"Yoongi."
"Mm."
"You haven't spoken once since we got here."
"Mm."
"Are you okay?"
"Mm."
Jimin pulled the elder into a hug, drying his own melancholy tears in his thick-lined robe. Yoongi's arms stayed dead at their sides, lifeless as his countenance.
"I miss him too, Yoongi-hyung," Jimin whispered, sighing shakily. "It's only been a day and I want to go home."
Namjoon sat inside his palanquin, looking down at the food Seokjin had so carefully made for him with almost no intention to eat it. His throat burned with sorrow, and his hands trembled, clicking the chopsticks in his hands irregularly with the beating of his own empty heart.
"But we have to be strong," Jimin whispered, calming himself. "We have to. Jungkook is up there, caring for the entire army. Hoseok is caring for the entire palace. Seokjin is caring for the entire nation. Can you believe that?"
Yoongi's stone facade broke down from the inside.
"The ones we love are fighting. We have to fight too."
Yoongi, finally listening to Jimin for the first time after the journey, reciprocated the embrace, keeping Hoseok's memory alive and burning in his mind.
"Okay," he nodded, cracking his lips into a low smile. "Let's set up, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Jimin and Yoongi pulled their horses to adjacent trees in the forest, tying their reins to the sturdy trunks and patting their hides, silently commanding them to be good.
Namjoon took a bite of the kimchi, closing his eyes and savoring the taste that Seokjin created with his own beautiful, soft hands.
He wished those hands could hold his one more time.
Jungkook stepped into the man-made ring with another soldier, pulling his wet black hair over his head and running his hands over his slick, bare skin. Three fights in and he had already gone shirtless, but his energy was far from even coming close to depletion.
"Come on," he taunted, "show me how well Jimin trained you."
The soldier gritted his teeth and ran towards Jungkook, moved by his burning muscles and the cheers of the crowd of men surrounding him. Jungkook's knees bent a fraction of a second later, then popped back up -- propelling him into the air and spinning him like a top until he fell back on his feet, behind the soldier's charge.
By the time he had realized Jungkook's evasion, it was too late to stop moving. He ran right into the right side of the crowd, knocking men over like an angry bull charging at its fighter.
"Who's next?"
The laughing and cheering stopped as men looked at each other in uncertainty. It fell so silent that not even the shuffling of feet could be heard among the giant forest of soldiers, unwilling to face Jungkook.
"Is this how you would act in war?" Jungkook asked, crossing his arms. "When the tide has turned against you, and death stares right down into your soul, would you run from it?"
They maintained their silence, but it crossed over from reluctance to shame.
"Don't avoid your fear! Own it! Because courage isn't being fearless! It's being afraid and going on no matter what!"
"Yes, sir!"
Nodding their heads, they got into fighting positions -- even the one that Jungkook defeated.
"When your country counts on you...when your parents, your brothers, and your sisters count on you...when your friends count on you...don't let them down! Even if you know that what lies ahead is death!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Now find a way to defeat me! Even if you are defeated, get back up and try again!"
This time, they came at Jungkook in numbers -- attacking from all sides and forcing him to choose where to defend himself, knowing he couldn't defend or evade everything.
Jungkook smiled, preparing his body for the extreme pain coming his way.
Haha, this shit is gonna make me sore for weeks.
Seonbi's soft, even breaths in and out mirrored her daughter's, filling their chests and stomachs with cool air and flattening them back out with its departure, only to arrive again to continue the cycle. Seonbi was laid to rest on her back, sleeping the weakness in her limbs away while Rinji was due to awaken any moment, to cry for her mother's milk to nourish her and send her off to dreamland again. Taehyung sat in between the two, holding his beloved's hand in her bed and touching Rinji's soft cheek in her cradle with his other palm.
"How long have you been sitting there?" Hoseok asked, entering the room with a tray of tea and what looked like thin slices of peaches, apples and other fruit on a platter, having realized that Taehyung sat in the same position he was sitting when the doctor initially left the room.
"As long as they've been sleeping," he whispered, energized for someone who'd been holding virtually the same position for two hours or so.
"How...why...?"
"Mind over matter," Taehyung smiled, not moving either of his hands from the two girls he loved. "They give me energy."
Hoseok looked away, putting the tray down and sinking himself in guilt and slight jealousy at the beautiful family Taehyung had managed to create. His mind wandered back a week before the moment presiding, when he had chastised Taehyung for leaving Seonbi and Rinji to see what was going on in the palace hall. Hoseok had left them as well -- he realized after their encounter with the assassin that he was just as much to blame as the lord of the north was, and he had never apologized for it.
"Taehyung-sshi..." he began, sinking to his knees before the noble.
"What's wrong?" Taehyung replied, tilting his head.
"That one day...when I told you that you didn't have your priorities straight"--
"You were right, Hoseo--"
"No, no," he shook his head, smiling sadly. "I shouldn't have left them alone. I'm sorry."
"I should be apologizing to you, Hoseok-nim," Taehyung sighed, looking over at Seonbi, then Rinji. "I should have never left them. I'll never leave them again."
"I just...I want what you have, Taehyung," Hoseok said, letting his true feelings slip.
Taehyung's head shot up. "What do you mean?"
"I want a family. I want to love two people...I already have Yoongi, but I want a little boy or girl to show off and throw in the air and sing lullabies to. But...that can't ever happen..."
"Who says it can't happen?" Taehyung asked, shrugging his shoulders. "You may not be able to have a son by blood, Hoseok-nim, but blood doesn't make a relationship."
Hoseok's eyes were fixed on the dark orbs that blinked on Taehyung's face.
"Blood makes a father and child by the letter, but love makes them truly bonded in spirit."
"Taehyungie..."
Seonbi's soft, fatigued voice drew the young man over to kiss her milky white face.
"M-My daughter..." she whispered, sitting up against layers upon layers of soft pillows. "My daughter."
Nodding his head, Taehyung finally moved his hands to pick up the still sleeping Rinji. Gently handling her, he carried the baby over to her mother, who held her with a bright, genuine smile on her face.
"Go write to Yoongi, Hoseok-nim," Taehyung said, smiling at the doctor. "Tell him that you don't need to be related to be a father or have a son."
Hoseok nodded and ran towards the door, accidentally bumping into the young man coming into the infirmary.
"I'm sorry -- Jungkook?"
"Hyung," Jungkook panted, extremely out of breath.
"Come inside! What's wrong"--
"I can't. I'm with the guards putting the palace on lockdown. Someone's broken in, and we can't let anyone out."