Soft morning light. Yona is lulling out of a dream. She feels so… at ease.
His scent mmm… She shifts, ohhhh, her muscles ache... A smile of naughty realization rises on her face as her eyelids slowly open…
Hak is laying right there watching her… and he's probably been watching for a good while.
"You're still here?"
"...are you disappointed?"
"It's so rare. You're always gone when I wake up. Gathering firewood or breakfast or scouting a path."
He wears a playful look, "It was sorta hard for me to wake up next to you before-" he glances down over her body, then back up to innocent eyes, "-before I could do this..." he leans in and kisses her collarbone, neck, cheek, then forehead.
Yona smiles at the the tickles of affection, then reaches her hands across to his taut skin, getting a dose of her newly-possessed hard muscle. They both could get used to this new type of morning.
Hak moves a hand to Yona's waist. As he rolls her to her back, she - ow! - winces in pain. Concern washes over his face. Yona sees it and lifts a comforting hand to his cheek, then smiles, "You're a bear, Hak." He looks down with annoyed affection at her making light of this, then leans over her belly and kisses just above her button, then at each of her hip bones, and on and on - saying thank you and sorry to each part of her beautiful, porcelain body.
The new lovers slowly dress one another, forgetting to care about who might be waiting on them. As though with a 10-second timer, in perfect consistency they bring their lips together for lingering, can we please stay in this moment forever, kisses along the way.
The non-verbal communication is in overdrive this morning, coded gazes taking turns speeding up hearts and stealing breaths. As they approach the door, Hak can't help but reach out and grab Yona, pinning her against the wall to steal one last moment. His mouth hovers near her ear, "Every time you see me out there... I'm dreaming about being back here with you."
She turns her heated face to take a kiss from him and then her tongue is in his mouth, dancing against his, she's moaning again, his hand pulls the small of her back toward him, her arms move up around his neck, her thighs are naturally weakening again. They are never gonna make it through that door.
Yona uses all her strength to pull back, then tries to distract, "Last night…"
"Hm?..." he's still nuzzling her.
"...you mentioned you should have made love to me the first time I asked…" she's still drunk off his scent.
He tries to regain his senses, releases her. As he runs a hand through his dark locks, he admits, "How is it you phrase it? Oh, right, I'm an idiot," he smiles, but then seriously, "The last thing you needed was a guy making you question whether he's gonna be devoted to you or not," he laughs at that, "I'm all in, Princess. Husband or not. I should have made you feel sure. ...if I'd told you with more than words, you might've believed me."
Yona gives him that touched look of hers again as she weaves a hand in his and tugs him toward the door, "I trust you, Hak. More than I've ever trusted anyone."
He lets her lead him outside, watching with awe. Yona may never know how much what she just said means to him.
As the party of Yona, Hak, Yoon, and dragon warriors ride together toward Saika, a new reality has already set in. Hak rides alone at the front of the group. By all appearances he's leading the way, but really he's trying to keep calm and focus ahead.
Yona is further behind, riding on Jae-Ha's steed, safely seated before him. She doesn't mind riding with Jae-Ha, she actually really likes it. He smells nice, too, and is so graceful handling her. Plus he's always been the most fun to talk to out of everyone in the group. But she can't stop watching Hak up ahead. Is this really necessary - they being apart as they travel together? It feels almost cruel. And yet… she knows she needs to focus on the bigger picture. She's the princess. If her life was so simple as loving a man, she wouldn't be here right now. No, her life is very complicated and she has much yet to do.
Jae-Ha keeps his precious red-haired cargo carefully balanced between his arms as he watches the back of his dear dark-haired friend's head up front. He's relieved to have survived the morning, but it really wasn't beautiful. He recalls...
While everyone was at breakfast, Jae-Ha invited Hak aside to scope new weapons for the battle ahead.
Of course, Jae-Ha soon realized that taking Kouka's top warrior to a room full of weapons so that he could privately tell him that he's gonna need to be his wife's faux lover was not his wisest plan. And yet, there wasn't any time to avoid it…
As Hak inspects a blade in the supply shop, Jae-Ha suggests, "She'd really like that one."
Hak's subsequent glare is not a pleased one.
Wonderful, Jae-Ha thinks, I can't even small talk about her without pissing him off. I might as well get this over with...
"You know I think of you like a little brother."
Hak flashes his eyes up at him in suspicion, "And the princess a little sister?"
Arghhh, this guy is not buying anything this morning, "Did Mundok already talk to you by chance?"
"No. But you've been acting funny since we got here."
Jae-Ha sighs, "This wasn't my idea," even though he knows full well he's the first person who said it the night before, "But love is a hard thing to mask."
Hak is listening.
"Last night we had a challenging time hiding that you and Yona are… head over heals for one another and sharing the same bed. Which I applaud, by the way. Nonetheless, I had to tell a small fib as a cover... that Mundok overheard and thought was a good idea."
"I thought you just said this wasn't your idea?"
"Right… don't worry about that, it doesn't matter. What I mean to say is that your grandfather requested I put on that Yona dear and I are romantically involved. To throw attention my way instead of yours."
Hak looks as though his hearing has failed, then begins inspecting more weapons. Jae-Ha slowly starts backing out of the room…
"It's a good not-your-idea." That was Hak.
And somehow Hak conceding that breaks a part of Jae-Ha's heart. He really does see him like a brother.
"But I don't like it," Hak clarifies as they leave the shop with considerable new blades, "I don't know how long I'll be able to go along with it."
"No one could expect you to. But for her, for Kouka, it's a precaution worth taking. Most of all because..."
