Everyone should be sleeping, but Hak sits outside with his back against a tentpole as he stares up at the moon.

"Mister hasn't slept for two nights."

Hak swings his head over to see Zeno, "Either have you."

"Zeno is immortal."

Hak lets out a soft breath, then looks back up at the sky.

Zeno joins the gazing up into nothing, then says what he knows is everything, "Zeno can feel them both. The miss is fine."

"I figured…" a small smile of pride rises on Hak.

"But Ryokuryuu is troubled."

"Hm?" Hak turns back to Zeno with concern.

"The others felt it, too. Zeno will check on him."

And before another word can be exchanged, Zeno skips off into the night.

Jae-Ha stands outside Lili's tent, his back against a tentpole in the cold night air as he stares at his breath, tries to steady it. He's stood out there since she left. Since he watched her go. Felt her gone. And he was out there when General Joo-Doh came to relay the message that the princess would be staying with the king for the night.

He couldn't move for a time after that. She had asked him not to come. To forgive her for this. But he had made a promise to Hak, too. And what about his own stance in all this? At times he liked Soo-Won, but being a pirate himself, even a monster, Jae-Ha knows full well how much charm can cover.

"The miss isn't here."

Jae-Ha sees Zeno approaching - and even though his failure in duty was just highlighted, he feels immense relief.

"I never thought I'd want to tie someone up. But Yona dear…" Jae-Ha faces Zeno with a rare level of stress, "She went with the king."

"But you're more worried about something else than her. ...if something happened to her, we would all feel it. But with the mister, it's not the same."

"I don't envy the position either is in here. Yona dear and Hak. I would fight for whatever they want. But it's becoming impossible to save one without endangering the other."

"She asked you to stay here?"

Jae-Ha nods with a frown.

"She didn't ask Zeno."

Jae-Ha's face lights up at that…

"Mister just went to sleep. Now Ryokuryuu can, too. Zeno will watch over the Miss."

Jae-Ha enters the tent and sees Lili's back - she's sitting upright on the bed, facing away. He remembers the scene earlier, and given the stress of the night, is about to lay into her when-

"...you're back," Lili's voice quivers. She turns, eyes red-rimmed, cheeks tear-stained, "Since she didn't come back… she went with him, huh?"

The tenseness in Jae-Ha's body relaxes, "If I'd realized you were in here as worried out of your mind as I was out there, I would have at least had a drink with you."

Lili laughs a little, still shaking, "I'm gonna need a lot more than a drink after tonight. But that doesn't matter if she's in danger," she looks up at Jae-Ha, "Do you think if I went after them…?"

"No. Another dragon already has. Yona dear is going to be OK tonight. If anyone tries to harm her... they might not be."

Lili takes some deep breaths, still trying to calm her anxiety, "Thank you. For telling me that. I really… I really needed to know that."

Jae-Ha watches her sadly. This girl loves Yona dear. Who's to say if she has even sorted how, but Yona is clearly precious to her.

"I must say, I had my opinions about you. And that mouth. But anyone who cares about her this much… is a friend of mine."

Lili watches Jae-Ha as he pours her a drink, she's still deeply troubled, "What the hell, Jae-Ha. You saw what happened tonight. You know her, so you know ...she likely hates me now."

As Jae-Ha hands Lili her cup, "I do know Yona dear and I have my own complicated relationship with her," he downs his own cup of liquid peace, "Welcome to the family, Lili. We all adore her. We all almost make mistakes. Although, you really did make a mistake tonight…"

Lili's eyes go wide at the call out, then she scrunches her face as he pours her another cup, "...right when I started to think you were a nice guy…"

"It was hot, if that helps. But no… you won't get far with her like that. Not that it's my place to say. But since now I can tell what side you're on in this camp, I think it's time to be honest. No more misunderstandings. And that, I assume, is what that was. I'm afraid we're going to need to work together as a team over the next couple days."

"I want to help, if there's any way…"

The two are sitting across from one another, drinks in hand, as Jae-Ha begins to share what she needs to know, "Yona and Hak never truly separated…"

Zeno sits perched in the darkness outside Soo-Won's tent. He's so attuned to the princess, he can feel the rhythm of her sleep breathing.

But the second he peeked into the tent earlier and saw she and Soo-Won in bed, eyes closed facing one another with that distance between, he already knew that mister had no intention of harming her. That he was protecting her. Little Miss would definitely be safe tonight.

Tomorrow, he wonders, might be different. All the misters are near a breaking point.

The strategy meeting about Kai is first thing in the morning. Keishuk is already in the large tent with the great table when Soo-Won arrives, the princess at his side.

Keishuk is aware the king took her in his bed last night. He'll be watching to see how she took to it.

Joo-Doh leads Jae-Ha in - Soo-Won had instructed that Jae-Ha must return to the princess' side immediately. And imperatively before the start of the meeting.

