Frozen Fate 9/?

[dokssuri]

Title: Frozen Fate
Pairing: Changmin/Junsu
Summary: Junsu is living a carefree, comfortable life in his father’s orchards, planning a big adventure. Everything changes when it is decided that the Prince of Ice will marry a son of one of the southern lords. Junsu learns that sometimes life pushes you in an unexpected direction, and fighting it only makes things worse.



Junsu tried harder to pull his arm free, still in vain. “Let go,” he said. “I don’t want to sail with you.”

He tried not to show any fear, nor that the fingers digging into his skin were hurting him. He had been approached by men who were after his gold before, during his explorations of the capital when his father and brother were discussing business.

But this was the first time he’d been called a ‘pretty thing’. The sly smirk on the man’s face left no doubt about what it implied. It made Junsu feel more uncomfortable than he ever had before in this kind of situation.

“You sure? We saw you ask the golden brat for a lift. There won’t be much other ships can take you back home before winter. How ‘bout you come with us, check out ours and we can…talk about it.” It sounded like an offer he could refuse, but the death grip on his arm told him otherwise.

“I am Kim Junsu, son of Lord Kim. The King will punish you severely if any harm comes to me.”

Those words had always worked wonders before, but now only the man on the left seemed slightly taken aback.

The one on the right said: “He’s a noble one! Never fucked a noble ass before, or a noble mouth,” he licked his lips, “imagine sticking your dick right where those pretty words come out.”

Junsu could barely stop himself physically recoiling, something that would surely read as a sign of weakness. Meanwhile, the man who was holding him never stopped smiling. “The King? This place only has a queen far as I know. Did you mean King of Soris? And where is he? How much power he have all the way over here? Kyung is right, I’d like to have a go at that noble ass of yours.”

The pretence of offering him a lift was completely gone now. Apparently they had decided he didn’t need to follow them voluntarily. They were probably right. There were three of them and they were big and strong, used to manual labour. The man who was holding him was by far the biggest. His chances didn’t look great.

“He will hear of this,” Junsu said, trying hard to keep his voice steady. “And he will punish you.”

“Sure,” the big man said. “If he can find us. And if he even cares. Wonder why you’re stranded here all alone. You get banished?”

Junsu looked around. To his right there were ships and the cold water of the bay, to the left a single row of warehouses. He could see the first buildings of the city up ahead and the palace towering above them, in the distance. Behind him, the road led to more docks and piers.

There were people everywhere, walking in and out of the warehouses or loading and unloading ships, but none of them paid him any attention. Of course, why should they care about a couple of Sorisians possibly getting into a fight? Junsu suspected this kind of thing happened more often in the harbour.

“Let me go,” he said again. He tried using his other hand to pull the sailor’s fingers from his arm. The man grabbed hold of that arm as well.

“We’ve been at sea for weeks. There’s not many pretty boys at sea. Listen, you either come with us quietly and do this the easy way, or…” The man’s eyes lit up as if he’d just got a brilliant idea. His smile revealed more holes where there had once been teeth. “Kyung gets to have you first.”

The one called Kyung stepped a little closer, eager. “I’ll be real gentle,” he said with a near-toothless grin of his own.

Junsu looked for Aya between the people swarming around them, but she was nowhere to be seen.

He wished he didn’t have to do this, because it didn’t feel right, but it seemed he had no choice.

“I’m engaged to the Prince of Cryan,” he said, very seriously, making sure to keep his voice steady. It was almost the truth. “He definitely has power here, and hurting me is punishable by death.”

He wondered briefly if the Prince would personally come to his rescue if he could see him right now. He probably would. But the Prince was still at the palace and might not even have noticed he was gone.

Junsu was shocked when all three men suddenly burst out laughing, Kyung and the big one the loudest, the third still looked a little apprehensive, as if he was at least considering the possibility Junsu spoke the truth.

“Your lives are at stake,” Junsu said, “what’s funny about that?”

The big man tightened his grip and pulled him closer. The smell of his disgusting breath was even stronger now, something Junsu had not thought possible.

“You think we’re stupid?” the man said. “If what you say is true, you would’ve told us right away. Enough of your stories.”

He started walking in the direction of the piers, simply pulling Junsu along. He resisted, but in a battle of weight, the sailor won easily.

