Chapter Text
The sound of nature echoes through the dark room dimly lit by candlelight. Any other time, Yoongi would welcome the sounds, but for now it’s just cacophonous. The peacefulness he should be experiencing is instead replaced with fear, a fear he must hold inside. The candles sense this, flickering to the point that they almost burn themselves out.
Yoongi dips the already moist cloth into the cold basin of water before ringing out the excess and laying it back on Jeongguk’s forehead. Jeongguk, who is laying on their makeshift bed of blankets. Jeongguk, who used to be strong and proud, is now lying thin and weak.
His eyes are boring into Yoongi, despite the fact that he looks like he’s barely holding onto life. Jeongguk has always been stubborn.
“You’re frowning again,” Jeongguk says to Yoongi. Yoongi notices a twitch in Jeongguk’s arm as if he was trying to raise it to poke his lips the way he used to do when Yoongi frowned in concentration. Back before…this. Back before the fever spread across their tiny town and inflicted itself on Jeongguk. They sit in silence, staring at each other before it’s finally broken. “I’m dying.”
Yoongi doesn’t answer immediately, instead he dips the cloth back into the cold water to give his hands something to do, give his mind something to concentrate on.
“You’re not.”
“You’re not very good at lying,” Jeongguk says weakly with a hint of a laugh.
“I’m not lying,” Yoongi answers matter-of-factly.
“You’re refusing to listen, then,” Jeongguk corrects.
“There has to be something more I can do…” Yoongi says quietly as he runs the cloth down Jeongguk’s cheek.
“Sometimes, there are things that can’t be changed.”
Yoongi removes the cloth and takes Jeongguk in. He looks tired, but peaceful. As if he’s accepted his fate. But Yoongi…
“Then what is the point of knowing how if I can’t change it?”
“That’s a dangerous way to think, hyung,” Jeongguk leans his cheek against the cloth attached to Yoongi’s hand.
“I just don’t want to lose you,” Yoongi says softly, allowing his thumb to graze Jeongguk’s sunken cheek.
“You always say that,” Jeongguk smiles, as if it’s something familiar to him. As if he’s heard Yoongi say it before, but Yoongi has no recollection. “If there is another life after this, find me there too.”
“I will,” Yoongi answers quickly. He knows that in every lifetime he will look for Jeongguk.
“That was fast,” Jeongguk laughs lightly.
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“Even if it costs me everything, I will find you again and again.”
They stare at each other in silence, as if the world understands how important this moment is between them with how quiet it’s gotten.
“Okay,” Jeongguk eventually whispers, as if he’s resigned himself to it but Yoongi isn’t sure why.
The candle flickers again, this time going out completely.
Panic fills Yoongi’s senses and he begins muttering under his breath, words he remembers seeing on an old scroll in ink that was barely legible. Words that feel foreign on his tongue, but he can’t stop himself.
“Yoongi, what are you doing?”
He doesn’t respond, he just continues muttering as the room’s air becomes heavy.
Let him live beyond this life
Let me find him again
I will pay whatever price
Silence falls again, but this time the silence is different. The silence is almost like an answer as a small gust of wind blows through the window.
“That sounded serious.”
“It is.”
“Will it actually help?”
“Yes,” Yoongi answers with confidence, because the air feels different.
“Okay,” Jeongguk smiles at him before closing his eyes and drifting to sleep as if he, too, feels relief.
Yoongi takes his place next to him, wrapping an arm around Jeongguk’s waist and kissing the side of his head.
He doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when he wakes, he feels Jeongguk covered in sweat, more sweat than usual. Yoongi sits up, panic beginning to erupt in his stomach. He reaches up and feels Jeongguk’s forehead but the heat of earlier is gone. He feels Jeongguk’s cheeks before holding his hand against his own.
Normal.
Jeongguk stirs, his eyes opening slowly.
“See? I told you I’d be fine.”
Maybe it worked…
Days pass and Jeongguk improves with each one. He’s eating better, he’s able to sit up on his own, it seems like the worst is past them. He even laughs, a sound Yoongi has missed dearly.
Jeongguk is sitting up in bed talking to Yoongi about the rabbits they always saw around their little cottage.
“I miss them, their cute little tails, their cute…” Jeongguk stops mid sentence which brings Yoongi’s attention off the pot on the fire.
The room has gone too still. Jeongguk’s eyes are open, staring at Yoongi but something is off. Yoongi gets up so fast the soup in the pot spills onto the floor but Yoongi pays it no mind. He rushes towards the bed and feels Jeongguk’s cheeks. They’re warm, not fever warm but human warm.
“Guk,” Yoongi runs his hands through Jeongguk’s hair expecting him to hum the way he usually does. When no hum comes, he removes his hand and flinches at how Jeongguk’s head falls to the side. “No.”
That’s the only word Yoongi is able to mutter, the devastation he feels is something he can’t even put into words. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to live, he was supposed to survive. He pulls Jeongguk into him, as if holding him tight will help transfer some of his own life into Jeongguk.
It’s only then he understands; the spell wasn’t to save Jeongguk.
“I will find you again.”