The first half of this chapter takes place about a year after Hakyeon gets to the palace/six months after meeting Minho. The second half takes place about 3-4 months after.

Chapter 25 – As Time Passes

Leo has never wanted to purr so badly in his entire lifea. The sun is warm on his skin. Hakyeon’s fingers are soothing in his hair. And the privacy they’d found in the courtyard was grounding. He can’t help feeling happy despite their situation.

Hakyeon on the other hand is very, very tense. The book on his lap is thick and useless. The burden of breaking Leo’s spell has become very real since he’d run out of ideas. And the time remaining was only a little over a year. He can’t concentrate. Nothing he tried worked.

The sorcerer sighs in frustration and closes the book, massaging Leo between the ears. He can figure this out. He has to figure this out. For Leo.

“Relax,” Leo mutters, pulling a book from the sorcerer’s hands. It’s late, he wants to sleep, but more importantly he wants Hakyeon to sleep.

Hakyeon reaches for the book but the Anyethi holds it further away, above his head. “You’re allowed to take a break.”

“I don’t have time for a break,” Hakyeon protests, sounding only a little bit whiney as he reaches for the book.

Leo backs up more, stretching his arm even higher. Hakyeon tries his best to retrieve the book without moving from his spot on Leo’s bed but eventually he gives up and gets to his knees so he can reach further. Leo responds accordingly, now holding the book out to the side.

Hakyeon groans and leans over the boy. It isn’t until he notices the red on Leo’s cheeks that he realizes he’s gotten so close that Leo is lying on his back and he’s straddling him.

His cheeks flare and he’s caught in the Anyethi’s eyes. He’s not too sure when they’d both started breathing so heavily but he is sure it isn’t because of the book.

“Hakyeon,” Leo murmurs before reaching around the sorcerer’s neck and dragging him down for a kiss.

Hakyeon hesitates for only a second before kissing back. He can tell that something is different this time, in Leo’s eyes maybe, in his tone, he wasn’t sure. They’d kissed before, many times, but this was different.

Leo knows that Hakyeon has been holding back, he’s always known that since their first kiss all those months ago. He doesn’t want to wait anymore, after all, he didn’t know how long they’d have left together.

He’s still got one hand on Hakyeon’s neck so he drops the book and uses that hand to grasp Hakyeon’s and drag it down. The Anyethi guides Hakyeon’s hand to his waist, not breaking eye contact as he does.

Leo is almost certain he’s never blushed so hard in his life. Biting his lip nervously – and also to fend off an embarrassed smile – he pulls Hakyeon’s face back down and kisses his jaw.

“Touch me,” he whispers seductively, or he hopes it was seductive anyway.

Hakyeon swallows, slowly turning his head so he can draw the other teen into a kiss. He can’t believe how quickly his heart is pounding in his chest or how much he wants this. He’s always wanted this, ever since meeting Leo. But he’d put it out of his mind, figuring that he could concentrate on the spell now and then spend as much time with Leo as he wanted once they were gone. That’s right. He should be breaking the spell so they can spend years together in the future.

Hakyeon begins to pull away. “Leo–”

“Please.”

That simple plea breaks Hakyeon’s resolve almost instantly. Burying his face in the Anyethi’s neck Hakyeon slips one hand under the teen’s shirt while the other supports his own weight.

“Are you sure?” Hakyeon asks.

Leo’s answer is to simply kiss the older man again.

Jaehwan narrows his eyes at the pair sitting across from him. “You two are being awfully cute these days.”

The way he says ‘cute’ makes it sound like he means ‘disgusting’ but they pretend not to notice. Leo is curled up against the sorcerer with a book about basic potions on his lap, ignoring – or trying to ignore – the soft kisses being pressed behind his ear.

“Shouldn’t you be breaking the spell?”

Hakyeon pulls away so he can glare at the guard. “Go away.”

“Did it work?” Hakyeon demands.

“No,” Subin replies. “It became unstable during the last few minutes.”

Hakyeon had expected that but he pretends to be disappointed. “Right. Subin, you get started on the next ingredient while you two,” he motions to two other members of the team, “begin trying it all with the number seventy-two base. Got it?”

The remaining member of the team approaches Hakyeon nervously. The sorcerer barely glances up from the potion he’s working on, waiting for the colour to shift so he can turn the heat up.

“What?” he snaps.

“Um,” the member mutters. “I was just wondering why you’ve been… um, getting us to skip over certain combinations of ingredients.”

, Hakyeon swears to himself. The real reason was that they were combinations he thought might work or had a higher chance of being almost right. He knew the properties of every ingredient and the way they combined to have certain effects. He’d learnt it from Ravi while growing up and knew that theoretically you could invent potions without even making one if you understood this well enough.

