Despite his promise, Seungyoun didn't show up the day Wooyoung got discharged. The man had glanced at his clock multiple times now, wondering when Seungyoun planned to show up and if Wooyoung should wait so they wouldn't miss each other. Perhaps Seungyoun had failed to mention another impromptu job to Wooyoung, too.

With his things already packed and his coat by his side, Wooyoung sat on his bed and wrote a message to the other man. The doctors and nurses had bid him their goodbyes earlier and explained how he had to go about his injury from now on. No sport, no heavy lifting, and only precise exercise to get his arm back to its usual functionality. Wooyoung had thanked them several times for their care and promised not to carry another bullet from over a hundred years ago into their hospital. Not that he could remember anything about the ride in the ambulance and the surgery. They had thanked him with some laughter and told him to take care.

Seungyoun's profile picture was a selfie with his grumpy cat on his arm. Wooyoung found their chat still empty of any information on when the man arranged to arrive.

Yo, you showing up? Did the nurse devour you?

Wooyoung lowered his phone and picked up his book from his nightstand. He had finished Lady Death and the other one. His bookmark marked its way halfway through the last one and he was glad to get discharged two days earlier than anticipated, or else Seungyoun would have had to carry another library into the hospital for him.

For his lack of pickup services, Seungyoun replied fast. So he wasn't stuck in traffic or overslept.

Something came up, and I had to fill in the paperwork that Yongguk usually does. I won't be able to come. Hope you find your house by yourself xoxo.

Seungyoun texted with an obnoxious number of emojis to bother Wooyoung.

With a roll of his eyes, Wooyoung pulled his shoes over to put them on his feet. Should he ask if they needed his help? Seungyoun helping with paperwork had to mean that Yongguk was majorly over-tasked with it and that happened only once in a blue moon. Even if Yongguk denied Wooyoung of partaking in work, Wooyoung at least wanted to sneak around his back and aid from the shadows where Seungyoun supplied him with work.

The additional stress was probably about Wooyoung's reports. The medical industry had to be mad at their finished research project and demanded explanations. Wooyoung might have to go to several interviews to explain why they had failed. Since Wooyoung was out of commission, Yongguk did that tiresome job for him.

Feeling bad, Wooyoung tied up his shoelaces. He expected the extra work once he handed the final paper in, but he didn't expect to be unable to shoulder it. Yongguk would never complain to him about it, but Wooyoung had a sinking feeling that he should apologise for creating even more trouble than he already did with his sudden incident.

Maybe Yongguk would appreciate a bottle of some good alcohol. We would never say no to one of those.

Wooyoung rose from the bed while crafting his arrangements to worm his way back into Yongguk's heart. He had to wait for the nurse to hand him the approved files for his discharge he had filled out earlier and then he could leave. He used the time to tidy up the room as efficiently as possible, trying to make sure the people cleaning up after him wouldn't have more work with it than necessary. Soon, his slippers sat next to each other at the bottom of the bed and he opened the windows to allow the fresh breeze in.

Spring felt its way through the coldness. The heads of the first snowdrops peered through the thin layer of snow that barely covered the tops of the grass anymore. The sun shining from above melted away the white blanket and kissed Wooyoung's skin with its warm rays after a long period of coldness.

The fresh air inside the room got rid of the stuffiness from last night's sleep. It ruffled in his hair as he stood at the window and checked his phone once more. He texted Seungyoun back he would see him later and that if the other man had some work to share; he was welcome to forward it to Wooyoung. Yongguk would never know.

The nurse came in after another five minutes of idly scrolling through his social media. A new anime that Wooyoung wanted to watch was out and he might invest his hours of boredom until he could skip through historical time periods again in it. Yongguk wouldn't send him anywhere dangerous soon. Wooyoung might just get to collect some stones in Rome or something.

How would he keep himself from searching for San in the past now? Not that their paths would cross every time from now on, but knowing he was around would have Wooyoung keeping his eyes extra wide open. Meeting him, even if he couldn't place Wooyoung, might become his secret guilty pleasure.

When the nurse knocked, she interrupted Wooyoung's daydreams about sneaking off with a time remote to visit San in ancient Greece, as the man had suggested long ago. They could have the wildest time back then, unbothered by what the future held.

Wooyoung dropped his not so innocent imagination about San and pillars as the nurse handed him back his papers. She carried a pen as well.

"Here you are. You just need to sign here, and then you are free to go. Remember to pick up your medication next door." With a bright smile, she handed him the pen. He signed the bottom of the page on the windowsill and pocketed the prescription for his medications. They were just some pain killers he was supposed to take if his wound acted up again.

Once he was done and had handed everything back to the woman, he shouldered his bag.

"Thank you for all your care. As much as I enjoyed my time here, I will try to take better care next time," he said with a thankful bow. She grinned back at him.

"I'm glad to hear that. Take care and I hope you won't have to return." She shook his hand with a soft grip as he beamed at her.

She was halfway through the room when she remembered something and glanced over her shoulder again.

