Chapter Text
They couldn’t stay too long, it was too risky. Just long enough to rest properly and restock a little bit of supplies before they moved on.
It had been nice to see Hyunjin interacting with people he was comfortable with, moving easily and speaking casually. Every single smile he saw on the omega’s face was something so beautiful and precious to Chan. That always had been the case, but after the last several weeks he drank up Hyunjin’s contentment like a man dying of dehydration.
Of course Hyunjin had eventually taken his hood down around the betas and it was obvious to everyone that they didn’t quite know how to react. The younger of the two, Felix, had gasped, his small hand flying up to cover his mouth as his eyes glistened.
Minho, the older beta had watched carefully. Analyzing Hyunjin’s face, keeping his own expression concealed and blank.
But when his eyes flicked over to Chan’s with a subtle knowing glance, he knew that the beta had at least partially figured it out.
Hyunjin had fallen asleep early on the second night, but Chan couldn’t. For a long time he laid with the sleeping omega, letting him rest in his arms and listening to his gentle breaths.
His mind just wouldn’t settle. He found himself rhythmically smoothing a hand down Hyunjin’s back and trying to focus on breathing in his scent, but he was starting to feel restless, enough so that he was worried that the way he was buzzing with pent up energy would wake the omega up.
So carefully, he slid himself out from under Hyunjin and off of the bed, taking time to ensure that his mate was carefully covered by the blankets so he wouldn’t catch a chill before quietly exiting the room.
Chan wasn’t exactly surprised to see Minho sitting at the table still, reading under a small light, but the beta seemed surprised to see him, eyebrows raising and flipping his book shut.
“Can I get you something?” Minho asked in a hushed voice, clearly trying to not wake the other occupants of his home. Chan shook his head in response and lingered a little awkwardly in the entrance. He had never been in a friend’s home before, never really having the opportunity, and sometimes he felt a little out of depth with how to interact here. Thankfully Minho spared him, pushing out the other chair and offering for the alpha to sit, which he gratefully did.
Once sat in the little wooden chair, he rubs at his face. He’s pretty sure he stinks, almost confident his distressed scent is meeting Minho’s nose, but he doesn’t say anything except for a slow, “are you having trouble sleeping?”
“Yes,” he sighed, scrubbing at his face again. He knew that the people who lived here would know that their prince had been taken when the previous crown had been taken over, and of course the physical evidence that something had happened to Hyunjin was quite obvious, but he didn’t think they knew what had actually transpired.
Chan doesn’t know Minho very well— had only heard about him in Hyunjin’s stories before this all happened, and had only met him when they showed up on him and Felix’s doorstep the other night but something about the beta felt so sturdy. Like there was this gentle, understated caring nature to him. It had Chan opening up more than he thought he would have. “I can’t stop… reliving what they did to him,” he whispers, keeping his eyes down to the table.
Minho doesn’t say anything yet, but Chan can see the way he shifts just slightly in his seat, facing him a little more fully, and Chan knows that he’s listening. “Minho… they humiliated him. They shackled him, and drenched him with wine— cut his hair and spit on him.” He keeps his voice down, scared to say it too loudly, scared of what it means when he says it out loud.
There’s still no response from the beta, probably because Chan takes a shuddering breath to keep talking, but the previous warm and comfortable scent in the room starts turning sour.
“I just— I just sat there. I couldn’t do anything.” Chan wheezes, clenching his eyes shut. “They would have just thrown both of us in the dungeons. I know the king would have had me killed before he would revoke a decision he already made.”
It’s harder to speak, but he keeps going, spurred on by how Minho lays his hand a little closer to him on the table, sending silent support. Of course Hyunjin surrounded himself with people like this, who were so caring and sweet. “I…” he pauses to swallow, “I was so scared. They put him in a dungeon and I snuck down whenever I could.”
He remembers that first night he went down, when Hyunjin asked him if he knew and then hid in the shadows for weeks, and he tells Minho about that too, and how he couldn’t figure out how to get them out of it, how Hyunjin had given up on him and asked him to stop visiting. He’s cried over it so much— cried alone in his room, cried sitting on the stone in the dungeon… how unfair of him, when he chose to give it all away, and Hyunjin had everything ripped from him.
