Bound by Blood

Chapter 97- late night conclusions

GYEOM POV:

When (Y/N) turns up at the nest at night, alone and with a determined look on her face despite the fact her hair is slightly tousled in the wind and her hands are tight around her, because she arrived sans jacket, it's a sight that pushes everyone in the coven into action. Pronto.

Jinyoung hyung takes one look at her, at the way she shivers at the doorstep before bustling off immediately, making a beeline for the kitchen and his adjacent and very trusty stocked-up store. JB hyung and Mark hyung rush to their feet to tug her inside, hands gentle for all that their actions are rushed and slightly panicked. Jackson hyung and Youngjae hyung are quick to draw her between them, immediately fussing and drawing a throw over her- eyes flaring red as they try to assess what's wrong. And Bambam's already jumped up to twist the dial up to a warmer temperature, and even though we know she's changed- everything that happens is a flurry of habitual movement.

And the sight of her shivering had just set everyone off.

It wasn't that she was cold in the same sense any more but she hadn't lost her human response to the weather- it was toon soon for her to lose those habits.

And that's why when JB hyung sinks to his knees in front of her, he looks at her just as he had all those years ago when he'd seen her as someone as his, someone he wanted to cherish and protect and dote over just as much as they had to me. When he'd quickly grown to realise that the bond we shared was different, special.

He looks at her like he's seeing her for the first time.

Or perhaps like the first time as seeing her as vulnerable all over again. When she'd woken up shaking and crying  one night at the nest, when her heartbroken haunted cries had him bolting out of bed and rushing to get to her, overwhelmed with the instinct to protect.

He's seeing her as someone he wants to cradle in the embrace of his arms and never let go.

I step forward, as if hyung's gesture is what snaps me out of my daze, out of the slightly disconnected way I'd been looking at her.

Because those eyes of hers turn to me, flicker red and she opens her mouth and filled with vulnerability speaks.

"Please help me." she says, so pleading, so broken and bruised that I'm already nodding before I know what it is.

Because for her I would do anything, give anything. For her I wouldn't hesitate to go above and beyond all extremes to help even in the slightest. Because she's suffered far too much, because she's hurt too much. Because when I see her I remember the young version of her I'd met, who'd offered me help and a hand up when I was beaten down, who despite the hostility I gave her, she welcomed me with nothing but sweetness.

Because we'd grown up together, because even though we'd come from different races, different backgrounds, and different lives- we'd melded into each other's so easily.

"We'll help." JB hyung replies, there's nothing but assurance and firmness to his voice, because he wouldn't hesitate a single second, no-one would when it came to her. 

And as Jinyoung hyung steps back in bearing a mug of hot chocolate and some vials in the other hand, shooting her a stern scolding look- I realise that it was something extreme that drove her to this, that drove her to leaving her nest and coming to us; when she'd never wandered alone since her attack. And I didn't know whether I had the courage or strength to handle it.

Whether any of us did.

----

My arms tighten around her.

"What?!" Jackson hyung says, voice raised in anger and rage and disbelief.

She nods, slightly moulding herself to me, pressing herself back as she tries to make herself smaller, to shrink away from the angry tone.