The Arrow's Flight 12/?
Title: The Arrow's Flight 12/?
Pairing: Changmin/Junsu (Jaejoong/fc, Yunho/Heechul, Yoochun/Yoohwan [incest], Junho/fc)
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Here is another world that I wish existed in a place other than my mind, but it doesn't and I don't own them and I can only place them into this delusion.
Summary: Greed and corruption rule two neighboring kingdoms: The Kingdom of Mountains and the Kingdom of Trees. Two princes are planning a coup. Their success or failure depends on the shadow in the woods, the rogue of the forests, the arrow in the sky.
A/N: Totally inspired by Robin Hood. Can you blame me?
All archery terms are taken from TradeBow.
Warning: het
Part 12:
The Barb
A point of an arrowhead that flows back behind the ferrule, preventing the head from being extracted easily. Illegal for bowhunting today.
Taeyang had a shallow, but long wound in his side, like a sword had just nicked him, but swiped up his ribs. Jiyong had a cut on his cheek, dripping blood down his neck.
Jaejoong tried to care, he really did, but the only thing that mattered was his wife. His beautiful, precious, gorgeous wife, in his arms again. Holding her close, breathing in her soul and her tears.
“Missed you,” Jaejoong said, wiping at her cheeks.
He was crying too.
“I missed you,” she whispered and went in for a kiss, despite their audience of guards.
“Mommy!”
Seohyun pulled away enough to smile at Minzy who suddenly ran and pressed against her side.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy!”
“Hi, darling.”
“Let your mom lay down,” Jaejoong said. “She’s really tired.”
“Baby okay?” Minzy asked, hands on her stomach.
“Yes, the baby is okay, but tired. Just like me.”
Minzy took her hand and led her to Jaejoong’s bed. “Sleep here. We’ve been having sleepovers all week!”
Jaejoong smiled and then turned his attention to Taeyang. He touched a hand to his heated forehead. “How’s the slice?”
Taeyang grunted, wincing at the pressure on his side.
“It’s not bad,” Daesung said. “Bad enough, but he won’t die.”
“Do we trust the doctor to stitch him up?” Jaejoong asked.
Jiyong shook his head, hand pressing a cloth against his cheek. “Not anymore. I have no idea who those men were.”
“I can do it,” Seungri said.
“I’ll go get your bag,” Daesung said, and he and Seunghyun left.
Jaejoong left Taeyang to Seungri and Jiyong, and he went to his bed. His beautiful pretty wife, in his bed again. It had to be a dream.
“Take my boots off,” she demanded. “My feet hurt.”
Jaejoong sat at her feet and removed her boots. He smiled and then went to the dressing room for the bowl of water and washcloth. With tender hands, he rubbed at his wife’s swollen feet and cleaned them all the way up to behind her knees. He’d have a chance soon to sit in the bath with her, wipe her arms and stomach. Breasts.
He cleared his throat. Not a good thing to be thinking with so many others in the room.
She smirked, like she knew exactly what he was thinking. Probably. She had always been just as eager to push him into bed as he was to be there.
“Tell me what happened,” Jaejoong whispered. He was aware of Minzy listening, but he needed the girl to understand that they were all in danger.
Seohyun did, starting from when she was kidnapped, rescued by the last person she expected to rescue her, through her stay with Max and clear to this battle under the North Tower, including when she threw the knife into the man’s face.
“We do not know where Micky, Ricky or the other one are,” Jiyong said. “They chased the unknown soldiers into the trees.”
Jaejoong rubbed his face in his hands. “This is ridiculous. The only one that would benefit from you dying is my uncle, but he’s told me to my face that he does not want to be king, and Taehyun is only fifteen!”
“Your uncle could be lying,” Jiyon said.
“In my bag,” Seohyun said and pointed. “Siwon gave me herbs to take, to induce me, have this baby early. If it’s a boy, then your uncle should back off, if it’s him that’s doing this”
Jaejoong shook his head. “I do not want you to take them. We do not know if he can be trusted. We don’t know if anyone can be trusted. And even if the baby does come early, he may send someone to kill it.”
