The fortress is a complete disorder when they return earlier than expected. Healers are rushing out of their building to pull injured knights down from their horses and have them follow to their treatment. But Yeosang has no time to glance at the many worried faces as he and his horse are dragged into the stable. His whole body aches, making the boy's head dull from too much stimulation.

Someone pulls him down from the saddle, the movement makes pain flore again even though it happens quickly, and he soon stays in Jongho's arms. His hands fist around the knight's dirtied trench while his eyes are closed the moment the waves of more pain, makes him gasp for air and mewl Jongho's name a few times, tearing up. Yeosang suddenly cannot understand how he made it the whole way back when all his insides feel ardent.

"Jongho, you should take him to the Healers' quarters, before it gets worse," Yunho says while taking the reins from his hand. His eyes are looking deeply concerned at the young knight's anguish as he urges his Guidance counselor to do something.

But the man does never answer the kind stable worker when he instead swaths an arm around the boy and lifts him from the ground and hurries out of the stables before any other will give him the same advice. His steps quicken across the involved courtyard as he slips through the masses of people and climbs the steps up to the second floor, where his chamber situates. With an elbow, he presses the smaller wooden door open and enters the building's broad corridor, which is empty. Yeosang listens to the blend of Jongho's resonating boots and sighs when they move to the knight's broad chamber. The boy shreds tears when Jongho opens the door to his chamber.

He is placed down into softness that makes his closed eyes sore for the moment the pain vanishes until it comes back again. He feels the presence of the other rushing around the room before coming back with his hands filled with different items that Yeosang does not see. The knight carefully finds the knot of the strap and pulls it away, revealing a displeasing gory wound that still flows with liquids. Jongho stays silent while he takes a wetted cloth and cleans off the blood and dirt away, making the boy squeeze his eyes even more closed. His heart seeks to take the feeling away from the boy whose tears keep falling as he cries in silence.

Jongho replaces the cloth with Yeosang's warm cheeks, as he presses his palms against them and removes the tears from his tainted skin, "Be there for a while more, I just have to bandage the wound properly," he whispers and pecks his forehead lightly.

His voice trembles when he opens his mouth to speak his thoughts, "Wh-what will happen to me? Will they kill me, too?" Yeosang darts his eyes open and sees right into Jongho's. His breathing is rough.

"The creature it-it sank its teeth into me, I was unable to do anything about it."

The boy swallows tightly as he glances at Jongho who does not move from their closeness. He sees the way Jongho grasps every expression he gives him.

"I do not wish to die."

His words make it arduous to breathe the air as if the chamber falls in ruins. Jongho is not blinking with his eyes a single time as Yeosang's eyes let them go deeper. For some reason, the boy feels as if he has gone too far, telling someone like Jongho, a knight with so much authority, that he fears the consequences of his missing skills. Yeosang draws in a sharp breath of the cool air and finally looks away from the knight above him. The move causes his wound to sting and he winces slightly.

"They will not touch you, I promise that. I will protect you with my life, Yeosang."

Yeosang is too astonished to say anything, and while his head topples around, he watches how the knight works his wound close and safe. He cannot think of what he would have done without any of his help.

"May I help you with changing your attire into something else?" Jongho queries with a gentle smile tugging on his lips and the other seems to nod instantly as his eyes are filled with adore.

Soon his boots and all his outer clothes flee his body, his garments only covering the most necessary amount of skin for him to still feel some kind of esteem. His face is splayed in warmth, when he shamefully follows his eyes at the half unclothed knight who searches clothes from the inside of his clothes cupboard. He will never grow tired of the man's physique.

Jongho returns and helps him get into a too wide shirt that makes him look small regardless of his built muscles and ushers him underneath the covers on his bed. "You need rest," he says while he lays down himself and looks at Yeosang with eyes there pours with tenderness. Suddenly fingers are trailing along his jaw and drying off the remnants of tears and he feels as if he soars from the gentle touch. He forgets the pain shortly.

"I failed my first crusade.." the boy whispers while all his senses follow Jongho's fingers there wander to pull his dark hair strands behind his ear. The smoothness of the move makes goosebumps trail the side of his head and Yeosang swallows nervously.

He hears the knight humming.

"The knight who was killed.. on our way back, I- I did not save him from being bitten! I just.." he stops when his words start feeling sticky in his throat, "I wish I had, then I would have saved his life, I could have-"

"Yeosang, war is about losing, and not winning. It is about receiving scars that will remind you of all the wrongdoings humanity put us through. Let me tell you that no one had predicted an attack like that to happen, so please, restrain from the feeling of guilt. It is far from your fault that lives had to die."

Feelings press his chest to slip the tightness. Yeosang has no notion to when his lip started quivering, but it does, and he lets his face fall to the side as he traps Jongho's hand under his weight, cupping his head dearly.

