𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,600 words

𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢

He watched from afar how the other princes' dumbfounded expressions spread among them all. Mingi was no better himself if he hadn't been so used to hiding his emotions so well.

It was not very hard to see how this Seonghwa had already printed his ways of respect into the fear of their expectations. And Mingi felt threatened in a way that made him want to hiss to have the others know how dissatisfied he was.

Wooyoung was balling his fists as the skin on both sides of his head was changing into firm silverish scales. Mingi's detecting sight caught the littlest particles of smoke ascending from the dragon's nose, and he knew he was not just angry from the long, pointy majestic horns growing on his head among his dark sooted hair.

Wooyoung's lips pouted as he drilled holes into the door that Seonghwa and Hongjoong had disappeared behind, "Why are the hottest ones always the most thorny and troublesome? You'll never get to have a chance with someone that classy and posh who still has a hot temper."

The dragon turned to his seat again, sitting down as he crossed his arms rather dissatisfied with what seemed to be everything. Mingi glanced at the others by the table, seeing how the fairie rolled his eyes at Wooyoung's grumbles.

"That guy is a pain in the ass and too classy for me. I really don't understand what you see in him when he was being that rude - unless you get turned on by bratty behavior, of course," Yunho gathered the last crumbles of pie from his plate on his spoon and fitted it into his mouth in a way that may have had Mingi gulp a bit.

Wooyoung whined into the hands he covered his scaly face with, "No! That's not what I meant. I'm just saying that he's annoying but really, really pretty! You cannot possibly deny that."

The werewolf sighed upgiving, "Sure, suit yourself. I won't keep you from hitting on an asshole who knows how to ruin my mood, " Yunho said, pulling his chair out and reaching for his handbag before standing up, "Have a good evening, I'll be finding somewhere suitable to sleep."

With that, a maid followed him out of the dining room, leaving the rest to be - until the blonde prince left them as well. Mingi reached for his wine glass and unbothered looked down into the red substance. With a boring motion, he swirled the liquid around inside the glass, seeing how it splashed against its caging. The table was quiet now, even if they still were four sitting by it, but the vampire prince guessed that the rest hadn't much to say. At least not in his company.

No one had dared ask too many questions prior to this awkward situation after everyone had told their names and where they came from. But those three sitting beside each other on the opposite side of the table, somehow felt as if they knew each other.

Mingi glanced at them out of the corner of his eyes when he lifted his wineglass to take a sip.

With San and Jongho, it was for obvious reasons. They were both from the waters, shared the same surname, and arrived in the castle at the same time. Mingi assumed they were some kind of family, or at least close to each other - and he already knew that merpeople tended to have quite big families, so it wouldn't really surprise him if they somewhat actually were potential family, despite their slightly different appearances.

But with Wooyoung had he no idea of why he seemed so familiar with the merman prince...

The vampire decided to let go of his thoughts, bringing his glass to the table's surface instead of pondering on things that would probably be revealed sooner or later. With a last glance, he saw up at the shattered window, feeling the night air blowing into the building from the hole. It would probably be fixed by tomorrow. He craved another glass of blood.

_____

𝐒𝐚𝐧

His whole being was painfully much aware of how the maid walking in front of them was shaking so much that she stumbled a few times along the hallway they were in, but he tried not to stare too much at her. Wooyoung was on his right side, his eyes looking around at everything that glinted the slightest in the dull lightning, more than a few times holding eye contact with San and then grinning when he looked away again. San's heart was hammering harder in his chest for every second that passed and Wooyoung was still smiling. It seemed as if he had forgotten everything about what had happened with Hongjoong and the phoenix in the dining room, and San was more than delighted by that fact. Even if Wooyoung was cute and adorable when pouting and being angry, happy Wooyoung still managed to make San's heart glee.

Currently, they had sent Jongho down the east wing of the castle, as they themselves were passing down to the southest end. San had no idea of where they were heading, but he chose to trust the maid for knowing where they were going. He remembered that someone had told them that all the princes' rooms were already readied with everything they needed to stay overnight, but he hadn't really thought that the whole castle would be divided between them all. This place was so goddamn huge, that he feared that he never would be able to find back to the dining room tomorrow..

