bsky post here | twitter thread here | ao3 link here

vhope | 1.7k words | sentinel/guide, post-war/dystopia

The thumping bass reaches Taehyung even when he’s several blocks away from the club. He almost turns to head back home; he could always apologize to his hyung later. Seokjin would probably tease him and give him a hard time, but he would understand.

Still, Taehyung doesn’t want to disappoint him, especially when he’d be meeting Seokjin’s boyfriends. He already missed the first chance, due to a week of zone-sickness. Zone-sickness symptoms vary from person to person, but it comes after a particularly terrible zone, especially when the sentinel has no guide.

Now, he forces himself to text Seokjin to let him know he’s close, and walks the rest of the way to the club. He strides past the line along the outside of the building, sighing internally at the grumbled complaints and low scoffs. He leans into his power to project his voice to the bouncer without much effort, nodding his thanks after the bouncer lifts the velvet rope to let him through.

The previously muffled bass now slams his senses, and Taehyung sways slightly as he adjusts to the new level of sound. Stepping to the side, he leans on the wall as he tries to regulate himself, and takes several calming breaths.

“Taehyung-ah!”

Taehyung’s eyes snap open and he turns left to face where he heard Seokjin’s voice. He takes one final breath and pushes himself off the wall to meet Seokjin halfway. Seokjin opens his arms, Taehyung walks into them, keeping himself from melting into the touch.

At one point early in their friendship, Taehyung wondered if Seokjin had latent guide genes, but his hyung quickly refuted that the one day he brought it up.

“Hi, hyung,” Taehyung murmurs with a smile as he pulls away.

“Hi, you,” Seokjin replies, eyes flitting over Taehyung’s face. “I’m glad you made it here okay.”

“Me too.”

Seokjin gives him a soft smile then turns and offers shoulder to Taehyung. Taehyung exhales and reaches out to rest his hand on his shoulder, letting Seokjin lead him through the bar. As one of his oldest friends, Seokjin’s familiar with how Taehyung is careful with being touched, especially when his senses can be set off by them at any moment. The best way for him to control that is to be the one initiating the touch, like he does now as they move along the edge of the room.

It’s still difficult, as other people they pass are less mindful.

In a society where sentinels and guides are no longer needed, decades after the end of the foundation, and thus more scare, Taehyung doesn’t expect to be accommodated. Sentinels and guides are treated equally in that they’re no longer exploited and forced to fight anyone’s battles and they’re no longer disrespected just because of their genetic enhancements.

Still, the society strongly caters to humans who are back in the majority, while sentinels and guides do their best to adjust to the world around them.

Taehyung grits his teeth as he’s bumped into a few times, and Seokjin looks over his shoulder to give him an apologetic smile.

“Almost there,” he says, and Taehyung can hear it just under the still pounding bass in the background.