Seohyun opened her mouth to argue and then shut it. “You’re right. But I am not having this baby for another month. So much can happen in that time.”
“It could come early.”
“Maybe.”
Jaejoong pulled her close and kissed her. “I love you. I love you so much. I’m so very glad you’re home.”
She smiled and tears fell down her cheeks. “I love you, too. Never thought I’d be in love with the little brat that shoved mud into my face when we were teenagers.”
Jaejoong nodded. “Same, but by the Trees, Seohyun, I am the luckiest man in our world.”
“Micky said you were going to be a shit king without me.”
“I would. I’m a shit prince, a shit person, just a pile of shit, without you.”
They kissed again, until Minzy asked, “What’s shit?”
There was silence in the room, and then they all laughed, and Jaejoong ruffled his daughter’s hair. “Everything. Right now. Everything. Except this. With you. With your mother.”
Minzy made a face. “Daddy, that makes no sense.”
Jaejoong smiled at his wife. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
<|---------<<<
Changmin paced as the afternoon sun trekked across the sky. The brothers should have been back by now. He watched the people of his compound move through their day. Their little society was booming. They were going to have to add another well soon. Maybe another compost pile. But that would wait after the Festival of Stones. If he died ... well, then these people were free to do what they wanted with their little village.
But something was wrong. Changmin knew it. The brothers were never late.
He whistled for Heechul, who arrived a few moments later with Yunho right behind him. Instead of talking, Changmin used hand signals.
M and R still gone. Problems?
Heechul’s eyes flashed and he glanced toward the Kingdom of Trees.
Search? Yunho asked.
Changmin rubbed his face in his hands and nodded.
Take Hangeng with you
Hangeng gone.
“What?” Changmin asked.
Heechul shrugged. Didn’t check in last night. Don’t know where he is.
Changmin cursed. Find M and R.
The two of them nodded and left. Changmin stared toward the Kingdom of Trees for a little longer and then looked the other way, toward the mountains. Toward the stones. He hoped that Junsu was okay.
<|---------<<<
Heechul did not like the sound of nothing. The woods were quiet, too quiet. But it was hot outside. The height of the day. Birds, real birds, chirped. Animals shuffled around. Normal. But too quiet.
He whistled for Yoochun, first using their secret one and then the one that Changmin used for him.
There was no answer.
“We aren’t close enough,” Yunho said. “That’s all.”
“We’ve been out here for an hour.”
“You are so impatient, love. Don’t worry. They probably just sequestered themselves off somewhere to be alone. They do that a lot.”
Heechul sneered. “Disgusting.”
Yunho snorted. “That they’re in love?”
“Shut up. They can’t be.”
“Then it’s just lust, something you know all too well.”
“Fuck you.”
“Stop this,” Yunho said. “I don’t care what they do with each other as long as they don’t shoot me in the back, and I trust them not to. They’re part of our team.”
Heechul flung his hand at him in dismissal. “Which is why I am out here looking for them. Shut your mouth.”
Yunho frowned and Heechul huffed, and sped ahead of him. Smart, Yunho did not try to catch up to him, but matched his pace. Heechul led them off the main trail. He knew that the brothers rarely took the trail, not when they knew these woods like the back of their hands. Or each other’s mouth.
Heechul sneered. Sure, he had been a whore, but he’d had never, ever touch his sister the way those two touched each other. And they thought it was a secret. Some of the underlings probably didn’t know about them, but anyone with two eyes and a brain in their skulls should have noticed it right away.
He whistled every fifteen minutes. And then every ten. Yunho whistled too, his sound going a bit further out than Heechul’s.
The sun was setting when they finally got an answer. But not quite. Obviously it was not a bird, but the pattern of whistles did not make sense.
They met each other’s eyes and headed west, into the setting sun, toward the noises. Heechul whistled first Yoochun and then Yoohwan’s codes.
