Chapter Text
𝟏𝟕𝟕𝟐 | 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐲
- ♦♦♦ -
The following morning, Seonghwa woke to the same weight of arms embracing him from behind. He had not been sure of what to expect when he had fallen asleep with the other in his bed, but it felt nice waking up to that persistent hold around his body.
Then a tumult of noisy sounds had Seonghwa realise what had awaked his senses from his deep sleep. The pounding made a pause. As gently as he could, Seonghwa slid his hand down Yunho's arm and lifted it off his body, rolling around on his shoulder as he got out of the bed. The window was still open, blowing cold wind inside the room. He stuffed his feet into a pair of slippers and slinked into the dark corridors, following the now consistent sound rattling in their home. Seonghwa continued down the stairs, his sharp eyes reaching for the main entrance to make sure the door hadn't been broken open. It had not. Instead, he found the piece of furniture making the batter, clinking iron and hissing momentarily breaking the patterns of disturbance.
The other had not seen him when he came crouching down, his hand forcefully yanking his head around from under the crushing, heavy chair. San bared his fangs at him before he started coughing. Drops of blood leaving his mouth.
"Sanie, what is this?"
The younger's eyes flickered up at Seonghwa before he attempted to turn his head away from him. But Seonghwa's fingers held tightly onto his flesh. He licked his lips and spoke with a lisp, "Yunho.."
The sire's fingers nudged into the hollows of his cheeks, "Hmm? What did Yunho do?" Seonghwa pressed, his own fangs aching in his mouth, provoked by the younger's fury.
"Tied me to this chair. And then he left me all alone in the darkness - he knows that I hate the dark!!" San growled, the sound suddenly cut off with a whimper as his eyes wetted.
Oh, poor little kitty.
Seonghwa tightened his hold on him, fingers digging so hard into his cheeks that had he been a mere human, his teeth would already have been crushing under his strength. "And do you know his reasons for leaving you alone down here?" Seonghwa hissed softly, listening to San's whimpers increasing in amounts.
His eyes shone blood red, "Mhggn- yes-yes I do! Sorry- Seonghwa-ssi, I am so sorry that I ran off, I swear, I did not mean to!" his voice trembled under his harsh inhalations of air. Seonghwa squinted his eyes ever so slightly at the sight, sensing how desperation covered a true sense of honesty - San was not being sincere.
"For reasons, I do not believe your words to speak of any truths," the ancient vampire leaned down, his fangs pressing against the flesh of his lips within his mouth. The low timbre of a rumbling growl met him as his fingers tore further down toward the gleaming eyes, threatening with poking at them.
"I want him dead for what he did to you," his fledgling spat through running words fumbling around in his fuming mouth, anger painting his soft features with the age of a killer. Oh, how his little Sanie had grown up.
Seonghwa breathed heavily, a loud sigh coming from his mouth as he clicked his tongue, surrendering to the endeavor of the younger's craving. His harsh fingers loosened as he moved a little back and patted San's cheeks firmly. "I should leave you here and have Yunho decide whether he thinks you deserve to move freely or stay in this position."
His words had the younger sputtering with protests, eyes reaching out for his help, his care, and the momentary softness of his heart. San was crying out once Seonghwa got up and left him to once more dwell in the dark all alone.
Seonghwa- please! I'm scared!!
When Seonghwa returned to his chambers, his eyes darted to the tall male still sound asleep in the middle of his bed. San's desperation still cried through the walls, and Seonghwa wondered how Yunho's senses had not woken yet. Seonghwa's quilt swathed comfortably around his limbs, one of his arms still poked out from underneath and stretched out toward the spot where Seonghwa had been lying before.
Seonghwa stalled for a moment as he addressed the softness of his appearance. But the moment ended when a thunderous roar pinched the inside of his head and had him wince with a throb. Seonghwa stepped around the bed until he reached the end of it. A second later he flung himself forward and firmly pulled the covers off Yunho's legs, cold hands grasping around his bare ankles that suddenly started kicking around, a new sound of frustration stirred along with those downstairs. He yanked him down the length of the bed, throwing him to the floor before he even had a chance to comprehend what was happening.
Yunho rolled around to sit up in a matter of no time but froze once Seonghwa's fingers grabbed his chin and held him still. His fledglings' eyes widened as he stared up at him befuddled by the situation.
