Chapter Text
“My deepest apologies, your royal highnesses, but I fear the carriage cannot be repaired. May I suggest spending the night at the next inn and hiring one of their carriages in the morning?”
King Min Taehyung raised his eyebrows at his husband, King Min Yoongi, in an ‘I told you so’ way, receiving an eye-roll in return. He’d known from the minute the wheel broke that they wouldn’t be going any further.
“Well, your royal highness, King Min Yoongi of Daegu, I guess you’ll have to carry me now,” Taehyung said from where he was sitting on the plush seating of the royal carriage, extending an arm towards his husband, who scoffed.
“My love, I don’t think anyone is strong enough to carry you that far.”
Taehyung gasped dramatically.
“So rude, whyever did I marry you?”
“Because you were told that you had to when you were merely eight years old and, well, I’ve never seen you complaining,” Yoongi stated with a grin, leaning into the carriage to place a peck on his husband’s lips. “And anyway, you don’t need me to carry you when we have horses.”
“Yes,” Taehyung replied, taking Yoongi’s offered hand and stepping out of the carriage. “But I like to see my king working hard to please me.”
“Taehyung, with you, everything’s hard.”
Taehyung swatted at Yoongi for that joke. The servant travelling with them blushed and quickly started preparing the horses.
The inn was small but cozy. The woman who opened the door to them almost had a heart attack when she realised who they were - curtsying and stuttering about preparing the best room for them to sleep in and how she was sorry but she didn’t have good enough food for them to eat because she didn’t realise they were coming. The kings reassured the woman that everything was alright and requested for the food to be taken to their room - which they promptly escaped to after around a minute of pleasantries.
“Well, this was certainly an unexpected end to a perfect honeymoon,” Yoongi said, flopping down onto the double bed in the centre of the room and groaning in pain after doing so. “This mattress is so thin, I practically just threw myself onto the wooden frame.”
Taehyung snorted at his husband and crawled onto the bed, lying his body next to Yoongi’s so their faces were close.
“Hello,” he whispered to his husband, a small smile flickering onto his lips.
“Hello, my queen,” Yoongi whispered back, earning a groan from Taehyung. Yoongi laughed - he loved to tease his husband. He had done ever since they were young, endeared by the way Taehyung would huff and pout.
“You would be wise to stop using such terms,” Taehyung huffed “Or word will spread that you left me for a woman.”
“Leave you? I could never!” Yoongi gasped dramatically, leaning in to peck Taehyung’s nose, earning a giggle. “You are my husband, the best and only person for me to spend the rest of my life with.”
It was still strange to hear that, ‘my husband’. A fire of satisfaction burned inside of Taehyung when he heard the term, pride blooming inside his chest. After all, he was told he would marry Prince Min Yoongi of Daegu when he was eight years old, provided that he doesn’t find somebody better. He probably did, if Taehyung was honest to himself - Taehyung’s branch of the Kim family weren’t very high on the power scale, his father a Lord, nothing fancy like a Count or a Duke. Just a Lord. The Kims figured that the prince would easily replace the likes of Taehyung, but to their utter surprise, it seemed nobody came along in the ten years between Taehyung being told he would marry the king and actually marrying him. Taehyung found out, the night of their wedding, that there were many people more suitable that came along over the years - princesses and sons of counts and many more - but Yoongi liked Taehyung the best. He’d always liked Taehyung the best.
Taehyung had cried that night. He cried in relief and joy that he was chosen by the man he loved, that he was the one who got to sleep next to Yoongi, to kiss Yoongi, to love Yoongi. He was the one who the King gave himself to and was the one taken by the King.
“What are you thinking about?” Yoongi whispered, brushing some of Taehyung’s brown hair back from his face.
“Our courtship. How you could have ended it at any time, had anyone you desired, but you chose me.”
Yoongi chuckled and placed a peck to Taehyung’s temple, the same place he had just cleared of hair.
“It is because you were the one I desired, Taehyung. You were and will forever be the only one I ever desire.”
Taehyung almost fell over when a body slammed into his the second he’d exited the carriage. They were back at Daegu Palace after a night in an uncomfortable inn bed, backs sore but both relieved to be home after days of travelling.
“Kim Taehyung!” The body screeched. “You were meant to be home yesterday! How dare you be late!”
Taehyung laughed and wrapped his arms around the body, identifying the screeching voice as his best friend.
