AN: Thank you to @1ForrestRun for making the new cover!

Gwan Sunhwa is a cunt.

That is all.

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His mother's study was a picture of broken disarray. Books had been strewn from their cases, their pages torn from the binding and shredded. Glass shards that were once panes in the picture windows crunched underfoot. Plush and polished chairs had been reduced to piles of fluff and firewood.

Namjoon stood in the middle of the chaos, breath heaving from his body. He wasn't just furious; he was murderous. On the opposite side of the heavy, ornate oak desk, his mother shifted her weight from one foot to the other, arms crossed as she regarded him with a raised eyebrow. He hated how calm she appeared, despite being the target of his anger.

"Are you done with your tantrum?" she questioned sardonically. She appeared entirely unconcerned with the state of her possessions. She, herself, was unharmed, as was Namjoon. Despite how much he wanted to blast her out of the broken windows, she was as immune to his invisible forces as he was to her's.

"I'm not throwing a tantrum," he countered waspishly, fists clenching at his sides.

"I took your toy away; if this isn't a tantrum, nothing is." She brushed some broken glass off the top of her desk with a careless wave of her hand.

"Jimin is not a toy!" he snarled, slamming his hands down on top of the desk. "He's a person and you had no right to take him away! You were out of line to attack him like that!"

The empress took a moment to adjust her hair, running her fingers through the long, silver strands. "He is a slave, Namjoon, not a person. And as he is my property, I have every right to take him away. I can do with him what I please and will do with him what I please. You are the one out of line."

Folding her hands in front of her skirts, she raised her eyebrows at him and slowly came around the side of the desk to stand in front of him. The moment she reached her destination, she slapped him hard across the face.

"You let him sully you," she hissed darkly. "It's one thing for you to take him like a woman but to let him do it to you?" She spit on the carpet at his feet. "I could ignore this disgusting behavior it if it were another noble. I could turn a blind eye even if it were some commoner so long as you kept your dignity. But a slave? You let a slave into your body like you're nothing more than a filthy, back alley whore."

Her words hit him as hard as her slap. He glared down at his feet, jaw grinding his teeth together with each insult she threw at him.

"Moaning like a wanton bitch while he violated you," she continued viciously. "I should have gotten rid of him as soon as I saw his corruption affecting you. I was lenient last time; I will not be this time."

"If you dare kill him-" he stepped toward her, face contorting in his anger.

"Oh, I won't kill him," she interrupted, standing her ground with folded arms. "No, that would be too forgiving a punishment for either of you." Her lips twisted down into a sneer. "I'm going to give him to the soldiers, let them have their fun with him. How many are in the barracks right now? Fifty? Sixty?"

He felt the blood drain from his face as a cold washed over him. Pinpricks blossomed across the back of his neck and ran the length of his body as her meaning sank in. He started to speak but she cut him off.

"If he survives that, I'll have him castrated and sent to the quarry." She grabbed his chin painfully between her fingers. "I'd do the same to you if you had siblings. You're lucky you don't or I would be rid of you and your depravity."

Namjoon yanked himself out of his mother's grip. "I am not depraved!"

"You are!" she snarled. "Never in the history of House Gwan has any man behaved in such a manner. If I had known you would turn into such a despicable aberration, I would have smothered you as an infant-"

He cut her off with a blast that pushed her desk into the wall with a splintering crunch. "I am not part of your damn House!" he snapped. He lowered his voice dangerously. "I am a Kim and I will be Emperor. And if you dare lay a finger on Jimin, your life will be forfeit. I will bring down the full strength of the armies on House Gwan, raze it to the ground, and set your head on a spike. So, tell me, Mother, do you want to live longer than my twentieth birthday? Or do you want the next two months to be the last you ever experience?"

He held her gaze and felt a twinge of satisfaction to see fear flicker across her face. "I will leave in the morning for the capitol and my rightful seat at my father's side. I am taking Jimin with me, and you will say nothing about him to anyone. Am I clear?"

She swallowed heavily and nodded before tucking her hands into the dagged sleeves of her gown. As he turned to leave the wrecked room, she waylaid him with a few last words.

"I don't think you fully understand the situation you're putting yourself in. You would do better to leave him at my mercy. If your father finds out what you do with that creature, his wrath will make my punishment look gentle."

