𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,350 words

𝐘𝐞𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐠

The fairie prince averted his eyes as far away from the other as he could - but that was easier said than done when they were sat so close up against each other. Literally, Yeosang could feel the prickly sensation of the warm fanning breath against his neck, the warmth spreading under his skin like sticky sweets that tasted more sour than not. The crown prince could see his own downfall from here. Or rather, he wanted it to be so at this moment.

However, it would not be as long as they were alone... And, as long as Seonghwa would keep this between them both.

Yeosang swallowed harshly, trying to get his racing heart under control but only to feel how the forces within him were gradually clenching around his guts the more he felt the wrongdoings dawn on him. The fairie's senses blurred everything around him.

"Breathe."

A squeeze of the fingers braided with his own was suddenly pulling him back from the imagination of what consequences he soon would be facing from his father, mother, and his kingdom- his future as the heir to the throne.

Yeosang gasped when Seonghwa's golden-red eyes were staring into his and he had a hard time figuring out if he should be crying or puking all over him. His body just wanted to get rid of all the unpleasant guilt that kneaded his intestines into a pulp.

"My father once told me that everyone can be just as much your worst enemy as your most trusted friend," the suddenly said, his voice soft but with a tinge of wariness.

Yeosang eyed him with disbelief, "What are you saying?" he asked confounded, silently pulling at his hand glued in between Seonghwa's fingers.

His entire body told him to run - run far away from this cursed place.

And it made him so frustrated that he couldn't.

Seonghwa's eyes flickered away from his as he tucked his lower lip in between his teeth. Yeosang could feel the whirling emotions coming from him when he sighed deeply, replying: "I don't even know."     

"How, when will his.. force.. let us go?" Yeosang silently asked, trying to shift his body so that his shoulder wouldn't be leaning as much up against Seonghwa. It didn't help anything and with his thoughts, he sent a glare at the Demon.

He couldn't bare the warmth radiating off the other prince anymore.

"Until he gets bored. As long as he is still in the castle he could be holding us hostages like this as long it pleases him. Perhaps it will be our luck if Emma shows us ruth and decides to free us from the demon's wickedness."

Yeosang could cry; this was such a dirty streak to his honour. How could this ever happen?!

The moment of silence was broken into another wrench of thoughts when Prince Seonghwa's breath stuttered. Startled, Yeosang whipped his head around, his lips gradually parting in surprise at what he was met with.

"I am genuinely sorry about everything that has happened."

The fairie prince stared at him, unable to tear his eyes away from those words that seemed too honest for a creature so unpure. He did not want to believe that what Seonghwa said was the truth.

Suddenly, a tingling sensation spread around his hand, slowly tracing his wrist with gentle touches as it moved up his arm. Yeosang shuddered before looking down at where his arm was being swallowed by flickering flames. Something cool traced along his spine as he desperately tried to swallow all his panic and make it go away.

"Are you cursing me?" the fairie asked, petrified by the antics of Seonghwa mostly trying to burn him. Why didn't it hurt, then?

The phoenix shook his head, biting his lip and for a moment Yeosang felt the unsureness hit him right in the core - suddenly realising things that must be forbidden; things that should not be felt.

Park Seonghwa was not like him. And would never be equal to his kin.

"I am not," the phoenix prince said, "I'm trying to break the spell."

Flames rushed down his body, engulfing him in heat as it surrounded him. The fairie prince jumped in his seat, his knees catching around the other prince's legs before the rest of his weight fell down onto him, making him fling his arms around Seonghwa's neck to regain his balance.

Yeosang gasped. Twice.

Embers danced around in the air, touching his cheeks and landing softly in his hair. He had lost his voice in the middle of emotions doing foul mind tricks on him as if he was too ignorant to understand that this was not something he naturally was feeling himself. No, this was dark magic.

And yet, it made him feel beautiful. In the most horrific way, he could ever think of.

His mind muddled when images flooded his eyes; of Seonghwa's hands caressing down the curves of his body and holding him tender and warm. It carved itself into his skin, marking up what once had been his purity with what is called a sacrilege against his kin. And Yeosang would die with the only thing he could not stop wonder; of why it even had to be like this. For Seonghwa had been so so gentle with him.

"Please stop."

Seonghwa's golden-red eyes returned to brown when their eyesights crossed and the flames went out into thin air. Yeosang was breathing hard as if he just had been running for his life. Then suddenly, the fairie prince was pulled out of his trance, hands pushing himself off the other and stumbling down on the floor again, his legs wobbling as he stared at Seonghwa with a new and certainly also unknown feeling in his chest. He knew this was dangerous.

Prince Yeosang desperately wanted to scream at him to never touch him again, but when he drew in a large amount of air, nothing left his mouth as he tried to speak. 

He could not lie to himself.

Before the other prince had gathered his words in his mouth, Yeosang had already turned on his heels and darted off into the corridors of this enormous castle. He wanted to get as far away from Seonghwa as possible.

But the heat in his body never subsided.

__

Yeosang sprinted down the hallway, legs running on their own as he found his memorized path up the stairs to his chamber. His feet skipped a few steps, fortunately, his hands caught himself when he tripped over the stairs but quickly scrambled up the last few steps. The fairie prince's heart pulsed in his throat when he finally flung the handle down of the door into his only personal space and stepped in. In a hurry, he stripped off his boots as the first thing the second his door smacked close. Next thing was he turned around with a startle and hacked the hasp in the door.