Yona takes a seat between Soo-Won and Jae-Ha as the generals begin to arrive. Her smile to Jae-Ha seems to set his heart at ease. No harm was done. Although sitting next to Soo-Won like this, he back to a focused, distant, elusive state, her own heart is far from in good shape.

Generals Guen-Tae and Joon-Gi react with surprise to see Yona there, but with Soo-Won, Keishuk, and General Joo-Doh treating it so casually, they greet her formally and accept this must be the way things will be moving forward.

General Kyo-Ga appears curious to see Yona seated next to Soo-Won, but calls no attention to his observation.

It's General Tae-Woo who goes white and immediately starts back out of the tent at the sight - but it's too late, Hak has entered.

Yona can feel him the second he's inside, but she forces herself not to look. She looks at her fingers, the tie on her dress, the opposite wall, anything but him. It's more than enough to know he's present, breathing. The weight of this meeting is upon her and the fear of anything happening is overwhelming.

For Hak, the pain of this room is nearly unbearable. How many meetings had he attended as Wind General with most of these men? How much had he learned from them? Taught them? Reached upward to be able to stand alongside them…? He looks at Soo-Won now, who formally greets he and Tae-Woo. But his hearing isn't so good right now - because the princess is right next to that bastard. So is Jae-Ha, thankfully, but what has happened…

"Former general Hak…," Keishuk's words of greeting are meant to insult, but they don't affect the intended recipient - Hak has far too much experience with how deep real insults can go.

As the talk of war strategy begins, Hak also avoids looking at Yona. He tries to focus on the matter at hand: ending this war swiftly and saving lives. The reason they're there in the first place. His family is going to be out there fighting - this is a conversation he is determined to participate in fully and well.

Hak considers, "...in that case, if the Fire troops flank them on the left-"

"-then the Earth can make up for lost time in the center," Soo-Won realizes out loud as though finishing his own thought.

Hak is still focused, "If we're there when that happens, Li Hazara should be too-"

"-cut the head off the snake… victory could be attained with…" Soo-Won carries the thought forward.

"-within half a day with that strategy," Hak admits.

Hak and Soo-Won are facing each other, realizing they've found the way forward together, when they suddenly feel the eyes of everyone in the room on them. How long had they been finishing one another's sentences this morning? The synergy of it all was that of… only those who had known each other well for many years. Hak looks away coolly. Soo-Won clocks that and slowly pulls his eyes off his old friend.

"Then, tomorrow," Keishuk finalizes their discussion, "In the morning, we go to war."

And for the first time since he entered, Hak looks at the princess - who is now staring at him in return, troubled, then looks away as though her heart can't take it anymore. ...suddenly that she had been so quiet this whole time strikes him as strange. But everyone is rising and he has to go with Tae-Woo. But mentally he's back to where he started here with her - what has happened…

Seeing Hak and Soo-Won together like that… was more heartbreaking to Yona than she ever could have imagined. Not only because of their past, but because of what was proposed to her last night. That all these plans… Hak wouldn't be there tomorrow to see them through.

"My understanding is she'll be staying with the king from now on…" Joo-Doh explains to Jae-Ha as he gestures for him to leave.

Hak stops in his tracks at that.

"Lord Hak…" Tae-Woo turns to see what's wrong.

No, no, no - Yona sees what's happening.

Hak turns around to face her - she's intensely aware of Keishuk watching the scene. She at first looks away from Hak as though nothing is going on, then for the briefest of seconds flicks her eyes at him with the best expression she can of, "It's OK."

But she knows he knows she'd convey that no matter what in this situation. And for very good reason - he needs to get out of there before he can't control himself anymore.

And that is happening - Hak's mind is racing with things he doesn't want to think about, heart pounding about what he wants to stop if it's happening, and his hands are about to start following very emotional orders. So he turns, with the help of Tae-Woo yanking on him, and forces himself out the door.

"Come with me," Soo-Won whispers to Yona.

"It's OK. Joo-Doh's right," Yona conveys to Jae-Ha before turning and going.

Jae-Ha presses his lips in frustration once more, then heads away to find another dragon.

Immediately in Soo-Won's room-

"You need to stop him. Go do what we spoke about before he does something none of us can take back."

Soo-Won grabs a cloak for her, then opens a side flap of the tent for her escape.

Yona pulls the hood over her hair and runs through the rows between tents, searching and searching for Hak. Every minute feels like the loss of an hour, her tensions rising impossibly as she goes. She's out of breath-

-an arm grabs her and pulls her back into a tent.

It's a small, dimly lit space full of linens - as Yona gasps for breath, she looks up to see him - Hak. Thoughts left behind, she lunges into his arms, knocking him onto his back on a pile of clothes. He's instantly kissing her, arms wrapped around her torso, desperately feeling inch by inch of her deeply missed body.

Yona still hasn't caught her breath, and she's very aware they're past the "safe week" now for this... but in the throes of this moment, missing him this hard, needing him this badly, she's determined to calm down her beast without words.