Category: General Fluff, Mild Romantic Fluff
Characters: Soo-Won, Yona, Son Hak
Requested By: farrah87 (Ao3)
Soo-Won's footsteps were muffled by the plush carpet overlaying the stone castle floor. Night had descended over the country's capital; starlight streamed in through the marbled glass windows, painting wave-like patterns of white on the ruby-red fabric stretching through the hall. Most of the castle had retired to bed; only zealous academics and the castle guard roamed at this hour- and Soo-Won, the king with a ticking time bomb.
He sighed pallidly and swept a swathe of his pale blond hair from his face, grimacing when he found the strands clumped with perspiration. I have to be careful not to overexert myself… It won't do for the Crimson Illness to get out, he thought with a small sigh. So easy it was to say that, but so hard to put into practice when Soo-Won had so much to attend to in the shortening period of his life. I have to ensure this country will prosper and thrive after… He didn't finish the sobering thought.
A flash of movement caught his eye. He squinted in the gloom at the window a few yards ahead of him; it creaked as it turned inward, spilling the cool night air into the spacious hallway. Soo-Won's eyebrow cocked as a pair of long legs slipped through the open window, clad in loose tan garments. The king momentarily wondered if an assassination attempt would shatter his daily humdrum. The prospect disappeared as the person jumped down from the sill, flicking his jade-green hair from his face and flashing Soo-Won a confident smirk.
"Well, good evening, Your Majesty." Jae-Ha's voice was like honey, smooth and sweet and unbothered. A pink-faced Kija poked his head through the window next to give the king a frightened look.
"I thought you said we wouldn't be caught?" The white dragon hissed to his comrade as he gracelessly wormed his way down from the window. He landed clumsily on his rump, and crossed his arms to pout at Jae-Ha like it was the taller man's fault. Jae-Ha's smirk remained sharp enough to cleave diamond, while Zeno's head popped into the window next. By this point, Soo-Won was very amused, smiling with a mirthful twinkle in his eyes as he watched the boyish yellow-haired dragon scramble down from the window.
"How lucky are we, to run into Mr. King, huh?" Zeno laughed joyously. Kija had stood up from the ground but was still muttering that they were unfortunate for the unplanned encounter. Shin-ah was silent as he climbed through the window, lithe and quiet like a panther. Ao chittered good-naturedly on his shoulder.
"Is the medicine boy coming, or did he elect to stay home?" Soo-Won joked smugly. His gaze swept over the four dragons who'd snuck into the castle with very little fanfare. He didn't know whether to be impressed with the dragons or concerned with the capabilities of his guards. "I assume you've snuck in to see Yona?"
"That's right." Jae-Ha quipped curtly. Soo-Won had assumed that planning the impromptu lunch meeting would come back to nip him in the rear, but he hadn't quite expected the dragons to commit burglary after only a week. He sighed wearily and pinched the bridge of his nose. They're already here, and I don't exactly think they'll listen to me when I ask them to leave, he thought sourly.
"Very well. I was on my way to my study to retrieve some documents; Yona's quarters are close by, so I'll escort you there. However, I'll only allow you to visit under my supervision," he said firmly. Allowing Yona to see her beloved dragons kept her complacent, but Soo-Won couldn't allow her to push the envelope. If the dragons were brazen enough to sneak into the castle in the dead of night, thoughts of rebellion and mischief wouldn't have much trouble blooming in their minds. Out of his peripheral vision, Soo-Won saw the dark black blob of his shadow guard, Hiyori, peering around the corner. The man wouldn't act now that Soo-Won had expressed his permission, but his presence still left a sour taste in his mouth. Joo-Doh and Kye-Sook will surely hear of this… Groaning, he rubbed his temples as a small headache began to pulse in the front of his skull. So much for not exerting myself.
The dragons were quiet as Soo-Won escorted them through the dark castle hall; they exchanged no words during the five-minute stroll to his study. A pair of braziers smoldered beside the door. He instructed the four of them to wait outside while he retrieved his documents. The hour was late, at least ten or eleven, so he was sure that the princess had retired to her bedchamber. That's why he couldn't stifle the shocked gasp when he closed the door behind him and turned around to see Yona curled into a ball on the floor, sobbing pitifully.
"Yona?!" He crossed the room in three quick strides, falling into a kneeling position beside her. The girl moaned forlornly as he gently placed his hands on her shoulders and peered into her tear-streaked face. "Yona…" As her form relaxed, he spied a small leather-bound book clutched in her arms. Yona offered no resistance as he tugged the book from her grip to peer at the cover. A cold flush flooded through his veins, ice water that left every muscle locked and every nerve screaming. His mother's name was written in neat black ink in the upper right corner. This is… Her memoir, he realized with cold horror. Another ice-cold flush seared through his veins at the realization that Yona had read the diary cover-to-cover. His windpipe constricted inside his throat, but for the sake of the weeping girl before him, he swallowed the anger and fear and despair in favor of smiling weakly.
