A/n: i think i lost the ability to write for a while lol

Jimin shot upright and gasped for air, grabbing to his pounding heart to make sure he was still alive.

"W-what - w-what just - "

"Jimin!"

The prince wasn't granted much time to fully awaken, a lantern's harsh light already prickling his eyes and making him squint to see his best friend stand beside his bed.

"Jimin... s-something terrible has happened," Taehyung whispered with a trembling voice, tugging at Jimin's nightgown as the prince tried his best to come back to reality.

Jimin felt as though he'd been transported from one realm to another within the snap of a finger.

"W-what?" He mumbled wearily, only then noticing the distraught look on Taehyung's face and the fresh tears that stained his flushed cheeks.

"What is it?"

____

Taehyung had to forceably drag Jimin towards Yoongi's chambers after his news had rattled the prince unable to move a muscle.

Guards, guests and even some servants had gathered in the king's room, murmuring amongst themselves as they stared at the incident.

Jimin and Taehyung wurmed themselves past the audience, pushing aside a servant or two only to come to an abrupt stop when their eyes fell on the dreadful sight.

Yoongi was cradling the poor, lifeless body of his companion in his arms, pushing his face into the wolf's white fur as his gut-wrenching wails filled the room. He rocked Boreas side to side, shaking his head as he tried to deny the harrowing truth.

Jimin fluttered his eyes. "The dream..." He whispered, his own voice inaudible under the king's despairing sobs.

The people suddenly all turned their heads towards the entrance of Yoongi's room, some immediately making a small bow.

Namjoon had arrived, looking absolutely terrified, and perhaps on the brink of a minor mental breakdown.

Without the man uttering a single word, the people dispersed for him to take a closer look at the incident, but the prince stayed right where he was, staring from afar.

"How... How did he..."

A vetenarian came forward from the crowd and pushed his thick, round glasses up his nose before speaking. "The dire wolf suffered a fatal heart attack in it's sleep, Your Royal Highness. His Majesty the King of the Styx wished to take him on an early morning hunt, but - well, the wolf wouldn't open his eyes."

Jimin looked to his brother, who gave a curt nod at the information he received, and seemed as though his composure was hanging by a thread.

"I... I want everyone out of this room," the prince ordered, signing the people to leave. "This isn't some spectacle. By Zeus, grant the man some privacy."

The people discarted immediately, and Jimin struggled to get to his brother. 

What he'd seen in his dream on the exact night that Boreas lost his life... it couldn't simply be written off as a mere coincidence, could it? Not this time... There had to be an explanation.

"My dear friend..." Namjoon said, crouching down beside the grieving king with a sombre expression. "I am so terribly sorry."

"He... he was healthy..." Yoongi sniffed, combing through the wolf's white mane with trembling fingers. "He was vigorous... strong."

Namjoon pursed his lips. "Perhaps," the man started carefully. "Perhaps seeing the demigod die today, will bring you some sense of -"

"No!" Yoongi hissed, pressing Boreas closer against his body.

"No one else is dying today," he said through gritted teeth.

Namjoon blinked, opening his mouth to speak, only to close it a few seconds later.

"Right, of course," he whispered. "As you wish... no one else is dying today."

The prince sighed, picked himself back up, and turned to his guards as he locked his fingers behind his back.

"When His Majesty is ready to say goodbye... see to it that Boreas is well taken care of. I want arrangements to be made for a grand funeral... and make sure the palace dressses in black."

"Yes, Your Royal Highness."

The prince wasted no time before walking out of the room, and Jimin flinched out of his gloomy state to chase right after him when he did.

"Namu!" He called, pursuing his older brother down the hallway.

"Namjoon!" Jimin repeated, nearly running when it seemed like the crownprince was purposely trying to ignore him.

Namjoon opened the door to his office and continued treating Jimin as though he were dust.

"Namjoon, wait!" Jimin yelled, trailing after his brother like a lost duckling. "I have to talk with you about-"

The door to the crownprince's bedroom was slammed shut, and Namjoon had fled from his very own brother without sparing him so much as a look.

Every muscle in Jimin's body froze.

Why do you even bother? You know he has more important matters to tend to than his humiliating little brother and his twisted dreams.

Jimin tried to ignore his father's voice as it slid back into his mind. He tried to surpress the anger his words brought up inside of him, but a small part of him that he thought he'd buried, could not help but think the man was right.

Namjoon would never tell him to his face that he no longer had time to care for his vague dreams. His brother was simply too tender-hearted to be that cruel, and so Jimin could only watch as the difference between them became greater day by day.

His brother had a purpose. A job to do. A reason for being on this earth.

Whereas Jimin... He was but a side-character in his brother's show. There to make him look like the better prince. Stronger, manlier, smarter-

Jealous again, hm?

Jimin rapidly turned around, nearly twisting his ankle as he tried to locate his father's voice.

"I'm not jealous," he said sharply, peering into the dark corridors to catch a glimpse of the king.

You want what he has...
You want his crown...

Jimin immediately pressed his hands against his ears and firmly shut his eyes. "I don't!" he yelled. "You don't know what I want!"

