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it has been a day since jungwon and ni-ki’s first kiss, and jungwon can’t help but to touch his lips often. he can’t believe he just kissed him.
“what are you thinking about?” ni-ki asks, they were currently strolling in the palace garden, trying to get some fresh air during the day.
“are royal vampires immune to sunlight? why are we allowed to go out during the day, when the sun is shining bright?”
“yes we are. only newborn vampires are sensitive to sunlight, we don’t burn to ashes like the stories say.”
“but i know that’s not what you’re thinking about. do your lips hurt? you keep on touching them. if they hurt, i can do something about it.”
jungwon realizes he can never lie to his soulmate.
“nothing for you to be concerned about…”
“i will always be concerned when it comes to you. can i take a look? are you in pain?” ni-ki said, coming closer, his face was now only a few centimeters away from jungwon’s.
jungwon bit his lip, “see? nothing. i’m not in pain.”
“you bit it, so didn’t see it! are you sure you’re not in pain?’
“yes, i promise.”
ni-ki plants a soft kiss on jungwon’s forehead, “if you say so. tell me if you’re in pain, hmm?”
this damn prince knows what he’s doing.
“sorry for interrupting, but have you seen heeseung?” prince sunghoon suddenly appears.
“hyung! don’t sneak up on us like that!”
“no, we haven’t seen him.” jungwon answers.
“why? are you finally going to talk to him? i haven’t seen him in a while.” ni-ki adds.
“i will, and i will fix this.”
“whatever will make you happy, hyung.”
“thanks, i think i know where he is.”
prince sunghoon teleports right in front of captain heeseung’s door room. it’s about time they finished the conversation they had, so he knocks.
no answer.
“heeseung, open the door.” prince sunghoon commands.
“i can feel your energy, i know you’re in there.” he adds.
“go away.”
“i’m not going anywhere, and you know that.”
the door opens, revealing a disheveled heeseung. he looks like he hasn’t slept in days. prince sunghoon closes the door and immediately casts a silent spell, he can’t risk anyone overhearing their conversation.
“have you been crying?”
“have you been crying? i’m the one who hurt you.”
“i learned how to control my emotions a long time ago. tell me, why are you all locked up in here?”
“i want to quit as being the captain of your army. i can’t do this anymore.”
“...what?”
“i don’t deserve this position, i don’t deserve you, i don’t deserve anyth-”
“shut up.”
“i don’t deserve any of this!”
“would you shut up?”
“why? it’s true!”
“that’s not true and you know it!”
“i don’t deserve you, i hurt you. exile me to a different kingdom.”
“heeseung, are you hearing yourself? where did this come from? are you okay?” sunghoon says, using his thumb, lifting heeseung’s chin.
“i’m a mess, hoonie.” heeseung says, hugging sunghoon tightly.
that’s when it sinked in. sunghoon knew what exactly heeseung is doing right now.
“you’re self sabotaging, aren’t you?”
“do you still want me? i’m a mess, i overthink, i hurt you. tell me, do you still want me despite all of this?”
“i want you, heeseung. all of you.” sunghoon says, looking directly into heeseung’s eyes.
“i hurt you.” a tear fell from heeseung’s eye.
“and i forgive you. i love you, heeseung. nothing can ever change that.”
“see? i don’t deserve your love! i have been hurting you for years… i let jungwon and ni-ki get hurt… i failed as a captain… i failed you…”
sunghoon can’t bare to hear any of heeseung’s lies anymore, so he closed the gap between their faces, kissing him passionately. to his shock, heeseung quickly reciprocated the kiss.
“you know this already, heeseung. i want you, i love you. just tell me your answer and i’ll stay. i’m here to stay.”
“i… i love you.”
“you don’t know how much i waited for you to say those words.”
“i want you, there’s no one else… it was just myself… i’m unsure with myself.”
“and i’ll give you all the reassurance that you need in this world, just be mine.”
