Playing Cards
I had to do it to ‘em 🤝
Welcome to Tarot!Vamp!Tae ft. brief history; aka—I couldn’t resist (aka pt.2; I had so much homework and I was doing everything to avoid it.) Also I’m feeding into my own desires because why not indulge fully? This was quickly written but miley wuz good.
Warnings: Strong language(?), Magical themes, mentions of death
Word Count: 2.2k lmao I said ‘short’ drabbles.
Theme: Supernatural!BTS, Vampire!Tae.
Vamp!Tae Drabble: 2 of ?
A/N: this takes place in and around the supernatural!au.
A/N: Link to Part 1 in the main introduction series, which has the links to the rest of the series as well. It’s better to read them all in order to understand what’s going on to help you understand what’s going on here.)
[Chicago, 1927.]
“And you learned to do this where?” The woman sitting to his left asked. “In London, a while back,” Tae’s lips curled at the corners as he shuffled the deck of tarot cards in his hands. “And how exactly does it work?” She leans in closer to watch as Tae spreads the cards out along the table in an arch. Tae inhaled through his nose as he ran his fingers along the backs of the cards, breathing in the scent of her perfume and the rush of red beneath her skin.
A knowing smile accompanied his words, “You ask a question, I ask the cards, and the cards provide an answer.” “I heard it’s all fake!” The woman gives a teasing smile, and Tae raises an eyebrow at her, “Then ask a question, and we will see…” Though he could already guess what her question would be—they all asked something similar.
“Hmm…” The woman shifts to lean on Tae as she thinks, reaching out to run her fingers down his arm, “Ask them about my love life.” She coos, resting her chin on Tae’s shoulder, and he grins to himself—receiving exactly what he was expecting.
“Anything you’re expecting to hear?” He asks, raising an eyebrow as he mindlessly glides his fingers over the cards. “We’ll see,” She grins.
He clears his throat, bringing his attention to the cards spread over the table, “What should Ally know about her love life?” He repeats the question a second time before one pulls, and he slips it from the spread and flips it over to look at it. He swallowed upon seeing the face, betrayal, “Ten of Swords,” He said, switching to a smile; he had worked with this deck for a long time and became quite familiar with the cards. “That doesn’t look…good,” Ally says as she looks at the card; the face of the card depicting a man lying face down on the ground with ten swords sticking out of his back. “Well, it depends on the context,” He said, and that was true, “In this instance, it doesn’t mean anything bad,” He added, and the lie tasted strange on his tongue. She wouldn’t like the truth.
“It indicates that the end of a painful cycle is approaching—so you’ll find the love of your life soon enough,” He teases, slipping the card back into the arch.
Ignorance is bliss.
[London, 1846.]
“And you think you can teach me this?” Tae asks, tilting his head to the side as he stares at the young woman; her face illuminated by an oil lamp as they sat on the floor of the parlor. “Yes, I might not be able to read you, but certainly you can read.” She spoke in a whisper, a faint smile on her lips as she pulled a silk pouch from the pocket of her nightgown. Tae watches her fondly as she sets the deck on the ground, washing the cards before gathering them in a pile and shuffling them by hand.
She spreads them out in two rows and then sits back on her heels, a sigh leaving her lips as she looks down at the spread, “Okay, now, when it comes to asking question—use the person’s name when asking, let the cards know you are asking about someone else.” Tae nods, he knows this, he has observed her do readings many times now.
“I’ll read you then,” Tae grins as he shifts to sit next to her, facing the spread along the floor. “Me?” She breathed, “I’ve never had anyone else read for me.” “Then I will be the first, and you’ll tell me if it’s right,” He smiled as he spoke, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
“Pay attention to the cards!” She says, but she smiles at the action. “The cards, yes,” Tae turns his attention to the cards, reaching both hands out to hover them over the spread. “Not like that, that’s unnatural looking, be relaxed—run your fingers over the back like this, softly, to not disturb the spread.” She instructs, demonstrating the action and Tae follows.
