Princes and Dolls (Kyuhyun/Sungmin, PG-13) for mysapphiresky

[sujuexchange]

Title: Princes and Dolls
Author: kat_elric
Recipient: mysapphiresky
Characters/Pairings: Kyuhyun/Sungmin
Rating: PG-13
Genre(s): Romance
Warnings: none
Author's Note: Thanks to my last minute beta! I hope you enjoy this.


“She is gorgeous,” the man commented, his eyes raking over porcelain and fabric.

“He,” the young man replied, his face a frozen mask, hiding his emotions.

“With hair like this?” the man asked, his fingers reaching towards the golden locks that fell in soft waves past the doll’s shoulders.

“Don’t touch it,” the young man snapped, itching to leap out of bed and relieve the man of his hand as he had once been able to do. “Just do what you came here to do.”

“Right,” the man responded crisply, withdrawing his questing fingers and turning back to the young man in the bed. “Everything appears to be in order, Prince Kyuhyun. Here is your medication for the week,” he declared, placing a large bottle on the small table beside the bed. “Is there anything else you require?”

“You to leave.”

“Good day, my Prince,” the man bowed deeply and then strode from the room. The young man on the bed sighed and closed his eyes at the click of the door closing once more. After a moment he opened them again and turned his gaze to the blond doll standing in the corner. It had been a gift, a life sized companion to make the days seem less lonely as his body healed from the accident. Neither seemed to be working, the healing of his body or the companionship of the doll. Although the doll was attractive to look at, it couldn’t carry a conversation with him, let alone return his gaze even after all of these months.

He remained that way, his gaze tracing the shape of his doll outlined by the light of the setting sun, until he gave in and sleep claimed him. It wasn’t until after his eyes sunk closed that the doll shifted and fixed its glowing gaze upon him.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“Maybe you should tell him?” his companion offered.

Irritably, he gathered his long golden strands and twisted them up into a bun at the nape of his neck. “Tell him what? That I am a member of an ancient race who is frozen in form under the light of the sun until they find their true mate which is doomed to fail for me since I am not attracted to the female sex of any species?”

“Well, Sungmin, I was suggesting you tell him of your suspicion of poisoning, but that may work too,” the man offered with a small smile.

Beside him, Sungmin sighed. “I don’t know why you still come to visit me, Ryeowook.”

“Someone has to keep you from giving up all hope, although I don’t know why you still remain here. It isn’t as though you can’t walk out during the hours of darkness.”

“I can’t,” Sungmin replied with a shrug.

“I never did understand you,” Ryeowook responded with a laugh.

“That is certainly mutual,” Sungmin retorted. He reached out and lightly touched the curling spiral lines on Ryeowook’s shoulder, the mark of adulthood. “So tell me, how is Yesung?”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“Just try to lift it a bit,” his therapist instructed, her slender fingers hovering over one of his legs.

“I am trying,” he growled through clenched teeth. He knew that she had no way of seeing how much effort he was putting into willing his legs to move, yet no matter how much he did so, he could not produce so much as a twitch. Since the time of his accident his range of motion had steadily decreased instead of the opposite.

“Well let’s try something smaller,” she suggested. “How about you wiggle your toes?”

He wanted to yell at her, to scream that he would have done that a thousand times over if he had been able to, but nothing below his waist had listened to his command in quite some time.

“Come on everyone can wiggle their toes. Just try to make them twitch.”

Kyuhyun was certain, that if he concentrated hard enough he could lift his leg right off the bed and send his foot into the side of her head. Although perhaps not, since if he had been able he would have done that several times already. “I can’t,” he snarled.

“You must be-”

“I’m sorry, my lady,” a polite voice came from the doorway. “It is time for the Prince to attend to some personal business. You will have to continue this at another time.”

“But you can’t-” she began before a raised hand cut her off.

“I deeply apologize, but this cannot wait and for you to stay would cause embarrassment to his Majesty, if you understand my meaning. If you please,” the man, clothed in light colored leathers stepped in and to the side of the doorway, “make haste this direction.”

