The Weight of the Crown
pairing: King!Jungkook x Queen!Reader (Y/N)
tags: enemies to lovers, royalty au, arranged marriage, childhood acquaintances to lovers, forced proximity, smut, angst with happy ending, virginity, possessive jungkook, shared bed, first time.
tropes: "we grew up together but we hate each other", "only one bed", "marriage of convenience", "i lied to protect you", wedding night protocol, "you are mine by contract and by blood".
warnings: 18+, explicit smut, virgin!reader, deflowering / loss of virginity, blood (from deflowering), finger fucking, fingering, cunnilingus, oral sex (f. receiving), heavy praise kink, body worship, stretching, deep penetration, size difference, slow and deliberate pace, unprotected sex, vaginal penetration, internal ejaculation / creampie, marking, bed creaking, rubbing, wet sounds, overstimulation, post-orgasm aftercare, dominant but gentle jungkook, submissive reader, mutual pining, contract marriage consummation.
word count: 11.6k
summary: Jungkook is the stoic and ruthless heir to the powerful Jeon Kingdom, and you are the princess of a realm forced into an alliance to secure borders. Bound by a political contract designed to prevent further blood, you are forced into a marriage with the boy you once loved in the gardens—and the man you’ve spent the last five years hating with every fiber of your being after an unforgivable betrayal.
As the court demands proof of your union and the crown weighs heavy on your brows, you must navigate a single night behind locked doors where the armor of your pride completely disappears. You thought you were just a duty to him, but as the masks fall in the wedding chamber, you'll soon discover that Jungkook has been playing a much longer game to keep you safe... and he has no intention of letting his queen go.
──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────
The rattle of the carriage was a rhythmic torture that stuck at the base of your skull. Every bump on the road to the capital of the Jeon Kingdom reminded you that, with each meter advanced, your freedom was a little further behind, blurred on the horizon by the borders of your own home.
You wore the heaviest traveling dress your maids could find, armor of dark blue velvet and lace that protected you, at least symbolically, from the outside world. Your fingers, gloved, sank into the upholstery of the seat. You hadn't looked at Jungkook in the last three hours. You knew exactly what he was doing without having to see him: he would be leaning against the opposite backrest, with one leg crossed over the other, looking at the map of his new lands, or, worse, watching you with that silent smugness that had always driven you crazy.
"You can stop smashing the seat, Y/N," his voice cut through the air, deep and charged with an indifference you knew was feigned. "The silk of this carriage costs more than the dowry that your father bargained for until the last minute. You don't want to start your life here by owing repairs."
You tensed up. There it was. The same tone of superiority that he used when you were ten years old and he managed to knock you off the wooden horse. You forced yourself to let go of the upholstery and crossed your hands on your lap, turning your head to fix an icy gaze on him.
"If you think my dowry is scarce, you could have left me at the border," you replied with venom. " I'm sure we would both have been much happier. But of course, the Crown Prince always gets what he wants, even if what he gets is a wife who can't even stand the air you breathe."
Jungkook let out a dry laugh, a sound without a trace of humor. He slammed the map shut and leaned forward, invading your personal space. He smelled of leather, old paper and that aroma of cedar wood that always identified him.
"Make no mistake. I didn't "want" this. I wanted a secure border and an end to the skirmishes in the north. You are only the wax seal on the contract, Y/N. Nothing else."
Those words should have hurt, but they only fueled the fire of your contempt. The wedding had been an obscene display of wealth: white flowers that smelled of death, songs that sounded like elegy, and that moment in the cathedral where, in front of the archbishop, you had to put your hand on his. You felt his pulse, firm and steady, while yours galloped wildly. At that moment, as the village cheered a union you hated, you realized that Jungkook was no longer the kid you used to hide with in kitchens to steal cakes. He was a stranger made of stone and duty.
The carriage finally stopped. The sound of trumpets announced their arrival at the Jeon Grand Castle. The doors opened and royal protocol took over. You were forced to accept his hand to come down. His fingers squeezed yours with unnecessary firmness, a silent warning before you both had to pretend to court.
The reception was eternal. Bows, empty speeches and the scrutinizing gaze of your father-in-law, the King, who analyzed you as if you were a purebred horse that should give good heirs. During the entire welcome dinner, you barely had a bite. Jungkook, sitting next to you on your rightful throne, fulfilled his role perfectly: he poured you wine, commented on trifles about the weather, and occasionally brushed your hand with his just to let the nobles see how "lucky" they were. Every touch burned you with rage.
Finally, the ordeal ended. The official "Wedding Night", the one that everyone was waiting for with morbid curiosity, had arrived.
You were escorted to the royal apartments by your ladies. It was a huge room, lit only by the fire in the fireplace. And there, in the center, the bed. A monster of carved wood and linen sheets that seemed to mock you.
The door opened and Jungkook walked in. He looked tired, but his eyes shone with an intensity you hadn't seen all day. He locked the door and the sound of the bolt snapping in was like a shot in the silence.
You stood motionless in the center of the room, your feet sunk into the thick crimson carpet. Your shoulders were heavy; The wire structure and jewels of your wedding dress made you feel like a puppet that had its threads cut. You didn't dare turn around. You didn't want to see Jungkook, you didn't want to confirm that the boy who once challenged you to a race for the stables was the same man who now shared your breath in the gloom of a royal bedroom.
"Are you going to stay there all night, Y/N?" His voice came from behind, loaded with a tiredness that seemed to come from years, not hours. "The dinner ended an hour ago. Protocol is dead for today. You can stop pretending that you are a marble statue. "
You closed your eyes tightly. That tone. That quiet arrogance that always made you want to scream. You turned around slowly. Jungkook was taking off his white dress gloves, throwing them on a velvet chair with a blood-boiling nonchalance. His hair was slightly tousled and the first buttons of his jacket were unbuttoned.
"I'm not pretending," you said, and your voice sounded more broken than you would have liked. "I'm trying to assimilate how we ended up here. You and me. It's a joke in bad taste, Jungkook. "
He let out a dry laugh, without a trace of joy, as he approached the table where a glass jug of wine rested. A drink was poured, the sound of liquid falling down was the only thing that filled the void between you.
"A joke?" "No, it's politics," he replied, turning his back on you. "This is what we were told would happen since we were ten years old and we were forced to hold hands in the garden. "Someday, Jungkook, she will be your queen. Someday, Y/N, he will be your lord." You knew it. Don't pretend to be surprised now that the bill has arrived to be collected. "
"I knew it would happen, but I didn't think you'd be so..." You fell silent, looking for the word.
"So what?" He turned, glass in hand, fixing his dark eyes on yours. " So cold? So distant? What did you expect, Y/N? That after five years without speaking to each other, since that last argument in the lake, I received you with open arms and promises of eternal love? We know each other too well to lie to each other like that."
