House of Cards by: sugamins

Part 17

As it had been for two days now Taehyung was woken up by a horrible itching sensation, one so strong that it was enough to make his skin crawl. It was the kind of sensation that was impossible to ignore because it felt like his skin was shifting, like there were bugs nestled away inside the wrapping of his bandage scuttling all over his shoulder. Or maybe even beneath his skin instead, roaming away under the surface with his veins and muscles. Underneath the hideous itching however was an ache that he was at a loss trying to figure out where it was coming from. His shoulder, his neck, even his head all seemed to be likely sources and to top it off he had a headache too. There didn't seem to be a single part of his body that wasn't aching in some way and sometimes when the pain got too much Taehyung was almost certain that he was dying slowly.

Over the duration of the first day, hidden in Kang's opium den, Taehyung had not felt extreme pain but rather just a great discomfort. But upon being moved into the back of a car and transported across the capital to the docks, he had discovered just how bad pain could really get. The boat ride yesterday that had lasted much too long and had rendered him incapacitated by periods of tears or complete unconsciousness during the countless hours. Taehyung had never felt anything close to it for even the morphine had done little to help him, had been unable to quell the severe sea sickness that he had been struck by. Jungkook had attempted to get him to eat during the journey but it had been a wasted attempt. Between the pain and the shifting sensation of the waves Taehyung hadn't been able to do much more than drink water, which had sloshed around his stomach and had made him feel even more nauseous. The younger man had told him that he had needed food, had needed to try and fight the pain, but he had been much too weak to try anything. A few times Taehyung had thought that he would have pissed Jungkook off with his behaviour and yet he hadn't. The other man had just fallen silent upon hearing his pained whines and had left the cabin for a little while until he had fallen silent again. Lying on the bed in the private cabin, crying and sweating, Taehyung had been convinced that he was going to die from that point onward.

But that wasn't what death felt like, sadly this was what surviving felt like.

Right now he could feel that he was lying on a bed but it wasn't the one in the boat. He wasn't entirely certain but he thought that that was the case. He could feel no swaying underneath him and he seemed to recall getting off the boat at some point. That part was strange, was a hazy mess of thoughts and sounds that he struggled to decipher for he hadn't really been conscious at the time. A part of him was hoping that what he had experienced might just have been a fever, a fever that had broken over the duration of the day. Right now his skin still felt rather warm but at least he wasn't burning and he hoped that that was a good sign.

Taehyung stuck his tongue out to try and wet his lips but the act seemed rather impossible because it was just as dry. He ended up pulling his tongue back into his mouth and opening his eyes instead. It took him a few seconds to realise that he was scratching and pulling at the bandages. He quickly pulled his hand away from the bandages before he risked doing any damage and he felt his elbow connecting with something: a body from what he could tell. Whoever it was made a startled noise as they were rudely woken up too. That was a sign that his hazy mind was correct: he was back at the penthouse suite even if he wasn't entirely certain how that had happened.

"What time is it?" Taehyung croaked in confusion, seeing that the suite was currently dark, the sun only just starting to rise. He had lost over an entire day to his fuzzy and pain-addled brain and he knew that catching up was going to be a challenge.

"Mmm, 5am," a voice mumbled from beside him, heavy with sleep. It took him a moment to figure out that it was Jimin that had spoken and so he turned his head to look, seeing a hint of his face from his current angle and nothing more than that.