Dance into the Fire

~*~

Nerves can do many different things to people

Some just roll with them

Others crumple and cry

But all feel them at some point

So, nothing to feel ashamed about

~*~

Chapter Twenty-Two

There was a buzz around the Capital well before the sun even deemed to peak above the horizon that morning. Hundreds of whispers joined one another to make a sort of constant background noise that was almost harmonious and filled with plenty of happy sounds. A wedding of a Bride was always a grand affair, but since this was to be the first of the year after the winter snows had finally melted away to bring forth a glorious spring that was filled with hundreds of blooming multi-tonal flowers there was even more excitement. Tradition had been thrown out of the window to permit the marriage between General Yongguk and Himchan but the Dragon and the Meigreni had both given their blessing after consulting with the prediction horoscopes and confirmed that the pair being joined in holy matrimony in the early Spring would be a perfect time.

Himchan had barely believed that he was being allowed any such concessions and had to be frequently reminded that it was fine for him to feel a series of tidal waves of emotions by virtually everyone who was involved in planning the wedding.

Having never been involved in any form of marriage ritual in the slightest, Himchan was overwhelmed by the sheer choice that was suddenly presented to him and it seemed that no one was prepared to make any decisions for him. He had to pick his flowers, who were to be the guests, what food and drink the guests would drink, where they would be seated, what decorations would be up, if he wanted live fish in the pond and about a million more countless tasks that built up into a massive headache. Thankfully Jongup was there to sort out any explosions and Tiffany proved to be a godsend with being able to translate Himchan’s rather vague choices and statements about what he wanted to real life wondrous beautiful items.

Himchan was glad that he did not have to choose his wedding robes, that job was thankfully left to Yongguk out of tradition though naturally he was curious as hell about them. But as the sun kissed the horizon to bring the day of the wedding upon the capital, Himchan found his eyes opening slowly in excitement rather than stress. Everything was prepared and all set, he just had to follow the routines and traditions and then he would be lead to the place where he would be married to Yongguk. Looking down at his hand as he sat himself up, Himchan could not stop the smile from crossing his face as he stared at the ring which virtually never left his hand because he was terrified of losing it.

“Today I shrug off the veil of the past and step into a new future with you,” he spoke aloud, bringing the ring to his lips to kiss it gently and barely able to keep the smile off his face as he turned slightly at hearing the door open.

Jongup peaked his head childishly around the door to see if Himchan was up or not before hurrying to the elder’s side and surprisingly giving him a tight hug. “Himchan! Soon we are to be brothers! I cannot wait,” Jongup expressed a little too happily and quite loudly but Himchan could barely bring himself to curb the youngster’s enthusiasm because he was too excited himself.

“I know, I can’t wait for it to come either,” Himchan smiled, virtually cradling his future brother-in-law to his chest, because he felt so happy, “But we must be patient.”

A laugh escaped Jongup, “Says the man who barely slept last night.”

“Oh at least I don’t have to drag you out of bed this morning,” Tiffany’s voice drifted to the pair from behind where the girl stood, somehow managing to look absolutely stunning even when in the plainest of robes. She was acting as Himchan’s handmaid today, along with Jongup and a couple of others but she had taken it upon herself to be there first thing in the morning to make sure that Himchan was more than prepared for the day ahead. “I feared that I would come into you having a panic attack or something like that,” Tiffany continued, gently setting a large white oak box onto Himchan’s dressing table which he knew for a fact was her own personal make up box.

Another series of chuckles escaped from Jongup as he shook his head, sending his blond hair loose of the roughly thrown bun that had probably been put in way too quick this morning, “Not Himchan. He may be nervous and all the rest of it but since Yongguk proposed to him he’s practically been…yike!”

Himchan had gently pulled Jongup back by his hair in order to carefully pull it into a more presentable bun that was still fairly loose but would not come undone by the youngster shaking his head. He sighed affectionately, “Jongup, I am going to have to teach you how to tie your hair properly.”

“Oh, yes please,” Jongup grinned happily back, as it was a known fact that he was no good at styling hair other than very basic styles that a school child could do but Himchan had never minded. He had spent so long styling the hair of the younger children in the orphanage and in the City of Brides that it was second nature to him. He still held with the notion that if he had not ended up here then he could have opened a very successful salon back there.

Tiffany however was quick to step around Jongup and grab hold of Himchan’s arm, “Well you can do that later. You are supposed to be pampered and completely at ease today Himchan so you can stop faffing on with everything right now. It’s time for your bath and then we’ll get you set in the underrobe before breakfast and…”

“You’re going to make such a great mother, you know that Tiffany?” Himchan cheekily stated towards his best friend who immediately, playfully, started to complain towards him as she tugged and pushed him towards the bathroom whilst Jongup nipped around the side in order to start drawing the bath. Traditionally there should have been about ten handmaids to deal with this but Himchan did not want to be swamped so much on that front so he just had the two.

As he sat on a stool, waiting for Tiffany and Jongup to prepare the bath he sighed and cast his dark eyes towards the window in the rough direction of Yongguk’s home and wondered how his preparations for the day ahead were going.