Junsu was no fighter. Only a few of the King’s soldiers who passed through his Father’s lands every now and then had tried to teach him some basic moves, which he’d long since forgotten. As a little boy he’d been impressed by their muscles and armour, but he’d eventually lost interest.

Soris had been at peace with Aruni and lands across the sea for a long time. The soldiers themselves hardly saw any real action anymore, they just dealt with crime, of which there was little in the land of Apples and Honey. Even a murder in one of the villages when Junsu was fifteen hadn’t led to any fights.

But he was used to running, and climbing trees. He could carry heavy baskets filled with fruit and load them onto a cart. He didn’t do it as regularly as the workers from the village, but he preferred helping them over helping Junho with the paperwork.

He tried to squirm out of the sailor’s grasp. He managed to twist and pull one of his arms free and then, with quick movements and the help of his now free hand, the other as well. It was almost too easy.

In the moment it took him to decide in which direction he would run, he caught the amused look on the man’s face. In the next, strong arms wrapped around his chest from behind, pinning his own to his sides, and there was a different kind of equally bad breath right next to his face.

“I like it when they struggle a bit,” Kyung said.

Junsu could feel an unmistakable erection pressing against his ass.

“Don’t worry, Princess,” the big man stepped closer so Junsu was completely trapped between the two. “We’ll be sure to make you scream.”

That was it. All of Junsu’s instincts had been triggered. This was a fight of life and death now, or a fight of life and rape, possibly both. It didn’t matter, he didn’t want these men to touch him in whatever way. He had to get away now.

He snapped out of his previous state of paralysed with fear and disgust, let himself drop to the floor, out of Kyung’s arms, and rolled away. Hands reached for his ankle. He kicked at them.

The third man appeared out of nowhere and jumped on him. For all his signs of reluctance up to this point, he seemed more than happy to join the fight.

Junsu screamed, more instinctively than as a deliberate cry for help, and scratched, punched and twisted his way out of the man’s grip.

Junsu was no fighter, but he was determined, and he still had all of his teeth. Kyung attempted to clasp a hand over his mouth to silence him and Junsu bit down on his fingers.

Kyung cried out and jumped back. Junsu kicked hard at a pair of legs, hitting someone’s shin. He suddenly wished his new boots weren’t so soft.

The men were angry now, and Junsu still hadn’t managed to regain his footing. He was just getting up by himself when a big hand grabbed the front of his tunic and pulled him to his feet. Junsu looked into the evil eyes of the man who was still smiling and then a fist slammed into his face and his head snapped to the side and he saw nothing.

He fell back, stumbling, until his ass hit the gravelly road. The flash of pain in his back almost exceeded the pain in his jaw. He curled up, leaning on his elbow, trying to regain his senses.

“Are you ready to be a good boy and follow us now?” a voice asked.

It sounded threatening, but there was a hint of impatience, too. When his eyes were able to focus again, Junsu could see that people were abandoning their activities to watch what was happening.

Would any of them recognise him? Any of the Sorisians he’d seen before in the city? Maybe Jaejoong and his bodyguard were still nearby. But there was no movement from them. He was on his own still.

“Never,” he said. He jumped to his feet and swung his fist at the nearest sailor, Kyung, who was so surprised by this attack that Junsu actually managed to hit him. It was nowhere near as powerful as the big man’s punch, but enough to feel a small amount of satisfaction from it.

Junsu turned around and tried to run, but the third man managed to grab his arm. Junsu stepped back and elbowed him in the ribs. The reaction was minimal. He didn’t let go.

“That’s it,” the big man said, as if all this had just been a game and they would stop playing now. “Hold him.”

The two worked together, each grabbing one of his arms. Junsu tried to stomp on their feet and pulled and twisted his body until it felt his arms would break, but he wouldn’t give up, would never let them do what they planned to do.

Kyung seemed to have stopped trying, however. He was staring at something in the distance and suddenly punched the big man’s shoulder.

“Royal guard,” he hissed, “coming right this way. She looks real pissed, too.”

The men instantly let go of his arms. The big one took a final swing at him. Junsu, too surprised to dodge it, was knocked to the ground again. He tasted blood in his mouth. People in the crowd around him complained as they were roughly pushed aside, and then the sailors were gone.

