in front of Kookie.”
“Don’t worry, bun,” Jimin reassures as though the interruption never happened, determination lining his voice as he leans over again to pat Jungkook’s knee. “Satisfying thrill-seekers is our speciality. Tae and I will make sure your hybrid is tired enough by the end of the day to nest properly, we’ve got plenty of activities to keep you entertained.”
Jungkook feels his cheeks flush at the wolf’s focused attention, finding his heartbeat quickening once again in anticipation, his own scent blooming sweeter in hopeful expectation. From the way Jimin’s nose twitches and his smile curls wider, pleased, the wolf clearly notices his favourable reaction.
Trying to cover up how affected he is by Jimin’s soft little grin, the bunny quickly swallows back the last of his elderflower cordial, and dips forward into a shallow seated bow.
"Please take care of me."
"Woo, new friend!" Taehyung cheers, executing an impressively agile sideways-roll, and immediately popping up beside Jungkook’s seat to latch onto the rabbit in a friendly side-hug. "C'mon, bun, let's get muddy.”
“Not until after lunch, puppy,” Namjoon reminds his mate, smiling as he stands. “Our guest needs to eat first - and bunnies burn through almost twice as many calories as wolves do during their Cycles, so make sure you pack plenty of snacks before you hit the challenge-trail. Jungkookie, do you have any allergies? Your guest file didn’t auto-flag anything wild-growing that we’d need to protect you from, but we import a handful of basic supplies from the other zones. You good with gluten? Dairy? Meat?”
Jungkook nods readily.
“I’ll eat pretty much anything,” he reassures. “Maybe a little less red meat than predator hybrids and a few more leafy-greens, but I’m totally fine with a basic omni diet.”
“Great,” Yoongi says, rising to his feet to join Namjoon and offering Jungkook both a gentle smile and an outstretched hand. “You wanna help me rustle up a salad, bun? I keep a little garden of my own just behind our den, but most of the plants I grow there can be foraged in the wider forest too; it’ll be a good introduction to the basics of wildcrafting.”
Feeling his own smile bloom wide enough to make his cheeks ache in his enthusiasm (because f*ck yes, he loves salad and foraging and holding hands and having Yoongi’s undivided attention), he accepts the proffered hand shyly, jumping to his feet and trailing eagerly after his new hyungs as they follow Seokjin’s honeysuckle-sweet scent across the clearing.
It’s only day one of his Cycle, but Jungkook already knows in his heart that he’s found what he’s been yearning for all these years.
Now all he has to do is make the wolfpack like him back.
…
Taehyung and Jimin hadn’t been exaggerating; the ‘challenge trail’ is indeed a thrill-seeker’s dream, and Jungkook ends up getting very, very muddy.
Perhaps he would’ve taken things a little slower if there hadn’t been a timer involved, but Jungkook’s always harboured a fierce competitive streak within him - probably going on twenty years now, ever since he’d gotten his first taste of victory as the winner of his kindergarten’s egg-and-spoon race on Sports Day - and the prospect of seeing his name painted onto the wooden scoreboard at the starting line of the Challenge Trail had simply been too great a temptation to ignore.
Suitably compelled, he completes the obstacle course at a flat-out run and subsequently feels close to dying by the end of it, all but collapsing to the ground after slamming his tracking bracelet against the scanner at the finish line to log his completion time.
“Gods above, Kookie, you’re a beast,” Jimin crows gleefully as he jogs up to join him, breathless but admiring as he claps the bunny on the back where Jungkook is doubled over at the waist, hands on his knees and near-heaving from overexertion. “I could barely keep pace with you and I wasn’t even scaling half the obstacles. You might’ve actually beaten JB-hyung’s record.”
“Hnburrgh?” Jungkook queries wheezily, pulse pounding in his ears and head spinning, teetering forwards in a dangerously unsteady sway.
“Whoa! Easy there,” Jimin intervenes, and short but strong arms encircle his midriff securely, coaxing him upright and bodily steering him away from the finish line towards a nearby wooden bench, clearly hand-carved just like the one he’d seen before. “Take a seat for me, bun. There’ll be no fainting on my watch.”
Obeying the gentle command, Jungkook wonders (slightly woozily) if any of the Kim-pack maybe have a knack for carpentry, or bench-making in particular, given the similarities between this one and the bench from the clearing - Yoongi and Hoseok both seem the type, given their apparent aptitude for wilderness survival and forestry skills, but Seokjin is also a man of many surprising talents (the wild mushroom quiche they’d eaten for lunch had been f*cking delicious, and Jungkook’s already eager to learn the recipe for himself) so it’s possible the eldest wolf had simply decided to add woodwork to his already-impressive repertoire.
“Here,” Jimin prompts, slipping off his backpack and pulling out a large metal flask, removing the lid with a quick twist and pouring out several hefty glugs of water before pressing it into Jungkook’s (rather muddy) hands. “Drink up, you must be parched.”
Jungkook is, but he knows better than to down the cup in one go when he’s driven himself to the near-heaving point of overexertion, forcing himself to take smaller sips as he continues to regulate his heavy breathing. He hasn’t pushed his endurance quite this hard in a long time, his body having adapted to the hour-long spin classes and body pump workouts of his regular day-to-day life as a gym instructor - hurtling uphill through an obstacle course is a whole new kettle of fish.
He aches in the best kind of way.
By the time he’s finished the water, Jimin’s already pulled out a second flask, and replaces the empty cup in Jungkook’s hand with another one full of the familiarly sweet elderflower cordial he’d sampled earlier that day. He can’t quite silence the soft, pleased hum that bubbles up from his throat at the first taste, catching Jimin’s smile out of the corner of his eye.
“It’s good for recovery, and you need the electrolytes,” the wolf tells him, taking a swig of water for himself before setting the flask aside and rummaging around in his backpack again. “Also snacks. Jinnie-hyung packed us some homemade protein bars, you want one?”
Jungkook is relieved to see that Jimin is equally as unbothered as him when it comes eating with muddied hands, the two of them munching away on honey-acorn flapjacks and exchanging cups for alternating sips of water and elderflower cordial until they’ve both regained their strength.
Suddenly Jimin’s tracking bracelet pings with a notification, and the wolf makes an excited little chirping noise in the back of his throat (f*ck, he’s cute) as he bolts upright from his comfortable slouch on the bench, bringing his wrist up to read the message eagerly.
“Nine minutes and thirteen seconds,” he reports cheerfully, giving Jungkook a wide, beaming smile. “That’s amazing for your first run! You’ve already beaten my record by eight seconds - not that I’m surprised with those legs - which means you’re currently in third place on the leader-board, only about twenty-five seconds behind Taehyungie. JB-hyung’s record is eight minutes flat, but he’s run the course almost as much as TaeTae and me, and also he’s an Alpha, so he’s pretty hard to beat.”
