Chapter Text
Taehyung couldn't breathe as he ran through the woods, just looking. He couldn't stop looking as he flew, searching for some place, any place, anywhere. They told him to run, they told him they couldn't protect him anymore -- that he was simply a danger to the community. The only thing that kept him from crying was simply his determination and his desperate wish to not die.
He could feel the anger from those who tried to kill him much too many times back in his neighborhood. Knowing he got away safely, although they repeatedly tried to trick him into dying. Truthfully, Taehyung couldn't really explain to anyone how he managed to avoid death so many times. It truly only was because he was so careful and overthought so much whenever offered anything from anyone. He'll always accept a gift, but if he has an option, he'd rather observe before just taking it. His life was put at risk too much for him to be okay with that, which was funny because he had no idea why he was always going to die nor why people always wanted to murder him.
As he trudged through the dirty path in the forest, confused and lost, he came upon a cabin once he reached the end of the dark place. The cabin was set on an extremely deserted beach, far from where actual people would go to. It was lazily kept clean, just throwing any trash that happened to come by somewhere nearby the house to, most likely, deal with later. The cabin was dark brown, and big yet small. The ceilings weren't too high, but it was tall enough for a 6 foot 5 person to fit in somewhat comfortably without jumping. As he observed from afar, he saw little pieces of hair surrounding the place, most of them being blonde, but the color varied greatly. There were a lot of wet spots surrounding the area, and the sand he stepped in looked extremely moist. There was a small pond in the forest nearby the cabin with little lily pads decorating it, but there were no flowers on top of them. To say the least, the lily pads were the most colorful thing about the entire place. The water was quite bright and obviously the only thing kept clean, but the trash that accompanied the beach ruined the crest blue of it all.
If frowns could make noises, Taehyung's frown was screaming.
He inched closer to the cabin, shy and thinking of ways to explain why he was even there in the first place. Maybe he should say he was stranded? Technically, that wouldn't be a lie. He was issued by the FBI to come here? But where's the FBI? He was a secret spy on a mission to save the beach? He did want to save this pitiful beach, though.
Before he could even make a decision, he was already at the cabin and his hand already made contact with the door. Taehyung heard a bunch of movement, a shrilly scream, possibly a person that fell, and a lot of "Guys, keep calm! Might just be a bird." "Birds don't come here, Namjoon!"
After a few minutes, a person with a pretty face, blonde hair, and plump lips opened the door. They were shorter than Taehyung by barely a few centimeters, and they had a face of confusion as they stared at Taehyung's feet -- like they were expecting a bird rather than a person. Slowly, the male's head turned up and made eye contact with Taehyung. Almost immediately, they defensively jumped back and looked like they were gonna burst into tears and scream simultaneously.
"Who are you? What's your name? Identification? Reason for being here? How did you get here? Age? Relationship status? Sexuality? Princess?"
"Uh - what?"
Another male stepped up with brown hair and skinny limbs. He seemed tired, but he had a bright smile as he stepped up rather calmly and less panicked, but still observing Taehyung closely.
"Sorry for him," They apologized, giving a genuine apologetic smile. "He always does this whenever a real person steps up. Uh, we don't get people coming here much. How... did you get here?"
"I was - uh," Taehyung scratched his neck, licking his lips nervously as he tried to find the right words. He was nervous he'd have to run for an even longer time if he said his true explanation, considering it sounded suspicious, but he had no other excuse, really, "running from someone who kept desperately trying to murder me with fruits for some reason I'm clueless about? I've been running for days. They never stop."
Both of the stranger's eyes sparkled with curiosity once they heard that, and they opened the door more. "Come in, why don't you?" The second stranger said, as the first one seemed much too excited to hear that Taehyung nearly died. "Take a seat - uh, Seokjin, go get some food and aqua for the poor boy. He's probably dying."
Taehyung went in without hesitation, quietly thanking both of them as the so-called Seokjin ran to go get Taehyung foods. Taehyung finally took in time to observe the cabin once the door shut, and he was greeted with absolute hell.