Namjoon glanced over his shoulder at her. "I understand completely. It's you who doesn't seem to get it. If anyone dares to hurt the man I love - be it you, my father, or anyone else in this world - I will destroy them. And if you don't think I have what it takes to do that, you haven't been paying attention." He turned and stepped out of the room, slamming the door behind himself.

-----

The subterranean dungeons were dark and dank. The musty smell of decay was thick in the stagnant air. Namjoon's anger boiled under his skin the deeper he was led into the cells. Only the knowledge that the gaoler had nothing to do with Jimin's placement saved the man from the prince's ire. It was his mother's personal guard that had decided the young slave deserved to be dumped three levels down. Namjoon would deal with that man later.

When the warden finally stopped outside the appropriate cell, Namjoon practically wrenched the door off the hinges the moment it was unlocked. His mage orbs lit up the pitiful space and Namjoon's stomach clenched in fury at what he saw.

Jimin was huddled in the corner of the cell under a mound of straw that was green with slime and mold. The whole pile shook with the younger man's uncontrollable shivers. The stone walls glistened with moisture that pooled in depressions in the uneven floor.

Quickly, the prince knelt down next to the straw and pulled the weak form of his lover out of the cover. Clumps of the disintegrating bedding clung to his body as Namjoon wrapped his own cloak around the younger.

"J-j-joon?" Jimin's teeth chattered loudly as Namjoon swept him into his arms.

"I'm here," the silver-haired man murmured softly. "You're safe now." He turned his dark gaze to the uncomfortable-looking jailer. "You speak a word of this and I will personally feed you your own tongue." The guard bowed hastily in reply as Namjoon brushed past him.

The prince didn't stop until he had reached the safety of his rooms. Without a second thought, he set Jimin on the bed and wrapped him in multiple blankets to try to stave off the cold that had seeped into the redhead's limbs.

"Wait here," Namjoon told the younger, though he realized that was probably a stupid thing to say. Where would Jimin go? He didn't look like he was in any state to move. The young man was trembling violently, his skin clammy and frozen. He had bruises and scrapes on his body from where the guards had grabbed him and thrown him around. Though his trip to the dungeons had only lasted a couple hours, his body had been weakened by the empress' attack, rendering him more susceptible to the cold and moist conditions he had been left in.

Going through a door at the back of his rooms, Namjoon entered his private bathing chamber. It was tiled in pale blue and white ceramic squares. There was an in-ground pool in the center large enough for four people to sit comfortably on the below-water ledges. The pool was currently empty but he had seen the maids work the pump system enough times in the past to figure out how to draw the hot water up from the boilers. It took some elbow grease but once water started gushing out of the spigots, Namjoon nodded in satisfaction and returned to Jimin.

"W-w-wh-"

Namjoon shook his head, running his fingers through Jimin's tangled locks. "You don't need to speak right now," he said gently. "I'm going to get you cleaned up, then we can sleep. You'll feel better in the morning when we leave." The younger man merely nodded in response. Namjoon quickly shed his own clothing before plucking him up out of the blankets and carrying him into the bathing chamber.

The water still ran when Namjoon returned, the tub nearly full. He used his foot to stop the pumps before the pool could overflow. There was a drain in the floor but he didn't think it was large enough to prevent the water from flooding out into his room if he left the spigots on.

Stepped into the warmth, he tried to be careful to not jostle Jimin with the motion. He settled onto one of the submerged ledges, the water coming up to his collarbones. He carefully positioned Jimin on his lap and reached out of the tub to grab the sponge and soap he had placed there when turning on the pump.

Slowly, the redhead's shudders started to subside. Namjoon carefully washed the gunk from Jimin's body and hair, murmuring words of comfort and apologies into his lover's ear. In response, Jimin kept shaking his head, trying to tell him that he had nothing to be sorry about; this wasn't Namjoon's fault, it was Empress Sunhwa that was to blame.

"I can walk," Jimin muttered when Namjoon had wrapped him in a fuzzy towel and picked him up in order to carry him from the bathing room back into the bedroom.

"I know," Namjoon replied quietly, not putting him down. When he reached the bed, though, he was forced to let Jimin back onto his own feet. There was mucky straw all over the bedding.

"Perhaps one day you'll think things through more before acting," Jimin said dryly, staring at the mess.

