The day of the formal presentation of the Heir of the Valley Kingdom at the Forest Temple was a triumphal day for Kwon Jiyong. He was radiant. Pristine white robes, long pearl necklaces and pearl brooches on his long dark hair. A beautiful and healthy boy wrapped on delicate golden and crimson garments sleeping in his arms. He has given birth to the son of a King. Prince Heir Yang Minho. The weight of the Royal Crown over his head never felt more well-deserved.

Even the Court members that had looked down on him had been forced to admit that the young Consort had held up his end of the bargain with flying colours. In merely more than a year he had made the old King happy, gave birth to a Prince, and was accepted as a Sky Art’s apprentice. The pretty adolescent of obscure origin that had arrived at the Valley Kingdom as a matter of uncertainty was now holding the Valley’s future in his arms.

“Consort Jiyong”

The newly appointed Royal Guard Choi Seunghyun chivalrously offered his arm to Jiyong to help him climb the stairs of the Forest Temple and join the King.

The Valley Consort accepted the offer with a dignified nod that did not evidence his relief. He hated to admit it, but the pregnancy and giving birth had taken a toll on his developing body. Additionally, the assistance gave him the chance to be closer to Seunghyun. Nobody noticed the young carrier leaning his body toward the handsome Captain more than needed.     

The Royal Guard and the Valley Consort did not separate until the tall military man coolly handed Jiyong to his spouse.

Jiyong kept his stare fixed on the front to resist the temptation to let his eyes wander and follow the retrieving figure of the man he had fallen in love.

Seunghyun caressed the warm that the hand of his beloved had left on his forearm without changing his imperturbable face.

Since the day they realise their feeling, the two young men had flirted with their yearning and longings. However, none of them had dared to do anything conclusive about it. The reality of knowing that satisfying their urges was something forbidden that can cost them everything was too strong to give in. It was a constant pull that was stretching their resistance to a fine threat. A thread that was getting thinner the longer they tried to subdue and overcome the desire.

A thread that eventually was going to snap with the quiet violence of repressed feelings.  

“Crumbling is not an instant's Act

A fundamental pause

Dilapidation's processes

Are organized Decays —

'Tis first a Cobweb on the Soul

A Cuticle of Dust

A Borer in the Axis

An Elemental Rust —

Ruin is formal — Devil's work

Consecutive and slow —

Fail in an instant, no man did

Slipping — is Crashe's law —”

The Consort of the Valley Kingdom closed the book with a thud and tossed it away from him. He pulled his legs towards his chest over his bed, resting his face on the palm of his hands and the cushions. He had been reading in his room while waiting to be called to the King’s chambers to serve him. The perspective of a night with the old King was so unappealing that the young man had to find a way to distract himself until that moment.

Before Seunghyun, Jiyong had faced his marital duties with the same cold determination with which he dealt with equations and calculations. Both were boring, dull, and tedious means to reach his goals. After Seunghyun, however, the young carrier experienced the sweet sting of desire in his flesh for the first time. The desire to touch and kiss for something more than duty.

He found himself one day imagining that it was Seunghyun the man hovering over him. That there were his callous hands the ones touching him. Savouring the illusion of his deep voice murmuring sweet nothings and lustful promises against his ear. It had been the first time he did not have to feign the filthy moan that accompanied his .

“Consort Jiyong, the King is waiting in his bedchamber” The voice on Jiyong’s secret dreams was suddenly calling him from the threshold.   

“Thank you, Captain Choi. I am almost ready. Could you wait for a moment?” Requested Jiyong in a rush, reprimanding himself for been daydreaming instead of preparing.

“At your command, your Majesty. I will wait for you” Jiyong gave the young Captain an embarrassed smile, moving to his dressing table hurriedly.  

