Yo stepped forward out into the wider shaft of light falling from the window, raising his hands with a wry amusement. "Would this be considered treason, I wonder?" he asked.
Soo lowered the crossbow immediately, a hand flying up to her mouth. "Oh!" she exclaimed, eyes widening. "I didn't see it was Your Majesty. I just… Reacted."
"Evidently."
"Was there something you needed, Your Majesty?" she asked.
Yo made a show of covering his mouth as he yawned, sitting down on her bed, then stretching out on his side, looking up at her with a raised eyebrow, as if daring her to say anything. "Something I need? Do you want a numbered list?" he snorted, tracing aimless patterns with a fingertip on the silken blanket.
Soo raised her eyebrows, saying nothing. 'Two can play at this game,' she seemed to say with her deep, shining eyes, her pink lips barely stretching in amusement, eyelashes as dark and thick as an ink-dipped brush dipping low.
"…Peace," Yo finally said.
Soo nodded. "A dream?" she asked softly.
Yo didn't answer, entirely ignoring her question. He smirked. "Oddly enough, for one so embroiled in chaos, you give me peace often."
"It's hardly my fault," Soo said. "The embroilment, I mean." She shifted back under the blankets, pulling her hair back behind her shoulders, pulling her robe more closely about herself.
Yo mourned the sudden inability to see her collarbone, but consoled himself with the hope that perhaps more could come of his visit than simply peace. Knowing her, however… 'I have no idea what's going to happen.' In answer to her defensiveness, his smirk simply widened. "Says the woman who threw herself in front of my arrows to protect a man she did not care for."
Soo's face turned carefully blank, but after years, Yo finally knew how to get past that. "I simply did what I thought was right, Your Majesty. I don't think there will come a day when I will apologize for that."
"I admire that," Yo suddenly said, and smirked internally as Soo looked up at him with shock. 'Being utterly frank with her yields results, for some reason.' "Perhaps not your pretty ideals, but your determination… The strength you draw upon when you find it necessary; that is an admirable thing." He smirked externally. "And not unattractive."
Her lips tightened together in a look that said she was both disapproving and trying not to smile. Strands of hair fell forward as she dipped her head to further hide her face. "I'm flattered," she said dryly.
"Other attractive things," Yo began, "Are as follows; weapo-"
Soo could not suppress a small laugh and he stopped speaking. "Your Majesty, there was a time when you told me you found me entirely unattractive, you know."
Yo shrugged. "I've revised my opinion. It is important for a wise ruler to acknowledge his mistakes," he reached out to hold up a finger, "And not make them again. Hence, the flirting, my queen."
Another half-laugh, and she turned slightly away from him, more hair falling to hide her face, until Yo could only see the curve of her cheek almost glowing in the faint starlight. "Then have you fallen in love with me, Your Majesty?" she asked, her tone playful. But Yo could not see her face.
"Love?" Yo asked, sitting up. He shrugged easily. "Does such a thing exist? I do not believe it. You are beautiful, I enjoy your company, and I trust you more than anyone in this palace, than anyone in the realm." Saying such a thing, despite the forced evenness of his voice, was immensely difficult. Yet necessary. "I wish to have you. I wish to have a queen by my side and not simply an amiable hostage." He pressed forward. "Love is a foolish thing. And I am king of Goryeo, I cannot afford to be a fool, even for you."
Hae Soo was silent, her eyes dark.
Yo stood up, ready to leave, smoothing out the front of his robe.
Soo caught the edge of his sleeve. "Wait- I… Please wait."
He did.
"I appreciate your honesty, Your Majesty." She smiled, leaning forward slightly, and the front of her robe slipped a few inches more open. "Though what you described does have some resemblance to the concept of love, you know."
"Does it?" he asked with a forced aura of uncaring, a smirk, a raised eyebrow. "Then do you love me, Hae Soo?"
Her lips twitched slightly up. "I could learn to, I think," she said.
Yo's smirk widened and his eyes darkened as he leaned over. "Is that an invitation, my queen?"
Soo's smile turned playful and she leaned back, away from him, a smooth, pale shoulder slipping free of her robes. "Perhaps." Her eyes were also dark and he could see himself there, reflected. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips.
