A/N: Greetings everyone. 

November is finally coming to an end soon. 

Good Riddance.

Hate this month, with undying affection.

You see my problem? Ugh...

Anyway, back to Noirwood, where shit is going down.

:P Love you people,

Izzy

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"Yes, I need two glasses of water with light ice and two of the darkest wines here. Make sure that the glasses of water don't come with too much condensation though, Jungkook hates it when it drips down his hand. Some napkins then too, if you will. Oh! I almost forgot! Make sure that the children have refreshments as well. Dehydration is never something kids should-"

"Mr. Kim Taehyung. We meet again."

Taehyung paused shortly in his request to the Laurel Servant who was nervously scribbling down orders. A frown spread across the blonde's face as he turned to see someone that he hoped he wouldn't run into for the rest of the night.

Mai.

"Oh, um..." Taehyung cleared his throat awkwardly as he turned from the servant to the dejected-looking woman. "How are you doing? Are you still angry, or-"

"Let's not talk about this here." Mai gave the servant a wary look. "Just finish your order or whatever and meet me in the hallway. Please. I need to tell you something."

And with that the woman stalked off, clearly still distressed over the whole situation between Jimin and her children. The blonde raised a hand to stop her. "W-wait! I can't just leave Jungkook alone by the dance floor-"

He glanced over at the dance floor where Jungkook was supposed to be sitting , only-

He wasn't there. 

Where did he go?

"Perhaps he went to the bathroom? Aw fuck, why am I always abandoned..." Taehyung grumbled as he got back to giving the poor servant a more detailed order. It took him a good couple minutes to finish his specifications, and once he completed them he gave a grateful bow to the servant before running off to the hallway. 

Whatever Mai needed to tell him was urgent, and Jungkook could wait a little by himself. It wasn't like the Oak Prince was ever bored in that head of his...

"Mai?" Taehyung puffed, out of breath as he rounded the ballroom door exit. His eyes measured his surroundings, looking for the troubled woman who just happened to be the mother of his daughter. 

Which was a kinda strange way to put it...since he wasn't the father.

"Here." Mai removed herself off the wall at the far end of the hallway next to a dim torch. She motioned for him to come over by her with an impatient swish of the hand that didn't go unnoticed by Taehyung. 

If it wasn't for her ironic relation to Rose, he would definitely call her a bit-

"Why are you grinning?" Mai demanded, crossing her arms. "Does it make you feel happy to see me so upset or something? 

Taehyung quickly changed his facial expression.

"What--no! I was just thinking about Jungkook, that's all..." The blonde propped a hand on the wall, leaning against it while considering Mai seriously. "So...what did you want to tell me?"

The woman blinked a few times. 

"I wanted..." She sighed. 

"I wanted to tell you the story of how Jimin and I met. How..." Mai looked apologetically at the floor. 

Taehyung picked up on her hesitancy. "How you two ended up having twins without us ever knowing about it? Yeah. I want to know that too--I always thought Jimin was strictly gay."

Mai pushed the tired hair that sat limply on her head off to the side. She scratched awkwardly behind her ear and shook her head. "Well...no. I guess he isn't? Wasn't? That's not the point. The point is that you should understand why I'm so mad with him. You see, he tricked me. I don't want anyone else to fall under his spell again..."

Taehyung lifted an eyebrow, squinting his eyes at the woman's stiffness. "I would never fall under his spell. I know how to stay loyal-"

"It's NOT about loyalty, Taehyung! He has powers, I thought you were aware of them!"

Although this bit caught the blonde off guard, he tried to keep a steady expression. "I--yes. Of course I know he's all demonic and such but-"

"Taehyung, he has the power of mind control to a certain extent. For fucks sake! He used it on me to get what he wanted..." She scoffed, "Offspring."

"You don't mean-"

Mai clicked her tongue. "Yes, that's what I mean. He isn't all rainbows and butterflies on the inside, although he may seem like it. The change for him into a demon cost him a lot...he's not the same Stone Prince as he was before..."

