When Taehyung woke up in the morning, he had expected to have cramps and numbness all over his body (from sleeping in the same position all night), incomplete sleep and a sour mood. Instead though, he found himself comfortably lying on his soft bed of leaves, beside a warm fire that had cozied up the entire cave.

No signs of a certain ravenette around here. The blond groaned.

He sat up, instantly noticing his healing wounds covered in little scraps of bandages, all treated, and smiled. Oh. So, the idiot wasn't all that bad, huh?

The next second his ears perked up, catching sounds of sharp movements outside on the snow. Maybe it was the Fire Prince. Maybe he hadn't left at all.

And Taehyung was right. Out in the snow, was a half-naked, although covered up in bandages, Jeongguk, working up a sweat, training vigorously. He probably, was just practising his stance, control and stability, punching the air in quick, smooth movements.

The blond observed the other Prince silently, watching his powerful punches in awe. If only he had that much power, he'd have been invincible. He then noticed the ravenette's sharp breathing and wondered how long he'd been here training. While he was still healing at that. Taehyung was stuck between scolding the other and praising him.

Jeongguk's medium-length, grimy hair was pulled back in a tight manbun, preventing disturbances. His face was covered in sweat, and Taehyung may have taken a second too long to watch a lone drop of the saline liquid trail down the side of the ravenette's face and drip down his sharp jaw.

The Prince of Ice then noticed what he thought was the most beautiful ink-work he'd ever seen, on the ravenette's arm. A dragon. One so intricately designed-seeming as if the dragon was swirling down the Prince's arm, ready to spring to life. Now that the blond thought about it, the dragon also did sort-of resemble a flame. How had he not noticed before? Perhaps he'd ask the other about this someday, but for now, all he wanted was to watch it closer and trace his fingers over it.

Taehyung's feet moved faster than his mind and before he knew it, his robes were slipped off of his body, sliding into a crumpled pile on the ground, and he was standing right behind Jeongguk.

"Punching the air won't make you any stronger.", he spoke, voice calm and steady, a hint of teasing lying within it's layers.

And if the blond's sudden appearance had scared Jeongguk, he did a good job at not letting it show on face.
"Oh? What do you suggest I do?", he spoke, without turning around, continuing with his speedy jabs.

"Spar with me."

"You? You can fight?", sneered the Prince of Fire, mocking a taunt. And he only felt his smile grow when he heard a huff from behind.

"Rule number one of sparring-never underestimate your opponent.", purred the blond, ramming his hand onto the sides of the ravenette's waist, sending him squirming.

Jeongguk jumped far from the blond, and turned around. He scowled, rubbing his sides sourly.

Taehyung's eyes lit up with familiar mischief, though his face remained stoic. A habit, that would take him quite awhile to unfollow.

Jeongguk lunged at him, throwing his fist aiming at his jaw, but the blond quickly blocked it, sending an uppercut at the other as a counter. And the ravenette wasn't going to let that weak an attack even touch him so he blocked it with ease.

And such rolled by the rest of the morning, the two Princes sparring languidly, the air filled with pants and huffs and occasional giggles, and the sun shining on the glittery snow.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

"So, you're saying we should head for my home?"

The two Princes laid on the snow-littered grass, under a huge pine tree, relishing the few moments of peace that they had. Once they'd been done with their little training session, the two decided to simply rest and recharge for awhile. Their hunger had been satiated from the hearty meal that they'd practically inhaled not much long ago, and now absolutely nothing could cause them to get up from their lazy habitat.

The little bonfire that they'd lit up was dimming out, and would have doused if not for the ravenette, who revived the flames with a mere flick of his hand.

"Yes, it's the only place, the Lord couldn't have infiltrated this soon.", said Taehyung, nose scrunching in disgust on referring to the priest as the Lord, making Jeongguk smile, before he continued, "Besides we might just find something useful there."

"Okay. So when do we start moving?"
"Right about now?"

"Tomorrow it is then.", sighed Jeongguk, melting back into the soft grass.

"Mm...", reciprocated Taehyung, also melting into the grass.

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

"Wake up, blondie, we should get moving."

The calm, soothing voice of the Prince of Fire tickled it's way through Taehyung's ear, and right to his tummy as a ticklish sensation, bringing a small, fluttery smile to his face.

"Five more minutes..."

"No. I'm bored, so let's go!", the ravenette whined, restless and of course, bored.

And Jeongguk kept whining and whining, until Taehyung had had enough and shot up onto his feet, glaring at the other sharply. So sharply, that if the ravenette hadn't been busy with his little achievement, he'd have long since turned into one of those ice statues. Sheesh.

