s.c.s. ☆ j.jh ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jaehyun [thirty-two]

Your predictions were right: you couldn't sleep that night. And the few times that you had been able to drift off, you would wake up less than a half hour later, frantic eyes immediately finding Jaehyun's sleeping figure and worried hands moving to touch and hold any part of him that you could get, as if they didn't trust your eyes.

At four in the morning you finally gave up the premise of trying to sleep and instead sat up against your pillows, watching as Jaehyun's chest steadily rose and fell, eyes closed peacefully, and of course a little drop of drool at the corner of his mouth. You had a single hand resting on his hair, not wanting to wake him up. He deserved some sleep.

"You really don't want him to do this, do you?" A hushed voice asked you from the darkness, and you didn't even glance at Taeyong as he sat on the corner of the foot of the bed in his cat form.

"You should sleep, Yong," you replied quietly.

"It's hard to when you keep tossing and turning. It makes me worried too," he admitted, padding over to sit closer to you. "I'm amazed that he's still asleep."

"Yeah, he sleeps like a rock," you murmured, and against your want to not disturb his sleep, you absentmindedly brushed some of his hair out of his face.

"I could go with him," Taeyong offered suddenly. "To the shrine. It's harder to sense that I'm an Ayakashi when I'm in my cat form. When he activates the talisman I'll be there to help protect him before you get there."

You shook your head, "It's harder but not impossible. Anything that doesn't feel like a Wraith, or like nothing, will alert them."

Taeyong gently pressed against your side, soft fur brushing at your skin, "I'm sorry, Y/N."

☆

Jaehyun woke up a couple hours later, pulling himself up into a sitting position beside you as he looked around the bedroom, "Where's Taeyong?"

"Kitchen."

"Great," a sleepy smile spread across his face as he leaned his face closer to yours. "Now I can give you a good morning kiss without having to hear throwing up sounds."

You let out a short laugh before his mouth sealed over yours. Threading your fingers through his bedhead, you didn't even mind when your noses awkwardly bumped as he readjusted to pull you closer to him. For just a moment, you forgot about what was going to happen today.

He finally pulled back to ask, "What time is it?"

"Ten till eight," you informed him quietly.

"So I've got time for a shower, great," he pulled back from you and swung his legs over the edge of the bed.

Before he could plant his feet and get up, you suddenly lunged forward, wrapping a hand around his bicep. He halted to look back at you inquisitively, "What, love?"

All your anxieties had come flooding back. Despite having been wide awake for almost four hours, you didn't dare leave your bed in that time. As if as soon as you did, you'd have to say goodbye to Jaehyun forever.

But you couldn't properly articulate that to him, so instead you blurted out, "I love you, Jaehyun."

His worried features relaxed into adoration as he chuckled, pecking your forehead, "I love you too, Y/N."

Jaehyun finally stood up, stretching and groaning for a moment before straightening up, "Are you coming with?"

"No, I'm good," you shook your head. "I'll start making breakfast."

As he disappeared into your bathroom, you treaded out to the living room, where Taeyong was sitting on the couch, in his true form, ears twitching as he chewed on something. As you got closer, you saw a bowl of Goldfish in front of him, but you didn't have enough space left in your brain to remind him that Goldfish aren't breakfast food.

"You look really tired, Y/N," Taeyong informed you quietly as you plopped down beside him. He traced a delicate finger under each of your eyes, where you assumed you had very prominent dark circles.

"I don't know how he can just be so nonchalant about this," you sighed out, voice weak. "He's going to walk into a Wraith-infested forest and shrine that a great evil is trying to escape into, entirely by himself, to do something that will piss them off and immediately make him a target, with the rest of us miles away. Doesn't he understand how fucking dangerous that is? Doesn't he understand he could— he could d—"

You couldn't even finish your sentence, getting too choked up at the prospect of it. Taeyong wrapped him arms around you, hands shaking as they messily wiped at your tears, "I think he does, Y/N. But maybe he's just not showing it because he doesn't want you to worry too much."

"Jokes on him, I am anyway," you mumbled sarcastically from where Taeyong had uncomfortably smushed your face against his shirt.

Taeyong didn't seem to have anything to say back to you, chest heaving and deflating with a deep breath as he continued holding you.