#174: The Prince and His Peasant

[lordchen]

Prompt: #174
Title: The Prince and His Peasant
Pairing: ChenKai
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 37.8k
Summary: The not-so great adventure of Prince Jongin the idiot, peasant-tutor Jongdae, and the magical dweebs of the (not really) Shadow Forest.

Jongin, in the simplest term, is a prince, and among other things, an idiot.

He's the prince of a kingdom surrounded by a hefty amount of villages, trees (lots of trees), mountains and from then on no one really knows. And with every Kingdom, there's a king and a queen, and two nit-picky princes. It's a rather carefree kingdom that nourishes in playing mind games with its peasants and blatantly ignoring its magic folk. The royal family also have a habit of creating holidays whenever they feel like it too (festivities were their greatest past time).

So, when the king asks for his son’s presence, Jongin doesn't really know what to expect. But here he is walking through hallways of stone walls, that have always smelt a little too damp for his taste, heading towards the throne room. He knows he's close when he sees the rows and rows and rows of unnecessary guards standing in formation in front of the large wooden double doors.

With a flick of his red velvet cape, and a tap of his crown, Jongin saunters up to one of the guards. "What's the formation today?"

"A star, Prince Jongin," The guard responds with stiff shoulders and pointed fingers.

"A star?" Jongin repeats with a raised eyebrow. "Why a star?"

"So that the heavens will always look upon you no matter where you are, sir," He replies with a nod.

Jongin narrows his eyes a little, a tad baffled by the response but not enough to actually care and presses on. He does peak at the formation though and no doubt there were the men in metal shaped into five points, he'd like to snort and call it ridiculous, but his father was a man of tacky aesthetics. Even if the aesthetics were made up of humans.

One of the guards knocks on the door with his fist, causing it to echo throughout the hall like thunder. He knocks five times, slow and hard, because his father likes the dramatics of an entrance and he likes making Jongin impatient.

"Who wishes to enter?" A forced low and rough voice booms from the other side of the door.

"Prince Jongin has come to see you, sire," The guard shouts back, and Jongin’s tapping his foot.

"What is his reason?" His father responds.

The guard looks back at Jongin who is growing more and more irritated. "Open the doors." Jongin hisses and steps towards.

"But sir-"

Jongin throws daggers with his eyes towards the guard on his right, "Open...the fucking doors."

The guard gulps and nods to the other side and with one intake of breath, they both press their sides against the body of the doors and open them with a loud creak.

Jongin snarls a little and gives his cape another flick before squeezing between the gap, entering the throne room with a stomp. The throne room, as well as everywhere else in the castle, was crowded with twinkling things; golden chandeliers in their unnecessary tens, statues made of platinum polished on an hourly basis, marble pillars sparkling with glitter the king had ordered pixies to throw on and not to mention the thrones themselves. The thrones had long graceful backs made of gold and silver, shining magnificently with the colours of the sun that would seep through the stain-glass windows.

Jongin loved the thrones, but it honestly just made his parents look puny and moderately stupid in them. Especially with how his father likes to sit on his throne with his legs up on the seat and his buttocks on the right arm. His mother on the other hand looked like she'd rather be anywhere but here with the way her eyes seems to constantly drift up and down as if sleep was wistfully tempting her.

Jongin grits his teeth as he heads towards the two of them and bends onto one knee, bowing slightly. "Prince Jongin, in your presence...sire."

"Ah!" The king claps once he throws the deck of cards in his hand onto the ground. "My son! What brings you here?"

After formalities, Jongin straightens up and throws his father a scowl. "You're the one that summoned me old man, what do you want?"

"Jongin dear," His mother yawns. "Don't be rude to your father, he gets off it a little too much, it worries me."

"No, no, you’re right I did call you!" The king guffaws and goes to settle cross-legged onto his seat. Jongin's father has a baby face, so it's somewhat unnerving to see such a hairless face with big round eyes sitting on the throne wearing a crown bigger than the circumference of his head, it almost tilts to the side a little. "I have a job for you to do."

"And it couldn't wait till the afternoon?" Jongin grumbles, taking his hand to brush through his fringe but remembering he'd put his crown on to hide his bed hair.

"Of course not, you need to do it a-s-a-p!" Jongins father declares with a point of his finger, standing on his throne now, his cape fluttering in the wind being made by the servant holding a large hand fan on the side.

"A-s-a-p?"

The queen sighs, "Don't question it-"

"Glad you noticed that son. A-s-a-p means as soon as possible, apparently the new thing in the villages is to shorten words as much as possible as it is more efficient." He nods with a cheeky grin and hands on his hips. Jongin looks up at his father with an incredulous look and decides to heed his mother's advice of not questioning it any further.

"So what is it you want me to do?" Jongin takes a deep breath, a finger pressed against the gap between his eyebrows, an attempt in soothing the frustration folding over into wrinkles.

"I need you to head over to the east to this really smart village and find your cousins a tutor." He says with a definite nod.

If there was ever a moment Jongin ever truly, from the bottom of his heart, didn't understand his father, right now would make the top of the list of moments.

Jongin narrows his eyes, “Why…?”

The king blinks, “Why not?”

“No, but why me?”

“Like I said, why not?” He smiles.

Jongin makes a frustrated type of sound, and grabs his crown to brush through his hair. “Don’t we have loads of servants to do jobs like this?”

“And why would we do that when you can?”

“Because it’s their job,” Jongin huffs.

“Not entirely,” The king shakes his head. “I’ve assigned my servants all the jobs they need.”

“Then hire another one?”

“This conversation is going in circles, son,” He remarks and goes to flap back on the seat. “The point is I want you to do it.”

“There has to be some reason,” Jongins almost begging.

The king sighs and rubs at his temples, “Since when did I ever need a reason for anything?”

Jongin looks up to think, then nods, “Good point but-”

“Look, let’s just say someone has led you on a rather specific path,” He says, throwing his hands in the air. “Now go ahead and take that path.”

“Ha?” Jongin has his mouth open, a look of absolute confusion on his face.

“Go get packed,” The king orders, shooing Jongin away. “Your horse is already waiting.”

“Wait...I’m leaving today!?”

“Why dillly dallly?” He laughs.

“‘Why dilly’- Mother,” Jongin whines

“Listen to your father son,” She yawns. “You know how he gets when he pouts.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” He whispers under his breath.

“Guards, escort my poor son,” The king waves and only seconds later does Jongin feel a pair of firm hands grab either side of him, and start dragging him back to where he came.

“Father!” Jongin struggles, kicking his legs in the air. “Father, you can’t just do this!” He shouts, watching his father wave him off with a smile that had once put him in a sword fight to the death against one of the kingdoms strongest swordsman.

“Be safe, dear.” His mother calls out before the large wooden doors slam shut in Jongin’s face. They finally let go of him, but he only runs back up to the door.

“Sire…! Father! Freaking old man!” He shouts, but he just hears his father laugh on the other side. “Argh!” He screams and kicks at the door.

“Someone clearly woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” A voice, one that Jongin really,really does not want to hear, comes up from behind him.

Begrudgedly Jongin turns around to find his brother, Baekhyun, yawning whilst holding a raccoon. “Why the fuck are you holding a raccoon?”

Baekhyun looks down in his hands, and back up at Jongin. “Ah,” He smiles. “He was knocking on my window so I let him in.”

“You just...let him in? A raccoon?”

Baekhyun nods, “I let him in.”

If Jongin was an idiot, then Baekhyun was a jackass as well as an airhead, which wasn’t at all good because for some stupid reason Jongin would always get in trouble for Baekhyun’s odd...nature. That of which accommodated well with his messy attire. Baekhyun hated other people dressing him so he seemed to have frequent trouble dressing himself. In other words, things like having only half his cape clipped to him or his belt on the wrong way were daily occurrences.

Baekhyun yawns again, and scratches at the scalp in the middle of his crown. “Oh,” He turns to the side and notices the formation of guards. “You’re leaving today?”

Jongin grits his teeth and steps towards Baekhyun, “You knew about this?” He hisses.

“Oh yeah, dad told me the other day,” He chuckles.

“And you didn’t tell me…?”

“Ah,” He opens his mouth and thinks for a moment. “I forgot.”

Jongin grabs his brother by the collar, “I’ll kill you.”

Baekhyun laughs, and it’s little things like that, that remind Jongin of their father, and it only pisses him off further. “Now, now,” Baekhyun puts his hands up in defence, the raccoon jumping out of his grasp and skittering away. “Let’s appreciate the star the guards have done for you, look how much they care for you, Jongin.”

“Yes, I can see they care for me more than my own family,” Jongin sighs and shoves Baekhyun away.

“Don’t say that, you’ll find someone that’ll love you more than the guards,” Baekhyun sympathetically pats Jongin on the shoulders. “I mean not all of us can get smoking hot girlfriends like me.” He smiles.

There’s a look of disgust on Jongins face, “We sure Taeyeon just isn’t blind or something?”

“You’re just jealous she didn’t confess to you,” Baekhyun mocks and sticks out his tongue. “I mean you know what they say about pretty boys, they have small dicks.”

“No one has said that ever,” Jongin defends.

Baekhyun drops his eyes to Jongin’s crotch, “But I’ve seen yours, pretty boy.”

“Shut up pipsqueak,” Jongin snaps and flicks Baekhyun’s crown to the floor to ruffle violently at his hair.

“Treason!” Baekhyun yelps, and a guard goes to pick up the fallen crown.

“Go back to your pretty Taeyeon,” Jongin snaps, and starts making his way back to his room.

“Yeah, well at least I’m getting some!” Baekhyun shouts down the hall.

Jongin whines under his breath and takes a sharp corner.

♔

Jongin’s eye twitches as he stares off into the distance. The royal family’s castle rested on a high hill, like a constant reminder for the villagers below of the people who were at the top of this land. It also reminded them of how stupid the founders were because what’s so fucking practical about being on top of a hill, a good hours ride from civilization?
Jongin never left much unless it was for events, and even then they were usually held inside the royal hall. He wasn’t particularly a people person either. In fact, he loathed social events to an ungodly extent. Mostly due to the fact that the words that come out of Jongin’s mouth were little quibbles compared to the glittery trash that falls out of Baekhyun’s.
That goes to say, the villagers weren’t as fond of him as they were of Baekhyun. It made sense though, Baekhyun was next in line to be the king, but the recklessness the next in line was meant to have was also taken away by the big brother. So Jongin had to fall into the next stereotype: the snotty, brooding prince that hates the world.
It wasn’t really true, it just seemed that way because as typical as it seems, Jongin is constantly bored. So while he could just lie in bed for the next week, refusing to eat or leave his room in an act to defy his father, he’s actually on his horse waiting for the servant packing up his stuff for his travel.
“You look like you’re about to set those poor villages on fire,” Baekhyun laughs from down below. He’s stroking the raccoon in his hands.
Jongin scoffs and offers his brother a smirk, “I could get used to this- I mean I already look down on you, but doing it from further up is much better.”

Baekhyun’s smile stiffens, “You better be glad I have to put this happy prince pretense up otherwise I’d kick the shit out of you, you snotty brat.” He hisses lowly and quickly. Ah, Jongin thinks, this is where my rotten personality comes from.

“Ah yes, the future king of our land, ladies and gentlemen,” Jongin comments, looking off into the distance once more.

Baekhyun snorts and pets his raccoon, “And what a great king I will be.” He cackles.

Jongin cocks an eyebrow and looks towards the servant boy running around frantically. “You don’t have to rush,” Jongin calls out to him, and he flinches. “I’m not in a hurry to leave to be honest.”

The skinny, black haired boy bows, “Ah yes, thank you sir.” He mutters and runs back to the stables.

“Is he new?”

Baekhyun looks back, “Probably, I’m not very used to servants who listen to us so well - he’ll learn to be sarcastic and insult us soon enough.”

“Insult you, you mean,” Jongin corrects.

“No, you’re the idiot, I’m pretty sure most of the time they joke about you,” Baekhyun laughs and shakes his head.

Jongin scowls, “I am not an idiot.” Jongin considers himself cool and suave. There was no way anyone would think he was an idiot.

“You’re not as cool and suave as you think you, hence why you are an idiot,” Baekhyun snorts. “Let’s hope this trip teaches you something.”

“Ugh,” He groans back, rolling his eyes. “Why am I even doing this?” Jongin looks out into the forest. It almost seemed endless with the immense mass of trees, but Jongin knew it wouldn’t take long to get through it on horseback. If anything it would take a day, but the forest was home to a lot of annoying creatures, and Jongin could barely handle the human folk, let alone the magical folk.

“Really, if you just follow the clear horse track and ride at full speed, you might even get there before sunset,” Baekhyun attempts in comforting, but Jongin can hear the smile on his lips, and knows he’s enjoying his brother’s torture with every second passing.

“It’s days like these I want to give you a run for your money on being the crown prince,” Jongin says under his breath, but loud enough for Baekhyun to hear.

“Ha, if you asked father, he’s most likely say ‘why not’ or ‘fight to the death’, but it wouldn’t really end in a fight to death, and something bizarre would come flying through the arena. Like your fight with that Knight...Seokjin was it? He was kicking your ass,” Baekhyun sings, laughing at the memory. “And then suddenly a unicorn was riding through your match, poor thing got scratched up.”

Jongin grimaces at the memory, remembering his father’s thick laughter as one of the healers went to tend to the unicorn. His father knew he was going to lose that match but did it anyway, probably to scare the shit out of Jongin because he’s as lazy as princes come.

“Actually, father did mention once how he wanted to title me as crown prince,” Jongin chides, changing the subject quickly. “Something about a convertible?” He says and looks down to Baekhyun.

“Oh would you look at the time!” Baekhyun claps, cold sweat running down the side of his temple.

“Time?” Jongin repeats.

Baekhyun fishes into his pocket and pulls out something round and metallic, opening it up with a small click. “Time.” Baekhyun echoes and shows Jongin a face with two black hands and numbers running around the edges.

“What is that?” Jongin scrunches up his face.

“Pocket watch.” Baekhyun closes it and stuffs it back into his vest.

“Not following…”

Baekhyun gives his brother a look of disbelief, “You poor thing, you’re really ignorant, aren’t you?”

“You’re one to talk,” Jongin snaps back.

“Let’s hope this trip gives you some insight to real life, and other people and cultures, hm?” Baekhyun hums and pitifully pats Jongin’s thighs.

“Like I said, you’re one to talk,” Jongin groans and rolls his eyes. “Are we ready yet?” Jongin calls out louder to the stable boy skittering towards him.

“Y-yes sir! Sorry sir.” The little boy fumbles and double checks on the knots on the bags attached to Jongin’s saddle. “All ready...sir!” The little boy salutes and it makes Baekhyun snort a little so he bites his lip.

“Thank you,” Jongin smiles softly and bends over to pat the boy on his head, ruffling at his hair. “You were a big help.” He murmurs, and Baekhyun watches the little boy’s eyes light up as he stands a little straighter. “Well, I’m off - see ya’.” Jongin says finally to Baekhyun before kicking at his horse and riding down into the gate way.

Baekhyun shakes his head a little as he watches him, “And you think you’re bad with people.” He says under his breath and goes to wrap a hand around the little boys shoulder, the raccoon hung over his shoulder. “Well, let’s see what Madame Soonkyu has cooked up for breakfast. I’ve missed her.”

The little boy looks up at Baekhyun with not a single flicker of fear he’d had for Jongin, “Are you not dating Miss Taeyeon, sir?”

“Ah yes I am, but how can anyone deny a chest that big?” Baekhyun sighs happily into the sky.

“Chest….?” The little boy replies.

“Boobs,” Baekhyun whispers and makes a grabbing gesture at his chest.

“B-boobs?” The little boy blushes. “Sir, is that not...cheating?”

Baekhyun laughs loudly, “What’s your name boy?” He asks, pulling the little one towards the kitchens.

“Jungkook, sir,” The little boy nods.

“Jungkook, huh?” Baekhyun nods along with him. “Well Jungkook, I have a lot to teach you.”

“It’s okay, I prefer Prince Jongin teaching me things,” He innocently replies.

Baekhyun’s smile twitches, “That bastard might actually take my crown at this rate.”

♔

“Where the fuck am I?” Jongin whines, turning the map around several times.

He wasn’t exactly sure why he had trusted Baekhyun in drawing him a map, seeing as how Baekhyun hadn’t given it much thought when he went out of his way to make him one. He should have learnt after all these years. All the map showed was the castle, woods, a dotted line, and an ‘x’ at the top right corner of the page.

“I’ll kill him,” Jongin swears under his breath.

He looks towards what seems like an infinite amount of trees, and nothing but that. He had been following the horse trail for a while but that had died out about four hours after entering the forest. Jongin glances up at the sky then. The sun was still pretty high up but at this rate he wasn’t going to reach the village before sunset. He really didn’t want to waste time, just wanted to grab the tutor and head back as soon as possible - or as his brainless father would say, a s a p.

Jongin looks behind and it’s all pretty much the same scenery: lots of trees. The ‘Shadow Forest’ wasn’t really as shadowy as it’s given name. In fact Jongin could have sworn he’s seen the occasional sparkling in the distance. Whoever named the forest clearly wasn’t a friend of the creatures that lived in it or very creative in his name giving abilities. Jongin couldn’t really talk though, he had barely any interactions with the kingdoms magical creatures, minus the unicorn fiasco.

The sparkling in the distance was starting to really irritate Jongin so he decides the smartest thing to do is follow it. He doesn’t really know why he is, but he thinks this is one of the “paths” his father was spouting bull about. It’s not like he had anything to lose, except his life, but then again he wasn’t that attached to it anyway in the least manic depressive way possible.

He doesn’t know how long he follows the almost hallucinatory sparkles, and he actually thinks he’s imagining them at one point but then looks back and notices the trail of glitter. Jongin is questioning whether this path is really trustworthy but then again if he was dumb enough to trust Baekhyun with a map, he was dumb enough to follow a bunch of magical glitter.

The sun has almost set when Jongin finally sees the flicker of a fire in the distance. Then, the sparkles he was following suddenly burst into tiny little fireworks, irritating Jongin a little bit because he doesn’t know how, but he feels it’s a little bit of a sarcastic celebratory.

The horse trudges on, and Jongin’s pout doesn’t settle until he see’s a break in the trees, and finally, civilization. Jongin never thought he’d feel so happy to see a bunch of peasants in tattered brown clothes huddled around a campfire, but yet here he was, actually drooling over the pit roast they had going in the middle. Despite being fully aware of the unsanitary circumstances that come with it.

Jongin slips off the horse and leads it towards the village, patting at it’s mane soothingly. It’d been a long day and Jongin had forced Spencer to run pretty fast. Jongin feels mildly irritated at the lack of a grand welcome reception. He’d expected a little something for the prince of the freaking kingdom. But he was tired and in no mood, and wanted to sleep for the next century or until Baekhyun falls into a tragic accident that renders him more useless than he already is and he’s the crown prince that gets all the girls and privileges, and doesn’t have to go on these stupid ass tasks.

Jongin clears his throat as he approaches the people, Spencers horseshoes making loud clicking sounds from behind him. No one even gives him the time of day, to which Jongin remembers Baekhyun’s pocketwatch, and therefore remembers Baekhyun and gets annoyed all over again. He coughs louder, and maybe gets one raised eyebrows asking “what the fuck do you want?”

Jongin closes his eyes and takes a deep breathe, “Excuse me,” He calls out loudly. “Where is the mayor of this village?” He demands in an authoritative tone no one in this village is clearly used to by the way they turn to look at him. He doesn’t care much, they’ll be grovelling soon when they realise who he is.

“Sir, how may I help you?” A peasant in sandals and overalls that show off his dry and scabby knees walks over towards Jongin with clasped palms. Jongin peers down at him, and looks away at the rest of the crowd, they were all unattractively skinny.

Jongin sighs, “I am Prince Jongin, were you not informed of my arrival?” He asks with an evident look of boredom on his face.

The man with clasped palms blinks several time before looking behind him and back at Jongin. “I-Im sorry, who?”

“Prince-freaking-Jongin,” He repeats, louder and obviously far more irritated. He really just wanted to sleep. “Second son of the king and queen that freaking rule this land.” Jongin fishes into his coat until he feels something small and firm in his hand and pulls it out. It’s a small stamp of the royal crest embedded at the bottom, it was shaped like a chess piece but the distinctive shine showed it to be made of gold.

Someone scurries from behind the man, it’s a teenage boy with spectacles. He pushes at their centre whilst squinting at the crest before his eyes bulge out their sockets. “It really is!” He shouts back at the now crowded villagers. “It’s the second prince of the kingdom!” He declares and the whole village seems to burst with sudden realization.

“Oh my lord someone fetch the mayor!”

“Why is he here!?”

“Look at that jaw line, I could use it to cut my bread!”

Jongin stood perfectly still, blankly staring on as the villagers dispersed into a million different directions. Spencer huffs almost like he’s laughing. Jongin eyes him from the side but Spencer just nods his head as if he hadn’t made a single noise.

“Oh, what a pretty boy!” An old woman calls out as she fumbles her way to Jongin. “I’ve never met any of the royal family before and here I am having lived through two generations. It is a pleasure to meet you boy.” She says and grabs at his hands. Jongin hears gasps coming from the other villagers as he looks down at her wrinkled, callus cover hands.

He takes them into his, bends down slightly to give the back of her hand a kiss, “Pleasure is all mine, madam.” He says lowly, and in return hears the screams of girls and women from behind her. Jongin tries to keep his smirk to himself, but he so wishes he could show off to Baekhyun right now. Jongin could get girls too, and some guys if he tried hard enough.

“Oh my, what a flirter, and he doesn’t have to smile to woo the ladies either,” The old woman laughs and saunters back to the crowd as if she’d just won the lottery.

Jongin hides his laughter behind his hand all the whilst thinking peasants.

Just then someone shouts over the crowd, “Everyone! Quiet down, the mayor is here!” The crowd lull to a silence surprisingly quick and Jongins left at the centre, tapping his foot waiting for the puny man of a mayor to saunter through the crowds. He’s dressed in a slightly better ensemble but it’s nothing extravagant, especially compared to the other mayors Jongin has greeted in the past. The villages past the forest really were different on the economic scale.

“Prince Jongin!” The mayor calls out with open arms. “What a pleasant surprise?”

“Suprise? Were you not informed?” Jongin asks with a cocked eyebrow.

“Unfortunately not sire, otherwise you would have had a much warmer welcome.” The mayor bows apologetically and Jongin has a hard time not groaning and rolling his eyes all over the place.