A few minutes later into the morning and both the Princes were packed, fed and ready to go.

"Blondie, come on quick, we should get going!", exclaimed Jeongguk, as always excited and hyper.

"Shut up, I'm paying tribute to my baby! I'll miss this cave so much.", replied the blond, voice growing smaller with every word.

He raised his palm, placing it on the wall of his cave, and used his powers to create a pretty design of a glowing flower on the stone-a marking, for him to trace when he came back there. And he would. Someday.

Taehyung looked away from the cave's entrance to find the ravenette silent, seemingly deep in thought, and frowned.

"What's wrong?", he asked, breaking the other out of his trance.

With a lopsided smirk-that made the blond regret ever asking-Jeongguk replied, "I'm hurt that you think something's wrong just because I'm being quiet, blondie."

"Right, so nothing's wrong. Then we should get going.", huffed Taehyung, mentally noting to himself not to speak or ask anything unimportant to the other. It would only waste time and energy, and test his draining patience.

"I'm also hurt that you believed I was really okay and didn't check any further."

"Shut up."

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

Jeongguk could swear they'd been walking for an eternity.

Did the blond-head even know where he was taking them? Or was he just taking them around in circles in hopes of chancing upon a way out? Or was he planning something sinister against him after he let his guard down?

"Flames, stop. I can literally hear the gears of your brain clicking. What is it?"

And without thinking twice about the absurd yet accurate nickname, Jeongguk spoke his mind, "Are you gonna kill me?"

Now that didn't really fall into any category of presumptions the blond had had, but that was only something he'd expect from the other, "Not until you're asleep."

Cue the dramatic gasp from our Prince of Fire. "I knew it! But the question is, how are you gonna do it? Turn me to ice? Stab me with that dagger of yours? Your rope dart? Or punch me at some weak spot of mine that you somehow know of and I don't?"

"Seriously? No, I'm not going to kill you, happy?"
"Aww, we could've discussed more ways to perfect our murdering skills. But anyways, how do you know the way?"

Taehyung sighed. "You should pay more attention to your surroundings, Jeon, and learn to use them to your advantage. We both know the Yin kingdom is to the West, so that's where we're headed."

"That's cool, can we take a break now?"

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

It was evening by now, the sun having already been swallowed by the horizon, and little stars making their appearance, scattered all the over the navy sky.

Jeongguk huffed. He was tired. Afterall, the two of them had only walked on and on and on the whole day. Just how big were these forests huh?

"Hey, blondie."

The blond-haired Prince stopped in his tracks and turned around. "The more I hear you call me that, the more it sounds like a taunt."

The ravenette snickered, "I'm glad you caught on to that."

And Taehyung could only roll his eyes.

"Do you think there'll be a war?", asked Jeongguk, and just like that, the atmosphere around turned all grim and heavy. "Do you think everything's going to change?"

"I don't know, Jeongguk. We can't predict the future so why think so much about it? It's all about what we do right now.", said Taehyung, repeating the wise words of his hyung, and only now understanding it's true meanings. He really should have paid more attention to that man, huh?

Taehyung stopped abruptly and turning around to explain himself better, "Listen-". However it seemed as though the Prince of Fire was far too up in his mind to have comprehended the stop in his steps and ran right into him, sending them both tumbling onto a tree.

Ah. If only the tree were normal. But alas, their luck was that of a broken mirror. Or a black cat. Pretty bad most of the time, and Jeongguk's eyes widened when the expected slam onto the trunk didn't come their way.

The next second his eyes shut tight as he felt the two of them passing right through the trunk of the tree and falling. Falling for what felt like hours but could have only been seconds, until they both made contact with the ground-covered with what felt like soft grass-and rolled to a stop.

"Get off of me, you brute!"

Oh. Our Princes had rolled onto a very...compromising and highly suggestive position, with Jeongguk's body on top of Taehyung's, straddling him, his hands pinning down the other's.

With a blush on his cheeks, the Prince of Fire disentangled his limbs and jumped up from their, uh, compromising position, and coughed a few times trying to get rid of the colour on his cheeks.

And Taehyung wasn't any better, only now actually comprehending the position they'd been in, and cursing internally. "Sorry.", he said, not really knowing what he was apologising for.

It made the ravenette feel a little better seeing the blond flustered and confused. And deciding to not tease him any further he replied with a, "Don't worry about it."

"My my my. Knew you'd end up here.", spoke a voice without a body, making both their heads snap towards the source of the voice.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Jeongguk, Taehyung."

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Short, filler chapter, I think. Filled with Taekook interaction, that is XD.

Also, new character next chapter...hopefully :)

I 💜 U