bad blood (1/?)
jaejoong/yunho
action, feudal!AU
pg13
1786 words
prompt from anon in the jaeho_detox prompt meme: In a battle where Yunho and Jaejoong are enemies, Jaejoong doesn't know why he can't bring himself to kill his disarmed opponent.
The messenger that comes with the news has blood blossoming across his chest, fingers already shaking and cold to touch when Yunho pries the boy's hands from the reigns of his horse. "The confederacy," he manages out as they ease him onto the ground and warm blood starts to soak into the frost, the sparse tufts of grass that winter has somehow chosen to leave behind. "The confederacy has fallen."
They burn the body after that and Yunho is the first to throw the lighted branch that sets the pyre alight, face an unreadable mask.
"They will see us," one of his captains cautions, eyes darting warily to the hills and whatever that lies beyond that. "The smoke…perhaps, it might be wiser…as there is still time…"
Yunho's eyes are fixated on the center of the fire where bones are starting to char. By morning, there will be nothing but ashes left.
"Let them come," he says and doesn't look away, hand resting on the scabbard of his sword. "We will not run."
It is unspoken, but Yunho is sure everyone already knows. They have no where to run to.
-
Jaejoong watches the plumes of smoke curl into the early morning sky as he calmly restrings his bow, pulling it taunt enough to sing with every arrow he will loose. An act of defiance? Defeat? Knowing Yunho, it will never be the latter.
"My lord?"
He pulls the string back and lets it snap back into place, the sound clear enough to bring the hint of a smile to his face. Off to the side, Jaejoong's guard takes an involuntary step back, hand gripping the hilt of his sword a little tighter. Jaejoong's moods are as fickle as the winds themselves sometimes, changing course without nary a hint. The last man to aid his lordship had been relieved of his post with an arrow through the neck for standing a hair's breadth too close for his lordship's liking.
"Tell the men to get ready." Jaejoong is back to looking at the sky, clouds turning from pink to gold overhead. With luck, it will rain by nighttime and the smell of blood will not linger tomorrow. "We move in an hour."
-
They are losing. Yunho can feel it, taste it in the coppery tang of blood in his mouth, defeat already thrumming through his veins when a stray arrow catches him in the chest and sends him to his knees. How apt, to be on one's knees to receive such a revelation.
"Yunho."
If Yunho had to be honest with anyone, this was the end he had been envisioning right from the very beginning. Protect the court? A peal of laughter threatens to spill from him and Yunho can see the world tipping on its axis, cold earth rushing up to meet him. The court is safe, has always been safe in the fortress of Kanghwa.
"Yunho."
So why send them out here? To trim ranks? A distraction so that the court can flee once again? The sudden pressure of a foot pressed on his chest knocks the breath out of Yunho and scatters all thoughts, only to bring them back into one blinding point of pain that leaves Yunho gasping for a reprieve.
"It is considered polite to answer when you are called, general."
A face that Yunho is all too familiar with looms into view overhead and Yunho cannot help but scoff at the turn of events.
"Of all people to take my life, it has to be you, does it not?"
The melee around them has died down and without looking, Yunho already knows that it is the end. Jaejoong's men are already busying themselves relieving the dead of their weapons, treating their own and slaughtering the rest.
"Come now, general." Jaejoong takes his foot off and settles himself with kicking Yunho's sword out of the latter's hands instead, all while maintaining the small smile that Yunho has come to slowly forget. "Let us not jump to such conclusions."
Breathing has become a labour that Yunho is not sure he can keep up with and for a moment, Jaejoong's face blurs out of view before snapping back into sharp focus, Jaejoong making an annoyed sound at having lost Yunho's attention for that short while.
"If you do not intend to kill me, I will have you know now that I possess no state secrets, nor am I worth enough to be worth a ransom."
"State secrets I have plenty." Jaejoong runs a lithe finger down the shaft of the arrow, every minute movement making Yunho's breath hitch and for a slow few seconds, Yunho wonders if Jaejoong will simply wrench the accursed thing out of his chest and finally leave him to die in peace. "And honestly, general, does like look like the face of a man who would be so inclined to give you up to anyone?"
"You have the face of a traitor," Yunho retorts and for that, he gets a burst of amused laughter from Jaejoong.
"If you are going to start a self-pitying spiel about how we were as youth and how this is a path I should have never set foot on, save your breath Yunho. I have had enough of that and the one man who dared say it to my face is now rotting in an early grave."
