The excitement Taehyung expresses as he and Yoongi stroll about the market brings amusement to the older male who, having seen things like this so often, forgets the novelty they might hold to someone of a higher status. The wingless male stops at every store, slowly and carefully perusing the wares ― sometimes even making a purchase. Clearly, he sees this as entertaining and exciting; all Yoongi sees is poor merchants desperately struggling to get poorer shoppers to buy some of their things.

Taehyung's lack of wings are drawing attention too. Almost everyone they pass stares at the brunette, curiosity painted blatantly across their faces; some don't even try to hide it. But Taehyung doesn't seem to notice, either too used to the stares or too distracted by all the sights to care. Yoongi notices though: he's vaguely aware his own wings might be drawing attention to himself. Crows, a stem of higher blood, aren't seen as often around these parts ― they stick inside the castle, with all the other blue bloods.

"Look at this, Yoongi!" Taehyung exclaims as he picks up a colourful piece of fabric, running it through his fingers. It's a bright blue, with green splotches ― a pattern that reminds the older of the peacock prince. "It's so soft!" The ex-knight places that fabric down to pick up another, this one a dark red with an even darker pattern.

"Hand-dyed too." The merchant, an old bird with drooping grey wings and a sagging, tired face, says when she notices the interest the bird has. "I dyed every single one of them."

"You clearly have skill." Taehyung notes as he holds this red one up to the light. The old woman smiles and bashfully shakes her head, but does nothing to verbally deny it. "This is so pretty... How much do you want for this?"

"30 gold. It took me hours to make and―"

"Here." Taehyung interrupts her, not even trying to barter. Yoongi stares in shock, as does the merchant; for a piece of fabric, this is clearly overpriced. But still, the wingless male hands out the gold pieces and the old woman accepts. As they go to leave, the brunette smiles kindly and thanks her.

"You know, you could have got some off that price." Yoongi says, still frowning with confusion. Not bartering is almost unheard of, a foreign concept to the assassin.

"Yeah, but she needs the money more than me. I mean, generally, I live in a palace ― her? I can't imagine her house being bigger than my room." The brunette explains, squeezing between a couple that don't seem to be prepared to move out of the way. However, they quickly withdraw from the wingless male as though he possesses some infectious disease when he grows close. In fact, now aware of this, Yoongi realises most people seem to do this ― they all seem to be worried, as though touching him might cause them to lose their own wings. Again, Taehyung doesn't seem to notice. "No, I would have given her more, had she asked. But she didn't and, while I do feel a little generous, I'm not that generous."

"What're you actually going to do with it?" The younger shrugs carelessly, as though he hadn't thought that far through yet.

"Not sure. Might use it as a bandana; use it as an accessory of sorts, around my head, around my neck; use it as a wrapping for something. Could even give it to the King, but I don't think it's his colour..."

"He might be able to sense to lowered quality." This gets a laugh from the brunette.

"Right. If I'm going to get him a gift, I should probably spend more money... Do you think he'd like a gift from here?"

"Are you asking me ― your competition ― for advice?" Taehyung nods. "Well, maybe. I'm sure he'd appreciate it ― at the very least, he'd pretend to like it. But, if I'm honest, I don't know the king that well personally so I'm not sure what he likes. I only know what he's like from a distance."

"And what's that like? I'm sure my distance is further than yours ― I've only heard news from him, from cities away."

"The general opinion is that he makes a terrible ruler. People miss his parents, wish they hadn't died so early so they could teach him how to make a good ruler. Instead he's taught by his uncle and the Council." Yoongi responds honestly. However, he soon realises what it might sound like he's saying, so he quickly adds, "Not that I have anything against the Council. But his uncle... I'm not sure on."

"King Jungkook seems so nice though..."

"I mean, up close, yeah. But when you're living out here, you don't get to know the king personally. All you see is someone who doesn't care for his people and everything he does only seems to increase your suffering." A bitterness enters the black haired male's tone, causing Taehyung to watch him curiously. An eyebrow raises.

"You sound as though you're talking from experience." The younger notes, catching Yoongi out. Internally, the older curses himself: he grew comfortable and let his guard down, let himself slip.

"I've just... worked with people here. I come here often and listen ― you hear plenty if you keep your ears open."

"Ah huh."

"There's a food store just up here. They make good muffins." Yoongi changes the subject as he points at one of the busier stores up ahead. This seems to work, as the wingless male is distracted by the baked goods. Here, everyone's aversion to touching Taehyung seems to come in handy as it allows them to quickly reach the front of the queue. Once they've bought two muffins each, the pair head off to find a more secluded area to enjoy their food. Here they stay until it seems time to go, when they make their way slowly back to the significantly more comfortable palace.

* * *

At the next group dinner, Yoongi makes his first attempt to kill the king: death by deadly poison. It seems like it might be a long shot, but in order to determine this, he has to first try it. The poison ― one of the most poisonous, an undetectable one originating from up near the Owls ― had been in his possession prior to this job, but he anonymously ordered a Hawk wine for this occassion.

As they sit around the table, chattering amongst one another, a servant hesitantly approaches the table with the bottle of wine in his hands. Most eyes turn to him, curious as to what the drink is and why it's here. They watch as the servant announces this to Jungkook, "A special present from one of your guests, Your Highness."

"Who from?" The king asks, getting a shake of the head in response. Going according to plan, the servant confesses that the gift is anonymous. There's a brief moment where Yoongi worries it might be rejected, as Jungkook frowns at the mysterious bottle and seems unconvinced. But then he gestures for the servant to pour some, who seems eager to obey. A red liquid is poured into the empty glass, until the black haired boy indicates that's enough. At this point, the majority of the guests' attention is captured by this interaction.

Everyone watches as Jungkook lifts the glass to his lips. He pauses, for a brief moment, and a frown forms on his brow. He sniffs at it, suspicion painting his expression, and Yoongi can feel his heart rate picking up. He's killed plenty of people before, but he's sure none have been filled with this much suspense. It's giving him too much time to overthink this. But then Jungkook takes the first sip, carefully, and the frown increases. After glancing at the drink one more time ― much to the clear disapproval of his uncle ― the king then downs the rest of his glass in a few more gulps. The now empty glass is placed on the table and he lets out a soft sigh.

"Try harder." He says to the table, eyes traveling carefully across each individual member. To everyone else, Yoongi assumes the message lost, but he receives it loud and clear: it's going to take a lot more than a mere poison to kill the unkillable king.

And, as he watches the boy handle this situation, a newfound respect and awe for the raven king blossoms inside of the assassin.

NOTE: 1) my laptop has decided it's not going to tell me when I've misspelled something with the funny red underline, so if there's many mistakes, please just forgive me (& tell me). I have tried to check it but sometimes my eyes just brush over the errors

2) ALSO, this is already at 4K reads? That's so much so soon, so thank you heaps for all that. I appreciate it :D

(i also keep forgetting to title these before publishing whoops)