Chapter Three

Hey Partner

They made it with sparse seconds to spare and Junsu looked really pale when Junho finally spotted him in the audience chamber. It felt extremely awkward for them all, walking into royalty’s presence. It just seemed like they should be following some ancient protocol or something, granted there were guards lining the way and Taecyeon led them with Wooyoung and Chansung flanking their sides.

Something about the guards seemed off, their uniforms definitely weren’t of this kingdom in any case. Their armor was embellished with a symbol he didn’t recognize at all, a letter in foreign tongue? Junho glanced at Jaebum to see if the older man had noticed this, but it seemed he was too busy worrying about getting one up on their would be ‘rivals’, Taecyeon’s group, to notice. After all, that is what they were when everything came down to it, right? Rivals.

Their king was a distinguished man to everyone in the kingdom and admired even beyond its borders. Junho had really only seen him during special occasions before, like Devndoore’s annual trade festival, when he would appear briefly to greet participants. He spoke in a great, booming voice as soon as they found their places in front of his throne. It sat on raised floor as was the custom and Junsu stood looking altogether uncomfortable and annoyed off to the left as Junho met his eyes before quickly looking away and facing forward.

‘Where were you?’ He could see the unasked question in his brother’s eyes.

“Welcome gentlemen.” His majesty inclined his head toward them in greeting.

“Sire.” Taecyeon did a mirroring motion followed up with the bending of his body. They all copied his bow as was proper in the presence of their ruler. “These are our candidates this morning.” He continued turning in Jaebum’s direction and laying a strong hand on his shoulder. The smaller man could feel the warmth radiating from him, heat against granite. “I’ll let Jaebum take over from here...Jae?”

“Your majesty, we would be honored if you’d allow us to help with the ‘infestation’ of the North.” Jaebum stood tall, for him anyway, with a firm set to his shoulders. The king’s expression didn’t move at all though, his cheek stayed rested against his knuckles as he just regarded their lot one after the other.

“So you say…you and about a million others that have come through here, but do any of you know what you’re really getting yourselves into?” His Majesty asked, turning his gaze back on Jaebum and assessing him, trying to figure out how far his conviction would go. “This world is not the same as it once was, if this keeps up there will only be a few safe havens left including this city, and the rest will have fallen to them. My title as ‘king’ will become not much more than mere formality if we don’t stop them soon.”

“Them…you mean the elementals, sire?” Nichkhun spoke up stepping forward, and despite the awkwardness of the rest of their party he seemed to know his way around this royal presence, even Junho thought to admire his easiness.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. They’ve forced us into a corner and now we have no choice but to rely on their help. I refuse to force anyone into my service though because this mission has a very big catch that goes along with it.” The king sighed and raised a hand to massage his temples. “I won’t blame you men for refusing after you hear it…many others have…so pardon me if this may seem rushed, but I’m just going to come out and tell you right away, in order to take on this mission you’ll be required to have both combat experience and to bond with the elementals.”

“Bond...?” Junho saw Jaebum’s body tense and his expression turn uncomfortable. No surprise there, as far as Jaebum’s concerned these creatures are walking violations of natural order and getting involved with them at all is blasphemy. However, the pause before he spoke again took Junho by surprise. It was almost like Jaebum was actually considering, but that’s crazy because- “Whatever, we’ll do it.” Jaebum shrugged, but Nichkhun coughed before oh-so-subtly pushing him out of the way.

“Um first…what exactly does that entail?” Nichkhun had the sense to ask unlike Jaebum who preferred to just dive in first and take the consequences as they came. Junho still had no idea what his friend was thinking. His mind was still reeling with the fact that Jaebum had agreed. “If you don’t mind me asking, sire.” Nichkhun added quickly to be polite and off to the side, Jaebum glared at him.

“Taecyeon, explain please.” His majesty sighed and Taecyeon nodded, ever the picture of a patient ambassador ready to explain to them in detail.