You walked to the dresser, needing something to do with your hands so they wouldn't shake. You began to unhook the heavy veil of your hairstyle, but your fingers, numb with nerves, became entangled in the silver hairpins. You grunted in frustration, tugging at your own hair.
Suddenly, you felt his presence. Jungkook had moved with that quiet speed he had always had. His hands were positioned over yours, stopping you. The contact was electric, a heat shock that made you hold your breath. It's been years since you've had it so close.
"You're going to pull your hair out," he whispered. His breath brushed the back of your neck, sending a violent shiver down your spine. Leave me.
"I can do it alone," you insisted, trying to push you away, but he gently squeezed your wrists.
"No, you can't. This hairstyle requires three maidens and you are alone with me. Stay put. It's an order, if that is of any use to you now. "
You stiffened as his long, skillful fingers began to work on your hair. You could see it in the reflection in the mirror: the Crown Prince, the warrior everyone was talking about, focused on removing diamond hairpins with a delicacy that didn't match the tension emanating from his body. Your eyes met on the glass, and for a second, the hatred dissipated to give way to raw melancholy.
"I remember when you fell off the cherry tree," he said suddenly, his voice barely a whisper as he pulled out the last piece of silver. "You had flowers in your hair and you were crying because you had torn your favorite dress. I helped you remove them all before your mother saw you. "
"And then you told me I was a fool for climbing so high," you remembered, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of your mouth. "You always had to have the last word, Jungkook. You always had to be the one who knew the most. "
"And you always had to be the one who didn't listen," he replied.
The veil finally fell to the ground, like dead skin. Your hair cascaded over your shoulders, and Jungkook didn't immediately withdraw his hands. His fingers brushed the skin of your neck, a minimal, almost accidental contact, but one that weighed tons.
"We're not those kids anymore, Y/N," he said, and his voice changed, deeper, more dangerous. "Outside this room, we are two strangers who must rule. But inside—" His hands went down to your shoulders, squeezing them with a firmness that forced you to stare at him in the mirror—... "Inside we are two people bound by a contract that demands blood and heirs. "
He let go of you abruptly, as if you were burning, and returned to his glass of wine. The silence fell again, denser than before. You sat on the dresser bench, feeling exhausted.
"Why didn't you look at me during the ceremony?" You asked, breaking your calm. Not once. "You made me feel like you were marrying a piece of furniture from the cathedral. "
Jungkook drank the rest of his wine in one gulp and put the glass down on the table with a thud. He turned to you, and this time, the mask of indifference had cracked. There was fire in his eyes, a mixture of rage and something that looked like pent-up hunger.
"Because if I looked at you, Y/N, it would have reminded me why I hated this arrangement so much," he blurted out, beginning to walk toward you with slow, heavy steps. "If I looked at you, I would see the woman who despises me and remember that I am going to spend the rest of my days tied to someone who would rather be anywhere else in the world. Do you think it's easy for me? Do you think I like knowing that the only reason you're in my bed tonight is because a piece of paper says so? "
He stopped in front of you, forcing you to lift your head to hold his gaze.
"I know there are guards at the door," you continued, ignoring the lump in your throat. "I know the bridesmaids will come at dawn. I know what has to be in those sheets, Jungkook. I'm not naïve. I have grown in this court as much as you have. "
"Then stop looking at me like I'm the executioner," he snapped, leaning over you, resting his hands on the dressing table on either side of your body, locking you in.
The space between you shrank until there was only a sigh away. You could smell the red wine and the metallic aroma of its armor. The hatred was there, palpable, but beneath it, an electric current of mutual recognition was beginning to boil. They knew each other too well; You knew the twitch in his jaw when he was nervous, and he knew the way your pulse quickened at the base of your throat when you were afraid.
"It's five hours before dawn," Jungkook whispered, and his gaze dropped to your lips before returning to your eyes. "We can spend them yelling at each other or remembering how much we hate each other... Or we can accept that, for one night, duty is the only thing we have left. "
He brought a hand behind your back, looking for the start of the endless row of buttons on your dress. His fingers brushed against the exposed skin of your neck and you closed your eyes, letting out a gasp you couldn't contain.
"This is not love, Jungkook," you warned, although your hands, of their own volition, rose to rest on his chest, feeling the erratic beat of his heart under the silk of his shirt.
"I know," he replied, and for the first time all night, his voice sounded almost human, almost vulnerable. "It's just the truth. And the truth is, even if we hate each other, tonight there is no one else in the world for us but the other. "
He began to undo the first button, very slowly, as if he wanted every second of that humiliation—or that surrender—to last forever.
You felt the first tug on your back, a dry movement as Jungkook's fingers struggled against the first mother-of-pearl button. The silence in the room was so absolute that you could swear you heard the pendulum clock mechanism in the hallway, marking every second of your fall.
"Your father was always an exaggerated man," he growled. His voice was so close to your ear that you felt the warm air moisten your skin. "Fifty buttons for a dress that only serves to be torn. It's a perfect metaphor for your kingdom, Y/N: a flawless façade to hide a crumbling structure. "
You tensed at the insult to your home, turning your head slightly to try to look over your shoulder, but he clenched his free hand on your waist to keep you in place.
"Don't talk about my father as if you knew him," you snapped, feeling contempt rise up your throat. "He did what he had to do to save his people from your ambition. If we're here, it's because the Jeons don't know what the word "border" means. You only understand "conquest". "
Jungkook let out a snort, and you heard the click of the fifth button giving way. His fingers brushed the skin of your upper back, and a shiver you couldn't control ran through you. It was a contradictory feeling: his hands were rough, callused from years of wielding the sword, but they moved with surgical precision over your spine.
"Conquest?" he repeated bitterly. My father wanted this marriage since you were born. "I remember that he took me to his office when I was seven years old. He showed me a portrait of you and said, "That girl is half of your future kingdom. Learn how to handle it or she'll handle you." I spent my entire childhood seeing you not as a friend, but as a chess piece that I had to learn to move. "
"And did you succeed?" You asked, a trace of poison in your voice. "Do you feel like you're "managing" me now, Jungkook? While you take off this dress like you're my maid? "
You felt his fingers stop halfway down your back. The pressure of his hand on your waist increased, burying itself a little in the thin fabric of the corset you were wearing underneath. In the mirror, you saw how his jaw tensed and his eyes darkened.
"I feel like we're both dogs in chains, told to bite to amuse the court," he replied, his voice becoming dangerously low. "Don't be fooled, Y/N. My father gave me this castle and this crown, but in exchange he took away my ability to choose who I want in my bed. Do you think it's an honor for me to have to convince a woman who looks at me with disgust to give me an heir? "
He continued with his task. The dress began to sag, slowly opening up and exposing your spine line. The cold air in the room hit your bare skin, making you shiver. Jungkook paused for a second, his eyes sweeping over the expanse of your back with an intensity that made you feel more naked than you really were.
