Chapter Text
Prologue: Namjoon
Blood magic was a messy thing to toy with, but Namjoon had to try his darned best.
He didn’t have much of a choice.
“How much blood did he lose?” he asked Yoongi, who looked just as stricken with panic as Namjoon was, deep down, shoved underneath so many layers of pragmatism because he needed to have a good head on his shoulders. But there was blood on Yoongi’s shirt and Namjoon’s own hands were shaking with his magic, cooped up and struggling to break free and do its job.
“I don’t know.” Yoongi’s voice trembled. Namjoon shot a blast of iron into Jungkook’s system, his eyes never straying from his pale, pale face. “They left him like this on our doorstep. Joon, if I hadn’t been awake－”
“No talk of that now,” Namjoon huffed, unable to bear the thought of that reality either. He needed to stabilize Jungkook first. “Wake Jimin up, we’re gonna need all he’s got.”
Yoongi rushed off to do just that, and Namjoon exhaled and focused his power into finding every ripped sinew, every ripped muscle in Jungkook’s body, healinghealinghealing at a rate that would surprise him if he wasn’t near hysterical with anxiety.
Less than a minute later, Yoongi rushed back into the kitchen, Jimin and Taehyung in tow. They took one look at Jungkook’s blood-ridden form and gasped in horror.
“Chim,” Namjoon said, glancing up sharply at the young potioneer. “I need blood restoration, liquid life, and a sleeping draught.”
“How strong?” Jimin asked, eyes unable to leave Jungkook’s face, bloody and bruised.
Namjoon grimaced. “Strong enough to fake a coma.” Jimin nodded and left the room, hurrying off to go to his workshop. “Taehyung,” Namjoon addressed the younger fellow healer, who startled violently at being called. “Help me.”
“R-Right!”
For thirty tense minutes, he and Taehyung healed Jungkook of the worst of his injuries. Namjoon knew he and Taehyung couldn’t do much about the blood loss, having to wait for the potion, but they sewed back each tendon that had been ripped, snapped bones back into place, healed torn skin until it looked almost new. Namjoon looked forlornly at the scars decorating Jungkook’s chest, but he knew they would only heal with the rest the sleeping draught brings about.
By now the whole house was awake, Seokjin and Hoseok rousing with the ruckus caused by Yoongi rushing to Jimin and Taehyung. They stepped into the kitchen briefly to ask questions about Jungkook’s condition but soon left Namjoon and Taehyung to do their job. (Namjoon knew they were waiting in the living room, heads bent and feeling awful enough to pray for some kind of salvation. Namjoon knew because he felt the same way.) Yoongi was a constant ghost, fluttering around Taehyung and Namjoon and dabbing away at sweaty brows and offering sips of water.
Soon enough, Namjoon was pumping one last bit of iron into Jungkook’s blood system and stepping away. He watched as Taehyung finished setting a broken toe back into place and stepped back himself.
It took four seconds before Namjoon felt the crush of exhaustion and sank to the floor.
Yoongi was by his side in an instant. “You did well, Joonie. So did you, Tae.”
Taehyung was holding Jungkook’s hand, now healed, no more broken fingers. “Who would do this, hyung?”
“It was probably the Jos,” Yoongi muttered, voice thick with rage. Namjoon put a hand on his cheek to calm him down.
Taehyung looked down at the mention of the clan. “…haven’t they done enough?” He was probably thinking of the time the Jos came after Jimin, attacking him in the middle of the night and leaving him to bleed out in an empty alleyway. He would’ve died there had Taehyung not gone looking for him. It still weighed heavily on the coven, what could’ve happened that day.
What could’ve happened today had Yoongi not been awake.
Namjoon squeezed his eyes shut and sent a silent prayer of thanks.
It was silent for a few moments until the door to the kitchen opened. It was Jimin, carting three vials.
“It took me a while to get them reheated, I was shaking so bad I couldn’t light the fire under my cauldron,” The potioneer said in apology, but Namjoon shook them away as he got to his feet, aided by Yoongi’s arm around his waist.
“Administer it to him, Jimin. We’ll hold his head up.”
Taehyung and Namjoon carefully raised Jungkook’s head up a few inches off the table as Jimin uncorked his vials one by one and tipped the contents of each into Jungkook’s slightly open mouth. By the time the last potion had passed his throat, Jungkook had noticeably regained a flush of his old color. There was a collective sigh of relief as Jungkook’s head was lowered once more on the wooden table. He’d be out for a while, but by the end of his slumber, he’d be mostly recovered. Only a few scratches on his body and the bloodstains that had seeped into the grain of their table will serve as reminders that anything had happened to him at all. And even then, those scratches will eventually fade.