Entranced, Captain Choi watched Jiyong easily pull his hair in a complicated hairstyle and apply some perfume on his skin and clothes. The rushed way the younger man bent over the dressing table to have a better sight of his actions on the looking glass made his robes accentuate the lines of the lower part of his slim body. Seunghyun wished he could lay a hand on the Consort’s back to bend him over and press his increasingly heated body against those perfect thighs.

On his bed, Seunghyun had timidly touched himself thinking on Jiyong. The initial guilt quickly led to pleasure, letting himself dream with the touch and taste of a forbidden man. The giver’s hand rubbed his imagining the carrier’s soft hair caressing his face, his lips, the teasing move of his pretty fingers making him come in a strangled gasp. After that night, Seunghyun e wishing that someday he could be touching more than a dream.

Averting his eyes to regain his poise, Captain Choi saw a book turned upside down on the floor. He bent over to pick it up and put it back on the bed, but the small text on the most dog-eared page of the book draws his attention.       

“Come slowly – Eden!

Lips unused to Thee –

Bashful – sip thy Jessamines –

As the fainting Bee –

Reaching late his flower,

Round her chamber hums –

Counts his nectars –

Enters – and is lost in Balms.

“I’m ready, Captain Choi, we can…” The young Consort did not finish his sentence when his eyes landed on the object on the Royal Guard’s hands. On the page that the other man had read. On the poem he had read many times fantasising with the tall and handsome Captain pleasuring him in unspeakable ways.

The blush on Jiyong’s face was predictable and inconvenient, and the insecure hand that touched his crimson cheek to pretended indifference was more revelling than helpful. The young man’s iron walls were getting weaker around Seunghyun and he knew it.

“Your book… it was on the floor” The Royal Guard’s explanation sounded like an excuse, even when it was the truth, given the lack of confidence on his voice. The intimidating military man was gradually losing his imposing poise the longer he was around the beautiful carrier. “I’m sorry, your Majesty”

“Please don’t be. It was my fault on the first place, I got… distracted” Admitted Jiyong hesitantly, his almond eyes looking at Seunghyun with a spark on his pupils.

I was thinking of you

“Beauty is distracting, and… and this is a beautiful poem” Replied Seunghyun stuttering, wetting his lower lip after a glimpse towards the Consort’s pink lips.

You are beautiful

“I think we should go. The King has to be waiting for me” The tone on Jiyong’s voice made obvious that the younger man would rather stay there, standing awkwardly with Seunghyun, than to go to the lavishing bed of the old King.

“Of course, Consort Jiyong” But before turning around, the Captain seemed to remember the book still on his hands. The young giver was about to hand the book to its owner when a wild thought crossed his mind. It was an audacious and foolish idea, but their love was audacious and foolish too.

Taking the sword from his waist, Captain Choi pulled one of the couple of ornaments of his Royal Sword Tassel to detached it. With the prized ornament on his hand, the military man quickly passed the pages looking for something. When he found it, he placed the part of his sword tassel on it and closed the book, securing the object between its pages.  

“My apologies your Majesty. I made you lose your page. Here is your book”

Jiyong did not need to open the book to know where his beloved had chosen to place the sword tassel that was part of the Sacred Sword that showed his rank as the Royal Guard of the Valley Kingdom rulers: The poem about bees kissing flowers.  

Later, Seunghyun explained the training incident where he had lost part of his sword tassel with his most impassable face when asking for a replacement in the armoury.

The original sword tassel was craftily hidden inside one of Jiyong’s pillows, which became his favourite pillow to hug when going to sleep. When the Dragon went to his exile, the old sword tassel found a new home inside a foreign pillow in his prison on the East Empire.     

“Your Majesty?” Breathed Seunghyun when a rustle of silk and the jingling of jewels behind him gave the other man away. By instinct, the Captain took a swift step back until his body touched the wood panel hiding the younger man.

“Please don’t say anything. They would notice my presence” Pleaded the soft voice in the other side, muffled by the wood and wariness on Jiyong’s tone. “I don’t have much time, so just… just don’t do anything to expose me. Please.”

