Chapter Text
Last time:
Ever since she could remember, Princess Yona has had dreams of Hiryuu, her previous incarnation. They have a mentor-student, relationship, and Hiryuu has tried to teach Yona everything she needs to know about the history of her kingdom. Because of this, Yona grows frustrated with her father’s attempts to shield her from the reality of Kouka Kingdom’s many issues. Despite this, she tries to make the best of the resources available to her in the palace, which includes learning more about her instructors’ lives outside of the palace, dancing, and maintaining a healthy level of chaotic energy by targeting certain people (usually Hak).
He wants Yona to be able to grow up carefree, without any worries. She need not know about how fragile peace is, or of the corruption and poverty that run rampant in his kingdom. For if she knows nothing, the people cannot condemn her for inaction. She must be kept safe.
In the distance, he hears a woman scream, “Get back here you brat!”
King Il chuckles, “I wonder what Yona did this time? Perhaps young Hak is with her today. I’m glad. It was getting to be a bit too quiet in the palace.”
Chapter 5
A few months have passed since Hak’s utterly amazing first impression on Instructor Myung-sook. Autumn has graced Hiryuu castle with cooler weather, changing leaves, and a certain princess’s impatience.
Yona doesn’t care that she’s six years old (six and a half!). She doesn’t care that she’s still a child in the eyes of all—her father, Hak, Soo-won, even Hiryuu. She’s a princess, and she has a responsibility to her kingdom. Yes, she’s doing well, no, excelling in all of her classes and in all of the duty’s that are expected of her, but that’s not enough. How can she possibly help her people if she doesn’t even know what kind of help they need? Can she even call them her people when their lives are so unbelievably different?
She lives in a different world.
Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating! She’s tried a million different ways of persuading her father to let her out of the palace, but none of them ever work, and she’s had it with the unbearably stifling stream of patronizing placations:
Flashback
“Father, what is the kingdom like?” little Yona asks as she crawls up into her father’s lap. Her eyes are widened as far as possible in her best attempt at puppy-dog eyes.
King Il chuckles, patting his daughter’s head fondly. “Kouka kingdom is a peaceful, prosperous place, Yona. Everyone is happy, and there are no wars.”
Yona tilts her head and smiles. Turns the cuteness up several more notches. “Really?” she gasps, “Then could I go outside the palace and see the kingdom?”
She really, really hopes this will work. Her father has become so much more careful about her safety recently, with the recent death of her mother. She understands; she still feels the pain of loss herself, but—
“No.”
Wait, what?
“No, Yona. There’s no need for you to go outside of the palace. Are you not happy here? Is there anything you want that cannot be provided for at Hiryuu palace?”
“That, I…” She wants to say it, but she can’t. Her father can’t know about her plans to change the kingdom; he’ll just become even more paranoid about her safety. So, she bites her tongue and looks away. “No, father.”
Satisfied at the response, Il lets his daughter down, patting her head one last time. “Is that all, Yona?” He smiles at her nod and turns back to his paperwork. “Now, father has a lot of work to do, so why don’t you run along and find Hak or Soo-won to play with.”
End Flashback
She grits her teeth. Ok, so if getting out of the palace with her father’s approval won’t work, then all she can do is sneak out without anyone knowing. Nodding her head at the decision, Yona gets to work on a plan.
Hak and Soo-won look at each other in mutual exasperation.
“Princess Yona, would you like to play hide-and-seek? Look at this picture I drew for you! Do you want to check the kitchens to see if the cooks are making anything yummy today?” Soo-won tries.
“…”
“Princess Yona, how are your lessons going? I heard that you’ve started dancing?”
“…”
Hak narrows his eyes. “Princess, your father has arranged a marriage between us, effective today.”
“…”
Ignoring the surprised gasp and congratulations of Soo-won in the background, Hak impatiently grabs a glass of water and dumps it over the princess’s head. He smirks at her immediate screech. Heh. Finally, a response.
“Ack! What the—? HAK! Get back here, you impertinent cretin! Wait till I get my hands on you; we’ll see who’s laughing then! STAY STILL YOU BASTARD!”
