Jiyong watched Seungri push him away like he always does, but Jiyong can't take it anymore. He prioritized Seungri's consent more than anything, but right now, he pushed it aside for a while. For all he knews, Seungri needs to be comforted, or else, his stupid insecurities would grow on him. And so, Jiyong moved forward and grab Seungri's shoulder, twisting Seungri around to face him. He pulled Seungri tight against him. One arm holding his mate in place, and the other arm lifting Seungri's face by his chin. Slowly, Jiyong leaned down and pressed his lips, firmly against Seungri. He felt Seungri tensed in their kiss, so he moved his hand and Seungri's cheek. It works when his mate finally began to relax a little.

Jiyong move his lips slowly, coaxing the kiss to continue as soft, slow and reassuring that he hoped it to feel for Seungri. He pressed his lips against Seungri for several times before pulling away. Seungri were staring at him with this anxiousness, uncertainty and it was too much that it began to hurt just for him to see. He don't want anyone else, why can't Seungri understands this?

"I'm not sure anymore Jiyong," Seungri said, avoiding his gaze.

Jiyong smiled softly and pull Seungri into a hug. "You don't have to... and as I said it before, my sister already approaced me about this ritual, and even told me the mate she'd picked out for me. I said no. Are you going to insist that I should have gone through that ritual agaisnt my will?"

Seungri blinked and hesitated. That went along with what he had been saying about not obeying the directions of someone under the Crucio drug influence, but on the other hand, when Jiyong was actually confronting him...

"You had your will taken away from you when I turned out to be your mate," he said. "Can you really put up with this?"

Jiyong drew back, his head cocked like a puppy. "Then you agreed with me?"

"I mean, can you stand to have your will taken away from you because you're living with someone who abused you?" Seungri asked, and reached up to frame Jiyong's face with his hands when Jiyong stared at him. "I know it doesn't feels like that. But someday, you'll wake up and know the truth, just like I did with Lucas. And then, you would hate yourself and me. You could say I'm leaving for selfish reasons, because I couldn't stand to wait and see that day coming."

"I could definately say that you're leaving with selfish reasons," Jiyong said, and his eyes sparked. "You agree that I should have what I want?"

"As long as it's good for you," Seungri said cautiously, because he thought this was probably some kind of ploy to get him to agree that he was the one that Jiyong want. 

Jiyong stared at him for a while, and then he gave an awful, barking sort of laugh. "Of course," he said. "And when I say that your strength is good for me, that it thought me to be more careful and more thoughtful of my actions and words, and I understand you better than I ever thought of anyone, and you make me a better person - those reasons were enough for you to leave?"

Seungri tore his attention away and shut his eyes, turning his head to the side. Instantly, Jiyong fitted his head alongside Seungri's, so that Seungri knew, if he looked again, they would seem to be gazing in the same direction.

"You need what you desire," Seungri whispered. "What a Veela should have."

"You speak as if you think all Veela bonds are identically strong," Jiyong said. "The way I used to believe. What happened to believing that bonds could vary? and the individual Veela and human involved could have different reactions hmm?"

Seungri shuddered when Jiyong's breath hit the skin on his neck. It felt as though Jiyong had reached in and was playing expertly on the strings that tied his heart.

But he couldn't give in, for so many reasons. Not the least of those was what he wanted so badly to do so. If he wanted it that badly, it had to be a selfish desire.

"Jiyong," he whispered through numbed lips, "how much did your sister tell you about this? Did she tell you that she felt I had abused you?"

"No", said Jiyong without any hesitation. He couldn't remember the conversation for a moment, but now that he thought about it...

Jiyong nodded immediately, leaning in and peering at Seungri's brown eyes as though they were lenses that would reveal the real Lee Seungri if he just stared through them hard enough. "My sister manipulated you. It's what she does. She wants me to seperates you from me. She may sincerely care about me... I think she does." For a minute, Jiyong's voice broke, and then he laid a hand delicately across Seungri's cheek, the skin softly. "But she can't live my life. I'm the one who has to make the choice. And, even if you abused me, if you could convince me to believe in that, you're still the one I want for my mate and that won't ever change."

Seungri closed his eyes. "If you come to regret this someday, that would be more intolerable than leaving you now."

"Eventhough one is my will and the other wasn't?" Jiyong sounded as though he was choking on air. 

Seungri blinked and looked at him again. "You don't want to be protected?"

"Not from myself," Jiyong said. "Not from you. I can handle you if you ever turn on against me again. And as for the past... I'm the only one who can say whether that was unforgivable or not. I'm the one who should make that decision. Not my sister, not you."

"That was what I wanted to believe," Seungri whispered involuntary, and winched a little from the sharpness of the gaze Jiyong him. "But your sister sounded so serious, and she knows you more than I do."

"Not in this," said Jiyong. "I fought for you to become my mate, and I won't see that go to waste. I have no interest in this Lee Da Hae she choose for me. I have interest in you."  Jiyong lift Seungri's hand to his lips and kiss it softly. "I love you and I would never allow anything to comes between us. Not now, not never."