“i’ll be yours…”
sunghoon closed the gap between their faces again, kissing him like it was a thirst to be quenched. he waited years for this exact moment.
meanwhile, the young couple were playing with their kitten knight in the palace garden. every time jungwon glanced at ni-ki, he felt this overwhelming desire to kiss him again.
this must be one of the side effects of the bond, jungwon thought.
“we should get knight a friend.” ni-ki suggested.
“where did you even get knight?”
“at a pet shop here in our kingdom. he was born the same day you came to our kingdom, so heeseung hyung decided he was the perfect pet for us.”
“a white cat would be pretty nice.”
“noted, my solace. i’ll tell my hyungs.”
“speaking of your hyungs, do you think they already sorted their… argument?”
“looks like it. i can feel them teleporting here.”
not even a second later, both heeseung and sunghoon showed up at the garden, holding hands.
“finally!!!” ni-ki exclaimed, “took you guys forever!”
“well… it’s true that you have to go through challenges to be with your karmic bond.” sunghoon said.
“i’m happy for you two.” jungwon said with a smile.
“thanks. but we came here for serious reasons. you, jungwon, need training.” heeseung says commandingly.
“i can teach him!” ni-ki volunteers.
“no can do, your highness. it will be better for jungwon to learn from someone else.” heeseung replies.
ni-ki pouts, he knew that heeseung was right, but he can’t help to whine.
“your training with my assistant captain jake starts tomorrow. i’ll place training clothes on your desk later.”
“ever so serious, heeseung hyung.” ni-ki said.
“this is for the safety of everyone. jake will only teach you how to handle weapons, when it comes to teaching you about magic, you, ni-ki will be the best mentor for your solace.”
ni-ki liked the sound of that.
tomorrow came and it was time for jungwon to train using swords, in case an attack happened again. he was quite excited to be able to hold weapons, very different from his mundane human life which was now like a blur to him.
“good morning, jungwon.” jake greets.
“good morning, assistant captain jake.”
“jake would be fine. are you ready for your first day of training?”
“kind of nervous, i have never held a sword my whole life.”
suddenly, jake casted a sword in his hand. jungwon was amazed.
“woah! can you teach me how to cast random objects?”
“i believe when it comes to magic, prince ni-ki will be your best bet. you two are close in age, your magic will work almost the same… but that’s a great start. i’ll teach you how to cast a sword.”
jungwon was excited, he wanted to be in control of his power.
“visualize the item that you want in your head… focus… and chant… “ego alligent nunc ... gladius apparent!... it means i cast a spell now… sword appear! … now try it yourself.”
jungwon relaxed his mind, and chanted ego alligent nunc ... gladius apparent!
suddenly, a sword appear right in front of jungwon.
“i did that!”
“yes you did. with more practice, the sword will appear right in your hand, but you did well for a beginner! you’re a fast learner!”
meanwhile, ni-ki was watching their training session from a far in the gardens with a scowl.
“dear brother of mine, if looks could kill, jake would be a dead man.” jay suddenly appears.
“i don’t understand. why can’t i train jungwon myself?” ni-ki says in disbelief.
“you know that jungwon needs to learn from an actual trained palace soldier. you might be powerful, but our palace soldiers are still better in terms of swordmanship.”
“whatever. what are you doing here?”
“picking flowers for sunoo, but i saw you being jealous.”
“who’s jealous?” sunghoon suddenly appeared.
“ugh! i’m not jealous!” the young prince whines.
“you seem pretty jealous to me.” sunghoon teases.
“why can’t jungwon learn magic first?”
“magic requires a lot of focus and energy, you know that.” sunghoon replies.
“i don’t like this.” ni-ki says.
“didn’t expect you to be a jealous type.” jay says.
“of course he’s possessive, we’ve spoiled him his whole life. he’s used to only having things that are only his.” sunghoon replies.
“why are you two annoying me? go annoy your soulmates or something!”
“and miss the sight of our youngest being jealous? no way! jungwon really got you bad, huh?” jay teased.
“of course, he’s my solace!”