"Yoochun would have-"
"He would, if I hadn't killed him," Jaejoong says easily and settles back on his haunches, barely avoiding the hands that go for his neck when Yunho somehow finds it in himself to get up. Jaejoong's personal guard has a dagger against Yunho's neck in a second, blade already pressing hard enough into his neck to make the skin break.
"My lord?"
Jaejoong waves a nonchalant hand in the guard's general direction. "Stand down, unless you want me to put an arrow through your skull." The guard does not have to be told twice and once again, Yunho finds himself wavering on his knees, the sudden warmth of Jaejoong's hand pressed against his back the only thing keeping him up.
"It will do no good for you to die so early, general, not when we have so much catching up to do."
"I will slit my own throat before that will happen," Yunho snarls. In response, Jaejoong merely sighs, wrapping an arm
around Yunho's waist and curling a hand at Yunho's hip.
"That will be rather difficult without a dagger, will it not?" Without barely flinching, Jaejoong has slipped Yunho's dagger free from its scabbard. "When will you learn to keep things like these concealed, hmm? Still keeping it where I remember, how positively unimaginative of you, Yunho."
The last thing that Yunho remembers is Jaejoong's soft laughter against his neck as he tells the Jaejoong he has long lost the right to call Yunho that.
-
"My lord, you have no intention of killing the general?"
"Say that again with that tone of voice and people will start imagining that I have committed some kind of terrible sin, commander."
"My apologies, I did not mean to offend."
Jaejoong is humming under his breath as he removes his armor, haphazardly leaving the pieces in a pile for one of the servants to collect.
"I do not take offense so easily, commander, rest easy. I now assume you have some word of his wellbeing to report to me?"
"He…will live, there is no doubt."
"I missed on purpose, if any of you are running a bet as to why the general is still alive."
"Of course, no one would ever doubt your aim my lord."
Back turned and pulling one glove off with his teeth as his other hand unknots the leather tie holding his hair back from his face, Jaejoong allows himself to roll his eyes at the comment.
"Give orders to burn all the dead, commander. The wounded we cannot move, do what you will with them, I want us to be moving by sunrise tomorrow."
"The enemy ones, my lord?"
"Did I stammer in my orders? All the dead. Their possessions as well, I will have no looters in my army."
-
When Yunho comes to, he is strapped to a saddle with his hands bound.
"Awake, general?" The voice is overly cheerful and Yunho doesn't have to turn to know that it is Jaejoong who is leading Yunho's horse from his own. "If you're thinking of throwing yourself off, please abandon that thought immediately because all the struggling is only going to open your wound again and I have spent far too much time stitching you up for my handiwork to go to waste."
"You mean the handiwork of your healers, surely?" There is resignation in his voice and Yunho can only slump forward a fraction in an attempt to ease the pain, the constantly jarring rhythm of being on horseback hurting his chest something awful. "Or have you learnt sufficient needlework in the years you have been off cavorting with the Mongols?"
Jaejoong snorts. "I see you are well enough to banter, general. Are you not going to ask me why you are still alive?"
"I assume that there is some semblance of a reason inside that thick head of yours."
"Assumptions do nothing, general. Come, we have a long way to go before we arrive, why not we play a game where you try and guess why I have been wasting my precious resources on you when I could have easily left you to choke to death in your own blood?"
"You have always been a deviant," Yunho says simply. "I do not care for your reasons."
"And you do not care that you owe your life to me?"
Calmly, Yunho finally permits himself to look at Jaejoong, holding the gaze with as much contempt as he can muster.
"Frankly speaking, I would have rather choked to death on my own blood than to have my life saved by the likes of you."
"And therein lies the crux of the problem, because whether you like it or not, you are alive by my hand and-" Jaejoong is the first to break the gaze, but Yunho cannot help feeling that he has lost, "-I am sure that you know, as law dictates, you are now under my liege."
Yunho is silent as the landscape passes them by, hands clenched tightly underneath the binds.
"You are not contending my claim, general?"
"No," grinds out Yunho. "Not at all...my lord."
"We are going to have to work on your tone so that it sounds more like a term of loyalty rather than an insult, but yes, that sounds about correct."
/tbc?
AN- started off as a prompt fill, clearly got a bit out of hand. Taking ideas for what should happen next aka I really have no plans whatsover so uhm yes hello everyone! And yes I'm very aware of how I'm making up stuff about the Koryeo dynasty as I go along, please forgive all historical inaccuracies ^^;
action, feudal!AU
pg13
1786 words
prompt from anon in the jaeho_detox prompt meme: In a battle where Yunho and Jaejoong are enemies, Jaejoong doesn't know why he can't bring himself to kill his disarmed opponent.
