Pair: Minseok/Chanyeol
Rating: PG13
Prompt: continuation of It Started Out With A Kidnapping

Minseok is a professional.  He knows how to wield magic in any way he needs, to mold it into a weapon or a defensive shield, to create a storm when water is desperately needed or reroute floods to keep homes from being swept away.  He’s a practiced mage, steady and unerring in his craft.

Which begs the question - why can’t he get through one simple task without being distracted?

Minseok is midway through the incantation that will rid the citizens of this village of the soot gremlins that had taken up residence in the local coal mine.  They’re pests at best, but hazards when threatened and as soon as Minseok had heard of the infestation, he’d magicked himself into the town square.

Now his concentration is broken, a snarl ready to rip from his throat as the voice behind him becomes increasingly panicked.  Chanyeol should be used to this.  Minseok should be used to it.  From the most difficult spells to the easiest, Chanyeol has a way of finding something to make things go wrong and cause triple the work for Minseok.  Minseok’s patience has had it.

Minseok spins on his heels, the flames of his rage racing through his veins as he witnesses a mob of tiny soot gremlins all now trying to haul Chanyeol off to the mines.  The Prince is wriggling, attempting to free himself, but they swarm around him, dark menaces with barely discernable arms and legs all working together to keep their prize.  Minseok isn’t having any of it.

“Hey!” he yells, causing the little beasts to stop.  “I think you forgot one thing,” he tells them.  Minseok lets a smile twist his mouth as he pulls on all that rage and pushes it out of himself in the hulking form of a water construct that stands tall and menacing.  The soot gremlins let out high pitched noises, all of them rushing about, but they don’t release Chanyeol who looks rather terrified that he’s really going to be taken into the depths of the mines.

The construct splashes forward, the bottom half dangerous waves that swallow any soot gremlins it comes in contact with as the top half - the part that looks most human - reaches out with its long arms to gather the rest.  If there’s one thing soot gremlins can’t survive, it’s water and Minseok has lost his desire to do this the peaceful way.  As much as he respects all life, laying their tiny grubby hands on the man he loves crosses a line and deserves punishment.

Chanyeol is still flailing, splashing about in the dirty water even when all the soot gremlins have been dispatched.  Minseok thanks the construct before releasing it from his control.  Minseok then directs his stare at Chanyeol, unamused at the drenched mess of a man still laying in a muddy puddle.

“What part of stay inside, I can handle this didn’t you understand?” Minseok hisses.

Chanyeol turns a pout on him, his head tipped back to look at Minseok upside-down.  He looks more than a little ridiculous.  “There was a child,” Chanyeol says.  “She’d been swept along with the gremlins so I came out to grab her.”

Minseok’s heart instantly melts, his anger gone and replaced with affection.  It’s such a Chanyeol thing to do.  He walks over to help Chanyeol off the ground, hands fisted in the front of Chanyeol’s ruined shirt to pull him in for a kiss.  Chanyeol is dripping on him, covered in soot and mud and whatever else stuck to him in the chaos, but Minseok doesn’t care.  He’s relieved that Chanyeol is unharmed, but frustrated because Chanyeol’s such a self-sacrificing idiot.

“Did I do good?” Chanyeol asks, a little dazed once Minseok stops kissing him.

Minseok sighs, resisting the urge to rolls his eyes.  “Yes, Chanyeol.  You were brilliant.”  Chanyeol tries to come in for a hug and Minseok takes a hop back.  “Let’s get you into a bath before you get us both sick.”

One of the many perks of being an official mage of the royal court is that Minseok doesn’t have to deal with the pesky magical barrier around the castle.  He gets to magic both himself and Chanyeol directly to the Prince’s room, stepping back as Chanyeol drips on the floor.  He lets Chanyeol strip himself down as Minseok tasks himself with filling the large tub in the adjoining room.  It’s far too big for one person, but royalty is always extravagant.  Minseok ensures that the water is hot when Chanyeol pads his way in, unabashedly as he takes the steps down into the bath.

“Are you coming?” Chanyeol teases, his eyes flickering in the candlelight as Minseok sends out a simple spell to light them all at once.

Minseok should probably say no, but . . . Chanyeol.  Wet, Chanyeol.  Minseok shrugs his robes to the floor, carefully stepping around them as he descends into the bath, Chanyeol greeting him with an eager kiss.  “Next time, you’re staying here where it’s safe,” Minseok tells him, his fingers sliding through Chanyeol’s hair fondly.

Chanyeol’s lips pull up on one side.  “That’s what you said last time.”

“I mean it this time,” Minseok insists.  “You always find a way to put yourself in danger and it shaves years off my life expectancy every time.”

Chanyeol takes Minseok gently by the wrist, lifting it to his mouth to press a kiss to the symbol etched in Minseok’s skin.  “Nothing is going to happen to either of us.”

“You can’t possibly know that,” Minseok scoffs, still endeared with the sincerity in Chanyeol’s voice.

“I can.”

There’s no point in arguing - not when Chanyeol will never let Minseok win and Minseok is a little preoccupied by the hand that’s trailing down his back.  This conversation will be shelved for a later date.  Right now, he has a troublesome Prince to clean, amongst other things.