Fish Eye

There’s a flurry of commotion in the Consort’s bedchamber upon the unexpected entrance of the Regis, entering the room with his retinue in tow and before they could even react he swiftly dismisses the majority of them.

The circle of attendants surrounding the Consort’s bed scatters, leaving only Theu and Hatine by the Consort’s bedside. They remain close by, though, in the outer chamber lest they are called upon but stay detach from the scene as the Regis dictated.  Theu and Hatine, standing on either side of the bedridden Consort, continues to hover in the periphery and waits on the Regis’ command. 

The Regis approaches the bed, stopping at the end of it and even with only a domino mask on, leaving only half of his face uncover, Hatine can’t get a read off of him. “Is he alright?” the Regis says finally, directing the question at the Head Attendant Theu but his gaze doesn’t stray from looking at the Consort’s sullen face.  

Theu opens to answer but she never got the chance. “Just a stomache,” the Consort cuts in with a scowl.

“He’ll be healthy again with a just little rest, Your Majesty,” Theu assures the Regis.  

The Regis nods and advances closer to the Consort, settling down on the edge of the bed and next to the Consort’s side. “I’m sorry,” he says, voice grave and severe. “The chefs weren’t inform.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m going to perish from eating it,” the Consort huffs, folding his arm across his chest with all the posturing of someone who wasn’t retching and complaining about dying just an hour ago.

Hastine notes that he actually does looks a little better now, still a little blotchy and tired from dinner but other than that he was coherent enough to be vocal about his displeasure.

“It’s a sacred animal in Nave isn’t it? You’re forbidden from consuming the meat,” the Regis continues, unperturbed. His gaze drops and sounding every bit remorse, he says, “Again, I apologize that the chefs weren’t notify in time before they serve that dish during the banquet.”

The Consort shakes his head. “But I’m not in Nave anymore aren’t I?” he says, wearing a brittle smile on his face before it clouds over with a dismissive shrug. “I’m an Essein now so eating turtle meat shouldn’t—,” he stops and scrunches up his face, “isn’t a problem for me at all.”

Which is contrary to what Hatine saw earlier when the Consort was clawing at his throat and throwing up his dinner, face flushed with revulsion.  

The Regis raise his eyes and meets the Consort’s own. “You don’t have to push yourself,” he says firmly. “We can’t expect you to adapt to our way so quickly or discard yours either. Don’t eat it if you can’t and I’ll make sure there won’t be a next time.”

“And have them laugh at me? The Imperial High Consort can’t even eat something like a turtle meat without getting violently sick in thought.” The Consort snorts indelicately. “No.”

“Who?” The room temperature abruptly drop several degrees and Hatine shivers violently as the chills set in to her bones despite the warm summer night. She glances at Theu, whose face has gone pale and her hands are trembling as the air bristles under the Regis’s anger.  “Who dare to?” the Regis says slowly, each word that fall from his lip is punctuate with ice cold fury that freezes everybody in the room.  

Theu and Hatine hurriedly drops down to their knee with head bent low, shaken and concerned.

“Your Majesty, we do not mean to offend but please calm down,” Theu urges and Hatine can feel the pressure of the room only tighten further. The Regis’ anger are rare and sparse but when it come it’s violent and unmerciful. “The Consort had only just recover and any disturbance may wreck his health again.”

And just like that, it’s like the sun has revisit their land once again and chase away the frigid winter that had befallen them. The heaviness that had overtaken the room releases and Hatine can finally breathe again.

Having diverted a disaster, Theu and Hatine stand up and return to their spot, still a little wary but amidst all the commotion, the Consort had fallen back onto his pillows and is now examining the Regis with annoyed roll of his eyes. “Stop scaring my attendants and you can’t always fight my battle for me,” the Consort says, pulling a face.

The Regis ducks his head and sighs. “You’re right and I’m sorry,” he says, sounding contrite and a hint of embarrassment leak into his voice.

Hatine blinks. It’s strange to see the Regis being ashamed over his outburst like something others would do too… it’s almost like he’s human.  

“You know what you could do for me though,” the Consort says suddenly, perking up. “The fish’s eye.”

“The fish’s eye?” the Regis says slowly as though not comprehending and then, “Oh! You mean the ‘kmongkei soup’ that you ate earlier? Do you want more of it? I’ll have the chef make it for you if you like. ”

“Ugh, no!” The Consort groans, knocking his head back against the pillow, “Why would you even say such thing?! Just thinking about it is making me sick all over again. It’s slimy and icky and so, so gross.”

“I thought it was a national dish in Nave,” he says, sounding confused just as them. “And you like it didn’t you?”

