Chapter Two

First Impression

            Junho didn’t really know what he expected out of the next morning, minus Nichkhun’s grubby hands being where the blond darn well knew they weren’t welcome, but having himself plucked, primed and styled beyond what he thought was humanly possible definitely wasn’t it. He thought he would have a break from Junsu’s crazy whims today of all days, but no. Usually this kind of thing only went on if he was being set up on some kind of stupid matchmaking attempt by his brother.

            In fact, there was actually a lot of willing suitors for him and just not enough interest from Junho himself. Not that he minded the attention, Junho was a handsome guy and he knew as much, but he simply had no interest in settling down with anyone. Junsu though, Junsu would be all too happy to see him playing house with someone one day. It was almost like his brother’s ultimate dream or something. What was the point of all that anyway? Find somewhere to be stuck the rest of your life and master some repetitive trade to slave over… Junho would much rather find himself out exploring the vast corners of the globe and uncovering what secrets it had to offer. Not trapped in some hum drum married life.

            “Ah there—all finished.” Junsu pulled back to admire his handy work with a warm smile, looking quite pleased with himself. “Wow, you look great, it really brings out your eyes. It’ll hide your dark circles from not being able to sleep last night—have to make a good first impression with his majesty after all.”

            “Quite fetching I must say.” Nichkhun agreed, his eyes fixed on the way the makeup stained Junho’s face. It was disarming to see his expression from across the room, looking awestruck, and Junho couldn’t help but turn a little red as the words left the his mouth.  To be admired, by whomever, was still being admired.

            “…” Junho fidgeted under his gaze and looked away. He really, really, really despised this all too familiar situation he found himself in.

            “Aw, come on, you look really nice. Smile for me?” Junsu hedged only to be ignored. “Pretty pleeeease? I’m sure Nichkhun would appreciate it.” Junsu sent a look toward Nichkhun in search of help. Those two were constantly scheming together…Junsu favored him.

            “I always adore your smiles.” The blond spoke up in approval. “I adore your pouting face even more though…” He teased and poked at Junho’s forehead with a laugh, Junho swatted him away, his expression quickly straightening so Nichkhun got no further pleasure from it.

            “Would you guys quit teasing me? I feel like I’m the group baby or something.” Junho grumbled and earned a snicker from Jaebum across the room.

            “Duh, you’re our precious little to protect from the forces of evil.” Junho glared and Jaebum gave a shrug. “Am I lying?” He grinned, his eyes trailing downwards and Junho felt his cheeks burn. Ignoring his friend he stood up and spared himself a quick glance in the mirror. He really did look nice.

            “Well, how much longer do we have to wait anyways?” Junho asked, stalking away from Junsu,  trying to leave them all in the dust only to have Nichkhun follow along beside him in that annoying, ever smiling way of his.

            “We have an hour exactly until our assembly with the king. I guess I get to show you off around the palace until then, lucky me.” Nichkhun said while ever so casually sliding an arm around Junho’s waist.

            “Great. Try to keep your hands to yourself this time by the way.” Junho deadpanned, shrugging him off, Nichkhun pouted and Jaebum chose that moment to follow them as well.

            “Cool, I’ll tag along as the awkward third wheel. It’ll be fun.” He volunteered and the two shared a look as Jaebum made a show of locking arms with Junho, Nichkhun stuck out his tongue. Weirdos, grumbled Junho under his breath.

            “Behave.” Came a last minute warning from Junsu as they crowded out into the Palace’s ornate halls—signs were telling that it was going to go ignored though, due to current company, namely Jaebum since Nichkhun mostly followed the rules except for occasionally groping Junho. The , and he looked so deceitfully innocent too…had Junsu totally convinced. “I’ll finish up some last minute things and see you when you get back.”

♦ || ∞ || ♦ || ∞ || ♦

            “This is stupid.”

            Wooyoung snickered at the pout on his friend’s face as they both loitered just outside the palace kitchen. Chansung watched the door enviously as people entered in and out. The chef had finally had enough of Chansung terrorizing him and kicked them both out. Not to mention, “kitchen” was quite a modest term since it was the size of three rooms. It was amazing and that wasn’t even counting the dozens of freshly baked bread, rolls, pies, cakes and other goods littering the counters.

