Work Text:
Javier never quite stopped paying attention to the man the world knew as Lloyd Frontera.
Even while he was working, most of his physical, mental, and magical self focused on the task of slicing metal into the precise shape that had been demanded of him, for further use on the busy construction site around him, some part of his mind was always latched firmly onto Master Suho. There had been too many sudden catastrophes and/or assassination attempts for Javier to ever truly let his guard down; even here, in the middle of the renovations to the royal palace, he could not entirely trust that Suho would be safe.
(He certainly hadn’t been safe during the events a month ago, to near-disastrous consequences. Javier still had the occasional nightmare about the whole affair, though it helped to wake up and immediately set eyes on Suho’s ugly face, drooling onto Javier’s bare shoulder in his sleep.)
Javier sharpened his mana blade and carved through another slab of steel, while watching from the corner of his eye as Suho bent over a blueprint and gestured animatedly to a handful of other workers.
Slice. A messenger approached. Javier held his breath, but he recognised the woman, and could detect no threat in her bearing, nor feel any unusual mana signatures in her proximity. He still tensed his calves, ready to turn and run to his Master’s side, if need be.
Slice. The messenger asked for His Lordship, Lloyd Frontera, and showed the usual unflattering surprise when Suho identified himself as such. Javier couldn’t resist a little smirk.
Slice. Suho scanned the message. His heartbeat accelerated. Javier would have been concerned, if not for the light gasps of horror from bystanders that suggested that his expression had taken on the form of a smile straight from Hell.
Slice-
“JAVIER!” Suho had seemingly dropped everything to bound over to Javier’s workspace, and, yes, that was indeed a most demonic grin. Bleurgh.
“Yes, Lord Suho?” Javier lowered his sword, and graciously permitted Master Suho to press up against him and actually kiss him with that horrid hell-mouth. Oh, how Javier suffered, especially so while kissing back for just a moment longer than work-appropriate.
“We’ve got to go.” Suho gestured vaguely beyond the boundaries of the construction site. “I’ve got an errand to run, and you’re coming with.”
Wherever you go, I follow, Javier thought, reaching for his shirt and grimacing lightly at the thought of having to put it onto his somewhat sweaty torso.
Out loud, he said “slacking off, my Lord? Can’t it wait until after the workday is done?” with an accusingly raised brow.
“No, it can’t.” Suho tugged impatiently at his arm, which did not, in fact, enable Javier to do up his buttons any faster. “C’mon, hurry up.”
Javier buttoned just a little slower, and took his time pulling on his uniform coat while Master Suho was visibly trying not to vibrate out of his skin.
…hm.
Javier wondered if he was about to be dragged back to their bedchamber and ravished. The eagerness certainly suggested something of the sort - and he was hardly opposed to such a development. Frankly, he was a little surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Javier worked shirtless a lot, and felt Suho’s eyes on him more often than not.
“Are you quite certain that you require my… presence…?” Javier smiled only very slightly, and mentally prepared some barbs about his Lord thinking exclusively with his lower regions, to the point of neglecting construction work for it. Ideally to be voiced while stimulating said regions. “This steel won’t cut itself…”
“God, I wish,” Suho groaned, grabbed Javier’s hand, and dragged him along behind himself, babbling some nonsense about “industrialisation” and “automatization” and “assembly lines”...
While very obviously not leading Javier to their shared room, but instead towards the palace’s main gates.
Hm.
By the time Javier realised they were heading towards the royal crafting workshops on a genuine errand, his enthusiasm for this little outing had waned considerably.
“Of course a job like that was well beneath my skills,” Master Craftsman Corgidus grunted, dropping something small into Suho’s hand. “Only did it as a personal favour, which you probably don’t deserve, you old scumbag.”
“It’s most appreciated, good sir!” Suho promptly simpered, inspecting the trinket. “With how important this is, I really couldn’t entrust it to anyone else in the entire realm!”
Corgidus huffed, evidently pleased by the flattery and trying not to show it much. Javier turned away to inspect the show pieces mounted to the wall of the workshop’s customer reception area, and to hide a discreet roll of his eyes. Whatever Lord Suho had ordered - a sample of some new type of nail or screw, maybe? - did not concern him, nor did whatever intricate rituals of contractor courtship he was making use of to keep business relations with Corgidus stable. Really, as much as he himself would have insisted to accompany Suho for safety’s sake, Javier felt like he was hardly needed for this.
“You want HOW MUCH!?”
“Perfectly reasonable price for such an important task, Frontera. Don’t quibble.”
“Oh no! No no no! I’m not made of money, so quibble I shall! You think I was born yesterday, eh? You think me an idiot? Lloyd Frontera knows the fair value of honest work, BUT THAT IS NOT IT!”
