Mists of Celeste - an Ateez Fanfic

act one ➻ part 3.5

Yunho hums as he works, hands coming through the head of hair before him as he rubs dye over each strand with great care. It's almost therapeutic in a way, but it does nothing to take his mind off the patient who is still unconscious in the med bay. He has no shortage of confidence over his abilities; he fixed your arm up to near perfection, the best he could do given the circumstance, and in a short amount of time as well. That isn't what bothers him though. You've been unconscious for days since the operation. Well, it's only been two days to be exact, but your fever hasn't broken yet and that concerns Yunho more than he'd like to admit.

It's a damn fever. He should know how to cure one within hours, but all the medicines he tried did nothing to curb the fever so he settled for waiting for it to break instead. While he still can't understand why exactly the medicines didn't work, it feels too much like a failure. He doesn't fail. Ever. It's not even a possibility.

Yunho must be rubbing too vigorously at the head under his hands, because the owner leads forward and twists to look back at him.

"Sorry," he says through a small smile. Mingi blinks back at him, eyes wide as ever in wonder and curiosity. Yunho expects the question before he asks it and braces himself for the next words to leave the young Berserker's mouth.

"What are you feeling right now?"

"Confusion," Yunho answers, maintaining his grin. Mingi glances away and stares down at the floor for a few moments.

"The aura feels weird."

"Is it affecting you badly?"

"No... no. I just don't understand it." Mingi settles back into the chair comfortably again, and Yunho returns to his methodical motions on his hair. Each blonde strand gets a thick coating of pale brown dye. Yunho watches the dye coat the hair underneath with little interest, barely aware of his hand going over the same piece over and over again. A sigh escapes him. It prompts Mingi to shift again, but before he turns around, Yunho drops a hand to his shoulder.

"Stay put or you'll make a mess."

"Could you explain it?"

"What? Hair dye?"

"No, no. What has you so conflicted?"

"Ah," Yunho exhales. He hesitates before speaking again, eyes trailing towards the ceiling as he mulls over his next words. "You remember what I told you about feeling concerned, right?"

"Yeah, somewhat. How when people spend time together, they begin to care for each other. Then if something bad happens to one of them, the other gets worried or anxious about their well-being. Like... uh, how I feel when Hongjoong leaves for a dangerous mission. Thinking that he might get hurt. That's concern."

"Exactly, yes." Yunho smiles at the back of Mingi's head. "Well, sometimes you can be concerned about people you've just met."

"You mean the girl in the med bay?"

"Yes, yes, her. I–"

"How can you be concerned about someone you don't know? Is that still concern or is it something else? Is there another word for it?"

"Hold on, Mingi. I'm going to explain just be patient." Yunho smacks the side of Mingi's head, a risky move maybe, but he knows Mingi won't lash out like he used to. They've come a long way since then, nearly six years or maybe more than that. Yunho knows that he is good at many things, but keeping track of time is not one of those things. Despite all that time, it's still a lengthy and arduous process to help Mingi understand even basic emotions and morals, but at least he shows interest in learning about them. "Since I'm a doctor, I feel a responsibility towards my patients. I know I have the ability to heal them, but there are some things I can't fix. Sometimes I can't fix them even using tried and true methods. Even if I don't know them, I feel a sense of duty to heal them. It's my job, right?"