BTS Ficlet: Metamorphosis
May. 18th, 2025 05:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kat_lair***
Title: Metamorphosis
Author:kat_lair
Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Character: Kim Namjoon | RM, Kim Seokjin | Jin, Min Yoongi | Suga, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope, Park Jimin (BTS), Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook
Tags: Metamorphosis, Ambiguous Relationships, OT7, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Ficlet
Rating: G
Word count: 544
Summary: The scales appear slowly. They bloom across his arms, like cherry blossoms opening in the spring, pale pink at first before deepening into fiery crimson.
Author notes: Picked some spring themed prompts to get me out of a writing slump. This was for the prompt 'metamorphosis'. Unbetaed so if you spot a typo or mistake you should tell me.
Metamorphosis on AO3
The scales appear slowly. They bloom across his arms, like cherry blossoms opening in the spring, pale pink at first before deepening into fiery crimson. Every morning, they’ve spread a bit further, covering his shoulders, then his back, lines of red running down his spine like blood except more beautiful. Namjoon twists in front of the mirror, sees how they rise to the surface a bit more every day, reaches behind himself to feel the hard ridges forming below his shoulder blades. Underneath his skin, there’s a steady ache of growing bones, of wings in waiting.
He thinks he should be frightened, but he isn’t. He could try to hide it, but what would be the point? Besides, he’s never hidden anything from the others before, not when it mattered, not when it was going to change everything.
“Hyung,” Jimin says. His face crumbles and then smooths, always Namjoon’s brave boy.
“Woah, cool! Can I touch?” Jungkook hasn’t yet understood the full implications of what is happening, but there is something hesitant in the way he runs his fingers over Namjoon’s scales nonetheless.
Taehyung’s arms are wrapped tightly around his middle, fingers curled into fists as if he’s determined not to touch, not even by accident. “No.” His voice is tighter still, angry, Jimin pressing his forehead against Taehyung’s shoulder. “Why?”
“It’s not a choice,” Seokjin interrupts, gentle but irrefutable. “You know it’s not…” He trails off, and Namjoon forces himself to look over, to face his hyungs too.
The younger ones have always been… not easier, but easier to know how to care for, more willing to accept it too, from Namjoon, from each other. Even now, Namjoon can see the realisation creep over Jungkook’s expression, Jimin and Taehyung already reaching out to fold him between them.
“Hyung, what?” There’s something broken in the way he asks, something of the young boy he’d been when he’d first sought Namjoon out for reassurance, and Namjoon is grateful his hands are still human so that he can reach out and cup the back of his neck, and sad because there are few reassurances he can give this time.
He meets Seokjin’s eyes and sees the same knowledge reflected in them.
“It’s not always for forever,” Hoseok grits out. He looks fierce, like he could make the words true just by saying them. “There have been cases… Some people can turn back.”
Namjoon nods. Some people can. He’s not sure he will be able to. He’s not sure he will, even if he can. Something about this feels inevitable, like a turning season, as if he’s exactly where and what he’s supposed to be. He’s only ever felt like that with the others, but now…
“It’ll be fine,” Yoongi says, quiet, like a prayer, like a eulogy. “It’ll be… different. We’ll be different.” Jimin is crying silently now, and Seokjin is pulling their maknaes close with one hand, Hoseok with the other, Hoseok’s arm winding around Yoongi’s waist until they are surrounding Namjoon on all sides, the circle closing with him in the middle. “But we’ll be fine,” Yoongi finishes.
Namjoon feels his wings pushing to the surface, feels the sky calling him like only music ever has, but he believes him. He believes in them.
***
Title: Metamorphosis
Author:
kat_lair Fandom: 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Character: Kim Namjoon | RM, Kim Seokjin | Jin, Min Yoongi | Suga, Jung Hoseok | J-Hope, Park Jimin (BTS), Kim Taehyung | V, Jeon Jungkook
Tags: Metamorphosis, Ambiguous Relationships, OT7, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Ficlet
Rating: G
Word count: 544
Summary: The scales appear slowly. They bloom across his arms, like cherry blossoms opening in the spring, pale pink at first before deepening into fiery crimson.
Author notes: Picked some spring themed prompts to get me out of a writing slump. This was for the prompt 'metamorphosis'. Unbetaed so if you spot a typo or mistake you should tell me.
Metamorphosis on AO3
The scales appear slowly. They bloom across his arms, like cherry blossoms opening in the spring, pale pink at first before deepening into fiery crimson. Every morning, they’ve spread a bit further, covering his shoulders, then his back, lines of red running down his spine like blood except more beautiful. Namjoon twists in front of the mirror, sees how they rise to the surface a bit more every day, reaches behind himself to feel the hard ridges forming below his shoulder blades. Underneath his skin, there’s a steady ache of growing bones, of wings in waiting.
He thinks he should be frightened, but he isn’t. He could try to hide it, but what would be the point? Besides, he’s never hidden anything from the others before, not when it mattered, not when it was going to change everything.
“Hyung,” Jimin says. His face crumbles and then smooths, always Namjoon’s brave boy.
“Woah, cool! Can I touch?” Jungkook hasn’t yet understood the full implications of what is happening, but there is something hesitant in the way he runs his fingers over Namjoon’s scales nonetheless.
Taehyung’s arms are wrapped tightly around his middle, fingers curled into fists as if he’s determined not to touch, not even by accident. “No.” His voice is tighter still, angry, Jimin pressing his forehead against Taehyung’s shoulder. “Why?”
“It’s not a choice,” Seokjin interrupts, gentle but irrefutable. “You know it’s not…” He trails off, and Namjoon forces himself to look over, to face his hyungs too.
The younger ones have always been… not easier, but easier to know how to care for, more willing to accept it too, from Namjoon, from each other. Even now, Namjoon can see the realisation creep over Jungkook’s expression, Jimin and Taehyung already reaching out to fold him between them.
“Hyung, what?” There’s something broken in the way he asks, something of the young boy he’d been when he’d first sought Namjoon out for reassurance, and Namjoon is grateful his hands are still human so that he can reach out and cup the back of his neck, and sad because there are few reassurances he can give this time.
He meets Seokjin’s eyes and sees the same knowledge reflected in them.
“It’s not always for forever,” Hoseok grits out. He looks fierce, like he could make the words true just by saying them. “There have been cases… Some people can turn back.”
Namjoon nods. Some people can. He’s not sure he will be able to. He’s not sure he will, even if he can. Something about this feels inevitable, like a turning season, as if he’s exactly where and what he’s supposed to be. He’s only ever felt like that with the others, but now…
“It’ll be fine,” Yoongi says, quiet, like a prayer, like a eulogy. “It’ll be… different. We’ll be different.” Jimin is crying silently now, and Seokjin is pulling their maknaes close with one hand, Hoseok with the other, Hoseok’s arm winding around Yoongi’s waist until they are surrounding Namjoon on all sides, the circle closing with him in the middle. “But we’ll be fine,” Yoongi finishes.
Namjoon feels his wings pushing to the surface, feels the sky calling him like only music ever has, but he believes him. He believes in them.
***