Original request by PurpleButTAEfly
Part 2 request by PurpleButTAEfly
Taegi
--------
Taehyung had thought that he was out of danger now. It had been months since he'd had a serious asthma attack, and his alert had faded again. It wouldn't happen, he told himself. He was always overly optimistic. Sometimes, he forgot that he was still subject to whatever the sickfic writers would throw at him. He forever would be.
--------
"You alright?" Hoseok asked.
Taehyung shrugged. He'd been tired all day. Now, as they sat down to eat dinner, it was on full display for all the others to see.
After Hoseok made his comment, Taehyung saw all the others glance to look at him at least once.
"Hyung?" Jungkook asked.
"Quit it." Taehyung shook his head. Wow, today they were actually having rice. See, being Asian meant being happy about these little things.
"You've been so worn out," Jimin said. "Don't think that we haven't noticed."
Taehyung suppressed an eye roll. They weren't noticing anything, just making up nonsense. There wasn't any scientific reasoning behind anything they ever said.
"I'm fine," he said.
He saw the others sigh and reabsorb themselves into their food. He knew they weren't convinced. They were going to sit there and worry about something that wasn't even an actual issue. There were so many real issues out in the world, and Taehyung was sure they would be able to solve all of them if they put in the same amount of effort.
Seriously, Namjoon could create world peace if he used his brain hard enough.
-------
The clock was striking midnight. Taehyung could hear its distant ding as he shot awake.
For the longest time, he'd been struggling to get to sleep. His room felt too stuffy. The windows were open, his covers had been thrown off, and he was wearing a loose set of pyjamas, but yet...
He had tossed and turned for a while before falling into a restless sleep. But now he was wide awake again, and he literally could not breathe. His vision was blinking white at the edges.
Taehyung tried to take a deep breath. His shoulders rose and his lungs tried to expand with the hope of incoming air. All it did was reduce him to a nasty coughing fit. The coughs burned his throat. He sat up quickly.
Gripping the bedsheets tightly with his fingers, Taehyung tried to calm himself down. The trick with these attacks was to be calm. At least, that's what he'd told himself anyway.
He tried to take another deep breath. In... out... oh fuck. He descended into another fit of coughing. Taehyung was sure that his face was red. Quickly, he tried to wrack his mind. Where had he put his inhaler? Hoseok had told him to put it somewhere safe and memorable. Taehyung meant to have done that, but you know, he was so busy and so tired and...
With his chest still wheezing and cracking, Taehyung slid off the bed to look for his inhaler. The first thing to check was the nightstand.
The shelves were chock full of random snack wrappers, chocolate, painkillers, and other completely useless stuff. Taehyung poked through it for a while, but he soon gave up.
Instead, he flopped to the floor, leaning against his bed. Each breath felt like a marathon. With the lack of oxygen, he could feel his head hurting. Taehyung curled each of his fingers into a fist, then uncurled it, again and again. He tried to focus on that.
A rush of air seemed to tickle his throat. Coughs erupted from his mouth, and he doubled over. Taehyung slammed a hand against his mouth. After every cough, he gasped for air, the wheeze very loud and apparent.
Okay, maybe the others' worries weren't so misguided after all.
He couldn't find his inhaler. He was the middle of the worst asthma attack he'd had in months. This was the worst night in his life.
With all the strength he could muster, he yelled out someone's name.
"Jin hyung!" he screamed.
------
Yoongi was just trying to vacuum his room in peace. Was he aware that it was the middle of the night? Yes. But the floor was dirty and it needed to be cleaned.
The whirr of his vaccum cleaner wasn't all that loud, but he'd closed his door just in case. The last thing he needed was Hoseok and Jin lecturing him for the one thing that he never did - clean.
He'd just vacuumed himself into a corner. With a quiet sigh (and lots of internal frustration), he began to wheel the vacuum out of it. There was a big pile of clothing on the floor. Yoongi was just about to pick it up, but then he heard something.
Someone seemed to call Jin's name. He couldn't make out who it was.
Yoongi paused, waiting for the sound to repeat itself.
It never came.
Carefully, Yoongi stepped out of his room. The hallway was dark. Clearly, Jin had not heard whoever was calling for him.
He walked down the hallway, trying to figure out who had called. Yoongi decided to wake Jin up, too.
He'd just passed by Taehyung's room when he heard someone shuffling around. Yoongi tilted his head. Now, who would be doing that at this hour? Nobody that he knew...
Taehyung?
Suddenly, he realized what was going on. Taehyung's tiredness from the entire day could have led to something. Was he sick?
With his heart in his throat, Yoongi pushed open Taehyung's door. He flicked on the light.
Taehyung was on the floor, his back against his bed. He glanced up at Yoongi with forlorn eyes. Yoongi could barely believe what he was seeing. Flashbacks of that dance practice ran through his head. Oh no... what if something like that was going on again?
"Taehyung, what... I mean, did you... did you take your inhaler?" Shit, Yoongi was bad at this. There was a reason why Taehyung had called out Jin's name, not his.
The blank look on Taehyung's face was enough to make Yoongi burst into tears. But he held on, trying to figure out what to do next.
Taehyung was still breathing heavily, his face a weird mixture of paleness and redness from the effort. His hand was curled into a tight fist. Yoongi could see that his knuckles were white with the effort.
"Taehyung, did you?"
Taehyung seemed to stare right through him. Yoongi was completely baffled. What was he going to do?
He came forward, his hand automatically reaching out to comfort Taehyung. Yoongi then turned his attention to the nightstand. There were things strewn everywhere, meaning that Taehyung had been looking for something. His inhaler, probably.