Ah. Javier sighed, taking a closer look at the blade of a greatsword mounted on the wall. Fine work indeed. There he goes again.
“I’ll pay half, and that’ll already be more than it's worth. You bent some metal, big whoop, don’t rob me blind over it!”
“Bent some metal!? Why, you little-! That is craftsmanship, that is! Not a single scratch anywhere, go on, point out the seam if you think you can, I could’ve given this to the dragon boy and watched him make a hash of it - if you want a master’s work you’ll pay master’s price!”
Javier tuned out the heated conversation (and Solitas’s protests that he’d gotten much better), running a finger along the seams of what appeared to be protective leather work gear. The royal workshop really offered a wide array of goods, and employed a variety of craftspeople. Perhaps, later, he could wander off and watch them at work - no doubt he would have more than enough time for it. Lord Suho harboured a genuine passion for the haggling process - Javier gathered that most stores in his old world had kept fixed prices and did not allow for it, which might explain at least part of his Lord’s childlike joy, with saving money accounting for the rest - and Master Corgidus was a stubborn old man who enjoyed arguing and defending his crafts, so this was shaping up to be a clash for the ages.
(Javier would help, but Suho had not given him the discreet hand signal for any of their five established co-haggling strategies, so apparently his aid would not be required this time.)
He inspected a training dummy that had a sign around its neck that said “Royal Warrant by Appointment to Queen Magentano”. Oh, yes, he had destroyed some of these at the training yard, hadn’t he? They’d lasted a little longer than he’d expected them to, which he was half-tempted to add at the bottom of the sign with his signature to further attest for their quality.
“-complete DAYLIGHT ROBBERY! Here!”
The sound of a pouch of coins being slammed on a desk rang out behind Javier. Hm. That was faster than expected. Much faster. They’d barely gotten past the preliminary niceties of the sort of true haggle Javier had been known to witness.
Javier tensed, hand tightening around the grip of his sword. Master Suho did not pay full price, or anything close to it, unless a life was at stake - and sometimes not even then.
(Was a life at stake? If so, why hadn’t he said? Javier hated it when Suho got like this, when he refused to share his worries, even though Javier was there and ready to stab his sword into the source of his Master’s his love’s distress. He reached out with his swordmaster senses to scan their surroundings for danger, latching on to the audible throb of heart-muscle in Suho’s chest, calming and familiar.
…no, no, there was no immediate reason for alarm. Suho’s heart was once again beating a little faster than average, but he did get quite worked up every time he had to hand over money, this was within reasonable bounds. It was probably fine. For now.)
“Oi, Javier.” Said in a most lordly tone of casual demands. “Get over here.”
Javier made a point out of exhaling heavily, and counted down from ten while keeping his eyes fixed on the wall displays. It was a very old habit, this little delay, just on the edge of insolence; when it had still been Master Lloyd Javier took his orders from, it had been his silent way to say I do not recognise your authority, and if I follow your orders then it is only because I deign to do so. Now, it was mostly force of habit - though it was always delightful to finally turn and see how much a mere ten seconds’ delay had managed to wind Lord Suho up. Javier loved many things about that man, but the funny colours his face could get were among the highlights.
Javier turned.
Suho was not there.
Javier blinked. Glanced to the left, right-
Ah.
Javier looked down, where Suho was kneeling on the floor.
That… that was odd. And not how this was supposed to go. Javier knelt. The knight demonstrated deference to his Lord, never the other way around.
(Unless… well. There was one situation in which Suho knelt for Javier as well. But that was very much a behind-locked-doors activity, and not the sort of thing to be initiated in a public crafting workshop. What a shameless scoundrel!)
Had Queen Alicia suddenly appeared behind Javier’s back, and he just hadn’t noticed? No, then Suho would be fully prostrated, ass up in the air. How odd. Had Suho tripped!? Should Javier help him up? He would be spoiling Suho, who had two perfectly intact legs and could stand upright on them himself; but then again, Javier did unfortunately love the bastard and liked to indulge his spoiled little ways sometimes, and Suho was already holding out one hand towards hi-
…wait.
Javier’s eyes narrowed.
A childhood memory stirred, as he studied the little metal object Suho was currently holding pinched between his fingers. Of the elegant and brittle hand of the Dowager Baroness, widowed since long before Javier had even been born, and joined with her husband in death only a year or two after he had come to live with the Fronteras. He did not remember her much, could not recall her face or voice or any words she had ever spoken to him - she had not been well, and spent much time dozing in an armchair by the fire - but he remembered her hand ruffling his hair with a gentleness Lord Arcos must have inherited from her, and the accompanying scratch of metal over his scalp.
So, what in Heaven, Hell, and Seoul, was Master Suho doing with the late Lady Frontera’s old engagement ring!?
