The night was quiet and the reunited couple slept in their bed peacefully. Youngwoon’s arms were protectively wrapped around Jungsoo, their wedding ringed hands clasped, as if the matrimonial bond kept them literally tied together. Everything was calm… until the of midnight. Almost instantaneously, Youngwoon began to shift and his brow furrowed in his sleep. Soon, the bond between the couple was broken by the younger male. He quivered and began to sweat as he twitched seemingly unconsciously, the mass of movements soon waking Jungsoo beside him.

The older rubbed his eyes before looking over to his spouse and gasped lightly in fright, immediately trying to wake him by shaking his shoulder. Seeing as it didn’t work at first, Jungsoo shook him harder and yelled for him to wake.

“YOUNGWOON!” The younger male woke with a scream, sweating profusely and shaking. He touched his face, panting as he looked around the room before meeting eyes with Jungsoo. “Youngwoon… What’s wrong?”

“H-Huh? I… I just… had a nightmare is all…”

“Are you going to be okay?” Jungsoo asked, concerned for his spouse. The younger nodded and wiped the sweat from his brow.

“Just go back to sleep, Soo…” The older nodded and laid back down, closing his eyes. He didn’t fall asleep, though. He couldn’t. Especially not as he heard Youngwoon get out of the bed, put on his prosthetic right leg, and go downstairs. It must have been three hours before he fell asleep again.

Waking the next morning, Youngwoon still wasn’t back in bed next to Jungsoo. This worried the elder greatly and he got out of bed quickly, running downstairs, breathing a sigh of relief as he found Youngwoon in the kitchen, sitting with a cup of coffee and the morning paper… Maybe Jungsoo had nothing to worry about.

“Uh… G-Good morning…,” he said, causing his husband to look up and smile lightly.

“Good morning… I made coffee.”

“Thanks… What do you want for breakfast?” Jungsoo asked. The man with the missing right leg shrugged. “Well, then are eggs and bacon okay?” A nod from Youngwoon. Jungsoo nodded as well and went to the fridge, getting out the eggs and bacon for him to cook, carrying them to the stove and pulling out a pan.

He made breakfast up for the both of them quietly, a majority of the noise in the kitchen coming from the crackling of hot grease in the frying pan. Setting the plates of food on the table, Jungsoo sat down, picking at his food for a while before speaking.

“…You… You had a nightmare last night… What was it about?” Youngwoon did not reply, continuing to eat silently though his movements went a bit stiff. “Youngwoon… Answer me, please…”

“It was nothing important.” The younger male’s answer was quick and blunt – one might even say that it was a bit harsh.

“A… Are you sure? It… It didn’t sound like nothing important…” Jungsoo was hesitant to question the younger anymore, but he wanted to know that he was really fine.

“Yes. I’m sure. People get nightmares sometimes, alright?”

“I… I guess so…”

“Just stop worrying about it… Okay?” Youngwoon mumbled, a bit roughly.

“A-Alright… I’ll try…”

After a few more minutes in silence, Youngwoon finished his meal. He topped off his coffee and added more sugar before taking the newspaper and his helping cane, working his way to the basement stairs with a sad limp to the strong man.

“Where are you going…?” Jungsoo requested a bit timidly.

“To the basement… Don’t bother me.”

…That was the first time Jungsoo could ever remember Youngwoon speaking to him like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Days passed, then a week. Slowly, Youngwoon spent more and more time in their basement or bedroom and less and less time with Jungsoo… It was like he disappeared from the face of the Earth some days, and it worried the older. They almost never spoke in that week, or the days after… Youngwoon had nightmares every time he fell asleep, but he refused to speak about what happened in his dreams. Why was he staying away? Why did Youngwoon insist that nothing was wrong when clearly there was? Was he hiding something? Before he was hit with that damn grenade in the field, Youngwoon had never wanted to leave Jungsoo’s side, even when he wanted alone time. He had never liked the basement… He had never liked to be entirely by himself… What the hell was going on with Jungsoo’s husband…? Was it something that he had done?