ambrosia [NCT DREAM]

4. I Wake Up in a Strange Place

"He's awake, guys!" A cheerful and deep voice yelled out, his Australian accent thick in Jaemin's ears.

His head was fuzzy, groggy and clogged. He had no clue where he was and was too tired to find out either. His side hurt, his eyes hurt, his brain hurt... he just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Wha-"

"Hello Jaemin! Are you feeling well?" A boy sitting next to the cot he was in held up a cup of golden liquid that Jaemin had never seen before. It smelled like strawberries in soda. The boy's voice was friendly but the deepest voice Jaemin had ever heard, which didn't fit his whole "face of an angel thing" he had going on. Jaemin focused a little too hard on the boy's soft eyes and freckles on his face like the prettiest constellation before returning his attention to the cup in his hand.

"What the... what's that? It smells nice." Jaemin's voice was hoarse, unfamiliar to even him. Almost as if he were sick, it was raspy and weak.

The boy giggled,, disregarding the comment. "Don't worry if there's not enough nectar. Drink it slow, but there's more on the counter there." His smile was warm and if Jaemin knew what the hell was going on, he might have been comfortable here.

"Gimme that!" A kid yelled, snatching a small cup of nectar from the countertop and laughing obnoxiously. His dark, short hair bobbed as he ran away, the older boy swiping at him exasperatedly as the kid ran away, giggling. "Mine now! Screw you, new kid!"

"Don't mind, Yangyang. He'll feel his insides melting tomorrow and it'll be my job to heal him... again." The boy rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Jaemin looked around, nearly fully awake now as the other boy continued apologizing for the child. "He always does this, we're used to it."

Jaemin was in a room, that's for sure. It was hot, like summertime and an overhead fan blew through the room. His clothes stuck to his sweaty body and his throat felt dry. There was some dried blood on his hoodie and staining his ashy blue hair, but other than that he didn't look too damaged from whatever caused him to arrive here.

The room he was in was drab, a cabin floor with stone walls painted a light yellow. The atmosphere was bright and the more Jaemin leaned towards the boy at his bedside, he could swear the room got even lighter, like he was some kind of a human light bulb. He smelled something sterile, something like rubbing alcohol. He also caught multiple posters on the wall on the side of his vision, corny stuff such as "brush your teeth night and day!" and "wash your hands to avoid Styx disease!".

Jaemin was beyond confused; what the hell was a Styx disease? He groaned and tried to sit up before feeling a splitting pain in his side and falling again.

"Hey! Don't sit up, man! I just finished your stitches!" The other boy chastised, brushing his blond hair from his face and checking on Jaemin's wound, which was slightly split but not too horribly.

Jaemin groaned again in pain as the boy looked in his eyes. "No, seriously... I have to ask: Are you okay? You've been out for four days since the attack, Na Jaemin."

"How do you- ugh." Jaemin got up slower this time, propping his body up on his pillows. "Where am I? How do you know my name?"

"Oh! Oh, everyone knows you by now!" The kid beamed, before someone appeared behind him, Jaemin startling from his laying position and splitting another stitch in the process.

"Felix, you didn't tell us he was awake." A soft voice called out, Jaemin's eyes squinting as if the already bright room became brighter.

Felix sighed. "I did, I just yelled it. You must not have been listening." He placed his hands on his hips sassily. "Hyuck, you can't have your bow in the medical cabin!"

It was the same boy with the tanned, glowing skin. He crossed his toned, golden arms and stood behind Felix, holding a bow in his hands. He wore the same orange shirt that Felix did with the letters "C.H.B." on it, but it wasn't as faded as the one he'd worn during the attack. His hair was still messy and golden brown, falling slightly in front of his eyes.

The other kid sighed dramatically and tossed his bow outside of the doorway, rolling his eyes. "Better? Good." He asked rhetorically, looking over Jaemin. "Does he know?"

"No, I don't think he does. But at least the hard part's been done. That's good. Now that he's here, he can get claimed."

"Claimed? What the fuck is that?" Jaemin murmured, before the cabin doorway was filled again.

A man came into the cabin, a tall man with a tiny torso, dark hair, small enchanting eyes that Jaemin caught and nearly couldn't look away from, and... were those horse legs?!

"Language" the man spoke softly and Jaemin's jaw dropped. The man did indeed have a horse's lower body and Jaemin swore that he was dreaming. The man would have been short excluding the legs, and his black hair swooped in his face. He looked significantly older than the other two people he'd seen, but not super old. In his 30's, maybe.

"Sir Onew! Hello!" Felix waved, getting up from his seat next to Jaemin's cot. "He's definitely awake, but he may be in shock... no pun intended."

The horse-man smiled and walked to Jaemin's cot, leaning his torso down to examine Jaemin's face further. He had tried not to squirm, but when Felix had brushed his hand against Jaemin's hip and snagged a nail into his stitches that already needed mending... it was too much.

The horse-man, the two strangers, the confusion...

Jaemin screamed.