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If there was one thing Taehyun would call hell, it was humanity.
Which was pretty ironic in itself, considering he worked not only in hell, but also for hell and with hell; not many could call themselves one of the seven royals of the underground, after all. Being the one of the youngest’s was already bad enough – which is why he was very happy with the kind of job and responsibility he had down here.
And with down here, he meant; literally down, the deepest you could possibly get in hell.
Although Taehyun mostly thought of humans as pretty ridiculous, he had quite liked that poor guy called Dante who had one day decided to write a book about hell because he thought he dreamed of all the things he had seen.
He didn’t. No one really knew how he actually ended up down here, but Taehyun really wouldn’t be all that surprised if his royal stupidness, read; the devil, would’ve actually had some sort of influence on that. Hell was a pretty boring place for those who grew up here and as entertaining as idiotic, lustful human souls were, the horniness became uninteresting after the third witnessed orgy.
Back to the story though, Dante had pretty much been the last person who Taehyun had actually talked to and wasn’t a complete and utter piece of shit. He didn’t leave hell at all but if he’d had to define the time that passed since he had last seen a living human being, it would probably be something around 800 years in human time.
Because he was stationed in the Nineth Circle; Treachery. Down here, there were no hot orgies, no fires to burn in and no red, horned, ugly demons like these stupid humans liked to dress-up as on Halloween. No, instead of unforgiving fire, all one would find in Taehyun’s area was…ice.
Ice and frost and darkness.
No mountains, no rivers, no nothing; just icy, frozen wastelands.
Well, and his office, of course.
There also was a small mansion for him to reside in if he wished to but more often than not, he fell asleep on his paperwork; which is why he had eventually just brought some blankets and a pillow to the shitty office so he wouldn’t have to be worried about going back and forth.
Besides, his mansion was so far away and since he technically wasn’t ever off duty, seeing as the assholes down here always had to go through something horrible, he didn’t really see the point of that mansion existing.
Okay, he was one of the princes of hell but still; he had a shitty job and really, he couldn’t care any less about a mansion when it literally wouldn’t matter where you were down here, it was cold anyway. And besides, Taehyun couldn’t really feel the cold in the first place.
What he felt though was his neck when he fell asleep on his paperwork – hence the pillow under his desk.
There were two other reasons for his preferred sleeping-place being the office: he had a better overview on all the assholes and their files, which meant he didn’t have to be worried about missing out on something.
And secondly, although rather unimportant for him; the hell-evator was here.
No, it was not his decision to call it that; really, the devil wasn’t as scary as humanity liked to believe. In all honesty, he was just a very old and coincidentally very powerful idiot. On the very rare occasion that he would visit Taehyun in the Nineth Circle, he usually either broke something or was a distraction in any way. It was also never really clear if his clumsy behavior was just unlucky stars or just him having fun and laughing at other people’s misery.
Probably a little bit of both, hence why the only way in and out of the Nineth Circle was called something as ridiculous as hell-evator.
Taehyun never used it, seeing as he had no business on other levels of hell, let alone earth or – so he dare say it – heaven.
A scary place, if you’d ask Taehyun. He had never before been there himself, but his brother Yeonjun had told him about it, and it did not sound nice at all. Rumor has it that heaven was filled with white walls and cubicles, honest workers and people dressed in neat suits. Something no one in hell except the stuck-up Limbo-assholes could relate to.
Yeonjun was the fourth prince of hell and responsible for the Second and Fifth Circle; Lust and Anger. Ironically fitting, seeing as he usually brought in a bunch of different emotions whenever he was near. The eldest’s say that he was born from an angry woman’s blood, shed after giving birth to a demon’s child. Taehyun didn’t necessarily believe that tale, although Yeonjun was most definitely scary enough for it to be true; one second, he could be in a good mood and flirty with everyone who looked good enough for him (his lust) and in the very next moment, he was on 180 and ready to burn your ass off (very clearly his anger).
Anyways, Yeonjun usually had some sort of business with heaven; contracts, discussions, literal fights about who would get which soul – apparently, more often than not, the upper levels of hell tried to push souls away from them and heaven tried to send souls down.
Good to know that not even the all-mighty angels were as holy as one would think, seeing as they seemed to dislike humanity just as much.
Taehyun usually didn’t expect anyone to visit him. Everyone avoided the Nineth Level; it was the cleanest button on the hell-evator (that stupid fucking name) for a reason. No one had any business with him because as shitty and stupid and sinful as some humans could be, only few were shitty enough to end up down here, in the frozen wastelands.
Don’t misunderstand; Taehyun didn’t dislike his job and position. No, he preferred it that way. All the other royals of hell were either annoying, idiots, loud, or all of these things. As much as he loved his brothers and sisters, they were all rulers of different parts of hell and responsible for different things for a reason.
Taehyun was where he was for a reason.
So the hell-evator usually wasn’t busy for him and it didn’t bother him. He liked his small office in the form of a shed somewhere in a snowy mountain. And he liked his quiet, lonely life in the Nineth Circle.
Taehyun didn’t need Yeonjun to come and visit him every once in a while and tell him all about the stuff he missed above him.
He didn’t need company or attempted-hidden pity.
But still, even with his frozen heart beating in his ribcage, reminding him of his task and destiny…a little part of himself always found himself smiling whenever Yeonjun did visit him, as loud and annoying as he could be sometimes.
~
“This is just cruel”, Yeonjun commented and sucked on a lollipop with his eyebrows drawn together, as if he were actually personally offended by what was going on.
Taehyun knew him well enough to know that his elder brother couldn’t and wouldn’t care any less, even with the pitying pout on his lips. It was part of Yeonjun’s nature as a demon born in lust and anger; not like he couldn’t feel things like pity or regret or guilt. But he was more prone to enjoy the suffering of other’s in any way.
The icy wastelands and the ugly, new breeze of frost Taehyun sent these pathetic dead soul’s was absolutely no exception, even if he pretended to be hurt for their sake.
Taehyun sighed and shook his head, placing his orb back on the small pillow near his desk; right where it belonged.
The Frost Harp – a weapon he had gotten thousands of years ago, when he had first learned how to control his powers as a young demon. His orb had nothing to do with a harp; but it was said to be made of an angel’s harp. Taehyun didn’t remember much of his time in existence; seeing as time in hell was different anyway, especially in the nineth and deepest circle. But the day he had gotten the Frost Harp from his father was a day he could remember as vividly as if it had just happened.
When the seven royals of hell were born, none of the demons or even the devil himself knew which one would be born from what. Every single royal had another legend accompanying them but no one but they themselves actually knew how they came to exist as demons of royal hell. Okay, well; maybe also the devil, seeing as he was his father…somehow, technically, in a way.
Demon biology is very complex, okay?
Taehyun had always been colder than his siblings; which was why to everyone else, it was instantly clear what his role in hell would eventually be. He couldn’t control fire, neither was he hot-headed or particularly prone to have some sort of emotional affinity like for example Yeonjun or their twin-siblings Hyunjin and Yeji. Instead of having one of the many volcano’s on the Fifth Circle erupt from anger like Yeonjun would when he was upset, Taehyun usually froze the whole room.
He remembered the day Yeji had upset him by doing something – he couldn’t recall what exactly – and Taehyun had accidentally lost control, causing the whole Limbo (the First Circle) to freeze. Traffic in and out of hell had been interrupted for days and his father had then decided to not only train him on controlling his abilities; but also keep him away from most of his siblings and especially the normal residents and workers of hell, heaven, and earth.
A day after, he had gotten the Frost Harp; the orb and his trusted weapon. By channeling his powers through it, he had more of a grip on how much he actually used. Adding the fact that Taehyun mostly didn’t interact with anyone, he also wasn’t of any danger for anyone.
He had never understood why Yeonjun had been so mad about the fact that their father had locked him away in the Nineth Circle all by himself pretty early in his existence; Taehyun didn’t care, and he couldn’t care. Most of the emotions he had were what someone taught him. He naturally didn’t have the ability to feel things.
But as an advanced, high-class demon and prince of hell, he was capable of learning things easily.
So he could feel things now just as freely as his siblings; he could get angry, he could cry and feel jealousy, he was capable of laughing and feeling joy. If he really wanted to, he could also feel hunger or tiredness. But he didn’t need to and more so, he had a higher tolerance for all of those things. He would eventually starve but Taehyun wasn’t like Yeonjun, who was half-incubus and therefore had to provide himself with sexual energy at least once a week. As long as he stayed in the Nineth Circle, he could survive for a long, long time without feeling less powerful or tired or hungry for a soul’s energy.
That was due to the fact that his Circle of Hell was a place with concentrated, hellish energy; only the worst pieces of shits ended up down here and souls bad enough to be introduced to Taehyun in an official form sent by heaven or the Limbo usually had enough energy for him to feed on for at least one human year.
There was only one feeling that he had never learned, although read a lot about; love.
Yeonjun and his other siblings were all very attuned with their feelings and emotions, seeing as they were responsible for Circles dealing with these kinds of things, handling souls that were lustful or greedy, or angry. But Taehyun’s souls were numb to these things; so bad, so evil, that they didn’t have an ounce of humanity left.
Taehyun didn’t understand love, no matter how often Yeonjun tried to explain it to him, or how concentrated he read that cheesy romance book.
It didn’t make sense to him because he had never before met anyone who could show him any sort of love.
The closest thing to love he had were his siblings; as stupidly annoying as they could be, they still were his family – or, well, the closest thing to a family demons like them could have. They weren’t born from one mother and father like humans or lower angels; they were born from emotions, wishes, from fire and agony, from a drop of blood in hell’s volcano or a demon’s sperm mixed with a human’s pain. All sorts of things.
Still his siblings were his siblings because the one thing they had in common as royals was the devil as their father.
They somehow loved him in a way, Taehyun guessed; but even then, love was the only emotion he had never managed to actually mirror and learn because he didn’t understand why love was the way it was.
Love wasn’t like anger or sadness.
When you were angry, you had a reason for that.
Sadness showed itself in tears and it hurt in one’s chest.
But love was so transparent, a weird mixture of all of those things because love triggered every emotion; love hurt and love was joyful, love was dull and colorful, love was every single thing and nothing at all. Taehyun didn’t understand; and so, he never knew how to feel it.
When he had asked his siblings what he should feel with love, every one of them had told him something else:
“It’s the pain of not seeing your beloved but knowing that you’re connected through something greater than you!”, Yeji had said with a dreamy look in her cat-like eyes.
“It’s passion and fire, mixed together in a fiery storm of chaos and yet, a beautiful massacre”, was what Yeonjun had said (unsurprisingly).
“You’re all wrong”, Hyunjin had interrupted his siblings, “Love is a symphony, different for every single creature and extraordinary in every way it exists.”
As poetic as all of that had sounded, Taehyun couldn’t grasp what that meant.
He barely knew why tears stung his eyes when he was sad or why his fingers sparked with ice when he was mad.
Love was too complex for him to mirror or understand because it was different for everyone. It’s not an emotion that just shows itself for everyone the same way. It’s unique for every individual; and Taehyun, who couldn’t feel on his own without learning how to do so, therefore didn’t know how to love.
He sighed and slapped Yeonjun’s hand away from his neatly organized files on his desk; he had gotten some new paperwork this morning which meant that a new soul arrived soon. As usual, he was already done with the paperwork and only had to send it off to Limbo so they could pass it onto heaven.
“Don’t mess with my stuff or I’ll have you organize it again”, he warned and clicked his tongue.