“Ask them something I know the answer to…” She trails off as she thinks, “Ask them…what my relationship with my mother is like,” She whisperers, shifting away from the cards to let Tae have full access to the spread. He wished she didn’t move away; he held out his hand, silently asking her to take his—and she did, so he turned back to the cards, “What is Alexandra’s relationship with her mother like?” Tae asks, voice hushed but clear, as he glides the fingers of his free hand along the backs of the cards.
“Focus, not too hard on the cards themselves, but the feeling you get—which card do you want to pull?” She says, giving Tae’s hand a light squeeze as he scans the spread, running his fingers along the bottom row, then the top—stopping on a card. He turned to look at her and she nodded, “You can pull it—flip it as it is, don’t turn it around, don’t change the direction of the face.” Her voice is soft as she scoots closer, sitting next to Tae and leaning into his side, anxiously squeezing his hand.
He flips the card and looks at the face, then at the number and name, “Five of wands.” Alexandra releases a breath, “Yes…that’s accurate.” “What does it mean?” Tae asks, looking to her as she speaks, “Five of wands—conflict, disagreement, tension.” She takes the card, smoothing her thumb over the edge as she looks at it, “Good first try.”
“I’m sorry,” Tae blurts, his eyebrows dipping into a doleful expression—he didn’t want her to get upset. “You have nothing to be sorry about, love.” She says with a faint smile, shifting her gaze to the cards as she gathered the rest. “Are we done?” Tae asked, flexing his hand at the loss of hers, “No, you are going to shuffle them this time, and we’ll try again” She handed him the cards.
“Should I ask them how much you love me or is that not a question for the higher powers?” Tae teases, a sly smile working it way to his lips as he shuffled the cards in his hands. She smacks his arm, a grin replacing the shocked ‘o’ of her mouth, “You are not allowed to ask those types of questions!” “And why not?” He asks, biting back a smile. “Because you already know that I love you, you shouldn’t have to ask the cards.” She dares, a challenging glint in her eyes.
“Yes, I suppose that’s true,” He looks at the cards in his hands, then to her, “And I love you, always.” “You love me now, while I’m young,” She says despite the glow to her face. Those same feelings of admiration reflected in Tae’s eyes as he said, “I’ll love you until the day you die.”
And he did.
Tae fled to Paris with Yoongi eight months later, after getting bloody revenge for her death; he left with an embroidered silk pouch of cards, and he carried them with him always.
[Chicago, 1927.]
“Hmm…I hope so,” Ally says, a smug smile replacing her previously displeased expression. “What else can they tell me?” She asks, eyes scanning the spread. “Whatever you like,” Tae purrs. “Can they tell me about you?” She asks, reaching out to swipe a card from the spread, but he stopped her, giving her a playful grin as he brought her hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles. “They don’t read for me, doll, that’s not how this works.”
Later, a sharp sting to the shoulder is the last thing Ally feels before it fades to shadows and vague dreams, when she wakes up the next morning, she remembers nothing of the night before and she’s left puzzled over a hand drawn copy of the Ten of Swords.
[Yoongi’s cottage, Present day]
“Isn’t this something…Jimin should be doing?” I ask, arching my eyebrow at Tae as he kneels on the other side of the coffee table. “Not at all, I can do it,” He smiles, a devious glint in his eyes, “I can do it better.” I shake my head as I watch him spread the cards out across the table in two rows. “This is how I was taught,” Tae says, a fond smile on his face though his eyes were distant. “Parlor floor, late one evening—except we had oil lamps instead of fancy overhead lights,” He winks as he straightens the spread of cards.
“They look…older than Jimin’s cards.” I say as lean forward to look at the cards; the backs were faded, and they were worn along the edges. “They are old,” He chuckled, “These are the cards that I learned with, in 1847.” “And you still have them?” I ask, now fully intrigued, he has original cards.
