Broken Glass - Taekook

24

"Something told you?" I repeat, and Taehyung nods. 
"I can't tell you what it was, because I don't know myself. But I just....I just knew that I was coming with you. Like how you felt you had to help in Rushgrove. I can't..." he pauses, frustrated with himself. "I can't really understand it more than that." 

I don't respond for a moment, letting him focus on his thoughts. And then the blue markings on his hands begin to glow of their own accord, flickering faintly with a light that I've never seen from them before. This is different to the changes that come across them when he's using the golden river to heal someone else. This is gentler, somehow, in a way that I don't understand.

For a moment, we sit in shocked silence, too confused to speak. "Kook, what did you do?" Taehyung whispers, and I raise both hands, shaking my head.
"Nothing! Literally nothing. I don't even know how to reach the river, you know that. How would I even do anything like this?"

For a moment, he stares directly at me, almost through me, his eyes narrowed, and then he sighs, the tension in his shoulders slowly dissipating. "I suppose you're right." He looks down at his hands again, pulls back the sleeves of the shirt he's wearing to reveal his wrists, where more of the same blue marks are beginning to glow. "But if you're not doing anything, and I'm not-" 

"Then who is?" I interrupt, a chill running down my spine as our eyes meet once again. Taehyung looks frightened, his dark eyes wide with fear, his body frozen with the confusion of something that shouldn't be possible. This is a part of him, one of the few things he can truly control, and it's working without his permission, without any sort of input from him. 

I scoot forward, take the glowing hands within my own plain ones, looking closer at the light that emanates from them. "Do you think it's the Karulian Knights?" He shakes his head immediately. 
"I would know. And surely they'd have done it to all of us? Or tried to?" he points out, and I nod in understanding. 

"Maybe it's the golden river," I suggest next, and he tilts his head at me. "I only get my dreams because of the mirror. I don't have any special connection or anything like that, but you do. You're a healer, you draw from it whenever you have to...heal someone, right?" He nods. "And your hands only light up when you're doing that." He nods again. "So maybe this is the river again. Maybe your hands light up when you make contact with the golden river, but this time it's making contact with you?" 

He pauses, genuinely surprised by my idea, and then shrugs. "It could be that." The glow increases in intensity, and his eyes widen again. "Is that a 'yes', or a 'no'?" There's no change, and we stare at each other again, baffled. 
"This feels like a limited form of communication, somehow," I comment simply, and he chuckles lightly, the low sound seeming to reverberate in my own head for some reason. 

"Well, we can't all have a fancy mirror that gives us weird dreams, Kook," Taehyung retorts, but there's a playful glint in his eyes as he speaks. 
"I guess not," I allow, tilting my head to one side slightly. "I suppose that's fair."
"So what do we do?" I just shrug.
"I'm not the brains of the operation, I'm just here to look pretty, dude." 

Taehyung's eyebrows raise, and for a moment he looks almost incredulous, before he gets his reaction back under control. "You're here to do what?" 
"Look pretty, obviously," I return, trying to remain serious, until I see the amusement in his eyes. There's a silence for a heartbeat, and then Taehyung's gaze flickers away as he struggles to hold back a laugh. 

"So what am I here to do?" he manages, and I pretend to consider the question for a few seconds. 
"Hm...you're here to tell me that I'm still succeeding in my objective, and patch up my hype squad."
"Your hype squad?" Taehyung echoes, a full smile spreading across his face. "What the fuck does that mean?"

I say nothing, trying desperately to come up with a sensible response to a logical question, but nothing comes to mind. After a few seconds of drawn-out, awkward silence, our eyes meet, and the tension shatters like glass.