Note: I was really into Akatsuki no Yona a while back and still think it's a great series, and I wanted to write several things for it. I ended up with two before moving on, but I might go back and write some of the others later. I'm going to finally ditch these on the site to make way for all the Noragami pieces I'm currently writing lol

(For my reference: based off ch 98-100.)

Hak had a well-honed sense for when Yona was in danger, which was just as well since she attracted trouble like a magnet. Whipping his hsu quandao out of its wrappings, he leaped in front of Yona and Kalgan and slashed the blade across the charging horsemen. It met with resistance and tore through flesh.

"Are you hurt?" he asked almost out of habit.

"No," said Yona. She dropped her bow slightly as she watched the wounded men writhe on the ground.

"These guys were attacking Kinkan village," Kalgan said. His little hands gripped the strap of his bag so tightly that his knuckles went white. "And now here…"

"Curse Kouka Kingdom," one of the dying soldiers rasped. "If this province is going to become part of Kouka…we might as well burn it to the ground."

Hak's eyes snapped up from the bleeding man at the thunder of hoofbeats.

"Th-that–!" Kalgan stuttered, but Hak already saw them.

A line of horseman swarmed across the landscape, weaving ever closer. The retreating army, defeated by Kouka but not ready to give in gracefully. Hak's eyes narrowed. He had little sympathy for an army that would turn on its own people. The bloodlust and fury and inability to accept loss he could understand. The mindless need to destroy everything, even what had been your own land and people, he could not condone.

"Princess, take Yun, Zeno, and the dying idiots with you and run."

Yona started, drawing a sharp breath, but he didn't look back. "Hak?"

"I'll deal with this."

"B-but–! Even for you, doing it alone is suici–"

"I'm the only one who can fight right now," he said flatly. "Go."

"I'll fight too!"

She said it with such confidence, as if she really thought he would stand for that. No, he could barely stand to watch her in mild danger and discomfort, much less on a suicide mission. He took pride in every arrow she loosed to hit its target, every person she inspired, every plan she put herself on the line to execute, but each and every one terrified him too.

"No," he said.

"But–"

"You would only get in the way. Hurry up and go."

Her breath hitched, and he turned to see the red splashed across her cheeks and the tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. It was like he had stabbed her right through the heart, slid the blade of his hsu quandao through her ribs and twisted it to rip a gaping hole in her chest. Nothing showed on his face, but a small thorn of guilt pierced his carefully frozen heart.

"Please don't cry," he said, softening ever so slightly.

He didn't want to cut down her confidence and sense of self-worth when she still fought so hard to build and maintain it. She should be proud of what she accomplished. He was proud of her too.

But she couldn't stay here with him now, and he would push her away if he had to.

Yona sniffed and dragged her hand across her eyes. "I wouldn't cry from just your words."

Ah, because he was a heartless bastard whose favorite 'hobby' was bullying, and everyone—she in particular—had grown used to his harsh words. He wondered if that was how they would remember him. Maybe it was just as well.

He might usually hold his ground and stay cold and hard and aloof, but that army would be too big even for him, and this might be the last Yona saw of him, heard of him.

So instead he leaned forward and took her face in his hands, leaning in to breathe his apology into her ear. "I apologize. Please excuse me, just this once."

Her eyes widened, the shock on her face making it clear that he'd taken her by surprise. No one expected his apologies or his kindness, not when he tamped them down and refused to let them show.

Turning away and fixing his gaze back on the fast-approaching horsemen, he said, "Please go. Your job is to protect Kalgan and get those dying fools out of here."

He didn't need to look back to see the determination hardening her features. She needed a goal, a job, something to make her feel like she was doing something and not just running away. And Hak needed her to be safe. He even needed Yun and those stupid dragon warriors to be safe. So that was her job, and he was trusting her to succeed.

"Kalgan, let's go!"

In a moment of weakness, he allowed his gaze to slide back and catch one last glimpse of the princess's hair fluttering in the wind as she grabbed Kalgan's hand and raced back toward the town. A soft breath escaped his lips in a sigh, and he snapped his gaze back to the advancing army and swung his hsu quandao up to rest across his shoulders. He couldn't afford to be distracted, not even by her. He needed to give her and the others enough time to escape, and he couldn't afford to fall until then.

The horses' hooves kicked up great clouds of dust, and Hak watched impassively as the army came up on him. The men were shouting and laughing and sneering, thinking he was easy prey.

The joke was on them. Hak might fall, but he was more than a match for any of them and he would carve a swathe of destruction through their ranks. He wasn't going to go down without a fight.

He jumped into the air—Jae-ha would be proud to see how high he flew—and swiped his blade through the front line. The impact jarred through his arm, but he continued on, implacable. He slashed and hacked, his conscience squashed down deep in the back of his mind where he always buried it these days.

He leaped onto a horse, its rider laid out on the ground with blood spurting from the wound across his chest, and jerked its head around with the reins. He needed every advantage he could get, and carved his way through the marauders on his commandeered beast.