"I remember," he began, and this time his tone was different, less aggressive, almost nostalgic. "the summer of fourteen. When we escape to the river and your brother almost drowns trying to follow us. You stayed in your underwear to jump into the water to get it out. You were so reckless. So full of life. "
"And you scolded me for an hour as we drove back to the castle," you added, letting out an involuntary sigh. "You said that a princess should not show herself like this to anyone. Not even before you. "
"I said it because I didn't want anyone else to see you," he confessed, and the honesty of his words struck you like a slap. "Even then you drove me crazy, Y/N. With your pride and your mania for defying every rule. I knew that one day you would be mine and the thought that others might have seen what belonged to me by contract burned me inside."
You turned sharply, even though the dress wasn't quite unbuttoned yet, forcing him to let go. The fabric fell over your shoulders, revealing the start of your white silk corset. You looked him in the eye, looking for the boy you knew, but you only found the man who bullied you.
"I don't belong to you, Jungkook," you said firmly, although your voice trembled. "This contract says that we will share a kingdom and a bed, but my mind and my will are still mine. Don't try to convince me that this is something you wanted for "us." You wanted it for power.
Jungkook took a step towards you, invading your space, forcing you to back away until your thighs collided with the edge of the dresser bench. He leaned over you, resting one hand on either side of your hips.
"Power?" He whispered, his face so close you could count his eyelashes. "I have had power since I was born. What I don't have is peace. And you... You are the only person in this world who dares to look me in the eye and tell me that I am worthless. Do you have any idea what that does to a man like me?"
His eyes went down to your mouth and then to the neckline of your corset, where your chest rose and fell agitatedly. The sexual tension in the room became almost physical, a pressure on your chest that made it difficult for you to breathe.
"I have to finish with these buttons," he said, his voice now a hoarse murmur, laden with a need he was trying to hide under duty. " And then, Y/N, we're going to have to decide whether we spend tonight as enemies destroying each other or as two people who, despite everything, know each other better than anyone else on this earth. "
He brought his hand to your shoulder, slowly pulling the drooping sleeve of your dress aside, his skin brushing against yours in a contact that lasted longer than necessary.
You fell silent, gasping for breath, as Jungkook's words floated through the dense air of the room. Your mask of coldness, the one you had built so carefully over the past five years, began to crack. You looked him in the eye, and for an instant, you didn't see the arrogant heir who had just insulted your kingdom, but the boy who used to climb up your balcony just to show you a bird's nest he'd found.
All that rage, that sharp edge with which you responded to him, was nothing more than armor. Because the truth, the one that burned your chest more than the corset, was that you loved it. You'd loved him since you were six years old, and he gave you his first wooden soldier. But then, that winter came. That night at the winter ball where you heard him talking to his father, the King, and something inside you broke.
"You don't have to go on with this, Jungkook," you whispered suddenly. Your voice was no longer poisonous, only a deep fatigue. " You don't have to pretend you care about my pride. I know what you think of me. I heard you, you know? Five years ago, in the library in the west wing. "
Jungkook froze. His hands, which were directed at the loops of your corset, stopped in midair. His eyes widened a little wider, reflecting the light from the embers.
"You heard—what?" His voice dropped an octave, becoming a hoarse murmur.
"You told your father that I was just a 'necessary obligation,'" you said, and you felt the lump in your throat close. " That you had no feelings for the girl you had grown up with and that you would marry me just to secure the northern border. I spent my entire adolescence hoping that this "contract" would be something more for you... And that night I understood that I was the only stupid one who was in love. "
You looked down, unable to continue to hold his eyes up. The silence that followed was suffocating. You expected him to laugh, confirm his words, or just walk away nonchalantly. But he did nothing of the sort.
You felt his fingers, warm and trembling, brush against your chin to force you to lift your head. When your eyes met his again, you saw no mockery. You saw a raw pain, a desperation that he had never allowed himself to show before.
"Y/N..." He let out a long sigh, almost a wail. "You're a fool. You really are. "
"Now you insult me?" You tried to regain your borderline tone, but your voice broke.
"I told you because you were pressuring me to send you away," he confessed, getting so close that his forehead brushed against yours. "He was telling me that you were a distraction, that my feelings for you made me weak, and that if I couldn't prove that I saw you as a political object, I would marry you off to a duke of the southern lands to get you out of my way. I had to lie. I had to say the cruelest thing I could think of to get him to leave you alone, to allow you to stay close to me, even if it was as an "obligation". "
You froze. Years of accumulated hatred, silent weeping nights, and curt answers in the halls of the courtroom began to falter.
"Why didn't you tell me?" You called out in a whisper, tapping weakly on his chest with your hands. "You made me hate you, Jungkook. You made me hate every memory I had of us."
"Because if I told you, you couldn't have pretended," he replied, catching your hands in his and bringing them to his mouth to kiss your knuckles with a devotion that took your breath away. "My father is an expert at reading people. I needed you to hate me so that he would believe that I had no power over you. But look at me, Y/N... really look at me. "
He forced you to let go of your hands and put his hands in the loops of your corset, but this time there was no aggression. His fingers moved with a torturous slowness, undoing the first knot in front of you. You were face to face, so close that you could feel the gallop of his heart crashing against yours.
"I've spent five years watching you walk away, watching you throw daggers at me with your eyes while I was dying to apologize to you," he continued, undoing the second lasso. "The pressure of the corset on your lungs began to ease, allowing you to breathe for the first time all night. Do you think I like this contract? I hate him. Because you deserved to be courted, you deserved to be brought you flowers and to write you ridiculous verses like the ones I read to you when we were children. You didn't deserve to be handed over as a war trophy. "
The corset loosened enough that he could tuck his hands under the silk, caressing the skin of your ribs. The contact made you let out a gasp that this time was not from fear, but from a need that you had repressed for too long.
"Jungkook..." His name came out of your lips like a plea.
"Don't hate me tonight, Y/N," he begged, his voice breaking. "Please. I know that the world wants us to be kings, to be enemies or political allies... But here, behind this lock, I just want to be the guy who loved you before it all got so complicated."
Your hands, which had once been clenched into fists, relaxed and climbed up his shoulders until they became entangled in his dark hair. You pulled it gently, forcing it to shorten the last millimeter that separated them.
"I've been so lonely," you confessed against his lips, finally dropping all your defenses.
"Not anymore," he said before capturing your mouth in a kiss that was nothing like the one in the cathedral.
