Spice and silk | Yoonseok

Chapter 18: Between Times

"There was no execution."

- court records of the aftermath of the Siege of Huinbyeong

The five of them together makes him feel as though six months mean nothing.

"He who jumps first laughs last," Minhyuk says, the four lined up in front of Yoongi, and there's a suspended moment where they all try to decipher the maxim -

"He who jumps first can go fuck himself," says Daesoo.

"Oh, screw him," Jeongguk cries, and then Yoongi is knocked to the floor under Jeongguk's weight and the whole lot of them are laughing. "What does he know?" Jeongguk continues to try and disprove the saying even as he's squeezing Yoongi so tight he might burst, "He's just some dumb guy in a saying the Min made up-"

"My thoughts exactly," Eunhyun screeches, and then there's three of them.

Yoongi calls for Daesoo and Minhyuk, and they join the hug, the pile of family rolling around beside his stickshrine, in the mud and in the Earth and in the silty squishy wetness of the lake. Eunhyun is mumbling maxims for Jeongguk to disprove, and Yoongi's pretty sure Daesoo is crying, and Minhyuk is wrestling with himself, the five of them beating to the heart of the Earth and laughing and it's as though the battle never happened, as though six months mean nothing. As though six months mean nothing.

When they untangle, Eunhyun-Minhyuk-Jeongguk-Daesoo-Yoongi (chaeyoung) (not chaeyoung she's dead), all sitting mud-brown and smiling, Daesoo waves his hand at Yoongi. "Tell us about that man," he says, and Minhyuk crows sleazily.

"The one that's with child that doesn't tell her mother-"

Eunhyun is interrupted before she can finish the maxim, Yoongi hitting her shoulder, feeling himself turn red before he can stop it. "Hoseok and I-"

"Hoseok," Jeongguk repeats. He's grinning cheekily. "Oh, that's the one you told me about in the dream."

"He said oh i'm so worried for yoongi oh i love him oh i want to marry him and have his babies oh oh oh-"

"Shut up, Hyukkie," Yoongi lunges for Minhyuk and that sets the whole group off again, until Jeongguk plops waist-deep in the lake and Daesoo laughs so hard he starts choking and Yoongi is giggling, giggling light-hearted and happy and free.

"He's the Prince of Huindon," Yoongi manages to explain when the wrestle has ebbed again. "Of this country."

"So he's in charge?"

"Sort of." And then he frowns. "I guess it's hard to explain. His father is sort of in charge, but so is he, but so are some of his cousins, and J-J-Jungyoo." It feels like he's vomiting the name out, but he did it, and he doesn't even have time to be proud of himself because Minhyuk is swearing.

"That's the name of the fucker that killed-"

"Hush," Jeongguk murmurs at him. "That's the man you-"

"Ah. Yeah," Yoongi clears his throat, and he can feel the Earth telling the rest of them to leave it. A topic barely breached by Hoseok, and not one he wants to discuss with the people he still wants to see with innocence -

"And then Hoseok," Eunhyun says. A smooth-over. A moving-on. "But who's everyone else? You haven't replaced us, have you?"

"I could never," Yoongi retorts, trying his best to shove all the uncomfortable feelings to the back of his brain. "You want to know how often I talked about you, until they must have got sick of-"

"We were in the battle," Daesoo grins, "And someone asked which one are you? You've given us notoriety, Yoongi."

"The fearsome warriors of the North," Eunhyun says with no small amount of pride.