Again, a call, this one a bit more clear. It was Yoochun, a panic call, followed by something that sounded like, “Hurry up, hurt.”
Yunho ran, Heechul moved a bit faster, guarding his back carefully, keeping his ears open for other noises. He did not necessarily like the brothers, but as Yunho said, they were part of the team. If they had been attacked, who knew if there were others around in these forests.
When they finally found them, Heechul almost wished they hadn’t. Yoochun was distraught, next to his brother’s bloody body.
Dead? Maybe. He couldn’t tell. It took Yunho a long time to pry Yoochun away. Heechul snagged the eldest brother and yanked, ignoring his scream of pain and anguish, while Yunho checked Yoohwan. There was a deep wound in Yoohwan’s side. There was a horse nearby. Dead, but why?
“Fuck,” Yunho shouted. “Heechul. Run back. Hurry. Bring horses, Siwon, a cart. Hurry. Hwannie is dying. Go.”
Heechul needed answers, but he wasn’t stubborn or selfish enough to demand them. He turned around and ran, whistling for help as soon as he was close enough to the compound to be heard.
He got a few responding whistles, but it was Changmin’s call that he waited for. He called for Siwon, Kangin, Ryeowook, everyone he could, until Changmin intercepted him in the woods.
“No time,” Heechul said. “Tell the others to get a horse and a cart. Yoohwannie is dying.”
Changmin swore and followed Heechul on foot, whistling the commands for the others to follow. It was too much time, and Heechul feared they’d be too late. It’d seemed they walked so far before, but now, running, the forests and path blurred by him, narrowing down to just being there, on time, fast enough.
Changmin fell to Yunho’s side, asking for an update.
Heechul went to Yoochun, who was leaning against a tree, eyes on his brother’s form. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Ankle,” Yoochun said. “Broken, twisted, hurt. Just ...”
Heechul tittered at him and went to his ankle. He unlaced Yoochun’s boot, but his foot was too swollen to take it off. He ended up using his knife, cutting through the thick leather and horsehair lacings. His skin was purple and the foot from ankle to shin was about twice its normal size.
“Tell me what happened,” Heechul demanded while ripping up the pants on that leg. He snapped at someone for water, and then dipped the cloth into it before pressing and tying them around Yoochun’s ankle.
Yoochun winced at the pressure and the coldness. “Don’t ... know. Just ... the horse bolted and threw us.”
“And before? Yoohwan did not get that sword wound from falling off a horse.”
Yoochun scowled. “Hangeng.”
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “I have no idea who he was working for, but I put an arrow through his face after he and his group tried to kidnap Yoohwan.”
“The princess?”
“Safe, the last I saw her.”
“You aren’t making sense. Start over.”
He started at the beginning, when they noticed Hangeng following them, and then at the wall of the North Tower, when they were attacked by fifteen. He gritted his teeth through the telling of Hangeng separating them, and then of Hangeng revealing he was working with those who attacked on orders from Jaejoong’s uncle.
“But you didn’t verify all this and just killed them all,” Heechul said.
“They were raping him, so fuck you.”
Heechul sighed. He slapped his leg, and smirked at Yoochun’s yelp. “I need to go get some thick branches to brace your leg. Don’t move.” He stood up and went to some nearby underbrush.
“Could still take you out with an arrow, pretty whore.”
“Micky!” Yunho shouted from where he and Siwon and Changmin were working on cleaning and stitching Yoohwan’s side.
Heechul waved it away. “He called me pretty, so it’s okay.” He took a couple of branches and then went back to Yoochun. “I don’t think your bones are broken, but I’m sure I can fix that.”
“Fuck you.”
“Siwon will have to look at it after the swelling goes down. What happened to the horse?”
Yoochun bit his lip as Heechul wrapped the branches with more cloth, immobilizing his leg all the way up to his knee. “Don’t know. Something spooked her; she jolted and threw us. She broke her leg. Had to ... had to cut ... stop her suffering.”
