Heliostasion 1/3
Pairing: Chanyeol/Baekhyun
Word Counts: 20k
Side Pairing(s): Minseok/Luhan, Jongin/Sehun, Jongdae/Seulgi
Rating: NC-17
Warning(s): fairy!au -read trigger-warnings under the spoiler cut [click to open] child neglect, underage relationships, explicit bullying, minor character death (don’t worry about this), mentioned cannibalism (kinda, but between fairies), extremely cute Baekhyun, Chanyeol being a bit of a dick
Disclaimer: The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Chanyeol is the Summerking searching for his missing Spring Light. Baekhyun is a Red Poppy, hidden in the human realm. 65 years of winter have everyone in the fairy and human sphere yearning for summer warmth.
Author's Note: Written for Baecon&Eggs 2016. Thanks to Dyris and Sonja for listening to my endless rambles and for enduring my tears ;;
Heliostasion
Then
It was the night before the day marking the fiftieth year of winter reign when Jongdae was pulled from his sleep by his master.
He got up with half a mind to ignore it, but Luhan called for him so rarely that the urgency within their connection made him hurry instead. As an Oracle, Luhan lived far from the rest of the Winter Court, but Jongdae knew he’d be by his master’s side in the blink of an eye if he needed to.
He reached for his discarded robes, but his eyes stayed on his warm bed sheets. The night before had been full of dance and laughter, winter and summer wine flowing freely in never ending celebration. Jongdae felt the jubilee in all his bones, an ache that spoke of too much wine throbbing in his skull and too much dance cracking in his bones.
He smiled as a quiet whimper pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes softening when he turned around to look at the small peri in his bed. His smile widened when he took in her dishevelled hair and the dazed look on her face.
“Go back to sleep,” he said as soon as her dark eyes found him and narrowed. But she slid out of the covers to sit by the bedside, one of her dainty hands reaching for her dress while the other combed through her long hair.
“Your master called?” she asked, but didn’t wait for him to answer. “I need to return to my Lord’s side, too.” Her eyes glanced to the window to stare at the barely awakened day. ”I’ve been gone for too long.”
Jongdae rolled his eyes and walked back to his bed to pull her up. She tilted her head expectantly for him, meeting his lips with the hint of a smile that widened as soon as she slid her tongue into his mouth and heard him gasp.
“I’ll see you on summer solstice?” He asked between two kisses, only opening his eyes when she scoffed against his lips.
“Summer solstice, what a joke!”
Jongdae pulled her closer and kissed the scowl from her lips. He wanted to stay with her a little longer, keep her in his bed until both their masters summoned them away, but he felt the pull surging through his body, urging him to hurry. It hadn’t been even five minutes since Luhan called for him, but already he felt his body hurting for ignoring him. He gasped, this time from pain, and it was enough to have her push him away.
“Go,” she urged, a smile on her lips, but her dark eyes gleamed wickedly. “Be a good pet, and if you behave I’ll give you a reward on summer solstice.”
“Go fuck yourself,” he laughed and pulled on her long locks affectionately.
He leaned down for a last kiss, but that was the moment the pull gave an undoubtedly judging throb. With a sigh, he turned away from her and closed his eyes, feeling for the ripples between the spaces of this dimension. His energy shifted the air until it crackled in anticipation, a sudden scent of iron drafting through his bed chamber as static thickened around him.
The last thing he heard before lightning flashed through his core and took him away was how she let herself fall back onto his bed, a soft sigh sipping her lips as she murmured, “I’ll leave that to Lord Kyungsoo.”
✿
Luhan was in his private chambers, those he didn’t share with the Winterking. He had his eyes closed, his face peaceful as if he was sleeping.
Jongdae’s lightning carried him to the center of the room, the heart of the Oracle’s sanctuary. He materialized kneeling down on one knee and with his head bowed down, just in case the Winterking happened to be with Luhan. But the Oracle was alone, his eyes white like freshly fallen snow when he opened them and his eyelids fluttering as he followed a vision only he could see. Jongdae wordlessly stepped closer, waiting for his master to collect himself.
“The light of a dying star faded. In this moment a prince of Darkness is born.”
Jongdae raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Darkness fairies were born constantly- every second, but most of them died not even heartbeats later, as soon as the fleeting emotions of anger or evil that gave birth to them passed. Even their princes died quickly, doomed to starve, because human emotions were so fickle and didn’t feed them for long.
But he knew that Luhan would never call for him for a vision this insignificant. There was more behind his words, and Jongdae had a vague suspicion of what it might be. A lot of stars died all across the universe, but not every death meant that the balance of energy tipped enough for creation to intervene. Luhan’s sight must have shown him something exceptional, something like-
“It’s a crown prince,” Luhan confirmed his thoughts, undoubtedly following what was going on in his head. Jongdae glanced up at his master’s eyes at that, relieved to see that they were black again.
A second later he inhaled loudly, the air whistling between his tongue and teeth. A crown prince of the Darkness Court, the first in almost one hundred years. Someone strong enough to survive on his own and to feed his people- It would change everything, for his chaotic birth usually meant-
Jongdae’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open slightly as he understood. “Light,” he whispered, awed. He saw his master nod, sealing the fate of the things to come.
“He’ll be born soon. A crown prince of Light, at the first dawn of the new star that is about to form.” He paused and Jongdae watched him close his eyes as he wandered his visions. “Everything is happening so soon- and at once. We don’t have time.”
Jongdae’s mouth ran dry, but he knew what Luhan was about to say.
“We can’t wait for the Light Court to understand. The Royal Garden will bloom tonight and the Spring Bride the Summerking so desperately awaits will be born- you know what to do.”
Yes, Jongdae thought, he knew what to do. After all it was the sole reason he had been created so many years ago, he who was part light and part darkness, and had access to every court.
“The Court of Light cannot find their prince in the garden. You must get to him first, you must take him and hide him away- For Minseok,” Luhan whispered, almost to himself.
“For the Winterking,” Jongdae agreed, his black eyes turning white as snow.
✿
The Royal Garden lay at the outer ends of the world.
It was a realm of its own, full of flowers and a maze of narrow paths that led deep inside the garden, but never out of it. The whole sphere reeked of magic, the kind only voiceless, breathing beings could produce in centuries long, lurking patience.
The garden was part of the Light Court, but accessible to everyone. Since the last spring had been fifty years ago, though, no one came to admire the flowers anymore. Without the sun and love of their world’s inhabitants, it lay bare and desolate, all its flowers wilted and the sickly stems curled up to survive the endless winter.
They didn’t bloom anymore, not even during the short summers, but Jongdae had no eyes for the wilted sadness around him. His path was leading him to the center of the garden, deep into the heart of the magic that was sleeping underneath the flower beds. The farther his path led him, the warmer it got and soon Jongdae couldn’t feel the omnipresent cold of winter anymore. As a member of the Winter Court it was unnerving to him. Everything light and warm was, even though technically he was just as much light as he was darkness. Luhan had created him from both, marking him a trickster spirit, but Jongdae had spent his long life at the Winter Court, far away from summer light. Here in this garden, though, was the heart of spring.
Jongdae blinked when his path took him around a sharp corner, and then quickly shielded his eyes when all of a sudden gleaming white light blinded him. He came to an abrupt stop
when he realized that he had reached the center, a clear-cut clearing in the form of a star, the Light Court’s crest, the heart of the Royal Garden.
The light on the clearing was almost unbearable, gleaming brilliantly and reflecting in all colors of the rainbow. It was meant to repel intruders, but Jongdae was a part of it -half of him at least, and he let it seep under his skin, recognizing the magic in his veins and accepting him. The light flickered and then softened, its warmth less intense, the harshness weakening to the soft caress of a loving glow.
When Jongdae was able to open his eyes again, he saw the spirits. Hundreds of them shimmering in the air, their vivid colours illuminating the bleak baldness of the naked trees surrounding the clearing. They were flower spirits, mere petals in the wind, with only enough magic to be drawn to the birth of the Spring Prince which was about to happen.
Jongdae hadn’t seen flower spirits since the last Spring Bride of the Summerking had died fifty years ago. When Winter had come and never left, it had taken away everything, even the sun. But here, in this small dimension that was the heart of the garden, it was as if winter didn’t exist. Sunlight fell in thick golden rays on the flowers which were rustling gently in a warm breeze. It was a gift to the Spring Prince, a voiceless declaration of love that transcended the restrictions of seasons. Here, invisible flowers bloomed and their petals floated through the air which smelled of sweet spring light.
Jongdae squinted up at the sky, expecting a brilliant blue, but found a canopy of green instead. When he followed the cover of leaves to their source he realized that above him the outer branches of a gigantic tree stretched far into the sky. The tree stood in the middle of the clearing, and as Jongdae stepped closer he realized that it was the Spring Court’s Life-tree. He saw a single flower about to bloom in vivid deep red, right at the base of it.
It was a poppy bud, cradled almost lovingly between the thick roots of the tree which protected it from the wind trying to caress it. Golden and silver and colorless light bathed the vulnerable flower, encasing it in shimmering magic as it bloomed beautifully in front of Jongdae’s eyes. He watched it growing taller, the bud ripening as it grew bigger and plumper. Its almost blood-like color faded into a gentle red as it started to open, its petals expanding until it stood in full bloom, a beautiful and jubilant red that beckoned Jongdae closer.
Sunlight exploded in blinding intensity to bathe the prince’s birth in pure gold, and the sweet scent of spring intensified until it was hard to breathe. In the middle of the fully opened flower, curled up on the soft flower head, was the newborn Prince of Light.
