SSS 2010: FOR DAMSON_JAM
For: damson_jam
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Of love and other magic
Pairing: Onew/Jonghyun
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 7,700
Summary: Jinki is the Kim brothers’ personal knight-slash-nanny-slash-pillow-for-them-to-cry-on; he is secretly in love with the older sibling, Jonghyun. Said snobby prince decides to run away from the castle one day, and of course, Jinki is the one sent out to find him.
In a magical kingdom far away, there lives a rather incompetent knight by the name of Lee Jinki, who lives in the king's castle and keeps guard over (babysits, really) the king's two sons. Jinki's pretty good when it comes to housekeeping and other such motherly chores.
Such as: washing their dirtied clothes when they jump into piles of brown-things-that-aren't-dirt, fetching them apples and pears from the tallest trees in the garden, training their horses with teeth the size of his closed fists. And lately, purposely looking like a fool in front of the girls they like, tutoring and, in the end, giving them methods to cheat on their tests, and acting as their stool-slash-ladder whenever they need to climb over the palace walls after curfew. Maybe not motherly (more like partner-in-crime-ly), but being by their side and listening to them laugh and complain about life is what he does best.
He thinks that, maybe, perhaps maybe, they might be a bit too old for him to be washing their backs (well, only Jonghyun asks him to) or for him to be sitting with them in the dark of his private room which they so constantly invade (and, again, only Jonghyun walks in without the knight's full consent). But there's not really much else for him to do around the castle, anyway.
It's a pretty tiring situation, Jinki thinks, but he really likes them either way. And they really like him too.
At least, Jonghyun does.
The sun just starts to set above the trees when Jinki cracks open his journal and whips out his quill pen.
"Life," he starts, "is a bitch. I don't like being a nanny. I mean, I'm a guy."
"You always start like that. Why haven’t you quit yet?"
He doesn't even have to look up to see who it is leaning through his window into his room (which is approximately on the fourth floor of the palace) and he says, "Because I don't have a family to go to and this is the only way I can get food and shelter."
A snort. "You could always sell your body. My mom always wants to-"
"Uh, no."
The boy chuckles softly and sits down on Jinki's wooden desk, long legs swinging off the edge of the table. "But I know the real reason why."
At this the knight lifts his head and stares into the big brown eyes staring down at him, the big, cocky grin, the full set of sparkling teeth. "And why's that, Jonghyun?"
"Because," Jonghyun replies quietly as he leans over, closer, until his lips are almost touching Jinki's and Jinki feels his stomach drop and face burn immediately, "you know that I don't want you to. I need you here." He laughs and sweeps his hair away. "Kibum needs someone to bully, after all, and there's no way I'm going through that shit again."
Jinki shakes his head and grins, shaking off the itchy sweater of heat prickling his skin. "No one should ever go through that."
"True," the boy says. He slides off the edge of the desk and places a hand on Jinki's slanted shoulder. "You're too nice."
"I guess so."
They don't say much; only the scritch-scratch of the slanted quill speaks above the silence but timidly still. "Hey, Jinki," the boy starts, "if I got really sick of my parents and this stupid castle and I ran away, would you come and find me?"
Jinki's brows furrow together in thought as Jonghyun laughs. "Well, you wouldn't. Your dad would send out the whole kingdom to find you."
"Hypothetical situation, Jinki."
Sighing, the knight closes his journal and screws up the bottle of ink, his eyes never leaving Jonghyun who looks far too uncharacteristically troubled. "Sure." Jinki pats the boy on the leg. "Definitely, Jonghyun."
There's a brief moment of silence before Jonghyun pulls back towards the window, flashes a quick smile, and says, "Okay. Good night."
"Yup," Jinki mutters, and then falls asleep not too long after.
And in the following hour, Jinki misses the heavy hoofs of a stolen horse from the palace's stables stampeding out of the palace walls in his sleep, misses the silent goodbye carried to his window by light winds and a waving hand.
When he wakes up, he's the last to know.
This is ridiculous, Jinki thinks to himself a bit morosely.
The palace walls are just about ready to crumble under the villagers' excited clamoring and half the royal guards are about to bayonet people in the head, and all he's doing is standing next to the king, knees weak, armor fifty times heavier than it usually is, and panicking. Yeah.
Panicking like crazy.
"Don't worry," the guy next to him says and just from the low voice Jinki can tell it's Minho, that cocky little teenager who was knighted a year after he started training, "you won't have to lose your first kiss to him to bring him back. Unless he takes it from you."
"Oh, shut up." Jinki slams the shield of his helmet shut rather angrily, flinches at the sharp clang, and then wobbles over to Kibum, the king's younger son. "Kibum?"
Kibum sighs without even looking up from his fingers. "This is all a mistake," he says bluntly, and if Jinki didn't have his armor on, he probably would've felt the blow in his stomach. "I mean, look at you. You're scrawny. You have two left feet. You can barely lift up your sword. I don't know why dad chose you over Minho." At that, he cranes his neck to look over Jinki's shoulder, smiles a bit flirtatiously at someone with a little wave of his hand, though Jinki doesn't need to turn around to see who it is (he can just see that smug grin, those mocking eyes). "But I guess it's because Jonghyun loves you or something. Good luck."
It's better than nothing, Jinki thinks to himself with a shrug. "Wish me luck," he says quietly and the two of them nod their heads as Jinki hops onto his horse and trots alongside the king who says something about forests and roads, but Jinki doesn't really listen.
He just wants to find Jonghyun and come back alive.
Jinki feels clueless as he takes off his helmet and circles around the same grove of trees over and over again; Kibum had taught him how to use the magic-infused map to pin point the general area Jonghyun must be, but after encountering several angry squirrels and some Robin Hood-esque villagers (Jinki still doesn't even know where that one guy got that mace) everything within the window of the previous morning and night had been lost. The knight pinches the bridge of his nose and groans.
"I hope he's not far from here," he tells to the tree that seems to actually lean closer to him to hear his concerns. "I can't make this map work!" Jinki shakes the thin, yellowed scroll around in the air to watch specks of magic dust flutter from its edges.
"I hate to break it to you, but he's actually on the complete opposite side of the kingdom. You have to follow the trees to get there."
Jinki blinks, once, twice, shakes his head to make sure there aren't any acorns stuck in his ears possibly making him hear things. When nothing but a broken twig falls onto his lap, Jinki feels all of the blood in his face rush down to his feet, and he screams when he feels something sharp touch the back of his neck.
"Hey, relax!" a voice says again but Jinki disregards everything and kicks his horse forward, galloping through the forest at full speed with his frightened cry trailing behind.
He stops eventually, once his voice goes raw from the screaming, and he slumps against a tree. "Oh god," he pants, "oh my god what was that?"
"I'm just a tree sprite, you twat." Shaking, Jinki turns his head to see-oh, a boy who looks like a fairy glowing green with a plant growing off the top of his head. He breathes out.
"I thought you were a bear or something," Jinki hoarsely whispers, and the tree sprite's brows go up.
He says, "You're done for."
Jinki frowns. Gee. "So what was this about Jonghyun being on the other side?" The sprite doesn't reply at first but snatches the map from Jinki's fingers instead, and spreads it out so that it floats in the air. A thin finger traces the arch of trees along the country's border and draws a path until his nail snags onto something invisible, and Jinki finally recalls what Kibum had spent hours trying to teach him.
The sprite gives him a look. "Are you really-I mean, are you even a real knight?"
"Yes, I am," Jinki starts with a bristle and then stops quizzically. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Taemin," the sprite answers, checking his nails much like Kibum would. He then smiles, "And you?"
The knight straightens his armored body up as much as he can and replies, "Jinki."
"Great, Jinki," Taemin smirks, "so all you have to do is follow this path and you'll eventually find the prince. And make sure you don't rip it, or else the magic will pour out, and then you'll be even more screwed than you already are."
Jinki frowns deeply. "Thanks," he murmurs before putting his helmet back on and grasping the reins of his horse.
"Whoa, hold up!" the sprite barks and Jinki freezes, watches a small fist knock annoyingly on his chest armor. Something in the back of his brain starts sending off signals, that Taemin isn't really a sprite but some evil demon that will rip his heart out and eat it. Just as Jinki's shaking hand reaches for the hilt of his sword, Taemin sticks a finger through the shield of his helmet and waggles it around.
"Don't even think about it, idiot," Taemin says with a smirk. "I was just looking at what's worth taking."
"W-take what?"
Taemin's brows go up as he runs his fingers down Jinki's shoulders and the chain mail underneath. He murmurs, "Well, I'm a sprite, Jinki. There's a reason people avoid us. I did something for you, so you gotta do something for me." Suddenly there's a smirk curling those pink lips and Jinki doesn't understand how Taemin can bat those lashes so innocently when he's sporting the most malicious grin Jinki has ever seen in his life (and he's seen plenty). "I really like this armor. It's not like you're actually going to need it, right?"
"Well, what about you?" Jinki meekly tries. "What would a sprite like you need metal for?"
The sprite leans back and floats about to think over the question. "I could make a crap ton of bracelets out of that." Jinki throws his arms up in exasperation. "Well, hand it over. I'm going easy on you, just so you know."
"There's no way I'm handing my armor to you," Jinki says with a squawk-before he's got vines around his feet hanging him upside down.
"Okay, fine, you win!"
And it turns out that, thankfully, Taemin, the evil-and-might-as-well-have-been-demon-tree sprite, was right-Jinki had no trouble traveling along the forest. Sure, he'd run into some more squirrels, but he had his shield to protect him this time, and he hid at the sound of hollers and stampedes of angry feet. And he hasn't run into any bears, either.
So when Jinki reaches the spot where the trail ends with a red blip blinking on and off, he declares this adventure relatively safe. That heavy crap was totally overrated, anyway.