This kiss tasted like years of silence, shared secrets and a desperate urgency. There was no protocol, there were no princes or crowns. There were just the two of you, rediscovering yourselves under the candlelight as the corset finished falling to the floor, letting the vulnerability of both of you meet in the gloom of the room.
The kiss dragged on, not with the urgency of a stranger, but with the painful familiarity of someone who recovers something he thought was lost forever. You felt your fingers sink into the hair on the back of Jungkook's neck, tugging at it with a mixture of relief and reproach. The taste of his mouth, mixed with the trail of red wine, transported you back to the summers when they shared fruit stolen from the royal orchard, before the crowns weighed so heavily on their temples.
When they finally separated, their fronts were united. You were both gasping, the air between you charged with an electricity that was no longer just hate, but a spark of hope that you were afraid to acknowledge.
"I'm afraid to believe you," you whispered, your eyes fixed on his, which shone with an almost feverish intensity. "I've spent five years hating you to survive, Jungkook. If this is another of your political strategies, I swear I won't stand it. "
He didn't respond with words right away. Instead, he lowered her hands to the end loops of your corset, which was now only hanging from your hips. His fingers, expert and slow, undid the last knot. You felt the weight of the garment fall at your feet, leaving your body covered only by the very fine white silk camisole, almost translucent under the candlelight.
You felt exposed, not only physically, but emotionally. You had run out of armor.
"Look at me, Y/N," he asked you, his voice a silk thread. "There are no ministers here. There are no spies behind the curtains. There's just the boy who taught you to ride and the girl who swore to me that one day we'd be the greatest kings in history. "
He took a step back, but only to take off his own military coat. He threw it to the ground without looking at her, a gesture of contempt for the uniform that represented his duty. Then, he put his hands to the buttons of his white shirt. His eyes didn't leave yours for a second, as if he feared that if he blinked, you'd put back on that mask of indifference that had tormented him so much.
"Help me," he said, stopping his hands halfway across his chest. "If we're going to do this, if we're going to be one tonight, I want you to claim what's yours too."
Your hands were shaking when you raised them. Your fingers brushed the fabric of his shirt, feeling the scorching heat emanating from his skin. You began to undo the buttons, one by one, with a torturous slowness. With each button you released, you discovered more about him: the curve of his shoulders, the firmness of his chest, the scars you didn't know about—records of training and battles he'd earned while you were away, hating him.
"This scar..." you whispered, brushing your fingertip against a pale mark near his shoulder. "It wasn't there before. "
"It was two years ago," he answered, closing his eyes to your touch. "An ambush in the north. I was just thinking that if I died there, I would never have a chance to tell you the truth. That I would die being your enemy and that hurt me more than steel in the flesh. "
You finished with the last button and opened his shirt, letting it fall off his shoulders. Jungkook looked imposing in the gloom; The light from the fireplace cast shadows on his defined muscles and tanned skin. He was a man now, a potential king, but when he looked at you, you saw the same Jungkook who stayed awake with you when you had nightmares.
He shortened the distance again, wrapping his bare arms around your waist. The contact of his skin against the silk of your nightgown, and yours underneath, made you let out a trembling sigh. He glued you to his body, forcing you to feel the strength of his muscles and the unbridled beating of his heart.
"Outside, the world awaits a perfect queen and a ruthless king," he whispered against your neck, his nose brushing your skin, inhaling your scent of roses and jasmine. "They hope that our union will be a formality to sign maps. But in here... here I want you to be just Y/N. My Y/N. The one who insults me, the one who challenges me and the one who, in spite of everything, loves me as much as I love her. "
He brought his hands to the straps of your nightgown, pulling them down with a delicacy that made you tear. The silk slid down your body, falling in a soft whisper on the carpet. Now there was nothing left to hide. In front of him, stripped of all clothes and of your last defenses, you gave yourself completely; There were no more secrets or lies between the two. Only the raw and beautiful reality of your body exposed before his gaze, and the certainty of two souls who had searched for each other for half a decade.
You hugged him, burying your face in his chest, feeling the scent of sandalwood and man that was so intoxicating to you. Jungkook wrapped his arms around you, protecting you from the cold and loneliness you had felt for so long.
"Five years, Jungkook," you muttered against his skin, your hands caressing his back. "Five lost years."
"We have the rest of our lives to get them back," he assured you, lifting you into his arms effortlessly. "But tonight is just for us. There is no crown that weighs more than this desire."
He walked to the large four-poster bed. The linen sheets were cold, but the heat they both gave off was enough to set the room on fire. He left you on the mattress with infinite softness, as if you were made of glass, before positioning himself on you, resting his weight on his forearms so as not to crush you.
"I love you, Y/N," he said, and it was the first time you heard those words in a man's voice. "I have loved you in every letter I didn't send, in every toast I made in your honor when you were away, and in every battle I won just to make this kingdom worthy of you."
Your eyes misted up, and for the first time in years, you smiled for real. A smile that was just for him.
"Then show me," you asked, wrapping your arms around his neck and pulling him toward you. "Prove me that the contract is wrong and that you don't own me... but my other half."
Jungkook lowered his head and kissed you, with a devout tenderness that made you understand that, even if the sun came out in a few hours and you had to face the court, in that bed you had already won the most important battle of your life.
Jungkook didn't rush. He stood on his elbows, watching you with an intensity that made you feel like he was reading your soul, not just looking at your body. His eyes swept over every inch of your skin with a reverence you'd never seen in him.
"You're shaking," he whispered, and his hand reached down to intertwine his fingers with yours, pressing them against the mattress.
"It's not because of the cold," you admitted in a thin voice.
It was the truth. It was the adrenaline, the relief, and the weight of five years of loneliness crumbling all at once. Jungkook let go of one of your hands and began to draw invisible lines on your belly, slowly rising towards your ribs. His fingers were warm and a little rough, and every place he touched seemed to light up in his wake.
"I spent so many nights imagining this," he confessed, lowering his head to kiss the crook of your shoulder. "In the northern campaigns, when the cold was so intense that my bones hurt, I would close my eyes and try to remember the sound of your laughter or the way you frowned when I beat you at chess. It was the only thing that kept me sane. "
You closed your eyes, enjoying the feeling of his lips against your skin. Your hand went up his arm, marveling at the firmness of his muscles. He was no longer the skinny boy you used to run with; He was a solid man, forged by duty and war.
"I thought you had forgotten me," you said, your voice charged with an honesty you would have been ashamed to show before. "At every dance, at every official dinner, you looked at me as if I were a stranger. I convinced myself that you had erased everything we were."
Jungkook stopped and looked up to meet yours. There was a deep sadness in his dark eyes.
