Chapter Text
When he woke up, Nayeon was sitting by his side with a look of concern on her face, “Your Majesty,” she curtsied to him. “How are you feeling today?”
He groaned as he clenched his eyes shut. His head was incessantly pounding in pain, his stomach felt queasy and his mouth tasted terrible. He found there was too much light in his room when he cracked his eyes open a bit.
“Draw the curtains shut,” he groaned, “The light hurts my eyes.”
“Right away,” she complied and Seokjin heard a few more pair of feet moving around the room. “Are you ready to wake up? Or would you like to sleep in for a little longer?”
“I don’t know.” He mumbled, very unlike himself. “I don’t feel very well.”
“Here’s some water,” he felt the rim of a glass touch his lips, “Please drink all of it, Your Majesty.”
He drank the whole glass, thankful for the soothing sensation the water brought to his insides. The soothing sensation didn’t last long. Just some minutes after drinking the whole glass of water, he felt his insides turning and asking for release. Luckily, Nayeon was already by his side with a porcelain pot. He dry heaved three times before his stomach pushed up his last meal and bile.
He felt better afterwards, but his insides were still heavy and his sight was dazed. After they were sure he was more calm, he was helped to bathe, wash his mouth and change into a set of clothes more fit to spend the day in. Nayeon and a male servant helped him sit on a chair at the tea table by his fireplace. His poor maid had to be aided when transporting him from place to place, his body was too tall and heavier than hers.
He felt bad for her for some moments, before his own misery hit him back.
“His Majesty The King wishes to go on a stroll with Royal Consort Seokjin.” A well dressed servant announced out loud after he was allowed into his room. He was too well-dressed, so he recognized him as one of Yoongi’s personal servants. “His Majesty said he thought the day fit for sightseeing the wondrous flora Royal Consort Seokjin has worked so hard into. The royal forecaster said it will rain for the next few days, so today is as good as it will get.”
Seokjin huffed as he saw a cup of chamomile tea being served to him. He slowly tried to think of his answer, but he found his head too stuffed to think politely.
“Tell His Majesty, Yoongi the Great, the Battlefield Ruthless, Ruler of all your eyes can see in Kratos, The Greatlands, Azalyn and Erilith.” He took a deep breath and rubbed his temple before continuing, “That this former Erilithian Prince, removed and stripped from his mainland family titles, holds no desire to calmly follow him step by step in his quest for bloody flowers to put on his bedside table tonight.”
The messenger gaped at him as Nayeon inhaled deep and open and closed her mouth a few times, probably searching for words-more proper, no doubt- to replace his.
“Should I really…” the King’s messenger vaguely asked.
“No!” Nayeon quickly curtsied and begged to the taller man. She licked her lips nervously before asking, “Please Good Lord, do not tell the king so. Royal Consort Seokjin awoke feeling greatly ill. The words he speaks are coming out of his pain and fever. Please tell His Majesty The King that his Royal Consort is not feeling well today and he will be bedbound for the rest of the day.”
“Very well,” the man nodded at last, before leaving. “The message shall be forwarded.”
“I personally like my message best.” Seokjin scowled as the other man left.
“Your Majesty must be crazy,” Nayeon’s face was flushed, “You can not speak to the King so brutely! I thought you would know better.”
“So we can lay in bed together and make lewd things to each other in it, but we can’t talk freely between us? He can take my lands and my brother and my father and proclaim himself almighty king of all, while I become an useless castle’s lord without a say in any kind of matter? What an amazing marriage I’m in!” he laughed bitterly.
Nayeon opted to stay silent as she poured oil from a dark bottle into a spoon and handed it to him. He swallowed the hangover remedy in one go and groaned in slight disgust afterwards.
“Tea,” he moaned.
She was quick to give him a teacup and watched him drink all of it in one go.