Yeonjun huffed and swirled around on his office chair, eventually stopping the spinning by supporting his never-ending, long legs on his desk. As always, Yeonjun looked absolutely alluring in every way a half-incubus should and could: He was gifted with tall height and gorgeously distracting plump lips, accompanied by lazy fox-eyes that were a lot sharper than people liked to believe. As one part of him was Kitsune (the royal siblings knew about each other’s true core), he was also extremely flexible and agile, quick-witted, and dangerously smart. His attire barely varied, neither did it today; he always had some sort of leather pants and a tight top, sometimes a crop-top, sometimes just a loose cardigan or jacket. Most striking about him probably was the fiery red hair he had, ironically classic for a demon. When he got mad, it started glowing – Taehyun thought it’s funny, but Yeonjun hated it.
“I don’t understand how you can be so okay with having to live down here. Like…aren’t you ever bored…?”, Yeonjun said and directed his gaze out of the window right in front of Taehyun’s desk, as if he wanted to make a point by looking at the storm outside, “I mean…you can’t be satisfied with just…this.”
Taehyun followed his line of sight and rested his eyes on the blizzard and the ice. To him, all of this was another punishment, summoned by him and his orb; because a new soul was coming, and they shouldn’t have the impression that this right here would give them the same amount of lucky treatment they got when they were still alive. Because the Nineth Circle was their first and last stop. No soul that has been trapped down here ever got the chance to get reborn and leave it.
“…As the prince of lust and anger, you have to feed on these emotions to stay alive…right?”, he eventually said and watched as Yeonjun’s perfectly sculpted eyebrows drew together into an upset frown; probably because he also knew what Taehyun was going to say when he smiled softly at him and continued, “Then why should I, as the prince of eternal suffering, get to leave my souls?”
As always when he received a new soul, he made sure to get rid of Yeonjun; souls like this, who were damned to end up in his circle, weren’t like the ones his siblings received. Their energy was different; especially when they were fresh and new. As humans, or what’s left of them, they are powerful enough to battle a demon. More often than not, the souls Taehyun accepted in his circle weren’t as cooperative as others; seeing as they did horrible things in life, why would they see the point of their endless punishment in afterlife? They were mad, furious, often out of control.
The last thing Taehyun needed when handling a vengeful soul was one of his siblings influencing their emotions even more.
He waited patiently at his desk, checking his schedule, and filling out some more forms needed for the new soul (or else the Limbo-demons will get his ass again for not being fast enough).
Until he heard the sound of the hell-evator nearing – a mechanical groan that echoed through the whole office, until it stopped and opened its doors with a slightly broken Ding.
Taehyun stood up and turned around, prepared to catch a vengeful soul trying to get out of here; but he halted in his steps and blinked in utter confusion when instead of his usual soul delivery boy Huening Kai in fact did not stand in front of him with a small cage and a pitch-black glowing soul.
Instead, he made eye-contact with two round, wide eyes, milky skin, and the brightest clothes he had ever seen in his entire life. The picture would’ve been amusing, if Taehyun wouldn’t be so shocked at the display itself: a pair of beautiful, broad, white wings was squeezed together in the narrow hell-evator and the guy wearing them looked just as confused as Taehyun was.
He stepped out of the elevator, dusting his shoulders off and stretching the wings with a groan before saying: “…Weird. Last time I visited the Limbo, it looked different.”
For a few seconds, Taehyun all but stared in utter disbelieve, watching as the doors of the only way out of here closed and the hell-evator disappeared to fetch whoever else wanted to get somewhere. He had never before seen an angel, let alone from up this close – for various reasons, that is. Seeing as he usually spend his time in the deepest part of hell, not many angels had any reason or the authority for that matter to come down here. How this angel right here managed to end up here though was a complete mystery to Taehyun; especially considering that he apparently wanted to go to Limbo and Limbo was literally the first level of hell.
How did this angel not notice that his ride took longer than usually?!
“Well, you must be new”, the angel said and shrugged, a smile tugging on his lips as he politely analyzed the shed, “…It’s a nice change for once; Limbo is so full of stuck-up demons usually and it always reminds me of heaven’s main-office – just creepy, I’m telling you! Anyways, I’m here because of a document I’m supposed to finish and hand in by tomorrow, but earthly matters interrupted me in my paperwork and so I wanted to let you know that it’ll be late.”
“…”, Taehyun stared at him, unable to say anything.
He had never before – in his entire existence – come across an angel. His father, just like many demons older than him, had told him to stay away from angels; specifically lower angels. His energy was too strong for most angels to just be near him, let alone the Nineth Circle. That was one of the reasons Taehyun simply couldn’t bring himself to say something; because this good-for-nothing angel stumbled into his circle and still didn’t realize that this most definitely was not Limbo.
And for some odd reason, Taehyun also couldn’t articulate any words that flew around in his brain because of the sheer sight in front of him. This angel was nothing he had ever met before; the soft glow surrounding him in the dull darkness of Taehyun’s office-shed, the way his hair softly curled around his nape and bounced on his head when he took a step forward or turned around, the chic, white suit he was wearing – probably his work clothes, seeing as it looked like every suit angels wore when they were on duty (or at least, that’s what Yeonjun told him); he was alluring in a way nothing had ever been for Taehyun. His energy, his whole presence, seemed to lighten the room and warm the unforgiving coldness in the Nineth Circle.
“…Hello?”, the angel said, and Taehyun blinked himself out of it only to realize that the stranger had stepped way too close for comfort, “Are you even listening? It’s a document regarding last month’s energy statistics.”
With an embarrassing yelp and reflexes faster than light, Taehyun made sure to have some sort of space exist between them by launching himself back into his chair with so much panic, that he accidentally ported himself and promptly fell backwards with his chair from his speed; which, then again, had him release another yell.
He flinched and groaned when his head hit the floor and his office chair fell to the right side, causing him to lay uncomfortably and somehow stuck with a throbbing head.
The angel gasped and took a step closer, “Oh! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to be all up in your space; I know that some demons are very timid with proximity, but I thought workers in Limbo are used to angels! Here, let me help you…”
Taehyun was prepared to throw some sort of icy wind at him, words of panic literally sitting on the tip of his tongue; but all of that died down the very moment he felt the angel’s hands grab his wrist and gently pull him up from the floor and out of the chair.
He had never before felt warmth – not when Hyunjin pranked him by throwing him out of Yeonjun’s circle and into his own (the Sixth Circle, Heresy), causing Taehyun to literally land in a pit of fire. Not when Yeji tried hugging the living shit out of him. Not when their father had actually wanted to throw a fireball at Yeonjun for pissing him off (again) and accidentally hit Taehyun. Every form of warmth usually melted away with Taehyun, turned into smoke and couldn’t burn him, no matter how hot the flames or how lovely the embrace.
Which is why, at first, Taehyun was overwhelmed – the touch of this angel sent warmth all through his body and he didn’t even realize that it was warmth until he felt it pool in the core of his body and fill him up from the inside, as if someone poured cooked water into him. For a few, fleeting seconds, it felt absolutely amazing – he had never understood Yeonjun’s obsession with angels up until now, that one of these very angels touched him.
But then, that second of bliss was over and he felt his organism literally fight against the sudden warmth as a reaction because; the warmth changed his inner powers and his demonic balance wouldn’t ever allow that to happen – somehow like an emergency button in case Taehyun’s powers would slip and cause the Nineth Circle to melt.
Before he could even attempt to take his arm away from the angel or stop the powers inside of him from acting out, he already had snowflakes drizzling down his fingertips and within a moment, the whole office was covered in a layer of purple ice, temperatures decreasing.
The angel’s mouth dropped open in shock and he must’ve finally realized that he was not in Limbo and Taehyun was not one of these stuck-up workers who sent fees and bills to everyone who didn’t hand in their documents in time.
And then, just like that, Taehyun passed out.
~~~
“I cannot express enough how utterly sorry I am, Yoongi-ssi”, Jin said and bowed another ninety degrees, pushing Beomgyu down even further by the back of his head with a bruising grip – the Dominion was a lot stronger than he looked and no matter how often Beomgyu managed to wrongfully stumble into trouble, he never got used to it, “Really, I don’t know what my idiot Power thought he’d do walking into the Nineth Circle and touching the Eternal Ice.”
Under any other circumstance, Beomgyu would’ve wiggled himself out of Seokjin’s grip by now and hissed at him to not treat him like some clueless child.
But this time – as innocent as his intentions had been – he really couldn’t blame Jin for being mad at him.
Seokjin was one of the Dominions of Heaven; the highest angel of the Middle Order. Dominions were responsible for lower angels and their duties, keeping an eye on them and more or less train them like teachers would. It is extremely rare that Dominions get out of hell to deal with things, simply because they are one of the Lords of Heaven and have better things to do than dealing with stupid, petty fights in Limbo or on earth.
Beomgyu was one of the angels who unfortunately managed to have Seokjin move his ass out of heaven more than one can count because he always, somehow, in some way, managed to get into trouble and fuck something up.
As mad as Seokjin usually got whenever that happened, he could never truly stay angry at him because everyone knew that Beomgyu was just extremely clumsy and unlucky, and he didn’t cause trouble because he woke up and chose war.
But this time, he knew that he majorly fucked up; everyone knew of the Eternal Ice, the Untouchable, the Sixth Prince of Hell – he was not to meet, not to talk to, not to look at and most importantly; not to touch. Especially and specifically not by an angel and much less by Powers.
Powers were the lowest angels of the Middle Order, also called Authorities. Their duty in heaven was to keep evil forces from causing any harm; they were working close with Guardian Angels, seeing as it was their job to protect humanity. Powers assisted in that by using their energy to dim evil energy and use it against them.
Which was what Beomgyu was doing.
Beomgyu, an Authority Angel with the power over evil forces and negative energy, touched the one and only demon who needed that energy to keep very, very horrible souls where they belonged for eternity.
He fucked up, Seokjin was mad, and he really couldn’t find it in himself to not understand why. So instead of shaking himself out of the Dominion’s grip, Beomgyu bowed down even more and added to Jin’s apology: “…I’m very ashamed by what I have done, and I beg for your forgiveness.”
Yoongi was the eldest prince of hell and ruled over the Seventh Circle; Violence. As such, he usually had to deal with all kinds of shitty souls and problematic humans – which is why his patience usually ran extremely thin. Beomgyu met him more than he’d like to admit and none of these encounters had been of any good nature.
Flashback to when he accidentally let go of a soul after being told to deliver it for someone else, causing chaos to erupt in the Seventh and Sixth Circle – the demons were busy gathering hundreds of souls from earth for almost six months and Beomgyu was almost certain that they still haven’t found and caught all of them.
He wasn’t too sure if Yoongi actually disliked him because he always had the same kind of displeased and uninterested scowl on his bored face, no matter who he was talking to. The only time he had ever seen something comparable to a smile on the demon’s face was when Jimin had come to apologize for Beomgyu’s unlucky accident. Jimin was a Throne – the lowest of the Highest Order. It’s his job to mete divine justice and maintain the cosmic harmony and their laws. Despite his adorable eye smile and the cute cheeks, he was still a Throne – and when they were angry, they literally turned into creepy wheels with more eyes than one can count and heavenly fire surrounding them; Beomgyu always thought they looked more like a demon than any demon he ever met.
Maybe, Yoongi was so soft for Jimin for exactly that reason – but nonetheless, the smile he had had for the Throne was adorable, especially because he thought Beomgyu hadn’t seen it.
Even now, as Yoongi regarded him and Seokjin with an unimpressed look, Beomgyu wasn’t sure if he was actually angry, hated his guts for always causing trouble or simply decided that he was so stupid, he couldn’t even care about his lowly existence. “…How did you even end up in the Nineth Circle?”, Yoongi asked with a calm voice.
