A/N: Oh God, why am I updating this story? I thought I was done with it, but apparently not. I wrote this because I got stuck on DELMGA. So, here's a ton of angst and Daddy issues wrapped up in a bundle of father-son bonding time.
"Your Majesty," Wang Ju looked up at his father on the throne. The King wore black and gold, his crown sitting by his side. White and black hairs intermingled within Gwangjong's topknot and gold earrings drifted down his ears. Ju thought his father looked every inch a King and emperor. He thought his father looked powerful… and it was that power that Ju feared.
"What is it, Prince?" asked the King as he placed his royal seal onto a document. "Why do you bother me?" Gwangjong sat back to raise an irked eyebrow at his son as an attendant removed the stamped document and proceeded to set a new order of business before the King. Even as an adult, Ju felt shivers run down his spine as Gwangjong's steely gaze rested on him.
Swallowing, Ju held his hands stiffly by his side so his father would not see him fidget. "One hundred days ago, my wife birthed a son," he stated simply. A seasoned warrior and a good fighter, Ju did not fear anyone except for his father. "Wolf Dog" they called him. In his youth, Gwangjong had been a fearsome warrior and a fearsome foe with a temper as violent as his blood lust. He had been known to kill fifty men at a time and had once even destroyed a mountain in one of his angry fits. Rumors swirled over how many he had killed in one time, and there was the ever present whisper that the King pretended to be old instead of wielding a sword as he had in his youth. Ju knew better than to speak of such slander and incite his father's wrath.
Ju flinched when his father's seal fell onto another document with a loud thunk, marking it in red ink. The sudden noise jolted him and in his anticipation, he twitched nervously.
Gwangjong removed his seal from the document and placed it back onto its holder. "So I've heard," he said, accepting another scroll from an attendant. "A son will carry your line."
Ju nodded, holding his head a bit higher. Was this his father's way of finally acknowledging him? "Thank you, Majesty," he declared. His voice echoed as he continued. "I have come to ask that you name my son. A grandfather should name his grandchild." Ju knew he was taking a risk asking his father for a name.
His own name, Ju, was legally written in the King's own hand as "the liar." His mother had decreed any writing Ju's name in that character would be hanged. After years of fighting and butting heads with scholars, the castle now believed that Ju's name meant "the descendant".
Gwangjong's stony eyes met Ju's.
"Do you not you see how busy I am?" he asked. "I have no time to go to your chambers and name your child. Relay my congratulations to your wife and leave."
"Please, Father," Ju sent a pleading look at Gwangjong whose eyes flashed. Flinching, he amended his words. "Your Majesty, please, just one name." Holding his hands out, he begged his father for a chance. "I heard you named my cousin's son. Why can you not name mine? Do you place your brother's daughter over your own son?"
Gwangjong scoffed, staring the Prince down. "Don't grovel. You shame yourself," sneered the King. "Leave me and go name your own son. A man should be able to do trivial things like that. How can you claim to want to be King when you come and beg me for everything? Is this how you were raised? To beg and plead whenever you don't get what you want?"
Ju's first reaction was a flash of anger that shot through him and a wave of jealousy that followed. What was his cousin other than a disgraced Uncle's daughter? What did she have that he did not as a prince? What was so different about Yoo Seol that Gwangjong had personally gone to Wolsung to name her child? Why was his cousin so special?
Steeling his nerves, Ju faced his father and stood tall once more, unwilling to budge from his spot. He swallowed thickly and faced his greatest fear. He would do this for his son. His child would be named by the king.
"Majesty, Yoo Seol may have married into your loyal vassal's family, but this does not change that her son is worth less than mine. Hers will become a lord if he is lucky, but my son will one day rule Goryeo," Ju declared. He had had enough of his father's preferential treatment. He stopped himself from flinching when Gwangjong leered down at him, opting to continue his tirade.
"As your son and firstborn, I will carry your name as well as the mighty powers of the houses Yoo and Hwang Bo. I am the grandson of Taejo Wang Geon and the son of King Gwangjong and Queen Daemok. What is my cousin worth? She is a Yoo and a Hae. Her might only goes as far as my Uncle Jung and some palace bitch-"
Ju's eyes could not decipher the flash of movement that occurred from Gwangjong's table, but he registered the blunt object that collided with his face and sent him toppling backwards, a fiery pain erupting across his features.