“I think I want to sleep for a little longer.” He stood and clumsily made his way to his bed, which he found to be already covered in clean linen. “Please, do not wake me, unless the king himself comes to behead me to rid me of this fortune.”
The last thing he saw before falling asleep once more, was a sad Nayeon pulling close his bed curtains.
OOO
He spend the next few days in his bed, with a false fever to avoid any kind of contact with Yoongi. The soft covers did nothing to aide the pain in his heart every time that his thoughts drifted to his family and old naïve life at Moonfall.
He refused to eat or drink, unless it was any type of alcoholic beverages. Not caring for his wellbeing or the side sickness he would get when he woke up from little naps in the middle of the day. He let his servants push his windows open to let some summer breeze in while he listened to some musicians play on a room next door, ignoring the rain falling against the windows. He thought of refusing and sending back the musicians sent by the king, but he got easily bored without any sunlight to go on strolls.
On the evening of his fifth day of seclusion, Nayeon sent the servants out, leaving them alone. She kneeled by his bed and softly whispered to him.
“Lord Kihyun’s spouses arrived yesterday night. The king is throwing them a party later this evening.” She sighed, “It would be nice if you attended.”
“Says you or the king?” he moaned into his pillow.
She got closer to him and handed him a folded handkerchief. “Your brother has been safely taken into the house of a family of farmers. He’s passing as a forsaken chamberboy.” She smiled as she barely whispered at him. “He sends this poem and a lock of hair.”
Immediately, he sat up and unfolded the handkerchief to read the small note inside it. It was a poem Seokjin had been teaching him a few days before Hyunil sent them to the innerchambers of the castle, in fear of cannons reaching their rooms. He lovingly placed the note aside to take into his fingers the short lock of dark hair tied by a thin ribbon.
“I advise you to burn them once you’re done reading it. It could be dangerous if someone found it, your Majesty.”
He nodded as he cleaned his face of some stray tears and smiled for the first time in days.
“His Majesty has been sending some exquisite clothes and gifts while you were sick, your Majesty.” Nayeon placed a hand on his knee as she cleaned his tears with a cotton tissue, “How about we go through them and choose the finest one for tonight’s party?”
Seokjin nodded as he carefully folded the note and the lock of hair in the handkerchief. He brought it up his chest and breathed deeply in. “Let’s do that.”
He made sure to hide very well Jungkook’s gift inside a shoe, right beneath the soft sole, before he let Nayeon and another servant help him bathe and get dressed for the dinner party.
He dressed in a fine lilac outfit and wore the brightest jewelry he could. He deemed the ball too informal to wear his crown, so instead he put on his moon hairpin to be recognized as the King’s Royal Consort.
“The King sent this lotus flower perfume earlier,” Nayeon handed him a small, light green bottle with a few lotus flowers engraved in silver on the label, “Said it was part of Lord Kihyun’s consorts’ gifts.”
Seokjin frowned, confusion evident in his tone, “Am I allowed to take this if someone else gave it to me?”
“It was sent to the King so…” Nayeon blushed lightly as she curtsied, “I’m sorry, you Majesty. I’m as Erilithian as you, and I completely ignore if this isn’t considered proper etiquette.”
He sighed as eyed the bottle and sniffed the outside, a soft scent invaded his nostrils as he inhaled. “It smells pretty nice. I’ll wear it tonight then.”
His maid widened her eyes as she helped him get a light douse of perfume on. After being deemed perfect by his maid, he was accompanied by her to the second story entrance of the palace’s main ballroom, where she curtsied to him before retiring for the night. He fixed his overcoat and blew some air on his face with a painted fan before he was introduced to the party.
“His Majesty, Royal Consort Seokjin!” he was presented before a new set was performed by the musicians.
He began descending the stairs as posed as he could, with his head held high and one of his wrists still flicking air on him. His face perfectly schooled to be neutral but not sour looking.