There were 7 beds, but it seems like only 6 of them were in use. There were clothes all over the cabin, along with wasted foods, empty bottles, spoiled liquids, and extra things like buckets and fake plants that had absolutely no reason to even be in their house. Papers with wasted words were scattered everywhere, opened letters were hung up on the walls, books were placed everywhere they shouldn't be albeit there being a bookshelf, a flat kiddie pool was thrown in the kitchen (which Seokjin casually kicked out the way without a second thought), there were at least 8 insect catchers placed in the corner, heating pads and gloves scattered about, and there were too many hair supplies for it to be safe. The only neat thing were the cleaning supplies, but they were sat upon pretty outfits that were put on the 7th bed.
There was a different color for the sheets on every single bed. One was black, which is where the boy that kindly greeted him sat. Around him were multiple books and sheets that decorated his part of the room, which made Taehyung smile a bit. On his side of the cabin, which was the left side, there were four beds. To the right, there were three. The unnamed male pointed to the bed with no sheets and decorated with cleaning supplies and pretty outfits.
"You can sit there for now, just move the stuff to the side."
Taehyung nodded and sat down, while the stranger waited humbly. Taehyung quickly noticed that the entire cabin was completely empty, although he heard so many people just minutes beforehand. Right when he sat down, Seokjin came back with a few bag of chips, an apple juice box, and a bottle of water, which Taehyung politely thanked him for. The servant male whined and stomped quietly as he noticed where Taehyung sat, but the other boy quickly calmed him down and made him sit in the bed next to his.
Taehyung quickly grew nervous as he watched the strangers mumble amongst themselves, then simultaneously turn towards him. The one that was left unnamed spoke first.
"I'm sorry for keeping you uninformed for so long. I'm Kim Namjoon, this is Kim Seokjin. We were so alarmed of you because, well, people don't usually come here. As you can tell, we're quite isolated from the rest of the world," Namjoon said, then nibbled on his lip before speaking again. "You have an interesting story. Do you happen to be a princess by chance?"
Taehyung furrowed his eyebrows and cocked his head to the side. "Uh, I'm sorry, I'm a boy-?"
Seokjin burst out laughing and Namjoon couldn't help but chuckle too. "Not like that, but rather... are you a princess? Like, you have a story similar to a fairytale. Like The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, and so on."
Taehyung simply shrugged.
"Well, uh, you said someone kept trying to kill you with fruits?" Taehyung nodded. "How did they... keep trying to? And, more importantly, how are you alive?"
"Okay, uh, well, this has been going on for a really long time. I lived with seven... very short people. Not like... midgets, but just short people. I met them by chance, kinda like how I met you two, but I was just wandering around when I met them. No worries about getting poisoned. I was a teenager back then," Taehyung took a deep breath before continuing. "I didn't really have anywhere to go, so I went into this random house and I just... started cleaning because it was nasty. Didn't think people lived there, although there were beds. They came back, and they let me live there because it was clean. They left, I cleaned, they left, I cleaned, and it just repeated like that for months. At one point, someone found out I was a thing that existed and they wanted to kill me. People said it was because I was pretty, but that seems silly, doesn't it?"
"Did they talk to a mirror?"
Taehyung perked up and nodded ferociously. "Yeah, so I heard! And they kept trying to poison me with fruits! Like, they'd dress up as random people and give me fruits. Usually apples though. The people I lived with kept protecting me from her and trying to find more creative ways to keep me safe. Then they randomly went from apples to bows and arrows, so now I'm here."
Namjoon stared at the clueless boy silently as Seokjin was in tears from laughing so hard at his casual explanation. Taehyung just stared back confusedly, waiting for words to come out.
"Is there an issue?" Taehyung questioned, a pout forming on his lips as he played with his fingers. "I'm sorry if I said somet-"
"You're Snow White!" Namjoon exclaimed, grinning with sparkles forming in his eyes at some point. "Excuse me, what's your name?"
"Kim Taehyung," He pouted, obviously lost at the excitement. "Excuse me, but what's, uh, Snow White?"
"A stupid white girl that dies because she ate the apples," Seokjin informed, eating an apple as she spokes. "She got killed 'cause she was the prettiest girl in the village. She revives though, 'cause, y'know, true love's kiss. Y'shoulda died with the apples, I'm tellin' ya. Those friends of yours got it out for you."
"Huh?"
Seokjin walked over to him and put out his hand. Hesitantly, Taehyung shook his hand and furrowed his eyebrows. "Cinderella, nice to meet ya! Namjoon's Belle. I fall in love with a dude that really likes my feet, jus' dunno who he is yet. Namjoon falls in love with a cursed furry, so that's nice."