His poppy gleamed in the sunlight, pulsing steadily as it gave its life to its prince. Jongdae watched the newborn fairy taking his first little breaths and how the magic in the air and the golden light seeped under his pale skin to illuminate his veins.
When Jongdae reached out to take the tiny prince in his palm he felt the warmth of a thousand springs surge through his veins. Sunlight shone through his soul and he felt warm summer rain wash down his spine. He tasted sweet spring on his tongue and felt the perfume of blooming flowers spinning in his head.
The prince opened his eyes when Jongdae carefully cupped his palm around him and for a moment the sight of the newborn fairy’s blue eyes paralyzed him in awe. They were beautiful, a clear sky blue. Jongdae remembered that not even the former Prince of Light had had eyes of such intensity.
“Sleep, little prince,” Jongdae whispered softly to the tiny fairy in his palms that looked up at him without fear. He cradled the prince lovingly and hummed a soft lullaby for him as he bent down and plucked his birth poppy from the ground. A long and clear sound rung up in the air, joining the last tunes of Jongdae’s melody for the prince. Then sudden lightning cracked through the spring light and took the two fairies away. It carried them to the nursery of a human family’s newborn where a small baby boy lay unsuspecting and sleeping, trusting the gentle night to keep him safe- just as the small fairy prince did.
Jongdae whispered magic into the still air and watched the human newborn falling into an even deeper sleep before he picked the child up carefully. He watched the boy’s even face for a moment, admiring the innocence he was about to taint. When he turned his eyes away and to the Spring Prince he found the tiny fairy reaching for the human baby instinctively, small eyelids fluttering as he fought the sleep of Jongdae’s magic.
The newborn prince had no idea that Jongdae was about to steal his whole life from him, that he would take him far away from the safety of spring light and magic, before his court could find and protect him. He had no idea that Jongdae would drop him in the cradle of the newborn human child to switch their places, he had no idea that for the following years he would grow up without a clue of who he really was.
The little prince fell asleep in the warm hands holding him so safe and lovingly, without knowing that those would be the ones to abandon him in a different world. All he did was look up at Jongdae sleepily, his tiny hands grabbing around the stem of the poppy flower the trickster spirit lay next to him in the human cradle.
“For the sake of our world- and for your own, stay here, and don’t try to find us,” Jongdae whispered to the half awake Light prince as he cradled the human baby he was about to steal. “For Minseok,” he muttered to himself as he stared at the baby prince and felt his heart clench painfully. “Long live the Winterking.”
He called for his magic, the air crackling and flickering as he let it wrap around the fairy prince. In a matter of seconds the blue eyes were gone, replaced by a pair of warm brown ones that looked up at Jongdae in wonder. The Light prince was the same size as a human newborn now and just as ordinary. There was only a subtle flicker of light left under his skin, but it faded quietly, taking the last remnants of magic with it.
“Goodbye, little baby sun,” Jongdae murmured as he adjusted the human newborn in his arms. He bent down and lay a hand upon the fairy prince’s eyes. The baby was asleep when he took his hand away, quiet and peaceful and looking nothing like the tiny fairy it had been not even heartbeats ago.
The only hint that something inexplicable, something magical was still present, was the red poppy in the newborn’s tiny fist, shimmering beautiful and mysterious in the faint light of the awakening day.
✿
Now, fifteen years later
Sehun, White Rose and Spring Prince of the Light Court had a problem.
One of many- and not even his biggest, his court would undoubtedly tell him if they’d see him frown, but Sehun was without his royal household for once. He’d escaped the clutches of his mentors and teachers to take a stroll in the Royal Garden to channel his spring magic for the long winter, but while his court believed his little lies and respected his royal privacy, Chanyeol the Summerking did not.
It was the night before winter solstice and Sehun had wanted to wander the gardens and visit his birthplace in peace. But instead of idyllic quiet, Chanyeol had waited for him as if he’d expected him.
He sat right under the tree that had given birth to the white rose in which Sehun had been found, his red hair pushed back and his long fingers signing the grass around him in boredom. For that alone Sehun disliked his presence.
Truth to be told, Sehun had hoped to meet someone at the heart of the garden -not the Summerking, though, and he made sure to show his disdain when he sat down across him to frown.
They were quiet for a moment, staring at each other. Sehun expectantly and Chanyeol with increasing annoyance. That was another thing Sehun detested- the way the Summer Court was so unable to control its emotion. He arched an eyebrow and watched with satisfaction as Chanyeol snapped in front of his eyes.
“Tonight’s winter solstice!” the Summerking exclaimed as if that explained his unwanted presence. And unfortunately it did, since that single sentence had been thrown at Sehun on this particular day since the year he had turned eleven. That had marked the day he had come of age, and had been the beginning of Chanyeol’s unpleasant visits and his unpassionate courting.
Just as every year, the Summerking sat tall and uncharming across him to ask for his hand in marriage and Sehun had no idea how to formulate another polite refusal without repeating himself. Sehun was the Summerking’s Spring Bride, a title that was given to him the moment he had been born to mark him as Chanyeol’s. The fact that he was a prince didn’t matter, the Light Court was the bride’s place of birth and would always stay it, not matter if the Summer Court was reigned by a King or a Queen.
Since the creation of the Courts and the fairy sphere itself, Sehun was probably the first prince who had an aversion to his title and his role. Technically, Summer and Spring loved each other so much that they never questioned their destined togetherness. It was inevitable, since their magic connected and called for each other. the Spring Bride was the fulfillment of everything the Summer Court needed, and the reigning Summer Regent was everything the Spring Bride wanted. But in Chanyeol and Sehun’s case they both disliked each other with a passion.
To the Summerking, the embodiment of passion, spontaneity, vitality and love for life, Sehun was as charming as a cold spring night. To Sehun the Summerking was nothing but an animal. A dangerous, lurking predator, an unpredictable arbitrary force of nature that he wanted anywhere but close to himself.
A white rose was probably the least fitting flower in the Summerking’s searing hands which yearned to hold something more joyful and brimming with life. Something bright and lively, something that wasn’t Sehun.
The Light Prince sighed. This was why he’d gone for a walk in the Royal Garden- a place no one but he had access to- to avoid the unwanted visit of the Summerking. But of course as royalty himself, Chanyeol had no qualms to ignore the new laws of the Light Court, and to invade Sehun’s personal space.
And why should he bother to honor my laws, Sehun thought sourly as he frowned at the Summerking. Chanyeol was just as ultimate as the Winterking, two grand and equal forces, while the rest of the courts were nothing but nuances between summer and winter, light and dark.
“I’m not going to marry you,” he finally answered, skipping their usual game of slow-paced arguments in the hopes of speeding up Chanyeol’s departure. He expected Chanyeol to snap at him as usual, and to list up all the reasons why Sehun better accepted his proposal, but the Summerking only scowled at him.
Sehun shrugged and leaned back, a small smile spreading on his lips. “How’s your latest Bride?” he asked, feigning sympathy, and watched with great satisfaction as Chanyeol’s nostrils flared.
“Dying,” the Summerking spat out, not that it surprised Sehun.
“Oh, what a pity. He was so full of summer light. I really thought he’d be the one for you-”
Sudden thunder cracked through the air, so loud and near that for a split-second Sehun thought he had lost consciousness. A disturbing ringing pulsed through his head and when he tilted it in confusion the whole world seemed to spin. He was disoriented and dazed, one of his hands coming up to touch his oddly pulsing ears only to flinch when his fingers came back covered in blood. His ears were dead and bleeding, and mildly concerned, Sehun thought absentmindedly that maybe he deserved this pain for his heartless words.
Every year the Summerking asked for his hand in marriage, and every year he took a different bride when his rightful one, Sehun, refused. Only that those summer fairies were not the Light Court’s prince, the real Spring Bride, and had to give all their energy to awaken the summer with Chanyeol. During those short summers that they helped to summon, their lives wilted at the pace of the shortening days, just like short-lived flowers, only to wither entirely on the day of winter solstice. Chanyeol’s current bride was most probably at a critical stage right now, dying slow and painfully until tonight would end the suffering. Sehun had no idea how many Summer fairies had died already for taking his place, but he knew that every death fed to Chanyeol’s desperation to end the short summers and sacrifices of his court. But only the real Spring Bride could awaken the summer permanently by Chanyeol’s side- something Sehun didn’t want, no matter how many fairies had to give their lives for his selfishness.
Sehun closed his eyes when he felt his court’s magic pulsing in his ears, healing the damage. He was almost reluctant to look back at the Summerking, expecting anger. He wasn’t disappointed.
The Summerking was furious. Anger radiated from his crouched form and Sehun felt the sudden heat of solar storms hitting his body. He tasted ash on his tongue and breathed the scent of smoke and destruction into his lungs as he watched the Summerking fall into a soundless rage. As much as Chanyeol was the personification of summer and frivolity, he was also searing heat, acid drought and the crackling static in the air left as remnants of a heavy summer storm.
Sehun had half a mind to turn away and cover, but the first thing his court had taught him was to be fearless and proud and to never bow his head nor show his insecurity. Instead of turning away from Chanyeol’s wrath, he summoned a soft spring breeze to have it blow away the acrid scent of static in the air. The breeze rustled the leaves of the Life-tree above them and for a moment the air cleared with the sweet scent of blooming flowers. It was enough for Chanyeol to snap out of his rage, but also insignificant enough to bring a scoff to his lips.
