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Sunghoon's embrace was warm despite his position as a guardian of the waters, a nymph. Jun had told him they were called naiads but Sunghoon preferred just his name.
They would often sit together by Sunghoon's pond, the nymph absently twirling a narcissus in his hand. Eventually, Jay would pluck it away from his pretty hand in wrap it around his ring finger as a promise.
"Oh, fragile heart, be cautious.
Love's flame will consume you whole.
For in the labyrinth of love's sweet maze,
Lies both an ecstasy and a bittersweet haze."
"The fates have spoken"
The fates had asked him to do the impossible, to fall out of love.
However, the fates cannot prevent him from loving Sunghoon. Jay would rather burn into ashes than seal his feelings away.
They were different. Jay was a hero and a hunter but he was a mere mortal. Sunghoon was divine, a beauty that would put Aphrodite to shame.
Sunghoon was the sun and Jay, Icarus, praying his wax wings wouldn't melt before he could set eyes on the blazing fireball.
"Are you immortal?" Jay had wondered out loud one day, tucking wet hair out of Sunghoon's face.
"I do not age. I do not fall sick." Sunghoon answered "But I feel pain. I can get wounded."
Jay tilted his head in confusion, unable to understand Sunghoon's mortality.
The naiad smiled and barred his neck for Jay.
"Bite me." Cereluean eyes met amber.
A silent discourse of gazes and confirmation of trust.
Jay leaned closer and sunk his teeth into the soft flesh of Sunghoon's neck. The naiad gasped in pain shattering Jay's heart but he pursued his lover's request.
When he pulled away, drops of blood trickled down Sunghoon's neck and traced his collarbone. Deep red contrasted his pale skin.
"I bleed." Sunghoon wiped away unshed tears of guilt in Jay's eyes "I can die if I bleed."
"Then I will become immortal so you never bleed."
Jay traced a hand across Sunghoon's neck, the mark was still there.
"You seem disturbed. Is something the matter?" Sunghoon turned to him.
"Every day with you in my arms feels like a dream. I cannot help but worry that in an unfortunate moment, you will disappear." Jay said
"My disappearance is entirely up to you." Sunghoon smiled, plucking a petal off the narcissus wrapped around his finger and let it fall into the water.
Absolute power
I run towards that power
"The prophesy will not be fulfilled if you are unable to change this fate." Jun paced the long corridors to their father's throne room.
"I cannot change my fate, brother!" Jay responded
"You cannot or you will not?" Jun asked
Jay stayed silent.
"You are destined for great things. You are destined to be among the heroes. You are destined to serve the gods." Jun said, "Love cannot kill you."
"You must not fall."
Jay fell.
Deep. Deep. Deep.
They trap me in ruins like the deep blue sea
Into a pool of Cereluean that dulled his mind and muddled all rationale. Into a sea of oblivion where duty and destiny floated away, only desire and love remained.
The oblivion that Jay seeked. Oblivion that would serve as an escape.
Oblivion he sought after when he fell into the clutches of dark water that swallowed him whole.
Water that invaded his body like poison but colder, lonelier, denser.
Then came salvation in the form of plush lips pressed against his. Air entering lungs. Warmth flush against his skin.
Cerulean
Jay held Sunghoon's face in his, drowning in his eyes.
The naiad closed his eyes and slumped forward into Jay's grasp, signing in content.
"You're burdened," Sunghoon said
"I am." Jay replied with honesty, "but for tonight I would like to relieve my burdens."
Sunghoon leaned away and took in Jay's sincere expression.
"I have made a choice." Jay said
"I do not want to know what you chose." Sunghoon said, pulling Jay into a deep kiss.
"I do not need to tell you what my choice is," Jay said, laying Sunghoon down on the bed of narcissus flowers.
"because I know you." Sunghoon finished Jay's sentence and pulled the hunter down with him.
Time is suspended as Jay fell into Sunghoon's warmth. Petal kisses, feverish touches, flushed pale skin against golden.
The moon hid behind the earth's shadow as the mortal and the naiad united in every form. Jay breathed in Sunghoon's breath and swallowed his sounds.
He consumed him in the same way that Sunghoon consumes him whole.
The night turned darker but Jay's world shined bright.
At daybreak, the lovers lay side by side, Sunghoon asleep in Jay's arms. The hunter watched the steady rise and fall of the naiad's chest, lashes fluttering and the faintest smile on his face.
As the seasons crumble, green
Love turns to greed and erases you.
"I'm sorry, my love." Jay said placing a kiss on Sunghoon's lips and parting from his embrace.
The naiad stirred awake, eyed opening lazily. Jay stood far away from him, arrow in hand.
"This is your choice?" The naiad asked, calm.
Jay's heart was racing.
"Do not forgive me for this." Jay said, vision blurring
"There is nothing to forgive." Sunghoon said
"Sunghoon, I am about to kill you." Jay explained, hands trembling
"I know." The naiad said, "I would die for you."
Above all to protect you
"Please, try to escape." Jay pleaded, "Try to escape while I look away."
"I cannot, I am bound to you." Sunghoon shook his head walking towards the hunter.
"Please stay away."
"No."
"I wish there was some other way." Jay lamented
"Fate is unkind." Sunghoon said
"You must detest me." Jay said
"I would drown for you, Jay."
"I do not want to."
"Jay"
"It is too cruel."
"Jay"
"I selfishly loved you."
"Jay," Sunghoon placed a hand on Jay's cheek. "Bite me."
"Sunghoon-"
"Bite me." Sunghoon repeated, pulling a shaking Jay into his arms. Jay clung, desperately, seeking comfort.
"It should be like this. The two of us. Just the two of us." Jay said, "I wish the gods would intervene."
"It is godly intervention that brought us to this fate in the first place." Sunghoon let out a wet chuckle.
"I'm holding you close and I have a weapon in my hand. A weapon you can easily take from me and kill me with." Jay said
"That is not my destiny." Sunghoon shook his head.
"It is cruel that the burden falls on me."
"It is not a burden; it's a sacrifice."
"It's cruel."
Jay held the naiad close and sunk his teeth into his neck.
"I love you." Sunghoon said into the space between them as Jay shakily stabbed an arrow into his beloved's chest.
"And I will find you." Jay said "I will scour the earth, the heavens and the underworld until I find you."
"Then I will wait."
With those final words, Sunghoon fell limp against Jay.
The string of fate connecting them snapped.
"To kill him is the only way the prophecy will be satisfied."
"I cannot"
"You must."
Jay cautiously picked Sunghoon in his arms, the blood on his hands, on Sunghoon's chest, on his neck fell atop narcissus flowers that closed and turned red.
He placed his dead lover down on a bed of flowers, all turning red and then black in mourning. Withering away just as Jay's heart withered.
Cerulean waters turned red. The heavens rained down on him. Amidst it all, Jay kneeled.
Fate was inevitable. Sick, twisted Fate.
He'd killed his Sunghoon to live like the dead.
Because in the end, Sunghoon was life.
A love wrapped in blood
Erased by arrogance, it's over
I lost everything
An undead monster