[Jungkook]

Something changed when I came back home. Something changed when I returned, without me realising it. 
Or maybe, everything changed....Because I was changing.
Before I returned to the life that I was supposed to have, I was just Jungkook. Not Prince, not King...not Prince Jimin's friend. I should have stayed that way. 
I should have stayed that boy, who didn't care about a damn thing in the world.  I should have stayed that killer, who only saw a body crumble in his hands-...just bone and flesh, not a person. The one who didn't see the end of a life at his hands when he killed, just the creation of another corpse. Killing was second nature to me...Watching death was as natural as watching the darkness of night descend every day. Death was just another occurence. Nothing to think about. Nothing to "feel" anything about.
I realised I wasn't that boy anymore when I saw Jimin hyung fall...when I saw his blood.
This wasn't supposed to happen...
He wasn't supposed to get hurt.
"I'm your shadow and shield." He had said. 
I should have stopped him when he said those words. I should have known he would do this...to protect me. I should have known that he would put himself in danger tyring to keep me away from it. But I didn't stop him...
I let him take the wound that was meant for me. I failed to protect him. 
If I can't protect him...how would I protect my people?...
A King!! I can feel invisible faces around me, laughing at the mockery of the word that I make...
I couldn't even protect Jimin hyung...what would happen to my people if I were king?
All of this destruction...all of the bodies that fell today...One fighting on my side...and so many who fell fighting against me...all of this is my responsibility. 
"None of this is your fault." Yoongi told me...Maybe, it isn't. But it is my responsibility. 
How many more are going to fall for me? 
I can't watch this...I can't watch what happened to Jimin hyung happen to anyone again...
His body felt so small in my arms. So fragile...so vulnerable...So breakable..Just the opposite of what my Jimin hyung had been. How could I have let this happen to him? 
And he...wasn't moving...He wasn't breathing! One moment he was there, in front of me, breathing...shielding me. The next moment, he was wrapped in a shroud of blood...broken, hurt...motionless. 
What if he never opened his eyes again? What if I never got to hear his voice again?
This...this is what death is like?...This is what it feels like to lose someone you love...one moment they are there and the next...they are just gone?
This was the cost of the revenge I wanted. I wanted to hurt Yoongi and Seokjin. This is the cost of my revenge...
I can't do this. I can't stand and watch this. I can't do it anymore...I can't...
................................................................................................................................................

"Jungkook!" 
Jungkook flinched and looked to his side. He hadn't sensed Taehyung's arms around himself or Taehyung's presence behind him, till now.

"Jungkook, have you heard a word I said?" Taehyung's voice was loud, but concerned, symathetic.

Jungkook blinked a few times before he shook his head and turned away, looking straight ahead, again.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Taehyung."

Taehyung's mouth fell open, watching Jungkook. He let his arms fall from Jungkook's body and slowly walked to stand beside him, leaning in to look at his face.

"Hey..." He whispered, placing a hand on Jungkook's shoulder. "Kookie...look at me."

Jungkook turned his head, but didn't meet Taehyung's eyes.

"Kookie...it's okay. Sehun hyung and Luhan hyung have healed most of Jimin's wound."

Taehyung stopped, his eyes going a bit wide, as he watched Jungkook flinch at the name.

"Jungkook!" Taehyung whispered, his voice soft and warm. He hooked his arm around Jungkook's and turned him away from the railing, to face himself. Jungkook did not resist, turning and resting his back against the adjacent pillar.

"Jungkook...you need to let it go." Taehyung whispered, cupping his face. "I know you are blaming yourself. I know you are hurting-..."

"Hurting?!" Jungkook said with a small scoffing laugh. "Me?...I've been fine all along. It's you who's been hurt...who nearly died.  It's been Luhan hyung who was tortured by my brother's men. It's..." His voice dropped, his eyes giving away everything Taehyung had been dreading. "It's Jimin hyung who's lying there hurting...not me. It's Jimin hyung who bled yesterday...he was the one who's screams we've been hearing since yesterday...he's the one having to be put together forcefully by magic."

"Minnie's going to be okay, Kookie!" Taehyung said, shaking his head. He gulped to swallow his emotion. He couldn't be weak in front of Jungkook. For once, for a change, it was Jungkook who needed him, not the other way around. "Kookie, Jimin's okay...I-I mean...h-he's going to be okay very soon. He was in very bad shape last night. After fighting all those vampires alone and then the wound-...the healing process is difficult. It's painful...that's why he's screaming, but-..."

Taehyung ran out of words. He realised he didn't know what to say. He stayed silent for a while, wrapping an arm around Jungkook, because he couldn't think of any other way to comfort him.

