Dangerous Beauty 1.5
Title: Dangerous Beauty 1.5
Pairings: YunJae, ChunJae, MinJae ( lotsa others cuz Jae's a courtesan)
Summary: The place is Venice, paradise. The city of sin and temptation. The year is 1500, a time of struggling morality and passion. In an era filled with hopeless religion and equally hopeless passion, how can two men find each other and love?
Disclaimer: Totally based on the movie Dangerous Beauty, which is based on a book about the famous Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco... plus I don't own the boys, so really I have nothing. Heh.
Chapter 1.5
Yoochun was in his library reading when he heard soft footsteps padding along the corridor. He grinned to himself. Jaejoong was home, late as usual, and trying to sneak past the library to his room.
“Cousin!” he boomed in a loud baritone.
A loud thunk was heard, Jaejoong’s squeal of pain following shortly after.
“Get in here.” Yoochun yelled, even louder.
“I’m here!” jaejoong muttered, pushing the library door open. “You scared me, Yoochun! I think I broke my toe.”
“You’re drunk.” Yoochun declared, rising from his rather comfortable armchair and moving towards Jaejoong.
“I am not.” Jaejoong declared, backing away.
“The blush on your cheeks, my love, is either a post-coital glow or a drunken flush. Which is it?”
Jaejoong placed cool hands to his cheeks, and his face crinkled into a smile. “Would you believe me if I said this heat on my face is of the post-coital variety?”
Yoochu laughed and walked to Jaejoong’s face. He tapped his cousin’s head with the large book he had been reading.
“Ouch.”
“You, my pet, “ Yoochun said, tipping Jae’s head up with the edge of his book. “Are as virginal as Mother Mary.”
Jae pouted, and his large eyes bore into Yoochun’s. For a moment Yoochun felt, as he did on certain occasions, his heart stop completely. It was a Moment. And like other Moments, Yoochun realized he felt something for his cousin that could not be erased by the bonds of blood or the ties of family. But, as he always did, he shoved his feelings into the recesses of his mind and soul.
“How do you know for certain?” Jae lifted a brow.
Yoochun kissed the tip of his fair cousin’s nose and smirked. “I know you, pet. And besides, you know what my profession was.”
Jaejoong sighed and dropped to the couch in front of the fireplace. He changed the conversation abruptly. “Yunho came home.” Jaejoong muttered, looking into the dancing fire.
Yoochun smiled to himself and curled next to his cousin. “I suppose the brat is as handsome as ever?”
Jaejoong groaned and shifted so his head was on his cousin’s lap. “More so. Much much more.”
Yoochun was silent, thinking of Yunho Kim. Handsome, rich, powerful family. Yunho was everything a man could fall in love with, and everything Jaejoong could not have. Yunho would break Jaejoong as he had broken half the hearts of Europe; gossip was rife with Yunho’s conquests. What could he do?
“How do people get married?” Jaejoong asked, quietly.
“A bargain,” Yoochun answered promptly. “A bargain is struck between two families. Money is exchanged and alliances are made.”
“And is there room for love and passion in this agreement?” Jaejoong asked, and he turned his question to the dancing flames more than to Yoochun.
“You know the answer, pet.” Yoochun said, his fingers sliding down Jaejoong’s smooth cheek. He traced the plump lips carefully, tenderly. “None at all.”
Yoochun’s fingers felt the soft sad sigh of Jaejoong, a hot escape of breath from his mouth. He pursed his lips in restraint. “Up cousin”, he said roughly.
Jaejoong groaned. “Let me just sleep here.”
Yoochun smiled. Tempting. “No Jaejoong.” Yoochun said firmly. “To your own bed, my pretty cousin.”
Jaejoong pouted again, and stuck his tongue out at Yoochun. Shuffling tiredly out of the room, he closed the door quietly as he went out.
As soon as the door closed, Yoochun let out a frustrated groan and fell back on the couch.
**
The next morning…
“Nakitai tokiwa nakeba iikara
Nee... muriwa shinaide
Namida karetara egaoga hiraku
Hora... mou waratteru”
Jaejoong woke up blearily, rubbing sleep and too much wine from his eyes. Did he hear something?
