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Sehun was vaguely aware of the low steady thrum coming from the ships engines. He could feel the vibrations making their way up his arms and down his legs. He knew that the ship was leaving, or soon will be, the atmosphere. Sehun was very aware of the pounding headache throbbing against his skull and the ache in the rest of his body.

Sehun cracked one of his swollen, bloodshot, eyes open and peered around the room. It didn’t take him long to realise he was in the sick bay of a cargo ship, a tiny cargo ship at that. He could only tell it was a cargo ship by the small size and layout of the sick bay. Most normal sized ships have a much larger area to tend to the sick and injured, apparently not many people had gotten sick or injured on a simple cargo ship. This sick bay had one cot, which he was lying on, in the corner. The door was in front of him and just to the left. On the other side of the door was where the sink and cabinets were. Other than that there wasn’t much else.

Sehun tried to move one of his arms but pain shot up the length to join the pounding in his head. Sehun went still instantly not wanting to feel any intense pain.

Sehun tried to remember how he had gotten there, in the sick bay, but his mind was covered in a thin layer of fog he couldn’t seem to break through. Sehun squeezed his eyes shut and tried hard to remember. This only made the pounding in his head worsen. Sehun quickly relaxed his body and let his mind go blank. He didn’t want to strain himself and be in even more pain.

His mind slowly eased him into a deep sleep. It was what he needed right now. His body needed to heal itself the best it could and that meant sleep for now at least.

Sehun didn’t fight sleep, wouldn’t have be able to even if he tried.

-

Sehun woke up slowly. His body didn’t want to jolt him awake and make his condition any worse than it already was. Sehun eased open his eyes a few seconds after his mind had awakened. The first thing he saw was his best friend, Yixing, sitting upon a stool near his bed.

“You’re finally awake,” Yixing said with a warm smile.

Sehun rubbed his eyes and stared at Yixing. “Where are we?” he asked not beating around the bush for even a mere second.

Yixing sighed and put the stethoscope he had been holding down on his lap. “Don’t be mad at me,” Yixing whispered looking down at the ground.

“Yixing what--”

“You were hurt and I had no other choice,” Yixing said. He lifted his head and locked eyes with Sehun. Yixing’s eyes were intense and smoldering, a look unfamiliar to Sehun.

“What are you talking about Yixing?” Sehun asked in confusion.

Yixing’s mouth opened to form a small ‘o’. He stared at Sehun for a while with that look before he managed to speak again. “You, don’t, remember?” he asked slowly.

Sehun shook his head. “I don’t know what happened.”

Yixing sighed, ran a hand through his thick black hair. “Please don’t be mad at me,” Yixing whispered after a moment.

Sehun didn’t reply instead opted to wait for Yixing to explain the situation to him. He was in the dark about everything.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Yixing asked as he got to his feet. Yixing grabbed the stethoscope and moved to the cabinets that hung over the sink on the other side of the room.

Sehun thought about it for a moment, “I just got on my bike. I was going to visit Luhan.” Sehun said. Then he remembered more details. “It was a little after seven AM on Friday morning. We were going to go shopping and then play video games, just hang out.”

Yixing closed the cabinets he had just put the stethoscope into. He turned back around to face Sehun. “That’s the last thing you can remember?”

Sehun nodded.

“You ended up staying the night at Luhan’s,” Yixing said filling him in. “Do you remember that?”

Sehun shook his head. “No.”

“Okay,” Yixing said. “I guess I’ll tell you what happened from that point on,” Yixing moved back to the stool and sat down. He looked exhausted as he took a deep breath and began to tell Sehun everything he couldn’t seem to remember.

“On saturday morning war was declared on our country. This war wasn’t against another country though. Our own country attacked it’s own people. Chaos broke out all over. At this point you had already been on your way home from Luhan’s place. You were supposed to go visit your Mom and almost forgot until I called and reminded you. You were already outside when war was declared. We were being bombed and shot at within minutes of the war announcement,” Yixing took another deep breath and locked his gaze with Sehun’s. “Sehun,” Yixing said slowly, “What I’m about to tell you, just, don’t be mad at me for my actions.”

Sehun nodded halfheartedly. He had a terrible feeling growing in the pit of his stomach now. He almost didn’t want to hear what Yixing was about to tell him, almost.

“You got attacked by a street gang, they formed so quickly after war was declared, and they hurt you. I found you lying on the ground, bleeding and unconscious. The war was escalating quickly and things were not looking good. I did what I had to do. I had happened upon Tao while I was carrying you to safety. I told Tao to watch you and then I went to find us a ship. When I came back you were awake but barely.” Yixing looked away from Sehun and instead stared at the white tile floor of the sick bay. “You were saying Luhan’s name over and over again. I tried to move you but you said you weren’t going anywhere without him.”