"Be honest, they will kill me, will they not? I was bitten.. just like all those other knights who were killed.." he muttered through his unstable breathing. The other knight simply caressed the skin under his eye with a thumb, sighing softly. "I already told you that I will not let them touch you."

Jongho moves Yeosang's head slightly to gain his attention, and their gazes braid doubtlessly, the boy looking into the knight's beautiful glazed eyes, "But you will have to keep this as a holy secret. No one, not even Sander or his sister can know about it, do you understand? If things slip, I am unsure of how easy keeping words from wandering will be."

"What will happen to me?" Yeosang asks instead with teeth biting down into his wobbling lip.

But Jongho is quiet after the query leaves his mouth, and the silentness has him worrying furthermore. The vessels around the bite mark seem to pull pain undyingly deep into his being, giving his heart a hard time with beating.

The words that leave the Knight Templar's lips next, are nothing he ever wished to hear: "I cannot tell you."

Yeosang lets his words wither the moment his lips part as he observes Jongho's slightly uneasy facial expression. Tears flow in his sight once more, and he stares at the man by his side as his head reveals every most appalling imagination.

_____

In the middle of the night, he awakes rather violently when he suddenly feels pain strangles him from breathing. The cries that echo around the walls in the knight's chamber force chills to run down Jongho's back as he flies up to look around the darkness. Yeosang's body writhes around in the covers as he tries his best to ease the pain coming from the wound. Jongho reaches out for the other's arms and calls his name while he presses a knee down the other's thigh to avoid being hit by a strong kick.

"Jongho! It hurts, it hurts too much. Please, I-I!" the boy sobs hysterically as he buckles his head to the side and pulls at his arms that the other holds. "Please do something-" and he faintly feels how Jongho lets go of his arms and lifts him to sit, gently bringing him closer.

Yeosang first realizes what happens when his head hits the surface of the knight's firm chest, tears rolling down the texture of the fabric as it gets soaked. The boy presses his head into the embrace while his body falls limp as Jongho presses him closer, wishing to relieve some of the pain. But Yeosang's tears keep falling, the agony from the bite threatening him to walk on fire with bare feet until his head is only noise.

The knight has closed his eyes and moved himself backward to sit against the headboard as Yeosang lays against him, his head prodded on his chest. The boy is burning hot, as the warm fever slowly pulls his tired mind to a very needed sleep again, despite the cruelness roaming his body. Jongho strokes the back of his head tenderly until he falls asleep, and he wants to believe that he carries on with that even for the following time afterwards.

When Yeosang awakes for the second time, sun rays are spilling in through the windows and he lazily flutters his eyes open. In a matter of no passing moment, his skin warms and he suddenly cannot breathe under the covers for the heat that surrounds him so heavily. He notices that the pain in his neck has converted into a mere dull ache that has spread over his whole body, and it makes his limbs ignore his attempt to lift them. Yeosang groans and closes his eyes when the heat strikes make his head hurt.

Something scrambles beside him, and he does not have to see it, when he already knows who it is by the soft breathing. His predicament is confirmed when the hand grasps around his head. Somehow its coolness soothes him a little, especially when it trails over his forehead. The boy inhales deeply and he almost forgets how Jongho pulls him around to lay properly on the back as he pulls down in the shirt to examine the bandaged wound.

"May I have to worry?" Yeosang asks groggily when the other is not saying anything.

But Jongho still refrains from speaking words.

And it has Yeosang forcing his eyes open to see light again. He directs his brown eyes up at Jongho who is bent over his body, when he sees what look he wears.

"What. What is it?"

The knight gapes at whatever he sees under the bandages he has unknotted, his eyes running across what he sees while he moves closer like he does not believe what he sees. And Yeosang does not either, when he is told what is the matter.

"The wound is gone," Jongho words him, stretching an arm out to have fingers touch the skin that bears no traces of the bite mark at all, "I do not understand.. This is impossible.."

Yeosang's blood runs cold, as his eyes fade to stare dumbfounded at the one touching the skin that should still be a nasty wound. It far from seems as if he is actually capable of comprehending what nonsense he is informed. He listens to the unstable inhalation Jongho makes as the knight shakes his head unbelieving.

"This is not true.. it can not be..."

Yeosang's head is flushed from the heat running in his body when he pulls his arms under himself and forces him up to sit. All regrets fall upon him when his head angles differently, and he desperately grabs it with his sweating palm.

Suddenly a cold, wet, cloth is pressed to his forehead and Yeosang removes his clammy hand to take the cloth instead.

"Thank you; exactly what I yearned for," he mumbles through half-closed lids. His clothes that are wet from sweat, clings to his body and he groans from all the discomfort it brings him.

The words slip his mouth so casually that he does not even rethink what he is saying, "The wound's disappearance means that I will die.. does it not?"

