~Chapter 56~

I’m Here

No One’s POV~

            The dragon tries his best to heal Taemin. It was definitely hard to focus with Minho constantly asking him about Taemin’s condition. Despite usually being very poised, with Taemin covered in numerous injuries in different degrees, Minho can’t help but to lose his cool demeanor. He couldn’t stand still, walking back and forth and even getting in the way. The dragon eventually had to send him out, so he could focus. Unwillingly, Minho waits outside with the baby dragons. Despite the babies trying to get him to play with them, he was too worried about Taemin to give them any of his attention. He fumbles with Taemin’s White Masked Hero disguise and the two guests are watching him from afar, not knowing what happened but understood it was not the right time to ask.

            Minho jitters as he tries to fight the urge to barge back into the room. His heart ached as he thinks about all the injuries inflicted on his Taemin. His eyes immediately begin watering. The baby dragons sense that something is wrong and all five of them try to find their way into his arms to console him. Minho’s lips quiver as he breaks into a full-on cry but tries to muffle his them by shoving his arm in front of his face so he does not further distract Mr. Dragon. He quickly gets on his knees and pray. “Let me die instead, please. Please, oh God,” he whimpers. He huffs and quickly wipes his damp cheeks as he noticed the dragon walk out to greet him. Minho dashes into the room and holds onto Taemin’s cold hand. “How is he?”

            “He lost a lot of blood and starved for days. The chains also locked all of his energy, so he is terribly weak. The more energy I sent him, the more the chain in. I had to just treat his injuries normally and dress them with medication. It will take some time for him to fully recover. It would be best if you stayed by his side to help him out.” Minho’s eyes glare at the chains still bounded to Taemin’s wrists and ankles. “I can’t seem to take them off. The chains up energy, so using my spiritual energy to force them to break is useless. I did notice that some parts of the chains seem to be dented, almost like they are crumbling. It’s hard to tell how I can free him.”

            “I’ll try to think of a solution,” Minho says. “Please go get some rest, you’ve already done a lot.”  

            The fatigue finally welcomes Minho as he has been beside Taemin for nearly two whole days. Mr. Dragon had to force him to eat and occupied him by forcing him to cook Taemin some porridge. Not knowing when his dongsaeng will wake up, he keeps cooking a new pot of the food every half a day. When he is not cooking, he is cradling Taemin’s hand.

            As Minho falls deeper into his sleep, a familiar image has appeared in his head. Minho used to regularly dream of a winged man, only this time, the dream was a bit different. The vision clears, and he sees Taemin with a beautiful warm light engulfing him as he stretches his hand out for Minho, smiling brightly. His heavenly white wings flap back and forth gracefully, making Minho feel a slight breeze tickly his face. Despite it being a dream, everything feels much too real. “Hyung, join me,” Taemin as an angel says with a warm voice. Minho reaches out his hand and walks closer to his love one. Their fingers touch slightly before a look of surprise appears on Taemin’s face. A massive hand pulls Taemin back and the other one gruesomely tears off Taemin’s wings. A loud cry escapes Taemin’s mouth as the blood pours out from the two holes on his back. Blood then spurts out of Taemin’s mouth and Minho looks down, only to see Taemin pierced by numerous arrows. Behind his dying lover is a man standing with the emperor with Black Crescent raised up high.

            “N-no. No!” Minho wails and wakes up from his dream. Breathing heavily, his eyes dart to Taemin and he immediately lifts him up, embracing him tightly. Although Taemin is still unconscious, his breathing brings a source of comfort to Minho. Minho’s body continues shaking due to the scare his nightmare has brought him. He holds Taemin in his arms and steadies his own breathing as he eventually calms down. Taemin is right here…stop scaring yourself.

            The two guests wait outside Taemin’s room, not able to come in. “I wonder if he is okay. I just heard from the civilians that the White Masked Hero was about to be beheaded when Minho saved him,” Moonkyu says.

            “I wonder when Jong Kook hyungnim will come back. If he ends up talking to the emperor, will he be ordered to arrest them and not the Peacekeepers?” Wonshik says. “I thought they would be savage warriors that have no care for the world, but after being with them, I started appreciating them as people. I don’t want to see them captured.”

            “Same…You think if we finish what the emperor sent us to do, he’d leave them alone?” Moonkyu looks at Wonshik who doesn’t know the answer as well. They both know the king is using them, but after getting to know the two and those they live with, they do not want to draw any more people from the palace here to ruin their peace. “Want to give it a try?”