Seungri close his eyes again. It was hard to give up the belief that So Hyung had implanted in his mind, because he had wondered himself how Jiyong could forgive him for hurting him. It had seemed more simple to believe that Jiyong couldn't. 

But since when had things between them ever been simple?

Seungri raised a hand and laid it on Jiyong's cheek in turn. Jiyong made a happy, bubbling croon, and rubbed a piece of hair that felt feathery against Seungri's finger. Seungri swallowed and touched Jiyong a little harder, a little more permanently. 

For now, I'll try this.

*

"I find it interesting that you're still here."

Seungri turned around on the stairs, wincing. Jiyong had been the one who wanted to play this paricular game, setting it up so that it looked like Seungri was by himself and Jiyong was out of sight further up the stairs. He wouldn't leave Seungri alone in front of his sister, of course, he had reassured Seungri, as though he thought Seungri was shaking like a soggy kitten from fear of Kwon So Hyung. 

But Seungri disliked the feeling that he was essentially helping to set So Hyung up. 

Jiyong had discarded that objection as so much rubbish, and while Seungri understood why, it was still a tight, unpleasant ball of irritation coiling in a pit of his stomach as he turned around. 

"I've thought about it," he said quietly. "And I decided that I need to talk it out with Jiyong first before I make any decisions. He's the one who's most involved here, after all. It's his future that I'm abrogating it for myself to decide."

So Hyung moved in a single, quick step forwards, her head tilted back and eyes so wide it was almost funny. Almost, Seungri reminded himself, and stood straight and still with some difficulty. Even though he found  way Jiyong had assumed he was afraid of So Hyung's insults, there was also some basis to such fear. A little, if not much. 

"You know I am going to bring his mate into this house in a little while, and yet you still linger here. You've taken almost two week, and that wasn't enough?" So Hyung shook her head in seeming wonder. "Or, do you like to torture yourself as much as you do to other people?"

Seungri winced, but reminded himself that Jiyong was also the one who had to decide if what he had done in the drawing room that day was worth the rupture of theor bond. And Seungri hadn't thought of it as abuse until So Hyung dripped that idea into his mind, and it had been the only was to get Jiyong to back off at the time. 

"I didn't know you were going to bring his mate into the house in a little while." Seungri sincerely doubted that Jiyong had known that too. He shifted his weight so that he was standing braced in front of So Hyung, and folded his arms. It was for the best to appear at least a little defiant, and that way, So Hyung wouldn't  suspect any of the plans they had. "Does she know Jiyong already has one?"

"She knows that he was matched with someone who hasn't manage to make him happy." So Hyung's voice was so low that it sounded deadly. "How much more than that she may know, she wil have discerned. I have not told her more than that."

Seungri felt his resolve harden. It did sound a though So Hyung was intent on picking what she thought of as an ideal mate for Jiyong, not someone who would actually be ideal. How could this Lee Da Hae, no matter how submissive or meek in temperament she might be, do anything right without knowledge of who Jiyong is?

You managed,

But I flailed around for a long time doing things wrong until I got some more knowledge, Seungri answered that impertinent part of himself, and then replied. "It sounds like she's walking into this totally ignorant. I'm sorry for her."

"She will be giving Jiyong what he wants," So Hyung said, and her voice rose slightly. Seungri twisted his hand behind his back. He could feel the way Jiyong drifted to his feet at the top of the stairs, even though he was still sheilded from anyone's sight by the banisters. It felt a little, to Seungri, like he was feeling a second hearbeat outside his body. "Someone who looks up to him, someone who he can dominate -"

"And that only proves that you haven't listened to me for the past few weeks nuna," said Jiyong's voice from behind them.

Seungri flinched a little at So Hyung's widened eyes. For a moment, he was sure that he did see straight into her soul, and she was utterly stunned by the fact that she hadn't given her brother what he wanted the most, and she reached out a hand as if she would clasp and hold onto Jiyong's wrist but Jiyong looked so distanced from her to do that. Despite of his annoyance towards So Hyung, Seungri would have told Jiyong to go to her and reconcile if he'd thought it would do any good for now. 

Considering the way Jiyong flowed down the stairs and held Seungri against him, Seungri knew better than to suggest it at the moment. 

"I don't want someone whom I can dominate, someone who will give in and do whatever I want because they're afraid of me," Jiyong said, and his voice was sterner than Seungri had thought it could become. He rested his chin on Seungri's shoulder, his hands smoothing up and down on Seungri's arms. "I want someone who fights me and challenges me and tells me that sometimes I can take what I want."

"Sometimes," So Hyung scoffed. She was staring so hard at Jiyong that Seungri thought she wouldn't notice if he slipped out of the room. But when he shifted, wondering if he should try it, Jiyong lowered his head and hissed into his ear. 

