Work Text:
Tzuyu can only sigh when she enters their shared room, seeing her girlfriend standing in the center and struggling to stay awake. Jihyo’s eyes are wide and red, sticky around the eyelids from the tears she’s shed (both from the struggle to keep them open and the despair she feels every passing second), she’s pale and thinner than usual, and Tzuyu hasn’t heard her laugh in days. And yet, she’s still the most beautiful thing that she’s ever seen.
“You need a break, baby,” she says, and Jihyo turns to her with a tired smile.
“You know I can’t do that.”
She sighs again and approaches the elder, opening her arms only to frown and lower them dejectedly when the other girl backs away. “You can’t do that."
Tzuyu’s frown grows, and she tilts her head as she stare. “I can’t touch you?” she asks, and it’s with a hint of sorrow that strikes right into Jihyo’s heart.
“I-I can’t let you,” she admits with a sad smile. “Because in your arms I’d feel warm, and safe, and like I’m able to rest and we both know that’s not true.”
“Well you can’t keep yourself awake for the rest of your life Jihyo!” Tzuyu regrets shouting when her girlfriend flinches, inching forward before resting a hand on her bicep. “You need to rest, even for a little bit.”
“If I rest then we’re vulnerable, and all of these people—”
“All of these people should’ve been gone already,” she says pointedly, “and should not have been relying on you to save their lives.”
Jihyo’s eyes soften before she falls, collapsing into Tzuyu’s arms as the other girl wraps her up, tucking her head under her chin and stroking her hair. “It’s too close,” she says simply. Tzuyu hums.
“I’ve failed.” Her grip tightens as Jihyo continues, holds her tighter like everything will go away. “It was my job to protect this city—to protect everyone, and now—” she cuts herself off when she feels another tear run down her cheek, staining Tzuyu’s shirt.
“It was never your job to change fate,” Tzuyu whispers, kissing the top of her head. “It was barely even your job to delay the inevitable.”
Jihyo looks up, and the taller girl curses at how her tear-stained, red-rimmed eyes instantly sear themselves into her memory. “Then how do you explain this task I was given?”
She can’t. All she could give is the same spiel that they’ve heard a million times, about how people are afraid to face their end even if they didn’t know when it was coming, that they’re even more desperate when they do know. Tzuyu, personally, has never feared death, but what she fears more is her lover’s caring nature, how she’d rather calm others’ worries than take care of herself. So she sighs, picking her up and carrying her over to their bed as the older girl sniffles in her arms.
“The sun will win,” she says, and knows that Jihyo agrees by how she stays silent. “So sleep.”
She looks into Tzuyu’s eyes, once again wide in disbelief. “But you know what will happen."
“Yes, it’s going to occur anyways, but do you know what else will happen?” Jihyo furrows her brow, shaking her head. “I’ll be here, holding you and loving you like I always have. I’ll be right here, like I was when the sun was two million miles away and when it’s only two million meters away. I’ll protect you.”
“How can you—”
“I’ll protect you,” she repeats, with so much conviction that Jihyo won’t dare tell her wrong. So she nods, kissing her passionately with all the energy she has left, unspoken confessions pouring into every second that their lips touch. She pulls back reluctantly, a whispered “I love you” escaping before Tzuyu chases her mouth and they connect again. The younger feels it before her lover does, surely, feels the way that Jihyo falls slack against her lips and pulls back to see her eyes closed. There’s too many emotions put into the sigh she releases, of relief and worry and indescribable things.
It’s not long before she feels the heat, rolls them over with her back facing the front of the city as if that’ll stave it off. It burns, so, so badly, and still she cover’s Jihyo’s body with her own to give her seconds more. Her throat’s dry enough to render her speechless, so instead she presses her lips to her lover’s temple and thinks loudly, in some strange hope that some power out there will be able to convey the message. I love you, she thinks, I’ll protect you. It repeats, over and over and over as no tears can be shed and her thin clothes disintegrate off. I love you I love you I love you I love-