“What does the front look like?” I reached for a card and he stopped me. “Please,” He sucked in a breath before speaking, “I’ve been the only person to touch these cards for the last hundred and seventy years…I’d,” He paused, eyebrows furrowing as he plays with the words in his mouth, “I’d like to keep it that way, please, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, totally, I’m sorry—I forgot about the whole energy attachment thing.” I breathed an awkward laugh, pulling my hand away before folding them in my lap. “I should know better, Jimin and Yoongi have both told me.” “It’s okay,” He sits back on his heels, nervously straightening a few cards. “What should I ask?” I break the silence, squint at the spread as I think and Tae chuckles, “Whatever you want.”
“Is there…anything I should know right now? Advice from the universe or my subconscious?” I shrug and Tae smiles, “I can do that.” He straightens his back and hovers his fingers over the cards, “Is there a message for Y/N? From the universe or her subconscious—anything she should know, any message at all?” He hovers from left to right over the rows, swiping a card from the bottom row and flipping it, “The Hanged Man—reversed.” He raises an eyebrow, “What are you avoiding, Y/N?” He gives a teasing grin as he turns the face of the card towards me.
“How about you and your deck mind your business.” I cross my arms and purse my lips to force away a grin.
“C’mon, it’s just a wakeup call—telling you to stop avoiding the thing and get it over with, you’re delaying growth and progression.” He sets the card aside and rests his elbow on his knee, “Anything else?” He grins and I shake my head, “No, you’re nosy.”
I scan the deck on the table, “Who taught you how to read, anyway?” “And I’m nosy?” Tae laughs, reaching out to tweak the cards once again. “You don’t have to tell me,” “Thanks for giving me permission to deny an answer.” He smiles as he gathers the cards and absentmindedly shuffles them, “One of my past lovers.” “During the…Victorian era, if I got my dates right?” I asked, shifting so I was hugging my knees. “Yes, in that time.”
“What were they like?” He tilts his head as he thinks, that absent look back in his eyes, “She was radiant, headstrong, smart—she challenged the norm of that era, and that made her a bit of a curiosity to the locals, and naturally an outcast…she was also a witch, and we lived in London.”
“I’m sure if you liked her, she was someone worth knowing,” I smiled softly at him. “Yes, she was a gift,” He looked at the cards, fanning them out in his hands. “How did you end up with her deck?” I asked as he slipped the cards back into the pouch. “I took them with me when she died.” “Oh, that’s sweet…I’m sorry though…” Yikes. “It happens, people die, Y/N.” He mumbled, brushing off the knees of his slacks as he stood. “I mean, that’s true, but it’s still unfortunate…” Stop talking.
“It was…unjust—it wasn’t her time.” He looked down at me, “But people die, and we just hope to find them again in our next life, no?” He gave a soft smile, extending his hand to help me up. “I suppose,” I mumbled, “You believe in reincarnation?” I ask and he smiles, “I don’t know what I believe in, but I have certainly lived many lifetimes, and in each era—I find my favorite people, and that era of myself dies with them, and I start over.”
“But something tells me you never really start over, it’s always Tae in there,” I smile as I poke his chest. “Yes, it’s still me, just a different life.” The corners of his mouth pull into a soft smile, “I do have Yoongi, he sticks with me through the eras—though I suppose we both just cling to what we know…and when we run out of people, we always have each other.” “Okay, wow, that was sappy and sad, and it hurt my heart.” I place my hand over my heart, and he laughs, “It’s true though!”
“Find your people, they are important,” He smiles fondly as he looks around the room. “I think I have.” I look around too, taking in the sight of Yoongi’s parlor before looking back to Tae, and he’s smiling—it’s the most genuine smile that I’ve seen on his face.
And I love it.
“You’ll stick around until I die, right?” I ask, and the words feel strange as they come out, feeling as if each emotion weighed on them differently.
“Always, and then I will visit your grave and relive these days.”
~~ Omgggg I know right I was basically self-inserting and combining like 8 billion different side stories in my brain because I constantly fantasize about vamp!tae like damn,,, @ me about it nfdslfidsj
AnYwAy; this some some splurge of backstory and angsty, loverboy vamp!tarot!tae. I wanted to bring him to life [waKE ME UP] Necromancer!hoseok is the one who screams that part btw. So here he is, voila, ignore me feeding my own imagination.