When the Magistrate Maff had brought the dish up to the Consort as a gift from the Consort’s homeland during the banquet, even the poison taster had a hard time getting the first several bite pass him—a massive fish eye from a King Dume stared back at the viewer and the water inky blackness is filled with fermenting fish meat that been left to rot for months and the smell so strong that it nearly knock Hatine off her feet —but when it arrived front of the Consort he had happily ate it like he was starving for it.

“Yea if you’re old and your senses have dull! The younger generation don’t eat it, we got better taste then that.” The Consort’s nose crunches up in disgust.  

“Then why?” He cants his head curiously.

A pinch appears between the Consort’s brows. “Magistrate Maff,” says the Consort bitterly.   

“Ah,” the Regis says as though it finally dawn on him. “You shouldn’t have answer his provocation then. Maff makes a lot of noise but he’s mostly harmless.”

“He was being annoying and speaking as though he knew my own country better than me. That hurt my Navein’s pride,” the Consort says sulkily, a petulant tone to his words.

Now that Hatine think about it, Magistrate Maff had pushed the dish onto the Consort with an insistent, “I read that this is a favorite dish of your homeland, Consort. It’s a regional cuisine that Navein are especially known for that only a few people know how to cook it properly so when I heard about it I thought about you, Consort. You must miss your homeland dearly so I hope this might tide you over a little,” and the Consort had answered sweetly back, “thank you for your thoughtfulness, Magistrate Maff. I’ll definitely enjoy it,” and that should have been suspicious from the start.

The Consort had never been a picture of demureness, much to their ever increasing workload. He is abrasive, awkward, and has every bit distain for the courtiers that placed themselves in front of him so to see him being so sweet and polite should have clue them in from the start.

The corner of the Regis’ lips tug upward. “I thought you consider yourself an Essein now,” he says mirthfully.

The Consort’s eyes shot up and he glares. “Are you on my side or what?”

The Regis hastily cover up his laugh with his hand as the Consort’s glare deepens.  “Always,” he says sobering up, and reaches a hand out to toward the Consort’s, lacing their hand together. “Even if the entire world against you, you’ll always have me.”

The Consort, for once, is speechless and hastily avert his gaze, and this time the flush that rise to his cheeks Hatine doesn’t think is because of the food he ate earlier.    

The Consort clears his throat and removes his hand from the Regis’ hold and Hatine sees a flash of disappointment from Regis’s eyes that is too quick and fleeting to even pinpoint before it disappear as though it was never there in the first place.

“Then,” the Consort says, switching topic as though to regain momentum again, “you should send a supply of ‘kmongkei soup’ as thank you to Magistrate for me, since the kmongkei soup was too good for me to not share and I want him to personally eat it and tell me how much he love it.”

“I’ll make a mental note of that,” the Regis says alight with laughter and there’s so much unspoken fondness in his voice for the Consort that you’ll have to be blind not to see it. 

The Regis, beloved child of the gods, He Who Stand at the Pinnacle of the Dorum, and His Holiness only second to the Supreme One, but in front of the Consort, the Regis is just a man and he’s hopelessly in love.

She wonders if the Consort even realize that he’s one of the most powerful men in the world and the Consort has him in the palm of his hand. Even love can make a fool of a god.  

Hatine holds back a defeated sigh.

“The romance of kings and consorts are not privy to us mere mortals. We are only lucky enough to observe it firsthand so listen with your eyes and see with your heart and you might be able to witness something extraordinary,” Theu had said to Hatine on the first day of her job.

Hatine is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life but she is currently caught in the midst of the unfolding of the most awkward and stilted love story ever. However the extraordinary the circumstance is, Theu never mention how mind-numbingly painful it is to watch the Regis and Consort dance around each other as though they’re dancing to a different tune. 

a/n: this kind of meant to contrast with 'date night' snippet w/ theu opening on how terrible awkward and sadden the pair this make and how it's GOING NOWHERE but here for hatine their relationship has progress to much deeper level but LOL still extruciatingly slow :PPP. i like how the donghae in 'date night' lack any spark and is quiet and subdue but 'fish eye' donghae is much more livelier bc in due time when donghae finally find his ground and let himself open up to hyukjae and started to accept this country and ppl as his own he starts to become more and more of himself again. same goes with hyukjae in date night where he's like some ICECLE or something so stoic and unmoved and here you see him so painfully human and in love and ;AJSD;FJAS;JF yeaaaa i love that contrast *g*.

*the turtle is a scared beast in nave bc their god is a turtle so they're forbidden to eat it lol /o\ even though donghae declaim his god a long time ago habits are extremely hard to break so instinctively he get sick thinking about or even eating turtle meat :xxx.