San paled. That meant he probably would die of starvation.

His feet suddenly tingled with panic and he swallowed troubled right until he turned to see Wooyoung and remembered that he wouldn't be the only one sleeping in the south wing. Wooyoung would too, and then he agreed with himself to believe that the dragon surely would know the way back tomorrow.

Suddenly the other turned his head to San, and the merman prince didn't know how to stop himself before the words already slipped, "Am I trouble?"

Wooyoung furrowed his eyebrows as his lips stood slightly agape - San knew that it was an expression of confusion. If Jongho had been there to see him speaking before thinking, he would have left him right there to figure everything out himself.

"Sorry, what..?" the dragon prince asked, a hesitant smile on his face while he tried to search for an answer in San's deep brown eyes.

But he slowly grew a smile on his lips himself, as he understood to elaborate his question, "You said that you think people who're troublesome are hot.. so, do you think I'm trouble?"

His demeanor changed within the next second, and Wooyoung burst into laughter as he covered his mouth. San couldn't help, but giggle a little himself, and he knew his eyes had turned into small crescent moons.

They had stopped by two doors on their left hand, huge windows being on their right where rain still washed down on the other side. San hadn't noticed when the maid disappeared - and that far from mattered anything at the moment as his mind was clouded with only Wooyoung.

He wanted to sing him a song.

"Yeah?" he squeaked out, voice probably going an entire octave up as he already felt dizzy.

Wooyoung went forward, making San hold his breath as his toes curled inside his shoes out of anticipation. And then he finally grabbed the merman's shoulder for a second, lifting his hand again as he suddenly held his jaw instead.

"Of course, I find you attractive, Sannie. You cause such trouble for my heart whenever I look at you, I might die of cardiac arrest," the last part was a whisper, but San barely noticed when Wooyoung's lips suddenly attached sweetly to his cheek, "So delicate."

His brain went out like it was switched off by the single touch of Wooyong's lips on his skin. The kiss had been no longer than a second long, but the sensation had already burnt its mark into the surface and San reacted with no thought as he reached out to seize his hand around Wooyoung's corset and lean waist. He tautened his fingers when pulling him close, so close they were breathing the same air. His smell of strong perfume, the stealthy glinting eyes, his small body, the stupid sweet-sounding nickname. San was slowly and excruciatingly going insane, and he urged to kiss this prince before he would disappear like what he had been for so many months.

Wooyoung's arms raised and slid around his neck, inviting him closer in as he spoke the last words that caused San to lose his sanity for real, "You don't have to ask for it. You can kiss me whenever you want to.. you have my permission.."

San didn't wait for time to pass, he didn't wait for Wooyoung to move first or to flutter another time with his gorgeous long black eyelashes that brushed his cheekbones every time he blinked with his eyes. The man leaned in and kissed him immediately as the other had finished his sentence, lips locking daringly close to ardor of true fondness. And as San detached his lips from Wooyoung's, he kissed him again, and another time. He gently pecked the dragon's lips with the sweetest smile adorning his whole being, right until Wooyoung pressed harder onto him.

San's smile gradually faltered from his face the moment Wooyoung moved his head further down, pressing his tongue against San's mouth as he sent them both stumbling toward one of the doors behind him. The merman had trouble with following everything that was happening as his legs felt like a puddle trying to keep up with the rest of his body's weight. By instinct, he brought his free arm around Wooyoung before they would crash against the closed door, the movement still causing his wrist to hit the hard surface and he moaned in pain, soon engulfed in the taste of Wooyoung's tongue entering his mouth. It had San forget everything, and he couldn't even remember what he was doing here, or the pain there still stretched up through his nerves to specific parts of his brain. He could only feel Wooyoung's tongue and how it slid against his own, sounding so slick and filthy that he should have been embarrassed by the way it made him want more than that.

For a moment Wooyoung retreated from the kiss, looking up into San's dazed expression, "Hey, are you okay?"

