A Knight of Fire 3/?
Title: A Knight of Fire 3/?
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong, Yoochun/Junsu, Changmin/Junho
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: They aren't mine and I can't even claim the idea as mine because it is all devilaugh's fault.
Summary: Jaejoong is a scribe in King Ahn Chilhyun's court. He is sent to small seaside village to teach the people how to read, and instead finds a lover who has a secret that will end up endangering the entire world.
A/N: This fic is all devilaugh's fault. It was her idea on the post about the picture of Jaejoong, so this fic was partially inspired by this picture
Part 3:
Fanfic poster by back_to_five!!! Perfection! <3 <3
Yunho stopped coming to lessons. Jaejoong taught others in the village instead including Jihye, the Lord Jung, and many of Jihye’s friends, who did not seem to have gotten the message that he was not interested in a wife. He did not press because Yunho had learned to read and write as he was supposed to. And faster than Jaejoong expected. Yunho was smart enough to continue studying on his own. Continuing the lessons, demanding that the busy Lord’s Heir come to his study, would be selfish.
He spent more time in the village, talking to the villagers, learning how to clean fish and repair broken nets. There was a long trail up the side of the hill that ended at the cliff face overlooking the ocean. With the village below and behind him, and the ocean and wind in front, it was a perfect place to think of what to do and how to proceed. Jaejoong went up there to read and write down his thoughts, though he was careful to say nothing of Yunho’s abilities. He continued to write letters to the king, but only of his success in teaching.
The ships left again for another long trip into the deep ocean, and Jaejoong watched as Yunho hugged Junho and clung to Junsu a bit longer than the other fisherman. Junsu laughed at him, though Jaejoong could tell that he took Yunho’s concern seriously.
“We’ll be just fine,” Junsu said. “Aren’t we always?”
“Yes, but ...”
“Now, you,” Junsu said and Jaejoong actually took a step back when Junsu glared at him. “You’re the one that has to be careful.”
Yunho must have told Junsu that Jaejoong knew about his ability. Or that look meant Junsu knew about their kiss. Or both.
Yunho followed his glare to Jaejoong, but his look did not linger, and he hugged Junsu tightly. “I’ll be fine.”
The village had another feast but a more subdued celebration with many prayers and offerings for the safe return of the fisherman. They prayed not to a god like many in the city but to the elements, to the wind and the water and the earth. They prayed for smooth water, they prayed for favorable winds, they prayed for bountiful fish.
Jaejoong pondered this new development. He had never heard of a people praying to the elements.
A week after the fishermen departed, Jaejoong sat upon the cliff watching a storm move in from the sea. Wind whipped his clothes around and he did not dare to take out parchment in case it blew away. But it was a warm wind, heralding the start of summer. Not that the temperature really changed this close to the sea. It was perpetual springtime, and Jaejoong deeply missed the snow.
But it was almost a year ago that Jaejoong had arrived at Knights Village. And almost six months ago since Yunho pressed him into his desk for hot kisses.
He heard someone come up the hill behind him but did not look up until a shadow fell over him.
Yunho.
Surprised, Jaejoong smiled. He patted the ground next to him and was even more surprised when Yunho sat beside him.
Silently, Yunho handed Jaejoong a scroll. One with the king’s seal, and it had been broken already.
He was used to his letters being read. He did not mind. He wanted Yunho to know that he could trust Jaejoong.
“They’re ending your assignment early,” Yunho said before Jaejoong could unroll the scroll. “Due to your success. They expect you back in the city as soon as possible.”
Jaejoong put the scroll down without reading it. He leaned back on his hands, tilted his head back and shut his eyes.
“Junsu can control water,” Yunho said.
Jaejoong nodded. “I figured that one out. Earth? Wind?”
“It’s just the two of us.”
“Everyone in the village knows?”
“Of course. We’re a family.”
“Why?” Jaejoong opened his eyes and looked at him.
Yunho furrowed his brow.
“Why you two? Why this village? Why now? Why two of you at once when it’s been long enough in history that elementals are stories, not even legends. Why a fire mage and a water mage living in the same town at the same time?”