"Never," he said. "Every time I ignored you, it was a battle with myself not to cross the room, hold your hand, and get you out of there. I had to learn to be an outsider to protect you from my own feelings. My father... He knew you were my weak point. If he found out that I still loved you like this, he would have used you as a bargaining chip much sooner. "
He came down again, this time looking for your neck. His kisses were slow, almost lazy, as if he wanted to memorize the taste of your skin. You felt his warm breath against your ear as his hands continued to explore your figure, recognizing the curves that time and maturity had molded in you.
"You're so beautiful, Y/N," he murmured against your skin, and the tone of his voice, so filled with genuine admiration, made you feel a lump in your throat.
You forced yourself to move, seeking to be closer to him. You entangled your legs with his, feeling the rubbing of his hairy, firm skin against yours, soft and delicate. The touch caused you to gasp, and your body, which had been tense all day, finally began to relax, asking for more.
"Jungkook..." you whispered, arching your back as his hand circled one of your breasts, caressing the nipple with his thumb with a delicacy that made you burn. "I don't want to talk about the past anymore. I don't want to think about the sunrise or the sheets. I just want you to be here. With me. "
He pulled away enough to look at you, a small, painful smile pouring across his lips.
"I'm here. I'm not going anywhere," he promised.
He brought his hand to your cheek, stroking it with his thumb before tilting his face to kiss you again. This kiss was different; It was deeper, more needy, as if he was trying to seal a promise that neither of them dared to say out loud. Their tongues met, dancing in a rhythm they had always known but now felt new, charged with a passion that no longer had to be hidden.
You felt the emotional tension slowly transform into a much more powerful physical need. Your hands went down his back, running down Jungkook's spine until they reached his hips, urging him to stick closer to you. He responded with a low growl, pressing his erection against your thigh, and the discharge of desire that ran through your belly took your breath away.
"I've missed you so much," you confessed between kisses, your nails digging lightly into his shoulders.
"And I to you, my queen," he answered, his voice growing hoarser. "My only queen. "
Jungkook started to go down again, but this time his kisses didn't stay on your neck. They followed the path of his caress, down your chest, stopping at every inch as if he were worshipping a temple. The slowness with which he did it was a delicious torture; It made you wish that he would hurry up, but at the same time, you wanted that moment of mutual discovery to last forever.
Jungkook moved away just a few centimeters, just enough for you to see the glow of adoration in his eyes, but not enough for you to stop feeling his warmth. His hand, firm and warm, went down your belly, leaving a trail of small spasms in its wake, until it stopped just above the junction of your thighs, where fine hair and sensitive skin made you feel more vulnerable than ever.
"Are you sure?" he whispered. His voice was a hoarse caress, charged with a restraint that made the muscles in his arms tense. "Once we cross this line, Y/N, there will be no turning back. Not only will you be my wife before the law, but... You will have entrusted me with the most sacred thing you have. "
You swallowed, feeling your heart hammer against your ribs. You looked at him, seeing the man who had spent years hiding his love under an iron mask just to keep you safe. You were no longer afraid of the contract, you were afraid of the intensity of how you felt about it.
"I'm sure, Jungkook," you replied, your voice steady despite the nerves. "I want it to be you."
He let out a long sigh, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and leaned over to leave a chaste kiss on your forehead. Then, with a slowness that made you want to scream in anticipation, it began to come down your body. It didn't position itself between your legs right away; Instead, he dedicated herself to worshipping every corner of your skin with his lips and tongue.
He kissed your ribs, stopping to listen to your frantic heartbeat. He went down to your navel, tracing circles with the wet tip of his tongue that made your toes shrink and your belly contract. Jungkook moved with the patience of a craftsman, as if he was discovering a treasure that had been buried for centuries.
"You're perfect," he murmured against your skin, his warm breath sending electric shocks straight into your pelvis. "All this time, imagining what you would be like... And reality takes my breath away. "
His hands went down to spread your legs apart with extreme delicacy. You felt yourself dying of shame for a second, the diffused light of the candles bathing your intimacy completely exposed before his expert eyes, but he didn't give you time to hide. Jungkook knelt between your thighs and rested his large hands on the inside of your knees, keeping them wide open.
His gaze swept over your femininity with an almost religious reverence. There was no vulgar lust in his expression, but a pure, hungry fascination with the center of your crotch, which was already beginning to glow subtly.
"Jungkook..." you gasped, covering your eyes with your arm, feeling the heat rise up your cheeks at the intensity of his scrutiny.
"Look at me, Y/N," he asked you, his voice vibrating with a soft but undeniable command. You slowly pulled your arm away and looked at him; He was there, the future king of an empire, kneeling before you as if you were his only deity. "Don't hide from me. There is nothing in you that is not worthy of worship."
He brought his hand to you, and you felt the first direct contact. His long fingers brushed your with the softness of a petal, barely a touch, but it was enough to make you let out a high-pitched moan that echoed throughout the room. It was the first time someone touched you like that, the first time you felt that pang of pleasure so clear, electric and overwhelming.
"Shh, don't worry," he whispered, watching your reaction intently as his eyes darkened. "Just feel."
He began to move his fingertips in slow circles, discovering your sensitivity, learning the exact rhythm that made your breath choppy. I was in no hurry to penetrate you; He seemed to enjoy endlessly watching your eyes glaze over and your hips rise unconsciously seeking more of his touch. His fingers slid down, finding the thick moisture that was already beginning to gush out of your canal, and he let out a low growl, a hoarse sound of pure satisfaction.
"You're so ready for me..." he muttered, and before you could process his words, he lowered his head completely.
The first contact of his hot, moist tongue against your center was like a burst of white light behind your eyelids. You shouted his name, sinking your hands in despair into the linen sheets, as he gave himself to the task of worshipping you with his mouth. Jungkook was not careless; He used his tongue with a precision that made you lose your sense of reality. It alternated long, firm licks from bottom to top with soft suctions directly at your most sensitive point, crushing your button and bringing you to an edge you didn't know existed.
You felt the rubbing of his nose against your pubis, the suffocating heat of his breath and the obscene wetness of his mouth consuming you completely. It was an absolute sensory discovery. Every time you tried to close your legs, overwhelmed by the intensity of the stimulus, his firm hands on the inside of your thighs reminded you that he was in charge and that he wasn't done with you.
"Jungkook, please... I don't know what this is..." You cried, your head moving back and forth on the pillow, losing control of your own body.
He paused for a second, only to look down at you, his lips shining with your own wetness and his eyes completely darkened with desire.
"It's the pleasure that belongs to you, Y/N," he said in a thick voice that seemed to come from the depths of his chest. "And only I am going to give it to you. Always me."
