Bound to Happen
Summary: "I'm not immortal, Kai." / Or, Kai realizes that Yung isn't as invulnerable as he'd once believed. Set pre-Anchor. Part of words-with-dragons' Anchor 'verse.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Korra, nor do I own the Anchor 'verse—those belong to Bryke and words-with-dragons. I'm just playing, with love and respect to those who brought these characters to life.
It was very early or very late, depending on who you asked.
For most of the world it was very early, the grey dawn only just beginning to lighten the sky. For the crew of the Waterbender, it was definitely too late for the group of Dai Li pirates (led by Long Feng himself) who were clearly looking for a fight. Either that, Yung thought, or they were so drunk that they had no idea which ship was theirs anymore. But he was pretty sure it was the first option.
For a few minutes all Yung could focus on was his adrenaline as he fought off two Dai Li at once, not paying much attention to the shouting and clanging swords around him. Once he dispatched his opponent with a well-placed parry and a stab to the chest, he took a few seconds to look around the ship, seeing who currently needed his assistance.
He watched as a particularly diminutive (and very ambitious) man engaged Appa in hand to hand, already knowing what the result of that battle was going to be. He watched as Pabu and Momo fought off another pirate with Imaru's help. He watched as Daw hit one of the Dai Li over the head with a frying pan before tossing him over the edge of the ship. He watched as Longshot applied a bandage to Ryu's side while Otaku and Skoochy fought off anyone who tried to go near him. And of course Kai, who seemed to be taking his new captaincy in stride, was fighting off anyone that tried to get near him.
Yung was about to go over and help his friend when Long Feng himself jumped in front of him, unsheathing his sword with a grin eerily reminiscent of a shark-squid. "Hello."
"Hello." In one fluid motion, the first mate sheathed his sword and extended his dagger, usually strapped to his side. He didn't waste time on pleasantries, instead barreling forward. Long Feng tossed his sword aside like Yung had expected, but when Yung meant to bury his dagger in that dirty rotten bastard's chest with practiced precision, the captain of the Dai Li somehow whirled aside, causing Yung to miss his shot and only succeeding in scraping Long Feng's arm. Furious that someone had actually caused him to bleed, Long Feng came in close and shoved the bewildered first mate into a barrel of gunpowder.
Yung made to get up and keep fighting, but couldn't. He tried to take a breath but found himself coming up short. He coughed and something metallic filled his throat. He tried to signal Imaru or Daw, tried to fight off Long Feng, but his vision was tunneling quickly and his limbs were going numb.
Confused, Yung looked down.
He saw blood blossoming across his shirt, a blade embedded to the hilt in his side.
He groaned when he realized what had transpired. Stabbing had its advantages, he knew, but the close proximity was the key vulnerability. If he was close enough to stab, then his opponent was close enough to stab back.
He just wished that he'd been able to remember that.
The world tilted and then he was flat on his back, Long Feng standing over him holding his sword with a menacing smirk. He couldn't hear, he couldn't really see, he couldn't even think straight because every nook and cranny of his world was filled with pain.
And then suddenly Long Feng was gone and Kai was there, and so was Longshot. Kai's face was ghost-white and he looked ready to lose his lunch, but he still was holding onto Yung's hand like it was an anchor holding him down to earth. Longshot grimaced and said something that Yung couldn't hear, something ripped before there was pressure on his side.
The pain mounted and Yung could only squirm helplessly against it before darkness took him in its clutches.
Kai hadn't even seen it happen.
He'd been too busy dispatching the rest of Long Feng's men. He'd seen Long Feng approaching Yung and the two of them engaging in a fight, but he'd thought that his first mate was more than capable of handling himself in a fight. Then, just as the last of the pirates went running, he'd whirled around, ready to say something clever to anyone who was listening, and then the words died in his throat.
Yung was on the floor, bleeding and oh Spirits there was a knife in his side buried all the way to the hilt. Kai had been stabbed before, he'd known how much it hurt, but Kai couldn't focus on sympathy forever because Long Feng was standing over his friend holding a sword and Spirits, Kai understood.
Long Feng had stabbed Yung.
"Longshot!" Kai hoped that his voice wasn't wavering as much as he thought it was but on second thought he didn't really care because all that mattered now was getting to Yung and preventing him from bleeding out all over the Waterbender.
The medic looked up from where he was handling a groaning Ryu, saw Yung, and immediately scurried over to where Yung was lying. Kai sprinted toward Long Feng just as he was about to finish Yung off and knocked him out with the butt of his sword.
Yung's face was slack and turning a deathly pale. His green eyes were cracked open but they were glazed and unfocused. Kai dropped to his knees beside his fallen friend, feeling his insides twist into knots as he saw the knife still buried in Yung's side. "Yung. Yung, hey, look at me. Look at me! You're going to be alright, it—it's all going to be alright. I'm right here with you, I'm here." Kai swallowed the lump that kept rising up in the back of his throat. He couldn't afford to go to pieces now. "Y-you're going to be alright. I promise."
Longshot grabbed Yung's wrist and pressed two fingers to it, his eyebrows dipping low as he released a worried wince. "His pulse is weak, but he's still alive," the medic informed Kai, who felt dizzy with relief. Yung was still alive. They could handle anything if Yung was still alive.
Yung moaned, confirming Longshot's words that he was indeed still alive, and Kai gripped his hand tightly, not able to stop himself from thinking that maybe if he held Yung's hand tight enough it would keep him alive. "Can't you remove the knife?" he barked at Longshot, panic nearly overtaking him. "Look at him, he's in pain!"
"You think I don't know that, Captain?" Longshot snapped back. "Sure, be my guest and remove the knife, but then Yung'll bleed out before you can say anything about it. Like it or not you have the keep the knife in him or he'll die."