“It’s fine,” Jongin says when it’s not really fine. It was rare for him to visit a village on his own, a peasant one for that matter, so he’d expected something. His fault to expect anything from peasants. Freaking peasants. “Just prepare me a peas- I mean, a bed. We will talk about my arrival tomorrow morning.” He dismisses with a wave of his hand and a flick of his cape.

“Yes of course sire, we are getting ready your room this instant,” The mayor says, leading him through the crowd. “We’re not a very wealthy village, but we hope you enjoy your stay here.” He welcomes with offered palms and Jongin’s really not bothered to do anything but nod.

It wasn’t like he was expecting much from such a poor village but Jongin felt a new level of frustration fall on his shoulders when he caught sight of the room, the best room they could offer. Was this how the peasants lived? How were the other rooms if a room with no curtains, grey stone walls and floors, and a bare bed was their best room?

“Would you like anything sire?” An attendant asks from behind.

Jongin doesn’t look behind him when he waves her away, “No thank you, I’m going to sleep.”

He stares at the bed for a while before feeling his body weight pull downwards like he was metal and the bed was a magnet. Jongin thought it’d take a while for him to fall asleep but the second his head hit the musty old pillow, he completely conked out.

♔

Jongin thinks he should be waking up happy right about now; what with the children laughing outside and the sun bathing his room in streams of gold. But somehow all he seems to hear is fucking gremlins shrieking, and feels infuriated by the rays of light poking at his eyelid, probing him to wake up from a pretty shitty night of sleep.

His whole body is stiff when he tries to get up. He almost thinks he hears creaking in his lower back. Jongin yawns and goes to scratch at his stomach, noticing he had went to sleep in his travelling attire. Taking a hand, Jongin brushes his fingers through his hair and think it’s all good and done in containing his wild bed hair.

There’s the sound of children again, only closer, their high pitched voice making him itch with irritation. He heads towards the pretty broad and open window, not entirely comfortable with the lack of privacy and leans against the window frame.

He can tell it’s pretty early with how little few villagers were walking around compared to yesterday. Compared to that, it seemed there was an infinite sea of children by his small hut, several of them holding flowers and chatting excitedly among themselves. There was one man, or boy, or guy, or somewhere of a blur in between, in the middle of the hellborn sea, and Jongin admired his bravery from afar.

Jongin watches him, inspects his face with close precision. If Jongin thought his own face was angular, then the children god on the floor over there must have had his face carved from stone because Jongin can swear he’s never seen a jaw so sharp. He also hasn’t met a guy short enough for even Baekhyun to throw a chance at teasing. Jongin finds him good looking, in a totally not homosexual, like really not homosexual way. Like, really.

“He’s probably still asleep,” The guy says, and Jongin bites his lip a little, because his voice is really, really…nice. Said, once again, with not a single fraction of homosexuality in it. Nope.

“B-but the flowers will die soon…!” One of the little brats whine, and Jongin watches as the guy forces on a smile he clearly hasn’t perfected.

“What did we say...about being selfish?” The guy says between his teeth and hidden eyes. Jongin shivers a little at the sight.

Whilst the little brat pouts, another little girl comes up from behind the guy and throws on a crown of messily put together flowers, “But Jongy…” She calls out in that migraine inducing tone. “He’s already awake.” She points upwards, and suddenly all the gremlins eyes turn towards Jongin, and suddenly reality never felt so close to those horror plays Baekhyun loves to watch.

The guy looks up too, or “Jongy” does anyway, and Jongin doesn’t like the way his heart waltzes when they meet eyes. It’s faint but the smile that was on his face seems to freeze mid motion, and suddenly the things down below start wailing.

All Jongin can make past his blocked ears (courtesy to both his index fingers) is the word ‘prince’ and several different tone levels in gasps. “Shut uuuuuuuuuup,” Jongin groans and rolls his eyes, but it doesn’t change anything.

“Mr Prince, Mr Prince!” A pipsqueak calls out and Jongin feels something tugging on his elbow. He looks down to see a little girl holding out a rather wilted dandelion. “For you!” She giggles and Jongin scowls as he takes the flower and throws it over his shoulder.

“I’ve got no time for you peasants,” Jongin announces loudly and obnoxiously flicks at his wrinkled cape. He turns around into his room but someone pulls on his collar. “Fuck!” He yelps and turns around to find Jongy.

“You think you can be a little kinder to the kids?” He smiles, but something about the way he hisses through his teeth tells Jongin he’s not asking nicely. “They’ve been waiting for you for hours now.” He says a little higher, his eyes lost behind his wrinkled lids.

Jongin pushes him away and brushes a hand through his fair, “They also woke me up, I’ve got no business with peasants.”

Jongy bites his lip but strains once again in offering the prince a smile, “Why not humour the poor…peasants then, hm?” He asks with a tilt of his head, but Jongin’s face of disgust doesn’t change in the slightest.

“I’ve got better things to do,” Jongin sighs and wriggles his fingers in the air, telling oh-dear Jongy to move along.

Jongin’s turned around so he doesn’t see Jongy’s face when he says, “Kids, the prince is tired, you can give him his flowers when he...departs.” An echo of whines and huffs fill the air, but soon the small patter of feet begins to fade away. He thinks they’re all gone but then he hears someone shuffle from behind him.

“So you’re the jackass second son?” Jongy says and Jongin turns around to find him sitting on the window frame.

“Did...you just call me a jackass?” Jongin twitches, but he’s doing nothing in hiding his scowl.

“That isn’t part of your name?” Jongy says, a flower stem bobbing between his teeth. “Because it really suits you.”

“How dare you insult the second prince of this kingdom.” Jongin says fiercely, and takes two threatening steps towards Jongy but he doesn’t make an effort to flinch.

“If you call that an insult then you’ve seen nothing,” Jongy smirks, showing off his canine teeth devilly.

“I’ll have you know I can throw you into prison, or even get your head cut off for being so im-im...impendent?” Jongin’s eyebrows crease together in confusion. “Independant? No...Impotent?”

“Impudent?” Jongdae suggests with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yes! Impudent!” Jongin claps. “I’ll have you thrown in prison for being so…impudent.” He says cockily.

Jongy snorts, “You’re really an idiot.”

“For someone with such a stupid name like ‘Jongy’ you have no right to make fun of me, the prince,” Jongin clarifies as if the prince part wasn’t already established.

“Well the prince, I think I should tell you my name isn’t ‘Jongy’,” He states. “It’s Jongdae.” He smiles, and Jongin gulps.

“W-well, Jongdae...I won’t stand for this i-impotency…” Jongin stutters. “I’ll have to inform the mayor of your disrespect.”

“It’s impu-”

“Won’t stand for it!” Jongin stomps.

Jongdae ruffles at his hair and spits out the stem by Jongin’s foot, “I’m the mayor’s son, there’s really not much to tell.”

Jongin stares at him for a moment, small body looking lean as he perches a tucked knee under his chin and let’s his hands dangle beside him. Jongin groans and goes to flop onto his extremely stiff bed, “Okay whatever, go away.”

“Aww, is that all the renowned broody prince has?”

“Yes,” Jongin admits into his musty pillow. “You remind me too much of my brother, and that makes my dick wilt.” What Jongdae doesn’t know, is that comparing him to Baekhyun was probably the worst insult Jongin could give.

“Your dick was up?”

“No!” Jongin suddenly jumps and stares at Jongdae. “No, w-why would you say that...it’s-it’s not like I’m...gay or something- jesus! What is wrong with you? ….jesus.” Jongin scoffs, his eyes darting across the room.

“You just said your dick wilted.” Jongdae replies, a little grimace on his face.

“Well!” Jongin gulps. “It’s just a fucking...simile, or something, okay?”

“You mean metaphor?”

“Jesus, what are you, the grammar police?”

“What is a ‘police’.”

Jongin pauses to think, “I’m not entirely sure...I think they’re like guards,” He says, looking towards the ceiling. “Anyway, must you correct everything I say?”

“Kinda.” Jongdae shrugs.

“Why!?”

“You’ve come to a village full of tutors, what did you expect?”

Jongin opens his mouth to retort, but no words come out, so he shuts it again, and pouts.

“Given up?”

“Never,” Jongin snaps. “I’m the second prince of this kingdom, why would I give up?”

“The two have nothing to do with each other,” Jongdae waves a hand like he’s swatting away a fly, and it irritates Jongin a heck of a lot.

“I’ve decided,” He says under his breath. Jongdae perks up to look at him. “I’ve decided!” He says again louders.

“You said that twice-”

“I choose you!” Jongin points rudely towards Jongdae.

“Excuse me?”

“I choose you,” Jongin repeats with a cocky sway of his hips.

“What is this? Pokemon?”

“I have no idea what that is,” Jongin continues. “But it’s decided, you’re the tutor.”

“I’m still not following oh-great-prince of mine.” Jongdae replies.

“I came here to pick a tutor for my cousins, and congratulations, you’re the lucky winner.” Jongin announces, his hands on his hips.

“Fuck off,” Is all Jongdae says before he slips off the window frame, and starts heading away from Jongin’s hut.

Jongin quickly leaps through the window and chases after Jongdae, grabbing him by his wrist. “Sorry, dear peasant of mine, my word is final - son of the mayor or not.” Jongin smirks, his own canine teeth peeking out from the side of his lips.

“No-fucking-way,” Jongdae hisses right in Jongin’s face. Jongdae’s about to walk off again but there’s the ominous sound of something clicking, and Jongdae is suddenly tugged back. “What the fuck?” He says under his breath and looks down at his wrist. “WHAT THE FUCK!?”

Jongin looks down to where Jongdae is crying all over, and finds something he seriously wasn’t expecting. A fucking load of glitter and smoke misting around both their wrists, and amongst it a chain. A chain with bracelets surprisingly too tight around the wrist. Jongin brings his hands up to inspect it closer, dragging Jongdae, who is attached to him, along with it.

“What the fuck is this?” Jongin mutters, twisting his wrist around, looking for a key hole. There was nothing but smooth metal.

“That’s what I’m asking you,” Jongdae demands with a shake. “What did you do!?”

“What do I do?” Jongin turns swiftly on his heels. “What did you do?”

“Oh okay Mr Italics, how the fuck do you think I managed this? I’m not the one looking for a tutor, or a jackass prince for that matter,” Jongdae snaps, and tugs on his wrist violently.

“Ow, that fucking hurts you piece of-” Jongin is mid insult when suddenly there’s a huge burst of smoke, and something that sounds a lot like a cackle Jongin really, really wishes he isn’t hearing right now.

“Little brother!” The voice beams.

“Fucking kill me.” Jongin warily looks up at the puff of smoke and horrifically finds his brother’s floating head amongst a mist of grey and green smoke. “What the actual hell are you doing right now Baekhyun?”

“Appearing ominously,” His voice booms, and he grins widely down at Jongin. “Like the effects?”

“I’ll kill you when I get back, I swear to god,” Jongin vows.

“Now, now a little early for death threats, considering you won’t be home for a couple of days.”

“What do you mean ‘couple of days’? If I ride now on horseback I’ll get back before it turns dark.”

“If you were on horseback,” Baekhyun raises his eyebrows up pitifully. “But alas, poor Spencer is here with me.”

“What!?” Jongin shrieks.

“Who’s Spencer?” Jongdae interjects with a whisper.

“His horse,” Baekhyun answers loudly.

“You named your horse Spencer?” Jongdae sounds baffled.

“I know, right?” Baekhyun laughs.

“Who the fuck cares right now?” Jongin bellows. “Why is Spencer with you? And what the fuck is this?” Jongin demands with a childish kick of his foot, pointing at the chain linking him to Jongdae.

“Ah those are part of a tiny spell I put on you,” Baekhyun’s big ass head nods.

“A...spell?”

“Yeah when I patted your thigh before you left I was actually just initiating a spell that’d tie you to the first person you chose,” He smiles widely and Jongin wants to knock out every pristine tooth one bye one.

“Why in gods name would you do that?” Jongin feels a headache coming on.

“Why not?” Baekhyun laughs, echoing their father’s words, and infuriating Jongin to a whole new level.

“Baekhyun, you better be worried about your place in this family, because when I get back, I’m making sure you’re on the same level as the rats that dwell in the sewers.” Jongin swears, his hands clenched into fists.

“Lovely threat, dear brother of mine, and I know you’ll uphold it - which is precisely why I’m buying myself time.” Baekhyun nods, his body-less head swaying in the air. “Besides this wasn’t my plan, I was just more than happy to play a part of it.”

“Then who’s plan was it?” Jongdae curiously asks.

“Can’t tell! Actually I don’t even know, ha. Well, see’ya in a few days, brother!” Baekhyun suddenly ends and his face spins, and spins, and spins, until there’s only mist and with a pop, he disappears.

Jongin and Jongdae stand in their spot for a moment, staring at the empty space before them, the forest acting as a backdrop. “I can’t believe I remind you of your brother.” Jongdae finally says.

“I’m sorry, I take that back,” Jongin quickly replies with an open palm.

“So,” Jongdae whispers, as if the tone of his voice could set fuse to whatever time bomb was ticking away inside Jongin. “How do we get out of these?” He asks with a rattle of the chains.

“Like I fucking know, didn’t you hear him? This wasn’t my idea, and I’ve never used magic before.” Jongin huffs and starts marching his way towards the forest.

The chains stop him, “Where do you think you’re going?” Jongdae asks.

Jongin looks at the forest and back at Jongdae with a squint, as if it weren’t already clear enough. “Home…?”

“And what about me?”

“You heard the talking bobble head, these won’t come off until we reach the castle,” Jongin wiggles his wrist and Jongdae’s does the same in response.

“Yeah, but I didn’t agree to go with you, and because you asked so kindly, I’m going to say no,” Jongdae smiles and tries to turn around and walk away but the chain forces him back.. “Ow, jesus…”

“What did you expect? The chains to just simply pop off with your magical stubbornness?” Jongin snaps, and Jongdae goes on his toes as a he throws a hand up on Jongin’s head harshly and ruffles at his hair.

“Look at this jackass talk,” Jongdae clicks his tongue, and gives the chains a second look. “I just have go to the castle and come straight back?” Jongdae warns with a point of his finger.

“Yeah, if I let you leave alive,” Jongin mumbles under his breath, rubbing at his scalp.

“What was that?”

“Nothing…anyway, what are we supposed to do? Go on foot?” Jongin gasps at the thought.

Jongdae rolls his eyes, “We don’t have travelling horses, just ones for trading, so yeah, foot it is.”

“What kind of bull shit is that?”

“How am I supposed to know? The villages on this side of the forest just don’t get the funds it needs.” Jongdae shrugs and starts tugging on Jongin’s wrist to start following him towards one of the huts.

“I have no interest in your peasant talk,” Jongin groans, his head hanging back as Jongdae practically drags him. “I just want to go home.”

“Yes, yes, but we need to live through the forest first before we do just that,” Jongdae reasons as if Jongin were five years old.

“Live through the forest? But I got through it in just under a day? It’s easy peasy lemon squeezy,” Jongin says cocking an eyebrow at the sky.

Jongdae stops in his tracks and Jongin slams right into him, “Fucking hell-”

“How did you manage that? People with links to the magical folks are the only ones that can get through the forest otherwise you’re just as good as dead.” Jongdae gives Jongin a look. “Prince or not.”

Jongin narrows his eyes as Jongdae turns back to continue walking, “And yet here I am...alive.” Jongin gestures to himself.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“What are you even doing right now?”

“I’m going to go pack some stuff,” Jongdae replies.

“Do peasants even have a change of clothes?”

“Of course we do- can you stop calling us peasants?”

Jongin looks down at his feet and back up, “Commoners?”

“Never mind.”

“Anyway, aren’t you taking this a little well?” Jongin suspiciously asks. “A flying head tells you he’s locked us together via magic, and you don’t even care, and are willing to walk with a stranger through a forest that might kill you?”

Jongdae looks back at him, “First of all, everyone knows how Prince Baekhyun looks like since he visits us and neighbouring villages a lot. You were special though because stay-at-home-prince was meant to be this super good looking, cool prince everyone would fawn over.”

“Thank you, thank you-”

“In the end you just ended up as some spoiled brat with too much bed hair and a lack of ability to dress yourself properly,” Jongdae huffs as if he had some serious expectations. “Second of all, it’s not like there’s not much to do here - a few days travel to somewhere I’ve never been before sounds pretty cool.”

“It is not cool at all amigo,” Jongin sighs. “Who’s got time to use their feet when there are such things as carriages? I mean you peasants wouldn’t-”

“Jongin-”

“Prince Jongin that is to to you,”

“Prince...Jongin…”

“Yes, commoner?”

“Shut up,”

“Excuse me?”

“Shut. Up.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to punch you.”



♔


He punched him.

It didn’t really shut Jongin up, instead he started complaining about how his lip was bleeding and how the guards won’t stand for this, and then started sculpting all kinds of torture techniques he’d use on Jongdae when they get to the castle.

In that time, Jongdae had managed to inform his father of his departure and pack the necessities, and even made it ten minutes into the forest before Jongin changed the subject.

“How do you know where we’re going?” Jongin asks, taking a large step to walk beside Jongdae, their chains clinking together.

“I don’t…I kind of hoped you’d wake up eventually and start leading the way,” Jongdae mumbles, scratching at his lip.

Jongin stops in his tracks, pulling Jongdae back with him.“What made you think I have a clue?”

“Uh...I don’t know, maybe because you made it through here before, on your own?”

“Yeah but like...I had help?”

“Help?”

“Yeah, sparkles…”

“Sparkles…?” Jongdae blinks. “Are you okay?”

“I am perfectly fine, alright,” Jongin grumbles and continues walking, dragging his bags behind him - he’s regretting packing too much. “The horse trail died out and I just started following this like falling glitter.”

“You do realize you’re not making any sense?”

“I know,” Jongin rolls his eyes, and looks up but there’s nothing, not even the sun was barely getting through the tens of trees that towered above them. “Jesus, this is all a lot harder than I originally planned.”

“Yeah, well I didn’t wake up this morning expecting to get chained to a prince and stranded in the middle of a very dangerous, very unpredictable forest.” Jongdae chides and pulls out a large roll of paper from his sack.

“This sounds like a really bad book I once read,” Jongin murmurs and feels his arm being tugged on. He looks down to find Jongdae crouching over a map. “You have a fucking map?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you mention this earlier? Why are you even worrying?”

“Because the Shadow Forest isn’t just simply a big forest with a lot of trees, okay? The magical folk like to trick humans, delude them, let them stray away from their path, create illusions-”

“I get it.”

“The point is, we can’t get through with just a map, smartass.” He says, tapping the corner of the paper. “We need help, someone who can get us through.”

“And who is exactly is going to offer up such non existent kindness to us?”

Jongae looks up from his map and stares at the trees, they seemed to go on for infinity, and there was nothing but the dull sound of leaves rustling in the wind. “What are you waiting for? Something to smack right into your face?”

“Usually something would have, if we were meant to get out of this alive.” Jongdae sighs and gets up, rolling up the map and putting it away. “Let’s just keep walking ahead, if something hadn’t already interfered, we should be on the right road.”

They start trudging again, two hours pass and not a single hope of seeing a break in the trees, or even a lake insight. But it was more so the silence between the two that was driving Jongin a little insane, nothing but the sound of chains rattling filling the space between them.

“I still don’t get it,” Jongin says.

“If it’s you, I’m guessing you won’t get anything,” Jongdae replies offhandedly.

Jongin bites his lip, “I mean I don’t get how you didn’t reject this harder.”

Jongdae turns his head to look at Jongin and down at the chains, “What’s the point in rejecting facts?”

“Facts?”

“I wasn’t going to get out of this unless I went to the castle,” Jongdae says pointing to the cuffs. “What’s the point in fighting the inevitable?”

“Uh….probably ‘cause if you just go with the flow you might end up dead, like now,”

“Well, not everyone has everything they want at the tips of their fingers,” Jongdae huffs.

“Wrong - I clearly do not have everything at the tip of my fingers, I have you,” Jongin grimaces and points at Jongdae violently.

“My brother didn’t put me in this predicament, now did he?”

“You have a brother?”

“No, but I-”

“Then why are you talking like you have a brother?”

“Jongin…”

“Prince Jongin,” He corrects and takes a step ahead of Jongdae.

Jongdae groans and let’s himself be dragged along. He stares at Jongin’s back and decides to cut him some slack by changing the topic of conversation, “So how did you even end up on going on an errand like this?”

Jongin is silent for a while so Jongdae assumes he’s ignoring him until he speaks. “My father is an idiot.”

“The king?”

“Ah yes...the king,” Jongin grumbles at the image of his baby faced father sitting on the arm of his throne. “That one.”

“You don’t get along?”

“We get along as much as a mouse and a snake do,” Jongin kicks a pebble.

“I heard he’s really scary,” Jongdae comments looking up at the tree tops. “That he’s too frightening to speak directly to so he hides behind a screen when addressing common folk.”

Jongdae snorts through his nose and looks up too. “Ah yes...very frightening.”

“So what happened?”

“I’m not too sure myself. He just woke up me one morning and told me to get on a horse and go fetch my cousins a tutor.” Jongin shrugs and throws his sacks onto his shoulder instead of dragging them through the mud behind him.

“That seems really odd…”

“Tell me about it, now my brother has got me into this shitty situation, and it’s all too much effort for one prince and a measly tutor.”

“Excuse me,” Jongdae calls out and flicks the back of Jongin’s hand. “I am one of the best tutors in the village. Although troubling, you picked a good one.”

Jongin stares at him from the side and shrugs again, “I just picked you to bother you.”

“Well you did a great job,” Jongdae clicks his tongue.

“Don’t you think you’re talking too comfortably for a peasant?”

“I respect those who earn it,” Jongdae states and strides ahead, but not very far. “And it’s not like you give much of a shit about your kingdom.”

“Oh, how could you tell?” Jongin sarcastically replies and Jongdae turns around to glare at him.

“You don’t turn up to events, you don’t visit villages, or greet your people,” Jongdae frowns. “How can you ask for respect when your people don’t even know who you are?”

It shuts Jongin up, and Jongdae wonders if he’s gone too far. Then again, Jongdae was the one that grew up in a poverty stricken village blocked away by magic, whilst Jongin lived the high life of fine dining and lazy festivities.

The next thing that happens comes quite abruptly. It’s not like they were surrounded by bushes or large plants not to see it coming, but either way, it ends up smacking Jongin right in the face. “What the fuck?” Jongin squirms, something clinging to his cheeks, momentarily blinding him.

The thing latched onto Jongin slinks back slightly to look at him, and Jongin see’s a small face, and a petite figure. It’s wearing blue leggings, and matching pointy shoes, accompanied by a glittering little dress. Jongin stares at the short blonde hair before speaking, “A mini transvestite?”