“To bond in ‘elemental’ terms is to exchange energy between one another via an intimate contact. You see, being in this realm creates a strain on the elementals’ bodies because they can’t convert energy as easily in this world as their own. Instead they’ll need to draw energy from your life force to sustain themselves. The process can be a little…invasive, at least getting the host to open up at first is, but it’s not unprecedented. Humans have made such arrangements in the past.”

Their whole group went silent for a long moment and it was all five hundred different kinds of awkward that made Junho fidget where he stood. He mind tried process the information. ‘Open up’ though, did that mean what he thought it did? Like taking energy from them? Did that mean-

“Are you talking like…screwing?”

Luckily he didn’t have to voice his suspicions because Jaebum sounded just as put off by the idea as he was. There were several winces at Jaebum’s crude choice of word, but Taecyeon managed to keep a straight face, even smiling with something akin to amusement in his eyes.

“If that’s what you want to call it…then yes, but it doesn’t always have to go that far. That would only be in the most direct scenario. What we’re talking about here is a simple sharing of energy through something as miniscule as a kiss.” He allowed and Jaebum’s face contorted up into a mess of emotions, disgust and outrage being the more prevalent of them before he settled for some sort of strange, eerie calm. Junho watched him concentrate, wondering if he was about to go into one of his unpredictable ‘fits’. He wondered if he would have to jump in.

“There’s no way in hell that I’m screwing some scaly assed, demon eyed, tentacle waving thing just to earn a couple bucks. No ing way in hell fame is worth that much-” Jaebum snapped only to be cut off rather sharply.

“They don’t have tentacles.” Chansung growled, and he looked angry. Insulted even. He and Jaebum exchanged glares. “Or scales…” He continued after earning a reproving look from Wooyoung and fixing his tone.

“True, but you may be on to something with the eyes.” Taecyeon spoke continuing on as if nothing had happened. “Only when our powers are weakened though…” He motioned for Wooyoung to come forward. “Show them your eyes, Woo.”

“Sure…” Wooyoung looked a tad hesitant, and, if not for his initial shock, Junho would have noticed Chansung’s death-grip on his arm. There was a distinct frown on the younger man’s lips. Wooyoung shook him off and forced a smile before facing them, allowing them to see the pale blue his eyes had suddenly started to bleed through. Junho blinked. They were turning from honey brown to blue, the two colors not quite mixing but flecked and pooling around each other. Junho wondered how he hadn’t noticed them before.

Then it hit him. Suddenly these three are more than just rivals, they’re the enemy. And they’ve been lied to, or well, just not informed which is practically the same thing.

“I thought so!” Nichkhun’s excited exclamation made Wooyoung jerk and a second later he found his cheeks held in soft hands and his face tilted up to look straight into Nichkhun’s eyes. “I thought I saw blue in your eyes, but when I got closer but it was still hard to tell.” He continued to ramble; unaware Wooyoung felt his heart hammering in his chest.

He brought a hand up ready to rip Nichkhun’s hand away, but at the last second paused. These were humans and they didn’t understand that changing eye colors were nothing to be proud of. He just had to endure it for now, so he let his hand drop down to his side, limp.

“Um, yeah…I wondered why you were so close before and no you’re not crazy.” He mumbled as he discretely tried to pull away. Nichkhun seemed to notice how tense he all of a sudden was and quickly detached himself, smiling in silent apology.

“Well, they don’t look like ‘demon eyes’…they’re nice.” He stated and Wooyoung couldn’t help doing a double take, this was the first time anyone had ever told him that. He stuttered out a nervous thank you and dropped his eyes.

“Well, what do you say Jaebum? Are you in or out?” The king asked drawing the attention back to the situation at hand.

“This is…not what I thought elementals would look like.” Jaebum looked them over once again. It was harder to pretend they were all monsters when they looked no different from regular people. It threw him off a little. “…but it doesn’t matter, if I can learn more about my father while doing this…then I’m still in.”

“You are?” The king exhaled, blinking several times in disbelief. Jaebum nodded and his expression was unreadable even to Junho at that moment.

“Yeah, I’ll do anything it takes, but I don’t speak for the others. I’ll let them decide for themselves.” He said, casting a look back at Junho in particular. The younger man understood his meaning as well as he understood Junsu’s death grip on his hand.