Heechul frowned. “Even with a broken foot, you did that?”
Yoochun’s eyes shut, a tear finally falling, and Heechul paused, staring wide eyed and slack jawed. Yoochun ... was ... crying. Yoochun. Micky Yoochun, who could slit someone’s throat without thinking twice.
“Stop that,” Heechul said and patted his cheek. “Men are only allowed to cry when they’re are born and when they’ve been stung by a bee.”
Yoochun sort of smiled and sort of sobbed, and Heechul shook his head and continued wrapping his leg.
<|---------<<<
Despite Siwon’s suggestion (and subsequent protest), Changmin put both Yoohwan and Yoochun in one bed. Yoohwan rested better next to his brother and Yoochun would not rest unless he always knew how Yoohwan was resting.
One hand stayed against Yoohwan’s side.
Changmin watched them from the doorway. Both were asleep. Yoohwan, much like Junsu, would need lots of rest. His chances of waking were much better than Junsu’s, but infection was still a high concern.
“I get it,” Yoochun said, voice gravely.
And okay, maybe they both weren’t asleep.
“Get what?” Changmin asked.
“You asked me before, if I knew what it felt like to see your heart yanked from your chest with no way of knowing when it will return. I get it now.”
Changmin cleared his throat. “I’m sorry that you had to find out.”
Yoochun twisted his upper body, face turning toward his brother’s. “The Festival of Stones is in one week.”
Changmin sighed. “I know.”
“Do not miss.”
“I won’t.”
Changmin blinked and turned away, not wanting to watch Yoochun watch his little brother. He wiped at the tears and headed for his own room.
Part 13: The Ascham
Part 11: The Nocking Point
Part 10: The Target Panic
Part 9: The Fishtailing
Part 8: The Sight Window
Part 7: The Aim
Part 6: The Bracer
Part 5: The Fletching
Part 4: The Limbs
Part 3: The Anchor
Part 2: The Grip
Part 1: The Shaft
.
Pairing: Changmin/Junsu (Jaejoong/fc, Yunho/Heechul, Yoochun/Yoohwan [incest], Junho/fc)
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Here is another world that I wish existed in a place other than my mind, but it doesn't and I don't own them and I can only place them into this delusion.
Summary: Greed and corruption rule two neighboring kingdoms: The Kingdom of Mountains and the Kingdom of Trees. Two princes are planning a coup. Their success or failure depends on the shadow in the woods, the rogue of the forests, the arrow in the sky.
A/N: Totally inspired by Robin Hood. Can you blame me?
All archery terms are taken from TradeBow.
Warning: het
Part 12:
The Barb
A point of an arrowhead that flows back behind the ferrule, preventing the head from being extracted easily. Illegal for bowhunting today.
Taeyang had a shallow, but long wound in his side, like a sword had just nicked him, but swiped up his ribs. Jiyong had a cut on his cheek, dripping blood down his neck.
Jaejoong tried to care, he really did, but the only thing that mattered was his wife. His beautiful, precious, gorgeous wife, in his arms again. Holding her close, breathing in her soul and her tears.
“Missed you,” Jaejoong said, wiping at her cheeks.
He was crying too.
“I missed you,” she whispered and went in for a kiss, despite their audience of guards.
“Mommy!”
Seohyun pulled away enough to smile at Minzy who suddenly ran and pressed against her side.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy!”
“Hi, darling.”
“Let your mom lay down,” Jaejoong said. “She’s really tired.”
“Baby okay?” Minzy asked, hands on her stomach.
“Yes, the baby is okay, but tired. Just like me.”
Minzy took her hand and led her to Jaejoong’s bed. “Sleep here. We’ve been having sleepovers all week!”
Jaejoong smiled and then turned his attention to Taeyang. He touched a hand to his heated forehead. “How’s the slice?”
Taeyang grunted, wincing at the pressure on his side.