Beomgyu was suddenly glad that he still bowed his head so he wouldn’t have to look at the demon prince as he answered: “…I called for the hell-evator to take me to Limbo and got distracted. And then I must’ve accidentally boarded the hell-evator Huening Kai had called for himself…”
“Jin get up. And you too, Beomgyu”, Yoongi said, and they both followed his words with frowns on their faces, “Taehyun-ie will be fine in a couple hours and he will go fetch the escaped souls as soon as he’s strong enough again.”
“I want to help!”, Beomgyu said and yelped when Jin slapped the back of his head with a hiss.
He ignored the elder, “Please, Yoongi-ssi! It’s my fault that he fell unconscious, let alone lost control over the souls. I should’ve noticed that he isn’t just any demon and it’s also my job to tame evil forces like those souls that escaped. Please, let me help him.”
Yoongi sighed again, “Taehyun is more than capable of fetching the escaped souls by himself. And besides, you had no way of knowing about his position – you’re one of very few existences who ever got to see him. It’s not like his powers are something you’re used to feeling; no one in your position would’ve known-…”
“Although confusing the Nineth Circle with Limbo is still rather stupid, regardless of Taehyun’s powers”, Yoongi’s younger brother Hoseok said, and they all looked at him when he popped a marshmallow into his mouth nonchalantly. He pouted when Yoongi snapped his fingers and the package of marshmallows was reduced to a pile of ashes on Hoseok’s lap, “That was just rude, you asshole.”
“Anyway”, Yoongi ignored Hoseok, “I don’t really care if you tag along with Taehyun as long as you don’t touch him again I guess. So if you really want to help him, then do whatever you want and leave me alone.”
Beomgyu blinked in utter surprise, “Really? You’ll let me help him?”
“Yeah, you’ll let him help? Beomgyu? The guy who cannot go two days without blowing something up?”, Jin added with a frown of disbelieve. Beomgyu chose to ignore it for his own sake.
The First Prince of Hell shrugged disinterested, “I doubt Taehyun would let you tag along. So if you think you can convince him, you do you. But I won’t waste my time trying to talk you or him out of or into something.”
~~~
“…”
It was silent. Beomgyu was absolutely not used to silence.
He was a Power and as such, always busy running after stupid Guardian Angels while they were running after their stupid humans. His existence was chaotic in every sense of the word – even without his unexplainable tendency to get into stupid situations. Beomgyu was a loud person, and he was aware of that.
But what does one say to the hellish royal he had accidentally flooded with angelic warmth and caused more harm than anything else?
He somehow expected Taehyun to get extremely mad as soon as Beomgyu stepped into the Nineth Circle again. But the Prince of Hell merely stared at him without letting his gaze drift anywhere else for the longest time.
“…Uhm”, Beomgyu cleared his voice, “…I’m…Beomgyu. And I’m very sorry for causing you trouble…”
Taehyun stared for another few seconds before finally looking away from him. His gaze felt heavy for no real reason because the demon didn’t even look mad or angry or disappointed or disgusted. His stare was kind of blank – as if he didn’t know how to express emotions. Beomgyu also found himself drawn to the beautiful greyish-white color of his eyes even though they were just as icy as his powers. But none of that was really any reason for Beomgyu to avert his own gaze elsewhere.
“…So…what is your plan? Do you go out and get the souls? Or have you located them on earth already? When was the last time you visited earth…? It changed a lot, I can help you up there-…”
“I’ve never been on earth”, Taehyun interrupted his nervous rambling and Beomgyu blinked totally dumbfounded.
He gaped, “You-…what?! But…but you’re one of the royals of hell! And-…and you manage the most horrendous souls! How can you not know where they’re coming from and why they are the way they are-…”
“I don’t care about why they are the way they are”, the demon said and his grey eyes seemed to glow slightly with the raging blizzard outside of this shitty shed, “It’s not my job to understand these souls, much less to teach them a lesson. None of them will ever leave my circle, no matter the time passing. They’re not worthy of that effort because they lost the right to be considered souls we can still save.”
Beomgyu bit his lip – he had heard of Taehyun before, of course. He hadn’t known that Taehyun was his name, neither had he been aware of his looks. But there was no one in heaven or hell who didn’t know of him; the sixth prince of hell, the ice and the frozen. The one who should never be touched, unable to leave hell and bound to eternally stay in his circle to keep the strong evil forces at bay.
Never before had Beomgyu wondered about him because – why should he? He had absolutely no business with Taehyun whatsoever.
The only one who actively got to deal with Taehyun was Huening Kai – an Angel of the Lowest Order who was specifically tasked to collect souls for the prince of hell. He was of a line of seldom angels, trained in the ways of the Nineth Circle. It was his job to meet up with Taehyun from time to time to merely deliver souls.
But other than that, no one had any reason to deal with Taehyun in any way, much less Beomgyu. As an Authority, he really only used the hell-evator when he needed to submit his paperwork associated with demons or souls that he cared for and now ended up in hell.
“…Then if you never visited earth…how are you planning to get these souls back?”, Beomgyu asked carefully, still kind of expecting the demon prince to burst and get mad.
Taehyun though merely stared at him again for a long time before answering: “…I just go on earth and locate them. Humans won’t see me, much less know of my presence. I’ll be in and out of earth faster than anyone could even realize I was gone.”
Beomgyu frowned, “Let me help you. It’s my fault you lost them, and I don’t feel right just letting you…roam earth. No offence.”
“Okay”, Taehyun said and held his hand up to which an ice-blue orb flew over, floating right above of his palm, “If you insist.”
“Really? It was that easy? Yoongi-ssi acted as if you would completely throw me under the rock for suggesting to help you”, he answered and stepped closer to Taehyun. The demon instantly frowned and slightly backed up, but Beomgyu remained standing a good meter away from him. His eyes focused on the orb, “What is that? It’s cool.”
“Don’t touch that.”
“Why not?”
“Because one doesn’t touch a demon’s weapon, why would you need a reason for that?!”
Beomgyu watched as the other hesitated for a rather long time before a teasing grin spread on his innocent face, pouty lips opening to say: “So touching the weapon’s owner is okay?”
He was only joking, of course – he made the mistake of touching Taehyun once, he wouldn’t do it again just like that.
Taehyun though immediately looked like he was about to panic and was out of Beomgyu’s way so fast again, that he hit his desk’s edge with a loud thud, “…J-Just. Don’t touch my stuff…or me…”
Beomgyu really tried to not laugh but the demon was utterly adorable for some really odd reason. There was something so vastly different about Taehyun; demons usually were very pushy, especially higher ranked ones and even more so the royals. They were sure of themselves and their position, knew how they could treat whom and how to talk to whom.
It's one of many reasons why angels and demons didn’t get along – angels thought of demons as disrespectful and uncivilized and demons generally expected every angel to be a stuck-up, all mighty assholes. Of course, that wasn’t the case for everyone, and their differences were also given by their nature – demons were, after all, the complete opposite of an angel.
But Beomgyu had never before met a demon like Taehyun, who literally went from stone-cold staring into his eyes to losing control over his porting-ability and slamming into his own furniture just to create some sort of distance between them. It almost seemed like Taehyun didn’t know how to react to certain things and even his embarrassment looked utterly helpless – like mentioned, as if he didn’t know how to express emotions properly.
It was cute in a way and Beomgyu really couldn’t help the giggle that escaped him.
He stopped laughing though when he noticed Taehyun’s eyes once again staring holes through him and he forced himself to stop the laughing; after all, Taehyun technically was above him, seeing as he was a prince of hell.
But just like the other times Beomgyu expected the demon to get mad or offended, nothing of that sorts happened; instead, Taehyun merely stopped staring after some time and adjusted his clothes, the orb following him in the air as he walked past Beomgyu towards the hell-evator.
All in utter and complete silence.
~
Earth was not a place someone like Taehyun would usually find himself walking around on. He had no business being out of his own circle, let alone on earth – much less with a Power Angel at that.
When the hell-evator arrived on earth, Beomgyu had let go of a scowl; apparently, depending on where you came from, the hell-evator dropped you off in different regions on earth.
“Great, Antarctica”, the angel had said and shivered, the tips of his nose and fingers already turning a rosy shade from the cold, “I should really not be this surprised, seeing as the Nineth Circle is literally an ice-paradise.”
“…”, Taehyun chose to not question it and merely followed the angel through the snow, unbothered by the temperatures and mesmerized by the wide landscapes of ice and snow. He gasped softly when something touched his leg and turned his head, only to stare at…
“What is that…thing?”
Beomgyu stopped and turned around with a questioning look, only for his eyes to start glowing in excitement, “Oh my god! A penguin! And it hugs your leg!”
“…Pen-…guin? Is it some sort of…pen?”, he wondered out loud and frowned softly; the so-called penguin shook its small body, weird arms flailing around as it nudged its small head against the demon’s knee. A weird sound came out of its mouth and Taehyun found himself even more confused than before. What kind of weird place is this antarctica and why in the name of Satan did it follow him when he attempted to step away from it? “…What weird kind of pen. Humans do peculiar things with their world…”
“It’s not a pen!”, Beomgyu said with a pout, as if he felt personally attacked by that assumption, “It’s a penguin! A bird! An animal!”
Taehyun stared at him, then back down at the penguin, only to stare at Beomgyu in utter confusion again, “A bird? No, birds look different. Why doesn’t it fly if it’s a bird?”
“Penguins can’t fly”, the angel said nonchalantly and squatted down to pet the penguin’s head lovingly, to which it made one of these weird sounds again, “It seems to like you!”
“…Okay I guess”, Taehyun said and sighed, dropping it at that – birds that didn’t look like birds, were named after pens, and couldn’t fly. He really didn’t need to understand that, much less when they kept walking and the so-called penguin kept following them with waddling steps.
If anything, the penguin looked like a smaller version of Huening Kai, and not like a bird.
“So, how many souls are we looking for?”, the angel asked, hands rubbing together, shoulders shaking. He was obviously cold, not like Taehyun could really do anything for him – he wasn’t cold because human emotions and feelings weren’t related to him, and he therefore didn’t know what being cold was like. He also couldn’t help Beomgyu because all he could do for him was make it even colder.
He sighed when the penguin made some protesting sounds behind a bigger step upwards, turning around to gently grab the bird and carry him up. When he tried setting it back down, it started screaming and Taehyun therefore decided to merely carry the penguin. He also chose to ignore Beomgyu’s amused smile when he answered him: “Three of them managed to escape onto earth surface, the rest didn’t get past the other layers of hell. I can sense one of them approximately 7800 kilometers north-west from our current location.”
The look on Beomgyu’s face turned from amused to dumbfounded in an instant. “North-west? From our current location…that would probably be something in South America? Peru maybe?”
“…I don’t know, I’ve never been here before”, Taehyun answered plainly, petting the penguin’s head absentmindedly.
“Peru it is, let’s go!”, the angel was about to wrap his hand around Taehyun’s wrist, but halted in the middle of his attempt and smiled sheepishly, “…Uhm. Just follow my energy.”
And just like that Beomgyu let his wings appear and pushed himself off of the snowy ground with so much strength that he left behind a whirlwind of snow.
Taehyun concentrated and waited for him to stop – about twenty minutes later, he felt the warm energy settle down about 7000 meters away from him; not bad. He rolled his shoulders and petted the penguins head again, who made its weird penguin-sounds in excitement as he said: “…Today, you’ll be the first penguin to fly.”
When Taehyun landed next to Beomgyu softly, the angel turned around with a smile – just for it to fade and he groaned, “You can’t take the penguin here!”
“…Why not?”
“It doesn’t live in this region! It lives in the antarctica!” The angel looked conflicted, and Taehyun was pretty sure that he looked the same.
