Breaking out

Chapter 5

"Your highness, your highness?" Yeran could barely hear Ruth's call, muddled and hazy with rage as his mind was.

He continued on his path, going ignorant.

The destination lay so innocently, barely a sound within.

Yeran was at a stage that is far past courtesies and pleasantries, he kicked the door open, uncaring.

The doors crashed open, hitting the other side of the wall. His eyes swept the room, dark, no candles lit, barely illuminated by the light of moon.

But it was enough, it was oh so enough to illuminate the figure by the window, again clad in white sleeping robes, though his eyes were alert, still awake past the wee hours.

Aki's hair was lose over his shoulders, strands curling against his cheeks, soaked in night moisture. For the first time, he looked utterly surprised, bemused even.

"Your highness...what...." his puzzled voice broke through the stalemate they were in and Yeran charged forward with determination.

With Yeran still in his heeled boots and Aki standing barefoot, their height difference was barely visible, Yeran peering into Aki's eyes at the same level.

"Waiting for results, darling husband of mine?"
Yeran growled into his face, Aki slightly leaning back with the proximity.

"What..."

For all he asked a question, Yeran did not wait for an answer, the sharp crack of flesh hitting flesh resonated against the room.

Aki turned his head from where it was whipped around, pale cheek already blossoming into a myriad of reds.

"How dare you?!" Yeran hissed, hand still raised.

"I...what?.."

Aki stood still, hair in his eyes, cheek red, already bruising, he still looked confused. Neither angry, nor pained, just confused.

"You!"

This time, it was the fist that landed, straight across Aki's cheek bone, which sent him sprawling against the floor.

"Is that what you wanted, is that why you tried to kill him?" Yeran knelt over him, knees bracketing the fallen body, both hands fisted against Aki's robe collars, lifting him off the ground.

A thin treacle of crimson dripped down his face, skin split under both the blow and a heavy ring of Yeran.

Aki put his hands over Yeran's, his face marred with a hundred emotions, passing over far too quickly to decipher.

"What are you doing? Kill...? Who..?" to say Aki was bewildered, would have been an understatement.

"Did you thought that if Zeke died I will come crawling to you? Is that it? Is that what this is about? well let me show you what you were begging for!"

Yeran pulled at Aki's robes, both wrestling on the ground. The cloth clasps holding the robe together tore against Yeran's manhandle, the robes falling open the reveal pale milky skin.

"Your highness!," there were hands at Yeran's shoulders, pulling him away from the sprawled figure at ground.

"Ruth! Let me go! Let go!" Yeran struggled against him.

"Not until you calm down your highness," Ruth's tone was stern, not open to arguments.

"If you do this, you are going to regret it for a long time your highness,"

"He...he...he almost killed Zeke!" Yeran raged, still fighting against Ruth's hold.

"You do not know for certain that it was him your highness, you cannot start a war on just a suspicion." Ruth explained calmly.