The woman appeared cross as she gathered her things, but she moved much quicker than Kyuhyun had ever seen, and was out the door before he could comment. His guard closed the door behind her and offered him a grin to which he lifted one eye brow. “You did make sure I had done my business just before she came. I’m not a child to need to go every half an hour.”

“I know,” the man’s grin widened. “I just figured you were about done with her. You were trying to kill her by glaring at her. Much longer and I might have had to draw my sword and put an end to her for you, simply so you would cease looking that frightening.”

“Donghae,” Kyuhyun replied, returning his smile, “I could kiss you.”

“I do not think my spouse would approve my Lord,” Donghae replied with a playful wink. “Would you like me to help you to your chair?”

“Please,” Kyuhyun nodded, ignoring the comment about Donghae’s spouse. He rather liked the man his guard had wed almost a year ago and knew he would understand a friendly kiss of gratitude, or so he hoped. Still the last thing he wanted to do was to cause tension in their relationship, especially when the man already put so many hours a day towards taking care of him.

Donghae was decent enough not to comment about how much like a child he appeared with his arms reaching out to be picked up, so Kyuhyun returned the favor by not complaining about how awkwardly the other man carried him over to his chair. Donghae settled him in it carefully, helped him to man handle his legs into a comfortable position, and then covered his lap with a blanket.

“Anything else?” he asked when they had finished.

“No, thank you,” Kyuhyun replied. Donghae nodded and moved to slip from the room. Anything that Kyuhyun needed he would be able to get to now that he was in his chair. A month ago, to help ease his growing frustration about his inability, they had attached wheels to a chair making it possible for him to roll himself around his room at will. It pacified him, at least a little bit, to be able to roll himself to the book shelf and retrieve a book for himself and then move to the window read it. The glow of the sun was warm on his face, as he rolled beside his life-sized doll and opened the book to where they had left off.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Night had fallen when he finally awoke from the slumber he had fallen into. The book lay closed upon the table, and a fire was burning in the fire place. Donghae must have snuck in and taken care of things while he had been asleep. He hadn’t been awoken for dinner, which wasn’t too surprising given the lengths that the entire palace went through to forget about his existence. Even his own father rarely came to visit any longer since he had lost the motion of his legs.

Kyuhyun could call for dinner if he wanted but he didn’t feel like seeing anyone at the moment. Eating every meal was no longer a requirement for him, since he did little movement to burn off the calories he ate, and rarely felt hungry anymore, however taking his medication was a must. The doctors had guaranteed that it would restore to him the use of his legs and although he didn’t fully believe them, he couldn’t see much harm in doing so either.

With a sigh he set his hands upon the wheels and pushed himself forward towards the table that held his medication. The stuff tasted foul on the best days when he had a glass of wine to wash it down, now without any it would likely be disgusting. Still, he couldn’t bring himself not to take it. Slowly he lifted the bottle from the surface of the table and removed the lid.

It was nearly to his lips when he heard a soft voice, “Don’t.”

If he had been able, Kyuhyun would have spun in his chair to see who the intruder was, but all he could manage was a twisting motion that nearly dumped him out of the chair all together. “Who is there?” he called. No one answered him and he didn’t see a single soul in his room besides the doll standing near the window.

For a long moment he stared around the room and then turned to look at the rest of it. Deeming it to have been his imagination, Kyuhyun finally turned himself to a more comfortable position in his chair and lifted the bottle once more.

“Don’t,” the voice said, this time from right beside him. “That is poison to you.” Pale fingers touched his wrist lightly, the pressure not enough to restrain, but to make their point known.

“Who the-” Kyuhyun’s words died on his lips as he turned and saw the perfect image of his doll standing just behind and beside him. Just to be certain he leaned sideways around the man to look at the place where his doll usually stood. It was empty.

“Is this the part where I scream and have a panic attack that I am losing my mind?” Kyuhyun asked with a weak smile.

“Does it need to be?” his doll asked him in return.

“I do believe I am still asleep,” Kyuhyun muttered.

“If it helps I never meant to appear as anything more than a doll to you, but I can’t watch you poison your body any longer if I am able to stop it.”

“How do you know that is what this does?” Kyuhyun asked, shaking the bottle. It was much easier to think about that than the fact his doll was talking to him.