"Yona," he shushed as he swept her dawn-red hair from her eyes. "Please don't cry."
"I-i wasn't sure what I was expecting," she choked out between wracking sobs. The heels of her palms dug into her eyes, smearing the tears that continued to fall. "But I… Oh, Soo-Won," she lamented. His eyes widened as she abruptly collapsed against him, embracing him in a tight hug. His hands hovered in the air around her head before slowly drifting down to wrap around her petite frame. Yona had treated him so coldly as of late, so to have the girl burying her face into his sternum and tearing into his clothes as if to anchor him to herself was admittedly disorienting. Still a little stunned, his movements were robotic as he rubbed soothing circles into the small of her back. "I just… I can't believe you're going to die."
She whispered the last word, as if uttering it aloud would cause him to collapse then and there.
"Yona," Soo-Won sighed deeply. The idea of death spilled bitter acid over his tongue, but he ignored it in favor of comforting the distraught princess. He rested his cheek against the top of her head, stroking her short tresses of dawn-red hair. He could offer no words of comfort or refusal, however; the girl was right. Whether he liked it or not, Soo-Won's flame was flickering it out, slowly but surely. Soo-Won could only reassure her with his presence. He was not dead yet.
The comfort had its intended effect. Gradually, Yona's sobs quieted into little sniffles. The princess slumped against him, exhausted by her misery. Soo-Won continued to soothingly stroke her back as she fluttered her teary lashes to peer mournfully up at him.
"Soo-Won…"
Fate had a sense of irony, because, in that moment, Soo-Won was gripped by a severe attack. Burning pain blossomed in his skull, and he slumped wholly against Yona. The girl exclaimed as she unexpectedly had to bear the brunt of his weight, and her slim arms wrapped around him to help her shoulder the burden. Soo-Won's breaths came in heavy, ragged gasps, and his vision flared white as the pain seared through his brain tissue. He whined Yona's name as darkness encroached on his field of sight. Like all the times before, he had the oddest sensation of becoming weightless; he drifted down, down, down into the dark abyss, and everything fell away…
"Soo-Won? Soo-Won!" Yona's voice cracked with fright as the king slumped against her and quickly slipped into unconsciousness. Her body trembled with the terrible weight of him against her and the fear gripping her body. "Help! Someone, help!" she screamed. Her cries bounced around the small study to pierce her eardrums in shrill, frantic cries. She was nearly hyperventilating when her dragons burst into the door, calling her name and demanding to know what was the matter. Yona's mind was so disoriented by Soo-Won's sudden collapse that she didn't even question why her dragons were in the palace in the first place.
"H-h-h-he just fell limp, just like that, I-i-i-i don't know w-what's wrong!" she stammered, words falling off her tongue faster than she could think them. "Oh, Soo-Won, Soo-Won!" The horrible truths contained in Lady Yon-hi's diary were still fresh on her mind, so in her manic state, she believed that Soo-Won could have literally died right in her arms. Fresh tears streamed down her face in thick, salty streams, and her entire body quaked violently with tremors. Jae-Ha and Shin-ah pulled the man's body off of Yona, and she screamed again as his head flopped lifelessly against the tall, green-haired man's chest.
"Princess, Princess!" Kija cried while shaking her shoulder violently. "His Majesty Soo-Won is still alive. Please, calm yourself. He's only fallen unconscious." Kija had to repeat the words several times for them to finally breach the barrier of the blood roaring in Yona's ears. Her eyelashes fluttered as she forced herself down from the frantic high, and sure enough, she could see Soo-Won's chest rising and falling with deep but labored breaths. "There, now," her white dragon crooned reassuringly in her ears. "We'll get His Majesty to his quarters-"
"No!" Yona objected quickly. "Take him to my quarters. It's much closer- but do it quietly and quickly! Soo-Won's condition is a secret!" As Jae-ha and Shin-ah supported Soo-Won's weight between them and slipped out of the study to hurry towards Yona's bower, the princess followed, nearly tripping over her own feet in her haste. Out of her peripheral vision, she spied the shadow guard assigned to protect the king slip away into the darkness of the castle. Yona didn't bother calling out to him. His message was the least of her concerns right now.
Yona bustled past the two dragons to scurry to her bed, violently ripping back the comforter. "Here! Put him here," she commanded, trying to seem authoritative and calm but failing miserably due to the shakiness of her voice. She swiftly covered Soo-Won as they laid him in the bed. When she put the back of her hand against his forehead, the heat rolling off his sweaty skin nearly scalded her. She barked at Zeno to bring her a basin of water and a dishrag. When the immortal dragon did as bid, she wasted no time in saturating the rag with the cool liquid and placing it on Soo-Won's head. Yona's wide, red eyes frantically coursed over Soo-Won's sleeping form to search for something, anything that she could do.
