The wake up - While the rest is fretting, Hak downplays everything, as usual.
To say that Hak was used to getting injured was perhaps an exaggeration. He had undeniably had his fair share of accidents and the occasional injury when growing up. This came with combat training and the ordinary life of an adventurous boy. Not to talk about all the actual battles he had seen since he fled the castle with the princess. However, his determination to always exceed, his proneness for battle, and his bone marrow deep conviction to protect the princess at all costs had moulded him into a fearsome warrior.
So when he woke up with a groan, his body aching virtually everywhere and with a few focal points of more concentrated distress, even though he was not entirely surprised, it still threw him off guard and he gasped for air. An achievement he instantly regretted as his lungs promptly turned on him for the offending action and sent scorching flames of pure agony through his rib-cage, effectively halting his breath and making him wince in pain, which in turn set off a painful coughing fit.
Shallow breaths then, he quickly concluded when the fit lessened. As the pain in his chest eased up just an inch, his consciousness were able to detect more of his surroundings and his general state, allowing him to notice a dulled but persistent wave of nausea lingering in the back of his sore throat, combined with a sour taste in his mouth that he recognized as residual taste of recent vomiting. For a moment he had to focus solely on keeping the nausea at bay as it gave its best shot in making him keel over. After a little while, when the worst waves had somewhat settled, he resumed the mission of finding out more precisely what was wrong. His right thigh throbbed painfully and his head ached intensely- a probable explanation for the nausea he noted dryly, but nothing compared to the searing pain in his left side and chest. He tentatively tried to take a heavier breath and immediately regretted his decision when it brought on another painful cough. He instinctively moved his hand to investigate but was halted halfway by a smaller hand and an order to lay still and don't move just yet. The voice continued with an explanation of why he was not allowed that he could not quite make out the reason for. His head felt groggy and now that he was adjusting to consciousness again, more impressions started flooding his mind: the soft touch of pelt underneath, the rough, heavy texture of several sleeping blankets covering him, and the cold air above it.
Wait.
The cold.
There was something about that.
He had been so cold. He still was.
For the first time he noted that he was shivering violently.
Fragmented images, memories of intense sensations of freezing.
Of ice cracking.
Of being unable to breathe.
Of… drowning…
Shit, he had fallen in the ice river. He remembered trying to swim and breaking the ice, the colliding corpse and then…
Hak panicked: hands desperately gripping his throat and body trashing around. He did not even register the shouting around him or more people rushing to his side to hold him down. He fought to sit up, ignoring the pain and struggled against the restraining hands. He had to get up, get out! His lungs burned and when he began coughing again, he doubled over, unable to bear neither the searing pain nor the exhaustion that filled his limbs with lead. The nausea returned with full force and an especially powerful cough sent him gagging, barely even noticing the empty bowl someone rushed to strategically place in front of him.
"Hak, can you hear me?"
"Hak!"
"Listen to me; it's Yona, it's okay. You are okay, just breathe, it is okay," the princess' voice persisted, and together with small hands rubbing his back soothingly, the heaving slowly lessened to finally subside completely. As his breath settled into a more shallow pace and the burning in his chest eased up an inch, he made an effort to sit up, but the movement only made his head spin and everything went black once more…
...
The second time he regained consciousness was a mercifully slower, gentler process: he gradually became more aware of his surroundings and cautiously tried to pry open tired eyes, only to promptly close them again. The weak light in the tent cruelly stung eyes that were far too adjusted to darkness. He blinked and then tiredly opened them again: the second, slower attempt went better and he found himself staring into the eyes of his friends, expressions ranging from worried to relieved. They had all gathered in the small tent and now practically sat in each other's laps to fit, and even then it was a clear struggle. Had he not been so exhausted it would have been hilarious to see Kija trying his best not to elbow Jae-Ha in the side as he tried to accommodate for his dragon arm and Shin-Ah doing his best to act indifferent despite having a half-naked Zeno happily bouncing on his lap. Yoon sat next to Hak on the ground holding up a long sleeved tunic and offered it to him. The taller man only stared at the tunic for a moment before looking down on himself and realising he was only covered by a heavy blanket that had slid down from his shoulders when he shifted and now pooled around his waist. He accepted the warm piece of clothing and quickly shoved it over his head, ignoring the flare of pain in his side and the offer of help from Yoon.