“Okay. Javier.” Suho cleared his throat. He was sweating heavily, which did not improve the nervous distortions of his face. Javier would be mildly disgusted (and perhaps a little turned on) by the sight, if he wasn’t still preoccupied with the nagging question of what his Lord was up to with that ring, and whether Javier should accuse him of being a kleptomaniac and demand he return the ring to Lord Arcos with an apology. “You. Um. You always wanted to have the right to address my parents as mother and father too, didn’t you? Well…”
Suho vaguely gestured with the ring. The star sapphire at its heart glinted in the light.
“Say yes, and you could.”
…in theory, abstractly, Javier understood, with the sort of sudden clarity that hit you like a bone dragon’s claw to the face, what was happening here.
In practice, he stared at Suho in a way that would be disbelieving, if his face had not settled into a blank mask that was incapable of displaying any of the dozen of conflicting emotions he was currently feeling.
(Somewhere beyond the bubble that Javier’s world had narrowed down to, Corgidus was grumbling about why this had to happen here and now in his workshop, damnit, didn’t the Frontera brat have anywhere better to pull this nonsense; and Solitas was loudly whining that even Lloyd “The Face” Frontera was about to get married before him, what the hell, that was just pouring salt into the open wound that was his ongoing bachelorhood.
Javier frankly did not give a shit about either of them.)
A time span that might be a second or might be an eternity passed. Javier did not think he could have moved as much as a single muscle if he tried. Words were an abstract concept that escaped him at the moment. A portal from Hell could open right in this workshop and spit out a Shard of the God of Evil, and Javier wouldn’t even glance at it.
The only real indicator of time passing was the sweat that was really starting to run down Suho’s face in little rivers, soaking into his shirt collar.
“Y-you can say no, of course,” he croaked, in a very poor attempt at nonchalance. “It’s whatever. We can keep living in sin, I don’t care one way or another as long as you continue to let me smash. Just, uh. Turn me down quickly, alright…? No drawn-out torture, please, Javier. Kneeling on this stone floor isn’t really comfortable, haha!” God, that was an awful smile-grimace. Nearly horrid enough to pull Javier out of his paralysis. Nearly. “My knee hurts and is getting cold- oh. Hold on.”
Still holding out the ring, Suho turned his head towards where Javier presumed Corgidus stood.
“Hey, Master Corgidus, you ever think about installing ondol floors in here? Your customers would love it, and I’m sure I could figure out a way to use the heat from the forge for it-”
“Bloody hell, boy, do you want him to say no!? Eyes on the prize!”
“-can give you a flyer later, it’s a great deal, unlike certain dwarf craftsmen, my rates are very reasonable, and-”
Javier finally managed to unlock at least some of his joints. His arm shot forward with the speed of reflex.
“-cut you a business partner deal- OW FUCK!” Suho cradled his hand against his chest, now devoid of the ring Javier had snatched out of it. “Shit, Javier, I think you dislocated my thumb! You could’ve taken off a whole finger at that speed, what the actual hell, man!? I need that hand for shovelling, it’s already scarred all over, I don’t-”
“That,” Javier forced out, clutching the ring to his chest as if someone was going to steal it from him any second (possibly Suho, he still didn’t know exactly how the ring had gotten here in the first place), “was the worst proposal I could ever have imagined.”
(And Javier had spent a lot of time imagining how he’d propose to someone. Sweeping faceless rich men or women off their feet to get them to pay the Frontera Estate’s debts as dowry, or, more petty, getting them to spurn Lloyd and marry an orphan knight instead. Once, he’d imagined asking Julian for a chance to wed into the family. Later, it had been Suho - even before Javier had known him as such - who would splutter and argue and still say yes because Javier would just be that good at crafting a proposal.
Despite all his countless admirers and their at times rather forward suggestions, Javier suddenly realised that he had never seriously imagined someone proposing to him.)
“Oh, shut up.” Suho pouted. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was,” Corgidus grunted, and “oh, it was shit” Solitas said, and the other workers further down the workshop all murmured in agreement. Javier didn’t really care, though he, too, very much shared the sentiment.
“And I did mean to, uh… to prepare something better.” Suho snapped his thumb back into place with a wince. “I had plans, to make it special. I was gonna write a speech, and it would have been as beautiful as I can make it, as a science major. And I would’ve found some nice location, too. Ideally, I would’ve asked you at the market square where we first kissed, or the dirt road where we met - do you even remember that, Javier? I dislocated my jaw and was freezing, ugh - but those are both back in Frontera and getting there would’ve been a pain. The Llojavi bridge might’ve done the job…? Eh. I would’ve picked something nice, is the point.”
Suho pulled his knee out from under him with a groan, and sat down slightly more comfortably.