~*~

“Yongguk! Come out of there,” Youngjae was practically hollering by now, banging on the door to his elder brother’s room. There was no response as he fully expected and Youngjae had to take a deep breath in order to calm himself down and not explode. He knew exactly what would be going on and he even understood why it would be going on as well because today was one of the most important days of Yongguk’s life.

It was just an annoyance that today of all days, Yongguk would get a full-on panic attack.

Youngjae knew that it had been building, knew that the stress of this wedding along with the delicate matters of his role as a General would clash and build up the tension but he had hoped that a few training sessions in the back yard between himself, his elder brother and their cousin would break it up without too much of a trouble.

Apparently, he was wrong in that sense.

“Got it,” Daehyun said, appearing from around the corner with a set of keys and inserting it into the lock before calling, “Yongguk, we’re coming in whether your or not so don’t complain at us.”

The bedroom barely looked as though it had been slept in and for a moment, neither of the two Captains could spot where the man who was due to get married was. He was not seated on a chair, the doors to the balcony were firmly closed and unless he was hiding in the bathroom there appeared to be no sign of Yongguk anywhere in the room.

Daehyun moved quickly to check the bathroom, feeling a panic of his own beginning to build up in his chest but Youngjae caught hold of his cousin’s arm and pointed towards the bed. A frown crossed the others face but the younger brother merely grinned, placed his finger upon his lips and then stepped towards the bed, before laying down on the floor and raising the blankets.

“Seriously Yongguk?” Youngjae asked as he stared into the space underneath the bed, “What are you? Like five and hiding from the monsters in the wardrobe again?”

Under the bed, curled up in the most awkward of positions was Yongguk looking as though he had had the night from hell. There were bags under his eyes, his black hair was a complete mess, bloodshot eyes and so much dust clinging to his body because he had been playing with the dust bunnies the whole night that they had left hundreds of little kisses all over his sleeping robes and skin.

Daehyun blinked, “Gukkie? What are you doing under there?”

“Probably being a scardy cat again,” Youngjae said softly, smiling even though he should have probably been a whole lot more neutral, “Oh come on, you seriously can’t be this worried about making Himchan happy, can you?”

The blood shot eyes lowered and a sort of whimpering sound came from the General which was completely unexpected and did not fit with his image in the slightest. Though the next second there came a yelp of surprise as Daehyun had followed the silent instruction from Youngjae to go around to the opposite side of the bed and grab hold of Yongguk’s foot to pull him out from under the bed.

Daehyun immediately set upon his cousin with a tickle attack which surprised Yongguk so much that he ended up laughing himself stupid which only doubled when Youngjae scrambled over the bed to join in. Soon all three were just rolling about like they used to do when they were children and they were quickly covered with clarts and more explosions of dust bunnies.

Eventually they stopped, breathing heavily with Yongguk sandwiched between Youngjae and Daehyun who both had their arms wrapped firmly around the other. They did not chide him further for being worried or stressed, nor did they try to speak any words of comfort because it was not what Yongguk needed to hear right now. They just needed to be there for their big brother and make sure that he would step up and keep his promise.

Yongguk sighed after a while, snuggling ever so slightly into his younger brother’s chest and wished that he had sought the pair last night so he could have gotten some sleep. “Thank you,” he whispered, knowing that the pair of Captains would hear him.

“No problems, scardy cat,” Youngjae challenged playfully back, “Do you want to get up for your bath now or shall we cuddle some more?”

“Or we can ask the maids to bring us a picnic basket and we can build a fort on the balcony if you like,” Daehyun smiled, finally able to remember the craziness that they did as kids whenever Yongguk would get upset. It was a shame that Yongnam wasn’t around to kick his twin into shape because he always seemed to have a natural understanding about how to cheer his brother up.

There was the infamous time when Yongnam had slipped away in the middle of the night to the nearest park to catch a frog for Yongguk in order to cheer him up, after all.

Yongguk shook his head, “Just stay here for a moment.”

“Hey Youngjae,” Daehyun smiled, “Shall we go and catch a frog for Gukkie?”

“A frog?” Youngjae frowned, “Why a frog?”

“Because frogs cheer him up instantly,” Daehyun said, “We can go and fish one out of the…”

There came a croak from the balcony and all three grown men who were still on the floor, turned to see that there was an actual frog sitting on the balcony, looking rather bemused as to how it had gotten there. Yongguk was the first to raise and he opened the door, kneeling down next to the creature which was hopping about trying to find a way back to its pond more than likely before casting his eyes to the right.

For a second he thought he saw a sort of ghostly figure but it was gone within the blink of an eye. Though the lingering feeling of joy and good blessings made Yongguk smile brighter than he had done since he had retired to bed. “Right, come here Mister Froggy. You need to go back to your pond before Mama finds you.”

Youngjae frowned towards Daehyun who smiled and ruffled the youngers hair, “Yongnam used to catch frogs to make Yongguk happy. I guess you were too young to remember that.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about that,” Youngjae said before grinning, “I guess your twin is giving you a kick for today then?”

Yongguk nodded, having successfully caught the frog and was literally grinning ear to ear in the most goofiest style imaginable. 

“Good, now I don’t have to kick you,” Youngjae grinned back, “Let’s get rid of that thing and then start sorting you out cause otherwise we’ll be late and that will not look good on your wedding day, now will it?”