chicken noodle soup || sope

fortytwo

~ two days later ~

Yoongi was curled up in a stark white armchair, his head resting on the chair back and eyelids growing heavier. He couldn't remember how long it had been since he had last slept, but it didn't matter. He needed to be there when Hoseok woke up.

The red-haired man's body was still motionless in the hospital bed, tubes and wires hooking him up to various machines monitoring his vitals. A quiet, steady beep of the heartrate monitor was the only sound in the hospital room. Yoongi kept his hand in his boyfriend's, waiting patiently to feel some kind of animation return to the man's fingers.

The other men had gone home, with Seokjin and Namjoon returning occasionally to check in and bring Yoongi food. They (along with Hoseok's doctor) urged him to go home and get some sleep as well, but Yoongi refused to even consider the idea. He just continued to consume copious amounts of coffee, ignoring the screaming cues from his body to take care of himself.

He ran his hand over Hoseok's arm. The skin was cool and Yoongi sighed. Hoseok was right there and yet so far away. Yoongi rested his head against the side of the hospital bed. He missed Hoseok. Even the bright white hospital room seemed so dark without the light of his life.

But then Hoseok's pinky finger twitched.

Yoongi immediately shot up, leaning over as Hoseok's face scrunched as the boy slowly but surely came to consciousness.

"Hobi-" Yoongi let his shoulders fall, a tension had hadn't realized he had been holding. He brushed a couple locks of hair off the boy's forehead, a smile creeping across his face as the younger's soft brown eyes opened to meet his own. "Hi baby."

The heart rate monitor began to beep faster as a panicked look flashed across Hoseok's face, "Y-yoongi..." His hand instinctively went to the IV needle in his arm, trying to sit up and pull it out, but Yoongi caught him before he did.

"Hobi calm down," Yoongi lied him back down, worried he would reopen his stitches. "You're okay, just don't move around too much."

"Hyung-" Hoseok winced, feeling the aching pain in his back. He held onto his boyfriend's hand desperately, his voice weak and strained. "What happened?"

"You got shot and you had to have surgery, but you're going to be okay," Yoongi explained softly.

"I got shot?" Hoseok's eyes went wide like saucers, unnerved by that information, "I-I don't remember... we were at the courthouse and t-then..."

"Shh," Yoongi very gently brushed the skin of his cheek, soothing the red head from his panic. "Don't think about that right now. I just need you to get better. Hobi... I was so fucking scared... I thought that I'd lost you."

Hoseok took a deep breath and let his mouth form into a little grin as he squeezed Yoongi's hand. "You could never get rid of me, Yoongi hyung. You're stuck with me forever."

"Good," Yoongi kissed his forehead and returned his smile.

Hoseok studied the man's doting expression. "You have bags under your eyes..."

"You're joking, right?" Yoongi let out a stifled laugh, staring at him in absolute disbelief. "How the hell are you worrying about me right now? You're the one with a bullet wound in your back."

"You still have to sleep," Hoseok pressed on. "Not sleeping won't make me recover any faster."

"I just missed you Hobi. I wanted to be here when you woke up, and I know you don't like hospitals..." His voice trailed off.

"It's not so bad with you here," Hoseok admitted. Yoongi's touch cleared his head of all of the beeping machinery and scary needles.

"I love you," Yoongi brushed his lips against Hoseok's, resulting in a brief spike in the heart rate monitor. The mint-haired man chuckled, reminding himself that he might have to take it easy on the younger for a while. "I promise I'll get some sleep eventually, but first I'm going go find the doctor and tell him you're awake."

Hoseok nodded slightly, careful not to move too much in the process, and Yoongi quickly left the room. Every time he made the slightest motion it seemed to create pain in a new part of his body. He could feel bandages covering his back under the hospital gown, and his head was still a little woozy from whatever anesthetic they had used to knock him out during surgery.

But even with a dime-sized hole in his back, Hoseok wasn't discouraged.

He had his Yoongi, and that's all that mattered.

-

Later that afternoon, Seokjin and Namjoon came to visit the hospital. When Yoongi had texted that Hoseok had woken up, they both dropped what they were doing and immediately drove across the city to see him.

"Hey Joon?" Seokjin said, as they walked through the hospital halls together. Namjoon turned to see that oh-so-familiar devious look in Seokjin's eye.

"Yes?" Namjoon rolled his eyes, deciding to bite this time.

"I shot a man with a paintball gun the other day," He started, unable to control his giggling, "Then he dyed."

Namjoon shook his head as Seokjin burst out into laughter at his own joke.

"That's it, we're breaking up."

"Oh come on," Seokjin looped his arm with Namjoon's, "Didn't you get it? Because it's paint, and he died but it's d-y-e. It's funny!"

"If you have to explain it then it's not funny," Namjoon sighed, "Plus, don't you think it's a little distasteful since Hobi's literally in the hospital right now with a bullet wound?"

"Whatever lameass," Seokjin pouted. He missed Hoseok. Hoseok laughed at his jokes.

They approached Hoseok's recovery room at the end of the hallway. Seokjin had released his inner Karen a day earlier, yelling and complaining to the nurses until they promised to give Hoseok a private room with a large window. Seokjin's best friend deserved only the best accommodations.

As the couple opened the door, they both paused.

Hoseok was fast asleep on the twin-sized hospital bed and Yoongi was curled up against him, peacefully snoring away like a small kitten, one arm draped carefully over Hoseok's torso. Both bodies barely fit together on the mattress, but they made it work, with one of Yoongi's legs sticking off the side. Their hands were still intertwined, a physical tether connecting the soulmates as they rested.

Seokjin couldn't help but smile at the adorable sight.

"Maybe we should come back later," Namjoon whispered, putting down the takeout food they had brought on the side table.

"It looks like our son's in good hands."

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