Chapter Text
14.
“…May I ask what this is, Your Majesty?”
Mingyu sighed tiredly. “It’s a carrot, Seok. A healthy, tasty orange coloured vegetable that is grown in our own land,” then, he pierced his gaze towards the boy whose age the same as him. “And stop calling me that! You know very well I loathe it.”
“I know very well you loathe it, that’s why I used it,” Seokmin simply clicked his tongue. He did not back off at all even under the glare of the crown prince’s spouse. “And you know very well too that I loathe that thing. So, pray tell me, is that why you put it inside this amazingly rich, creamy, delicious beef stew you made for our lunch, hmm? So that I can only smell and see, without eating it? Is that your way to give me the sweetest torture, Your Majesty, of finding that thing in this Heaven-sent stew? What did I ever do you wrong?”
As Mingyu rolled his eyes, Minghao laughed so hard, he almost broke the table from being hit repeatedly. Those three were sitting together in the palace kitchen, alone on the long wooden dining table after it was made clear of kitchen staffs’ meal, when the odd arguments between the prince’s spouse and the stable boy began. If the kitchen staffs were still there, they might have gasped in fear when they heard such audacity coming from a mere stable boy, but Seokmin had been friends with Mingyu far too long to even care about trivial things anymore.
As usual, Mingyu and his little gang of hoodlums occupied the corner of the kitchen palace before they started their extra Combat course. Mingyu would cook lunch for them, or in Mingyu’s own words, using them as ‘experimental bunnies’ for his newly learnt recipes from Culinary lesson the day before. Minghao and Seokmin knew better, though, that Mingyu almost never failed to outdo himself in satisfying other people. A perfectionist he was, ran thick in his blood, never the one to disappoint. So that’s why, despite being experimental bunnies, they would gladly do it in the first place.
A crown prince’s spouse, or any royal honestly, was not permitted in the kitchen palace to begin with, as they should not be burdened by trivial yet time consuming domestic activities, like sewing, gardening or cooking. There were people excelled in it and hired to do those things for them. But being royal was more boring than Mingyu had thought before. Even with so many classes he ended up listing in, he still had too much free time. And he got curious. That was the sole reason he sneaked into the palace kitchen with Minghao that time. And since the prince consort was assigned to Culinary class by Her Majesty, it was only a logical thing to also borrow the palace kitchen to test his skill.
Mingyu had been a regular resident for 3 years in said place and it was shown clearly in the way he handled various kind of knives the cooks kept there. One of which, the sharpest and most intimidating, was held in his hand right now.
“No complaining while eating, Seok, and eat your damn carrot,” he smiled ever so charmingly. His hand spinning said knife like a pro. “It gives you its life to keep you alive, just like the other ingredients there. It did not die just to be thrown away. So be a good boy now or I’ll add a nice, freshly chopped tongue in your rich, creamy, delicious stew.”
His grin was wicked. Seokmin gulped. Worry was seen on his suddenly pale face. Minghao was still laughing, even harder this time. Some of the stew spluttered out of his mouth as the result, tainting Seokmin’s tunic.
“Yah!” he shouted at his other friend. “I hope you’re choked to death, Haohao! Such a friend you are, laughing on my grave!”
“You mean schadenfreude?” Minghao snickered.
Seokmin puffed out his cheeks. Now his limited knowledge was insulted. Minghao did not pay attention to that. Instead, he picked up his mug and washed the stew down in one go.
“Gyu’s right, though,” Minghao wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You’re 13, Seok. It’s too late to be picky with your food.”
“Well,” the boy folded his arms on his chest stubbornly. “Not eating that thing won’t kill me!”
“Actually,” Mingyu interjected. He had put down the knife and was eating his own stew. “Carrot contains vitamin A, which is good for your eyes. Without it, you can be blind as a mole. Thus, get you killed.”
Another insult to his limited knowledge. Well, fine. Seokmin knew he was illiterate compared to the other boys. He hated studying and was glad that his parents never bothered to send him to school (it only cost them more money, after all). So what if Seokmin knew more about a foal’s birth method than the content of a carrot? It wasn’t like his friends had knowledge regarding horses outside of riding them, anyway! To survive, all you need was expertise!
“About getting killed,” Minghao bit his potato. “Heard someone was killed last night.”
The atmosphere on the table changed in an instant. Seokmin blinked, as Mingyu put down his spoon. “Again?” Mingyu whispered after checking their surroundings. Still empty. He leaned forward, ducking his head as if they were talking in secrecy, where in fact, it was something that had been haunting the inhabitants of Moon Kingdom for some time in these past weeks.