Yunho shut his eyes and sighed out a curse that sounded like, “Bloody scholars.” He got up and held out his hand. Jaejoong took it and tried not to be too giddy when Yunho did not let him go and led him back to the village. He led him into the Lord’s private study, to books Jaejoong did not have access to.
Carefully, he removed one tome, thin and frayed, and handed it to Jaejoong. It had no title. The leather cover cracked. The brittle pages felt too delicate to touch.
Yunho leaned against the closed door, arms crossed, and said nothing else.
Jaejoong sat at the table and opened the pages of the book. The words were written in an even older system, barely discernable as the predecessor to how the villagers now spoke and wrote, and it took a few minutes for Jaejoong to understand what he was reading. The very first paragraph answered most of his questions.
Knights of the Elements were forced to scatter across the land. Too dangerous to be together. Too powerful to rule under a king. The following is the history of their rise. The history of their demise. The history of their banishment.
Jaejoong looked up at Yunho with wide eyes.
“That book has been in this village for a thousand years. We are descendants of the Water Knight.”
“But ...”
Yunho pushed off the wall and sat down. “I know. It’s why I started a fire when I shouldn’t have been able to. We weren’t expecting it. You can read that book and have the question answered, but what it means is that the Fire Knight of this time, of this life, died. And it needed to go somewhere else. Somewhere accepting. It means that the Fire Knights Village, much like this one, was destroyed, or no one there believes any longer. There are only four of us at one time. Always only four.”
“Do you know where the other villages are?”
Yunho shook his head. “That was not allowed. They had to separate. There is not supposed to be more than one Knight of the Elements in one place. I’m supposed to leave but these are my people, this is my home. It ... I don’t want to leave.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
There were a lot of questions that fell under that “why.” Jaejoong asked the most important one.
“Why are you telling me?”
Yunho looked at him and then leaned forward for a kiss that Jaejoong eagerly returned. He turned in his chair and Yunho pulled at his arms and their lips stayed together until Jaejoong straddled his lap, feet hooked at the legs of the chair, hands buried in Yunho’s soft hair. They kissed each other’s breath away, touched and sighed and licked against lips and tongues. Jaejoong moaned and rocked on Yunho’s lap. His kisses were just as hot as Jaejoong remembered.
“I trust you,” Yunho finally said, sliding his hands under Jaejoong’s tunic. They were warm on his skin, warm from the fire within Yunho, or just warm, Jaejoong was not sure.
Jaejoong smiled. “Why now?”
“You had plenty of time to tell the king of me, and you didn’t.”
“But I’m leaving now. I could when I get to the city without you even knowing.”
Yunho held his gaze and said again, “I trust you.”
Jaejoong smiled. “Thank you.”
He pulled Jaejoong closer, burying his face against Jaejoong’s chest. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go.”
Yunho held him for a little longer. “I have to chores to do. Stay here. My father knows I am showing you this book. If it is missing when I come back in here ... well, it better still be here.”
“It will be.”
“You have to get off my lap.”
Jaejoong pouted. “I don’t want to.”
Yunho’s chest rumbled with laughter and his arms tightened around Jaejoong as he stood up and deposited Jaejoong on the table. “This is familiar.”
Jaejoong smiled. “No skin touching though.”
Yunho shivered. He kissed Jaejoong again, just a quick press of lips holding promises of more, and then he left. Jaejoong took a few very deep breaths before sitting in the chair and reading the answers to all of his questions.
The Knights of the Elements had brought the world together, under one banner, under one decree. They had ruled as kings though they hadn’t called themselves that. Their descendants ruled in peace. Until the Fire Knight was killed and no Fire Knight replaced him. They searched the world for him, they searched every corner of every village. He had been kidnaped by a greedy man, held captive and forced to use Fire as a weapon instead of a tool of peace.
The balance of the world shifted and wavered. The Knights of the Elements fought against their own Fire, but it was impossible for them to harm each other, impossible for one to weaken without the others weakening. They were captured and the world burned, flooded and died under the rule of the greedy king.
