Disclaimer: I don't own 'Akatsuki no Yona' or any of the characters.

The story is set somewhere after chapter 100+ but has no references to any specific events, no spoilers whatsoever.

They have just finished their sword practice and were resting in the shade of a big tree. Yona was panting heavily as she leaned on Hak and stretched her arms.

"Aaah, I'm so tired that I can't even move!" she complained, still looking happy.

"That's the point, right?"

"Right! I feel like I'm getting stronger!" her eyes were beaming with enthusiasm.

"And you actually are getting better at this. However…" Hak said pensively, but didn't follow up. "No, nothing."

"You still don't approve, do you? I'll be careful, I promise!" Yona turned to him.

"Princess, you know exactly how I feel about this, but your order is absolute to me and you already have a significant progress with the sword," he closed his eyes with a tired expression on his face. "That's good enough."

"But you really should stop worrying so much. I'll protect myself. And I'll protect you some day."

"You say it so easily…"

"Hak…" Yona reached for his hand. It looked so large between her little palms. She traced a few lines on it as Hak watched her fingers move, dazed. Her touch on his skin made him flustered.

"How many more scars will you get protecting me?" she asked after a small pause.

"It's nothing, I'd get them either way," he said as he observed his own hand, covered with scars and scratches, being held gently between two smaller hands, also covered with scars and scratches now, albeit not as much. The same tiny hands that just several months ago were white and smooth and smelled of flowery perfume, never knowing filth or pain. "And besides, I don't mind. They say a man looks more handsome if he has many scars," he added nonchalantly.

Yona smiled to his remark.

"Say, Hak, would I be more beautiful if I fight a lot and get many scars too?" she asked suddenly, with a strange expression on her face that Hak couldn't comprehend.

"You'd always look beautiful to me," he replied, and immediately cursed himself for saying too much.

As expected, she gave him a surprised look.

"I thought you considered me ugly! Didn't you always say that?"

Hak felt blood rushing to his cheeks all of a sudden and hoped she wouldn't notice that. He did so well, hiding his feelings behind teasing, so well, to make her actually believe it was nothing but a joke, annoying to the point she asked him to stop. But right now when he was feeling her fingers wrapped around his hand – she still didn't let go of it, when she was asking strange questions all of a sudden, when she was – again – insisting on protecting him, he was losing his composure. The glass wall between them that he maintained so persistently was crumbling, and he, the mighty ex-general of the Wind Tribe, was scared. Scared of dragging the person who was the most important to him into dealing with unnecessary feelings when she had other things to worry about.

"I don't remember saying anything," he said, trying not to look at the princess. "Stupid, maybe, but ugly? Why would I say such a thing?"

"Hak, you're the worst!" Yona pouted and immediately turned away from him, letting go of his hand.

"Just forget about this, princess. I'm stupid and unrefined." Hak felt like he had to say something, but nothing decent came out.

He heard Yona giggle.

"You always said that… Back in the palace, do you remember? But I never really thought you were stupid."

Now it was Hak's turn to be surprised.

"Rude, yes. And not cute at all. Unlike…" she dropped the sentence mid-way, but they both knew who she meant.

He wasn't looking at her, trying to contain the anger that suddenly surged at the mention of that person. Without realizing it, he dug his fingers into the ground with force, wishing it was Soo-Won's throat instead.

It felt like a lot of time passed but in reality it was only a short moment before Yona spoke again:

"I'm glad you are with me though. And sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to let you go…"

Hak took a deep breath. He was glad that Yona wasn't looking at him for a while and didn't see his little outburst.

"You don't need to wonder about it, princess. I won't go anywhere," he said in unusually serious tone. He wished he was calm, but he totally wasn't. The way this conversation was going felt so wrong in many ways.

"But is that okay, Hak? Haven't I forced you to come with me? Didn't my father's orders bind you? Am I not restraining you, not letting you do what you want?"

Yona moved a bit to face him and looked directly into his eyes. She reached out to touch his face, forcing him to look at her.

"Tell me right now. If you would like to leave, I'd let you go. If there is something you want to do I'd let you do it."

"If you touch me so much I'll want to do weird things again," he warned her. At least he had to warn her, as looking in her mesmerizing amethyst eyes made him lose the last remnants of self-awareness. What the hell was she thinking? What's with all these questions?

"What do you mean?" Yona blinked. Her expression turned from determined to puzzled. She didn't realize what kind of effect her actions had on her bodyguard.

"Princess. Let me tell you something," Hak started from afar. "If I wanted to leave, I would have done it long ago. It's not just your willfulness and not your father's orders either."

"What is it then?"

"You are very important to me, princess. I decided to protect you because at that time I felt it was the right thing to do. And it is still what I want to do. I want to be there for you. With you. I love you. It's that simple," Hak felt as he just jumped from a high cliff into a cold mountain stream, but there was no turning back.

He pulled her closer, making her lose balance a little, enough that her lips were nearly touching his. Feeling her breath caress his face was intoxicating by itself.

But before he could say anything else, she suddenly did something he never expected her to do.

He wasn't sure how to respond to that shy kiss she just pulled off, it felt unreal. But somehow it wasn't a dream. The invisible barrier that Hak always felt between them was gone, shattered by this fleeting moment. He ran his fingers through her tangled crimson hair, and kissed her back as gently as he could.

After they pulled back from each other, Yona put her hand up and touched her lips in disbelief.

"I… I feel the same. You are very important to me as well," she said after a while. "Now I understand what Jae-Ha once said…"

"What did he say?"

"That you have always been mine."

"That droopy-eyes… I guess he was right for once," Hak said but put a mental note to himself to punch the green dragon anyway.

"I'm happy though! I thought that you could never feel the same because you are staying with me only out of duty."

"I wonder who gave you that idea."

"You did."

"As you know I'm just stupid. Let's forget about it."

Yona's smile could rival the brightest rays of sunshine, as she reached to kiss him again.