Hongjoong was content snuggled up in Youjin's arms, the rhythmic breathing of the elf moving his chest beneath Hongjoong's head. They were sharing the other's warmth lazily, having long since forgotten what any other duties aside their cuddle session there might be and from time to time a satisfied sigh fled Hongjoong, pulling a chuckle out of Youjin.

The elf smelled of wood and smoke, apparently having been outside not too long ago while Hongjoong had been hiding beneath his blankets from Seonghwa. Hongjoong liked his smell.

It was way into the night but Youjin seemed not tired yet, always being awake when Hongjoong shifted awake from another nap in his arms. The elf had left a small light on at Hongjoong's side, bathing them in a soft orange glow that danced beautifully over their forms. Hongjoong liked watching it dance in Youjin's hair sleepily.

His hand was heavy as he lifted it somewhen, tracing the foreign shape of the elf's ear with his fingers. The other was wearing piercings there too, blue dahlias on his lobe and a dangling white one on his helix. Hongjoong played with them idly, always having wished for this kind of accessoires himself but never quite coming around to doing them alone.

Youjin seemed to read it on his face.

"I can do them for you, if you want. They don't hurt down here." Youjin gently poked Hongjoong's own lobe, his voice srcratchy from disuse. Hongjoong smiled sleepily at him.

"You can do that?"

Youjin nodded happily and Hongjoong let his finger wander again, exploring the pointy tips of the elf's ears and then letting his hand sink lower, letting it settle on Youjin's neck.

"There are nearly no people here... The whole day I only saw you and San. Well, and Seonghwa." Hongjoong blushed again at the memory, making Youjin coo over him.

"It's only the four of us right now. San sometimes gets visited by his lover but that's it. The castle was abandoned until we returned recently and I can't wait to fill it with life again."

It seemed lonely. So very sad. Did this castle bustle with life once upon a time? Did Youjin have to take it's fall, seeing his people die or flee from here? Was Seonghwa himself involved?

The high elf came to his mind again, making Hongjoong wonder about him again. He did not fear asking Youjin about it.

"Say... Seonghwa and you, you've known each other for a very long time, right?"

Youjin laughed fondly, turning onto his back in order to pull Hongjoong atop his chest. They settled calmly, Hongjoong's hand coming up to play with Youjin's a bit too long hair, feeling his horns with his fingertips.

"We were friends, once upon a time. Just as children, really. He is younger than me by a bit." Youjin wrapped his arms around Hongjoong's middle, holding him securely. They settled comfortably.

"We changed over time. Our fathers, both of them, they wanted peace. They wanted to unite the races and Seonghwa and I were betrothed at that time. We were young and it seemed fun to be able to spend the rest of our lifes together so we did not question the long history of war behind it. It all went good and well, his father becoming king for his hard work and both of us got excited at the prospect of him being a prince."

Hongjoong listened with rapt attention, imagining the two dark haired elven children running around happily, a storm brewing on the horizon.

"We were somewhere around 12 I think when the misdeed happened. It was common that dark elves were attacking high elves still, were taking and raping without any regards but we spoke of those as the ones hard to educate, the lost cases. We dealt with them like any human court would. But then came that day when I lost control. And I lost it because of Seonghwa."

Hongjoong's breath hitched, imagining the worst scenarios. Youjin's hand immediately came up to gently pet through his hair.

"It's not what you think. I had his consent and I knew how to treat him right but it felt entirely different for the two of us. We were huddled close in bed together after and I told him about the excitement, the darkness, whatever I wanted to do to him. It scared him. It scared his young and clueless mind how dark the desires in my head already were. I knew on that day that us elves could not be friends. It did not matter how much Seonghwa loved me. At the end of the day I would always rather see him in pain. I noticed quickly that my father tried to supress our nature and it made me angry. It only fueled the darkness."

Hongjoong shuddered in his arms, noticing the dark tilt of his tone. For the first time ever since he knew the other, the elf seemed dangerous, seemed like an arrow ready to snap.

"Word got out that I was doing things to Seonghwa, that Seonghwa was too young to understand and I was abusing him. His father started worrying about him. My dad told me to keep it a secret. Never to stop. He knew exactly well we would not stop. It went on for a few years. Seonghwa kept succumbing, kept being stained by my darkest side and it changed him too. He did not want to see it and I did not care. And then, much later, my dad killed his."

It came to no surprise, Hongjoong already knew that the story would have an unsettling ending but he still held on tighter on Youjin's warm body, concentracting on his hands and the voice washing softly over Hongjoong.

"Seonghwa then finally returned home, having to reign his people and we never talked about it again but it is still common knowledge that he deliberately looked away when his angry men came and slaughtered us. The target was my dad and him only but many more died on the way. I, too, had to flee and as Seonghwa got older and finally understood our relationship his love for me turned into seething hate. He's been obsessed with finding and killing me for some years now but whenever we meet, we can not really kill each other. We try to, we insult and we indulge in hate sex. Seonghwa always runs away after that, always hates himself for being trained to liking me. And at the end he always returns, pretending things have changed when in reality they never did."

Youjin moved their bodies a bit, gently embracing Hongjoong.

"He is not enough of an bastard to wish for me to break your weak human mind. Yet he would never save you from it as he knows exactly that no matter how much he hates it, he always keeps enjoying it. It's a vicious cirlce." A soft kiss was delivered on Hongjoong's forehead but his thoughts were already somewhere else.

He thought this kind of childhood explained a lot about Seonghwa and why he became the man he was today. In a way Hongjoong pitied him, enough to push the exhilarating thought of Youjin roughly taking Seonghwa aside. It made him feel a bit more human than before. He was still able to understand and forgive.

"It will take him just a few days to break and come begging for me again. He always does. You're welcome to join us, little darkling. You would be surprised how much of a dark side Seonghwa himself developed during all this time at my side." Youjin's voice had dropped again, making Hongjoong shudder in his hold again. Shyly he hid his face in the other's neck.

"And you would be surprised how absolutely new I am to all of this even though I did that earlier. In my world there are no such hungry elves as you."

It was not hard to guess that Youjin's main hobby was killing and inflicting pain probably. Substituting that with sex seemed like a logical and more healthy option in Hongjoong's head.

"I will teach you, if you want to. Staying with me means taking a turn to sin no matter what you do. I will ask you again in a few days, whether you truly want to stay or want to run away together with Seonghwa. I lived long enough with him to be way softer than my kind usually is, I would let the two of you go, if you wish so."

Hongjoong knew he should have approved immediately, declaring his stay as temporal and planning that he would leave. But was the temptation not oh so sweet? What would be so bad about staying in Youjin's arms while he was here, in this realm? He was being accepted here.

Hongjoong knew it was all wrong, needing those days to mull the thought over. Yet he still acted as if it was only natural for him to do so.