I can finally blink away the spots under my eyelids. I struggle to the surface, blinking like a newborn calf as the light meets my eyes. I don't need to move; me waking was enough to trigger the pain, which was burning my skin, even now, when I should have no more skin to burn.

A sigh sounds above me, and it's lightly toned enough that I know it's Xuimin. 

"You fell asleep for only 10 minutes, you know, Jonghyun," he informs me, in his pain-free, rather bored, voice. I can only groan in response as I blink myself more out of unconsciousness. The pain is subsiding now, strangely, but after a certain point, as I wait, it's just there. Just sitting, expecting to be there forever.

Xuimin sighs again, and this time, it's closer. I look behind me, and he's walking towards me from his spot at the window on soundless feet. I shrink, try to shrivel up in my chair so he wouldn't see me, but he just chuckles. 

"Relax, Jonghyun. I'm not going to hurt you." As if you haven't spent the last era torturing me. "You're no fun, anyway." Sorry.

And he stays true to his word. He just circles me, studying his work on my skin that I'm too afraid to examine, humming. 

"I don't even know why I'm doing this," he confides to me. "I said we should just kill you right then and there, but no, the Mighty One must be in charge, and we must wait for employer. 'Oh, and while you're at it, just scare him enough to say still.'" He mimicked the other's voice, raising it high before dropping it down to to his normal voice. "Bull. I could be running this kingdom at the moment, and here I am, stuck in a nasty building that's been abandoned for years, guarding a prisoner who isn't gonna move.

"And what does he have to do? 'Guard the entrance?' Isn't the baby already doing that?" Xuimin mutters to himself, rage flaring in his words, growing. But he trampled them out just as fast as he fed them, and smiled a blissful little smile at me. 

"But don't feel bad, Jonghyun. You're delightful." 

I grit my teeth, but manage to force out an answer. "Thanks." 

"Mm-hm, you're welcome," Xuimin hummed, patting my shoulder with ice fingers before once again migrating to his seat. 

Slowly, I watch as Xuimin paces around the room, leaving tracks in the layer of dust. He wipes off the dirt and cobwebs from chains, chairs, lights, and winces in disgust every time he pulled back from a corner with grey fingers strung with a broken spider's web. 

"Ugh," he mutters once, but mostly he stays silent, and so do I. There's a certain harmony in the room, some strange symphony between the victim and the inflicter. Some kind of understanding, that now is a time to think, not to hurt, not to speak. We both don't want to be here. We both want to be out, but literal ropes tie me down, while only metaphorical ropes are lashing Xuimin to a chair.

That, maybe, and the threat of "employer" looming. Maybe the threat of the other with that auburn hair and those dark eyes.

Something else, because Xuimin doesn't look like a follower to me. Something that must be more frightening that his strange, ice-cold fingers, although when you feel the pain of them, you wonder if there's anything more painful in the world, because surely there isn't, and pity that person with the horrible fate of receiving worse pain then Xuimin's.

Suddenly, a thud. Muffled, faint, but still there. Xuimin's head shoots up, and his eyes drill towards the door. The thump sounded like a person, falling. Maybe someone is here. Maybe Key is here. 

Xuimin and I both strain to hear, and the room is plunged in frigid, complete silence. But seconds pass, and minutes stretch on with nothing but empty silence. My blossom of hope withers, and my heart rate returns to the slower pace. Nothing. It was nothing. A heavy book dropping on the floor, someone falling a couple feet, something that was nothing. 

Xuimin meets my eyes, and gives me a crooked smile. "Not your savior, Jonghyun. Too bad." It's flat, emotionless. 

I just sit there, and realize something. No one is coming. No one is coming. I thought I was the king. I thought I was one of the most I,portent people in the kingdom, even the most. But here I am, alone. Here I am, with no one to save me but myself, and myself isn't strong, isn't brave, isn't a killer. I don't belong with these people, these dangerous people. I don't belong here. 

I don't belong anywhere. 

I'm the last of the heritage. The royal blood will die when I do. And who knows what will happen to the kingdom until I die? I can't run a kingdom. I need someone smart, I need someone who can pull up a dissolving country and make it so that it can walk again. I need Key. 

Right now, I need Key. When I am king, and I have the wieght of the world on my shoulders, I'm going to need Key. I've no one else. No one but a snarky killer, poor and fast and smart. He doesn't know it. But he's all I have. 

Now, I guess not. Now, he isn't here. I'll just have to die, and I don't know what will happen. I don't know. All I know is that I won't be around to see it, which may be a relief, but I want to be around to see Key. 

But I guess not. 

I hear footsteps. 

Xuimin does too, and he gets up, as quick as a snake. The footsteps are getting closer. They sound urgent, and they sound like there's two pairs. Xuimin's eyes flick towards the door. He's fiddling with something, and when I look closer, I realize it's a dart. The footsteps stop in front of a closed door, and whispered voices sprout up from behind the door. Our door. My hope soars. Someone's come. Someone's come. 

Xuimin cracks his neck. 

The door clicks. 

I hold my breath.

And then comes in a bow, strung, with an arrow pointed straight at Xuimin's eye. Following it, Key. One eyes was squinted, blood was soaking his side, mottled purple bruises were strung like pearls around his throat, and he was covered in blood, dirt, and dust. He had never looked so beautiful. Xuimin laughed out loud, but his hand stayed as he faced the bow. Key gently paced into the room, and after him, a boy with startlingly bright pink hair and a knife. 

Xuimin grinned now, eyes like shards of ice. "So, Jonghyun, your prince finally came." 

I chewed on the inside of my cheek, frustrated about being tied to the chair, helpless. 

Key chuckled back, light and airy and deadly sharp. "Sweetie, hands up." 

Xuimin only regarded Key with a sort of detached interest. "You're Key, no? I've heard of you. Said to be the best in business for gettin' the body disposed of."

Key smiled, sickly sweet. His bow was still pulled taunt, steady in his hands. Space stretched between the two, but tension flamed up like a bonfire. "And you're Xuimin. Heard you were the best at tracing fire with ice on prisoners. Best at takin' another's pay roll." 

Xuimin shrugged, loosely. "You gotta do what you gotta do." 

"Yes." Key's eyes glittered. "Yes, you do." 

Xuimin stared back at Key, unwavering, but something made him shift his eyes up. A smile broke his features, and as soon as I saw what he was looking at, lurking in the doorway, my stomach dropped. "Boss." He inclined his head.

Key spun around, and at the same time, took a fistful of the other boy's jacket and snapped him around so they both were backed by the wall, facing Xuimin and the door. 

"Glad you boys all met. A bit unfortunate about Mir, though. Key, I expect full pay back for one of my employees."