One word, one movement was enough for Seunghyun to reveal the hidden young Consort to the King and his Council having a meeting a few meters away from the Royal Guard.

Instead, the Royal Guard’s face remained as inflexibly serious as always while his index pattered the wood twice. A wordless reassurance and coded permission to go on.  

“I love you, Captain Choi, and I know you love me too. This love is a mistake, but I cannot stop loving you. Can you, Captain Choi? I would never be able to be yours, not completely. I cannot risk my position, your rank, or our lives. We cannot do anything that can put in doubt the lineage of my children. Their birthrights are on the line and I will not endanger their positions and lives. I have gone to great lengths to get what I want, and I will not let it all crumble at my feet. Not even for love. It is too late for that. I love you, Captain Choi. Would you still love me after I leave?

And with that, the sound of silk, jewels and tiptoed steps faded away behind the wood panel.

For the first time in his life, the brave and cool-headed giver felt agitated. His chest was making big efforts to calm his breathing, and his palms were perspiring a cold sweat. His mind was too busy to connect any coherent idea. Jiyong had confessed, with the King and his Council in the same room and Seunghyun unable to see him and emit a single sound.

How could he stop loving such a courageous, fearless, beautiful, ambitious and witty man?    

The next time they crossed paths, Captain Choi’s lips mimicked a soundless answer:

“Forever”

“Why him, Pretty?” Questioned the old King, more confused than irate.

“I already made birth charts for you my King, Minho, my family, and I ran out of subjects for my Genethliacal Astrology practices. I cannot do it for fake personas, and Captain Choi seems like a perfect candidate” Explained nonchalantly Jiyong to his spouse while they walked through the halls of the Valley Palace. It was a lie, but the King had never been good at catching his young Consort’s lies.

“He doesn’t have the rank or the wealth to pay for one, even under a hypothetical scenario” The tone on the King’s voice made evident that he was not getting Jiyong’s point.

Birth charts were incredibly expensive, and only the highest-ranking members of society or the Star Reader’s immediate families can request one. Undeserving candidates did not even get a negative.

“It’s true that Captain Choi does not meet the usual requirements to get a birth chart, but would not be beneficial to know more about the personality and path in life of the man appointed to protect us, my King?   

That logic made the old King reconsider the carrier’s proposition seriously. Jiyong has some wild ideas about governance that the King felt too reticent to even pay attention to, but this idea was not that outrageous. If nobody knew, it would do more good than harm. If the King gave in on this small whim, maybe Jiyong’s pretty head would stop making up all those crazy suggestions whenever they found themselves talking about the Valley’s political matters. The old King detested those conversations and changed the subject as soon as possible.

He did not have Jiyong as his Consort to talk about politics, the same way he did not have his Council to them and heard their pretty whines under him.   

“Alright Pretty, do whatever you want. Just do not get in troubles, naughty boy” Playfully, the old man nuzzled his nose against the skin below Jiyong’s ear, teasing a kiss on the other man’s neck.

Jiyong repressed an unnerving shiver to just smile sheepishly, ignoring the presence of the Court members nearby. The Consort loathed when the King made a public display of dominance over his meek spouse.    

“Thank you, my King. I promise that I would be careful”

The sly smile on Jiyong’s lips this time was real.  

“… so, is his correct?” Asked Jiyong, with the most boring and plain tone of voice he could produce.

“Yes.” Seunghyun had been playing the game by taking to the extreme his ‘man of few words’ personality traits.

“I see. What about this?”

“I don’t know, your Majesty. Can I think about it for a minute?”

“Yes, Captain Choi. Take your time. I need this to be accurate”

The couple almost busted in laughs when the soldier posted at the nearest wall could not conceal a distressed sigh of utter misery. They had been dragging the meeting to check the final birth chart for a long time, making it as tedious as they could. Judging by the soldier’s contracted eyebrows and tense jaw, it had worked wonderfully.

