A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic)

A Sparkly Encounter (A JongKey Fanfic) FORTY-FOUR

While the doctor moved off to make phone calls to TaeMin’s family MinHo moved back into the room. He was under a daze watching the nurses cater to TaeMin. The young boy’s eyes were opened and staring around at his environment with confusion. He resembled a deer in headlights the way he was glancing around. The breathing tube had been pulled out of his mouth, too, but unfortunately all the other machines had remained.

            A nurse was holding TaeMin up while another was holding a cup of chilled water with a straw to his lips. The one with the cup smiled at MinHo as he walked in.

            “He’s very weak and a bit disoriented but it’s better than being in a coma, right?” She rubbed TaeMin’s back and then handed the cup to MinHo. “Would you like to take over? I have to check his IV.”

            The boy was more than happy to take the cup from her. He steadied it at TaeMin’s lips and used his free hand to brush the hair of TaeMin’s temple. His innocent brown eyes stared at MinHo was confusion. Yet all MinHo could feel was this overwhelming bundle of happiness tearing through his trance like state.          

            As soon as the nurses left and stopped fussing over him TaeMin raised his trembling hand to touch MinHo. The small move was clearly sucking a lot of his energy out of him. MinHo lowered the cup and held on to TaeMin’s cold hand.

            “Welcome back,” MinHo whispered.

            TaeMin’s skeleton fingers held on to his boyfriend’s smooth ones. With one thumb he gently traced over his skin – the one familiar thing he recognized since he woke up from… He wasn’t even sure what he’d woken up from. The last thing he remembered was going out to get a bit of fresh air since he’d been feeling light headed. When he’d woken he had felt and heard MinHo and then it was chaos. He could barely speak since his throat was dry and felt like sand paper. His body wouldn’t listen to him to the point where even lifting his hand the way he was doing now needed lots of effort.

            Fear was slowly churning into TaeMin’s stomach. It slipped icy ropes around his chest and tugged until scarlet beads of blood trickling out of the thin wounds. The coldness spread like a virus, too. Soon TaeMin had fat tears rolling down his sunken cheeks.

            “Shh, it’s okay…” MinHo cooed. He moved closer to TaeMin so that his bottom was seated on the mattress by his side rather than the hard backed chair. He brought TaeMin’s weak body into his chest and held him like a small child while he cried his insecurities out.

            Exhausted from the evenings events TaeMin didn’t even have the strength to cling to MinHo’s shirt. Even his lungs seemed to be too tired to take the sobbing gasps that he really felt like taking.

            He was so confused by everything. There were only two things that TaeMin was sure about. One, MinHo’s embrace was as amazing as ever and he missed his terribly. Two, something bad had happened/was happening and he couldn’t figure out what.

            “MinHo h-hyung…” he whispered hoarsely when his cries died down to little hiccup-like whimpers. His second word disappeared with a crack as his voice was still not able to rise back to its usual standard of volume.

            “It’s okay TaeMin… You’re safe, okay? I got you… And your family is going to be here soon, too,” MinHo assured. His lips pressed into TaeMin’s hair, something he had missed doing.

            TaeMin nodded and indulged in the elder’s small caresses. Eventually he felt his body shutting down in a fashion similar to the way a machine would when needing to conserve its energy. MinHo helped him get comfortable, fluffing up the pillows, arranging his wires and tucking him in. His fingers once again brushed TaeMin’s hair out of his face, kissing the bare skin underneath it.