Cries because I really love Luhan but I made his character in this fic such an a-class beepity beepity beep TT^TT I'm sorrryyy Luluuuuu 

~oOo0oOo0oOo~

The princesses looked up, startled, as they heard the door open. It was after nightfall, and supposedly all residents of the palace had retired. Yet here Kyungsoo was, dressed in his loose bedclothes, slipping into their room.

“What is it?” the younger princess said, setting her scroll aside as her brother shuffled into the room.

“My room feels so empty without him,” the boy murmured, and there was no doubt whatsoever in his sisters’ mind about who he was talking about. He crawled onto the bed and snuggled beneath the covers. “May I sleep here with you tonight?”

His sisters nodded, and his eyes slid shut as he nuzzled his face into a pump pillow, sighing contentedly. Simultaneously their gazes turned and latched onto the unknown god’s gifts, which sat innocently on a short decorative table. The bronze surface of the lamp and the silver of the knife gleamed under the dim light, a constant reminder of the alleged danger their brother was in.

“We need to tell him,” the elder said lowly into her sister’s ear as they both watched Kyungsoo, who was snuffling into the cushion he held clutched close to his chest.

“But sister,” the younger protested with equal quietness, careful not to disturb the dozing boy. “It doesn’t make sense! If his husband truly meant him harm, why hadn’t he killed him from the start? Moreover, why would he keep him so happy, and why would he bring us up to see him?”

“If he means no harm to our brother, why does he hide himself?” the elder retorted in a sharp whisper. “Remember the Oracle’s words; he is not human. Most likely he a monster who preys on human flesh—“

“But Kyungsoo is still alive!” the younger shot back, only to be silenced by a finger pressed to her lips.

“Is still alive for now,” the elder princess amended, her eyes shifting across the room. The chamber was empty of any being except the siblings, and she relaxed slightly, though her posture was still tense. “Most likely this husband, as he calls himself,” her lip curled into a sneer,” is a beast of the most depraved sort who will make a meal of our brother once he tires of bedding him.”

“We do not know if their relationship is even of that sort; for all we know Kyungsoo may still be a —“

The older princess laughed darkly, shaking her head. “This husband visits him only after the sun has long set. It takes little imagination to know what that beast does to Kyungsoo under the cover of night…”

The younger looked scandalized at her sister’s mutterings. To speak ill of their host bordered on sacrilegious, a fact that some gods might warrant worthy of punishment. In vain, she tugged at the elder royal’s sleeves, but her sister merely brushed her off.

“Sister, please don’t slander Kyungsoo’s husband while we are in his house—“

“It is not slander if it is true, and besides, this is something Kyungsoo needs to know—“

“What do I need to know?”

The squabbling siblings immediately froze, turning slowly to find Kyungsoo in the same position he had been in when they first started their argument. His eyes, however, were now very much wide and awake, and the boy sat up, his sharp gaze inquisitive.

“Tell me, what do I need to know?” he repeated, his forehead puckering slightly as his sisters looked warily at each other.

“…How much did you hear?” the second eldest ventured timidly, her hands worrying her nightgown’s elegant hem. Kyungsoo scrutinized the nervous twitching of her fingers, his large eyes narrowed.

“Only enough to know that you two are keeping secrets from me,” he said, and the eldest breathed an unconscious sigh of relief. Hesitantly she stood up from her seat, moving across the room while her younger sister’s disapproving frown bore into her back. She took the lamp and the knife into her hands, turning around and presenting them to her brother. Gingerly Kyungsoo took them, studying the items with curiosity.

“They’re just a lamp and a knife,” he said, perplexed, as he turned the items over in his hands, failing to see anything particularly interesting about them. They were merely household items, nothing special. There wasn’t anything peculiar about them, or anything that could warrant secrecy, and after determining their mundaneness he dropped them back onto the bedspread.

Both his sisters shook their heads, gleaming ebony hair quivering like waves. His second eldest sister wound an arm around his shoulders with a look of resignation on her beautiful face, while his eldest sibling sported a countenance and posture of one determined.

“A strange bird came to us last night in the flames, bearing these items,” she said, gesturing at the objects while Kyungsoo watched in confusion. “It was no ordinary bird, but a bird sent by a god to warn us. To warn you.”

Their brother’s eyes were tapering dangerously as she took a deep breath before continuing, “The being you lie with every night is in reality a vile fiend that only waits to devour you. He showers you with gifts and comfort to lull you into complacency. Don’t you see? It’s another one of their sadistic games…” Seeing the way her brother sat unmoving and wide-eyed before her, she grabbed the lamp and knife and them eagerly into his hands, closing them in a firm grip. “Please Kyungsoo… Please, before it’s too late, save yourself… This lamp will light at your command, and the knife will tear through anything! Use them and rid yourself of the beast that keeps you prisoner here, and come back home with us!”