“You have only gotten worse since the physician started seeing you. I’m not asking you to believe me, but isn’t it worth trying to not take it for a few days, if only to see what happens. Besides, I believe its taste wouldn’t be missed,” the doll said gently.

“How do you know what it tastes like?” Kyuhyun snapped.

“I may be frozen in the form of a doll but I can still see and hear if I choose. You grimace every time you take it and have more than once remarked upon its taste,” the doll told him.

The man did have a point. He had never been quiet about his dislike for the medicine. “Fine,” he agreed after a moment. It wouldn’t hurt him to not take it for a few days, and if the doll was right then it would only be to his benefit. Carefully he capped the bottle and set it back on his table and the pale fingers fell from his wrist.

“So you aren’t a doll,” he said as calmly as he could.

“No. I’m not. My name is Sungmin.”

“Well, Sungmin. What are you then?”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“Oh my!” his therapist exclaimed in excitement and he wiggled his toes again just to see if she would produce the strange high pitch noise of surprise that she had the first time. She didn’t let him down, and he had to fight to contain his chuckle.

“This is wonderful! We will have you walking in no time!”

That he sincerely doubted but he wasn’t going to say that aloud. “Yes.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“So let me get this straight,” Kyuhyun said diplomatically as he smoothed the blanket over his lap. “Until you find your… mate, you will continue to become petrified into a doll like state during the day. Only when you have experienced true love’s kiss will the curse be broken?”

“When you put it like that,” Sungmin replied with a frown.

“It sounds ridiculous?”

“Well, yes,” the young man whose blond hair was pulled off to one side, sighed as he clearly tried to come up with something more to say.

“And what is with your hair?” Kyuhyun asked, reaching forward and fingering a lock of it.

“I’m forbidden to cut it above my shoulders until I am mated. It is a sign to my people that I am not yet claimed,” Sungmin replied.

“Yet your people couldn’t manage to keep you from being sold as a doll?”

“We are not responsible for the ignorance of others,” Sungmin said quickly. “We protect our own. My people are not responsible for my decision to go off on my own and look for my mate.”

“So you ended up sold all on your own. At this rate you will most certainly find what you are looking for,” Kyuhyun commented sarcastically.

“Coming from the man who can barely flex his foot?” Sungmin returned with a sickeningly sweet smile.

“Shut up and help me exercise my knee.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“You could have done this in the morning, before your father had a full throne room of guests,” Sungmin’s voice was soft by his ear.

“And miss the chance to humiliate someone in front of them all, not a chance,” Kyuhyun disagreed with a grin.

“Are you sure you want me to come?” Sungmin hissed.

“You are dressed as one of my guards with your hair all braided and out of the way. It would be a shame if you got all dressed up for nothing,” Kyuhyun returned

“All you want is me to make sure that you don’t fall on your face in front of everyone,” Sungmin quipped.

“There is that,” Kyuhyun agreed.

“As long as we are all honest,” the blond man, slipped his arm around the prince’s waist. “Here goes nothing.”

-o-o-o-o-o-

“Are you sure you don’t need to me to stay and wash your back?” Donghae asked him throwing a suggestive wink in his direction.

Even without the wink, Kyuhyun would have dismissed him. “I can manage.”

“What if you need someone to help you back to your bed?” Donghae continued.

“I’ll drag myself there somehow thanks,” Kyuhyun replied with a chuckle.

His guard heaved a huge sigh. “If you insist.”

“I do,” Kyuhyun returned.

“Very well.” He didn’t have to look to know that Donghae was bowing and then walked out of the bathing room.

It was peaceful to finally be able to do things like bathe by himself. He enjoyed the simplicity of it as he moved the rag over his chest, cleansing the skin there. He only was at it for a moment or two before cool fingers touched his shoulder.

“Let me wash your back?” came Sungmin’s quiet voice.

Kyuhyun paused for a moment before handing the cloth back to the man over his shoulder. “Sure.” He could feel the fabric slide over his back, the motions small and measured.

“I’m still scared of your sister,” Sungmin told him a few moments later. “She would have killed the physician if she hadn’t been stopped.”