But together, they were stronger, and together, the four rebelled. The war almost destroyed the world. It almost destroyed everyone living in it. It was not their intention, and between the four, they decided it was better if they lived apart, if they were no longer a team. It was safer for the world. To keep this from happening again, they spread out to the edges of the lands and let their memory die outside of their own villages.
Jaejoong would have dismissed it as a fanciful story written by a bard if he hadn’t seen Yunho’s ability himself.
It answered all of his questions. Except one.
What did this mean for the kingdom? Was King Ahn aware of the Knights of the Elements? There was really only one person Jaejoong could ask, but definitely not in a letter. He would have to wait until he returned to the castle before asking Changmin, the King’s personal scribe, what he knew about the history of elementals.
He shut the book and returned it to its place on the shelf. He hoped he could read it again before leaving the village. On his way back to his rooms, he stopped in the kitchen for a bit of soup and bread. He was too full of questions and thoughts to eat properly and he told the cook not to disturb him with dinner.
She nodded and added a slice of fruit pie to the tray because she knew Jaejoong liked it. He went to his room and ate the food slowly. He wished he could write down his thoughts, that was always easier for him to think through things, but he did not want the papers to fall into the wrong hands. He did not want Yunho’s trust in him to be taken away so quickly.
Instead, he opened his own history book, the one that was as thick as his arm. He pondered the differences, where this one only spoke of kings and their reigns. It spoke of many wars, but nothing of one that ended in the massive destruction of the world. The tome covered history back over a thousand years, but there was no mention of anyone but kings who ruled.
The only clue was in the reign of King Jang Woohyuk who spoke of legendary knights of the king’s army who fought bravely and almost like gods with powers beyond man’s abilities. But it was just two lines, giving credit to the king for the victory.
Just as the Knight of the Elements wanted, they were erased from history and forgotten.
Jaejoong read and studied into the night, the glow of his candle flickering in the air. He jumped in surprise when his door opened, and Yunho entered. He wore only the barest of underclothes on his lower half, his bare chest and skin glimmered in the candle light.
“I can feel it,” Yunho said, “whenever and wherever a fire is burning in the village. I started one that took the life of my friend, but I’ve stopped even more since then.”
Jaejoong’s mouth did not move, but his eyes did, over the muscles of his chest, stomach and arms.
Though Yunho thought his silence was something else. “I did not mean to disturb you. I only wanted to make sure you had not fallen asleep with a candle burning. It is a quick and easy way to start a fire, especially in a room with all these books.”
Jaejoong now understood why he fell asleep at his desk with a candle burning and the candle was blown out the next morning.
Finally, Jaejoong managed to say, “You did not disturb me. You never could.”
“Do you know when you are going to leave for the city?” Yunho asked.
Jaejoong shook his head. “I must though.”
“No, you don’t.”
“He may not be your king, but he is mine, and I must obey my king’s orders.”
Yunho glanced away from Jaejoong.
“You can come with me.”
“I will not leave my people.”
Jaejoong expected that response. “I guess that just means I will come back to visit.”
“Why?” Yunho asked. “You don’t need to. You’ve fulfilled your assignment.”
Jaejoong smiled and stood up. He walked to Yunho, who only watched him but did not move away. Jaejoong slid fingertips along the chords of his muscled arms. “Yes, I have,” he whispered, “but I also have a reason to return. Don’t I?”
“Aren’t I enough of a reason to stay?”
Jaejoong took a deep breath. “Soldiers will follow and force me to return.”
“But you want to stay?”
“Of course. Yunho, this village, your life. I love it here. It’s peaceful and the people are kind to one another. It is the way all cities and villages all over the world should be. It is hard to go. It will be so hard to leave you.”
“It will be hard to let you go.”
“So don’t,” Jaejoong said, moving his soft touches up Yunho’s arm to his shoulder. He wrapped his hands at his neck. “Do not go. Stay. Please. Even if it is just for tonight.”
Yunho answered with his arms wrapping around Jaejoong’s waist and lips pressing against Jaejoong’s.
Part 4: Burn
Part 2: Flare
Part 1: Spark
.