            Minho remains by Taemin’s bed without a moment of rest. He doesn’t eat, drink, or even take a bathroom break. He continues cradling Taemin’s hand in his and prays for him to quickly wake up. Just the thought of Taemin hurt makes Minho terrified, not to mention witnessing him unconscious like this. Seeing Taemin bedridden and wrapped in bandages brings back memories of his death years ago. Back then, Taemin was covered in rotten flesh and suffered a terrible injury from the monster. He looked exactly like this, fragile, almost like he would break any moment.

            Minho feels Taemin’s finger twitch in his palm and he immediately gets up and sits on the bed. He watches Taemin’s face and breathes a breath of relief when his eyes open. Taemin blinks a few times, clearly still a bit dazed. After a short while, Taemin finally realized that his hand was being held, and looks over. He weakly smiles as his eyes meets Minho’s. Minho lets go of Taemin’s hand and heads over to the table to pour Taemin a cup of water. Taemin took his action of letting go of Minho removing his hand as a sign of aggravation and quickly grabs the hem of Minho’s clothes weakly. Feeling the slight tug, Minho stops walking. “Please, don’t be mad at me,” Taemin whispers desperately, afraid that Minho would leave him alone now that he knows he awake. Hearing the hint of pain in Taemin’s voice, Minho can’t help but ruffle his hair to comfort him.

            “Don’t be silly,” he softly smiles and pours a cup of water. As gently as possible, Minho helps Taemin sit up. Despite Minho’s help, Taemin still winces. Minho’s heart pangs as he quickly apologizes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Where does it hurt? What can I do?”            

            “Hold me,” Taemin says. Minho obliges, slipping behind Taemin on the bed. He leans Taemin upright on his body and supports him carefully. Taemin holds his breath as he waits for the pain to subside and then leans onto his hyung, fully trusting him. Minho moves slowly, afraid that his movements would cause Taemin even more pain. He places the cup near Taemin’s lips and slowly pours the water into his mouth. After his thirst was quenched, Minho places the cup by the bed, not bothering to get up to put it away. With Taemin against his body, Minho can feel his weak breath. Not wanting to agitate his injuries, Minho simply massages his wrists delicately where the shackles are bounded as he holds him. Still low on energy, Taemin drifts back into sleep.

            The king angrily flips over the tub of blood and the crimson liquid splatters on the floor messily. The queen laughs as the king’s potential host dies in front of them due to the bead’s poison. Taemin’s blood is of no use once it leaves his body. Unless Taemin were to feed his blood to the host, they would die. The king was thinking that having a supply of his blood would give him a chance to use it as long as he wanted to, but the blood is completely useless. If he were to know this was the case, he would have just kept the White Masked Hero hidden down here when the queen is incarcerated. The queen purposely left this important key out, so he can mess up. There is only a limited amount of people to be his host, which is why he completely lost his cool.

            The emperor eyes the deceased male on the ground, now covered in the White Masked Hero’s blood that he just dumped. The male’s body is greenish purple. His body gave out due to the bead’s poison. It is very rare to come by a perfect potential host, so with the male dead, the king has one less chance to transfer his bead. The king quickly writes a decree and sends it out. The emperor looks at the queen who has a wide smile. He sends some dark energy to the palm of his hands and chokes the queen out of rage. He lets go after a bit of fun and waves his hand back angrily, his sleeve letting out a loud flop from the force. “I need to find another host. The Peacekeepers haven’t been eliminated yet…which means I do not have much time left...Quick, tell me, how can I make a host?”

            After a few hours, Taemin murmurs, “Minho hyung.”

            “I’m here,” Minho replies gently. He hadn’t moved the entire time. Taemin still remains leaning on him as his arms embrace his small waist.

            “Don’t be mad at me,” Taemin whispers.

            “Mhm,” Minho nods. “Just don’t lie to me next time and go out on your own. I know you didn’t want me to worry but look what happened. If I didn’t come in time…” Minho stops talking, afraid that he’ll jinx them if he finished the sentence.

            “Okay,” Taemin agrees. “I won’t lie to you anymore.”

            “Good,” Minho smiles warmly and pecks the side of Taemin’s head. “I’m glad you’re up. Mr. Dragon made some medicine to help you heal.” Taemin pouts at the thought of drinking bitter medicine but it up as he knows he can’t heal thanks to energy transfer anymore. He had to reply on the old-fashioned way to heal.