            Back in their world letaire were starving left and right and fighting amongst each other for food, but here it was plentiful beyond imagination and so Wooyoung couldn’t blame Chansung for going a bit nuts. His appetite was surprisingly monstrous and overboard though, an interesting revelation in the past week that they’d been stuck here. The kid was going to have it rough when they had to go back.

            “It can’t be helped; you were going to get fat if you kept that up anyways. Then I’d have to call you Chubbs.” Wooyoung grinned and patted him on the head. Chansung was not amused.

            “I’m bored of waiting here. How much longer until we get started on this whole thing? We’ve been here forever.” He groaned, kicking at the floor in restless frustration. Wooyoung sighed. He felt it too. He switched to running his fingers through Chansung’s silky black hair in an attempt to soothe him. It seemed to work as his eyes drifted halfway shut; it was always simple to calm him down, kind of like an overgrown pet, Chansung himself was simple in a comforting way. Wooyoung smiled fondly.

             “Don’t worry. Hopefully our audience today will be the last one…” He tried to reassure.

            “You always say that.” Chansung sighed, reaching up to put his hand over top Wooyoung’s to stop it. He brought their hands down in front of him out of boredom, studying how they fit together and pulling free to tug at each one of Wooyoung’s fingertips in turn.

            “I know…I guess the thought of bonding with an “elemental” is really taboo here and scares them all away.” Wooyoung scoffed at the nickname for their kind and wiggled his fingers in Chansung’s grasp, smiling as the younger man took greater interest and continued to play with them.

            “Well, I don’t like the idea either. Bonding means we have to submit to them.” Chansung scrunched up his nose. “Talk about uncomfortable. Who wants to be with a human?”

            “Yeah, but they have to be with us too.” Wooyoung reminded and suddenly a very wry smile twisted into life on Chansung’s face.

            “They’d be so lucky to have us as masters, the hairy apes—”

            “Excuse me.” Interrupted a new voice, they both jerked around to see a group of three people staring back at them. The prettiest of them was the one who had spoken and Wooyoung had to blink a few times just to make sure what he was seeing was really a guy. ‘Pretty’ wasn’t exactly the word, but it seemed to fit in a handsome sort of way, prettansome? Wait, that didn’t make any sense -

            “Um…” Pretty scratched the back of his neck thinking he’d been ignored when neither of them spoke up. He tried again while looking directly at Chansung, maybe trying better to grab his attention though he didn’t need much more help in that area. Wooyoung noted his younger friend was gaping at the stranger with his mouth wide open and had to suppress a laugh. Did Chansung like what he saw? “Sorry to disturb you, but do you know the way to the royal garden? Today is our first time in the palace and I really wanted to see it…but we got kind of lost.”

            The ‘we’ he was referring to was a shorter man who stood off to his side and an blond who was standing much closer to him, almost brushing hands. Were they a couple? Wooyoung spared Blondie an extra glance before looking back at Chansung and raising an eyebrow when he still didn’t talk.

            “Heeeeeeeeeeeello in there,” Shorty waved his hand in front of Chansung’s face, amused. “Anyone home?”

            “Ah, and my lovely Junho’s beauty strikes again, sir you have wonderful taste, but I’m afraid he’s taken.” Blondie said, making a show of throwing and arm around Pretty’s shoulder. So they were a couple. “OOF!”

            Or not…

            “Oh, so you and Nichkhun aren’t having children then?” Shorty sniggered.

            “You want some too, Jae?” Pretty glowered looking quite scary, even Wooyoung felt like taking a step back. He couldn’t though since he was already leaning against the wall, but damn sure if he didn’t cover up his junk instead. “It’s your fault we’re even lost in the first place!”

            “HEY I’M YOUR BODYGUARD! It’s not my fault you trusted me, I’m just here to protect your —and when I say , I mean it literally.”

            “What!? That doesn’t even make sense-!”Pretty went red-faced.

            “Yeah, I’m not a .” Nichkhun wheezed out, between being doubled over in pain and trying to bring himself to stand again.