“Tomadounowa miraiga arukara
Mabushisani makenai...
Yuukiga hoshii”
A tender but deep voice was singing from underneath his balcony. Jaejoong was suddenly wide awake. The voice was very familiar…
“Every day and night with you
Chiisana kimino tewo nigirishimerukara
Every day every night everywhere
Tsunagaru kanshokuwo zutto tashikameyou
Ima monogatariwa... Begin”
With the last word, Jaejoong jumped up from his bed and rushed to his balcony. Below, floating on the water beneath his second storey balcony was Yunho, strumming a guitar and singing a sweet love song. Jaejoong gawked in disbelief. A serenade?
Yunho smiled up at the young man, glittering even more in the weak sunlight than in the moonlight yesterday. He continued singing tenderly, a song of promise and budding love.
Suddenly Jaejoong’s face broke into a wicked smile, and Yunho felt his boat shift violently to the left.
“Every day and night with you. Chiisana kimino tewo nigirishimerukara,” an unnaturally high voice mimicked the lyrics Yunho was singing.
Yunho glanced back at his cousin, Changmin, who was in another gondola. Changmin had an oar in one hand and was shoving Yunho’s gondola to the side viciously.
“Dammit, Minnie! I brought you along so you could help me!”
Changmin smiled too sweetly. “Your choice of song is sickeningly maudlin, cuz. I’m just trying to add spice to the performance” He continued to shove at Yunho’s small boat with his oar, laughing all the way. Yunho tumbled down into the boat very ungracefully.
Yunho had no choice but to drop his guitar and fight back. Oar against oar. The two clashed wildly, they had been fighting since they were 3 years old and they had it down to an art. Yunho ducked as Changmin swung his oar wildly at his head. Close! Damn his taller cousin for being so strong!
A tinkle of laughter made Yunho turn his head back up to the balcony, and he met the eyes of Jaejoong.
“Should I come down and save you?” Jaejoong yelled, sweetly. He glanced at the sweaty dueling cousins in the two matched gondolas.
“That you should!” Changmin answered, thrusting gleefully at Yunho again. “His wood never could compete with mine.”
Yunho blushed at the innuendo, and he thrust back at Min harder. “You were always quick to get it up, Min. But never for very long.” He thrust viciously and sent Minnie toppling back into his gondola.
Jaejoong, in the meantime, had thrown on some clothes and was rushing down the stairs to exit his house.
“Where are you off to so early?” a groggy voice asked Jaejoong just as he put his hand on the front door.
“Nowhere…” Jaejoong smiled at his half-awake cousin, edging closer to the door.
“That nowhere has a nice baritone.” Yoochun commented, as he slipped into the kitchen looking for breakfast.
Jaejoong grinned and ran out into the street lining the canal. He watched a while, laughing, as the two cousins hit each other with their oars. Yunho seemed to be on the losing end, as Changmin had longer arms.
“Stop!” Jaejoong yelled, as Yunho received a whack on the bottom courtesy of Changmin’s oar. Changimn obeyed, a carefree and beautiful smile on his face.
“Your savior, cuz!” Changmin said, relenting his assault. “It’s a good think I can’t resist him, Yunnie. A word from this beauty and my body obeys.”
Yunho shot Changmin a glare promising very, very harsh revenge before turning back to Jaejoong to apologize. Jaejoong was laughing at him openly, a graceful hand covering his mouth. He was bathed in the morning sun, and his hair glistened softly in the light. If the sight of Jae smiling wasn’t so entrancing he would have been beating Changmin with his fists right about now.
“I’ll deal with you later, my cousin.” Yunho hissed, as he grabbed his oar and rowed towards Jaejoong. Yunho received a mocking salute from Changmin in return.
Jaejoong was still smiling as Yunho rowed up to him. He held out his hand gracefully and Yunho guided him into his gondola. He didn’t let go even when Jae was comfortably seated among the cushions of the small boat. Changmin’s little distraction hadn’t deterred him from his lovely goal.
Yunho steered them to a small canal near Jae’s home, where it was silent and deserted. Thin shafts of sunlight struck through the tall white marble buildings and lit up the blue waters of Venice. There were no other gondolas in sight. And Yunho still held Jaejoong’s small hand in his.
