"Focus... Focus..." Hak squints at the target, releases his arrow, and - misses entirely.
"Hak, it's not OK!" Yona protests behind him.
He lowers his bow, staring ahead in disbelief. Uh oh.
"I wasn't about to let my father decide my love life for me. You shouldn't let anyone else decide yours!"
Still not looking at her, "Can we not get started about that right now," as he shakes the reminder that Yona has made really questionable choices in men, "I vowed to protect you. To myself as seriously as anyone else. And today... I'm protecting you from me."
"Whyyy?" Yona whines, "Refusing to touch a girl after confessing is worse than cruel. You're not being heroic at all!"
"Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out," Hak encourages himself under his breath as he begins to pace. He remembers back to that moment, the princess mounted on him, and for the first time in their relationship, his... enormous loss of control pressed firmly against her. On top of this already being completely new territory for them, the princess arched into it and then brought her mouth back to his to go further. It was a fucking dream.
Loss of control. That was the problem. Is still the problem. He's a well-practiced man in many things. But if he lets go, it will be like that day with the honey all over again. Before he knows it, he'll be... licking somewhere the princess isn't ready for and she'll be pulling away from him. Did she know what she was doing just now? She's seemed so innocent in his eyes all this time, for her to do that to him... no wait, he promised not to be shocked when she does things like this. Surprising him is not out of character. And that scares him even more. If he gives in to what he'd like to do right now and then she decides to become an explorer... oh god. Of all things, Mundok's words from the night before echo in his mind, "All men know, sometimes that's a battle lost."
Hak feels petite arms wrap around him. She's hugging him from behind, her face nestled against his back, "We're going to leave for Kai in 2 days and between now and then we may not be able to be alone together at all. We were apart for so long already... And I didn't tell you this, but I've been barely able to keep from touching you for so long already. I've been barely able breathe whenever I see you! I don't know what to say because my thoughts are all distracted. And I just want to be close so badly. ... we can't even sleep near one another anymore. ... so us here right now... can I have just this much?"
Hak looks down to see her hands burrowed into his robes and feeling his abs. He sighs resignation with a soft smile of love, "Speaking of, my thoughts have been getting more and more confused right now, too. I'm seriously starting to forget the reasons we can't... carefully... a little."
Yona smiles victory into his back and squeezes him tighter, "I know we just confessed, I'm not trying to push you to go faster than you're comfortable with."
Hak is mortified that that sentence just came out of his to-be-lover's mouth, "Hey now, that is not-"
"I just have been dying to put my hands on you. To feel you. Look at you. Can I just... take this off real quick?"
Before Hak has even responded she's already untying his robe. Explorer-mode. She's straight up doing this. Hak begins to wonder if their entire relationship will be a mix of excitement and sheer terror.
He turns to face her as he drops his outer robe. She coaches, "And..." she motions to the rest covering his chest.
Wow, he didn't expect to be so self-conscious with her staring at him while he undresses. His inner robe falls to the ground. He stands before her shirtless, nothing she hasn't seen before, but then she's never looked at him like this before. He notices how seriously she's taking this "freedom to look at each other romantically" thing as she stares straight forward at his pecks, cleavage, abs, pelvic bones, and that low torso v-shape that leads to...
"Ahh," he's surprised when she puts her hands right on his skin and starts moving them across the taut, defined surface like studying a map full of untouched treasure. She stops at the scar that runs across his chest from his left downward right. The visible proof that he's willing to die for her. He's not sentimental about that - he's always known it about himself. The scar means a tremendous amount to him for other reasons though. When he sees it, every single time, he remembers a part of its story that he never saw coming. That day at the cliffs, the princess proved she was willing to die for him, too, when she went over the cliff with him.
Hak puts his hand over Yona's on his scar, both of them moved by their memories... and this moment. He can't help it, he leans down and pulls her face to his. It's an active, needy kiss and Yona moves up onto her tiptoes to return it, both hands against his bare pecks for balance.
They make out playfully, tongues flicking, lip-biting, fully taking advantage of this moment to discover all the electric aspects of this new thing they can do together. Yona's hands wander up, down, around his broad bare chest. "Ohh," she jumps as she feels one of his hands meet her breast. She's far more sensitive there than she ever imagined! But her alarm sent his hand in retreat. She thinks for just a second, then...
Yona takes a step back from Hak. His eyes begin to uncloud a little, "I'm sorry, did I..." he forgets the rest of his sentence when she drops her outer robe. His breathing slows into deep breaths of painful anticipation.
"I want you to see me, too," the inner robe drops and her aroused mounds are entirely exposed to the daylight.