Especially when the penguin screeched again, small dark eyes seemingly glaring at the angel – as if it actually understood what he had said.
“But you said it’s a bird? Birds live everywhere?”, the demon said, head tilted to the right in confusion.
The penguin seemed fine for now, so he didn’t really see where the problem was – after all, he had let the penguin follow them for the longest time.
Beomgyu groaned, “…I-…okay, we’ll just take him along for now. But don’t lose him! We’ll have to go back to antarctica anyway to board the hell-evator, so we’ll drop him off there on our way home.”
Taehyun still didn’t understand the problem, but he was satisfied with it, gently adjusting his hold on the penguin, who rubbed its head against his neck in affection.
What a weird creature.
“Just for the record; not every species of bird lives everywhere. So…please don’t take any more animals with you”, the angel said, and Taehyun nodded softly even though he still didn’t really get what this was about.
Compared to that snowy place called antarctica, this Peru-place was warm and colorful. Taehyun frowned at the weird feeling on his skin and looked up into the bright blue sky, his eyes blinking against…was that the sun?
“Stop staring into the sun or you’ll burn your eyes off!”, Beomgyu said and seemed to be very close to grab him again – but he stopped himself just in time.
Taehyun blinked and looked at Beomgyu, frowning at the weird spots dancing around in front of his eyes, “…That is peculiar”, he said, “I thought the sun is a giant ball of fire and yet it isn’t that hot after all.”
“Okay, first”, Beomgyu said and positioned his hands on his hips the same way Hoseok did when he wanted to seem like he had everything under control, “Don’t stare at the sun, that’s not good for your eyes. Secondly, the sun is a giant fireball but it’s very, very, very far away, in space, so it’s not as hot for us here.”
“Can we go look at it from up close later?”, Taehyun asked in a wonderous tone – he was intrigued by this weird thing called sun.
Beomgyu inhaled deeply before he answered: “No. No we can’t. We don’t go near any suns, in any galaxy, understood?” He turned around and started walking off towards the right direction – seeing as it was literally his duty to find and calm evil forces, he was also capable of detecting the lost souls when he was close enough.
The penguin made another sound, almost as if it was protesting, and Taehyun followed the angel with patient steps, “There are more suns? Why can’t we see them?”
“Because they’re so far away that you can only see them by night. Humanity calls them stars”, Beomgyu answered, “The city we’re in is called Lima, by the way – it’s the capital of Peru. You’re actually quite lucky since it doesn’t really get too hot here. Any idea where the soul could be?”
Taehyun let his eyes wander around – they stood on some sort of…overlook, beneath them a whole sea of houses and buildings. He closed his eyes and focused on the nearest soul, his orb reacting by drizzling snow to the ground as it started flying towards the right direction. With a smile, Taehyun set the penguin down and created a small cloud over its head that drizzled snow onto it and kept it cool. The bird made another sound of excitement and waddled after Taehyun when he started following his orb.
“…Are all cities this lively?”, he wondered out loud, smoothly avoiding a talking couple – their language was foreign to Taehyun, but he still understood their words; he may be clueless about how this world works but he was still a demon, okay?
“Well, there are cities with many people and towns with less people on earth”, Beomgyu said and smiled when a child ran past them, “I’ve actually only been to Lima once before. It’s a shame, this city is so pretty.”
The demon nodded slowly in agreement; Lima really was a beautiful city.
They walked past various buildings and restaurants (as Beomgyu explained to him), made their way around a dance group performing on the streets and walked more and more into the center of the city.
Of course, no one was capable of seeing them; but they still made it their mission to avoid touching anyone, especially Taehyun. Beomgyu explained that the most these humans could feel when they did touch him was a shiver of some sorts – but they wouldn’t have any sort of longtime damage. Since Taehyun covered the penguin in a snow-cloud, no one was capable of seeing the little thing as well. Luckily, as the angel had commented.
“You should give it a name”, Beomgyu said after a while, “I personally think he looks like Huening Kai but don’t tell him I said that – he’s mad at me for ruining his delivery to you.”
Taehyun turned to look at the angel with wide eyes, “I also thought he looks like Kai” – his gaze set on the penguin – “…How do you like the name…Yucca? Sounds like Hyuka. Suits you, doesn’t it?”
Yucca flailed around with his arms and chirped softly, waddling faster to tap his head against Taehyun’s leg with a happy little sound.
Meanwhile, Beomgyu chuckled again, “You just named him after a plant.”
“…Well then that must be a very cool plant”, Taehyun answered and halted in his steps abruptly when he felt the shift in the air.
His orb was flying around back and forth, unable to completely pin-point where the treachery’s soul was. Not like Taehyun cared; he let the orb float over his palm, eyes glowing an intense blue as he collected his powers and created a shield, to which a dark mass suddenly bumped against the surfaces of it in unbelievable speed, trying to break free from its confines.
“Found you”, Taehyun said and held his orb up, a trail of ice-spikes shooting through the ground and crowding the soul in until it couldn’t escape anymore. As soon it touched his ice, the soul was sucked in and the ice-spikes came back towards his orb, pulling the soul into it and locking it inside.
“That was…a lot easier than I expected?”, Beomgyu commented and absentmindedly petted Yucca’s head when he waddled over to him.
Taehyun let his orb float around him and looked at the angel again, “…That one was an old soul. He’s weak because he had been trapped in Treachery for…almost 600 years I think? Yes, that should be about right.”
They did the same thing as before, with Taehyun locating the second soul, Beomgyu flying ahead and the demon prince following as soon his energy stopped.
When he landed with Yucca on his arm again, his feet touched green grass and the sky was covered by clouds. It was colder here than in Lima – not like Taehyun actually felt it but Beomgyu shivered and whined about it as soon as he could.
“Where are we?”, Taehyun asked and looked around himself – there really wasn’t much going on here; at all. There was a lonely road not far from them, a lot of grass and blooming trees with pink petals on them; cherry blossoms, if he remembered correctly. What a beautiful sight they were.
“Hm…”, Beomgyu wondered out loud, “I’m not sure, honestly? Switzerland I think. But a very small town.”
There were absolutely no humans here – just butterflies, a bunch of trees and-…
“When did you pick this animal up?! We were in Peru’s Amazon because you wanted to see it for all but two minutes!”, Beomgyu gasped and stared at the weird creature sitting next to Taehyun’s feet.
It was tall, a lot taller than the penguin, had spotted fur and sent vibrations up his leg with the purring sounds it made while rubbing its tall head against him.
“…What is that?”, Taehyun turned around to squat down in front of the peculiar creature, to which it opened its mouth to reveal a set of sharp teeth while yawning softly.
The angel let his head fall into his hands and groaned before answering: “…This is called a Jaguar. They live in the Amazon of Peru and are very rare. And usually, they attack and eat humans, but I guess seeing as you’re not a human anyway, it doesn’t mind.”
Taehyun stared into the Jaguar’s eyes and softly let his fingers scratch behind its ears, to which the vibrating purrs started again, “Looks like a cat.”
“It’s a wild cat”, Beomgyu said around a sigh, “…Okay, so we’ll make a stop in Peru before returning to antarctica. Where’s the soul we’re looking for?”
Reluctantly, Taehyun got up and let the two animals follow him as his orb – once again – started leading the way with a snowy trail.
“…So…”, Beomgyu dragged the word out after a few minutes of silence, “…You’re the Eternal Punishment. I must say, I kind of pictured you differently.”
Taehyun looked at the angel and tilted his head, his hand grazing the Jaguar’s fur softly as he walked next to Beomgyu, “…How so?”
A butterfly danced around in front of them, and the Jaguar crouched down to attack, its bottom waggling back and forth, before it launched and missed – Yucca waddled after the Jaguar in excitement, snowy cloud still above his head, as the two animals ran around on the wide field of cherry trees.
“Well you’re…the Eternal Punishment”, the angel eventually answered, “I think everyone kind of expects you to be…brutal and horrifying and ugly and mean. But you’re actually none of these things.”
Taehyun hummed but he didn’t know what to response.
He wasn’t an idiot, of course; he knew that demons and angels alike had their thoughts about him, not like he had the ability to actually care about that. He couldn’t ever care about what other creatures thought about him because as far as he was concerned, he wouldn’t meet anyone of significance. And even if he did, the possibility of that creature meeting him again was so slim that something like first impressions didn’t matter to him.
He flinched when he felt a drop of rain hit his nose, tilting his head back to watch as the grey clouds above them let the water fall onto earth’s surface. It felt cool against his skin, almost satisfying with how consistent the drops hit him. “I always expected earth to be an ugly place”, he said after some time, knowing that Beomgyu looked at him. They had stopped walking and Taehyun found some sort of comfort in the sound of raindrops hitting the trees and the ground.
“…Why?”, Beomgyu asked and stepped closer to Taehyun – but he still didn’t touch him.
Taehyun frowned softly, “…Because the only type of souls I know are evil beings. And even though I know that not every human soul ends up like this…I just couldn’t imagine that people like that would get to live in a world as pretty as this. But earth is astonishing. The sky, the wind, the temperatures. The colors, the things humans created to make themselves a home and a place to stay. The animals living on its surface and the languages spoken. Earth is so beautiful that I find myself wondering how one would end up in my circle of hell.”
It was silent for a rather long time – none of them said anything.
Taehyun let the Jaguar sit down next to him, Yucca waddling over to Beomgyu with little penguin-sounds.
Eventually, the angel said: “…You’re kind of like…earth. For the longest time, I thought you’re just as cruel and horrible as the souls you’re guarding. I couldn’t think of any other person who would be able to handle such dead humans, such evil energy. But…you’re actually not anything like your souls. You’re a little bit clumsy with your emotions. Extremely clueless about earth and somehow, weirdly enough, capable of attracting all sorts of animals who wouldn’t ever get near any other creature; no humans, let alone an angel or a demon. It doesn’t fit to what you’re doing but…somehow, in some weird way…all of your soft edges just make sense.”
Taehyun – once again – didn’t know what to say. He felt a weird tug in his chest; something he had never felt before, his cheeks suddenly feeling a lot warmer and his heart painfully clenching as if someone squeezed it together with a bunch of ropes. It kind of hurt but in a weirdly…good way.
He didn’t answer anything to Beomgyu, deciding that the weird feeling in his chest…wasn’t something he liked.
~~~
“…What is that”, Jin said and eyed the three animals tailing Taehyun.
Beomgyu knew that the demon wouldn’t really say anything useful, but his answer still managed to have him crack a laugh: “…A Penguin, a Jaguar, and a Squirrel.”
“…I can see that, Taehyun-ssi”, Seokjin said, “My question is; what are they doing in the Seventh Circle of Hell…with you…?”
Beomgyu couldn’t stop himself anymore and outright started laughing at the situation, even worse when Jin’s attempt to scold him got interrupted by Yucca, who waddled over to him and made the most adorable penguin-sounds ever.
“That is peculiar”, Yoongi said, “Who would’ve thought you’re affine to animals!”
“…They’re very kind and when I tried getting rid of them like Beomgyu told me to, they freaked out. So I decided to have them as pets”, Taehyun answered plainly.
Beomgyu rolled on the floor when Yoongi merely nodded in agreement, cooing at Caramel (Taehyun had called the Jaguar that after getting a taste of Caramel in Switzerland).
Needless to say, Jin literally had him scrub the angel’s general office’s floor for a week for laughing at him in Yoongi’s mansion.
They had successfully found the missing souls and unlike the chaos Beomgyu had left behind last time he caused souls to escape hell, they managed to catch them all and bring them back to Treachery. Of course, Beomgyu hadn’t seen Taehyun ever since – why would he, there was no reason for him to see him. As mentioned the two of them had no business with each other.
