In his dream, Hansol was bathed in flames. A few seconds had passed by before he wondered the most important question: how was he not dying yet? Hansol wiped at his forehead, then his entire face, and then all over his body, but it was all in vain; sweat covered him like he had just taken a dip into his personal pool in his palace. Hansol groaned as the heat seemed to turn up several notches, and his vision started to blacken as he crumbled to the ground slowly.

 

Hansol woke up hardly in a start, because he knew exactly what was going on just from the weight strewn across half of his body.

 

Hansol turned his head to the side in the slightest movement, his nose meeting another with a soft brush of the tips. The sleeping man beside him was a blessing, he truly was, but Hansol could not sleep like this. He could never sleep like this, and though he had told the other male this several times, it seemed like the situation would never get resolved. Joshua was a cuddler, and Hansol had the misfortune of getting far too warm when sleeping. In every other aspect of their life, they balanced each other out with ease, but this was the one thing that they clashed on terribly.

 

Hansol groaned and removed Joshua from his body and sat up, grabbing his usual cloth from his side table and wiping his face and neck from sweat. He felt gross and uncomfortable, but he looked back at Joshua with a fond smile regardless.

 

This—when the moon was high and the palace was idle—was their time.

 

—

 

Joshua was merely one servant out of many, many others; never to dare to make any sort of direct, personal contact with the royal family. And Joshua knew this, he knew it well, but Hansol—who was always just so different—had other plans. Always the type to sneak away, Hansol purposefully met up with Joshua on many occasions, with Joshua nervously avoiding the attention. Soon enough, Hansol grew tired of the wall between them that was their roles as Prince and One-of-out-Many House Servant and he ordered for Joshua to be his personal servant instead.

 

Joshua was to be by his side at all times, and he was to be treated like he was an extension of Hansol himself. This declaration by Hansol should have raised many brows, but the young Prince was keen on these kinds of gratuitous acts of kindness, so his parents allowed it.

 

From then on, Joshua's nervous habits turned into something more. The reason for his flushed cheeks and quickly beating heart came not from fear of being caught fraternizing with the young Prince, but because Hansol had a way of smiling so sweetly at him and pressing so close that when he spoke, his breath ghosted against Joshua's ear and sent a shiver down his spine. It took Hansol a while to break Joshua out of his servant mentality, and he figured if his true desires were left unlit, then he would at least like a friend out of it all.

 

Then, as one would expect, there had come a time when Joshua had to wonder out loud just what was it about him that Hansol could possibly be interested in. And before he could complete his following thought that maybe Hansol was just bored, the Prince himself had stopped him, took him by the shoulders, and attempted to set the record straight.

 

“How have you not understood it by now?” Hansol had asked him with an incredulous huff of laughter. Hansol thought that he was far too prone to cluelessness more often than not, but maybe Joshua was proving that he could be even worse.

 

“U...Understood what?” Joshua answered, voice low and unsure. And with this, Hansol softened, sliding his hands down from Joshua’s shoulders to his arms and gave them a gentle squeeze.

 

“I love you, that’s what,” Hansol replied, just as small as Joshua. Joshua's head had shot up from where it was hung low, eyes wide and glistening, mouth slightly hung open in actual horror.

 

“No.” Joshua choked out. “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t do this...W-We can’t do this, Hansol—No, not Hansol, Your Highness,” Joshua stuttered over his words as he went into a panic. Hansol watched forlornly as Joshua choked back his sobs thinking about how he’d be killed if anyone ever found out.

 

“Joshua, please,” Hansol’s voice breaking caught Joshua and finally got him to stand still. Joshua looked over at Hansol, and his heart broke.

 

Joshua had been working at the palace for four, nearly five, years now and miraculously, not once had he ever seen Hansol shed a tear. And yet, standing before him, Hansol was crying—no, sobbing—freely; so much that he crumbled to the floor and held his head in his hands. Joshua rushed over to Hansol and wrapped the Prince into his arms, burying his face into Hansol’s soft, brown locks and wishing for the tears to stop.

 

“Why me?” Joshua asked in barely a whisper once Hansol managed to calm down moments later.

