When the door abruptly opened, Sunggyu wasn’t surprised to see Myungsoo saunter in like he had nothing better to do but bother the older male. Sunggyu didn’t give him any more of his attention and turned his eyes back on his book, the crisp sound of a flipping page filling the silence.

“Yah, hyung.”

Sunggyu lowered his book and narrowed his eyes at the boy at the door. Myungsoo’s hair was slightly disheveled with a hint of heaviness in his breath. The older male took a note of the prince’s attire before his eyes went back down to his book.

“’Yah’ and ‘hyung’ don’t belong in the same sentence. You’d know that if you learned some manners,” he commented wryly.

“Manners are for when I’m in court, hyung. Anyway, are you busy?”

Sunggyu sighed, eyes not once looking at the subject of his annoyance. “What does it look like?”

“Looks like you’re not busy at all. Want to prepare my bath?”

The older male finally set the book down and propped his elbow on the table, leaning his chin lazily against an open palm. “Does it look like I want to?” he asked, deadpanned.

Myungsoo smirked. “Yup. Remember, I want my water to be warm but not scalding—”

“Yah, you have Sungjong. I’m not your manservant.”

“Sungjong’s busy cleaning. I think I might have been a little rough with one of the naginatas, I think it chipped.”

“They’re shielded not to chip,” Sunggyu replied dryly and Myungsoo grinned at his answer.

“Apparently you’ve forgotten how rough I play,” the prince sing-songed and this time Sunggyu couldn’t hold back an eye-roll.

 “Yeah yeah, whatever, Myungsoo. I’m busy, go play somewhere else.”

“But hyung!”

Sunggyu looked back over to see an uncharacteristic pout on the younger boy’s lips, puppy eyes blinking and cheeks inflated. This was not the prince the people of Cheongae knew. Prince Myungsoo was a stoic and level-headed young man talented in the skill— a natural born leader. This Myungsoo was an egotistical brat who was going to get kicked out of Sunggyu’s room if he didn’t stop being stupid.

“Yah, act your age!” Sunggyu called out, suddenly annoyed at the act.

Trust Myungsoo to pull out the eyes on him knowing full well how much it made the older male cringe at the sight. How he was able to persuade the older back to the prince’s quarters was beyond him and Sunggyu soon found himself moving between the fountain and his chambers dumping buckets of water into the wooden tub.

“You call this hot?”

Sunggyu literally had to take a breath to calm himself down from walking over and smacking his friend upside the head. Myungsoo had pulled off his shirt, revealing his toned body with no shame as he dipped his fingertips to test the water.

“Well, you know. Good enough, right?”

“Hyung, you can at least warm up the water, right?”

Sunggyu narrowed his eyes and the hint of teasing in Myungsoo’s tone before the prince turned back around to strip down some more. At least? Sunggyu grit his teeth and opened his hands, palms facing the water. In contrast to the vibrant colour of his hair, Sunggyu’s craft was far below average. There was a reason the boy always read— he had a physically weak body and barely felt the presence of his magic, so really the only thing he had left was his mind. Myungsoo was just being annoying.

There was a silver glow emanating from his palms and Sunggyu deepened his breathing, putting his focus on the tub in front of him. A few ripples appeared and a bubble surfaced and popped and then the liquid settled, and Sunggyu let out a frustrated sigh. He flicked his fingers over the water before putting his concentration back into his craft, silver threads sinking beneath the surface before Sunggyu suddenly snapped his hand back in alarm. There was a boiling sound bubbling from the water and as steam slowly rolled upwards Sunggyu took a few steps back in dismay.

“Done?”

“Yeah,” the older male answered, although the tone of his voice said otherwise.

Myungsoo reappeared with only a towel wrapped around his waist and he gave the older boy an odd look before looking down at the tub. Disbelief crosses his face and he dipped in a finger before pulling back and hissing, wringing his hand to relieve the pain.

“It’s boiling!” the prince accused in shock.

Sunggyu shrugged, suddenly happy. “At least my craft isn’t completely nonexistent. You should be happy for me.” 

Myungsoo was slack jawed as Sunggyu left with a provoking smirk, and the prince huffed in annoyance, hoping Sungjong was almost finished with the armory. There was no way he’d get Sunggyu to fix this mess because he’d either: one, accidentally drop the water temperature to below zero or two, explode the tub.