Yuta woke early, before the kids had a chance to storm through the living room he was sleeping in. He tried to recall all the tasks Taeyong took on around his uncle’s house, the ones that he’d mention periodically in their chats. Cooking, cleaning, tutoring...they were all things Yuta had no skill at or absolutely abhorred doing if the state of his own apartment was any indication. But for Taeyong’s family he’d try anything.

In the kitchen he scrounged up cabbage, carrots, flour, eggs, and green onions, just enough to make a low budget okonomiyaki, and was busy whisking together ingredients for the sauce when Jaemin and Areum stumbled in. They yawned simultaneously, backs of their hands pressed against their sleepy eyes. “What’s for breakfast?” Jaemin asked, “Hyung always makes fried eggs.”

“Ah...well this isn’t that but I think you’ll like it.”

“What is it?” Areum’s voice piped up as she scuttled from her brother’s side to Yuta’s and attempted to view their meal on the tips of her toes.

“Pancakes,” Yuta chimed, smiling and patting the top of her head. He wasn’t exactly lying though the excited squeal in her voice told him she probably thought they were having a much different meal. Fortunately she wasn’t opposed to the savory flavor or Yuta’s lack of expertise with cooking, and after Yuta had it all served up Taeyong’s entire family ate the okonomiyaki up with ease.

“You didn’t have to cook, Yuta,” but there was a look in Taeyong’s uncle’s eyes that expressed all his gratitude for having a morning off.

“It’s the least I can do,” Yuta smiled, “I can only cook a few things though so hopefully Taeyong wakes up soon. Otherwise it’ll be the same three meals over and over again.”

The two laughed together before Taeyong’s uncle added, “Our Taeyong is a great cook. And he’s the type to care for everyone. You’re fortunate to have him for a soulmate.”

Yuta grew sheepish at the comment, “I am.” And he knew that he was. He just wanted to experience it all first hand. The Taeyong that cooks meals for his family and keeps his house orderly; the Taeyong that helps Doyoung study for tests and tutors his young cousins; the Taeyong that eats desserts regularly because he has a sweet tooth that cannot be satisfied-- these were all a Taeyong Yuta ached to meet. One different from the male he’s come to know, and yet still completed his Taeyong quite nicely.

He left with the family, parting ways at the subway station to continue on towards the hospital. The walk wasn’t short, but 30 minutes on foot was better than 10 by public transit. Yuta greeted the nurses with a bow and a smile, pulling his scarf away from his neck. It was springtime, but the morning air was still too cool for him to go without one; he couldn’t risk getting sick when everything depended on his ability to wait hours by Taeyong’s bedside.

He made his way to Doyoung’s usual seat when he noticed the bedside table was barren. No Doyoung in the morning meant no sweets for Taeyong’s (hopeful) awakening. He felt like he owed it to the younger male to at least keep up the tradition.

Ditching his jacket and scarf over the back of the chair he made his way to the cafeteria. All he knew was that Taeyong likes sweets. What sweets in particular was an entirely different matter and Yuta wracked his brain to remember what Doyoung had brought in the past. Nothing in the hospital looked particularly appetizing either… He wished he kept his jacket so he could run to a true bakery.

In the end he left anyway, bracing the crisp air in return for a strawberry pastry in a nice sky blue box.

“Sir, you must be so cold!” One of the nurses exclaimed when Yuta returned, cheeks flushed pink.

“It’s okay,” He reassured her, rubbing his hands together around the clear plastic of the bag holding Taeyong’s treat.

“You’re the one here for Lee Taeyong-ssi in room 408, right?”

Yuta’s head tilted in questioning, “Yeah?”

“I have good news,” she beamed and led him back up to the right floor and into Taeyong’s room.

There were too many staff members for Yuta to really see what was going on. In fact Yuta was quickly shooed out of the room by the head nurse so that they could finish running their checks. Another fifteen minutes passed of Yuta bouncing on the balls of his feel, plastic gripped tightly in his palm as he contemplated texting anyone about this. But he needed to know himself first before he said anything to anyone else.

“Sir?”

His attention snapped back to the nurse.

“He’s a little disoriented but you can see him now.”

It took all of Yuta’s control not to sprint into the room. He didn’t want to scare Taeyong. But he didn’t take enough time to actually figure out how he’d greet his soulmate before he was inside the room and looking at him face to face. With Taeyong. He offered him a quirked smile and a soft, “Hi, Taeyong. I’m Yuta.”