“It’s not bad,” Daesung said. “Bad enough, but he won’t die.”
“Do we trust the doctor to stitch him up?” Jaejoong asked.
Jiyong shook his head, hand pressing a cloth against his cheek. “Not anymore. I have no idea who those men were.”
“I can do it,” Seungri said.
“I’ll go get your bag,” Daesung said, and he and Seunghyun left.
Jaejoong left Taeyang to Seungri and Jiyong, and he went to his bed. His beautiful pretty wife, in his bed again. It had to be a dream.
“Take my boots off,” she demanded. “My feet hurt.”
Jaejoong sat at her feet and removed her boots. He smiled and then went to the dressing room for the bowl of water and washcloth. With tender hands, he rubbed at his wife’s swollen feet and cleaned them all the way up to behind her knees. He’d have a chance soon to sit in the bath with her, wipe her arms and stomach. Breasts.
He cleared his throat. Not a good thing to be thinking with so many others in the room.
She smirked, like she knew exactly what he was thinking. Probably. She had always been just as eager to push him into bed as he was to be there.
“Tell me what happened,” Jaejoong whispered. He was aware of Minzy listening, but he needed the girl to understand that they were all in danger.
Seohyun did, starting from when she was kidnapped, rescued by the last person she expected to rescue her, through her stay with Max and clear to this battle under the North Tower, including when she threw the knife into the man’s face.
“We do not know where Micky, Ricky or the other one are,” Jiyong said. “They chased the unknown soldiers into the trees.”
Jaejoong rubbed his face in his hands. “This is ridiculous. The only one that would benefit from you dying is my uncle, but he’s told me to my face that he does not want to be king, and Taehyun is only fifteen!”
“Your uncle could be lying,” Jiyon said.
“In my bag,” Seohyun said and pointed. “Siwon gave me herbs to take, to induce me, have this baby early. If it’s a boy, then your uncle should back off, if it’s him that’s doing this”
Jaejoong shook his head. “I do not want you to take them. We do not know if he can be trusted. We don’t know if anyone can be trusted. And even if the baby does come early, he may send someone to kill it.”
Seohyun opened her mouth to argue and then shut it. “You’re right. But I am not having this baby for another month. So much can happen in that time.”
“It could come early.”
“Maybe.”
Jaejoong pulled her close and kissed her. “I love you. I love you so much. I’m so very glad you’re home.”
She smiled and tears fell down her cheeks. “I love you, too. Never thought I’d be in love with the little brat that shoved mud into my face when we were teenagers.”
Jaejoong nodded. “Same, but by the Trees, Seohyun, I am the luckiest man in our world.”
“Micky said you were going to be a shit king without me.”
“I would. I’m a shit prince, a shit person, just a pile of shit, without you.”
They kissed again, until Minzy asked, “What’s shit?”
There was silence in the room, and then they all laughed, and Jaejoong ruffled his daughter’s hair. “Everything. Right now. Everything. Except this. With you. With your mother.”
Minzy made a face. “Daddy, that makes no sense.”
Jaejoong smiled at his wife. “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
<|---------<<<
Changmin paced as the afternoon sun trekked across the sky. The brothers should have been back by now. He watched the people of his compound move through their day. Their little society was booming. They were going to have to add another well soon. Maybe another compost pile. But that would wait after the Festival of Stones. If he died ... well, then these people were free to do what they wanted with their little village.
But something was wrong. Changmin knew it. The brothers were never late.
He whistled for Heechul, who arrived a few moments later with Yunho right behind him. Instead of talking, Changmin used hand signals.
M and R still gone. Problems?
Heechul’s eyes flashed and he glanced toward the Kingdom of Trees.
Search? Yunho asked.
Changmin rubbed his face in his hands and nodded.
Take Hangeng with you
Hangeng gone.
“What?” Changmin asked.
Heechul shrugged. Didn’t check in last night. Don’t know where he is.
Changmin cursed. Find M and R.