Yunho was leaning back against the cushions, more lying down than sitting, and he drew Jaejoong beside him.
“You are too close,” Jaejoong whispered, trying to edge away.
Yunho smiled and slid a hand around Jae’s waist, trapping him and bringing them nose to nose.
“And too familiar with me!” Jaejoong said, pushing a hand between them.
“I’ve known you since you were a child!’ Yunho laughed, “a mere baby, running around playing with my brother.”
“I am not a child now.” Jaejoong said, still pushing Yunho away. “And you do not know me. You barely paid any attention to me when I was with your brother.”
“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.”
Yunho whispered the lines of Shakespeare into Jae’s ear, smiling and planting the softest kiss on the top of Jae’s head. He leaned back and looked into Jaejoong’s widened eyes.
“You read Shakespeare obsessively. “ Yunho whispered. “I used to watch you in the library. I was always chained there to my desk by my tutor. You were there willingly, always with your nose in a book, hiding because you weren’t supposed to be there.”
Jaejoong smiled. “I always hid under the table.”
“Yes.” Yunho said, grinning. “Tiny thing that you were, you fit under there. And you always hid the book of Shakespeare’s sonnets with you. One day when you weren’t there I picked up the book you were so in love with and read it.”
“You did?”
“Yes.” Yunho laughed. “It was the first time I truly read poetry. It was beautiful.”
Jaejoong looked into Yunho’s eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity. He fell a little bit deeper, and the tension left his shoulders. He sighed, almost in defeat. How can I resist? He asked himself. Why should I? Yunho’s arms fit so well against the curve of his hip...
“I bought this for you.” Yunho said, lifting a book out from under the pillows. “In Rome”
Jaejoong looked at the cover. The Life of Veronica Franco: Poetess and Lover. He raised an eyebrow “You didn’t buy this for me.”
“Of course I did.” Yunho looked a little insulted. “I didn’t know it at the time, but now I do.”
Jae smiled in disbelief and turned the book over in his hands. “You give gifts so easily, Yunho.”
“Yes.” Yunho smiled, stroking Jaejoong’s back. His hand felt like it belonged there, like it had always been there. “But perhaps you are too young to accept what I truly want to give you.”
Jaejoong irked a brow at the man in front of him. “I am not so young as you are vain.”
Yunho laughed. “Your mouth needs to be stopped.” He said, as he leaned in for a kiss.
But Jaejoong turned away quickly, Yunho’s lips just grazing his cheek. “You think of me as one of your easy court whores?” he whispered roughly.
“No. No…I think your eyes have been asking me for a kiss since you first looked at me.” Yunho said.
Jaejoong felt the heat go to his face, and he looked again into Yunho’s eyes. How could he deny the truth? Yunho smiled as he saw the surrender in them, and he leaned forward a second time. This time Jaejoong did not turn away; he lifted his lips in a silent offer, and Yunho accepted with a whisper of satisfaction and eagerness. He took Jaejoong’s lips gently, a light touch and pressure, skin to skin. It was a beginning, and a promise of something deeper.
Jaejoong’s head was bowed after it was done.
“Did you not like it?” Yunho whispered, his soul still caught and his mind still reeling from the heat of Jaejoong’s skin.
“I wish it were not a sin to like it so.” Jaejoong said softly.
Yunho laughed and pulled his chin up. “Sin was made so that we might know mercy.”
The second kiss was deeper than the first, a search for the pleasure of skin and an exploration of the heated energy between them. Yunho’s mouth pressed into Jae’s with an insistent force, and his tongue brushed Jae’s mouth in soft sensual strokes. Jaejoong responded eagerly, all hesitation forgotten because of the feel of Yunho’s heat against his own.
Jaejoong’s journal:
I find myself within his eyes
I long for more of myself to know
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason's foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
"Love does not wait," is his reply
What magic weaves
his touch to trick me?
How can I now my love deny?
