By Right of The Crown

The hall was silent in the way only palaces ever were, obedience echoing through stone. Jungkook stood at the foot of the dais, head bowed-not because he was small, but because the throne demanded it.
Taehyung did not rise at once. A king never hurried toward what already belonged to him.
"Lift your eyes."
The command was soft. That made it crueler.
The crown caught candlelight as Taehyung descended, unhurried, stopping far too close for mercy. "You thought what passed between us was a mistake," he said calmly. "A sin without a name. Let us correct that misunderstanding."
The court doors opened. Witnesses gathered.
"This servant was not taken," Taehyung declared. "He was chosen."
Silence followed, heavy and absolute. "Choice," the King continued, "once made, is not undone by fear or regret. What has passed did not diminish him. It marked him."
He turned back to Jungkook, voice lowered, inescapable. "You were shaped by my hand. Raised beyond your station because I willed it."
Then, louder-final.
"What is shaped by the Crown belongs to the Crown."
"I do not deny what I claimed," Taehyung said, calm as law. "Kings do not steal. We assert."
He leaned close, words carved into bone. "You are mine-not as spoil, but as oath. And I do not relinquish what is mine."
Taehyung turned away. The matter settled.
Jungkook remained where he stood, heart in ruins, belonging no longer a question-but a sentence.