And so, he more or less got back into his normal rhythm, tailing Guardian Angels, getting rid of negative energies, protecting humans, and filling out forms and documents.
He was currently sitting in the waiting-area of the Limbo’s administrative office; as always.
The First Circle of Hell; Limbo. Possibly the worst of them all, at least if you were an active worker of hell and heaven who constantly had to come here to get shit done and over with. No duty was fully done without the reports – which had to be read and accepted by the Limbo. It was basically the place where demons and angels equally got their tasks from.
Which is why everyone usually waited for several hours to get one stamp from this stupid, stuck-up people. Just one stamp; that’s it!
It's been literally three hours since Beomgyu came here – his number of service was 3’361. The display at the front said 2’998. He was really done with this waiting game.
Bored out of his mind and tired of sitting around on his ass all day long, Beomgyu let his gaze wander through the administrative office: It was a round room with a dark, marble floor, beautiful column supporting the creatively crafted ceiling and a majestic fountain in the middle of it, displaying the ruler of Limbo; Namjoon, the third oldest Prince of Hell. Beomgyu had met him once before in his life (when he had still been in training with his powers and accidentally sent a soul to the wrong place). Namjoon was actually quite cool – a very warm presence in the middle of otherwise completely dense workers. Beomgyu wondered how a demon like Namjoon could own and rule a place like Limbo.
He sighed and glanced over at the elevators – only to witness Huening Kai, who waited for the hell-evator with his head bopping along to a song (Jin had gifted him headphones to have more fun while working) and a small cage with a black soul swirling around in it.
Beomgyu glanced back up at the displayed number again and then decided to give two flying fucks about the stupid stamp he needed, instead choosing to make a run for it.
Only authorized personal could get the hell-evator to reach the Nineth Circle; which is why Beomgyu had to use his wings to pretty much crash into the elevator next to Huening Kai right before the doors closed on him.
Meanwhile, Kai shrieked one of his infamous dolphin shrieks, cage tightly pressed against his chest as if it were a teddy of some sorts, “You-…Beomgyu! Are you out of your god damn mind?!”
“How dare you use the lord’s name for your sinful anger”, Beomgyu answered with a giggle and flinched when the angel delivery boy punched his shoulder in response to that.
“You could’ve just waited for the next hell-evator, what the hell-…”, Kai paused and whipped his head to look at him so fast, his neck muscles cracked one after another, “Wait-…what are you doing here?! Are you out of your mind, you can’t be in here with me! You can’t follow me down there! Jin will literally skin you if he finds out!”
“He won’t find out if you’ll just keep your traitorous little mouth shut”, Beomgyu said with a dangerous smile tugging on his lips.
Huening Kai seemed to be ready to say something – when the hell-evator abruptly stopped and the doors opened, revealing Taehyun’s shed/office. It still looked the exact same as before, except for Caramel, who immediately ran towards him when she saw Beomgyu, loud growl-like meows echoing through the office.
“Caramel, my sweet lady! I’ve missed you!”
“Beomgyu…? What are you doing here?”, a familiar voice said, and he looked up to be greeted by Taehyun. Snow sat on top of his hair, slowly melting, and dropping down from his silver-white hair. As always, he was dressed in neat, casual clothes; a pair of black jeans and a fitting, white shirt. The porcelain-white skin on his collarbones was exposed by the three top buttons being open, revealing the slight redness – probably due to the cold he had just been exposed to.
“Beomgyu almost crushed me in the hell-evator with his stupid wings and sneaked himself into unauthorized levels with that!”, Kai hissed and extended his arm to hand over the cage.
The demon hummed calmly and grabbed the cage carefully, his orb once again flying over from its usual seat on the pillow. “…I don’t mind him being here.”
Taehyun was clearly distracted and did not hear Kai’s mumbled response, too focused on carefully carrying the cage outside of the shed. Ice-cold wind blew in through the open door as the demon stood outside, opening the cage to let out the soul. Instantly, as soon as it was out, it tried attacking the demon – but Taehyun merely grabbed the now materialized human shadow by its neck, eyes glowing an icy blue. His voice sounded muffled through the building-up blizzard and the wooden wall between them, but Beomgyu heard it anyway; a scary sound, deep and unforgiving, layered with all kinds of cold: “You will not disobey me. No matter your lucky charms on earth, down here, I control everything. And if you don’t want me to make this harder on you than necessary, you will follow my orders.”
The soul was trembling, and Taehyun let go of it’s neck, watching as the soul stepped back, turned into a ball of shadow again and flew off into the blizzard.
“He’s scary…isn’t he?”, Kai whispered softly.
Beomgyu frowned because he wasn’t too sure if he agreed to that. Would he be scared in that position? Yes, probably. But even with the soul acting up and the kind of humans Taehyun had to tame down here, he still didn’t get mad. He made sure to establish who was in charge but the way he had done so was calm and collected. There had been no anger in his voice or in his movements; just routine and power.
Scary? Maybe. But was Beomgyu scared of him? Oddly enough…no.
Taehyun closed the door behind himself after letting Yucca waddle in, unbothered by Blossom – the Squirrel they had found in Switzerland, sitting on a branch of blooming cherry blossoms – who jumped to sit on his shoulder and munched on a nut. Really, it was such an odd contrast to the change in persona he had had earlier.
“Thank you for your delivery, Hyuka”, the demon said and collected a form of paper, handing it over to Huening Kai softly, “I’ll fill out the new one by your next visit.”
“Okey dokey”, Kai said and saluted in a joking matter. Apparently, Hyuka didn’t only deliver souls for Taehyun; he also handed in the forms and documents related to soul entries because Taehyun normally shouldn’t leave his circle.
Beomgyu frowned in confusion when the delivery angel held up the hell-evator with an impatient look on his face – he needed a couple seconds to realize he wanted him to leave with him. Which was so not what he had come here for. “B-But-…”
“Beomgyu”, Kai said with a scowl, “Jin may not get your head for it but regardless of that, you are not allowed down here. Your angelic energy messes with his and you shouldn’t be close to him for too long.”
He pouted and turned around to look at Taehyun because…yeah, why?
Because he wanted him to say something against Kai’s very valid points? Because he was above them and could easily give Beomgyu an authorization to come down here whenever he wanted so he wouldn’t have to crash into Kai right before the hell-evator’s doors closed?
But Taehyun merely stared back and tilted his head softly. His grey, almost white eyes looked like bright lights in the otherwise rather dark shed he called his office and Beomgyu felt like they could see through his whole existence. “…Was there a particular reason as to why you came here?”, the demon asked.
Beomgyu opened his mouth – but he didn’t know what to say.
Simply because he didn’t know. Why exactly was he here?
He had no reason to be here. He didn’t deliver souls like Hyuka, neither did he have any other duty that stood in any relation to him. Heck, if he wouldn’t have accidentally boarded the wrong hell-evator, he would’ve never met Taehyun because no one just met him.
No one got to know him, got to see, or talk to him. He was not to talk to, not to touch and not to interact with. Taehyun was the demon who guarded those souls who were so evil that they were stuck in hell forever, forced to endure nothing but cold and darkness.
Outside of the shed, night seemed to slowly darken the Nineth Circle, the blizzard still knocking against the windows and the darkness slowly swallowing up every single bit of light existing there.
And Taehyun would stay here. Watching the outside, filling out documents, occasionally petting his animals. All by himself, cold and alone.
“…No”, Beomgyu said and looked away from the demon, “I-…was just sick of sitting around in Limbo. I guess my number should be a lot closer by now.”
Taehyun stared at him for a little longer, but he did not say anything in response.
But he also didn’t stop staring at him, as Beomgyu realized, not until none of them could still see each other because of the doors closing and the hell-evator making its way back up towards Limbo…
~~
“…I can’t believe you made me do this”, Kai said around a scoff and handed yet another cage of a soul over to Taehyun, who did the same old thing with it and came back inside afterwards. Yucca waddled over to Huening Kai with a cute penguin-squeal, immediately causing the annoyed frown on the delivery angel’s face to disappear.
“No one will find out”, Beomgyu said and smiled brightly when Kai didn’t even hear him anymore, too busy playing with the small penguin.
Meanwhile, Taehyun had walked back over to them with Blossom on his shoulder and Caramel grazing his legs with loud purrs. His white eyes stared at Beomgyu with wonder, his head tilted to the side in that cute, confused way as he said: “…Are you waiting for your number in Limbo again?”
“Actually, I’m here because I’d like to ask for an authorization from you”, Beomgyu said and bit his lip, knowing that the heat on his cheeks told all about a healthy blush, “…So I can visit you freely without having to use Hyuka…”
“Why would you want to visit me? It’s boring down here. And cold”, Taehyun stared at Beomgyu’s neck and instantly, a warm, green scarf was wrapped around him.
He blushed even more at that but snuggled his chin into the soft fabric, “…I won’t bother you. I can’t really explain but I like being with you so…”
Taehyun didn’t answer anything for a rather long time.
Eventually, he turned around to his desk and grabbed a device with a small, blue-glowing surface, holding it up to Beomgyu, “Touch this with your finger and then you can use the button on the hell-evator; it will remember your body and fingerprint.”
With a wide smile, Beomgyu did as told and squealed in excitement, “Yay! Now I don’t need Kai anymore!”
“Wow. Thank you”, the angel said and Beomgyu sent him a teasing grin.
“Make sure to wear the scarf when you’re down here”, Taehyun said as Beomgyu turned around to leave with Kai again, seeing as he still had some duties to fulfill.
He smiled, “Oh? Are you worried about me?”
It should’ve been a joke – but Taehyun stared at him for yet another long time, his eyebrows softly drawn together and a cute pout on his lips, as if he actually had to think about the question. When he opened his mouth again to answer, his voice was soft – a lot softer than before, with a smile tugging on his lips, “Yes. I guess I am.”
Beomgyu’s heart skipped a beat at that, and he was glad that he could hide his face in the scarf – but Kai saw it anyway and gleefully laughed at his embarrassment.
~~
The sky was clear of any clouds and the sun kissed his skin with tender warmth, sending a comforting breeze through Taehyun’s hair. It felt good – it felt amazing, even.
Warmth.
Something he never had before and couldn’t imagine having again.
He looked up at the sky and felt the soft smile on his lips fade away, the longer he felt the sun against his skin. Because this warmth wasn’t what he was looking for. It wasn’t the same.
It was not the same warmth as when-…
“Are you even listening?”, Beomgyu suddenly said and when Taehyun turned his head, he was looking directly into the angel’s pouty face. He had his wings exposed, stretching the right wing with a groan; gorgeous white feathers that slowly dripped into a soft pink at their tips. The setting sun made them look more vibrant, as if they were glowing even more than he did anyway.
An angel’s glow was stronger, the more they fulfilled their duty. Angels who were good at what they’re doing could glow strong enough to ascend into a higher form. Beomgyu must’ve been doing a lot of very good work for humanity and heaven, seeing as he was a Power. Every angel starts low and eventually – if they do things right – ascends.
It made sense for him; to become an even greater version of himself. Although Taehyun was certain that Beomgyu could almost not become any more beautiful than he already was.
“Beautiful…”, he murmured and caught himself the same moment Beomgyu had heard the words, his wide eyes blinking at him in a surprised stupor.
His cheeks turned a lovely shade of pink – almost like the tips of his wings, “Ah…stop it! I’m not!”
He hadn’t exactly said it because he wanted to compliment Beomgyu, but now that he saw the rosy cheeks and his shy smile, Taehyun couldn’t help but agree.