Hak’s grin mockingly stretches across his face as he dances around her wild swings. “Swearing is bad, Princess Yona. Wouldn’t want his Majesty to hear you say such words! Oops,” he quickly ducks under a sharp chop. Interesting. A year ago, none of her swings would’ve even come close to hitting. “Are you sure you’re a princess? With that filthy language, one might think you were raised in the streets.” A tilt of the head lets a shoe fly by in a gust of wind. “My, my, resorting to dirty tricks, are we? I see it isn’t only your tongue that’s unclean.”
Yona makes quite the sight: hair in disarray, missing a shoe, eyes glowing with murderous rage. Hm, maybe he pushed her a bit too far? Ah well, the princess is always more fun when she’s mad. She’s…she’s right in front of him.
“Ha!” Yona screams her victory, tackling her friend to the ground. Somehow, she’s managed to get her hands on another glass of water and gleefully proceeds to dump its contents over the boy’s head. Ooh, revenge is so sweet. Now she just has to esca— “Ow!” She accidentally bites her tongue as her position is abruptly switched with Hak’s. With the taste of iron filling her mouth and an aching tongue, she can do nothing to stop the tears stinging the corners of her eyes.
Soo-won doesn’t know what to do.
There’s a storm of blue and red in front of him, and he wants to step in, to separate his two friends, but…he winces as he sees Princess Yona viciously bite Hak’s arm.
That might not be the best idea.
Well, at least the princess is acting more like her usual self? Anything is better than that spaced-out disconnected look she’d adopted for the day, after all. Still…the prince looks back again. Oh dear, Princess Yona looks like she’s ready to grow claws and fangs after that last jibe from Hak. Perhaps he should go find someone? But considering the escalating violence between those two, he probably shouldn’t leave them alone.
Alright, that decides it! If he can’t leave Hak and Princess Yona by themselves while he finds someone to help, the only solution is to deal with the situation himself. He’ll make his father proud by taking matters into his own hands.
Soo-won gives himself a firm nod and looks up to see Hak pinning the princess to the ground. He freezes.
A victorious smile spreads across his pale face. “Aha! So you are betrothed! But Hak, I must remind you that such actions are still highly inappropriate even if you are to be wedded. Pinning a young lady to the ground, no matter your affections for her, is not acceptable in public! I’m sure King Il will forgive you this time, so no worries. Oh, congratulations, you two; I’m so happy for you! When will the wedding…” The prince trails off.
Oh. This is very interesting. Hak seems to have finally noticed his compromising position on top of the princess, judging by the glowing red shade of his face. Eyes blown wide, body locked in place, and was that steam rising from his ears? It’s only unfortunate that Princess Yona seems to be completely oblivious to the situation. The anger seems to have left her body in wake of confusion, having felt Hak’s sudden shift in mindset.
Soo-won hides his smile behind his sleeve. This has the potential for years of entertainment. Besides, the Princess and the Bodyguard? It’s perfect! They’ll make such a cute couple~
Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ （*´▽｀*）
It’s a quiet night in the palace. Lights are out, its residents asleep. With a few exceptions. A little princess peaks her head out of her doorway to take in the current situation outside. The dim glow of the moon reveals guards at every corner, vigilant in their watch. Not deterred in the least, she mentally calculates.
For the past two weeks, Yona has been staying up late and waking up early in the morning to observe the patrol patterns in the palace. Of course, this had the side effect of her acting like the undead during the day, but who’s going to notice? As a result of these daily efforts, the princess finally noticed that there was always a slight loss of attention in the guards at the end of each two-hour shift. Some would fall asleep, or stare into space for minutes on end, or simply lose their professional posture.
It’s been only an hour since the night shift began, so another half an hour or so should do it. Once the stars are aligned, it’ll be time to go.
She can be patient—it’s all she’s been doing for the past few weeks.
…
Yona’s eyes fly open. Crap, what time is it? She didn’t mean to, but she accidentally drifted off while waiting! Hurriedly sliding open the door, her eyes immediately seek out certain stars with practiced efficiency.
The results are almost, but not quite damning. There are less than fifteen minutes left until the next shift.
Without wasting time on double checking her preparations, Yona quickly slips out the door and into the courtyard. Even though the guards are half asleep by this point, they’d still notice if someone walked right in front of them, so she has to crawl behind the bushes to escape. She grits her teeth through the stinging pain of sharp thorns scratching her arms when she leans a bit too close to them. Brambles tug and tear at her fine clothing and she pauses to yank out a clump of hair helplessly tangled with nature. Focus. This could be her only chance to see for herself the lives her people live, so she needs to concentrate! Ignoring the burning in her muscles, the stabs of pain along her forearms, the sharp rocks cutting into her knees, the princess reaches the end of her cover and pauses.