He felt eyes on him as he slowly descended the gilded stairs and took in the room. Various people dressed elegantly stared at him from below the gold chandeliers over them, a few tables and chairs stood at the sidelines, but most people were at the middle, mingling and talking vividly amid eachother. He immediately bowed as the king made way towards him with an uncertain smile.
“Good to see you well,” the king said as he took his arms in his hands. “Did the royal physician aid you properly?”
He refused to see the physician more than once, but he doubted Yoongi didn’t know that already, so he said, “He nursed me back to health well enough. I see there’s quite a few more people than before…”
“Ah, yes.” Yoongi took two flutes of champagne off the tray of a passing servant and offered him one, Seokjin noticed the king already seemed a little in his cups. “As soon as I agreed to host Kihyun’s husbands some court members asked to join them for a few nights. It would have been terribly rude of me to deny them the honor, so I let them. I personally think they are here just to know you, a new King’s consort is always a good gossip between the little vutures…”
Yoongi flushed down his flute’s liquid in a swift go as he took one of his arms and gently pulled him towards a small group of people.
“Come, come.” He swiftly walked beside the slightly inebriated monarch. “I’ll introduce you to the lesser of evils.”
Lord Kihyun stood from a couch as soon as they reached his company, “Your Majesty,” he slightly bowed to Seokjin as the pair he was with did as well after him.
The two men with him were as elegantly dressed as him, albeit a bit taller and less formal than the royal advisor. The brown haired man on the advisor’s left was slight in build, dressed in a dark blue suit that complimented his twinkling smiling eyes and small nose. The delicate features on the man clashing a little with the smirk he pulled when glancing at the other males with him. The man on the right, on the other hand… he had a charming face and a well formed figure, broad muscled shoulders and arms, a puffy chest and a pair of legs that threatened to burst out of the light pink silk that clung to them.
“It is the biggest of honors to present you to my main husband Lord Wonho of Azalyn,” the advisor signaled to the muscled man, whom nodded to him in acknowledge. Kihyun then proceeded to turn to the man in dark blue, “and my secondary husband Minhyuk.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” he smiled to the two of them as they returned the gesture. “I hope your stay at Danube Palace is the most pleasant, my lords.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty. I’m sure it will.” Wonho, whom Seokjin remembered was also named Hoseok, said politely.
“Yes, we’ll have a pleasant stay here, just as all the other stays here before this one,” Minhyuk absentmindedly said as he glanced excitedly at the dance floor. One thin leg wrapped in dark blue twitched desperately. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Kihyun sighed as if he was bothered by his consort, but Seokjin could see no real annoyance in his manner as he addressed the twitching male. “That’s your favorite waltz, isn’t it?” Minhyuk rapidly nodded with his smirk unwavering. The royal advisor turned to his other spouse, “Lord Wonho, if you’ll be so kind…”
“Of course, My Lord.” The muscular man smiled mutely as he led Minhyuk closer to the orchestra.
“Excuse me, Your Majesties.” Lord Kihyun sheepishly said as he slightly bowed.
“It’s nothing, my dear friend.” Yoongi said and clasped a palm over the lord’s shoulder. “I’m just glad to see you this happy.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
They chatted a bit more with Kihyun before someone came by them and curtsied, interrupting their moment of comfortable peace.
“Greetings to His Majesty, King Yoongi.” The woman, dressed in a vivacious red dress smiled gently at the king, only to turn to Seokjin with the slightest frown in her eye. “And to his royal consort.”
“Seokjin,” Yoongi was smiling, but he could see some strain behind it. “This is Lady Seohyun of Snowstock in Kratos. Her parents were some of the best supporters I’ve had in every of the wars I’ve led.”
“They still are, Your Majesty.” Lady Seohyun quickly added, while gently smiling at the king. “My family has always supported you, and it will continue to do so.”
“A sentiment I profoundly appreciate, Lady Seohyun.” Yoongi quickly replied, “Your family is always recognized as unbending supporters of the crown, I’ll make sure to give them a new sigil soon.”