            The next few days are a repeat of the last. The two guests would keep looking. It’s very clear that Jong Kook will not come to get them soon, so they have all the time in the world. The outside the den has been blocked off be many gifts from the people from the surrounding villages and hamlets. The den has never been this lively. With all the visitors, the baby dragons are in a great mood. Flying around and piling the boxes up just to knock them over. People eventually gave up lecturing them and even helped bring empty crates, so they can stay those instead of the crates of food. On the other hand, the dragon would bring in medicine, Minho would make porridge, and Taemin would rest. “I need to go make you some rice porridge for you to eat. I didn’t want to wake you up from your rest by moving, so now I need to go when you’re awake.”

            “No~” Taemin whines. “Stay with me.”

            “Be good,” Minho says. “Don’t get cocky because you’re a bit stronger. If it wasn’t for Mr. Dragon, you wouldn’t be this lively.” Despite Minho’s decision, Taemin clutches onto Minho’s clothes, not letting him go. Minho couldn’t bear to pull Taemin’s hand off, but he knew Taemin had to eat. He sighs in defeat and says, “Want me to bring you along?”

            “Yes please~” Taemin replies. Minho slips off the bed carefully, making sure to not shake Taemin too much in the process. Minho rushes to the kitchen after many blankets and sets up an area for Taemin to rest. He runs back to the room and Taemin spreads his arms out, almost like a toddler begging to be carried. Minho grins and tucks one arm under the back of Taemin’s knee and one behind his back. With a swoop, Minho lifts Taemin up. Taemin whimpers a bit but quickly shoots Minho a smile, afraid that his hyung would leave him behind if he showed too much pain. The chains are putting some weight on his limbs, making them ache.

            Minho hesitates a bit but commits to what he agreed to do. He holds onto the chains, so they do not dangle in hope of taking away some of the burden on Taemin’s body. Walking as steadily and gently as possible, Minho makes his way to the kitchen and helps Taemin settle down. Minho tenderly kisses his forehead and gets right to work. Despite asking to be brought to the kitchen with hopes of watching Minho cook, Taemin drifts off to sleep, still too tired to stay awake for a long time span. Now instead of just watching the porridge cook, Minho has to watch over Taemin as well, making sure that he is okay.

            After the rice porridge is complete, he prepares the dish and places it in the room first. He then carefully carries Taemin back to the room. He tucks his dongsaeng into bed and starts blowing the food to cool it down. After testing the temperature, he bends down beside Taemin’s bed. Minho leans in and pecks Taemin’s cheek. After a few more attempts, Taemin wakes up.

            Minho once again helps Taemin sit up, this time leaning him against piled up blankets, so his back won’t hurt too much. He scoops a small spoonful and feeds Taemin who eats it slowly, afraid that eating too quickly would upset his stomach. Despite being careful, Taemin ends up choking on his food suffers a coughing fit. Minho puts down the bowl and rubs Taemin’s back carefully, afraid that he would hurt him if he used too much strength. Finally, Taemin stops coughing, but they take a break from eating. “I’m sorry,” Minho suddenly blurts out. “They wanted to lure me out and made you suffer. They wouldn’t have been like this if I was dead—” Taemin quickly cuts off Minho’s sentence my putting his hand on his hyung’s lips.

            “We’re in this together,” Taemin says and embraces Minho despite the injuries that haven’t healed. “You know I don’t like it when you blame yourself.”

            “Right, I’m sorry.”

            “Good boy,” Taemin says, teasing his hyung. “Very obedient.”

            “What are we going to do about these chains?”

            “It’s okay, it’s not like I haven’t been chained up before. I just need to get used to them.”

            “You can’t use any internal energy with them on you. You’re basically a regular person.”

            “It’s okay, you can protect me,” Taemin smiles, trying to help his hyung feel better. He doesn’t want to be protected by anyone and take care of others instead, but at the moment, he knew nothing can be done. His injuries can’t be healed by the celestial beast core and he himself couldn’t use his own energy to heal himself. Taemin, for once, knew that he needed to obediently wait for his injuries to heal.

            “I also forgot to mention something…” Minho says hesitantly.

            “What is it?”

            “Can I tell you when you get better?”

            “Okay,” Taemin pouts. “But it better be worth the wait.”  

~Happy New Years!~

Please make a quick comment below if you have any particular ideas on where the plot is going or if there are any moments in the storyline that you enjoyed! Thank you for supporting my work and I hope the new year treats you well <3