AN: Sometimes I feel like "Six" is turning into a daytime soap-opera and not a medieval epic adventure... wtf am I doing?

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Dust swirled around their feet as Hoseok swung his quarterstaff in a quick, upward arc. The clack of wood on wood bounced off the walls of the castle, echoing in the small, outdoor practice court he had picked for that afternoon's session. A few paces in front of him, Yoongi made a subtle change to his hands' positioning before attempting an overhead strike toward the younger general's shoulder. Only a swift hop back prevented the contact but, as Hoseok landed, he felt a sharp stab through his left knee.

Staggering backwards, he ground his teeth together and tried to ignore the twinge. He switched to a defensive stance and waited for his old friend's next move. He was not expecting that move to be his opponent dropping his weapon.

"What are you-" Hoseok started but was abruptly cut off when Yoongi sliced his hand through the air between them.

"That's the second time since we've started and we've only been at this for a few moments," the stoic man said, placing his hands on his hips. He glanced up at the clear, cloudless blue of the sky above them, squinting toward the sun.

It had been a fortnight since they had seen rain and the sun was baking the lands. Hoseok could see Yoongi's dark blue shirt clinging to the other's chest with sweat; despite the boiling weather, the older still wore full length sleeves and dark colors. Hoseok couldn't fathom how the other hadn't collapsed from heat exhaustion yet. He, himself, had donned a sleeveless linen shirt and was already feeling uncomfortable in the rising temperatures.

"We're supposed to leave tomorrow. Were you planning on hiding it from me?" Yoongi returned lazy eyes to his friend and quirked a brow.

Hoseok glanced to the side, leaning on his staff. "It's nothing," he muttered. "I must have slept on it wrong."

"How do you sleep wrong on a knee?" Yoongi moved forward and landed a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You should have it looked at before we go. Just in case."

The younger man shrugged Yoongi's hand away. Hefting his staff, he slung it across his shoulders, draping his arms over the top to hold it in place, like a man in stocks. "What's the point? There's nothing than can be done about it, anyway."

Yoongi moved back to his weapon, picking it up and resting it against his shoulder. "At the very least, I want you to go talk to Alchemist Heechul, see if he has any spare pain medication he can give you. I'm bringing quite a few supplies with us but I hadn't accounted for needing to keep you functional."

Hoseok scoffed lightly, repositioning his staff against one shoulder. The men started to move away from the practice court in an unspoken agreement that their bout was over. "I'm fully functional. It just tweaked. It's fine."

Yoongi glowered at the pathway as it led them toward a set of doors that would take them into an armory. Hoseok couldn't read the expression past knowing it meant his friend was not pleased. He had a sinking feeling he knew what was coming next and waited somewhat impatiently for Yoongi to spit it out.

It wasn't until after they'd escaped the heat of day and had put up their weapons in the cool, stone-encased interior of the armory that the shorter man turned to face Hoseok. "Go see the Alchemist. Now. That's-"

"An order," Hoseok finished for him glumly. There it was: an official mandate from a superior officer instead of a request from his best friend. It didn't matter that they'd known each other for something close to seven or eight years. Yoongi could, and would, pull rank to get his way. "Fine. But I'm bathing first."

"No, you go now," Yoongi insisted. "Don't make me walk you there myself."

"You'll do it anyway." With a groan, Hoseok dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling. "Fine," he grumbled. "I'll go now. But if Alchemist Heechul complains of me smelling like a sweaty warrior, I'm sending him to you."

Yoongi chuckled. "If you feel you must. I can handle him."

They moved out of the armory together into the wide hallways of the castle, meandering in the general direction of the alchemy workshop.

"But what would your precious Song think if she found you handling him?" Hoseok winced at the punch to his arm that followed his teasing question.

"You're not allowed to call her that," Yoongi stated blandly, shoving his hands into the pockets of his breeches. "And we aren't exclusive so she wouldn't care."

The younger shook his head. "I don't understand your relationship with that girl."

The older man poked his tongue out of his mouth, biting on it lightly in thought. "Eh. Do you remember Midwinter... what year was that? Two-ninety?"

Hoseok groaned, running a hand through his silvery hair. He remembered that year very well. He'd been sixteen, Yoongi seventeen. Lord Jeongsik had succumbed to sickness in the spring of that year. A month later, Lord Junghyun, Jeongguk's elder brother, had been granted full power over the Jeon titles, lands, and legislations. It was the best year of Hoseok's life.

It was also, he remembered with chagrin, the year he and Yoongi had gotten absolutely trashed at the midwinter ball and ended up in bed together. It wasn't the first sexual encounter Hoseok had had with a man before, but it was certainly the first one he'd had with a close friend.