"We had to get you out of the wet clothes; you were hypothermic. Zeno helped to warm you up," the sandy blonde teenager offered quickly, although Hak got the distinct feeling he was glossing over a couple of details.
"Mister's awake, it's great to see!" The energetic dragon beamed while putting his own tunic back on, completely ignorant of the awkward situation.
Hak, not quite trusting his voice just yet just nodded and smiled, so Zeno had helped warm him? Despite being slightly uncomfortable with the implications of those words, Hak was not stupid, he was grateful towards the yellow dragon for his actions. He knew the risks of hypothermia and standard protocol: the quickest way to regain warmth will always be through shared body heat. Something else nagged in the back of his head though, it did not quite add up, the last thing he remembered was the river and…
"T-the soldiers?" He rasped out, voice rough from being unused and careful to keep his breathing as shallow as possible to avoid aggravating his injuries further.
"Taken care of. Those who lived retreated when it became clear that it was a losing battle for them," Kija explained grimly.
"How did I?" He pushed further, trying to get a better grip of the situation.
"Jae-ha pulled you out," Yoon offered and nodded towards the green dragon, who grinned from one ear to the other, clearly relishing the attention.
"Ah, yes my dear Hak, Jae-Ha will always come to rescue you when you find yourself in a pickle. Although I would really appreciate of you picked an environment a tad bit more pleasant next time will you? It really messed up my hair you see," he drawled, giving his long emerald hair a flick with his wrist, completely unfazed by the scowl and glare it earned him but made sure to step out of Hak's reach as the dark haired man shifted to sit up, you know, just in case.
Yoon took that as a cue to chase them all out of the tent with the argument that the thunder beast needed some rest and with orders to bring them food and water. Under more or less sincere protests everybody but Yoon and Yona left.
The three of them remained silent as Hak simply sat there and let the younger boy attend to his injuries, only letting the occasional unavoidable hiss slip through stiff lips when a bandage was being tightened, or he was being asked to lift his arms up so Yoon could see to his ribs. Shin-Ah brought in a jug of water and a broth that, judging by the appealing aroma, Yoon definitely had prepared earlier. Despite refusing to look straight at the bodyguard, Yona helped where she could and when Yoon was satisfied, he stepped out of the small tent to give the princess and her bodyguard some time alone. Not before giving one last order to the thunder beast to take it easy though; among the other injuries Hak had taken a blow to the head and was likely to feel a bit out of it for a while.
An awkward silence settled for a moment in which the princess occupied herself with pouring the broth into a smaller bowl and Hak observed her, wondering what on earth she was thinking. Her fingers trembled so much that the bowl almost slipped out of her nervous hands. What did she have to be nervous about?
"How could you?"
Oh, so she wasn't nervous, she was pissed.
"Excuse me?" He rasped out, before coughing again, a wet barking sound. Fuck, something was definitely wrong with his chest; it took far more effort just to speak than it should.
"How could you do something so stupid? You know the ice couldn't hold us both, yet you still picked me up, while hurt! Why are you always so eager to throw away your life?" From starting out quietly with her face turned away from him, she shifted her gaze as she talked so that she was facing him and her voice gradually got louder until she almost screamed out the last words, ignoring the fact that the others must hear every word. The fabric of the tent's thin walls being not by any means soundproof.
Hak could only stare at the furious princess in disbelief for a moment, had she gone completely mad? It was his job to protect her for crying out loud.