Jungkook pauses for a moment, considering, before glancing sidelong at Jimin with a hopeful little grin.
“Can I run it again?”
“Hell yeah!” Jimin laughs, and with a clap of his hands and an excited whoop, he jumps to his feet, hurriedly stuffing supplies back into his rucksack and slinging the strap over one shoulder.
“And I haven’t even told you the best part yet,” the wolf reveals keenly, with a secretive little smile, offering an outstretched hand and tugging Jungkook up from the bench, leading him away along a clearly-marked path further up the steepening incline. “Remember how I mentioned that Tae and I deliberately built the challenge-trail along a gradual slope?”
“Mmhm,” Jungkook acknowledges somewhat distractedly, heart all a-flutter because the wolf is still holding his hand and it’s the best thing ever, and Jimin’s scent is pulsing happy-citrus-sweet and Jungkook wants it on his clothes and all over his skin and in his nest-
Jimin strides along the path at a brisk pace, oblivious to Jungkook’s hormonal-triggered inner pining, swinging their hands together idly.
“Well, it wasn’t just to make it more physically challenging the closer you got to the finish line,” the shorter hybrid admits. “It’s because we wanted the journey back down to the starting line to be even more fun than the ascent. So…ta-dah!”
He comes to an abrupt halt beneath the overhang of a sturdy-looking platform built around a particularly wide-trunked tree, and points upwards with a smile.
Jungkook follows his finger (up, and up, and up, until he finally sees it) and blinks at the sight of a stainless steel cable high above them running directly overhead and back towards the obstacle course.
“No way!” the bunny gasps in genuine delight. “A zipline? Does it go-”
“All the way down?” Jimin finishes his question, grinning, clearly thrilled by Jungkook’s reaction. “It sure does. That’s why we left Tae at the starting point - he’ll be there to unhook you at the bottom. C’mon, let’s get you into a harness…”
Three physically exhausting challenge-trail attempts (and three thrilling zipline descents) later, and Jungkook is forced to admit defeat.
“I don’t know who this JB-hyung is,” he groans, clinging to the railing of the lower platform’s short staircase as his trembling, overtired legs threaten to buckle beneath his weight. “But hats off to him. Eight minutes is impossible.”
Taehyung laughs behind him, descending the steps from the platform at a more rapid pace and looping a casually-supportive arm around Jungkook’s lower back to help him the rest of the way down.
“You gotta give yourself more credit than that, bun,” Tae cajoles with a friendly hip-check, steering Jungkook towards a little wooden picnic table where he’s set up drinks and snacks. “You almost bagged second place that last time - if your foot hadn’t gotten caught in the spiderweb climbing net, you would’ve beaten my record for sure. And I built the course, I could probably run it blindfold. Give it a few more days, and I bet you’ll be able to knock JB-hyung off the top spot. Holy f*ck, that’d be something. He’s been the undefeated challenge-trail champion for almost two years straight.”
Despite his exhausted trembling and full-body aches, Jungkook has the strangest impulse to turn around and try for a fourth attempt at the obstacle course, purely in an effort to prove himself as the superior athlete over this JB-hyung (whoever he is) and okay, yes, mostly to impress Taehyung.
Luckily, saner thoughts prevail, the dull throbbing from his lower legs reminding him just how many times he’d whacked his shins in his haste to vault over various obstacles and scale slippery, mud-splattered climbing walls and swing on ropes across deep pits of murky water (invariably landing clumsily on the other side in his haste to keep running, to go faster, constantly spurred on by Jimin’s enthusiastic hype-man cheering from the sidelines). He’s not in any fit shape to run the course again, not if he’s trying to improve on his previous score.
Tomorrow. He’ll beat the record tomorrow, for sure.
“Here, let me get that for you,” Taehyung offers once the wolf has gently deposited Jungkook on the picnic bench, leaning down to release the clasp of the helmet beneath the rabbit’s chin and slowly lifting the protective gear away, being mindful of Jungkook’s long ears where they poke out through narrow slits at the top of the helmet, carefully easing them through. “There you go. Better?”
“Much better,” Jungkook confirms, flexing his ears to ease the phantom pressure that still lingers after being held in place for such a long time. “Thanks, hyung.”
The casual term of address comes much easier to him now after spending the afternoon with Tae and Jimin (who had both pulled the cutest sort of unhappy-faces whenever force of habit had seen him slip into something more formal), and Taehyung’s smile brightens as he sets the helmet aside.
“We’ll wait for Jiminie to join us, and then we’ll do some stretches to cool down before we get cleaned up,” he promises, reaching for the nearby refreshments. “Here, bun, you should drink something.”
Murmuring a distracted thank-you, Jungkook glances down at his CSA-issued clothing, the pale blue of his t-shirt barely visible beneath all the mud. And his joggers are more dirt than fabric at this point; he’s completely coated from the waist-down. It’s a good thing he isn’t emotionally attached to his shoes, either - they’re one of his old running pairs (he tends to set worn-out shoes aside to take with him when his Cycle hits for this very reason), so getting muddy is all they’re really good for anyway. He can just dump them in the fabric-recycling shoot at the end of the week rather than taking them back home with him.
(Not that he wants to think about this week ending, or the inevitability of returning to the city, because right now both of those scenarios are absolutely out of the question.
The forest is his home and the wolfpack are his mates and he’s staying here forever.)
“I hope CSA doesn’t charge extra for deep cleaning,” he quips in an effort to distract his spiralling thoughts, accepting the flask of water with a nod of thanks. “Only I get the feeling a regular wash isn’t gonna be enough.”
Huffing a quiet laugh, and taking a step back to properly admire Jungkook in all his mud-splattered glory, Taehyung whistles appreciatively.
“I definitely can’t bring you home looking like that,” the wolf acknowledges contemplatively, rubbing his chin (and smearing mud all over his skin in the process, much to Jungkook’s amusem*nt). “Jin-hyung would never let me hear the end of it if he thought I wasn’t looking after you. I’ve got a spare set of clothes in my backpack that you can borrow after we hit the shower-pods.”
Jungkook tilts his head curiously. “Shower-pods?”
“Looks like a regular log cabin but it’s split into a bunch of individual changing rooms instead,” Taehyung elaborates quickly. “It made sense to build showers closeby - a lot of hybrids hate tracking dirt back to their dens, and there’s really no way to avoid getting muddy on the challenge-trail. Plus it means you can check yourself over for cuts before we head home and Joonie-hyung inevitably finds them. Hyung’s like a bloodhound when it comes to injuries - he can always tell if someone’s trying to conceal so much as a papercut. It’s better to be upfront about these things, or you’ll find yourself on the receiving end of his "I'm Quietly Disappointed In Your Choices Today" look, and there’s literally nothing worse than that, trust me. Don’t try to hide anything, Kook - chances are, he already knows.”
