Taehyung took in a deep breath and let it out. He stared out his balcony, waiting for the sun to rise with a frown. Usually, if Taehyung was able to wake up so early to be able to see the scene, it'd make his whole day. He'd watch with a wide mouthed smile, dragging Jimin from his slumber to join him.
Taehyung sighed, his mood not becoming any better from the events of the previous day. Zorock's words still rang through his mind.
He felt a light breeze hit, but he felt too lazy to go back inside and grab a robe to cover himself with. He felt too lazy to do anything, really.
Two light knocks were heard. Taehyung turned back to his door, wondering why the helper elves would come so early. He looked at his wrist watch, tapping on a button to check who was outside. He saw the raven haired elf standing there, yawning. Taehyung's lips ever so slightly curved upwards. He pressed on the button that'd let the door open.
In walked Jeongguk in his bed hair wearing a black velvet robe with little gold decals. He tied it loosely around his body, a bit of his chest exposed. Jeongguk stepped out to the balcony and joined Taehyung. Sleep was evident in the younger's eyes. His lips slightly pouty, another sign he'd much rather be in bed right now.
"Why're you awake?" Taehyung asked.
"Because you are."
Taehyung knotted his brows. "How'd you know I was awake?"
"Your wrist call turned on, and when that happens my alarm goes off. I have to be up as soon as you are," Jeongguk explained. "Usually, I'd wake up before you so it was never a problem, but today... why're you up so early?"
Taehyung pursed his lips and looked back at the sky, choosing to remain quiet. Although that didn't matter, Jeongguk already knew the answer.
"This is why I told you not to go, I knew he'd mess with your head. See, now you won't be able to concentrate during our practices," Jeongguk said. He then muttered under his breath, "no one ever listens to me."
Taehyung stifled a laugh. "Is that the only reason you didn't want me to go?"
"What'd he say to you?"
After they returned to the palace, Taehyung went straight to his room without uttering a word. Namjoon didn't ask about what they discussed, so no one else did.
Taehyung contemplated wether he should tell him or not. Zorock could've even been lying, but he might feel a little better sharing his thoughts with someone.
"He told me that there's a secret that's being hidden from me. That it was the reason my father sent to me to Earth and took away my memories."
"Or maybe there isn't. Maybe the late King just wanted to protect you," Jeongguk said. Taehyung sighed and closed his eyes, wrapping his arms around himself as another shiver passed through.
"Why don't we go inside?" Jeongguk suggested, noticing the little tremble. Taehyung shook his head in answer.
"Then I'll go get you a robe," Jeongguk said. As he turned around to leave, Taehyung opened his eyes and caught the boy's hand, holding him back.
"Your hands are warm," Taehyung commented.
Jeongguk turned his head back, expression changed from being confused to concerned, then softened up. "Yeah. What did you expect?"
"Well you have ice powers and all..." Taehyung trailed off, but stopped himself as it was self-explanatory. He pulled at the arm, getting Jeongguk to stumble back to the edge of the balcony.
He looked at Jeongguk for another moment, watching his eyes shine before they dimmed back to the usual blue, and as they did, Taehyung turned his attention back to the sky.
"This warmth is enough," Taehyung said.
Jeongguk didn't say anything back. He just stayed quiet and readjusted himself to a more comfortable position against the railing. All that went through his mind was the old memories of Taehyung holding his hand, guiding him through places he defiantly shouldn't be going to due to it either being prohibited or dangerous, but that didn't matter to Jeongguk. All that mattered was that Taehyung was by his side and he felt safe.
Now that he's all grown up, Jeongguk only hoped he could make him feel safe too.
•—•—•
"The village?" Taehyung questioned as he finished up the breakfast he requested to be brought up to his room. Jeongguk had just tagged along.
Jeongguk nodded, scrolling through his wrist call getting all the formalities for a Royal to go out done. Luckily he didn't have to go through Namjoon for this process.
"You enjoyed yourself last time. Let's do it again. But we'll need to put a concealing spell on you. I'm calling up Hoseok to bring a mask that'll do just that."
Taehyung nodded along as Jeongguk spoke. Usually, it'd be Taehyung annoying the younger until he agreed to do something other than training. It was unusual for Jeongguk to plan the outing.
Jeongguk took a quick peak at Taehyung who stared at the wall. He wasn't used to seeing Taehyung so down, not when they were young nor now. The elf had done everything he possibly could for Jeongguk after Namjoon had rejected him, now it was his turn to do the same. He didn't think of it as returning a favour, Jeongguk thought of it as something he needed to do to stop his heart aching every time he looked at the prince.
