𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,250 words

𝐒𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐰𝐚

His head pounded, but he couldn't bear moving the slumping body, resting against his side like the dead. Seonghwa sighed deeply, his eyes squeezing hard as he lifted a hand to press against his aching head, hoping to ease the pain a little.

It did not work.

The Phoenix sighed in annoyance another time, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before having his sight pinpoint who was currently sleeping against him as if he was a pillow. Fluffy blonde curls spread against the deep colour of his shirt- and he didn't need to see more for the surge in his stomach to appear. The prince froze, his hot seething blood running cold like ice water.

"Finally awake?" a voice sounded, making Seonghwa whip his head around in search of it.

The room was a mess, with bottles and cups tossed all over the table and floor, sticky liquids everywhere, and Seonghwa hadn't even time to stress about who would have to clean it all. As his eyes adjusted to the dim, nearly non-existing light in the room, he found the armchair occupied by another person.

Although rather questionable, the prince's legs were swung over the backrest, back laying on the seat as his head dangled upside down. The famous wicked smile was wiped across his face, eyes glinting in the dark as he grinned at Seonghwa. And the phoenix wanted nothing else but to curse at the other.

"What do you want?" he asked sourly leaning back on the couch as he definitely did not have the energy to face the malicious creature lazing around in the furniture like a creep.

"Mean," Hongjoong said, and Seonghwa could just hear a stupid pout by only listening to the slight change of tone. The phoenix rolled his eyes.

For the next few minutes, there was silence. And Seonghwa enjoyed it just as much as he didn't like it. The prince's eyes fluttered open when he could feel a palm right against his groin, pressing down.

He snapped his head around, "Get your filthy hands off me," he hissed at him, biting his teeth together when he caught the demon's lewd gaze. He shoved at him, but the other didn't budge, as if Seonghwa had lost all of his strength.

Then he realised he had.

"I thought we made an agreement.." moving his hand, the demon started playing around with the pressure and Seonghwa could only watch the demon's mimics quirk at the newly conquered power. And feel the hand fold around him, slowly tugging.

"Kim Hongjoong, do you realise that this is overstepping my personal boundaries?" the phoenix prince warned him.

Seonghwa's teeth grounded together when the other, despite his threat, in fact still did not move away, "Back up!" he roared with so much power that he started trembling.

And the demon had the audacity to laugh at him, head tilting to the side as he cooed at Seonghwa, a finger lifted to caress his cheek. Seonghwa attempted to bite the digit, hoping to bite it off. But the Phoenix couldn't even move his head - being under the control of the demon.

"Aren't you being a bit feisty now, hm?" Hongjoong giggled, tapping the tip of Seonghwa's nose now.

He could feel the sparks of embers rising from his skin, forgetting everything about the fairie prince sleeping against his shoulder. He pondered if demons possibly could burn alive.

"You're literally harassing me!" the taller prince scowled at the other, eyes as fierce as fire flickering at the inside of his retinas, "You could have asked me nicely."

"I know you wouldn't agree to it if I asked you nicely," Hongjoong mocked back, stretching the vowels of Seonghwa's words in his own mouth.

The phoenix pursed his lips, mindly distancing himself from the demon even if he couldn't move from his seat on the couch, "You wouldn't know because you haven't tried. If you played by the rules of socially and morally accepted norms then would you perhaps be treated differently like, like-" he stuttered, unsure of where his own words were heading to- "and others would perhaps like you by free will and not like this-!"

Shushing him, Hongjoong shook his head. His tongue clicked from the front of his mouth and he made such a show out of sliding a knee in between Seonghwa's legs, parting them.

"Letting your guard down already, bird? It seems like your lack of control is making you crave it back."

Heat flared in the prince. First there did his eyes glide up his body and Seonghwa felt exposed in front of the other as if he lay bare at the demon's feet.

The other prince slowly leaned forward, black orbs looking rough and out of control and Seonghwa felt the heavy weight of how they wanted to devour him.

He shuddered at the recognition of how powerful the demon was and how he had no chance to protect himself if Hongjoong actually wanted to wolf him down.

His heart raced in his chest.

"Seonghwa.." Hongjoong whispered. He could see from the corner of his eyesight how his lips curled up into a smirk, "I'm a demon. We don't play by rules, we don't make friends.. We make deals and take what we want, and," he paused heaving in a breath and Seonghwa was sure that he could smell the lust reeking off him, "right now... I want you."

A foreign force pressed against his chest, doing something to him that Seonghwa found unexplainable. The sensation spread from his core, awakening something that should not have been awakened. Yesterday had been enough - he didn't want to feel the same when sober.

But the warmth against his long neck made him yearn for the forbidden touch. It did something to him and it scared the phoenix prince because he knew that he only was here to negotiate with the princes from the other kingdoms - not to play around like some fool who had lost all sense.

"I really want you, right here, right now."

The demon marred his skin, tongue licking over the drops of salty sweat rolling down his neck as he moaned sweetly.

His head hurt with a stinging headache and he attempted so hard to convince himself that he had tried worse than losing his power to a young demon.

"Prince Yeosang, he..he-"

Hongjoong's arms locked behind Seonghwa's neck as he wound himself around the fretting phoenix. Seonghwa noticeably gulped, trying to move his

"He what?" the demon asked, sugar-coating his words with excessive amounts of dripping honey and Seonghwa couldn't stand any of it.

Hongjoong's head tilted slightly to the side, smirking at him, "He's resting his head at your shoulder, is that what you wanna say? How adorable - look how you two suddenly get along. I thought you hated his guts, looks like a bit of alcohol made you forget everything about threats of war."

