"You are back," Yeran looked up, feeling eyes on him to find Aki leaning against a pillar, staring straight at him.

'I'm going to stick a bell on him,' Yeran thought. 'So damn quiet, I didn't even hear the door opening,'

"Did you missed me?" Aki asked, a small smile decorating his lips. It wasn't flirty, it wasn't teasing, just a normal soft smile, at least as normal as Yeran assumed Aki's smiles were, maybe a smidge tired.

Yeran rolled his eyes, turning back to his paper work.

"I'm tired today Yeran, let's play tomorrow," Aki said, heading to the bathing room.

"I didn't asked," Yeran replied, paying him no attention.

"Aww.....you wound me!" Aki said, leaving Yeran to roll his eyes, again.

No more words were exchanged between them, Aki disappeared into the bathing room, and Yeran focused on his own work.

Yeran was alerted by Aki's presence this time, the door creaking loud in the too quiet room. He looked up, almost as if in a trance.

Though the day wear changed, Aki still dressed in white for night, a long flowing robe over a pair of white trousers. He had braided his hair for the bed, pulled over a shoulder, some damp strands sticking to his face.

Under the soft glow of candles he looked almost ethereal, not paying much of an attention to Yeran, but gaze fixed upon the outside through open window.

"What is so fascinating about the garden?" Yeran asked, unable to help but be curious noticing this habit of Aki for the days he spent in these very chambers.

At first it was almost as if Aki had not heard him, letting the bare feet swing over the sill, slightly waving in the open air, sat at the very edge, three stories above ground.

"Curiosity killed the cat," Aki answered in a sly tone when Yeran had almost given up on expecting an answer.

"And satisfaction brought it back," Yeran fired back, not backing off.

Aki looked at him over a shoulder, again gifting him with a smile.

"Give and take Yeran, give and take," he said, philosophically.

"Are you not afraid I would sell court secrets to someone, doing your paper works here?" He asked while Yeran was contemplating over that sentence.

"Not really, it's not like you have anyone to sell them to, and I don't think toppling this empire being an intention of yours," Yeran replied absent-mindedly, only to realize what Aki meant at the same time, 'You give me answers, and I'll reply in kind,'.

"Freedom," Aki said.

"Hmm...? Yeran asked.

"You asked why I'm fascinated about the garden, but it isn't garden I'm interested in, it's the freedom. Sometimes I just want to let go, if I did, will I fly? Or are the chains around my ankles too heavy and pull me to the ground?" Aki pulled a leg up, turning side ways to lean against a window pane, eyeing Yeran, an unreadable look on his face.

"I don't understand you, not really," Yeran said.

"No one actually does," Yeran could not not for the life of him decipher what exactly was the emotion in Aki's tone, be it sad, sarcastic, proud or even flirty, though his eyes twinkled like stars.

"Where is Zeke?" Aki asked, so very suddenly it startled Yeran out of his deep concentration over the border troubles at Southern region. 

"What?!" He asked, disoriented.

"Zeke, Lord Zeke, that lover of yours, where is he? I haven't really seen him after that poison incident." Aki asked again, gaze fixed out of window, not looking at Yeran.

"I don't see how that is any of your business," Yeran narrowed his eyes.

"I'm just curios, I would be the last person for judging someone over who they love, I'm certain you already had Ruth tell us about our mother,"

Aki's eyes seemed to be looking straight through his eyes to the very soul inside.

"Why? Why are you curious?"

"Not why, what. I'm curious about what love makes people so...desperate, I don't understand it," Aki turned his face away, again, and Yeran let out a breath, free from the pinning gaze.

"Have you never loved?" Yeran asked, now curious himself, also recognizing the fact that this might actually be the first conversation he had had with his husband of three months.

First normal conversation, with no veiled insults, barbed threats and false courtesy.

"Think I was free enough to?" Aki asked, fingers tapping idly over the raised knee.

"You love your brother,"

"It's not the same, just as much as I love him, I'm responsible for him, but this, there's no responsibility, there is no have to, you don't have to love them, don't have to protect them, don't have to anything, you choose to," Aki gaze was unfocused, as if peering into a deep abyss, trying to decipher universal secrets.

"You might, someday," Yeran had no idea why he was comforting this ruthless assassin who almost took his life not even two weeks ago, what is it about Aki that both makes his hackles rise just as well succeed in lowering his guard?

"Hmm?" Aki asked.

"Choose to,"

"The king and the Consort, both having lovers of their own, will you take them into your harem too, or are you planning to build one for me as well? That would be an interesting tale," Aki chuckled softly, slight sarcasm coloring his voice.

"Or I could just divorce you," Yeran muttered, miffed.

"Could you? Without raising a war? Toppling all the treaties and alliances our fathers' have made?"

"Do you want to stay married or do you not?"

"Does not make much of a difference now does it?" Yeran knew Aki hid a lot more in that single sentence than he allowed to speak out.

"I'm going to bed, turn down the lights," Aki rose to his feet.

"Have you changed your bandages?" Yeran asked.

"OH? Is that concern I hear, husband? Are you worried?" Aki looked at him with a barely there smirk of amusement.

"Can't have you dying yet," Yeran replied, indifferent.

Aki laughed. "As you say, husband,"

Yeran reeled back, away from Aki who put his hands against the table to lean over to get closer to Yeran's face, appearing so suddenly.

'Bells! He needs a bell around his neck'

Yeran was so throughly convinced enough to go find looking for one right at the moment.

"Don't worry your pretty head, a simple cut as such can not take me from you," he smirked, disappearing just as instantly as he appeared, leaving Yeran's heart racing out of his chest.

"Fuck!" Yeran muttered to himself, listening to the rustling of sheets.

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Hey,

Another short chapter, I know, I know, but if I'm updating more frequently, then that is fine right? Right.

See ya,

Stay tuned, vote and comment.

Arkhane.

Yeran

(From 'wha?' To 'what the fuck you said?!')