"Princess, I-"
"No, you listen to me! How many times have I seen you get hurt? How many times have I wondered if you would wake up or not? Do you know how long you were in that water? Or how long you have been asleep? How long it took us to get you to stop shivering and warm again?" She continued furiously. Then suddenly, as if she lost all the will to argue, her voice died out, and with tears glistening in the corner of her eyes, one last question slipped through. One he suspected she had not intended to voice out loud, and one that cut straight to his heart. Twisting, pulling and tearing at all his carefully moulded defences.
"Do you know how afraid I was?"
She was crying now, god he hated when she cried. It really was not fair, and he kind of suspected she knew it too and on occasion used it against him.
"Stupid," he growled, pulling the startled princess close to him, wincing at the movement but refusing to stop until she was pressed tightly against his chest. "'m okay, sorry for… worrying you princess, but stop… those annoying tears… they do nothing good for you: a snotty nose and… puffy eyes just makes you… uglier you know," he teased, quickly falling into familiar patterns. He really did despise it when she was upset.
Yona tensed at being shoved into Hak's embrace without her consent, and although she could hear his usual jabbing, no doubt aimed at re-establishing a sense of normality, she did not raise to the bait. Instead she listened to the way he said it and frowned at how, even though he obviously tried to hide it, he struggled with getting the words out and the unsettling rattle in his chest as his shallow breathing continued.
"Does it hurt a lot?" She pried.
"Uh? Na, told you, I'm okay. But… could you please… hand me some of that… water?" He asked, hoping to distract her by any means possible. Plus his throat was really sore and his mouth tasted like ash. And look at that, miracles beyond miracles, it worked; she immediately broke the hug and scurried away to the other corner of the tent where the food and water had been left there forgotten in the previous argument.
Hak was not entirely sure how well the broth would go down so he, despite her very tempting offer to feed him, focused on the water, carefully taking in a mouthful and letting it roll in his mouth for a moment to wash away the sour taste and soothe his throat. His stomach protested enough from just the water for him to disregard the hearty liquid despite realising how hungry he actually was. How long had it been since he had eaten anything? Hard to tell as she had only hinted of him being out for a while but refused to give more detail than that. He argued with himself if he should push his luck and ask her straight out but quickly decided against it - It was not worth risking her getting upset again - and instead focused on finding the rest of his clothing. When she realised what he was looking for, she brought a pile of fabric that he identified as his normal winter clothes and put them down next to him before getting up and leaving the tent, cheeks flushed and ignoring his half joking suggestion that she should help him get dressed.
...
He could feel the gazes of every member in their merry little gang when he stepped out of the tent, leaning heavily on Kija and advancing slowly. Trying his best not to aggravate his lungs more than necessary, the acrobatics of trying to get back into his normal clothing had provided well enough of that, thank you very much.
Kija had entered the tent soon after Yona left it and informed Hak that the princess had asked the white dragon to help him, something the warrior gruellingly accepted after the first miserable attempt at independency had left him in a rather undesirable situation: laying on the floor of the tent doubled over, desperately trying to fill protesting lungs with air and wincing at the multitude of painful flares the different wounds sent in response to being agitated. His chest still felt abnormally heavy and he could feel a wetness in his lungs when he coughed that didn't bode well.
He noticed small fires lit all around the tent to warm up the air and a bigger one in front of it where Yoon currently busied himself with cooking something. Looking up, he grimaced slightly at the bright glary sun, but didn't look down until he found the clue he had been looking for: judging by the position of the sun it was mid-morning and he realised he must have slept for at least almost a day. It had been around lunchtime when they encountered the soldiers. No wonder the princess and the rest were worried. He stretched himself out and made a show of removing himself from Kija's support despite the other's growling order to stay put and greeted the rest before moving over to the fire, hiding the limp as well as he could and carefully easing himself down in front of the fire. He casually inquired about a breakfast he was not the least bit interested in and acted fine in general. Maintaining a façade was far more important than anything else, in particular than showing the others how shitty he actually felt.
