The first time Hosoek sees Prince Hyungwon up close, he realises that the prince is taller than he’d imagined. Even with the ears atop his head straightened, Hoseok just matches Prince Hyungwon’s height, and he’s a rabbit for crying out loud. His ears are long when straightened (unlike Hyunwoo who has stubby bear ears) and this man, this prince, with nothing on his head except a full head of dark hair, is tall enough that Hoseok feels grossly inadequate as his newest royal guard.

Hoseok kind of feels like crying.

But then, Prince Hyungwon turns to him with the most beatific of smiles, says, “I heard you really wanted to be my guard. I am honored to have you by my side,” and Hoseok might kind of forget about wanting to cry.

“Thank you, Prince Hyungwon,” Hoseok starts, but the prince waves a hand.

“You don’t have to call me prince. Just Hyungwon is fine.”

“O-okay,” Hoseok says, instead of the yes sir he’s been trained to reply. He’s pretty sure guards are not supposed to feel like this, all flustered and surprised instead of stoic and intimidating, but prince – no, Hyungwon, just Hyungwon – doesn’t point it out, and Hoseok has never felt more certain that he had made the right choice in coming here.

“Thank you, H-hyungwon. I’m honored to be able to serve you.”

☆.｡.:* ~ ~.｡.:*☆

Hyungwon doesn’t have a servant. When Hoseok asks why, some two months in, Hyungwon merely shrugs.

“I can use magic to take care of my cleaning and grooming needs. It feels unnecessary to have someone around for that when I do fine on my own.”

Hoseok tilts his head a little, wonders how much magic Hyungwon has because Hoseok’s only ever done his chores by hand. He saves his magic for special things – rituals, spells, blessings – and that’s how everyone he’d known had done it too. He wonders how it feels to have so much magic that he can use it for mundane things like levitate a book to him because he doesn’t want to get up.

Hyungwon stretches on the couch, flips open the book he’d just magicked over, purses his lips at Hoseok’s question.

“Well, it’s a blessing, to be trusted with so much power from Mother Nature herself, but at the same time, it can be a –”

Hyungwon stares into space for a while –

“…a trial.”

“A… trial?” Hoseok asks.

“Mhmm,” Hyungwon hums, not elaborating.

Hoseok’s curious, but he leaves it at that. Instead, he settles into a comfortable position between the door and Hyungwon, falls back into his usual guard routine.

☆.｡.:* ~ ~.｡.:*☆

Despite being the prince’s guard, Hoseok’s only ever tackled someone once, and it turns out to be a bad judgement on his part because –

“I can’t believe Hyungwon never told you about me.”

“Why would I tell Hoseok about you?” There’s a lopsided smile upon Hyungwon’s full lips, and Hoseok frowns, looking between the fox in his arms and the prince just a step behind him.

“You know him?” Hoseok decides to clarify, tries not to give in to his instincts telling him to run from the short man with sharp eyes underneath him because, hello, rabbits and foxes don’t mix. Even if he’d done what he’s supposed to and tackled the guy, the whiff of fox underneath the smell of mint, rosemary and other ritual herbs makes Hoseok fidgety.

“Unfortunately,” Hyungwon sighs exaggeratedly, and that’s the most reaction Hosoek’s ever seen from Hyungwon in the three months he’d worked here. “Let him up, Kihyun’s annoying but not dangerous to anything but my mental health.”

There’s a little huff from the guy – Kihyun – when Hoseok frees him, and Hoseok can’t decide if he needs to apologise or –

“Don’t worry about this,” Kihyun says, and Hoseok thinks maybe he’s not so bad, even if his instincts itch whenever Kihyun’s pointed fox ears twitch. But then, Kihyun ruins it by winking greasily at Hoseok. “You’re cute enough to be forgiven anyway.”

There’s a loud gagging noise from Hyungwon behind, followed by an all too friendly slap on Kihyun’s back, and Hoseok’s quickly forgotten, left to trail after them as Kihyun joins Hyungwon on his evening walk.

☆.｡.:* ~ ~.｡.:*☆

Kihyun fits quickly into their routine, which isn't really surprising when Hoseok learns that the fox was – is – Hyungwon's best friend, and has been living in the castle for his whole life. What is surprising is how Hoseok finds himself taking to him. He didn't have the best first impression of Kihyun and his basal animal instincts don't help. Sure, this kingdom might have been blessed generations ago with magic and intelligence above creatures of the wild but everyone here is still, at heart, a child of nature. Hoseok is, in some primal parts, still a rabbit, just like how Kihyun is a fox, and Hyungwon is... well actually, Hoseok has no idea what Hyungwon is even after four months of guarding the prince. But he digresses.

The thing is, Kihyun is a sorcerer and with summer in the air, he is to help Hyungwon with the seasonal ritual of blessing the crops. This leads to Hoseok inevitably becoming more familiar with Kihyun because Hyungwon spends the weeks leading up to the summer ritual in Kihyun’s workshop. The prince rolls up his sleeves and works personally with Kihyun on the various potions, ointments and charms he would distribute to the farmers later, and Hoseok eventually finds himself handing Kihyun ingredients, getting bossed into mixing grounded herbs into a paste and making sure Hyungwon doesn't knock anything over in the tight space of Kihyun's workshop.

“He's clumsier than he seems, isn't he?” Hoseok mumbles absently while scooping scented powder into individual vials, and he only realises he's said it aloud when Kihyun chuckles. Hoseok looks around, breathes a sigh of relief when he finds Hyungwon asleep on the table because he hasn't heard.

“Oh, trust me, Hyungwon's a lot more things than he appears to be,” Kihyun divulges with a quirked smile. Having learnt to take Kihyun's word for all things related to Hyungwon, Hoseok just nods. They fall into the rhythmic sounds of work for a while, until Hoseok decides to ask something he's been wondering for a while now.

“I've noticed that Hyungwon always wears a ribbon with a bow tied on the back of his neck, even in his own room. Is there a reason why...?”

Kihyun stiffens, and Hoseok trails off sheepishly, wonders if he'd asked about something too personal or irrelevant. He hadn't thought much of the prince's ribbon with the neat fluffy bow on the nape at first until he’d noticed that Hyungwon's never without it. It might very well be a mere sartorial choice, but Hoseok's woken Hyungwon up enough times to know he never takes it off except when he bathes and that's kind of curious. At least, Hoseok is curious, and now that Kihyun's hesitating to answer, Hoseok feels oddly justifed in his curiosity. Folding his lower lip between his teeth, Hoseok waits, wonders if Kihyun will answer.

Eventually, Kihyun takes his eyes off his mixing bowl, says, “There is a reason but I can't say. You should ask Hyungwon if you really want to know.”

☆.｡.:* ~ ~.｡.:*☆

With summer comes more work for Hoseok. He finds himself trying to find a good balance between making sure Hyungwon is safe while being friendly to all the villagers who approach the prince with well wishes as he makes his rounds to the various corners of the kingdom to bless the crops. Most of them don’t mean harm, but sometimes they come too close, make Hyungwon uncomfortable enough that his smile falters just a little, and Hoseok has to step in. When the whole kingdom has finally been visited, Hoseok gains a new level of admiration for Hyungwon.

“I never knew blessing the kingdom takes so much time and energy,” Hoseok comments as they near the familiar castle grounds.

“You’ll get used to it,” Hyungwon replies simply, the corners of his plush lips curled just enough for Hoseok to know he’s amused even if he looks as calm and serene as ever.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the invasion of space from some