 A wave of confidence surged through him.

Seonghwa felt as if his insides were bursting in flames of rage but he couldn't fucking move.

"You can't avoid the obvious attraction toward a being so ethereal like him. Prince Yeosang could be an exception from his kind, and... for you."

The demon's black orbs then flickered past his face and it caught Seonghwa's interest greatly. It could only mean trouble.

When Seonghwa slowly moved his head to his side, he found a pair of red eyes staring right back at him. The phoenix prince was startled in his seat, but his body didn't react in the slightest.

The evil giggle coming from Hongjoong's lips told him everything about all the might he held in his hands - how he forced their bodies to stay so close to each other.

Prince Yeosang looked beyond scared of what was happening, his expression trembling as he stared up at Seonghwa with those shifting red eyes he never had believed Yeosang could wear.

Suddenly Yeosang moved a hand. But instead of grabbing the furniture to pull himself further away from Seonghwa, he found Seonghwa's hand and slowly wiggled it into his hold until their fingers were braided together. The phoenix parted his lips in surprise but no sound escaped from them. 

"Sorry, I'm sorry, this is not by my doings!" the fairie prince stressed all while his fair cheeks coloured into a pretty blush.

Seonghwa just stared, listening to the foul cackling in the background of it all and how it slowly subsided out of the door.

And Hongjoong was damn leaving them like this; unable to move away from how they were like glued together.

"He will die today," Seonghwa whispered through his bitten teeth, staring right into Yeosang's eyes.

_____

𝐒𝐚𝐧

San's fingers senselessly traced along Jongho's arm, following the patterns of his deep blue scales fusing with his skin. Only now and then his eyes dared reach a little further up, nervously looking at Jongho's anxious expression. The boy knew he had fucked up entirely, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to face the consequences.. and the truth. His heart still ached.

His tail flapped a few times in the lukewarm water in the cave. He had a hard time believing that he still was awake. For he didn't even remember finding this place the night before, being all but unconscious.

Sunlight shone in through long, slender horizontal windows, rays cast against the crystals hanging in the ceiling and making them glow with light. The place was magical.

San retreated his hand from the other, nervously gulping as he fought himself to directly face Jongho. He didn't win the fight and instead, he stared out at the calm rocking water.

"Are you angry at me?" he muttered.

For a moment, San would not want to hear anything, blocking his sense of hearing by only focusing on the sloshing water against the lower of his body. If the only option was to jump into the depths he was already ready to do so. He wouldn't even hesitate.

Although the water was not enough to drown the sounds of Jongho's melodically, addicting voice, "Maybe. Do you think I should be?"

San closed his eyes, his palm reaching down to the water and gently treading them through the masses. San did not know himself. Should he be angry at him?

Jongho sighed which made San squeeze his eyes even more closed.

"San," he started before drawing in another breath of air, "This.. we cannot."

The merman nods diligently, "No," his voice cracks, "It was just a silly kiss anyway, best friends can kiss too. They can do that often, a lot actually-"

"San-"

"I'm fine, it's fine Jongho. We were drunk, I understand. Maybe I'm just a bit hurt actually. You know, I actually kinda think I liked it."

San was pretty sure he couldn't hear Jongho breathing anymore and the pinch of dread had him fiercely turn around to face the siren. Jongho's deep eyes stood wide open as he seemed to ponder something important. Something that made San's heart beat faster..

"Do you.. by any chance actually.."

He couldn't breathe the air, feeling suffocated by the oxygen entering his gills. For Jongho was so right about this situation and San's poor decisions in life. It was a tragedy that the crown prince had to face on his own.

"This is really sad because I actually felt some stupid magical spark from that kiss or whatever it was. But I know the feelings aren't returned - and that's okay," he said, his cheek rubbing against the sand as he spoke.

"San, you know that we can't," Jongho said and San just nodded his head as he kept looking at Jongho's beautiful face through hazy eyes.

"I know that we can't and never would but I just can't ignore my feelings like that. I've been around you all my life, we've basically grown up together like were we not any different- and I admire you for so many things that I have never been capable of doing, and I just-" his words became silent when Jongho pressed his hand, halting his ramble.

"San, I like you too."

What? Carefully, San searched Jongho's eyes for any explanation for his rash words.

"You..you do?"

And he watched in utter flabbergast how Jongho nodded his head. He fucking nodded his head.

San raised a hand to cover his mouth. If he had been standing up, he would surely have fainted because of the lack of oxygen to his brain, "Holy fuck, now this just makes it ten times more fucked up," he burst out, "I like you, you like me, and we're not even allowed to be together."

But when he finally realised how Jongho wasn't even looking at him anymore, the boy came back to reality again, "We'll just pretend like this never happened, right?"

San bit his lip, "You won't leave me.. right?"

Jongho had turned his head away from him, glancing out into the glittering water. And everything the crown prince could feel was pain.

"Please.." San brokenly whispered.

Slowly, Jongho turned his head again, heavy eyes considering his expression. The light from the crystals shimmered across his skin, lighting up his dark eyes just the slightest. San pressed Jongho's hand there still held around his, encouraging him to just say anything.

"I'll not be leaving you, I promise. But this never happened," the siren said, giving his hand a squeeze in return as he leaned forward.

San's heart jumped in his throat, eyes stuck on doting every inch of Jongho's face. Nodding blindly at his words, he barely understood what was going on before Jongho's tail touched his and he was so close to him.

His dark hair suddenly emphasized his eyes more than normally and San felt himself terribly drawn to them, "Not without this happening too."

His breath hitched, "What.." he squeaked.

Lips touched his.

♛