The feeling crawling over my skin can't be called blood lust. I've been on too many battlefields to ever get the taste of copper from my mouth, the feeling of 'do this or die'. Whatever lived behind this kid's eyes was big. I could see a shape, a shadow of writhing black rising up to the cave ceiling.

A tiny, mean smile on the blue dragon's face. The only color on the shadow was gold.

It was like meeting my king again, the first time. Having his eyes on me. Small. A rabbit in the face of a lion, a directionless animal without home or country or a single hope.

I wasn't that kid anymore.

I grit my teeth. Ice spread down my limbs with the speed of lightning, but I managed to keep my balance. I lurched forward, got my feet on solid stone. Leaned forward into my staff.

The blue dragon's face changed, like a mask cracking and crumbling off bit by bit. He looked younger, and his mouth curled in a horrified grimace.

The pressure lessened.

He brought his hand up to his head, and I could see the start of sweat on his brow. "I...promised..."

The black beast above his head, writhed in protest, and even though it was faded, I could feel the desire to crush me in it, like an ant.

I got my feet underneath me, leaning against the staff like it's the only thing keeping me standing - because it was. I can't feel my legs. My clothes were soaked in sweat, to the point where I felt like I was in the middle of one of Fa's horrible training sessions. Cold air raised goosebumps on my skin. Fear was sour on my tongue.

The blue dragon staggered and, hands still over his eyes, groaned and fell to his knees. Then down to all fours. I could see his arms shaking from where I stood. His breath came in deep gasps. His arms give out and he crashes all the way to the ground.

I watched him, wary. The dark is quiet.

He doesn't move.

Playing dead?

Shifting the grip on my staff, I poked the blue dragon in the back.

His eyes flicked to me, but his body doesn't so much as flinch. Like he can't.

Did it... backfire?

I sigh as all the tension leaves me and lean on my staff for support. Okay. Paralyzed kid, dark cave, and my muscles felt like I fell off of a cliff. Again.

Can't leave him here where those asshole villagers can find him.

I crouched down and looked at the kid. "Can you talk?" I ask.

His eyes shutter. "...yes."

That makes this so much easier. "My name is Baram. Do you know what happened?"

His gold eyes go wide, and meet mine - then he flinched and looked at the ground. "...not supposed...to use...power. It...cuts. Both... ways."

I brush the hair out of my face. "Makes sense."

Now that the immense pressure was gone, the numbness in my hands and arms was slowly fading. The feeling was unpleasant. Waves of lightning lapped at them, like my nerves were made of pins and needles. I flexed my right hand. Looked at the kid's ice blue hair. "You really are one of the dragons."

We study each other, two wild animals trying to size up the other.

"I don't want to use your power, kid. I don't need it." I said, breaking the stare off. "I'm only taking you to someone you need to meet."

The suspicion and fear don't fade from his eyes at all.

I sighed. "I'll take you to wherever you stay, if you show me the way out of the caves." I said at last. I wasn't Yona - there wasn't an inbuilt advantage when dealing with the dragons, and I wasn't kind enough to attract them anyway. I could only try to make my way back here with the others to make the blue dragon see I was telling him the truth.

His golden eyes bored into mine. Finally, he blinked and looked down. "...okay." His voice was little more than a whisper.

"Great." I said, unenthusiastic.

I couldn't throw the kid over my shoulder like a sack of grain. He couldn't lead the way if he couldn't see anything.

Princess carry it is.

His fingers regained their feeling by then, and he had my shirt in a death grip. I felt eyes on me and I glanced down with a raised eyebrow.

He dropped his eyes instantly.

...This is getting kind of depressing. My face wasn't that scary.

Still, his silence lingered.

"Ask what you need to ask, kid." I said.

"...mask..."

"You want your mask?"

"..." He turned his head away.

I'm taking that as a yes. I picked up the mask with one hand, letting the other support the blue dragon. I put the mask back on his head, covering his eyes, and he relaxed almost instantly.

