Day 93
A scream of terror rips Yinsen out of his peaceful sleep. He fumbles around through the pile next to his cot for his flashlight. He clicks it on and light floods into the room
“Stark?” Yinsen calls to the young man. The beam of light from the flash light settles on him. Yinsen can see his shoulders heaving as though he is breathing hard, “Stark? Are you okay?”
The man flinches as his voice carries through the cave.
“I… um… I can’t…” Yinsen instantly knows what is going on. He can tell from the quiver and hoarseness in Stark’s voice that he is about to slip into a panic attack. Yinsen is on his feet in a second, rushing to Stark’s side.
“You’re okay Stark,” Yinsen tries to reassure the trembling man. He places a comforting hand on the young man’s shoulder, and he flinches.
“Don’t-” Starks chokes, his strangled words seem to be begging for something.
“It’s okay Stark. You are okay,” Yinsen repeats, and gently wraps his arm around Tony’s trembling shoulders.
“But-”
“You’re okay.”
Yinsen wishes more than anything that he could tell the terrified young man that he would be okay, but frankly Yinsen knows he can not. Likely as not the Ten Rings will come in the morning and drag him away for another round of torture. Telling Stark that he is okay, and will be okay are two very different things. One is mostly likely a lie, and the other is the truth… for the time being.
“There going to come back…” Stark’s voice is a low moan of terror. His whole body shakes in Yinsen’s arms.
“You are stronger than this Stark,” Yinsen doesn’t know how else to reassure the man. He can’t tell him that they won’t come for him tomorrow, “You are strong.”
He cradles Stark in his arms as violent sobs shake the young man’s body. Yinsen used to curse the Ten Rings for tearing his life apart and ruining everything, but now… now as he cradles a very broken man in his arms he begins to realize that there is a purpose to everything that has turned his life upside down. That purpose was Stark. Yinsen’s family had been good. They had been happy. They hadn’t needed anything. It was all perfect. Their lives had been lives well lived, and they had died as good people. This man on the other hand? This man needed saving. Saving from himself, and saving from who he had become. Yinsen was beginning to realise that his purpose-- the reason-- for him being locked in this cave was to save this man. This young man with so much potential. Yinsen knows that he will some day leave his mark on the world, and not a mark written in red.
Stark was strong. He would survive.
“You will be okay.”
“No, they’ll come back-”
“No. Stark, you will be okay, and you will make it out of here. I promise.”
Yinsen means it.