Minghao followed Mingyu’s action. “They said the corpse was an infiltrator,” he kept talking in a hush. “An organization planning the king’s assassination.”
“Is that…that revolutionary…uhh, something about taking over our current king’s power?” Seokmin frowned, trying to remember what his father once cursed at while reading his newspaper.
“Perhaps,” Minghao shrugged. “It’s still a small group. Said that it’s not in the radar of our royal guards due to its size.” He stabbed another potato and munched on it. “This is amazing, Gyu. You should be a cook if you’re already bored of being that petulant crown prince’s spouse.”
He was meant it as a joke to enlighten the whole mood again, yet it failed to reach Kim Mingyu’s ears as his mind was wandering to other things. His frown even grew deeper. 13 he was, young and a childish boy, but he had been taught by a war veteran how to send enemies to their deaths to protect the kingdom for years. Hearing about this…betrayal in the making from within the kingdom did not sit with him right. His mind could not stay in ease.
“…Why would anyone want Father dead?” he stared at his stew like it was the most interesting object in the whole world. “Father is kind and warm. His smile is as sweet as Wonu’s. Someone with that kind of smile cannot hurt even a fly.”
Seokmin said nothing, while Minghao sighed. “We live day by day under a monarch, Gyu. You may not feel it since you’re at the top of the hierarchy, but the rest of the kingdom is divided between society classes. Royalties and commoners. Some places on the outskirts are poorer than our capital ones. There will always be at least one person who doesn’t like the king,” Minghao stirred his stew, lifted his bowl and drank the rest. With a loud and obviously impolite ‘aaah~’, he added. “That’s why I will leave this kingdom one day and build my own. Thank you for the meal~”
Mingyu was still bothered, still could not imagine even one person hating his father-in-law. Because hating the king meant that you’re hating his entire family too, right? So, how could anyone hate someone like Wonwoo, who was lovely and pretty, and only doing his best to learn about his kingdom and people, and how to make them happy and prosper? He even married a stranger sent by an oracle just so his people could smile, seeing their crown prince and his spouse on the balcony.
Wonwoo loved like an ocean giving away its salt. Generous, without asking back. So, how could anyone want to eliminate him?
It really did not sit right with Mingyu.
“Uh-oh, I think we lost him, Haohao,” Seokmin blinked. “Hello, Kim Mingyu. Are you here with us?” He waved his hand in front of his friend’s face. Luckily, Mingyu did get back.
“Are you thinking about that news I just shared or another stupid thing which crossed your mind?” Minghao calmly asked.
“Neither,” the crown prince’s spouse lied smoothly like a butter under a warmed up knife. He even pulled a soft smile. “I was just thinking about today’s Combat session. I want it to be a sword day.”
“What?” at this, Minghao groaned. “Another sword day? We just had it last week!”
“Well, I’m lacking in my sword technique. I want to be better in our next Combat class.”
“Why’re you so obsessed in sword wielding anyway?? You’re a potential archer! Don’t you think it’s better to polish your skill there??”
“Listen, listen,” Kim Mingyu grinned wide. “I need to beat Wonu in a sword match because that’s the condition we agreed upon.”
“For what??”
Mingyu blinked innocently.
“For me to kiss him, of course.”
Deflated, like a flat tire. Minghao lost his ability to counterattack and Seokmin put his hand on his mouth to stifle a loud gasp. None of them responded fast. The silence only broke when Minghao was able to retort, “Excuse me??”
“Okay. Well. Yeah. Listen,” Mingyu tried to level with his friends. “It was that time, Hao. You remember? The time we got drunk from your father stashed wine.”
Minghao grinned back. “Ah,” he nodded in acknowledgement. “How could I ever forget? The first and the last time I stole it. Man, I can still feel his slap ringing on my cheek ‘til this day. T’was some serious shit. Thought gonna die by my own old man’s hands.” He shuddered, remembering that day when all Helheim had broken loose.
“Well, that night, in drunken state, I kissed him when he’s sleeping,” Mingyu casted his eyes downwards. “The thing is, Wonu banned me from kissing him.”
“Didn’t you kiss him on your wedding day?” Seokmin finally joined their conversation. He still remembered the day he saw Kim Mingyu for the first time, on the balcony beside the crown prince, kissing the boy on the lips. His mother was surprised and had been talking about it all day. She said it was the first time she saw royal spouses kissing each other in public, as it was not a tradition in Moon Kingdom’s royal matrimonial rites. His father snorted, cursing the foreign child bringing foreign custom to their sacred ones (and earning him a reprimand from his mother that the queen was once a foreign lady too). Seokmin just thought the kiss was adorable. The foreign child and the crown prince were adorable in his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s why he banned me,” Mingyu sighed. “To be honest, if that’s what Wonu wants, then I will follow his order. But that cursed wine you stole messed up with my brain and the next thing I knew, I already kissed him! Now I need to win against him in a sword match or I can never kiss him again for the rest of my life!”
