𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,400 words

𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢

He would be lying if he told them that he wasn't surprised by the maids suddenly bustling through the whole castle on an affair to apparently gather all the princes by the youngest prince's request.

The ones he watched passing by the enormous doors to the library, looked beyond terrified, and somehow Mingi's boredom was enough to let his curiosity lead him the way to the castle's common room. He pulled the leather bookmark between the two pages he had reached and placed the book down on the coffee table beside his empty wine glass before leaving the silent room.

As noticed, the corridors he swiftly passed were crammed with servants, murmuring hushed words between each other. Mingi's superior hearing easily caught up with the conversations, his brows furrowing the second he realised what all this chaos was about.

One of the princes has been poisoned?

The Crown Prince?

That cannot be true! No unknown is able to get into the castle without permission from the Lady!?

But, what if it's no foreign who did it.. what if it is one who already is inside those walls..

Are you saying that..

Mingi's gaze flickered around at all the servants' scared expressions, sensing how limbs were trembling under all those formal clothing. Rushing through another door opening for him, his crown heaved above every fleeting eye until he crossed the bridge to the castle's common room. His newly polished dress shoes echoed against the stern surface of the gold-decorated marble as he paved his way through trifling humans.

"Move away; clear the passage!" he barked at them.

Instantly, they scurried away from the half-closed doors as little mice would have, the vampire prince's thoughts only going around the mere way they pathetically responded to his order. Mingi kept his stance tall as he reached for the slight opening and pulled them from each other. He could have sworn that he saw how one of the princes had his fists wrapped around one's throat right before they all turned to look at him, different expressions painted all over their features.

"You! You are the one causing all this trouble." Jongho spat at him, pacing closer as he strode through the room, arms pushing chairs out of his way and fury filling his eyes to the brim. The siren was beyond mad, a sight Mingi had only waited for him to grow when he had felt from their first encounter how the siren's fuming feelings had been simply following his patient self at his heels.

Mingi examined the younger's sharp teeth directed at him, instead of noticing how long nails were piercing into his skin. The vampire prince glanced down with a bored expression, seeing how blood was running down Jongho's hands.

"I am afraid that I do not call upon what you are just now declaring," he told him, his gaze slowly moving upward again until it caught in the siren's vibrating eyes. And then, something odd occurred. The bluish colours spiraled, merging with each other until they suddenly reached for his own deep eyes, giving them a strong pull. Mingi nearly felt the entire world tumbling him over before spinning around. Sounds vanished from his ears, leaving an empty ringing for him to hear. The vampire fluttered befuddled with his eyes when the siren prince's breath hitting his face seemed to be the only thing he could sense.

In the shadows behind Jongho, a presence of an arm interposed them as it pulled at the siren's shoulder, "Jongho, please sit down before you pop a vein."

Mingi straightened his gaze down at the preserving existence, believing it to be the merman before his eyes ran across a dragon's eyes. Astonished, it had the vampire's eyes widen for a split second before he forced his stance cold again. He watched how Wooyoung's hands fisted the material of the fabric, giving it another pull.

Jongho hissed at him, far from docile in those circumstances, "No, Wooyoung, let go of me! I have no time for sitting down and talking things through. You, on the other hand, are welcome to do that if you think this is not important."

"Listen, nothing serious happened, he just-"

Abruptly, the words had Jongho tear his claws from Mingi and turn around at the smaller prince instead. Wooyoung took a step back, his arms retreating to himself again as he seemed extremely agitated for some reason that the vampire prince could not see.

"And that is why I don't trust you either! The terrible thing is that he was poisoned - within the castle walls! This is a serious matter; think about it if the poison had different intentions!"

The other princes moved closer, taking interest in the disagreements that Jongho must have already explained the roots of. Swiftly his eyes raked a more unforced gaze around the room, spotting the nonchalant phoenix sitting more graceful than not on the dark-green coloured, camel-backed sofa. The fairie prince held on the background, fingers fiddling with something in his hands.

And Yunho was not here. San too.

Leaning closer the angered siren prince, Hongjoong broad smirk gusted them all with his wanted sinisterly as he had his arms crossed in front of his chest. "Ya, calm your tits little siren," he said, mouth seeming to stretch further into his devilish grin, "I hope you are aware that you two fishes currently stay under the same roof as six other species who all desire to kill each other more than they desire to be crowned as kings. Of course, accidents like those will occur more than once, or else where would the fun even be?"

The demon smiled wickedly while his tongue graced his teeth, most likely talking loud of his own desires, "The little mermaid is no different from everyone else."

Jongho ignored the comment, completely turning away from all the princes with a stern glare and passing all furniture to call one of the servants from the far end of the common room. The moment the youngest prince stepped away, the fused smell of blood got stronger and Mingi nearly had to pinch his own arm.

His blood was smeared all over Wooyoung's throat, drops disappearing down under the loose silk shirt that revealed so much skin. The vampire suppressed the urge to lick his lips when his gaze ran over Wooyoung's rushed and messy, but also rather appealing appearance.

The fairie prince nearly noticed it before himself when his shifting eye colours were flashing in his face.

"Are there any food tasters in this castle? I want a well-chosen food taster to attend our every meal and taste the dishes before we dig in."

"Of-of course, Prince Jongho, your demand shall be adjusted right away."

At the fast acceptance, Hongjoong lashed out, words spitting in all directions as he went for the youngest prince, "You have to be kidding me, who said you could decide on that? You're not the worthier here!"

Mingi barely could even focus on them, when his eyes were so captivated by Wooyoung's despair. The voices became an echo in the background.