You want to rule...

Jimin's eyes sprung open again and they glazed with tears when his father's voice somehow still managed to reach him.

"It's in my head..." He whispered, voicing a thought he'd secretly known to be true all along.

You want to be king!

Jimin began to run. Without a clear aim or a logial plan he sprinted down the corridors, descending stairs and travelling down the hidden passageways of the palace, hoping to somehow outrun his own delusion.

"I'm not mad," he whispered as he kept taking turns down darker corridors. "I'm not mad," he repeated, panting as his heart drummed against his chest.

Chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, turned to torches that were fixed against the wall. Luxurious tapestry decorating the floor, were replaced by uneven cobblestone, sprinkled with filthy rat droppings.

'I'm not mad, I am not mad."

Jimin lifted his nightgown from dragging along the ground, and only then realised that he had been running through the castle wearing only the simple lace garment.

"I. Am. Not. Ma -"

Jimin whimpered when someone clamped their hand firmly over his mouth, an arm snaking around his waist to drag him out of the hallway.

He screamed and tried to run, but his voice was muffled, and the hold around his body was simply to strong.

"I'm real sorry about this," a man grunted into the prince's ear. "I would usually never lay hands on a woman... but I really do need to get home."

Jimin huffed indignantly, squirming as he tried to escape his attacker's hold. Was this him? The prince wondered. Was this the man that had made his father disappear? The person behind Boreas's death?

Is this how you're going to die?

The prince groaned when his father's voice came back taunt him even as he was fighting for his life.

Murdered by a man who doesn't even think you have a cock?

Jimin lauched his elbow right into the spleen of his assaulter, before giving a back kick against the man's groin and stomping on his foot with all his strength.

"Who are you calling a woman you pig?"

"Mother of pearl!" The man cried out, immediately doubling over in pain and cupping his bulge as his eyes went slightly crossed.

"Why is it always m'dick," the stranger squeaked softly, needing a few seconds to recover from the attack on his privates while Jimin tried his best to pinpoint where exactly he'd seen the man before.

He wasn't dressed like a spy or an assassin, and he most definetly wasn't skilled enough to be one if he could not even protect his own balls in a fight...

The man finally lifted his head up when the pain in his crotch subsided, his brows knitting together in confusion when he met eyes with the prince.

Jimin's breath hitched when he recognised the kind doe eyes that had occasionally been drifting through his mind ever-since he'd first seen them.

"You're the half-god," he said breathlessly.

The demigod suddenly looked at Jimin as though the prince were an old friend, and his lips tugged up slightly with a small smile.

"It's you..." He said, his big, bright eyes twinkling like stars in the night.

Jimin gave the boy an unimpressed look up and down, and noticed that the man's earlier wounds had somehow healed within a day.

The half-god scratched behind his ear and showed a rather sheepish-smile. "Ah, I'm sorry for thinking you were a woman... uhm Y-Your Highness. Men don't usually look good in dresses. My name is Jungkook... not The Half-god."

The skin around Jimin's eyes tightened as he observed the escaped demigod, the boy's words barely reaching him as Jimin began to circle him like a shark.

"So you're the boy the people are so afraid of? He asked with a distrustful look in his eyes. 'The one they call a monster?"

Jungkook shook his head and raised his chin. "I'm not a monster," he opposed confidently. "I need to get home to my brother and let him know I'm okay."

"How many guards have you already killed?" Jimin asked on, still orbiting the demigod to take in every single detail about the boy.

Jungkook chewed on the insides of his lips a he followed the prince from the corner of his eyes.

"N-none," he said softly. "I just... knocked them out."

"With what?"

Jimin stopped right front of the demigod and gazed into the boy's eyes as he waited for an answer, wondering how on earth this clumsy kid could've possibly harmed the king.

He peered through his raven bangs, showing no fear to the son of Apollo.

"W-with... with my... fis..."

The half-god slowly lost his ability to speak when the same puzzled expression he had given the prince earlier came back to him.

All he could do was stare with parted lips as Jimin's face was only inches removed from his own, their heavy breaths echoing through the long hallway as they were both strangely caught by one other.

"You look..." He whispered, cocking his head slightly to the side to take in more of Jimin's rounded facial features in the light of a torch. "You look exactly like the way you did in my dreams..."

Jimin drew a sharp breath, and leaned away slightly. "In you dreams?" He asked, furrowing his brows. "You... you have dreams too?"

Jungkook nodded slowly, and his eyes crinkled with a smile. Jimin catched how the boy's two front teeth peeked out like a bunny as he grinned, and flowers grew inside his stomach at the charming attribute.

"Well... everyone has dreams. But mine tend to be a bit more like..."

"Visions," Jimin filled in.

"Yeah that," Jungkook said. "How did you know?"

Jimin catched his lower lip between his teeth, wondering for a moment if it would be wise to tell this complete stranger his secret when he was a known enemy of the crown.

"Because I..." He whispered, closing his eyes as he took a leap of faith in the escaped prisoner. "I have them too."