San nodded, humming a deep 'mhmm', and it had the dragon giggle when he caged him against the door, tongues now meeting before pushed into Wooyoung's mouth. Behind them, the door went open and San steered them both inside, not taking his hands off the other a single time - not even when he somehow managed to throw his laced shoes off his feet somewhere on their way to the bed. Everything was blurry, his eyes feeling wet, and San knew he was leaking. When Wooyoung dipped down into the thick, soft mattress, he moved his lips along his jaw, sucking on the skin there made Wooyoung gently moan as his hands left San's neck and slid down to the buttons of his pants.

The sensation was everything, even if Wooyoung was only resting his hands above his groin, and San's head fell to the dragon's neck, pushing them both down to lie down on the mattress, their legs still hanging over the edge. His crown fell from his head when surrendering the law of gravity, and San trailed his open-mouthed kisses along with the fabric of Wooyoung's lace shirt, tickling the skin of the other. A hand, maybe his own hand, pulled Wooyoung's golden, heavily decorated crown off his head and he started threading his fingers through the now freed, pitch-black hair.

".. San... San.."

Wooyoung removed his hands from the other's crotch and grabbed the side of his head instead to have him look into his eyes again. San hardly even saw the other by now.

"D' you want me to pull my own clothes off? You were just now doing such a good job.." the merman murmured, his lips pouting now too, "Wooyoungie.. please touch me..."

He continued sliding his hand back and forward the dragon's hair as he suddenly started grinding down, moaning at the silky friction against Wooyoung's firm thigh. But the man underneath him was only letting out curses as he tried to handle his own racing hormones. San didn't know what was going on.

"San-" Wooyoung gasped, "San, how much wine did you drink?"

With closed eyes, the merman prince answered the other, "I didn't- I didn't drink anything- oh fuck Wooyoungie, mngf~ I think I'll die!"

San's body was suddenly swung around and he looked up at Wooyoung with huge, bloated eyes. Very much not present in this world.

But.. he still caught the action of Wooyoung biting his full, pinkish lip, licking his own as he wondered if he should just devour the other prince right here and now.

"No, I won't be touching you when you're clearly affected by something," Wooyoung stated as he tried to back away from him, but San's grip around his arms was too strong for him to just tear himself out of.

"What have you eaten?"

San squirmed a little, his eyes dripping with the white liquid and running down his warm cheeks all while his erection throbbed painfully hard in his pants. But nothing relieved the pain just the slightest - even when he buckled his hips up in the hope of grinding against Wooyoung again. The feeling had been pure bliss before...

"I-I don't know! Something sweet and yeah, it tasted really sweet and I have a serious weakness for sweet things!" he was currently exploding, it felt as if all his organs were currently detonating in his insides, "Wooyoung, seriously, it hurts too much!" he continued pleading.

Unsure of how it happened, the needy man suddenly felt the other's warm breath fanning above the crook of his neck before slowly licking the skin with his hot, wet tongue, almost burning his skin uncomfortably. But San only groaned and let his eyes close, startling when the dragon's hand quickly tore the last buttons open and wrapped around his hard-on.

"Does this hurt, Sannie?" Wooyoung asked rather teasingly when having pulled him out of his garments, and the tonation had him inhale sharply.

The merman shook his head, moaning again when Wooyoung's pretty fingers ran down the shaft, "No, feels good, Wooyoungie."

Wooyoung kissed his neck until his saliva coated his skin in a sheen layer, and San felt as if he couldn't stay in his head right now, pressing the back of it so vigorously down into the mattress that he believed he was seeing stars. Wooyoung's fingers stopped their movement for a moment and the peaks of them gathered some of the white liquid that ran from his eyes before going down and smearing it all over his stiff member.

He felt so bad for not wanting to throw up.

Wooyoung's slobby kisses caught San's lips and they made out while Wooyoung touched him with an increasing pace for every second passing, making it so difficult to keep his throat silenced with the other's tongue.

"Mhmnh~ Fuck.."

He came in Wooyoung's hand, fisting the dragon's locks of hair as the relief felt like something he had needed in a very long time. His swollen lips trailed off in the kiss, his eyes still blurred as his mind went blank.

Floating in between reality and something that felt like masses of nothing. He was really gone. And didn't hear anything Wooyoung spoke of killing the person who had poisoned his food...

♛