Sound advice that Jungkook takes to heart (because he doesn’t want Namjoon to look disappointed in him about anything, that sounds awful), although he’s soon distracted by the buzzing hum of Jimin’s imminent return along the zip-line, smiling as Taehyung spins around and jogs away back towards the platform to receive him.
Ten minutes later and cool-down stretches later, Jungkook and Jimin are both being gently herded down an adjoining path in search of the aforementioned shower-pods, Taehyung playfully griping about how much mud Jimin always manages to get all over his ears even when he isn’t running the full obstacle course. Their gentle bickering is almost domestic, and the way both wolves keep turning to Jungkook to include him in their playful back-and-forth has him feeling all warm and fluttery inside, his inner hybrid preening at such easy acceptance into their established dynamic.
That warmth lasts all the way up until Jungkook turns on his shower at full-blast and the shock of cold water chases it away.
Although for once, he doesn’t mind it, enjoying the cool water against his overheated body and electing to keep the temperature at a barely-lukewarm that would normally send him jumping right back out of the cubicle, watching in satisfaction as the mud sluices off his skin to swirl in murky streaks around the drain.
He tentatively sniffs at the array of complimentary shower products lined up in large pump-dispensers along the wall, relieved to find them all unscented (he hates to plaster fake scents all over himself during his Cycle, even his preferred brands of body-wash smell wrong and leave him feeling unclean), and he uses liberal amounts of the clear, scentless soap and shampoo to scrub the remaining dirt from his body.
It takes a good ten minutes and several rinses before the water finally runs clear, but eventually he’s satisfied with a job well done and steps out of the shower cubicle to roughly dry himself off with a fresh towel from the scent-sealed dispenser on the wall.
It’s only now that he becomes aware of the various cuts and bruises that litter his body.
Adrenaline is a wonderful thing, because half of them he hadn’t even noticed before he started patting himself down - there’s a large graze along the right side of his knee, a shallow gash on his elbow that’s already clotted over, half a dozen little scuffs here and there where the broken skin is barely even pink, and a slightly deeper cut halfway down his shin that he must’ve gotten when his foot had slipped in the spiderweb-net; perhaps he’d sliced it against the edge of one of the little metal caps that sealed the ends of the adjoining ropes together.
Well damn. So much for not worrying Namjoon.
Even if Jungkook had wanted to hide his minor injuries from the Kim-pack, that decision has already been taken away from him, because when he unfolds the change of clothes Taehyung had lent him, it turns out to be a tank top and shorts.
An outfit that makes him look damn good, he’s pleased to note - at least this way he has a ready excuse to show off the tattoos on his upper biceps and thighs, and even the ones on his chest are peeking out boldly above the U of his tank top, teasing at what lies beneath.
But his various cuts and bruises are also very, very obvious.
“Do they fit okay?” Taehyung calls through the sealed door a few minutes later, as Jungkook stands staring at his reflection in the mirror, biting worriedly at his bottom lip as he catalogues the wide array of tiny injuries . “I can run back to the den and grab you something of Joon-hyung’s if you need a size up?”
Deciding that he’ll just play it cool and hope for the best, Jungkook turns to gather up the bundle of muddied clothes, depositing them in the assigned laundry bin marked for drone-collection.
“All good, thanks!” he calls back, washing his hands briskly and giving his ears one last comb-over with damp fingers to flatten out the shower-rumpled furr. “I’ll be right out!”
A few moments later, he taps his bracelet against the panel beside the door to unlock it, blinking as it swishes open and stepping out into the comparative warmth of the afternoon sun, slipping his freshly-socked feet into his slightly-less-muddied shoes (one of the hyungs must have scraped off the worst of it for him while he was in the shower, bless them).
He’s greeted by a delighted gasp of “ooh, tattoos!”, followed almost immediately afterwards by a soft cry of alarm and the rapid thumping of approaching footsteps.
“Goddess above, you’re bleeding,” Jimin frets, his own hair and ears shower-damp from his recent use of the second pod, dropping down into a crouch to carefully cradle Jungkook’s lower leg as he examines the mostly-clotted gash on his shin. “Kookie, sweetheart, why didn’t you tell us you were hurt?”
Any sort of excuse or semi-rehearsed reassurance intended to dismiss their concerns dies an abrupt death before it can even reach his tongue, because Jimin just called him a sweetheart and Jungkook’s brain is no longer braining.
Standing behind Jimin, both hands now pressed to his cheeks as he regards Jungkook’s body-collage of superficial scrapes and bruises in growing dismay, Taehyung splutters a mishmash of unintelligible curses before fumbling to activate his wrist-comm.
“I’m calling hyung!”
…
Half an hour later, Jungkook’s back in the clearing where he’d first met the wolfpack, seated comfortably on the wide wooden bench with his feet propped up on low stool as his (rather pathetic) wounds are tended to.
Taehyung had insisted on piggybacking Jungkook all the way here, Jimin hovering fretfully half a pace behind, but both of his overly-concerned companions had been lovingly shooed away by a no-nonsense Seokjin soon after they’d arrived, the eldest wolf-hyung roping his maknaes into helping him finish up dinner preparations so that Jungkook could have “five minutes of peace and quiet without the two of you flapping about like headless chickens”.
Which had left him alone with a very calm, very soft-spoken Namjoon who is clearly in his serious-professional-medic mindset because Jungkook’s favourite dimple is nowhere to be seen.
“It really isn’t anything worth your time, Namjoon-ssi,” Jungkook tries to reassure him as the medic gently takes his hand to clean another tiny graze on his palm. “Just a couple of scratches. And bunny cells regenerate quickly, especially mid-Cycle; most of these will be almost gone by morning.”
Namjoon hums an easy acknowledgement, finishing his cleaning and taking up a q-tip to gently dab a green-tinted ointment over the superficial scrape. It stings a little, but the cooling effect of the topical tincture helps to numb the area almost immediately.
“Out here in the wild, it's important to take care of every little scrape,” the medic tells him patiently, his voice a low, soothing rumble that buzzes pleasantly through Jungkook’s very bones. “Especially if you intend to spend more time on the challenge-trail with the pups. An untreated cut provides an open door for infection, and it’d be a shame to see you out of action for the rest of the week because the scrape you decided wasn’t serious enough to need disinfecting suddenly develops into cellulitis.”
Namjoon pauses to offer him a kind, dimpled smile (ah! there it is) that gentles the warning.