“I’m a pixie, jackass,” The thing talks, and now that it isn’t completely glued to Jongin’s face, he can make out the thin, fluttering wings, and male like features.

“What is this rodent!?” Jongin squeaks and flicks the pixie off of his face.

“‘Rodent’!?” The pixie buzzes back to point into Jongin’s face. “Look here pretty boy, I am the most majestic pixie your eyes will ever feast on, so appreciate.”

There’s a lot of royal pixies in the castle, but this was the first time one had ever gotten so close to Jongin or even dared to try and talk to him.

“What are you doing here?” Jongdae interjects.

The pixie turns furiously, “What do you mean what am I doing here? What are a bunch of humans doing in our forest?” He asks back.

“We’re trying to get through the-”

There’s the sound of a huff in the distance, like a horse but...not, and the ominous crunch of hooves meeting the ground. The pixie makes a little squeak and his wings start fluttering even faster. “Shit, shit, shit,” He zooms past Jongin’s ear and back, spinning around, searching for something. “I’m so dead.”

“Good riddance,” Jongin scowls.

“Help me!” The pixie whispered hurriedly.

“Why should we help you?” Jongin scoffs.

“Look, I had a one night stand with a centaur and now he’s out to eat my ass in a completely different manner, okay? So just fucking help me or I’m dead,” The pixie demanded with his panic stricken face.

“Nope,” Jongin crosses his hands over his chest in stubborness.

“Jongin…” Jongdae hisses. “He can help us.”

“Help? Yeah! I can do whatever you want except like suck your dick - sorry, not my type, but anything else, I’m totally cool with.” He buzzes hurriedly.

“Suck my dick? You’re not even half the size of it,” Jongin rolls his eyes, and it earns him a snort from Jongdae and loud laugh from the pixie, too loud.

“Shit! He’s nearly here, quick help me!”

“If first you promise to get us through the forest alive,” Jongdae compromises, and Luhan buzzes in agreement quickly, not really listening. Jongdae quickly grabs the pixie and stuffs him under his vest.

And just in that moment, something quite literally comes out of nowhere. Quite literally nowhere, because there isn’t a single brush or wide enough plant to hide the freaking man horse that comes galloping forward.

“Where the fuck did he come from?”

“Yeah okay sure, worry about where the centaur came from in a magical forest, but don’t actually worry about the fact there’s an actual fucking centaur right in front of us,” Jongdae hurriedly hisses, itching at his chest.

“What am I supposed to do exactly? Offer it an apple?” Jongin hisses back.

“I can hear you perfectly well,” The centaur sighs, taking short strides towards them. “I am half human if that wasn’t already clear.” He refers to himself with open arms.

Jongin feels a little revolted at the sight of seeing a half naked man attached to the bottom body of a horse. Not to mention, the human part wasn’t that much attractive itself.

“W-we mean no harm…?” Jongin attempts with open palms.

The centaur gives him a look, “I think I’ll talk to the smarter one.” He says and turns towards Jongdae, who looks so twitchy it was as if he had ticks. “I’m searching for a pixie, about this...small, and has a mouth as dirty as the ground you’re stepping in.”

“Oof!” Jongdae coughs and goes to grab at his chest. “Uhm...you see…” He mumbles, and Jongin starts sweating at the sight of him faltering.

“If you’re talking about the pipsqueak that slammed into my face a moment ago,” Jongin starts, and grabs Jongdae’s hand. “Then he buzzed off behind us somewhere, I didn’t get much of a look considering I flicked him away.”

“Was he blonde?”

“Blonde and a lot...of blue…” Jongin mumbles. “Too much glitter.”

Jongdae squirms and Jongin tightens his grip. But the centaur has a look of suspicion when he turns to face Jongdae. “Why are you two humans chained together?” The centaur asks, and Jongdae makes a strangled sound of discomfort.

“We were cursed…” Jongin hurriedly says, hoping to divert the centaurs attention away.

“Cursed?” The centaur looks towards Jongin. “By whom?”

“By...by a really ugly, jealous witch! Yeah, she hated the fact that…I had- uh...I had left her for my lover here!” Jongin throws up their latched hands and smiles warily. “So we’re heading out to find a wizard...who can unlock us.”

There’s a moment where the centaur stares between the two of them. Jongdae’s has an undying but uncomfortable smile on and his death grip on Jongin almost makes him squeak.

“Well…” The centaur says after what feels like hours. “I wish you two luck on your journey, may you make it alive.”

“T-thank you,” Jongin grins.

They watch the centaur gallop far enough until he simply disappears, and in synchronization, they all let out a deep breath.

“This little shit!” Jongdae hisses and stuffs a hand into his vest to claw out the minx. “What is wrong with you?”

The pixie buzzes and tries to fly out of Jongdae’s grip, but he’s having none of it. “Ugh! Humans stink so bad, jesus christ, do you guys not have regular showers?”

“Look here you little pest, we could have gotten found out and you would have been dinner to a horse if it weren’t for us.” Jongin snaps.

The pixie calms down for a moment, his wings settled into his back. “Well…thanks for your help.” He snobbily replies with his arms crossed over his chest. “But it’s time for me to go!” He nods with a grin and starts buzzing his way forward. He doesn’t get far with Jongdae’s grip on him.

“You promised to take us through the forest, didn’t you?” Jongdae says.

“Did I? I don’t remember…” The pixie shakes his head.

“Look here you little rat,” Jongin hisses. “If you don’t keep your promise I’m going to make sure to call that centaur back and hand you over to him personally.”

The pixie makes a face of disagreement but then let’s out a sigh, “Fine...you have my word. Under one condition!”

“Another condition?”

“What is it?” Jongin rolls his eyes.

“I don’t know yet but it’s nice to have one on the side, no?” He grins and Jongin flicks at his stomach. “Oh fuck! Fuck that hurt...I swear I’ll kill you in your sleep, human.”

“That’s Prince Jongin to you rodent,” Jongin snarls.

“Ha! A prince, in the shadow forest? What a beautiful predicament!” He cackles, it’s high pitched and ungodly annoying.

“And what’s your name?” Jongdae asks, letting go of the blue dress and letting the pixie fly on his own.

The pixie gives Jongdae a look before answering, “Luhan, and you human?”

“Ah, Jongdae, nice to meet you,” He smiles and offers his pinkie to the pixie. Luhan scoffs but shakes it anyway and starts to buzz ahead.

“Where are you going!?” Jongin asks, tugging Jongdae behind him quickly.

“I’m leading the way genius, keep up - I never said I’d accommodate myself for you humans,” Luhan laughs but then something catches his eye as he looks back. “So you guys are lovers huh? Well, that’s fine, none of you guys would have pickled my dick anyway.”

“What?” Jongin scoffs. “That was just a lie to throw off the centaur, what makes you think I’d date a peasant like him? I am not…gay, anyway. I mean…I am straight, straight as these...as these trees.” Jongin clicks his fingers like he sounds the least bit convincing.

“Uh huh…” Luhan cocks an eyebrow but then nods to their chains. “So why are you guys holding hands?”

“What?” Jongin looks down and is startled to see they were still holding hands. Jongin lets go quickly and attempts to retract his hand but just ends up slamming Jongdae into him, the chains clinking heavily. “Jesus, why didn’t you say anything?”

“What’s a ‘jesus’?” Luhan asks from the side.

“What do you mean?” Jongdae asks innocently, looking up at Jongin.

“Why didn’t you let go of my hand? I totally forgot…” Jongin mumbles, and scratches his head. His heart jumps a little when he feels the warmth of Jongdae’s hand meeting his own again, and he turns to give him a look.

“Why? Isn’t it more comfortable to walk like this?” Jongdae asks and holds up their locked hands.

Jongin blushes and grits his teeth, “Not at all!” He snaps and forces his hand out of Jongdae’s and starts stomping forward, tugging Jongdae harshly behind him.

“A-anyway!” Jongin shouts towards Luhan, hoping for a change of subject. He didn’t like how fast his heart was starting to beat. “How did you even manage to have a one night stand with a centaur.”

Luhan offers the both of them a grin before spinning mid air and exploding into a million tiny fireworks of glitter. “Magic!” He declares with open arms and legs.

“What?”

“This is the Shadow Forest dweebs,” Luhan says whilst doing a rolly polly. “Anything is possible! That! And I’d do anything for centaur dick!” He coo’s with clasped fingers and a dreamy-like face.

“I feel a little bit sick,” Jongin groans. “So magic folk have sex too?”

Luhan gasps dramatically, “Of course they do! Humans aren’t the only ones to have such beautiful pleasure. Although you guys still look like your balls haven’t dropped so I wouldn’t think you’d understand.”

“Oh shut up, there’s nothing-”

“I’ve had sex,” Jongdae says nonchalantly from the side.

Jongin eyes bulge a little when he turns to look at Jongdae, “What?”

“I’ve had sex.” He repeats, but Jongin can’t really comprehend the words.

“You’ve got to be kidding me….” He whispers under his breath. “How did a peasant-”

“Why? Has no one touched your royal dick before Jonginnie?” Luhan teases, his wings fluttering behind him playfully.

“No way! You’re a virgin?” Jongdae snorts.

“Shut up! I am not...not...one.” Jongin mumbles.

“Double negative,” Jongdae calls it. “This is great, the second prince of the kingdom is a virgin, oh- I think this trip was so totally worth it.”

“What are you? A valley girl all of a sudden?” Jongin shouts, his cheeks a deep red.

“Don’t worry prince,” Luhan says. “Someone will come to tickle your weenie one day.”

Jongin slaps himself in the face with his palm, before feeling Jongdae grab his hand. “Don’t get so upset.” Jongdae says with a shrug. “All a little fun.”

“Your little fun will get you killed, I swear.” Jongin mutters under his breath. “And I thought I told you not to hold my hand?” Jongin mumbles, his anger dissolving into exhaustion.

Jongdae gives him a sympathetic look, “Just bear with it - the cuffs are starting to hurt my wrist with you tugging me.”

Jongin doesn’t say anything further and let’s Jongdae do what he wants. It’s not like he minded holding hands.

♔

“We have a tent?” Jongin asks, watching Jongdae set it up.

“We have a tent.” Jongdae replies, a stick between his teeth.

“When did we get a tent?”

“When you were mumbling to yourself, and I was packing up for the trip.” He replies muffled. “Why didn’t you pack a tent?”

“Because I was planning to come back the next day after coming to your village,” Jongin says and throws his sacks by a tree.

“What if you needed it for an emergency though?”

“And how exactly was I supposed to know when I’d need it for an emergency?” Jongin asks and droops where he is, attached to Jongdae, who is doing all the work.

Jongdae turns to look at him, “You’re not meant to know when there’s going to be an emergency - that’s the point of an emergency.”

“Meh meh meh…” Jongin mocks and looks up at the sky. Satisfied to hear Jongdae curse under his breath and hear something snap.

“You’re such a brat for a prince,” Someone whispers into Jongin’s ear a little too close, and makes him jump out of his skin.

“Fucking hell Luhan, can we not do that, please?”

“The brat knows the word ‘please’, all hail our kingdom!” Luhan spins and cries into the sky. “So they do give the royalty education- ugh!” Jongin grabs Luhan with a tight squeeze. “Suffocating…!”

“One more time and I’ll kill you,” Jongin hisses, before being hit on side of the head by Jongdae.

“If you want to get out of this alive, he needs to be alive first, jackass,” Jongdae warns with a glare before going back to shoving sticks into the ground.

“Whatever…details…” Jongin mumbles, rubbing his head.

He watches Jongdae’s back as he digs several long sticks into the ground and questions how anyones heartbeat could pace up at the sight of him. It was most likely the aftermath of their encounter with the centaur, Jongin nods satisfied to himself.

“You just made a stupid conclusion, didn’t you?” Luhan whispers, and Jongin’s eyes twitch.

“Will you stop…?” He seethes.

Luhan only grins and goes to flutter above Jongin’s face, “So why are you guys really on this journey, since you’re not “lovers”?”

Jongin scrunches up his face, “What’s with the quotation marks, we’re really not lovers. I only met him today.”

Luhan flutters down crossed legged to sit on his shoulders, “Why are you checking out his ass then?”

“I am not checking out his ass,” Jongin defends in hushed whispers, although he’ll only admit to himself that he took a peek. “Anyway, I just went to pick him up to tutor my cousins.”

“Why is a prince doing that on his own?”

“I’ve been asking myself that for the past two days - apparently, I’m supposed to be taking some “path”, probably the big guy up there playing a joke on me.” He sighs and goes to close his eyes.

“Actually it’s a ‘her’, and I’ve heard that before, don’t worry - you’ll get out of this alive...ish,” Luhan chuckles and rolls down Jongin’s arm to swish into the air.

“Ish?” Jongin cocks an eyebrow.

“Ish.” Luhan grins slyly.

“Oi,” Jongdae calls out. “Help me put this up.”

Jongin side eyes Jongdae, “Did you just call me ‘oi’?”

Jongdae looks at the ground then back up, “Sorry...idiot, help me put this up.”

“I’ll kindly refuse,” Jongin smiles.

“Then you can sleep outside tonight,” Jongdae smiles back.

“You can’t make a prince sleep outside,”

“Watch me,” Jongdae threatens, and goes to grab a large piece of fabric.

“Fine, fine,” Jongin quickly says and goes to grab the opposite end. He can’t stretch very far though, and there’s the third end...that’s currently floating on it’s own. “What is going on?”

Jongdae looks at Jongin, then follows his eyes to find the third corner of the ten lifting up on it’s own. “Luhan?” Jongdae calls out.

“Yeah?” He calls out from behind them.

“Jesus!” Jongin jumps and finds Luhan grinning, his finger pointed in the air and little pops of sparkles coming from it. “What are you doing?”

“Helping out?” Luhan says and flutters towards the other end.

“How are you lifting that?”

Luhan pops his head out from behind the semi-up tent, “Magic.” He grins and with a flick of his finger, the tent straightens out on all three corners and begins tying itself to the ground.

“Cool.” Jongin mutters.

“I think that’s the most positive thing I’ve heard you say for the first time, and it’s only day one - improvement,” Jongdae jokes with his own grin and goes to tug on Jongin to follow him.

“Oh for god sake, where are we going now?”

“To collect wood.”

“For what?”

“Warmth, it gets cold at night, or does the prince want to die of hypothermia?”

“Hyp-hypo-what?” Jongin stutters, staring at the back of Jongdae’s head.

“Die of the cold, genius,” Luhan cackles and buzzes past them quickly. “You guys are too slow, I’ll go find the wood, you can head back.”

“You’re being...oddly nice…” Jongdae warily asks.

“Well, we don’t know just how big that condition may be boys, I am a pixie of high expectations,” Luhan winks and flutters ahead.

“Brilliant,” Jongin mutters as they both turn back to the tent. It was slowly starting to get darker. “Of all the pixies to run into us, it had to be the flamboyant hedonist.”

“You know the word flamboyant and hedonist - that’s moderately frightening,” Jongdae says surprised, and it earns him a quick glare.

“Some of the kingdoms greatest scholars teach me, I’m seriously not that stupid,” Jongin sighs.

“So you admit you’re a little stupid?”

Jongin groans and tugs harder on the chains, but stops when he hears Jongdae hiss under his breath. “Ah...sorry,” Jongin mutters and slows his pace down so he’s only an inch ahead of Jongdae. “I’ve got some cream in one of my sacks, you can use it.”

“So you have cream but not a tent?”

“The two have nothing to do with each other,” Jongin laughs hollowly. “That and if I were to die at least my skin would be super smooth.”

“Always prepared for the worst, Prince Jongin,” Jongdae mumbles sarcastically and Jongin pretends he doesn’t hear it.

“Have you been camping before?” Jongin asks when he catches sight of the tent.

“Not really, but my dad has always prepared me for the worst,” Jongdae yawns.

“He’s the mayor, right?”

“Oh, you remembered?”

“You guys look alike,” Jongin says absentmindedly.

“Really? I used to get told I look more like my mom,” Jongdae replies.

“Was she at the village gathering?”

“No, she’s dead,” Jongin twitches to stop, and Jongdae trudges into him mid-yawn. “Huh, why did you stop?”

“Huh- oh, nothing, sorry…” Jongin awkwardly bites his lip.

“It was when I was kid, so I don’t remember much,” Jongdae shrugs.

They’re back at their campsite when Jongdae suggests to put all the sacks into the tent in case of thieves or animals, or both. Jongin’s told to sit on the side because apparently his arrangements of the bags only meant less space for them.

“We can use them as pillows,” Jongdae says, fluffing up the softest sack. “It’s called being efficient prince.”

Jongin rolls his eyes and looks up at the tent, the roof so low it touched the top of his head, and the size of it was far smaller than he was comfortable with. Jongdae kicks him then, by accident, but it annoys him anyway so he kicks him back.

“What the fuck Jongin?” Jongdae groans, rubbing at his thigh.

“You kicked me first,”

“I didn’t mean it?”

“Too bad.”

“You’re such a pain,” Jongdae huffs and twists backward awkwardly so he can comfortably sit next to Jongin, their pinkies touching. “Why are you in such a bad mood all of a sudden?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been in a bad mood since I met you,” Jongin retorts and clenches his hands into fists.

“Yeah but now you’re in a moody mood, where you don’t actually say anything and pout,” Jongdae yawns for the millionth time and for some reason, it’s seriously beginning to annoy him.

“I’m just tired...and I need to pee,” Jongin says quickly, it wasn’t exactly a lie.

“Oh right...yeah, let’s go somewhere.”

“Go where? There’s only trees, it won’t make a difference where we go.”

“Well, let’s just go away from the tent, jesus,” Jongdae mumbles and starts tugging on Jongdae to follow him out the tent.

They dwelve about five minutes into the forest where Jongin forces Jongdae to stand behind a tree, and close his eyes. But even then, Jongin finds it awkward to just pee wherever, especially considering the Shadow Forest is somewhere anything could walk out from anywhere.

“What’s taking you so long?” Jongdae asks, peeking out from behind the tree.

“Ugh, don’t look at my penis when I’m peeing, peasant.” Jongin snarls, and it earns him a long eye roll.

“Who even says penis nowadays? It’s ‘dick’ or ‘cock’...”

Jongin sighs and shakes his hips a little but nothing comes out.

“Come on, ‘dick’, now say it with me Prince Jonginie,” Jongdae coos.

Jongin offers him a disgusted look, “So uncouth.”

“That’s not how you say dick.”

“What are you guys doing?” Another voice comes out, and Jongin can tell who it is from the flutter of his wings. The two of them turn to find Luhan fluttering by Jongin’s face, a rack of sticks floating behind him and a small ball of light in his right hand. Luhan gives Jongdae a look then Jongin before looking downwards. “You know for not being lovers, you guys are moving pretty fast, huh?”

“Excuse me?”

“Well, I’m not one to judge, I’m heading back to camp to light this fire,” Luhan gives Jongin a meaningful look and wiggles his eyebrows. Luhan is about to buzz away until he stops in his tracks and looks back. “By the way Jongin, you’re stepping on a ant colony right now, I’d be careful.”

The two of them watch Luhan gracefully flutter away. Jongdae turns to look at Jongin’s face, waiting for him to process the information, “Wait what!?” He shrieks and looks down to find his shoes covered in crawling insects.

“Jongin, calm down...put your dick away…” Jongdae urges, hoping some catastrophe would not end up in him being dragged through the mud and insects.

Jongin whimpers under his breath as he fumbles with putting himself back in order, the need to run screaming stronger than ever.

“It’s not that bad you big baby,” Jongdae groans and tugs on his arm.

“The vermins are going to crawl in my shoes, and eat me in my sleep,” Jongin hisses.

“Don’t worry, you probably don’t taste very good,” Jongdae whispers.

“I taste spectacular,” Jongin snaps back.

“For someone who's never had their willy touched, I don’t know where you get that confidence.”

“I’ve had a lot of people touch my penis, thanks,” Jongin scoffs and steps out warily from the ant colony. They jump off his shoes and scatter around their destroyed home.

“Your attendants and maids don’t count,” Jongdae deadpans. “Now, look what you’ve done - destroyed someone’s home.”

“They can build it again,” Jongin huffs and starts making his way towards their tent.

“Is that what you say to villages you destroyed?”

“What villages have I destroyed exactly?”

“Well, how did your army take over this kingdom? It wasn’t done peacefully,” Jongdae shrugs and matches his pace to Jongin.

Jongin eyes him from the side, “That was centuries ago.”

“Centuries many people still talk about,” Jongdae looks up at Jongin. There’s nothing really in his eyes, not scorn or hate, but they were just like he was stating simple facts.

“Are you unhappy in your village, Jongdae?”

“Not particularly,” He replies, the first flicker of a flame seen beyond a couple of trees. “But just being smart means we lack in a lot of other things, and tutors aren’t hired often.”

“So you’re poor?”

“Just as poor as any other village on this side of the forest,” Jongdae shrugs.

“Mmmm...I never really thought about it…”

“Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

Jongin doesn’t say anything else on the matter, and they keep trudging on. They’re only a couple of steps away from the camp fire Luhan is currently twirling around until Jongdae stops in his tracks, and pulls Jongin back with him.

“Owwwwwwww,” Jongin whines and throws his head to look back at Jongdae, but he’s looking somewhere off further. “What could have possibly took your attention in this vast space of nothingness exactly?”

“Shh…!” Jongdae hisses.

Jongin’s left eye twitches, “Did you just ‘sh’ me?”

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That,” Jongdae whispers.

“Adding italics will do nothing for your cause in making me understand what the fuck you’re on about,” Jongin shakes his head, and tries to squint in the direction Jongdae is looking at.

“I hear a river,” Jongdae announces.

“Seriously?” Jongin looks down at the ground and brings his ear up, trying to concentrate on the sounds. But he gets nothing. “I don’t hear anything - are you starting to hallucinate? We really haven’t been on this trip long,” Jongin scowls and throws a palm in front of Jongdae’s face, waving it.

Jongdae slaps him, “I seriously hear it, like someone is splashing in it. Come on.” He says finally and starts tugging on Jongin in the direction of his eyes.

Jongin makes a frustrated type of sound and lets Jongdae drag him to wherever his illusions take him. He looks warily in front of him and frowns, there really was nothing but trees. What was Jongdae hearing? They had stocked up enough water for their travel, so it isn’t like he’d be thirsty.

Jongin’s frown doesn’t lighten until he hears what he thinks is singing. “Wait, why am I hearing someone singing?”

“What?” Jongdae calls back but he’s really not focusing on Jongin in the least bit.