“Junsu!” Aya was hovering over him, suddenly, her hands on his face. Had he blacked out for a moment? Aya looked over her shoulder, her body tense. Maybe she expected the sailors to come back, or she wanted to follow them instead, but then she turned her full attention back to him. “Can you hear me? Can you move?”

Junsu pushed himself up into a sitting position. He didn’t doubt he’d be sore later, when his body calmed down and bruises became more important than trying to escape, but for now the worst seemed to be a split lip. “I’m fine,” he managed to say without wincing at the sting.

He looked up at Aya. She’d saved him, and he would be eternally grateful for that, but right now it was a bit embarrassing. And she looked so worried for him, he didn’t like it. “I totally had it though,” he said. “I was winning. Didn’t even need you.”

That managed to curve her lips into the smallest smile, but only for a moment.

“Let’s go back to the palace,” she said. “Can you walk?”

Junsu stood up, as quickly and gracefully as he could, and he was thankful when Aya didn’t offer to support him. The crowd parted for them, silently, and they started walking towards the city.

Aya seemed to be continuously scanning the surroundings, in between her worried glances at Junsu. “These men,” she said, “who were they? Had you seen them before?”

“Sorisian sailors,” Junsu answered. “And no.” He expected her to yell at him for running away from her. She really should. But while she did seem angry, it wasn’t directed at him.

“What did they want?”

Junsu remembered every word they’d said describing their plans with him. He couldn’t bring himself to say it. He stared at the ground.

Aya seemed to understand anyway. “We have no brothel here,” she said. “Cryan people, we…our culture is different. We will not have sex for southern gold. The sailors, especially ones that stay here longer… they do not like it.”

She made it sound as if what happened was somehow her people’s fault, but Junsu would not blame them. He had been attacked by Sorisian sailors, how could he blame Cryan culture for that?

“I should have been there,” Aya said. “Should have stopped them, arrested them.”

She was not to blame either. “But I was the one who-” Junsu started.

“I should have been there,” Aya said again, looking at him, her eyes full of guilt. “It’s my responsibility.”

“They were three big men. It would have been hard to for you to fight them off, let alone take them in.”

“I am a royal guard of Cryan,” Aya’s face was hard now. “I hope I will never have to demonstrate to you what I am capable of, but I wish you would trust me.”

Junsu was just doing and saying all the wrong things. He decided not to say anything for a while, but that resulted in Aya asking him if he was in pain and her being worried again.

Aya brought him straight to his bedroom, asked him to wait and left. She soon returned with a man Junsu hadn’t seen before. He was old, his hair was white and long, gathered in a braid on his back, and he had a neatly trimmed beard and moustache to match. His clothes were simple and black, as were the symbols on his skin, dots and lines, no complex shapes. They were visible on his face and arms, but Junsu suspected they continued under his clothes as well.

Aya introduced him as the best healer in the country, who knew everything there was to know about the human body, but refused to learn a different language. She stayed to translate as the man asked him to sit on his bed, take off his tunic and tell him where it hurt while he pressed his fingers against his skin.

It didn’t take long. The man pulled a small container, carved and polished stone, out of his bag and handed it to Aya. He gently laid one of his hands against Junsu’s forehead and hummed something, a mixture between a song and a prayer. Then he nodded and left.

“You only need rest. Nothing is broken. Your body will heal itself,” Aya said. “If your muscles start to ache, use this.” She took the lid off the small box and held it out for Junsu to see. There was a thick yellowish salve inside. “It doesn’t smell nice, but it’s soothing. I’ve used it often during my training.”

She handed him the container, and then the lid. “And you can press the cool stone against your lip to reduce the swelling.”

“Thank you,” Junsu said. He pulled his tunic back on. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologise.” Aya bowed. “I need to tell the city guards what happened so they can look for the sailors. Rest. I will return soon and be nearby if you need me. And I will have food brought up to your room.”

When she was gone, Junsu put the salve by his bed and walked over to the window. His head hurt, and he hoped some fresh air would help.

It didn’t, it made it worse, but Junsu couldn’t bring himself to close the shutters again.

In the distance, he saw Jaejoong’s ship gliding through the dark water of the bay, making way to open sea. Yoochun’s followed closely behind. Even though he couldn’t read the flags from here, the vessels were unmistakable for the yellow sails of the first and their impressive size.

