It is a beautiful day and Suho is admittedly baffled. He hides it well for his father requires his utmost attention, but his thoughts always drift back to his sister. 

After his death, she has been dull, almost lifeless compared to her usual self. She'd become a mere shell of the sister he once had. But, as of late, the vibrance and determination that she had lost was slowly but surely becoming more and more apparent. Her voice came back to her and her eyes were no longer filled with sadness and desperation, something that he  was not able to see when the arguments started.

He still remembers the most recent battle between his father and sister. He wasn’t there, no, but the angry words and venom spewed curses always managed to break through the thin walls of his home and into his mind, stuck.

 “You have to be kidding! Marry him?!”

“It has already been decided, you are to marry within the next few months.”

"Don’t I have a choice in this?!”

Suho tries to repress the whispers and pays attention. A prince should always appear calm and collected, something him mother taught him. However tries is the key term here.

“I heard you skipped your dress fitting to go to the blacksmith’s.”

“What of it?”

“What is that man to you?”

Suho closes his eyes; he remembers where that conversation went. It didn’t end well, not well at all. He can distantly hear the distinctive sound of the meeting being dismissed. Suho stays put, if not because of his orders then because he just can’t seem to move, not when momories of his fathers anger filled voice was filling his mind, planting him firmly to the ground.

“Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“He’s not going to be there.”

“…What?”

“They both burned in a fire yesterday, him and his father. They say it was a common ‘smith’s accident'.”

There was a gasp.

“He’s dead Lennandria. He burned-”

            “Suho.”

 Suho blinks finally managing to put the thoughts to the back of his mind; no one was left in the room, no one but himself and his father. He realizes he had spaced out for most of the east-counsels meeting, not that it was important. Just finalizing the location of the wedding. It didn’t even require his presence, the only reason he is in this very room, very white room, is because the king requested him to stay at the end of it.

 He snaps out of is thoughts once again by a sigh.

 “I already have your sister refusing to talk to me; I don’t need my son to as well.”

 Suho nods, but hears the hidden message. To his father, there is no daughter anymore. Just a woman who fell in love with a commoner. All of Reecius’s hopes for a perfect family are on him.

“I did not intend to disrespect you, father.”

 Suho can see the sparkle of pride glimmer in his father’s eyes. So much hope.

 “Unfortunately I have business to attend to the day of the wedding, so I will need someone to stand in for me.”

 There are no words that can describe how shocked Suho is. He knows that his father is close to cutting her out of his life, but he isn’t even going to attend the event that that he set up that could almost possibly ruin her life. Add that to Lenna’s sudden personality change and you get a very speechless prince.

“…”

 “Words, Son.” The king speaks harshly.

 “I’m sorry, Father. But, are you not going to be attending the wedding?”  Suho still can’t seem to clear his head. The thoughts running wild at this point are all trying to reach the front of mind, rushing, and making it hard to think.

“That is what I just said, now, for you to be in my stead means that you need to accompany her throughout the entire ceremony. Do not leave her side. Understand?”

Suho nods again, the thoughts still coming to him and causing him a headache.

 “Words, Son.” The words are hissed, and Suho is reminded of a snake, which is not far off from his fathers personality.

“Yes, Father.”

-----------------

The meeting could have gone better. Suho thinks. He was dismissed after the last conformations. The wedding was to take place the next day, at noon, and he was to represent his father. As king. After wandering around the palace he comes to rest on a bench in the gardens. Suho always went there when he was little; to think, to read, to relax in the company of his mother or sister. He sighs as puts his head against the back of a tree trunk the bench is rested upon. He still doesn’t know how to react to this, how could he?

 “Being in this position is hard, isn’t it, little prince?” The gentle voice was almost harmonic to Suho. He was always a Mama’s boy.

 “It’s hard, Mother. We’re all family, so why…?” Suho puts his head in his hands; the normally composed heir to the East was crumbling. Under the pressure, under the confusion, under the anger.

 “Family is a difficult concept to explain, you need patience and you need love. Some families lack communication, others emotion. But as long as you love each other, everything should end up well. Not perfect, but well.” Suho exhales, he knows that no matter what, his mother will always be able to keep him from being destroyed by the pressure that ruling a kingdom will eventually put on him.

 “And if they don’t?” He looks to the woman who has taken residence beside him, watching the birds outside the glass which separates the greenhouse from the outside world.

 She smiles gently at him, “Then they aren’t really a family then, are they?”

