"You've never braided your hair?" Haki's sitting cross-legged on the bed behind him as Izana sits on the floor.
"Why would I?" Izana isn't one to spend a huge amount of time fussing with his hair, just anything to keep up appearances, and beyond that nothing else really.
"You have such nice long hair though?" Haki trails her hand through his hair, twirling a few strands this or that way, fiddling with it.
"I didn't need to learn how to though." Izana leans back, and Haki pauses her fiddling for a moment. They rarely let down their walls like this, but this is nice.
"Would you mind...?" She begins to ask, with Izana relaxed in front of her, she feels that temptation welling up inside her.
"You can." Izana affirms, and Haki tentatively takes his hair and separates it into three different strands.
His hair is so soft in her fingers and smooth, as she wraps one strand over another, and then the next. Back and forth she works with Izana so comfortably right in front of her, and as she does so, she feels just his proximity and his trust.
"I will probably still have to take it out later." Izana answers truthfully.
"You could say a servant braided your hair as you got ready in the morning." Haki chides, since it's safer to not say she did so, and because Izana probably doesn't want anyone to think he did his own hair.
"And not that my fiancée skillfully did so?" Izana's voice is light and teasing, and Haki smiles as she works through his hair.
"Not if you want people to think we don't sleep together." They don't share a room, and they haven't done so before. Yet it would be very easy for people to get the impression that they have before.
"Ah." There's such a tease to that reply, that Haki both wants to unpack and knows better than to encourage. They've known each other a long time.
Yet despite the years, she still finds out new things about Izana. In private, he is able to speak more easily, and he seems less like the rigid king that grew up too fast, that had to grow up too fast.
"The rumors would be unpleasant." Haki reminds gently, as she folds hair overtop hair, watching as slowly his hair appears more and more elegant, neat with how carefully she's braiding it.
"I wouldn't want you hurt either." Izana isn't nearly as concerned with his safety and wellbeing as he is with everybody else's. Though truth be told, he keeps himself alive with the careful precision that he plans out. He doesn't want to die, and he also doesn't want Clarines to sink if he did die.
"Thank you, but you're more important as the king." Haki knows him, but she also knows their rank and just how he'll receive this gentle reminder.
"And you're important too." Izana's hand rests lightly overtop hers, pausing her braiding of his hair for a moment, "To me." He adds quietly, in such a quiet whisper soft tone that if she wasn't so close to him, she wouldn't have caught.
He's always cautious about their relationship, with the smarts to keep people from seeing beneath the veneer that they've carefully laid.
"You're important to me too." Haki keeps her voice carefully controlled; a trick she wishes she could blame Izana for teaching her to do, but she already knew how.
Izana lifts his hand up, the temporary warmth of it leaving as quickly as it came, and Haki goes back to braiding his hair. She doesn't particularly feel the need to disclose her heart right here at this moment. But she appreciates the little gesture so much anyway.
"Do you got a band?" She holds the end carefully in her hands.
"There's some in the top drawer over there." Izana gestures, and Haki hands off his braided hair to him.
"I'll be right back." She tells him as if she were telling him not to move or not to worry, and she opens the drawer up and sorts through it, to find a hair tie.
"You're not going far." Izana tells her as if she didn't know of the short distance she was traveling in his room.
"I know, and you'll take this out soon enough anyway. But let's see how it came out." And Haki takes her seat back on the bed and Izana's hair back and pulls the hair tie through it. Haki lets his hair go and watches as it falls against his back.
"I'm sure it looks good." Izana tells her without even taking ahold of his now braided hair to get another glimpse of it.
"You're supposed to check it yourself." Haki gets off the bed and walks around her fiancé, "And I think it looks good."
"You did braid it after all." It comes out so perfectly that Haki isn't quite sure if he's teasing her or complimenting her.
"You should still check it." Haki tells him, even as she leans over, and Izana reaches for her instead of his hair. His hands come to rest on her sides, and she leans down and closes the gap between the two of them.
Her lips press gently against his, and while this only lasts a few seconds or so, she feels close to him despite it. These gentle kisses help to remind just what the other means, help to profess love, and draw them closer together.
Haki knows a lapse in control would probably feel quite different than a gentle, chaste kiss does.
"Okay." He tells her when she pulls back, and he reaches up to grab his hair, swing if over his shoulder, and check it. "It does look good. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Haki feels the compliment from her head to her toes somehow, maybe it's the way he said it or perhaps the fact that he doesn't compliment her super often. Despite the fact that it feels almost silly that it does, her face goes slightly pink.
"I might leave it in then." It's left as an option, one that she doesn't know if he'll follow or not, but she leans down and steals another kiss, four, five, six, seven, or so seconds long. There are days where it is surreal that she and Izana are engaged, that they have a future together that will be as close as it is, and also that he loves her like this too.
It is more baffling to her that Izana loves her and wants to marry her, than if she were to say the King of Clarines loves her and wants to marry her. There's something more personal and awe inspiring about the fact that he loves her so personally rather than the impersonal titles that can so distract.