            “Could have fooled me when I walked in on you guys this morning…so Khun, is his nice and firm or is it just squishy? I’ve always wanted to know…”

           “JAEBUM.” Junho growled in warning, but he was ignored and when Nichkhun finally regained his composure.

            “Nice and firm of course.”  He answered smiling. A barrage of punches to his shoulder followed soon after, accompanied by lots of yelping and laughing (on Jaebum’s part). And Wooyoung, while finding their squabbling mildly amusing, had finally had enough of it. Noisy humans—time to shut them all up. He discreetly covered his mouth and blew out a chilling breath of air their way, enjoying the stunned faces as they all started shivering and struggled to huddle into themselves for warmth. The burst of magic brought Chansung around, he turned surprised eyes Wooyoung’s way. Wooyoung just shrugged and sent him a grin.

            “W-What the—where did that b-breeze come from?” Junho stuttered, teeth clacking and a bit of frost covering his hair, Nichkhun was quick to his rescue—throwing his jacket over his shoulders. Wooyoung didn’t miss the wayward glance the other man sent him, curious. Oops, maybe he hadn’t been as smooth as he first thought; he sent Nichkhun a nervous smile in reply.

            “They must have a window open somewhere.” He lied, and it did the job or at least was enough to get Nichkhun to send his attention elsewhere. “Right…well,” Wooyoung made sure not to skip a beat. “If you guys are looking for the garden though, it’s on the complete other side of the palace. This place is huge though, so I’m not surprised that you got lost, you must be new here then? I’m Wooyoung by the way—and this is Chansung.” Wooyoung made a motion toward his friend and Chansung nodded.

            “Hi.”

            “Oh he speaks?” Jaebum grinned before holding out a hand and shaking with Chansung.

            “Of course I do.” Chansung grumbled, forcing his gaze away from Junho to focus on Jaebum a minute. They shook hands and Junho blinked a few times unsure of what to make of the extra attention. Jaebum turned to Wooyoung and extended his hand again.

 “I’m Jaebum by the way and this is Junho then his stalker-”

            “Nichkhun.” Nichkhun introduced for himself and knocked Jaebum’s hand out of the way. Jaebum scoffed at him and raised an eyebrow, but made no move to retaliate, he turned his attention back to examining Chansung instead, flicking a loose strand of hair that hung down in front of the younger man’s face. Chansung frowned and swatted at him but Wooyoung didn’t get to focus on what happened next because suddenly he was getting a face full of Nichkhun.

            “Uh…nice to meet you.” Wooyoung could do little more then let the words go, he couldn’t think of much more to say anyway—and Nichkhun was one of those ‘direct eye contact’ sort of people, the kind that made you feel like you had their full attention no matter who else was in the room—a real socialite or something. Wooyoung wondered if he went to public events a lot, he liked those kinds of outgoing people. He tried his best to return the favor and not come off as awkward. “So are you guys from around here or travelers just passing through?” He asked as they pulled away.

            “We’re from town actually, I’m not originally, but I settled down here because I grew to like it. Devendoore is such a nice port city, and recently with the scares it remains relatively safe. If things go our way though, we’ll be leaving this protection all behind soon.” Nichkhun motioned around at the walls.

            “Oh?” Now that caught Wooyoung’s attention, “Are you here to work with the letai-um—elementals?” He quickly corrected himself. Nichkhun perked up, leaning a little closer, he was really far in Wooyoung’s personal space now and if his eyes weren’t such a pretty shade of brown Wooyoung just might have pushed him away.

            “Actually yeah, we’re here to try out for the king’s mission, you too?” Nichkhun asked blinking wide eyes and Wooyoung couldn’t help his chuckle, tilting his head to the side.

            “Maybe.”

            Nichkhun followed along with the motion, smiling. “It seems like you know something I don’t.” He observed, and before Wooyoung could even think of what to reply they were interrupted.

            “OW HEY!” Was Jaebum’s scandalized cry, both of them jerked in his direction.