Pairing: Yunho/Jaejoong, Yoochun/Junsu, Changmin/Junho
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: They aren't mine and I can't even claim the idea as mine because it is all devilaugh's fault.
Summary: Jaejoong is a scribe in King Ahn Chilhyun's court. He is sent to small seaside village to teach the people how to read, and instead finds a lover who has a secret that will end up endangering the entire world.
A/N: This fic is all devilaugh's fault. It was her idea on the post about the picture of Jaejoong, so this fic was partially inspired by this picture
Part 3:
Fanfic poster by back_to_five!!! Perfection! <3 <3
Yunho stopped coming to lessons. Jaejoong taught others in the village instead including Jihye, the Lord Jung, and many of Jihye’s friends, who did not seem to have gotten the message that he was not interested in a wife. He did not press because Yunho had learned to read and write as he was supposed to. And faster than Jaejoong expected. Yunho was smart enough to continue studying on his own. Continuing the lessons, demanding that the busy Lord’s Heir come to his study, would be selfish.
He spent more time in the village, talking to the villagers, learning how to clean fish and repair broken nets. There was a long trail up the side of the hill that ended at the cliff face overlooking the ocean. With the village below and behind him, and the ocean and wind in front, it was a perfect place to think of what to do and how to proceed. Jaejoong went up there to read and write down his thoughts, though he was careful to say nothing of Yunho’s abilities. He continued to write letters to the king, but only of his success in teaching.
The ships left again for another long trip into the deep ocean, and Jaejoong watched as Yunho hugged Junho and clung to Junsu a bit longer than the other fisherman. Junsu laughed at him, though Jaejoong could tell that he took Yunho’s concern seriously.
“We’ll be just fine,” Junsu said. “Aren’t we always?”
“Yes, but ...”
“Now, you,” Junsu said and Jaejoong actually took a step back when Junsu glared at him. “You’re the one that has to be careful.”
Yunho must have told Junsu that Jaejoong knew about his ability. Or that look meant Junsu knew about their kiss. Or both.
Yunho followed his glare to Jaejoong, but his look did not linger, and he hugged Junsu tightly. “I’ll be fine.”
The village had another feast but a more subdued celebration with many prayers and offerings for the safe return of the fisherman. They prayed not to a god like many in the city but to the elements, to the wind and the water and the earth. They prayed for smooth water, they prayed for favorable winds, they prayed for bountiful fish.
Jaejoong pondered this new development. He had never heard of a people praying to the elements.
A week after the fishermen departed, Jaejoong sat upon the cliff watching a storm move in from the sea. Wind whipped his clothes around and he did not dare to take out parchment in case it blew away. But it was a warm wind, heralding the start of summer. Not that the temperature really changed this close to the sea. It was perpetual springtime, and Jaejoong deeply missed the snow.
But it was almost a year ago that Jaejoong had arrived at Knights Village. And almost six months ago since Yunho pressed him into his desk for hot kisses.
He heard someone come up the hill behind him but did not look up until a shadow fell over him.
Yunho.
Surprised, Jaejoong smiled. He patted the ground next to him and was even more surprised when Yunho sat beside him.
Silently, Yunho handed Jaejoong a scroll. One with the king’s seal, and it had been broken already.
He was used to his letters being read. He did not mind. He wanted Yunho to know that he could trust Jaejoong.
“They’re ending your assignment early,” Yunho said before Jaejoong could unroll the scroll. “Due to your success. They expect you back in the city as soon as possible.”
Jaejoong put the scroll down without reading it. He leaned back on his hands, tilted his head back and shut his eyes.
“Junsu can control water,” Yunho said.
Jaejoong nodded. “I figured that one out. Earth? Wind?”
“It’s just the two of us.”
“Everyone in the village knows?”
“Of course. We’re a family.”
“Why?” Jaejoong opened his eyes and looked at him.
Yunho furrowed his brow.
“Why you two? Why this village? Why now? Why two of you at once when it’s been long enough in history that elementals are stories, not even legends. Why a fire mage and a water mage living in the same town at the same time?”