“And it’s hyung, Kookie,” the Alpha continues fondly. “Here, let me see that elbow.”
Jungkook blinks at him and obeys without hesitation.
It’s hard to think straight right now. Being around intense-and-caring Namjoon is… something else.
It’s giving Jungkook a lot of complicated feelings, most of them are along the lines of cosy-and-small-and-safe-and-protected, not unlike the way he feels when he crawls into his nest at the end of a long working day.
Curling up in Namjoon’s arms would undoubtedly feel even better.
Ooh, now there’s a happy thought. The Alpha probably gives amazing hugs.
A sudden, sharper sting makes Jungkook flinch a little, ears twitching with the motion as he tries not to tug his elbow away from the source, and Namjoon makes a gentle, comforting sort of shushing sound, scooting closer along the bench to better support his arm.
“I’m sorry, hon, this one’s a little deeper,” the Alpha murmurs in sympathy, pulling the liquid-soaked cotton ball away to peer at the scuffed area of skin. “I know it stings, but the witch hazel should take care of anything that might’ve gotten in there. Ten more seconds, okay? You’re doing great.”
Jungkook nods wordlessly, no longer feeling the sting because Namjoon just called him ‘hon’ and that’s lovely , and the Alpha’s thumb is rubbing back and forth against his skin where he gently cradles Jungkook’s forearm and that’s even better, and his rich earthy scent smells like the forest in the morning after a rainfall and it’s so heady it’s making him feel drunk-
“How’s the patient, doc?” a voice asks cheerfully, footsteps approaching them from behind.
“Prognosis looks good,” Namjoon quips back, glancing up from his work to flash the bunny hybrid another warm, dimpled smile. “Think he might just make it.”
Jungkook’s answering smile is probably more than a little twitterpated, but he can’t help it, he’s feeling so cosy and satisfied it’s all he can do not to outright purr.
Warm hands settle over the curve of his shoulders in a comforting squeeze, and Jungkook tilts his head back to meet Hoseok’s gaze, the wolf’s sunny smile just as handsome even upside-down.
“Room for one more, bun?”
At Jungkook’s cheerful nod, Hoseok’s hands slip from his shoulders as he steps a pace to the left, vaulting neatly over the back of the bench and dropping down to sit beside him.
“Jin-hyung sent me with this,” he says, holding out a foil-wrapped bar. “And he wanted me to emphasise that it’s for medicinal purposes.”
Namjoon snorts, turning back towards his actual medical supplies to reach again for the ointment as Jungkook peels the foil away to reveal a chocolate bar. Perfect timing, because he’d just started feeling a little peckish - even though he only finished his last round of challenge-trail snacks maybe an hour ago (fairly typical of his Cycle-accelerated metabolism). On the plus side, at least it won’t spoil his dinner, because he’ll likely be hungry again in another twenty minutes.
“Thanks, hyung,” he chirps, taking an eager bite.
Hoseok bumps their shoulders together in a friendly nudge, still beaming sunnily, and then stays there, the two of them pressed comfortably together from shoulder-to-hip.
Jungkook’s inner hybrid preens, and he presses back as much as he dares, smiling around another bite.
“I love your ink, by the way,” the grey-eared wolf remarks after a few beats of comfortable silence. “You gotta hook me up with your tattoo artist, I’ve been meaning to get some more legwork done.”
Jungkook’s brain pauses mid-preen to seize hold of the word ‘ more’, and he slants a surprised sideways glance at the wolf, his gaze automatically flickering to Hoseok’s upper arms (hidden, at present, beneath a long-sleeved polo shirt) before dropping down to where the wolf’s bare skin peeks out beneath the lower hem of his knee-length shorts.
Grinning, Hoseok obligingly reaches down to tug the fabric a few inches upwards, revealing the dark outline of flower petals and a hint of watercolour-like shading.
“It’s my birth flower,” the wolf tells him. “And I wanna get my zodiac sign further up, and then maybe something more personal that represents the pack on the other leg. But we haven’t had much time to go into the city these past six months - it was only fairly recent that we established a fourth residential pack to help manage things in Zone C, so my tattoo plans had to take a bit of backseat during the peak season. I’m thinking of doing it this coming winter, things always tend to be a little quieter around here.”
That makes sense. Although unmated hybrids experience Cycles year-round, the vast majority of folk fall somewhere between mid-spring and late-Autumn, with only a few select species of hybrid (arctic hares, white foxes and polar bear hybrids in particular, who generally have a better tolerance for colder weather) going through their Cyclic hormonal surge during the depth of winter. He’s never really thought much about it before, but he wonders how the residential packs manage to keep warm enough - and ship in sufficient supplies - to keep themselves hale and healthy through the winter months. With nothing growing, they wouldn’t be able to forage for much. Or maybe that’s why Yoongi and Seokjin devote so much time to pickling and preserving things - their storage cellar must be huge.
“How about you?” Hoseok asks, drawing Jungkook out of his musings. The wolf is casting surreptitious glances down at the lines of ink that peek out beneath Jungkook’s own shorts. “If you’re cool with sharing, that is.”
Jungkook never has any hangups when it comes to showing off his ink, and certainly not when his eager audience is comprised of his future mates, so he hikes his own shorts further up (noting with delight that even Namjoon has suddenly paused in his careful healing ministrations to stare) and launches into an enthusiastically detailed account of his tattoo designs and their various meaning.
…
Dinner is wonderful.
Even disregarding the food (which is divine - hot and filling and made with freshly foraged ingredients, all of which Yoongi happily identifies for him and promises to teach him how to find in the coming days), just being around the Kim-pack is a blessing in and of itself.
Their friendly conversation, their easy warmth, their gentle smiles - it draws him in like a moth to a flame.
He’s touched by how openly they share affection with one another (and with Jungkook, after he perhaps-not-so-very-casually happens to mention to Tae and Jimin that bunny hybrids are as socially-tactile as wolves), and the loving teasing that exists as a near-constant sort of banter between the pack-hyungs and their two maknaes, who take it with humour (although not without protest, where Tae is concerned, because clearly the youngest wolf has a penchant for dramatics), and he’s very quickly falling in love sound of their laughter, especially when it so often tapers off into fond, affectionate rumbles.
Also, they keep feeding him.
“Here, bunny, try this,” someone will say, holding a bite of fragrant savoury something to his lips, and it’s all he can do not to blush as he accepts their offerings.
Jungkook’s inner rabbit is fairly vibrating in delight, even though he’s like ninety-nine percent sure that the Kim-pack don’t actually realise what the gesture means - that among certain prey species, but especially rabbits, taking food from your own plates and hand-feeding it to another hybrid is a very traditional and extremely romantic sort of courting gesture between potential mates.
