Broken Glass - Taekook

23

The silence between the three of us grows as we all sit there, absorbing Taehyung's words. Yoongi shifts uncomfortably, but does nothing to shatter the awkwardness of it all. We all know that Taehyung's right, at least partially. It doesn't make sense to take longer than necessary, on purpose, just because we're scared. But I don't know if we have any other choice. 

"What would you have us do, Tae? Rush into the fray and die trying?"

At the sound of his brother's voice, Taehyung twists around, completely ignoring everyone else as he props himself up to check on the older male. Yoongi's eyes flash with relief, and then he scoots over to Seokjin, elbowing the other in the side. The moment Seokjin wakes up, Yoongi gestures towards Namjoon. "He's awake." 

"Alright, guys, no need to have a party over me," Namjoon jokes, shifting a little where he is and letting out a grunt of pain. Taehyung immediately scolds him quietly, and now that I'm sitting up as well to look at him, I notice that Namjoon's just laying there rolling his eyes at his brother. "I'm fine, Tae. Really." 

Taehyung stares at the older male for a few more seconds, as if trying to take apart his logic and piece it back together, and then he lets out a long sigh, and relaxes slightly. "I thought I'd lost you," he murmurs, and Namjoon manages a small smile. The two brothers don't move for a moment, and a single tear traces down Taehyung's cheek. The moment it falls, Namjoon averts his gaze, his eyes turning to the rest of us. 
"How is everyone? I'm guessing we won, in the end? How'd that happen?" 

"They received an order and decided to leave," Seokjin explains, scooting over to his partner. "We didn't win. We got lucky. You scared us all, Joon. I knew things were going to be tough, but I don't think I was ready to see you fall like that. Are you okay?" 

For a moment, we're sat there in another moment of quiet, but this one feels different. There's something almost tender about it, the way we're all sat there watching Namjoon slowly come back to himself, back from the very edge of life. There's a faint shuffle of movement behind us, and then Jimin and Hoseok are there as well, with us. The six of us almost crowd the tiny space around the makeshift bed, but I don't care that there's a shoulder right next to mine. I know we all have the same priority right now. Making sure that Namjoon's alright. 

"I've been better, for sure," the mage says eventually, reluctantly. "My chest hurts like hell, I don't know what's happened, and I feel a bit faint. And I'm really fucking hungry, actually. Do you have any food?"
"I saved some for you," Yoongi reveals, standing up, presumably to get it. Then he glances over at Taehyung, uncertain. "Should he be eating? Is it gonna get stuck or hurt him or something?" 

The witch pauses, genuinely considering it, and then he nods slightly. "The food we have is all quite dry. Add some water to it first. It won't taste right, but it's better than choking. Take it slow, though. Any issues, let me know." Yoongi nods, grabs a food bowl, and begins to prepare some food for Namjoon. Meanwhile, our resident healer checks over Namjoon again, asking him various questions about how he feels, where things hurt, how dizzy he is. A couple of times, he carefully gets his brother to have a drink, slowly, so that he's not dehydrated. 

When Yoongi returns, he slowly begins to feed his partner, carefully,  paying close attention to his face and the bandage around his torso. As he does so, Jimin quietly explains the details of the battle, on Namjoon's request. How it ended, what happened after everything calmed down. The mage listens carefully, asking no questions, just nodding for Jimin to continue whenever he pauses. 

When the explanation finishes, Namjoon sighs. "So the river calls for us to travel in another direction." There's a moment of silence, and then he turns his head to look at me directly. "Kook? Is that what happened? I was just waking up when you were talking about it, so I might've misunderstood your words."

"I don't know if that's the message I was supposed to take from that dream," I admit, shifting slightly, uncomfortable with the suddenly scrutinising attention of my friends. "I don't really understand it myself. All I know is that I was in a savannah, and then all of a sudden there was this stream of golden light leading me in a direction. I followed it, and it lead me to a great city in the middle of nowhere. I could hear music as we went, the melody of a song."