Taeyong stared at Yuta for a while, gaze still slightly unfocused from all of the lights shoved in his face and mind cloudy from being unconscious for seven days.

And then it clicked.

His eyes widened and he leaned back for a moment before leaning forward. He wanted to get the best look at Yuta possible. “Y-Yuta?” He croaked, then turned away to clear his throat. He rubbed his neck a little bit, hoping to warm up his vocal chords for proper use. “Sorry. I haven’t been… I…. How… What are you doing here?”

“I’ve been here for a bit,” Yuta took a few steps forward, grabbing the chair to bring it back to Taeyong’s bedside, and took a seat. “I came for a weekend visit with Hansol but when I found out you were here I decided to stay. Remember when I wanted to Skype? It was, well… I wanted to let you know I was coming and to keep your weekend free.”

“Oh…” Taeyong blinked a few times. This was too surreal-- meeting Yuta. Being able to touch Yuta. His hand itched to reach out when he remembered his reality: stuck in a hospital bed without a shower for seven days. He was disgusting and definitely starting to feel it. And Yuta had come all the way here to visit him. And Taeyong hadn’t even been conscious to know. He felt… terrible. “You didn’t...need to,” he said with a gentle, uncomfortable laugh.

“You’re unconscious for days and you tell me I can just come and leave Korea without seeing you? What kind of man do you take me for?” Yuta’s grin was more brilliant in person, Taeyong thought. The more Yuta smiled the more he wanted him to keep smiling. It was leagues better than what he saw through his grainy webcam.

“I forgot,” Taeyong let out another weak laugh, betraying his weak...everything. “You’re a mountain man.” Not that that meant anything but Taeyong noticed the way Yuta’s shoulders rose and shimmied at the comment. It was worth not making any sense to see him buck up like that.

Taeyong’s smile faltered as he settled back against the propped up bed and looked away. This was definitely not the way he wanted to meet Yuta. The embarrassment was sinking in. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

“Hey,” Yuta almost returned to his feet trying to get Taeyong’s attention back to him. “You didn’t make me wait. It was okay. I’m happy-- No, thrilled that I can be here with you waking up. If I had to wait for a text message I think I would’ve died.” Embarrassing wasn’t the right word to describe Taeyong’s recovery, but to Yuta it was the most apt way to express the string of desperate, drunk, and depressed text messages currently left unseen in their Line chat. Text messages that he wasn’t sure he wanted to see Taeyong open but...would probably force his way through anyway because the last thing on his mind was leaving Taeyong’s side. “And you can see for yourself with all the ridiculous things I left you in our chat,” he forced a smile and held his hands up defensively. “Don’t look now though! Let me keep my pride a little bit longer.”

Taeyong quirked a brow. He was confused, and still incredibly unsettled over the fact that he was meeting Yuta at such a...low point in his life. He wanted to know about those text messages, fill in some of the gaps from the last week, but instead his eye caught notice of a blue box in floral printed plastic wrap dangling from Yuta’s hand. So he asked, “What’s that?”

“Oh!” Yuta had nearly forgotten. “This is for you.” He unwrapped the box in his lap and stood to hand it over to Taeyong. “Doyoung started the tradition of bringing sweets for you when you woke up, I just filled in today. Don’t tell the nurses,” he winked.

“Wow...Wow! This looks so good.” A wide smile spread across his lips and his stomach gurgled almost in anticipation, “Thank you.”

“Of course. I hope it’s as good as it looks.”

Taeyong took a bite over the box, wincing just slightly at the pain that coursed through his upper body, yet still revelling in the sweetness of the strawberry filling in a flaky croissant. He then asked with crumbs on the corner of his lips, “Doyoung was here?”

“Everyone was here. Jaehyun and Doyoung waited every night until they were kicked out and your uncle comes every few days. I’m sure they’ll all be here tonight.”

“Have you met everyone?”

Yuta nodded.

“Oh… That’s…” Awkward, uncomfortable, unwarranted, but instead Taeyong went with “unfair. I wanted to meet you first.”

Yuta was beaming back at that comment and it made Taeyong want to revert back into his cold shell even more. It was too much. Too much heat in his face and tightness in his chest. He turned his head away to hide his blush, but Yuta called him out on it quickly.