Even though he hadn’t even really known what exactly defined beauty. He called earth beautiful but that was simply because earth was. It was something people could collectively agree on; the sky was beautiful, the nature was beautiful, animals were beautiful.
But Beomgyu’s beauty went deeper than just the sky or the nature – something about the angel was so otherworldly beautiful that Taehyun actually didn’t really know what exactly he meant by saying that.
But regardless, it just made sense.
Beomgyu suddenly stood up from their comfortable place on the grass, grabbing Taehyun’s hand before he could realize it, “Ah right! I wanted to show you something!”
Unlike last time, nothing happened – not even when Taehyun felt the angel intertwine their fingers and tugging him even closer, not when the warmth spread inside of him in such a fulfilling way that for the first time in centuries, Taehyun felt like he was complete. That unforgiving coldness inside of his heart made room for this warmth, spreading more and more with every second Beomgyu held onto his hand and pulled him along.
It was a warmth so unlike anything he had ever felt, so different from warm breezes and bright rays of sunlight resting on his pale skin. Because it didn’t just touch him – it seemed to flow through his body and warm him from inside-out.
Taehyun felt himself smiling softly – and suddenly, when he blinked his eyes, the world around him looked different. There were no green landscapes anymore, the warm sun and the soft breeze were replaced by cold snow scraping against his cheeks in an unforgiving speed, strong winds tugging on his clothes and pushing his body back and forth slightly.
The hand gripping his suddenly got weaker and he frowned, turning his head to look at Beomgyu, mouth already opening with a question on the tip of his tongue; when the angel simply stared at him with void eyes and tears dripping down his cheeks.
“Taehyun-ie…”, he mumbled with a weak voice, dropping down to his knees, hand slipping out of his.
He looked like he wanted to say something – but his body tipped to the right and hit the snowy ground with a quiet thud, swallowed by the storm raging around them.
Taehyun kneeled down next to him and reached out to touch him – but a voice in his ear stopped him from doing so; an ugly, deep rumble, that went through all of his bones and crashed all of his thoughts: “Do you really think your touch could help him now? You may have gotten a grip of yourself last time he touched you, but this time, you lost.”
Taehyun turned around to look at himself – a version of himself he didn’t like to acknowledge and a version of himself he barely had to face because there barely was a reason for that. He had a good and tight grip on his powers and on his control. He didn’t slip.
But then again – he couldn’t remember when and how the world turned from a beautiful, sunny day, to this dull, dark storm. Much less how Beomgyu’s body ended up lying in the snow like this, slowly coloring the white ground a dark red.
“You can’t have him”
, the demon whispered into his ear, lips spreading into an ugly grin as blood dripped out of his mouth, “You can’t have anyone. And even if you do allow yourself to have the things all of your siblings have, in the end, you won’t be the one to get it anyway…”
Taehyun shook his head and shifted backwards, flinching when his hands came in contact with something oddly warm – when he looked at his hand, it was red. He stared at Beomgyu’s face, eyes dull and open, body unmoving and blood soaking the snow beneath him, staining his beautiful wings, the glow he usually had around his body completely gone as one tear slipped out of his eye and dropped down his nose bridge, into the snow.
“I will have everything you want” , the demon said, and Taehyun sobbed as the ugly creature pointed at himself, “Because I am what you will eventually turn into, whether you like it or not…”
He sobbed and remained sitting in the snow that turned redder and redder, staring at the unmoving body and unbothered by the cold wind tugging on him.
Because just like before, he couldn’t feel it anyway.
Just like it should be.
Just like it always was.
~~
“…This is Soobin”, Yeonjun said and petted the angel’s back with a smile, “A Virtue, just like you wanted me to find.”
Soobin was tall – he had long legs and bright blue hair, a contrast to his otherwise completely white attire and the smooth, soft skin. He most certainly looked like a Virtue, with his plump lips, the innocent, round eyes, and his cute, bunny-like teeth. Taehyun knew from just the way two dimples popped up in his cheeks that Yeonjun was utterly and completely smitten for this angel.
Virtues are the second of the Middle Order – so therefore above Beomgyu and below Seokjin. They could control the elements and are typically known for watching over nature and aiding humans with their believes when needed.
Taehyun stared at him for a few seconds before gently tugging Blossom away from his shoulder, careful not to hurt the little Squirrel, even when it tried to hold onto his clothes with desperate little paws. “…Could you do me a favor and take these animals back to where they belong.”
It was a question – but it didn’t sound like one. And he also didn’t want to make it sound like one because it simply really wasn’t. He needed Soobin to do this, and he knew that the tone he used didn’t leave any room for discussion.
Soobin though remained unbothered by the attitude and simply regarded the animals with a long look, “…I don’t think that they want me to take them away from you though.”
The statement was proven by Caramel, who meowed pathetically and let her tall Jaguar body graze against his legs, just like Yucca, who made that protesting penguin-sound again.
Taehyun stared at the angel, “…Just take them with you. They don’t belong in hell, let alone in this Circle. They are animals from earth, and they used to belong to their own species in their own territories.”
“If they don’t want to leave, I can’t force them to-…”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion, neither if they want to or not”, Taehyun interrupted harshly.
He knew it sounded rough and also that it was very unlike his usual persona.
Yeonjun, who had silently watched up until now, narrowed his eyes at him and said: “…Soobin-ah. Take the animals with you and wait for me in my Circle. I’ll be right with you.”
The Virtue hesitated, but eventually did as told. He had to use his angelic powers as a Virtue to have the animals follow him.
Taehyun didn’t look at them as the hell-evator doors closed and they disappeared.
“What’s wrong with you?”, Yeonjun asked as soon as they were alone.
Taehyun grit his teeth, but he forced himself to stay calm and cool – because that’s what he was like and that’s what he needed his brother to believe, “Nothing. I’m fine. The animals are just in my way, and they deserve a life in their natural habitat.”
Yeonjun clearly didn’t buy that though, “Don’t make me tell Yoongi something’s off about you. He will probably tell dad and I’m almost certain that would not end well for you-…”
“You know how you always stick your nose into business that doesn’t concern you”, Taehyun said and watched as his elder brother narrowed his eyes daringly, “This is one of these situations. Yeonjun, I am none of your business. I am no one’s business, not Yoongi’s and especially not dad’s. I never was and I will never be. So when I tell you that I’m fine and you should leave me alone, than I suggest you do that.”
They stared at each other for a long moment.
Eventually, Yeonjun tsked and turned around, creating a door to his own dimension; as a demon and especially a royal of hell, he didn’t need to use the hell-evator to travel in the different layers.
“Whatever it is you have, you better sort it out”, Yeonjun said lowly, “I’ll keep the animals in my mansion for now.”
Taehyun huffed but he didn’t answer anything.
There was nothing to sort out. He was fine.
Because everything was as it should be.
“Why don’t we entertain ourselves by torturing our souls a little bit? That’s what you’re existence was created for after all”, he heard in his ear and shook himself, swallowing the lump in his throat.
He chose to ignore the pain in his chest and instead sat down at his desk to work on some documents.
Everything was fine.
~~~
Beomgyu huffed out a breath as he landed on the sandy ground, supporting his upper body on his knees with ragged breaths. It was hot – no wonder, seeing as he was in the Sahara and there really weren’t many places much hotter than this one on earth.
“I got it!”, Jungwon yelled excitedly and landed in front of him with an elegant twirl, his red wings looking oddly satisfying in the wide lands of dessert, “Thanks for helping me out on that one, Hyung! I asked Limbo if I was really qualified enough for this job, but they kept telling me to just take it and get out of their way.”
“…Yeah they’re…like that…”, Beomgyu breathed out heavily, groaning softly when the pain in his chest finally started calming down. Sweat dripped down his forehead and he couldn’t wait to finally drop into his comfortable bed and rest for the day.
Jungwon gently petted his shoulder after locking the soul into his little cage hanging from his belt, a worried frown on his face, “Hyung, are you alright? You don’t look too good.”
Beomgyu nodded and pushed himself up from his knees, circling his shoulders tiredly, “Yes just…out of breath.”
“You’re never out of breath, you’re one of the fastest angels I know”, Jungwon answered, his voice even more worried now.
He smiled reassuringly and petted the younger angel’s head, “Don’t worry about me. I’ve just been a little…tired lately.”
Tired was a good way to put it since he couldn’t exactly remember the last time he had a decent amount of sleep. Every time he fell asleep, he was haunted by horrible dreams and nightmares – all of which were centered around a certain demon dying.
He couldn’t wrap his head around why exactly he would dream about something like that, especially considering he had next to nothing to do with him. Ever since he sneaked inside the Nineth Circle with Huening Kai, he hadn’t attempted visiting Taehyun again – for the simple reason that he just couldn’t explain himself why he should.
And because he very clearly was not allowed to do so in the first place. He was not an angel in any position to get close to Taehyun in any way. Even if he were an angel from the Highest Order, he wouldn’t have a reason or the right to visit him. No one had that right because Taehyun was the exception.
Beomgyu accompanied Jungwon to the Limbo’s Administrative Office and made sure to reprimand the incompetent demons there to not just give a common archangel like Jungwon some task to have him out of their way.
Afterwards, he ported himself to the Middle Order’s heaven and sat down in the common area, right in front of Soobin and Heeseung. They were his closest friends, with Heeseung working as a Power just like him and Soobin being a busy, soft-spoken Virtue.
“You look sick”, Heeseung said and frowned softly upon watching Beomgyu pretty much slam his head onto the white surface of their table, “…Are you alright?”
“I just had to help Jungwon catching a soul way out of his league because stupid Limbo-assholes cannot do shit”, he mumbled against the cool surface. It felt good against his hot head – even better because he finally managed to close his eyes and rest for a little bit, “I’m so tired, I could fall asleep right now.”
“Drink some water, you look dehydrated”, Soobin said and Beomgyu sat up briefly to grab the glass of water pushed towards him – only for his chest to hurt and his head to spin, which is why he let his forehead smack against the table again with a groan.
“No, no way”, he said and swallowed the nausea in his throat – the last thing he wanted was throwing up in the common area, “I can’t move right now, or I’ll seriously throw up. Distract me by answering this for me; can angels die? Because I sure as hell feel like dying right now.”
It was silent for a few seconds in which Beomgyu assumed his two friends sent each other very concerned glances. Next thing he knew, Heeseung grabbed him by the shoulders and the world was spinning. He really tried to get a grip on things, but everything was turning round and round, his chest hurt, and his head felt like it was about to explode with how hot it was – he was pretty sure he threw up before he passed out.
~~
It was cold.
Humanity had all sorts of imaginations about how the world could end – in all of them, the world was burning, and the sky was red, and rivers of blood spilled from countless dead bodies. Beomgyu would’ve laughed at that because he knew that there were worse things than fire and blood.
“Taehyun”, he mumbled and took a step forward, ignoring the strong gust of wind slapping him in the face, pushing his hair back. It was hard to get closer in this blizzard, especially with how out of control he was. His skin was grey, almost as if he had slept an eternal sleep in this cold world for centuries, eyes glowing in that violent, cold ice-blue, “Don’t do this. You’re not like this, you’re stronger than your demon.”
He stepped even closer and closed his eyes briefly upon more ice and snow whirling around them.
“…How would you know...” , Taehyun mumbled with a deep growl, tears spilling from his eyes as he turned to look at Beomgyu. It hurt because there was so much inside of his eyes; so much that he himself probably couldn’t understand and yet, it hurt in his chest and had Beomgyu gasp for air, “This is what I’ve always been after all…”
Beomgyu couldn’t move – the wind was so strong that it kept him away from Taehyun. His eyes widened as the prince of hell looked up into the dark, frosty sky, a sword made of ice appearing in his hands. It was purple – just like the first time he had accidentally covered his office in purple ice when they had touched each other.