Even if they don’t know, Jungkook certainly isn’t going to be the one to tell them and spoil the cosy mood.
Also he’s out here living his best damn life and selfishly wants to pretend a little while longer.
Eventually, the sun begins to set enough that the sky overhead darkens, the faint twinkling of stars already peeking through. Yoongi and Hoseok break away from the group to set up a perimeter of glowing lanterns around the edge of the clearing, leaving a singular lantern in the centre of their little pack-huddle, its blue-white glow making the wolves’ dark eyes shine prettily.
“The lanterns are solar-powered,” Taehyung tells him, sprawled on a padded fold-out mat alongside both Jimin and Jungkook, the bunny’s head now resting on a folded sweatshirt in Tae’s lap as the wolf idly grooms the younger hybrid’s long ears. “They charge themselves up during the day, and we switch them on at night to act as a sort of homing beacon - just in case anyone gets lost in the dark. This is the centremost part of our quadrant, so it’s easier for guests to navigate their way home from here if they get turned around. Even the navi-app on the tracking bracelets will guide people here first before showing a more direct path back to their cabins.”
Jungkook hums in interest, trying to stop his weary eyelids from drooping.
It’s hard to keep himself awake after such a delightfully exhausting afternoon, and after such a filling dinner, and with the pack-scent fairly saturating the air and making him feel so warm and fuzzy. He doesn’t want to say goodnight just yet, doesn’t want this feeling of utter satisfaction to end, even if there’s a part of him that’s aching to crawl into his nest and chuff out his twitterpated happiness into familiarly-scented blankets.
But the way Tae’s stroking his ears is rapidly pushing him towards unconsciousness.
Jungkook always enjoys it when his friends groom him - casual tactile intimacy is commonplace between prey hybrids, especially those who are close, and although Jungkook’s never been groomed by a wolf before, Taehyung’s skills are in no way subpar.
His eyelids must flutter closed at some point, because he opens them again to the sound of a low chuckle and the gentle touch of trailing fingertips against his cheek.
“Sleepy bun,” Seokjin murmurs, his smile full of warmth as he peers down at Jungkook from his crouched position in front of the mat. “I think it might be time to call it a night, little one. Why don’t I walk you home? I bet you’ve got a pretty nest already waiting for you.”
Jungkook’s level of consciousness immediately ramps up several notches, because yes he f*cking does, and he’s thrilled that Seokjin clearly recognises him as a practical and well-organised sort of bunny - both of which are excellent qualities in a prospective mate.
Nodding with a sleepy but eager little smile, he allows Seokjin to help him up, feeling his cheeks warm in delight when he hears the soft, protesting whines from both Taehyung and Jimin as he’s pulled away from their hold.
“You’ll join us for breakfast, right?” Jimin says hopefully, kneeling up behind Taehyung with his arms wrapped around his fellow maknae, both of them peering up at him with the prettiest of pouts, and goddess, Jungkook’s so f*cking in love.
“Sure,” he agrees readily. “I’d like that.”
They say their goodbyes, exchanging quick hugs and sweet goodnights (and he even gets a nuzzle from Jimin and Taehyung), and then Namjoon settles a big, comforting hand over the back of his neck to squeeze gently in a way that makes his knees go hella weak, the Alpha quietly extracting a promise from Jungkook that he’ll use his communicator to call them overnight if he changes his mind about needing painkillers.
“Drink this before you go to sleep,” Yoongi adds, pressing a small thermos flask into his hands. “It’s a herbal blend of my own making - don’t worry, I already made sure it’s safe for bunnies. I know you heal quickly, but the tea will help ease any muscle aches and inflammation.”
Jungkook feels delightfully fussed over.
With a murmur of thanks, touched by their thoughtfulness and concern, he ducks his head in a parting bow and allows himself to be steered away, Seokjin’s arm a warm weight around the back of his shoulders.
It’s grown dark enough that Jungkook wonders if they ought to have brought one of the lamps with them, but Seokjin clearly knows where he’s going, navigating them effortlessly around low bushes and hidden boulders and fallen tree branches that would’ve otherwise sent Jungkook sprawling if he’d been left alone to find his own way home.
Seokjin doesn’t say anything for the duration of their walk, but it’s a comfortable sort of silence - one where there simply isn’t a need to fill the void with mindless chatter.
And in the absence of dialogue, Jungkook’s ears begin to pick up the quieter background noises of the wider forest - the chirping of crickets, the fluttering of wings (bat or bird, it’s impossible to tell), and the distant hoo-hoo of an owl likely just awakening for its nightly hunt.
He almost wishes his burrow was located further out so that he could enjoy this cosy silence between them just a little while longer, but all too soon Jungkook catches a whiff of a familiar scent, and then his little cabin is suddenly there.
“Right where you left it,” Seokjin quips, although he keeps his voice hushed so as not to disturb the quiet of the forest. “There we are - back home safe and sound.”
The wolf stops a few respectful paces away from the sealed door and drops his arm from around Jungkook’s shoulders, although he strokes a hand down the bunny’s spine in a soothing sort of caress. Silence lingers for another pregnant pause, and then the wolf breathes a quiet sigh behind him.
“May I be upfront with you, Jungkookie?”
Feeling a flutter of nervousness at the sudden soft-but-serious tone, Jungkook swallows reflexively, turning to face the wolf and finding, as he had done with Namjoon, that he needs to look up. As the tallest hybrid in his friendship group, Jungkook isn’t used to being smaller than anyone, but he finds he rather likes it where these particular hyungs are concerned.
“Sure, hyung,” he acquiesces, twisting the small thermos flask between his hands to keep from fidgeting.
Seokjin regards him silently for a beat longer, before he sighs again, and offers the bunny a flicker of an uncertain smile.
“The others won’t be happy that I’m taking the more direct approach,” he confesses, “but open communication is healthy and I feel that it’s important that we establish some basic level of mutual understanding before we let things progress any further. None of us want to hurt you, and at the moment we’re all allowing our instincts to guide us, but sometimes things get a little muddled when two very different species are involved. The way we choose to approach the situation as wolves might not fully align with how these sorts of things are handled among prey-kind, you see.”
Unfortunately Jungkook doesn’t see, and his blank expression likely communicates this, because Seokjin gets a little worried furrow between his brows as his shoulders droop, the wolf heaving another short sigh.
“We had hoped,” he continues softly, “that you might come to realise our intentions when started feeding you at dinner, but-”
“Wait,” Jungkook interrupts, suddenly wide-eyed as the chaotic whirlwind in his mind comes to an immediate screeching halt. “That wasn’t just a cultural misunderstanding? You were doing it on purpose ?”