The two of them nodded and left. Changmin stared toward the Kingdom of Trees for a little longer and then looked the other way, toward the mountains. Toward the stones. He hoped that Junsu was okay.
<|---------<<<
Heechul did not like the sound of nothing. The woods were quiet, too quiet. But it was hot outside. The height of the day. Birds, real birds, chirped. Animals shuffled around. Normal. But too quiet.
He whistled for Yoochun, first using their secret one and then the one that Changmin used for him.
There was no answer.
“We aren’t close enough,” Yunho said. “That’s all.”
“We’ve been out here for an hour.”
“You are so impatient, love. Don’t worry. They probably just sequestered themselves off somewhere to be alone. They do that a lot.”
Heechul sneered. “Disgusting.”
Yunho snorted. “That they’re in love?”
“Shut up. They can’t be.”
“Then it’s just lust, something you know all too well.”
“Fuck you.”
“Stop this,” Yunho said. “I don’t care what they do with each other as long as they don’t shoot me in the back, and I trust them not to. They’re part of our team.”
Heechul flung his hand at him in dismissal. “Which is why I am out here looking for them. Shut your mouth.”
Yunho frowned and Heechul huffed, and sped ahead of him. Smart, Yunho did not try to catch up to him, but matched his pace. Heechul led them off the main trail. He knew that the brothers rarely took the trail, not when they knew these woods like the back of their hands. Or each other’s mouth.
Heechul sneered. Sure, he had been a whore, but he’d had never, ever touch his sister the way those two touched each other. And they thought it was a secret. Some of the underlings probably didn’t know about them, but anyone with two eyes and a brain in their skulls should have noticed it right away.
He whistled every fifteen minutes. And then every ten. Yunho whistled too, his sound going a bit further out than Heechul’s.
The sun was setting when they finally got an answer. But not quite. Obviously it was not a bird, but the pattern of whistles did not make sense.
They met each other’s eyes and headed west, into the setting sun, toward the noises. Heechul whistled first Yoochun and then Yoohwan’s codes.
Again, a call, this one a bit more clear. It was Yoochun, a panic call, followed by something that sounded like, “Hurry up, hurt.”
Yunho ran, Heechul moved a bit faster, guarding his back carefully, keeping his ears open for other noises. He did not necessarily like the brothers, but as Yunho said, they were part of the team. If they had been attacked, who knew if there were others around in these forests.
When they finally found them, Heechul almost wished they hadn’t. Yoochun was distraught, next to his brother’s bloody body.
Dead? Maybe. He couldn’t tell. It took Yunho a long time to pry Yoochun away. Heechul snagged the eldest brother and yanked, ignoring his scream of pain and anguish, while Yunho checked Yoohwan. There was a deep wound in Yoohwan’s side. There was a horse nearby. Dead, but why?
“Fuck,” Yunho shouted. “Heechul. Run back. Hurry. Bring horses, Siwon, a cart. Hurry. Hwannie is dying. Go.”
Heechul needed answers, but he wasn’t stubborn or selfish enough to demand them. He turned around and ran, whistling for help as soon as he was close enough to the compound to be heard.
He got a few responding whistles, but it was Changmin’s call that he waited for. He called for Siwon, Kangin, Ryeowook, everyone he could, until Changmin intercepted him in the woods.
“No time,” Heechul said. “Tell the others to get a horse and a cart. Yoohwannie is dying.”
Changmin swore and followed Heechul on foot, whistling the commands for the others to follow. It was too much time, and Heechul feared they’d be too late. It’d seemed they walked so far before, but now, running, the forests and path blurred by him, narrowing down to just being there, on time, fast enough.
Changmin fell to Yunho’s side, asking for an update.
Heechul went to Yoochun, who was leaning against a tree, eyes on his brother’s form. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Ankle,” Yoochun said. “Broken, twisted, hurt. Just ...”