“and it seems like they are done with their training,” sunghoon says, “you should go and—” before he could even finish his sentence, ni-ki already teleported to jungwon and jake’s area.
“ah, young love.” sunghoon says.
“soon enough, you’ll be the jealous one. heeseung interacts with a lot of soldiers.” jay teases.
“i’m not the jealous type.” sunghoon proudly says.
“time can only tell.” jay teases further, knowing well vampires are possessive in nature.
“you did great, jungwon!” ni-ki greets.
“ni-kiii!” jungwon said, excited to show his warrior about his newly found spell.
the young prince couldn’t help but to glare at jake, he absolutely didn’t like sharing jungwon.
jake, being a hybrid of a vampire and a werewolf, could immediately sense when someone is being territorial, and right now, ni-ki was making it clear who belonged to him.
“that’s it for our training, your highness. i shall tend to my duties this once.” jake said and teleported out of the palace garden.
“hmmm? what just happened? i feel this weird sensation…” jungwon said.
“how was your training?” ni-ki asks, shifting the mood of the conversation.
“look what i can do!” jungwon says, grabbing ni-ki’s hand, and suddenly he was holding an apple.
“you did a good job! i can teach you a lot more in the future.”
“i’m sure you will. this training is fun, i like being in control of my power.”
“hmmmm, yes.” ni-ki says, his eyes glued to jungwon’s lips.
“do i have something on my face?”
“no, but i want to kiss you right now.”
jungwon was shocked, he still has to get used to the young prince’s direct flirting.
“what’s stopping you?” jungwon said, faking his confidence. he’s actually screaming inside.
“nothing.” ni-ki said and closed the gap between him and jungwon, planting a soft kiss on his lips.
“feed on me, hmm? you used quite a bit of your energy. let’s go to your room.” ni-ki says, teleporting them to jungwon’s room, trying to get rid of his jealousy by being closer to his solace.
ni-ki teleported them to the bed, and the first thing that jungwon said when they arrived, “ni-ki? what is this feeling? it’s consuming me… i feel like i’m being suffocated.”
“sorry… i… that’s me. our emotions are connected and you feel what i feel.”
“what’s bothering you, my prince?”
“i’m jealous.” ni-ki blurted out.
“of who?”
“of… you! and jake!”
“huh? i was training with him…?”
“that’s the point, i hate feeling like this. i know that it isn’t something to be concerned about… but i… i’m sorry..”
“i read about the possessive nature of vampires. don’t feel bad, it’s your nature. what do you need? reassurance?” jungwon asks, putting his knowledge of psychology into work.
“i’m sorry…”
“i’m yours, okay? my soulmate.”
“really?”
“i’m literally bonded to you, your highness. what can i do to reassure you?”
during jungwon’s free time in the castle, he spent a significant time reading in the library, reading about warrior and solace bonds. warrior souls usually experience a turmoil of emotions, they can’t control their emotions — always at war with themselves, hence the name being warrior souls. their one and only solace can bring peace to them.
“stay close to me.” ni-ki answers and pulls jungwon into a hug. he needs his solace to calm his heart or else he’ll start to do reckless and impulsive actions.
a feral, young, royal vampire would be a kingdom’s worst fear. it is truly a blessing that ni-ki found his solace at a young age.
“do you want me to feed on you? would that calm you down, my prince?”
ni-ki liked the sound of that. the chemicals and emotions that one experiences when one is feeding on their soulmate is a one of a kind experience, it is quite literally the best thing in the world.
“it is the one thing that is for me, and for me only.” ni-ki said and pointed to his neck, signaling to feed on him.
jungwon extracted his fangs and sunk them into ni-ki’s neck, they were both feeling a euphoric and intimate feeling.
after he was done, jungwon got a strong urge to kiss ni-ki on the lips, and he gave into the urge. the young prince was shocked, but wasn’t opposed to it. he quickly reciprocated the kiss passionately.
ni-ki started to fight for dominance in the kiss, biting jungwon’s lips softly, and muttering under his breath, “mine.”
“yours.” jungwon communicated through his mind.