"Why are you bringing that back up?" he complained to the older. "It's been four years and I don't see what it has to do with her."

"How many times did we fuck after that night?" Yoongi countered.

Hoseok pouted his lips a bit. "I don't know. I didn't exactly keep tally." He chanced a glance at this friend. "You didn't keep track, did you?" He knew Yoongi was a little odd but he wasn't that odd, was he?

"Of course not. I mean in general. Give a rough estimate."

Hoseok wrinkled his nose. He never did get how Yoongi could be both so blunt and blasé about the topic of sex. While he preferred to keep the details to himself, the upper-general wasn't shy about admitting his preferences or past experiences.

"I don't know. Midwinter until the around the Spring Equinox, so three months, give or take. Nearly every night." He furrowed his brow, attempting to visualize the numbers. "Eighty?" he finally offered. "Damn. Can that be right?" He tried to calculate it again; the number felt huge but there were about ninety days between their start and stop, and he wasn't wrong when he said they'd slept together nearly every one of those days. Same-sex coupling was finally legal in the Jeon lands by winter and they were taking full advantage of years of sexual repression.

"Did you ever think it would go anywhere?"

Why the sudden interrogation? Hoseok shoved his hands into his own pockets to prevent himself from fidgeting. "No," he admitted. "We made that pretty clear when we woke up the first morning." Hoseok had definitely not wanted to settle down and get into a relationship with his best friend. It had even been his idea to keep it casual.

"So why can't you understand my relationship with Song? It's an identical situation. She just happens to be female instead of male." Yoongi shrugged, the air of being entirely unconcerned wafting off him with the motion.

Not wanting to start an argument right then, he placated his friend with a vague, "Okay, that's fair."

The reality, though, was that he knew exactly why he didn't understand it but it was apparent that Yoongi didn't see what Hoseok saw. For a highly shrewd man, Yoongi was an idiot sometimes. It was glaringly obvious to the younger man that his friend loved the girl; he could see it whenever Yoongi looked at her. Yet, the older didn't have any intention of trying to settle down with her.

Hoseok knew it had nothing to do with Six being slave-born. They were all part of a resistance movement bent on toppling the oppressive Kim regime and abolishing slavery, after all. They would all be hypocritical if they refused someone due to their birth status.

It also had little to do with Yoongi wanting to remain 'unexclusive.' He had no other lovers at that moment; none that Hoseok knew of, anyway. He was near-certain Yoongi would have told him if he did. There were no secrets between them. The older man joked about Alchemist Heechul, but Hoseok doubted it would actually have happened. Heechul had become the Jeon's family alchemist ten years ago and had watched both Hoseok and Yoongi grow up from children. He was like an uncle to them and Hoseok felt uncomfortable thinking about ever ending up in the older man's bed. He assumed Yoongi would have felt the same.

The only logical reason the younger general could come up with that prevented Yoongi and Six from committing was something on the girl's side of things. He wondered if it had to do with her explosively unpredictable magics. He wasn't sure how that would have made a difference, especially if she kept those dampers of hers on, but that was the only thing he could think of.

Age certainly wasn't an issue. Full legality for men occurred at twenty, but that was only observed in the true Nobility as a way to mark when that man could hold titles, own lands and slaves, pass laws, and sit on government counsels. Noble women were generally not allotted the same privileges and were often foisted off into marriage as young as sixteen.

Exceptions, though rare, did happen. The Empress had her own level of authority granted by her position that allowed her the right to own land and slaves, though she did so under her husband's authority. Lady Dahee, as well, had escaped the typical lot in life afforded to women.

If their father hadn't died when he did, she would have suffered the fate of being some crusty Noble's nubile young wife. Lord Junghyun refused to do that to her, though. He was a smart man and exploited a loophole in the laws, claiming that he needed an adult to run the country estate while he took their father's counsel seat in the capitol.

Jeongguk had only been twelve at the time so he could not legally rule the household, but Dahee had just turned sixteen. Junghyun argued that if she was old enough to wed and produce heirs, she was certainly old enough to be the steward of their family lands in his stead. He demanded a vote of the counsel, stating that either they change the legal age of adulthood of noblewomen to twenty to match their male counterparts, or they allow a sixteen-year-old girl to take control of the estates of one of the oldest families in the country. No one wanted to have to hold onto daughters for an additional four years, so Lord Junghyun got his way and the family remained together.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, slaves had no age of legality as they were considered mere possessions, like a dog or a horse. He had heard that, in the days of the first Kim emperor nearly three-hundred years ago, pens would breed them as soon as they hit biological maturity. The third Kim emperor had put a halt to that practice, declaring that slaves could not enter breeding programs until they had reached sixteen. Modern day practices tended to wait even longer, putting attractive, younger slaves of both genders into pleasure houses until their early twenties before shifting them into the breed-stock.