###
End! I'm going to Thailand for a week, so updates next Friday maybe? haha. when I get back I'll fix the posting too. I'm a livejournal newbie...like a caveman, i really dunno how anything works *scratches head*
Pairings: YunJae, ChunJae, MinJae ( lotsa others cuz Jae's a courtesan)
Summary: The place is Venice, paradise. The city of sin and temptation. The year is 1500, a time of struggling morality and passion. In an era filled with hopeless religion and equally hopeless passion, how can two men find each other and love?
Disclaimer: Totally based on the movie Dangerous Beauty, which is based on a book about the famous Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco... plus I don't own the boys, so really I have nothing. Heh.
Chapter 1.5
Yoochun was in his library reading when he heard soft footsteps padding along the corridor. He grinned to himself. Jaejoong was home, late as usual, and trying to sneak past the library to his room.
“Cousin!” he boomed in a loud baritone.
A loud thunk was heard, Jaejoong’s squeal of pain following shortly after.
“Get in here.” Yoochun yelled, even louder.
“I’m here!” jaejoong muttered, pushing the library door open. “You scared me, Yoochun! I think I broke my toe.”
“You’re drunk.” Yoochun declared, rising from his rather comfortable armchair and moving towards Jaejoong.
“I am not.” Jaejoong declared, backing away.
“The blush on your cheeks, my love, is either a post-coital glow or a drunken flush. Which is it?”
Jaejoong placed cool hands to his cheeks, and his face crinkled into a smile. “Would you believe me if I said this heat on my face is of the post-coital variety?”
Yoochu laughed and walked to Jaejoong’s face. He tapped his cousin’s head with the large book he had been reading.
“Ouch.”
“You, my pet, “ Yoochun said, tipping Jae’s head up with the edge of his book. “Are as virginal as Mother Mary.”
Jae pouted, and his large eyes bore into Yoochun’s. For a moment Yoochun felt, as he did on certain occasions, his heart stop completely. It was a Moment. And like other Moments, Yoochun realized he felt something for his cousin that could not be erased by the bonds of blood or the ties of family. But, as he always did, he shoved his feelings into the recesses of his mind and soul.
“How do you know for certain?” Jae lifted a brow.
Yoochun kissed the tip of his fair cousin’s nose and smirked. “I know you, pet. And besides, you know what my profession was.”
Jaejoong sighed and dropped to the couch in front of the fireplace. He changed the conversation abruptly. “Yunho came home.” Jaejoong muttered, looking into the dancing fire.
Yoochun smiled to himself and curled next to his cousin. “I suppose the brat is as handsome as ever?”
Jaejoong groaned and shifted so his head was on his cousin’s lap. “More so. Much much more.”
Yoochun was silent, thinking of Yunho Kim. Handsome, rich, powerful family. Yunho was everything a man could fall in love with, and everything Jaejoong could not have. Yunho would break Jaejoong as he had broken half the hearts of Europe; gossip was rife with Yunho’s conquests. What could he do?
“How do people get married?” Jaejoong asked, quietly.
“A bargain,” Yoochun answered promptly. “A bargain is struck between two families. Money is exchanged and alliances are made.”
“And is there room for love and passion in this agreement?” Jaejoong asked, and he turned his question to the dancing flames more than to Yoochun.
“You know the answer, pet.” Yoochun said, his fingers sliding down Jaejoong’s smooth cheek. He traced the plump lips carefully, tenderly. “None at all.”
Yoochun’s fingers felt the soft sad sigh of Jaejoong, a hot escape of breath from his mouth. He pursed his lips in restraint. “Up cousin”, he said roughly.
Jaejoong groaned. “Let me just sleep here.”
Yoochun smiled. Tempting. “No Jaejoong.” Yoochun said firmly. “To your own bed, my pretty cousin.”
Jaejoong pouted again, and stuck his tongue out at Yoochun. Shuffling tiredly out of the room, he closed the door quietly as he went out.
As soon as the door closed, Yoochun let out a frustrated groan and fell back on the couch.
**
The next morning…
“Nakitai tokiwa nakeba iikara
Nee... muriwa shinaide
Namida karetara egaoga hiraku
Hora... mou waratteru”
Jaejoong woke up blearily, rubbing sleep and too much wine from his eyes. Did he hear something?
“Tomadounowa miraiga arukara
Mabushisani makenai...