A pause. Taehyung crossed his arms, feeling an unsure pool form in his stomach.

"I'm listening..."

*     *     *

It was a beautiful, sunny spring day when Mai was out picking blackberries in the woods near the Stone Castle. She was humming an old tune that Eonjin had taught her when they were just young girls, one that she could never remember the words to. It was making her angry, not correctly recalling the final line to one of her favorite folk songs, so much that she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings.

"Down through the village,

Around the town-"

Mai could almost hear Eonjin nagging at her in her mind. She could picture the hostel receptionist pulling at her golden pigtail while she scowled over the counter when Mai came to visit. Every Wednesday, Mai would come to catch up with the feisty blonde girl, learning about the events that took place around the kingdom. It was a completely different story now, with Eonjin as Laurel Princess. 

"I'll always be with you,

To reverse your frown-"

As she rushed to and fro among the pokey blackberry bushes, she giggled as a thorn caught under her dress. Blackberries were so fun to pick, even if they sometimes hurt her. For some reason, Mai loved the riskiness in pain--loved the pricks when they visited her. It was strange, to say the least. That might have explained why she didn't have many close friends, or why people called her weird. She didn't mind though, as long as Eonjin was there to talk to her.

"Even when you fall,

I'll have your back-"

Mai popped a blackberry into her mouth. Being a close friend of the royalty never changed how she acted towards Eonjin, but it changed how Eonjin treated her. The Kim Family heir spoilt her silly with special dresses, new earrings, and large feasts. Mai always tried to push the gifts away...but knowing Eonjin, doing so would hurt her feelings. So she found herself in a completely new life, with luxuries she would have never pictured before when she was just an impoverished maid. 

"You can't ever leave,

Because inside I'll crack-"

But now, now! Mai was on a trip with Eonjin to visit her new fiancé Florian...the handsome Stone Prince...at the Stone Castle.  All truth be told, Mai had a huge crush on the guy, but she never told Eonjin...some stuff needed to be kept from friends and that info was surely included in that category.

"Inside we're one-

Despite being two-"

Maybe she liked him because she was lonely. Or because she was in love with the idea of love. Was that a thing? She didn't know. All she knew was that her blackberry bucket was filling rapidly, and she was excited to bring it back to the royal couple to try.

"But wait, there is three?

It can't be...who?"

Mai was a bit disappointed that they sent her off into the woods to have alone time (because she knew they were just trying to be nice about it--Mai didn't have a home and lived with Eonjin currently) but she didn't mind the solitude of her soft singing. It was peaceful.

"You've been disloyal,

You'll pay with my heart-"

Well, it was peaceful. Until she got to the last two lines of her song, which she completely forgot. Was it "Until I have you in my arms again, I'll tear you apart?" or "My honey suckle rose, At this time we part?"

She didn't know, and it was killing her. 

"I'll tear you...no! That's not it...'you've been disloyal--you'll pay with my heart-'"

The answer came to her from behind a nearby bush.

"But eternity forgives, in pain there is art."

Mai froze. What the fuck? 

"Who...who is there?"

She stared into the blackberry bushes, wincing when a few stray thorns pricked her cheeks. Her heart raced as the hand holding the blackberry bucket began to shake. No sound came from the bush again.

Was she hearing things? Was this what loneliness was doing to her?

Brushing it off and moving down the path, she continued to pick blackberries. She didn't sing any longer and kept her eyes peeled out of paranoia. Inside, Mai knew it was nothing, knew it didn't come from the real world.

So she kept picking.

After a while, her arms tired of holding the bucket up and she let out an irritated groan as a mosquito bit her arm. Her legs were covered in little nicks from the bushes and bites from the countless bugs in the woods. A thin gleam of sweat covered her brow and she was ready to return to the Stone Castle. 

In her fatigue, she didn't even realize the quick movement next to her. The one that sidled closer to her from the nearby bush.

Until it was too late.

"What the--AAAAHHHH!!!"