"Kookie-..." He said, finally breaking the silence. "You haven't gone to see him even once."

Jungkook released an uneven breath, turning his head away.

"You should, Jungkook. At least, see him once." Taehyung whispered.

"I-...Taehyung...I can't." Jungkook said.

Taehyung couldn't reply. He watched Jungkook, stunned. 

Who is this? This isn't the boy who saved my life in the woods. This isn't the boy who I watched kill rebels remorselessly, just last night. Something's changed in him. He seems so...

Defeated.

"Jungkook..." Taehyung said. "There are bound to be losses in a fight." 

Taehyung could not believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth. It was as if it were someone else's voice ensuing through his lips. 

"When you fight for what's right...when you fight against someone doing wrong...there's bound to be losses. A soldier goes into battle knowing that the cost of the battle may be his own life. Jimin made a choice when he chose to stay behind last night...he made the choice again when he chose to save you."

"-...He shouldn't have to do that-..." Jungkook said but Taehyung squeezed his hand to keep him quiet.

"He chose what mattered to him the most. He chose your life over his own, Jungkook." Taehyung said. "You have to understand that..."

"Why?..." Jungkook realised a tear had rolled down from his eye. He wiped it away fast, before Taehyung could.

"He should never have-..."

"Why? If the situation were reversed...if it were him instead of you, standing there...and you saw him about to be attacked...what would you have done?" Taehyung asked.

Jungkook closed his mouth and looked away.

"See..." Taehyung said. "You would have done the same thing. We make our choices. You can't let this break you...Kookie, I can see you're not the same person you were a day ago. I know it's because of Jimin's condition. You weren't expecting to see him fighting death...But Kookie, that's part of being a King."

"Letting people die for you?" Jungkook asked.

"Honouring the choice of your soldiers to die for you. Coz when they fight for you, they fight for your people. For the entire dominion. They fight for the right side." Taehyung said. "Honour their sacrifice."

Jungkook replied after a long silence.

"I don't think I can do it." 

"You have to." Taehyung said.
Jungkook looked up at him, surprised. The firm tone in his voice seemed so unlike his Taehyung. 

"Tae-..."

"You heard me. You're not giving up and running away. Dreaming of being a farmer's son and leading that life is good...it's a comfort. But that's not who you are. I told you before. You're not someone who abandones his people to lead a peaceful life himself. You're stronger than that. Much much stronger."

"Why do think so?"

Taehyung smiled. "Don't you see proof of it right in front of you?" He took Jungkook's hand in between his and squeezed it, then placed it on his own heart. "Don't you see who you are? You're the boy who changed a weak, scared, baby Prince Taehyung into the boy you see right now. I was scared to look at blood...I couldn't think of picking up a weapon or defending myself. Let alone, kill a giant wolf!"

Jungkook smiled, in spite of myself. "We're even now, aren't we? You kinda saved my life too."

"Well yeah, with Yoongi hyung's and Luhan hyung's help or I would've been a pile of mush under a huge smelly wolf. The point is...don't you see? It's because of you that I could do all of this. You made me feel capable of it. It's your presence that changed me. That's who you are. You're unbelievably brave...you're strong like no other vampire, you're dauntless, reckless...you're calm in the face of any storm...that's who my Jungkook is." Taehyung said. "Don't break yourself down."

We all need you. I need you the most. 

"You need to be yourself. This isn't you." Taehyung said. "Go and see Jimin. He can't talk too much...but he-..." Taehyung sighed and hesitated once, before saying the rest. "He asked for you. Several times."

Jungkook seemed to be suddenly jerked awake at Taehyung's last words. "What?!" He stood up straight, to his full height. "He-...he did? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Yes, Kookie. We didn't want to tell you because-..."

Taehyung shrugged. "-...We've all noticed your state. We thought putting you close to him would make you worse-...considering what the healing process was like. But...He's better now. I think you should at least see him. He'd feel better."

Jungkook nodded. His eyebrows were pulled together and his shoulders squared. "I will. Can I go now?"
Taehyung smiled, looking at him. "Yes...come with me."
................................................................................................................................................

Yoongi was seated with his back against the bedstand. He moved  his fingers over Jimin's forehead very slowly, just grazing.

"You should get some sleep, if you ask me." 

Yoongi sighed and looked up at Sehun.
"I couldn't sleep." Yoongi replied.

Sehun's hands hovered a few inches above Jimin's chest, over the spot of his injury. Golden crystals like minute fireflies arose in a swirling pattern from his palm, disappearing at the surface of Jimin's shirt. 

"You both have done a great job, Sehun. I don't know how to thank you." Yoongi said.