"I'll take that as a yes, then," he said, bracing himself above her.
"Perceptive as always, Your Ma-," she began, but was cut off by his mouth over hers.
/
Hands were joined, fingers threaded through each other, pressed into the bed. Gasps were lost in each other's mouths, silken robes were untied. Muffled, breathless laughs sounded, and marks were left on the other's body; a bite mark on her shoulder, scratches down his back, still others uncounted but throbbing. The curtains around her bed fluttered.
This, perhaps, reflected Yo, as they lay side-by-side in the aftermath, was one of the wisest things he'd done that entire week.
He was about to ask if Hae Soo agreed, but she was already fast asleep.
/
Soo woke up first. Waking early was ingrained in her now, even after so many years of having no duties as a court lady. The sun had not yet risen, but there was a pale gray, pre-dawn light. She had forgotten to close the window, being otherwise occupied. Her cheeks warmed.
Beside her, Yo slept like the dead on his stomach, head turned away from her, hair splayed out on the pillow, the blanket slipping down to show Soo the damage she'd inflicted on him. She tried to suppress a snort. 'He liked it.' It'd been literal years since she'd last gotten laid, and now she felt much more pleasantly disposed than ever before. They'd figure out the 'emotional' aspect later, make it all up as they went – they were adults after all.
She felt no stab of guilt when she recalled So's much gentler caress, and nothing but aversion when remembering Wook. And before… In another life, she had fallen for different men, different boys, and in different ways, they'd let each other down.
This would be different, she felt. She had never been girlishly infatuated with Yo as she had with Wook, nor was Yo so overcome by fierce love as So had been. This could work. It wouldn't work like anything she'd experienced before, but it could work. Perhaps it was just the aftermath of several rounds of exceptionally good sex, but she was in an intensely positive mindset. The endorphins were doing wonders for her mood.
She dressed quickly, shutting the window, feeling the autumn chill keenly on her skin even inside her bedchamber. When she was pinning her hair up, winding coils of it in a queen's chignon, Yo finally woke up.
He stretched languidly, spine crackling, then put a hand under his chin as he watched her finish her hairdo. His silken trews were slung low across his hips. "You seem to be one of the few women who can do that without the help of an army of servants," he pointed out. "I admire that."
Soo smiled. "Ah, now I know how I've managed to seduce Your Majesty – it was my hairstyling skills."
"No," Yo said. He grinned. "It was your crossbow and your breasts, but the look in your eyes was-"
She cut him off with a look. "Your Majesty has court to hold this morning. Perhaps you would be better served by being dressed in your robes of office?"
"They can wait." He smirked. Soo knew what that smirk meant.
"Your Majesty, I literally just got dressed," she said, giving him a very flat look, refusing to acknowledge the heat that rose to her cheeks unbidden. "The ministers would not take kindly to you…" she tried to think of a Goryeo-appropriate term for 'sex', "…Canoodling with your consort when Your Majesty should be absorbed in matters of state."
Yo sighed. "You may be right, Hae Soo," he said, rising and carelessly throwing his robe back on, "But that doesn't mean I'm happy about it." He smirked. "I suppose we will have time for… 'Canoodling' later."
/
When Yeon Hwa first felt her child kick, she had been reading to a report of events in the capital. She sat in her chambers in Won's manse, eating sliced apple, a servant handing her the rolled-up missive. With the resources of the Hwangbo nearly spent, what with the death of her brother and the loss of support from House Park, Yeon Hwa's network of information had narrowed drastically. Over the past few years, she had been trying to rebuild it – and in this, now, she leaned on Won's informants for help.
So had stayed in the capital for a week, there had been an attempted assassination of Lady Hae Soo, the Queen Mother had been sent away, and then So left for Seokyeong again – the fortress in its final stage of completion. And the king had been getting closer and closer to Lady Hae. If he had favored her before, it was nothing compared to now.