"Can we get those little puff balls we got last time?" Taehyung asked, his voice small as he picked at his bedsheet.
Jeongguk smiled, holding himself back from cooing. "Yeah, of course."
"And the fire candy thing you're obsessed with?"
Jeongguk's eyes widened. He looked at Taehyung who stared back, confused if he said anything wrong.
"How did you know?" Jeongguk questioned. "I mean, I'm not anymore. But I was when I was young..."
Taehyung blinked. He tried to remind himself where he got that from, or the memory where he'd heard that, but he couldn't. He tilted his head, letting out a despaired groan.
"I don't know, it just came to me."
Jeongguk nodded and tapped his chin. "Memories are resurfacing by little bits and pieces. Of course you can't pick out which ones, it's at random. It'd make sense as spells could wear off, but this was from a royal spell book. Well we can't say that much now that the shield's weakening, especially as the spellcaster has no more active energy. If we waited some more time, the memory spell could weaken just enough for a recovery potion to have its effects, but then again we still don't have the ingredients," Jeongguk went on mumbling to himself. Taehyung just nodded, pretending as if he was catching on.
Jeongguk stopped his train of thought as he realized who he needed to share all this with. He shook his head, pushing that away. He didn't need to be thinking about Namjoon right now. He'd much rather just enjoy the day with Taehyung.
Their attention turned to the door as the guards had opened it. Hoseok came in with a bright smile. He bowed gracefully. "Your majesty."
Taehyung laughed. Hoseok was probably the only one still contantly doing that when no one who'd care about him not using honourifics was around. He'd do it purposefully to get a chuckle out of the prince.
"And good day to you, Sir Jung," Taehyung replied. Jeongguk smiled, he knew Taehyung would already feel better if he just interacted with another elf. He noticed Taehyung got his energy from people and being around people.
"I've got what you asked for Gguks. But be careful, if the prince gets lost, no one can identify him without you. The caster has to undo the spell, you remember that right?" Hoseok informed him as it was procedure.
Jeongguk nodded. "Thank you," he thanked the older as he gave him the clear pouch of what looked like glitter and white full face mask. He turned his attention back towards Taehyung.
The elf scooped out a decent amount of the powder and sprinkled it over Taehyung. "Skandedem," Jeongguk said and the little glitters started to glow brighter and Jeongguk continued to repeat them a couple more time. Lastly, he placed the mask on his face and said, "Hoseok Jung." The mask disappeared into his skin.
"What? You're going to make him look like me?" Hoseok questioned, not knowing this was a part of the plan.
"You're okay with that, right?" Jeongguk asked even thought it already happened. "Even if he got lost, the guards might be dumb enough to let him in without questioning."
"You know they won't, especially after the shit that's happened," Hoseok said. "But sure, as long as you don't run into my ex, it's good. She will, and I'm not even exaggerating, spit acid on you." He then looked at Taehyung who stared at himself in the mirror which was the set back about this spell. The spell can't fool mirrors or picture. They needed a much more stronger mask for that.
"Wow, I am quite dashing, don't you think," Hoseok said, rubbing his chin.
"Mhm, very," Jeongguk replied sarcastically.
Hoseok rolled his eyes. "Well you're lucky that you'll be with that beautiful elf for the next few hours, huh?"
"No. He still looks like Taehyung to me," Jeongguk said, strapping on his bag.
Hoseok furrowed his brow. "Really? That's unusual."
"Maybe because I'm the caster."
Hoseok nodded, still not so sure about it. "Oh, by the way. I saw your eyes glowing the other day during after the announcement. Does that happen often?"
"Glowing eyes? What are you talking about?" he replied.
"Did I see wrong?" Hoseok asked himself with a head shake.
"No I saw it too, and before and after that as well," Taehyung said, plopping himself down on his bed. "Is it not normal?"
"Well I don't think it's anything bad. I just read it in a book somewhere. It's just another way an elf's emotion can express through. Anger, frustration, love, happiness, sadness, fear, and stuff, but it's usually just one of those emotions. Prince Jin probably knows more about it," he explained.
"I heard about that too," Jeongguk said, trying to recall any other memories about the matter. He then gave up and shrugged.
"For a fire-head like you, it's probably anger," Hoseok said with a laugh.
Taehyung joined along. "That's ironic."
Jeongguk scoffed. He went over to Taehyung and grabbed his wrist, lifting him off the bed. "Let's get going."