“What the fuck? Is someone playing a joke right now...oh my god, what if we’re hallucinating right now? What if we’re actually walking towards a cliff, and then we’ll fall...and die. I’ve still got so much things to do like…like….” Jongin trips over something then, and whelps. “FUCK! What was that? Was it a pixie disguised as twig? What if we’re surrounded right now and suddenly they’re just appear in their ARMIES. I can’t take this- COME OUT!”

“Shut the fuck up Jongin,” Jongdae snaps.

“We’re going to fucking die,” Jongin whispers under his breath. “A prince can’t die here...I have to die somewhere where everyone can see how heroic and brave I really am-”

“You’re actually saying that right now?”

“Shut up, I’m panicking right now.”

Just then Jongdae pulls Jongin for one final step and believe it or not, Jongdae wasn’t just hearing “splashing”, he was hearing the sound of a waterfall flowing down into a large pond.

“How the fuck did I not hear this?” Jongin shouts over the sounds of the water crashing together at the bottom of the waterfall.

Jongdae turns to give him a look before rolling his eyes and takes a look back at the pond. “But this wasn’t what I was hearing…” Jongdae says and takes in the sparkling surface. Something seemed off. “It sounded like someone was swimming.”

Jongin turns to look at the pond himself to but find nothing but ripples by his feet. The water looked really blue, especially with how the sunset was hitting on the surface, the glitter blinding Jongin for a moment. Then his heart drops.

“Jongdae, I think we should leave…” Jongin says quickly, tugging on Jongdae’s finger.

“Why?”

“Glitter.”

“Glitter?”

Jongin turns to look Jongdae in the eye, “Glitter means...magic...and as far as I’m concerned one pixie is enough.” He says, but then all of a sudden they hear the singing. And it’s everything quite literally magical, a low tone but soft voice, calling out to them. Jongin takes a step into the pond, his eyes glazed over all of a sudden as he stares out onto the water.

“Jongin?” Jongdae calls, looking down at their cuffed hands as Jongin tugs on Jongdae to follow him further into the pond. “This isn’t the time for a swim, Jongin. Didn’t you say you wanted to go?” He calls out.

Jongin doesn’t really hear him, just continues to go deeper into the pond. His mind blank.

“Jongin! Jongin...for god sake, Prince Jongin...sire?” Jongdae makes an attempt, and Jongin twitches at the last word, but nothing seems to stop as he delves deeper. Now almost knee high into the water.

“What are you guys doing?” Luhan suddenly appears from behind them, twirling around in front of Jongdae. “Going for a dip, without me?”

“No...Luhan, Jongin’s being weird, he won’t stop going into the water.”

“Maybe he’s hot?”

“I really don’t think that’s it,” Jongdae groans and tries to pull Jongin back but the water makes it hard to use his strength. “Jesus, Jongin! Please, do you even know how to swim?”

He doesn’t reply and Luhan goes to fly towards Jongin waving his hands and fluttering his wings. “Yo, Prince Weenie, hello~?” Luhan attempts but Jongin seems to look just past him. “Why is he like this?”

“I don’t know- ugh,” Jongdae gasps at the cold water, now stemming closer to his hips. “He kept hearing someone sing and just went totally blank.”

Luhan squeeks, “Singing!? By a pond with a waterfall!? Fuck, should have noticed sooner when you guys could even manage to see this place.” Luhan goes to grab into a satchel tied around his waist.

“What’s the supposed to mean?”

“Mermaids.” Luhan simply says before throwing the dust into Jongin’s eyes.

There’s a small pause before Jongin finally blinks and screams. “Fuck! FUCK. What the fuckity fuck fuck did you do to me? Argh, my eyes!” He shrieks and goes to throw the water beneath him onto his face. “Why am I half way deep into a pond? What is going on?”

“Let’s just get out for now Jongin,” Jongdae hurriedly says and tugs on him. Jongin looks back with red eyes and nods, slowly pulling out of the water.

“It doesn’t seem any of them noticed you but-” Luhan doesn’t get to finish his sentence before a sudden wave of water throws itself on the three of them, soaking them. They look back to find a large rock, that most certainly was not there before, in the middle of the pond, and above it...a man.

“And here I thought I’d finally caught a human after all these years,” The mans says in monotone. He has a round face, and small but sharp shoulders. His hair short and wet, brushing his forehead with clumped strands.

Jongin is staring at the man as Jongdae finally pulls them out of the pond, soaked from their heads to their feet. Jongdae stares at the ground beneath his feet and lets out a small sigh of relief before turning back to look at the man tracing patterns into the rock he lent on.

“Were you the one singing?” Jongdae asks, his voice shaking a little from the cold that bit at his wet skin.

The man nods, and offers a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Why?”

“Why was I singing? That’s like asking why humans eat, or sleep. Besides you weren’t supposed to hear it,” He replies with a lazy flick of his hand.

“What does that- wait, you’re not human?” Jongdae asks his eyebrows crossed.

The man smirks and pulls his torso off the rock, throwing his lower self from under him, thus revealing a large thick fish tail when he sits up. It’s glittery in turquoise, the scales reflecting light like the king’s throne.

“What the fuck is that?” Jongin gasps, tumbling backwards. Jongdae gets pulled down too but he manages to slowly lower himself to his knees to help Jongin back up.

“Don’t be rude human or I’ll drag you back, by force this time,” The mermaid snarls lowly.

“Force? What? Where?” Jongin blinks and looks up at Jongdae pitifully.

Jongdae sighs and grabs Jongin’s arm, it’s skinny and he’s a little surprised by it. He turns to look back at the mermaid, ”Weren’t you forcing him in before?”

“He was what!?” Jongin whelps from the side.

“No, I was singing - usually humans who want to continue living shouldn’t hear a mermaid’s song.” He says and drags his eyes to a distraught Jongin.

“The fuck is he talking about?” Jongin whispers.

Jongdae narrows his eyes down at him and pulls him up to his feet, wobbling. “Doesn’t matter now.” Jongdae sighs and turns to look at Luhan. “Can we go now-”

“Oh my god...” Luhan’s whole body shakes, wisps of glitter leaving his body. His small fingers are clasped together and his eyes glimmer. Luhan suddenly drops to the ground, his small legs take a step closer to the pond. “I must have him…” He shakes. “He is the one. I WILL MARRY HIM.”

“What? No,” Jongdae interjects.

“Yo sweet stuffs!” Luhan calls out and the mermaid blinks down at him. “What’s your name?”

The mermaid tilts his head to the side and answers, “Minseok.”

Luhan twirls back up to Jongin’s, making three large flips on his way. “It sounds like bells.” Luhan sighs.

“What does?” Jongdae asks.

“His voice.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Jongin says.

“I want him,” Luhan says quickly to Jongdae before turning back to gawk at Minseok.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“What do you mean you ‘want him’?”

“Exactly what I said,” Luhan nods.

“What am I supposed to do about it?” Jongdae asks, shivering as a breeze brushes by.

“My condition,” Luhan says finally. “Bring him on our trip, that’s my condition.”

“Are you serious?” Jongin looks at Luhan, his hair dripping wet.

“100%.”

“Why do we need a mermaid on our trip? How are we gonna lug a mermaid around anyway?” Jongin hisses.

“I don’t care, do it, or I’m leaving,” Luhan smiles. “See ya’ cutie!” He blows a kiss towards Minseok and flutters into the forest.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Jongin groans.

“We might as well try,” Jongdae sighs and goes to look up at Minseok who seems to be enjoying their little predicament. “I’m sure you already heard our conversation. Will you come with us?”

The mermaid scoffs, “And why should I?”

“Any chance you’re even a little bit attracted to the little pixie? I’m sure his butt is up for grabs,” Jongin attempts, but Minseok shakes his head, laughing. “We just need to get through the forest and you can go on your merry way, please?”

“Why should I have to?” Minseok offers with a tilt of his perfectly shaped eyebrows. “This is my home, would you leave your home for a bunch of strangers and a pixie that looks incredibly close to popping that tiny dick of his in my non existent ass?”

“Fuck, that’s a good point,” Jongin mutters.

“And yet here you are,” Jongdae mutters back.

“You should leave now humans,” The mermaid yawns. “The dark is coming, and this place isn’t for the faint hearted.” He blinks and suddenly his eyes glow a bright yellow, canine teeth biting into his lip. A loud wave suddenly stems up from behind him, and covers Minseok like a blanket. The rock and the mermaid are instantly gone, leaving nothing but ripples in the pond.

“Talk about dramatic,” Jongin scowls. “What do we do now?”

“Listen to him, and head back. We’ll come back tomorrow.” Jongdae sighs and starts tugging on Jongin to follow him through the woods.

“How did you know the way back?” Jongin asks once they see the flicker of the campfire.

“I don’t know,” He replies and looks up at the sky. It’s already dark and the stars are poking holes into the night.

They walk towards their camp, Jongdae checking everything is still inside their tent, before settling by the campfire. “Where’s Luhan?” Jongin wonders aloud, poking the ground with a stick.

“This is his home, he’s probably sleeping somewhere.” Jongdae yawns.

“Are you tired?”

“Clearly.”

“Then why don’t we go in and sleep?” Jongin blinks.

Jongdae stares at the flames, his palms out towards it. “Because I’m still soaking wet and it’s freezing.”

“Then get changed?”

“How do you propose we get out of these clothes with our hands cuffed together?” Jongdae asks, throwing up their joined hands together.

“Uhhh, rip them?”

“I can’t just throw away clothes like that, cotton is expensive,” Jongdae mutter, his teeth chattering.

“Look, I’ll give you some of my own clothes, I’ve got enough packed for an army anyway.” Jongin shrugs and starts pulling Jongdae towards the tent. “And I’ll even buy you new ones when we get back to the castle.”

Jongdae squints at Jongin’s back as they bend into the tent, crawling on their sleeping mats. “Why are you being nice all of a sudden?”

“Nice?” Jongin scoffs through his nose, rummaging through his bags. “You’re not the only one fucking cold, my friend. And besides I don’t want to drag a sick person behind me through a forest filled with trees I’m not entirely sure are real anymore.”

Jongdae stares at him with an arched eyebrow before letting out a little snort. “Thank you for your generosity sire.”

Jongin smirks, “Sire’, I love the sound of that.” He says and throws Jongdae a piece of clothing, slapping him right in the face.

“Thanks,” Jongdae mumbles staring at the clothing in his hands, the material soft and light in his fingers. “But don’t you hear people call you sire a lot at home?”

“No, the servants address us by our names, only the guards address me by ‘prince’. But somehow I think they’re laughing behind those thick metal helmets,” Jongin mutters and continues digging into the pouch, before he pulls out a pair of bottoms and a loose white shirt for himself.

“Seriously? Aren’t you meant to be addressed with titles? Like out of respect?”

“Sure, but they’ve known us since we were little so it’s not like Baekhyun or I care much.” Jongin shrugs.

“Baekhyun, your older brother?” Jongdae asks. “The future king right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s somehow worrying.” Jongdae mumbles.

“Tell me about it,” Jongin rolls his eyes and goes to slip of his pants.

Jongdae stares at Jongin, then down at the piece of clothing in his hand. “By the way how am I supposed to put this on exactly without ripping it too?”

Jongin pauses and stares at the cuffs, “Oh jesus, this is all too much effort-”

“Hey guys!” Luhan suddenly flaps through the tent. “Still soaking wet I see, great.”

“It’s brilliant, isn’t it?” Jongin mutters.

“I thought you went home,” Jongdae says, pulling off his shirt with his free hand. “This is harder than it seems.” He mumbles and awkwardly tucks his elbow in.

“I did go home, for this!” Luhan announces and shoves a small pouch in their faces.

“It’s a lovely shade of brown..?” Jongin offers and Luhan throws him a glare.

“Pixie dust, jackass.”

“That’s an actual thing?” Jongin gasps.

“Of course it is, our magic is stored in it. It’s how I got you out of that trance. ”

“How do you make it? What does it do?” Jongdae asks, half out of his shirt, half in it. Still freezing cold.

“With our hands, obviously. It’s magic, not science - much simpler.”

“What’s science?” Jongin asks.

Luhan rolls his eyes, “Anyway, I thought you guys would have trouble changing so have no fear, I am here.” He grins and twirls in the air.

“You went back to get us that?” Jongdae asks, extremely thankful.

“Think of it as motivation to bring that hottie with us,” Luhan says and stuffs his hand into the pouch.

Jongin groans, “What kind of request is that?”

“A demanding one.” Luhan grins and throws some dust in Jongin’s face, and then another handful at his chest. Jongin sneezes and shivers, before Luhan turns to Jongdae and does the same. “What you guys going to wear?”

The two of them wave their pieces of clothing in the air, and Luhan takes it as a call to close his eyes. He claps his hands together and whispers something before spreading his arms out, where little pops of sparkles form. He spins in the air twice before a large of explosion of smoke fills the tent, and Jongin starts squealing.

“The fuck- the fuck...something is crawling!” Jongin whelps, and Jongdae can feel him squirming beside him but can’t see between the popping clouds between them.

Jongdae’s coughing, but he instantly feels warm all over again. The softness of Jongin’s clothes makes him tingle a little, he’d never worn something so expensive before. He feels his cheeks flush with sudden heat and goes to wave the air free from smoke.

Jongin gasps finally before lying down flat, “That was extremely weird. “ He mutters. “It was like my bottoms had a mind of their own..”

“It wasn’t that bad…” Jongdae replies, patting at his own thighs.

The smoke eventually clears up and Luhan is sitting crossed legged by both of their feet. He’s munching on what looks like a rainbow nugget. “So you guys giving up or still going to fetch me that fish hottie?” Luhan asks, spitting out little rays of colour.

“I still don’t understand this need,” Jongin sighs, leaning his chin on top of his tucked knee. “It’s not like you guys can do anything with your size.”

“Oh my dear prince,” Luhan sings, his wings flapping behind him slowly. “You’re still so ignorant to the world.”

“Ignorance is bliss…” Jongin pathetically throws back.

“Is the prince of this kingdom really allowed to say that?” Jongdae intervenes with a raised eyebrow. Jongin scowls at him and stares down at their hands, their pinkies inches apart on the sleeping mat.

“I can say what I want ‘cause I’m the prince,” Jongin mockingly grins and earns himself a scoff from Jongdae.

“Anyway, answer my question pipsqueaks.” Luhan demands.

“We will convince him, in the morning, I think we all need some sleep right now,” Jongdae compromises. Luhan looks up at him, chewing nonchalantly, before nodding. His wings start fluttering at a faster pace, picking him up from the ground.

“Well then I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Luhan cheekily smiles. “Oh by the way I’ve put up wards around the campsite to protect you from...the night. Try not to leave it, okay?”

Jongin could sense the threat in his words and only gulps in response, before watching him flutter past the opening in the tent. “I want to go home, “ He groans and thumps loudly onto his sack pillow.

“So do I,” Jongdae says, and shuffles down too. The both of them end up staring at the tip of the tent, the campfire outside casting shadows upon the thin fabric. “But this isn’t so bad.” Jongdae mutters lowly before closing his eyes.

Jongin doesn’t say anything, he just lies still, listening to the sound of Jongdae breathing, before he too close his eyes, and falls asleep.



♔



“Here fishy, fishy, fishy,” Jongin purrs, rubbing his fingers together at the pond before them. Jongdae looked down at him with disdain, he couldn’t believe the extent to how stupid Jongin was. “Why isn’t he coming out?” Jongin asks seriously.

“I don’t know, maybe because he isn’t as bloody dumb as you are?” Jongdae snides back and drops his sacks behind him. They didn’t catch much sleep that night, getting up just before the break of dawn, and started packing up their camp. The quicker they could get Minseok to join them, the quicker they could get to the castle.

“I don’t know where you get this idea that I’m stupid,” Jongin shakes his head and straightens up, staring out onto the waterfall. “I’m the top in my classes.”

“Yes, I’m sure it must be extremely difficult competing against yourself.” Jongdae mutters back, and Jongin turns to give him a cynical smile.

“Hilarious.”

“Thank you.”

“Now that my smartness is established can we get back to the more important things?”

“Says the prince...” Jongdae turns to give Jongin a look.

“I won’t be much of a prince if I don’t get out of this fucking forest, now will I? So can we please just call out for the goddamn fish man!” Jongin demands, aggressively gesturing to the pond before them.

“I’m right here,” A voice says nonchalantly.

The two of them flick their heads towards the pond and find Minseok and his big ass rock right where it was last night. “I’m curious do you ever appear from a different spot?” Jongin blurts out.

Minseok gives him a look, “Depends on how the sunlight reflects off my scales.” He replies seriously with a flick of his tail.

“Interesting.” Jongin nods.

Jongdae drags his eyes away from Jongin with a groan and turns to look at Minseok. “Have you thought about coming with us? We really need your help?”

“I’ve yet to hear why I should,” Minseok sighs, he takes a finger and starts wiggling it in the air. Below him, the pond begins to ripple, and then water starts to stem out from the surface, turning around and bending in the air as if he were molding glass.

Jongdae’s eyes follows the water as he speaks, “We can offer you whatever you want. He’s the prince of kingdom anyway.”

“Sure, bait the prince out,” Jongin whines.

“There’s not much a human can offer a mermaid,” Minseok shrugs. “I refuse.”

“Please…!” Jongdae takes a step towards the pond. “Is there nothing at all?”

Minseok stares at the two of them and shakes his head, his eyes empty as if he were so bored with the world. “Think of it as an...adventure? Pulling you away from your simple, although I’m sure pleasant, life and travel. See...places you’ve never been to before?” Jongdae attempts in compromising.

Minseok, fortunately, looks a little interested in his proposition. “Doesn’t sound very definite.”

“Well, I can’t really vouch on entertainment. We’ve been chained by the kingdom's heir, forced to travel through a magical forest that could get us killed at one point or another, ran into a fairy that cares more about his dick then someones life, almost got mauled by a centaur, and now we’re trying to convince a mermaid to join us on our travel.” Jongdae explains with a gesture of his hands and lets out a heavy breath.

There’s a tiny smirk on Minseok’s lips.

“That, and,” Jongin suddenly interjects with an open palm. “If you don’t come with us I’ll have to be forced to do something drastic.”

Jongdae and Minseok both turn their attention to Jongin who drops his sacks on the ground by his feet. “What are you doing?” Jongdae hisses, worried Jongin will ruin the pitch Jongdae had created up beautifully last minute.

“Drastic?” Minseok repeats with a cocked eyebrow.

“Drastic.” Jongin nods, completely ignoring Jongdae. Horrifically, Jongdae watches Jongin take his free hands to his pants and tug them down.

“What are you doing human?” Minseok asks, still intrigued but a little conscious now.

“I’m going to pee in your pond.”

“What the fuck Jongin?” Jongdae hisses.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, I’m going to pee in your pond.”

“You can’t be serious,” Minseok scoffs.

“One hundred percent.”

Minseok twitches his head a little, “I’ll have one of my fishes bite your puny penis off before you get a chance.” He threatens.

“That’s fine,” Jongin shrugged. “I won’t be the only one to pee in it.”

“I’m not going to pee in the pond, Jongin,” Jongdae refused.

“Not you, peasant,” Jongin sighs. “I’m the second prince of this kingdom, I just need to tell my villagers to come here and pee in your pond and they’ll do it, no questions asked. And I know all about your glamours, I'll just have one of the royal pixies lead the way.”

Minseok’s smirk is completely gone now, replaced with a frown mixed of worry and anger. “What makes you think I won’t kill you here and now?”

Jongin laughs, “You think you can get away with killing the prince? You have another thing coming cod boy.”

“Oh my god,” Jongdae groans under his breath.

Minseok narrows his eyes at Jongin, who in turn isn’t batting an eyelash. He’s so serious, Jongdae almost wants to laugh in hysterics.

“So what do you say?” Jongin smiles.

Minseok makes a low type snarl that doesn’t sound remotely human and gitters the both of them a little. “Fine.” He says quickly and suddenly a large wave sweeps Minseok away.

“What the fuck just happened?” Jongdae muttered, his eyes tracing the surface of the pond.

“Did it work…?” Jongin asks warily. “I hope it did because in all honesty, I don’t need to pee that much right now.”

Jongdae snaps his head around to face Jongin, “Pee in the pond? Pee in the fucking pond? What is wrong with you exactly?”

“Look here, your trash talk about adventure and journey was going horribly, okay? I had to think on my feet.” Jongin retorts, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You…think? That’s an actual thing you do now, is it?”

“Oi, don’t get all rude with me peasant just because you couldn’t catch the fish- ha...I made a pun.” Jongin snorts and licks his lips.

Jongdae looks amazed, a million things running through his head, but most of all, he’s actually genuinely worried by just how fucking stupid Jongin is.

A big splash suddenly comes from the water. The surface of the pond starts to vibrate and in the middle a small head of brown hair starts to show.

“What the fuck, is he walking!?” Jongin yelps and goes to hide behind Jongdae.

“What are you afraid of exactly?”

“I don’t know man, the fish is scary enough all the way over there as it is.”

They watch as Minseok slowly but dramatically flicks his hair side to side. His bare chest exposed and glistening as he emerges from the depths of the water. Jongdae and Jongin both anticipate the moment his waist is exposed. And where the scales had onced melded into his skin, now was a-

“Cock!?” Jongin squeals. “He has a cock, what the fuck?”

“What’s there to be surprised about?” Jongdae snaps, trying to throw Jongin off his arm.

“This is so not cool, why is it so big? He probably doesn’t even use it.” Jongin whines.

“Of course he does, how do you think they have children?”

“I don’t know, the fish way?”

“Are you stupid?”

“Shut up, okay? I just don’t think he deserves such a big schlong,” Jongin grumbles, Minseok still climbing out of the water. His bare legs wobble a bit as he walks on the rocks, but he still manages to look dignified.

“I’m pretty sure the size of it isn’t the problem here,” Jongdae sighs.

“Oh my god my brother was right!” Jongin cries, grabbing at his hair, the chains rattling aggressively.

“God forbid.” Jondae mutters under his breath, letting his chained hand fly about with Jongin.

“Small guys really do have bigger penises!” He whimpers and turns to look at Jongdae with big round eyes, and then down at his crotch.

“I will fucking kill you, Jongin,” Jongdae hisses, bringing a hand to his neck.

Jongin chokes, “Ah- let go of me peasant, or my guards seriously will chop you up into tiny pieces.”

“Sounds like a better option than being around you,” Jongdae mutters and pushes Jongin away.

“Are you humans done?” Minseok sighs, his voice sending shivers down the both of their spines.

“So...we have an agreement?” Jongdae asks warily, trying to keep his eyes on Minseok’s face.