He slashed and hacked until every muscle screamed from the strain. He was starting to falter. His arms were like lead and his body was falling apart. The tip of his blade wanted to waver and dip under the weight of the blood dripping from its edges, but he summoned up the last remnants of his strength to hold it steady. He wasn't going to fall from exhaustion of all things, no matter how ragged he had run himself and how many adversaries he had fought.

He needed to hold on for a little longer. The longer he lasted, the farther away the princess and the others could get. The more soldiers he took down, the less would be left to wreak havoc on this province's people.

So he whipped the spear around again and held it steady as yet another soldier charged up…and stopped. The man froze in place and then collapsed, blood splashing through the air from the gash in his back.

Kija met Hak's gaze steadily. Crimson stained the white scales and claws of his hand and his cheeks were still tinged red from fever, but here he was, in the flesh.

"White Snake?" Hak asked stupidly.

What was he doing here? He and Jae-ha and Shin-ah could barely even feed themselves without assistance, much less fight an entire army!

But seeing him here, even in his weakened state, brought energy back to Hak's veins and he swung his blade around to send another soldier to the ground.

"What are you being so slow for?" Kija asked, swiping at another. "You've grown weak."

Hak gritted his teeth and punched the blade through a soldier's chest. If ever there was a time to rally, it was now.

"You have a fever," he said. "What are you doing out here?"

"Ah… That's not a problem. It went down a long time ago."

Liar.

"Watch your heads!" Jae-ha called as he soared through the sky above them and sent a rain of throwing knives down on their enemies.

Hak had fought so hard to give the others the chance to escape, and they had thrown that away and come back, even though they were too weakened from their illness to fight properly. And if they were back, he didn't doubt that Yona was still hanging around. He sliced through the next soldier with an extra dose of viciousness at the thought.

Princess, what are you doing?

And there was Shin-ah, slicing through the ranks with his sword.

"You idiots," Hak groaned. "Why didn't you leave? You're all wobbly on your feet!"

"You're the one who's wobbly," Jae-ha retorted with a smirk. "Why don't you go sleep?"

"We're tired of sleeping," Kija added. "We'll take over for you."

Stupid, bull-headed dragon warriors. But all four of them did the best they could, fighting strong despite their illnesses and injuries and fatigue.

But the soldiers just kept coming, swarming in from the remains of the army in neighboring towns. There was no end in sight, and now… If these fools had just run when he wanted them to, at least they would be safe. Now they were all going to go down together.

Kija stumbled, his face drawn with pain, and a soldier took the opportunity to get a hit in. He lashed out with his claws, but another soldier laid a deep slice across his back and he pitched forward and collapsed to the ground.

"Kija!" Jae-ha cried.

"You did it!" one of the soldiers yelled. "Finish him off!"

Jae-ha jumped forward, but was stopped in his tracks and had to swipe his foot around to kick his assailant. Hak jerked the reins around, but he wasn't nearly close enough.

Thankfully, Shin-ah materialized and stepped in front of Kija's prone body, his sword dancing as he fought off their attackers. Then he lifted his mask, and Hak bit out a silent curse. As much as he was curious to see this man's power, he knew there were good reasons it was never used.

"Shin-ah, stop!" Jae-ha called. "If you release your power in your condition–"

But it was not to be. Shin-ah staggered forward and collapsed, his illness and injuries finally catching up to him.

Hak slid off the back of his stolen steed and grunted in pain as he hit the ground and his knees buckled halfway. With a few wide-sweeping slices, he cut his way through the ranks and slammed into the soldiers targeting his downed companions.

"Hak, I can…" Kija tried to lever himself up with his arm, but pain flashed like lightning across his face and he collapsed back into the dirt.

"Just stay down and die quietly," Hak grunted.

"They're on their last legs!" someone shouted. "Leave them and rush the village!"

Hak whipped his blade to and fro desperately, but now a good portion of the soldiers were just rushing past them, seeing that they were no longer the threats they had once been, and running toward–

All the air fled Hak's lungs at once as he half-turned and spotted Yona and Yun standing directly in the rampaging soldiers' path.

"Yun, run!" Yona instructed, lifting her bow and drawing the string back as she nocked an arrow.

"Princess! Yun! Get out of here!"

Hak knew, in that bitter instant, that he had failed. He wouldn't be able to get there fast enough to keep the horde off of the princess, and…

He darted a glance down at Kija and Shin-ah still sprawled across the ground. If he left them unprotected…

"Princess…"

"Miss, stand back!"

Zeno came charging forward and threw himself in front of Yona, arms outstretched. The sword cut through his skin like it was nothing, and Hak found himself screaming in his mind: You're the Ouryuu, aren't you? Where's your invulnerable body? Don't just stand there and take it!

But Zeno stood there and took it. And then he charged forward, and Hak and the others watched in horror as he took wound after wound, and then a killing blow through the heart.

No… Why didn't you run? Why didn't you all run while I was buying you time?

