toil and tansy | taekook

Chapter Three

warning:  description of self harm for the purpose of magic at the end of this chapter - if you wish to skip, it happens right after jeongguk asks taehyung to not stop him.

****

As easily as Jeongguk had promised the spirit that they would help, it becomes quickly apparent that it's not such a simple process.

"A king cannot just leave at a moment's notice," Namjoon had reminded him and Hoseok had only smiled as Jeongguk wilted. How ironic, the fae thinks. "There are meetings, and preparations - I understand you wish to go, Your Majesty, but there must be time." Taehyung had stayed silent as Jeongguk had sighed, simply a pillar behind him as Namjoon spoke.

And he was right of course because Jeongguk cannot remember a time when Namjoon wasn't, but it does not make the truth any less difficult to swallow.

It takes nearly a week for preparations to complete and Jeongguk spends nearly every hour anxiously pacing, fiddling with whatever he can get his hands on. On the third day Taehyung had gifted him a rather pretty, smooth stone without a word and Jeongguk had not let it out of his hands since. His thumb rubbed over the sparkling, iridescent surface tucked away safely in his sleeves as he spoke with the numerous lords and ladies who clamored for his attention. It's not a conventional gift, Jeongguk thinks, but it's one he deeply appreciates nonetheless. Taehyung, at least, had seemed quite pleased with himself.

To his credit as well, Taehyung's wolves keep to themselves as Jeongguk takes his place on his father's throne. They patrol the grounds without being asked, simply taking to the action as if it's just their nature. Jeongguk would not doubt it, after hearing the tale Taehyung had spun for him. Perhaps it was just in a wolf's nature to protect, to use their strength in the service of others.

It does not, however, Jeongguk thinks to himself, explain why the chief has begun to shadow Jeongguk's days. Without fail he is always just a few paces away - always in arm's reach and always listening. Always watching. Jeongguk finds himself several times through his meeting lifting his gaze to meet stormy gray. And then, without fail, Jeongguk finds himself flushing brighter than is appropriate, dragging his eyes away before he can be called out for his lack of attention.

The grin he sees out of the corner of his eye is of no help.

"How will you act when we are traveling together?" Taehyung wonders when there are no others around, the two of them left along in the throne room without a single servant between them. A break in Jeongguk's otherwise boring day. "A long trek through the great forest. Alone. No one but the trees to see how you blush." The wolf's words are twisting, coy, and Jeongguk hears himself sputter at the outrageous questions.

"Hoseok will be with us!" Jeongguk argues, but he has nothing else to add and Taehyung is aware. If he were shifted Jeongguk is sure he would see a massive tail wagging.

"I can get rid of him," Taehyung teases and he gives a light snap of his teeth. He shakes his head a little, mimicking shaking something between his jaws, and the bones hanging from his neck clank. They are new - freshly bleached from the kills Jimin had pulled in that morning to feed their pack. Jeongguk's stomach had rolled as he had watched them dig in, invited as always to their morning meals. It was the first time Jeongguk had ever taken them up on it, and he quickly deduced it would be the last.

"You will do no such thing," Jeongguk argues and Taehyung only gives a little shrug. The pelts are once again gone from his shoulders, the wolf dressed down more casually than he usually is in front of the fae lords. The earrings that hang from his ears are the only other adornments he wears, his fingers free of the few rings Jeongguk has spotted him playing with in the past. A long black feather hangs from one ear - an earring Jeongguk recognizes from when Taehyung wore it to the summit. It's clearly well kept, he thinks, by how it shines in the candlelight.