“I… don’t know how I’ll ever get him to forgive me. I don’t know if I even deserve his forgiveness.” Chan finishes, fighting back the tears he doesn’t think he should let fall, not anymore. Probably shouldn’t have let them fall in the first place.
“Chan,” Minho whispers, gently laying a hand on him and releasing a soothing scent into the air that slows Chan’s rapidly pounding heart. “What else could you have done? If you didn’t know, you can’t be expected to predict the future. You said so yourself, the king would have had you killed if you interfered, and then Hyunjin would still be in that cell.”
He grips at his pants and thinks about it again. He’s ran through it over and over and over, and he’s still not sure what else he could have done, but it feels like there would have been something better, and he tells Minho just that.
The beta nods and seems to think for a moment, before he shares his thoughts. “Don’t you think it’s a waste of time to think about what you could have done, when you’re both here?”
It leaves Chan a little speechless. It feels like taking the easy way out when he feels like he should spend the rest of his life repenting to his omega.
“He’s a very smart and capable omega, if he didn’t want to do this with you, he would have been long gone after you got him out.”
Hyunjin definitely would have had no issue continuing his life on his own, he would find safety and succeed in whatever way he put his mind to, Chan knew it. But right now, Chan feels a little bit like he’s underwater again, not following. “I don’t understand.”
"If Hyunjin is here with you, he’s already forgiven you.”
It had him looking up, staring into the beta’s eyes. He looked earnest and soft, and for some reason Chan just knows that this man would have no trouble telling him what he believes to be the truth.
They sit together for a while longer, Chan now having to absorb what this means, what Hyunjin and him travelling together like this means, but eventually Minho rises and tucks his chair back in. Before he leaves to go down the hall to his and Felix’s bedroom, he turns back to face Chan and gives a firm warning.
“But, don’t make him regret it.”
Felix had sat down on a stool with Hyunjin between his legs on the floor the next day and evened out the omega’s hair as best as he could, leaving him with strands that were just longer than an inch, just long enough that it could still be playfully tousled.
When Felix handed him the little hand mirror to inspect his work, Hyunjin choked up a bit. It was still very short, but at least now it looked intentional, and not like it strictly had been done as an act of degradation.
No one says anything as Hyunjin’s lip quivers slightly and he tilts the mirror this way and that, not until he sets it down and looks up to the beta and gives him a very sincere, wet sounding ‘thank you’.
Later that night, Chan catches him rubbing his hands over his head and little bit more than he’s seen. He smells a little distressed and it had Chan reaching out to catch one of his hands gently.
Hyunjin freezes and turns his head to look up at him, opening his mouth to say something but Chan beats him to it.
“Can I?”
For a minute, he thinks Hyunjin might decline whatever he is offering and even though it makes his chest ache, he wouldn’t dream of pushing him.
Except then Hyunjin nods, and Chan smiles.
He rearranges them, with Hyunjin sitting in his lap like he has so so many times before. Chan runs both of his hands up from their resting spot on the omega’s slender shoulders to his neck, rubbing his skin the entire time. He presses his thumbs into the scent glands right behind his ears and tries his hardest to put out a soothing scent for him.
Slowly, Hyunjin relaxes in his hold and his scent starts to return to its normal sweetness, so Chan feels a little bit emboldened to lean in and bump their noses together. The quietest of little rumbles start to sound and fondness washes over him, his alpha instincts so pleased to have his mate letting out little purrs again.
His eyes slip shut as he noses his way across Hyunjin’s cheek, dragging his lips as he goes, thankful for how pliant the omega was becoming right now. It’s with a press of his lips to Hyunjin’s warm skin that he finally pulls back, moving his hands to cup that back of his skull, fingers tickled by the freshly trimmed hairs.
Hyunjin was still so beautiful like this. The shortness of his hair seemed to almost make his features more delicate looking, making Chan pay special attention to the soft curves and lines, dark eyes and full lips.
“My love,” he whispered, trying desperately to not break the soothing calm that had seemed to settle over them. “You are so, so beautiful.”