He can feel the considering look that Jongho gives him even without witnessing it. Yeosang has never been one to share everything that rings his head, keeping his precious secrets for himself rather than letting others know of how he sees the world through his eyes. The life of being locked up inside of his father's abode as he pushed himself through his studies of theology, had him suppressing every part of his free mind. He was not allowed to even breathe his own air, and so, he taught himself to not speak. Not even Wooyoung got to know all the things he chose to carry in silence, wherefore those loose talks that leave his lips to stand out to his normal ways of conversing. His fever must make his head spin so that he forgets to think before talking.

A pair of lips touch his own in an unfettered way, a round nose nudging his as their lips tangles for the slightest of a moment. The contact is filled with generosity that makes a different kind of heat swell in Yeosang's stomach like all the other times they kiss. The heat is a guarding hand, pulling him by the lands of swaying trees where healing waters trickle from the bark and end in soft streams of glittering gatherings; where peace makes the world stand still and the earth breathes from the mild, fresh wind filter through his hair as an honest caress. He closes his eyes fully, coming to see the stars dancing above their heads as he wishes on every last luck he holds on to in his hands.

He wants them to stay like this longer than what the knight lets them, causing him to hold on to his lips a moment more, drawing their subtle touches to last until he sees how embers rain from the heavens. He feels the bow of Jongho's lips when he breaks out into a smile that has Yeosang flutter his eyes open as he finally lets go. His fingers have found their way into the knight's clothes even though the pain still surges through his limp body, and now he presses them deeper while he gazes into Jongho's eyes with mixed emotions. He sights the warm gummy smile that he highs and gathers his brows innocently as he wants to know why the other smiles in such a situation.

Jongho chuckles and looks down at where he grabs the dismissed grey cloth between the sheets and turns his torso to wring it with new cold water. Yeosang only stares at him with disbelief, his lips parted slightly. When the knight turns and lets his eyes flicker up to the boy's face again, Yeosang tenses.

"Why are you so convinced of dying? Have you ever thought of how strong you must be to have come all the way here? Not everyone would have survived what you have been through."

The boy keeps from breathing when the words sneak into his ears, letting him know every single tint to Jongho's mind. He reaches forward and takes the wet piece out of the knight's hand and presses it against his forehead again as his cheeks fill with embarrassment.

"I have no notion of that.." he mutters while doing his best to ignore the other's teasing smile.

"You are so wholesome, you just have yet to figure that out yourself," Jongho says before he squeezes Yeosang's thigh lightly, "Once that you reach the feeling of home, I will guarantee that your sense of humour will truly paint your surroundings."

_____

Home. Yeosang lays deep down on the soft surface as his mind stays utterly blank. The fever has forced his thoughts on a run in the noisy wind while he feels as if he fights against the entire world at once. Perhaps he is falling to hell with the weight of sins he carries around his shoulders, but he does not know when he has never been there. He has not moved a muscle in several days and the time feels as if passing slower than normally, making the pain that raises under his hide twice as worse.

Yeosang groans painfully when the knot expands in his stomach, making it seem as if throwing up his guts may be a better option than laying here. His fingers desperately twitch and he wishes that he could have ground his head deeper into the sheets. His hair drips with sweat like the rest of his overheated body and the day before this, Jongho thought that taking off all his clothes except for his undergarments was better than lying in soaked fabrics. But despite all the ridden materials, Yeosang still feels literally burning hot. He is of no use.

Faintly, he listens to how the wooden door's hinges squeak. If someone unwelcomed has to be the one entering, one surely would have gotten the wrong sight when seeing Yeosang laying sprawled out on his stomach in Choi Jongho's bed, nearly naked. The boy does not give it any thought while he lays there, vaguely even taking the air he needs to live.

"Yeosang, I brought Emma here to give you the right medicine that I cannot provide you, alright?"

The boy cannot answer Jongho. He wants to imagine the knight's resting eyes on him.

A small hand smoother over his cheek for a short moment before it retreats rather fast, "My God, how can his skin be this insanely warm!?" he hears Emma exclaim. Footsteps rushes around in the room before a fabric is placed over his back, "How long has he been like this?"

"A couple of days," Jongho answers with a hum, "though, today is the worst."

Yeosang feels dizzy while he is turned to lay on his back instead. More cold water slips down his chest, but it does not cool like what it is supposed to do, and he hears the healer stressing about the matter. Instead, she forces a cup of herbs down his throat in his current state swaying between conscious and unconsciousness.

"Poor boy.." he faintly feels the outline of the woman's pity, "If I must be honest with you, Jongho, I fear that he is already trailing down the road towards eternal peace. His body should not be able to survive those high temperatures he is put through now."

This will kill him after all.

⚔

A/N:

Ever thought of where the inspiration of Yeosang's horse came from?
Well, let me show you..

What a very fearfully smol bean I got there ><
Yup! This is my horse Harmony, and he's still a small baby boy who only turns 2 this year..♡

Only 7 chapters left of this story!