"Now," Jinki holds the map up to his face as he lets his horse meander lazily through the trees, this way and that, "where could-." A rustle cuts off his thoughts and Jinki jumps before looking down and seeing his sack of bread on the mossy ground. He makes a face. "Oh," he grunts as he slips off the horse, "what a pain." The horse neighs before whinnying, and a small rip echoes through the forest.
Jinki shrugs it off as the horse breaking off a tree branch with his tail and gets back up, grunting. "So, I think the dot's a bit further up, and-oh shit." His jaw drops as the sand-like magic dust pours out from the obvious gash in the map. He screams on top of his lungs and drops back down to his knees, sobbing at the blue-pink-green pile of dust seeping into the dark earth and coating the dead leaves. The moans drown out the devastating crunch of the horse's teeth gnashing at the remainders of the map.
"No! Come on, come on, turn into Pegasus or something! You just ate some magic dust. Please, do something useful for once," he mourns, but the horse only whinnies obliviously. Jinki drapes his body over the horse's back and screams.
Jinki accepts that his horse is completely incapable of flying-and learns that it's totally capable of ripping his arm off with its huge teeth when he tried to get it to fly off-and that he's completely on his own in the middle of a dark, twisting forest. He begins to panic. There's no way he can find Jonghyun here; there's no way he can get out alive. Jinki breathes in shakily, exhales, and then continues moaning, "I'm done for, so done for" until-
"Oh," he says, lips straightening out to a very irritated line. "I see."
It has to be it, Jinki thinks to himself as he gets off his horse, because no one else in the entire world would construct a fifty-mile-tall brick bastion in the middle of a stupid forest and lopsidedly stick a hand-scrawled sign saying "magic fortress" in front of it, besides Jonghyun. Or Kibum, but Kibum would make a fifty-mile-tall brick castle painted pink with sparkles.
He knows them too well.
Jinki grits his teeth and dusts off the vines in his hair and in his pants and marches up to the front of the fortress.
"You would." Jinki lets go of the horse's reins and doesn't even bother watching it go off to a patch of lettuce and rip the garden up. “Seriously, Jonghyun, you totally would."
There's a rustle before a boy pops up from out of a berry bush, a handful of acorns in his hand.
"Jinki!"
Jinki tries a smile. "Care to tell me why you just forced me to go on the most unpleasant adventure of my life?"
Jonghyun laughs a bit and walks up to Jinki with his arms spread, "You're late." The prince's smile turns bright. Jinki breathes in softly and lets his shoulders sag, his knees bend.
"How'd you build this?"
For a moment Jonghyun just stays quiet and shuffles over to a tree and tosses a few acorns to the ground, watches as a squirrel darts out and chirps in thanks before dashing back up the apple tree. "Made a deal with a fairy." He picks an apple and tosses it at the knight. "Rub it, it turns gold."
"Is this how you make your money? Selling golden apples?" Jinki rubs it on his pants and stares into his reflection (and that stupid twig is still stuck behind his ear).
"Nah," Jonghyun says, "I have enough to live on my own here."
Frowning, Jinki grips the apple. "How did you make a deal with a fairy? Actually, more specifically," his voice drops a full octave, "which fairy-"
"I'm gonna guess," Jonghyun mumbles round the chunks of apple in his mouth, "you ran into him too." He wags a finger at Jinki's thinly clothed chest. "He's a bitch."
Jinki groans. "And what's your part of the deal?" The prince sits on the cobblestone path that borders the palace, his knees drawn to his chest in a childish manner that Jinki's pretty used to seeing. With a sigh the knight plops down beside him and takes a bite of his apple, a burst of metallic, sweet juice filling his mouth immediately.
Jonghyun sighs, "Well, I asked him to build me a magic castle and garden. And he kind of, um." He takes a pause, scratches his ear. "Called me a selfish brat and put a curse on me. So it wasn't really a deal? I guess." His eyes flicker up to see Jinki's petrified face. "It's not that bad, honestly! I just change into a-ugh."
"Wow," is all Jinki can muster. "Wow."
"Don't give me that look."
Frustrated, the knight jumps back onto his feet, "So how exactly are we going to get you back home? Jonghyun, your dad will kill me if he finds out you're under some spell." The boy grunts in agreement. "How do you break it, then? The curse?"
Jonghyun looks down at the ground before mumbling, "I, uh, can't say."
A twig snaps. "Wow."
"Geez, stop saying that! It's against the rules," Jonghyun exclaims, his cheeks flaring an embarrassed red. Suddenly there’s the cocky smile again. "But at least we can spend some time alone together."
Jinki groans and throws his browned apple onto the ground between their feet as Jonghyun laughs.
They sleep under the stars. "Because I'm afraid of the castle," Jonghyun admits, and Jinki doesn't question it and only shuffles a bit closer to the boy.
"Well, we've gotta think of a way to get that spell broken and get out of here," Jinki says lowly under the starry blanket he has pulled over his face, to hide the fact that he's blushing as Jonghyun curls up closer against him. "And-okay, can you give me room to think, please?"
"Sorry." Dirty fingers run through knotted hair and Jonghyun finally sighs, "He must really hate me for some reason. It's not like I ever threatened him or anything."
"Well, a lot of people don't like you, Jonghyun. He was just brave enough to show it." Jinki grins smugly.
Jonghyun squawks, bristling under the blankets as he props his arms up under him and asks, "Do you?" The flustered look on the prince's face boils up a bubble of laughter deep in Jinki's chest, which, apparently, Jonghyun doesn't appreciate all too much. "So you do."
"Nah." Jinki flexes his fingers at his sides. "I was just, um. So how do we find a fairy?"
Smiling wryly, the prince twists around and watches Jinki with his eyes wide open. "Use your brain."
Jinki lets out a long, drawn sigh, racks his brain a bit for some ideas. For a few minutes he just stares at the stars. His eyes almost close on him but Jonghyun's soft humming keeps him awake.
Magic. It's not like he wasn't expecting it. "This is ridiculous."
"You're telling me," comes the sigh from Jinki's side, and the knight smiles a bit. "But whatever, I guess we'll just think about it tomorrow." There's some shuffling of dry leaves and loose linen before Jonghyun lets out a loud groan and grumbles, "Good night."
"Good night."
But Jinki keeps his eyes open for a few minutes longer, keeps his gaze on Jonghyun, just for a bit, just to make sure.
They set out early in the morning, much to Jonghyun's dismay ("I haven't even showered yet!" "Yeah, and you smell like shit, but no one cares, let's just go."), and go the way Jinki's horse wishes, which leads them to the middle of some more trees. Jonghyun only sulks a bit, scratches behind his ear, on the horse as he tries to crane his neck to look for some sun over the treetops.
"I'm so tired," he whines, and it takes everything for Jinki not to snap when he's been the one stomping around in the mud and random patches of quicksand, getting smacked around by tree branches and the horse's tail. "Can't we wish for some food?"
"As far as I can tell, the only fairy we seem to know hates our guts." Jinki dodges the swishing bundle of horsehair and the vague thought of making a new bow for the violin he doesn't have crosses his mind. Jonghyun makes some keening noise before he reaches down and softly runs his fingers through Jinki's hair and down his neck, causing the knight to freeze up and splutter.
Quietly the prince murmurs, "Sorry, leaf," but when Jinki carefully looks up, there's not a shred of apology in his eyes but instead a shade of pink across Jonghyun's cheeks, and for the first time, Jinki thinks he finally sees the sun breaking through the trees.
"Um," Jinki stutters, whips his head back, "I think I hear running water."
"What? Hurry up, then. Hurry up, Jinki, hurry up, hurry up!" Jonghyun bounces about for some effect, tongue lolling.
"Fine." With a smirk Jinki smacks the horse on its side and watches it go dashing through the trees, neighing loudly, as Jonghyun clings to its back, his screams swallowed by the heavy hooves and Jinki's cackles.
"I don't know what to do," Jonghyun speaks up as they chew on their stale bread around the small fire Jinki barely managed to get going. "I don't want to stay in the castle my whole life. I don't have anything I can do outside of home." He gingerly picks at a nail. "It's too hard for me to live out in the wild."
Jinki mumbles before swallowing the lump in his mouth, "You don't have to. You're the older son, you're gonna take over your dad's position as king some day."
"But I have no idea what a king's supposed to do! What if I make a mistake?" The prince jabs the brown earth with a random stick. "Wish we had marshmallows."
"I wish you'd just be a good boy and stay home, but we can't always get what we want," Jinki sighs absentmindedly, forgetting to duck when a small pebble comes towards his way. "So what if you make a mistake? Your dad's made plenty. The people still like him, because he makes up for the little errors he made." With a sigh the knight stretches out his legs so his feet are nearly touching the small, flickering flames. "What do you want to do when you're king?"
But the boy doesn't answer, only groans and falls back onto the cold earth, "I just don't want to be murdered by my people."
"And you won't be. You're a nice kid, Jonghyun, you care for the people around you. They love you." Jinki looks up from the loaf of bread in his dirtied hands. "Really."
"You said there are a lot of people who hate me."
"Oh," Jinki scoffs, throwing his arms up into the air, "never mind."
Jonghyun smiles and his eyes flicker from the orange flames to the bright specks of stars peering through the leaves down upon them. "Um," he starts softly. "I'm gonna go to sleep. It's-It's getting late."
"All rightie." The knight lies down, back flush against the earth. He glances over to his side where Jonghyun shuffles about uncomfortably, making weird noises and groans. "You all right there?"
"Yeah, perfectly-" he starts, cut off by a weird hiccuping noise, "just go to sleep."
Jinki blinks. "Okay. Good night, Jonghyun."
He gets a yip in reply, but Jinki just shrugs it off as an annoyed grunt, and closes his eyes to sleep.