The two of us walked through the caves, with him nodding the direction we needed to go. The paralysis seemed worse on him than it did on me. His legs still couldn't hold him by the time we made it to his little cubby hole.

It was nice, for a literal hole in the ground. There was a rug with some sort of pattern on it, too faded to make out, that obviously acted as his bed. A few scattered pieces of crockery, lovingly mended. A blade cleaning kit and whetstone. A tiny fire pit with embers still burning. I lay out the blue dragon on the pallet and sit down on the opposite side of the fire and stick the end of my staff into it. It was too charred from being a torch to save. I'd have to find another one when I was out of the cave.

Light sparked and caught, painting the room with warm orange.

The awkward quiet spreads.

How do I conversation again? I've never been a social butterfly, but with the Dragons it didn't matter. They're loud enough for five people. Jae-ha is an effortless conversationalist, carries them like they weigh nothing. Yoon always has something to do, or some task for me to help with. Zeno, for all of his childishness, knows how to hold his peace.

I stared into the flickering flame, utterly exhausted. The blue dragon's eyes are on me through the mask, but I just rub my eyes and lean on my staff. It's been a long...

...life.

It's been a long life.

But somehow, the last couple of weeks have been extra hard. I'm a simple person. Watching my every move around Yoon and the dragons was exhausting. Watching whatever was coming out of my mouth. Keeping myself separate.

They don't make it easy -

The blue dragon's head snapped to the side.

"What?" I snapped, already on my feet. I looked, but there was nothing but the dark.

"...Three people coming." His voice was quiet, but I could hear the suppressed anxiety in it.

Right. He's paralyzed.

I crouched down in front of the kid and tilted his chin towards me, so I could look him in the eye. Er. The mask.

"I'll keep you safe." I said. "Alright?"

He stared at me for a long time. "...yes."

I walked to the front of the cave. The kid was paralyzed because of me. The least I could do was protect him until he could protect himself. It doesn't matter how exhausted I am right now. I stood beside the mouth of the cave, staff in a loose grip, shoulders relaxed.

And I waited.

Nothing.

I tilted my head.

Just under the crackle of the fire, the sound of light footsteps.

My hands clenched on the staff. Took one step forward and -

"-think he's over here!"

Only years of control lets me stop the staff before it takes Yoon's head off.

A beat.

"What the fuck?" I asked.

That sure was Yoon, Jae-ha, and Zeno in the middle of the dark cave, staring at me with wide eyes.

"Why the hell are you guys here?"

Yoon stepped forward, smacking away the staff with one hand, the other poking me in the chest. "You jerk! We thought you were dead and that we were going to have to come rescue you."

"What -"

"The villagers kept saying that no one comes back and..." Yoon covered his face, and choked. He leans to my chest, and I have no idea what to do with my hands.

Holy shit.

Yoon is fourteen. He's a kid. The thought hit me with the weight of a mountain behind it. He usually acts like the mom of the group, but that doesn't change the fact that this whole thing is taking place one year earlier. He was the youngest in the manga, right?

I glanced at the two dragons. A little help please?

Jae-ha gave me a small, insincere smile. "Sorry, I have to agree. We were all very worried."

I glanced at Zeno, but he's grinning at me with his hands behind his head.

Yoon's body shook with fine tremors.

"There, there?" I pat the head of hair gingerly. "I'm fine. Didn't even open any wounds or anything."

Yoon sniffed and pulled back. "You lost your shirt again."

His tone was still thick, but my shoulders relaxed. Nagging Yoon was so much easier to deal with.

I shrugged. "I needed to make a torch, because the guys who lead me down here were bandits. Then I got pretty lost. Speaking of which, how the hell are you guys here?"

Yoon's scoff is only a little watery. "Please. I'm a pretty boy genius. Like I can't remember the way out of a few caves."

"That doesn't explain how you guys found me."

