Chapter Text
Haein
It starts how it always does: a vague sense of unease. Then, a shadow across her eyes, which evolves into full blown visual hallucinations.
One moment, she’s standing between the kitchen and living room areas of Hyunwo’s minuscule apartment, and the next, she’s standing in a a lavender field.
“Heinah?” Hyunwoo’s alarmed voice sounds very far away.
“I can’t see you,” she tells him, extending her arms in front of her. He takes her hand in his. Haein thinks it’s not fair, that she’s only been here for two days, and yet this is happening again. She wants to be back in that elevator, laughing in front of his neighbor. She wants everything but this.
“I’m here, I’m right here,” Hyunwoo repeats.
She can feel him. But it doesn't stop the darkness from taking her.
Hyunwoo
His heart falls through the floorboards of his chest straight into his stomach when she collapses.
He catches her, thankful he was close enough, and then picks her up and places her on the couch.
The doctor had told them she could be prone to fainting spells, as the disease advanced. He keeps his hand on her cheek while she’s unconscious, his other hand pressed against her chest, following her heartbeat. It must not be more than two or three minutes until she starts stirring, but the memory of her collapse during the press conference and the terrible hours that followed, waiting for her brain swelling to go down, begging for her to wake up…it makes every second feel like a calvary.
And then, finally, her beautiful eyes open.
“Hey…” he says softly. “How are you feeling?”
She frowns. “Tired.”
She offers him a small smile then, and his heartbeat slowly returns to normal. She's okay. She'll be okay.
“Do you want to rest in bed?” he offers. She nods, and he picks her up, an arm under her back and an arm under her legs. He carries her to bed. He lays her down. Hyunwoo notes with a start that she’s…staring at his arm?
“Actually…maybe the couch was a better idea,” she says breathily. She's gotten the color back into her cheeks, she seems like herself again. He obeys wordlessly.
“Yeah, okay.” He picks her up again, and walks until he is back in the living room area. He pays attention to her actions then: the way her palm ever so casually rests on his bicep. Her eyes trained on his body.
“Are you…putting me down?” she asks, when he doesn’t move for a moment.
“Not yet,” he whispers in her ear. And then... “You like this.”
It’s not an acussation, just an amused fact. Haein likes when he makes her coffee first thing in the morning. She also likes when he carries her bridal style, as he just has realized.
Haein hides her face against his neck. She doesn’t dignify his words with a response.
“Actually…” he trails off. “Shall we do a tour of the apartment like this?” he asks, and then hikes her up in his arms. She squeals, sounding very young.
“Stop,” Haein says, but her sternness is betrayed by the embarrassed smile she's sporting when she pulls away from his neck.
Hyunwoo can’t resist kissing her then, as he holds her.
It's soft, gentle. A sweet show of affection rather than a promise for more—and he adores that he can kiss her now. That they're in a place where this is possible. They made love again for the first time in years their first night in this apartment.
Far too soon, his arms grow tired. She barely weights anything, but he’s not strong enough to do this indefinitely. (He’ll add it to the list, the secret list he carries in his heart with all of his hopes for the future. Let her get better, please. If she gets better, I’ll start lifting weights every day so I can carry her whenever she wants. She'll be like one of those girl goddesses I saw in a documentary one—her feet will never touch the ground if I'm around. Just let her get better.)
“You can put me down now,” she says, and he sets her down on the couch. Sweat has broken out in the back of his neck. "I'm hungry," she tells him.
"Oh, of course. I’ll make us some lunch, okay?"
"I'm...hungry," she says again.
"I’ll only take a minute. Unless you prefer to order something…?"
Haein huffs. She flicks her hair over her shoulder, and stares intently at him. "Not hungry for food."
Hyunwoo frowns. "What do you—ah. Oh."
She looks towards the bedroom, then at him. Then shrugs haughtily.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asks. "You fainted..."
"I think I'm supposed to lay down and get my blood flowing to recover," she tells him, cheeks pink.
Hyunwoo picks her up at lightning speed. She squeals and laughs until he lays her on the bed, and after—well, her mouth is otherwise occupied.