Jinki wakes up feeling itchy, and at first he thinks, in horror, that he had rolled around in a patch of poison ivy, and immediately scrambles over to see if Jonghyun had contracted some incurable skin disease to just make matters worse. When he finds the boy half naked, rolling to and fro in his sleep, arms almost folded up to his chest, Jinki thinks that, no, nothing's wrong at all, and rolls back to his own makeshift bed of leaves and stones.
But then he feels some stinging on his back and Jinki groans, "Aww, what-" before tugging off his shirt and seeing the shredded threads. He gapes. "What the heck?"
"Hmm?" The prince lazily stretches his arms high above his head, mouth agape as he yawns loudly. Jinki inspects the shirt for a bit longer, ignoring the boy, who asks, "What're you looking at?"
"My shirt's been ripped up." Sitting up, he checks around the ground, mumbling, "Maybe there were some sticks I dug my back into? I'm itchy, too."
Jonghyun makes some sort of noncommittal noise, scratching his arm with his blunt, dirtied fingernails and mutters something about going to take a shower since he feels itchy too. He scratches wildly at his ear again, then tumbles onto his feet, shuffling away into the trees, leaving Jinki alone, quizzically watching the boy's back.
"Hey," Jinki says quietly over the soft, muffled thuds of the horse's hooves, "what if we never get out of here?"
Jonghyun gives him an irritated look, "Well, Mr. Negative, I don't think pessimism will help us."
"Yeah, but what if?" They don't talk much for another few minutes before Jinki awkwardly clears his throat. "Sorry," he mumbles. "I mean, we haven't run into Taemin yet, and we haven't broken your spell. Even if we do get out of here-"
"I bet it's something obvious."
The knight looks up to see Jonghyun staring out past the trees, at the bushes moving slowly at their place, tip-toeing on their roots. "Something obvious?" It takes a second for Jinki to recognize the expression on the boy’s face, and when he does, all he sees is Jonghyun's scrunched up nose, his lips twisted and brows furrowed in pain, or in disgust. Jinki's not sure which it is, but he slowly says, "Are you all right?"
"Yup," Jonghyun barely manages to squeeze past his lips before slumping over with a loud groan. "God damn magic."
Jinki looks up at the rays of warm sun filtering through the leaves and travels blindly over roots and stones, listening to Jonghyun's soft, calming humming, until the branches begin to split more and more to reveal the orange sky inch by inch. "Jonghyun," Jinki says, excited, "look!"
The boy looks up at the sky and almost falls off the horse in awe. "Smoke!" he exclaims and Jinki, without even thinking, hops onto the horse and makes it sprint wildly down through the trees, barely keeping Jonghyun in between his locked arms as they hobble this way and that.
"You all right?" Jinki asks, the loud galloping muffling his words. But Jonghyun hears clearly and nods up and down, trying not to clasp onto Jinki's hands for some stability.
By the time the sun begins to slink away behind the trees once more, Jonghyun's already thrown Jinki's on spare, mended tunic and marched off towards the small cottage that houses the most comforting blazing fire and the rowdy chatter the both saw, heard, felt from miles away. Jinki doesn't even bother calling out after the boy but slips in a handful of coins into his pocket instead, patting the horse's head softly before running in the same direction.
"Jonghyun," Jinki says just as the boy reaches out for the handle of the door, "you have to remember you're the prince. You don't know who could be in there." He steps in front of Jonghyun (and something in the back of his head laughs at him for trying to act all knightly now, but his chest sort of swells when Jonghyun squirms a bit anyway), pushes the heavy wooden door open, and is immediately blown away by the smell of brewing alcohol and warm wood. He can hear Jonghyun's excitement, his own growling stomach, but waits for the prince to throw on his hood just in case.
"Welcome," the bartender says above the music and clattering and something about the man strikes him as familiar. The pale skin, the sharp blue eyes. Jinki purses his lip. "Where are you two from?"
Jinki frantically searches for an answer. "The, uh, east," and throws in a smile. The young man behind the counter doesn't buy it but wipes down a mug anyway, sets it down on the counter for the knight. "Well, doesn't matter, really. As long as you're here for a drink and able to pay, you're welcome." He adds a smile of his own, but it sends a slight tingle down Jinki's spine.
"And who's that?" he asks, flopping the dishrag at Jonghyun's direction.
"My brother." Jonghyun snorts. "He's sick."
There's another chilling smile before the bartender shrugs. "I'll take it you'd like something to eat, too." Then he walks off, leaving the two awkwardly at the counter, surrounded by tables of men and women dressed in rags and hunting clothes. Groaning, Jinki drops down onto a stool and Jonghyun follows suit awkwardly.
"It's really hot in this."
"Oh, quiet."
It's about six mugs later when Jinki begins to feel the slight buzz in his fingertips. Jonghyun, on the other hand, already has his body sprawled across the counter top, laughing at nothing in particular. Jinki rubs the prince's back soothingly when the occasional disgruntled moans begin to fill the room.
"We're so done for," Jinki sighs loudly, and the bartender raises a thin brow, smiling behind a new rag and another relatively clean mug. "Stupid map. I should have brought a spare.”
Jonghyun mumbles softly, "It's so hot," and throws off his hood before squirming a bit more in his seat. "Jinki, I'm tired."
"Just a couple more." Jinki pinches the bridge of his nose. "Just a few."
When a man stumbles towards the counter, Jinki feels his knees lock, his hairs stand on end. There's nothing good in the way the man sort of leans down to inspect Jonghyun's flushed face, in the way his brows furrow together and his cheeks burn an angry red. Before Jinki can pull the hood back over the prince's head with a nervous laugh, the man reels back.
"You," he slurs, "you're the king's son!"
Jonghyun grins smugly. "What about it?"
"Oh, come on," Jinki groans as the red-faced man splutters a bit in indignation. He squeezes himself between the two in hopes of maybe offering some peace. "I'm sorry, sir, but could you maybe-"
"Those tariffs are killing my family, but you never gave a second thought to us out here!" The man takes two shaky steps backwards, winding an arm up, and Jinki feels his stomach drop. He was never good with combat, ever. "I'll just deal with you then!"
"Bring it."
"Jonghyun!" the knight squawks before narrowly dodging the swinging fist. He clamps his mouth shut and waits again for the man to strike, blocking the blow and sending him backwards onto the table beside the counter.
A hand holds Jinki in place, and the knight does a quick double take to find Jonghyun's distressed eyes looking up towards him before-
“Ow.” Jinki coughs up some blood, and he vaguely thinks of the golden apples and how different the metallic tastes of blood and the fruit are. "God," he groans, rushing forward and kicking the man in his stomach, bringing a tight, shaking fist straight into his nose. Jonghyun makes some indignant noise and the bartender sighs in a note of frustration. Jinki quickly finds himself against the counter again with a totally busted lip. His head tips back to find Jonghyun red and shaking, almost angry. Jinki rolls his eyes. The things he does for this boy.
They strike and hit and fall and Jinki thinks he's busted up his hands more than he's ever done in his entire life, blood staining his already dirtied nails and teeth. It's not a pleasant sensation, and Jinki knows he will never understand people's pleasure in fighting, but he braces himself anyway. He hears Jonghyun shouting at him above the roaring in his ears, and he glances for a quick second to see the bartender waving a rag at him, grinning quite mischievously, the bracelets around his thin wrist twinkling as brightly as his eyes.
Oh, wow, Jinki thinks, doubling over after a blow to the stomach. The dishrag goes flying and lands over the man's eyes, causing him to fall over to his side in confusion. Scrambling back onto his feet, Jinki grapples for the prince's shaking arms and tugs at him, yells at him, and sprints out of the homely cottage with Jonghyun struggling behind. They barely find their way back to the horse tied up at the large tree, and when they do, Jinki drops to his knees and lets out a ragged sigh.
"You idiot," Jinki hears Jonghyun shout into his ears which are probably just as bloody as his lips are, "why the hell did you do that?"
"You provoked him." Jinki licks his lips. They taste like dirt and salt now. Cradling his head in his hands, Jinki breathes in heavily.
There's a sniffle that makes his eyes fly open immediately, and when he refocuses again Jinki swears he sees Jonghyun crying above him. Those pursed lips, scrunched brows, grit teeth-yup, Jinki laughs to himself, he's crying.
"Stop, you crybaby. It's fine. It's all part of my job." Jinki drops a hand down on Jonghyun's hunched shoulder, smiles. "I just need to protect you."
"No, you don't.” There’s a quiet sob and then Jinki feels something warm against his cheeks, like the pitter-patter of summer rain.
Jinki frowns. "Jonghyun, stop, it's not your fault at all. Calm down." The prince grumbles something into his clenched hands, something low and sad, and Jinki grips the boy's arms and pulls them from his face. "I'm perfectly fine." He grins for some effect. "You just have to go to sleep now, okay? I'm exhausted, too." Jonghyun sighs. “I wish I could just go back to cleaning your room, though.”
A brief pause before Jonghyun smacks his forehead and shakes his head, Jinki laughing loudly to the night sky.
There's a moment of silence that lulls Jinki to sleep, but not before patting Jonghyun on the leg and telling him good night. When he falls asleep, he feels a heavy weight on his chest, stirring, warm.
And when he wakes up, he swears his heart flies right out of his mouth.
“Holy crap,” he whispers as the small puppy on his stomach rolls around in its sleep, scratching at its ear like Jonghyun does, tongue lolling out like Jonghyun’s does, and, “Oh my god.” Jinki laughs. “Are you a dog? Like, that’s your curse?”
The puppy slowly stirs and cracks its eyes open, one by one. It looks up at Jinki’s face, makes a snuffling noise, and then yips in shock when it realizes that it’s awake and Jinki’s laughing at him. It yips some more, growls, and Jinki lets his head fall back again.