Sehun pressed his own to a firm line, an acrid feeling of hatred spreading through his chest. All feelings of fear and remorse vanished in the blink of an eye, because this, that scoff, was the main reason he detested the Summer Court and especially its king. The cold in his chest spread through his veins, turning into acid on its way up to his cheeks, turning the pale skin a deep pink. Sehun saw a smirk spreading on the Summerking’s lips, undoubtedly a reaction to his blush. It made him ball his fists and grit his teeth, but that only widened the smirk on Chanyeol’s lips.
“Prince Sehun, White Rose of the Spring Court,” the Summerking mused maliciously, and each of his words had the blush on Sehun’s cheeks tinting an even angrier red. “What a lovely little breeze you summoned, I almost didn’t feel it- you mind calling it again?”
Sehun bared his teeth and snarled, his black eyes flashing white for a second, before the air shifted in a sudden upwind. It had Chanyeol leaning back unimpressed as the Summerking knew that this was the most Sehun could do with his magic. It wasn’t exactly a secret that the prince of the Light Court wasn’t gifted with any noteworthy power.
When the Light Court had found their prince sleeping in a white rose deep inside the Royal Garden neither summerlight nor flower spirits had been there to watch over the newborn fairy. The prince had been alone in his rose, curled up and shivering in the cold spring breeze- the only spirit that had fallen in love with the newborn fairy and had gifted it with its power. Besides his Wind Sehun was devoid of magic, though light flickered under his skin and shone in his eyes from growing up in the heart of the Light Court which was soaked in Spring magic.
His lack of proper magic was one of the reasons Sehun’s court was so overly protective of him, why they only reluctantly allowed him out of their sight and why they urged him so much to take the hand of the Summerking. It was also the reason why Chanyeol’s taunts were so unbearable. Sehun was dependant on protection, and the Summerking was the strongest match he could ever hope for, his perfect fit as if made for him alone. Only that it was Sehun who had been born to be Chanyeol’s, not the other way around. But there was literally nothing he wanted as much as being freed from the burdening title of being the Spring Bride, no matter what tradition dictated.
If only there was someone else to be the Summerking’s bride, Sehun thought.
The Light Prince’s heart, which was a frosty and narrow space in his chest, had only enough room for the love he felt for one other fairy besides himself- and that wasn’t Chanyeol. Sehun took a deep breath and relaxed his balled fists as he exhaled. His eyes flickered back to black and he unlocked his jaw lo lick his dry lips. The air around him didn’t smell of flowers anymore, but it didn’t smell of summer storms either. Sehun looked up slowly, his whole body recoiling when he met Chanyeol’s dark gaze.
The Summerking sat motionless, his smirk gone, but replaced with something more dangerous- a lurking, predatory gleam in his eyes. “The White Rose of the Spring Court,” he repeated, this time with a voice low enough to raise Sehun’s hackles. “I could rip you apart petal by petal, burn you to the ground to ashes until there’s nothing left of you, precious little light. I could swallow you up and toss you into darkness until you know no more.”
Sehun swallowed when the Summerking’s lips twisted into an inhumanly wide smirk. Chanyeol leaned closer, and the air was suffocatingly still all of a sudden, crackling with static and smelling of acid again- a summer storm about to strike.
Sehun instinctively leaned back, calling for his wind with all his might, but one flick of Chanyeol’s hand had the rushing spring breeze dispelled to nothing. The Summerking reached for him with the same hand, wiry fingers closing around Sehun’s forearm to press bruises into his pale skin. Heat surged under Sehun’s skin where Chanyeol’s touch burned him and only with all his willpower did he swallow down a scream.
“But maybe you’d like that,” Chanyeol said, and the way his smirk widened had Sehun’s heart clutching in sudden fear. “I was told that you’re very fond of darkness.”
Shit! It had been extremely unwise to anger the Summerking. Sehun felt his throat running dry and his eyes glassing over as he widened them in shock. How the fuck did Chanyeol know?
“You don’t want to marry me?” The Summerking scoffed as he let go of him, an expression of disgust twisting his handsome face into something entirely ugly. “I don’t want you either! But I need the Spring Bride for my court, to bring back summer in both spheres-”
Oh, that again, Sehun couldn’t help but think even in his state of panic. Another appeal on his nonexistent humanity. Chanyeol never understood that those did nothing to him since unlike the Summerking, the prince of the Light Court had no obligation towards the human sphere. Only the Summer and the Winter Court had duties to the human world, bringing them summer and winter, but all the other courts only added to the in between seasons by feeding those two courts, never the human sphere.
His thoughts must have been obvious to read on his face, because a loud scoff pulled Sehun out of them. When he glanced up at Chanyeol he saw that the disgust on the Summerking’s face had deepened into utter repulsion. It felt odd to be at the receiving end of such a look.
“Of course you wouldn’t care about all that, when all you want is to spread your legs for Jongin.”
Sehun’s stomach lurched violently at the mention of that name, a gasp of utter disbelief leaving his lips as he stared at the Summerking in denial. How the fuck did he know?!
That name was the Light Court’s most well-kept secret, muttered only in the quiet, never called out loudly and only hinted at even Sehun whenever his court’s overprotective disapproval grew enough for them to try to convince him to stay away from Jongin. How did Chanyeol know of his secret?
The Summerking was scoffing again, his tall form crouching a little, head tilted in mockery. His eyes were gleaming emerald green, and he smiled with all his teeth when he reached out for the Spring Prince to close his hands back around the forming bruises on Sehun’s pale skin.
The Spring Prince flinched, not even caring that he showed his fear when the Summerking leaned in close to whisper against his ear.
“The sophisticated, rigid bitch of the Light Court,” Chanyeol laughed, his voice almost a growl. “Nothing but a slut that loves to soak in Jongin’s darkness.”
Sehun shuddered when Chanyeol wrapped his arms around him to hold him in place, another weak spring breeze trying to fight the Summerking off him, but Chanyeol didn’t even notice.
“Your holy light’s tainted, but that’s fine,” The Summerking leaned closer even, his warm tongue darting out to lick away the cold sweat behind Sehun’s ear. His saliva left a trace of burning heat on the Spring Prince’s skin and Sehun felt himself shaking helplessly in Chanyeol’s embrace.
He felt caged in and suffocated, Chanyeol’s arms too tight and uncomfortable on his skin. This close he had to breathe in the scent of the Summerking’s skin and the way it was ash and fire had his lungs constricting painfully and his eyes tearing up.
Long ago, Sehun had been told that the Summerking was also called Phoenix and that he had wings of flame. But like everything else concerning the Summer Court he had dismissed it and had only seen the words as court legends and gossip- and with good reason. As the Spring Prince and Prince of Light, flowers were supposed to grow from wherever he stepped- but that had never happened either, so Sehun had dismissed Chanyeol’s wings as myths.
He was reminded of that when he felt the Summerking’s arms tightening even more around his body, the heat in the air intensifying into something unbearable and excruciating. Sehun’s vision blurred and when he tried to lift his head he could have sworn that he saw wings of fire wrapped around his and Chanyeol’s form. Only for a short moment, though- and in retrospect Sehun wouldn’t even be sure if he had been conscious or on the verge of fainting from the heat and pain. The next thing he realized was that the heat had lowered and the arms around him loosened, no wings to see, not even when he frantically glanced around.
Sehun wondered how much time had passed, but the Summerking was still leaning close, staring at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes.
“You’re tainted, little prince. Not even my Summer Light accepts you, sullen and touched by darkness. But that’s fine.” Chanyeol smiled with all his teeth as he leaned down and pressed a kiss on Sehun’s cold lips. “I can actually like you a little because of that. That little bit of danger, that little bit of passion- how unexpectedly lively of you, it suits you, my bride.”
Sehun jerked away as if burned, his eyes wide as he hurried to put distance between himself and the Summerking. The way Chanyeol only leaned back languidly and stared at him with content nonchalance had him narrow his eyes, the blood pulsing in his ears surging with the sudden heat of anger.
“Don’t touch me- don’t call me that!” He spat, his voice shaking, but Sehun couldn’t care less about the way his whole body recoiled from the Summerking in disgust.
Chanyeol was looking at him with dark eyes, an utterly unholy gleam in them as another of his inhumanly wide smirks spread his lips. He tilted his head again, strands of his blood-red hair falling into his face as he watched Sehun furtively.
“Did he tell you that he loves you? That he won’t eat you? That for you he’ll fight his hunger and not feast on your pathetic little heart and your blood and your soul?”
“Stop-” Sehun stared at the still widening smirk and felt hatred surging through his body. “You know nothing! Don’t talk about him like this-”
Chanyeol laughed, brilliant and amused, and for a split-second Sehun smelled the air around them swell with the suffocatingly heavy perfume of a thousand summer roses blooming and bursting. Then the heat of desert winds cleared up the dizzying wads, and Sehun breathed in the dry air to clear his head, only to cough pathetically.
“I knew Jongin way before you did, little prince,” the Summerking growled. “I know what you’re doing with him deep in the mazes of the Royal Garden. I know that you don’t listen to your court’s pleas to stay away from him.” Chanyeol smiled cruelly, his eyes darkening. “Him who’ll consume you sooner or later.”
