Chapter Text
Ten carefully opens the window and lets the outside air fill his room. Leaning on the ledges, he breathed in the warm, happy scent of spring. With eyes closed, he imagines how the grasses on the garden would feel beneath the soles of his feet. The caretakers would have cut down the overgrown greens and the flowers will be blossoming anytime now. He can already see behind his eyes the beautiful variety of colors of the flowers in the garden.
Today is not one of his good days but the thought of spring and the fact that he is still here and able to witness it makes him feel better and stronger.
His blood is buzzing with joyful energy when a knock on the door came.
“Yes,” he says and turns towards the door.
The knob turns and the door opens, only to reveal someone he totally did not expect.
All at once, he feels as if all the air in the room is sucked away. His raging heartbeat rings loudly behind his ears and he feels his knees weaken that it’s a wonder he’s still standing at all.
“Hello, Ten.” The visitor greets.
Ten smiles at him but his hands are trembling from where he’s hiding them behind his back.
“Jaehyun,” he greets in reply, the name tasting like acid and wine in his tongue.
A pregnant silence descends upon them, replacing all the spring air in the room.
Jaehyun looks back at him but he stays right where he’s standing when he entered the room. He makes no other move aside from closing the door behind him.
A part of Ten is relieved because despite the smile on his face his mind is at odds. He doesn’t know how to deal with the situation at hand. And it seems like Jaehyun doesn’t either.
But a part of him, the bigger part of him, aches to touch. Ten wants to feel Jaehyun against him. It had been so long since he’d have someone close to him. But he’s way too fragile now, made thin by all the medicine running through his veins that he is more afraid he’d see him crumble at his touch.
So Ten opts to just look at him, to really look at him. It’s been years since the last time they saw each other. He still has that cold look on his face that gets mistaken as being arrogant and forbidding by most people but little did they know that it was just a façade. He knows no one else who was as warm as Jaehyun.
It must’ve been a really long time because now he can feel and see the air of maturity that wasn’t there before.
Suddenly, he sees Jaehyun’s eyes are drawn to the pile of books and magazines on the small table at the end of the bed. Ten tries not to flinch realizing what Jaehyun is looking at. But before he can try to get his attention back there’s another knock on the door.
Ten instinctively looks at the clock on the wall across his bed. It is time for his medicine. A petite nurse enters carrying a tray of medicine and smiling at him.
“The doctor said you’d have a visitor but it’s time for your medicine now.”
“I understand,” smiling at his favorite nurse as he makes his way back to the bed, decidedly not sparing Jaehyun another glance. He’s grateful that his knees did not give up on him as he crosses the small distance between the window and the bed.
Lying down, Ten sees Jaehyun moving to the wall in the corner. He cannot clearly see it but he can feel his eyes on him. Ten tries to breathe properly, conditioning himself to relax. Jaehyun is here, he found him. There are no more reasons to hide now.
The nurse sets up the tourniquet on his right arm and proceeded to inject the medicine. He cannot help wincing a little as he feels the medicine enter his bloodstream through the tiny vein on his arm.
In a flash, Jaehyun is by his bedside gently reaching for his left hand and securing it between both of his.
He smiles gratefully at him.
The nurse takes off the tourniquet and efficiently puts all her medical kit back to the tray. Gently patting Ten’s hair, she bows down to both of them and left the room.
Jaehyun is still looking at him. Softly, he brings up Ten’s hand and feels the back of it against his cheek. Closing his eyes he lets out a sigh, his breath ghosting over Ten’s skin. A different kind of warmth spreads inside Ten as he watches him.
“You found me,” he starts and his tone is endearing. He feels the medicine taking over slowly.
Opening his eyes, Jaehyun looks back at him with a gentle smile on his lips. He squeezes his hand in his before speaking, “You were not easy to track.”
“I always knew you’d find me,” he returns his smile, “that you’d be the one to find me.” The medicine is making him feel drunk and sleepy but he knows that what he said is not untrue.
At the back of his mind, Ten kind of always knew that it was Jaehyun who will come looking for him.
“That’s why you’ve always been my favorite,” he adds in a sleepy voice, eyes closing and his breath evening out.