            “Oh my God Chansung, what are you doing!?” Wooyoung panicked as soon as he saw Chansung’s teeth clamped down hard on Jaebum’s finger. “CHANSUNG!” He yelped in horror when his friend ignored him, the stubborn prick. Wooyoung bopped him on the head as Jaebum tried in wild pulls to shake him off.

Wow, so much for seeming normal. Taecyeon was just going to love this—speaking of which-“Chansung, if you don’t let go right now, I’m going to tell Taecyeon.” Wooyoung said, his voice threatening. Chansung’s jaw instantly unclenched and Jaebum’s finger jerked free.

            “What the heck’s your problem man?” Jaebum demanded, cradling his injured finger to his chest, traumatized.

            “You.” Chansung said, snapping his teeth and was rewarded with a laugh from Junho, he grinned back at the smaller man.

            “Tell me what?” A deep voice suddenly interrupted them and Chansung’s complexion paled when he saw Taecyeon standing in the hall behind them with a raised eyebrow. “Chansung, are you making trouble again?” A sigh, and Chansung jumped up from his seated position shaking his head.

            “No Taecyeon hyung-”

            “Yes he is, he’s biting people.” Wooyoung spoke up right away and received a glare. He stuck out his tongue and only afterward had the sense to wonder how mature that made him look. He scrunched his eyebrows up before just shrugging.

            “Well, I guess that’s what I get for letting you skip communication classes…” Taecyeon shook his head and went to Jaebum. “Sorry about him, he’s not even normal in our own society let alone this one—let me see how bad it is.” Taecyeon said, smiling and watching Jaebum watch him. He held out his hand expectant for another weight to settle in it. “Please? I’m Taecyeon by the way.”

            “Whatever… didn’t even hurt anyways.” Jaebum muttered, disarmed by the wide row of teeth that were suddenly flashing back at him. “It’s Jaebum,” He lifted his hand with one word in mind. Gigantic—everything about this guy was—and when Taecyeon seized the moment to take his hand, Jaebum felt the strength of his grip. Nice and sturdy, stable as he ran a thumb along the finger Jaebum had used to poke Chansung’s cheek just moments ago. His touch was really warm.

            “I was only messing with him.” Chansung defended, but Taecyeon held up a hand and his mouth snapped shut right away, albeit reluctantly.

            “I’m glad to hear you’re okay, I’ll make it up to you.” Taecyeon continued on as if he hadn’t even spoken. “He’s under my jurisdiction so it’s my responsibility.”

            “‘Jurisdiction? What are you guys, soldiers or something?” Jaebum asked, raising an eyebrow. He also had to wonder at all the weird things Taecyeon had said when he entered as well, ‘communication classes’? It wouldn’t be surprising for someone with a body like that to be a soldier though. In fact, Jaebum would bet his life that Taecyeon had at least some combat experience. The guy was interesting already.

            “No…not technically, but we are working for him. So I guess you could say that.” Taecyeon scratched the back of his head before shrugging. “Ah, well actually we have an audience with the King shortly and I came to get these two.” He motioned to Wooyoung and Chansung before turning to them, “Come on guys, time to go.”

            “Yeah, yeah.” Wooyoung answered, pausing to wave one last farewell to Nichkhun. Chansung nodded in acknowledgement and stole a final glace of Junho before Wooyoung came up beside him and tugged him away, whispering something that sounded like: “Hairy apes, huh?” into his ear. Junho watched them go, wondering a moment, before a sudden, jarring thought occurred to him.

            “Hey, we have an audience with the King too; Oh my god, are we late?” Junho asked, eyes going wide when he thought of his brother alone and freaking out. Junsu was sure to be climbing the walls by now.

            “Oops.” Was Jaebum’s only reply, even Nichkhun had a sheepish look on his face.

            “Oh, are you guys are the ones trying out for the mission today?” Taecyeon asked, seeming to take renewed interest in them and Jaebum nodded.

            “That’s what we’re here for. I know we may not look like it, but we do have a decent combat background.” He said with pride. He’d coached Junho and Junsu for years and was quite proud of how their skills had turned out. He was pleased to gain Taecyeon’s approving grin.

            “Follow us then, we’ll all go to his majesty together.” The taller man suggested and like that, they were on their way, mixing amongst each other in easy conversation.