“Oh my god,” Jinki says again, his chest heaving with laughter and ragged breaths, “you’re a dog. You’re a dog.” Jonghyun’s ears drop to his head and he draws in his paws, slipping on his trademark frown. “I can’t believe it! You’re so cute like this. I guess he doesn’t hate you as much as I’d thought.” Jinki pulls the puppy up to his face and rubs under his neck, grinning.
A sneeze. Jonghyun yelps and tumbles off of Jinki’s chest, and Jinki groans. “Oh right, I’m allergic.” He chuckles a bit, one outstretched hand coming out to pet Jonghyun on the head from afar. “Do I have to feed you some dog treats or something to get you back?”
Jonghyun starts barking, wagging his tail around. Suddenly there’s a puff of smoke and instead of the puppy, there’s an adult-sized Jonghyun resting on his haunches, mouth yapping out insults at the knight. “Oops.”
“Now that’s just rude,” Jinki mumbles, but he grins anyway and scratches the back of Jonghyun’s ear.
“Are you thumping your leg?”
“Are you scratching my ear?”
“Good point.”
Jinki notes that Jonghyun hasn’t said a word since breakfast and awkwardly he turns to the boy, teeth scraping against the scab on his bottom lip. “Hey,” he says, voice hushed, “are you all right?”
“Yup,” is Jonghyun’s terse reply, and Jinki rolls his eyes at him as he rummages through the sack tied to the horse’s saddle. “I am just perfectly, perfectly fine.”
“Hey, look!”
Jonghyun bristles a bit at the fact that he was just blatantly ignored and turns around to where Jinki stands, planted to the ground in shock. “Jonghyun, come here.” He pulls out a piece of paper, rolled up and tied with a thin red ribbon. As he unrolls it, a puff of pink smoke hits the both of them in the face, and Jonghyun starts sneezing all over the place. “It’s a map!”
Grumbling the prince peers over Jinki’s shoulder and reads the note on the back, “To you two. You guys are idiots. I figured you would want some help. I guess you deserve it, even though you broke two of my tables.
All right, go on home now to your little castle and live happily ever after. You may now kiss the bride!” A distant gong resounds when Jonghyun says those words, and the two freeze, giving each other weird looks.
“That was weird,” Jinki speaks up after a brief silence. The younger boy looks up and then a smile begins to slowly stretch its way across his face before he gives in and leans against Jinki, laughing in happiness and relief.
“I’m sorry.” A small bird flies past the two as Jonghyun begins to fiddle with his fingers. “You had to go through shit to find me. And then I was just more trouble, and-you didn’t deserve it.”
Jinki thinks, It’s my job, but instead he whispers, “I promised you.”
Stuttering, Jonghyun pulls at the sleeves of his shirt. “Yeah, but, I mean. Uh.”
“Uhuh,” Jinki laughs. “Come on, we’re going the wrong way.” Jinki pats the horse’s back and the prince, mumbling, clambers onto the saddle. With a smile the knight hops on behind him and they turn around in their spot and set off for the cartoonish castle covered in white and yellow sparkles (courtesy of Taemin, it says).
All the while, Jinki watches Jonghyun scratch his ears and waggle around impatiently. He snorts, “You want to go on a walk or something?”
“That’d be nice.”
Jinki laughs.
They tie up the horse again and this time Jinki makes sure to keep the map far, far, far away from it. The sun massages their tense shoulders, kisses their brown skin, as they step out from the trees onto the plain that stretches on for what Jinki assumes to be miles and miles.
“Y’know, it’s good that we’re out of the woods and all,” Jonghyun starts, “like, really. I wanted to bite all the squirrels in there, it was so disgusting.” The knight blanches. “But we still have one problem.”
Realization hits and Jinki throws his arms up with a groan. “Crap, I totally forgot. You still can’t say?” Jonghyun shakes his head.
“But, y’know, it’s on the map-mmph!” Jonghyun flinches again as his lips twist. “Fuck!” he grunts, hands strangling the air around him.
Jinki opens up the map, eyes on the boy in front of him who seems to be struggling with an inner demon. “Um, the map.” He scans the front and back. He flips it upside down, left and right, stares at the trees as if their shape holds some secret message. “I don’t see it.”
Squawking, Jonghyun makes an indignant noise as he roughly yanks the paper out from Jinki’s hands and flips to the back, points at the message on the back.
“Broken tables? No? Oh. Happily ever after…kiss the bride?” Jonghyun’s finger begins to jab violently at the map before his hands magically start to flail around and smack him in the face. “We have to get you a wife?”
The boy gives up and lazily points to his lips.
“Oh. Oh!” Jinki laughs, “I see, kiss the bride. You’re the bride? So I’d have to kiss you, is that what it is?”
“Yup.”
Panic seizes Jinki and he stands in his spot, arms to his side, knees locked. “Oh,” he stutters as Jonghyun takes one step, two steps closer, rests his warm hands on Jinki’s ripped up shirt. “I see.”
“I’m glad you do,” Jonghyun murmurs above the distant calls of the birds flying above them. Jinki isn’t sure if it’s the warmth of the sun or the soft breeze or Jonghyun’s hands but his eyes start to close until he’s just barely peering through his lashes at the prince in front of him. He looks like he’s glowing, radiating, and Jinki breathes.
“I guess it was sort of obvious.” He brushes his fingers softly against Jonghyun’s ear, down his jaw to those cocked lips, curled into a smug but warm smile. “Damn it, Minho, always right,” he mutters, then leans forward to kiss the boy.
A hand stops him. “Are you kidding?” Jonghyun barks. “That’s seriously what you’re going to say before you kiss me.”
“Well, what am I supposed to say?” Jinki grumbles, cheeks flaring red. “I love you?”
“That’s more like it.”
As much as he wants to just smack Jonghyun upside the head, Jinki withholds, takes Jonghyun’s hands in his own, and presses his chapped lips against the prince’s, revels in the big sigh that escapes both their lips into the orange sky above them.
From the corner of a cracked eye, Jinki sees a tail swishing back and forth behind Jonghyun and almost laughs into the kiss, but then there’s a tongue distracting him instead and Jinki swallows it in for a small moan. It disappears with a puff of smoke, and the distant bells ring once more.
“Oh,” Jonghyun whispers softly as he pulls back from the kiss. There’s an unmistakable red blush tickling his nose and ears. “Um.”
Jinki straightens his back a bit, clears his throat. “If your dad finds out, I’m gonna be executed.”
“Don’t worry.” Warm fingers slip into Jinki’s. “When I was seven, I told him I’d marry you no matter what.”
“Oh.” Jinki flushes.
“You all right?” Jonghyun teases before tugging at his arms and dragging Jinki back into the forest.
There’s some low murmuring, which then rises to buzzing chatters to hollers and exclamations. Jonghyun grips Jinki’s hand and they hobble over to the front doors, trying their best to ignore the pebbles and sticks in their shoes.
“You idiot!” comes Kibum’s shrill cry over the sobs and joyous shouts all around them. The boy sprints toward them, throws his arms around Jonghyun’s neck. “Oh my god, you smell so much, Jonghyun.”
“Yeah, I know.” He throws a glare over his shoulder at Jinki, his eyes saying, “See?”
“So no hi for me?” Jinki pipes up from the ongoing brotherly moment in front of him. “I mean I had to fight an ogre to save this kid, look at my lip!” Squirming in between the two, he points at the scab on his bottom lip, all the while smiling at Kibum’s disgusted face.
“Oh, ew,” Kibum says but it turns into an amused grin. “An ogre, really?”
Jonghyun snorts. “No. More like a drunk, six-foot man who’s mad at our dad for some reason.”
“Same difference.” Jinki shrugs, and Kibum titters behind a hand.
Minho appears, huffing slightly. “Wow, you’re back,” he laughs, pats Jinki on the back rather roughly. “I’m glad you’re sort of in one piece. How’d it go?”
“As well as an adventure through a magical forest full of evil demon sprites can go,” Jinki mumbles, fixing up his shirt distractedly because the mocking smirk Kibum gives him hurts. “He stole my armor.”
Minho lets out a whistle, “Bet you got something else stolen, too.”
“Okay, now that’s not-“
“And it was really good,” Jonghyun chimes in with a lick of his lips and has Kibum doubled over in disgust and Minho on the floor rolling around. Jinki decides not to react at all, only blushes beet red, before slapping the boy on the shoulder and urging him to shut up. Jonghyun grins. “You liked it anyway.”
The king and queen come up to them, commend Jinki for his bravery, and the king goes on and on about how happy he is to see his son again, breathing and smiling. The both of them don’t really listen as they play with their fingers behind their backs, smoothing rough skin with soft touches.
“We have to plan a party. Kibum,” the queen calls, and Kibum’s face brightens immediately as he drags Minho back into the palace, blabbering about flowers and musical acts. Sighing, the king and queen bow to Jinki once more and walk, arms linked, to the entrance of the castle with a few of the royal guards at their sides.
Jonghyun looks up at Jinki. “I’m not ready for this.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I don’t think I can do this, Jinki.”
“Jonghyun.” Jinki pulls back and holds the prince by the shoulders. “Your dad’s still here. You have years to learn from him and to become a good king. I believe in you.” He smiles softly, runs his fingers through Jonghyun’s tangled hair. “And I’ll be here to help you, all right?”
Jonghyun breathes in. “All right. Let’s go.” They walk down the cobblestone path bordering the palace with their hands clasped together at their sides, smiling softly at each other under the warm sun shimmering above them.
With a tight squeeze of his fingers, Jinki makes a silent promise that Jonghyun receives with another squeeze-a promise that he’ll go through anything for his little prince.
And so they’ll live happily ever after.
