Page 76 of Forge the Blade

“That wasn’t the plan,” Damian snapped.

“Keep it,” Yoihei said. “It’s better than the plan.”

People started to move and Rei lost sight of Jun for a moment. He wanted to go check on his Junseo, but he couldn’t. Not without blowing his cover.

As people parted, Jun became visible again. He was leaning against the altar, and his lover, Damian, was still fussing over him. “I want to see it,” Jun was saying.

“It was perfect,” Damian retorted. “Especially if you wanted to cut someone’s chest open, like mine.”

Jun laughed, eyes on Damian, then quieted a little, meeting Damian’s eyes. “It felt real.”

Rei’s chest hurt. He pressed his hand against it.

“It was.” Damian moved closer to Jun.

Jun grabbed Damian and dragged the two of them together, not even trying to keep his bloody palm off Damian’s clothes, just bringing him in and taking the other man’s lips in a fierce kiss.

Jaewoong jogged past, heading towards the staircase to the baptismal. “Get a room!”

Jun didn’t stop devouring Damian. He gave Jaewoong the middle finger without even looking up.

Jaewoong groaned and kept moving. “Don’t take too long!”

“Jun, get a bandage on that hand,” Mi Hi called out. “We’ve got to finish before we lose the sun upstairs.”

“Who’s got bandages?”

“Andres,” Ellisandre answered from the balcony above where they were helping Su-jin. “In my bag.”

Rei hurried to Ellisandre’s bag and dug through it, ignoring the gun case at the top. The first aid kit was in the inner side pocket. He limped back to Damian and Jun and opened it up on the dry side of the altar. Jun held out his hand, Damian still holding him by his waist.

Oh. Jun thought Rei was going to bandage it. His mind skittered in a circle. He put his hand to his mask and glasses. He could do this. Jun wasn’t even looking at him. Damian had him fully occupied. Jun had seen him doing makeup and handling the whole group up close and personal all day. He wouldn’t think anything of it. And he was tired. It was obvious from the way Damian was starting to take more and more of Jun’s weight as he hit adrenaline crash.

“That was your last one, right?” Damian asked.

Rei pulled on gloves, opened a sanitary cloth, and started to clean Jun’s palm.

“Last one I’m in.” Jun sagged deeper and his voice hitched as Rei pulled a piece of something sharp out of his cut palm. “But I need to get upstairs and make sure we get the shots we need of Su-jin. Yoihei will make sure Jaewoong’s covered.

“Someday you’ll have a full crew back,” Damian murmured.

“I like this crew,” Jun replied. “It’s safe. Everyone here has been awesome. You have no idea what taping with Bak Gyeong was like. As tired as I am right now . . .” Jun’s voice trailed off. “This feels like home.”

Rei blinked hard so he could barely see to finish wrapping a bandage around Jun’s palm. He started on a larger wrap to keep it in place for the rest of the night. There was too much in the space that was potentially dangerous.

“Rei would have loved this,” Jun said softly. “He always liked the cinematic.”

“He was your hyung,” Damian said. “Would he scold you for getting hurt?”

Jun laughed and flexed his hand as Rei let go. “Rei didn’t scold much. He just looked at you and you wanted to do better. He knew we got enough scolding from everyone else.” He looked down at his bandaged hand and then at Rei. “Thank you. That feels good.”

Rei nodded. He couldn’t speak. He was going to cry. Thank goodness for the low lights now that everything was being taken upstairs. Instead, he turned his back and busied himself closing up the first aid kit. He barely made it back to Ellisandre’s bag before he had to reach under his mask and wipe his nose so he could breathe.

“Yo.” Geun hurried towards Rei as he tried to catch his breath.” Rei sniffed and straightened up. “You okay?”

Rei nodded and gave a thumbs up. He was still crying too hard to speak. Geun frowned as if he wasn’t certain. “Um, if you’re sure, Jaewoong needs to get done up for the baptismal shot.”

Rei reached for his makeup kit. He could do this. If he could be naked in a room full of monsters, he could do his old friend’s make up one last time. He could.