The only sounds are the soft whistling of a drafty night, a breeze whose caress is an encouragement on her journey. Deep breathe. Yona shuts her eyes, concentrating only on what her unreliable night vision cannot tell her. To her right, soft footsteps pad rhythmically, fading away. An owl lets out a mournful wail, crickets create a dull buzz in the air, but there are no other human sounds. Perfect. Without spending another moment hesitating her decision, Yona snaps her eyes open and bursts out into the open. As planned, there is an open courtyard in front of her—the biggest obstacle to successfully sneaking out of the palace. But with the wind in her face and the moon shining on her hair, she feels like the most exhilarated girl in the world with all her hopes just within reach and—
A hand shoots out of the darkness and yanks her behind a pillar, another covers her mouth.
NO!
She was so close! So close. Immediately, the princess jabs her elbow behind her, but another hand catches it. There are two of them. It’s a futile effort, trying to muscle her way out of the iron hold the other has on her, but she can’t help it. Why? Why did this have to happen? Tears begin to sting her eyes as Yona slowly falls limp.
No.
No, she will not let this end here! Her eyes shoot open, a determined glint setting them ablaze as they focus on the offending hand covering her mouth. Then, the princess of Kouka Kingdom and reincarnation of the great King Hiryuu opens her mouth and bites down hard. Abnormally sharp canines sink into soft flesh and the little princess viciously bites down deeper even as the coppering twang of blood fills her mouth and her captor flails around in an increasingly frantic manner.
“Owwwwww! Ow! Ahhhhh Yona! Yona stop biting me!! Owowowo—”
Wait a minute.
Opening her eyes again (when had they fallen shut?) the princess connects with her surroundings once more. Didn’t that voice sound familiar?
“Shhhh! Hak, you’re going to give away our position! Don’t be such a baby, did she really bite that hard?”
“Shut up, Soo-won! You’re not the one being bitten here! I bet that if she’d bitten you, you’d be rolling around in the dirt by now!”
Untensing her jaw, Yona turned her head. “Hak? Soo-won?”
“Who else would it be?” Yep, that grouchy voice could only belong to Hak. And that meant…
“Princess Yona I’m so glad you’re okay! We were so worried when you started spacing out last week, walking into walls and doors and showing up at random dignitary meetings and tripping during dance class and falling asleep in the hallways and—”
“Ok, ok, I get it!” Yona cuts off her friend with red blooming across her cheeks. “So I was a bit of a zombie for the past two weeks. But that doesn’t explain why you two are here right now?”
A sigh rumbles through the chest still pressed against Yona’s back as the other member of this group takes a step back to release the princess. Hak gingerly holds his left hand, examining it.
“What is it with you and biting people?” he mutters under his breath. Finally, he looks up (down) and meets his princess’s eyes. “We were worried about you, duh. Did you really think that we wouldn’t notice how nervous you were all day? Yeah, you’ve been kinda weird lately, but you’d never been so crazy as to ignore Instructor Myung-sook before. Obviously, we knew something was up, so we both decided to watch this courtyard today. It’s the only way you know to exit the palace, after all.”
Yona winces at the memory. Not only had she spaced out during dance class today, but she’d said ‘whatever’ to the instructor, too. No one says ‘whatever’ to Instructor Myung-sook. The tor—practice that followed…
The trio shudders in unison.
Then Yona catches it. “Wait, what did you mean by ‘only way you know’? Does that mean there’s another way out? Does father know about it? What kind of illicit dealings have you been up to in your nonexistent free time, Hak!”
Twitching at the accusation, Hak looks from the indignant shorty to the unhelpfully innocent-looking Soo-won before swallowing his instinctive retort. Deep breathes, Hak. Don’t hit the princess of your entire kingdom, that would be very bad. And immature. With a lot of consequences. Like extra training. Ok that’s enough of that! (When his mind willingly brings up thoughts of Mundok’s idea of training, that is a very, very bad sign)
“You shouldn’t be looking at me, Princess.”