“Hey!” at Mingyu’s pointed finger, Minghao protested back. “First, I didn’t force you to drink that cursed wine. You drank it yourself. Second, if you’re dead set in not kissing him as he wished for, then why should you bother??”
“W-well, have you kissed someone, Hao?” with blushed cheeks, Mingyu shouted back. “You should kiss someone to understand why I wanna kiss him again! I mean, I won’t go into details because those lips are all mine and I won’t share even the memory of them with you guys, but you should try! Kissing is, uh, addictive and s-sweet and—“
“Aww.”
“Gross.”
Seokmin cooed. Minghao was disgusted. Mingyu blushed even more. He had kissed his husband twice in all these years being married to him and he could already tell twice was not near enough. A kiss with Wonwoo should be special, because Wonwoo was special. He would want to kiss his husband again in far soberer condition and better circumstances.
“Uh, yeah, that’s, emm, why I want to practice more sword…”
Damn big stupid puppy. “Okay, fine,” Minghao sighed. “Let’s swing those swords and get you your disgusting kisses or whatever…”
"Good luck, you two!" Seokmin beamed.
"Don't you want to learn with us, Seok?" Mingyu looked at him. “C’mon. The more, the merrier.”
"Yeah. And while you’re at it, learn some words too,” Minghao jeered. “Gyu can teach you how to read and write. And maybe some simple calculations too. He’s a good teacher, I tell you.”
“Why? So you can ask me what’s the answer of, what was it—“ Seokmin quickly frowned. “—how much greater the sum of A and B than the sum of A and C or whatever. The stupid blabbering you asked me that one time. My answer is: no thanks.”
“It’s B minus C.”
“…What?”
Mingyu blinked once. “The answer?” he asked back in confusion. “The sum of A and B means A plus B. The sum of A and C is A plus C. So you wanna know A plus B minus A plus C. If A minus B plus C is the same as A minus B minus C, then you get A plus B minus A minus C. Eliminate all the A’s and, voila, B minus C. Like this.”
Mingyu wrote down his formulae on the table's surface using a little flour:
A – (B + C) = A – B - C
(A + B) – (A + C) = A + B – A – C = B – C.
“See? B minus C is the answer. Easy, right?” the prince consort grinned cheerfully.
.
.
.
"My head’s getting dizzy," Seokmin held his head, suddenly confused beyond belief.
"Alright, alright. We get it. You're an expert in Algebra as well. No need to flaunt your abundant talent on us, Kim Mingyu," tired of their conversation, Minghao stood up and pulled Mingyu to the kitchen’s back door, leading him to the combat field.
“But I don’t— Seok was asking, so I—“ Mingyu was confused himself. He did not have that kind of malice intention. He was just answering a question from his friend, for Moon’s sake. “It was a basic question—“
“Alright, alright,” sadly, Minghao had had enough.
Wonwoo giggled. He rested his back against a humongous trunk which was grown at the farthest corner of the garden, just near the massive palace gate. On the thick branch beside his own, sat a lanky boy whom he had proclaimed as his future commander in the royal guards (which was, still, declined by the boy until this very second). Minghao was telling tales of Mingyu’s confession at their lunch time to Wonwoo in such an animated way, the prince found it rather amusing.
“I mean, don’t drag me in your push-and-pull house play with your husband, Crown Prince,” Minghao sighed. “Today was another sword day because of that, while I long for polearm or archery. I’m bored of endless sword training!”
“Humm,” Wonwoo stroked his chin in laid back demeanour. “How about hand-to-hand combat then? It’s been awhile since we got that. I’ll talk to your father so that our next Combat class will be that one instead.”
“Please. If I lift another sword in near future, I’d rather slash it on my own neck.”
Wonwoo giggled again. He liked it when Minghao asked him for something in his own, peculiar way, as if he was half begging, half telling the prince what to do. And Wonwoo was not even the slightest felt offended by it. He found it refreshing, really, because even his own husband rarely asked him for something. Not that Wonwoo would not give Mingyu anything he ever wanted, though. If the moon was the boy’s wish, then he would gather all the best alchemists throughout this kingdom to preserve some parts of their Mother for his husband.
This was their routine private meeting, twice a week in the evening. It went way back since Minghao dragged him once to watch the sun set together on the same trees they sat on right now. It was stopped for a while when Mingyu came into their lives. There was even a time when Wonwoo got super jealous seeing Mingyu and Minghao together a lot. He even hid himself away from them for days, leaving his poor, perplexed husband in utmost despair.