Yona was screaming his name, but Zeno collapsed to the ground and didn't move again. She was crying and the soldiers were harassing her and Yun, but everyone was frozen in the moment where they had just watched one of their comrades die. The comrade who had joined them the latest, who they understood the least, but who was one of them.

And then, impossibly, he stood back up. It didn't feel real, watching his skin knit itself back together before their very eyes, watching him talk so calmly and smile when he should be dead.

Hak watched in horrified amazement as Zeno cut through the soldiers, terrifying them with his unnatural abilities. They stabbed him through the heart—the wound closed up. They cut off his arms—they reattached themselves. They sliced his head right off—he stood up, his neck knitting itself back together.

And Hak, battle-hardened warrior that he was, wanted it to stop. It was unnatural, it was horrifying, but, more than that, it was an exquisitely ugly form of torture.

And then a sword slammed into Zeno with a clang and didn't cut deeper. His skin had hardened into shimmering scales, and Hak watched in disbelief as he punched with the force of Kija's hand and jumped with the strength of Jae-ha's leg.

It was an unfathomably powerful magic, this. Hak imagined how powerful he would be with a body that healed itself and regenerated as steel and how useful it would be in his mission to protect the princess, and yet…he, perhaps selfishly, was glad that cup had passed him by.

"What will you do?" Zeno asked, his normally childlike eyes as hard as steel. "Unlike you, I have no limits. Come at me. I have all the time in the world."

The soldiers turned tail and fled, already spooked beyond comprehension and finally losing whatever nerve they had left. Yona threw herself at Zeno and cried, and suddenly he was back to his normal cheerful self.

Hak looked away. There would be questions about that display later, but for now it was enough that Zeno was alive. Still, it was horrifying, what had just happened.

Hak bent to heave Shin-ah up with a grunt and thrust him at Jae-ha. "Here, take Shin-ah, Droopy Eyes. Come along, White Snake."

He pulled Kija up and supported the wounded man. He and Jae-ha were exhausted and on their last legs, but they were still better off than Kija and Shin-ah.

"And you!" Yun called over, finally looking away from Zeno. "What were you thinking, trying to take on a whole army by yourself?"

Hak stared back blankly. "Sorry, mother."

"Hey!"

"A better question would be what you all were doing here in the first place, when my explicit directions were for you to get as far away as you could."

Yona sniffed and stayed huddled against Zeno, but finally looked up. "I was going to come back and help you. But Kija, Jae-ha, and Shin-ah ran off before I could even say anything to them."

"You know," Kija said, hissing in pain as he hobbled back toward Yona and the others with Hak's help, "when the princess first said that I should protect you too, I thought it was because you must be weak."

Hak's eyes narrowed. "Watch yourself, White Snake."

"But then I realized that it was because you have a tendency to take on every war by yourself and recklessly endanger your life."

"I'm pretty good at it, too," Hak said with a nod.

But then why did you come running after me?

"It used to always be that you would just almost get yourself killed protecting the princess, but now…" Kija shook his head. "Now I wonder when you took it upon yourself to protect the rest of us too. Why you protect everyone else but yourself."

Hak froze in place. He was Yona's protector. It was what he lived for and what he would die for. The others, however they might enjoy each other's company, did not fall under that protection. Maybe, then, he found himself watching their backs because they also protected Yona, and therefore protecting them was, in a way, protecting her. If he fell, they would still be there to take his place.

…But in the interest of Yona's protection, he shouldn't have sent her to haul off the dying idiots to safety. It would have been better to have her run with Yun and Zeno, who were still in good enough health to be useful. He could justify it by saying that Yona would never have left them behind and he was just anticipating her actions, but…that wasn't entirely true.

"You're wrong," he said flatly, unhooking Kija's arm from his neck and leaving the dragon warrior to collapse to the ground in an unceremonious heap. "I only particularly care about the princess."

"Ow!" Kija yelped. "What was that for?"

Slipping his arm around Shin-ah, Hak took possession of his new charge. "Droopy Eyes, take the White Lizard instead. I'd rather have the one who doesn't have such a big mouth."

"Lizard?" Kija screeched.

Jae-ha chuckled and complied, tugging Kija back up off the ground.

"Well, 'White Snake' doesn't annoy you the same way it used to," Hak said expressionlessly. "Come along, or you'll have to slither all the way back to camp on your belly."

Ignoring Kija's furious spluttering, Hak helped Shin-ah stagger slowly over to Yona, Zeno, and Yun. He ran his gaze over Zeno one more time, confirming that the wounds were sealed and gone. That didn't erase the pain and horror of the bloodbath, but it was enough for now. They could get the full story on that once everyone had their wounds treated and was resting.

Yona finally tore herself away from Zeno to stand and tilt her head up to meet Hak's eyes. "I'm glad you're okay," she mumbled. Her lips trembled, but she held back the glassy sheen of tears in her eyes. "But don't do that again."

He shrugged. "I'm your protector, Princess. I do what I have to do."

But as he swept his eyes over the bedraggled dragon warriors and Yun fussing over them, he wondered when he had branched out and become everyone else's protector too.