Minseok gives Jongdae a once over, his eyes dragging up and down the length of Jongdae with a small smirk. “Sure.” Minseok says and Jongin’s lip twitches as he goes to stand beside Jongdae with a straighter back.

“Oh my god, you actually fucking did it.” Luhan suddenly comes whizzing by with bursts of glitter and flutters to Minseok’s face. “Beautiful.” He shakes, staring down at Minseok’s dick.

“Please, Luhan, don’t make him change his mind,” Jongdae groans.

“Have you ever fucked a dude?” Luhan asks abruptly.

“Brilliant.”

Minseok scoffs and licks his lips, eyeing the pixie for a moment before sucking in a breath, and blowing Luhan three flips back. “Let us go, humans,” Minseok orders and starts striding his way towards the trees.

“A sadist with a big dick, I love it,” Luhan squeals.

“I really don’t need to see a boner in those leotards of yours,” Jongin groans and goes to follow Minseok. “Minseok, please - wear some clothes, and shoes...just please I don’t think I can stare at your butt crack for another second.”

Jongdae laughs loudly as Jongin sighs and dives into his sack of endless clothes, grabbing out a pair of pants and a shirt, which Minseok generously throws back, something about his “nipples being free”, and to which Luhan responds with an excited cheer.

"Is this really alright?" Jongin whispers under his breath, scratching at his head where his crown would have been to stop him.

"What's wrong?" Jongdae grins and goes to grab Jongin's hand.

Jongin bites his cheek to stop himself from blushing and stares hard ahead, staring at Luhan jabbering endlessly in Minseok's ears. "Nothing, just not very confident we're going to get out of this alive."

"We will," Jongdae assures. "I'm sure whoever planned this didn't have our deaths in mind."

"Dear god hope not," Jongin mutters.

"We'll get our dear prince home soon, come on," Jongdae tugs, trying to catch up to the not-so mermaid and gibbering pixie.

Jongin gives out a sigh and picks up the pace.

♔

“Can someone please explain to me the concept of this glamour?” Jongdae asks, consciously stepping over a twig.

Luhan looks back from where he’s perched on Minseok’s shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean if you guys are disguising yourselves, doesn’t that mean I could be destroying someone’s home right now because I can’t see them?”

“Look homie,” Luhan begins, letting Minseok lead the way. “The whole point of this forest was because you stupid ass humans are scared shitless of us. We all used to live in the same plane, kinda like avatar, but then your bloody ancestors took over and shut us away in this forest.”

“Aren’t you guys meant to be stronger than humans though?” Jongin joins in, one step behind Jongdae.

“Essentially, but the humans had some mad wizard on them, sucked all our power and locked us up in the forest.” Luhan shoves a rainbow nugget into his mouth. “Anyway, we were in the forest, blah blah blah, and we could still be seen BUT...but, humans found us kind of intriguing I guess. I mean who wouldn’t, look at me. Am I right, Minseok?” Minseok doesn’t respond. “All in good time,”

“Anyway, they started hunting us, whether it’d be for a centaur fur, or a pixie’s magic, all that crap. And so, we had our own wizards create a plane for us, basically one where humans couldn’t see us unless we wanted them to. So think of it as like a parallel universe but...not.” Luhan concludes with a clap and a harsh swallow of his nugget.

“So how come Minseok showed himself to us when he obviously didn’t want to?” Jongin asks.

“Because you heard my song, once a human hears a mermaid’s song, I don’t have much of a choice...but it usually isn’t a problem because they’d be dead not long after.” Minseok says with a grin and a show off of his teeth.

Jongin gulps, and grips Jongdae’s hand a little tighter. Jongdae holds back a small grin and asks, “So what would happen if the human just decided to tear down the forest?”

“You guys can’t touch a single tree in this forest,” Luhan laughs and starts fluttering between them. “The wizard’s power was only successful because he believed it was for the greater good of both species, bad intent wouldn’t have worked otherwise.”

“Kind of like good will prevail?” Jongdae ponders.

“Kinda like the slyest wins.” Luhan corrects with a cackle.

“Whatever man, I just want to go home and have nothing to do with magic ever again,” Jongin groans.

“Spoken like a true human,” Luhan sarcastically cheers, and spins further ahead of Minseok.

“Let’s not change the mystical creatures mind, shall we?” Jongdae whispers a little too close to Jongin’s ears for comfort.

“You’re the one that brought up this conversation,” Jongin retorts, an awkward frown on his face.

“What are you so upset for?” Jongdae asks, slinking back a bit.

“Nothing, you’re too close.” He pouts.

“We’re kind of chained together, we really don’t have a choice in the matter,” Jongdae reminds him with a clank of their chains.

Minseok looks back at the sound, eyeing their clasped hands. “The prince is gay?” He asks.

“I am NOT GAY.” Jongin roars, and shakes Jongdae’s hand out of his own.

“Oh here we go again,” Jongdae rolls his eyes.

“Let’s just be clear okay, I am as straight as my penis-”

Luhan laughs, “It’s pretty flaccid right now though-”

“AND I am just holding this peasant’s hand because it is easier to walk, what would you do if the prince was injured, hm? Have you all beheaded, that’s what!” Jongin pathetically threatens with a jab of his bony finger.

“Yes, we are oh-so scared, now put away that object of dangerous potential - it’s rude to point,” Minseok scolds and turns back to lead the way. Luhan goes to sit on his shoulder, sticking his tongue out at Jongin before going to hug Minseok’s neck.

“You’re way too defensive,” Jongdae sighs.

“‘Am not.” Jongin mumbles incoherently to himself.

They all walk for an hour so, mindless chatter going on. It’s mostly Luhan and Jongin squabbling, Jongdae laughing offhandedly, and Minseok silently leading the way. Jongin almost thinks they might get out of this all safe and everything, and rather quickly. He -obviously- had another thing coming.

“So, wait, mermaids and centaurs and shit can have sex?” Jongin asks after Luhan brought up the size of Minseok’s dick into the conversation.

Luhan sends Jongin a glare, “How do you think they reproduce, magic?”

“Well...yes?”

“He’s not very bright is he?” Luhan says to Jongdae, who only offers the two a wane smile.

“Look, even the pixie agrees.” Jongdae laughs.

“You laugh too much.” Jongin grumbles.

“Is that a bad thing?”

“You just don’t look like the type to laugh…” He says, mostly under his breath. He doesn’t really add in how he likes the way Jongdae’s lips curl upwards when he does smile, or how his laughter sounds, although manic, a little whimsical and light.

“Well, appearances aren’t everything. I mean, look at you,” Jongdae chuckles with a lick of his lips.

Jongin raises an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you look good-looking and princely, but you’re really...not…” Jongdae explains, squinting as he stares up at the sky.

Jongin is about to get angry just when he just realises what Jongdae said, “You think I’m good looking?” He smirks, and narrows the space between them.

Jongdae brings his eyes down to Jongin and with an awkward frown, he pushes Jongin’s face away. “Shut up,” He sputters, rubbing consciously at his cheeks.

“Are you blushing?” Jongin scoffs, moderately delighted.

“I’m not, it’s just hot, and what’s the big deal with admitting a guy is good looking. Jeez grow up…” Jongdae attempts in defending himself, picking up the pace so he can catch up to Minseok and Luhan.
“Why you trying to run away? We’re chained up, remember?” Jongin teases and takes his pinkie to wrap around Jongdae’s. Jongdae bites his bottom lip and looks at the ground, and Jongin finds himself enjoying the moment more and more. “Does Jongdae have a crush on-”

“Wait,” Jongdae suddenly comes to an abrupt halt. “Do you hear that?” He says and looks up at the sky again.

Jongin laughs loudly, “Oh no, I’m not going to fall for that. Don’t try and change the-” But Jongin hears it too, the loud sound of harsh wind. “But there’s no breeze?” Jongin grumbles.

Minseok stops in his tracks to look at the two of them, a couple of steps too far behind. “What are you guys doing?”

“Do you not hear that?” Jongdae asks them, worry encasing his face.

“Hear what?” Luhan squawks.

“Wind.”

“ExcUSE ME?”

“NOT THAT KIND OF WIND.” Jongin shouts. “It’s like...wings flapping? Luhan...aren’t you flapping a little too hard?”

“Am I fapping?”

“NO-”

And suddenly a larger gust of winds cuts through them, sending their hair up in different directions, and their clothes flapping against their skin.

“Jesus, where did that-” Luhan whines and then looks up. “Oh, shit.”

The three of them follow Luhan’s eyes and right in the gap between the tree tops, they see it.

“Is that a…?” Jongin mumbles.

“Yup,” Jongdae answers with a pop of the ‘p’.

“Hey Luhan,” Jongin calls out, still looking up at the sky.

“Yeah?”

“Please tell me you didn’t fuck a dragon too.” He gripes.

“Can’t guarantee that my friend,” Luhan sighs loudly.

“Brilliant.”

“Also, by the way, guys,” Luhan waves. “Run.”

“What!? Why!?” Jongin yelps.

“You see that red light in the middle of his belly?” Minseok interjects, oddly calm.

“Yeah…” Jongdae answers, feeling nauseous.

“It mean he’s ready to set alight to everything on the ground,” Minseok informs them, before turning on his heels and breaking into a sprint.

“Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me?” Jongin curses under his breath.

Jongdae grabs Jongin’s hand quickly, still staring up at the red and black dragon opening his mouth a little too wide for comfort. “What are you doing? Run.”

And just as they too start speeding through the trees, the sound of a roar rumbles through the forest, and everything explodes into flames.

♔

“We’re going to die, we’re so going to die,” Jongin cries mid wheeze.

“Will you shut up already?” Jongdae snaps, one step ahead, and dragging Jongin behind him.

They had both been running for a good five minutes now. Not entirely sure if the dragon was chasing them or not, but rather the fire was spreading so fast they didn’t have much a choice in where to run but away. They’d already lost Minseok and Luhan.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m thinking I wish I treated Baekhyun better right now.” Jongin continues to weep, sniffling into his sleeve.

Jongdae rolls his eyes, “Remember your brother got you into this situation in the first place.”

Jongin blinks, and wipes his face. “You’re right, I’m so going to haunt him after this.”

“You’re not going to die okay, Jongin?” Jongdae reassures him with a squeeze of his hand.

Jongin looks at Jongdae’s worried filled smile and feels himself calm down. And although he wasn’t aching in fear anymore, his legs were close to giving out. “I think we’re far enough…” Jongin wheezes, staring back.

Jongdae looks back too, nibbling on his lip. “Let’s keep going a little further. I can still smell the smoke.”

They continue running until their legs felt like jelly and their lungs burned for air. The scenery hasn’t changed much, and all Jongdae knows is that they’re completely lost now with no help whatsoever.

“What are we going to do? ” Jongin huffs and staggers to the ground.

Jongdae follows him down, bending on his knees. “Don’t worry, we’ll get out of this.”

“How can you be so optimistic about all of this? Like, seriously?” Jongin questions, his voice filling with irritation.

Jongdae blinks at him before settling on the ground himself. “There’s no point in being pessimistic, is there? We’re already in a shit situation and we could end up in an even shitter one, but that just means there’s a whole lot of space to get back up.”

“I have no clue what you just said.”

“It’s not the end till the end. We shouldn’t have to decide when that happens and should just let it be.”

“Still not following.”

“Look, you jackass, if you keep whining and sitting around, nothing will happen. So let’s just get up and- sparkles.” Jongdae says all of a sudden, looking over Jongin’s shoulder.

“Excuse me?”

“Sparkles!” Jongdae blurts, pointing excitedly towards a bunch of trees.

Jongin opens his mouth to say something, but decides there’s no point in questioning it anymore and turns around. “Oh my god, it’s those!” Jongin jumps, hurriedly getting to his feet, and making Jongdae wobble behind him. “The glitter that helped me through the forest, it’s the same one!”

“You think they’re or...whatever they are, are trying to help us?” Jongdae asks hopefully, and Jongin’s a little surprised to find that Jongdae was actually rather worried.

“T-they have to be, we have to be optimistic, right?” Jongin awkwardly smiles, and he’s relieved to hear Jongdae snort in response.

“Right,” Jongdae laughs, and holds out his hand. “Shall we go?”

Jongin faintly blushes as he awkwardly grasps Jongdae’s hand, suddenly very conscious of the sweat and heat between the both of them. He takes a deep breath and swallows hard as they start following the falling glitter.

“Are those bags not heavy?” Jongdae asks, eyeing up the several sacks Jongin has tied around his belt and over his shoulder. “How did you run with all that on you? You’re so skinny.”

“Maybe so, but I’ve been trained in combat all my life. I may not have muscles but I have stamina,” Jongin cockily says, his nose in the air.

“Not as much as me,” Jongdae laughs, and Jongin has learnt already not to respond to his tactless teasing. Instead his mind is completely diverted to the fact that Jongdae was drawing circles onto the back of his palm with his thumb. “...are?”

“Hm, what?” Jongin quickly looks up at Jongdae, confused. “What did you say?”

“I asked you what do you think those glitters are? A pixie?” Jongdae asks, pointing in front of them.

“Ah, I don’t think so,” Jongin responds, scratching his neck. “Pixie dust looks more misty, doesn’t it? They look like the spots you get on the back of your eyelids.”

“Hmmm…” Jongdae tilts his head to the side, bangs brushing his eyes. Jongin thinks it’s cute, then he doesn’t because it’s not very straight of him. “Either way it helped you through the forest, let’s hope it helps us too.”

Jongin chews his lip, he hopes so too.

♔

“We’ve been walking for hours now. For all we know this glitter could be just playing a joke on us and making us go in circles,” Jongin sighs, his feet dragging against the ground.

“Mmmm…” Jongdae rambles. He too is trudging. Jongin eyes him from the side.

“Are you okay?”

“What? Yeah, I’m fine, why?”

“You just look a little pale is all,” Jongin says and takes a hand to his forehead. “You aren’t running a fever.”

“I’m just thirsty is all,” He says and licks his lips.

“Thirsty? Don’t we have some water?”

“No, they’re with Minseok and Luhan.” Jongdae replies, swallowing his saliva.

“We’ll find a pond or some water source soon, okay? Let’s hope I hear another mermaid singing.” Jongin worriedly mutters.

Jongdae grips his hand tighter and laughs quietly, “Let’s hope not. I’d rather you stay away from all life threatening dangers out here.”

“That’s pretty hard considering where we are, you know?”

“We can try.”

Jongin bites his lips, taking worried peeks at Jongdae every now and again. He’s not really concentrating on the glitter or the road, so he doesn’t realise he’s stepped on something until it squeaks from below him. “What the fuck!? What the fuck is that? Is it going to eat me, am I going to get a virus!?” Jongin squawks and jumps behind Jongdae, gripping his shoulders tightly.

“Calm down Jongin,” Jongdae says, and goes to bend on his knees. “It’s just a rabbit.”

“I kneW IT- wait, what?” Jongin peeks over Jongdae’s shoulder, and finds him petting a small, fluffy, and white bunny rabbit.

“I don’t trust it,” Jongin whispers into Jondae’s neck.

“That tickles,” Jongdae squeaks and shrugs him off. “Look, I’m petting it, it’s safe, okay?”

“How can you be so sure that it’s not just another glamour?” Jongin hisses, glaring at the bunny with big round eyes.

“But it’s so cute,” Jongdae coos and goes to scratch the rabbit behind the ears.

“Cute could easily mean deadly, I mean, look at Luhan.” Jongin warns, his fingers digging into Jongdae’s skin.

“Jongin seriously get off, it’s fine, it’s just-” Suddenly, and rather predictably, a big explosion of smoke erupts from the direction of the bunny, blinding the two of them and their surroundings for a moment.

They’re both coughing, Jongin somehow managing to slip in a few curses too, as the smoke clears up. Where Jongdae once felt fluffy, soft fur beneath his palms, he now felt something fleshy and bristle. Cracking an eye open, Jongdae looks down at his palm and finds his hand in someone’s lap...someone’s naked lap...right where the crotch should be.

Jongdae screams, “That is NOT CUTE. THAT IS NOT CUTE AT ALL.”

“Why were your hands on his dick!?” Jongin shrieks from behind.

“It was a bunny’s eAR THE LAST TIME I FUCKING CHECKED, OKAY?”

“I fucking told you nothing here is right. We should run or something, before this smoke clears up.” Jongin panickedly starts tugging on Jongdae’s arm to get up.

“Please calm down humans,” A soothing, low voice calls.

“Is the bunny talking?” Jongin groans, and feels his legs give out from underneath him.

“There is nothing to be afraid of.” The voice says, and just as the smoke clears up, where the bunny once was, was now a human sized naked man...with bunny ears...and a fluffy bunny tail right above his butt crack.

“Have I seen everything yet?” Jongin sighs and drops his head onto Jongdae’s shoulder.

“Not at all,” The bunny man laughs, his face crinkling cutely.

“Are you going to kill us?” Jongdae asks, trying to hide the much broader Jongin behind him.

The bunny man blinks, his long white ears twitching high above his head. “Of course not.”

“Then,” Jongdae takes a deep breath, trying to contain his fear. “How come you appeared before us?”

“I’m the guardian for Wizard Do.” The bunny man says, flicking his white blonde hair to the side.

“Wizard what?” Jongin repeats, popping his head out from behind Jongdae.

“Wizard Do. He protects the forest,” The bunny man explains, rising onto his feet. “Woah, I haven’t been in human form for a long time. We don’t get much visitors.”

Jongdae and Jongin scramble to their feet too, keeping a safe distance from the naked bunny man. “And who or what are you?”

“I am Suho. A guardian for Wizard Do. He has been expecting you.” Suho explains with a small bow. “If you would like to follow me, I’d be more than happy to show you the way. He has kindly offered shelter for the night in his magnificent domain.”

“How...convenient,” Jongin sing-songs.

“Are you really questioning it at this point?” Jongdae whispers.

“Should we trust him?”

“We trusted a mermaid that almost got you drowned, and a pixie that made us face head to head with a gigantic centaur. Would it make a difference now?” Jongdae hurriedly hisses.

“Okay, you really need to get over that now,” Jongin says with open palms.

“At this rate you should be worried about the possibility of me chopping your hand off and killing you.”

“Couldn’t you kill me first then chop my hand off?”

Jongdae gives him a tight smile, “Where’s the fun in that?”

Suho clears his throat then. “Are you gentlemen following me or not?”

“We are, we are - lead the way…” Jongdae gestures.

“To our deaths,” Jongin adds wistfully.

Jongdae elbows him in the gut.

♔

“This is his ‘magnificent domain’?” Jongin asks with a raised eyebrow. “This is a fucking peasant house.”

“It’s a cottage, asshat,” Jongdae retorts, giving Jongin a whack on the forehead.

“You really need to stop hitting me, have you forgotten that I am, indeed, a prince?”

“Really? You act so stupid, I forget,” Jongdae replies, walking towards the cottage. Despite it being made of wood, the cottage was incredibly large, and well kept. Flowers and vine leaves grew up the length of it. Colour stained windows shone beautifully with the sun. “It’s beautiful.” Jongdae murmurs.

Jongin gives him a little glare, a pang of jealousy hitting him for an unknown reason. He protectively goes to grab Jongdae’s hand, gripping it tight, forcing Jongdae to notice his existence. “Why are we holding hands? It should be fine for now.”

“Shut up,” Jongin mumbles and takes two steps ahead of Jongdae, dragging him behind.

“Welcome to Wizard Do’s domain,” Suho says with a gesture of his hand, and another one still covering his dick.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jongin grumbles as he stomps his way through the entrance. Everything in the interior almost mirrored the exterior; wood and a lot of pretty glass. “This guy has specific tastes.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” A voice booms from up the stairwell.

The two of them glance up to find a short man with swift black hair leaning against the banister of the swirling stairs. He’s wearing a rather fetching suit, something Jongin wasn’t really expecting. “I thought you’d be wearing something like a robe and a big pointy hat.”

He clicks his tongue, the sound echoing down towards them, and it irritates Jongin on a whole new level he thought was only reserved for Luhan. “I wasn’t expecting you two this quickly,” The wizard answers instead, descending down the stairs with his cane. “You’re more useless than I originally thought.” He snorts through his nose and lands on the last step of the stairs.

Jongdae thinks it’s probably because he feels better looking taller.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jongin snarls.

“Wizard Do-” Jongdae is about to begin, but is stopped by the wizard’s hand.

“The name is Kyungsoo. That’s just an alias, like ‘Suho’, you could say, for the common folk.” He explains and goes to walk past them briskly and towards the open kitchen.

“Did he just say ‘peasant’ in a much nicer way?” Jongin wonders aloud.

“Junmyeon, for godsake, why are you naked?” Kyungsoo questions with a shake of his head.

Suho, or now Junmyeon, ears drop at the top as he bows, “Sorry, master. I had to communicate with the humans to bring them here.”

Kyungsoo sighs, “Go put on some clothes, I’ll put the water on the boil.”

“Yes, master,” Suho bows again and quickly scurries off behind a nearby door.

“Your pet?” Jongin enquires as he and Jongdae sit on a stool behind a bar.

“Guardian.” Kyungsoo simply replies, filling a kettle with water.

“Guardian? He doesn’t look like he can do much.” Jongin ponders.

Kyungsoo offers the prince a little smirk, “He can do much.”

Jongdae attempts in cutting the conversation where it is, “So, what did he mean when he said you were expecting us?”

Kyungsoo drags his eyes towards Jongdae, and then downwards to their chained hands laid out on the countertop. He snorts, “So this is what she meant.” He mutters under his breath.

Jongdae narrows his eyes, “You know something?”

“Well, yes, I sort of started this little adventure of yours.” Kyungsoo announces casually whilst pouring each of them a hot cup of tea.

“Excuse me?” Jongin blinks.

“Well, I can’t exactly say everything was planned out how it was meant to, she tends to make a bit of a mess.” Kyungsoo says, mostly talking to himself.

“Can you be more specific?” Jongdae urges, sitting on the edge of his seat.

Kyungsoo settles himself down on a stool in front of them, a cup of green tea before him. “I had originally gone to your father to tell him of this “path” you had laid out before Prince...Jongin.” Kyungsoo explains and takes a sip of his tea.

“You’re the one!?”

“Not exactly, do sit down boy,” Kyungsoo sighs, gesturing his hand downwards. “There’s someone far more powerful than I setting out this path for you, but considering she is hardly ever going to make an appearance, I am (unfortunately) more or less her spokesperson.”

Kyungsoo takes a sip of his tea.

“So this was your- her doing? Telling my father to set me in on this path, my brother chaining me to this dimwit-”

“Oh, yes, I’m the dimwit.” Jongdae says with a roll of his eyes.