The messenger that comes with the news has blood blossoming across his chest, fingers already shaking and cold to touch when Yunho pries the boy's hands from the reigns of his horse. "The confederacy," he manages out as they ease him onto the ground and warm blood starts to soak into the frost, the sparse tufts of grass that winter has somehow chosen to leave behind. "The confederacy has fallen."
They burn the body after that and Yunho is the first to throw the lighted branch that sets the pyre alight, face an unreadable mask.
"They will see us," one of his captains cautions, eyes darting warily to the hills and whatever that lies beyond that. "The smoke…perhaps, it might be wiser…as there is still time…"
Yunho's eyes are fixated on the center of the fire where bones are starting to char. By morning, there will be nothing but ashes left.
"Let them come," he says and doesn't look away, hand resting on the scabbard of his sword. "We will not run."
It is unspoken, but Yunho is sure everyone already knows. They have no where to run to.
-
Jaejoong watches the plumes of smoke curl into the early morning sky as he calmly restrings his bow, pulling it taunt enough to sing with every arrow he will loose. An act of defiance? Defeat? Knowing Yunho, it will never be the latter.
"My lord?"
He pulls the string back and lets it snap back into place, the sound clear enough to bring the hint of a smile to his face. Off to the side, Jaejoong's guard takes an involuntary step back, hand gripping the hilt of his sword a little tighter. Jaejoong's moods are as fickle as the winds themselves sometimes, changing course without nary a hint. The last man to aid his lordship had been relieved of his post with an arrow through the neck for standing a hair's breadth too close for his lordship's liking.
"Tell the men to get ready." Jaejoong is back to looking at the sky, clouds turning from pink to gold overhead. With luck, it will rain by nighttime and the smell of blood will not linger tomorrow. "We move in an hour."
-
They are losing. Yunho can feel it, taste it in the coppery tang of blood in his mouth, defeat already thrumming through his veins when a stray arrow catches him in the chest and sends him to his knees. How apt, to be on one's knees to receive such a revelation.
"Yunho."
If Yunho had to be honest with anyone, this was the end he had been envisioning right from the very beginning. Protect the court? A peal of laughter threatens to spill from him and Yunho can see the world tipping on its axis, cold earth rushing up to meet him. The court is safe, has always been safe in the fortress of Kanghwa.
"Yunho."
So why send them out here? To trim ranks? A distraction so that the court can flee once again? The sudden pressure of a foot pressed on his chest knocks the breath out of Yunho and scatters all thoughts, only to bring them back into one blinding point of pain that leaves Yunho gasping for a reprieve.
"It is considered polite to answer when you are called, general."
A face that Yunho is all too familiar with looms into view overhead and Yunho cannot help but scoff at the turn of events.
"Of all people to take my life, it has to be you, does it not?"
The melee around them has died down and without looking, Yunho already knows that it is the end. Jaejoong's men are already busying themselves relieving the dead of their weapons, treating their own and slaughtering the rest.
"Come now, general." Jaejoong takes his foot off and settles himself with kicking Yunho's sword out of the latter's hands instead, all while maintaining the small smile that Yunho has come to slowly forget. "Let us not jump to such conclusions."
Breathing has become a labour that Yunho is not sure he can keep up with and for a moment, Jaejoong's face blurs out of view before snapping back into sharp focus, Jaejoong making an annoyed sound at having lost Yunho's attention for that short while.
"If you do not intend to kill me, I will have you know now that I possess no state secrets, nor am I worth enough to be worth a ransom."
"State secrets I have plenty." Jaejoong runs a lithe finger down the shaft of the arrow, every minute movement making Yunho's breath hitch and for a slow few seconds, Yunho wonders if Jaejoong will simply wrench the accursed thing out of his chest and finally leave him to die in peace. "And honestly, general, does like look like the face of a man who would be so inclined to give you up to anyone?"
"You have the face of a traitor," Yunho retorts and for that, he gets a burst of amused laughter from Jaejoong.
"If you are going to start a self-pitying spiel about how we were as youth and how this is a path I should have never set foot on, save your breath Yunho. I have had enough of that and the one man who dared say it to my face is now rotting in an early grave."