Sehun latched onto Yixing’s words. Something about it was familiar. Memories began to flood back into Sehun’s brain a mile a minute. Sehun’s head began to pound, bad, once again. He closed his eyes against the onslaught of sudden pain.

“I lied to you,” Yixing went on. “I told you I would go back for him. You passed back out and instead of doing the right thing, the thing I told you I would, I carried you back to the ship I had found. We boarded and left. I didn’t even try to find Luhan. I’m so sorry,” Yixing’s voice was thick, tears of regret and guilt trickled down his cheeks. “I am so sorry Sehun, I-I--”

“You didn’t even try?” Sehun’s voice came out harsher than he had expected. “How could you not even try? It’s ing Luhan. The Luhan you used to love!” Sehun was outraged and he couldn’t control his anger. “ you Yixing. You’re a coward,” Sehun waved his hand. “Get the away from me.”

Yixing bowed his head and left the room without another word.

As soon as the door had slid shut behind Yixing, Sehun let himself remember everything. It was all in pieces but he did recall telling Yixing to go back for Luhan and his beating before that. Sehun had believed Yixing’s words, they seemed so genuine in the moment how could he not have?

Sehun hated Yixing for not even trying to save Luhan but he also hated himself. He should have went back and saved Luhan himself.  

-

Sehun waited until his temper had cooled down before he pressed the button to hail someone down to the sick bay.

Yixing entered soundlessly only a few minutes later. He didn’t speak to Sehun. Instead he just went about his doctorly duty checking Sehun’s pulse and breathing before redressing Sehun’s wounds.

“Is it just us here on the ship?” Sehun asked breaking the tense silence that had been stretching between them.

Yixing finished replacing the bandage on Sehun’s bicep that he had been working on. “No, Tao is here too,” Yixing said.

“Where are we now? In orbit?”

Yixing’s hand froze on the bandage he had been trying to get off of Sehun’s hand. “No,” Yixing whispered barely audible.

“Then where are we?” Sehun could feel panic rising up in his chest. If they are far away from Earth than it will only take longer for him to go back and get Luhan, which he very well planned on doing.

“We’re going away. It’s not safe,” Yixing went back to working on the bandage on Sehun’s hand. “They’re shooting ships out of the sky, we had to get away.”

Sehun scoffed. “No, we have to go back and get Luhan.” Sehun wrenched his hand away from Yixing.

Yixing took a step away from Sehun. “No.” He said stiffly. “We aren’t going back, it’s too late. Luhan is probably already dead.”

Both Sehun’s hands clenched into fists. “How the can you say that so easily?” Sehun demanded. “Luhan was your friend!”

“Sehun!” Yixing shouted.

Sehun in a sharp breath. He’s never heard Yixing yell like that before.

“You didn’t see what I saw back there. People were dying in the most brutal ways I have ever seen. I knew war wasn’t pretty but it’s so much worse when you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers, they were, they were, storming into peoples homes and shooting them on sight and that was if the people were lucky. The gangs, the gangs were beating people for fun.” Yixing was half hysterical now, tears streamed freely down his cheeks, his fists were clenched at his sides. “Believe me Sehun, if Luhan is dead then he got lucky because if a gang got ahold of him,” Yixing shook his head in despair.

Sehun stared wide eyed at Yixing. “It’s bad isn’t it?” He asked in a calmer voice.

Yixing nodded looking so hopeless that it tore Sehun apart.

“So what are we supposed to do?” Sehun asked.

Yixing cracked a very, very, small smile. “We travel through space to one of the terraformed exoplanets. It will be safe for us there.”

Yixing left after replacing the rest of Sehun’s bandages. Sehun was glad to be alone because he needed to think, really think about everything that has happened.

Sehun didn’t want to just accept that Luhan was dead as Yixing did. Sehun could almost sense that Luhan was still alive, waiting for Sehun to come back to him, to save him. Sehun knew that the probability of Luhan still being alive, or at least according to Yixing, was very low. Impossible, almost.

Sehun closed his eyes. He had no choice in the matter anyway. It was out of his control. He can’t go back to Earth. He can’t save Luhan. It’s too late.

Tears finally fell. They were big, wet drops. Soon Sehun was crying so hard he was sure that both Yixing and Tao would be able to hear him through the walls of the ship. He didn’t care though. He had lost the only thing that ever mattered to him.

He could never see Luhan again.

The ship continued to fly away from Earth and into the far reaches of space putting more distance between Sehun and the one he loved.

A/N: So I hope you enjoyed chapter one. I plan on getting a good flow going since there's only 12 chapters to this fic.
A/N: Thanks for reading :D