“And risking my life on several occasions, not to mention encountering ballistic mystical creatures.”

“Look, boy, shit happens. I don’t control the system.” Kyungsoo states.

“So you were the one leading us with the glitter?” Jongdae suggests.

“It’s an automatic spell that happens when you’re too lost for shit.”

“So, what’s the point of all this, exactly?” Jongin demands forcefully.

“The point?” Kyungsoo says behind his cup of tea with a raised eyebrow. “Well, to each their own, no?”

“Can we stop with the riddles, because I am so close to throwing this cup of tea through one of your pretty windows?” Jongin seethes, almost crushing Jongdae’s hand within his own.

“Calm down,” Jongdae murmurs into his ear, and it works a little bit, but Jongin doesn’t let go of his hand.

Kyungsoo eyes the chains as he speaks, “The point, my dear prince, is different for everyone. For your father it could mean finally getting his lazy son off his ass. For your brother…your brother, well. He’s just an ass. For Jongdae, maybe it was time you left the comforts of home. And for you Jongin, well, let’s just say you need a whole fix up, hm?”

Jongin blinks down at the chains, and then at Jongdae, fully letting Kyungsoo’s words sink in. It wasn’t all bad. He only realises then that Jongdae has interlocked their fingers together, and feels his cheeks redden in heat. It wasn’t bad at all, actually.

Just then, Junmyeon exits the room in a butler uniform. Patting at his vest, he stuffs a pocket watch into his trousers and almost bounces his way towards the kitchen. “Are you gentlemen hungry?”

“Yes, please,” Jongdae smiles. “Could I get a cup of water, please?”

“Of course,” Junmyeon obliges with a respectful bow and goes to fetch a glass cup.

“So he’s your butler and your guardian?”

“Confused? Does your brain capacity not understand the term ‘multitasking’?” Jongdae snorts, and Jongin is quick to give him a glare and slide his hand out of Jongdae’s grip.

“And here I was hoping you’d gain some intelligence on this trip,” Kyungsoo sighs and gets off his stool.

“Ha ha...very funny, the prince is an idiot,” Jongin mocks, but everyone’s attention is already off him.

“Are those ears real?” Jongdae asks curiously. Junymeon stops cutting vegetables and makes his way towards Jongdae with a smile. Jongin eyes the two of them from the side, a big scowl on his face.

“Why, of course they are! Want to touch them?” Junmyeon suggests with a wiggle of his ears. Jongdae smiles and nods, reaching out towards Junmyeon’s head. From where Jongin is, he can see the cut out in the back of his pants, where Junmyeon puts his tail through.

“They’re so soft,” Jongdae purrs, scratching at them. Junmyeon legs starts hopping in excitement, and that’s Jongin’s cue to haul Jongdae away.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need to pee,” Jongin states and starts dragging Jongdae.

“Do you even know where the toilet is?” Jongdae says.

Jongin pauses, “Uh…”

“Second door on your left.” Junmyeon politely mentions.

“Second door on my left, totally knew that,” Jongin smiles and tugs on Jongdae’s wrist.

Jongin doesn’t actually need to pee, so their trip to the toilet is a short one. When they come back to the kitchen, Junmyeon’s ears are down and Kyungsoo has a large frown on his face.

“You’re so useless,” Kyungsoo snaps, wiping at something on his shirt. “Can’t you do anything right?”

Junmyeon whimpers, his ears completely hugging the side of his head. Kyungsoo looks up with a raised eyebrow and rolls his eyes.

“Don’t pull the droopy ears with me, it won’t work,” Kyungsoo sighs and throws the tea towel onto the counter with a huff. Junmyeon sniffs then, and goes to quickly rub at his face. “Oh god, Junmyeon please don’t cry.” Kyungsoo grumbles and goes to reluctantly pet him on the head.

Junmyeon’s tears stop quickly and he starts cooing into Kyungsoo’s hand. Kyungsoo let’s out a short laugh, “Already better?”

Jongdae clears his throat, embarrassed as if he were intruding on a private moment. Kyungsoo looks up at the two of them and sighs. “Junmyeon, show them to their…room.”

Jongin sighs.

♔

Jongdae and Jongin awkwardly stare at the bed in front of them; it’s a large double, with a trillion cushions and even a fancy looking throw. Sleeping in a tent seemed drastic and felt uncomfortable, but this seemed as if they were a newly wedded couple on their first night.

“Ugh, I hate sleeping on the right side of the bed.” Jongin groans and starts throwing pillows to the ground. “Oh bed how I’ve missed you.”

Jongin is about to gleefully slide under the sheets but Jongdae seems frozen on the side. “Do we have a problem? You can’t be getting conscious of sleeping next to me now, can you?”

Jongdae grimaces at Jongin, “Shut up and get in.” He quips and shoves Jongin to the side, quickly sliding under the covers. Jongdae goes to blow out the candle and settles into the overly stuffed pillow. He moves several times in his place, awkwardly positioning his hand as Jongin lays perfectly still on his back.

Jongdae sighs, and fluffs his pillow. Does it three more times, before pulling a leg out of the covers, and then over it. Jongin makes a grumbling sound and Jongdae attempts in laying still. It doesn’t last long until he he’s turning onto his side, facing Jongin.

“Can’t you sleep?” Jongin mumbles, his voice groggy.

Jongdae flops onto his back, staring at the ceiling where the moonlight shines onto. “No…”

“Why not…? Not tired?” Jongin asks, his eyes closed.

“I’m not used this kind of bed is all.” Jongdae mutters.

Jongin cracks an eye open and turns to look at Jongdae, “What do you mean?”

“It’s just a little too...luxurious,” Jongdae says consciously, his tone low.

Jongin makes an effort to lie on his side, eyeing Jongdae’s jaw as he speaks. “You mean you’re too used to those horrid beds you have in your hometown?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jongdae sighs and shuts his eyes. A start to an attempt in falling asleep.

They’re silent for a moment, but Jongin can tell Jongdae isn’t asleep by how hard his jaw his set, and how his fists are clenched together. “You know I lied,” Jongin abruptly starts, and goes to turn on his back too.

“Lied about what?”

“The flamboyant hedonist thing.” Jongin states. “I heard someone call Baekhyun it once and thought I’d sound smart in front of you if I said it.”

Jongdae lets out a loud and unattractive snort, “Thought that was suspicious.”

Jongin is glad his red cheeks can’t been seen in the dark.

They’re quiet again, until Jongdae let’s out a breath. “If we’re going to admit things, I might as well state that I was also excited to see you when you came to the village.”

“What, seriously!?” Jongin quickly shifts onto his elbow to look down at Jongdae, who shamefully has his eyes closed.

He’s got an awkward pout on and Jongin can’t help but smile like a goof, “I just used the kids as an excuse.” Jongdae reluctantly admits.

“So you do have a crush on me!?” Jongin laughs.

Jongdae opens his eyes to glare up at Jongin, “Please. Anyone would be excited if they heard a prince was coming. Especially since the elders talk about you like you’re the shit.”

“Oooo the elders were talking about me, huh? What were they saying?”

Jongdae grimaces, “That they’d do unspeakable things with your jaw.”

“My jaw!? Have they not seen yours, it looks like someone carved it out of marble.”

“Oh a metaphor from Prince Jongin, how flattering,” Jongdae grins, and it makes Jongin’s heart ache is a trillion different ways.

“S-shut up…” He pathetically mumbles.
Jongdae’s eyes flutter close when he says, “You know it isn’t so bad.”

“What is?” Jongin grumbles, still pouting.

“This…” Jongdae yawns, shaking their chains.

Jongin blinks and turns to look at Jongdae, and then down at their hands laid out on the covers. Jongdae has a finger linked with Jongin’s, and some part of Jongin’s conscious is telling him to flick it away. But something else makes him keep it there, watching Jongdae sleep for a moment before letting the dark take him too.

♔

Jongin wakes up the next morning to a high pitched scratching noise. He cracks one eye lid open and finds Jongdae’s sleeping face close to his, and almost goes to reach out to it. The sound distracts him though, and Jongin rolls onto his back and screams.

Luhan’s fluttering frantically above the both of them, his fingers in his ears. “What the fuck Jongin?”

“Me? Where the fuck did you come from!?” Jongin whispers.

“I was searching for your asses,” Luhan whispers back. “And here you are all comfortable in bed. Should have expected this from a bunch of humans.”

“How did you find us?” Jongin asks.

“Some magic trail of glitter,” Luhan demonstrates by throwing some pixie dust in Jongin’s face. “And a suspicious amount of Minseok polaroids.”

“I thought- I thought you guys had just left,” Jongin coughs, waving away the dust.

“You humans may be used to breaking promises, but we don’t,” Luhan grins arrogantly.

“Minseok is here too?”

“Yeah…we spent the night together, if you know what I mean,” Luhan giggles and spins in the air.

“Already…?” Jongin has an evident face of disgust.

“Couldn’t resist this sweet ass,” Luhan sighs, brushing a hand through his hair.

“But how did you- never mind,” Jongin sighs and scratches at the top his head. His scalp felt lonely without his crown.

Luhan flutters down onto Jongin’s lap and eyes the bed, and the chains. “Kinky sex, huh?”

“Will you shut up,” Jongin sighs and goes to shake Jongdae to wake up. “Wake up, Jongdae. We need to get going.”

Jongdae moans in his slumber and snuggles into his pillow, and Jongin does everything in his goddamn power to not let it show on his face just how cute he’s finding Jongdae right now. “Jongdae...please…” Jongin tries again, conscious of Luhan watching him.

Jongdae furrows his eyebrows together and groans, turning around in the bed to hide from Jongin. The movement just drags Jongin with him, their hands by Jongdae’s stomach, and Jongin basically sprawled all over Jongdae.

“You guys seem pre-tty comfortable,” Luhan sings and flies into the air.

“Please just- where is Minseok?”

“He’s inside with the rabbit-ho drinking tea,” Luhan says and makes his way to the door. “I’ll let you lovers wake up in peace.” Luhan disappears behind the crack in the door.
Jongin takes a deep breath, and pushes himself off of Jongdae. “Freaking peasant,” He mumbles intelligibly under his breath. “Making people…question my sexual orientation…making me question my sexual orientation...” Jongin huffs and turns Jongdae back aggressively.
“What was that about your sexual orientation, my prince?” Jongdae muses with a smile and closed eyes.
“You’re awake!?” Jongin clucks.
“Barely…” Jongdae yawns in response and goes to sit up. Jongin watches him scratch at his exposed stomach, eyes his dishevelled hair and grunts a little at how attractive he’s suddenly become after last night.
“Did you manage to sleep well?” Jongin asks behind his hand in a poor attempt at hiding the blush rising in his cheeks.
“Mmmm…thanks to you,” Jongdae softly murmurs, and let’s his head drop into Jongin’s shoulder.

“I-I didn’t do anything,” Jongin stammers and quickly takes a gulp of air before pushing Jongdae off. “We’ve got to get going, the sun has already risen too high in the sky and we’ve slept in.”

Jongin watches as Jongdae’s curled lips turn down into a frown, and he goes to flop back into bed. “Since when did you become responsible? I want to sleep a little longer.” Jongdae moans into his pillow, his arm stretched out awkwardly behind him.

“And I want to get home,” Jongin says with a tug of their chains. “So, get up.”

“You want to go that badly?”

“Of course,” Jongin insists, even though something was telling him he was lying. “I want to get these chains off as soon as possible.”

“Is that so…” Jongdae sighs, another yawn coming and going. “We should get up then.” He rises up back into a sitting position, and goes to stare at Jongin from under his bangs. The look makes Jongin feel jittery and uncomfortable so he’s quick to start pushing Jongdae off the bed.

“I think a bath will be good right about now,” Jongin advises, shoving a wobbly Jongdae in front of him.

Jongdae droops his head backwards and grins sleepily, “Want to go that far already?”

Jongin grimaces, “You’re being weird.”

“Am I now?” Jongdae chuckles and lets Jongin lead him into the bathroom attached to their room. Junmyeon had pointed at it briefly last night. “Ah, let’s get Luhan to do his little clothes magic, hm?” Jongdae suggests.

Jongin nods.

The bath together was a hot mess. Literally. Not only did they basically drown the entire bathroom in water, but Jongin managed to slip at one point and nearly pull Jongdae’s arm off in the process. The reason why he tripped though was because of the sudden consciousness that overcame him as he scrubbed at Jongdae’s back. His eyes tracing the outline of his curved spine, and falling down on his bony hips. And even though he probably almost lost an arm, he was glad Jongdae didn’t take notice of how flustered he was.

“Thanks Luhan,” Jongdae purrs as he shivers pleasantly in the cashmere sweater Jongin gave him. Jongin bites his lip at how cute Jongdae looks with his flushed cheeks and wet hair.

“Getting aroused princey?” Luhan quips.

“Shut up Luhan, it’s just steamy in here.” Jongin retorts, his own red cheeks betraying him. “We’ve already wasted enough time, now can we go home?”

“Not so fast, let’s eat something first,” Jongdae offers the idea with a smile Jongin could hardly refuse. So he just groans really loudly and lets Jongdae take his hand, and drag him to the kitchen.

Minseok was still in the pair of bottoms Jongin had given him, his bare feet perched up on a stool. Jongin noticed the muddy and bloody soles and grimaced. “This is why I said you should wear the shoes I gave you. Look at your feet.” Jongin notes and goes to sit on the stool beside Minseok.

Minseok puts his cup of tea down and places his cheek into his palm. “Is the prince worrying about me? How sweet,” He sarcastically chides, and takes a rough bite out of his biscuit. “Besides, shoes are uncomfortable and ugly.”

Jongin dramatically gasps, “My shoes are not UGLY.”

“They’re pretty ugly,” Jongdae comments from the side, sipping at his own cup of tea.

“They are made of real leather, I’ll have you know. Made by the greatest shoemakers of this land.” Jongin boasts with an extravagant gesture of his hand.

“They’re pointy and weird,” Luhan adds, peeking at them from Jongin’s stool.

“Like you can talk,” Jongin snaps back. “You look like you’re ready to be a jest to the king.”

“Look here, this beautiful ensemble was made with the highest quality pixie dust, you snotty-ass brat,” Luhan jabbers, pulling off the most horrendous faces in spite.

“Now, now, let’s not fight,” Junmyeon attempts in intervening, but the two ignore him as he places Jongdae’s cup of tea in front of him. As they continue to bicker, Junmyeon eye’s the cuffs. “And who did this?”

“Our future king thought it’d be nice to play a prank on his little brother,” Jongdae sighs, his hand delicately moving with every rough tug Jongin does.

Junmyeon stares at them curiously. “Interesting that there’s no key hole. Maybe Master Kyungsoo could try and unlock them for you.”

Jongdae blinks at the rabbit from behind his tea cup, “Ah no...there’s no point, apparently it can’t be undone until we get to the castle.”

“But it must have been Master’s spell in the first place,” Junmyeon ponders, and Jongdae presses his lips into a fine line.

“What are you going to do you pipsqueek? You’re no bigger than my finger,” Jongin taunts and offers Luhan the middle one.

“I’ll fucking kill you.” Luhan’s whole body begins to shake, wisps of pixie dust leaving his body.

“What are you going to do? Choke me to death with your dust?” Jongin continues, enjoying the anger clearly ensuing within Luhan.

Minseok softly chuckles from next him, “I’d be careful if I were you.”

Jongin scoffs, “What is he going to do?”

And once again, with no surprise, comes an explosion of pixie dust. And it isn’t a few seconds until Jongin feels someone wrap their fingers tightly around his neck. “What!?” He yelps and grabs at the hand, watching with wide eyes as the dust clears up and a life size Luhan emerges.

“Want to say that one more time pipsqueak,” Luhan seethes, looming over Jongin threateningly.

Jongdae takes a sip of his tea, “This would have been so much better if he was in his pixie clothes, but why is he naked?”

“Easier for me.” Minseok comments, and goes to stare at Junmyeon’s fluffy tail.

“What the fuck?” Jongin chokes. “How did- you...do that?”

“Magic.” Luhan grins, his fingers tightening around Jongin’s neck.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Jongdae cuts in, wrapping his hand around Luhan’s and pulling it back. “Let’s all try to stay alive, hm?”

Luhan gives Jongdae a glare before clicking his tongue and pulling back, clapping his hands together. Jongin instantly gasps, sucking in a breath, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. Jongdae rubs his back, as Jongin leans over the counter top wheezing.

“You okay?” Jongdae asks.

Jongin looks at him from the side and nods, embarrassment covering his face.

“Jongdae,” Junmyeon calls out. “Your hand.”

Jongin looks up at Junmyeon as he bounces his way towards the two of them, a look of concern on his face.

“You hurt it,” Junmyeon simply states before taking up Jongdae’s cuffed hand into his palm.

“You’re hurt!?” Jongin echoes, a little distraught. “When?”

“Ah...it’s not a big deal,” Jongdae chuckles, attempting to bashfully laugh it off. “I think something happened to it when you slipped in the bath.”

“Are you serious?” Jongdae jerks violently, and the pain shows on his face. “Shit...sorry.”

“It’s fine, it wasn’t your fault. You clearly were too shocked over the size of my dick,” Jongdae jokes as Junmyeon brings a palm over his wrist.

“Well, it must have been bigger than Jongin’s,” Luhan snorts.

“Definitely.”

“You peeked at my penis!?” Jongin exclaims.

“Peeked?” Jongdae repeats with raised eyebrows. “We were both naked and in the bath. It’s kind of hard not to see it.”

“Lies. You’re just interested in my dick.” Jongin claims, brushing his hands through his hair.

Jongdae just laughs, wincing a little as Junmyeon’s hands starts to glow. “What are you doing?”

“Healing.” Junmyeon smile softly. “There. It wasn’t that bad to begin with.”

“Wow,” Jongdae stares at his hand, wiggling the chains. “It feels so much better.”

“This is why guardians are so highly respected,” Minseok explains. “Incredible combat and first aid skills. As well as shape shifting, and one of the most intelligent beings on the planet.”

Jongin turns to look at Junmyeon who was having his ears scratched by Jongdae, his leg hopping excitedly, and wonders how sad the world must be if that was the most intelligent being on the planet.

“That’s enough,” Jongin interjects, going to lower Jongdae’s hand down. “Can we start getting on the road now?”

“Sure, except I need some clothes.” Luhan calls out.

The four of them turn behind them to find Luhan butt naked, swaying his hips and swinging his dick around and around like a helicopter.

“I’m seriously starting to wonder if death is a better option at this point,” Jongin mumbles into his palm.



♔



“I’m tired ~” Luhan complains. “These shoes are too tight...why is this jumper so itchy? How do humans live in something so unfit around the body? ...Stop walking so fast...I miss my leotards...Minseok-ah carry me~”

“Luhan, shut the fuck up!” Jongin snaps.

“Why don’t you turn back into a pixie if it’s more comfortable for you?” Jongdae tries to cooperate.

“I can’t,” Luhan whines, a pout on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. “My spells have a time limit on them. And turning this size lasts for a few hours.”

“God fucking damn it,” Jongin groans loudly and starts picking up the pace. “Peasants, the lot of you.”

“And here I thought we got over the obnoxious talk,” Jongdae sighs from the side.

“I’m still a prince, and you're still a peasant, that’s not going to change any time soon,” Jongin rudely concludes. He bites his tongue though when he see’s Jongdae’s face drop a little, but quickly hides it with a laugh. “I-I didn’t mean that…” Jongin attempts but Jongdae is already distracted.

“What are those?” Jongdae squints at something in front of him. The two of them stop in their tracks, causing Minseok and Luhan to bump into them from behind.

“Keep moving humans, we said just go straight, is it that hard to follow?” Minseok groans from behind and Jongin turns to offer him a glare.

Luhan flicks him on the forehead, “Don’t look at my hubby like that.”

“I’ll chop your wings off, just wait,” Jongin hisses.

“Why are there are pair of sunglasses floating in the air?” Jongdae asks, garnering everyone’s attention.

The three of them turn their heads to stare at what was literally a pair of hipster styled black shaded sunglasses, simply floating in the air before them.

“What are those?” Jongin curiously asks, looking behind them.

“Sunglasses,” Jongdae answers.

“What are sunglasses?”

“Why, the coolest accessory known to mankind,” An unfamiliar voice chuckles.

“Oh for fucks sake, now what?” Jongin whimpers, facepalming himself violently.

Minseok and Luhan look behind them and to the side, but no one was there.

“Who's there?” Jongdae calls out. “Show yourself.”

“I’m right here, asshats,” The voice deadpans. And before their very eyes a boy begins to appear behind the glasses; his hair styled coolly, and a leather jacket draped over his shoulder, as he chewed on a piece of straw.

“If you thought that was cool, then you really need to update your entrance pretty boy,” Luhan cackles, but it doesn’t phase the boy.

“Pretty? Me?” He raises an eyebrow. “Why, you’re too kind.”

“I’m anything but kind,” Luhan snarls, but the pretty boy just offers him a little smirk.

Jongdae eyes him up and down. He has a taste of fashion that Jongdae wasn’t entirely accustomed to. “Checking me out?” The pretty boy asks with a wriggle of his eyebrows.

“Ah, no, your clothes just seem...odd,” Jongdae states, blinking as he takes in the shiny belt.

“Okay can you just please explain what you’re doing here and why?” Jongin whines, kicking his leg at the ground.

“Someone’s impatient,” Pretty boy observes, a small smile on his lips.

“Wow,” Jongin nods. “I think I’ve just found something as annoying as Luhan.”

“He hasn’t even been here that long,” Minseok points out.

“Exactly.”

“The name’s Sehun mister prince, and I’ve come to join you on your journey,” He declares. The sound of crickets would have been incredibly appropriate right about now considering the blank looks on all four of their faces. “What a reaction.” Sehun laughs obnoxiously.

“Did I hear him right?” Luhan asks.

“Yup,” Jongdae quickly responds.

“Why? Just why? Please offer me an explanation that won’t result in me chopping your head off,” Jongin shakes his head, disbelief running through.

“I’ve been following you for a while,” Sehun shrugs. “Thought it was time I made an appearance.”

“You’re too kind.” Jondae sarcastically sighs, ruffling his own hair. “What are you anyway?”

“Medusa’s descendent.” Minseok abruptly answers. “Isn’t that right?”

“Med- med what? Medication?” Jongin fumbles with his words, confused beyond belief.

“Medusa?” Jongdae repeats. “As in the woman with snakes for hair and a gaze that can turn people into stone?”

“What!?” Luhan and Jongin squeak at the same time and go to cower behind their partners.