“Soldier, do you need to leave the room for a moment?” It could be taken as an inquiry about the soldier needing to relieve himself in the bathroom, but the severely lifted eyebrow on Captain Choi’s scary face was intimidating and death serious.

It said: If you cannot avoid making a fool of yourself in front of a member of the Royal Family you better pretend you are peeing yourself and go revalue your life priorities outside, idiot.

“Yes, Captain Choi. With your permission, Consort Jiyong”

“Of course, soldier, you can take your time too” Chuckled innocently the Valley Consort, making the soldier almost wail his mortification on his way out of the room.

The embarrassed soldier was not going to come back anytime soon. Jiyong bit his lip coyly when the realisation that they were finally alone made him feel hot under his robes.

“Did you really make me a birth chart, Consort Jiyong?” Choi Seunghyun was not used to state the obvious, but the cute way Jiyong had briefly looked at him while biting his lip, just to turn away his eyes towards the birth chart, had been too endearing to think coherently.

“A gift for a gift, Captain Choi. After doing your birth chart, I feel that I know too much about you for you to continue calling me anything else but Jiyong”  

“Would you call me Seunghyun then, Jiyong?” The taste of the young carrier’s name on Seunghyun’s tongue was full of sweet and lush promises.

“Yes, Seunghyun” Gasped the Royal Consort loudly, his eyes staring at the sensuous lips of the man that had smiled so brightly when hearing his name.

“Would you let me thank you for this lovely gift, Jiyong?” That deep voice becoming a low rumble made Jiyong’s thighs press with each other in anticipation.

“Yes” Whispered Jiyong with a thin voice. Was any other answer?

The hands of the usually self-confident military man were tingling with eagerness and the high coming from his own audacity when he took Jiyong’s small hand on his palms. He closed his eyes with reverence, filling his lungs with his beloved’s fragrance, before placing a chaste kiss on the back of the Consort’s hand.

Seunghyun had had lovers; he was not a by far. Military life did not encourage celibacy exactly, but his lovers had been shallow relationships at most. Jiyong was special, so special, that a simple kiss on his hand had wrecked him more than any activity with previous lovers. He loved that carrier, that man made of iron and silk, with an ache he has not felt before.

This was the first time someone had touched Jiyong so intimately, not due to the action but due to the sentiments behind it. That chaste touch of his beloved’s lips over his oversensitive skin was overwhelmingly sensual. Jiyong did not want it to stop. He wanted to feel those lips kissing and caressing his skin to make his whole-body sing. He wanted to feel Seunghyun’s love all over him and make the other man drown in his deep love for him too.    

A gentle turn of his wrist and Jiyong’s palm was finally caressing his lover’s cheek and lips. A glimpse between the young lovers was enough to unleash their desires. The halted intake of air when Seunghyun laid a kiss on Jiyong’s exposed wrist was enough to make the giver effortlessly slide the other man’s sleeve to expose his forearm.

“You shine like mercury under the full moon, Jiyong” The sensation of Captain Choi’s lips leaving butterfly kisses on the beginning of his inner forearm gave the Consort goosebumps.

“Are you my moon, Seunghyun?”

“Only if you want to be my sun”

“I want to be your everything” Confessed the younger man, closing his eyes and offering his arm for his eager lover to keep travelling south. “The sun and the moon. Day and night. And still, there are eclipses”

“If they did not exist you would have created them, and I love you because of that. You are a force of nature, Jiyong”

“And you are a soul made of pure will power, and I love you because of that, Seunghyun”

Words became unnecessary when Seunghyun cradled Jiyong’s arm in his hands to bend it and started nuzzling and kissing the crook of his arm with fervour. Jiyong moaned in pleasure feeling his lover’s wet tongue tasting his flesh and the vibrations of his needly moans between open-mouth kisses. Seunghyun wanted so much to and bit that beautiful skin to his heart’s content, to keep kissing that arm, shoulder, neck and lips, but he resisted the temptation. He could not risk leaving a love mark or any kind of evidence on his lover’s body. Instead, he rested his forehead against that warm and beloved arm to steady his racing heart. Jiyong’s unsteady fingers caressed his lover’s dark hair with a flustered, elated, and dazed mind.   