Sehun coughed when the heat of the desert wind flared for another second, one of his hands reaching for Chanyeol in a wordless plea to stop it. The wind died down instantly, but in its stead the Summerking wrapped his long arms around Sehun’s crouched body. He pulled the Spring Prince close, back against his chest, and ran his long fingers through Sehun’s white hair. The touch was forceful and possessive, and Sehun felt something stir in his gut as he tried to push the Summerking away.
“Jongin is the crown prince of the Darkness Court. He feeds off of your kind and he’s gonna devour you. You think it’s love, but he’ll pull your flesh from your bones with his teeth and suck away the light in your veins. Such a shame,” Chanyeol scoffed and pushed Sehun’s trembling body from his embrace to support himself as he raised to his feet.
He stood tall and threatening in front of the Spring Prince, who cowered away from him, still gasping for breath. The Summerking tilted his head and sighed, and in his eyes the glow of silent embers died away as his interest in Sehun went out just as the light of his fire.
“Such a shame,” he said again, this time more to himself. “To have someone like you as the Spring Bride.” He sighed again, and the last remnants of the desert wind dispelled when his whole demeanour relaxed back into his default bored one- the one Sehun was used to deal with whenever Chanyeol came to court him. “I’ll come for you before summer solstice.”
White roses bloomed all around Sehun’s crouched form on the grass and the Spring Prince gritted his teeth when the Summerking reached for him and pulled him up for their obligatory farewell. It was a kiss to Sehun’s forehead, courtesy between royalty, but also a claim- a brand the Summerking put on his future bride. So far away from the watchful eyes of their courts the gesture was pure mockery. Sehun balled his hands to fists as he felt Chanyeol’s lips resting on his skin. The Summerking only pulled away when Sehun started squirming in his arms, a look of cruel delight on his face as he tucked a strand of white hair behind the Spring Prince’s ear.
“Goodbye, my bride,” Chanyeol muttered tauntingly as he watched Sehun flinch from his touch. “Maybe Jongin kills you and I’ll be free of you, but until then you’re mine.”
As he walked to the opposite end of the central clearing Chanyeol could have sworn that he he heard Sehun sob. But when he threw a quick glance back he only saw a whirlwind of shadows and wads of black smoke. In Sehun’s stead Jongin, crown prince of the Darkness Court stood tall and proud, meeting Chanyeol’s eyes with an unimpressed look in his own.
They were pitch black like the bottomless abyss he was born from, and unafraid as they bored into Chanyeol’s. There was an almost invisible smile on his lips, though, softening the hard expression on his eyes. Chanyeol knew Jongin well enough to know that this smile wasn’t meant for him.
In the Crown Prince’s arms was the the Prince of Light, clinging to him and crying silently. One look and Chanyeol knew that all his words had been a waste of breath. Sehun’s heart had already been consumed by Jongin and the young Prince of Light had given it willingly, full of blinded love. Chanyeol wasn’t surprised.
Something that did puzzle him though was the last expression he saw in Jongin’s eyes before the he turned around and left the clearing behind.
For a split moment, barely there, Jongin’s eyes softened just before he looked down at Sehun. Chanyeol felt his breath stopping when he recognized the emotion in the young Crown Prince’s eyes. It was love.
Above the clearing the white flash of sudden lightning cracked through the clear spring sky. Chanyeol watched it split and dissolve in slow motion before he averted his eyes and turned to leave for good.
Behind him Jongin’s darkness wrapped around the pair of lovers, and in the blink of an eye the clearing was empty and desolate again. Only hundred of white roses were left swaying in a sudden upwind, but there was no one who understood their language and listened to them whisper.
✿
Chanyeol was many things, it all depended on who was talking about him.
To his Court he was everything. Life and passion and summer and sun, rain and clouds and storms. He was blooming flowers and gentle summer breezes. He was acrid solar storms and the most violent monsoons.
To Sehun he was a creature of lust and spontaneity, an animal following its needs. In the eyes of the prim and proper Prince of Light he was wild and untamed, beastly and rough, crude and blunt. He was everything the calm and orderly White Rose detested.
To the human sphere he was summer. He was their sun of course, but also their rain. He was crops and grain and rice and prosperity. But he was also drought and hunger, storm and destruction.
He was so many things that sometimes he lost himself in the expectations everyone had of him. But as the Summerking he was first and foremost the embodiment of emotion and passion. Every feeling was instant and intense, every color, every sound and every second of the here and now vivid and important. There was a hunger in him for life itself, a relentless urge to grasp everything and to make it his.
In this sense he was just like Jongin. They both consumed what they loved to make it part of themselves, always greedy for more, always in need to feed on the most intense sensations to feel alive.
All these were the reasons why after talking to Sehun, Chanyeol didn’t return to his court, but walked deeper into the maze of the Royal Garden, until he found himself at the edge of their world.
Here at another grand clearing that marked the barrier between their realm and the human sphere, Chanyeol sat down between the roots of two century old trees to watch the flower spirits dance in the wind.
The clearing was leading from the human realm to the territory of the Light Court and thus was a sphere of eternal spring. Different from the summer heat at the border to his own Court, the barrier here was idyllic and peaceful, calming him down instantly instead of angering him like everything else he related to Sehun.
But he had found out long ago that this clearing felt different from the Light Prince. It was as if the core of the magic sleeping in this clearing resonated not with the Light Court, but with something entirely else, something that called to Chanyeol. He felt it in the gentle sleepiness of the plants and air, and in the way they seemed to wait for something- yearn for someone, maybe. He heard it in the melancholic sadness of the wind, and felt the sense of loss and hopeful waiting in the countless flowers all around the clearing.
The all consuming, subdued emotions were of such sombre nature that they left no space for Chanyeol’s rage and storminess. After his first Spring Bride had died 65 years ago, this had become one of his most favorite places of their sphere and one of his most well hidden sanctuaries. No one would ever suspect him here, at the edge of their world. Something was leading him here, an inner restlessness maybe, that could only be calmed down when he sat down at this place. And the painful yearning of the clearing was so palpable that it was easy to blend out his own misery.
Chanyeol leaned back against the trunk of one tree and allowed himself to slouch as he rubbed his palms over his tired face. He knew he had to return to his Court to tell them about Sehun and about the next Summer fairy they’d have to choose and sacrifice for the coming year. He knew that he’d have to return to his current bride’s deathbed and hold his hand at least, to honor the sacrifice he’d given. But Chanyeol was so sick of it all, so tired of seeing his brides wither away with the fading summer light.
As the Summerking he felt every emotion ten times more intensified- all the pain and suffering of his bride, the mourning of his court, the desperation. Only thinking about it here on the clearing obscured the realm’s spring sky a little, and before Chanyeol could help it he felt warm summer rain sliding down his cheeks.
He was so sick of it all.
Tonight was winter solstice and the small summer fairy he had taken as his Queen would die, while the rightful Spring Bride didn’t care and would pass the night in Jongin’s embrace.
Chanyeol had waited for fifty years until finally a Prince of Light had been born, and he couldn’t believe that he felt nothing but resentment for someone who was made for him and who was supposed to feel like that missing part of him that would make him feel complete again. That would make him strong again, a real Summerking who could keep the Winterking’s freezing cold from killing the summer light.
But since the day Sehun had reached an eligible age, Chanyeol had never been able to court the young prince without feeling repelled. The feeling was mutual, he knew, maybe not from the start, but over the years of his listless courting Sehun had grown to loathe him. Maybe the young prince had realized how little he really meant to Chanyeol apart from the Spring magic that the Summerking needed so much.
Chanyeol sighed and rubbed the tears from his face. He felt tired, he felt ancient. In a way he envied Sehun for his selfishness. Chanyeol couldn’t remember how to live like that anymore, it was centuries ago that had been at Sehun’s age. All he was living for now was his Court.
It was no surprise that the young prince rejected him. Maybe Chanyeol should have been more convincing. Maybe he should have faked youthful affection where there was none. Maybe all the deaths of his brides were his fault after all. He had put off his true bride and now he had to search for another doomed substitute just to awaken a faint echo of the summer he could have summoned with Sehun by his side.
Chanyeol closed his eyes in defeat, his thoughts spiraling his mood downwards as he tried to find a solution for his weakened and miserable court. He only snapped out of his brooding when the sudden scent of full blooming spring exploded on the clearing.
He snapped his eyes open in alarm, his mouth falling open as he watched as sudden sunlight broke unobscured and bright golden from the sky to bathe the whole clearing in its shimmering light.
A sudden upwind had the canopy of the trees rustling with excitement. The wind carried the soundless outcries of the flowers on the clearing with him, bell-like and full of delight, vibrating in sudden joyous energy. The whole clearing was pulsing with magic- wide awake and breathless, waiting to unleash.
Chanyeol got up to search for the source for the sudden excitement, his whole body stunning into a standstill when he found it.
Bathed in light and leaving tracks of blooming flowers on his way to the center of the clearing was a boy with eyes as blue as the clear summer sky. His smile was a thousand summer suns, his silent laughter the shine of the brightest morning stars.
His sheer beauty took Chanyeol’s breath away in an instant, and the Summerking gasped, the magic in his soul expanding in sudden overjoy. Chanyeol was instantly in love. He knew, deep inside, instinctively, that this was what he had yearned for, for so many years. He knew that his boy was his everything. But he didn’t understand, not immediately.
Instead of realizing who was standing bathed in the light of the spring and summer sun, Chanyeol chose to see with his eyes and not with his soul. He didn’t realize that he was looking at his destined other half.
All he could think was that he had already found his next Summer Queen.