"You're here. You're part of this. Don't pretend like you're not."

Seungri wanted to say that he wasn't a Kwon and this should be between the people who sports the surname, but he knew how much that would hurt Jiyong. And he could never put into words what he meant, anyway. He nodded and stood still, and Jiyong's hands smoothed nonce more down his shoulders before he lifted his head.

"Sometimes," So Hyung was repeating. Already her voice was clearer, and she cast Seungri one eloquent glance that said how little she understood her brother attraction for him. Seungri forced himseld to stare blandly back. It was the only way he could leave the argument mostly between So Hyung and Jiyong for right now. 

"Why not all the time?" So Hyung asked, turning back to jiyong. "Why not have what you want on every ocassion, without struggle, without fight? You sound like a philosopher, claiming that sorrow and suffering are necessary to enjoy happiness, but who complains when he has to go through the same sorrow and suffering. You may tell yourself that you're happy with battle. Are you? after the war? Why do you want it?"

That was a good question, Seungri thought, and he turned, a little cusiously, to see what Jiyong would say as the answer. Jiyong's tight hold still let Seungri face him, and he would have been disturbed if Jiyong was clasping him too tightly for that, honestly. 

* 

He has no idea what he means for me

But Jiyong couldn't blame Seungri for that. His past, and Seungri's treatment at the hands of those disgusting people, and being treated as a possesion and rubbish bucket by Lucas, had lot more to do with Seungri's withdrawal than a deliberate attempt to irritate Jiyong or keep himself away. 

Jiyong Seungri's cheek and shoulders for a second and held his eyes, simply smiling. Then he turned to So Hyung and said, "I want those struggle because it's the best way to ensure that Seungri gives himself to me."

"And why do you want him?" His sister had a lot of poise, which had probably fooling Seungri at the moment. You had to know her well, the was Jiyong did, to see how she felt as if she was standing on sliding, cracking, thinning ice. "Only because the Veela bond suggested he was destinied for you. You would never have paid attention to him if not for that."

"But the bond suggested him to me, means that I do want to pay attention," Jiyong said calmly. He smoothed down Seungri's shoulder again, and put a hand  in the middle of his chest, feelinf the hearbeat that surged and danced there. Seungri wanted badly to be out of the middle of this situation. 

Why? He shouldn't be afraid of either me or So Hyung.

Jiyong disregarded the question for a moment, but he would want Seungri to talk to him, to be open with him, when this conversation was done. Keeping things from him would resulted in situation like this one with So Hyung that they're still struggling through. 

"It's only a bond," said So Hyung. "It can be replaced by another, and you will be so happy with Lee Da Hae." Her hands didn't work over each ither, but they clasped each other hard. Jiyong knew it was only her formidable self - control that kept them still. "I have seldom met someone that so charming, Jiyong. You couldn't help but loving her, bonding with her."

"She sounds ingorant," said Jiyong, honestly. "Someone who wants to replace my mate in some way, someone who's born with the knowledge of how Veela's bond work. She should know better. If she's all that submissive, she should also believe in nature destining one Veela to mate, and I have to wonder why she doesn't think that way."

"She knows that sometimes things need to be corrected, and we can't leave nature to take an unruly course." So Hyung already seemed to have calmed down again. Jiyong wondered why for a moement, until So Hyung turned towards the front door and added, "And she's here to make the case in her own voice, which she hopes - and I hope - you will listen to."

Even as Jiyong turned with his wings ruffling up and an angry growl creeping down his throat, a pale woman stepped through the door and sank into low courtesy on the floor. She wore white, a lace gown that challenged her face for color. She bowed her head, and long strands of raven hair swept forwards around her face and brushed the floor. 

"My lord," she said, her voice as colorless as her gown. She didn't move, and he didn't even look up. "I can only pray that you will accept me. I think you can offer me more than any other dominant Veela would."

And Jiyong had his answer, right there. When was the time that a noble blood who should know better would neglect their cultural knowledge and do something this stupid and self - destructive? When they stood, or thought they stood, a chance to gain something out of it, something so important and special that any outrage they created would be nothing to it.

He wished she would lift her head. If she had only seen his face, she would know that there was no chance he would accept it, and she would have gracefully retired.

"Don't you think I ought to be consulted?" Seungri asked.

His mate voice was soft, mildly curious, but not outraged. For a second, Jiyong started to draw back upstairs in hurt. He wanted to demand why Seungri was suddenly so resigned to losing him. 

Then he realized that the tension beneath his hands hadn't dismissed at all. Instead, Seungri felt as if he wanted to explode away from Jiyong and grow wings of his own to do it, because his own leap wouldn't carry him far enough for that.

Jiyong smiled, a little, and nestled his head against Seungri's neck, content to watch and let his mate have some part in determining how this conversation went, too. 

"Yes," he said. "We didn't have the decency to wait until you're out of the room, did we?" So let's have your perspective right now." He squeezed Seungri's shoulder encouragingly.