ɬɧɛ ɱąɖ ƙıŋɠ//℘ʝɱʄʄ

•23•

The 10 minutes walk to the palace of Arak was quite peaceful and enjoyable for Xena as she strolled along side her brunette ruler who seemed to be in daze instead of being all ears to the Prince of Arak's continuous blabbering and complaining how his former senior didn't tag along for this trip. Though the General felt pleasant after the mind-blowing fight she had against the nasty cousin of Kishore with the help of Jimin, she still kept her guard high up and had her eyes glued to the surroundings, ready to fight again if a threat was to come Jimin's way.

Speaking of which, the young king of Inferno had his head slightly lowered and posture wasn't as royal-like as he first stepped into Arak. Currently Jimin was staring at the ground with occasional lip biting and brows raising as if he was having an interesting discussion with his mind. Sometimes his shoulders would bump into Xena's but she only spared him a split second glance before focusing back, thinking he was just stumbling a little though it's kinda impossible for him to stumble 10 times in one single walk.

The group of royalties finally arrived at the gates of Arak's palace, an ancient prideful structure of the land of desert, a building of gold and sedimentary rocks. They stopped in front of the big doors as they waited it to be opened. Xena glanced to the side again to make sure the guards and officers were all in place and presentable with their attire. However, she ironically found the king of Inferno himself with creased shirt and strands of hair dangling from the fight, causing her to lightly gasped in panic.

The General quickly stepped in front of Jimin who was startled a little by her sudden action. "Your Highness, may I have your permission to tidy you up?", Xena whispered with panic laced voice as her hands were already halfway lifted, ready to clean him up. The king blinked in confusion but nodded anyway seeing how serious she was with her question and her frown. Xena immediately raked her fingers through his hair to comb back all the strands of hair for his forehead to be shown clean. She then patted down his shoulders to adjust the blazer but smoothing his creased shirt where a creased spot was difficult to flatten.

"M-May I, sir?", Xena began to panic even more even though Jimin was quite lay back with the situation and found himself staring down at the girl who had both her hands on his chest after fumbling with his shirt. He missed her entire question and only heard the last three words so he just nodded anyway, not noticing how the girl was even more anxious and was gulping.

In a swift move, Xena whipped her head from side to side before leaning into the king and sticked her tongue, wetting the stubbornly creased spot of his shirt and finally straightening it with much ease as it smoothened. Jimin's chest visibly stiffened when she licked his shirt as his eyes bulged  at her, throat dried like the desert they're in, fists clenched in his pockets. Xena stepped back and patted the spot dry but was grabbed by her wrist when she was about to return to her position.

Turns out, it was Jimin who grabbed her wrist and by the look on his face, it seemed like he wasn't really listening to her question and simply gave her the permission. "The Arak Royals are coming. I urgently need to use my saliva to smooth the crease....M-May I, sir?" Was her question yet the king seemed a little conflicted by how she did it. Xena might've just damped the spot and uncreased it but in Jimin's eyes she was dragging her tongue along his shirt, palms flat on his chest, eyes locked with his. Yeah, definitely not what happened....

Before Jimin could say or do anything, the heavy gates creaked open and guards started to march into the palace and towards the throne room, urging the royalties of Inferno to follow along. He had no choice but to release the girl from his grip after breathing heavily in her face and body warming up against hers. He tugged on his blazer as he stared into her eyes before walking away with Kishore by his side.

Xena released a breath she didn't realize she was holding and blinked at his sudden darkened demeanor, as if something ticked within him. But strangely his seemingly annoyed mood wasn't releasing any negatively charged energy so she could almost guarantee that he wasn't angry. So....why did he look like that? Not wanting to burst her mind figuring him out, Xena fixed her armor and her sword before catching up with the group as she returned to her General state.