Jake is a boy from a small village, but after the village went into a crisis, he's an injured boy from nowhere. With pain in his body and in his heart, he needs someone to find him and patch him up.

Warning: blood
-

Fire. Smoke. Roaring flames. It singes his clothes, the sensation tingling in his skin. Sweat sticking to the surface of his body. Burning, burning his hands, burning his eyes, burning all over.

Until it's all turned into ashes.

He woke with a start, gasping for breath as if his lungs were still filled with smoke. His eyes burned, but with tears rather than smoke and heat.

He leaned on the palms of his hands, and as he came to his senses, there was material underneath them that was soft. It certainly wasn't the ground, where he briefly remembered he had collapsed.

As he supported himself in a half-sitting position, an almost unbearable pain tore through his side. Gasping, he glanced down and searched his skin for any sign of an injury. He lifted the side of his shirt and winced, as underneath the clean item of clothing, which wasn't his, was a throbbing wound.

He quickly looked away, shaking his head in an attempt to will away the nausea. Eventually he looked up, his gaze travelling around the room as he noticed the clean wooden floor, the greeny white walls and the bed that he had been sleeping on. It was a homely room, not too small and not too big, and when he looked in the corner there was a boy of around his age, asleep as he sat on a stool.

Jake was tempted to wake him up, but he looked so peaceful as he slept. However, it didn't last long as the boy sat up and yawned, rubbing his eyes endearingly. He pulled his hand away and opened his eyes, gasping when he saw Jake.

He frantically moved his stool over and leaned towards him, his eyes checking him as if he was about to break.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, his voice kind and soft as he watched him. Jake nodded, his eyes fixed on the other boy as he fussed over him quietly. "Are you sure? That must hurt a lot, right?" Jake nodded, but he would rather try to ignore the pain than focus on it.

"Who are you?" he questioned, curious but not wanting to sound intrusive with his question.
"I'm Sunoo, I found you unconscious in the forest."

Jake nodded slowly, feeling like his brain was short-circuiting every time he tried to clearly remember the forest. All he really remembered was the unbearable pain and ringing in his ears as he lost control on his body.

"I'm Jake."

Sunoo smiled, holding his hand out for a handshake, which Jake accepted.
"That's a nice name, Jake. You aren't from around here, are you?" Sunoo asked, as he pushed Jake's shoulder gently to make him lie down again.

Jake shook his head and watched as Sunoo began to carefully take the blood-soaked dressing off his skin, wincing as the air hit his healing wound.

Sunoo reached into an open draw in the bedside cabinet and took out a white piece of cloth, presumably what he was using to cover the wound. He took out a bandage and wrapped it around Jake's waist to keep the gauze in place, but Jake yelped as he tied it a bit too tight.

"Sorry," Sunoo said as he bit his lip. Jake smiled slightly and shrugged, whispering a quick reassurance that it didn't hurt too much. When Sunoo finished wrapping the bandage, he stood up and went to the door, turning around before he entered the corridor, "I'll be back in a minute, I'm just getting you some soup. It'll be good for your healing."

Jake nodded and watched as Sunoo left, his head now throbbing as he tried to remember anything between the moment he fainted and the moment he woke up. He briefly remembered his jacket being taken off him to change his clothes, and the absence of his necklace.

As soon as he remembered, he placed his hand on his chest but there was nothing between his skin and the t-shirt. He squinted across the room and spotted his jacket hung on the doorknob of the wardrobe.

Sighing at his own determination, Jake sat up again and sat with his legs dangling over the side of the bed, taking a deep breath before he tried to stand up. He leaned on the bedside table as the pain in his side flared up again, forcing him to stand still as he tried to regain his strength.

He heard the door open and Sunoo's eyes widened when he spotted him. He placed the soup on the bedside table and rushed to help Jake, making him sit on the bed and then lie back down again.

"Where are you going? You're far too weak to be out of bed," Sunoo said, almost glaring at Jake for risking his health. Jake glanced at the jacket, then back at Sunoo as he began quietly, "Could you get my necklace for me?"

"Yes, but only if you promise to look after yourself," Sunoo said, and Jake nodded.
"I promise."

-

If Jake had refused the soup, he was sure that Sunoo would have force-fed it to him. There was a large amount of aggressive love from the boy, but luckily Jake was willing to take it.

When he finished the soup, Sunoo went on another kind but demanding rant about looking after himself, and how he had put so much effort into helping him get better.