From: Your Secret Santa
Title: Of love and other magic
Pairing: Onew/Jonghyun
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 7,700
Summary: Jinki is the Kim brothers’ personal knight-slash-nanny-slash-pillow-for-them-to-cry-on; he is secretly in love with the older sibling, Jonghyun. Said snobby prince decides to run away from the castle one day, and of course, Jinki is the one sent out to find him.
In a magical kingdom far away, there lives a rather incompetent knight by the name of Lee Jinki, who lives in the king's castle and keeps guard over (babysits, really) the king's two sons. Jinki's pretty good when it comes to housekeeping and other such motherly chores.
Such as: washing their dirtied clothes when they jump into piles of brown-things-that-aren't-dirt, fetching them apples and pears from the tallest trees in the garden, training their horses with teeth the size of his closed fists. And lately, purposely looking like a fool in front of the girls they like, tutoring and, in the end, giving them methods to cheat on their tests, and acting as their stool-slash-ladder whenever they need to climb over the palace walls after curfew. Maybe not motherly (more like partner-in-crime-ly), but being by their side and listening to them laugh and complain about life is what he does best.
He thinks that, maybe, perhaps maybe, they might be a bit too old for him to be washing their backs (well, only Jonghyun asks him to) or for him to be sitting with them in the dark of his private room which they so constantly invade (and, again, only Jonghyun walks in without the knight's full consent). But there's not really much else for him to do around the castle, anyway.
It's a pretty tiring situation, Jinki thinks, but he really likes them either way. And they really like him too.
At least, Jonghyun does.
The sun just starts to set above the trees when Jinki cracks open his journal and whips out his quill pen.
"Life," he starts, "is a bitch. I don't like being a nanny. I mean, I'm a guy."
"You always start like that. Why haven’t you quit yet?"
He doesn't even have to look up to see who it is leaning through his window into his room (which is approximately on the fourth floor of the palace) and he says, "Because I don't have a family to go to and this is the only way I can get food and shelter."
A snort. "You could always sell your body. My mom always wants to-"
"Uh, no."
The boy chuckles softly and sits down on Jinki's wooden desk, long legs swinging off the edge of the table. "But I know the real reason why."
At this the knight lifts his head and stares into the big brown eyes staring down at him, the big, cocky grin, the full set of sparkling teeth. "And why's that, Jonghyun?"
"Because," Jonghyun replies quietly as he leans over, closer, until his lips are almost touching Jinki's and Jinki feels his stomach drop and face burn immediately, "you know that I don't want you to. I need you here." He laughs and sweeps his hair away. "Kibum needs someone to bully, after all, and there's no way I'm going through that shit again."
Jinki shakes his head and grins, shaking off the itchy sweater of heat prickling his skin. "No one should ever go through that."
"True," the boy says. He slides off the edge of the desk and places a hand on Jinki's slanted shoulder. "You're too nice."
"I guess so."
They don't say much; only the scritch-scratch of the slanted quill speaks above the silence but timidly still. "Hey, Jinki," the boy starts, "if I got really sick of my parents and this stupid castle and I ran away, would you come and find me?"
Jinki's brows furrow together in thought as Jonghyun laughs. "Well, you wouldn't. Your dad would send out the whole kingdom to find you."
"Hypothetical situation, Jinki."
Sighing, the knight closes his journal and screws up the bottle of ink, his eyes never leaving Jonghyun who looks far too uncharacteristically troubled. "Sure." Jinki pats the boy on the leg. "Definitely, Jonghyun."
There's a brief moment of silence before Jonghyun pulls back towards the window, flashes a quick smile, and says, "Okay. Good night."
"Yup," Jinki mutters, and then falls asleep not too long after.
And in the following hour, Jinki misses the heavy hoofs of a stolen horse from the palace's stables stampeding out of the palace walls in his sleep, misses the silent goodbye carried to his window by light winds and a waving hand.
When he wakes up, he's the last to know.
This is ridiculous, Jinki thinks to himself a bit morosely.
The palace walls are just about ready to crumble under the villagers' excited clamoring and half the royal guards are about to bayonet people in the head, and all he's doing is standing next to the king, knees weak, armor fifty times heavier than it usually is, and panicking. Yeah.
Panicking like crazy.
"Don't worry," the guy next to him says and just from the low voice Jinki can tell it's Minho, that cocky little teenager who was knighted a year after he started training, "you won't have to lose your first kiss to him to bring him back. Unless he takes it from you."
"Oh, shut up." Jinki slams the shield of his helmet shut rather angrily, flinches at the sharp clang, and then wobbles over to Kibum, the king's younger son. "Kibum?"
Kibum sighs without even looking up from his fingers. "This is all a mistake," he says bluntly, and if Jinki didn't have his armor on, he probably would've felt the blow in his stomach. "I mean, look at you. You're scrawny. You have two left feet. You can barely lift up your sword. I don't know why dad chose you over Minho." At that, he cranes his neck to look over Jinki's shoulder, smiles a bit flirtatiously at someone with a little wave of his hand, though Jinki doesn't need to turn around to see who it is (he can just see that smug grin, those mocking eyes). "But I guess it's because Jonghyun loves you or something. Good luck."
It's better than nothing, Jinki thinks to himself with a shrug. "Wish me luck," he says quietly and the two of them nod their heads as Jinki hops onto his horse and trots alongside the king who says something about forests and roads, but Jinki doesn't really listen.
He just wants to find Jonghyun and come back alive.
Jinki feels clueless as he takes off his helmet and circles around the same grove of trees over and over again; Kibum had taught him how to use the magic-infused map to pin point the general area Jonghyun must be, but after encountering several angry squirrels and some Robin Hood-esque villagers (Jinki still doesn't even know where that one guy got that mace) everything within the window of the previous morning and night had been lost. The knight pinches the bridge of his nose and groans.
"I hope he's not far from here," he tells to the tree that seems to actually lean closer to him to hear his concerns. "I can't make this map work!" Jinki shakes the thin, yellowed scroll around in the air to watch specks of magic dust flutter from its edges.
"I hate to break it to you, but he's actually on the complete opposite side of the kingdom. You have to follow the trees to get there."
Jinki blinks, once, twice, shakes his head to make sure there aren't any acorns stuck in his ears possibly making him hear things. When nothing but a broken twig falls onto his lap, Jinki feels all of the blood in his face rush down to his feet, and he screams when he feels something sharp touch the back of his neck.
"Hey, relax!" a voice says again but Jinki disregards everything and kicks his horse forward, galloping through the forest at full speed with his frightened cry trailing behind.
He stops eventually, once his voice goes raw from the screaming, and he slumps against a tree. "Oh god," he pants, "oh my god what was that?"
"I'm just a tree sprite, you twat." Shaking, Jinki turns his head to see-oh, a boy who looks like a fairy glowing green with a plant growing off the top of his head. He breathes out.
"I thought you were a bear or something," Jinki hoarsely whispers, and the tree sprite's brows go up.
He says, "You're done for."
Jinki frowns. Gee. "So what was this about Jonghyun being on the other side?" The sprite doesn't reply at first but snatches the map from Jinki's fingers instead, and spreads it out so that it floats in the air. A thin finger traces the arch of trees along the country's border and draws a path until his nail snags onto something invisible, and Jinki finally recalls what Kibum had spent hours trying to teach him.
The sprite gives him a look. "Are you really-I mean, are you even a real knight?"
"Yes, I am," Jinki starts with a bristle and then stops quizzically. "Who are you, anyway?"
"Taemin," the sprite answers, checking his nails much like Kibum would. He then smiles, "And you?"
The knight straightens his armored body up as much as he can and replies, "Jinki."
"Great, Jinki," Taemin smirks, "so all you have to do is follow this path and you'll eventually find the prince. And make sure you don't rip it, or else the magic will pour out, and then you'll be even more screwed than you already are."
Jinki frowns deeply. "Thanks," he murmurs before putting his helmet back on and grasping the reins of his horse.
"Whoa, hold up!" the sprite barks and Jinki freezes, watches a small fist knock annoyingly on his chest armor. Something in the back of his brain starts sending off signals, that Taemin isn't really a sprite but some evil demon that will rip his heart out and eat it. Just as Jinki's shaking hand reaches for the hilt of his sword, Taemin sticks a finger through the shield of his helmet and waggles it around.
"Don't even think about it, idiot," Taemin says with a smirk. "I was just looking at what's worth taking."
"W-take what?"
Taemin's brows go up as he runs his fingers down Jinki's shoulders and the chain mail underneath. He murmurs, "Well, I'm a sprite, Jinki. There's a reason people avoid us. I did something for you, so you gotta do something for me." Suddenly there's a smirk curling those pink lips and Jinki doesn't understand how Taemin can bat those lashes so innocently when he's sporting the most malicious grin Jinki has ever seen in his life (and he's seen plenty). "I really like this armor. It's not like you're actually going to need it, right?"
"Well, what about you?" Jinki meekly tries. "What would a sprite like you need metal for?"
The sprite leans back and floats about to think over the question. "I could make a crap ton of bracelets out of that." Jinki throws his arms up in exasperation. "Well, hand it over. I'm going easy on you, just so you know."
"There's no way I'm handing my armor to you," Jinki says with a squawk-before he's got vines around his feet hanging him upside down.
"Okay, fine, you win!"
And it turns out that, thankfully, Taemin, the evil-and-might-as-well-have-been-demon-tree sprite, was right-Jinki had no trouble traveling along the forest. Sure, he'd run into some more squirrels, but he had his shield to protect him this time, and he hid at the sound of hollers and stampedes of angry feet. And he hasn't run into any bears, either.
So when Jinki reaches the spot where the trail ends with a red blip blinking on and off, he declares this adventure relatively safe. That heavy crap was totally overrated, anyway.
