[WARNING: nothing else but xiuchen in this chapter *hue hue hue* ] 

Only Humans

♕ ♚

“Minseok,” Jongdae started, and he smiled to himself, enjoying the name much more than 'Xiumin.'

“Yes?”

“Do you wanna tell me about your kingdom?” Jongdae asked, sinking his whole self in the moment. They were lying on the grassy hill, further down in the gardens, away from the noise of the castle, from where they could overlook the lights of the city, “can you tell me about this?” he mumbled, looking at the houses.

The prince kept quiet for some time, before he inhaled.

“Unfortunately, there isn’t much I can tell you,” he whispered back, sighing, “I have only gone there a few times,” he explained, but then chuckled to himself.

“What?” Jongdae asked again, raising an eyebrow.

“I just remembered something really nice.”

“Tell me,” he whispered, rolling the blue rose in his hand.

Minseok looked at him, and for a second their eyes locked.

“If I do, will you show me your face?” the prince asked, inspecting the other’s mask.

Jongdae swallowed loudly, and his heart banged against his chest when he felt Minseok’s fingers brush through his hair, “I wanna see your face,” the elder mumbled.

“O—okay,” the thief gasped, and his hands started sweating.

Minseok adverted his gaze and looked back toward the city.

“When I first went there, I ran away from my advisor. I am not allowed to be going there. My mother’s brother was murdered in the city,” Minseok started his story, and Jongdae listened carefully, finally getting answers to all his questions he ever had about Xiumin.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Dad says that’s when she became paranoid about the city. So I was kept in the castle my whole life. And that day, when I went there the first time, I ran — I was run into,” he laughed, and Jongdae smiled along with him, remembering that incident well, “there was this thief that ran into me, as he was running away from an angry crowd. Oh, only gods know why, but I followed him. Then he just disappeared… and I found myself unable to forget him,” the prince whispered, frowning.

Jongdae took a deep breath in, never expecting to hear a confession like that.

“Have you —“ the boy started, “have you met him again?”

“I did. A few times. All of this,” the prince looked back at the castle, “I do it all for him.”

Jongdae sat there, confused. His chest became warm, his legs soft, his heart was beating faster, and he couldn’t advert his gaze from the prince. He really had to ask Junmyeon what was the purpose of the ball.

“Your turn,” Minseok smiled after a few moments, looking at Jongdae’s mask.

“Oh—oh,” the thief only sighed, very slowly undoing the strings at the back of his head. As he took the mask away from his face, he eyes never left Minseok’s. The prince gasped quietly, frowning a little bit. “Is something wrong?” Jongdae whispered nervously.

“You… just remind a little bit me of someone I know…” the prince mumbled, leaning forward.

“Do I?” the younger asked, doing his best not to move as the prince’s face neared his, and the elder’s eyes started inspecting his face.

“If it wasn’t for your eyes and hair, I would swear you were him,” he whispered back, now only inches away from the boy.

“I can only hope it’s a good resemblance, then,” Jongdae mumbled, his gaze falling onto the prince’s lips.

They were still on the ground, Jongdae lying on his back, and Minseok hovering above him, securing his body on his hands. The prince’s eyes were carefully studying Jongdae’s face, as if Minseok was looking for something.

“Tell me, Chen,” he whisper, looking at the boy’s lips and running a hand through the other’s hair, “have you ever visited my city?”

Jongdae felt adrenaline rush through his veins, and he didn’t know whether that was because he was incredibly terrified of the though of Minseok figuring his secret out, or because he found himself by having the prince hovering above him like this, caressing his hair, touching him.

“Never,” he barely mumbled back, feeling a massive lump in his throat.

“Chen,” the prince whispered directly into his ear, running his fingers down the boy’s jawline.

“Yes?”

“Is there anything you would like to tell me?” Minseok asked, barely brushing his lips against the other’s cheek.

Jongdae wanted to scream. He felt as if he was on fire, and he wanted to yell his lungs out. He wished for earth to open up and swallow him, or for Junmyeon to magically disappear him. He found Minseok’s touches intoxicating, and he knew he shouldn’t. For all the reasons, he should not have. But he did.

He closed his eyes for a second, trying to collect himself, but upon opening them again, he got instantly crushed under the prince’s gaze.

“I cannot,” he whispered quietly, looking at the elder from under his lashes.

“Whatever you say,” Minseok spoke softly, “no one will hear it. No one, but the wind,” he smiled, but as Jongdae realized, his eyes were only getting darker.

“Do you know my secret, then?” Jongdae asked, slightly terrified.

However, instead of getting a reply, he felt Minseok’s lips on his. His eyes fluttered shut instantly, his skin went on fire wherever the prince touched him, and his mouth gave up to a sweet mixture of Minseok and alcohol.

He quickly wrapped his hands around the elder’s neck, trying to bring him closer.

For the first time in forever, Jongade decided that nothing else mattered. He just wanted to be held and kissed. And in that moment, he was willing to do anything for that.

