I said I was taking a break from angst. Well I kind of lied? This is really angsty and there's character death so...please don't hurt me. 

Prompt: Sehun's on a mission to kill the King's son; brothers!HunHan; "Blacklist" by HyunA and LE (May or may not be inspired by "Before U Go" drama version by TVXQ! And this is going to be one of those period stories again because I can't get enough of those. I want to see Luhan in one of those dramas, fml.)

Word count: 2,523

"No mistakes. Oh Sehun, do you understand? No mistakes." Sehun breathes out. "You can do this." Nodding at himself, Sehun slips the mask over his face. "No mistakes." Sehun slips out of the door, giving another glance at his brother sleeping peacefully on the floor. 

"Stop! Stop it!" Sehun has tears running down his face, as he kneels on the ground. "Please stop! I'll do it! I'll do anything!" 

"Are you going to do it right?" 

Sehun watches as another punch hits Luhan right in the stomach. Blood gushes from his wounds and Sehun panics when he sees Luhan falls to the floor, eyes closed. 

"I'll do it right! I'll do it! I'll do anything! Just stop! Please!" 

The master smiles. "Are you sure, Sehun?" 

"Yes, yes! Please stop!" Sehun all but screams when he sees a man kick the back of Luhan's head. 

"Let him go." The men back off at his command. "Sehun, your job should be finished by tonight. You know I hate to bruise such a pretty face." The master gets off his chair. "Tonight, Sehun-ah," he coos mockingly. "Or else worse will happen to your twin." He leaves the courtyard. 

Sehun runs to Luhan's knocked out body and skids to a stop. "Lu...Lu, wake up." He pats his brother's cheeks and wipes the blood off his forehead with his sleeve. "Lu...I'm so sorry. Wake up." Sehun feels a shadow over his body and a bucket of cold water is splashed on both their bodies. Sehun makes a noise in the back of his throat as Luhan's eyes begin to flutter. "Luhan, I'm so sorry. So, so sorry," Sehun sobs. He wipes away the traces of blood on his brother's forehead and kisses his forehead. "I'm so sorry." 

"Did you agree?" Luhan cracked voice asks. 

Sehun closes his eyes, wincing. 

"Sehun?" Luhan's fingers grasp at his shirt. "Did you?" 

"I did," Sehun whispers. 

"Stupid. Stupid..." Luhan murmurs before passing out. 

"Ah, that hurts!" Luhan inches away and slips his shirt back on. "Idiot, you just made me get that beating for nothing." 

Sehun averts his eyes and wipes his hand. "You were hurting. I can't see you like that." He caps the bottle and stores it away. "I'm going to bed." 

"What are they making you do this time?" Luhan asks, blowing out the candle. 

Sehun pulls the blanket over his body and closes his eyes. "I can't tell you." 

"Sehun, if it's something you might die for, I deserve to know!" Luhan sits down beside Sehun's head. "If you die, what am I going to do? You're the the only one I have left!" 

"If I tell you, you're going to die! What am I going to then, Luhan? What am I supposed to do?!" 

Luhan is frozen at his brother's words. Then, saying nothing, he slides under the blanket as well. 

Sehun changes quickly, spending most of his time searching through the dark for the loose floorboard. He wiggles the corner of it and then lifts it up silently. He stores his clothes there and takes out the knife he has hidden there. There is a packet of powder there as well and Sehun pockets that just in case. 

Just as Sehun steps out of the door, he hears Luhan's voice. "Be careful. Don't do something stupid." 

Sehun sneaks past the guards with no problem, they're all asleep anyway. He jumps off the room and lands on two feet. The impacts sends some leaves flying, but otherwise, no one notices the intruder. Sehun inches along the wall. The knife is hidden in the waistband of his pants and the powder is in his socks. Sehun scans his surroundings and then makes his way through the garden to the prince's room. His footsteps are light, barely audible. As he leans on the wall, he hears hushed voices. Sehun peeks his head out to see who it is and then retracts. 

"I saw someone walking around the courtyard." 

"It's one of the guards." 

"No, they're all stationed somewhere else. No one should be in the courtyard." 

Sehun mentally curses himself. He barely breathes as he waits until the men walk away. Sehun tiptoes to the door and checks his surroundings before sliding the door and stepping inside. The room is dark, but Sehun can see the faint outline of the prince sleeping in his bed. He approaches the bed and takes out the knife. 

The Prince Kyungsoo stirs in his sleep and Sehun seeks cover in the curtains. When he stills, Sehun steps out. He hovers over the sleeping prince and poises the knife above his heart. The prince's eyes open. They meet Sehun's own and he reacts a second too late as the prince pulls his mask down.