"Cinderella? Are you guys telling me we are fairy tale princesses?" Taehyung asked, and the other two nodded. Namjoon got up, walking to another room to leave Seokjin to explaining it all. "That's impossible?"
"Guys, come in! He's safe!"
Almost immediately, Taehyung heard a bunch of shuffling and confused voiced as a bunch of men piled out the room. It made Taehyung also realize everyone wore outfits with different dominant colors.
"Min Yoongi," Seokjin gestured to a boy wearing dominantly white clothing. His cheeks were rather squishy, as he realized, and his hair was pale blonde. He wore gloves on his hands and waved to Taehyung silently, then put his hands in his dirty white pants. "He owns the white bed. He's Elsa, so he has ice powers. He gives us clean water. He's kinda cool, I guess."
Seokjin burst out laughing and the rest of the room, other than Taehyung, rolled their eyes.
"You have to stop making that joke every single time I'm introduced," Yoongi sighed, then turned to Taehyung and smiled again. "Sorry about that. Hope you have a nice time here. Don't take my gloves, though. Please."
Taehyung nodded as the very calm and collected boy walked off to his bed and Seokjin shook his head, then turned to Taehyung. "He's not always this calm, he's just edgy. He's real nice, been through some shit. He'll probably tell you 'his rules' later," Seokjin then looked over to see another boy walking forward and smiled.
The boy was much shorter than anyone else Taehyung has seen, but not as short as his old friends. He has plump lips, like Seokjin's but different, and jet black hair that contradicted his bright eyes and sweet energy. He raised his hands to waved and Taehyung noticed the smallness of them and laughed softly. He wore mostly light blue, nearly a sea green.
"This is Park Jimin! He's real sweet, he owns the light blue bed. His princess is Tiana."
"I turned into a frog once!" Jimin exclaimed, bouncing on his toes as he said the rather odd sentence. "Now, I just... randomly become a frog. Voodoo is freaky, y'know. Don't play with it! And now I have to like... eat bugs when I turn into that. I tried eating chicken before as a frog, but it was so weird! It tasted li-"
"Sit down, Jimin," Namjoon ordered, and he immediately sat on the farthest bed from Taehyung's. He waved from afar and Taehyung smiled back, liking the energy he carried. The boy glanced down at the bed that separated them, which was red.
"Ah! Our talented fish boy," Seokjin exclaimed, clapping his hands as a boy in green with red hair stepped into the scene. Taehyung looked over at the green bed on the other side and hummed. "This is Jung Hoseok. He's a fucking mermaid. He's Ariel! Isn't he so lucky?"
"All I know is that my prince is a dude white black hair that has a thing for people that don't talk," Hoseok pouted, crossing his arms a bit. "Sucks. But anyways, hi Taehyung! It's nice to meet you, stranger. Are you single? One of the dinglepoppers in the back wants to know."
"Oh?" Taehyung blushed a bit and nodded. "Yeah, I am!"
"You already have more people thirsting after you? God, you guys are so single," Seokjin chuckled, then pointed for Hoseok to sit. Taehyung finally opened his bag of chips and began to eat.
A boy in red came out and Taehyung perked up. He had blonde hair and blushy cheeks, and his eyes looked like they were brighter than the universe. He wore a shy smile and waved softly at the other as he glanced once over him. It was noticeable that the stranger was hopping on his tippy toes to contain his excitement.
"This is our last boy, Jeon Jungkook! He's our youngest, and came here right before you did. He, in fact, sits right next to you!" Seokjin exclaimed, observing the two as they stared deeply into each other. Multiple people pouted. "He's Rapunzel."
"Yeah! I can change my hair color and grow it out whenever i want, and also shrink it," Jungkook pouted and shrugged. "I can heal wounds, but that's all I can do with it. I heard that once I kiss my true love, i can get more powers! So that's pretty cool! You agree, don't you, Yoongi?"
"You're so damn annoying," Yoongi muttered as he watched Jungkook and Seokjin laugh and high five each other. Taehyung softly chucked, then looked around the area and stared out the window.
Chatter began amongst everyone and Taehyung stayed quiet, deep in thought and processing everything. He didn't quite understand what was going on as he heard everyone joke around or talk about Taehyung right in front of Taehyung himself. It seemed like just a "normal thing" to be the epitome of a fairy tale, but Taehyung didn't get it. Fairy tales are meant to be fake, so why are they real?