Yunho shut his eyes and sighed out a curse that sounded like, “Bloody scholars.” He got up and held out his hand. Jaejoong took it and tried not to be too giddy when Yunho did not let him go and led him back to the village. He led him into the Lord’s private study, to books Jaejoong did not have access to.
Carefully, he removed one tome, thin and frayed, and handed it to Jaejoong. It had no title. The leather cover cracked. The brittle pages felt too delicate to touch.
Yunho leaned against the closed door, arms crossed, and said nothing else.
Jaejoong sat at the table and opened the pages of the book. The words were written in an even older system, barely discernable as the predecessor to how the villagers now spoke and wrote, and it took a few minutes for Jaejoong to understand what he was reading. The very first paragraph answered most of his questions.
Knights of the Elements were forced to scatter across the land. Too dangerous to be together. Too powerful to rule under a king. The following is the history of their rise. The history of their demise. The history of their banishment.
Jaejoong looked up at Yunho with wide eyes.
“That book has been in this village for a thousand years. We are descendants of the Water Knight.”
“But ...”
Yunho pushed off the wall and sat down. “I know. It’s why I started a fire when I shouldn’t have been able to. We weren’t expecting it. You can read that book and have the question answered, but what it means is that the Fire Knight of this time, of this life, died. And it needed to go somewhere else. Somewhere accepting. It means that the Fire Knights Village, much like this one, was destroyed, or no one there believes any longer. There are only four of us at one time. Always only four.”
“Do you know where the other villages are?”
Yunho shook his head. “That was not allowed. They had to separate. There is not supposed to be more than one Knight of the Elements in one place. I’m supposed to leave but these are my people, this is my home. It ... I don’t want to leave.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
There were a lot of questions that fell under that “why.” Jaejoong asked the most important one.
“Why are you telling me?”
Yunho looked at him and then leaned forward for a kiss that Jaejoong eagerly returned. He turned in his chair and Yunho pulled at his arms and their lips stayed together until Jaejoong straddled his lap, feet hooked at the legs of the chair, hands buried in Yunho’s soft hair. They kissed each other’s breath away, touched and sighed and licked against lips and tongues. Jaejoong moaned and rocked on Yunho’s lap. His kisses were just as hot as Jaejoong remembered.
“I trust you,” Yunho finally said, sliding his hands under Jaejoong’s tunic. They were warm on his skin, warm from the fire within Yunho, or just warm, Jaejoong was not sure.
Jaejoong smiled. “Why now?”
“You had plenty of time to tell the king of me, and you didn’t.”
“But I’m leaving now. I could when I get to the city without you even knowing.”
Yunho held his gaze and said again, “I trust you.”
Jaejoong smiled. “Thank you.”
He pulled Jaejoong closer, burying his face against Jaejoong’s chest. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go.”
Yunho held him for a little longer. “I have to chores to do. Stay here. My father knows I am showing you this book. If it is missing when I come back in here ... well, it better still be here.”
“It will be.”
“You have to get off my lap.”
Jaejoong pouted. “I don’t want to.”
Yunho’s chest rumbled with laughter and his arms tightened around Jaejoong as he stood up and deposited Jaejoong on the table. “This is familiar.”
Jaejoong smiled. “No skin touching though.”
Yunho shivered. He kissed Jaejoong again, just a quick press of lips holding promises of more, and then he left. Jaejoong took a few very deep breaths before sitting in the chair and reading the answers to all of his questions.
The Knights of the Elements had brought the world together, under one banner, under one decree. They had ruled as kings though they hadn’t called themselves that. Their descendants ruled in peace. Until the Fire Knight was killed and no Fire Knight replaced him. They searched the world for him, they searched every corner of every village. He had been kidnaped by a greedy man, held captive and forced to use Fire as a weapon instead of a tool of peace.
The balance of the world shifted and wavered. The Knights of the Elements fought against their own Fire, but it was impossible for them to harm each other, impossible for one to weaken without the others weakening. They were captured and the world burned, flooded and died under the rule of the greedy king.