He watched as Hyunjin’s eyes widened just a fraction, but he had more to say.
“You were beautiful before, and you’re beautiful now. Hell, I can’t see the future but I know you’ll be beautiful tomorrow too.” His words seem to make Hyunjin shy, lips pressing together just a fraction while pink rises on his cheeks.
“But more importantly, you hold strengths that people spend a lifetime chasing to have.” It was true, Chan was one of those people. His father was one of those people. Part of him screams to beg for forgiveness once more, but right now it wasn’t about him, it was about Hyunjin, and the words that he needed to hear. “You’re brave, and smart.” Hyunjin smiles a little bit bigger, looking overwhelmed, but his eyes sparkled and it spurred Chan on.
He told him of how he was gorgeous to watch while he focused on something he was passionate about, how he loved to see his eyebrows furrow together in concentration. How he loved that Hyunjin was so kind and earnest, wanting everyone to be comfortable and happy.
And really, Chan could list things he loved about Hyunjin until he ran out of air, but he thinks there was something he needed him to know.
“And you would have made a marvellous ruler.”
It’s quiet, Chan having whispered out into the air between them, delicately, because it was delicate.
Finally, Hyunjin sighs.
“Thank you."
It was a tearful goodbye, leaving after sundown a few days later. Chan had enjoyed seeing Hyunjin interact with people he held dearly. He could also breathe a little easier seeing the omega’s healthy glow return to him.
“I’ll find a way to let you know when we have settled somewhere safe,” Hyunjin had spoken quietly, near the door of the beta’s home. Chan could see the way he way holding his tears in, trying to be strong.
“You better,” Felix’s voice was wet, the younger not bothering to hold in his tears at all, letting them drip freely down his face and clutching one of Hyunjin’s hands so dearly between his own.
“Once you do, we’ll make arrangements to come join you in your new home.” Minho added and Chan’s eyebrows rose in surprise.
Hyunjin must have felt the same because he was gaping, looking back and forth between his two friends. “What? You- your lives are here, you aren’t going to…” he trails off and Minho speaks again.
“Our lives are with each other, and who we want in them. Leaving is easy.” Minho looks at Chan briefly and he remembers their conversation from the other night. He finished by saying, “we’ve already talked about it,” and laying a hand on Felix’s shoulder.
Wiping his tears, Felix speaks with finality. “We hold no loyalty to the people who stole the crown anyway.”
Hyunjin remains speechless for a breath, eyes wide and mouth continuing to open and close. It wasn’t often that Chan had seen him struggle for words like this, the omega had no issue speaking his mind. But it seemed as though he hadn’t considered that these people would give up everything they knew to be close to their friend.
The mix of scents in the air changes before anything happens, shifting just slightly from something a little bitter and solemn to then carry notes of sweetness. Hyunjin’s hand that wasn’t being held between Felix’s flies to his face just as his face crumples and a sob passes his lips.
Right away Felix is dropping his hand to instead throw his arms around Hyunjin’s shoulders, crying in earnest once more.
It’s through clouded vision he watches as Hyunjin struggles to speak out his gratitude to his friends, stuttering through his love for them, with Felix’s arms tight around him and Minho wrapping around both of them, a solid, grounding presence.
When they finally part, Chan is surprised to be enveloped in a hug by the tearful beta as well. “Be safe, okay? Promise me you’ll be safe?” he sniffles into Chan’s shoulder, and he’s nodding, holding his new friend back.
“I promise.” he breathes out, overwhelmed.
Next, he’s facing Minho, who looks at him with a soft expression that reminds him of the other night. He keeps his goodbye with Chan shorter, but it’s with sincerity that he claps a friendly hand onto his shoulder. “Please take care of each other.”
“Always.”’
It took them a while to find somewhere that they wanted to settle, sometimes staying in a little town for a little while before deciding it wasn’t quite right and moving on. Sometimes they would stay until they would see news of two missing princes and realize they had further to go still.
Throughout their travels, Hyunjin eventually opens up about his time in the dungeon.