As Taehyung spaced out and stared at the beach surrounding them, Seokjin walked over and looked out the window with him with a small smile. Taehyung never even noticed 'til he spoke.
"You know, we've had multiple natural disasters hit us. There's always something going on in these waters, that's partially why it's so empty," He explained as he picked up all his supplies and clothes that cluttered Taehyung's area. "But, because Yoongi was one of the first to even discover this spot during his... mental breakdown, he's kept us safe during it all. The waters never really hit since he was able to properly control his water powers. It's really cool. The only reason this whole princess thing began is because Hoseok was nearby while he was casting his powers and couldn't help but run towards him. He technically crawled, because Hoseok gets his tail whenever he's wet. When he forgets about that side of him and takes a shower, it's a little bitch. But otherwise, I hope they both get to show you one day."
Taehyung smiled softly at the idea of it and looked over at Seokjin curiously. "Does everyone have powers here? Or is it... just Jungkook, Jimin, Yoongi, and Hoseok?"
"I think everyone has something a little special 'bout 'em," Seokjin responded, kicking his cleaning supplies to a random clear corner. "I can spawn my Fairy Godmother--well, father--Kihyun, whenever I really wish. Hoseok has the power to transform into a mermaid. Namjoon has basically absolute knowledge about everything and the courage of a beast, that's why he knew there'd be seven of us to complete some thing he never tells us about. That's why theres so many crumbled papers. I'm sure you have something. You have to! You're Snow White!"
"Uh," Taehyung mumbled, thinking harshly. A pout formed as he thought long and hard about unusual things that have happened to him. "Well, people get really shocked whenever I sing a small tune. Animals come to me and do what I want them to do. They're real friendly. And whenever i feel real strong emotions, they come to me a lot. I can kinda... speak to 'em? I understand them quite well!"
"Sing it!"
With that command, Taehyung began to sing a falsetto tune. He wasn't saying anything, but it was just a few "ah's" very highly. As if it was a sixth sense, Taehyung walked towards the window to pull it up. He let his arm out as he continued to sing the tune, and a pretty bird sat on his hand. The chatter died down as they listened to him and watched closely. He looked at the bird in the eyes and sung in a different rhythm, and the bird responded happily. They communicated in song for a moment in a friendly manner, and the bird sung one more tune before more birds came in and picked up the trash surrounding them. It was put in different places and, as they did so without harming any humans, Taehyung opened the door and a few bunnies and squirrels came in to follow suit.
Everyone's mouths dropped to the floor as they cleaned up so quickly, even going as far to dust. They were speechless, staring at the pure positivity all of it brought along. Everyone sat and stared at Taehyung clean the floor with the assistance of the squirrels, whom also brought along bags to put the trash in and tied them so it's easier to carry out the house. It was truly an unreal experience and, once the entire house was clean (which is was in mere minutes), the birds, squirrels, bunnies, and other animals were awarded with little treats that Taehyung carried purely for the animals. After the animals retreated, everyone just stared.
Taehyung looked over at the boys and grinned widely, beginning to laugh at their shocked expressions. "Are you guys alright? Is a clean room that foreign to you guys?"
They were quiet for a second before Hoseok broke the silence. "This place hasn't been this clean for... at least six months. How did you even-?"
"His powers. It's communicating with animals!" Seokjin exclaimed, grinning widely. "Kinda crazy how that all works. The power of Disney, huh?"
"Precisely," Taehyung chuckled, feeling himself feel less tense. He let the broom lean on the wall as he walked over to the door. "I'm gonna go outside. You guys have nothing here, it's so... lifeless. The brightest thing about this place is the bed, and the lily pads on the pond."
"What could we even decorate this place with?" Yoongi groaned out, rolling on his bed.
"Sticks and Jungkook's hair," Jimin joked, laughing as Jungkook leaned over to his his thigh. "Just cut his hair whenever he changes it and boom! A rainbow on the beach."
"You guys are so annoying," Jungkook huffed, then looked over at Taehyung with eyes full of wonder. "What would you suggest, Tae?"
Taehyung smiled at the nickname, taking in a deep breath before beginning. "Well, we can always start with flowers. There's grass in the forest, it'll make both the animals and us happy! Then... we could clean up the beach! Get seashells and pretty artifacts. Make this place feel like a home again."
And with that, Taehyung walked out.