“Can I trust you?” he whispered against the elder’s lips, as they opened their eyes.

“Whatever you say, will stay between you and I,” Minseok smiled, as he moved his hand to wrap it around Jongdae’s waist.

The younger placed his hand on the prince’s cheek, asking the stars why it couldn’t last forever.

“I am the Lord of High Gardens,” he confessed.

Minseok looked slightly taken aback at first, as if he had expected to hear something else, and then shocked, as if he had never expected to hear that. But then he smirked, resting his body on his arm.

“I knew it’d be an interesting evening when you were announced, I just didn’t expect it to be this interesting.”

They were lying there, on the hill, with millions of starts shining above them, city lights burning beneath them, and Jongdae felt like caught between dream and reality. And he was.

“You asked me if you could trust me,” the prince said suddenly, looking at Jongdae carefully. The thief nodded. “Can I trust you?”

“Of—of course…”

“My mother has guards looking for you. The Lord of High Gardens is supposed to be dead. How do I know you’re not lying?” he asked, genially concerned, and Jongdae felt suddenly overwhelmed by the moment of the elder’s vulnerability.

“Trust me. Trust me for tonight,” he replied, placing his hand on the prince’s cheek.

Minseok just laid there, looking at Jongdae, thousands of thoughts crossing his mind. The boy he had in his arms was so beautiful, but each time he looked at him, he saw his little thief. The cheekbones, the jawline, and oh, those lips, the nose, the eyebrows. But then he looked the boy in the eyes. Eyes blue as an ocean on a sunny day. Everything was Jongdae’s, but the eyes.

“I look at you, and you are so beautiful… like tonight’s sky,” the prince whispered, and Jongdae blushed. But then the prince sighed, and pulled away, lying back on the grass.

“What is it?” the thief asked, rising back from his position to have a better look at the elder.

“You are so beautiful, Chen. You are. But each time I look at you… it feels like I’m looking at someone else…”

“You sound like it’s bothering you…”

“It is… for all the reasons that there are, for all the rules and laws, seeing his face on this side of the fence won’t bring anyone any good. Won’t bring me any good…”

Jongdae’s heart first banged against his chest and then ached so bad, as if Minseok wrapped his fist around it and squeezed it.

“I’m afraid that thinking of him would distract me from what I have to do. If I keep doing it, I might just run away. And that is something I cannot do… he made me realize that I was being selfish thinking of the world. He was my freedom, that I have to give up to ensure he receives his.”

Jongdae fell to the ground, feeling the weight of the whole world on his shoulders upon hearing Minseok’s words, and a terrible amount of quilt mixed with adoration filling all his bones. He looked at the starts sparkling on the black sheet above them, and slowly found it hard to breath.

And they were lying like that, next to each other, hands barely touching, prisoners of their minds.

“Don’t give up your happiness for someone else, Minseok. It may not be worth it,” Jongdae mumbled after some time.

“It might be just worth a shot,” the prince replied back, his voice empty.

“Why do you even care?” he asked. People never cared.

“Because I don’t want to be just white canvas. I don’t want to always be delicate like porcelain."

Jongdae inhaled, remembering the time he called Minseok these things. Never would he have expected they could affect the prince so much…

“We’re all only humans, after all…”

“I’m a prince, Chen. Future king. I cannot be only human… there is so much more expected from me…”

Jongdae swallowed, breathing heavily.

He turned around to look at the prince, and upon gaining his attention, he spoke:

“Then let’s be humans just for tonight,” he whispered and kissed Minseok tenderly.

♕ ♚

“God,” Minseok mumbled, pinning Jongdae to the wall of his chambers, “you taste so sweet.”

“Who’d have thought, after all that bitter alcohol,” the younger mumbled back, and Minseok laughed, as he started working on ing the other’s white shirt.

“And yet you drank everything I poured,” he pointed, biting softly on the thief’s bottom lip.

“I wouldn’t dare say no to the prince,” Jongdae whispered, as he pushed the elder’s suit off his arms.

“I’ll keep you to that,” Minseok said, wrapping his hands over Jongdae’s hips and pulling him up. Surprised, Jongdae quickly wrapped his legs around the prince’s waist, and as the elder moved them towards the bed, he tried to swiftly undo the crown’s shirt.

“Oh, my Lord, you need some more practice with this,” Minseok laughed, and as he placed Jongdae on his sheets, he quickly undo his shirt and threw it to the ground, along with the younger’s.

Jongdae threw his head back and closed his eyes tightly as he felt Minseok’s kisses on his chest, and his hands working on his belt. He knew he shouldn’t have been doing any of this, but the night was still young. What could have possibly be the worst thing that could happened?

♕ ♚

Jongdae was woken up by strong rays of sun shining directly into his face. Once he opened his eyes, he automatically shot up, panic drowning onto him.

The worst thing that could have possibly happened, happened.

[well . . . , so this just happened, because I have statistics project due Monday]