Yuukiga hoshii”
A tender but deep voice was singing from underneath his balcony. Jaejoong was suddenly wide awake. The voice was very familiar…
“Every day and night with you
Chiisana kimino tewo nigirishimerukara
Every day every night everywhere
Tsunagaru kanshokuwo zutto tashikameyou
Ima monogatariwa... Begin”
With the last word, Jaejoong jumped up from his bed and rushed to his balcony. Below, floating on the water beneath his second storey balcony was Yunho, strumming a guitar and singing a sweet love song. Jaejoong gawked in disbelief. A serenade?
Yunho smiled up at the young man, glittering even more in the weak sunlight than in the moonlight yesterday. He continued singing tenderly, a song of promise and budding love.
Suddenly Jaejoong’s face broke into a wicked smile, and Yunho felt his boat shift violently to the left.
“Every day and night with you. Chiisana kimino tewo nigirishimerukara,” an unnaturally high voice mimicked the lyrics Yunho was singing.
Yunho glanced back at his cousin, Changmin, who was in another gondola. Changmin had an oar in one hand and was shoving Yunho’s gondola to the side viciously.
“Dammit, Minnie! I brought you along so you could help me!”
Changmin smiled too sweetly. “Your choice of song is sickeningly maudlin, cuz. I’m just trying to add spice to the performance” He continued to shove at Yunho’s small boat with his oar, laughing all the way. Yunho tumbled down into the boat very ungracefully.
Yunho had no choice but to drop his guitar and fight back. Oar against oar. The two clashed wildly, they had been fighting since they were 3 years old and they had it down to an art. Yunho ducked as Changmin swung his oar wildly at his head. Close! Damn his taller cousin for being so strong!
A tinkle of laughter made Yunho turn his head back up to the balcony, and he met the eyes of Jaejoong.
“Should I come down and save you?” Jaejoong yelled, sweetly. He glanced at the sweaty dueling cousins in the two matched gondolas.
“That you should!” Changmin answered, thrusting gleefully at Yunho again. “His wood never could compete with mine.”
Yunho blushed at the innuendo, and he thrust back at Min harder. “You were always quick to get it up, Min. But never for very long.” He thrust viciously and sent Minnie toppling back into his gondola.
Jaejoong, in the meantime, had thrown on some clothes and was rushing down the stairs to exit his house.
“Where are you off to so early?” a groggy voice asked Jaejoong just as he put his hand on the front door.
“Nowhere…” Jaejoong smiled at his half-awake cousin, edging closer to the door.
“That nowhere has a nice baritone.” Yoochun commented, as he slipped into the kitchen looking for breakfast.
Jaejoong grinned and ran out into the street lining the canal. He watched a while, laughing, as the two cousins hit each other with their oars. Yunho seemed to be on the losing end, as Changmin had longer arms.
“Stop!” Jaejoong yelled, as Yunho received a whack on the bottom courtesy of Changmin’s oar. Changimn obeyed, a carefree and beautiful smile on his face.
“Your savior, cuz!” Changmin said, relenting his assault. “It’s a good think I can’t resist him, Yunnie. A word from this beauty and my body obeys.”
Yunho shot Changmin a glare promising very, very harsh revenge before turning back to Jaejoong to apologize. Jaejoong was laughing at him openly, a graceful hand covering his mouth. He was bathed in the morning sun, and his hair glistened softly in the light. If the sight of Jae smiling wasn’t so entrancing he would have been beating Changmin with his fists right about now.
“I’ll deal with you later, my cousin.” Yunho hissed, as he grabbed his oar and rowed towards Jaejoong. Yunho received a mocking salute from Changmin in return.
Jaejoong was still smiling as Yunho rowed up to him. He held out his hand gracefully and Yunho guided him into his gondola. He didn’t let go even when Jae was comfortably seated among the cushions of the small boat. Changmin’s little distraction hadn’t deterred him from his lovely goal.
Yunho steered them to a small canal near Jae’s home, where it was silent and deserted. Thin shafts of sunlight struck through the tall white marble buildings and lit up the blue waters of Venice. There were no other gondolas in sight. And Yunho still held Jaejoong’s small hand in his.
