"..od. H......rt....igns...."

"Wh....ping?"

".....dy...overing.....be....ile..."

Everything was so heavy.

There was pain, lots of pain.

It all needed to stop.

He didn't want to feel anything anymore...

There were voices somewhere out of reach. They were fuzzy.

Nothing was registering.

Darkness.

Pain.

Nothing

"...steady......"

"...won't....ak...up?"

"......ealing....maybe.....on..."

The pain wouldn't stop.

Everything just needed to go away.

No voice.

No touch.

No feeling.

"What....doesn't...."

The voices were getting louder.

It needed to stop.

Too much.

The dark was so much better.

Follow the dark.

Slip away.

Maybe then the pain would stop.

"...ng... Woo...ng.... Pl..."

No. Make go away.

No more.

It hurt too much.

"Woo...ng....an....hear....e?"

The voice was too close. Too loud.

"Wooy....."

The voice was so sweet.

He needed to hear more.

But the closer he got to the voice, the more everything hurt.

Retreat.

Run away.

Away from the pain.

Back to the welcoming darkness.

Maybe he could just stay there forever.

"Wooyoung...."

That damn voice.

Why did it keep plaguing him?

All he wanted was to rest in peace.

"Please."

It was so much clearer this time.

So pure. So sweet.

It was drawing him now.

No... he didn't want to go.

"Wooyoung. Can you hear me?"

Who was this Wooyoung?

All he wanted to do was scream leave me alone.

Retreat to the darkness. He was safe there.

"Come back to me."

No...

"Please... I miss you."

It was too painful.

"I need you."

So painful.

Fading.

Darkness.

"I love you...."

Blinding white light penetrated through his eyelids, making them scrunch tight and the color turned to red and black.

Beeping came from behind his head and seemed to echo through his mind.

A small groan escaped his throat and Wooyoung slowly opened his eyes.

He had to shut them immediately with how bright everything was. It was easy to do too because his entire body just felt so heavy.

Especially his hand.

Wooyoung tried to open his eyes again. He let them slowly adjust to how bright it was, which mean keeping them squinted to the point where they were almost closed, but he was able to look around a little.

They fell on a head of ragged blonde hair that was slouched over the side of the bed with his head turned away.

He looked like he had been laying there for a long time.

Wooyoung watched his shoulder move with his breathing and tried to find the strength to tell him that he was awake.

All he could manage was moving his fingers just the tiniest bit.

It was enough though.

Jongho lifted his head up and turned to look at Wooyoung. Tears came to his eyes instantly when he saw that Wooyoung was starting to wake up. "W-Woo?" He stood up and leaned over so he could gently rub the side of the older's head.

"H... Hey..." Wooyoung's mouth was so dry when he tried to speak. He attempted to smack it a couple of times, wanting nothing more than to salivate even just a little bit, but the only feeling he got was cottonmouth. "What..."

"You're ok. Don't speak, I'm going to call for Dr. Fields." Jongho started to move away, but stopped when Wooyoung let out a small whine. A wide smile crossed his face and he just leaned over and shouted, "Doctor!"

Wooyoung could feel the smile tugging at his lips when Jongho sat down and scooted his chair closer. Then he took Wooyoung's hand in both of his and started kissing his fingers.

"What is it? Oh!" Dr. Fields came in and his eyes lit up as soon as he saw his patient. "Wooyoung, you're awake!" The relief was evident in his voice and he came to stand on Wooyoung's other side. "How are you feeling?"

"Hurt..." Wooyoung rasped, slowly turning his head to look up at the older man. He could feel an oxygen tube feeding into his nose shifting around and he cringed.

"I bet you do. You gave us quite the scare, Son. But all of your vitals are showing strong. We've just been waiting for you to wake up. I'll got fetch you some water and we can work on slowly getting you adjusted." Dr. Fields walked out of the room.

Wooyoung could feel his eyes drooping again, but he fought to keep them open. "What... happened?"