Those who weren't breed-grade went into hard labor, shipped to country estates, or sold to lords who needed more workers and didn't have the time to wait for their own slaves to produce them. That was how Hoseok had ended up at House Jeon as a petrified twelve-year-old, his brands still scabbing. At the time, it was terrifying to be ripped away from the only home he'd known, thrown into a life that had brought only pain and fear. Now, though, he was a free man with a chance to make sure no one else ever had to go through what he'd experienced. Those that knew his origins didn't care where he'd come from.

Yoongi's sudden halt next to him pulled Hoseok from his memories and he glanced around. They'd apparently reached their destination while he'd been distracted. They were standing in front of a thick, wooden door with a shiny brass plate nailed to it. Heechul's name was stamped into the metal. "You don't have to stay with me. I promise I'll follow orders." Hoseok grabbed the latch and opened the door, leaving the other officer in the hallway as he entered the workroom.

He was surprised when he saw, instead of Heechul, Lord Jeongguk fiddling with someone at the central workbench. The youth looked up and froze, his face a picture of panic at the sight of the general. Quickly, the boy scooped whatever it was into his hand and whipped it around behind his back. It didn't take a genius to see the boy's urge to flee written all over his features.

"Hobi-hyung!"

"M'lord," Hoseok murmured, bowing. "Is the alchemist around?"

"He-" Jeongguk's voice cracked slightly and he squared his shoulders, a bright pink flush spreading across his cheeks. "He will be back shortly. He had an errand to run."

Hoseok glanced out the tall windows, noting the sun's position. "Don't you have lessons right now, m'lord?"

The younger's face went from red to ivory in seconds as all the color drained from him. "Uhm."

"Don't worry; I won't tattle." Hoseok waved a hand dismissively before coming around the side of the table. "What were you working on?" He tried to peek around the young lord's back but Jeongguk moved to prevent it.

"It isn't ready yet," Jeongguk countered, the blush returning. "C-can you go back out and wait? Give me a moment?"

Confused, Hoseok shook his head. "Ten to one, Yoongi is still standing out there and won't let me leave until I've seen the alchemist. Most I can do is turn my back. Or you could just stop hiding it and tell me what you're doing that I can't see."

With any other Noble, Hoseok would not have been so forward or informal. Jeongguk was different, though. They had a connection that transcended rank, forged that day six years ago when the lad had brought a broken slave back from the brink of death.

Jeongguk's face went through a series of contortions as he struggled with making a decision. Hoseok made a note that, if they all made it back from the capitol alive, the younger needed to take some lessons from Yoongi about how to conceal his emotions better.

Finally, after it looked like Jeongguk was going to panic again, the boy brought his hands around the front of his body. He uncurled his fingers from around the object, holding it out to Hoseok. Gazing down, the general tilted his head to the side, pursing his lips.

It was a flat, oval stone barely the thickness of a gold coin. If he had to guess what kind of rock it was, he would place his bets on agate, the peachy-orange stone shiny as if painstakingly polished. In the very center of the stone sat a symbol he didn't recognize, carved into the rock with an exact precision that could not have been natural. He didn't need to ask to know magic had touched it.

There was a tiny metal loop attached to what must have been the top of the sone. A length of twisted cord was clutched in Jeongguk's other hand and Hoseok surmised that he had interrupted the young lord attempting to thread the pendant onto the line to make it into a necklace.

"It's very pretty," Hoseok commented as he looked back at the boy's face. "If you're getting into jewelry craft you don't have to hide it from me."

"I didn't hide it because of that." Turning back to the workbench, Jeongguk sucked on the end of the cord briefly before making another attempt at putting it through the eye of the loop. After a few frustrated grumbles, he sighed in relief and pulled the cord through. He held it up by both ends of the line so that the pendant dangled in the open air. Then, he snagged it by the rock and held it back out to Hoseok.

"Good job," Hoseok offered, bemused.

"I-it's..." Jeongguk swallowed a couple times and licked his lips. "It's for you."

Hoseok blinked rapidly. "Eh?"

Jeongguk pulled the cord through his hands a few times before tying the ends together in a quick knot. "I made it for you," he said softly, looking down at the pendant and not at the general. "Not by myself; I had some help. But it's supposed to help with..." He flicked his dark eyes up to Hoseok's before looking away again, cheeks flaming. "With your legs."