Namjoon didn’t know if they could do anything about the bloodstains though, or the future nights of lost sleep because of this horrible, horrible day.
He still hadn’t let himself feel the fear that nipped at the edges of his heart. He needed to be present here and now, with his coven and with Yoongi and Jungkook. He owed it to them.
“We should probably clean him.” Yoongi croaked, breaking the spell. Namjoon nodded.
“We’ll leave you to that,” Jimin said, Taehyung nodding in agreement. Namjoon smiled at them in thanks, Yoongi doing the same. They needed the time to recoup, just the three of them.
The kitchen door shut behind Jimin and Taehyung and then it was just them.
“I’m so sorry you had to find him alone, Yoongi.” Namjoon said after a while. There was something hot lingering at the edge of his lashes, tears yet to be shed. He could be vulnerable now, it was just the three of them now, but he felt too sapped of everything to cry.
“You have nothing to apologize for, Joon-ah.” Yoongi said softly. There was another moment of quiet before Yoongi went to him, and Namjoon’s arms opened immediately. For a while they simply held on to each other, and Namjoon let himself shake. He couldn’t cry, not yet. But he was shaken, down to his very core, and it was Yoongi. He could let himself shake in front of Yoongi.
Eventually, they had to let go to actually clean Jungkook. They took out the biggest bowls they owned and filled them with lukewarm water. Later maybe, they could put Jungkook in the tub and let him submerge in houseleek with traces of yarrow, a little lavender because he loved the smell of it. But for now, water will have to do.
They stripped him of his blood-sodden clothes and started dabbing at the stains left on his skin. It was quiet as they worked; Namjoon couldn’t think of anything to say and Yoongi probably couldn’t either. They’d gone through a lot of emergencies as a unit, as a coven, as friends. But this, Namjoon couldn’t help but think as he wrung his cloth dry and watched Jungkook’s blood go down the drain, this was such a direct hit to his heart that he was left with a sore head and an intense sensation of whiplash.
Soon enough Jungkook was clean. They’d bathe him later when he woke up, and by then he’d have his strength back. By then, they’d have their Jungkook back.
They dressed him in fresh pyjamas, the softest set Jungkook owned. Yoongi was good enough with air that he could probably lift Jungkook well enough on his own, but they called Hoseok in anyway, for extra insurance. The weather witch didn’t necessarily hold much elemental capability (not in the same way that Namjoon, Yoongi, or Jungkook did anyway) but Namjoon was drained and Jungkook wasn’t in any position to lift himself. It’d be enough for now.
Namjoon watched as they carefully pushed gusts of wind under Jungkook, just enough pressure until he could float. The two took Jungkook to his, Namjoon’s, and Yoongi’s shared room, setting him down gently on their bed. Hoseok pressed a gentle kiss to Jungkook’s forehead, hugged Namjoon and Yoongi, and left the room, closing the door with a soft click.
In the darkness of their bedroom, Namjoon let himself feel, truly feel, the weight of the past few hours. Something must’ve shown on his face because Yoongi went to him and gently took his face in his hands. Namjoon held onto Yoongi’s wrists, let their foreheads touch. Closed his eyes.
“I love you,” Yoongi whispered into the stillness, and Namjoon inhaled. The maelstrom of emotions felt strong enough to destroy him, to take him under the waves without a breath of air, but Yoongi found him before the waves could. Yoongi pulled him to shore and held him close until he could breathe. Never mind that they both nearly drowned, never mind that Yoongi needed Namjoon just as much as Namjoon needed Yoongi.
In a lot of ways, Yoongi was stronger than Namjoon, but this way, in particular, was perhaps the one that saved him the most.
“I love you,” Namjoon said. His arms went around Yoongi and hugged him tightightight. “God, I love you.”
They pulled back enough to look at Jungkook’s sedated form. Their Jungkook.
He was breathing slowly, deep inhales and exhales, face peaceful. Watching him, Namjoon was once again grateful to still have him. He’ll wake up soon enough, and they’ll be able to hold him again.
“Joon,”
Namjoon looked at Yoongi once more, who’s expression had gone dark. “We’re still gonna have to sort this out.”
Namjoon sighed. Big covens going after smaller ones weren’t new; other covens had come after them in the years since they formed, but it had slowly stopped when Namjoon was brought on to the council. Perhaps Namjoon was foolish enough to assume that it was enough to completely stop them.
“I know.”
“Do you have a plan? They’re asking for a fight, Namjoon, and I know you don’t want to let it get to that point but if it’s what they want...”
Yoongi left the rest of his sentence hanging but Namjoon knew what he meant.
He grimaced. “I have a plan.”
“You think it’ll work?” Yoongi was still on-edge, and Namjoon wanted to bring him comfort, but he couldn’t lie either.
“I sure hope so.”