Jongho's smile vanished and he looked down at their hands. "I..." He swallowed and closed his eyes. "We..."

"We almost lost you." Dr. Fields answered for him as he walked back into the room. He gave Jongho a kind look and held out the water container in his hand while directing the straw to Wooyoung's mouth. "Sip." He said.

The cold liquid sent a chill through Wooyoung's body, but at the same time if felt like new life was flowing through him. He almost had to restrain himself because he was pretty sure he could down the entire thing right there, but it would take too much energy.

"There you go. We will start getting nutrients back into your system. You've been asleep for almost a week."

"What?" Wooyoung rasped.

Dr. Fields pulled up a chair and let out a long sigh. "Your heart stopped beating while in surgery, so we had to resuscitate you. You were shocked a total of three times to try and restart your heart."

Wooyoung felt his mouth open a little at the same time Jongho tightened his grip, squeezing Wooyoung's hand harder and harder.

"Apart from that, the transplant was successful. We've been monitoring your cells as best we can over the past few days but it's still a little early to tell if it's a success or not. We're not out of the woods yet, but one of the hardest parts is over."

"So what happens now?" Jongho asked.

"For now, we will continue to monitor your vitals, Wooyoung, and see where you are at. If you show signs of moving down the right path, then we could possibly look at letting you go home." Dr. Fields' beard wiggled as he smiled. "Get some rest and we will continue to take this day by day, ok?"

Wooyoung took a deep breath, then said, "Thank you."

The doctor nodded and excused himself.

The couple sat in silence for a moment and Wooyoung could feel himself slipping away again. "Jong...?"

"I'm here, love, I'm right here."

"S-Stay?"

"I'm not going anywhere." Jongho started kissing Wooyoung's fingers once more and let his elbows rest on the side of the bed.

Wooyoung hummed softly and let himself succumb to sleep once more.

When Wooyoung came round, it was several hours later, at least as far as he could tell.

It was darker this time, so he was able to open his eyes more and look around.

He immediately found Jongho. The younger was curled up on a sofa that had been moved into the room. His lips were pushed out in a pout and his right hand was curled up next to his face.

It was an adorable look on him that had Wooyoung smiling softly.

Footsteps came from the other side of the room, capturing Wooyoung's attention.

San walked in holding a blanket, which he draped over his brother. Then he turned around and paused when he noticed Wooyoung was awake. "Oh!" He covered his mouth and hurried to the side of the bed. "Youngie, you're up." He whispered.

For a moment, Wooyoung was surprised to see the older here, but that quickly passed and he lifted a hand up, which San gladly too.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ok. Thirsty." Cottonmouths once again took over his displeasure and he cringed.

"Hang on." San walked over to the other side of the bed and held up the container of water for Wooyoung to drink out of. "There you go. It's so good to see you up. Jongho had called me to tell me that you had finally woken up, I got here as soon as I could."

"Thank you."

San nodded and sat back in his chair. "I'm just glad to see you're ok. I don't think I could handle losing both you and Jongho." His voice grew softer as he spoke. "I was so scared for a little bit there."

"I'm sorry." Wooyoung pressed his lips together.

"Oh! Please, don't apologize! It's not like you could help it! I've just been so stressed with, with, with everything." San chuckled nervously. "But again, I don't want you to be sorry."

Wooyoung looked down at his lap, then jumped when a sudden way landed on his leg. "Nova!" A wide smile tore across his face as he watched his kitten stumble while trying to walk up his leg. "You look so much bigger! Have they been over feeding you?"

"She's a pig! You can't blame us when she sits there with those big green eyes and tiny little meow!" San threw his hands up and scoffed. "And then, she kills you by tilting her head every so slightly." San glared at Nova.

The kitten meowed again and blinked at him before picking her way up Wooyoung's chest. Her small nose twitched as she examined the tube going up her owner's nose. After deciding it was ok, she started to lick the tip of his nose.

"Little devil." San said with a whine.