“I think I knew that you couldn’t do anything, that evening.” He confessed, laying against Chan in their newest accommodations. This town wasn’t going to be their permanent home, but there was an elderly couple who was giving them work for a few weeks, Chan helping with carrying in shipments to their store and Hyunjin helping get their books in order.
“Your father wouldn’t have wanted you to suddenly confess your relationship with the omega he had just humiliated in front of everyone.” He adds, and Chan nods, twirling one of Hyunjin’s locks of hair. It was still much shorter than he had known Hyunjin to keep, but finally long enough that it fell onto the omega’s forehead and kept his ears warm. “But I was so… angry anyway.”
And Chan thinks he deserved to be angry.
“Those nights in the dungeon… I was just so devastated Chan. I was mourning my life as I knew it. I hadn’t just lost the crown, I had lost everything I had ever known.” Chan holds him closely as he talks about how the anger had morphed into a deep sadness— something almost apathetic.
“I thought I had nothing.” It stings to hear. It really does. “I didn’t want to ask you to give up the crown too.” Chan remembers the night Hyunjin told him to stop coming, that the alpha couldn’t love his prisoner.
“You coming down… and me being behind those bars… I couldn’t make sense of it. Every time I saw you, I worried would be the last time. I just wanted it to be over with.”
And Chan thinks he understands the best that he can.
When they arrived in the next town, it was as though they both just simply knew.
It wasn’t a massive place, but it was enough that they would still have anonymity. They wouldn’t be the talk of the town just for being new there.
There was a flourishing business quarter, and jobs were plentiful— even though through their travels they had talked of eventually opening a shop themselves. Maybe one below their future home.
It was easy to imagine a future there.
After finding a semi-permanent accommodation there, they sent post to Minho and Felix, and Chan would forever have Hyunjin’s happy smile burned into his mind when their reply came.
“They’ll be here before winter.” Hyunjin had said, and Chan could see all the ways he was thankful for his life coming together.
Of course sometimes they still struggled though.
Hyunjin would sometimes still mourn what he lost and grieved for the life he no longer had. And the scars left behind by his fears that Chan would need to abandon him, alone in that cold dungeon would ache and need to be soothed, but Chan would do his best to make sure he had everything he could ever hope for, reassurance and all.
Chan would sometimes question if he deserved the omega’s forgiveness. Which was a tricky dilemma, because he never wanted to bring it up to Hyunjin— if he thought he didn’t deserve his forgiveness, he certainly didn’t deserve the reassurance.
But Hyunjin was smart, and he could figure Chan out without even trying. And he would let the alpha dote, and do what he needed to feel as though he had earned Hyunjin to still be there with him, all the while telling Chan that it wasn’t necessary.
But most nights were pleasant, and they could both get what they needed.
“You’re so beautiful, my love, my prince,” Chan murmurs right into his ankle, hardly feeling the hard floors of their little cottage beneath his knees. Every breath, every sigh that Hyunjin exhales has Chan preening, wanting to work hard for him.
Wanting to worship him the way he deserves.
He keeps a gentle hold on the omega’s heel while he presses his lips to the delicate bone there before he smooths his hand up the back of his calf, squeezing gently. Chan’s mouth follows suit, laying kisses onto Hyunjin’s soft skin.
Hyunjin was so lovely, so sweet; so forgiving, so strong— that Chan would do anything to ensure he always deserved to worship him like this.
“My lovely Hyunjin,” he cupped his hands at the back of the omega’s knees after he guided his feet to rest on his thighs, so he could continue massaging his love into Hyunjin’s muscles. He loved every single part of him.
“Channie,” Hyunjin half whispered. It made the alpha look up and meet his eyes, ears tingling and feeling blessed by his lilting voice. “You’re so good to me, Channie.”
For a moment he just stares, filling with love and warmth. Hyunjin was leaning back, resting his weight on his hands and smiling softly.
It makes him pause, casting his eyes back down to the skin under his fingers. Hyunjin deserved good, and Chan would make sure that it was all the omega ever knew now.
He gave another press of his lips to Hyunjin’s skin just before he rose from the floor and helped guide Hyunjin to lay back into the pillows. Far away in his memories he could recall Hyunjin laying back in the bed in his castle, surrounded by gorgeous silks and lush pillows, but he looks just as delectable like this, on their cotton blankets, with his dark hair fanning out around him like a halo.
