[KIYOTO]
"The plaque… it recognizes fear," King Agust whispered into the night as they sat down on the grass.
He knew he still had a lot to make up for, a lot to never do again, and a lot to remind himself of what he had and how he was a lucky man.
The Lycan King dared to hope that someday, when the sun and the skies aligned to make a peaceful day, he would be able to prove to Jiminie that he was a better person.
That he had changed and that it wasn't the change that would ever break Jiminie's heart again.
Maybe the King was bargaining, but who could blame him for wanting to give the best for the man he loved with everything then? Who was to blame for him just being a lover who wanted to make it all better?
"Fear?" Jiminie asked softly.
He had learned from a young age that spiritual artefacts reacted to emotions and everything else. But he never imagined that one that was forged in love and hate would still carry the same specifications.
It was insane to an extent, but then, where Agust was involved, Jiminie was bound to expect the craziest, right?
"If someone touches the plaque with fear, the ward will lock down and seal like a clenched fist. Then it will devour anything that will try to cross it. They won't be seen because they will be blasted out of existence.
"The same applies to rage. Fear and rage are the two things that you don't need when using the plaque," Agust instructed calmly.
Jiminie listened.
It was surprising, though, how the plaques were just like other spiritual tools. Jiminie was not sure whether to be happy or just stare because all of this was not what he had expected. He didn't have the strength to argue with the man.
This was about the protection of Kiyoto.
About a pack of wolves who had been hurt countless times by Agust and his people, yet Jiminie still believed that there was salvation waiting somewhere, that there was more to this than met the eye.
Perhaps he was right.
What if he was wrong?
"Come… let me show you," Agust said as he held Jiminie's hand gently.
Jiminie didn't fight him.
Didn't even try to resist or think about anything else.
He just let him.
After all, at the end of the day, regardless of how terrible Agust had been, he was still the man that Jiminie had somewhat chosen to be his. It didn't matter the circumstances that had gotten them there anyway.
"Gently… trust yourself. Trust the ward and the plaque will listen to you," Agust said.
Jiminie sighed softly as he took the plaque that Agust was handing him.
"What if…" Jiminie trailed off.
"You'll be fine… try it," Agust insisted.
Jiminie knew he had to.
After all, the explanation that Agust had given was making a bit more sense at this point. And so Jiminie took the plaque and placed it on the surface of the ward. It was an action so simple, and it worked.
For a moment.
"You're doing gr— Jiminie?" Agust asked when he realized the plaque was slowly clenching, and Jiminie wasn't even trying to get his hand free or even pull back.
Agust knew it was safe to pull back, but Jiminie wasn't. If anything, he was waiting for the plaque to end him, and that was the one thing that King Agust had never factored. Ever.
"Jiminie…" Agust begged.
But Jiminie didn't let go.
Not even when the pain began hitting him, hard.
Not even when he could feel the way that his life force was being sucked out of him.
It was as if for the first time, this was the one thing he could do to punish Agust.
If that had been the intention, then he really was doing a goddamn good job at it because King Agust stared in shock, his desperation obvious in the kind of way that even Jiminie hadn't anticipated ever witnessing.
"You won't stop. Your people won't stop coming after what's mine. Even with this ward, you and I know that your people are just as obsessed and will do whatever it takes to break it down.
"Might take them a week or a month or even a year, but with enough determination, they will get through, and my people will be left at the mercy of your beasts again. I don't want that, Agust.
"I don't want that life for my people. I don't want them to constantly live in fear just because I was too weak to defend myself against you," Jiminie said, definitely, and Agust felt like he had just been gut-punched.
There had been days when Jiminie had always called him Agust. The days when he first trapped the man in his castle. The days when he was just a broken King who wanted to see for himself what it was about Jiminie that had calmed him down.
He never minded Jiminie calling him Agust, back then.
Because he was a monster.
A monster for a Lycan King.
A monster who took whatever he wanted and never stopped to see if there was anyone hurt. Because Agust was that kind of monster. But then the years had passed, and Agust had gotten us to being referred to as Xiao Xiao by the love of his life.
For Jiminie to step back like that, and that too with a truth that would possibly fuck them both over again, King Ming Xiao Zhu was at a loss.
He had never expected this.
Not like this.
Hell, he had never expected that Jiminie was so willing to sacrifice himself for his people. He had always assumed that he was just a daring pack alpha like every werewolf alpha who had yet to be tamed.
But Jiminie was impossible to tame.
Power didn't scare him.
Fear didn't terrorize him.
Nothing frightened him.
And that was his strength that Agust had gotten to learn so damn well over the years.
Which was also why the King knew that he could try to threaten Jiminie, bargain with their bond, and say things that would always make a normal Erasthai wonder what the fuck was next.
But not to Jiminie. Jiminie was intelligent.
The Kiyoto alpha was a powerhouse on his own.
And Agust knew then that he had truly fucked up.
"I… I'm sorry, kitten. I'm really sorry. If you don't want me here, I will go. If you don't want my people, I will make sure they never get to the wards. I will live at the borders if that is what it takes.
"Just please, kitten. Please, my little one. Get your hands off. Let go. Stop feeding it fear. Please," Agust begged helplessly.
But Jiminie was not budging.
The risk was already true.
He had known it from the very beginning, and the first time he had come home to an impostor in the Kiyoto dungeons in the name of the Lycan King.
"We both know you're lying. You have him to warm your bed… I still have the scars from the last time you were with him. He attacked my home right after you were with him, and I'm supposed to believe that it was all against your will?
"Against your will, that he came to remind me of what I would never have? You remind me of what my life has always been with and without you. What do you want from me, Agust?
"What is it that is so intriguing for you in me that you don't want to let me go? By now, you know nothing you do can ever break me, so what is it?" Jiminie asked furiously.
He was sick of trying to piece together what was left of his sanity, all because Agust was not being real with him.
He had fought battles that were never his to fight, and battles that never should have happened, all because King Ming Chang Zhu was not ready and willing to let him go.
Jiminie knew…
Oh, he knew that this was the kind of cycle that would keep going until the end of time.
Someone had to stop it.
And if that meant that Jiminie had to give up his life for it to happen, for his people to have peace finally, then he would do it.
Without question or hesitation.
"I'm sorry my love keeps breaking your heart," King Agust whimpered.