"Ah, before I forget it. You have a visitor waiting for you outside. Shall I send him in here or would you rather meet him on your way out?"

Wooyoung blinked. It couldn't be Seungyoun, could it? Unless the man left everything to come and pick him up after all as a joke despite his decline.

"Please send him in, I will receive him here," Wooyoung grinned since he couldn't be sure. Better check in privacy. He wouldn't put it past his parents to show up screaming and yelling for their baby on the day of his discharge, and he didn't need that to happen in the corridor.

"Got it," the nurse said as she slipped outside.

Wooyoung sat down on the bed once more and sorted his papers into his bag while he waited. He had no binder with him, so he folded his medical papers and put them into his book to preserve them.

It took only a moment longer for another knock to sound on his door. Wooyoung patiently called his visitor in and made sure he sat up straight. Whoever it was, they should regard him as healed and refreshed, not as a miserable patient that they had to fret over. Not that his posture would keep everybody he had told about the accident from being mad with concern.

However, the person who opened the door was entirely unimpressed with Wooyoung's attempts to make himself look bigger. With one shoulder, Yongguk leaned into the doorway, not even bothering to come inside. His gaze was stony on Wooyoung's features.

Wooyoung winced, slumping.

"Oh, hey Yongguk..." he greeted the man with little euphoria. Now that he got glared at so fiercely, Wooyoung lost his confidence in getting back on the man's good side soon. Yongguk was furious.

"Hi," the man replied, cold. He had never been too warm and embracing of a person, but Wooyoung had never seen him this frosty.

A shiver left goosebumps on Wooyoung's lower arms. He crossed them, trying to heat them back up with his body warmth.

"Did you... come to pick me up?"

Wooyoung's voice was quiet and careful, ever so attentive to Yongguk's empty face. The man's eyes penetrated the depths of Wooyoung's soul and had him squirm with the torture they cast upon him.

"I didn't plan to visit you."

The sharp words cut into Wooyoung's heart, making him pout. He knew he had upset the man more than ever before, but he also wanted to hear him be glad that Wooyoung was back. He knew Yongguk was, deep inside, but he wouldn't show it until he felt Wooyoung deserved it.

Rueful, Wooyoung ducked his head.

"Why did you come then?" He sounded like a petulant child, but he also didn't want to crawl and beg for forgiveness. He wasn't sorry for trying to save his lover, even if it had injured him heavily.

"It was dire," Yongguk grumbled. Wooyoung eyed him nervously.

"Last time you said that and contacted me out of the blue, San died." He gulped around the dryness of his throat, not amused by their game. Yongguk's distorted smile didn't help to soothe Wooyoung's anxiety.

No matter what Yongguk was here for, it couldn't be worse than his message of how San died. The dread that filled Wooyoung at the memory yanked on his heartstrings again, ripping at them like an unpractised child at a violin.

"Not that bad this time," Yongguk reassured him. It took some distance from his voice, but Wooyoung was still tense.

"Is it something I deserve to know? Or will you punish me with silence on the way home?" Wooyoung fiddled with his shirt between his fingers. He knew Yongguk stared at his shoulder, remembering how Wooyoung had crashed into their arms full of blood after reporting from the Second World War. He had been unconscious, but his two friends weren't as they had patched him up and called an ambulance.

"It's not something I have a right to keep from you, even if I might like to. But I figured this was significant enough to come here for."

With that, Yongguk stepped aside, back outside in the corridor. In the first moment, Wooyoung was frustrated and wanted to call after him. When a second later, a different person appeared in the doorway and pushed the door open further with a careful hand on the wood, Wooyoung's words got stuck in his throat.

For a moment, he distrusted his eyes to play a trick on him. He considered Yongguk taking his revenge by bringing a hologram he crafted just to give it to Wooyoung later as a dull comfort for his loss.

But the person looking at him was too real for a hologram. Too much emotion swam in those foxy eyes, and the shine on the pendant hanging around his neck twinkled in the natural sunlight behind them.

Wooyoung choked on his name as it fell from his lips, heart stilling in his chest.

"San."

San's doubting eyes softened when he saw Wooyoung was alright. He stepped into the room, all glorious in his dark turtleneck, beige coat and just as black pants.

He barely looked like San. Not without all his swords, his medieval clothing, and his leather bags.

That didn't keep Wooyoung from jumping to his feet and into San's arms the second he regained control over his quivering body. His immortal lover caught Wooyoung to press him close against his chest. They were the same familiar arms. The same way San hugged with his face buried in Wooyoung's neck. The same gentle fingers on Wooyoung's back.

The same voice that whispered Wooyoung's name at his ear, trembling with the number of feelings crashing into both of them like a wave as they stood in each other's arms again. They shivered and shook together, shaken by the flood but finding an anchor within each other.

"Wooyoung. I'm here. I made it, I'm here," he whispered as if he couldn't believe it himself.

Wooyoung hugged him tighter, uncaring of his injury, uncaring of Yongguk leaning in the door. No word escaped his lips as he was taken over by his relief.

San was finally here and nothing in the world would prompt Wooyoung to let go of him ever again.