Precious

06: Risk and Reward

Watching the time tick by quickly became a terrible obsession. It was just how Wooyoung thought, knowing how much time he was here made him sink deeper and deeper into despair.

As soon as the hands lined up at midnight, Wooyoung reached for the piece of chalk, now worn down enough to hardly fit into his hand. He added the twenty third line to the appropriate spot on the wall. Twenty three days into this new life, twenty three days since he should've died.

At least, that was the number Wooyoung had in his head. Somewhere deep down he knew this number wasn't accurate, but it was all that he could hold onto. He started keeping track of the days since San had given him the pocket watch, and knew before then that at least a week had to of gone by from what he was told by the siren. From there, he was left in the unknown.

Luckily his body wasn't as weak as it had been, seeing as he now had a steady supply of food and water being given from the siren. Most of the times Yunho visited he as well brought something small to share, being sure to say it was of his own doing, and not some request the siren made.

While in some odd sense Wooyoung was trying to understand and open up to the siren, he couldn't help but still feel closed off and resentful. He still longed for escape, despite being cared for. And the most dangerous part about that, was he knew he could have a chance sooner than later.

"What are you thinking about my little human?" San asked lightly, crawling over to Wooyoung's nook, but remained at a decent length away.

"Nothing." Wooyoung answered, blinking a few times to stop himself from spacing out. He put the chalk down back where he kept it, focusing on San with his lidded eyes.

"Why aren't you sleeping then?" San mused, getting the smallest bit closer, which made Wooyoung sigh, hitting his head against the stone. "You look tired."

"I can't." Wooyoung again answered monotonously, pulling his legs closer to his chest, resting his chin against his knees.

"I thought you just said you weren't thinking." San chuckled, sitting parallel to Wooyoung, except he faced the opposite direction, having an easier time looking at the human's face. "Were you lying to me?"

"It's not that." Wooyoung muttered, shaking his head. "I wasn't lying."

San hummed, observing the human for a few moments.

"I could hold you." San offered, voice so caring and sweet that it sent a wave of confusion over Wooyoung. Not to mention he had completely frozen.

"That's not nece—"

Wooyoung was cut off by a squeak, being pulled out of his little nook and out into the main part of the cave. He couldn't struggle or resist, hardly processing how he was being manhandled.

"Relax, my precious." San whispered, in that moment Wooyoung felt the siren's hand running through the hair on the back of his head.

San manipulated the both of them flat onto the rocks, Wooyoung perfectly against his side, in his arms. Wooyoung's chest hurt as he breathed, panic, anxiety, and the effect of the siren all getting to him. He didn't hold people like this, nor was he ever held like this. Yet the siren was indeed very careful, other than the initial effort to get into this position.

Some of the rocks pressed awkwardly into Wooyoung's side, but he didn't dare move. Then his mind further processed that his head wasn't on the solid rock. No...he was resting against the siren's chest.

Whenever he gained the feeling to pull away, he again let out a similar sounding squeak, San holding his hair tighter, keeping him pressed exactly where he was.