Taehyung nodded, his enthusiasm slowly coming back. They thanked Hoseok once again before leaving. On there way down, they had run into a few people who knew them both, well, knew Hoseok and Jeongguk. And with no hesitation, the two pretended as if he was Hoseok. Let's just say the palace is soon going to be filled with rumours of Sir Jung that may or may not get the elf running after the two with a a sharp dagger in hand.
Taehyung and Jeongguk let out the laughs they had held in. It brought Jeongguk back to his young and mischievous days. He hadn't done something like this since a long time. Since Taehyung had left.
"Hoseok's going to kill us!" Taehyung whisper-yelled even though they were inside the portal with no one around.
Jeongguk had his back against the wall trying to catch his breath. His laugh faded down, ending off as a giggle. "Possibly."
Jeongguk lifted himself up then tapped a few button and soon the portal opened up to the place they had first entered the palace through.
"After you, your royal highness," Jeongguk said.
"I am Sir Jung, Sir Jeon!" Taehyung exclaimed.
Jeongguk chuckled and they both exited the portal together.
"So, what's on the itinerary?" Taehyung asked as they walked through the busy village street.
"Oh," Jeongguk sound. "Right, the itinerary. Well... hm."
"Why do you never have a plan for anything other than your workout routine?" Taehyung asked. Jeongguk pursed his lips and didn't answer. Taehyung bumped the boy's shoulder with his. "But that's fine, I like that spontaneous aspect about you."
Jeongguk continued to keep quiet as continued their walk just looking around to see if anything interest them.
"And hey, you should've told me if you disliked me holding you hand so much," Taehyung said suddenly.
"What?"
"The balcony? Your eyes glowed," Taehyung said.
"My ey– but I..." Jeongguk started but stopped. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm not really big on skinship."
Taehyung nodded. "Noted. And tell me if anything I do makes you uncomfortable next time, okay?"
Jeongguk looked at ground and nodded, now wondering how really did feel about holding his hand, but he shook those thoughts away immediately because he didn't think it was important enough to be thought.
"Mmm, what is that?" Taehyung asked, eyes closed with a pleased smile as he sniffed the air.
Jeongguk copied to get the scent and he knew instantly what they were. "Huckleberry pie," he said as he filled his nostrils more with the heavenly smell. "We used to have it all the time. It was Auntie Mir– well, the late Queen's speciality. Your mother grew up on a huckleberry field."
Taehyung smiled wide. "Can we have some?" he asked eagerly as if he were a child. What was Jeongguk gonna do? Say no?
They went inside the bakery and took place in the short line. Taehyung eyed up all the other pastries and delights he wanted to try, pointing out each one of them to Jeongguk.
They ordered their foods and Jeongguk paid. They instructed them to go take a seat and that it would be brought to them as they had ordered a lot. Soon enough, all the treats floated to their wooden table, which needed to be extended as there wasn't enough space.
"You sure you can eat this all?" Jeongguk asked looking over all the food.
"Oh you underestimate me," Taehyung said, grabbing his fork to dig into the pie first.
After a trying a few more treats, Taehyung looked up at Jeongguk guiltily who was patting away any crumbs on his own lips with a napkin.
"Hmm?" Jeongguk hummed as he lowered the napkin, a brow raised .
"Hehe, maybe we can give this to Hoseok as an apology?" Taehyung suggested. There was still three quarters of the treats they had ordered left.
Jeongguk shook his head but laughed. "I knew you wouldn't be able to finish it."
"Well then why did you let me order all of it?" Taehyung replied feeling defensive.
Jeongguk bit his lip to hold back the smile. "Because."
Taehyung watched as Jeongguk called to get a large takeout box and put all the uneaten treats inside. He was still confused as the younger lead him to a less populated part of the village through another portal. This new area seemed more rural and there weren't as many large building or houses. Little small hut like places but they all seemed comfortable.
They approached to a group of kids running around, playing around with a ball. One of the boy's saw them and his smile became wider.
"Guy's, it's brother Jeongguk!" the young one yelled, getting everyone's attention who all showed the same reaction as him. The little elves instantly forgot about their game and ran to Jeongguk, all of them getting in their chance to hug him.
"Woah, woah, woah," Jeongguk sounded in between laughs as he tried to keep his balance. "I have something for you, but you'll have to let go of me first!"
The little elves immediately let go and bunched up in front of him, eager to see what Jeongguk had brought for them today.