✿
- / >>
Word Counts: 20k
Side Pairing(s): Minseok/Luhan, Jongin/Sehun, Jongdae/Seulgi
Rating: NC-17
Warning(s): fairy!au -read trigger-warnings under the spoiler cut [click to open] child neglect, underage relationships, explicit bullying, minor character death (don’t worry about this), mentioned cannibalism (kinda, but between fairies), extremely cute Baekhyun, Chanyeol being a bit of a dick
Disclaimer: The celebrities' names/images are merely borrowed and do not represent who the celebrities are in real life. No offense is intended towards them, their families or friends. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this fictional work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Summary: Chanyeol is the Summerking searching for his missing Spring Light. Baekhyun is a Red Poppy, hidden in the human realm. 65 years of winter have everyone in the fairy and human sphere yearning for summer warmth.
Author's Note: Written for Baecon&Eggs 2016. Thanks to Dyris and Sonja for listening to my endless rambles and for enduring my tears ;;
Heliostasion
Then
It was the night before the day marking the fiftieth year of winter reign when Jongdae was pulled from his sleep by his master.
He got up with half a mind to ignore it, but Luhan called for him so rarely that the urgency within their connection made him hurry instead. As an Oracle, Luhan lived far from the rest of the Winter Court, but Jongdae knew he’d be by his master’s side in the blink of an eye if he needed to.
He reached for his discarded robes, but his eyes stayed on his warm bed sheets. The night before had been full of dance and laughter, winter and summer wine flowing freely in never ending celebration. Jongdae felt the jubilee in all his bones, an ache that spoke of too much wine throbbing in his skull and too much dance cracking in his bones.
He smiled as a quiet whimper pulled him out of his thoughts, his eyes softening when he turned around to look at the small peri in his bed. His smile widened when he took in her dishevelled hair and the dazed look on her face.
“Go back to sleep,” he said as soon as her dark eyes found him and narrowed. But she slid out of the covers to sit by the bedside, one of her dainty hands reaching for her dress while the other combed through her long hair.
“Your master called?” she asked, but didn’t wait for him to answer. “I need to return to my Lord’s side, too.” Her eyes glanced to the window to stare at the barely awakened day. ”I’ve been gone for too long.”
Jongdae rolled his eyes and walked back to his bed to pull her up. She tilted her head expectantly for him, meeting his lips with the hint of a smile that widened as soon as she slid her tongue into his mouth and heard him gasp.
“I’ll see you on summer solstice?” He asked between two kisses, only opening his eyes when she scoffed against his lips.
“Summer solstice, what a joke!”
Jongdae pulled her closer and kissed the scowl from her lips. He wanted to stay with her a little longer, keep her in his bed until both their masters summoned them away, but he felt the pull surging through his body, urging him to hurry. It hadn’t been even five minutes since Luhan called for him, but already he felt his body hurting for ignoring him. He gasped, this time from pain, and it was enough to have her push him away.
“Go,” she urged, a smile on her lips, but her dark eyes gleamed wickedly. “Be a good pet, and if you behave I’ll give you a reward on summer solstice.”
“Go fuck yourself,” he laughed and pulled on her long locks affectionately.
He leaned down for a last kiss, but that was the moment the pull gave an undoubtedly judging throb. With a sigh, he turned away from her and closed his eyes, feeling for the ripples between the spaces of this dimension. His energy shifted the air until it crackled in anticipation, a sudden scent of iron drafting through his bed chamber as static thickened around him.
The last thing he heard before lightning flashed through his core and took him away was how she let herself fall back onto his bed, a soft sigh sipping her lips as she murmured, “I’ll leave that to Lord Kyungsoo.”
✿
Luhan was in his private chambers, those he didn’t share with the Winterking. He had his eyes closed, his face peaceful as if he was sleeping.
Jongdae’s lightning carried him to the center of the room, the heart of the Oracle’s sanctuary. He materialized kneeling down on one knee and with his head bowed down, just in case the Winterking happened to be with Luhan. But the Oracle was alone, his eyes white like freshly fallen snow when he opened them and his eyelids fluttering as he followed a vision only he could see. Jongdae wordlessly stepped closer, waiting for his master to collect himself.
“The light of a dying star faded. In this moment a prince of Darkness is born.”
Jongdae raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Darkness fairies were born constantly- every second, but most of them died not even heartbeats later, as soon as the fleeting emotions of anger or evil that gave birth to them passed. Even their princes died quickly, doomed to starve, because human emotions were so fickle and didn’t feed them for long.
But he knew that Luhan would never call for him for a vision this insignificant. There was more behind his words, and Jongdae had a vague suspicion of what it might be. A lot of stars died all across the universe, but not every death meant that the balance of energy tipped enough for creation to intervene. Luhan’s sight must have shown him something exceptional, something like-
“It’s a crown prince,” Luhan confirmed his thoughts, undoubtedly following what was going on in his head. Jongdae glanced up at his master’s eyes at that, relieved to see that they were black again.
A second later he inhaled loudly, the air whistling between his tongue and teeth. A crown prince of the Darkness Court, the first in almost one hundred years. Someone strong enough to survive on his own and to feed his people- It would change everything, for his chaotic birth usually meant-
Jongdae’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open slightly as he understood. “Light,” he whispered, awed. He saw his master nod, sealing the fate of the things to come.
“He’ll be born soon. A crown prince of Light, at the first dawn of the new star that is about to form.” He paused and Jongdae watched him close his eyes as he wandered his visions. “Everything is happening so soon- and at once. We don’t have time.”
Jongdae’s mouth ran dry, but he knew what Luhan was about to say.
“We can’t wait for the Light Court to understand. The Royal Garden will bloom tonight and the Spring Bride the Summerking so desperately awaits will be born- you know what to do.”
Yes, Jongdae thought, he knew what to do. After all it was the sole reason he had been created so many years ago, he who was part light and part darkness, and had access to every court.
“The Court of Light cannot find their prince in the garden. You must get to him first, you must take him and hide him away- For Minseok,” Luhan whispered, almost to himself.
“For the Winterking,” Jongdae agreed, his black eyes turning white as snow.
✿
The Royal Garden lay at the outer ends of the world.
It was a realm of its own, full of flowers and a maze of narrow paths that led deep inside the garden, but never out of it. The whole sphere reeked of magic, the kind only voiceless, breathing beings could produce in centuries long, lurking patience.
The garden was part of the Light Court, but accessible to everyone. Since the last spring had been fifty years ago, though, no one came to admire the flowers anymore. Without the sun and love of their world’s inhabitants, it lay bare and desolate, all its flowers wilted and the sickly stems curled up to survive the endless winter.
They didn’t bloom anymore, not even during the short summers, but Jongdae had no eyes for the wilted sadness around him. His path was leading him to the center of the garden, deep into the heart of the magic that was sleeping underneath the flower beds. The farther his path led him, the warmer it got and soon Jongdae couldn’t feel the omnipresent cold of winter anymore. As a member of the Winter Court it was unnerving to him. Everything light and warm was, even though technically he was just as much light as he was darkness. Luhan had created him from both, marking him a trickster spirit, but Jongdae had spent his long life at the Winter Court, far away from summer light. Here in this garden, though, was the heart of spring.
Jongdae blinked when his path took him around a sharp corner, and then quickly shielded his eyes when all of a sudden gleaming white light blinded him. He came to an abrupt stop
when he realized that he had reached the center, a clear-cut clearing in the form of a star, the Light Court’s crest, the heart of the Royal Garden.
The light on the clearing was almost unbearable, gleaming brilliantly and reflecting in all colors of the rainbow. It was meant to repel intruders, but Jongdae was a part of it -half of him at least, and he let it seep under his skin, recognizing the magic in his veins and accepting him. The light flickered and then softened, its warmth less intense, the harshness weakening to the soft caress of a loving glow.
When Jongdae was able to open his eyes again, he saw the spirits. Hundreds of them shimmering in the air, their vivid colours illuminating the bleak baldness of the naked trees surrounding the clearing. They were flower spirits, mere petals in the wind, with only enough magic to be drawn to the birth of the Spring Prince which was about to happen.
Jongdae hadn’t seen flower spirits since the last Spring Bride of the Summerking had died fifty years ago. When Winter had come and never left, it had taken away everything, even the sun. But here, in this small dimension that was the heart of the garden, it was as if winter didn’t exist. Sunlight fell in thick golden rays on the flowers which were rustling gently in a warm breeze. It was a gift to the Spring Prince, a voiceless declaration of love that transcended the restrictions of seasons. Here, invisible flowers bloomed and their petals floated through the air which smelled of sweet spring light.
Jongdae squinted up at the sky, expecting a brilliant blue, but found a canopy of green instead. When he followed the cover of leaves to their source he realized that above him the outer branches of a gigantic tree stretched far into the sky. The tree stood in the middle of the clearing, and as Jongdae stepped closer he realized that it was the Spring Court’s Life-tree. He saw a single flower about to bloom in vivid deep red, right at the base of it.
It was a poppy bud, cradled almost lovingly between the thick roots of the tree which protected it from the wind trying to caress it. Golden and silver and colorless light bathed the vulnerable flower, encasing it in shimmering magic as it bloomed beautifully in front of Jongdae’s eyes. He watched it growing taller, the bud ripening as it grew bigger and plumper. Its almost blood-like color faded into a gentle red as it started to open, its petals expanding until it stood in full bloom, a beautiful and jubilant red that beckoned Jongdae closer.