His little, soft fae hand lifted to his face - softly closing around his mouth when his breath quickened even if he did not move. Yeosang did not linger when he pulled himself from the rising emotions with a shake of his head instead. His fingers found the seam of his shirt as he forced his focus anywhere else. He needed a bath so badly.

So, the prince darted off in the direction of his bathroom, his knees trembling when he locked this door too and went to fill the bathtub. He crouched down onto his knees, chest leaning against the stone resin while he reached out to turn on the lukewarm water from the tap. He did not feel like he had the energy to do more.

Yeosang thought his head felt heavy, instinctively going up to pull off his golden crown when his fingers were only brushing through blonde curls and nothing else. His insides curled around themselves. He must have left it in the common room.

A sting of panic went through his stomach, the bad sensation spreading heat in the rest of his body. If he lost it- if it would not be there when he decided to look for it again...

Yeosang inhaled a shaky breath. His missing crown felt like stripping his own title from him.

Suddenly he was startled out of his mind when he noticed the water already had reached his hands there hung into the bathtub and he quickly shut off the running water. But after doing so, Yeosang slumped down against the tub again, eyes falling deep into the steam rising from the surface of the water.

His shoulders shuddered when he started tearing up and despite trying to be so strong, Yeosang knew he never could be strong enough.

Not when he was touched with darkness.

A white shadow of fluttering wings rounded his head a few times before it landed on top of his hand. The butterfly stretched its wings a little more before she lowered them onto him when realising something was wrong with him.

Yeosang ignored the little creature.

Standing up, he hurriedly threw off his clothes, scaring the butterfly as it fluttered into the air again. The steam swallowed his naked body when he sunk down into the bathtub. Yeosang hissed in pain when his skin burned but he could not care less. He felt dirty. Disgusting.

He was a fool.

Goodness, he had blindly laid his trust in the hands of the other princes, thinking they would not hurt him. They were all slowly forgetting the real reason why they had come here, and it really showed. Even Yeosang had let himself slip.

They were all fiends, and nothing should be changed about that.

Yeosang was supposed to negotiate and settle for a righteous agreement between all the kingdoms. And so were all the other princes. That was what their parents expected of them, or rather, should be expecting from them.

But as it seemed, not even the high-headed phoenix had in mind to do something about their current and most important task.

Did they simply not care about their folks' safety?

The hot water was melting his skin - but it wasn't enough.

Evil hands glided all over his body, staining his purity with so much filth he couldn't stand it any longer. A wrist had flicked and his golden pride on top of his head slid down and cracked against the floor with everything else of importance in his life.

It was his everything.

The butterfly kissed his cheek with her little legs, staying still even while tears were rolling down his face. Yeosang cupped his hands full of water and splashed it against his shoulders, wrapping his fingers around them as he dug the fingers into his skin. The prince sniffed before he slowly moved his hands down his crossed arms while still pressing his nails into his skin. When he reached his elbows he lifted his hands to his shoulders again before dragging them down of himself another time. He repeated the movement. Nails going deeper and deeper and irritating the skin before drawing drops of blood. Before he broke.

And Yeosang could not stop again.

His hands continued up his neck and trailed along his jaws before dragging them down again until he turned red. His breath stuttered. And his movements grew more rapid. His nails scratched all over his hide; down his arms, around his thighs, down his legs, up his neck, across his chest - Yeosang tried to rid all the lingering dirty touches he still could feel all over himself.

The fairie prince was desperate, he wanted it off now. But it did not help. Twisting around in the bathtub, the water now sloshed around him like a wild storm as his nails still drew screams and esteem from escaping his lips. Yeosang cried out maddened and his heart wrenched in despair inside his ribcage. Falling backward into the edge of the bathtub he trembled poorly and suddenly he laid still. Very still. He shut his eyes, feeling them burn from the insides of his eyelids.

If the other princes didn't want to negotiate, he might as well attempt another method.

_____

𝐇𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐣𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠

The demon swung his legs up to rest on the table, his eyes closing for a short moment as he felt pleasantly sated. For now.

He knew his force upon the fairie and phoenix had broken, but that didn't matter anyway when he already had fed off the stirring emotions that he had wished for.

Hongjoong wasn't that evil for doing this when the phoenix prince clearly had something for the younger prince. Whatever it was. Attraction. Feelings. Impression. Astonish. Dumbstruck. Something that Hongjoong did not really care about. What he cared about, though, was his own well-being and the gnawing hunger there didn't seem to stop antagonizing him despite how much he already had been feeding multiple times by now.

It seemed like staying in this castle with a bunch of princes made him slowly lose his mind.

Normally, was a full meal once every second month enough to keep him sated - but here he could not think of anything but the taste of desperation on his tongue. He needed and wanted and was urged to shatter someone - cause pain and destruction and ruin this entire place. His wicked little smile smeared across his face as he clenched his fists tightly - he wanted to fuck it all over.

Perhaps, would he never have come to this mad conclusion if the bird had let him touch the fairie prince with his own hands.. he had time, yet.

For they would be trapped within those fucking walls forever, Hongjoong was sure. They had all run right into a trap and the respective kingdoms would never have their sons seen again.

Disaster would rule the world in a matter of no time and Hongjoong would not even get to see it with his own eyes. How infuriating. Hongjoong leaned back to lie down on top of the table with his eyes still closed.

Mother fucking stupid witch bitch.

Hongjoong loathed her already.

Boo fucking hoo. He couldn't do anything about it.

♛