Yeon Hwa's lips twisted. She cared nothing for Yo, but what did this look like for her? What of her status? Sent away to an unknown location for an unknown time, for an unknown reason – and people talked and people always assumed the worst. Even though it was one of the most foolish things she could do, what with Lord Park after her, Yeon Hwa wished she could scream, 'I'm bearing his heir! A crown prince!'
Prince Gyungchunwon would never hold the throne – his mother was the daughter of Park Sul Hui, and a Yoo king would rather die than give the throne to one of House Park. Yeon Hwa took a breath. 'Be patient' she told herself. 'Be patient – and you will triumph. It may take years, but Goryeo will be mine.'
And then she felt him.
The boy kicked. A tiny flutter of energy, of life inside her. A triumphant smile came to her face even as tears of overwhelming love for this tiny being rose to her eyes. She cradled her rounded belly. If she had wanted the throne before, it was nothing compared to the grasping determination she felt now. "This Goryeo will definitely belong to my son," she whispered.
She felt another kick, as if in answer. 'It will be mine, and yours.'
/
Yo's nightmares did not entirely leave him, but sleeping by Soo's side seemed to alleviate them somewhat. Autumn grew ever colder, and Baek Ah came back from Yanggeun with cheery news of Eun and Soon Deok, his lute hanging over his back, a jar of old Yanggeun wine from Wang Gyu's cellars in his hand.
As for Jung, despite his prodigious strength and habit of wearing his sword by his side at all time, he seemed to grow paler and more drawn, eyes dark and shadowed as if he was not sleeping enough. He did not smile as much as he had, but with Soo, it was barely noticeable. And somehow, whether it was through Soo's suddenly fuller days, she saw him less and less.
"Are you alright?" she asked him once as they dined with Baek Ah. "You look a bit… Peaky."
Jung smiled, a shadow of his previous boyish grin. "Oh, I'm fine, Soo," he said. He had shrugged and Baek Ah had told Soo about an adventure he'd had on the way back from Yanggeun involving a donkey, a bushel of apples, and an angry cabbage farmer.
She came upon Jung in the library one evening. The leaves had almost all fallen, leaving the trees bare, dark silhouettes against the gray sky, and the air crackled with cold, though no snow had fallen yet and the winter months were not supposed to start yet. Soo was cold, and the cold wasn't good for her knee, so she mostly stayed inside, reading in the library. It had fallen late, and she did not want to move from her warm seat where she sat curled up, surrounded by furs, a surprisingly fascinating book on governance keeping her rooted in place.
Soo only noticed she had company when Jung cleared his throat. He held a lantern, books cradled in the other arm. A sword hung from his belt, somehow both seeming a part of him and innocuous in the dim library. "Hello," he said with a small grin. "What're you reading?"
"Good evening, Your Highness," Soo said, suppressing a yawn. She held the book up for his inspection, slipping a pressed flower in between the pages as a bookmark. "I didn't know you liked to read."
He slid into the seat next to her, putting his lantern and books down. "A new hobby, I guess," he said. "I've had plenty of time to catch up on my reading."
"You're not sleeping," Soo said quietly. It was only the two of them, and he was her friend, damn it, why couldn't he confide in her?
Jung shrugged, looking away from her into a shadow corner of the library. "Sometimes it's better," he said.
"And have you talked to the palace physician about a cure?" Soo pressed. "At least, talk to me, okay?"
Jung only shook his head.
Soo glared at him, rising from her warm nest of furs, putting her hands on her hips. "Your Highness, I'm worried about you!" she said sternly. "Taking care of yourself is part of being an adult!" Her lips thinned. "Alright. I'll make you a list of the herbs you'll need to help you sleep, and maybe something to help you relax, since you're so tense all the time. If you don't want to tell me what's wrong, that's fine – I don't want to push you. But you're my friend, Wang Jung, and I won't think badly of you, because I know that you judge yourself too harshly, and I trust that you wouldn't do anything bad."
Looking up at her, Jung's eyes momentarily glistened brightly with what seemed like tears, but then he blinked and Soo wondered if she had imagined it. He smiled. "Thank you," he said simply. In what seemed like a jerkily reflexive action, he took her hand, warmly gripping it with both of his. "Thank you," he repeated, then quickly let it go.