“Right you are. Though I didn’t think a fish would have heard of me,” Sehun grins, showing his fang like teeth.

“But where’s your head of snakes?” Jongdae asks.

“Ah,” Sehun licks his lips and goes to stroke his auburn hair. “They’re there, but a special glamour gives them a bit of a lift.”

“Oh dear god, I’m going to die” Jongin cries into Jongdae’s back.

“Shut up Jongin, no one’s got time to kill you.” Jongdae’s attempt at comforting is horrible.

“I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t bat an eyelash once they found out who I was,” Sehun casually remarks and goes to reach out for Jongdae’s free hand, taking the back of it to his lips. “Pleasure to meet you Jongdae.”

“Ah...you too…” Jongdae reluctantly stammers, wiping his hands on his trousers.

Jongin grabs Jongdae’s hand quickly and scrubs the back of it with his own sleeve. “We don’t know what kind of venom could be in that saliva of his,” He protectively states. Jongdae watches him with a small smile as he concentrates on wiping every bit of skin that Sehun touched.

“How mean,” Sehun smirks. “And here I was told I’m a pretty good kisser.”

“Is that what they say before or after they’re dead?” Jongin insinuates.

“You do realize that didn’t make any sense, right?” Jongdae shakes his head.

“Whatever, shut up.” Jongin quickly dismisses. “You coming along or what? ‘Cause I’ve had enough of standing around all day doing shit.”

“Yes, yes,” Sehun chides, putting his sunglasses back on and making Jongin twitch in fear.

“So, what made you start following us?” Jongdae begins the conversation, when all Jongin wanted to do was keep the medusa child away from him.

“You weren’t the only ones that saw the falling glitter is all I’m saying,” Sehun shrugs and slides his hands into his pockets, the leather jacket keeping itself up on his shoulder. “You guys were entertaining to watch and I was bored so I followed you.”

“How bored must you have been, exactly?” Luhan cuts in, and Jongin looks back to find Luhan had forcefully linked arms with Minseok.

“I live for a long time, pixie,” Sehun states with a twitch of his eyebrow. “Everything is boring to me.”

“Sounds like a pleasant life,” Luhan responds sarcastically and flicks his nose in the air.

“It’s fun when it wants to be…” Sehun says and turns to look at Jongdae with a sly smile. “Like now. I got to meet you.” He flirts, taking a finger to Jongdae’s shoulder.

“Is that so?” Jongdae laughs it off, and doesn’t really notice Jongin seething next to him.

“What is wrong with me?” Jongin mumbles to himself, feeling his heart pitter-patter at an alarming rate.

“Maybe you want to bone him?” Minseok whispers into Jongin’s ear from behind. Jongin visibly flinches and turns around to give Minseok a glare but he only offers back a smile and a shrug.

“I do not want to bone a peasant,” Jongin denies with an audacious gasp. “My royal dick knows better tastes.”

“Your royal dick has had a taste?” Minseok snorts. “Of what?”

Jongin grimaces, “Shut up.”

“Is that your default answer to every conversation you get stuck in?” Minseok challenges, licking his bottom lip.

“...Shut up, Minseok.”

“Maybe you should stop denying it so hard,” Minseok suggests.

Jongin glares at him before looking forward, “Denying what?” He mostly utters to himself.

“That you’re in love with Jongdae,” Minseok alluringly whispers in Jongin’s ear.

“I am nOT GAY.” Jongin snaps loudly, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Well of all the years I’ve lived, I’ve never heard such a blatant lie,” Sehun laughs from the other end, and Jongin can feel his cheeks burn with anger and embarrassment.

Jongdae gives him a look he can’t really decipher before turning back to Sehun.

♔

They look for a pond that night. Apparently Minseok’s feet were becoming too stiff and he needed to relieve himself of them and take a dip with his fins. Luhan is more than whiny because his spell had worn off and Minseok was going to spend the night in the water, so that meant no buttsex for them. Sehun had went his own way, telling them that he’d come early in the morning to wake them up ‘pleasantly’. Jongin still isn’t sure what he’s doing travelling along with them.

Jongdae and Jongin set up camp a couple of metres away from the pond. Luhan had put up wards around their tent and protectively around the pond too.

They hadn’t exchanged many words since earlier that day, so Jongin was feeling a little more than uncomfortable when they’re setting up their beds for the night. Jongin watches Jongdae as he fluffs up their sacks, his conscience telling him he evidently did something wrong but not sure of what it was.

“Jongdae…” Jongin warily calls out.

“Hm?”

“Are you mad?”

Jongdae looks behind him at Jongin, who looks serious about the question, and decides to sit next to him. “Why would I be mad?”

“You haven’t said much for the past couple of hours,” Jongin mutters under his breath.

Jongdae offers him a little smirk before responding. “Did the prince miss my attention?”

“S-shut up,” He stutters, but he wasn’t going to deny it.

“I thought you didn’t want to involve yourself with peasants like me?” Jongdae laughs, but there’s a bitterness to his tone that Jongin notices.

“That’s just...just talk…” Jongin admits, chewing on his lip consciously.

“What is?”

“Calling you peasants and stuff. It’s just an act…”

“How come?”

“What do you mean how come?” Jongin asks in disbelief. “I’m a prince, we have stereotypes to live up to. My brother took the happy-go-lucky, sticking his dick where it can fit or not, if he tries hard enough, type of guy. What other type do I have but the obnoxious, narcissistic one?”

“Are you serious? You’re living up to stereotypes?”

“It may seem like a joke to you, but the people expect it from us,” Jongin sighs and goes to flop back onto his sack pillow.

“What? A self centred jackass that acts as if he doesn’t care for his people?” Jongdae declares harshly and Jongin winces. “Even though...I know you’re not really like that.” He adds in a softer tone and goes to lie back on the bags too. “I’m sorry, I just realised something a while ago and I’ve been taking it out on you.”

“What did you realise?” Jongin inquires, studying him from the side.

Jongdae turns his head to meet eyes before shrugging and turning back. “Nothing important...I think, or at least I hope it’s not.”

Jongin chews harder on his lip, “Y-you know you can talk to me? I mean...you may be a peasant and all but...but we’re partners on this journey. And you have helped a lot so I guess it wouldn't be so bad...to call you a friend.” Jongin sniffs, pursing his lips obnoxiously.

Jongdae lets out a loud laugh, and Jongin doesn’t really understand why he’s so happy to hear it. “You’re too kind, my prince. I’d be honoured to be your friend.”

“That’s what I thought.” Jongin nods, a small grin of his own peaking out from the side of his lips. “You know, when you move to the castle, you’ll get a hefty pay, and get to buy new clothes and sleep on those comfy double beds.”

Jongdae blinks at him, “Move…?” He repeats. “Jongin remember on what we agreed on? I’m just going to the castle to unlock the chains and going back?”

“W-what about my cousins tutor…?” Jongin pathetically stutters, feeling unsettled.

“I guess I could stay a couple of days but that’s it, I have to go back home. My dad is there, my friends, my future-”

“Do you have a girlfriend!?” Jongin bursts out.

“What? No. What made you think that?”

“Ah...I just remembered you saying you’ve had...sex before is all,” Jongin coughs, and swallows down his saliva.

“Oh, that...was just a thing I had with an older girl once. She’s married now.”

Jongin sighs in relief, the ache in chest dissolving a little. “That’s good.” He voices out loud.

Jongdae lets his eyes fall down on the little smile Jongin has on, and squints. He sets himself up on his elbow and looks down at Jongin when he speaks, “What so good about it Jongin?”

The prince blinks up at him, confused by the question. “What…?”

“I’m asking why you seem so relieved at the fact that I’m not involved with someone,” Jongdae presses, a taunting smile on his face.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about...I’m not relieved.” Jongin attempts in shrugging it off.

“Yes you are, you even said “that’s good”,” Jongdae smirks, licking his lips expectantly.

Jongin gulps, his eyes shifting across the tiny space they have inside the tent. “I just- I just thought it’s good because...she might be worried...about you...on this trip and all.”

“You sure Jongin?”

“Sure about what?” He grumbles.

“That you’re not the one that has a crush on me?” Jongdae teases, licking his lips once more.

He’s leaning in closer now, basically hovering over Jongin, who feels like his heart is about to jump right out of his chest and prance away into the pond. Jongdae watches Jongin’s adam’s apple drop and bites his lip, lowering himself slowly.

“W-what are you doing?” Jongin splutters, eyes blinking furiously as he tries to dig himself further into the pillow.

“Nothing...yet,” Jongdae answers with a smirk, and it sends Jongin’s stomach off to do multiple flips.

“J-Jongdae you’re a little too close- I mean, it’s not that I’m being conscious but…like maybe you want to back up...maybe? No offence… I just- uh...I’m just going to...maybe if you’d-”

“Shut up, Jongin,” Jongdae orders before finally pressing his lips against Jongin’s.

Jongin makes a surprised and muffled sound, his eyes bulging out of their sockets like all those lead females in those horrible plays Baekhyun made him watch. He’d like to think he absolutely hates the way Jongdae brushes his incredibly soft lips against his, but instead he finds himself parting his own a little to kiss him back.

There’s a smile on Jongdae’s lips when he notices Jongin has closed his eyes to relish in the kiss. Jongdae takes his tongue and traces the edges of Jongin’s lips, nibbling a little at the skin with the edges of his teeth. Jongin makes a soft moan from beneath and Jongdae takes it as a signal to slip his tongue into the prince’s mouth.

His reaction is a little exaggerated, but Jongdae loves the way Jongin sounds when he breathes heavily or how he makes tiny squeaks when Jongdae presses his tongue against Jongin’s. Jongin goes to grab at something before clutching onto Jongdae’s shirt like his life depended on it. His eyes are half opened, glazed with pleasure as he moans for more.

Jongdae swallows and goes to straddle Jongin, throwing his leg over Jongin’s waist and bending down to deepen the kiss. Jongin takes his free hand and places it on the back of Jongdae’s neck, feeling giddy when he feels Jongdae intertwined their chained hands together.

Jongdae sits up then, breathing heavily as he licks his lips and quickly slides off Jongin’s lap. Jongin blinks up at him, out of breath but slightly distraught by how abruptly Jongdae ended the kiss. His eyes follow Jongdae as he goes to settle under their blanket and snuggle into the pillow, shutting his eyes quickly.

Jongin stares at him in disbelief. Is that it?

♔

Jongin didn’t sleep all night.

The second Jongdae had started to snore, a million of a trillion thoughts started running through Jongin’s mind. It was amazing how many conclusions he had come up with by the time the sun rose.

It had started off with an immediate questioning of exactly why the fuck did Jongdae kiss him? Simple enough. He was obviously attracted to great prince after so long. Resisting must have been hard.

So why did he kiss Jongdae back? That was the first question to stump Jongin because he honestly didn’t know, and didn’t know whether he wanted to know or not. Was it out of pity? A prince doing good for his people? Was it because Jongin is a healthy teenage boy with a lot of pent up sexual frustration? Maybe. But to stoop so low for a peasant boy? Or was it because it was Jongdae?

Which sent his thoughts spiralling onto a new track that eventually brought up the argument as to why the fuck did he stop and just go to fucking sleep like that? If he was going to start something, he might as well have finished it off, no? Then again, how far was Jongin willing to go?

That then lead to a totally new train of thought that involved Jongdae and Jongin in a romantic relationship, and whether Jongin would bottom or top. Jongin was the taller one and far more good looking, so it should be him, but could he put his junk in Jongdae’s trunk? That was the question.

It was endless. And in the end Jongin got no sleep.

Just because Jongin didn’t manage to sleep at all doesn’t mean he needs Sehun, of all fucking people, prancing around banging a bunch of pots together as if he were leading a god damn parade.

“Wake up, wake up my lovely friends,” Sehun sings loudly and rather out of tune for Jongin’s taste. “Wake up, wake up! The sun has risen.”

Jongin sits up with a loud grunt and turns to look at Jongdae who’s still managed to sleep rather peacefully. He thinks about suffocating him in his sleep, but decides on waking him up with an aggressive shake. “Wake up Jongdae, we need to leave.”

“Don’t wan’na,” Jongdae moans and rolls onto his back.

“Wake up,” Jongin repeats, not in the mood for his cute act this morning.

Jongdae cracks one eye open and looks around the tent for a moment before getting up. “I want to go home.” He mumbles and rubs his eyes.

Jongin stares at him and then through the slit in the tent leading outside. He sees Sehun skipping around, still making a racket with his pots and pans. “Please shut up,” Jongin hisses mostly to himself, and plugs his ears with his fingers.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” They hear Luhan squack. “Why are you such a nuisance to this planet?”

“And a good morning to you too Luhan, had a pleasant sleep?” Sehun laughs.

“Pleasant until I remembered your existence.” Luhan jabbers on and Jongin is amazed by how someone so small can be so fucking loud.

“Don’t be so mean, Luhan,” Jongin can hear the pout on Sehun’s lips. “It’s such a beautiful morning, we should all get up and sing!”

There’s the odd sound of water rushing, and it confuses Jongin a little because the water is quite a bit away. But then the sound keeps getting louder, as if a large wave was approaching, and in the next second Jongin witnesses a large wave of water colliding right into Sehun. Jongdae bends forward to open the flap of the tent where they see Sehun on his hands and knees, dripping wet.

“That’s my baby,” Luhan cheers with a pump of his fist. “You go Minseok!”

Jongin almost wants to laugh too but he notices that what should be Sehun’s wet locks are in fact moving on their own, and that’s when he sees one open up it’s mouth and then it’s eyes. Sehun’s hair comes alive with a series of slithers and hisses. He gets up from the ground, his back arched and a smirk on his face, fangs digging into his bottom lip.

“You’ll regret that, mermaid,” Sehun cackles, almost as if he’s enjoying it. At that moment he let’s his sunglasses drop to the ground, revealing green eyes with slits running down the middle.

Jongin’s eyes are suddenly covered then, the familiar scent of Jongdae completely engulfing him. “W-what are you doing?”

“Turning into stone, remember?” Jongdae replies, his voice still rough and hoarse from sleep.

“Ah...right.” Jongin feels disappointed for some reason, but the lack of sleep weighs too much on his mind to think any more about every little thing Jongdae does. “Shouldn’t we stop him? Since he could kill Minseok?”

“Since when were you so concerned for their well being?” Jongdae chuckles and drops his hands. “You’re going to behead us all when we get to the castle, right?”

“Right…” Jongin mutters under his breath.

“I’ll kill you all!” Sehun roars, causing Jongin and Jongdae to pop their heads from the tent and stare at Sehun’s back as his snakes menacingly lear over Minseok.

“Eeep! Don’t hurt him,” Luhan squeals, buzzing around the top of Sehun’s head as the snakes snap at him.

“Now, my babies, show them what you’re made of,” Sehun cackles into the wind. His snakes all move in sync as they face a rather calm Minseok, opening their mouths only to let out small puff of green smoke. They’re coughing, and Minseok waves a hand in the air as if he smelt something bad.

“Did they just...burp?” Luhan asks in utter disbelief.

“Awww come on guys,” Sehun sighs. “We practiced this.”

The snakes whine a little as they settle back on top of his head, the disappointment evident from their tiny frowns. Sehun sighs again, petting them as they return back to his styled brown hair. “Oh well, show’s over.” Sehun shrugs, walking back to pick up his sunglasses.

“Wait, how did Minseok look at him without turning to stone?” Jongdae asks.

“His eyes were closed once he got to me.” Minseok explains, walking butt naked over towards their tent. He brushes a hand through his wet hair and Luhan coos in response.

“What kind of show was that Sehun?” Luhan, still laughing, asks.

“Ahhh, I’ll have it perfect next time, just watch,” Sehun huffs, flicking his black leather jacket over his neck. He’s wearing a white button up today, the top few buttons undone and revealing his chest.

“You do have such a strange fashion,” Jongdae notes as he and Jongin climb out of the tent.

Sehun smirks, “I like to call it the future.”

♔

“I still don’t understand what you’re doing with us Sehun,” Jongin bleated on. “You’re nothing but a problem.”

“Then my job here is done,” Sehun cheers with a pump of his fist.

Jongin makes a frustrated type of sound and climbs over a tree root. Apparently it was only a day or so until they reached the edge of the forest and Jongin was feeling more and more nervous about it. Jongdae wasn’t going to be at the castle, so how is Jongin going to see him? Why does Jongin need to see him anyway? He mentally slaps himself.

There’s a narrow space between two trees that Jongdae and Jongin for some reason decide to walk through despite the large amount of space in general. It causes Jongdae to rip his jumper on a twig on a nearby tree and hiss in pain. “Ow, ok, that hurt.”

“What did you do?” Jongin goes to inspect the hole in his jumper. “That was fucking cashMERE.”

“Excuse me?”

“DO YOU KNOW WHAT CASHMERE IS!?” Jongin bawls.

“Calm down fuckboy, you’re the prince, I’m sure you can afford much more.” Luhan buzzes in between the two.

“The expense isn’t the problem-”

Jongdae rolls his eyes, “Of course not.”

“Cashmere is of the highest quality, you need to treat it with respect.” Jongin continues on, tugging on Jongdae’s sleeve. “Not that you peasants would understand.”

“How many times has he said ‘peasant’ now?” Jongdae sighs to himself.

“Eighty seven times.” Luhan states.

“How do you know that?”

“Word count.”

Minseok coughs for everyone’s attention, “Guys-”

“Minseok can you please stop stepping on the back of my fucking shoes!?” Jongin barks.

“Jeez what’s up your ass? Or rather, what’s not up your ass?” Luhan comments with a wink and nudge at Jongdae. Jongdae just ignores the two of them and keeps walking ahead.

“Wow, the tension is high. Being unhappy isn’t healthy guys,” Sehun interjects.

“Shut up Sehun.” Jongin snaps.

“Guys,” Minseok calls out again.

“What’s wrong?” Jongdae has the audacity to ask.

“‘What’s wrong?’ What’s wrong?” Jongin laughs in disbelief. “You’re asking me what’s wrong?”

Jongdae looks to the ground and back up at Jongin, “Uh, yeah?”

“GUYS!” Minseok shouts, and it’s a jarring type of sound that makes your ears ring and pop.

“Jesus christ, Minseok!?” Jongin yelps, covering his ears with his palms.

“What is it?” Jongdae winces, turning back to find Minseok pretty stiff. “Is everything okay?”

“If you guys had listened to me before,” He sighs. “You’d have found out earlier that we’re walking in circles.”

“What? But we’ve only been going straight.” Luhan croaks, shuffling on Minseok’s shoulder to hug his neck.

Minseok takes a finger and points to a twig, on it was a piece of fabric that resembled Jongdae’s jumper. “Like I said, we’ve been going in circles.”

“What the fuck?” Jongdae crows, staring down at the hole in his sweater and back at the twig. “How did we get back here?”

“Took you guys a while to notice,” Sehun snickers, chewing on a piece of gum obnoxiously. “This is the eighteenth cycle now?”

Jongin twitches and turns to face Sehun, “And you couldn’t tell us this earlier?”

Sehun throws up his hands and blows a bubble. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“If I hear someone say that one more time…” Jongin seethes under his breath.

Suddenly, and once again not very surprisingly, a loud high-pitched cackle echoes throughout the forest. It makes the five of them stop in their path, Jongdae letting out a large sigh. “Will this ever end?”

“Not any time soon apparently,” Sehun laughs and takes a step forward. “Yo, show your self and all that dramatic sub text.”

“Humans and magic folk,” The voice booms, causing the leaves to rustle. “What an interesting group we have here.”

“Who are you?” Jongdae calls out, more or less used to the routine at this point.

“I am the Lord of Time,” The voice declares.

“You sure it ain’t Yzma?” Luhan mutters.

“Silence impudent pixie,” It demands.

“Impudent!?” Luhan repeats.

“Aye, I know that word,” Jongin nods in satisfaction.

“Jongin, please,” Jongdae groans into his palm.

“Come at me, if you’re so big, tough guy,” Luhan taunts, his fists up in the air.

“Luhan don’t.” Minseok orders and Luhan instantly puts his hands down.

“That’s what I thought, lowly beings,” The voice cackles.

“Tao, why don’t you come out already?” Sehun says calmly, looking down at the ground.

“Shut up Sehun, who even asked you? Why are you here?” The voice suddenly doesn’t project as if someone was talking through a horn but instead comes from somewhere down below.

“It wouldn’t be a party without me now would it?” Sehun chuckles and goes to bend onto his knees.

“What are you doing?” Jongin asks Sehun, and that’s when they see the tiny person walk out in front of them. “Oh hey, it’s Luhan except with a bigger head.”

“This is Tao, a gremlin,” Sehun introduces with a gesture of his hand.

“A gremlin alright…” Jongin mutters and Tao looks up at him with a glare.

Tao skitters his way towards Jongin’s foot and whacks him with his cane, “Ow, fuck! This little bitch-” Tao whacks him again. “It hurts!”

“Good!” Tao squawks from down below. “Teaches you humans to mess with me.”

“You’re so cute,” Jongdae laughs and bends down on his knees. It also earns him a whack on the shin.

“No, I am NOT,” The gremlin snaps. “I am MANLY. NOW BOW DOWN TO ME.”

“That’s a bit much coming from a guy whose eye bags looks like they’re weighing him down to the ground,” Luhan spins downwards, showing off his wings. “Shouldn’t you get a fix up? You’re already small enough.”

“Aren’t gremlins meant to be green?” Minseok interjects, and it earns him a glare from Tao but not a whack.

“That’s what I thought, don’t mess with my man.” Luhan huffs, and gets hit in the stomach with Tao’s cane. “Fuck…”

“He struck a deal with a wizard because he didn’t want to be green and ugly, however he had to keep his height,” Sehun explains, patting Tao softly on the end.

“You sure he didn’t ask to be a bobble head?” Jongin scoffs.

Tao ignores him and brushes a hand through his smooth, black hair. “Beauty has a price.”

“So why exactly are you making us go in circles?” Jongdae asks.

Tao purses his lips into a fine line and looks up at him, “I’m not...you were walking into gremlin territory and this is our protection shield.”

“Sehun, didn’t you say this was a shortcut!?” Luhan flutters towards his sunglasses and knocks on them. Sehun just smiles and picks at Luhan by the wings.

“Yes, but there’s a portal the gremlins own that we can use to get past.”

“What makes you think you can use the gremlins powers for your own sake?” Tao demands, jumping pathetically on the spot.

“Now now, do your friend a favour hm? Who helped you find Wizard Kyungsoo in the first place?” Sehun chides, and Tao just responds with a little grumble.

“Fine, but only under one condition,” Tao demands. “The prince gives me his shirt.”

