pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

pain

In the relative silence of the sickbay, you and San fight to save Yunho's life.

The two of you work silently, switching out blood stained bandages for clean ones, Seonghwa running between the galley and the infirmary to wash the soiled paddings as you and San try desperately to stop the bleeding. The wound may not be big, but it's deep and from San's deductions, it's poisoned, and that's probably what worries the two of you the most.

The metallic tang of blood hits your nose as you toss one bloodied bandage into a basket, reaching for a fresh one and pressing it to the wound. Underneath your hands, Yunho moans weakly in pain, his face ashen and a thin sheen of cold sweat on his forehead. At the side, your master is at his worktable, furiously mixing a complex concoction to slow down Yunho's heart rate and hopefully knock the injured battlemaster out while the two of you tend to his wound.

"Is he going to be fine?" Seonghwa whispers to you as he takes the basket of soiled bandages for the third time already, glancing worriedly over at the limp form of one of his oldest friends on the bed. Honestly, you're not sure how to reply.

"It's not the wound that we're worried about, actually." You murmur softly under your breath as you pour whiskey onto the cloth, cleaning out the wound the best you can. Yunho's head falls back as he whimpers softly in pain and you murmur soothing words to him, brushing his damp hair out of his eyes. "It's the poison."

"But Sanie is familiar with poisons." Seonghwa tells you as he rests his hand on Yunho's forehead. It's clammy to the touch, a sign that the poison is already taking its effects on him. Usually, it would be a simple task for San to look through his extensive book of poisons and simply find a cure, but this time...

San doesn't know what poison it is this time.

You don't know what to do either. You don't have the experience with poisons to be able to help your master in this area, so the only thing you can do is assist San by dealing with the physical wound while he tries to figure out exactly how to save Yunho's life.

Sighing, Seonghwa looks over at Yunho with weary, resigned look, patting his younger crewmate gently. In that one action, there are a million words left unsaid, the weight of the his emotions for his friend settling over to you, a tidal wave of concern, pain, sadness.

"Please be okay, Yunho." Seonghwa murmurs one last time, before he rises to his feet and leaves the room with the basket under his arm, unable to continue looking upon the still form of his weakened crewmate. You can understand how Seonghwa feels, you yourself can barely bring yourself to glance at Yunho's sallow, pallid face, mumbling incoherently under his breath.

"Here." San finally steps over to you, handing a small bottle of freshly mixed painkiller. You swirl it around a few more times and the potent pungence of it hits your nose, causing your eyes to water as your master reaches for Yunho's head, tilting his mouth open with his thumb.

Sidling up next to him, you very carefully hold the bottle over Yunho's trembling lips, dribbling just a little of the concoction into his mouth.

At the first drop, Yunho coughs and splutters, choking on its bitter taste and you immediately panic, worried that the painkiller might have gone down his windpipe instead. Your master, already expecting something like this to happen from experience, rushes to lie him back down, patting him gently as he reassures Yunho with soft words.

"Don't worry, Yunho-ah, all you need to do is drink this little painkiller and you can go right to sleep." Your master's soft words drift over to your ears as you search for a way to make the painkiller easier for Yunho to ingest. "No more pain... yes, you can just rest."