Sunlight exploded in blinding intensity to bathe the prince’s birth in pure gold, and the sweet scent of spring intensified until it was hard to breathe. In the middle of the fully opened flower, curled up on the soft flower head, was the newborn Prince of Light.
His poppy gleamed in the sunlight, pulsing steadily as it gave its life to its prince. Jongdae watched the newborn fairy taking his first little breaths and how the magic in the air and the golden light seeped under his pale skin to illuminate his veins.
When Jongdae reached out to take the tiny prince in his palm he felt the warmth of a thousand springs surge through his veins. Sunlight shone through his soul and he felt warm summer rain wash down his spine. He tasted sweet spring on his tongue and felt the perfume of blooming flowers spinning in his head.
The prince opened his eyes when Jongdae carefully cupped his palm around him and for a moment the sight of the newborn fairy’s blue eyes paralyzed him in awe. They were beautiful, a clear sky blue. Jongdae remembered that not even the former Prince of Light had had eyes of such intensity.
“Sleep, little prince,” Jongdae whispered softly to the tiny fairy in his palms that looked up at him without fear. He cradled the prince lovingly and hummed a soft lullaby for him as he bent down and plucked his birth poppy from the ground. A long and clear sound rung up in the air, joining the last tunes of Jongdae’s melody for the prince. Then sudden lightning cracked through the spring light and took the two fairies away. It carried them to the nursery of a human family’s newborn where a small baby boy lay unsuspecting and sleeping, trusting the gentle night to keep him safe- just as the small fairy prince did.
Jongdae whispered magic into the still air and watched the human newborn falling into an even deeper sleep before he picked the child up carefully. He watched the boy’s even face for a moment, admiring the innocence he was about to taint. When he turned his eyes away and to the Spring Prince he found the tiny fairy reaching for the human baby instinctively, small eyelids fluttering as he fought the sleep of Jongdae’s magic.
The newborn prince had no idea that Jongdae was about to steal his whole life from him, that he would take him far away from the safety of spring light and magic, before his court could find and protect him. He had no idea that Jongdae would drop him in the cradle of the newborn human child to switch their places, he had no idea that for the following years he would grow up without a clue of who he really was.
The little prince fell asleep in the warm hands holding him so safe and lovingly, without knowing that those would be the ones to abandon him in a different world. All he did was look up at Jongdae sleepily, his tiny hands grabbing around the stem of the poppy flower the trickster spirit lay next to him in the human cradle.
“For the sake of our world- and for your own, stay here, and don’t try to find us,” Jongdae whispered to the half awake Light prince as he cradled the human baby he was about to steal. “For Minseok,” he muttered to himself as he stared at the baby prince and felt his heart clench painfully. “Long live the Winterking.”
He called for his magic, the air crackling and flickering as he let it wrap around the fairy prince. In a matter of seconds the blue eyes were gone, replaced by a pair of warm brown ones that looked up at Jongdae in wonder. The Light prince was the same size as a human newborn now and just as ordinary. There was only a subtle flicker of light left under his skin, but it faded quietly, taking the last remnants of magic with it.
“Goodbye, little baby sun,” Jongdae murmured as he adjusted the human newborn in his arms. He bent down and lay a hand upon the fairy prince’s eyes. The baby was asleep when he took his hand away, quiet and peaceful and looking nothing like the tiny fairy it had been not even heartbeats ago.
The only hint that something inexplicable, something magical was still present, was the red poppy in the newborn’s tiny fist, shimmering beautiful and mysterious in the faint light of the awakening day.
✿
Now, fifteen years later
Sehun, White Rose and Spring Prince of the Light Court had a problem.
One of many- and not even his biggest, his court would undoubtedly tell him if they’d see him frown, but Sehun was without his royal household for once. He’d escaped the clutches of his mentors and teachers to take a stroll in the Royal Garden to channel his spring magic for the long winter, but while his court believed his little lies and respected his royal privacy, Chanyeol the Summerking did not.
It was the night before winter solstice and Sehun had wanted to wander the gardens and visit his birthplace in peace. But instead of idyllic quiet, Chanyeol had waited for him as if he’d expected him.
He sat right under the tree that had given birth to the white rose in which Sehun had been found, his red hair pushed back and his long fingers signing the grass around him in boredom. For that alone Sehun disliked his presence.
Truth to be told, Sehun had hoped to meet someone at the heart of the garden -not the Summerking, though, and he made sure to show his disdain when he sat down across him to frown.
They were quiet for a moment, staring at each other. Sehun expectantly and Chanyeol with increasing annoyance. That was another thing Sehun detested- the way the Summer Court was so unable to control its emotion. He arched an eyebrow and watched with satisfaction as Chanyeol snapped in front of his eyes.
“Tonight’s winter solstice!” the Summerking exclaimed as if that explained his unwanted presence. And unfortunately it did, since that single sentence had been thrown at Sehun on this particular day since the year he had turned eleven. That had marked the day he had come of age, and had been the beginning of Chanyeol’s unpleasant visits and his unpassionate courting.
Just as every year, the Summerking sat tall and uncharming across him to ask for his hand in marriage and Sehun had no idea how to formulate another polite refusal without repeating himself. Sehun was the Summerking’s Spring Bride, a title that was given to him the moment he had been born to mark him as Chanyeol’s. The fact that he was a prince didn’t matter, the Light Court was the bride’s place of birth and would always stay it, not matter if the Summer Court was reigned by a King or a Queen.
Since the creation of the Courts and the fairy sphere itself, Sehun was probably the first prince who had an aversion to his title and his role. Technically, Summer and Spring loved each other so much that they never questioned their destined togetherness. It was inevitable, since their magic connected and called for each other. the Spring Bride was the fulfillment of everything the Summer Court needed, and the reigning Summer Regent was everything the Spring Bride wanted. But in Chanyeol and Sehun’s case they both disliked each other with a passion.
To the Summerking, the embodiment of passion, spontaneity, vitality and love for life, Sehun was as charming as a cold spring night. To Sehun the Summerking was nothing but an animal. A dangerous, lurking predator, an unpredictable arbitrary force of nature that he wanted anywhere but close to himself.
A white rose was probably the least fitting flower in the Summerking’s searing hands which yearned to hold something more joyful and brimming with life. Something bright and lively, something that wasn’t Sehun.
The Light Prince sighed. This was why he’d gone for a walk in the Royal Garden- a place no one but he had access to- to avoid the unwanted visit of the Summerking. But of course as royalty himself, Chanyeol had no qualms to ignore the new laws of the Light Court, and to invade Sehun’s personal space.
And why should he bother to honor my laws, Sehun thought sourly as he frowned at the Summerking. Chanyeol was just as ultimate as the Winterking, two grand and equal forces, while the rest of the courts were nothing but nuances between summer and winter, light and dark.
“I’m not going to marry you,” he finally answered, skipping their usual game of slow-paced arguments in the hopes of speeding up Chanyeol’s departure. He expected Chanyeol to snap at him as usual, and to list up all the reasons why Sehun better accepted his proposal, but the Summerking only scowled at him.
Sehun shrugged and leaned back, a small smile spreading on his lips. “How’s your latest Bride?” he asked, feigning sympathy, and watched with great satisfaction as Chanyeol’s nostrils flared.
“Dying,” the Summerking spat out, not that it surprised Sehun.
“Oh, what a pity. He was so full of summer light. I really thought he’d be the one for you-”
Sudden thunder cracked through the air, so loud and near that for a split-second Sehun thought he had lost consciousness. A disturbing ringing pulsed through his head and when he tilted it in confusion the whole world seemed to spin. He was disoriented and dazed, one of his hands coming up to touch his oddly pulsing ears only to flinch when his fingers came back covered in blood. His ears were dead and bleeding, and mildly concerned, Sehun thought absentmindedly that maybe he deserved this pain for his heartless words.
Every year the Summerking asked for his hand in marriage, and every year he took a different bride when his rightful one, Sehun, refused. Only that those summer fairies were not the Light Court’s prince, the real Spring Bride, and had to give all their energy to awaken the summer with Chanyeol. During those short summers that they helped to summon, their lives wilted at the pace of the shortening days, just like short-lived flowers, only to wither entirely on the day of winter solstice. Chanyeol’s current bride was most probably at a critical stage right now, dying slow and painfully until tonight would end the suffering. Sehun had no idea how many Summer fairies had died already for taking his place, but he knew that every death fed to Chanyeol’s desperation to end the short summers and sacrifices of his court. But only the real Spring Bride could awaken the summer permanently by Chanyeol’s side- something Sehun didn’t want, no matter how many fairies had to give their lives for his selfishness.
Sehun closed his eyes when he felt his court’s magic pulsing in his ears, healing the damage. He was almost reluctant to look back at the Summerking, expecting anger. He wasn’t disappointed.
The Summerking was furious. Anger radiated from his crouched form and Sehun felt the sudden heat of solar storms hitting his body. He tasted ash on his tongue and breathed the scent of smoke and destruction into his lungs as he watched the Summerking fall into a soundless rage. As much as Chanyeol was the personification of summer and frivolity, he was also searing heat, acid drought and the crackling static in the air left as remnants of a heavy summer storm.
Sehun had half a mind to turn away and cover, but the first thing his court had taught him was to be fearless and proud and to never bow his head nor show his insecurity. Instead of turning away from Chanyeol’s wrath, he summoned a soft spring breeze to have it blow away the acrid scent of static in the air. The breeze rustled the leaves of the Life-tree above them and for a moment the air cleared with the sweet scent of blooming flowers. It was enough for Chanyeol to snap out of his rage, but also insignificant enough to bring a scoff to his lips.