Chuckling, Kyuhyun had to agree. “She is a force to be reckoned with.”

“Mhmm,” Sungmin hummed, working the cloth up over his shoulder and down his chest.

“Hey Sungmin,” Kyuhyun began softly. “Why do you stay?”

“You’re not walking on your own quite yet, and besides, technically you own me,” Sungmin replied softly.

“I don’t own you,” Kyuhyun replied. “You are free to go whenever you would like.”

“That’s nice,” Sungmin answered him, making no moves to leave.

They remained in silence for a long moment, Kyuhyun enjoying the feel of the cloth sliding over his skin even if he was fully capable of washing himself. It was nice to have Sungmin leaning over the tub, pressing his chest to Kyuhyun’s back as he worked on cleaning the dirt from one of his knees. For a moment, he could almost forget that this man was a doll on a search for the person who would make him whole at last.

Impulsively he turned his head to the side and pressed his lips fleetingly to the skin of Sungmin’s arm. He didn’t know what he expected to happen, but the only response he received was a quick intake of breath from the man behind him.

“Kyuhyun?”

“I just thought I would check,” he offered with a shrug. “So you could rule it out.”

Sungmin’s chuckle behind him was dark. “Don’t you know anything? True love’s kiss doesn’t work if it isn’t on the lips.” Suddenly the man was hovering over him, likely kneeling rising up on his knees to achieve the height, and tipping his head back with a well placed finger. The angle was awkward, but he didn’t protest as Sungmin leaned down, golden hair spilling around them like a curtain as he brushed their lips together. The contact produced a tingle and a pleasant curl of heat, but nothing spectacular like he had imagined a first kiss could be. It was over before it began, and Sungmin withdrew from him.

Kyuhyun expected the man to continue washing him yet the man’s hands pulled away from his body entirely. It was impossible that he had caused offense since Sungmin had been the one to kiss him, yet he couldn’t fathom what else would make the man pull away. Slowly, so as not to lose his balance, he turned to see what had become of the man.

There, kneeling wide eyed on the floor just behind him and clutching his shoulder with one hand, was Sungmin. “Sungmin what is it?” he asked, weighing the option of climbing out of the tub to move to the man.

“I,” Sungmin muttered, and pulled his hand away from his shoulder. It came away red and he stared at his fingers as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“You’re hurt!” Kyuhyun exclaimed hand rocked forward, using the edge of the tub to support his weight as he tried to struggle to his feet.

“No, don’t!” Sungmin moved to him then, placing steadying hands on his shoulders. “You’ll fall.”

“I’m fine. You’re hurt,” Kyuhyun argued, leaning to try and look at the other man’s shoulder.

“It’s just my Mark. I’m fine. I wasn’t expecting it is all,” Sungmin explained hurriedly. “Kyuhyun, sit down, please.”

“Your Mark?” Kyuhyun asked, ignoring the request.

“Yes, the Mark that all my people get when they find their mate. Sit, you are going to hurt yourself,” Sungmin insisted.

“Your… mate… Oh,” Kyuhyun muttered, letting Sungmin ease him back down into the large tank of water.

“Yes, I’m sorry,” Sungmin released him and moved away as soon as he was safely seated.

“I know you are. Now get in here before you bleed all over my floor,” Kyuhyun ordered.

“What?” Sungmin appeared to be well and truly baffled.

Kyuhyun sighed and rolled his eyes. “I said get in here and let me wash of that blood. It isn’t becoming of a prince to let his mate bleed all over the bathroom floor.”

“His mate?” Sungmin asked, blinking in confusion.

“That is what that mark means right?” Kyuhyun asked, gesturing towards his shoulder.

“Yes,” Sungmin replied.

“Then get in here,” Kyuhyun ordered, leaving no more room for argument.

-o-o-o-o-o-

“So,” the prince murmured, dragging a finger down Sungmin’s bare arm, “you aren’t going to turn to porcelain when the sun comes up are you?”

“No,” the man replied, offering him a lazy grin.

“Good, because I would not be happy if I had a porcelain leg wrapped around my waist all day long,” Kyuhyun grumbled.

Chuckling, Sungmin leaned forward and brushed a kiss across the prince’s lips.