III. Chapter 9

"Hit me again," Aki said.

"What?! No!" Yeran protested.

"If we need to sell this, you have to," the Prince consort stepped closer, eyes burning.

"You..!"

"Being coward will not conquer the world Yeran," the smile was teasing, provocative.

Yeran's eyes narrowed. Hand clenching. The next second Aki was sent sprawling down the floor, and Yeran realized he had put more strength behind the fist than either of them expected.

He followed after, the words coming out his month unable to be any more different from the concern flashing across his face.

"Is that what you wanted? Is that why you tried to kill him?" He asked, kneeling over the prone form and gently touching the chin to see the damage.

Aki winked, a smirk adoring his bloody lips.

Aki froze, attention shifting.

"Someone's here," he whispered.

"What are you doing! Kill...?! Who?!" He was an actor more suited on the stage than a killer hidden in shadows, letting such surprise and bewilderment color his words all the while his eyes were still twinkling with unmasked mischief.

Yeran felt a chill run down his spine. There was crimson spreading over Aki's snowy white sleep garments.

'How? Where? How did he got injured?' He panicked, trying to ask a million questions by eyes alone.

He changed his lines, "Did you thought that if Zeke died I would come crawling to you? Is that it? Is that what this is about? well let me show you what you were begging for!" He asked, pulling on Aki's lapels.

'Let me see, how can I help?'

Aki shook his head, "later, later,"

"Your highness!"

Ruth must have come in without either of them realizing, for Yeran was pulled back with far too violence than necessary and was rewarded with a full blown glare.

"Ruth! Let me go! Let go!" Yeran shouted.

Ruth's grip was bruising on Yeran's arms. "Not until you calm down, your highness,", which clearly translated to 'like fucking hell,' if his attempt at setting Yeran on fire with sheer force of gaze alone.

"If you do this, you are going to regret it for a long time your highness,", translation, 'You will die'

"He...he...he almost killed Zeke!"

"He's injured," Yeran hissed under his breath.

Ruth's attention shifted from Yeran to Aki and his expression downgraded from murderous to resigned at Aki's bloodied robes and sheepish smile.

"You do not know for certain that it was him your highness, you cannot start a war on just a suspicion." Ruth said, frowning at Aki, but voice clam.

¤¤¤

"You really ought to stop sneaking into my room brother dearest," Aki teased, not looking up from his book.

"Why, must you be the only one who can?" Ruth slid down the windowsill, closing the shutters with nary a click.

"Well, we must be careful," Aki looked up.

"Please..., for how long have we been doing this for? I did learned my skills from the best after all," Ruth paused, coming closer to lean against the table.

"Don't try to change the subject Aki, I have known you far too long to not know when you are trying to wiggle out of something," he yanked on a lock of Aki's hair.

"Damn!" Aki cursed, "I was trying to be subtle,"

"It's not working," Ruth pinned him with a unimpressed stare and pulled the book out of his hands to put it away.

"It was nothing.. barely a scratch even..." Aki whined.

Not a muscle moved on Ruth's face, continuing to stare.

"Fine, fine, fine," Aki threw his hands up in a mock exasperation. "But what was I supposed to do? Let that assassin kill Yeran? That's my retirement plan."

"Retirement plan?" Ruth frowned.

"Is that what you should focus on? And maybe not the assassin part?"

"He tried to pull your clothes off, you will have to forgive me for not having much patience for that pervert at the moment,"

"Ruth!" Aki dissolved down into peals of laughter.

"I'm gonna take a look at that scratch and you are going to explain what this retirement plan is," Ruth flicked him on the forhead before wandering off in search of the medicine kit he knew his brother had stored somewhere, receiving not much of an objection but more wheezing.

"So basically, I'm just planning to be a trophy husband after we conquer the world,"

"Trophy what!?"

"Ow!" Aki cried "Gentle, will you, please and thank you!"

"Trophy what?" Ruth repeated, ignoring him, eyes fixed on the bandage he was wrapping.

"OH, you know, laze around all day, read some books, eat some good food, go out once in a while,"

"That's your retirement plan?"

"Yh! That's what retirement should be, being lazy and doing whatever I want,"

"You are 22!"

"Early retirement!" Aki clapped his hands together.

"Spending time with that lunatic seems like a very bad idea," Ruth said, pursing his lips.

"OH c'mon Ruth, it's what having fun means,"

"You can have fun after getting a divorce,"

"What, no, no, no, no, being married to the emperor is part of the plan you see, if I'm still known as the Consort of him, I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want and no one will dare say anything against me, the title matters. And I cannot be known as the, 'that Divorced Prince', no no no,"

"Is lunacy contagious?" Ruth asked, fearing for his life.

"You are such a killjoy," Aki swatted at him.

¤¤¤

"The hunt is next week," Yeran reminded.

"We need an excuse to make sure he can't participate." Ruth said.

"I'm fine Ruth!" Aki complained. "It's almost healed anyway."

"You have a rib fracture, you are not riding," Aki's mouth snapped shut in the finality of Ruth's words. He pouted, but didn't said a word more.

"Maybe...." Zeke trailed off. "Do something about that persona Yor made you play, it's getting creepy,"

"Eh? Oh....you mean the ever attentive, perfect spouse thing?" Aki tapped his chin.

"Bless the stars! Finally!" Yeran connected his hands in a prayer.

"How are we going to do that,"

"Easy, Yor sent me here to kill you, I'll kill you," Aki's tone made it sound as if he's asking for dinner plans.

"We can also take the time to let you know of why we hate each other so deeply making you trust me even more," Ruth nodded.

"I'm sorry, but can we please get back the part where you kill me? That was not in the plan!" Yeran screeched.

"I know it can be tempting sometimes," Zeke quipped up, straight up pretending to not have heard Yeran, "but we can't actually kill him, we might need him in the future,"

"Need him in the future?! You! Traitors the lot of you!" Yeral screamed in outrage.

¤¤¤

The small sling of a metal leaving its case drew Yeran into consciousness, hand raising automatically in a block.

He gasped, the blade having sunk through the palm, stopping thread's width from his throat.

"You!" He rasped, squinting at the devillish grin above him. "Are you truly trying to kill me?"

"You sleep like the dead," Aki replied.

"My hand!"

"You hit me, I stab you, it's only fair," the demon hovering over Yeran had the audacity to shrug.

"You told me to hit you!"

"Did I?"

In retaliation, Yeran kicked him, managing to knee him right over the cut he had received a few days back. If it were to be convincing, it needs to look fresh anyway.

Yeran heard the low groan, but Aki did not loosened the grip on the knife.

Yeran's vision almost whitened out.

'Vengeful bastard!' He cursed silently. 'Why exactly did he had to fall for this one out of all thousands of people out there!'

He barely managed to catch the next blow with the blade he had stored over the headboard which he hastily drew.

'Gods! He is not going to survive this love,'

¤¤¤

Aki

(Yep, that's the smirk)

Yeran

Hola,

My dearest readers, your author us back.

So, author did not end up moving out and now instead spends an hour and a half on traveling. Woe is your author who has to wake up at 6 am.

Anyway, author did got a little busy with her uni starting, but author was very motivated today.

Don't trust the author, author might update for a few days continuesly or author might disappear off the face of earth again.

So, author repeats, don't trust author.

Case in point, author is happy to be back and hopes you all will enjoy.

See ya

Arkhane.