Rivals Seongjoong Ateez

16

Third pov

Seonghwa rushed towards where he heard Hongjoong yell from. The Prince found the pirate captain being detained by several men in solid black clothes. All of their faces were covered by black masks.

Seonghwa fired his gun wordlessly at one of the men's legs, causing him to scream and drop to the grass.

"Who are you?! What do you want from us?" Seonghwa questioned, readying his gun to shoot again.

  The man behind hongjoong tightened his grip around his neck. He pulled out a handgun of his own and pointed it towards the Prince.

  "Sang?" Hongjoong gasped, his hands clutching onto the masked male's forearm around his neck.

  The prince fired another round at the second man holding Hongjoong. The only one left standing was the one who had his arm around Hongjoong's neck.

"Let him go," Seonghwa demanded.

"What did you do to him?" The masked man asked. With his arm that was wrapped around the pirate's neck he pinched a pressure point to knock him out.

"What did I do?! What did you just do to him?" Seonghwa came a few quick steps closer before the masked man cocked his gun.

"All I did was put him to sleep. What did you do to him to make him so thin and frail? He's not at all like the Hongjoong I know and love," he said.

"Walk away now before I kill all three of you," Seonghwa said.

"You wouldn't do that, Seonghwa. A prince wouldn't commit a murder."

"This wouldn't fall under a murder, but instead self defense, and acting upon treason. Take your men and leave while you can, Yeosang," Seonghwa glanced down at the two men who had passed out from blood loss on the grass.

"They weren't important and they knew so. I'm not leaving Hongjoong with you," Yeosang glared at the older man.

"If you would've let him stay awake, then he could've made the decision himself. Walk away while you still can,"

Yeosang bit back a sneer and shot his first round at the Prince, which had missed his left shoulder.

The prince rolled his eyes and shot the pirate in his upper thigh at the artery.

When the pirate dropped to the grass with a loud yell, the prince spoke, "Don't bite off more than you can chew."

Seonghwa put his gun in its holster then knelt down beside his soulmate. He picked him up into his arms and began to walk back to the castle, completely ignoring their items at the cottage.

About a mile from the outskirts of the kingdom, Hongjoong began to stir awake in Seonghwa's arms. The prior looked up at the prince with a small smile since Seonghwa didn't notice he was awake yet.

Hongjoong quickly leaned up a bit and kissed Seonghwa's cheek before laying his head back down. Seonghwa was startled by the kiss and almost dropped Hongjoong from his arms.

"Why are we going back? I didn't get to make anything with the flowers," Hongjoong asked, pouting a little bit.

"You almost got kidnapped by Yeosang, baby. We're heading back so the guards can clean it up," Seonghwa responded. He felt as Hongjoong grew stiff in his arms.

""Clean it up" what happened to Yeosang? Did you...?" Hongjoong asked quietly.

"He and two others tried to kidnap you, and your face has a couple bruises from them hitting you. He shot first, so I ended it before it could get any worse on us," Seonghwa responded.

"Didn't you keep trying to talk him out of it?"

"It's a bit hard to talk to a man who's shooting at you."

Hongjoong stayed quiet in Seonghwa's arms as tears slid down his cheeks. His eyes burned and ached with each one that fell, and he felt pathetic to have cried so many times in the past few days.

  "Put me down, Hwa. I want to go see Jongho," Hongjoong said as they made it through the gates of the kingdom.

"O-okay, Joong. Be safe... I love you," Seonghwa spoke the last words to no one as the mentioned man had already raced off in search of his friend.

  The prince walked to his castle in silence, his gaze low as his chest ached with his lover's emotions.

 
"Jongho, are you home?" Hongjoong questioned, knocking on the front door of said man's home.

  "Yeah, I'm- woah, why are you bruised? Did Seonghwa hit you?!" Jongho asked, quickly dragging the older man into his house.

  "Hwa didn't hurt me, Yeosang did..." the pirate captain spoke finally as a cut on his cheekbone was being cared for.

"What do you mean? I thought you left him at Casper?"

"I did. Casper is a three hour travel from dock to dock, and I was in the forest when Seonghwa and I ran into him. I was, uh, trying to make flower crowns and then I got beat around by Yeosang and two others..." Hongjoong mumbled, his cheeks flaming at the confession of making flower crowns.

"I wasn't going to ask this, but why are you so thin? What happened to all the muscles you used to push me around with?" Jongho asked, trying to make the question a bit lighter by teasing them both.

"Seonghwa began to care more for his crown- that he's to get regardless- than he did for me. Before yesterday, he hadn't spoken more than a few sentences since the day we arrived here, and I felt like I had done something to make him ignore me as he began. I didn't like eating by myself again- especially not in a place that is not my own."

"Well, you should remember that you're always welcome wherever we are. You're still our leader, even if we are on land currently. And if Yuna sees you, she'll fatten you up real quick, Captain," Jongho said, hinting at his wife who always baked sweets.

"I know she will," Hongjoong smiled a bit as he shook his head.

  "I know Hwa was just protecting us both, but now Yeosang is dead, and I don't know how to look at the man I love the same way now. He- Seonghwa killed my best friend, Jong. What am I supposed to feel?" Hongjoong questioned, his head low.

  "Captain, I can't tell you how you're supposed to feel. Think about the facts; you were almost kidnapped, your face is bruised from it, and Seonghwa killed the people who tried to take you away.

  I may not know him as well as you do, but from what I've seen first hand, that prince has always done things to protect you. His first day as first mate was spent with him protecting you, and healing us who were hurt.

Try to see from his perspective as well, Captain. You were-most likely- detained and struggling harshly, so he retaliated and got you both out of there as efficiently as possibly." Jongho continued to work on the small wounds Hongjoong had gained. He rubbed some bruise ointment onto his neck to help it heal.

  "You're right, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed my best friend..."

  "There isn't anything that could change that. You could either let that encompass your life and relationship, or grieve your loss as your crew will be."

  Hongjoong sat in silence at the younger man's words and let them sink in for a while.