The faint sound of steps approaching made the lover swiftly break their embrace and pretend that nothing inappropriate had happened between them. That the thread keeping their desires at bay had not been broken irreparably with a simple, chaste kiss.

“I’m tired, Captain Choi. I wish to retire to my chambers” Politely announced Jiyong, as if he had not been exchanging adulterous kisses and touches with said Royal Guard.

“Soldier, the Consort to his chambers. I will request for a servant to clean your study, your Majesty.” Replied the Captain with a respectful bow, the perfect image of a loyal and well-trained Royal Guard. It was difficult to believe that this was the same man that minutes ago had been seducing the spouse of his King behind his back.

“Thank you, Captain Choi. Soldier, shall we go now?”

The star-crossed lovers did not acknowledge each other while the carrier left the study room, and the giver went to seek for a servant. They were again only a Consort and a Royal Guard.

That night, however, Jiyong sneaked the hand Seunghyun had kissed between his legs to his aching , reaching his mixing the name of his secret lover with his grunts. In his room, Seunghyun’s tongue chased the remains of Jiyong’s warm on his fingers while his other hand frantically rubbed his hard member until his thighs were covered with white stars.

With a chaste kiss on the back of a hand, they started an adulterous affair that would endure more than twenty years of secrecy and an exile in a distant land.

Having a taste of the pleasures they could experience together made the lovers less apprehensive into taking further steps on their affair. They could be considered highly mature for their age, but they still were seventeen and twenty-one years old, respectively. Hormones were playing dirty with the newly found excitement of their reciprocated first love.

Waiting for their next chance to touch each other, and perhaps do something else, only added more pressure to the already heavy between them. The perfect chance presented during one of Jiyong’s visit to the library on the Lake Temple, and the young Consort did what he always did: He took it and moulded it to accommodate his wishes.

“I would go and check on Consort Jiyong. You two wait here” Was Captain Choi’s order when Jiyong took a little bit longer than expected collecting the books he needed to bring home.

Captain Choi promptly got inside the vast library, looking for Jiyong with concentrated eyes and a hand on his sword. He was sure that the young carrier was not in danger, but one could never be too cautious. That is why he was so good at his job.

“Jiyong?” Murmured the military man softly when he found the younger man simply staring at the tallest part of a massive bookshelf.

“It seems that I couldn’t reach a book” The Consort’s vague explanation made the Royal Guard smirk and shake his head amused.

“What are you plotting, my Sun?” The younger man turned around with resolution as if he had been endlessly waiting for that exact moment and could not wait any longer. Which was true.

“A way for you to kiss me” Whispered Jiyong with half-lidded eyes and a mischievous tilt of his head, his hand forcibly pulling a couple of books from the bookshelf to let them freefall to the ground. The force of the movement knocked some of the other books out of their place too, making the cacophony of books hitting the floor even louder.

“Captain Choi?” The voice of one of the Guard at the library’s door, although far, sounded concerned about the sudden bangs.

“It was my fault, soldier. The book was…” Meekly started his explanation Jiyong, skilfully letting the last part of his sentence linger to emphasize his pretended embarrassment. Jiyong was a remarkable liar. Only the smug grin on his lips and the naughty spark on his almond eyes betrayed his deceiving trick.

By the Gods, Seunghyun loved that man so much.

“It was an accident, soldier” Seunghyun’s low voice was calm but clipped, preventing any further questions “I will help the Consort sort-out the books. Stay at the door and let me know, discreetly, if the Librarian Master is coming”

“Yes Captain” It was a prudent order. Watch the door while I clean the mess that can get the Valley Consort in troubles with the Temple’s staff. It was reasonable, and it was a ing lie too.