The young man turns away, afraid of the answer. The Queen, noticing this assures him, “They will work through this. Your father and sister. They are too alike to not come to a decision. Both stubborn, both of the same blood. They fight for what they believe in, and unfortunately, that is what is tore them apart in the first place.”

 “He’s not even coming to the wedding!” Why can’t he make sense of this?

 “Who’s not coming to the wedding?” A curious voice enters the conversation.

 “Lenna?” Suho turns to face the voice of his sister, the voice he hadn't heard more than a few times in the past week. He finds relief in the fact that she had wandered outside of the palace for once. He smiles unknowingly.

 Lennandria raises an eyebrow and stares at him expectantly.

“It’s nothing, sister.” Suho looks away, smile fading, and the pressure of the situation still eating at him. “I’m sorry but if you could excuse me, I have some things to do." He stands up and bows, "Mother, Sister.”

 Suho doesn’t really think much of the confused glances the women in his family give him. All Suho really knows is that he needed to get out of there before he says something he would regret. His excuse, though, isn’t really a lie. He does need to prepare, his sister is getting married tomorrow, and he needs to be there. In body and mind. God know I don’t have it right now.

--------

The wedding is beautiful, Suho finds, and so is his sister. Suho already visited the groom, doing brotherly things such as politely threatening him, which the Prince scoffed at and turned back to the slave that accompanied him and asking him how he looked. Now he is looking at his sister, whom is looking at the water basin below reflecting her image.

Suho finds it hard to speak. If this was a normal wedding… He can’t help but to think. But it isn’t.  Lennandria finally turns around, and he notices that she’s anxious. Suho doesn’t question it, a lot of brides are when they get married, but his sister is never anxious, only bored out of her skull.

Suho dismissed the thought when she hugs him almost desperately. “I love you, Brother. You do know that right?”

“Of course I do,” he hugs back comfortingly. How could he not?

“Excuse me, majesties, but the Princess is needed. The ceremony is about to begin.” A servant informs as the siblings move away. Suho nods and moves Lennandria’s hand to his arm.

She looks at him confused so he explains, “Father isn’t here so I’ll be the one giving you away, if that’s alright?”

Lennandria shakes her head and they start moving, “It’s better this way.”

Before they reach the groom, Suho feels a small squeeze on his arm.

“I’m going to miss you, Suho.” He hears her whisper. Before he can ask her what she means by it, Luhan takes her hand and she is out of his reach. Suho sits down on a bench provided by the stage, and as he watches the ceremony progress, Suho can not help but feel like she was saying goodbye.

 

----------------

The Dragon Kin’s heir stands to the side of the ceremony. He can see the wariness that some of his inexperienced clan members are feeling. They are the protection of the ceremony; they and the elites of the fire clan are set for security. Honestly, from traveling on dragons (tradition for the Dragon Kin), hopping from portal to portal for days on end, and attending these rather boring ceremonies, it is understandable why they seem dead on their feet. However, Wu Fan is second in charge and he is not willing to risk the protection of the royals due to lack of sleep.

He was about to go wake the sleeping soldiers up when he feels a hand clasp around his shoulder, “Wu Fan, Son, let them rest. We aren’t the only people on guard duty here, and they’ve had it tough, If anything happens we aren’t the only people going to stop it.”

“So we should let them slack off, Father?” Wu Fan whispers angrily. 

“No, just don’t expect them to be perfect, treat them with respect and you will get it in return.” The Dragon Kin’s head leaves him with that and goes back to his post.

 Wu Fan sighs and is about to go talk to his clan mates when he feels a rumble coming from the ground. It isn’t the type of rumble the people of the Earth clan would make; it seems more like it was caused by a sudden explosion of sorts. Wu Fan's eyes widen (though he tries to make sure he still looks calm) when he hears screams of "fire" and looks to his father before another explosion sounds off. He looks towards the right and sees the entire side of the building blown to bits, people being escorted away in panic and royal guards trying to cool the flame - and failing - using their water clan heritage.

Wu Fan moves fast and unnaturally calm, escorting nobles away from the debris and giving orders to guards that desperately needed them. He sees the Prince of the west being moved out of the room and his father going to do the same with the princess, when he notices the air go thinner. Panic was everywhere, guards attempting to calm the atmosphere, nobles trying to escape, but Wu Fan doesn’t notice any of that.

All he sees is flames. Fire with a distinctive boom! that indicates another explosion. This time one from the stage. The stage where Princess Lennandria was last standing, the stage where his Father was last standing.

 Wu Fan can do nothing but stare in agony as his enhanced ears hear his father’s screams as he is burned alive.