Chan situates himself between Hyunjin’s knees and continues to drag his hands over him, rememorizing every single curve and dip. Working from his knees up, Chan skips over where his cock wad resting half hard against his thigh for now, opting to instead glide over his smooth stomach.
Every time his palms came closer to where Hyunjin was rapidly hardening, he lets out a little breath that has Chan preening a bit.
It’s just as he can start to smell slick, that he gently flicks over one of his perky nipples and smiles at the soft gasp it elicits. “So pretty— so delicate, my love.” Chan murmurs before leaning down to mouth at his chest. Hands land in his hair as he lathes his tongue over sensitive nipples, sucking gently and loving how Hyunjin’s hips kicked up every time.
After the nipple was sufficiently pink and puffy, Chan switched his attention over to the other one, giving it similar treatment. When he was finished, he pulled back and Hyunjin let his hand fall out of Chan’s hair and flop onto this mattress.
“God,” the omega was breathing hard, with glistening eyes and red blotches decorating across his chest. “The things you do to me.”
Hyunjin squirmed at the attention, and kicked a little harder when Chan reached out, this time with both hands and flicked across the saliva dampened nipples.
“Please, Channie,” he whimpered out, and Chan was ready to move on himself, his own cock aching between his legs, desperate to sink into his beautiful omega.
“Alright sweetheart, let’s get you ready.” He helped flip Hyunjin over onto his stomach, and the omega was immediately scooting his legs under himself, raising his ass off the mattress to present to Chan, and it had the alpha moaning.
Slick was glistening all over his hole, dripping down across his balls, and Chan wouldn’t have been able to hold himself back from running his fingers through it if he tried. The second his fingers touched him, Hyunjin was moaning and pushing his hips back, impatient and eager.
Chan chuckled, collecting the wetness on his fingers and sinking one in, making the omega sigh happily and wiggle his hips back and forth. This was always one of Chan’s favourite parts, stretching Hyunjin out to prepare for his knot, teasing his prostate and making him feel good.
And Hyunjin always took it so well, sighing and moaning, wiggling and saying Chan’s name so sweetly. He dragged his finger out to the tip before he plunged it back in, eased by all the slick, and repeated the motion a few times. When Hyunjin’s walls started to loosen up, he took a moment to crook his finger deep inside of him and rub the pad of his finger right into his prostate, petting down his back when it made the omega shudder.
He was starting to drip onto the sheets below his hips, both the precum that was collecting on the tip of his hanging cock, and the slick that was dripping out of him. On the next retreat of his finger, he paused to work in a second one, taking a gentle hold of his balls and rolling them carefully between his fingers. It had Hyunjin gasping out as another flood of slick rushed out of him.
He took his time, scissoring his fingers to stretch him out, twisting and wiggling. Thrusting them right into his sensitive prostate, and praising Hyunjin the entire time.
“My beautiful omega, so perfect, so good.”
Slick was coating his whole hand by now, and Chan couldn’t resist any longer, leaning in to lick between his spread fingers, making Hyunjin cry out. The angle wasn’t amazing, but that was okay, he could still make Hyunjin feel good from here, flicking his tongue against his rim before licking as deep as he could, moaning loudly at the taste of his lover’s slick.
His free hand gripped at Hyunjin’s ass, keeping him spread open so he could continue to eat him out like he was starved. The cries that were echoing around the room started to crescendo, so Chan sucked along his rim at the same time he twisted his fingers and then finally, Hyunjin was spilling onto the mattress with a cry. Chan worked him through it, moaning as his omega clenched down around his fingers and mouth, loving to feel how his body pulsed and shuddered through his orgasm.
He didn’t stop until Hyunjin was slumping onto the bed, breathing heavily, only then he pulled his fingers free and wiped the wetness away from his chin while Hyunjin struggled to flip over onto his back again.
He helped him settle onto his back, carefully avoiding the wet spots so he could still be comfortable, and then Chan smiled down at the breathless omega. “Good?”
Between his panting, Hyunjin wheezed out, “good.”