"Thank Zeno for that."

I glanced at Zeno, and he grinned again. "Zeno thought that Barram would find his brother, because trouble follows them like a puppy."

I opened my mouth - and shut it. It's not like I could argue with that.

I walked over to the cave entrance. A sudden blast of wind sank its hooks into my skin on the way past and I rubbed my arms. "Let's get inside. I'm freezing."

"That's because you keep losing your clothes -"

We settled around the fire to the tune of Yoon bossing us around. He pulled out a bunch of food from who knows where , and held out his hand imperiously to Jae-ha. The green dragon dropped his pack and took out a pot without so much as a blink. Guess he became the pack mule while I was away.

"This is the blue dragon." I said, gesturing to the kid still laying on the floor. "Blue dragon, these are your brothers the Green and Yellow dragons." I pointed to Jae-ha and Zeno. "And this is Yoon. He's not supernatural at all. Probably."

"Probably?" Yoon voice was sharp.

I shrugged. I haven't ruled it out.

Zeno gives the kid a sloppy salute. "Zeno is happy to meet his brother at last!"

The not-a-dog pops it's head out the blue dragon's fur ruff. It's big eyes zoom in on Zeno.

It tilts its head.

Zeno copies its movement.

True love is born?

Yoon frowns. "What did you do to him?"

"Why is it suddenly my fault?" I asked him.

The blue dragon didn't respond, just tried shrinking down into a ball of fur and mask, like getting smaller would make the four of us go away. We barely fit into the room, and with the fire taken over by Yoon, the whole cave transformed into a gold painting of its former self and the smell of dinner floated in the air.

Jae-ha, sitting next to me, draped himself almost across my lap to get a good look at the blue dragon. One of his hands combed through my hair."Huh. The villagers were wearing masks as well. Is it some sort of tradition around here?"

The blue dragon flinched back, hands clenched. "...my eyes... are dangerous." He spoke for the first time to the other dragons.

Zeno crouched down by his head, arms around his knees. "What makes you say that?"

"Some sort of paralyzing thing." I ran a hand through my hair. It was still loose, but my hair tie disappeared somewhere in the fight. Probably dropped it in the dark. "Felt like my legs and arms were being cut off. Unpleasant."

The blue dragon flunches back into his little cave of fur. Oops.

I looked at the kid. "Kid, you don't have to blame yourself for that. It was my fault for not being clear about my intentions."

Yoon narrowed his eyes. "Did you fight with him?"

"...A little?" I raise my hands in surrender.

"Mercenary-shi didn't get paralyzed?" Zeno broke in, and for once, he sounds weirdly intent.

I glance at him. "I did. I managed to shake it off for a bit, and then the kid got a hold of himself. Then..." I gestured at the blanket burrito Jae-ha was petting idly. "...That happened. It's a double edged sword. "

Yoon snorted. "Enough of that. It's dinner time!"

I stared into the fire, mind quiet. Thinking about the world, and the place I have in it. The rest of the group was already asleep by the fire.

I'm a simple person. The only reason I survived court politics the first time was the king's favor. With Soo-won, it was more that I just didn't get involved in it. Let him thrive in his area of expertise, while I dealt with the physical stuff.

Like always, his name feels like a marble caught in my throat, like being stabbed in the back. Three months in I still can't get his eyes out of my mind.

Yoon rolled over and I looked up. The blue dragon was already assimilated into the dragon pile, with Jae-ha stealing part of his ruff for himself. It was very soft.

I brushed my hair out of my eyes, and just... watched them.

Something soft and fond, and warm filled me, like a vine growing out the cracks in a brick wall. I could cut it away.

I should.

I kept my distance, and I felt myself slipping away. Quiet. Dwelling on memories of a better time.

I can't live like that. It's too hard on me, too strange.

Zeno yawned and sat up. He looked around with sleepy eyes, and met mine. He tilted his head and carefully extracted himself from the pile.