“My family will make sure to honor it, your Majesty.” The lady said after gracefully curtsying. The velvet of her dress shifted and the rubies on her neck and ears twinkled as she softly smiled. “Diamond Palace back in secret city seems so dull without Your Majesty in it. My father sure is waiting for your soon return to it.”
Yoongi took another flute of beverage from a passing servant and drank it in a haste before turning and slightly bowing to the elegantly dressed woman, “Send letter to him telling him it shall not be too long. As soon as I’m done with business here, I’ll go straight to Secret City.”
The woman smiled in earnest to the king, but Seokjin did not fail to notice the taut way her skin would stretch when addressing him.
OOO
The palace’s hallway was less stuffy than the busy ballroom, but Seokjin still felt like choking somehow. He had drank a few more flutes of champagne but stopped when he started to feel slightly dizzy, in fear of talking too much in front of the king. Yoongi on the other hand had drank everything that passed by his hand, and even though he obviously must have had an extraordinary tolerance to alcohol, he soon pulled Seokjin from the buzz and mingling to a surprisingly empty hallway.
“Royal Consort Seokjin,” the man said with the smallest slur in his speech, “would you be so kind to… stay with me tonight. In my personal bedroom.”
He felt a buzzing start on his ears as the king vaguely gestured the general way of his personal wing. He truly didn’t want to share a bed with the king yet, the slight repulsion he had felt several nights before was still a fresh wound to him. He had barely talked to the king that night, not even daring to look at the other in the eye for too long to not let his distaste show. Bile churned in his stomach as he sighed internally and mutely nodded.
The king grabbed his hand while leading the way, but he reluctantly let go when he felt limp fingers in his grasp and saw the reluctant way his consort walked beside him.
As they made their way inside the personal wing of the king a few servants scurried around, lighting candles and serving them glasses from a wine bottle. He stared at the bed as it was being readied. The covers were left folded for when they got in and the bed curtains were draw shut as per the king’s command.
“I wanted to show you this,” the king said while pointing with his hand to a slightly large painting perched over his put out fireplace. “It’s a tribute from a very famous painter in Azalyn. I thought- well. I just wanted to show you it.”
In the painting, four barefoot children were picking up seashells on a shore, the sand looking as red as if it were afternoon, but the lightning everywhere else clearly was made to look light and sunny. Seokjin noticed a cozy-looking cottage on a cliff overlooking the shore. It was a lovely painting, he could see why the king would want to show him such. But he still felt so tense, standing by the fireplace of the king, sipping on a glass of wine while inspecting a light-hearted painting.
“Wearing white clothes on a red beach is said to bring happiness later in life, that’s why all of the children in it are wearing the color.” Yoongi said as he stood and unbuttoned his coat and trousers. “When we went to a red beach, my grandmother always made sure that we were dressed in white.”
Seokjin started to shed his clothing when he saw the king going over to the bed in just his linen shirt. He took a big breath and exhaled quietly before getting inside the bedding. Yoongi had his arms over the comforter, but as soon as Seokjin made himself comfortable under it, he hesitantly dragged them under and shifted closer to his consort.
It was awkward and even stuffy, the king’s arms wrapped around him that night. But he just breathed his way through it while thinking of the painting past the bed curtains. He had never picked seashells or visited a beach, but he used to play pretend with his brothers when they were younger. They used to pretend rocks and pebbles were seashells and flowers, they’d even made up competitions to see who could gather the prettiest or the most abstract-looking ones. One day Seokjin had tried to bloom some flowers for his brothers behind their backs, but he had been quickly found by his governess and isolated in the dungeons for an entire day. He had not understood back then, why would his father only let him use his gift when specific people watched but not when he was by himself.
“I’m sorry…” Yoongi very quietly said, his lips ghosting over his shoulder.
Still, the children in the painting kept peacefully unaware of the world outside their red sanded beach.