"I know," Hak doesn't want to hear the name Jae-Ha would have said. That guy who they're about to join to fight Kai. The very man who embodies both the reason Hak can't safely have the princess in his arms at night and why he wants her safe in his arms more in the coming week than ever before.
They'll be camped with Soo-Won.
Hak pauses and stares at one of his blades, deeply pained. Jae-Ha catches sight of this and worries about far more than Hak being upset about the lover charade. The charade that truly pains his friend is a far grander scheme. One that haunts him. And that perhaps only blood can end.
That night the fire is bright at their camp. So is the company. Hak got an unusually good haul of game for dinner and Yoon worked magic with it. That plus all the nourishment from Fuuga, the party's spirits are higher than they've been in months.
Yona stares across the flames at Hak as he eats. There's a pit in her stomach over how she's not supposed to walk over there and touch him. But he's right there. And all day while they were riding and she watched him, she pieced things together based on the previous night's revelations. If he had loved her since when he said… then that means every time they fought about something stupid at the palace, he was covering his feelings. Every time she asked him to spend time with her, he was hiding his heart. Every time she spoke about Soo-Won…
She rises to go to her tent. This is too much. On her way, she looks back over her shoulder and sees him standing too, watching her go. Then she feels Jae-Ha's gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Just think: it will only be like this a very short while."
"No one's even out here," Yona knows exactly what he's referencing, "It's just us."
Jae-Ha's rooting for them, but, "Sometimes when lovers get lost in each other, it takes a long time to come back."
Yona remembers the mutual daze she and Hak had met the others with this morning. There's no denying it: love is very distracting. And this is infatuation, too. Deep. Infatuation. An incredible passion. Just thinking about him starts her drifting away.
"Once we're away from Kai and all the politicians, we'll make sure you have time alone together."
Yona's expression hardens at the reminder. Soo-Won.
Hak walks through the woods in the moonlight when he sees her up ahead. Yona is practicing with her bow and arrows. The tree across from her is pierced with dozens of arrows. It's unsettling to Hak. He gets closer…
"Princess…"
"Don't. We shouldn't," she lowers her bow and starts to walk away from him.
"It's just us. Let me see your hands. Are you OK?"
"Don't touch me. Stay away."
Hak is taken aback. What is… ? He tries to get closer again.
"I said stay away. We can't be together!" As he grabs her shoulder she turns, tears of blood streaming down her cheeks. Bloodshot eyes. Terror, "He'll see us!"
Hak wakes up in a cold sweat, pale and gasping for air. He looks around to see he's sitting alone against a tree outside the princess' tent. A nightmare.
He gets up and opens the tent's cloth door. There she is, sleeping peacefully, chest rising and falling. And there is Jae-Ha right beside, not a hand near her. Impressive.
"When will you trust me?" Jae-Ha jabs in a prodding whisper with his eyes still closed.
Hak smiles in comfort at the jab, "When you're not sleeping with my wife."
"It's the same as before, you know?"
"Hm?"
"She's going to wake up every morning. All of us here to protect her."
But as Hak returns to his tree, he's consumed with how different things are now. He's never felt so worried about her. Never felt such a weight of responsibility to fix her world. He's never felt so in love before and his heart can barely handle it. He thought that was fear the day he confessed, but that was just the beginning. The fear of losing her now sends a shock through his system that awakens every primitive instinct. He will do anything to protect her. Once and for all.
Yona wakes up alone in her tent, but to the sound of dragon banter outside. Her heart feels warm. And then she remembers they'll reach Saika today. Tae-Jun. Her heart feels warmer still.
When she goes outside, she sees everyone but Hak. Jae-Ha points her in the right direction and kindly doesn't follow.
When she finds him not ten minutes later, he's returning with a pile of firewood tucked under one arm. She's surprised when he's stand-offish alone with her in the woods like this.
"It's just us," she encourages, "Since when do you care what the dragons think?"
She can see some of the tension leave him, "Sorry, long night."
"I couldn't sleep either. I kept thinking about you."
She leaps to him, wrapping her arms around his torso. This calms him further, so he drops the firewood and pulls her up into his arms, grabbing her lips with his. She comforts him with the kiss, reassuring all the love and affection from that room in Fuuga came along with them all the way here, too.
"Come inside of me," she tempts into his ear.
"Princess…" his heart speeds up as all his blood starts rushing below, "It'll hurt you."
"Hak, please don't argue. I want it so badly I can barely breath…"
Him too. Him. Too. So he brings his mouth to her neck and a hand over a breast as he props her back against a tree, "We have to be quick, Princess… and quiet. Can you do that?"
Yona isn't sure, so she lies, "Yes."
Hak pushes up her skirts, yanking down any cloth barring entry, then pulls apart his robes and pushes down the top of his pants, releasing his erection against her. Within seconds he's found his way inside of her and has begun thrusting, one of his arms around her protecting her back from the bark of the tree.
The second he's inside is ecstasy for Yona. It does still hurt, a lot, but she needs to heal this way far more than the other right now. She needs his touch. His physical affirmation that he's all right. And right here.
He grins at her lie as she tries desperately to stop yelping but is hopeless. He keeps his steady movement going, not really caring anymore if someone hears.
There's an incredible wetness where their bodies meet. Her juices are running down her legs and onto his ballsack. With their clothes pushed down and bunched up, they're a glorious mess. He continues thrusting into her against the tree, her legs wrapped around him, fingers digging into his hair. Making good on his promise to be quick, he comes, adding to the mess of love between them.
As he pulls out and lowers her, Yona, fully tussled, wonders how she'll be able to come back down to reality before meeting the politicians in Saika today. When she marches back to camp a few moments later, Jae-Ha sees her glow and realizes ever more that keeping this secret is gonna be next to impossible.