"Go do something about San. He won't stop crying after you put him in the dark for hours alone," Seonghwa told him, letting go right away and moving over to his wardrobe and searching out his clothes for the day. He did not hear Yunho move from his spot on the floor.
"What do you want me to tell him?" the other's voice was muzzy with sleep, but at least it sounded like he finally understood what was the matter of commotion.
Seonghwa pulled out a bunch of silk fabrics in beautifully wine red and dark grey colours, silver embroideries littering across the red. Slowly, he turned around when he felt a hand touch the small of his back, and his eyes raised to Yunho's height. His brows were lightly pressed, urging an answer from his sire, but the way his hair had curled and frizzed into a mess on top of his head broke all seriousness of his expression. Seonghwa's fingers twitched and he moved out of Yunho's way, "Whatever you think is the most suitable to tell him."
♦
It seemed that Yunho had decided on San's punishment when he left the residence without San that day. The younger came crawling into the chaise longue where Seonghwa lounged around, his hands occupied by the complete works of William Shakespeare's sonnets. The fledgling nudged his head into his shoulder, whining softly as he tried to gain his sire's attention. His fingers clung to his clothes, legs coming up and wrapping themselves around his thighs.
Seonghwa ignored every one of his attempts, his attention not swaying from the page he currently passed through. Then San started nosing along his shoulder and toward his neck, a hand let go of him and helped his weight to scoot further up his neck and quietly sniff along the skin.
"You smell like Yunho," he hummed quietly, giving a sound of content as he settled in again. But then he stirred and pressed his nose further into the nook of his neck, deeply breathing in all of his bodily odours. "Why is the smell so intense? Seonghwaa~" he whined again when the older still did not give any intention of budging. But the texture of swollen, soft skin prodding recesses into his body, the continuing digging of the firm nose had Seonghwa's eyes stutter away from the inked page before he even realised so himself. San's temperate air blew tickling sensations into his being and he suddenly gave himself away and shuddered.
He truly was a menace in the most disguised shape that was to exist.
San did not make a comment, but Seonghwa felt how his confidence grew by the reaction, seeing how he adjusted his chin on his shoulder desperation having instantly disappeared. Instead, he smugly glanced down at the text, "What language is that?" he questioned, trying to pronounce a sentence with a heavy Portuguese accent. Then he tried with his Korean accent. It sounded so off.
Seonghwa hummed, "It is in English," he waited a moment and repeated the same in Portuguese. He was unsure if San ever had heard of the land in their native language.
"Oh," San exclaimed, "I've heard of that before! They speak a lot of the Englishmen down in the habour - all different kinds of opinions about them. What is the book about?"
His eyes fled over the page another time when he suddenly came to realise how awfully inappropriate the current poetry he had reached turned out to be. "The book contains the complete works of a famous Englishman's poetry."
"Will you read for me?" the younger turned his head to face Seonghwa. "You will not understand any of the rhymes if I do." San fluttered sweetly with his lashes, and Seonghwa swallowed thickly at the blunt move of a hand sliding across his chest, grabbing at his other shoulder, "Please? Your voice is so calming to listen to."
San surely seemed to have forgotten everything about his supposed punishment today.
♦
A week passed while San had been forced to stay inside while both Yunho and Seonghwa went out. The younger had thrown multiple huge protests that always happened to quieten the moment Yunho looked at him with one slightly raised brow. While Seonghwa did not quite know what was wordlessly communicated between them, he did understand why San seemed to respect the dominating tone Yunho wore with that expression.
That day, the giant skipped through the door and ran right into Seonghwa on his way up the stairs, the power of the motion making them both hit the balustrade. Yunho spoke up before Seonghwa had even grasped the body clinging to him.
"The execution is happening today."
The only man that Seonghwa had failed at killing was dying today and he was going to watch it happen.
Seonghwa pulled his cloak around his shoulders and fastened the clamp in the dark fabric. A moment later San was hanging on his wrists, eyes gazing up at him while his bottom lip jutted out into a pleading pout. Yunho's large hand scruffed his neck and wrung him off Seonghwa again, his voice sterner than Seonghwa had expected it to be, "No, San. You're not allowed to go with us."
