Unlawfully His

Chapter 29 - Faded

No one's POV:

Jeongguk sat down onto the sofa slowly, careful not to hurt his leg by bending it into an awkward position as he lowered himself.

Despite the late hour, the Marine just couldn't fall asleep. He knew why but was in slight denial of the fact.

Taehyung wasn't home from work yet.

The Marine had washed the dishes and fed Mushu yet Taehyung still hadn't returned home. To take his mind off of it, Jeongguk decided to watch TV. Although the show was interesting, it didn't take Jeongguk too long to wind his thoughts back to his husband.

It wasn't unusual for Taehyung to return home late from his shifts at the bar, but anxiety and worry definitely haven't been Jeongguk's best friends since returning home from war.

They were like shadows, constantly lurking and harrowing. Never going away. An everlasting scar of bloodshed.

Therapy was working well and there had been significant progress in the months since the accident. PTSD still has its effects though, from intense panic to horrid nightmares.

However, those demons seem to quieten whenever Taehyung is around. Jeongguk missed him more than he was willing to admit. After all, it was definitely lonelier without the brunet there at night.

Even though the two didn't do anything in particular, the mere presence of Taehyung brought comfort to Jeongguk's aching soul. Laughing about something stupid took the ravenet's mind away from his situation.

The Marine sighed as he looked over at the door, willing Taehyung to walk through at any second. Jeongguk wanted his husband by his side even though they were anything but lovers, or even friends at that.

Jeongguk truly didn't know where he stood with Taehyung. He was definitely uncertain of their relationship- both of them were.

However, there was some small glimmer of hope that something more than the convenient marriage was keeping the two together.

The longer Jeongguk stared at the door, the more he began to lose hope. After what seemed like an eternity, Jeongguk decided that this was one of those nights.

A night where Taehyung came back far too late for either of them to do anything together. The thought left a lingering feeling of sadness and loneliness but Jeongguk didn't dwell on that.

All thoughts were put on hold when the soft jangling of keys could be heard from the other side of the door. Jeongguk could feel the excitement building up in his bones and bursting into light when the door was opened very slightly and a mop of dark brown hair came into view.

The joy soon dissipated when the Marine laid eyes on Taehyung's state.

The male stumbled in their house, exahsted and barely able to stand up. At first Jeongguk just thought Taehyung was tired but that couldn't be it.

Taehyung wasn't just tired, he was drained, unwell even. The brunet was practically gasping for air as he stumbled over to the coffee table and unloaded his bag onto the surface.

His previously golden skin had turned a sickly pale beige colour and sweat dripped down from the shaking male's forehead. Taehyung was shaking vigorously as he tried to search for something in his bag but his movements were slow and weak.

The brunet's tired eyes could hardly concentrate on the task at hand as he haphazardly tipped the contents of his bag onto the table.

Taehyung was hardly able to see what he was doing as his vision blurred up, his dizzy head just couldn't focus on keeping his spasming hands stable.

With each breath, Taehyung's heart palpitations increased tenfold, until it was just too much to bear.

The brunet wasn't even surprised when his legs collapsed from under him, his body landing on a hard surface. It didn't hurt as much as Taehyung anticipated it to but right now it ached to even think of anything- let alone figure out why the fall didn't cause any damage.

Jeongguk, on the other hand was just thankful he was able to hobble over to his husband in time. As soon as Taehyung walked- more like stumbled- into the house, it was more than evident that something was dreadfully wrong. The ravenet immediately leapt to his feet, picked up his cane that was resting on the side table and used it to walk over to Taehyung.

He was just grateful he was able to reach the male before he fell completely. Taehyung now rested in between Jeongguk's hands, who struggled to keep his husband up while simultaneously leaning on his cane.

As Jeongguk got a better look at Taehyung, he was able to see how horribly his husband was shaking.

Taehyung was hardly even able to form words as his speech was so slurred. However, Jeongguk picked up the initiative and was just about able to make out what the stammering male was saying.

"Gl-lu-c. . . -co-se," Taehyung whimpered as he pointed to a packet that was lying on the table. Jeongguk followed his husband's instructions and picked up the packet before leading Taehyung over to the sofa and sitting him down.

The brunet wasn't even able to sit himself up in the sofa so he leaned back on Jeongguk's chest. Weakness consumed Taehyung entirely as he felt his eyelids grow heavy from being so drained.

A proud smile spread across Taehyung's lips when he saw all that Jeongguk was doing to help. The ravenet ripped open the small packet and put it into Taehyung's hands- not completely sure what to do with the contents.

Jeongguk watched as his husband emptied the liquid in the packet, squeezing out every last drop of gel before weakly placing the sachet back into the marine's hand with a soft smile.

"How long does it take to work Tae?" The ravenet asked, wondering for how much time Taehyung would be like this for.

The brunet was hardly able to formulate a reply with his words so he just held up five fingers and then ten and five fingers. Jeongguk got the message that it would take between five and fifteen minutes, laughing softly at Taehyung's cute reply.

Jeongguk has seen both extremes of diabetes (hyperglycaemia and hypoglycemia) but he had never seen a hypo this bad before. Taehyung was always careful but his automatic pump only monitors blood sugar levels, it doesn't administer anything to maintain levels for hypos.

Hypos were far more scary to watch, Taehyung was completely unlike himself and the threat of death was almost too much to bear. It took absolutely everything out of Taehyung to keep on living when his levels were so low. Although Taehyung did a good job of hiding his health struggles, Jeongguk could see that it was frustrating to keep on top of all the time.

"Do you want me to do anything else?" Jeongguk whispered softly as he rested against the back of the sofa, Taehyung between his thighs- holding on like a tiny koala.

"J-just stay w-with me. . .please," Taehyung managed to answer, his speech somewhat returning to normal now time had passed. The brunet's skin was now resembling it's usual sunkissed glow and Taehyung wasn't sweating as much.

"Yeah okay- I'm here," Jeongguk replied as he stroked Taehyung's hair, making the brunet sigh in contentment after finally feeling relaxed.

Taehyung knew that he shouldn't have overworked himself tonight. He thought he could hang on until he got home and deal with the drop in blood sugar levels then, but apparently the brunet overestimated himself severely.

He knew Jeongguk was going to lecture him tomorrow about taking care of himself, but right now Taehyung was just glad to be in safe hands.

Everything felt so much better now that Jeongguk was there to look after him.

No matter how superficial the circumstances.