"Now," Jinki holds the map up to his face as he lets his horse meander lazily through the trees, this way and that, "where could-." A rustle cuts off his thoughts and Jinki jumps before looking down and seeing his sack of bread on the mossy ground. He makes a face. "Oh," he grunts as he slips off the horse, "what a pain." The horse neighs before whinnying, and a small rip echoes through the forest.
Jinki shrugs it off as the horse breaking off a tree branch with his tail and gets back up, grunting. "So, I think the dot's a bit further up, and-oh shit." His jaw drops as the sand-like magic dust pours out from the obvious gash in the map. He screams on top of his lungs and drops back down to his knees, sobbing at the blue-pink-green pile of dust seeping into the dark earth and coating the dead leaves. The moans drown out the devastating crunch of the horse's teeth gnashing at the remainders of the map.
"No! Come on, come on, turn into Pegasus or something! You just ate some magic dust. Please, do something useful for once," he mourns, but the horse only whinnies obliviously. Jinki drapes his body over the horse's back and screams.
Jinki accepts that his horse is completely incapable of flying-and learns that it's totally capable of ripping his arm off with its huge teeth when he tried to get it to fly off-and that he's completely on his own in the middle of a dark, twisting forest. He begins to panic. There's no way he can find Jonghyun here; there's no way he can get out alive. Jinki breathes in shakily, exhales, and then continues moaning, "I'm done for, so done for" until-
"Oh," he says, lips straightening out to a very irritated line. "I see."
It has to be it, Jinki thinks to himself as he gets off his horse, because no one else in the entire world would construct a fifty-mile-tall brick bastion in the middle of a stupid forest and lopsidedly stick a hand-scrawled sign saying "magic fortress" in front of it, besides Jonghyun. Or Kibum, but Kibum would make a fifty-mile-tall brick castle painted pink with sparkles.
He knows them too well.
Jinki grits his teeth and dusts off the vines in his hair and in his pants and marches up to the front of the fortress.
"You would." Jinki lets go of the horse's reins and doesn't even bother watching it go off to a patch of lettuce and rip the garden up. “Seriously, Jonghyun, you totally would."
There's a rustle before a boy pops up from out of a berry bush, a handful of acorns in his hand.
"Jinki!"
Jinki tries a smile. "Care to tell me why you just forced me to go on the most unpleasant adventure of my life?"
Jonghyun laughs a bit and walks up to Jinki with his arms spread, "You're late." The prince's smile turns bright. Jinki breathes in softly and lets his shoulders sag, his knees bend.
"How'd you build this?"
For a moment Jonghyun just stays quiet and shuffles over to a tree and tosses a few acorns to the ground, watches as a squirrel darts out and chirps in thanks before dashing back up the apple tree. "Made a deal with a fairy." He picks an apple and tosses it at the knight. "Rub it, it turns gold."
"Is this how you make your money? Selling golden apples?" Jinki rubs it on his pants and stares into his reflection (and that stupid twig is still stuck behind his ear).
"Nah," Jonghyun says, "I have enough to live on my own here."
Frowning, Jinki grips the apple. "How did you make a deal with a fairy? Actually, more specifically," his voice drops a full octave, "which fairy-"
"I'm gonna guess," Jonghyun mumbles round the chunks of apple in his mouth, "you ran into him too." He wags a finger at Jinki's thinly clothed chest. "He's a bitch."
Jinki groans. "And what's your part of the deal?" The prince sits on the cobblestone path that borders the palace, his knees drawn to his chest in a childish manner that Jinki's pretty used to seeing. With a sigh the knight plops down beside him and takes a bite of his apple, a burst of metallic, sweet juice filling his mouth immediately.
Jonghyun sighs, "Well, I asked him to build me a magic castle and garden. And he kind of, um." He takes a pause, scratches his ear. "Called me a selfish brat and put a curse on me. So it wasn't really a deal? I guess." His eyes flicker up to see Jinki's petrified face. "It's not that bad, honestly! I just change into a-ugh."
"Wow," is all Jinki can muster. "Wow."
"Don't give me that look."
Frustrated, the knight jumps back onto his feet, "So how exactly are we going to get you back home? Jonghyun, your dad will kill me if he finds out you're under some spell." The boy grunts in agreement. "How do you break it, then? The curse?"
Jonghyun looks down at the ground before mumbling, "I, uh, can't say."
A twig snaps. "Wow."
"Geez, stop saying that! It's against the rules," Jonghyun exclaims, his cheeks flaring an embarrassed red. Suddenly there’s the cocky smile again. "But at least we can spend some time alone together."
Jinki groans and throws his browned apple onto the ground between their feet as Jonghyun laughs.
They sleep under the stars. "Because I'm afraid of the castle," Jonghyun admits, and Jinki doesn't question it and only shuffles a bit closer to the boy.
"Well, we've gotta think of a way to get that spell broken and get out of here," Jinki says lowly under the starry blanket he has pulled over his face, to hide the fact that he's blushing as Jonghyun curls up closer against him. "And-okay, can you give me room to think, please?"
"Sorry." Dirty fingers run through knotted hair and Jonghyun finally sighs, "He must really hate me for some reason. It's not like I ever threatened him or anything."
"Well, a lot of people don't like you, Jonghyun. He was just brave enough to show it." Jinki grins smugly.
Jonghyun squawks, bristling under the blankets as he props his arms up under him and asks, "Do you?" The flustered look on the prince's face boils up a bubble of laughter deep in Jinki's chest, which, apparently, Jonghyun doesn't appreciate all too much. "So you do."
"Nah." Jinki flexes his fingers at his sides. "I was just, um. So how do we find a fairy?"
Smiling wryly, the prince twists around and watches Jinki with his eyes wide open. "Use your brain."
Jinki lets out a long, drawn sigh, racks his brain a bit for some ideas. For a few minutes he just stares at the stars. His eyes almost close on him but Jonghyun's soft humming keeps him awake.
Magic. It's not like he wasn't expecting it. "This is ridiculous."
"You're telling me," comes the sigh from Jinki's side, and the knight smiles a bit. "But whatever, I guess we'll just think about it tomorrow." There's some shuffling of dry leaves and loose linen before Jonghyun lets out a loud groan and grumbles, "Good night."
"Good night."
But Jinki keeps his eyes open for a few minutes longer, keeps his gaze on Jonghyun, just for a bit, just to make sure.
They set out early in the morning, much to Jonghyun's dismay ("I haven't even showered yet!" "Yeah, and you smell like shit, but no one cares, let's just go."), and go the way Jinki's horse wishes, which leads them to the middle of some more trees. Jonghyun only sulks a bit, scratches behind his ear, on the horse as he tries to crane his neck to look for some sun over the treetops.
"I'm so tired," he whines, and it takes everything for Jinki not to snap when he's been the one stomping around in the mud and random patches of quicksand, getting smacked around by tree branches and the horse's tail. "Can't we wish for some food?"
"As far as I can tell, the only fairy we seem to know hates our guts." Jinki dodges the swishing bundle of horsehair and the vague thought of making a new bow for the violin he doesn't have crosses his mind. Jonghyun makes some keening noise before he reaches down and softly runs his fingers through Jinki's hair and down his neck, causing the knight to freeze up and splutter.
Quietly the prince murmurs, "Sorry, leaf," but when Jinki carefully looks up, there's not a shred of apology in his eyes but instead a shade of pink across Jonghyun's cheeks, and for the first time, Jinki thinks he finally sees the sun breaking through the trees.
"Um," Jinki stutters, whips his head back, "I think I hear running water."
"What? Hurry up, then. Hurry up, Jinki, hurry up, hurry up!" Jonghyun bounces about for some effect, tongue lolling.
"Fine." With a smirk Jinki smacks the horse on its side and watches it go dashing through the trees, neighing loudly, as Jonghyun clings to its back, his screams swallowed by the heavy hooves and Jinki's cackles.
"I don't know what to do," Jonghyun speaks up as they chew on their stale bread around the small fire Jinki barely managed to get going. "I don't want to stay in the castle my whole life. I don't have anything I can do outside of home." He gingerly picks at a nail. "It's too hard for me to live out in the wild."
Jinki mumbles before swallowing the lump in his mouth, "You don't have to. You're the older son, you're gonna take over your dad's position as king some day."
"But I have no idea what a king's supposed to do! What if I make a mistake?" The prince jabs the brown earth with a random stick. "Wish we had marshmallows."
"I wish you'd just be a good boy and stay home, but we can't always get what we want," Jinki sighs absentmindedly, forgetting to duck when a small pebble comes towards his way. "So what if you make a mistake? Your dad's made plenty. The people still like him, because he makes up for the little errors he made." With a sigh the knight stretches out his legs so his feet are nearly touching the small, flickering flames. "What do you want to do when you're king?"
But the boy doesn't answer, only groans and falls back onto the cold earth, "I just don't want to be murdered by my people."
"And you won't be. You're a nice kid, Jonghyun, you care for the people around you. They love you." Jinki looks up from the loaf of bread in his dirtied hands. "Really."
"You said there are a lot of people who hate me."
"Oh," Jinki scoffs, throwing his arms up into the air, "never mind."
Jonghyun smiles and his eyes flicker from the orange flames to the bright specks of stars peering through the leaves down upon them. "Um," he starts softly. "I'm gonna go to sleep. It's-It's getting late."
"All rightie." The knight lies down, back flush against the earth. He glances over to his side where Jonghyun shuffles about uncomfortably, making weird noises and groans. "You all right there?"
"Yeah, perfectly-" he starts, cut off by a weird hiccuping noise, "just go to sleep."
Jinki blinks. "Okay. Good night, Jonghyun."
He gets a yip in reply, but Jinki just shrugs it off as an annoyed grunt, and closes his eyes to sleep.
