The Heir

This shouldn't be happening. Jungkook took a shaky breath, the midwife smiling warmly at him and and nodding at Taehyung. "It is confirmed, your Majesty. She is truly pregnant."

"Jiyeon," Taehyung low voice, soft and husky, called Jungkook back to his senses, a gentle hand rubbing soothing circles on his back. "Are you alright?" Jungkook closed his eyes, forcing himself to swallow the scream and smooth out the fear. Taehyung's eyes were like two bolts of lasers boring into his back.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Jungkook took the glass of water sitting on the side table and gulped it down, trying not to think of the life he harbored inside him. It was wrong, this was wrong, he shouldn't even be able to get pregnant, but look at him now. Pregnant with Taehyung's child, stuck in a girl's body, and trapped in the past with no way home. Some paradise.

"I know you do not like this," Taehyung whispered, gesturing to the midwife who scurried away in a hurry. "But I need you to believe in me, even though you might not feel the same, all I want is for you to be here by my side. We can raise the child together, and he will be my heir, a better man than I ever was."

"Taehyung," Jungkook leaned up to kiss his husband tenderly. "I know what I feel, and if it's not love, then I don't know what it is. I'm just..... Confused, I guess." Taehyung smiled, sitting down beside Jungkook on the pallet. The feathery down sank down with his weight, a painful reminder to Jungkook that this was actually real and not a dream. 

"What kind of confusion?"

"I don't know if I belong, I don't even know who I'm supposed to be," Jungkook murmured, leaning his head unconsciously on Taehyung's warm shoulder. "I don't know if I am who I am."

"You told me yourself: There are no other Jeon Jiyeons," Taehyung replied, hands skimming over the soft skin of Jungkook's arms. Taehyung had him in a tight embrace, one that he wasn't about to let go of any moment soon. Jungkook felt a wave of gratitude at that. "You are who you want to be, I know I did not exactly make that what I believed in, but now I do."

"Lying isn't exactly good for health, Tae," Jungkook said dryly, smoothing over a crease on Taehyung's hanbok. Taehyung captured his delicate hand in his calloused one, clutching at it like a lifeline. "I am not lying."

"Make me believe that," Jungkook looked up at the love of his life, forgetting, if just for a moment, the pain of what could have been. "Tell me you're not."

"You are my rose, Jiyeon, the darkest, most poisonous one, but beautiful and deadly, nonetheless. You are mine, now and forever," Taehyung breathed, pulling Jungkook into his chest and kissing him. "You always will be."

"I may not be the fairest rose," Jungkook promised, "But I will be the strongest."

"Not past, not forever," Shinhwa whispered against her prince's tunic, whiffing in the scent of herbs and musk. "But now is all we have."

"I know," Mingyu said back, a hand running through her dark tresses and weaving apart the tangles with practised ease. "And if all we have is now, then we make it count. Every second is us, us, and all of it will be you and me."

Birdsongs sounded eerie in the darkened gardens, and bushes swayed in the wind where howls of rogue wolves tore apart the night. The pavillion was illuminated by only a single candle, lighting up the shapes of two entwined lovers. It was wistful, but truth wasd always harsh, unforgiving. They would only have tonight.

"I want to stay by your side," Mingyu whispered, touching his beloved's face reverently. "I want to watch the sun rise and set with you every single day. I want nothing, no barrier to come between us. I want to love you the way you love me."

"You can," Shinhwa let her hand trail down to Mingyu's waist, the prince's broad shoulders and embrace making her feel safe, protected from the world. "If only your brother would let us be."

"He will not," Mingyu sounded torn, broken, his breath a cold gasp. "He will not have the handmaiden of his wife in an affair with his own brother. He will never consent to our relationship."

"But we know we love each other," Shinhwa tried to plead with him. "We can do this in secret, every night, and he will never find out the truth."

"I cannot do this," Mingyu pulled away from her, tears glistening in his crystal eyes. The scent of soft rose contrasted heavily with the dark emotion of the whole situation. "If I leave, it will remove any lingering stigma about betrayal, and we can be what we used to be before I fell in love with you. We can go back."

"But I need you," Shinhwa begged. "Do my needs not matter?"

"They do," Mingyu left a final, lingering kiss on her temple. "But in a time such as this, nothing matters more than survival. Goodbye, my love."

And when he turned, Shinhwa let her walls crumble, mourning the loss of yet another loved one.

I will not break, Mingyu told himself as he told himself to walk away from Shinhwa's crumpled, sobbing figure. I must be strong.

Because strength is all I have left.

He told himself it was right to leave and not cause her more pain; He told himself it was right to leave her a better path to walk. He wanted her to live well, truly, but how could he not shatter when her brokenhearted cries battered against his heart, forcing down his innermost walls? Shinhwa deserved a future with a humble nobleman instead of a bastard prince like him.

She deserved the world he could not give.

The sky was blue, the flowers blooming, but his very soul was being torn apart, pieces scattered to the wind as he resisted the urge to turn and look. He knew that if he did, he would go back, and everything he had done would crumble on him. He could not turn.

But his love tore at his being, telling him to go back and pull the girl into his arms once more. She had always been so strong, so clever, but now he had her ruined, broken into small shards everywhere. He had destroyed her with a mere few sentences. 

And the destruction he could wreak amounted to more than just that.

Maybe things would have been different had he gone back.

Maybe things would have taken a different turn had he just apologized for his foolishness.

But he did not go back, and he let the despair swallow him, once and for all.

Five months later-

Jungkook stared at his swollen tummy, feeling the strong heartbeat of the baby growing withi