But together, they were stronger, and together, the four rebelled. The war almost destroyed the world. It almost destroyed everyone living in it. It was not their intention, and between the four, they decided it was better if they lived apart, if they were no longer a team. It was safer for the world. To keep this from happening again, they spread out to the edges of the lands and let their memory die outside of their own villages.
Jaejoong would have dismissed it as a fanciful story written by a bard if he hadn’t seen Yunho’s ability himself.
It answered all of his questions. Except one.
What did this mean for the kingdom? Was King Ahn aware of the Knights of the Elements? There was really only one person Jaejoong could ask, but definitely not in a letter. He would have to wait until he returned to the castle before asking Changmin, the King’s personal scribe, what he knew about the history of elementals.
He shut the book and returned it to its place on the shelf. He hoped he could read it again before leaving the village. On his way back to his rooms, he stopped in the kitchen for a bit of soup and bread. He was too full of questions and thoughts to eat properly and he told the cook not to disturb him with dinner.
She nodded and added a slice of fruit pie to the tray because she knew Jaejoong liked it. He went to his room and ate the food slowly. He wished he could write down his thoughts, that was always easier for him to think through things, but he did not want the papers to fall into the wrong hands. He did not want Yunho’s trust in him to be taken away so quickly.
Instead, he opened his own history book, the one that was as thick as his arm. He pondered the differences, where this one only spoke of kings and their reigns. It spoke of many wars, but nothing of one that ended in the massive destruction of the world. The tome covered history back over a thousand years, but there was no mention of anyone but kings who ruled.
The only clue was in the reign of King Jang Woohyuk who spoke of legendary knights of the king’s army who fought bravely and almost like gods with powers beyond man’s abilities. But it was just two lines, giving credit to the king for the victory.
Just as the Knight of the Elements wanted, they were erased from history and forgotten.
Jaejoong read and studied into the night, the glow of his candle flickering in the air. He jumped in surprise when his door opened, and Yunho entered. He wore only the barest of underclothes on his lower half, his bare chest and skin glimmered in the candle light.
“I can feel it,” Yunho said, “whenever and wherever a fire is burning in the village. I started one that took the life of my friend, but I’ve stopped even more since then.”
Jaejoong’s mouth did not move, but his eyes did, over the muscles of his chest, stomach and arms.
Though Yunho thought his silence was something else. “I did not mean to disturb you. I only wanted to make sure you had not fallen asleep with a candle burning. It is a quick and easy way to start a fire, especially in a room with all these books.”
Jaejoong now understood why he fell asleep at his desk with a candle burning and the candle was blown out the next morning.
Finally, Jaejoong managed to say, “You did not disturb me. You never could.”
“Do you know when you are going to leave for the city?” Yunho asked.
Jaejoong shook his head. “I must though.”
“No, you don’t.”
“He may not be your king, but he is mine, and I must obey my king’s orders.”
Yunho glanced away from Jaejoong.
“You can come with me.”
“I will not leave my people.”
Jaejoong expected that response. “I guess that just means I will come back to visit.”
“Why?” Yunho asked. “You don’t need to. You’ve fulfilled your assignment.”
Jaejoong smiled and stood up. He walked to Yunho, who only watched him but did not move away. Jaejoong slid fingertips along the chords of his muscled arms. “Yes, I have,” he whispered, “but I also have a reason to return. Don’t I?”
“Aren’t I enough of a reason to stay?”
Jaejoong took a deep breath. “Soldiers will follow and force me to return.”
“But you want to stay?”
“Of course. Yunho, this village, your life. I love it here. It’s peaceful and the people are kind to one another. It is the way all cities and villages all over the world should be. It is hard to go. It will be so hard to leave you.”
“It will be hard to let you go.”
“So don’t,” Jaejoong said, moving his soft touches up Yunho’s arm to his shoulder. He wrapped his hands at his neck. “Do not go. Stay. Please. Even if it is just for tonight.”
Yunho answered with his arms wrapping around Jaejoong’s waist and lips pressing against Jaejoong’s.
Part 4: Burn
Part 2: Flare
Part 1: Spark
.