"You're here to kill me aren't you?" the prince asks. His voice is small, and Sehun is immediately reminded that this sickly prince's 16th birthday is tomorrow. "I heard some of the guards talking about it," the prince continues. "But I don't really care. Doing this is going to put me out of my misery." The prince smiles softly. "Unless you don't want to. If that's the case, I'll give you 30 seconds to run before I call the guards and make a fuss." 

Sehun hesitates and his mind flashes back to when he was 14, before he was forced to do all the Master's dirty work, before his father was taken away from them, before Luhan had bruises and cuts and fractured bones. 

"You have 15 seconds left."

Sehun searches through his socks and pulls out the packet. He pours the content into the glass of water. "Don't drink it," Sehun mumbles, pulling his mask back into place. "Unless you do want to die." Then he runs.

Five seconds later, there is a crash as the glass of water hits the ground and Kyungsoo begins to scream. The guards who were asleep wake up immediately. They rush in the direction of Kyungsoo's room. Sehun hides between the pillars as he dodges all of them. He is near the gate and is climbing up the tree when he hears someone call, "There's something here!" 

Sehun curses to himself and stills. He hears footsteps and stops breathing. 

"There's no one. You're hearing things, Chanyeol." 

"I'm not! I saw something." 

"Goodness, Minseok shoot an arrow up there to prove him there's no one there." 

Sehun curses silently and braces himself. There is the woosh of the arrow and then Sehun feels a searing pain graze his arm. He bites his lip to stifle his cry and his grasp on the tree branch tightens. 

"See? There's nothing there." 

"I swear there was!" 

"We're wasting time. Let's go." 

Sehun winces as he lets go to touch his wounded arm. He pulls away when he feels the burn. He wipes the blood on his shirt before jumping onto the room and onto the street. The run back to his house is fast. 

"Luhan. Luhan, wake up." Sehun lights a candle with his good arm to find his brother already waiting for him. 

"What? Oh my god, Sehun. You're bleeding." Luhan searches the room for a towel and bandages. He limps into the back room to get a large bowl of cold water. "Sehun, change." Luhan pulls out Sehun's clothes from the loose floorboard and tosses them in his brother's direction. "What happened?" 

"Arrow hit me. It's just a flesh wound, don't worry." Sehun pulls off his mask and wipes the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. 

Luhan gets impatient and s Sehun's shirt for him. He peels off Sehun's sleeve slowly and then winces at the blood. "Okay, this might hurt. I'm not so good with injuries." Luhan dips the towel into the bowl and squeezes the water out. He presses it against Sehun's arm but pulls back when Sehun hisses. "Sorry!" 

"No, it's fine. Continue," Sehun grits out. 

Luhan gives Sehun a skeptical look and then continues. The blood is washed away and Luhan wraps the bandages around Sehun's wound, tying it. "Sehun, what was your job this time?" Luhan whispers. 

Sehun looks away, sighing. "The prince. Master wanted him dead." 

Luhan gasps. "A-and you agreed?" 

"I had to! You were hurting!" 

"Sehun! You could have died! Worse, you could have been caught and publicly executed. Do you think I can watch my own twin be killed in front of me?!" 

"That's the same feeling I get when I see the men beating you!" Sehun swallows the lump in his throat. "Luhan, I do this all for us. I do this so you won't have to hurt. I do this so we can pay off Father's debt. I do this so we have a chance at a life." 

"We won't have a chance at anything if this continues," Luhan snaps. 

Fear plants its roots in Sehun's stomach and stays there. "We made eye contact," he whispers. "The prince and I. He let me go." 

"Master isn't going to let this go." 

Sehun is walking the streets, browsing for fruits when he sees it. There is a sign, a wanted poster, that says:

WANTED

Man with dark hair, a scar under his left eye, and a flesh wound on his right arm

Wanted for attempting to assassinate the Prince

Sehun looks around to see if anyone is watching before pulling the sign down and stuffing it into his pocket. He clears his throat and then makes his way back home, panic seeping into his bones. They must have seen him last night. The fear rooted in his stomach makes him queasy. He toes off his shoes and slides the door open, hand in his pocket to pull out the poster when he sees Luhan, lying dead on top of a pile of Sehun's bloody clothes. 