“But then I turned to look at you, and thought…” An embarrassed little grin up at Javier. “Life is short, right? Life is short. I’ve got the ring, I should ask now. And you really want to be part of the Frontera family officially, you always wanted it, so if I lead with that, I figured there was at least a 60% chance you’d say yes. Speaking of. Is this, uh… is this…?”
Javier swallowed down a lump in his throat. Didn’t say what I really want is YOU, my Lord, and if you had asked me to stay in Seoul and become the husband of Suho Kim, I think I would have agreed just the same.
He looked down at the ring in his cupped palm. Took it up, and slipped it on his finger. It fit perfectly - Suho had paid to get it altered, then. Paid nearly full price for it, too.
He looked up at Suho Kim, Lloyd Frontera, the man who had saved this world, and saved Javier most of all. He saw his uncertain half-smile, the glint of hope in his eyes, and remembered that face covered in blood, the crack of bones, dead-blind eyes, screams of pain. He heard the steady beat of that beloved heart, and recalled how it had faltered, weakened, almost stopped. Loss, sudden and terrible, which still drove tears to Javier’s eyes in unguarded moments. Even now.
Life was short, and there was a limit to how many chances even a protagonist could wrest from the cruel hands of fate.
“Yes,” Javier said, and was a little startled himself at how raw and wrecked it came out. “Yes, my Lord. Of course.”
“Oh, phew,” Suho exhaled, relieved, as if he had genuinely thought Javier would say no, if just on principle, until a better proposal was forthcoming. Ridiculous. Javier was very capable of being petty and stubborn, and worse where his Lord was concerned, but he wasn’t quite as foolish as that. He’d learned this lesson already, the hard way, and was not interested in a refresher. “You scared me for a moment there. Respond quicker next time, you asshole.”
“There will be no next time.” There wouldn’t be, ever. Javier did not intend to let Suho wriggle his way out of this commitment, not even if a re-proposal would be forthcoming, and any weak attempts by others were utterly irrelevant. Javier would never let them get as far as pulling out a ring in front of him.
Javier held out his hand with the intent to help his Lord up. To his surprise, Suho leaned forward to catch the hand and press a kiss to the ring on his finger, before pushing himself up on his own strength and rummaging in his pockets for the promised ondol flyer to slap on Corgidus’s desk.
“I meant more, I don’t want to wait half an hour when the priest asks for your response on the big day.” Suho’s grin was very cocky for a man who had been sweating buckets mere moments ago. Javier did not point this out, and simply leaned in to press a quick and chaste kiss to it. He would kiss that smile off his Master’s - and now fiancé’s - face properly later. “Let’s get back to the palace, mother and father will want to hear about this- and, damn, I need to ask for Alicia’s formal blessing to wed, you have to do that as a noble, right?”
“She has already given it.” Reluctantly, but give it she did. Javier had been very pleased.
“Huh?” Suho blinked. “When?”
Javier shot him an incredulous look, and resigned himself to marrying an oblivious idiot.
(On the way back to the palace, Suho took care to arrange Javier’s hand on his arm so that the engagement ring was blindingly visible to any passing eligible maidens whose eye Javier had inadvertently caught.
Javier subtly flexed his finger so the gem would glitter in sunlight for a stronger effect, and made no complaints.)
On his wedding day, Lloyd was walked up the aisle by Lord Arcos, who had been crying since Javier had shyly called him “father” at breakfast, and gave no sign of stopping anytime soon.
Well, after all it was the day of his heir’s wedding to a perfect hero protagonist he had always loved like a son. Lloyd supposed you could shed a few tears then. He was himself feeling a little misty-eyed when he took his place at Javier’s side, who looked, of course, stunningly and unfairly handsome.
(And all of that was for him, Lloyd, to have and to hold, in sickness and health and so on and so forth. Hah! Hah!!! Take that, rest of the world!
He’d wanted to invite as many of Javier’s former admirers to the ceremony as possible, so he could delight in the furious gnashing of their teeth; but Javier had deemed that a serious security risk, and firmly vetoed the idea.)
“If your vows include an ondol floor sales pitch,” Javier leaned in to whisper, while the priest launched into his preamble, “then I will not say ‘I do’.”
[Javier doesn’t mean that,] the messenger box pointed out. Somewhat unnecessarily. Lloyd was well aware.
“Ugh. You’ll never let me forget that, will you?” He nevertheless whispered back tetchily. “I was nervous, okay? And I actually pre-wrote and memorised the vows this time, just so you know. Took ages, too, so you better like it.”
“You’ve been warned.” Despite the overall threatening message, Lloyd could see Javier smiling from the corner of his eye. “My Lord Suho.”
Lloyd scoffed.
And if, during his vows, he mentally skipped, uh, a passage or two… then, well, then that was between him, God, and the blue messenger box.