He went down again, this time deeper, exploring with his fingers the entrance to your canal while his tongue continued to work relentlessly on your clitoris. He inserted a finger, very slowly, feeling the natural resistance of your virginity. You immediately tensed up under the new pressure, but he stopped, kissing your inner thighs parsimonously to relax before continuing. He was preparing you, widening you with infinite patience, lubricating you with his own fingers, making sure that when the time came for real union, you would only feel love and not pain.
The sensation of his fingers moving inside you, in unison with the wet strokes of his tongue, pushed you to the absolute limit. You felt a growing pressure in your belly, an addictive tension that was crying out to be released. Your nails dug into his shoulders as he picked up the pace, his fingers moving more firmly and deeply, mimicking what would soon be his own penetration.
"Jungkook! You exclaimed in a broken cry, and suddenly the world exploded.
Your body arched violently upward as the first orgasm of your life shook you from head to toe in uncontrollable spasms. It was such a powerful release that you felt your lungs forgetting to breathe, your vaginal walls squeezing hard. Jungkook stood there, holding your thighs, receiving every contraction of your body directly against his face and fingers, drinking from your flow as if it were the most precious elixir of his kingdom.
When the tremors finally stopped and you collapsed against the mattress, exhausted and with your heart pounding, Jungkook immediately climbed up to cover you with his body. He kissed you with demented tenderness, savoring you on your own lips, mixing his juices, while his hands caressed your tousled hair.
"We're not done yet, my queen," he whispered against your mouth, and you could feel his erection, huge, hard, throbbing, pressing hard against your thigh. " This has been just for you. Now... Now I want you to know what it means to be one flesh. "
You stood there, sunk in the silk mattress, your lungs burning from the effort to catch your breath after that burst of pleasure you never imagined possible. Your body felt light, almost ethereal, but at the same time strangely aware of every inch of skin. Jungkook slowly squeezed in, coming out from between your legs, and you saw him stand next to the bed.
The light of the candles, which were already beginning to burn out, bathed his figure in a golden halo. You watched him in silence, with half-open eyes, as he brought his hands to the zippers of his ball pants. The sound of leather and fabric slipping was the only thing that broke the sacred silence of the bedroom. When he finally got rid of the last thing covering him, standing completely naked before you, the air escaped from your lungs for a very different reason than the previous orgasm.
It was imposing. Jungkook had always been athletic, but the man in front of you was a work of art carved in stone and desire. His legs were strong, marked by years of military training, and his belly was defined by muscles that tensed with his every move. But your eyes couldn't help but go down to his crotch, and that's when you felt your face burn as if an ember had been brought to you.
You let out a brief, nervous laugh, a mixture of disbelief and modesty that you could not contain. You covered your face with both hands, sinking your fingers into your hot cheeks, as the echo of your own laughter echoed through the canopy of the bed.
"What are you laughing at, little queen?" His voice went deep, charged with a playful but intense vibration. You heard the mattress give way again under his weight as he knelt on the bed.
"It's just that..." you murmured between your fingers, sticking out only one eye to look at him—... "Jungkook, that's impossible. "
"Impossible?"
"You're not going to fit," you blurted out, and this time the laughter was pure nervousness. "You're going to... You're going to break me. I've known you forever, but I never imagined you'd be... like this. It's too much."
Jungkook let out a low growl, one that wasn't anger, but a masculine satisfaction that made him smile halfway. He didn't immediately come over to possess you. Instead, he sat on his heels in front of you, allowing you to process the vision of his manhood. His long fingers surrounded his own erection, which pulsed with a force that intimidated and fascinated you in equal measure. In a slow, deliberate motion, he began to move his hand up and down, spreading the pre-cum that glistened at the tip along the entire length of his member, preparing to ease the way for you.
The wet sound of his own hand against his skin made you close your eyes again, but you couldn't help but imagine it. You knew I was doing that for you, so that the transition from virgin to wife would be as painless as possible.
"Look at me, Y/N," he said, and his tone was no longer joking. It was a royal order, but charged with a tenderness that disarmed you. You pulled your hands away from your face little by little. "The human body is wise, and mine has been waiting for years to fit into yours. I'm not going to break you. I'm going to complete you."
He moved closer, crawling on the bed until his body was back on top of yours. The contrast between his size and your delicate figure has never been so apparent. His thighs, wide and firm, positioned themselves on the outside of yours, forcing you to open again. This time, you felt the tip of his erection, wet and hot, brushing your entrance, right where you still felt the throb of your recent orgasm.
"Jungkook, wait..." you gasped, wrapping your arms around his shoulders, looking for an anchor.
"Shhh... Look me in the eye," he whispered, lowering himself to capture your lips in a deep kiss, a kiss that tasted like promise. "I'm not going to move if you don't ask me. We are going to go millimeter by millimeter. I want you to feel every part of me coming into your life."
You felt how he rested all his weight in his hands at the sides of your head, hovering over you like a protective shadow. He started pushing, very slowly, with a constant and massive pressure that forced you to arch your back against the silk mattress. The feeling of fulfillment was immediate, overwhelming; You felt the raw texture of its veins and the scorching heat of its thickness stretching your skin millimeter by millimeter, forcing your vaginal walls to adapt to it. A groan of surprise and involuntary submission escaped from your throat. It was an experience that overwhelmed you, as if you were being claimed not only by the man you loved, but by an indomitable force of nature.
"It hurts a little," you admitted in a thin voice, pressing your nails into the bare skin of his back, feeling the physical barrier of your innocence firmly oppose his advance.
Jungkook stopped immediately, freezing the thrust. His forehead rested against yours, and you could see the beads of sweat running down his temples, glistening in the candlelight from the superhuman effort he was making to contain his own instincts and not lose control. His eyes were darkened, almost black with dilation, fixed on yours with an absolute, possessive devotion.
"I know, love. "I know," he murmured against your lips, giving you small wet kisses to draw your attention away from the sting. "Breathe with me. Just a little more and we'll be one forever. There will be no more contracts, no fathers, no kingdoms between us. Just you and me."
He waited with infinite patience for your muscles to give way, for your breathing to match his in the midst of that intimate invasion. Only when he felt that you had stopped tensing up and that your femininity was beginning to soften from the heat, did he push again. With a firm, slow, vertical thrust, he finally broke the last vestige of your childhood.
You let out a muffled sob, a mixture of sharp pain and emotional satisfaction so deep it brought tears to your eyes, as you felt him bury himself deep to the root, filling the void you had endured during those five years of solitude. Your insides contracted violently around his member, trapping him in a suffocating grip.
Jungkook stood completely motionless inside you, united at the deepest point possible, allowing the bloodstain that tomorrow the court would see to spread beneath you on the linen sheets as the final, irrevocable seal of your destiny. He put his arms around you, pressing you to his beating chest, and for the first time all night, you felt that the crown was no longer weighing anything.
