Healing Part 2

While Hoya shooed the docile intruder out of the apartment, Dongwoo sat Sungjong down and, with a dead serious look on his face, explained that he was in fact the king’s personal doctor.

“He inherited a little more than just the throne from his father.” Dongwoo went on. “What do you mean?” Sungjong asked. He still wasn’t sure if he was supposed to take his hyung seriously; his story seemed even more implausible than the one about Sungjong being a wizard.

“A lethal heart disease was passed on to him.” Dongwoo answered and continued at the pace of a humming bird; “He might look well from the outside, but the truth is he could collapse any day now.” Sungjong instinctively raised his hand to cover his own heart.

“But…” Dongwoo began; “Maybe with your golden hands...”

* * *

Kim Myungsoo was a strange kid. He didn’t really care about magic and whatnot; though it did make him proud that his heart’s chosen was actually amazing like that. Rather than the incident of general Howon’s hand’s sudden healing, Myungsoo’s mind was currently occupied by a pair of very plump lips.

Myungsoo made a resolution while staring dreamily out of the window of his room.

He had to have him.

* * *

Honestly speaking Sungjong found both the king and his advisor kind of intimidating in person. King Sunggyu was scary because of his explosive nature, constant need to show the power he held and his blunt ways of doing that. Woohyun was perhaps even scarier. In public he always acted all friendly and nice; Sungjong had fallen for that façade as well. Soon enough he’d learned that there was always something behind Woohyun’s charming smile. One moment he’d be your best friend and before you knew it he’d be pushing you to the lions head first, laughing in a very evil way.

Yeah, Sungjong thought and shuddered, Woohyun was definitely the scary one, Sunggyu at least made his message clear.

And now he was supposed to actually stand in front of those two giants, all of their attention on him and his ‘golden hands’. He was scared stiff.

Somehow everything had moved so fast; it was just yesterday that his secret came out; just a week that even he knew of that secret. And now he was standing outside the king’s quarters, fiddling with the hem of his shirt nervously. Hoya didn’t miss a thing; he wrapped his arm around Sungjong’s shoulders tightly as they waited for Dongwoo’s call together.

Hoya pulled his arm away and regained his military posture at the very moment that the massive door to the king’s bedchamber began to creek open. He did send a last encouraging smile to Sungjong before he stepped inside. ‘Don’t leave me alone’, Sungjong wanted to say, but not a word came out.

It didn’t take long for a muffled; “Come in” to reach Sungjong. He stepped inside with legs like half-cooked macaroni and why the hell did there have to be stairs?!

Sungjong had been to the castle several times before, but never had he seen a room quite like this. It screamed wealth from the ornamented fireplace to the heavy curtains draping around the vast bed. Just like in a church; Sungjong felt like he had to lower his head at the glory. He did catch a glimpse of the two giants in the room. Or was it four? Standing beside the gloriously dressed king and his pulchritudinous advisor, Dongwoo, his goofy hyung, and Hoya, his solicitous older brother, were not left in their shadow. Not in the slightest. Sungjong felt kind of alien as all of them suddenly halted their conversation and turned their eyes towards him at the same time.

After Sungjong managed to get down the stairs without breaking his neck, Hoya took a step towards him. “Sungjong, show them what you showed me” he demanded, already holding a blade. Sungjong wanted to intervene as his hyung cut across his palm once more with a golden dagger, smearing the blade with ruby red. He was ready to faint right there and then, but with sheer will power he forced himself to step closer and press his thumbs on both sides of the wound. “It’s all right” Hoya whispered soothingly so that only the boy could hear. Sungjong rolled his eyes at him. That was just so much like Hoya. He was bleeding all over the carpet but the one he was worried about was Sungjong.

Closing his eyes and hoping for the best Sungjong sent a careful, inquiring thought into the space between his fingers. He could feel the broken layers of skin and, as he went deeper, flesh. He pictured an imaginary needle and started sewing the cut shut. He knew he had succeeded, even before opening his eyes and hearing the sharp inhales of surprise.

Sungjong kept his eyes down-casted anyway, until he felt Hoya’s chapped hands take his and carefully wipe away the blood that had tarnished his fingers. “You did great” Hoya said, smiling reassuringly when Sungjong mustered up the courage to raise his eyes from his hands.

* * *

The very next day Sungjong found himself in the same spot, with four pairs of eyes staring at him expectantly. “I don’t know if this will work, I have never done anything this complicated before.” Sungjong tried to explain in a small voice. “We know. You won’t be held responsible if anything goes wrong” Woohyun answered, earning a murderous glare from Sunggyu. “Could you stop talking like I’m about to die in the next few seconds.” he complained but stayed still on the bed, while Woohyun just held his hand.

Sungjong laid his hands on the king’s upper body and closed his eyes. He didn’t have to ask everyone to be quiet; the room was already soundless. Closing his eyes, Sungjong tried to even his breath before reaching inside Sunggyu’s body with his mind. Dongwoo had told him what to look for, so he found the malfunction quite easily.

Sungjong hugged the weakened heart gently with his golden, imaginary fingers. He tried his best to give it more strength, to fix the failing arteries. Before pulling out, Sungjong smiled slightly as he gave the king’s muscles an extra power boost and erased a few years worth of wrinkles from his face. Who would it hurt, anyway?

When Sungjong straightened up and opened his eyes he suddenly felt dead tired. All of his limbs felt heavy, as if he’d just given some of his own energy to Sunggyu. If he hadn’t been sitting, he would surely have collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. “It should be fine now” he uttered before fainting on Hoya’s arms.

* * *

Everyone watched in awe as Sungjong’s hands were surrounded by a golden glow. In the form of eight thin, ghostly fingers the golden glow sunk inside Sunggyu’s chest. The king would have been terrified if it wasn’t for the feeling of warmth that the glow gave.

Commotion arose as Sungjong suddenly went limp, his face blanched of color. Sunggyu jumped up and told Hoya to take Sungjong to a bedchamber. Dongwoo went along, fussing about the petite boy on Hoya’s tight embrace. Woohyun took a few steps towards the door, but was stopped by Sunggyus demand: “Stay”.

Woohyun his heels. “How are you feeling?” he asked in a casual tone, although anticipation shone through it. Sunggyu sat on the edge of his bed and stared at his hands, opening and closing his fists. “I feel… stronger than I’ve ever felt before in my life” Sunggyu answered and looked very confused for a moment. Then he jumped up and did a couple of martial arts moves before laughing; “I feel amazing!”

Woohyun closed the distance between them in a flash and embraced Sunggyu tightly, sobbing loudly against his shoulder. “Hey, don’t cry. I feel all better now, you should be happy so… just stop crying already.” Sunggyu said, kissing the top of Woohyun’s head lightly and squeezing him even closer.

“I love you” Woohyun cried into Sunggyu’s neck, his voice deep with emotion. Sunggyu’s heart jumped uncomfortably, and for a second he was sure that the golden fingers had failed, that he was doomed to die early. His whole body stiffened, it was too cruel a thought. But then his teary eyed Woohyun looked up, alarmed, and he wanted nothing more than wipe the fear away from his face.

Their teeth collided in their desperate attempt to show what being loved meant. This had taken so many years to develop, so many longing glances and lonely nights, that now that it happened the kiss was sloppy and needy and wet with both of their tears.

All the same, it was perfect.