Instead of telling the team member that he forces a smile and makes eye contact for a second. “They’re ones I’ve tried myself. I don’t’ want you guys to waste your time one potions I know don’t work.”

It’s a weak excuse but the member seems to accept it. “Oh… okay then. Is there anything you wanted me to do?”

“I need you to contact Yeongsik and order in some eucalyptus roots,” Hakyeon replies.

“Okay.”

Hakyeon can’t help casting a worried glance towards Leo only to find the Anyethi looking equally as worried.

Leo is kind of dozing when the unmistakable sound of a book falling to the floor startles him awake. The first thing he sees upon opening his eyes is the book, crumbled on the floor like it had tossed there. Leo frowns at it before twisting to look at Hakyeon questioningly.

Hakyeon is also frowning. He has one hand out like he’d been waiting to catch the book and it had never gotten here.

“Did you throw that?” Leo asks tiredly.

“No,” Hakyeon replies simply. “I was… I don’t know why.”

He mutters a single word and Leo watches the book begin to rise and then float in their direction. It wobbles dangerously before once again plummeting to the floor. Hakyeon curses and casts the spell once more. The book is barely starting to float when it sinks back down.

“Stop,” Leo whispers when Hakyeon prepares to try again.

Hakyeon ignores him, scowling deeply. This time he practically spits the word.

Both of them flinch when the book shoots forward and collides with the wall behind them before barrelling off in another direction. Hakyeon’s eyes are wide in surprise as the text continues to ricochet around the room and Leo’s are wide because this is what he’d been afraid of.

Hakyeon tries to release the spell and spends several seconds groping around trying to remember how to. A cold shiver runs through him when he realises that he’d had no control over his magic for those few moments. It was like he’d never learnt to control it in the first place.

It’s Leo that pulls him back to reality with a slap.

The anger and confusion Hakyeon feels is brief, completely stopped in its tracks by the tears running down Leo’s cheeks.

“I told you to stop,” Leo manages to say through a tight throat.

Hakyeon feels his own eyes prickle. He’d scared Leo. He’s scared himself if he was honest. It was the one thing he’d never wanted to do. He’d wanted to show Leo that he wasn’t like other sorcerers, that he wouldn’t just use magic needlessly and hurt people. And yet here he was.

Before he can even attempt to comfort the Anyethi Leo is hiding his face in his neck. “Don’t do it anymore.”

“Don’t do what?” Hakyeon asks.

“Don’t do any spells like that. Don’t do unnecessary magic. Don’t.”

Hakyeon remembers back to when the prince had recruited him, to the conversation they’d had and how he’d asked them if they thought he was corrupted. He remembers that Leo hadn’t answered.

Trying not to hate himself Hakyeon asks the question again. “Do you think I’m corrupted?”

Leo hugs the older man tighter and Hakyeon knows his answer.

“Your Majesty,” Suhee bows. “I’ve received a worrying report.”

King Jihun looks up from his war plans and sighs. “What now?”

Suhee hands the list she’s holding to the king. “Cha Hakyeon has been telling his team not to make the underlined combinations. One of his team members is worried he’s deliberately impeding the progress of the potion.”

The king skims the list, his frown growing bigger as he does. By the time he’s reached the bottom he scowls. “Have that team member attempt to make these.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Leo has kind of accepted his lot in life, which is sad. He doesn’t even consider a future where he and Hakyeon can stay together because he thinks he’ll always be a rare ingredient that’s locked away. His time at the palace is probably the most carefree time in his entire life, which is also sad.

Hakyeon on the other hand only thinks about their future together.

Leo, you bastard. Hakyeon was supposed to start it but nooo. I’m beginning to see an unintentional trend. All 3 of their semi- scenes begin with Leo. Damnit Leo. Anyway… Hakyeon is 19 and Leo is 17 in the first paragraph thingys and then time begins to skip again.

You’re probably disappointed that it’s semi- and not -. I don’t want to write a full -scene for this fic. It hasn’t been ty until now and frankly it kind of doesn’t fit with the general atmosphere. Also, first time is awkward and I legitimately would never get through writing it. Their first time was probably s, maybe s, heaps of blushing.

Just a reminder that signs of corruption include unstable magic control, anxiety, depression and obsessive(ness).

Neo was supposed to have a huge fight about unnecessary magic but because this was originally two chapters it got cut down. It was supposed to reflect in how adamantly against it Leo is because in chapter 1 (8 years later) they still fight about it.

My notes are so long… I am so sorry.