"Is my pretty kitty bossing these boys around?" Wooyoung giggled and lifted a shakey hand up to place it over her back. "Thank you for taking care of her for me."

San was just sitting there still glaring at her and slowly shaking his head.

"San, quit hating on my cat."

The older's cheek turned a little red, but he relaxed into his chair again.

"So... Things were pretty bad?" Wooyoung asked after a few minutes.

"We don't need to talk about this."

"Please? I feel like I've lost so much time. I don't even remember much of what happened before my surgery. The biggest thing..." Wooyoung paused. "Are we ok?"

He honestly couldn't remember much after he and San had broken things off. It was all a blur and he had a feeling it's because his body had started turning against him.

He watched as San nodded slowly and a sad but accepting look crossed his face. "Yeah, we are ok. You've been in pretty poor condition for about a month now—"

"A month?!"

San nodded. "Dr. Fields didn't think you'd remember most of it. He started upping the radiation treatments because of how quickly your cancer was spreading. You were hardly conscious for most of it." His voice was barely a whisper as he continued. "We were able to keep fluids going through you with the IV, but getting you to eat was a challenge."

It was then that Wooyoung started to notice just how thin he was. He hadn't really taken the time to look at himself since waking up. There was definitely a difference in his arms and his legs and stomach felt thinner too.

"I was here as much as I could be, but Jongho started pretty much living here, only going home for the weekends to check on the farm. Pierre was here too, but mostly to make sure Jongho was taking care of himself."

"That man deserves a raise." Wooyoung whispered.

At this, San burst out laughing. "You don't need to tell me twice! Don't worry, I'm going to make sure he is taken care of, I can promise you that."

A moan came from the corner of the room and Jongho sat up keeping the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "Sannie?" He asked, rubbing his left eye.

"Sorry Jongie, I didn't mean to wake you." San jumped up and hurried to his brother's side. "Did you get some rest at least?"

"A bit." Jongho yawned and glanced in Wooyoung's direction. He immediately froze, then stumbled off couch. "Woo, you're awake again. How are you feeling?"

Wooyoung couldn't help but smile at the worried look on Jongho's face. "I'm doing ok."

The two of them looked at each other for a moment. Wooyoung felt so blessed to have made it through the surgery now.

A shrill ring interrupted their small moment and San cringed while pulling out his phone. "Sorry, sorry. I'll be right back." He flipped his phone open. "This is San." He started to walk out of the room, but not before Wooyoung caught a soft smile crossing his face.

"Do you know who that was?"

Jongho glanced at the door. "I'm assuming Yeosang. San is trying to close another deal so they've been in almost constant contact. Still the same old San. He's been great though, and a really big help."

"And you two are ok?"

"Yeah. Things were a little tense at first, but I think they are ok now. You kind of helped out with that." Jongho gave a nervous laugh.

When silence fell over them, Wooyoung let out a long sigh and let his head fall back. "I know things are going to be awkward about this for awhile. But can we just... try to make it not awkward?"

The bed next to him shifted as Jongho sat down and leaned over him so that his hands were on either side of Wooyoung's waist. "I would love that." Then he grabbed Nova and set her at Wooyoung's feet so he could move closer. "I would love to move past all this very much."

A blush crossed Wooyoung's cheeks and he nodded. Suddenly everything about Jongho seemed so much better.

"We will take this one step at a time. First we will work on getting you better, and then, once we get the all clear from the doctor, will you move in with me?" Jongho had a hopeful look in his eyes.

Wooyoung didn't even have to think about it before he said, "Yes." He knew he wanted to be with Jongho every day, for however many days he had left.

"Can I kiss you now?"

"Yes."

Jongho beamed and leaned forward, closing the distance between them. Their lips connected in a slow, much needed kiss that just reaffirmed to them both that Wooyoung had survived the surgery.

There was still a long road they needed to go down before everything would be ok, but one hurdle was behind them and that's all that mattered at that exact moment.

Wooyoung would continue to fight. He had to.

For San.

For Jongho.

And for himself.