“Huh? What do you mean, if it’s not you then who—you can’t mean…” she trails off, turning to stare at the bunny unconvincingly miming whistling while avoiding her gaze. “Soo-won?!”
“Eheheh Princess,” he laughs nervously, “I just happen to know of a slight weakness in the palace walls that may or may not be rather well-hidden by the extensive gardens…not like I regularly use this and several other openings to sneak outside occasionally or anything…”
“…”
“…”
A vein begins throbbing on both Yona and Hak’s foreheads in unison. In unspoken agreement, they march forward and each mercilessly grab one of Soo-won’s ears, Hak twisting sharply and Yona muffling his pained whimpers with her hand.
“Now,” Yona says, sickly-sweet syrup dripping from every word, “my dear Soo-won, I’d absolutely love to have a nice conversation with you about palace security right now, but I did not spend the last two weeks developing eye-bags just to throw away all of my plans before I could even try to follow through with them. So here’s what we’re going to do. You will lead us out of this palace without getting caught, and after we return, you’re going to tell me about each and every hole in this palace’s security that you’ve been concealing. Understood?”
Soo-won pales at the growl that entered his princess’s voice. How was it possible for a seven-year-old to sound that terrifying? And her smile…sharp canines bared under stretched lips—it was like a dragon staring down its prey.
“Y-yes ma’am!” he yelps.
“Good.”
And then it was gone, dragon retreating under human skin, crushing weight released from his chest.
What was that?
Filing the thought away for later, Soo-won stands up, brushes down his clothes, flicks his hair over his shoulder, and pouts at his friends. “How hurtful! Can you two only get along when you’re both mad at me? What kind of friendship is this?”
“Who would want to be friends with this impertinent cretin?”
“Who would want to be friends with this spoiled brat?”
Soo-won laughs, breaking up the spontaneous glaring competition with the ease of one who has done so a million times before.
“Not that this isn’t amusing, but don’t we have somewhere to be, Princess?” Yona immediately ends the stand-off with a kick to Hak’s shins, skipping over to Soo-won. “
Yes, there’s no time to waste. It’s a miracle we haven’t been caught yet, so lead the way, Soo-won!” The two quickly slip into the shadows, ignoring the muffled cursing erupting behind them as Hak scrambles to follow.
It’s almost unnerving, how easy it is for the three children to slip under the notice of supposedly well-trained palace guards. Even though Yona had chosen the night of a new moon to minimize her chances of being discovered, there were countless moments when the snap of a twig or the crunch of leaves should have betrayed their location. But not once did a guard take action.
Hak clenches his fists, glancing over at his princess. She’s biting her lips, eyes narrowed, taking note of each transgression and oversight. There are too many to count, even for her, who has had no formal training in what good palace security looks like.
How long has this been going on? It’s a thought shared between the both of them, and they glance at Soo-won. Did he know about this?
Shaking her head, Yona takes note of yet another thing to add to the increasing number of questions she has for her childhood friend. She hasn’t even left the palace walls yet! The thought sends another rush of determination through her, warmth shaking away the fatigue that had been plaguing her for weeks. Her lifelong cage draws ever closer, soon to be breached. Too much has been hidden from her for too long.
“The hole’s right behind these bushes, we just have to crawl under this branch, then we can slip right under the wall!”
Ugh, more bushes. Yona’s clothes were already ripped beyond repair and close to becoming one with the ground given how much dirt was covering them. But Soo-won’s already disappeared ahead and Hak’s giving her a judgmental look, so Yona exhales, pushes away her disgust and reluctance, and begins crawling.
A hand pushes away the branch in front of her. Confused, she looks up to see Hak glaring to the side, arm still keeping the obstacle from smacking her in the face.
“What are you waiting for, Princess?” he grunts, “We don’t have all day.” Beaming at him in appreciation, she scampers through the cleared path, grasping the hand offered to her at the other end. She leaves behind a choking friend whose inattention causes him to lose his grasp on the branch, which promptly smacks him in the face.
But Hak’s yelp of pain is overshadowed by the sight before her. Absentmindedly letting go of Soo-won’s hand, Yona takes tentative steps forward, arm raising hesitantly. They’re in a dark alleyway, but just meters away, firelight from the intersecting street casts dancing shadows along the wall as chattering voices filter through the air.
Soo-won places a hand on her shoulder.
“Welcome to Kuuto City, Princess Yona.”