Sehun drops to his hands and knees, crumpled ball of paper falling out of his hand. His breathing becomes labored, as he slowly crawls over to where Luhan is lying. Sehun feels tears burning in his eyes and he hears his heart pounding loudly in his ears. "L-Lu? L-Lu-ha-han?" he stutters. "Luhan?" He pats Luhan's cheeks lightly. "Hey, w-wake up. S-stop playing." 

Luhan is silent, eyes closed. 

"S-stop it. Luhan. Luhan!" Sehun shakes Luhan's body with his good arm. "Luhan!" he screams. Tears flow freely down his cheeks as he hugs Luhan's body close to his chest. "Luhan! Stop it! Open your eyes!" Sehun is hysterical, rocking back and forth as he scans the room. "Luhan, stop playing around! Open your eyes!" 

Sehun doesn't hear the door sliding open and the commands of the King's guards. He doesn't feel their arms grabbing his, only the pain in his chest as they pull him away. "Stop it!" he shrieks. "Let me go! Luhan! Luhan open your eyes! Help my brother! He isn't opening his eyes! Help him!" Sehun wrestles his way out of the guards' hold and runs back to Luhan, holding onto him tightly. He cradles Luhan's head in his arms, sobbing. "Luhan, no...You can't die. What am I supposed to do? Our chance at life...Luhan!" Sehun slaps his brother across the face, hoping that that would be enough to wake him. 

It isn't. 

"Is he okay?" 

"Prince, I don't think it's safe for you to be down here." 

"Let me be." Kyungsoo peers into the cage, finding Sehun curled up into a fetal position. "Hey." 

"Prince,"

"Unlock the cage. Let me in." 

"We can't do that-"

"Do it now." 

There is a jingle of keys and the door swings open. Kyungsoo steps inside, holding his robes off the floor. He prods Sehun's back with his foot. "Hey." 

Another body comes in and Kyungsoo watches as he pulls Sehun into a sitting position, forcing him to kneel before Kyungsoo. "The Prince is here to talk to you, dirty trash," he spits. Giving a well aimed kick at Sehun's wounded arm, he leaves. 

Sehun lets a cry spill from his lips as he falls to the side, far too weak to pull himself back up. 

Kyungsoo sighs, squatting down in front of Sehun. Sehun has dried tear tracks on his cheeks with new tears threatening to spill over. When his dead eyes make eye contact with Kyungsoo, his eyes widen just the slightest in recognition. 

"I really thought you could have made it," Kyungsoo murmured. "I heard about your brother. You were hired to kill me right? But you failed so they killed your twin instead?" 

Sehun blinked, tears falling, trailing down his temple. He doesn't say a word. 

Kyungsoo sighs, reaching out a hand to place on Sehun's bleeding one. Sehun winces, but doesn't do anything. "I'm sorry for your loss," he whispers. "It must be hard losing someone so important to you." 

Sehun closes his eyes, letting out a shaky sigh. 

"Tell me your story." Kyungsoo turns back outside. "Get me two chairs," he calls out to the guards. 

"Yes, sir." 

A chair is brought into the cage and Kyungsoo sits on it. He tells the guard to place Sehun on the other one across from him. The guard does so with a sour face. 

"Sehun? That is your name, correct? Can you tell me about your brother?" 

"Don't you have better things to do, Prince?" Sehun's voice is dry, an effect of not having anything to drink for the past two days. 

"Get him some water," Kyungsoo demands. 

"Prince-" the guards begin to protest.

"Do as I say." Kyungsoo turns back to Sehun. "I would rather talk to you than lie in bed waiting for my death." 

A flicker of a smile passes through Sehun's pale face, but it disappears as fast as it came. "Would you really?" 

"Of course." 

My father was a gambler. My mother left him right after we were born. With the burden of two children, he stopped. But he was still swamped with debt. He ran away from them and settled down here. He worked hard and as Luhan and I grew up, we really looked up to him. That was until they found him. We were 14. They took all three of us to the Master's house. They beat him there, they made us watch. Father kept begging them to takes us somewhere else, but the Master didn't want to. He said this was part of the punishment. 

They stopped hurting him after he began to lose consciousness. They moved onto us instead. They hurt Luhan first. They touched him. And no matter what I said, they didn't listen. They wouldn't stop. When they finished with him, they moved onto me. I still remember the Master's words. "Your face is too pretty to be bruised." They made me kill instead. They made me kill my own father. 

I worked for him after that. Every person I eliminated crossed off some of my father's debt. Every person I didn't kill, the Master hurt Luhan as my punishment. Since I didn't kill you, they killed Luhan. I-I don't know why Master even wanted to kill you, but I didn't follow his orders. And Luhan paid the price...

I'm sorry Luhan.