She could do nothing- only sit there and watch, and pray, and weep about her twisted desire to see Soo-Won live despite all he'd done.
Joo-Doh came to collect the collapsed king in due time. Her dragons had slipped away in the meantime to avoid retribution. If the shadow guard had told Joo-Doh of their presence, he never mentioned, and no judgment was passed down upon her friends. Yona stayed by the king's side in the interim. Her feelings still confused her; the childish love she had harbored for the man had blossomed into something stranger and less defined. She knew she didn't love him like she loved Hak, but… She did love him, in some confusing, mystifying sense. Despite it all, she couldn't see him die. So she remained with him, holding his hand and cursing the fate that had warped him into the desperate and lonely man he'd become.
Soo-Won recovered by the following morning…
and awoke to pass some surprisingly divisive decrees.
He ordered the 13th company to begin undertaking rigorous training, citing the need for "all troops in the impending war with Kai." Even more surprisingly, he appointed Hak as the commander of the unit and the overseer for their training. Kye-Sook was livid and vehemently opposed the notion, but Soo-Won coldly shut down his obstruction by recounting Hak's extensive military accomplishments. The coup de grace came with his final decree- due to Soo-Won's frail condition, for the time being, the commanders of each unit must report to Yona for the time being. Additionally, Yona would oversee the training of the 13th company, and her dragons would also participate in the drills.
In a bold move that turned his most dangerous game on its head, Soo-Won gave Yona a direct line of access to Hak and her dragons. Yona had no idea what had flipped the switch so suddenly in Soo-Won's head. She was so accustomed to his carefully crafted plans, his refined and sophisticated scheming, that this outrageously brazen play rocked Yona to her core. She couldn't comprehend his motives this time, not one bit… But she couldn't find it within herself to complain.
"Come in." Her curt order bounced off the walls of her bower following the loud, authoritative knock. Yona was still pretty much confined to her quarters, so the company commanders ventured there to give their daily reports. Many times they acquired where Lord Soo-Won was, and she always politely replied that he was resting because his duties had become taxing as of late. Anticipating this visit as such, she procured a fresh of parchment and her inkwell and quill before patiently awaiting her guest to arrive. She couldn't help the gleeful smile that alit her face when Hak swiftly entered.
"Good evening, Princess." His voice dripped from his smirking mouth like the sweetest honey, sending titillating tingles propagating all through her body. Hak crossed the room to kneel in front of her small work desk. Yona half-listened to his report, scrawling brief notes as necessary. Once he finished his statement, she pushed the papers aside with some dull quip thanking him for his services. Hak immediately slumped over the edge of the table, leaning his cheek in his hand and smirking flirtatiously at her. "I really despise all this official stuff," he sighed melodramatically. "Such a bore."
"Yes, but you're commanding the thirteenth company now," she reminded him poignantly. Hak smiled at her comment; Yona knew it relieved him to hold some position of authority again, especially one that provided him steady access to the princess. However, a frown slowly overtook his pleased features.
"I just don't get it. What's his game?" Yona looked down at the table as he posed the very pertinent question. Yona still couldn't wrap her mind around it- this complicated chess game Soo-Won was manipulating before her eyes. She hadn't even an idea of how the pieces were arranged- who was a pawn, a rook, a knight, a queen. Soo-Won's sudden move may have been disorienting, but it didn't change the fact that he was in almost complete control of the pieces, and slowly encroaching on Yona's.
"I don't know," she sighed wearily. She crawled around the edge of the table to cuddle into Hak, suddenly craving his presence. She usually did when the confusion closed in around her, and she desired nothing more than to escape for just a few brief moments. Hak enveloped her in his big, strong arms. He hugged her to his body and dropped a kiss to the top of her head. "I don't know," she repeated. "He has plans for us, but I just can't fathom what lies in store for us… This is a most dangerous game we are playing, Hak, and I feel like I am losing my cards one by one."
"Heyyyy," he crooned and hugged her tighter, as if to shield her from her misgivings. "No matter what happens, Yona, I will protect you," he swore, his voice deep and harsh with conviction. Despite the impracticality of it, Yona felt her worries melt away. She dissolved into Hak's gentle embrace, closing her eyes to savor the brief moment of sanctuary he offered her.
It was a most dangerous game between Yona and Soo-Won… And so Yona cherished these brief moments of respite, where she didn't have to worry about the cards in her hand. Hak took those hands and kissed along her fingertips and knuckles, showering her in love and affection. She didn't understand Soo-Won's game at all… but she was grateful for this newest move, because now at least she could be with the person she loved most.