Something about spending time with Taeyong removed many of Yuta’s inhibitions. He didn’t dwell on his shortcomings when talking with Taeyong, just lived for this cutely awkward moment that they were sharing in the hospital room while Taeyong couldn’t stop thinking about it all. Yuta was strikingly handsome, well dressed and clearly had every indication of model material. Even the silver pierced through his ears and wrapped around his neck was subtle but striking enough to accentuate his features. Taeyong just wanted a shower and to wear something other than a hospital gown. At the very least feel from himself something similar to how he felt when he looked at Yuta.

But when Yuta ended up shifting from the chair to the wall and, ultimately, onto the end of Taeyong’s bed, eventually those thoughts dissipated. The touch of their hands over the white sheets also helped with that.

Doyoung was the first to arrive, and threw his arms around Taeyong so quickly that the other nearly toppled over. “You’re okay!” He wept, wetting Taeyong’s shoulder with his tears. “You’re okay…”

“I’m okay,” Taeyong laughed softly, shooting Yuta an apologetic look over Doyoung’s shoulder while he patted his friend’s back. “Sorry to worry you so much.”

“Yeah, be sorry,” Doyoung sniffed when he took a step away. “I worried so much my hair started turning gray.”

“Your hair looks fine…”

“I plucked out the grays!”

Jaehyun arrived next with a bag of leftover bread from the cafe. Though he hid it behind his dimpled smile, Yuta definitely noticed the watery sheen over his eyes. Still, Jaehyun didn’t spill a single tear, even when he wrapped Taeyong up in a tight hug and breathed a soft “Thank you” to the universe for bringing him back.

“How does it feel?” Jaehyun asked after handing everyone, even Yuta though he could hear Ten’s voice chiding him for his carb intake in the back of his head, a small roll. “Meeting each other I mean.”

Taeyong shot Jaehyun a look that begged, “Do we have to do this now?” But Yuta was quick to smile and share how great he felt. “It’s like a dream,” he commented. “Now that it’s happened I never want to leave.”

“You have to though,” Taeyong said softly, eyes on the snack he was picking apart nervously. They’d just met but Yuta was only here to make sure Taeyong was okay. Now that he was awake Yuta had no point in lingering any longer. He had a job to do back in Japan after all. He plastered a smile across his lips when he looked up and laughed when he added, “You can’t skip work much longer.”

They all turned their attention to Taeyong but it was Yuta who spoke first. “Don’t think about that right now,” he replied hurriedly, “I can stay as long as…” When his voice trailed off, drawing Doyoung and Jaehyun to him now, “as long as you need me to.” Yuta finished with a slight waiver to his voice.

Though Taeyong’s lips parted (a number of variations of “You can’t do that for me,” “You’ll lose your job,” and “I’m not worth your time” lingered on his tongue) Jaehyun cut in first, “We can think about that later. Now’s a happy occasion, Taeyong woke up and Yuta’s here!”

Yuta nodded quickly at that, “I agree. I’ve only been away from work for a few extra days anyway. It’s fine.”

“It’s not,” Taeyong thought but he swallowed it down and tried to smile instead. “I wish we could have meet at a better place, though.”

“I’m happy to have met you at all,” Yuta replied easily. He wanted to sit at the edge of Taeyong’s bed again but the press of Doyoung’s gaze against him told him to hold off. “And all of your friends too.”

Before the conversation continued to grow even more awkward, a nurse arrived to check Taeyong’s vitals and grant him his number one wish of a shower. All three men in the room jumped at the chance to help Taeyong stabilize himself, standing up for the first time, but the nurse quickly batted them away and took care to guide him to the wheelchair herself. In the time that Taeyong was able to enjoy his shaky shower his uncle and cousins had arrived and were waiting for him in the hospital room.

“My, aren’t you popular? We might have to move you to a new room just for your guests,” the nurse chuckled when Areum scuttled over to Taeyong and threw her arms around his legs. “Oppa,” she cried, “don’t go away again!”

Jaemin shifted the weight between his feet, looking sheepish in the face of his now conscious cousin.

His uncle looked thrilled to see him not only awake but active, even if that activity was dependent on the nurse behind him. But when Taeyong looked carefully he could see the dark circles under his eyes. All that guilt over worrying everyone, over taking them from their responsibilities, their jobs, all of it returned to Taeyong like a punch to the gut.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly to Areum but the message was meant to carry to everyone; it was just that he could only handle keeping his eyes on the littlest one among them. “I should’ve been more careful. I feel awful for worrying everyone.” 

Doyoung jumped at the chance to respond first, “What? But it was an accident. No one blames you.”