“Junho’s not doing this. You only need three of us, right? Well then I’ll take his place.” Of course his brother spoke up for him before he could even move his lips. Junho sighed, tired of this constant babying, and he dropped Junsu’s hand.

“No, I’m in, and I’ll do this by myself.” He answered hoping the words would dig far down into Junsu’s skull. Junsu sputtered a moment, but Junho refused to acknowledge his brother’s shocked face and instead felt the corners of his lips quirk up to mirror Jaebum’s grin across from him. He turned to Nichkhun and asked, “Are you still in?”

“Wherever you go I do too.” He smiled like always and for once Junho was grateful.

“But Junho-” Junsu reached out for his sleeve and Junho threw him off.

“Stop treating me like a baby.”

“…” Junsu’s fingers went limp at his side and he didn’t push anymore. Junho almost felt bad, but Junsu had to learn that he wasn’t a baby anymore no matter what, even if his feelings had to be hurt in the process.

“I’ll take you then.”

“Huh?” Junho’s brow raised up as he looked in Chansung’s direction. The taller man nodded at him, smile forming on his lips as their eyes met and he spoke again.

“I’ll take you as my partner.” He said again and Wooyoung quickly came to the rescue, pushing a hand over top Chansung’s mouth before laughing in nervous, awkward jolts.

“Man, stop being so creepy. They don’t even know which elements we control yet.” Wooyoung complained tilting Chansung’s face away and breaking his gaze. Then he turned to Junho. “Sorry.” He gave the younger a sheepish smile and Chansung just remained silent and re-angled himself so he could watch Junho for a reaction.

“Um…” Junho found himself unable to break his gaze with the taller, dark haired man staring at him from behind Wooyoung’s hand. Chansung’s gaze was kind of…intense to say the least and once he realized the full weight of what exactly his earlier words meant he gulped and forced himself to look away, turning a little red in the process.

Was he saying he wanted to…?

…

“You see, usually there were these behavioral classes we were supposed to take before coming into the Human Realm, but since we had to come on such short notice…and Chansung’s not even had one class in his entire life…he may come off as awkward. He’s only a 2^nd Letaire you know.” Wooyoung explained and at this point he removed his hand from Chansung’s mouth. “If you take him as a partner you have to be strict.” He warned.

Junho stayed silent while he processed this information, wondering just what the heck being a ‘2^nd Letaire’ even meant, and Chansung must have mistaken that for hesitation because a moment later he drew Junho’s attention.

“You’ll accept me right away after you see how strong I am.” Chansung told him and Junho could see the glint in his eyes, determined to prove himself. “I’ll show you which element I am.”

“Okay…sure.” Junho blinked and watched as Chansung moved with practiced grace into a fighting stance. Every muscle in his arms tensed as he focused on the space in front of him. He moved them forward and Taecyeon tugged Jaebum out of the way quickly. He stumbled into the taller man and Taecyeon’s hand found the small of his back right away to steady him.

“Might want to watch out.” He explained when Jaebum’s gaze jerked to meet his. Chansung’s hand flung outwards then, and lightning burst forth followed by a loud boom. It shook the room and startled everyone, but most of all Junho. He let out what had to be the most undignified yell ever as he stumbled backwards and tripped over his feet. To make matters worse, in his sudden panic to acknowledge his ‘fight or flight’ instinct, he crumpled onto his , trying desperately to scoot away.

            “Ah, Junho!” Junsu rushed forward and grabbed his arm and Junho’s eyes flew to him wide with terror.

            “Hyung.” He sputtered, latching onto his older brother tightly, and Junsu saw the small boy in him again. He let Junho bury his face into his chest and shake silently, secretly relieved to be needed despite Junho’s earlier words. Chansung stepped forward looking confused.

            “Hey…are you okay?” He asked and reached out only to have Junho flinch back.

            “Don’t touch me!”

 He quickly withdrew his hand stung by Junho’s sudden outburst. All Chansung could do was watch the two huddle pitifully.