Kyungsoo shot to his feet, throwing his second eldest sister’s arm aside, moving so quickly his siblings were left stunned. The objects clattered against the floor as they were tossed mercilessly aside, their metal surfaces banging against the stone floor. Kyungsoo’s eyes were fiery, his hands balled tightly into fists.

“This is my husband you are speaking of,” he hissed, his tiny frame radiating an aura of carefully suppressed rage, the glare on his face powerful enough to have his much taller sister cowering back.  “Though he is no mortal, he has proven to me he is anything but a monster this addled bird and you claim he is. He has done nothing for me but cherish and love me and now you want me to raise my hand against him on some misguided god’s words?”

His sudden burst of fury was quickly quelled at the sight of the glinting tears in his sisters’ eyes, putting his tirade to an abrupt stop.

“W-we just—We thought we lost you once,” the younger princess whispered brokenly. “Kyungsoo-ah, we don’t want that to happen again.”

“Please, Kyungsoo,” the eldest begged as she gathered the discarded objects into her arms, pressing them insistently into her brother’s hands. “Swear on the River Styx you’ll bring them with you the eve we depart. I-if your husband is truly a monster like the divine bird said, that you will have a chance to slay it before it takes your life. A-and if the bird lies, and he is in truth a benevolent creature, then you need not raise your blade No harm done. Just please, Kyungsoo… take these with you. Just in case. Swear it to us, Kyungsoo. Take them, just in case.”

Kyungsoo stared at lamp and knife his sister held, and the imploring gazes in their eyes. Wordlessly he accepted them, causing their shoulders to sag in relief.

“I’m sorry for losing my temper,” he said softly. “Thank you for worrying about me.”

What he left unsaid was the fact that he had no intention whatsoever of using knife in any possible way. The only reason he held the knife in his hands now was to calm his sisters’ worries lest they lose themselves to fear and anxiety. He was certain he had no need for the weapon, as he knew with all his heart that his husband had no wish to hurt him.

The lamp, however, he had a use of. Despite his promise to his lover that he would not attempt to see his true self, curiosity was a tempting siren, and the presented opportunity only added strength to her haunting song. The knowledge of his husband’s true identity tempted him like the most alluring seductress, and Kyungsoo was only human, after all… In the wake of such enticement the restraint he had built up over the past year came crumbling down like sand.

Besides, what harm could it do? Yes, what harm could it do…

~oOo0oOo0oOo~

The god watched through his elegantly carved seashell-shaped mirror, his pet lazily across the head. The swan made a noise of contentment, burying its head into his side, but the god of beauty ignored the bird, all his attention focused intently on the scene that played before him in the mirror’s surface.

A smirk of triumph tore across his face as he watched that wretched little mortal accept the lamp and knife, promising his sisters that he would bring the items with him to his bedchamber. The bird in his lap squawked as his fingers dug into its delicate wings, but Luhan was too immersed in his satisfaction to care.

The god of beauty and love rose triumphantly from his ivory throne as he stared ferociously at the image of the beautiful young mortal in his looking glass, who was completely ignorant to his fate.

Luhan savored the moment and the events to come. Oh, he’d show that insolent mortal upstart, that impertinent, disrespectful Kyungsoo. Him, a mere mortal, more beautiful than the god of love and beauty himself? Oh, how Luhan had seethed with fury when he had heard the whisperings among the mortals and his fellow deities. How shameful, to be shown up by a mortal! The boy had taken his followers, his offerings, but no, that wasn’t enough, was it?

No, Kyungsoo had to put Jongin under his spell as well. Luhan’s fist clenched in his robes at the very thought of it. Jongin, his Jongin, his friend and brother with whom he had shared so much with, was snatched away just like that by the mortal boy who had already taken so much from him. Flames burned in his chest as Luhan thought of that pretty heart-shaped smile and large liquid eyes.

He straightened, the raging fire in his chest replaced with the aching pleasure of sweet, sweet revenge. Kyungsoo would pay for his impudence in a tenfold. Luhan would tear away what meant most from him and leave him to bleed in his sorrow, left with nothing able to heal the gaping wound in his heart. Kyungsoo had damaged what had meant most to him, his pride, and now Luhan would return the favor and rip away the center of the mortal boy’s world.

Jongin.

Everything was in motion. Soon, Jongin would abandon Kyungsoo and move on with his life, and Kyungsoo would be left to rot, alone and heartbroken, and providence would be fulfilled.

“Soon, my dear,” Luhan cooed smugly at the mirror’s surface, where Kyungsoo stood unwittingly holding the very instruments of his downfall. Oh, he couldn’t wait to see those ethereal eyes become bloodshot and stained with tears, that lovely little body wracked with sobs. “Very soon.”  

Vengeance would be sweet. 

~oOo0oOo0oOo~

A/N: ....Meep. o-o