On soft feet, he came to a stop by my side. "Zeno can braid mercenary-shi's hair."

I blinked. "...Alright."

He smiles.

"Where did you learn?" I was sitting on the ground in front of him, while he sat in my former place by the fire. I can't see his face, but his hands are gentle and sure. Practiced.

"Zeno had a wife once."

"She liked to wear braids?" I said, instead of making the obvious connection. I know what grief sounds like. It doesn't matter how much time passes.

Some things don't stop hurting.

Zeno laughed. "Sometimes. She would braid my hair when she had nothing else to do, or she was bored. Zeno wanted to return the favor! So he learned. One day when his lovely wife was asleep, he woke up early and did her hair up in hundreds of tiny ones -"

I don't know how long we sat there, in the light of the fire. I kept it from going out while he does mysterious things with my hair, talking all the while.

Finally, he patted my shoulder and dropped off the rock shelf to sit next to me with a small smile on his face. "All done!"

I leaned back on the rock, hands behind my head. "I'm not good at staying detached." I said without looking at him. The ceiling is rough. No stalagmites.

Zeno laughs softly. "No. Mercenary-shi is far too kind for that."

Kind? My smile is wry. No.

Just poor self control.

"Getting close to me is a guaranteed way of getting burned. Once I get you to your king, You'll never see me again."

"Who can say what will happen in the future? Until then, you're our friend." Xeno asked.

I looked down at my hand, at the scars decorating them.

I was scared. Not of the dragons.

Of what I would do to protect them. If Yona ordered them to come for me… could I fight them?

Jae-ha was kind. Yoon was fair. Zeno, under his cheer, was tired.

Better to get as far away as I could.

But.

I've never been very smart.

Zeno smiled at me. "We can make a promise. If we have to part ways - the dragons will give you a head start. Is that alright?"

I laughed. "Yeah. It's a deal."

I stuck out a hand. He took it.

It was a promise. This partnership might not last forever, but at least I'll have warning before it dissolved this time.

That was all I could ask for.

The morning wore away, much like Yona's patience. She looked at the second son of the fire tribe and contemplates murder. It wasn't like the fire tribe lord would miss Kan Tae-Jun, right? He'd been visiting her for nearly three weeks. Her office was overflowing with flowers, wines and tacky jewelry.

Speaking of, Kan Tae-Jun offered up another finely carved wooden box, nearly dripping in riches. "I heard the princess has a fondness for rubies, so I hunted down this small trinket to give to her." Despite his words, the tilt of his head was anything but humble.

He opened the box - and Yona nearly gasped.

It's a hairpin, silver and shining, twisting to look like a spray of new plum blossoms. The red stones carved into flowers on the end glittered in the sunlight. It's by far the most beautiful thing he's ever presented her with, nearly on par with the hair pin Soo-won presented her with on her last birthday.

Before she even thinks about it, she reached out, traced a finger over it. But the awe only lasts a split second before more rational part of her comes down on it like a mountain.

How much did this single hair pin cost?

Her fingers froze.

...The citizens of fire country were starving.

Where did he get the money for this?

"Oh, such a simple think could hardly be considered a strain on the Fire Tribe." Kan Tae-Jun nose went up in the air, and Yona realized that she asked that out loud.

The reports of the last month echoed in her head. The number of dead from starvation. The number of dead, from over taxation. The number of dead from bandits.

The ruby glittered like blood.

Yona, when she was was younger, thought that the mild bursts of irritation at Hak were anger.

Comparing it the what she feels now is like comparing a firework to a burning forest.

How dare he.

The dark haired, pudgy bodyguard behind Kan Tae-Jun looked at her, his blank eyes narrowed just slightly.

Yona ignored him. Perhaps it was time to make this spoiled brat face reality.

She closed the box without a second glance at the hairpin, and leaned forward. "Are you talented with finding things, Lord Kan Tae-jun?"