Kai swallowed hard, his lunch threatening to make a reappearance as Yung finally passed out—from the pain or exhaustion, he didn't know, but he suspected it was a bit of both. "Get him below decks," he whispered, his voice quavering a little. "I'll meet you in a second."
With Appa's help, Longshot carried the wounded man below decks. Kai grabbed a now-conscious Long Feng by the scruff of his collar with more strength than he thought he possessed. "Get the fuck off my ship now," he growled at the man, "or else I'll send you back to your men in pieces."
Before he knew it, Long Feng and his men were gone. Kai flipped the captain off as he left, and then turned to the rest of the men—Momo, Pabu, Imaru, Daw, Otaku, Skoochy and Ryu all looked a bit worn out but no worse for the wear. "Unclip the sails," he ordered. "We need to get out of here."
Without questioning his orders, they began to ready the ship to sail away as Kai went below decks to the infirmary.
Two hours. Two hours. For two hours Yung had been in surgery…receiving surgery. Kai thought that he would lose his mind if he had to wait a second more without news. Pacing just outside the infirmary, his head turned every second to stare at the closed doors. If only he could see through walls.
Each turn he made, there was a slight sting in his left ankle but he paid it little mind. In fact, the distraction was quite comforting: the slowly growing pain gave his mind something to focus on. He'd rather focus on anything other than the idea of los—no. He couldn't even think it. If he didn't think it, then it wasn't going to happen.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be him in there…not Yung, not the man that he had grown to think of as a father or an older brother. It was never supposed to be Yung. He was supposed to get hurt, not his friend. Yung didn't deserve this.
Suddenly, there was a soft noise at the opposite end of the room, and Longshot entered. The medic looked absolutely exhausted and dejected, but Kai was pretty sure that (correction: he hoped) he saw a little relief in his eyes. He couldn't handle it if it were the opposite.
"Well," Longshot began with a sigh.
Kai suddenly couldn't breathe, terrified of bad news. Well? Well?! "Well, what?"
"He'll live."
Instantly a choked gasp something like a sob or a laugh escaped Kai's throat. "Oh, thank the Spirits," he whispered, breathing in long and deep. Yung wasn't dead. Yung wasn't dead. "How—how is he?"
"Yung's injuries are anything but superficial, I'll say that, but thanks to Raava's good graces and the antibiotics that we picked up a few stops ago, he's more or less all patched up. A couple weeks off his feet and he'll be fine." Longshot shot Kai a quicksilver smile. "Of course I think getting him to stay down will be the hard part, just like a certain Captain I know."
Kai ignored the dig, still a bit breathless and elated that Yung was going to be okay. "Can—can I see him?"
Longshot nodded, and Kai flew past the man like the wind itself controlled him, stopping with a dead halt in front of Yung's bed.
Yung had never looked so—so helpless before to him. There was a light sheet covering him from the waist down. He was shirtless, but the bandages around his torso were thicker than any shirt he had ever worn. His hair was a little matted from mud and sweat, but his skin was brighter, more alive than the deathly pale Kai had seen last. Kai would always remember his horror at seeing Yung barely alive: there was so much comfort in seeing him better now.
Even so, Kai felt…awkward. He didn't know how to do this bedside manner bit. "When, uh," he coughed, "when's he going to wake up?"
"Anesthesia should be wearing off by now, so…" Longshot looked at the clock on the wall. "Should be in the next twenty-ish minutes. You should talk to him, Cap. Don't be surprised if he wakes up." He paused. "I'm going to go tell the rest of the crew, alright?"
Not knowing what else to do but nod, Kai sat in the chair left rather conveniently by the bed and watched Yung's chest rise and fall.
Seconds passed.
Minutes.
"Yung," Kai whispered, burying his face in his hands, "I don't know if you can hear me, but…but I just want to say that I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, this never should've happened to you. I should've been watching your back. It's my j-job to look out for my crew. I should've been watching closer. I should've had your back, Yung. It's my fault you're here. I'm so sorry."
He nearly had a heart attack when Yung groaned softly. "No need to apologize, kid."
"Yung!" Kai leapt out of his chair and stood next to his friend, one hand gripping Yung's shoulder. "Are you okay? D'you need me to get Longshot? Do you—are you alright? You're alright, right?"
Yung chuckled weakly but it came out as a weak sort of cough. "I'm alright, Kai, really." His brows furrowed. "Are you okay?"
"Me?" Kai couldn't believe that his friend had just been stabbed by Long Feng and was still asking after his health. Unbelievable. "I'm fine." Flopping back into the chair, he took a breath. "Yung, I—"
"Don't apologize again, Kai, I heard you the first time." Yung propped himself up on his elbows, wincing slightly. "It's not your fault that this happened to me, kid. We're pirates. Things like this happen all the time—you end up in this bed so often I'm surprised Longshot hasn't given you one of those frequent-visitors punch cards."
Kai ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, knowing that his friend was right. "It's just…well…you're never supposed to get hurt, Yung."
Yung released a wry laugh. "I'm not immortal, Kai," the first mate said, gazing at him fondly. "It's bound to happen occasionally." He paused, rethinking his words. "Unfortunately. I don't much enjoy getting stabbed, y'know."
For the first time in what felt like years, Kai began to relax, the knots in his gut dissolving. "So, ah," he just had to make sure, "you're not going to die now, right?"
Yung smiled gently. "It's definitely not on my immediate to-do list." He tilted his head with a shrug and gave Kai another smile. "Shit happens, eh?"
Kai laughed. "To us?" he said, pretending to think about it. "More often than not, I think."
Behind the door, Longshot smiled, knowing that balance had been restored to the universe once more.
Yung was alive. He was protected. And he knew enough about his captain that anyone who tried to change either of those conditions would have hell to pay.