“How could we?” Jaehyun added though his worried gaze traveled between Yuta and Taeyong’s uncle. He knew that no matter what they, his friends, said, Taeyong needed reassurance elsewhere; from the people who had taken the blow the hardest both in their financials and their responsibilities.

Taeyong jumped slightly when his uncle’s hand fell onto his shoulder, his other helping the nurse guide him back to his hospital bed. “You’ll never get better if you keep channeling negativity,” he chided gently. “There’s a lot that we’re all grateful for now that you’re awake. You can pay us back by healing quickly.” Jaehyun nodded confidently at that, shooting Doyoung a look that screamed, “I told you so.”

The nurse informed them that Taeyong would need to stay until the next day at least before he was eligible for discharge and not too long after his uncle and cousins bid the friends farewell. Doyoung and Jaehyun left next, and soon it was Taeyong and Yuta alone again. Taeyong’s eyes had trouble meeting the other’s, his focus fixed solely on the dry skin of his cuticles as he tried to ignore Yuta’s soft gaze burning into him, warming his skin.

Yuta’s hands quickly covered Taeyong’s own, “It’ll be nice if you can go home tomorrow, don’t you think?” He was trembling slightly and Taeyong wondered if he was nervous now that it was just the two of them again. When Taeyong only responded with a nod Yuta continued, “I’d like to stay here until you get back home. But the second you’re there I’ll go back to Japan. Will that help you feel better?”

Warm breath fell over their hands, Taeyong’s eyes still low as he sighed.

“Are you in a lot of pain?” Yuta’s question cut through the awkward silence, “They said you broke a few bones.”

“It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt too much,” Taeyong’s eyes trailed over his own body. “Only when I move a lot.” He tried to shrug his shoulder and grit his teeth tightly.

Yuta panicked, “You don’t have to show me you’re in pain! Take it easy Taeyongie.” Taeyong blinked at the name, cheeks feeling flush. “I hope this doesn’t affect your drawing too much…”

“They said six to twelve weeks but hopefully it’ll heal faster. It’s mostly my left side so I’m sure it’ll be okay.”

“Don’t push yourself though,” Yuta frowned. “You seem like the type to work yourself until you’re almost dead.”

“Not true--”

“Completely true, and Doyoung already confirmed it for me so don’t try to hide it.”

“God damnit Doyoung-- Oh… How was that by the way? Was he...okay?”

Yuta placed his hands on top of Taeyong’s to still the picking he’d already started at his cuticles, “He’s actually the reason I found you.” When Taeyong tilted his head Yuta continued, “Hansol reached out and he told us you were here. I owe him a lot.”

“Oh,” Eyes wide, Taeyong let out a long breath. One that was startled by the news, but also relieved. “I do too, apparently.”

Taeyong’s hand shifted beneath Yuta’s until they were pressed palm to palm, the tips of Taeyong’s fingers stretching just a bit past the other male’s. Then, feeling daring, he linked them together. “Thank you,” Yuta perked up, eyes wide and head tilted just the slightest bit but Taeyong continued before he could interject. “For waiting for me to wake up. I appreciate it. I appreciate...that I get to actually meet you. I think if I heard you were here and missed it I would’ve been really upset.”

“Me too,” Yuta agreed softly. For once that ever-present smile vanished and he looked down to their hands, like his mask had fallen. Taeyong looked closely, trying to read as much from Yuta’s expression as he could. A mix of guilt, embarrassment, and, above all, vulnerability. He wanted to ask about it all-- those mysterious text messages, how Yuta faired in Korea on his own, how much work he was missing out on. But none of that seemed to be the source of the pain scrawled across Yuta’s face. So maybe those questions weren’t asking right now...maybe instead...

“It’s okay,” he blurted out, wincing some as he stretched his other hand to rest on Yuta’s arm. “I’m okay, so… so we’re okay. It’s okay.”

Yuta’s lips parted for air and Taeyong thought he saw them trembling just slightly, but the Japanese male managed to keep himself completely composed until he wished Taeyong a good night and took off for the evening. “I’ll see you tomorrow when we come to take you home,” he called with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

If asked, Yuta wouldn’t be able to explain why he cried on the entire walk to Taeyong’s uncle’s home. Relief is what he should feel. Relief in the fact that his soulmate was alive and well and healing every day, but instead it was… fear, maybe? He couldn’t shake the thought that he nearly lost his soulmate before he even had him in the first place.

Yuta had lost a lot of things over the years but Taeyong… Taeyong wasn’t one he was ready to give up just yet. Meeting him confirmed that.