"But Yun-ah-" he whined, arms finding their way around Yunho's waist as he tugged himself closer, clinging himself out of the still ongoing punishment, "I've- I've been good!" Helplessly, the tall male glanced over at Seonghwa.
He sighed, deeply, before coming closer again, pulling out his hand and placing a sharp finger right between his shoulder blades, "But if you wander out of line again there will be no mercy. Understood?" A warning. And it made San swallow nervously.
The ancient vampire urged each of his fledglings into a covering cloak and pulled them out of the door, crossing the gates of his property and hurrying down the alleyways. He pulled the hood up around his head as they neared the gathering mass of townspeople at the town square. Seonghwa had never seen so many humans gathered there at once.
Minutes passed as they fought their way closer to the front, having to take quite a few harsh words from people rebuking their poking actions, but Seonghwa cared less about that when he finally had a view of the gallows. A few Kingsmen warded the place, but the guarding seemed meaningless once cheers broke out when Captain Hongjoong Kim finally was brought out into his death trap.
His head was shielded with a sack as he was last time they met and his hands were bound tightly in front of his body. Seonghwa could see from the distance how the rope had burned bloody marks into his skin. A sharp sword poked his back as he was forced forward. His feet tripped on the stairs, making his knees and elbows slam into the poking wood. Rumbles and pitches of laughter echoed through the mass of spectators, mocking the man who once had been one of their worst terrors.
But he was just a man, like the man belting in his stomach beside Seonghwa, shouting out how he deserved rougher treatment. All humans were just the same; unruly and bloodthirsty as the man stepping onto the scene, convicted of the greatest sin to mankind.
The act of treachery.
When one of the guards stepped forward and pulled the sack off the corsair's head, Seonghwa nearly couldn't recognise his face for the black and red bruises marring into his features. A fresh cut streaked his left cheekbone, blood still running from the opening. From how new it looked, Seonghwa deduced he must have received it from the blow against the stairs. "San, stay," Yunho's low voice cut through the mass of buzzing humans to Seonghwa, and the ancient vampire took a moment to glance back at his oldest fledgling having San in a firm chokehold while his eyes did not leave the gallows one single time.
Then a spokesman stepped forward on the platform, a stocky man clad in fine clothing, showing off his tawdry position. But the crowd showed him no respect as he was forced to yell even louder than the uproar.
Weakly, the corsair's head rolled down with a smug smile across his lips while the praisings rang through the air, serving the world the honour itself.
"This is the end of an era!" The spokesman screamed with his full lungs until his cheeks reddened from the lack of air, "The end of a man defying The Lord, of a man playing God himself!"
"Captain Hongjoong Kim, you stand condemned for acts of treachery, manslaughter, deceit, and theft. For these crimes, the law demands your life! This world is not yours," hands roughened up the man's swaying, pushing him forward as another one brought the noose over and pressed it over his head, tightening it just enough for the rope to hug the skin all the way around his neck.
Seonghwa pursed his lips with close attention to the smallest movements of words muttered to each other, fed with hatred. "Any famous last words?"
Seonghwa saw the way Hongjoong's lips trembled just the slightest, but not enough for any of the men to take any notice, "I be aft.. " he hissed.
They stepped back from the platform to the jubilant screams of an exultant crowd and Hongjoong stayed still in the middle of the scene. His one eye sought out the theatergoers, the thousands of landspeople who had traveled to see him receive his final death penalty.
With a sharp, unforgiving motion, a guard raised his hand, and in a swift gesture, the trapdoor was released.
The sound of the door slamming open was deafening, a deep, hollow thud that echoed through the town square. Hongjoong's body plunged downward with a sickening jolt as the rope snapped taut. For a split second, there was a brutal, violent stillness throughout the crowd as they witnessed how the corsair helplessly reached for the rope holding his own weight, raw desperation painting his expression red. His body jerked, his legs kicking in a futile spasm when he tried to heave himself up from the strain.
As the rope held firm, his arms slackened and fell by his front again, throaty, inhumane sounds coming from his mouth as his one eye, wide and unblinking, stared out into the crowd. Seonghwa listened to the troubled beats of his heart for minutes passing until it died out with the sound of the cheering people.
Hongjoong went still as the last vestiges of life drained from his face, left hanging for the public eye to behold what happens to the faithless.
And thus, the golden age of piracy was coming to an end.
∞