Sehun pressed his own to a firm line, an acrid feeling of hatred spreading through his chest. All feelings of fear and remorse vanished in the blink of an eye, because this, that scoff, was the main reason he detested the Summer Court and especially its king. The cold in his chest spread through his veins, turning into acid on its way up to his cheeks, turning the pale skin a deep pink. Sehun saw a smirk spreading on the Summerking’s lips, undoubtedly a reaction to his blush. It made him ball his fists and grit his teeth, but that only widened the smirk on Chanyeol’s lips.
“Prince Sehun, White Rose of the Spring Court,” the Summerking mused maliciously, and each of his words had the blush on Sehun’s cheeks tinting an even angrier red. “What a lovely little breeze you summoned, I almost didn’t feel it- you mind calling it again?”
Sehun bared his teeth and snarled, his black eyes flashing white for a second, before the air shifted in a sudden upwind. It had Chanyeol leaning back unimpressed as the Summerking knew that this was the most Sehun could do with his magic. It wasn’t exactly a secret that the prince of the Light Court wasn’t gifted with any noteworthy power.
When the Light Court had found their prince sleeping in a white rose deep inside the Royal Garden neither summerlight nor flower spirits had been there to watch over the newborn fairy. The prince had been alone in his rose, curled up and shivering in the cold spring breeze- the only spirit that had fallen in love with the newborn fairy and had gifted it with its power. Besides his Wind Sehun was devoid of magic, though light flickered under his skin and shone in his eyes from growing up in the heart of the Light Court which was soaked in Spring magic.
His lack of proper magic was one of the reasons Sehun’s court was so overly protective of him, why they only reluctantly allowed him out of their sight and why they urged him so much to take the hand of the Summerking. It was also the reason why Chanyeol’s taunts were so unbearable. Sehun was dependant on protection, and the Summerking was the strongest match he could ever hope for, his perfect fit as if made for him alone. Only that it was Sehun who had been born to be Chanyeol’s, not the other way around. But there was literally nothing he wanted as much as being freed from the burdening title of being the Spring Bride, no matter what tradition dictated.
If only there was someone else to be the Summerking’s bride, Sehun thought.
The Light Prince’s heart, which was a frosty and narrow space in his chest, had only enough room for the love he felt for one other fairy besides himself- and that wasn’t Chanyeol. Sehun took a deep breath and relaxed his balled fists as he exhaled. His eyes flickered back to black and he unlocked his jaw lo lick his dry lips. The air around him didn’t smell of flowers anymore, but it didn’t smell of summer storms either. Sehun looked up slowly, his whole body recoiling when he met Chanyeol’s dark gaze.
The Summerking sat motionless, his smirk gone, but replaced with something more dangerous- a lurking, predatory gleam in his eyes. “The White Rose of the Spring Court,” he repeated, this time with a voice low enough to raise Sehun’s hackles. “I could rip you apart petal by petal, burn you to the ground to ashes until there’s nothing left of you, precious little light. I could swallow you up and toss you into darkness until you know no more.”
Sehun swallowed when the Summerking’s lips twisted into an inhumanly wide smirk. Chanyeol leaned closer, and the air was suffocatingly still all of a sudden, crackling with static and smelling of acid again- a summer storm about to strike.
Sehun instinctively leaned back, calling for his wind with all his might, but one flick of Chanyeol’s hand had the rushing spring breeze dispelled to nothing. The Summerking reached for him with the same hand, wiry fingers closing around Sehun’s forearm to press bruises into his pale skin. Heat surged under Sehun’s skin where Chanyeol’s touch burned him and only with all his willpower did he swallow down a scream.
“But maybe you’d like that,” Chanyeol said, and the way his smirk widened had Sehun’s heart clutching in sudden fear. “I was told that you’re very fond of darkness.”
Shit! It had been extremely unwise to anger the Summerking. Sehun felt his throat running dry and his eyes glassing over as he widened them in shock. How the fuck did Chanyeol know?
“You don’t want to marry me?” The Summerking scoffed as he let go of him, an expression of disgust twisting his handsome face into something entirely ugly. “I don’t want you either! But I need the Spring Bride for my court, to bring back summer in both spheres-”
Oh, that again, Sehun couldn’t help but think even in his state of panic. Another appeal on his nonexistent humanity. Chanyeol never understood that those did nothing to him since unlike the Summerking, the prince of the Light Court had no obligation towards the human sphere. Only the Summer and the Winter Court had duties to the human world, bringing them summer and winter, but all the other courts only added to the in between seasons by feeding those two courts, never the human sphere.
His thoughts must have been obvious to read on his face, because a loud scoff pulled Sehun out of them. When he glanced up at Chanyeol he saw that the disgust on the Summerking’s face had deepened into utter repulsion. It felt odd to be at the receiving end of such a look.
“Of course you wouldn’t care about all that, when all you want is to spread your legs for Jongin.”
Sehun’s stomach lurched violently at the mention of that name, a gasp of utter disbelief leaving his lips as he stared at the Summerking in denial. How the fuck did he know?!
That name was the Light Court’s most well-kept secret, muttered only in the quiet, never called out loudly and only hinted at even Sehun whenever his court’s overprotective disapproval grew enough for them to try to convince him to stay away from Jongin. How did Chanyeol know of his secret?
The Summerking was scoffing again, his tall form crouching a little, head tilted in mockery. His eyes were gleaming emerald green, and he smiled with all his teeth when he reached out for the Spring Prince to close his hands back around the forming bruises on Sehun’s pale skin.
The Spring Prince flinched, not even caring that he showed his fear when the Summerking leaned in close to whisper against his ear.
“The sophisticated, rigid bitch of the Light Court,” Chanyeol laughed, his voice almost a growl. “Nothing but a slut that loves to soak in Jongin’s darkness.”
Sehun shuddered when Chanyeol wrapped his arms around him to hold him in place, another weak spring breeze trying to fight the Summerking off him, but Chanyeol didn’t even notice.
“Your holy light’s tainted, but that’s fine,” The Summerking leaned closer even, his warm tongue darting out to lick away the cold sweat behind Sehun’s ear. His saliva left a trace of burning heat on the Spring Prince’s skin and Sehun felt himself shaking helplessly in Chanyeol’s embrace.
He felt caged in and suffocated, Chanyeol’s arms too tight and uncomfortable on his skin. This close he had to breathe in the scent of the Summerking’s skin and the way it was ash and fire had his lungs constricting painfully and his eyes tearing up.
Long ago, Sehun had been told that the Summerking was also called Phoenix and that he had wings of flame. But like everything else concerning the Summer Court he had dismissed it and had only seen the words as court legends and gossip- and with good reason. As the Spring Prince and Prince of Light, flowers were supposed to grow from wherever he stepped- but that had never happened either, so Sehun had dismissed Chanyeol’s wings as myths.
He was reminded of that when he felt the Summerking’s arms tightening even more around his body, the heat in the air intensifying into something unbearable and excruciating. Sehun’s vision blurred and when he tried to lift his head he could have sworn that he saw wings of fire wrapped around his and Chanyeol’s form. Only for a short moment, though- and in retrospect Sehun wouldn’t even be sure if he had been conscious or on the verge of fainting from the heat and pain. The next thing he realized was that the heat had lowered and the arms around him loosened, no wings to see, not even when he frantically glanced around.
Sehun wondered how much time had passed, but the Summerking was still leaning close, staring at him with an unreadable expression in his eyes.
“You’re tainted, little prince. Not even my Summer Light accepts you, sullen and touched by darkness. But that’s fine.” Chanyeol smiled with all his teeth as he leaned down and pressed a kiss on Sehun’s cold lips. “I can actually like you a little because of that. That little bit of danger, that little bit of passion- how unexpectedly lively of you, it suits you, my bride.”
Sehun jerked away as if burned, his eyes wide as he hurried to put distance between himself and the Summerking. The way Chanyeol only leaned back languidly and stared at him with content nonchalance had him narrow his eyes, the blood pulsing in his ears surging with the sudden heat of anger.
“Don’t touch me- don’t call me that!” He spat, his voice shaking, but Sehun couldn’t care less about the way his whole body recoiled from the Summerking in disgust.
Chanyeol was looking at him with dark eyes, an utterly unholy gleam in them as another of his inhumanly wide smirks spread his lips. He tilted his head again, strands of his blood-red hair falling into his face as he watched Sehun furtively.
“Did he tell you that he loves you? That he won’t eat you? That for you he’ll fight his hunger and not feast on your pathetic little heart and your blood and your soul?”
“Stop-” Sehun stared at the still widening smirk and felt hatred surging through his body. “You know nothing! Don’t talk about him like this-”
Chanyeol laughed, brilliant and amused, and for a split-second Sehun smelled the air around them swell with the suffocatingly heavy perfume of a thousand summer roses blooming and bursting. Then the heat of desert winds cleared up the dizzying wads, and Sehun breathed in the dry air to clear his head, only to cough pathetically.
“I knew Jongin way before you did, little prince,” the Summerking growled. “I know what you’re doing with him deep in the mazes of the Royal Garden. I know that you don’t listen to your court’s pleas to stay away from him.” Chanyeol smiled cruelly, his eyes darkening. “Him who’ll consume you sooner or later.”
