Title: Mind Control

Pairing: Rahyuk

Word Count: 969

Sanghyuk hugged his knees to his chest, trying to reassure himself that everything was going to be fine. Hakyeon always said it would be fine, but that was before. Before they only had to worry about the undead army hunting them. Now they had people with powers to deal with as well. It really made Sanghyuk question if this quest was really worth it.

Well, if the person trying to stop them from getting the relic was going to such lengths to keep them away…….

But mind controlling Wonsik into trying to kill them?

The thought of his……..boyfriend? Were they actually dating? They had never clarified exactly what they were and since the whole mind control incident, Sanghyuk didn’t feel like it was the right time to bring it up.

Anyway, if there was anyone in the group more unset by this new development in their quest then Sanghyuk, it was Wonsik. The knight was sleeping now, something he’d only done because he was exhausted and because he trusted Sanghyuk to watch over him. The young elf wasn’t so sure he could protect the other.

“This ,” Sanghyuk sighed, resting his chin on his knees and glaring into the fire.

“Tell me about it,” Hongbin, his brother, huffed, “this is what we get for getting mixed up in human problems, though.”

“You make it sound like you regret falling for Jaehwan,” Sanghyuk smirked, refusing to acknowledge the flash of envy he felt knowing his brother knew where he stood in his relationship with his human.

“Oh a regret it,” Hongbin laughed lightly, “did you hear the jokes he was making over dinner?”

The pair shared a laugh at the memory of Jaehwan’s attempts at humor.

“But this isn’t so bad,” Hongbin finally said after their laughter had faded, “we’re with good friends, we’re doing something important.” He paused, “we’re away from those who would judge us.”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk frowned, thinking back to the days before he, Hongbin, and Jaehwan had found the rest of their family.

In their village, humans and elves might have lived together, but they didn’t live together. The humans and elves only worked together because it was a necessity. If either group wanted to live, they needed the skills that the other group had. Hongbin and Jaehwan falling in love…….it made them outcasts, made their lives in the village horrible. Sanghyuk didn’t get it as badly, but he wasn’t really welcome either because he refused to denounce his brother and his love.

Then along came Hakyeon, looking for people to join his questing party. At the time, he’d been going after something small. It sounded like an easy mission, something that could get the trio enough money so that they could leave and start a new life in a more open-minded village. So they went with him. They completed the quest, got paid, and just……never left. For a while, they told themselves that it was just because they needed more money. That once they had enough, they’d leave.

Eventually, the three decided to stop lying to themselves and started referring to Hakyeon as family. It sent Hakyeon over the moon. He’d never had a family before. A few years later, the picked up Taekwoon. He and Hakyeon had known each other as children, but while Hakyeon had chosen the life of an adventurer, Taekwoon had chosen the life of a criminal. That life hadn’t turned out so great and the group ended up having to save Taekwoon’s more than a few times because of his old life trying to bite him in the .

When they got a big enough name to start getting requests from kings, they’d met Wonsik. He’d been just some min-level knight back then, trying to work his way through the ranks. He’d somehow worked his way into Sanghyuk’s bed on top of making it as a big-name knight. They’d kept their sleeping habits to themselves, but it came out eventually. During this quest they were currently on actually. The king had heard about this magical item that had the power to do a lot of damage to his people, so he’d requested the group find it and destroy it. But he didn’t think they had enough fighters for this quest, so he sent Wonsik and a couple other knights with them.

The other knights had fallen victim to whoever else was going for the relic. After the last one had fallen, Wonsik had been a wreck. So Sanghyuk tried to take his mind off of it. Hakyeon walked into the room in the middle of Sanghyuk’s attempt to make the other feel better and the cat was out of the bag. Hongbin and Jaehwan had been happy for him, Hakyeon and Taekwoon weren’t. Hakyeon because he feared that the relationship could disrupt their working relationship with the king and Taekwoon because he didn’t trust knights.

That whole mind control thing probably wasn’t going to make Taekwoon more accepting of Wonsik and Sanghyuk’s relationship with him. Regardless of who’s idea it was, Wonsik had stabbed Taekwoon in the leg and held a knife to Sanghyuk’s throat. The memory of the blade pressed against his skin made Sanghyuk touch his neck, checking to make sure all that remained of the attack were some light bandages.

“Hey,” Hongbin said, “you alright?”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk smiled slightly, “just thinking.”

“We’re almost there,” the older elf suggested, “maybe when this is over, you and Wonsik can talk about……whatever is going on between you two.”

“Yeah,” Sanghyuk sighed, “assuming there is anything going on between us anymore.”

“I think there is,” Hongbin smiled, “that guy……you’d think you hung the moon the way he looks at you.”

“Really?” Sanghyuk blinked.

“Yeah,” Hongbin nodded, “he really likes you, so……yeah, talk to him about it.”

“I will,” Sanghyuk promised.

A/N: I might, MIGHT, add to this later. I might not. Honestly, the one problem with doing AUs that stretch out over several themes is that it ends up feeling like I have to write something, I have to find a theme that will work, and……and I really like it when I can get a theme and just write whatever I want. It doesn’t have to be part of a larger story, it doesn’t need to start or finish a longer story. It can just be. I really need to remember that more haha every time I write a theme that leaves me thinking “there could be more” I just……write more. And then I end up a couple parts later trying to understand what the heck I was thinking. Maybe one day I’ll learn my lesson, huh?