“I’m sorry, Jimin. Can you ever forgive me?”
Prince Park Jimin leaned back with a pout on his pink, plump lips, eyebrows wrinkled as he narrowed his eyes at Taehyung.
“I don’t know. I think you owe me your attention for a whole day, without Yoongi there to ruin it.”
“I don’t ruin things,” King Yoongi said as he approached his husband and their friend, wrapping his arm around Taehyung’s waist.
“Yes you do. You ruined Taehyungie, he used to be a lot more innocent before you started to court him.”
“Pfft, bold of you to assume I was the one who ruined him,” Yoongi snorted. “Do you know how kinky he is-”
“Ah, my sons!” A booming voice exclaimed, cutting off Yoongi’s jab at Taehyung. The three young men turned to see the former king of Daegu, Yoongi’s father, striding up to greet them, eager to see his son and son-in-law after their months away. “I’m glad to see you two looking healthy!”
“You must tell us all about your trip over dinner!” The former queen, Yoongi’s mother, called, right behind her husband. When she reached them, she yanked both Taehyung and Yoongi into a hug, tutting and fussing over them. It took awhile for them to be let go, but eventually the former queen pulled back and fixed the boys with a bright smile.
“I’ll let you rest, for now. You must be tired from your journey and, I’m sure, Taehyung has a lot to talk to Jimin about.” The former queen sent a wink to Taehyung, who blushed as Jimin giggled.
“Thank you, mother. Taehyung, you retire to our chambers with Jimin, I’ve got some people to see,” Yoongi said, pecking his husband’s lips before retreating into the palace. The former king and queen followed, leaving Jimin to take Taehyung’s hand and run with him to the newly-appointed King and Queen’s (well… King and King’s) quarters, squealing the whole time.
“Tell me everything, tell me everything!” Jimin exclaimed, pushing Taehyung onto the plush sofa and plopping down next to him, eyes bright with excitement. “How was it?”
“How was what… the honeymoon, or…?”
“I’ll hear all about the honeymoon at dinner, I don’t care about that now. Tell me how big his royal highnesses’ pride is!”
Taehyung choked on his spit.
“It’s… pretty big.”
Jimin leaned in close.
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes!” Taehyung exclaimed with a pout, reaching back to rub a hand on his bottom as his other shoved his best friend away. “He… he put this weird oil on it to make it hurt less but… God, it felt like he was ripping me apart. Don’t laugh! You’ll have to go through this on day, too.”
“Sorry, sorry, I’m not laughing,” Jimin said, trying to school his expression into something serious. “Continue.”
“It felt… well, after it stopped hurting it was really nice and like- I mean he pulled my hair and it felt nice, I don’t know how to explain-” Taehyung cut himself off, cheeks blushing furiously as Jimin cooed at him. “And I’m covered in bruises. He sort of… well, nibbled at my skin? Now I’m covered in loads of these dark spots and I mean, they’re kind of pretty, in a strange way. I don’t know, I’m embarrassed now, stop looking at me like that!”
“I’m sorry, I can’t help it!” Jimin said, gasping through laughs. “You were being all cocky about being the first one to be bedded, how you’re going to be more experienced than me, yet you’re all embarrassed and stuttery now it’s actually happened. Where’s your ego gone, Taehyung?”
“It was fucked into submission, like me.”
“TAEHYUNG I-”
“Ah, I see you’ve returned!” Kim Namjoon, Taehyung's older cousin and King of Ilsan (not necessarily in that order), exclaimed, greeting his friend with a hug upon seeing Yoongi enter the library. “How was your honeymoon?”
“It was wonderful, thank you,” Yoongi replied. “I trust my father didn’t have you doing too much whilst we were away.”
“No, not much. I mean, I left all the important things to you. Speaking of.” Namjoon reached down to the side of his chair and picked up a big, heavy, leather-bound book which he slammed down onto the table, dust flying everywhere and making Yoongi cough. Namjoon stood and patted the King of Daegu a couple of times on the shoulder, saying ‘have fun!’ before striding away.
Bewildered, Min Yoongi flopped into the chair and flipped open the cover of the book, eyes gazing over the contents page, showing him all of his new responsibilities, dragging a sigh from his lips. At least he could bully Taehyung into helping him.
And so, Min Yoongi and Min Taehyung were back at Daegu Palace, ready to start their married lives as the new Kings of Daegu Kingdom.
What a wild ride that was going to be.