Namjoon sighed and stripped everything off into a pile on the floor. With Jimin's help, he pulled new bedding from a chest at the foot of the bed. It wasn't the tidiest bed ever to be made as neither man typically did that task, but it was sufficient for their needs.

Jimin wasted no time in crawling under the blankets and Namjoon couldn't begrudge him that. It was still fairly early in the evening but using so much of his force blasts has left the prince feeling drained; he was just as ready to sleep as his lover. Before he joined Jimin, though, Namjoon had one more thing he needed to do.

In one corner of the room sat Namjoon's vanity, and on top of the lacquered table sat a jewelry box made of black walnut. It had belonged to his maternal grandmother and, when she passed, it had been handed down to him, along with all of her jewels. His mother had been incensed that she had been passed over by her own mother and was even angrier when Namjoon insisted on getting his ears pierced in order to wear the numerous earrings that had been included in the willed gift.

It wasn't earrings that Namjoon opened the box to retrieve, though. He had already removed all the gems and bobbles, packing them away to take to the capitol. He hadn't wanted to take the box, though, because it was quite old and he was worried it would be damaged during the journey.

It took him a moment of fumbling before he managed to trigger the latch that caused the bottom of the box to pop up. The secret compartment had been something he'd found quite on accident when he was inspecting the gift. It had been empty when he'd first found it but now it held a necklace he hadn't bothered to pack.

He pulled it out and studied it in the light from the magical orbs that hovered overhead. On the end of a delicate gold chain hung an elegant, swirling symbol of the same soft, yellow metal. It looked fragile but Namjoon knew it was more than met the eye. He took it back to the bed and, before Jimin could ask him what it was, he was clasping it around the younger man's neck.

Sitting up, Jimin touched it carefully and gave his lover an apprehensive look. "I could be killed for wearing this," he objected.

"That's exactly why you have to wear it," Namjoon countered. "This isn't just a trinket, jagi. It's a charm."

He watched the confusion dance across Jimin's face. "I don't understand."

"My grandmother was from House Bae. She specialized in protective charms. When she married into the Gwan, she made this. It will protect you from the forces." He pushed his hand outward as if pantomiming the invisible blast Jimin had been hit with earlier. "I should have given this to you long ago. I don't need it."

Jimin shook his head and started to remove the chain. Namjoon stopped him, pulling his hands away from the clasp.

"Please." He held the younger's face between his hands and kissed him softly. "I failed you today. I won't fail you again. I will always protect you, love. I swear to you, I will." He planted a kiss on Jimin's forehead, not caring how desperate he sounded.

Jimin leaned forward and captured Namjoon's lips for a slow, deep kiss. When he pulled back, he studied the older's face. Namjoon could see the uncertainty there and hated himself for being the cause of it.

"Will she really let me go with you?" the younger asked in a strained whisper. "Is all this really happening?"

Namjoon nodded, pressing their foreheads together. "Yes. She cannot stop me. She knows the price she will pay if she even tries."

Jimin closed his eyes and let out a shaky breath. "Thank you." His voice cracked. "I was so afraid, Joonie. I was so afraid in there."

Namjoon slipped into bed and pulled Jimin down with him, wrapping his arms around the younger. "I know. I'm sorry. I came as soon as I could." He extinguished the lights with a snap of his fingers before carding the digits through Jimin's hair. "It will never happen again. I'll kill anyone who tries to hurt you."

He knew Jimin was crying even though the younger was doing an admirable job of hiding it. There was a slight shaking in his shoulders that couldn't have been anything else. The prince didn't bring attention to it, though, and just held him while the redhead released the emotions against his chest.

It was some time before Jimin fell still; Namjoon assumed he'd cried himself out and was sleeping. It surprised him when he felt Jimin's soft lips pressing against the skin of his neck.

"Jagi?" he asked tenderly, closing his eyes at the sensation.

"We leave tomorrow and won't be alone for a long time," Jimin murmured against his skin, adding the nip of teeth to his kisses. "If we really are as safe as you say we are, make love to me tonight."

Namjoon pushed the younger away slightly, trying to see his face in the darkness of the room. "Are you sure? You've had a rough ordeal. If your body isn't up for it-"

"Shut up and fuck me," Jimin ordered, pulling Namjoon's mouth down against his with a fistful of silver hair.

When he put it like that, Namjoon wasn't going to argue.

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AN: A gaoler is a jailer... just spelled differently. Because English.