She lunged to the side, avoiding the dangerous black viper that slithered towards her the best she could. It's emerald green eyes stared at her menacingly, testing her limits. Mai didn't want to move too fast in case she would set it off, so instead she stepped slowly to the side and gently set the blackberry bucket in between her and the snake.

It only seemed to made the snake more agitated. It's slinky, black body sent shivers down her spine as it picked up its pace straight for her ankles.

"UUuuuuhhhGHHGH! Goawaygoawaygoaway!" Mai ran backwards down the path, eyes wide. "Stay away from me!"

But the snake was too fast. Well, it wouldn't have been, if it wasn't for the nice long dress Mai wore that was perfect material for her to trip on. As she fell backwards onto the dirty path, she cringed as her ankle twisted, leaving her helpless for the snake to advance upon.

"HELP! SOMEONE, EONJIN, FLORIAN! HELP!"

The snake picked up its pace as it saw its prey on the ground, nothing stopping it from reaching Mai in no time. Mai knew she was a goner before the snake even had time to open its large jaws.

The bite came fast and sharp. 

Mai cried helplessly as the snake returned back to its den, leaving her to die.

An intense throbbing made its way into her tissues, followed by an icy, motionless feeling that made her want to close her eyes and sleep for the rest of eternity. She tried to fight it the best she could, eyelids fluttering open and closed as her hands wrapped around her ankle uselessly.

"Hh--hheellpp..." Mai uttered a low, sad cry. She knew no one would come for her. She was in the middle of nowhere collecting blackberries, and it wasn't like she was important enough for the royalty to send guards along with her.

Which was strange...usually they sent people along with her...why didn't they today? Why that day of all days?

"Why...did...this...happen...?" Mai spoke out to the empty sky as mosquitos continued to land on her exposed flesh. She could hardly feel their bites on her sickly, shaking skin. "Why...?"

"It was meant to happen."

Mai was hallucinating. Wasn't that the same voice that had spoken to her before? What the fuck was happening-

"You aren't imagining things, Mai--if that's what you're thinking."

The poisoned woman tried desperately to sit up among the trees, to see who was speaking to her so casually...to see who knew her name.

Suddenly the air around her became thick with the smell of cinnamon and...roses. It was disgustingly addictive, and in her sickened state she inhaled deeply, believing this was her last memory of smell on the earth.

Turns out, it wouldn't be.

"How...k-know...m-my...name...?"

The voice laughed darkly. Soon, the light above her became dimmer...almost as if she was in someone's shadow. She tried to tilt her head, but found she couldn't move.

"I know a lot of things about you Mai. I'm here to help you, actually. Think of me like your rescue angel."

Later, Mai would know how ironic that statement came to be. 

Her heart almost stopped as the individual revealed himself, leaning far enough over her so that he blocked out the bright sun blazing in the sky. Intense fear threatened to stop her heart before the snake venom even reached that poor beating organ in her chest. The man, the chilling white-haired man with red eyes and a black cape looking down on her...

She recognized him...

From the sketched picture of him that sat proudly on Eonjin's royal desk. The same strong looking face that she just saw moments ago upon the statue in the rose garden behind the castle. 

It was the old Stone Prince.

What was his name? Ji-Jimin?

"Jimin." She breathed, eyes glazing over. "Wha...?"

The devilish figure smiled kindly at her as he bent down, craning his head almost curiously at the shock registering in her eyes. One of his hands landed on her bitten ankle, but she could hardly feel it. 

She could hardly feel anything.

"You remember me? I don't think we've ever met before..." He raised his eyebrows in amusement. "I guess it's nice to know Eonjin's friend is smart. Not to mention strong, ailment-free, and possesses good traits-"

Good traits?

"W--wh-what?" Mai choked the word out. Jimin's figure was already becoming hazy as the venom entered her brain. 

"Oh," Jimin said nonchalantly. "Nothing. Now, I suppose I should help you now, shouldn't I? However...there is a catch..."

Mai's cheeks became numb. Holding her eyes open was becoming hard. Jimin didn't seem to take notice. His hand wrapped tighter around her ankle.

"You see, I have a mission to fulfill. And I can't do it without you, Mai. I can't...you have to promise that if I save your life...you'll do me one favor."