Yunho was leaning back against the cushions, more lying down than sitting, and he drew Jaejoong beside him.
“You are too close,” Jaejoong whispered, trying to edge away.
Yunho smiled and slid a hand around Jae’s waist, trapping him and bringing them nose to nose.
“And too familiar with me!” Jaejoong said, pushing a hand between them.
“I’ve known you since you were a child!’ Yunho laughed, “a mere baby, running around playing with my brother.”
“I am not a child now.” Jaejoong said, still pushing Yunho away. “And you do not know me. You barely paid any attention to me when I was with your brother.”
“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no, it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.”
Yunho whispered the lines of Shakespeare into Jae’s ear, smiling and planting the softest kiss on the top of Jae’s head. He leaned back and looked into Jaejoong’s widened eyes.
“You read Shakespeare obsessively. “ Yunho whispered. “I used to watch you in the library. I was always chained there to my desk by my tutor. You were there willingly, always with your nose in a book, hiding because you weren’t supposed to be there.”
Jaejoong smiled. “I always hid under the table.”
“Yes.” Yunho said, grinning. “Tiny thing that you were, you fit under there. And you always hid the book of Shakespeare’s sonnets with you. One day when you weren’t there I picked up the book you were so in love with and read it.”
“You did?”
“Yes.” Yunho laughed. “It was the first time I truly read poetry. It was beautiful.”
Jaejoong looked into Yunho’s eyes, seeing nothing but sincerity. He fell a little bit deeper, and the tension left his shoulders. He sighed, almost in defeat. How can I resist? He asked himself. Why should I? Yunho’s arms fit so well against the curve of his hip...
“I bought this for you.” Yunho said, lifting a book out from under the pillows. “In Rome”
Jaejoong looked at the cover. The Life of Veronica Franco: Poetess and Lover. He raised an eyebrow “You didn’t buy this for me.”
“Of course I did.” Yunho looked a little insulted. “I didn’t know it at the time, but now I do.”
Jae smiled in disbelief and turned the book over in his hands. “You give gifts so easily, Yunho.”
“Yes.” Yunho smiled, stroking Jaejoong’s back. His hand felt like it belonged there, like it had always been there. “But perhaps you are too young to accept what I truly want to give you.”
Jaejoong irked a brow at the man in front of him. “I am not so young as you are vain.”
Yunho laughed. “Your mouth needs to be stopped.” He said, as he leaned in for a kiss.
But Jaejoong turned away quickly, Yunho’s lips just grazing his cheek. “You think of me as one of your easy court whores?” he whispered roughly.
“No. No…I think your eyes have been asking me for a kiss since you first looked at me.” Yunho said.
Jaejoong felt the heat go to his face, and he looked again into Yunho’s eyes. How could he deny the truth? Yunho smiled as he saw the surrender in them, and he leaned forward a second time. This time Jaejoong did not turn away; he lifted his lips in a silent offer, and Yunho accepted with a whisper of satisfaction and eagerness. He took Jaejoong’s lips gently, a light touch and pressure, skin to skin. It was a beginning, and a promise of something deeper.
Jaejoong’s head was bowed after it was done.
“Did you not like it?” Yunho whispered, his soul still caught and his mind still reeling from the heat of Jaejoong’s skin.
“I wish it were not a sin to like it so.” Jaejoong said softly.
Yunho laughed and pulled his chin up. “Sin was made so that we might know mercy.”
The second kiss was deeper than the first, a search for the pleasure of skin and an exploration of the heated energy between them. Yunho’s mouth pressed into Jae’s with an insistent force, and his tongue brushed Jae’s mouth in soft sensual strokes. Jaejoong responded eagerly, all hesitation forgotten because of the feel of Yunho’s heat against his own.
Jaejoong’s journal:
I find myself within his eyes
I long for more of myself to know
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason's foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
"Love does not wait," is his reply
What magic weaves
his touch to trick me?
How can I now my love deny?
###
End! I'm going to Thailand for a week, so updates next Friday maybe? haha. when I get back I'll fix the posting too. I'm a livejournal newbie...like a caveman, i really dunno how anything works *scratches head*