Choi Seunghyun could spew lies with a blank expression and neutral tone like the consummated liar that he was.

By the Deities, Jiyong loved that man so much.

They did not walk toward each other. They collided in open-mouthed kisses. They needed to savour the moment as much as they needed to devour each other with urgency. Seunghyun teasingly pulling Jiyong’s lower lip was rewarded with the carrier sticking his tongue on the other’s throat to expertly the giver’s tongue until he had the Royal Guard quietly whining against his hot mouth.    

But even in midst of their lust, they did not forget who they were and what they needed to do to ensure that their extramarital relationship would remain a secret. Their making out was passionate but not clumsy. The Consort had surrounded his lover’s wrists with his hands to place them behind himself, mimicking an embrace while preventing wandering fingers messing with his pressed clothes or elegant hairstyle. Even restrained, the Royal Guard kept his lover secured against the bookshelf with his chest, effectively distancing the lower parts of their bodies and not letting them rub their crotches against each other as they wished to prevent a hard-on that would be impossible to cover swiftly.

Even within those restrictions, they got lost in their long-time desired kiss. Their deep kiss gave way to a gentler kiss, more tasting than consuming. A lazy over half-opened lips, a shared intake of breath, a tender touch on the corner of a shy smile, a long kiss that lasted until their lungs screamed for air. And in the blink of an eye, they started again to kiss each other with every speck of the yearning and lust that they have been forced to keep secret.

“We need to stop now” It was a demonstration of Jiyong’s self-command that he was able to form coherent words when Seunghyun’s wicked tongue was making his body became deliciously lax against the hard bookshelf.

“We have to put these books back quickly and get out of here” Admitted the young giver with a determined frown on his face, taking a step back and flexing his neck methodically to regain the full control of his body and mind.

It only took a few pats to straighten his clothes and a couple of deep breaths with his eyes tightly closed for the young Consort to recover his unruffled appearance and cold head.

The coupled worked efficiently to clean the mess in seconds, leaving no trace behind.

“I love you, my Moon” Softly whispered Jiyong, leaving a peck on his lover’s lips before going back to the Valley Palace and their reality.

“I love you too, my Sun” Replied Seunghyun with a tender smirk before dutifully following the dignified and composed figure of his lover.

The soldiers at the door of the library only saw a beautiful and quiet Consort been escorted by his serious and stone-cold faced Royal Guard, who glared at them with those severe dark eyes to make them move aside. The soldiers under Captain Choi’s command had made fun about the handsome young man being too in love with his sword to crack a goddamn tinny smile and easily get laid. In their humble opinions, it was unfair to be such a terrific good-looking man and so ing terrifying when he had his sword on his steady and deadly grip. Captain Choi only had to groan once, with that deep voice of his and half-lidded dark eyes, to silence the gossip and made the soldiers bow multiple times to show their respect and regret to their superior.   

“You should better keep training with your swords to excel on your jobs than with those idle tongues talking nonsense, gentlemen” Seunghyun was a reasonable commander, but he did not tolerate nonsense and indiscipline among his men.

What they did not know was that a pretty adolescent had already captured the heart of the manly military man in his iron fist to never let it go. A joyful heart full of love that Seunghyun has handed him more than willingly. A heart that Jiyong cherished and wanted to shower with his endless love forever.       

But even the happiness of love did not make Jiyong forget his thirst for power.

It all started with a mysterious fever and ended with a Royal funeral and a new Royal Crown and Tittle for the Valley’s fragile Consort Dowager. A man that later was known as the Dragon of the Valley, who rewrote the Valley Kingdom’s history with his pretty fingers stained in blood. A ruthless Dragon with a sharp and infallible claw in the shape of his Royal Guard efficiently t his path from the shadows.

The Valley Court did not realise to whom they had opened their Sky and Earth Gate until it was too late.