Internally, Yoongi cursed Taehyung out. If only he was a bit more responsible with important objects. If Yoongi had an inhaler, he would make sure to keep it somewhere safe.
"Where did you last see it?"
Taehyung shrugged. He looked up at Yoongi again, fear evident.
Yoongi sighed. He went into the bathroom next. He tore into the cabinet, fingers slipping past boxes of painkillers, shaving equipment, and hair styling supplies. He opened all the drawers. All of them had stuff filled to the brim because Kim Taehyung was a hoarder and couldn't throw anything away. Yoongi was sure he would find tissues dating back to his trainee days if he dug a little deeper.
When he finally knelt down to open the last one, his heart was already sinking.
But lo and behold, there it was, stuffed inside a little pouch. Taehyung's inhaler emerged from inside like it was the lord and saviour. It was in such a random spot that Yoongi nearly started to laugh.
His smile quickly faded when he went back to Taehyung. The blank look in his eyes had gotten worse, and he was starting to look distant.
"I found it, here."
At those words, Taehyung seemed to liven up. He took the inhaler from Yoongi's outstretched hand, gently placing it in his mouth. His lungs wheezed again as he gulped in a few sips of air. Letting his arm fall back into his lap, he tried to relax.
Yoongi stood there, watching him. He couldn't remember what exactly he'd felt back during that dance practice, but he did remember the crippling worry. He felt completely powerless in the situation. Now, he felt the exact same thing. He didn't know what to do or how to help.
So he just stayed quiet, observing. Taehyung took more doses of the inhaler, but he was becoming more relaxed now. The tight lines on his face were starting to disappear.
"Thanks," he managed to sound out after a while.
"No problem," Yoongi said. "You... good now?"
Taehyung nodded. "Yeah."
Yoongi decided that this probably wasn't the time to start a lecture on the proper place to store inhalers. That was for another day. Maybe he could give the lecture in front of Jin, and then he could get congratulated for being the best hyung ever. He smiled just thinking about it.
"Has it been this bad recently?" he asked instead.
"I don't know," Taehyung replied. He shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Is this why you were so tired for the past little while?"
"Huh?" Taehyung seemed confused. "Oh... um, as I said, I don't know."
Yoongi sighed. Great. This was the kind of carelessness he had to deal with. No wonder his blood pressure was so high.
Then he realized something he could do.
"Get up, come on. Lay down on your bed, not on the floor."
When Taehyung didn't budge, Yoongi held out his hand.
"Come on," he repeated. More concerned, he added, "Or do you still feel sick?"
"No, just winded."
"Oh. Well, get up then. You'll be more comfortable on the bed."
Taehyung finally grabbed onto Yoongi's hand, pulling himself up. Yoongi nearly fell forward with how hard he pulled. Taehyung was really strong. Unfortunately, he was just a small weakling who, yes, was unable to hurt a fly-
"Thanks hyung, you probably saved my life," Taehyung said once he'd curled up on the bed. His voice was muffled. He sounded exhausted.
Yoongi awkwardly sat down on the edge of the bed. He patted Taehyung's shoulder.
"I'm taking you to the doctor tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Taehyung suddenly shifted his position. "Tomorrow? I thought you were busy."
"I'll cancel everything. You're more important."
"Wow, hyung," Taehyung said. "What have you been reading? Why are you so cheesy these days?"
Yoongi blushed. "I..." He couldn't explain the things he read, so he just trailed off.
Taehyung looked at him with a knowing glance. Without any words at all, he probably understood.
They were pretty similar, to be completely honest.
--------
Yoongi woke up another time during the night, his head on Taehyung's pillow. His arm was thrown lazily around his waist. Yoongi pressed him closer to Taehyung and stroked his chest. Poor kid was still wheezing. That doctor's appointment was his utmost priority.
---------
Finally, Taehyung woke up when he heard his phone screaming out his alarm. He groaned.
Reaching out an arm to turn it off, he found that he was unable to move. Yoongi was wrapped around him so tightly that he was completely immobile. Taehyung grinned. Carefully, he peeled Yoongi's arm off from around his waist so he could lean forward and grab his phone.
The alarm's beeping finally stopped.
He tumbled back into Yoongi's embrace. It was still a bit troublesome to breathe, but it wasn't as bad as it was last night. Thank the heavens that Yoongi had been there. If not, he would probably be laying half-dead on the floor right now.
As he buried his face into the pillows, he found himself getting sleepy again. There was a lot he had to do today, but the others would probably cut him some slack when they heard about what happened last night.
--------
"Hello?"
Jin's screeching threw Yoongi out of his slumber.
"Why are you here in Taehyung's room?" Jin was standing in the doorway, face red. "You kept the light on in your room the entire night, and the vaccum cleaner was still on. It's smoking now."
"Ugh, hyung, that's not possible," Yoongi mumbled sleepily.
"Go see for yourself."
"Ugh."
"Why are you here anyway?"
"Taehyung." Yoongi gestured over.
Jin glanced at the inhaler on the nightstand. His whole demeanour seemed to change. "What?"
"I'll take him to the doctor today, don't worry."
"Oh no, it's getting bad again, isn't it?"
"It will be okay. It's just to make sure. The inhaler worked well," Yoongi said.
"Oh, okay, good."
Jin seemed to calm down for a moment. But in a moment, just like Yoongi expected, he pulled the blanket off the two of them and both Taehyung and Yoongi were forced off the bed.
--------
this took me exactly two years.
it's entirely my fault so if you have to blame anyone, blame my chemistry teacher.
ummm requests are closed!! ty for reading!!
2132 words