"You were a stranger but I still decided to help you, so you have to let me help and listen to my advice. When I tell you to sleep, you have to sleep, and when I tell you to eat, you have to eat."

Jake nodded, grinning slightly at the seriousness in his voice despite the cuteness in his face. Sunoo frowned when Jake tried to suppress a giggle, asking him what was so funny.

"Nothing, it's just- you're too cute to be bossy," Jake said, and Sunoo glared at him and quickly changed the subject,
"Now, you have to rest or else I won't be happy with you, okay?"

Jake nodded, closing his eyes as he attempted to ignore the pain, the uncomfortable feeling of his wound fading away as he drifted off to sleep.

-

Jake felt dizzy before he even woke up, and when he opened his eyes he sprung up to lean on the palms of his hands, the room spinning around him as his stomach ached, the pain now broader than just the wound.

Sunoo was asleep in the corner again, and Jake decided to try to wake him up.

"Sunoo... Sunoo! Sunoo, wake up," he said as he covered his eyes with his hands, the light from outside the window being too much for his sensitive headache.

He saw a blur around the room and when he focused his eyes he saw that it was Sunoo, panicking slightly as he moved his stool again and asked Jake what was wrong.

"Dizzy," Jake answered, not wanting to speak much because of the wave of nausea.
"Dizzy? Do you feel sick?" Sunoo asked, and Jake felt his face heat up slightly as he nodded. He didn't have long to think about it though, because as soon as Sunoo brought him a bucket from the corner of the room (though it was really more of a deep bowl), there was bile rising up his throat that made him gag.

He threw up, the vomit burning his throat and making his eyes sting with tears, which were from throwing up rather than crying. He was too distracted to notice Sunoo's hand on his back or his supportive words until after he was finished.

He leaned on Sunoo, his body exhausted from healing and being sick at the same time.

"Lie down, I need to check your wound. If it's infected, that could be what's made you sick," Sunoo said, and Jake complied as he didn't have the energy to do anything else.

Jake almost fell asleep, but he properly woke up again as Sunoo redressed his wound with a sigh of relief.

"It's not an infection, so it must just be that you were weak enough to catch something while you were healing. That just means you need more rest, okay?" Sunoo said, and Jake nodded with a sigh.

"I'm so tired of resting," he mumbled, grabbing Sunoo's wrist to pull himself up so he was sitting beside Sunoo, and he leaned sleepily on his shoulder, "But thank you. For helping me heal."

Sunoo grinned, rubbing circles into Jake's back.
"You're welcome. It was my pleasure."

Jake closed his eyes and relaxed, surprisingly comfortable in his position beside Sunoo.

-

He remembered now, too clearly to be comfortable. He remembered being told far too late that they were being raided, too late to even leave the village. Instead he hid, under his bed as he hoped that it would pass.

And he remembered watching his family have to leave him behind, his brother glancing back as they ran from the village. And then the pain in his side as he fell to his knees, sure that he would die in his moment.

He watched as his necklace fell to the ground, his last spark of hope lost.

Until the attacker who was stopping Jake from moving was shot down with an arrow, by who he didn't know. He grabbed his necklace and tied it back around his necklace as he hauled himself to his feet and ran, the pain getting worse as he ran out of the burning village and into the forest where he disappeared.

He only glanced back once, watching as his hometown burned to the ground.

-

Once again, Jake woke up suddenly and with tears in his eyes. Sunoo wasn't in the corner though, he was sitting on the side of the bed and he noticed Jake wake up right away. He cooed as he saw the tears that fell from Jake's eyes, carefully pulling the boy towards him for a hug.

They stayed like that as Jake's breathing evened out and his tears slowed, and he hugged Sunoo back and buried his face in his neck.

"Sunoo... thank you. It's so nice here... I want to stay. I have nowhere else to go, so can I stay with you?" he asked, lifting his head up to glance at Sunoo with a look on his face that no one could ever say no to.

Sunoo smiled, shuffling closer to Jake if it was even possible.

"I would like that, Jake. I would like that a lot."

--

Yes! I told you I could do it before the end of the week! Now, I have some more that I have planned. The one for Heesung is being saved for his birthday, so I have a question to ask you guys:

Niki or Jungwon first?

Thanks so much for reading, I can't believe we hit 200 reads already! I feel so lucky, I thought it would take a very long time to get reads but I guess us Eggies are desperate and loyal 😅

- Kiran 💙