“No…”, the angel whispered and tried getting closer, only for the storm to push him back even more, “No! Taehyun, don’t!”
“You can’t save me” , he said and raised the purple sword up, directing its sharp tip towards his heart with his powers, “I will come to exist again – just like before. Because my punishment is eternal.”
Beomgyu screamed when the ice pierced Taehyun’s skin and he continued to scream as he dropped into the snow, the blizzard abruptly stopping. It was quiet all of a sudden.
Except for an angels never-ending cries as he cradled his cold body in his arms and pulled him closer; only for Taehyun’s body to crumble beneath his hands like snow, disappearing into nothingness as if he had never existed to begin with.
~~
Beomgyu blinked his eyes open again, the dull pain in his chest once again causing him to groan, spots dancing around in front of his eyes. He had tears rolling down his cheeks and sobbed softly as the memories of his dream got to him.
He stood up from the bed he was lying on and stumbled out of it on shaky legs, his chest causing him to stumble onto the floor with another groan.
Sunoo – one of their healing angels – helped him up carefully, Jin and Soobin close behind him, “Beomgyu-hyung! You can’t get up yet, we have to find out what’s wrong with you! You’re in really bad shape.”
“Let go of me”, he said and clenched his hands to fists as more tears escaped him, “I need to-…he’s in pain. He’s in so much pain and he’s alone and I need to get to him. I need to get to him before it’s too late, please-…”
He broke off with a sob and buried his face in his hands, crying out loud. Honestly, he wasn’t too sure why; either because of the pain in his chest or because he was so afraid. On shaking legs, he got up again, “Seokjin-hyung, please. Something is wrong with him and I-…I keep dreaming of him dying and it hurts, it hurts so bad.”
“Okay calm down”, the Dominion Angel said and crouched down in front of Beomgyu, gentle, warm hands wiping the tears on his cheeks away, “Tell me calmly what’s wrong and I’ll try to help. You said you had dreams of someone dying?”
“Ever since I last saw Taehyun…I’ve had dreams in which he dies, every single time. I have this…ache in my chest”, Beomgyu absentmindedly grabbed his shirt, right above his beating heart, “It hurts. It hurts and I just know that I need to…I need to see him. I need to be next to him.”
Jin frowned but he didn’t look mad or opposed, “…I might know someone who could help you. Come on, take my hand.”
With shaky fingers, Beomgyu grabbed the elder angel’s hand and as soon as they touched, Jin ported them somewhere else. He didn’t know that he had the ability to port to Limbo. The only reason knew that they were in Limbo was because of the dark, familiar marble floor – other than that, he had never before been in here.
It was an office, with beautiful decorations on the walls and candles illuminating the room in old fashioned style – even though heaven and hell had technology upgrades just like humanity.
“Namjoon-ie”, the angel said and watched as the demon looked up from his work, obviously distracted by something, “Could we ask you a couple things?”
-
Namjoon dumped a massive book on the table, opening it up with fast movements, skilled hands turning the pages until he seemed to have found what he had been looking for. He pushed his round glasses up and nodded to himself before saying: “Destiny’s String. For humanity, a romantic idea of soulmates meeting and being connected by greater things. For us spiritual beings, it can very much be a curse, just as much as it can be a blessing. It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes…Destiny’s String forms a bond between two souls when they can give each other something they didn’t know they needed before.”
Beomgyu frowned and stepped closer, looking at the illustrations shown in the old book and reading the lines for himself again, “…And you think that me and Taehyun have that?”
“It would explain everything, in fact”, Namjoon said and turned the page over, pointing at the written information when he continued talking, “Your inexplainable desire to be near him, the way you both harmonized without ever knowing each other, the pain in your chest and your dreams – I’m pretty sure he has dreams as well, given his recent behavior.”
The angel perked up at that with a worried pout, “What do you mean, recent behavior? Did something happen?”
“I met up with him because Yeonjun-hyung said Taehyun had something to talk about with me”, Soobin said behind them, “He was very unlike what you and Yeonjun told me before about him. Kind of…on edge. It was weird actually; he wanted me to take the animals back to earth even though they clearly didn’t want to leave him. Yeonjun took them in the meantime.”
Beomgyu halted in his movements, his lips already parting to say something; when suddenly, his head starting hurting and the familiar ache in his chest hit him so forcefully that he immediately sunk down onto the floor.
In the exact same moment, Namjoon shuddered and let go of a gasp as the whole Library in in his mansion started shaking harshly. Jin, who had held onto Beomgyu securely, frowned at the demon and said: “…What was that?”
“Taehyun”, Namjoon said and slammed the book shut, “He’s…slipping.”
“What do you mean he’s slipping?”, Soobin asked, taking over for Jin, and holding onto Beomgyu’s shaking body when the elder angel attempted helping the demon open up a portal to the Nineth Circle; in vain.
Namjoon grit his teeth and turned on his heel, probably about to get to the hell-evators instead since the portal didn’t work. They reappeared in the hall of the Administrative Office as Namjoon explained: “All of the Seven Royals of Hell were born from a desire and our father’s powers. Which means we’re halfway what we’re meant to be and halfway demon. Most of us have rather good relationships with our demon-parts – they’re literally us but in a more powerful, more dangerous form. Taehyun is the only one of us who never learned how to control his demonic powers all by himself. He uses the orb for that, a heavenly tool for him to channel his powers correctly. We all always thought that he can’t slip because Taehyun isn’t like us – he can’t feel, he doesn’t know what emotions or human cravings are before someone teaches him. It’s why he has to stay isolated; because his demonic-side is dangerous, more dangerous than all of us; sadistic, evil…the deepest core of his existence. Treachery’s punishment.”
With harsh pushes, Namjoon attempted getting the hell-evator – but the stupid thing didn’t make the usual mechanic sound. It was utterly silent in Limbo, way past office hours and therefore closed for general commissions.
“…What do you mean he can’t feel?”, Jin asked with a trembling voice, “I thought the royals of hell were all extremely sensitive to emotions?”
“Not Taehyun”, Namjoon said, “He’s the exception; the kind of souls he has to maintain, and control are beyond anything you’ve ever touched. None of us has the authority or the power to keep them in check, let alone trap them in an endless blizzard of frost and darkness. He can learn emotions and he have them – but he doesn’t possess the natural ability to feel pain or emotions.”
The demon huffed and disregarded the hell-evator, instead turning to a door that no one ever used; you could use the stairs to descend in hell, but they were awfully long and never-ending; they had a long way ahead if they had to descend from Limbo to Treachery.
“I touched him”, Beomgyu said and swallowed the groan when another pang of pain went through his chest, “I touched him and that was something he had never before experienced. He had never before touched an angel, let alone spent so much time with him.”
“He started craving your warmth and at the same time, he was afraid of what he could do to you”, Namjoon said with a nod, walking ahead on the stairs with fast steps, “Let’s hurry up to the lower level – maybe, we can call the hell-evator there.”
~~~
“Do you remember what it felt like?”, Taehyun heard in his ear and flinched away from the awful feeling of ice-cold breath in his neck.
His body hurt – it wasn’t something he was used to, not at all. He had never before known what pain felt like, much less what warmth, craving something or missing something felt like.
He didn’t want to answer because he knew that he was in trouble, because the thought scared him, and his own answer did as well; he remembered what it felt like. He remembered it as if it were the only thing grounding him, keeping him sane. And the worst about this was; that it’s the truth. The only reason he didn’t completely slip yet was the memory of it.
Beomgyu’s contagious smile, the way he always had to stop himself from just touching or getting too close because he very clearly was a very touchy person. It was scary to Taehyun because it felt like the angel was everything he didn’t have before even though he barely knew him. But he knew that he needed him, he needed his warmth because he was so cold, and everything hurt.
“Leave me alone”, he said and pulled his legs closer to his chest. He was shaking; also something he was not used to. Taehyun hadn’t known how icy the temperatures down here were before he knew what being warm felt like, “…Please, leave. Stop talking to me, stop it…”
“We want the same thing”, his demon whispered again, “You want warmth and I want a taste of him. It’s a win-win.”
“No”, Taehyun shook his head and flinched away again, pressing his hands onto his ears with a whimper; fear. Another emotion he hadn’t known up until now, “You want to hurt him. You want to hurt my family and my friends.”
A sharp scoff hit his hands in form of an exhale, “Friends? Family? Please, Taehyun, we don’t have any of that. Our family locked us up in this shitty, cold place and our only friend is the cute delivery angel boy.”
“That’s not true. We’re here because this is where we belong, it has nothing to do with us, dad loves us. Our siblings love us. They love me. They-…”
“They got rid of us as soon as they realized that we’re a ticking time bomb”, he felt his demon shuffle next to him and an icy feeling went through his chest. He felt a tear escape his eyes, “They don’t love us – they fear us. Which is why they locked us away in a golden cage and called that protection. No one loves us. No one loves you, Taehyun.”
No one loved him.
Taehyun hadn’t known what love was before – so why did it hurt so much when his demon-part whispered these things into his ear. How did he suddenly know that his family loved him? That his father was proud of him and only wanted to make sure that he was as happy as he could be? How did he know that Huening Kai enjoyed making small-talk with him? When did he learn that?
When did he find out what loving someone felt like?
He sobbed and it was then that he realized he had tears streaming down his face endlessly. He was scared, he was in pain, he was worried, and he didn’t know what to do.
With a cry leaving his lips, he buried his face in his arms, shaky limbs hugging his knees even closer.
“If this is what loving someone feels like”, he mumbled and shuddered as the cold sensation in his chest spread across his whole body, “I’d rather not feel anything at all.”
“Your wish is my command.”
~
As soon as Namjoon managed to call a hell-evator, they managed to squeeze themselves inside – along with Yeonjun and Kai, who had caught them in the Second Circle with worried frowns on their faces. The hell-evators were really not broad enough to fit all of them, but they still made it work…somehow.
Halfway down, the elevator was shaken by, yet another earthquake and they all held their breath when the sound of something snapping above them echoed through the duct.
“Oh, oh”, Kai whispered – and almost as if he summoned it, the hell-evators strings snapped off, causing them to fall down and hitting the Nineth Circle with a loud crash.
“Thank fuck we’re almost immortal!”, Jin groaned and pushed his own dislocated shoulder back into place with a loud crack.
Ouch.
It was cold in the shed.
That was not really that much of an odd thing – the odd thing was the state of the usually so organized and clean shed. Every furniture was broken, there were papers and books lying around scattered on the floor, the windows were broken, and the door was open, blowing in the unforgiving wind of a horrible blizzard – and the walls were covered in a thick layer of blue ice.
Beomgyu breathed out and took a step closer to the door, his eyes trying to find some sort of…something. But all he could see was a whirlwind of snow and ice.
He hissed when another wave of pain went through his chest – but this time, his body reacted to something; a strong concentration of negative power, not too far away from the shed.
Taehyun.
“He’s in the storm!”, Beomgyu said, raising his voice to be heard over the loud wind.
Yeonjun stepped next to him with a pink flame floating above his hand, “It won’t keep us warm for too long when we’re closer to him, but maybe that’ll help?!”
Walking through the blizzard was hard – Beomgyu had used his wings on earth in hurricanes before, walked through thunderstorms and sat on tiny boats in stormy oceans. But none of that seemed close to what this blizzard felt like; the wind soared around them like a whip, ice sharply scratching against their cheeks and the snow making all of their steps seem harder than the ones before.
“Where are Namjoon and Jin?!”, Soobin wondered out loud, his voice almost being swallowed in the loud roar of the storm.