The frown that graced Hoseok's face was more due to his continued confusion and not any sort of feelings of upset at the young lord. "I didn't think that was how your magic worked." After Jeongguk had taught him to read, Hoseok had become a knowledge-sponge. He'd read some books on magic before, purely out of curiosity since he didn't have the necessary Noble blood to harness the powers himself. From what he understood, magic fell into certain categories and Healers couldn't work magic on things that were not living bodies.

"It's complicated," Jeongguk murmured. "This symbol here?" He ran his thumb over the slightly concave surface, brushing the engraving. "It's Bahmeez. They have someone they call a shaman. It's really fascinating, actually. When you guys leave, I'm going to go back to their camp and spend some more time with them. They say there's an inherent magic in everything and the shamans can draw that magic out. They taught me to do it with this rock."

Hoseok smiled to himself at how suddenly animated Jeongguk had become, excited about the prospect of learning new magical techniques. He didn't interrupt, though, and let the younger continue with an encouraging nod to show he was listening.

"They marked the symbol on here but I was actually able to draw out the powers in the rock. Then my magic thought it was alive and I was able to spell it to know its purpose. I promised the shaman I wouldn't go trying it on my own yet, though. They said too many bad things happen to those who meddle with powers they don't understand."

Hoseok chuckled. "Sounds like solid advice for anything, not just magic. So, what does the symbol mean?"

"They told me how to say it but I really can't duplicate some of the sounds they made." Jeongguk held it out to him. "It's the Bahmeez word for strength, though."

Carefully, Hoseok took the pendant from the youth, staring at it. Then, slowly, he draped the cord around his neck. Holding the rock in his hand, he gazed at it for a moment before tucking it under his shirt. As it settled against the skin of his chest, a chill washed over him. As rapidly as it came, the cold tingles vanished and, with them, the ache in his knee.

Quickly, Hoseok whipped the necklace off. The throbbing in his knee returned immediately. He looked at the rock, then at a grinning Jeongguk, then back to the stone. "Ha." He couldn't stop the smile from taking over his face as he put the charm back on and tucked it under his shirt again. Just as with the first time, a brief cold ran over him and took the pain with it. "That's... that's amazing."

"Promise me you won't take it off?" Jeongguk asked, gripping at the hem of his royal-blue tunic.

Hoseok placed a hand over the top of his shirt, feeling the outline of the rock hidden beneath. "Promise," he agreed, grinning so wide his cheeks hurt. "Thank you. Really, this is too much, but thank you." He bent his legs a few times, marveling at the lack of popping and cracking that normally accompanied that motion.

As soon as he stopped moving, Jeongguk stepped forward and surprised Hoseok further by wrapping his arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Be careful out there, okay, and come back home. Please, hyung."

Feeling a little awkward about embracing a Noble, even if it was just Jeongguk, Hoseok carefully returned the hug. "Nothing is certain in war, m'lord," he murmured. "But I'll do everything in my power to come back when this is all over."

They stood there for a long moment, Hoseok trying to figure out what was happening as Jeongguk didn't seem inclined to let him go. He felt a little insecure, remembering how sweaty and gross he was, but the lord didn't seem to notice or care.

When it felt like the hug had lasted much longer than appropriate in any circumstance, Hoseok cleared his throat. He pulled back slightly, looking down the surprisingly small difference in height at the other. When did Jeongguk get so tall?

"I should go," Hoseok murmured. He wasn't sure why but he couldn't bring himself to talk in more than a whisper. "I have a lot still to do before tomorrow."

Jeongguk nodded a few times, dark eyes flickering over his face. Neither stepped back, though. Instead, the lord slid his arms up to rest his hands on Hoseok's shoulders. The general realized a split second before it happened that Jeongguk was intending to kiss him. The barest brush of lips pressed against his own before there was the sharp creak of a hinge, followed by a gleeful giggle.

"Oh, my! Am I interrupting something? I can go back to the gardens if you two need some privacy." Heechul's voice broke into their moment. The alchemist stood by the door with a basket of herbs slung over one arm.

Hoseok sprung away from Jeongguk as if burned, tripping backwards on a stool. A quick grab at the workbench saved him from falling onto his ass. Composing himself as best he could, Hoseok bowed to Jeongguk, smoothed his shirt down, and hurried from the room without a word.

Out in the hallway, he took a moment to lean against the wall, pressing his palm to his forehead. 'What the fuck was that?'

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AN: Don't hate me.