He collapsed instantly, the back of his head ramming into the floor. A scroll clattered beside him and black spots clouded his vision as his ears began to ring.
When Ju's vision returned, he was laying on the floor of the throne room, staring up at the point of a sword held by none other than the King himself. In that moment, Ju realized what they had meant when they called Gwangjong "Wolf Dog". The king's eyes glinted black and his mouth opened in a sneer, revealing sharp white canines. His black robes swirled about him and the golden dragon on his chest seemed to roar in fury.
"You must not have been paying attention to your history lessons if you don't know of my relationship to Seol's family," Gwangjong sneered as he set the tip of his blade against the prince's cheek. The cold steel kissed Ju's skin and he shuddered. "I've killed my own brothers. What makes you think you're any different?"
Opening and closing his mouth, Ju realized his mistake too late and he held his hands up in defeat. "P-please, Fath- Majesty. I-I'm your son. I'm your son."
His black eyes reflected no mercy and in that moment, Ju thought they looked primal and untamed. Gwangjong scoffed and tapped the tip of Ju's nose with his sword, unimpressed. "You're nothing but a squirt of seed into the Queen's cunt." He pointed to the emblem on Ju's blue robes with his sword. "Without that dragon on your chest, you're nothing. I could make ten more of you tonight and this time, I wouldn't have to listen to your mother complain." Gwangjong seethed down at the Prince with malice in his eyes. "Know that the only reason I won't kill you tonight is because you will return to your home and name your son on your own."
The King stepped away from the fallen Prince, swinging the sword with one hand in a haphazard way. "Prince, you are a disgrace to the names of the families that have birthed you. Pay more attention to history if you wish to petition a request of me."
Dismissed from the throne room, Ju stepped out to where his mother stood, furiously glaring at where the King sat. She looked at Ju and in that moment, he was a child again and his mother's fury receded as she touched his face. "Ju, my child, you're bleeding!" she exclaimed before shouting for a doctor. "What did the King do to you?"
Ju ignored his mother in favor of replaying the King's words in his mind. "You're nothing… a squirt of seed in the Queen's cunt… ten more of you… disgrace..." The haunting words echoed in his mind, tearing a hole in his chest and digging deeper the pit of longing in his heart. All he had wanted was Gwangjong's favor and repeating his mother's words had only proved to be dangerous.
Reaching a hand up to his own face, Ju touched his nose and felt where the blood flowed down his lips and chin. "Oh," was all he said. The physical pain that emanated from his face was nothing compared to the emotional agony that coursed through him… as well as the hatred that seeped into his bones.
He hated them. All of them. Uncle Wang Baek Ah, Uncle Wang Jung, the Wolsung Kim's and especially, Yoo Seol. Ju despised each and every one of them for taking his father away from him and replacing Wang So with Gwangjong. He hated them for knowing a side of the King that Ju had only heard about in his mother's stories.
Watching blood trickle down his long fingers, Ju imagined it was the blood of his cousin that coated his hand. Chuckling, he imagined he had cut down Yoo Seol, her husband Kim Jin, and her brat Kim Chun with his sword. He imagined that after he got rid of them, his father could only divert his love and attention to Ju. Oh how proud Gwangjong would be of him- proud enough to name his son. Proud enough to take him in his arms and hug him tightly the way Ju had once spied Gwangjong doing to Seol. Proud enough to finally love him.
From inside the throne room, the King listened as hysterical laughs rang from outside the hall, echoing off the hollow rooms and lonely halls of the palace. Short, static breaths of deranged giggles collapsed into pent sobs and agonized howls. Gwangjong scoffed, "Was there ever any doubt that you are not the Wolf Dog's whelp?"
A/N: So, if Gwangjong seems like Robert Baratheon, that was intentional. We both know who Cersei and Lyanna are in this allusion. I was reading A Game of Thrones before I wrote this. I have no regrets.