Mai blinked. What was he saying?

"Just say yes...Mai, just agree to it...and I can save you."

Mai couldn't distinguish reality from hallucination as the trees began to bend all around her. None of the usual birds were chirping at that moment, which she found odd...it was so quiet it was loud. Jimin's red eyes burned into her soul, and for some reason she felt oddly calm. Happy even, as he smiled nicely at her while clutching onto her leg. 

For once, someone seemed to care. Someone seemed to be there when she needed them, and they didn't call her weird for picking blackberries alone, or stupid for getting herself all dirtied in the woods. Even if this Jimin was only inside her poisoned mind, or if he was actually some evil ghost--she didn't care. 

He was charming. She was at a loss for reasons not to say yes. She parted her lips to speak.

"Yes."

Jimin patiently regarded her dying form. And smiled. 

No longer was the word out of her mouth than a powerful, blinding blue light released throughout her body. She felt a bubbling, airy sensation lift the poison from every cell in her being and her eyes closed against the power it fed into her mind. Instinctively, she screamed, unused to the sheer force with which her body fell prisoner to. Slowly but surely, she began to gain sensation in her tired limbs, the haze previously coating her mind all but washed away. To replace it was a glowing joy and vividity that made her limbs spasm.

As her body convulsed, a small portion of her began to link the hand pressing on her ankle to the source of her healing. Opening her eyes wide, she saw Jimin still sitting by her, focusing intensely on the wound caused by the snake. Mai sat bolt upright with all of the adrenaline racing through her mind, and she couldn't deny the sudden feelings that enveloped her.

She couldn't deny the strong attraction that wound its way into her buzzing mind, nor the strong urge to say--

"Jimin! I-"

"Mai, you might need to rest for a while, honey. You're still healing." Jimin removed the hand off of her ankle and pulled her in for a hug. "But you're alive, Mai! You're here! You're not dead!"

He smiled at her as tears fell from her unblinking eyes. She didn't know why she felt so inclined to repay him for saving her life, but she did. She didn't even mind that he looked crazy, psychotic even, as his white hair and red eyes stood out sharply against their surroundings.

"Thank you, Jimin! I-I'll d-do anything to repay you--I-"

"Good." Jimin interrupted her, brushing a strand of hair out of her filthy face. "I need to ask you to do something with me..."

Mai breathed out, ecstatic to be helping someone so powerful, with the gift of healing. Even if it didn't make sense to her then, she felt compelled to give him everything--the world! For he had saved her. 

It was almost as if she was under his spell.

"Yes, yes--anything..." She gazed dumbly into his eyes.

Jimin's red eyes closed in appreciation. 

"Okay..." A deep laugh tickled her ear, which was close to the white-haired man's thick lips. A gentle hand slid up her dirty calf...the one that was exposed from her spasming. "Let me help you feel better...rid you from the terrible thing that just happened..."

Mai's mouth dropped open in surprise as Jimin's hand refused to stop from going higher and higher up her leg, until it was mid thigh. Her dress had ridden up to the point where her underwear was showing, yet she didn't feel abashed at all. 

"Oh--ok-kay..." She moved backwards as Jimin leaned over her, pushing her back into the dirt. His face was only inches from her own as he whispered words that were too soft to hear. However, Mai picked up on few here and there as his body rolled on top of hers.

"But eternity forgives, in pain there is art."

"J-Jimin..." Mai sighed as the red-eyed male closed the gap between them, lightly dancing his lips along hers. His hand kept traveling under her dress until her underwear was removed and tossed to the side. A small portion of her mind raised red flags, screaming at her to stop, to push this mysterious man off of her and to not engage in this act in the middle of the woods...

In a smattering of blackberry bushes!

But Mai loved the risk, lived for danger. And something about Jimin made her feel special, loved--even if she had just met him. 

So she didn't protest as he took her virginity on the forest bed, with the sun trickling through the trees and hitting his white-hair ever so elegantly as he moved forward with the first part of his plan. 

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