"Same team." Sehun shrugged, not looking up. 

Yoongi sighed, looking down at Jimin's face again. He moved his fingers, very softly, shifting the silver strands of Jimin's fringe away from his eyebrows. It was as if he were afraid that even this action might hurt him.

Yoongi had sat beside Jimin, clutching his hands in his own, throughout the previous night. Sehun and Luhan had taken turns in treating Jimin. First, stopping the blood flow. Then, sewing up the gaping hole below his ribs. Then lowering the pain, gradually.

Making the wound seal itself had been the most horrific thing Yoongi had ever witnessed in his life. The wolf's fang had pierced its way clean right through his chest, coming out the other way, through his back. And that had needed to be fixed by magic. His body was made to seal itself...tissue made to regenerate a thousand times quicker than even Jimin's vampire healing permitted. 

As Yoongi looked at Jimin's pale cheeks, his unmoving eyelashes, the flashes from the previous night, flew through his mind like a frightful story. He remembered wishing, praying desperately, for his Jimin to move - to show any signs of life. 
And now, as he watched Jimin sleep again, he felt a warm rush of gratefulness at the peace he saw on his features. Because what had come with the healing process was a nightmare that Yoongi wished he could erase from his mind forever.

The bluish purple finger marks on his Yoongi's own hands and the stinging pain as he moved his fingers right now, were a reminder of the way Jimin had squeezed his hands desperately last night. Of the spasms that Yoongi felt passing through Jimin's body, as he screamed and writhed in pain. His back curving in, eyes squeezed shut forcefully, head thrown backwards as he screamed in pain. 

I didn't think I had it in me to remain a sane man, after watching you in that much pain.

"It's a good thing you have this place. Is it your own?" Sehun asked, his eyes still on his work.
"No, not mine, really. This is one of the million properties of the royal family in the capital." Yoongi said. "It remains empty most of the year. I thought of this place coz noone will imagine we could be here, of all places."

"Woah...so we're on Seokjin's property right now."

Sehun's mouth moved up at one end in a mischievous grin. He raised his eyes for a brief moment and looked at Yoongi, before lowering them again, his grin becoming deeper. 

"Spit it out. Say what you want to." Yoongi said, looking down at Jimin, his fingers touching the sides of his forehead.  "I'm sure you want to."

Sehun kept smiling, but didn't say anything before a while.
"You were the only one who spoke in my sister's favour during her trial." Sehun said. "So, I can pass."

"How do you know that I did?...Oh, you spy with your magic. I forgot." 

Sehun giggled. "Yes, I do." 

"Even the past though?...How can-...?...You're...really talented, in a strange way, Sehun. I have to say that. You may not be the strongest warlock, but you can do things none of us can." 

"Thank you. This is why I like you. And I'm going to pass on the appealing aspect of mocking your break-up." 

"B-b-break up?!" Yoongi sat up straight, his eyes going wide. He looked down at Jimin's serene, sleeping face.

"Not with him." Sehun giggled, his eyes on his own hands.

Yoongi looked up and rolled his eyes at Sehun.

"Break-...I and Seokjin were not-...Aish, I forgot who I'm even talking to."  He laughed in spite of himself.

Sehun shrugged. "Maybe not from your side." 

"What?!"  Yoongi almost raised his voice. He looked down to make sure he hadn't disturbed Jimin's sleep. "Sehun,why do you have to be such a-...Aish, shut up." 

"I've been in on many parts of your lives that I wasn't physically present at."  Sehun turned his lips up and shrugged. "Like you said. Spying. Well, that's how Jungkook knew so much about you all before he went to the castle. I know certain things. Just saying-..."  He looked up and winked at Yoongi.

Yoongi's mouth fell open a little and he went red.
"Relax."  Sehun said, giggling.

"You're wrong." Yoongi said. "Jin never-...It's not possible. Shirina was the only one he ever had feelings for. You're just saying this coz of those pathetic rumours about me and Jin. Can't two people just love each other coz they're best friends?" 

Sehun made a non commital humming sound. "What would I know?"
 The golden light crystals stopped flowing out of his hands and the light died out. In the darkness of the room, he looked up and met Yoongi's eyes, a knowing,  comic look in his eyes.

"Don't you dare ever suggest this to anyone else."  Yoongi said, through gritted teeth.

"I won't, relax."  Sehun said. "Seokjin is amazingly possesive about you, Yoongi. I must say it came as a massive shock to me, to watch you join us yesterday. He won't take it well. Losing you." 

Yoongi sighed and closed his eyes. Just at that moment, the door to the room creaked open and sunlight