Chan laid down beside him, nosing in close and taking a deep inhale of his scent, heady and sweet. His hand was resting on Hyunjin’s soft stomach and Hyunjin curled himself onto his side, just enough that Chan was able to line their bodies up together, back to front.
Nothing pleased his instincts more than being able to pay such dutiful attention to his omega, taking care of him and then holding him close afterwards. Especially when he could feel the quiet little rumbling purrs start.
They rested together for a while, before Hyunjin pushed his hips back against Chan’s. He had ignored his own erection long enough that it had started to go down, but at the attention from his mate, it was quickly filling out again.
“Could you fuck me? Fill me up and knot me?” Hyunjin asked over his shoulder, casually, like he was asking for Chan to hand him something. But Chan was nodding so quickly he was pretty sure he could feel his brain rattle around and Hyunjin’s eyes squinted close as he laughed, shuffling slightly so that he could reach back and grab his ass cheek with one hand to spread himself enticingly open.
Chan moaned at the sight, grabbing his now fully hard cock and guiding it to Hyunjin’s stretched and waiting hole. They both moaned as he slipped the head inside, Chan having to bite the inside of his cheek at the way Hyunjin’s body gripped him despite all the stretching.
He moved slowly, not wanting to overwhelm his sensitive omega, but eventually bottomed out with his hips meeting Hyunjin’s ass.
“So good,” he breathed, just revelling in the feeling of tight wet hot. He pulled back when Hyunjin started to get a little restless, wiggling and squirming, and then thrust back in.
“Ah! Channie,” Hyunjin whimpered, likely still tender from his first orgasm. “Love it so much Channie.”
“Love you so much.” Chan added, continuing to work his hips against his omega— filled with love and admiration.
It was amazing, being this close, breathing him in, feeling him so close, wrapped around him— it was enough to make him dizzy. But he reeled himself back in to gasp out, “what do you need— what do you want?”
Hyunjin was whimpering and crying out on every thrust, but he still answered Chan, “Touch me, touch me— all over. Please.”
And Chan would never deny such a request.
He dragged his hand up Hyunjin’s chest, feeling over the muscles and curves, tweaking at his nipples and soaking up all the sounds that fell from between his lips. For a moment he wishes their position was different, since laying on their sides like this gave him limited movement from the arm against the mattress, but Hyunjin seemed too close right now to opt for rearranging, and plus, this was one the omega’s favourite ways to be knotted, and Chan could already feel it forming at the base of his cock.
Once his knot started to tug at Hyunjin’s rim, Chan wraps his palm around his the omega’s newly hard cock and began working him in time with his thrusts. By now Hyunjin was basically just letting his mouth hang open to let the endless stream of cries fall out, and it was like music to Chan’s ears.
Finally, his knot was getting too big to fully pull out, and Chan ground his hips deep and filthy into Hyunjin, who reached back to grab at Chan to pull him closer— pull him deeper while Chan’s hand flew over his cock.
It was with clenched teeth that his knot finally popped, and he came deep inside of Hyunjin, pulsing and hot, with Hyunjin’s second orgasm coming right after. They rode them out together, gasping and sweating together until they settled.
Hyunjin seemed exhausted, panting hard and shaking, so Chan kicked at the blanket until it was within reach, and grabbing it to drape over the two of them. His eyes were closed, but Chan knew he was still awake, so he murmured into his ear.
“Don’t worry my love, I’m right here with you— not going anywhere.” It had Hyunjin smiling a little dopily, a little bit drunk on pleasure and exhaustion. “Wouldn’t want to anyway.” He finishes and Hyunjin purrs.
Everything he ever needed was right here with him.
Of course there were certain things they would never have now. It wasn’t likely that Chan would be able to drape Hyunjin in the jewels he felt the omega deserved, and they would probably never sit in the lap of luxury.
Neither of them would take the crown— and Chan had forever lost the opportunity to take Hyunjin’s hand because of it. But they had this, they had each other, they had two friends joining them in this new place. They didn’t need a ceremony, joining nations and the likes when the had this.
And Chan would be forever grateful that he still had the opportunity to spoil Hyunjin the way he deserved.