𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,800 words

𝐒𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐡𝐰𝐚

After parting from the negotiations, Prince Seonghwa found himself strolling down hidden corridors while his thoughts wandered through cracks in the walls in deep desperation for any instability of the curse cast on the castle. For now, it did not seem like he had any luck.

Slowly, he began to assume how thorough Emma had been about this curse of hers, even further making him suspect that this was only the first step in an even bigger ploy of her wicked ideas. But as it seemed at the current moment, they all had no other choice than to try whatever they had of ideas, even if that meant..

The phoenix scrunched his nose at the rather repellent thought as he looked down at his moving feet. He wasn't quite sure if he was ready for all of that.. tenderness.

But he supposed he had to make an effort if he ever wanted to return home again. Whatever Emma had in mind, Seonghwa should be somewhat grateful she had decided to only bring attractive men here. They could have been literally anyone.

But morals- those were an entirely different story.

Perhaps this idea of those sea princes could hinder another attempt at murder between them. But the phoenix prince doubted that a settled relationship would be enough to call off the coming war.

Passing by a grand window section of the east side of the castle, Seonghwa glanced out at the grey weather, perceiving how water clung to the air, creating a heavy mist drawing around the walls of the castle and stretching down to the nearest cluster of trees at the outskirts of the forest. He dared think of how many eyes peered up at him from the darkness of moist loam as his rational mind made him aware of the possibility that the demons there had been hunting him were still lurking in the shadows. Waiting for the moment, he would step outside the castle again.

When he made a turn down the corridor of the east wing, Seonghwa barely even registered it himself before he suddenly stood in front of the door to the fairie prince's chamber. Furrowing his brows, the phoenix halted his motion of knocking on the door, his hand hovering above the sturdy surface, head wrapping around the odd urge he had to go in and check on the younger prince. Especially when he so clearly despised everything about Seonghwa. And that he already was so painfully much aware of that matter.

Unfolding his hand, he slowly placed it on top of the door and leaned in to press his ear against it. A taut nervousness pressed his shoulders down, making him swallow countlessly amounts of dread while stilling in on the silence from the room. He had to make sure he was doing fine.

A startle rattled up his spine when a door opened behind him, and Seonghwa hurriedly stepped away from Prince Yeosang's room while straightening his entire posture again, turning to face the person stepping out into the corridor. To his surprise, the merprince didn't even glance his way when he stumbled out of the chamber with such a foolish smile wrapped around his lips and skipped further down the corridors before he turned around the corner with a muted squeal -sounding so oddly giddy.

Seonghwa tried to understand why when all he knew about was the overflowing worries of how unfortunate they all had ended up imprisoned here for what he perceived as eternity. Perhaps he and Prince Jongho had already undertaken their sweet, scandalously little assumption of how to get out of here alive.

Maybe Seonghwa should not have been so tolerant last time when he had discussed the curse with Emma whether she had told him they had all been fated to change the world. If he knew her well enough, there surely was a secret twist to all of this why Seonghwa feared how much it truly would take to solve the curse if it even was solvable. If falling in love was the sole reason they had come here, the Sorceress would have drugged them and spellbound them to each other. But Seonghwa did not feel particularly different than normally. So whatever fate he and the other princes had must be so important that not even Emma dared mess with their minds.

And yet he was standing right outside the fairie prince's chamber, worried about him and whose blood Seonghwa's kind was taught should not be worried about.

But Seonghwa had kissed him. He had kissed whom he swore would always be his foe. And somehow..

Somehow, he was not abhorred by the thought of doing it again.

Seonghwa's knuckles collided with the door, the sound firm as he wanted to make sure the younger prince heard it. A few minutes later, the metal in the wooden piece clicked and pulled slightly ajar. Prince Yeosang most likely already figured it was him who waited on the other side as Seonghwa was not met with anyone but a crooked branch when he stepped inside. The overgrown chamber had fallen dark by the greeneries covering for the little light coming in the tall windows, and Seonghwa nearly tripped over another branch moving across the floor right in front of him. He halted and peered over at the empty bed with a crease in his brows. Ducking under a few huge leaves, Seonghwa's sharp eyes followed the quivering branches in the room until he found the smaller male shrunk on the windowsill, a white shirt draped across his slumped shoulders.

When the phoenix prince stopped right behind him, he looked up and stared right back at his reflection in the glass of the window. It was painful to watch.

Inquisitively, he peeked over the other prince's shoulder to see what he so dearly cradled in his palms, only to regret it the second he saw what it was.