"That's it," he whispered in your ear, his voice completely broken with emotion and desire. "You're mine, Y/N. And I am, at last, completely yours."
Time seemed to freeze the instant Jungkook finished reclaiming that space that, by right of love and contract, now belonged to him. You gasped, your eyes misty and your nails stuck in his shoulders, feeling that immense pressure that seemed to expand you from within, the pulse of his erection beating directly against your cervix. Jungkook didn't move; He stood there, buried in you, his arm muscles trembling from the effort of holding his weight so as not to crush you as he waited for your body to accept the anatomy of a warrior.
"Breathe, my life... Look at me and breathe," he whispered. His voice was a hoarse thread of pure agony and devotion.
You felt the piercing sting of your lost innocence, but above all, you felt that scorching fullness. Jungkook was too big, a presence that filled you completely, making you feel small and fragile under his body. Every time you tried to relax, the throbbing of his own cock inside you, releasing the first few drops of pre-cum, reminded you how real and carnal this all was.
He lowered his head and began to kiss your tears, sweeping the salt from your cheeks with a tenderness that contrasted with the brute strength of his hips wedged between your thighs. His lips sought yours in a slow, deep kiss, giving you time to process the burning feeling of being one flesh with him.
"Tell me when you're ready," he murmured against your lips, brushing them. I won't move until the pain turns into something else. I don't want you to remember me in pain, Y/N. Never again.
What seemed like hours passed, although they were only minutes of sacred silence where only the crackling of the embers and their rhythmic breaths could be heard. Gradually, the burning began to transform into a dull heat, an addictive electric pulsation that was born right where their bodies came together. Your body, traitor and in love, began to give way, lubricating itself naturally, wrapping around it and finally recognizing the owner of its sighs.
You nodded slightly against his shoulder, letting out a trembling sigh that hit his neck. Jungkook closed his eyes, letting out a low growl, a purely animal sound, and began to move.
It was an almost imperceptible movement at first. A slow rock, a retreat of just a few inches that dragged your inner walls before sinking back down with extreme delicacy. You gasped, your mouth half-open, feeling your skin stretch to accommodate each thrust. It was a beautiful and terrifying sensation at the same time; You felt completely invaded, but in a way that made you feel whole for the first time in five years.
"Damn it... you're so tight... so perfect," Jungkook gasped. His jaw was so tense that you could see the veins in his neck tick under the candlelight.
He increased the pace, but only a little, maintaining that deliberate and deep cadence that allowed you to enjoy every millimeter of his entrance. The wet sound of friction began to mix with the rubbing of the sheets. Every time he slipped out, you felt an unbearable emptiness, and every time he went back in, a burst of heat ran down your spine. His hands came down from your shoulders to intertwine with yours on the pillow, squeezing them tightly, anchoring you to him in this mutual discovery.
"Does it still hurt?" He asked, pausing for a second to look at you. His eyes were injected with desire, fixed on your blushing face, but his worry was what dominated his expression.
"A little... But don't stop," you whispered, arching your back up unconsciously, looking for it to go deeper. "I want to feel you, Jungkook. I want you to erase all this time that we were away."
Those words were the trigger that ended his last trace of self-control. Jungkook let out a heavy sigh, a snort full of lust, and began to charge more firmly, with drier and deeper punches, although without losing the elegance of his movements. The four-poster bed creaked gently to the rhythm of his passion, a sound that mingled with your unbridled gasps and hoarse growls from him. With each movement, fullness became pleasure; a dark, dense, moist and deep pleasure that clouded your judgment completely.
You felt him hit points inside you that you had never explored, sending electric shocks straight into your belly. The pain was completely gone, replaced by a voracious need for me to never let go of you. Your legs wrapped around his waist unconsciously, drawing him in more, wanting to remove any atom of air between their bodies, forcing him to sink to bottom.
"You're mine... My wife, my queen..." he whispered against your lips, each word punctuated by a hard thrust that made you see stars and lose track of reality.
Jungkook raised one of his hands to caress your face, brushing the sweaty hair away from your forehead as he moved with an increasing and uncontrolled intensity. His sweaty body shone in the gloom, a vision of power and absolute dedication. He was giving you everything: his strength, his vulnerability, and the secret of his eternal love.
You reached the edge of the abyss almost without realizing it. Pleasure built up in your belly like a storm about to burst, making you emit wet, broken sounds. Jungkook noticed it instantly; He felt the first contractions of your canal hugging him tightly, he saw how your eyes rolled and how your body began to tremble under his. He picked up the pace, his movements becoming a little more erratic, more urgent, taking you by the hand toward that climax you both shared.
"Jungkook! You shouted his name, your voice broken with emotion, as the world crumbled into a thousand pieces of light and heat.
Your orgasm shook you with a force that left you breathless, your vaginal walls squeezing his member into violent spasms. Jungkook was not far behind. Feeling the emptiness of your liberation sucking it in, it let out a guttural roar that seemed to be born from its bowels, sank for the last time in a brutal way, as deep as it could, and poured into you with an intensity that made you vibrate. Waves of thick, burning semen filled your insides, mixing with your own moisture and the trace of your innocence. He stood there, trembling over you, burying his face in the hollow of your neck as his seed sealed the contract of their lives for good.
Silence returned to the room, but it was a different silence. It was no longer hostile, nor annoying. It was a silence full of peace and a satisfaction that can only be found after a war won.
Jungkook slumped down next to you carefully, but he didn't allow you to walk away. He pulled you into his chest, wrapping you in a protective embrace as you both caught your breath. The sheets were scrambled, stained with proof of their union, but at the time, none of that mattered.
"I love you, Y/N," he whispered, kissing the crown of your head. Now and for all the winters we have left.
You snuggled up against him, feeling his heartbeat against your ear. The prince and princess who hated each other had died that night in that bed, and in their place, two lovers were born who, at last, no longer had to pretend.
(...)
The sun began to filter timidly through the heavy velvet curtains, drawing lines of golden dust in the dense air of the room. It wasn't the sudden awakening you'd imagined for years of nightmares about this day; It was a slow awakening, enveloped in the warmth of a body that no longer felt like that of an enemy, but as your safe harbor.
You opened your eyes heavily, your body feeling strangely sore but light, as if you had taken off an armor you had been wearing for centuries. The first thing you saw was Jungkook's face, a few centimeters from yours. He was not asleep. He watched you with infinite calm, his dark hair tousled on the pillow and an expression of peace that you had never seen him wear in court.
"Good morning, my queen," he whispered, and his voice, hoarse with sleep, sent a delicious shiver down your spine.
