Footsteps echo loudly through the dormitory, pounding heavily as the door to the bedroom slams open as two figures tumble through the doorway. Hoseok and Yoongi collapse on their shared bed, turning to look into each other's eyes. Yoongi reaches out to Hoseok's cheek, the younger's wide smile all but contagious. Sighing softly, Hoseok pulled Yoongi to sit upright and wrapped his arms around the elder, running his fingers through his hair and burying his face in his soft locks. Yoongi clung to Hoseok, hiding his face in his neck as the younger continued to comb his hands through his hair. The two lay there, sharing their existence in complete peace and happiness. Laying back on the bed, Hoseok pulled Yoongi even closer, allowing their legs to tangle until they could be no closer. The elder rested his head on Hoseok's chest, letting the rise and fall of his breathing lull him to the edge of sleep. Squeezing the smaller boy, Hoseok began to sing him to sleep.

 

"Sleep little baby, sleep ‘til the morning comes

Mama will keep you from all harm

Sleep little baby under the western sky

I’ll sing you a desert lullaby"

 

        A harsh wail rips through Yoongi's throat as he clutches at Hoseok's shirt. The younger's eyes brim with tears as he futilely tries to keep them from falling. Yoongi shakes uncontrollably, and he lifts his head to look at Hoseok, but as soon as he sees the pain in the younger's eyes his words turn to uncontrollable sobbing. Hoseok can't bring himself to do anything but pat Yoongi's back as he cries with his hands fisted in his shirt. The two could feel their hope draining from their souls as the words the doctor spoke to Yoongi echoed in their heads. "It's going to be okay," choked out Hoseok, but the look he received from Yoongi made him instantly regret his words. The younger felt like his heart was collapsing, knowing that he and Yoongi would never be able to spend the rest of their lives together. Taking the older's hand in his and pulling him tightly against him, the older began to sing to him once more.

 

"Sleep little baby, sleep on your momma's knee

Don't call the wolf or the coyote

Sleep little baby, hush baby don't you cry

I'll sing you a desert lullaby"

 

         The cold sterility of the hospital threatened to break Hoseok's spirit as reality set in. Yoongi lay there on the mattress, his face deathly pale. He appeared so fragile, as if he would break into tiny pieces if touched too harshly. Hoseok sat next to him by the bed, holding his hand but unwilling to grasp it tightly for fear of hurting him. Yoongi's hands were unbearably cold, and his wrists pitifully thin. Yoongi swallowed thickly, slowly taking Hoseok's thumb in his small hand and squeezed gently. "Warm," he whispered. Hoseok couldn't take it any more. He got up and turned to sit on the edge of Yoongi's bed, and gently wrapped his arms around the older, fearing he would break if he held on too tightly but would blow away in the wind if his grip was too loose. Everything about the smaller of the two was white; his skin and hair gave him an almost ghostly appearance. Yoongi's eyes met Hoseok's, and what the younger saw there shocked him. The pain he was in was clearly visible, but there was something else lurking there that resembled happiness. Love, thought Hoseok. With that thought, he started to sing

 

"Dream little baby, dream of a valley deep

Over the mountains, by the sea

Dream little baby, one day no more you'll roam

There you will wake and find a home"

 

 

 

        'Cold' was the only thought Hoseok could muster through his mental haze. Everything was too cold. The air in the hospital was frigid and the bed's metal frame may as well have been of ice, but the only thing that truly felt too cold to Hoseok was Yoongi's small, prone form in his arms. He sat there, oblivious to the chaos of medical doctors around him, to the steady tone of the heart monitor, and even to the tears rolling down his own cheeks. The world had always been a bright place for Hoseok, with each thing that gave him joy lighting  up his life a little more, like a candle. He knew, in his heart, that his world could never be as bright as it had before. It had been five minutes since Yoongi breathed, and four and three quarters of a minute since Hoseok felt his pulse in his wrist for the last time. His tears fell onto Yoongi's cheeks and the front of his shirt, where he half expected them to freeze from the cold. A doctor approached him, and Hoseok barely registered him saying something about how they needed to take his friend away now, please, so he had to say goodbye. Running his hands across Yoongi's cheek one last time, he stared blankly ahead and managed to half-sob, half-sing

 

"Sleep little baby, sleep till the morning comes

Mama will keep you from all harm

Sleep little baby, under the western sky

I'll sing you a desert lullaby"