The only two friendly Sorisians he’d met in this Kingdom were leaving. He had left a confused Jaejoong with a few quick words and Yoochun hadn’t said goodbye at all. Junsu knew the upcoming bad weather was the reason for this hurried departure, but it still hurt.

When Junsu ran from Aya, a small reason for that had been that he wanted to provoke her, to get her to stop treating him like royalty and act like her old self again - which had failed miserably, since she wasn’t even mad at him for running, but at herself for allowing it to happen.

But the main reason, beside simply the thrill of it, was that he wanted to test his fate.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know whether he should accept the proposal or not, and which decision he would regret the most later.

So he’d tried to stage an escape, to see if the feeling of freedom weighed up to the guilt that came with it.

At first it had been great, wonderful even, but after impulsively asking Jaejoong for a lift, his mind had filled with different thoughts, the guilt of neglecting his duty to his family, not being responsible. If that was a glimpse of the future, it would hold a lot of regret.

And then three Sorisian men from one of the only other ships that could still take him home now had…approached him.

Their touches lingered, not just in the form of bruises. He could still feel their hands on him, their words ringing in his ears and their disgusting breath in his nostrils.

Junsu didn’t want to believe in signs from the spirits, or fate. But if fate existed, it seemed to be steering him in a different direction than the harbour and Soris.

He was starting to get cold, and his headache worsened further, so he walked back to his bed and curled up under the blanket. He should probably poke up the fire, but he didn’t want to move. He was suddenly so tired. Maybe Aya would send someone to do it for him.

Fingers were stroking his hair.

Junsu slowly became aware of their gentle touch as he woke up. And then they moved down, over his cheek, which was unusually sensitive. The fingertips paused. One of them moved towards his mouth, while the warmth of the others disappeared.

His bottom lip felt hot and swollen, even the lightest touch caused a mean sting. Junsu’s eyes shot open and he sat up.

Prince Changmin started and quickly pulled his hand back.

The Prince’s blue eyes were wide, he looked like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. He was sitting on the edge of Junsu’s bed. Some of his black hair had escaped the tie at the back of his head and now framed his face. It made him look less strict and in control.

Their faces were a bit too close together. Junsu pushed himself back until he was sitting against the headboard. He didn’t know the proper etiquette for when a prince comes into your bedroom while you’re sleeping, so he waited for him to speak first.

The Prince cleared his throat. “How… how are you feeling?”

Junsu shrugged and tried to smile, it pulled on his swollen lip. He doubted there would be an explanation why the Prince had just been touching his face.

“As soon as I realised you’d left the palace while the people were still upset about the news, I sent guards to protect you,” the Prince said, “but they looked for you in the city first, not the harbour.” It sounded almost apologetic. Had the Prince actually worried about him?

“Right now they are questioning everyone who stood idly by and watched you be attacked. And a suitable replacement will be found for Aya.”

“Aya?” Junsu asked. “Has something happened to her?” His heart sped up.

The Prince didn’t seem to notice his shock. “She let this happen,” he said grimly. “I expected better of her.”

“I ran away from her!” Junsu said. “You can’t punish her for this! She was trying to protect me and I ran away. I take all responsibility.”

The Prince gave him a surprised look. “I’ve heard about what almost…what happened to you. You would forgive her?”

“There is nothing to forgive,” Junsu said. “Don’t blame Aya, don’t blame your people, blame me, and those sailors.”

The Prince looked into his eyes for a moment. Then he nodded. His face hardened. “They will be punished. They won’t get away with this. Did you tell them who you are? Did you remind them of our law?”

“Only on second thought,” Junsu said, “so they didn’t believe me.”

The Prince frowned. “Why not immediately?”

“I thought…” Junsu wondered if the Prince would make him decide if he wanted to marry him right now, maybe use his protection as another way to convince him. He shifted and winced at the ache it caused in his limbs. “I thought that law only applied to members of the royal family.”

The Prince just stared at him for a while. He reached down and drew the blanket up over Junsu’s legs. Then he grabbed the little stone box from beside the bed and held it out to him.

“I have chosen you,” he said, looking into Junsu’s eyes. “You may still refuse me, but I have chosen you. If someone hurts you, they hurt me.”

For a second, Junsu thought that was the most emotional…touching thing he had heard him say.

Until the Prince added: “It wounds my pride, and undermines my power.”

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