He straightened with a snap. "O-of course, princess! I've been praised for my resourcefulness for as long as I can remember! In fact -"

Yoan leaned back. "Very well. I have a proposition for you - a task if you will."

He blinked. "A task? But I'm the son of -"

"Of course, if you feel like you're not up to it, I could have Hak take it instead. It's merely a small thing. I would consider it a favor for me."

"I can do it." Kan Tae-jun said, leaning forward as if to grasp her hands. Yona casually moved them to her lap. "Anything that peasant can do, I can do one hundred times better."

"Wonderful!" She gave him a smile, more teeth then anything else, then bent down and pulled a scroll out of the precarious pile on the desk. It wobbled once, but stayed standing. Yona was getting better at not causing avalanches of paper when she wanted something .

"I have just the thing here!" She handed it to Kan Tae-Jun over the desk, careful not to fall for his obvious desire to brush their hands together. "There have been reports of bandit attacks within the area of the fire tribe. I thought it would be better to have one of their rulers look into it, rather than stumble about without knowing the full situation. I know that you'll do well."

"Y-yes."

She gave him a smile she borrowed from Soo-won, flowers and sparkles included, then looked back down at her paperwork.

A beat passed. Kan Tae-Jun doesn't move.

Yona looked up again. keeping the impatience off her face with a small smile. "Yes, Lord Kan Tae-Jun?"

His face was bright red. "N-nothing! I'll get right on it! I'll start right now!" He turned in a flare of expensive fabric and scents and rushed to the door.

Yona blinked at his retreating back.

Should have tried this way earlier.

Eyes on her.

She turned to the body guard, whose eyes are dark and unreadable in his face. Kan Tae-Jun's bodyguard was familiar to her, though Yona never caught his name. She always tried to go the opposite way of the young lord.

Yona tilted her head. "Can I help you?"

After a long moment, he bowed. "It's nothing, your majesty." Then he turned and followed after Kan Tae-Jun. The same way he always has.

Watching that head of dark hair follow behind a light one, Yona's eyes burn.

She exhaled. Blinked the itching in her eyes away.

She had work to do.

Or she tried anyway. The door creaked open, somehow nervously.

Yona rubbed her forehead. "Yes, Ara? What is it?"

Her... assistant was a mousy middle age woman with perpetual dark circles under her eyes and a nervous disposition - to put it politely. If it wasn't for her exceptional talent with making paperwork disappear, Yona would have fired her a month ago. Her timidness made coaxing her a pain. Yona tired to maintain her temper at all times around the woman.

Ara flinched. "T-there's a... there's a guest, your majesty - "

"This is taking too long! Move." And with that a whirlwind with black hair burst through the door and swept up to Yona's desk. "You're Queen Yona?"

Yona blinked, face to face with a rather pretty girl who looked about one year older than her, with half her dark hair pulled back. Her face was - somehow familiar?

Yona tilted her head. "That's me."

"Good. My name is An Lili. I am the first daughter of the Water Tribe."

Another of the tribe children? Was there some sort of holiday, today? A festival that Yona missed?

"I have something to discuss with you." The girl reached over her shoulder and immediately, two ladies appeared behind her back.

Well trained.

Yona didn't have time to tense before she felt a familiar warmth behind her own back. Hak normally accompanied her through the day, but only through the shadows. Having him there seemed to raise a lot of peoples guard.

It was easier to pull off her plans when her nobles were focused on underestimating her.

Hak stepped in front of the desk. In front of the girl.

Yona sew the girl falter - for a split second. Then her mouth firms and she shoves the bundle at Hak's chest. "Then you take it to her."

Hak turned and rolled his his eyes at Yona.

Yona smiled.

He tossed the package to her - which turned out to be a bag full of scrolls. Curious, Yona opened the top one.

She stopped smiling. She reached for another one. It was the same, as was the next one, and the one after. Information from the bays of the Water Tribe.

Naidai.

That sounded familiar. Yona looked up and met An Lili's eyes.

