scarlet heart | exo

Pain

When the medics finally arrived from the other side of camp, they immediately set to work stitching up the wound and binding it, as well as identifying the poison and brewing the antidote.

Zitao kept an ice pack to Xuefeng's forehead while Luhan took charge of the army in his stead.

Soon, the antidote was slipped down Xuefeng's throat. But her fate depended on her luck. If she regained consciousness and threw up the remainder of the poison inside her body, she would be fine. If not, she would die in her sleep.

Zitao hovered close by, unable to leave the vicinity as his wife lay dying, having taken an arrow that was meant for him.

Guilt washed over him in waves. He should never have let her into the camp - hell, he should never even have married her in the first place. That way, she would not worry for him, would not have felt the need to accompany him out into the perils of war.

But a part of him reminded him that he could stew in his own guilt later. Right now, he had to devote his energy to getting her conscious.

Unfortunately, there was little he could do apart from take her clammy hands into his own, and willing her to wake up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hours later, the bedsheets rustled as fists clenched on them.

"She's awake! She's awake!"

Xuefeng registered a cacophony going on around her, and she tried to ask whoever it was to stop making such a din. But her lips and vocal chords were numb, and she only managed a groan.

She felt something sour rise into her mouth and she coughed.

"She's gonna throw it up!"

She bent over the side of the bed, and a metal bowl was swiftly placed under her. She parted her lips, and everything came splattering out.

It was a lumpy, gooey, disgusting mess of black poison and crimson blood, along with sickening yellow bile.

She breathed, hard, trying to calm her heaving chest and clear her system of the poison. More red erupted from her mouth in small waves, and more of the blackish-reddish substance flowed out, until the blood looked like it normally did, the healthy shade of dark red.

Each breath hurt, and her hand immediately came up to hold her stomach as her face contorted into a pained expression. Zitao was beside her almost immediately, patting her on the back as gently as possible.

"Does it hurt?" He whispered, arms around her. She nodded weakly.

Her other hand came up and covered her mouth as the coughs lessened in intensity, eyes sliding half shut as her body started to give in to much needed sleep.

Shaking the unconsciousness off, she tried to focus. Her vision was better than before, and she could just about make out Zitao's figure apart from all the other blurred things in the room.

"I'm fine." Her voice sounded like a slurred mess to her, but she thought that Zitao understood.

"She'll be fine, 4th Prince." It was an echoey, unfamiliar voice. "I'll go make another batch of medicine for her; I won't be far away, give me a shout if you need me." Zitao took his attention off Xuefeng for a moment to nod in acknowledgement.

The guards around them took their leave, and as the flap of the tent closed, the lovers were finally left alone.

Zitao didn't wait to nuzzle his face into Xuefeng's hair. "For a second... I almost thought I lost you..." He whispered, caressing her cheeks gently.