"No, but I am, at least, interested in living for a little longer than some of you seem to care for. I have a voice in this, and I use it wisely to solve the current problem. Now if you may excuse me, I dismiss this meeting."

The door went shut, but it wasn't as if the problem in any way was unraveled. Not when the perpetrator still was among them.

_____

𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠

"Who of you did it?" Wooyoung faced the problems with a dead serious face, a finger pointing around at the other prince's. "Who poisoned San?"

But none gave him any answer right away. The dragon crossed his arms and pursed his lips, "I'm being serious here."

His eyes glid around at them all as he licked up all their different expressions. And maybe just maybe did he pass the silver-haired prince an extra time, not noticing how he already had his courtesy drawn at himself all along. Those perfectly curved lips..

"Now, why are you as certain on this matter as the 'cousin' of the said victim is, hmm?" and those perfect lips were curved into a smirk, an index finger suddenly tracing them, having Wooyoung withdraw his gaze from them, turning to see his fully figure sitting in such a pleasingly ingenious and simple manner. And yet this contrived and unreal man was smickering him at his ways of trying to help one of the other princes, apparently thinking that something was hidden beneath the water's surface. Although was he not wrong. Not at all.

Wooyoung was blushing profusely, his cheeks heating with blood as he tilted his head to suddenly stare down at his fiddling bare feet on the cold stone floor.

"A mere prince from one of the Underwater kingdoms should not do enough to have you this worked up if he is not of different importance to you, right?" Seonghwa's velvety voice was creeping up his spine with its soothing ways it always seemed to be so full of truths, yet still in a way that made Wooyoung seek to hear it more. It was only the second time the phoenix prince spoke to him.

Almost as if he read minds.

He drew in a staggering breath of air, pulling his gaze up in the act as he faced the smickering man, exterior adorned in all kinds of velvet, too. "That's none of your business," Wooyoung told him bitterly, although, seeing how his answer only sparked an ember in the other prince's eyes.

Someone grinned by his other side, and the dragon then realised how they were not the only ones in the room, "Ah well, the bird certainly seems to be right about this one," a hand brushed Wooyoung's neck and black dust landed on his skin. The demon was leaning closer, hot breath ghosting his neck and blowing goddamn gooseflesh down his entire body, "But you see, minding one's own business may be difficult in a place like this, Prince Wooyoung."

Then he disappeared, and they all eventually did, Wooyoung wasn't quite sure of what was happening as his mind kept buzzing instead of perceiving what was going on around him. First, the moment a deep voice called him to the presence again, his eyes startled open as he turned around to look at the really tall male.

The prince gestured at his neck with his hands, and said such enchanting words: "Let me help you."

"Wha-what?" Wooyoung stuttered, feeling so small under the vampire's heavy stare. The true dragon was not small at all.

His fingers dragged up along his neck to his chin, feeling how the sticky substance clung to his digits.

Mingi didn't even bat his eyes, "It's my blood after all."

"Oh, yeah, uhm okay," his voice squeaked and embarrassedly, he tried to hide it by clearing his throat, averting his stance from the taller prince.

When Mingi didn't say anything, Wooyoung lifted himself to see the other smiling shortly at him, kindly telling him to follow him out or the common room. The dragon blushed another time, stepping out behind the handsome vampire, feeling extremely underdressed. And he was.

As his warm feet touched the cool floor, the broad frame of the other prince steered them down the corridors. A grand amount of servants passed them, bewildered by the current Interrogation there had kicked in. A soft grip lay around his upper arm, the coolness of it surprised him greatly.

"Here," Mingi said shortly, opening the door into an entirely empty restroom.

He locked it behind them.

Wooyoung trifled around himself, looking for something that would hold him occupied. But the attempt fell to the ground the immediate second the other prince pulled him closer with an outstretched arm, invisibly smelling the air. At first sight, Wooyoung hadn't even noticed the grand mirror hanging along the wall, decorated with growing flowers and verdures, adorning everything in delightful visuals and scents. He hadn't even noticed how Mingi's towering body slowly backed him up against the cool reflecting surface, or how he already had forgotten why they were here.

Right, the blood stains.

The vampire prince smiled crookedly down at him when his eyes stalled with so much confusion that it must have made him look so stupid. It was a sink he leaned against, and Mingi let go of him to fetch something like a cloth or towel which he could wet and wipe the stains off his neck with. Wooyoung felt the kindness in those simple acts of the other warm him dearly, feeling how much the concerns about the mere blood made his heart, maybe, speed up just a little.

"You're more kind than what you let others see."

The taller prince moved toward him with a found towel, wetting the corner of it in the sink. He lifted his deep eyes to look at Wooyoung, his light brown hair falling into his eyes in a way that urged the dragon to reach out and draw it away. They both froze.

"You think?" Mingi then asked, lifting the towel to wipe the left side and down.. down.

Wooyoung nodded, "Yeah, you seem like a genuinely sweet man when you are not so cold."

Something in the vampire's eyes changed, something, unlike a flickering flame, would in his own. The deep and gentle touch to them vanished to a shade much more dark and red as the towel continued further and further.. down under his shirt, tugging all left buttons up and leaving his marked skin to be seen. Mingi's lips touched his neck where the blood stains must have been, his tongue sliding across his skin with such unpredictable meek effort.

The dragon gasped lightly, not because he got startled by the act, but because the sensation felt so heart-fluttering pure, and yet so grimacingly dirty. His fingers frantically searched for his clothes to claw and dig deep perfervid holes into.

Instead, he moaned softly when Mingi backed him up against the grand mirror before trailing his huge hands along his waistline and pressing him tighter and tighter as he licked up his own spilled blood.

The prince whispered into his throbbing skin, "I like this.. I like this very much..."

♛