Heechul tittered at him and went to his ankle. He unlaced Yoochun’s boot, but his foot was too swollen to take it off. He ended up using his knife, cutting through the thick leather and horsehair lacings. His skin was purple and the foot from ankle to shin was about twice its normal size.
“Tell me what happened,” Heechul demanded while ripping up the pants on that leg. He snapped at someone for water, and then dipped the cloth into it before pressing and tying them around Yoochun’s ankle.
Yoochun winced at the pressure and the coldness. “Don’t ... know. Just ... the horse bolted and threw us.”
“And before? Yoohwan did not get that sword wound from falling off a horse.”
Yoochun scowled. “Hangeng.”
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “I have no idea who he was working for, but I put an arrow through his face after he and his group tried to kidnap Yoohwan.”
“The princess?”
“Safe, the last I saw her.”
“You aren’t making sense. Start over.”
He started at the beginning, when they noticed Hangeng following them, and then at the wall of the North Tower, when they were attacked by fifteen. He gritted his teeth through the telling of Hangeng separating them, and then of Hangeng revealing he was working with those who attacked on orders from Jaejoong’s uncle.
“But you didn’t verify all this and just killed them all,” Heechul said.
“They were raping him, so fuck you.”
Heechul sighed. He slapped his leg, and smirked at Yoochun’s yelp. “I need to go get some thick branches to brace your leg. Don’t move.” He stood up and went to some nearby underbrush.
“Could still take you out with an arrow, pretty whore.”
“Micky!” Yunho shouted from where he and Siwon and Changmin were working on cleaning and stitching Yoohwan’s side.
Heechul waved it away. “He called me pretty, so it’s okay.” He took a couple of branches and then went back to Yoochun. “I don’t think your bones are broken, but I’m sure I can fix that.”
“Fuck you.”
“Siwon will have to look at it after the swelling goes down. What happened to the horse?”
Yoochun bit his lip as Heechul wrapped the branches with more cloth, immobilizing his leg all the way up to his knee. “Don’t know. Something spooked her; she jolted and threw us. She broke her leg. Had to ... had to cut ... stop her suffering.”
Heechul frowned. “Even with a broken foot, you did that?”
Yoochun’s eyes shut, a tear finally falling, and Heechul paused, staring wide eyed and slack jawed. Yoochun ... was ... crying. Yoochun. Micky Yoochun, who could slit someone’s throat without thinking twice.
“Stop that,” Heechul said and patted his cheek. “Men are only allowed to cry when they’re are born and when they’ve been stung by a bee.”
Yoochun sort of smiled and sort of sobbed, and Heechul shook his head and continued wrapping his leg.
<|---------<<<
Despite Siwon’s suggestion (and subsequent protest), Changmin put both Yoohwan and Yoochun in one bed. Yoohwan rested better next to his brother and Yoochun would not rest unless he always knew how Yoohwan was resting.
One hand stayed against Yoohwan’s side.
Changmin watched them from the doorway. Both were asleep. Yoohwan, much like Junsu, would need lots of rest. His chances of waking were much better than Junsu’s, but infection was still a high concern.
“I get it,” Yoochun said, voice gravely.
And okay, maybe they both weren’t asleep.
“Get what?” Changmin asked.
“You asked me before, if I knew what it felt like to see your heart yanked from your chest with no way of knowing when it will return. I get it now.”
Changmin cleared his throat. “I’m sorry that you had to find out.”
Yoochun twisted his upper body, face turning toward his brother’s. “The Festival of Stones is in one week.”
Changmin sighed. “I know.”
“Do not miss.”
“I won’t.”
Changmin blinked and turned away, not wanting to watch Yoochun watch his little brother. He wiped at the tears and headed for his own room.
Part 13: The Ascham
Part 11: The Nocking Point
Part 10: The Target Panic
Part 9: The Fishtailing
Part 8: The Sight Window
Part 7: The Aim
Part 6: The Bracer
Part 5: The Fletching
Part 4: The Limbs
Part 3: The Anchor
Part 2: The Grip
Part 1: The Shaft
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