Jinki wakes up feeling itchy, and at first he thinks, in horror, that he had rolled around in a patch of poison ivy, and immediately scrambles over to see if Jonghyun had contracted some incurable skin disease to just make matters worse. When he finds the boy half naked, rolling to and fro in his sleep, arms almost folded up to his chest, Jinki thinks that, no, nothing's wrong at all, and rolls back to his own makeshift bed of leaves and stones.
But then he feels some stinging on his back and Jinki groans, "Aww, what-" before tugging off his shirt and seeing the shredded threads. He gapes. "What the heck?"
"Hmm?" The prince lazily stretches his arms high above his head, mouth agape as he yawns loudly. Jinki inspects the shirt for a bit longer, ignoring the boy, who asks, "What're you looking at?"
"My shirt's been ripped up." Sitting up, he checks around the ground, mumbling, "Maybe there were some sticks I dug my back into? I'm itchy, too."
Jonghyun makes some sort of noncommittal noise, scratching his arm with his blunt, dirtied fingernails and mutters something about going to take a shower since he feels itchy too. He scratches wildly at his ear again, then tumbles onto his feet, shuffling away into the trees, leaving Jinki alone, quizzically watching the boy's back.
"Hey," Jinki says quietly over the soft, muffled thuds of the horse's hooves, "what if we never get out of here?"
Jonghyun gives him an irritated look, "Well, Mr. Negative, I don't think pessimism will help us."
"Yeah, but what if?" They don't talk much for another few minutes before Jinki awkwardly clears his throat. "Sorry," he mumbles. "I mean, we haven't run into Taemin yet, and we haven't broken your spell. Even if we do get out of here-"
"I bet it's something obvious."
The knight looks up to see Jonghyun staring out past the trees, at the bushes moving slowly at their place, tip-toeing on their roots. "Something obvious?" It takes a second for Jinki to recognize the expression on the boy’s face, and when he does, all he sees is Jonghyun's scrunched up nose, his lips twisted and brows furrowed in pain, or in disgust. Jinki's not sure which it is, but he slowly says, "Are you all right?"
"Yup," Jonghyun barely manages to squeeze past his lips before slumping over with a loud groan. "God damn magic."
Jinki looks up at the rays of warm sun filtering through the leaves and travels blindly over roots and stones, listening to Jonghyun's soft, calming humming, until the branches begin to split more and more to reveal the orange sky inch by inch. "Jonghyun," Jinki says, excited, "look!"
The boy looks up at the sky and almost falls off the horse in awe. "Smoke!" he exclaims and Jinki, without even thinking, hops onto the horse and makes it sprint wildly down through the trees, barely keeping Jonghyun in between his locked arms as they hobble this way and that.
"You all right?" Jinki asks, the loud galloping muffling his words. But Jonghyun hears clearly and nods up and down, trying not to clasp onto Jinki's hands for some stability.
By the time the sun begins to slink away behind the trees once more, Jonghyun's already thrown Jinki's on spare, mended tunic and marched off towards the small cottage that houses the most comforting blazing fire and the rowdy chatter the both saw, heard, felt from miles away. Jinki doesn't even bother calling out after the boy but slips in a handful of coins into his pocket instead, patting the horse's head softly before running in the same direction.
"Jonghyun," Jinki says just as the boy reaches out for the handle of the door, "you have to remember you're the prince. You don't know who could be in there." He steps in front of Jonghyun (and something in the back of his head laughs at him for trying to act all knightly now, but his chest sort of swells when Jonghyun squirms a bit anyway), pushes the heavy wooden door open, and is immediately blown away by the smell of brewing alcohol and warm wood. He can hear Jonghyun's excitement, his own growling stomach, but waits for the prince to throw on his hood just in case.
"Welcome," the bartender says above the music and clattering and something about the man strikes him as familiar. The pale skin, the sharp blue eyes. Jinki purses his lip. "Where are you two from?"
Jinki frantically searches for an answer. "The, uh, east," and throws in a smile. The young man behind the counter doesn't buy it but wipes down a mug anyway, sets it down on the counter for the knight. "Well, doesn't matter, really. As long as you're here for a drink and able to pay, you're welcome." He adds a smile of his own, but it sends a slight tingle down Jinki's spine.
"And who's that?" he asks, flopping the dishrag at Jonghyun's direction.
"My brother." Jonghyun snorts. "He's sick."
There's another chilling smile before the bartender shrugs. "I'll take it you'd like something to eat, too." Then he walks off, leaving the two awkwardly at the counter, surrounded by tables of men and women dressed in rags and hunting clothes. Groaning, Jinki drops down onto a stool and Jonghyun follows suit awkwardly.
"It's really hot in this."
"Oh, quiet."
It's about six mugs later when Jinki begins to feel the slight buzz in his fingertips. Jonghyun, on the other hand, already has his body sprawled across the counter top, laughing at nothing in particular. Jinki rubs the prince's back soothingly when the occasional disgruntled moans begin to fill the room.
"We're so done for," Jinki sighs loudly, and the bartender raises a thin brow, smiling behind a new rag and another relatively clean mug. "Stupid map. I should have brought a spare.”
Jonghyun mumbles softly, "It's so hot," and throws off his hood before squirming a bit more in his seat. "Jinki, I'm tired."
"Just a couple more." Jinki pinches the bridge of his nose. "Just a few."
When a man stumbles towards the counter, Jinki feels his knees lock, his hairs stand on end. There's nothing good in the way the man sort of leans down to inspect Jonghyun's flushed face, in the way his brows furrow together and his cheeks burn an angry red. Before Jinki can pull the hood back over the prince's head with a nervous laugh, the man reels back.
"You," he slurs, "you're the king's son!"
Jonghyun grins smugly. "What about it?"
"Oh, come on," Jinki groans as the red-faced man splutters a bit in indignation. He squeezes himself between the two in hopes of maybe offering some peace. "I'm sorry, sir, but could you maybe-"
"Those tariffs are killing my family, but you never gave a second thought to us out here!" The man takes two shaky steps backwards, winding an arm up, and Jinki feels his stomach drop. He was never good with combat, ever. "I'll just deal with you then!"
"Bring it."
"Jonghyun!" the knight squawks before narrowly dodging the swinging fist. He clamps his mouth shut and waits again for the man to strike, blocking the blow and sending him backwards onto the table beside the counter.
A hand holds Jinki in place, and the knight does a quick double take to find Jonghyun's distressed eyes looking up towards him before-
“Ow.” Jinki coughs up some blood, and he vaguely thinks of the golden apples and how different the metallic tastes of blood and the fruit are. "God," he groans, rushing forward and kicking the man in his stomach, bringing a tight, shaking fist straight into his nose. Jonghyun makes some indignant noise and the bartender sighs in a note of frustration. Jinki quickly finds himself against the counter again with a totally busted lip. His head tips back to find Jonghyun red and shaking, almost angry. Jinki rolls his eyes. The things he does for this boy.
They strike and hit and fall and Jinki thinks he's busted up his hands more than he's ever done in his entire life, blood staining his already dirtied nails and teeth. It's not a pleasant sensation, and Jinki knows he will never understand people's pleasure in fighting, but he braces himself anyway. He hears Jonghyun shouting at him above the roaring in his ears, and he glances for a quick second to see the bartender waving a rag at him, grinning quite mischievously, the bracelets around his thin wrist twinkling as brightly as his eyes.
Oh, wow, Jinki thinks, doubling over after a blow to the stomach. The dishrag goes flying and lands over the man's eyes, causing him to fall over to his side in confusion. Scrambling back onto his feet, Jinki grapples for the prince's shaking arms and tugs at him, yells at him, and sprints out of the homely cottage with Jonghyun struggling behind. They barely find their way back to the horse tied up at the large tree, and when they do, Jinki drops to his knees and lets out a ragged sigh.
"You idiot," Jinki hears Jonghyun shout into his ears which are probably just as bloody as his lips are, "why the hell did you do that?"
"You provoked him." Jinki licks his lips. They taste like dirt and salt now. Cradling his head in his hands, Jinki breathes in heavily.
There's a sniffle that makes his eyes fly open immediately, and when he refocuses again Jinki swears he sees Jonghyun crying above him. Those pursed lips, scrunched brows, grit teeth-yup, Jinki laughs to himself, he's crying.
"Stop, you crybaby. It's fine. It's all part of my job." Jinki drops a hand down on Jonghyun's hunched shoulder, smiles. "I just need to protect you."
"No, you don't.” There’s a quiet sob and then Jinki feels something warm against his cheeks, like the pitter-patter of summer rain.
Jinki frowns. "Jonghyun, stop, it's not your fault at all. Calm down." The prince grumbles something into his clenched hands, something low and sad, and Jinki grips the boy's arms and pulls them from his face. "I'm perfectly fine." He grins for some effect. "You just have to go to sleep now, okay? I'm exhausted, too." Jonghyun sighs. “I wish I could just go back to cleaning your room, though.”
A brief pause before Jonghyun smacks his forehead and shakes his head, Jinki laughing loudly to the night sky.
There's a moment of silence that lulls Jinki to sleep, but not before patting Jonghyun on the leg and telling him good night. When he falls asleep, he feels a heavy weight on his chest, stirring, warm.
And when he wakes up, he swears his heart flies right out of his mouth.
“Holy crap,” he whispers as the small puppy on his stomach rolls around in its sleep, scratching at its ear like Jonghyun does, tongue lolling out like Jonghyun’s does, and, “Oh my god.” Jinki laughs. “Are you a dog? Like, that’s your curse?”
The puppy slowly stirs and cracks its eyes open, one by one. It looks up at Jinki’s face, makes a snuffling noise, and then yips in shock when it realizes that it’s awake and Jinki’s laughing at him. It yips some more, growls, and Jinki lets his head fall back again.