Seokjin winces, apparently misinterpreting his reaction as something negative. “If we overstepped, Jungkookie, I apologise-”
“No!” Jungkook blurts, desperate to clarify, one hand shooting out to clutch onto the sleeve of Jin’s jacket. “Nonono, it was perfect, f*ck. And I wanted so badly for it to be real, I’d just assumed none of you realised the significance of hand-feeing between bunnyfolk. But…it was intentional?”
“It was intentional,” Seokjin echoes, his expression relaxing again, a soft smile curling slowly at his lips. “I take it that you have no immediate objections to our initial advances?”
Jungkook shakes his head immediately, feeling so exhilarated he might just burst with joy and release the flock of eager butterflies filling his chest into the night’s sky.
He can’t quite keep his left leg from juddering in his excitement, the rapid thump-thump-thump of his foot against the ground audible in the beat of silence that hangs between them.
Jin glances down and then back up again, his smile widening into something warm and fond, and with a soft breath of laughter the wolf leans in to bump his nose against Jungkook’s brow in a very-gentle nuzzle.
“Joonie knew from the moment he caught you,” the elder hybrid murmurs, bringing up a hand to cradle Jungkook’s cheek. “Alpha intuition, I suppose. And the others insisted we were scent-compatible, but…” He huffs another laugh, this one a little self-deprecating, and taps the side of his own nose. “I had a car accident about a decade ago, took a nasty crack to the skull that landed me in hospital for three days - that’s how I first met Joonie, as a matter of fact. The fracture healed, but my olfactory senses have never quite been the same. Oh, they work well enough for cooking and enjoying a bouquet of wildflowers in bloom, but scent-compatibility isn’t something I’m able to discern anymore. When it comes to reading body language and behavioural patterns, however…”
He shifts his palm from Jungkook’s cheek to his jawline, inner wrist brushing against the skin there, and Jungkook tilts his head into the touch without hesitation, desperate to be marked by the wolf’s sweet honeysuckle scent.
“There, just as I thought,” Jin murmurs, low and pleased, and gives Jungkook what he wants - a gentle scent-marking trail of his wrist down the side of the bunny’s throat, leaving warmth and honey-sweetness in its wake. “Beautiful.”
Jungkook shudders and finds himself going a little weak-kneed once again, a soft whine catching in the back of his throat as he lists forward needily.
He’s immediately wrapped up in the wolf’s strong arms and drawn in close against Jin’s chest in a tight embrace, the elder hybrid humming a satisfied rumble of a purr as he nuzzles at Jungkook’s happily-twitching ears.
“We’ll need to talk things over in more detail with the rest of the pack tomorrow,” Jin tells him after a moment of delightful cuddling. “Like I said, establishing mating bonds between wolves is very much an instinct-led sort of thing, but bunnies have their own way of courting and we need to know if we’re overstepping. We can discuss boundaries and expectations in the morning, hm? I think that’s enough excitement for one day, little bunny. It’s getting late.”
Jungkook makes a muffled noise of sulky protest into the soft fabric of Seokjin’s jacket. It smells so good here - the pack’s scent practically saturates the fabric - and he can’t stop himself from rubbing his cheek against it in the hope that some of it might transfer onto his skin.
A gentle hand strokes over the back of his head, then moves upward to pet his ears gently, thumb pressing on the upward stroke to groom him just-so and ohh, Taehyung must have learned his skills from Seokjin, because that feels heavenly.
Jungkook’s foot judders against the ground again and he nestles his head in closer with a happy hum.
“It’s late,” Jin reiterates softly, a smile in his voice. “Time to say goodnight, love. Your nest is waiting.”
Ooh, his nest.
Jungkook pulls away quickly, brain feeling foggy (but in a very pleasant kind of way) from the hormone-rush of being scented and groomed by his soon-to-be-mate, and gently grasps onto Seokjin’s hand with the one that isn’t still gripping his little thermos flask of tea, eagerly tugging him towards the door.
“Come see?” he asks, breathless and hopeful. “It’s good, I made it this morning.”
Smiling indulgently, the wolf allows himself to be pulled, following Jungkook silently as the rabbit swipes his tracking bracelet against the scanner on the outside of the cabin and bounces on the balls of his feet impatiently until the door swishes open, before hauling the taller hybrid in after him.
Toeing off his shoes at the entrance mat, Jungkook moves eagerly towards his nest, halted at the last moment as the hand grasping Seokjin’s abruptly encounters resistance.
Humming a wordless query, something that sounds closer to a soft trill, Jungkook glances back at the wolf, head tilted.
Seokjin is standing in the doorway, only half of his body in the burrow, one arm (or more specifically the wrist bearing his tracking bracelet) very deliberately being kept outside.
“Sorry, bun,” Jin apologises, and appears sincere about it. “There are rules in place about residential support staff entering guest accommodation. It’s allowed, because all hybrids have different needs during their Cycles and we like to help where we can, but there are consent forms involved and that kind of paperwork takes an hour or so to get approved. It’ll be easier if we handle that tomorrow.”
Jungkook realises that it makes perfect sense from a logical, safety-regulations sort of standpoint, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.
Shoulders slumping, he pouts.
And Seokjin’s face does a thing.
“Aw, Kookie,” the wolf placates, faintly pained. “Baby, don’t look at me like that. I promise you we’ll look into getting the consent forms signed first in the morning, and if you still want me in your nest tomorrow then you can have me - but right now it’s late, and you’re tired. And I can still see your pretty nest from over here. It looks cosy.”
Jungkook perks up at that, glancing back towards his perfectly arranged little nest with a pleased hum because yes, it’s the cosiest.
He hopes the lighting’s good enough for Seokjin to see how well he’s folded the sheets just-so under the edges of the double pallet-mattress, and how the pillows have been plumped to maximum plushness, and how he’s taken extra care to smooth out all the creases in his favourite blankets.
It’s still not fair that he can’t have Jin all the way inside his burrow where the wolf could touch his bedding and transfer some of his lovely scent onto the blankets directly, but at least he knows his future-bondmate approves of his nest-building capabilities.
“Here, bunny.”
Glancing back towards Seokjin, he finds the man shrugging off his CSA-issued jacket (soft, breathable cotton like the joggers, in a light shade of cherry-blossom pink that suits him very well), and Jungkook finally releases his hold on Jin’s hand so that the wolf can slide the other arm free. The elder hybrid brushes invisible dirt from the fabric, and then holds it out towards Jungkook like a peace offering.
Jungkook stares.