"Why are you here?" the fairie spoke lowly, still without turning his head.

The raw tonation had Seonghwa swallow when his heart jumped in his throat and scratched against his vocal cords. Unable to speak, his gaze fell deeper down into the other's cupped hands and the silent creature within them, barely even noticing how the fairie turned his head around until wet, dark eyes were staring back at him.

Prince Seonghwa nearly stumbled a step back when those grieving eyes reached his comprehension with such cruel realisation of their fate.

"You should not have brought concern about me. I told you to kill me before," he bitterly sounded.

When a tear slid down his cheek, Seonghwa parted his lips with nothing but a stuffed breath.

Prince Yeosang's dark eyes didn't waver from his own with not even a blink as his lips pursed tartly, "Would that not just have made everything much easier? For you and me. And everyone else?"

The phoenix grew unnerved the more the other spoke, his firm stature starting to swerve, "I am so sorry, Yeosang," he whispered when the smaller prince's gaze fell upon the little lifeless creature cradled in his hands again.

When Yeosang moved, Seonghwa observed how the fairie tucked his bare feet closer into his body and let his cheek rest on top of his knee. His heart suddenly plunged deep in his chest when Yeosang squeezed his eyes shut, and more tears drizzled down his pained face. Those tears should not have been there in the first place.

He gritted his teeth and told him a fear-sparking truth, "If we are not getting out of here soon, I might as well finish the work myself, Prince Park."

The prince reached out and grabbed the fairie's wrists tightly, making a loud gasp slip from him when he steadied his balance to the warm touch. A flash of yellow warned around his pupils.

"Is that why I found you in that corridor? You tried to kill yourself?" Seonghwa pressed, his lips pursing as his ember eyes pierced down at Prince Yeosang.

Responsive to his sudden harshness, Yeosang's eyes flickered nervously a single time before they steeled once more. The shield harder.

"No," he glared and continued, "I told you the truth of what happened; that I exhausted myself from doing a protective spell. But I guess my body was already too weakened, considering how your foul magic is currently coursing through me."

He wrung his mouth with a tilted head, "I should have rather died."

With a hefty pull, Yeosang got out of his hands, staring at him more than full of aversion.

Seonghwa shifted on his feet and folded his arms, not believing how stubborn the other prince was being, "And how many times shall I tell you that my magic is not dark? It's healing magic - it's healing you, Yeosang."

As the words erupted into the density of the room, the younger was already overlooking him as he stared across the chamber. The look in his eyes was honestly terrifying and Seonghwa swallowed tensely.

The younger prince was not fooling around with the wording of his own death. But Seonghwa needed him to not hurt himself. Because he knew that if Emma was so serious about their fate, then she truly needed them all alive if they would be of any future remembrance.

The Great Sorceress might be malign in nature, but she also knew of things that none other was powerful enough to obtain.

The younger prince appeared to be deadly conflicting while his eye colour shifted between the fresh forest green and specks of yellow and black.

"Yeosang," the phoenix prince called again softly, "You should know that I don't want you dead."

The younger prince inhaled sharply and turned to face the gloomy weather outside. His fingers carefully caressed the unmoving wings of the butterfly in his palm until an unseen heaviness had him slump back into the contour of the window with an unsteady pattern of breaths.

"I..I can't even open the window and let her whither with the wind.. Fly for one last time," Seonghwa bit the inside of his lower lip at the way Yeosang's voice trembled. Chubby tears clung to his eyelashes when he blinked them out of his eyes. And the moving sentience made the phoenix fear his own unseemed jerk of his pulsing heart with lack of reasoning.

Prince Yeosang was so small, so fragile and delicate for a world like this.

"I don't want to be locked inside here forever."

Bland sorrow dripped against the surface of the window sill, "I don't want to.. want to.. - I don't need that!" he breathed hard and momently shook his head like he had trouble comprehending whatever he was thinking himself.

"Look at me!" Furious tears splattered around when Yeosang twisted around to look up at Seonghwa, drowning in his distress, "How could you let me live?"

How could he. How.. How...

"How am I ever supposed to rule an entire kingdom when I cry about all of this? Tell me!"

Seonghwa did not know what to do.

"Little dove," he whispered when Yeosang's desperation reached his eyesight once more.

A choked hitching breath fell from the faerie's lips at the call of the name and his hand not holding his deceased friend reached to pull at his curly neck hairs.

"How could you ever be fearing such things when the crown balances so easily on your head?"