 

“You were my sister’s temporary English tutor replacement, remember?” Hansol started, voice still coming out broken. “She absolutely adored you. I’ve never seen her enjoy going to a lesson more than she did when you were teaching her. She told me all about how gentle and kind you were, and how much you appreciated our family for taking you in. The way she talked about you, I just had to know for myself...and so I did get to know you,”

 

Joshua’s heart was racing again, and he was sure Hansol could feel it this time. “Are you...not afraid?” Joshua swallowed his own fear down, but it got caught up somewhere between hesitation and apprehension.

 

“If I were afraid, would I have boldly declared for you to essentially be apart of me, and in front of my parents, no less? I’d give up the entire world for you, Joshua. And if that doesn’t work, then...then I guess my sword fighting lessons won’t go to waste after all,” Hansol sniffled and laughed, but Joshua wasn’t amused.

 

“Don’t say that. You have a lovely family, a lovely home, a lovely kingdom—you can’t just give it all up for...for me . Who am I to make the Crown Prince give up the world?”

 

“You are Joshua Hong, a mysterious traveller from the West that has the sweetest demeanor to make even my father, the King himself, falter. You have eyes that sparkle dae brighter than the stars they love to look up at, and lips that I imagine taste like the cakes that the auntie comes by to make every now and again. You’re voice is as smooth and comforting as the most expensive silks I’ve ever worn and your laugh is like music that only the Gods could produce. You are a blessing that was gifted to us—to me —by Lady Fate and I just want nothing more than for you to be mine,”

 

“Hansol,” Joshua pulled away from Hansol slowly, tears brought to his eyes from the Prince's words.

 

“If you don’t want me to give up the world, then fine, I won't. But just know that you’re also apart of my world and I can’t just give you up either. You’re my special, personal, always to be by my side servant, I’m sure we can make this work...but only if you want to,” The two of them stared into each other’s eyes and and like it was the most natural occurence in the world when they pulled together until their lips were sliding against each other in the most addicting way. The two of them kissed until Hansol was pushing Joshua back onto the floor, looming over him in the most comforting way. Joshua had to stop himself from wrapping his arms around Hansol's neck and bringing him in closer.

 

“I want this more than anything,” Joshua said against Hansol’s lips in a breathless whisper after breaking the kiss. Hansol was tempted to reply with another round of kissing, his lips already pressed firm against Joshua's in fact, but there was a knock at his door and an inquiry about and illnesses. Joshua flushed and he pushed Hansol off of him; he stood up in a hurry, gathering Hansol up along with him, before he fled to his bed on the other side of Hansol's room and hurried into it. Hansol frowned, but he did correct his expression before going to address the concerns of the Knight who happened to be passing by as he was returning from a meeting with the King.

 

And from that night onwards, Hansol and Joshua got up to many more activities; however, Joshua made it a point to restrict Hansol’s overzealous flirting to night-times in their quarters only.

 

—

 

“Come back down here, I miss you,” Joshua grumbled in his sleep, not once opening his eyes, but his eyebrows knitted together and he frowned all the same. Hansol rolled his eyes and chuckled.

 

“You know it’s impossible for me to sleep with you cuddled up to me, Josh,” Hansol said with a sigh.

 

“And it’s impossible for me to sleep without being cuddled up next to you,” Joshua retorted.

 

“How did you ever survive without me before?” Hansol teased with quiet chuckles.

 

Joshua opened a singular eye and stared at Hansol. “This is your fault, you know. You wanted to be with me so bad, now you’re stuck with a cuddle monster. Just be glad that I’m—what’s the trendy phrase nowadays?—comparable to a crisp fire on a Winter’s day?”

 

“That’s exactly my problem,” Hansol snorted out and he and Joshua tried their best to hold in their laughter. Lately, the King’s Knight, Seungcheol, had been quite suspicious of their relationship. It didn’t help that he was quite close to Joshua’s best friend—another servant by the name of Jeonghan that personally served the Queen—and to Soonyoung, one of the two sole members of palace’s entertainment, who was also close to Seungkwan, his younger sister’s personal servant.

 

The thought of it all made Hansol sigh; there were so many people that they were quite close to that they had to dance around, which was never an easy feat, especially with Seungkwan's natural way of leading a conversation the way he wanted it to go and Jeonghan's perceptiveness and lack of shame when asking bold questions. Hansol and Joshua were playing a dangerous game indeed, but Joshua wrapping his arms around Hansol’s body and pressing eager kisses to his cheek seemed to make it all very worth it for him.