Sehun coughed when the heat of the desert wind flared for another second, one of his hands reaching for Chanyeol in a wordless plea to stop it. The wind died down instantly, but in its stead the Summerking wrapped his long arms around Sehun’s crouched body. He pulled the Spring Prince close, back against his chest, and ran his long fingers through Sehun’s white hair. The touch was forceful and possessive, and Sehun felt something stir in his gut as he tried to push the Summerking away.
“Jongin is the crown prince of the Darkness Court. He feeds off of your kind and he’s gonna devour you. You think it’s love, but he’ll pull your flesh from your bones with his teeth and suck away the light in your veins. Such a shame,” Chanyeol scoffed and pushed Sehun’s trembling body from his embrace to support himself as he raised to his feet.
He stood tall and threatening in front of the Spring Prince, who cowered away from him, still gasping for breath. The Summerking tilted his head and sighed, and in his eyes the glow of silent embers died away as his interest in Sehun went out just as the light of his fire.
“Such a shame,” he said again, this time more to himself. “To have someone like you as the Spring Bride.” He sighed again, and the last remnants of the desert wind dispelled when his whole demeanour relaxed back into his default bored one- the one Sehun was used to deal with whenever Chanyeol came to court him. “I’ll come for you before summer solstice.”
White roses bloomed all around Sehun’s crouched form on the grass and the Spring Prince gritted his teeth when the Summerking reached for him and pulled him up for their obligatory farewell. It was a kiss to Sehun’s forehead, courtesy between royalty, but also a claim- a brand the Summerking put on his future bride. So far away from the watchful eyes of their courts the gesture was pure mockery. Sehun balled his hands to fists as he felt Chanyeol’s lips resting on his skin. The Summerking only pulled away when Sehun started squirming in his arms, a look of cruel delight on his face as he tucked a strand of white hair behind the Spring Prince’s ear.
“Goodbye, my bride,” Chanyeol muttered tauntingly as he watched Sehun flinch from his touch. “Maybe Jongin kills you and I’ll be free of you, but until then you’re mine.”
As he walked to the opposite end of the central clearing Chanyeol could have sworn that he he heard Sehun sob. But when he threw a quick glance back he only saw a whirlwind of shadows and wads of black smoke. In Sehun’s stead Jongin, crown prince of the Darkness Court stood tall and proud, meeting Chanyeol’s eyes with an unimpressed look in his own.
They were pitch black like the bottomless abyss he was born from, and unafraid as they bored into Chanyeol’s. There was an almost invisible smile on his lips, though, softening the hard expression on his eyes. Chanyeol knew Jongin well enough to know that this smile wasn’t meant for him.
In the Crown Prince’s arms was the the Prince of Light, clinging to him and crying silently. One look and Chanyeol knew that all his words had been a waste of breath. Sehun’s heart had already been consumed by Jongin and the young Prince of Light had given it willingly, full of blinded love. Chanyeol wasn’t surprised.
Something that did puzzle him though was the last expression he saw in Jongin’s eyes before the he turned around and left the clearing behind.
For a split moment, barely there, Jongin’s eyes softened just before he looked down at Sehun. Chanyeol felt his breath stopping when he recognized the emotion in the young Crown Prince’s eyes. It was love.
Above the clearing the white flash of sudden lightning cracked through the clear spring sky. Chanyeol watched it split and dissolve in slow motion before he averted his eyes and turned to leave for good.
Behind him Jongin’s darkness wrapped around the pair of lovers, and in the blink of an eye the clearing was empty and desolate again. Only hundred of white roses were left swaying in a sudden upwind, but there was no one who understood their language and listened to them whisper.
✿
Chanyeol was many things, it all depended on who was talking about him.
To his Court he was everything. Life and passion and summer and sun, rain and clouds and storms. He was blooming flowers and gentle summer breezes. He was acrid solar storms and the most violent monsoons.
To Sehun he was a creature of lust and spontaneity, an animal following its needs. In the eyes of the prim and proper Prince of Light he was wild and untamed, beastly and rough, crude and blunt. He was everything the calm and orderly White Rose detested.
To the human sphere he was summer. He was their sun of course, but also their rain. He was crops and grain and rice and prosperity. But he was also drought and hunger, storm and destruction.
He was so many things that sometimes he lost himself in the expectations everyone had of him. But as the Summerking he was first and foremost the embodiment of emotion and passion. Every feeling was instant and intense, every color, every sound and every second of the here and now vivid and important. There was a hunger in him for life itself, a relentless urge to grasp everything and to make it his.
In this sense he was just like Jongin. They both consumed what they loved to make it part of themselves, always greedy for more, always in need to feed on the most intense sensations to feel alive.
All these were the reasons why after talking to Sehun, Chanyeol didn’t return to his court, but walked deeper into the maze of the Royal Garden, until he found himself at the edge of their world.
Here at another grand clearing that marked the barrier between their realm and the human sphere, Chanyeol sat down between the roots of two century old trees to watch the flower spirits dance in the wind.
The clearing was leading from the human realm to the territory of the Light Court and thus was a sphere of eternal spring. Different from the summer heat at the border to his own Court, the barrier here was idyllic and peaceful, calming him down instantly instead of angering him like everything else he related to Sehun.
But he had found out long ago that this clearing felt different from the Light Prince. It was as if the core of the magic sleeping in this clearing resonated not with the Light Court, but with something entirely else, something that called to Chanyeol. He felt it in the gentle sleepiness of the plants and air, and in the way they seemed to wait for something- yearn for someone, maybe. He heard it in the melancholic sadness of the wind, and felt the sense of loss and hopeful waiting in the countless flowers all around the clearing.
The all consuming, subdued emotions were of such sombre nature that they left no space for Chanyeol’s rage and storminess. After his first Spring Bride had died 65 years ago, this had become one of his most favorite places of their sphere and one of his most well hidden sanctuaries. No one would ever suspect him here, at the edge of their world. Something was leading him here, an inner restlessness maybe, that could only be calmed down when he sat down at this place. And the painful yearning of the clearing was so palpable that it was easy to blend out his own misery.
Chanyeol leaned back against the trunk of one tree and allowed himself to slouch as he rubbed his palms over his tired face. He knew he had to return to his Court to tell them about Sehun and about the next Summer fairy they’d have to choose and sacrifice for the coming year. He knew that he’d have to return to his current bride’s deathbed and hold his hand at least, to honor the sacrifice he’d given. But Chanyeol was so sick of it all, so tired of seeing his brides wither away with the fading summer light.
As the Summerking he felt every emotion ten times more intensified- all the pain and suffering of his bride, the mourning of his court, the desperation. Only thinking about it here on the clearing obscured the realm’s spring sky a little, and before Chanyeol could help it he felt warm summer rain sliding down his cheeks.
He was so sick of it all.
Tonight was winter solstice and the small summer fairy he had taken as his Queen would die, while the rightful Spring Bride didn’t care and would pass the night in Jongin’s embrace.
Chanyeol had waited for fifty years until finally a Prince of Light had been born, and he couldn’t believe that he felt nothing but resentment for someone who was made for him and who was supposed to feel like that missing part of him that would make him feel complete again. That would make him strong again, a real Summerking who could keep the Winterking’s freezing cold from killing the summer light.
But since the day Sehun had reached an eligible age, Chanyeol had never been able to court the young prince without feeling repelled. The feeling was mutual, he knew, maybe not from the start, but over the years of his listless courting Sehun had grown to loathe him. Maybe the young prince had realized how little he really meant to Chanyeol apart from the Spring magic that the Summerking needed so much.
Chanyeol sighed and rubbed the tears from his face. He felt tired, he felt ancient. In a way he envied Sehun for his selfishness. Chanyeol couldn’t remember how to live like that anymore, it was centuries ago that had been at Sehun’s age. All he was living for now was his Court.
It was no surprise that the young prince rejected him. Maybe Chanyeol should have been more convincing. Maybe he should have faked youthful affection where there was none. Maybe all the deaths of his brides were his fault after all. He had put off his true bride and now he had to search for another doomed substitute just to awaken a faint echo of the summer he could have summoned with Sehun by his side.
Chanyeol closed his eyes in defeat, his thoughts spiraling his mood downwards as he tried to find a solution for his weakened and miserable court. He only snapped out of his brooding when the sudden scent of full blooming spring exploded on the clearing.
He snapped his eyes open in alarm, his mouth falling open as he watched as sudden sunlight broke unobscured and bright golden from the sky to bathe the whole clearing in its shimmering light.
A sudden upwind had the canopy of the trees rustling with excitement. The wind carried the soundless outcries of the flowers on the clearing with him, bell-like and full of delight, vibrating in sudden joyous energy. The whole clearing was pulsing with magic- wide awake and breathless, waiting to unleash.
Chanyeol got up to search for the source for the sudden excitement, his whole body stunning into a standstill when he found it.
Bathed in light and leaving tracks of blooming flowers on his way to the center of the clearing was a boy with eyes as blue as the clear summer sky. His smile was a thousand summer suns, his silent laughter the shine of the brightest morning stars.
His sheer beauty took Chanyeol’s breath away in an instant, and the Summerking gasped, the magic in his soul expanding in sudden overjoy. Chanyeol was instantly in love. He knew, deep inside, instinctively, that this was what he had yearned for, for so many years. He knew that his boy was his everything. But he didn’t understand, not immediately.
Instead of realizing who was standing bathed in the light of the spring and summer sun, Chanyeol chose to see with his eyes and not with his soul. He didn’t realize that he was looking at his destined other half.
All he could think was that he had already found his next Summer Queen.
✿
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