He knelt down, brought the box in front of them, and opened it slowly to get them all on their toes. They were in awe as they saw all the treats in front of them.
"Ta-da!" Jeongguk beamed. "Make sure everyone gets some."
Taehyung watched with a fond smile as Jeongguk tried to control the little munchkins from tumbling over him to get their hands on a treat. Once everyone got something, they settled down and took seats on the grass, eating happily.
One elf in particular glared at Taehyung the entire time before he finally spoke. "Who's that mister, Googie?" he asked Jeongguk.
"Hmm?" Jeongguk turned his head to see Taehyung just standing their. He signalled the older to come closer to him. "This is... you can all call him brother Taehyung," he introduced him to everyone.
The glaring elf gasped. "Like Prince Taehyung?"
Jeongguk nodded. He brought a finger to his lips. "It's a secret, okay?"
The elves nodded, all a little starstruck. Another elf ran over to him. Taehyung cooed as she almost stumbled over her little feet. He stopped in front of him, gasping for air. Taehyung crouched down.
She did a little curtsy and then held out her half eaten pastry to him. Her eyes sparkled as she said, "For you, your highness."
"Oh no, it's fine. This is all for you," he said, lightly tapping her nose.
The young elf frowned. He brought her hand down and pouted. Taehyung was wondering if he messed up and what he should say to cheer her up, but her face instantly brightened. She held the food in one hand as she dug through her pocket with the other one.
"I found it by the pond this morning!" she said proudly, holding the little stone in her palm for him to take.
"I-I..." he started, wanting to refuse not knowing if it was special to her and his eyes caught with Jeongguk's, who just shook his head softly. Taehyung brought his attention back to her. With a warm smile, Taehyung took the stone.
"What's you're name?" he asked.
"Jasmine," she replied, happy that the prince had accepted her gift.
"Well thank you, Lady Jasmine," he said, bowing his head down. He ruffled Jasmine's hair. She giggled and ran back to her place to continue eating.
Jeongguk approached the older and plopped down beside him. Taehyung put himself down from the crouch and took a seat on the grass.
"It's nice out here, isn't it?" Jeongguk asked, closing his eyes and facing his head up.
Taehyung nodded looking over all the kids as they talked to one another, laughing and shouting.
"They're adorable. It feels really refreshing."
"Mhm. There isn't many elves in this part of the village and tends to not really interact with the others. They basically outcasted themselves."
"Why would they do that?" Taehyung asked.
"Because of their gifts. It was weaker than your average, and over time all those who couldn't live or keep up with a world with all these elves, wanted to not be a part of it. Yes they all have gifts, but it's barely anything," he explained.
He opened his eyes and looked at Taehyung. "The thing is, we can't provide them with all the services as they are such a small group. So most of these kids don't get to experience a lot, like proper education or gift training, much less a treat like this one. They don't even know what you really look like, they don't have the access to telecastings. I visit them from time to time, but I wish I could do more for them."
Taehyung frowned as he heard it all. He could understand the people that inhabited this place. He understood them very well. He felt very out of place too surrounded by all those powerful elves, but he was still treated like royalty. Here he was, a poser prince, getting everything handed to him when he hasn't done a single thing to deserve it.
"Hey, you alright?" Jeongguk asked, nudging his leg.
Taehyung turned his body to Jeongguk. "Let's build all the needed services for them. I don't care if it's for two or two thousand elves. I want all my people to be treated fairly."
Jeongguk smiled. "Did you know your father and mother started the project to help them long ago, but it was all stopped because he came in and ruined us all. Then it was forgotten. I tried to bring it back up, but there was other conflicts that held more importance to them at the time."
"Well, let not hold it off for any longer. "
"You're starting to sound like a true King," Jeongguk said after a long pause.
Taehyung grinned. "You think so?"
"Yeah."
"I think so too."
Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as Taehyung thought. Maybe he could live up to his father's name, maybe he could defeat Zorock, and maybe he could be a good King.
It was a little strange though. He wouldn't have thought any of that a few hours ago. He wouldn't have thought that if he was in his room all alone, or even if he came to this place by himself. The fact that Jeongguk was by his side, making sure everything was alright, protecting him, cheering him up, giving him his approval, it all made him feel more confident. It was very strange.
Not to mention his heart beating at an uncontrollable pace, doing an extra skip every time the boy smiled or a loop every time he laughed along with the little ones.
Very very strange.
—•
Should I make my updates shorter?
Rn they're usually between 3000-4000 words, but maybe I can update more frequently if I lessened the load? What do you think?
Bye<3