_____

𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐨

"I want to know what is going on between you and Prince Mingi."

Wooyoung flopped down into the broad armchair in front of where Yunho lounged about with a serious note to his heaved expression that Prince Yunho did not see at first. Or the second time his eyes wandered the dragon's curve of his hips and tugged legs. And neither third, where he saw the glint of gold from under his disastrously loose cream shirt.

His wolf wouldn't stop purring with delight, making his head nonstop spinning instead of letting him listen to Wooyoung's tongue speaking more important matters.

"Yunho? I'm speaking to you," the prince pinched the opening to his chest shut and bent a little to look him straight in the eyes as he was caught. Red-handed.

It had him blush profusely.

"Hm?" the werewolf cleared his throat while acting as if he truly should be seen off the hook. His slightly widened eyes lifted to the other prince's, giving him an innocent look.

It didn't seem to do the work though, as Wooyoung only thrusted his heart further down on the sharp item.

"What's the deal between you and Mingi?" Wooyoung repeated with a huff, pulling his legs closer to his body.

Slowly, the words were sinking in and Yunho suddenly wished he hadn't chosen to sit right in front of the dragon prince's prying eyes.

His heart already thumped aggressively in his chest, tying knots on his tongue, "I..."

Wooyoung tugged a straying strand of long dark hair behind his ear before he dug deeper into his bleeding wound.

"You've known each other before, haven't you?" he carried on with asking even when Yunho's expression defied his curiosity with all he could.

"It doesn't matter," Yunho hurriedly forced, lips pressed to a line, "Why are you asking?"

Shaking his head, Wooyoung suddenly sputtered, "Of course it matters! I want to know why you or rather your wolf attacked him the second you shifted the other night."

Yunho bit his curling tongue with a canine tooth when his wolf confusedly started growling in his head. He had attacked Mingi, intending to kill him - but he couldn't just tell Wooyoung that just now. What if it scared him? What if the only reason behind his sudden question was because he feared that Yunho would bite his head off too?

Don't scare him!

The taste of blood spread in his mouth when his body involuntarily made a jerk at the shrill attempt of his wolf trying to gain control of his body. Yunho looked down with clenched teeth and shook his head.

"It's more complicated than what you may think," he pushed out before the rumbling vibrations reached his throat. His fingers clenched around the cushions of the sofa, surely not going unnoticed by the dragon prince.

"What do you mean by that?!" at the sound of Wooyoung's outburst, Yunho's trained eyes flew over at the other's malaise before he swallowed whatever discomfort erupted into the room.

His mouth fell lax with surprise.

"I trusted you with my secret. If your relationship with Prince Mingi is a secret too then why won't you trust me with it as well? I'm not dumb, Yunho - I have seen the way he gawk after you."

Yunho's sight started trembling and he swallowed. Wooyoung leaned forward in his seat with a frown on his pretty face.

"Because it can get me killed," he whispered.

Mine.. mine..!

The sound of his shuddering breath disappeared in the dragon's vexed outburst, "And so can mine!" Wooyoung's hands flailed around in the air before they slammed down into the arms of his chair on both his sides, "Why do you think I so badly want to escape this dammed castle before someone figures it out? They'll kill me, Yunho, they'll kill me."

Yunho's face lolled down to his right hand, seeing how his pointer finger had drilled through the cushion.

"So what is different about this?" he furiously said.

Suddenly, golden eyes shot up and firmly clashed with the dragon's burning expression. He slowly slipped his fingers out of the cushion while not breaking the eye contact.

"As I said, it is complicated. Vampires and werewolves will always be fiends and most of the time it is unexplainable why."

When Wooyoung's lips parted, Yunho continued his explanation, "It is better if you don't know anything about Prince Mingi's and mine past."

If he told him anything about how Mingi had abused his trust by attempting to kill his father it might ruin a better chance for Wooyoung to get out of the castle and flee back to safety.

"No, I don't accept this disrespect when I've been laying my entire trust in your hands this entire time! Why won't you tell me when you know about my affair with Choi San?!"

A loud snarl left his lips when he stood up from the sofa and went for the door of the room.

"Yunho! Prince Yunho, how dare you leave me!"

Blood boiled in his ears as he shut the door behind him before sprinting down the long corridors of false freedom that he simply just hoped would solve itself without having to rule the story on his own.

But instincts were telling Yunho that he would have to face his dispute sooner or later. Or was that his wolf wanting him to decide whether they should keep or kill dearest Prince Mingi?

♛