Day Six: Healing

After Hak wakes up from the cliff fall, Yoon is busy so Yona reapplies his salve. They both take the moment to have a serious conversation about what happened on the cliff.

Hak looked up as Yona squatted next to him. She looked a little on edge, but that was typical these days. What concerned him more was the determined look on her face and what she held hidden in her hands. Setting down his glaive and sharpening tools, Hak gave her his full attention.

"What can I do for you, Princess?"

"Yoon is busy packing, but he told me it's time to change your bandaging. Apparently Ik-soo is hopeless at medicine, so…" She gave him a hopeful look.

He stared back, not getting it.

Yona let her hands open, revealing clean bandages and a tin of salve. "Yoon told me how much to put on, and it's not like you've never bandaged anything before. So let me apply the medicine, and then you can direct how I bandage your wounds."

Hak studied the supplies, hoping his princess was either too nervous or too focused to notice the blush burning the tips of his ears. He might not survive, but -

"Sure," he said, forcing a flippant tone and slipping his robe off his arms to bare his chest.

Yona leaned in to carefully unwind the bandages wrapped around his chest and shoulder.

"This should never have happened," she murmured.

Hak startled, the flinch almost pulling the bandages from Yona's hands. "What?" he asked. "Yona-hime, I was protecting you. If this hadn't happened you would be dead. I would make the same choice every time."

She shook her head, head down focusing on her work but shoulders set. "Kan Tae-jun didn't want to kill me. I wouldn't have -"

"That didn't prevent his archers from firing at you," Hak fumed. His face was still heating up, but this time in anger. The conversation had distracted him entirely from Yona's hands. "Yona-hime, I will always protect you. Please get that through your head."

The last of the bandages came off with a yank, and Yona reached for the salve. She didn't speak until she had coated her fingers and begun rubbing it into his chest wound.

"You shouldn't have to." Hak held in a wince as her fingers pressed a little too hard. "You shouldn't - I should have been able to do something."

That was too much. Hak grabbed Yona's hand in his, uncaring of the way it coated his own in medicine.

"You did do something. Princess, I may have been upset at the time, but if you hadn't stepped out of your hiding place, I would be dead. So please, Yona-hime, don't blame yourself. We both did the best we could."

She finally looked at him. Unshed tears lay in her eyes, but she nodded firmly.

"If it comes down to it, I'll do it again," she warned.

Hak released her hand. "I believe you. Trust that I will do the same."

She studied him, and he did the same with her. He wasn't happy with her decision, just as he suspected she wasn't happy with his. But he also knew neither of them would back down. They would both have to learn how to be happy with the way things would be.

Closing his eyes, Hak leaned back on his hands. A beat passed, and then he felt Yona's hands on his skin once again. Unlike before, they were steady and unfaltering. They didn't press too hard, but neither did they hesitate. This was his princess. This was who he loved, now and forever. This was Yona.

This was supposed to be a bit of fluff with embarrassed Hak, and then Yona snuck in a ton of angst. Oops.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed, and please review!