“Oh my god,” Jinki says again, his chest heaving with laughter and ragged breaths, “you’re a dog. You’re a dog.” Jonghyun’s ears drop to his head and he draws in his paws, slipping on his trademark frown. “I can’t believe it! You’re so cute like this. I guess he doesn’t hate you as much as I’d thought.” Jinki pulls the puppy up to his face and rubs under his neck, grinning.
A sneeze. Jonghyun yelps and tumbles off of Jinki’s chest, and Jinki groans. “Oh right, I’m allergic.” He chuckles a bit, one outstretched hand coming out to pet Jonghyun on the head from afar. “Do I have to feed you some dog treats or something to get you back?”
Jonghyun starts barking, wagging his tail around. Suddenly there’s a puff of smoke and instead of the puppy, there’s an adult-sized Jonghyun resting on his haunches, mouth yapping out insults at the knight. “Oops.”
“Now that’s just rude,” Jinki mumbles, but he grins anyway and scratches the back of Jonghyun’s ear.
“Are you thumping your leg?”
“Are you scratching my ear?”
“Good point.”
Jinki notes that Jonghyun hasn’t said a word since breakfast and awkwardly he turns to the boy, teeth scraping against the scab on his bottom lip. “Hey,” he says, voice hushed, “are you all right?”
“Yup,” is Jonghyun’s terse reply, and Jinki rolls his eyes at him as he rummages through the sack tied to the horse’s saddle. “I am just perfectly, perfectly fine.”
“Hey, look!”
Jonghyun bristles a bit at the fact that he was just blatantly ignored and turns around to where Jinki stands, planted to the ground in shock. “Jonghyun, come here.” He pulls out a piece of paper, rolled up and tied with a thin red ribbon. As he unrolls it, a puff of pink smoke hits the both of them in the face, and Jonghyun starts sneezing all over the place. “It’s a map!”
Grumbling the prince peers over Jinki’s shoulder and reads the note on the back, “To you two. You guys are idiots. I figured you would want some help. I guess you deserve it, even though you broke two of my tables.
All right, go on home now to your little castle and live happily ever after. You may now kiss the bride!” A distant gong resounds when Jonghyun says those words, and the two freeze, giving each other weird looks.
“That was weird,” Jinki speaks up after a brief silence. The younger boy looks up and then a smile begins to slowly stretch its way across his face before he gives in and leans against Jinki, laughing in happiness and relief.
“I’m sorry.” A small bird flies past the two as Jonghyun begins to fiddle with his fingers. “You had to go through shit to find me. And then I was just more trouble, and-you didn’t deserve it.”
Jinki thinks, It’s my job, but instead he whispers, “I promised you.”
Stuttering, Jonghyun pulls at the sleeves of his shirt. “Yeah, but, I mean. Uh.”
“Uhuh,” Jinki laughs. “Come on, we’re going the wrong way.” Jinki pats the horse’s back and the prince, mumbling, clambers onto the saddle. With a smile the knight hops on behind him and they turn around in their spot and set off for the cartoonish castle covered in white and yellow sparkles (courtesy of Taemin, it says).
All the while, Jinki watches Jonghyun scratch his ears and waggle around impatiently. He snorts, “You want to go on a walk or something?”
“That’d be nice.”
Jinki laughs.
They tie up the horse again and this time Jinki makes sure to keep the map far, far, far away from it. The sun massages their tense shoulders, kisses their brown skin, as they step out from the trees onto the plain that stretches on for what Jinki assumes to be miles and miles.
“Y’know, it’s good that we’re out of the woods and all,” Jonghyun starts, “like, really. I wanted to bite all the squirrels in there, it was so disgusting.” The knight blanches. “But we still have one problem.”
Realization hits and Jinki throws his arms up with a groan. “Crap, I totally forgot. You still can’t say?” Jonghyun shakes his head.
“But, y’know, it’s on the map-mmph!” Jonghyun flinches again as his lips twist. “Fuck!” he grunts, hands strangling the air around him.
Jinki opens up the map, eyes on the boy in front of him who seems to be struggling with an inner demon. “Um, the map.” He scans the front and back. He flips it upside down, left and right, stares at the trees as if their shape holds some secret message. “I don’t see it.”
Squawking, Jonghyun makes an indignant noise as he roughly yanks the paper out from Jinki’s hands and flips to the back, points at the message on the back.
“Broken tables? No? Oh. Happily ever after…kiss the bride?” Jonghyun’s finger begins to jab violently at the map before his hands magically start to flail around and smack him in the face. “We have to get you a wife?”
The boy gives up and lazily points to his lips.
“Oh. Oh!” Jinki laughs, “I see, kiss the bride. You’re the bride? So I’d have to kiss you, is that what it is?”
“Yup.”
Panic seizes Jinki and he stands in his spot, arms to his side, knees locked. “Oh,” he stutters as Jonghyun takes one step, two steps closer, rests his warm hands on Jinki’s ripped up shirt. “I see.”
“I’m glad you do,” Jonghyun murmurs above the distant calls of the birds flying above them. Jinki isn’t sure if it’s the warmth of the sun or the soft breeze or Jonghyun’s hands but his eyes start to close until he’s just barely peering through his lashes at the prince in front of him. He looks like he’s glowing, radiating, and Jinki breathes.
“I guess it was sort of obvious.” He brushes his fingers softly against Jonghyun’s ear, down his jaw to those cocked lips, curled into a smug but warm smile. “Damn it, Minho, always right,” he mutters, then leans forward to kiss the boy.
A hand stops him. “Are you kidding?” Jonghyun barks. “That’s seriously what you’re going to say before you kiss me.”
“Well, what am I supposed to say?” Jinki grumbles, cheeks flaring red. “I love you?”
“That’s more like it.”
As much as he wants to just smack Jonghyun upside the head, Jinki withholds, takes Jonghyun’s hands in his own, and presses his chapped lips against the prince’s, revels in the big sigh that escapes both their lips into the orange sky above them.
From the corner of a cracked eye, Jinki sees a tail swishing back and forth behind Jonghyun and almost laughs into the kiss, but then there’s a tongue distracting him instead and Jinki swallows it in for a small moan. It disappears with a puff of smoke, and the distant bells ring once more.
“Oh,” Jonghyun whispers softly as he pulls back from the kiss. There’s an unmistakable red blush tickling his nose and ears. “Um.”
Jinki straightens his back a bit, clears his throat. “If your dad finds out, I’m gonna be executed.”
“Don’t worry.” Warm fingers slip into Jinki’s. “When I was seven, I told him I’d marry you no matter what.”
“Oh.” Jinki flushes.
“You all right?” Jonghyun teases before tugging at his arms and dragging Jinki back into the forest.
There’s some low murmuring, which then rises to buzzing chatters to hollers and exclamations. Jonghyun grips Jinki’s hand and they hobble over to the front doors, trying their best to ignore the pebbles and sticks in their shoes.
“You idiot!” comes Kibum’s shrill cry over the sobs and joyous shouts all around them. The boy sprints toward them, throws his arms around Jonghyun’s neck. “Oh my god, you smell so much, Jonghyun.”
“Yeah, I know.” He throws a glare over his shoulder at Jinki, his eyes saying, “See?”
“So no hi for me?” Jinki pipes up from the ongoing brotherly moment in front of him. “I mean I had to fight an ogre to save this kid, look at my lip!” Squirming in between the two, he points at the scab on his bottom lip, all the while smiling at Kibum’s disgusted face.
“Oh, ew,” Kibum says but it turns into an amused grin. “An ogre, really?”
Jonghyun snorts. “No. More like a drunk, six-foot man who’s mad at our dad for some reason.”
“Same difference.” Jinki shrugs, and Kibum titters behind a hand.
Minho appears, huffing slightly. “Wow, you’re back,” he laughs, pats Jinki on the back rather roughly. “I’m glad you’re sort of in one piece. How’d it go?”
“As well as an adventure through a magical forest full of evil demon sprites can go,” Jinki mumbles, fixing up his shirt distractedly because the mocking smirk Kibum gives him hurts. “He stole my armor.”
Minho lets out a whistle, “Bet you got something else stolen, too.”
“Okay, now that’s not-“
“And it was really good,” Jonghyun chimes in with a lick of his lips and has Kibum doubled over in disgust and Minho on the floor rolling around. Jinki decides not to react at all, only blushes beet red, before slapping the boy on the shoulder and urging him to shut up. Jonghyun grins. “You liked it anyway.”
The king and queen come up to them, commend Jinki for his bravery, and the king goes on and on about how happy he is to see his son again, breathing and smiling. The both of them don’t really listen as they play with their fingers behind their backs, smoothing rough skin with soft touches.
“We have to plan a party. Kibum,” the queen calls, and Kibum’s face brightens immediately as he drags Minho back into the palace, blabbering about flowers and musical acts. Sighing, the king and queen bow to Jinki once more and walk, arms linked, to the entrance of the castle with a few of the royal guards at their sides.
Jonghyun looks up at Jinki. “I’m not ready for this.”
“Don’t worry.”
“I don’t think I can do this, Jinki.”
“Jonghyun.” Jinki pulls back and holds the prince by the shoulders. “Your dad’s still here. You have years to learn from him and to become a good king. I believe in you.” He smiles softly, runs his fingers through Jonghyun’s tangled hair. “And I’ll be here to help you, all right?”
Jonghyun breathes in. “All right. Let’s go.” They walk down the cobblestone path bordering the palace with their hands clasped together at their sides, smiling softly at each other under the warm sun shimmering above them.
With a tight squeeze of his fingers, Jinki makes a silent promise that Jonghyun receives with another squeeze-a promise that he’ll go through anything for his little prince.
And so they’ll live happily ever after.