“You don’t have to take it,” Jin reassures him quickly, “but we all sort of hoped that things would go in this direction, and we thought you might like to have something of ours in your burrow the way that wolves often do, so we all took turns wearing it before dinner this evening. Naturally, none of us will be offended if you’d rather not-”
Snatching it from the wolf’s outstretched hand with a noise of alarm before Seokjin can even think about rescinding the offer, Jungkook clutches both the jacket and his precious thermos-flask of tea to his chest and narrows his eyes in warning, scooting further away from the door just in case Jin gets any ideas about taking them back.
Visibly relaxing, Seokjin huffs another fond little laugh.
“They’re all yours, sweetheart,” the wolf reassures. “I promise. You can put them down, if you like, hyung won’t touch them.”
Pleased, Jungkook turns around and flounces eagerly over to his nest, dropping to his knees to carefully arrange his gifts, propping up the thermos flask between the V of two angled pillows, and laying out the jacket on top of his favourite blanket, a soft purr rumbling free as he smooths his fingers over it reverently.
Then he hears the telltale sound of Seokjin leaving, and launches to his feet in time to see the wolf taking another step back to place himself outside the burrow entirely.
“Hyung,” he protests, scuttling closer and reaching for him again - and although Seokjin surrenders his hand to let the bunny cling to him, he won’t allow himself to be tugged inside again.
“Tomorrow, baby,” Jin reiterates, and f*ck, Jungkook will never tire of hearing that term of endearment fall from such pretty lips. “Go nest down for the night, and we’ll see you at breakfast..”
Jungkook pouts for a moment longer simply because he can (dimly, he’s away that his behaviour is entirely out of sorts compared to his usual level-headedness, but his inner bunny is fully in control of his higher brain functions right now and everything feels so right that he isn’t the least bit worried about the potential future embarrassment these memories will bring), but after a beat he reluctantly releases his grip on Seokjin’s wrist, instead bracing his hands either side of the doorway to lean out and rise up onto his tip-toes to pack a sweet, chaste kiss against the wolf’s cheek.
“Night, hyung.”
Before he can be tempted to do more (like bodily yank Jin into his nest for a snuggle), he resolutely takes a step backwards and swipes his bracelet against the access panel to close the door with swish, lock clicking in place with echoing finality.
(And then he promptly spends the next fifteen minutes rolling around on top of his new pack-scented jacket and burrowing deeper into his nest, kicking his feet and giggling like a love-drunk fool without shame because nobody’s there to witness it.)
…
His conversation with the pack the following morning regarding mutual feelings is remarkably brief, courtesy of Seokjin’s direct way of addressing the issue at hand.
It essentially boils down to “we like Kookie, he likes us - let’s get to know one another in a way that won’t make anyone feel uncomfortable”.
So they talk it out, like sensible adults - the pack seated comfortably in a circle on the ground around as they casually graze on the remains of their breakfast (Hoseok had presented him with a huge basket of strawberries first thing this morning, which he’d apparently hand-picked from Zone B’s greenhouses himself at what must’ve been a truly ungodly hour of the morning - yes, Jungkook is in love) , maintaining just enough breathing space between each other that nobody runs the risk of accidentally scent-influencing anyone else or diverting attention from the topic at hand.
And because Seokjin is insistent on establishing boundaries, the topic of intimacy and sexual interests gets brought up fairly quickly.
“Nobody has any expectations,” Jin is quick to clarify. “We just wanted you to know it was an available option, for most of us.”
Jungkook’s glad, in a way, that he has a chance to address his asexuality so early on - it’s one of the only lingering doubts that had still been niggling at him after all the reassurance he’d gained from his talk with Seokjin last night.
“To be honest, it’s not really something I’ve ever been super interested in,” he tells them, trying not to fidget at finding himself the focus of their undivided attention. “I love kissing, and platonic kinds of intimacy like grooming and cuddling, and I don’t think I’d mind if it was happening between other people while I was there, y’know? But I’m just not wired in a way that makes any of that…appealing on a personal level.”
He isn’t sure what kind of reaction he’s expecting from the pack, but it sure as hell isn’t for all of them to glance, as one, towards where Taehyung is now perched sideways in Hoseok’s lap, the maknae-wolf openly gaping at Jungkook, wide-eyed and obviously thrilled.
“Ohmygod, same!” Taehyung shrieks in delight, grasping at Hoseok’s shoulders in his excitement and shaking the older wolf enthusiastically. “Snuggle buddy, snuggle buddy!”
Junkook blinks, startled but pleased at the unexpected revelation, and feels a wide smile of his own curling at his lips as Taehyung rockets to his feet and comes hurtling towards him.
“Kim Taehyung,” someone (probably Seokjin) warns hurriedly, “do not-”
With a gleeful whoop, Tae pounces, knocking Jungkook from his criss-cross position and flat onto his back. Laughing, high and free, the bunny wraps his own arms around Taehyung in return and lets himself be snuggled.
“You’re perfect,” Tae is saying in eager rush, brushing kisses over Jungkook’s cheeks and brow and the little scrunch of his nose as the bunny’s laughter turns into breathless giggles, “I just knew you were perfect, holy f*ck, we’re gonna snuggle so damn much-”
“Tae,” Namjoon chides gently, but the Alpha’s smile is audible and his voice is saturated with a wealth of affection. “Let him breathe, sweetheart.”
The younger wolf relents, but he only pulls away enough to let Jungkook sit up before plastering himself against the bunny’s side once again.
If modern hybrids were still in possession of tails like their animal counterparts, Jungkook's positive that Taehyung’s would be swishing back and forth enthusiastically.
For the remainder of the conversation, his hand stays intertwined with Taehyung’s, the wolf’s cheek is cushioned on his shoulder. The pack as a whole have scooted closer now that the carefully preserved bubble of breathing-space has already been breached, and eventually Jimin ends up wedged against Jungkook’s other side, the three older hyungs seated around them in a close semi-circle, regarding their maknaes (Kookie included) with open adoration, pack-scent pulsing rich and happy in the air around them.
Jungkook’s never felt more loved.
- Three months later -
The persistent buzzing of his tracking bracelet wakes him from a deep, cosy slumber, and with a soft moan he fumbles to tap the little touchscreen twice to shut off the alarm.
f*ck, he has to get up early today.
Again.
Dismayed, he rolls over to bury his face in the nearest pillow (which happens to be flesh-warm and smells like home), groaning out his weary frustrations.
“I know, sweetheart,” Namjoon’s deep, sleep-roughened voice commiserates, the soothing rumble of it reverberating through the bare chest beneath Jungkook’s cheeks. “I know you’re tired. You can sleep a little while longer in the taxi.”
And that might be true, but it just isn’t the same; the taxi isn’t the pack-nest so it won’t be even half as cosy. Not to mention it’ll be devastatingly devoid of cuddly hyungs.