Beomgyu looked around himself but other than Kai and Yeonjun, he couldn’t see anyone. They must’ve lost them. “Let’s keep walking! I can feel his presence more and more!”, he said and kept leading the way with slow steps.
After what felt like an eternity, Beomgyu’s eyes finally managed to see something in the distance. There was Taehyun holding onto a shadow’s neck, their energy transferring over to him with practiced ease – until there was absolutely nothing left of the shadow.
“This is bad!”, Yeonjun said, his flame by now so small that the wind eventually just blew it out, “He’s feeding on Treachery! That isn’t Taehyun anymore!”
Beomgyu could’ve listened to his friend’s conversations about how they should wait for Namjoon and Jin to find them – but the pain in his chest was bad and Taehyun was so close.
He just needed to get close enough to touch him. Just one touch – that was all.
On heavy legs, Beomgyu pushed forwards, ignoring the other’s attempts to stop him.
“Taehyun!”, he called out after some time, getting closer and closer to the demon.
Just as Yeonjun had told him, the person in front of him had next to nothing to do with the Taehyun he had come to meet.
This version of him, this demon-form…looked exactly like the one in Beomgyu’s dream; with pale, sickly grey skin, glowing, ice-blue eyes, and an emotionless glare. He moved differently, he behaved differently, and he also talked differently, “You’re the warmth that he had tried to stay away from.”
Beomgyu swallowed and stopped a few meters away from the demon with one eye squeezed shut, the wind around him so much worse. His friend’s shouts were reduced to an inaudible echo here.
“Let him go!”, he demanded and attempted stepping even closer.
But a strong gust of wind pushed him backwards and he literally had to lean his whole body against it to not lose his footing in the snow and tumble away.
The demon chuckled lowly, “Letting him go? He wanted me to take over because he realized that emotions hurt and that loving someone causes more pain than joy.” He stepped closer to Beomgyu with heavy steps, unbothered by the blizzard around them. “The Taehyun you got to know doesn’t exist anymore. And I’m actually quite curious about that warmth of yours myself…”
Beomgyu instantly wanted to take a step away now – but his feet were frozen in place, and he couldn’t move. When he looked back up, he was face to face with the actual Demon of Treachery. As familiar as the overall structure of his face was, it still didn’t look like Taehyun. Not at all.
He swallowed and tried using his energy to force him into submission like he would with any evil soul to catch them on earth – but he knew that it was no use; he had no chance against this pure form of evil and treachery. When even the devil himself had been scared of this ever happening, what chance did Beomgyu stand against this demon?
“What outstanding beauty. Inside and out”, the demon growled and raised his hand, the ice around Beomgyu’s ankles suddenly traveling higher and squeezing him painfully, “How deplorable that I have to get rid of you now-…”
All of a sudden, the ice around Beomgyu’s legs cracked open loudly, the blizzard around him pausing momentarily and turning a soft shade of purple for just a small second.
The demon hissed and stumbled back, holding his head in annoyance. He groaned and repeatedly hit the side of his head, “Stop! You don’t stand a chance; this is my body now! Who do you think you are, huh?! I existed long before your personality was created! This is my existence! You’re just one of many!”
The storm glowed up in a soft purple again for just a few moments, slowing down slightly as the demon stumbled onto the floor with a loud groan.
Beomgyu realized it when he got a short glimpse of the demon’s face – how the skin shifted for a few fleeting seconds, the ice turned purple for short moments.
Taehyun was fighting against the demon.
Taehyun, with his innocent cluelessness regarding earth. Taehyun, who stared into the sun with wide eyes because he had never seen one before. Taehyun, who was strangely affine to animals of all sorts and accidentally collected some as pets. Taehyun, with his confused tilt of head and the white eyes that seemed so full of nothing and yet everything.
A demon who shouldn’t ever be touched, let alone seen or spoken to. The sixth prince of hell and the ruler of the Nineth Circle.
And beneath all of that; just a boy who didn’t know what emotions were. Who squealed in delight when he tasted caramel and stared in wonder when he touched a cactus and started bleeding from it.
Taehyun, who would’ve never fought against his demon, because what would he fight for if he didn’t understand why?
Beomgyu clenched his fists and forced his legs to move through the blizzard, using the brief moments of stillness to get closer and closer.
“I will not let you have him”, he said and distracted the demon for a few moments, pushing forward with determination, “He isn’t like you, not at all! I will not let you take him away from me!”
When he was close enough, Beomgyu dropped down in front of the demon and pulled him into a hug, ignoring the way he tried to resist, tightening his grip around the cold body. He ignored the feeling of his fingertips getting numb and his teeth starting to clatter against each other from how cold he was. He just needed to be warmer.
-
“…Why doesn’t earth have two suns?”, Taehyun asked and stared at the sun in that wonderous way again, causing Beomgyu to poke him with a stick to reprimand him.
“Because that would be too hot for our planet and the position it has in this solar system. Humanity wouldn’t be able to exist on a planet with two suns the size of this one”, he answered slowly, hoping that the prince understood.
Taehyun turned to look at him, his eyes blinking a few times – probably due to him staring into a freeing star for god-knows how long.
“…I like being warm though. It was nice…up until I lost control, that is”, he said and there it was again; that innocent redness on his cheeks and the slight smile tugging on his delicate lips.
Beomgyu found himself smiling even though he knew that they only were on earth together like this because he had showed him what warmth was.
-
With a huff, Beomgyu closed his eyes and concentrated, channeling all of his power and energy into his embrace, pulling the body in his arms even closer to himself.
He was shaking but he knew that he had to be warmer. Even warmer, even more warmth.
Taehyun needed to feel it in his core, in the deepest part of his existence.
“I won’t let you die like in my dreams”, he whispered and his heart hurt – because that was really where the pain came from; his heart. He leaned away slowly and cradled the demon’s face in his hands, unbothered by the attempts of shaking out of the grip, “Wake up, Taehyun. Wake up and come back to me.”
He hoped to spark something in the deepest core of Taehyun’s body, to reach him through these words. And when he saw the ice-blue turn a softer shade of white-purple, he pulled the demon’s face up and tilted his head, channeling all of his remaining warmth through his hands and into Taehyun’s body, connecting their lips in a kiss.
It wasn’t a romantic kiss, neither was there a moment to really dwell on it like in any of these human-made movies or books. There were no fireworks and there was no imaginary music playing in the background.
Beomgyu kissed him because it wasn’t something angels usually did.
An angel’s kiss was special and holy, scared and seldom. Not even the purest of human’s got one, as much as they would deserve it.
But Beomgyu kissed him because he needed to do it. He needed to transfer all of his positive energy, all of his warmth, to make sure it could touch Taehyun and give him the strength to fight the Demon of Treachery and the bitter coldness in his heart.
He needed Taehyun to know. Because he understood now.
Beomgyu leaned back and whispered against the prince’s lips: “I love you, Taehyun. Don’t leave me.”
All of a sudden, the blizzard stopped, and it was dead quiet around them. So quiet that Beomgyu could almost hear his own heartbeat, felt like his ragged breath echoed through the whole Nineth Circle. He was trembling and he knew that he was about to pass out.
He used too much of his powers, his eyes were unfocused, the world hazy and blurry.
But before he could pass out, he suddenly felt hands pull him down by his face and push their lips against each other again – a strong flood of energy went back into his system and at first, it was weird; the energy suddenly flooding him was new and different. It was Taehyun’s energy, something he hadn’t felt before.
This time, when he blinked his eyes open, he stared back into familiar, white eyes. The ice and snow that had remained in the air as if time had stopped working fell onto the snowy ground with a soft drizzle, the air around them still and quiet.
“…I…understand it”, Taehyun said with a rough voice, gathering in his eyes, “I understand now…what it means to love.”
Beomgyu sobbed and pulled him up into a seating position, wrapping his arms around him again with a relieved sob, “You do?”
“Love means putting someone else above yourself. Love means missing something even though you have everything. Love means hurting even when there is nothing wrong with you. To me, love started when you first touched me and it’ll never end until we cease to exist”, he said.
The angel sniffled softly and let Taehyun wipe away the tears on his cheeks with a wet chuckle.
“Thank you”, Taehyun suddenly said.
Beomgyu stared into his eyes and nodded – he didn’t need an explanation. He already knew what the prince meant and merely leaned his forehead against his with a smile, enjoying the soft drizzling of snow and the warmth of two suns turning the new existing sky into beautiful shades of purple and orange.
~~~
“Listen! I will not tolerate this kind of behavior!”, Yeonjun hissed and glared at Blossom, who merely munched on her nut and ran away with a huff, jumping onto Soobin’s shoulder.
The angel raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the demon, “You scolded a Squirrel.”
“Shut up! I’m desperate!”
“I won’t sleep with you.”
“Why not?!”, Yeonjun whined and pouted, “Sex is the most natural thing you could find! This isn’t sinning!”
Beomgyu rolled his eyes and petted Yucca’s head softly as the penguin sat comfortably on his lap. He had started to imitate Caramel’s purr in a weirdly accurate way – Huening Kai had almost stole him from Taehyun when they noticed, all while Soobin thought it had been creepy beyond hell.
“Get a room”, Kai scoffed at the bickering pair, to which Yeonjun pointed an approving thumbs up at the delivery angel.
In that moment, Taehyun materialized himself in the living room of his mansion, causing Kai to yelp in shock and just like that, he spilled his tea.
Caramel meowed loudly and ran over to him, almost pretty much running him over as she jumped into his arms.
“I thought I’m your boyfriend”, Beomgyu said around a faked pout, watching as Taehyun gently placed the Jaguar back down on the floor, scratching her head as she walked next to him with loud purrs. He walked over to Beomgyu and smiled softly, not commenting on the ruckus going on with Huening Kai trying to shoo Yucca and Blossom away from the spilled tea and Yeonbin fighting over a room they wouldn’t (or would?) get, “Done with your souls for today?
He wrinkled his nose when Taehyun merely kissed the top of it before sitting down next to him.
Taehyun nodded in response though and patted the free space next to him, continuing his gentle petting on Caramel as soon as she was comfortable on the cushion. With how big she was, she used half of the couch on her own. “I’m done for today. What do you want to do this evening?”
Beomgyu simply let his head rest on the demon’s shoulder and grabbed his free hand, softly intertwining their fingers, “…Nothing. Just…being here with you? That’s all.”
“…We could bake something – without Yeonjun this time”, he said and turned his head to this time kiss Beomgyu’s forehead tenderly, breathing out a soft chuckle against his skin.
“Or we do that tomorrow and get rid of the kids?”
Another chuckle against his skin and this time, it vibrated through Taehyun’s body and seemed to echo through Beomgyu’s body as he registered it in his ears, “What? Want me all to yourself?”
He pouted and leaned away softly, glaring pettily at Taehyun when the demon merely grinned amused, “They’re always here! Yeonjun and Soobin still didn’t fuck although they clearly should and Kai always leaves behind a mess-…”, Taehyun cut him off by gently pressing their lips together; finally.
“Be careful or else you’ll end up in Yeonjun’s circle for having naughty thoughts”, he said.
Beomgyu shrugged and cuddled closer to his boyfriend again, inhaling his scent and looking at their intertwined hands – their warm hands. “You’ll bail me out in no time.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you love me.”
For a long moment, Taehyun didn’t say anything. Beomgyu didn’t need to look to know that he was staring at him in that typical Taehyun-way – with his eyes glazed over by warmth and adoration and his head working on the response he wanted to give.
“That, I do. My love for you is bigger than us and beyond bliss.”
They remained in that position, unbothered by the chaos surrounding them – because everything, finally, for the first time in centuries…
…was as it should be.
⌠the demon, the angel, and ‘I Love You’⌡