"Yoochun would have-"
"He would, if I hadn't killed him," Jaejoong says easily and settles back on his haunches, barely avoiding the hands that go for his neck when Yunho somehow finds it in himself to get up. Jaejoong's personal guard has a dagger against Yunho's neck in a second, blade already pressing hard enough into his neck to make the skin break.
"My lord?"
Jaejoong waves a nonchalant hand in the guard's general direction. "Stand down, unless you want me to put an arrow through your skull." The guard does not have to be told twice and once again, Yunho finds himself wavering on his knees, the sudden warmth of Jaejoong's hand pressed against his back the only thing keeping him up.
"It will do no good for you to die so early, general, not when we have so much catching up to do."
"I will slit my own throat before that will happen," Yunho snarls. In response, Jaejoong merely sighs, wrapping an arm
around Yunho's waist and curling a hand at Yunho's hip.
"That will be rather difficult without a dagger, will it not?" Without barely flinching, Jaejoong has slipped Yunho's dagger free from its scabbard. "When will you learn to keep things like these concealed, hmm? Still keeping it where I remember, how positively unimaginative of you, Yunho."
The last thing that Yunho remembers is Jaejoong's soft laughter against his neck as he tells the Jaejoong he has long lost the right to call Yunho that.
-
"My lord, you have no intention of killing the general?"
"Say that again with that tone of voice and people will start imagining that I have committed some kind of terrible sin, commander."
"My apologies, I did not mean to offend."
Jaejoong is humming under his breath as he removes his armor, haphazardly leaving the pieces in a pile for one of the servants to collect.
"I do not take offense so easily, commander, rest easy. I now assume you have some word of his wellbeing to report to me?"
"He…will live, there is no doubt."
"I missed on purpose, if any of you are running a bet as to why the general is still alive."
"Of course, no one would ever doubt your aim my lord."
Back turned and pulling one glove off with his teeth as his other hand unknots the leather tie holding his hair back from his face, Jaejoong allows himself to roll his eyes at the comment.
"Give orders to burn all the dead, commander. The wounded we cannot move, do what you will with them, I want us to be moving by sunrise tomorrow."
"The enemy ones, my lord?"
"Did I stammer in my orders? All the dead. Their possessions as well, I will have no looters in my army."
-
When Yunho comes to, he is strapped to a saddle with his hands bound.
"Awake, general?" The voice is overly cheerful and Yunho doesn't have to turn to know that it is Jaejoong who is leading Yunho's horse from his own. "If you're thinking of throwing yourself off, please abandon that thought immediately because all the struggling is only going to open your wound again and I have spent far too much time stitching you up for my handiwork to go to waste."
"You mean the handiwork of your healers, surely?" There is resignation in his voice and Yunho can only slump forward a fraction in an attempt to ease the pain, the constantly jarring rhythm of being on horseback hurting his chest something awful. "Or have you learnt sufficient needlework in the years you have been off cavorting with the Mongols?"
Jaejoong snorts. "I see you are well enough to banter, general. Are you not going to ask me why you are still alive?"
"I assume that there is some semblance of a reason inside that thick head of yours."
"Assumptions do nothing, general. Come, we have a long way to go before we arrive, why not we play a game where you try and guess why I have been wasting my precious resources on you when I could have easily left you to choke to death in your own blood?"
"You have always been a deviant," Yunho says simply. "I do not care for your reasons."
"And you do not care that you owe your life to me?"
Calmly, Yunho finally permits himself to look at Jaejoong, holding the gaze with as much contempt as he can muster.
"Frankly speaking, I would have rather choked to death on my own blood than to have my life saved by the likes of you."
"And therein lies the crux of the problem, because whether you like it or not, you are alive by my hand and-" Jaejoong is the first to break the gaze, but Yunho cannot help feeling that he has lost, "-I am sure that you know, as law dictates, you are now under my liege."
Yunho is silent as the landscape passes them by, hands clenched tightly underneath the binds.
"You are not contending my claim, general?"
"No," grinds out Yunho. "Not at all...my lord."
"We are going to have to work on your tone so that it sounds more like a term of loyalty rather than an insult, but yes, that sounds about correct."
/tbc?
AN- started off as a prompt fill, clearly got a bit out of hand. Taking ideas for what should happen next aka I really have no plans whatsover so uhm yes hello everyone! And yes I'm very aware of how I'm making up stuff about the Koryeo dynasty as I go along, please forgive all historical inaccuracies ^^;