(He could never stay mad at those big, cute eyes glistening in tears, asking what he did wrong to him).
Well, it was in the past, alright. Put it behind them for greater good with no harm done. Despite their weird friendly rival relationship, Wonwoo and Minghao respected each other more than some petty possessiveness and childish jealousy.
“Can I ask?” at this, Wonwoo lifted his head to see the boy in the eye. “Why don’t you just kiss him and save me from this nightmare already?”
The crown prince smirked. “Why? And missing the cute whining he let out when things don’t go his way?” he giggled again. “I don’t want to kiss him.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Wonwoo halted there. A sudden silence so itchy, Minghao had to move until his legs swung from his branch and his body facing Wonwoo’s. The younger boy tilted his head, a habit he unconsciously picked up from his dear friend.
“Because?” what a stubborn lad.
“It makes me feel weird.”
Minghao still did not understand. Again, he could hear Mingyu’s voice from before in his head, that he should try kissing other human (because, apparently, dogs and cats did not count) to understand what he was talking about. “You have your lips against another lips. I bet it is weird,” he frowned.
Wonwoo just smiled at him. One serene, soft smile. A smile of consideration that this childhood friend of him did not get what he meant at all. And he was not planning to make Minghao get it at all.
“We’ll keep it at that, then,” he giggled for one more time.
“You seem happy compared to Gyu.”
“Am I?”
“Did you even hear last night’s murder, Crown Prince?”
A wind, cold and strong, blew their hair, turning them into a mop of mess. Slowly but surely, today’s sun went down silently in the West, leaving the world to the peaceful embrace of the moon. The two boys watched silently for several seconds, basking in the beauty of nature.
“It’s interesting how you used murder, instead of incident,” Wonwoo finally spoke. “I guess you also know the talk in town regarding espionage and such.”
“I have my sources,” Minghao shrugged.
“He is alright. He is guarded and safe. Mother also made some prevention of unwanted possibility in the future to him and to herself.”
“And to you.”
Wonwoo smirked, “So you noticed, huh?”
Minghao shifted his glance to three people who were hiding themselves near the gigantic tree. It was impossible not to notice such overwhelming presence of being under constant watch. “They’re not royal guards,” the boy’s voice was almost a murmur. “I know everyone in your army, Crown Prince. They’re new.”
“Don’t worry. They work for our benefit, Hao,” Wonwoo said calmly. “Soon, they’d follow Mingyu too. They’re not ours, but not our enemies. That, I can assure you.” Then he continued with a light chuckle. “Sorry, though, our private meeting is not so private anymore.”
It was the least thing Minghao could care about. “Well, at least you’re safe too,” he scoffed.
“Oh? What’s this? Did Haohao worry about my safety now?” the smirk returned with 120% more mischief infused. “Is he already taking my offer to be my future commander, making sure I’m always safe under his eagle eyes?”
Minghao rolled his eyes hard. “No. If you’re not safe, then that annoying little puppy will be tailing behind me, begging me to help him keeping you safe,” irritation was as clear as a day on his young, handsome face. “Seriously. Give him a kiss or two. He deserved it since he’s been a good boy for you all these times.”
“Kinky.”
“I’m 13. I know nothing.”
Wonwoo laughed with Minghao. Relaxed, without any burden. Talking with Mingyu was like a burning furnace. He made you feel spirited and lively, but at the same time exhausted you quickly. He was like a firework bloomed in the night sky. Talking with his husband, though, was the polar opposite. Like a gentle Spring wind with a splash of whimsical humour. With Wonwoo, he could talk about serious things. Not that Mingyu was not capable of it, but Wonwoo knew even deeper into the filthy sewer under the lavish and extravagant royal palace.
It had been some time since Minghao last thought how naive the crown prince was, blind from his own people’s suffering, to his relief.
Before them, the sun totally had set. Night came as fast as it went. It was time for Wonwoo to prepare for his dinner with his parents and husband. It was time for Minghao to go back to his house, cooking a simple dish for him and his father. Both the boys nodded, then jumped from their respective branches.
“His birthday’s coming,” Wonwoo said out of nowhere. “Think you can give me a hint of what he mostly wants for his birthday this year?”
Minghao closed his eyes for a while, looking as if he was thinking about something. Then, he opened them again and made a gesture for Wonwoo to come closer. The crown prince followed, giving his right ear to Minghao’s mouth. A whisper then heard, “Kiss him.”
Wonwoo just laughed at this, playfully punching the younger boy’s upper arm before saying goodbye.