“There’s always a fucking condition.” Jongin wails. “Why do you need my shirt? And how do you know who I am?”

“Because I like it.” Tao shrugs. “And everyone knows who you are. You’re the talk of the forest.”

“Great…and this is my last shirt…”

“Too bad.”

Jongin bites his lip, trying to remind himself that one less shirt just means less time on this journey. He sighs and gives in, “Fine...Luhan do your shit.”

“Can you not make my pixie dust sound so revolting, thank you.” Luhan complains but gets his sack out anyway.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Tao grins before he and Jongin are engulfed in dust.

♔

“I’m fucking freezing,” Jongin whines, his bare chest exposed to the impending cold of the night. The sun was close to setting soon. “I want my shirt back.”

“Look on the bright side, we managed to skip out on half a day travel. We’ll be home by tomorrow.” Jongdae tries to comfort him and grab his hand, but it only earns him a glare.

“Stop holding my hand,” Jonign hisses

“Why?”

“Because you’re annoying me.” He barks lowly, surprising Jongdae a little.

“Oh...okay…”

Jongin would like to feel bad for taking his frustration out on Jongdae. But the cause of his frustration was 95% Jongdae and 5% the fact he was shirtless and freezing cold. And it pissed him off further that all day Jongdae was acting like he’d done nothing the night before. And the fact that Jongin is expecting something, is making himself even more annoyed. There was no end.

“Let’s walk for another hour before we set up camp,” Jongdae suggests, calling out to the three of them. They all agree and continue walking ahead.

“How can you be so normal?” Jongin suddenly questions.

“What?”

“How can you act so normal after last night?”

“Oh...that’s why you’re mad,” Jongdae nods. “It’s not like I can go around stuttering like a mad man because I’m embarrassed about it.”

Jongin blinks at Jongdae, staring at his set jaw. “You’re embarrassed?”

“Of course, I just went ahead and kissed the second prince of this kingdom.” Jongdae licks his lips and tries to laugh. “I mean, who am I? Right? A peasant.”

Jongin sucks in a harsh breath as Jongdae’s words take a while to click in his head. “That doesn’t explain why you did it…”

Jongdae gives Jongin a look before sighing heavily, “It’s obviously because-”

“Uh, guys…” Luhan shouts from behind them. Jongdae and Jongin look back to find the three of them looking up at the sky.

“Oh for fucks sake,” Jongin groans as he too looks up and sees the same dragon flapping above them. His eyes piercing downwards at the group of them as he had intent towards them.

“We don’t have time to run,” Minseok announces and suddenly starts doing some next bending movements in the air.

“Is he dancing, now?” Jongin exclaims.

“No, he’s calling upon the water, you dimwit,” Luhan snaps, his sentence cut in half from the aggressive flapping of the dragon from above.

“There’s a source but it’s far…the water won’t get here in time before-” Minseok doesn’t get to finish his sentence before the dragon cuts off him with a roar. In an instant, the dragon opens his mouth and sends down a large ball of fire, exploding as it lands on the ground.

The trees from behind Jongin and Jongdae begin to burn, the heat immense and hot on Jongin’s bare back. “Shit…” Jongin curses. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I bet he wants my ass,” Luhan declares.

“What is wrong with you?” Jongdae deadpans, and the dragon shoots out another ball of fire beside them.

“See? He thinks I’m hot.”

“Shut the fuck up Luhan.” Jongin shouts.

Luhan throws out his palms and shrugs, “Just saying.”

“Shouldn’t we be running?” Jongin asks worriedly.

“It’s a forest made of wood Jongin, there’s not much place to run for safety considering we’re right in the middle of it.” Jongdae bites his lips, his foot tapping ferociously.

“Do you need to treat me like an idiot till our deaths?”

“You’re not going to die,” Jongdae snaps. “No matter how much you want to.”

Jongdae stares at him, confused.“Who said I want to die-”

“Uh, Jongdae,” Sehun calls out, waving his hand frantically. “He’s kind of looking for you.”

“Me!?”

“Yeah, he wants something from you.” Sehun nods towards the dragon as he spits out another ball of fire.

“How do you know that?” Luhan questioned.

“I speak dragon.”

“What do you mean ‘speak dragon’. He’s huffing and puffing.”

“Precisely.”

Jongdae looks up at the dragon, the red light growing larger in his stomach, and then back down at the chains linking him to Jongin. His eyes flicker as if a thousand thoughts started running through his head.

“Fuck, what are we going to do?” Jongin begins to panic, biting at his nails furiously. Jongdae notices the sweat glistening down Jongin’s forehead and his chest, and takes a deep breath. He makes a quick decision and stuffs a hand into his pocket.

“Sehun, you sure he just wants me?” Jongdae asks, his voice almost drowned out by the roar of flames encircling them.

Sehun nods, a little frown on his face.

“Jongin,” Jongdae speaks softer now, quickly turning to the panicking prince. Jongin looks at him with worry but Jongdae offers nothing but a smile. “About your question-” Another boom of fire explodes near them. Jongdae swallows down his fear and grabs Jongin by the hand, pulling him in to kiss him on the lips chastely. “I kissed you last night because I like you.” Jongdae laughs and breaks into a sprint.

Jongin blinks at where Jongdae should be, beside him, chained to his wrist, and then drags his eyes to where Jongdae is, running towards a line of fire...and jumping through it. The flames quickly engulfing him. “Wait, what- what the fuck!?” Jongin shrieks, walking towards where Jongdae disappeared. “What the fuck just happened?”

“JONGIN! MOVE!” Minseok warns with a shout.

Jongin jerks to a stop and suddenly a rush of water comes zooming past him, tiny droplets splattering on him and the rush of wind cools him down instantly from the fire looming around. Jongin watches Minseok sweat as he moves his whole body, his hands cutting through the air. The water moves through the fires quickly, extinguishing them with a hiss and trails of smoke.

Jongin doesn’t know how long he has to stand there until it’s safe but every second is dawning on him that the dragon had chased Jongdae, and Jongdae could be dead right now.

“G-guys…” Jongin tumbles towards the three of them, gripping Sehun. “We need to go find Jongdae, like now. Fuck, fUCK. HOW THE FUCK DID HE TAKE THE CHAINS OFF? IS HE SERIOUS? IS HE SOME WIZARD OR SOMETHING? I SWEAR IF HE’S ALIVE WHEN WE FIND HIM, I’M GOING TO KILL HIM ANYWAY.”

“J-Jongin calm down-”

“OH MY GOD WHAT IF I NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? I DIDN’T TELL HIM I LOVE HIM. FUCK THIS MAN, I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS. I WAS JUST TOLD TO GET MY COUSINS A FUCKIGN TUTOR. I’M GOING TO GROW OLD AND NEVER GET MARRIED! OH JESUS I WOULD HAVE MARRIED A GIRL AND BEEN FOREVER UNHAPPY ‘CAUSE NO ONE EVER MADE ME REALISE I WAS A HOMO-”

Sehun slaps him across the face, “Calm down.”

Jongin looks at Sehun and lets out the breath he was holding, and then he faints.

♔

Jongin wakes up to what he thinks light would sound like: metal softly clinking together. He feels someone hover over him, a warmth radiating from his lower stomach. He tries to sit up but a pain shoots across his stomach. “Fuck-” He curses.

Someone holds his hands, taking it away from where he was feeling the pain. He’d like to think it was Jongdae but he knew what Jongdae’s hand felt like. “Good morning...or good night, should I say considering the sun has set.” An unfamiliar voice says. It’s soothing though and Jongin closes his eyes.

“Ah, ah, you shouldn’t sleep again, there are people waiting for you,” The voice says, but his voice sounds too much like a lullaby to resist sleep. “Guys, he’s awake!”

“What!?” Luhan chirps, buzzing through the tent flaps quickly. “Shit, he is awake - looking high as hell, but awake. Hallelujah!”

“Ah, told you guys he’d wake up, I have a sense for these things,” Sehun boasts, coming in to crouch beside Jongin’s head.

“J-Jongdae…?” Jongin groggily murmurs.

Sehun snorts, “Even when he has a stab wound he’s saying Jongdae’s name.”

“No surprise, he’s an idiot - he can’t think of multiple things at a time,” Minseok chides in. Although Jongin has no energy to even move his pinkie, he still has the ability to think of several excruciating ways to kill the three of them. And they call him an idiot.

“Ugh...what’s wrong with my stomach?” Jongin groans, his eyes rolling about the place.

“You got stabbed by a piece of wood,” Luhan gleefully announces.

“How, when?”

“One of the tree’s exploded with the dragon’s fire ball of death and sent a piece of wood right through your pretty gut,” Sehun explains with a smile full of a teeth.

Jongin feels a surge of nausea take over him then. “Guys, shhh. He needs to store his energy, and you’re making him feel sick.”

“I’m just amazed at how he didn’t feel the pain of being stabbed. It was in there for a while before he fainted,” Luhan snickers.

“Adrenaline. Humans are amazing, aren’t they?” Minseok comments.

“Guys, seriously, stop pestering him. I only called you in to reassure you,” The voice scolds, and Jongin wants to cheer finally, someone on his side.

“Yixing, you’re too nice. If you heard this guy’s tongue even you’d want to impale him with that pretty horn of yours,” Luhan says in defence.

“Are you seriously making...sexual jokes right now Luhan?” Jongin wheezes.

“No, Jongin, I’m serious. Look up, your healer is part unicorn.” Jongin does look up and finds a long face with a long horn sticking out of his forehead smiling down at him.

Jongin takes a deep breath and goes out cold again.

♔

When Jongin wakes up for the second time, there’s a bit of the sun peeking through the flaps on the tent. He’s glad he isn’t surrounded this time, and even better that there’s no guy with a deadly weapon poking out of his head. He does, however, feel something warm wrapped around his hand, and his heart begins to patter fast when he realises who it is.

Jongin tries to get up quickly but the pain, although not as bad as the first time, does restrict him from a serious amount of movement. “J-Jongdae?” Jongin calls out, looking towards the side.

“Ah, morning,” Jongdae smiles, the sun skimming half his face.

“You’re alive!?” Jongin yelps, tears brimming his eyes.

“I should be asking you that,” Jongdae laughs, taking a hand to stroke Jongin’s hair. “I run to save you and you end up getting stabbed. Do you live to worry me?”

“Shut up,” Jongin murmurs, taking the backs of his hands to his eyes and rubbing them ferociously. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“I heard,” Jongdae softly chuckles, going to grab Jongin’s hand again.

“Why did you do that? Where did you go?”

“The dragon wanted to talk to me-”

“So you just let the fire breathing dragon follow you…alone. You know you don’t have a right to call me stupid after this.” Jongin grumbles, sending glares to Jongdae who can’t seem to stop smiling.

“I know but it wasn’t that bad. Wufan is actually a pretty nice guy-”

“You spoke him!?”

“Yeah, he landed and turned into a human - turns out he was just lost beyond belief and heard I had a map at the beginning of our travel.” Jongdae explains casually.

“He’s a dragon!? How the fuck does a dragon get lost?”

“Couldn’t see past the tree tops?”

“So he had to burn everything in his sight to see it? He almost got us killed.”

“He wouldn’t be the first one.” Jongdae laughs, playing with Jongin’s fingers.

Jongin furrows his eyebrows, and grips Jongdae’s hand. “So, do you want to explain how the fuck you got us uncuffed.”

Jongdae’s smile tightens, “Ah...about that…”

“Jongdae,”

“Kyungsoo gave me a sort of wandy key for it before we left his cottage,” Jongdae admits in a mumble.

“Why didn’t you use it earlier then?”

“Do you have to make me say it?” Jongdae sighs.

Jongin smiles, “Yeah.”

Jongdae blushes, “I wanted to...stay close to you…”

Jongin snorts, “Sorry that was more embarrassing than I thought it’d be.”

Jongdae pouts and tosses Jongin’s hands away, but Jongin goes to grab it again. “Don’t you have something to say too?”

“Oh right yeah…I’m in love with you.”

“That’s it?” Jongdae deadpans. “All that time it took you to realise it and you just say it?”

“I don’t know, what more you want from me? I didn’t think I was gay,” Jongin shrugs.

“You are the worst liar on this planet, everyone knew you were gay,” Jongdae pipes.

“What, seriously!?”

“Don’t tell me you actually didn’t realise you were gay all this time?”

“I am extremely serious.”

“You’re seriously an idiot aren’t you?” Jongdae gasps, lowering his head into his palm.

“I thought we agreed we’d stop calling me names?”

“It’s impossible, you’re too stupid,” Jongdae facepalms.

“Is it too late to take back what I said?”

“Definitely.” Jongdae says finally and bends down to kiss him. “But I’m a peasant, you know?”

“I know,” Jongin grins, and goes to bring Jongdae down for another kiss. “I don’t think I could stand anyone in royalty anyway. I think I’m enough obnoxiousness for myself.”

“At least you acknowledge it. Has the prince grown up a little on this trip?” Jongdae scoffs.

“Probably,” Jongin ponders. “But I’m still confused about what you said?”

“What?”

“Before you ran off, you said something about me wanting to die?”

“Oh...it’s just that Minseok said only humans who don’t want to live can hear his song, and you did, so I kind of assumed you were, you know...having suicidal thoughts and stuff.” Jongdae awkwardly goes to scratch the back of his head.

“Seriously!?” Jongin chirps. “All this time about me complaining about not wanting to die and you got the opposite!?”

“How was I supposed to know? Minseok said so.”

“Maybe Minseok has a default, ever thought of that?”

Jongdae sighs, “It doesn’t matter now, as long as you’re alive-”

“And you’re alive.”

“And me. That’s all that matters.”

“This got really cheesy really fast.” Jongin blushes.

“It’s fine, we deserve some cheese after all that shit,” Jongdae laughs again, and Jongin is amazed to hear the bells in his voice just like Luhan had.

“How long have I been out?”

“Two days - you scared the shit out of me.” Jongdae grumbles and takes a hand to where Jongin’s stomach was all bandaged up. “I came back to find you bleeding all over Sehun.”

“I feel better now though, more than I should be to be honest,” Jongin notes, pulling himself up into a sitting position. Jongdae helps him up, careful around his stomach.

“Luhan went to fetch the best healer he knew - he may seem like a twat, but he looked like he was going to cry when he saw you all pale.” Jongdae snickers, swiping a cold towel across Jongin’s forehead.

“Wish I could have seen it,” Jongin curses and goes to grab Jongdae’s hand to hold it between his own. “Will you still come back with me to the castle? Even just as a tutor?”

Jongdae licks his lips and smiles, “Just a tutor?” He taunts and goes to peck Jongin on the lips. Jongin feels his cheeks heat up as he goes to peck Jongdae back, and they’re taking turns until Jongdae slips a hand over Jongin’s lips, and starts leaving butterfly kisses down the length of his neck. His tongue trailing down across collarbones, and leaving kisses down his chest.

Jongin sucks in a heavy breath, watching Jongdae lower himself just above his bandage, where he hesitates before leaving a chaste kiss just above the waistband. Jongdae’s hand goes to stroke top of Jongin’s pants and looks down, biting his lip, “You’re already hard?” Jongdae’s lips quiver from pent up laughter.

Jongin is blushing a deeper red now, hiding behind his hands. “Shut up,” Jongin cries out, and shivers when he feels Jongdae’s breath at his waist.

“You’re so cute,” Jongdae chuckles, and goes to slowly tug on Jongin’s bottoms.

“Cute like a rabbit or gremlin cute?”

“Cuter.”

Jongin gulps and watches his dick come free from his pants, the raging boner he had quivering. “How are you already this bad? I haven’t even done anything.” Jongdae continues to chuckle.

“Ugh, please stop,” Jongin whines, little drops of tears welling up at the corners.

“Sorry, too tempting,” Jongdae smiles before placing a kiss at the top of Jongin’s cock. “Oh, precum.”

“God, please, anything but a narration.” Jongin cries out.

Jongdae gives him a smoldering look before he wraps his mouth around the head of Jongin’s cock. Jongin gasps, feeling Jongdae’s slick and hot tongue pressed up against the side of his cock, and Jongin’s first instinct is to thrust. “Woah there,” Jongdae murmurs, gripping Jongin’s cock by the base before he starts stroking it.

Jongin has turned every shade of pink possible, his chest falling and dropping hard with every stroke of Jongdae’s hand. He bites his lip and closes his eyes, feeling Jongdae’s tongue flick the tip of his cock, and under his head. It’s hot and wet, and tight, and everything Jongin has never felt before.

Jongdae takes his tongue then, and goes to lick up the length of his cock. “J-Jongdae,” Jongin moans, gripping Jongdae’s hair as he gives the tip another suck before Jongin suddenly thrusts and cums everywhere. Literally. He cums over his stomach and his bandages, in Jongdae’s mouth and across his jaw, on the bedding beside him and Jongdae’s hand.

Jongdae wipes at the cum on his sleeve and licks at the drops on the side of his lips as he goes to hover over Jongin. He brings a his lips down and slips his tongue into Jongin’s mouth, pressing their mouths together. “You’re so cute when you moan.” Jongdae whispers against Jongin’s lips.

Jongin sighs in satisfaction but cringes back from Jongdae’s kiss. “That doesn’t taste very nice.” Jongin shakes his head, licking at his lips.

Jongdae snorts really hard and lies back, starting to clean up the mess.

“Did you guys have sex yet!?” Luhan suddenly bursts in from behind, letting the curtain flap violently behind him.

“No, Luhan, leave,” Jongdae sighs, fully prepared for the rude entrance.

“Wait what!?” Jongin exclaims. “That wasn’t sex!?”

Jongdae narrows his eyes at the prince, “No, Jongin that wasn’t. That was a blowjob.”

“Are you serious?”

“Very much so.” Jongdae nods.

“What the fuck…”

Jongdae flops back onto his butt and sighs into his hand, “What have I gotten myself into?”

♔

It only took another half a day to finally make it out of the forest. Spencer had been waiting at the beginning of the horse trail, or Baekhyun was kind enough to send him there to pick up a wounded Jongin.

“Well that was fun,” Luhan chirps, the three of them still encased by the shadows of the forest.

Jongin looks behind him and grins. “Thank you guys, really.”

“Oh wow, he’s thanking us...this was definitely worth the effort.” Luhan snorts, and twirls in the air twice before plopping back onto Minseok’s shoulder.

“Visit again, I won’t mind you taking a dip in my pond,” Minseok smiles for the first time ever, and everyone is a little more than bewitched.

“No, nO. Minsek is mine. Finders keepers losers weepers.” Hisses Luhan.

“See ya’ guys,” Sehun waves, his fangs shining in the sunlight.

“Bye guys, thank you for everything.” Jongdae waves them off.

The two of them climb onto Spencer, Jongdae steering behind him while Jongin leads the way. The travel back up to the castle isn’t that long. In fact the long ass hill even made Jongin feel a little nostalgic. He’s almost smiling, ready to be back home to see all the servants and maids, his stupid ass brother that won’t live to see another day, and totally ready for the comforts of his bed where he’ll get to sleep next Jongdae every day.

What he isn’t happy about is being called straight to the throne room upon arrival.

“I am injured, why did you not tell my father that I need to rest?” Jongin moans, stomping his feet a little as he makes his way down the hallways. He’s still holding Jongdae’s hand as if it’s one of the most natural things to do now.

“Sorry sire, the king wishes for your immediate attention,” The guard bows.

“Yeah, yeah whatever, open the goddamn doors.” Jongin demands with a lazy wave of his hand.

The doors, as per usual, creak open at an ungodly pace, and Jongin would have squeezed through the gap if it wasn’t for his injury or the fact that he’s basically attached to Jongdae now. He does however get angrier at the fact that he has to stare at his father’s smirk from the other end of the room.

“Here we go,” Jongin says, taking a deep breath. “Ready?”

“Ready for what?” Jongdae blinks at him, as if he wasn’t entirely sure where he was yet.

“My father.”

“The king!?” Jongdae squeaks.

But Jongin is already dragging him down across the hall, stomping aggressively towards his father. Jongdae is skidding his feet across the ground, hoping for an exit, but Jongin isn’t having any of it.

“Father,” Jongin bows, and Jongdae follows suit rather nervously. “I have returned.”

“Ah, I see you haven’t come back empty handed like I expected,” The king nods towards Jongdae. “I’m surprised you’re alive, to be honest. Baekhyun told me much of the story.”

“I have a request for you,” Jongin announces, his chest puffing out.

His father raises an eyebrow, “Oh, really? Well...it couldn’t possibly be any worse than Baekhyun’s requests. What is it?”

“I’d like to be in the running for successor to the throne,” He declares, and his father’s expression is far more than shocked. Even his mother sits up from her slouched position. “I wish to change the difference we have with the magical folk.”

“Is that so!?” The king laughs, clapping loudly. “Well, that wizard was most definitely right when he said you’d come back a changed man.”

“Oh yeah also,” Jongin stops him. “I’m going to marry him.” He says and points at Jongdae.

“What!?” Jongdae spits. “I mean...I’m a peasant, remember?” He whispers harshly into Jongin’s ear, conscious of the king before him.

“Yeah well you know, you’re my peasant,” Jongin grins playfully and Jongdae makes a frustrated type of whimper.

“Well, I didn’t expect this much of a change, but then again Baekhyun is more than enough heterosexuality in this family as it is.” The king explains with a rather whimsical nod and a wave of his hand. “And this is the tutor, is that right?”

“Ah yes!” Jongdae stiffens all of a sudden. “Kim Jongdae sire, pleasure to meet you.”

“Please to meet you too boy-”

“Jongin, you’re back!?” A boisterous laugh vibrates through the hall, followed by a series of footsteps. Someone jumps onto Jongin’s back, making him clatter to the floor.

“Jackson!?” Jongin shouts. “Get the fuck off me.”

“Cousin Jongin, you’re back?” Another voice says from the side, a wide smile on his face.

“Jaebum get your brother off of me.” Jongin demands, but Jaebum ignores him and looks at Jongdae.

“Is he our tutor?” Jaebum asks, and another red head pops out from behind him.

“He’s shorter than me,” The redhead laughs.

“Jongin…” Jongdae warily asks.

“Yeah?” Jongin wheezes from underneath Jackson.

“How many cousins am I tutoring exactly?” He sighs.

“Oh, right, seven.”

“Great.”

THE, FUCKING, END.

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Author's note: can i just like disclaim everything. i'd like to say i didn't write this but unfortunately i did. and ill say now that the body of this fic goes to d. my soul and beta. everything you do laugh at will probably have come from her and everything else that you cringe at is me. i am really, really sorry for this mess. also, there's a trillion mistakes, don't @ me. cries, bye.

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