“No,” he sulks, snuggling closer.
There’s a quiet breath of laughter behind him, and then another warm body presses up against his own, lips brushing sweet kisses across the back of his shoulders before lingering on his nape.
“Aigoo, our clingy baby,” Seokjin murmurs fondly. “I told you not to stay up so late last night.”
“Was karaoke night,” Jungkook protests, a sleepy mumble, because obviously that’s a valid reason to come crawling back to the den at one in the morning - he blames Yugyeom and Umji, they kept persuading him to sing challenge-duets, so he had to prove once and for all that Kim-Pack vocalists are the best.
“Ah, my mistake,” Jin remarks, and kisses the back of his neck again. “You were defending our honour.”
Smug, Jungkook tries to snuggle back down against Namjoon’s shoulder, but finds himself cruelly levered upright as the Alpha pushes himself into a sitting position, forcing Jungkook to open his eyes in order to regain his equilibrium as he clutches onto the bigger hybrid’s arm with a soft whine of protest.
That was unfair, underhanded, unconscionable-
“You’ll be angry with yourself later if you don’t shower before you go,” Namjoon reminds him gently, and Jungkook deflates because the Alpha’s right.
It doesn’t keep him from pouting though.
With a soft, loving hum, Namjoon brushes a kiss against his pouty lips, then pulls back again to regard him fondly. The Alpha’s gaze zeroes in on Jungkook’s forehead, and he brushes his thumb back and forth against the barely-there bruise he’d gotten from open a kitchen cupboard too quickly while Hoseok was being distractingly handsome beside him. It’s two days old now, and it doesn’t even hurt, but the medic still purses his lips unhappily at the sight of it.
“You’ll keep putting ointment on this for me, won’t you?”
Jungkook’s unfortunate talent for bumping into things and coming home to the den every week with new scrapes and bruises never ceases to dismay his pack-Alpha, but Namjoon has simply developed a wider range of travel-size medicinal remedies that he pointedly slips into Jungkook’s backpack every time the bunny’s visit comes to and end and he has to return to the city.
Smiling, Jungkook chuffs a fond little half-purr and leans in to nuzzle at the wolf’s jawline.
“Yes, Alpha.”
Namjoon’s hand travels down to cup his cheek tenderly, and it’s quite possible that Jungkook might have been allowed to nestle in for another snuggle (because Namjoon is eternally a pushover who lets the pack maknaes get away with anything and everything if they look cute enough), if not for Seokjin’s determined bullying.
“Scoot,” his eldest hyung shoos without mercy, bodily nudging Jungkook out of the pack-nest. “Tae already started the shower for you, and I’ve set out your clothes. Hurry and wash up, baby, or you won’t have time for breakfast.”
Now that gets Jungkook moving, because missing out on his last pack-meal of the week is absolutely out of the question.
He showers and gets dressed in record time, and arrives in the kitchen just as Yoongi (looking tired and still wearing pyjamas as he toils over the stove) is finishing ladling up the last of the stew.
“Morning, Yoonie-hyung,” he greets brightly, draping himself against Yoongi in a cosy back-hug and nuzzling between the wolf’s ears. “Thanks for getting up so early to make breakfast. You’re the best, and I love you, and can I pretty please have the last of the blackberry tart we made yesterday?”
Yoongi huffs a fond laugh, patting one of Jungkook’s arms.
“Already by your plate,” the wolf reassures him, and then very gently shrugs him off. “Go eat, babydoll. You’ve got fifteen minutes before you need to hit the road.”
Taehyung and Jimin are seated at the table with the rest of the pack, bright-eyed and fully awake as ever but already pouting at him as they generally tend to do whenever he’s due to return to the city.
“How long this time?” Tae asks him forlornly as Jungkook and Yoongi both take their seats.
Jungkook smiles at him sympathetically, although he’s fully aware that Tae already knows his expected return-date; he and Jimin had made a giant calendar the other month and stuck it to the wall of the pack’s nesting-room, with Jungkook’s visits highlighted in sparkly pink gel pen (surrounded by cute bunny stickers) and all the days in between allocated sad/crying emoji stickers.
“I’ll only be gone four days, hon,” he answers gently, leaning over to steal a quick kiss. “As of next week, I’ll have officially transferred the rest of my PT clients over to Binnie, so I’ll be able to stay the full weekend. And Wonho-hyung’s new bondmate just signed on with GymBunnies as a fitness instructor, so once he’s all trained up I’ll be able to drop my other classes.”
That last part, he hadn’t actually revealed to the pack before now (because he only received the final confirmation from his boss last night in the middle of a very competitive karaoke battle), so predictably his announcement has the entire table glancing up at him with wide eyes.
“Wait, what?” Tae blurts excitedly, dropping his spoon as he spins sideways in his chair to grasp Jungkook by the shoulder. “For real?”
Allowing a happy grin to curl freely at his mouth, Jungkook nods, chest full of warmth at their obvious delight.
“I’m handing in my notice today,” he tells them, and then laughs as Taehyung starts shaking him ecstatically by the shoulder. “Wonho-hyung says I can leave at the end of next week, but I’m gonna stay until the end of the month just in case things don’t go as smoothly as he hopes. Also, all my CSA checks went through without a hitch - I can start working at the new gym in Zone B once the rest of the transfer paperwork comes through.”
Hoseok abruptly gets up out of his chair to hurtle around the table and seize Jungkook in an enthusiastic back-hug, chair and all.
“Holy f*ck, Kookie, that’s amazing,” his pure-sunshine bondmate enthuses, dropping noisy kisses between the rabbit’s ears Jungkook clutches at the wolf’s tightly-clinging arms, grinning. “Does this mean you’ll be living here full-time by the end of the month?”
At Jungkook’s nod, a chorus of cheers echoes around the kitchen, Jimin and Taehyung both joining Hoseok in trying to suffocate Jungkook with the force of their cuddling.
Across the table, Yoongi’s beaming at him gummily, already leaning across to transfer food from his own bowl into Jungkook’s, his usual I-feel-happy-so-I-feed-you habit.
Namjoon, their eternally soft-hearted teddy bear of an Alpha, is looking more than a little teary-eyed as he regards Jungkook adoringly, even as his dimpled smile stretches wider. Seated beside him, Seokjin is leaning in closer with a fond coo to kiss the Alpha’s tears away, only to squawk in protest when Namjoon sniffs a grin and bodily hauls the other wolf out of his chair to cuddle Jin in his lap instead.
Laughing at them all, because they're all so dramatic and unserious and his, Jungkook basks happily in the familiar chaos of their loud, boisterous, unending love, utterly content in the knowledge that he’s right where he belongs.
-Fin-