You felt the heat rise to your cheeks as you recalled the details of the night: the confessions, the urgency of his hands, and the way he called you his over and over again. You shifted under the linen sheets, feeling the rubbing of his bare skin against yours, and you looked down at the bed. There, between the two of you, the stain of dried crimson on the immaculate white was the silent testimony of your surrender and of the sealed covenant.
"They're coming soon," you said in a whisper, feeling a knot of nervousness at the thought of the maidens and counselors waiting behind the door.
"Let them come," Jungkook replied with a calm smugness. He moved closer, wrapping his arm around your waist and pressing you to his chest. "They already have what they wanted."
Three sharp and ceremonious knocks echoed through the wooden door. It was the warning of the protocol. The time for intimacy was over; The time of kings was beginning.
Jungkook sat up, giving you one last quick and possessive kiss on the lips before reaching for his silk robe. You did the same, covering yourself in a thin robe, trying to keep your composure as he walked to the door and turned the key that last night looked like the lock of a cell and today felt like the key to a shelter.
The doors opened wide. The ladies-in-waiting entered with their heads bowed, carrying basins of warm water and perfumed oils, followed by the eldest housekeeper, whose only mission was to pick up the central sheet. You saw the woman approach the bed with professional coldness, removing the stained linen with a bow directed at both of them.
You looked at Jungkook. He was standing by the window, the daylight highlighting his aristocratic profile. For a second, his iron mask was back in place: the tense jaw, the icy gaze, the crown prince no one dared to challenge. But before the housekeeper left the room to show the "proof" to the King and the council, Jungkook looked for you with his eyes.
In that brief moment, he gave you an almost imperceptible smile, a spark of complicity that said: "This is our secret. The rest is just theater."
Hours later, you were walking alongside him through the great throne room. The weight of your new gold and sapphire crown was real, and the cheers of the court echoed through the stone vaults. Everyone celebrated peace, the union of two kingdoms and political victory. But you, while holding your head high and the serene expression of a perfect princess, felt Jungkook's hand seek yours under the wide folds of his royal cloaks.
His fingers intertwined with yours, squeezing them with a firmness that reminded you of the heat of the night before. You were no longer the girl who climbed the cherry trees, nor was he the boy who scolded you for being reckless. They were the sovereigns of an empire, yes, but above all, they were two people who had survived hatred to find themselves in the truth.
"Are you ready, Y/N?" He asked you in a low voice, still looking straight ahead at the thrones that awaited them.
"With you, always," you replied, squeezing his hand with the same intensity.
They walked together to their seats, echoing their footsteps ushering in an era. You knew there would be more wars, more intrigues, and more pressures, but you were no longer afraid. For that night, amid the scent of sandalwood and the ashes of the fireplace, you had learned that there was no contract stronger than that which is signed with the soul, nor a crown more valuable than the love of him whom you once called the enemy.
(...)
Five years had passed since that night when the lock of the royal room dictated the beginning of your new life. Five years since the bloodstains and the truths shouted between sighs sealed a pact that no minister would have been able to draft.
You walked along the marble balcony of the east wing, the same one that overlooked the gardens where, in another life, Jungkook chased you through the rose bushes. The afternoon air was crisp, but you no longer felt that constant chill in your bones that used to accompany you when you were alone. The weight of your crown no longer caused migraines; now it was simply a part of you, as natural as the surname Jeon you proudly carried.
"I knew I'd find you here," Jungkook's voice, now deeper and charged with the authority of a King who has won a thousand political battles, echoed behind you.
You turned around with a soft smile, watching as he walked towards you. He no longer wore the rigid dress uniform; He wore a dark silk shirt unbuttoned at the collar and an expression of utter relaxation that he only showed when the doors of the great hall closed.
You watched him approach, noticing how time had only served to polish his beauty. He had some new frown lines around his eyes, the product of sleepless nights studying maps and tracts, but when his eyes met yours, you kept seeing the boy who gave you a wooden soldier.
"The southern emissaries are gone," he said, wrapping his arms around your waist and pressing you to his chest with that possessive familiarity that had never diminished. "They say they've never seen a kingdom so prosperous, or a couple so prosperous... "synchronized". "
"If they only knew we spent half our time arguing over grain taxes," you chuckled, resting your head on his shoulder.
"Arguing with you is my favorite activity, Y/N," he murmured, kissing your temple. It keeps me on my toes. "It reminds me that my Queen is still the most stubborn and brilliant woman in the entire alliance."
You looked down at the lower garden, where a small three-year-old boy was running after a hunting cub, closely followed by two guards trying to hide their smiles. The little heir of the Jeons had his father's dark, messy hair and your same spark of rebellion in his eyes.
"Look at Minjun," you said, feeling a sweet warmth in your chest. "He's trying to climb the cherry tree."
Jungkook let out a low laugh, a vibration you felt against your own back.
"Like mother, like son. I remember a certain princess who almost broke her leg doing exactly the same thing. I had to rescue her and endure her insults all the way back."
"You rescued me because you wanted to be the hero, Jungkook," you reminded him, turning in his arms to hang from his neck. "Admit it."
"I admit that I have always been at your feet, even if I tried very hard to look like an arrogant prince," he confessed, looking at you with a devotion that had not died down a single day in these five years. "Sometimes I stop to think about that first night... in how close we were to letting ourselves be consumed by pride."
You felt a chill as you remembered the tension back then, the way feigned hatred almost robbed them of happiness. Jungkook lowered his hand to your belly, still flat under the silk of your dress, but where you both knew that a new life was starting to grow again. His touch was soft, protective, loaded with a promise of the future.
"We fulfilled the contract, Y/N," he whispered, lowering his voice until it became a secret only to your ears. "We gave them peace, we gave them the heirs, we gave them the stability they wanted. But what they can never take away from us is that this... This was not because of them."
"It was for us," you added, searching for his lips.
The kiss was slow, loaded with the history they had built together. It was no longer the desperate kiss of two strangers forced together; It was the kiss of two battle buddies who had turned a forced marriage into an empire of love.
As the sun set behind the mountains of your former home, illuminating the horizon with orange and violet hues, you understood that "happily ever after" was not a gift of fate, but something you had both fought and won, millimeter by millimeter, in the privacy of your bedroom and in the coldness of your throne.
Jungkook pressed you tighter against him, looking towards his kingdom, but with his heart set only on the woman in his arms.
"I love you, my Queen," he said, and you knew he would say it every night until the crowns were dust again.
"And I to you, my King," you replied, knowing that, at last, the story of the princess and prince who hated each other was over, giving way to the legend of the kings who loved each other against all odds.
END
──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────
A/N: So, this is officially my very first OS and I’m not gonna lie, I'm absolute wreck of nerves right now lmao. I really hope you guys like it and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Any thoughts or feedback are more than welcome! ❤️
