Across the Stars || 진기

.four.

.four.

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"I suppose its at least a miracle that he has lived this long. I will have the guards carry him to the palace, and I'll have the doctor meet us there."

-

Jinki covered himself with the blanket as he changed into his dry set of clothes. But he was already shaking, and his skin was cold as ice. When he was done, Soohyun offered his younger brother his clothes to wear too, so that he could have extra layers for warmth. But Jinki refused at first. He only agreed when no amount of clothing could warm him up and Heiran practically forced him. For the rest of the boat ride to Goryeo, which was still about two more hours long, Heiran spent it cuddled up to Jinki, tears silently streaming down her face. Jinki had his eyes closed and slept for about an hour, but when he woke up and heard Heiran's sniffles, a frown formed on his lips.

He looked down in her direction. She was clinging onto his arm for dear life, and he was still shivering like there was a blizzard outside. Only this time his skin had gone from being ice cold to being blazing hot. A cold sweat was running down his face. 

"Hey," He nudged her gently to get her attention. His throat still felt raw from all the sea water he ingested and it hurt to talk. "Why are you crying? What happened?"

At that moment he was more concerned about her than his own personal well being. He knew that him being sick was a regular occurrence. There was a chance he would die, but he was prepared for that. He was no longer afraid of death. He had learned at a young age that maybe he was not meant to walk the earth for a very long time. But he would enjoy the time that he did have.

Heiran looked up at him, her eyes full of relief at seeing him awake. "I'm just worried about you, Jin. That's all." She said through her shaky voice.

Even through how sea sick and how cold, and how bad he felt at that moment, he managed to force a smile onto his face. He just wanted to make her feel better and reassure her that everything was alright. Even if it wasn't. Trying to make the situation a bit light, he told her, "I was worried about you. Even though eomma taught us how to swim that one time, you weren't exactly very good at it."

His teasing comment managed to get her to crack a small smile. That smile was soon wiped off her face when a gust of wind hit and he trembled a little more violently. He was trying to hard to control his shaking body. But his own body was deceiving him. He needed some medicine, and he needed it quick. But in the middle of the ocean, it was clear he would not be getting any for the moment. They would have to wait until they reached Goryeo, and Han told them that wouldn't be for another hour. 

"You're trembling, Jin. You have a fever." She cried, now burying her face into his chest, her slender arms tightening around him. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't tried so hard to get my bracelet back. But...I couldn't let it go just like that. You gave it to me and it means the universe to me. It only means so much because it came from you."

Jinki closed his eyes and slowly drew his arms around her too. "Everything will be okay." He said to her softly, a voice barely above a whisper. 

Soon, sleep overtook him again, and when he woke up next, he felt a discomfort. Still a terrible cold, but it was to a degree that it was even hurting his bones. His head was pounding, and the sea sickness was coming back. But he was woken by a light thump as their boat reached the shore. 

Already waiting for them was the thirteenth prince, Wang Baek-ah. He was accompanied by palace guards. Ever since So's son had perished in the plague that took the lives of all the other nobles and royals, he had been appointed the temporary head of state. He did not like the title of king and had stated as his only condition for taking on the temporary role that he would step down as soon as his nephew Soohyun was ready to step in as monarch of Goryeo. He smiled when he saw his family, the only family he had left other than Jung. His eyes saw two familiar faces, and then six new ones. Well, they were new to him now, since the last time he had seen them, they were all infants and toddlers.