They were like bonfires.

"Yona?" Hak asked.

She ignored him in favor of diving into the piles of paper on her desk. She pulled out the report on Water tribe that she'd yet to read. Opened it.

There.

A highly addictive drug -

Yona looked at the scrolls. Under the information on Naidai was a list of names. Easily over one hundred. Yona was betting that the rest of the scrolls had more.

The names of the dead.

"Hak." She said. "Go get Soo-won."

Hak knew from Yona's tone that the matter was urgent. He still can't make himself move any faster. The hallways around this part of the palace were devoid of people. His footsteps were loud. They echoed forward and back, making him feel like he's chasing something always out of his reach.

Or something is chasing him.

A hand, ruffling his hair. A half smile."Good job, brat. Now do it again."

Dust in the corners. Hak would be surprised if any of the servants cleaned down here since - since Jeong. They considered it bad luck to be near a traitor's rooms.

Still. There's a clear set of footprints this way.

They don't head towards Jeong's old room. They head to the garden attached to them.

And it's there Hak finds Soo-won, sitting seiza in front of an unassuming marble headstone.

Hak only knew grandmother for a year, maybe less. When she died, it hurt... but not the way it hurt Soo-won. Hurt Jeong. He still remembers seeing that mountain, that person he thought of as undefeatable, like his grandfather, grieve.

Hak doesn't know how much of jeong was a lie. But that - that cold, empty fear, that hallowed grief... no one could fake that.

The birds sang in the trees. It's a little overgrown, the small path towards the grave the only part of the garden that showed signs of repair.

Soo-won doesn't look away from the grave, or acknowledge him in any way.

Hak looked at the grave. Clean, where the rest of the garden is overgrown. Free of weeds. A fresh stick of incense, and the ashes of already used ones filling the tray.

Hak bowed his head to Grandmother's grave. Respect for the dead.

He doesn't' have to look at Soo-won's hands to know the dirt under his fingernails.

The week after - after, Soo-won disappeared for an entire day. Yona wasn't talking. Jeong's body, swallowed by the hungry river slept behind Hak's eyes. Hak searched the whole palace from top to bottom, just to have an excuse not to sleep.

He couldn't let another of his precious people die.

Not again.

He found Soo-won in the garden, his face and robe dirty. Something clutched in a death grip in his hands.

Hak stepped on a twig, the crack loud in the garden.

Soo-won jumped and hid it in the fabric of his shirt. Over his heart.

It was too late. Hak'd know that blade in his sleep.

Mercy.

He looked at Soo-won's bloodless face - and said nothing.

Jeong was gone.

It didn't matter.

Hak pulled Soo-won out of the garden, because Yona was in a place he couldn't reach, and the country needed a ruler. It was cruel. Soo-won wasn't ready. His heart was a shard of glass, and Hak asked Soo-won to bury it back into his chest.

And Soo-won did.

Now, sitting in the same garden, side by side, Hak leaned back on his arms and looked up at the sky. "So."

Soo-won was quiet.

"Jeong is alive." Hak looked at Soo-won, face devoid of smile.

Soo-won was still for a moment longer, his eyes on the grave. Then, like a mountain in a landslide, he swayed sideways, into Hak. Leaned there, his face in Hak's shoulder for a long pale hand gripped Hak's clothes. The other, the place over Soo-won's heart.

"Yes." His voice was a whisper. "Jeong is alive."

Hak's rage is a bitter thing. It rages inside his heart, choked his tongue. He looked at the grave.

He keeps you near his heart. Blade and all.

"We'll find her." Hak said. His face is still. No emotion. "No matter how long it takes."

And maybe by then, Hak will know how to solve this tangle of love and hate waging war inside of him.

Hak lets Soo-won lean on him and hopes.

ayyy it's my two favorite side characters! i wasn't gonna just leave them out of their character development though i love them too much.

jeong's actions have very far reaching consequences lol