Warring Pyongyang // Reader x Countryhumans

Same Side

     "Y/N." North poked his head into the dining hall, where she was gossiping about Russia and Nipponia (whom still hadn't come downstairs) with Chagang and China. "Come with me."

      "Where are we going?" she asked, swiftly drinking the last of her tea, and jumping to her feet.

     She felt slightly like a golden retriever. Walk? Outside?

     'Maybe being trapped inside was getting to me,' she thought, following North into the lobby.

     "I need to go pick up supplies at the market," he said. "Make sure you dress warm."

     "Like a... date?"

     North glared at her. "Not like a date. I need to take you on a proper one. I just thought that you would want to go outside."

     Was her golden retrieverness that noticeable?

    Y/N lingered over her clothes. Despite North's denial of it being a date, she still wanted to look nice.

     She decided on her white jacket over a grey blouse and a black skirt with matching leggings, paired with her dark gloves and red scarf. It had gold tassels on the end, which she felt suited North's Communist aesthetic.

     North- who had only put on an olive green coat and grey scarf over his black button-down, gave her a double-take.

     "You look... good," he said, staring at her.

    Y/N blushed at the attention. "It's just a jacket." She fiddled with her fingers.

    "You always look good," North told her earnestly, looking away, causing her to blush even harder.

       Her cheeks were still burning when they entered the car lot. The guards, to their credit, didn't spare a second glance at them, other than to salute North, who greeted them by name.

     "Are you okay with walking?" he asked.

     Y/N nodded. She hadn't truly gotten to appreciate the weather earlier, so busy had she been with shovelling.

    Shyly, she snaked her hand out of her glove and pocket, hesitantly taking North's. She squeezed it lightly.

     He looked at her, eye wide, before squeezing back.

_________

    North felt Y/N's hand, free of its glove, grab his, and squeeze gently.

     When he turned to look at her, his eye widened.

     She was beautiful.

   This was something that he thought every day, of course, but right now was different- she literally took his breath away.

      Her (H/C) hair was down, something that most North Korean women didn't do, out of fear of looking unfashionable.

      But on Y/N, it didn't look messy. Instead, paired with her flushed cheeks and slightly parted lips, it looked downright wanton.

    North regained his senses, returning the squeeze. He felt his cheeks burn, and found himself thanking the Supreme Leaders that he didn't have a white flag base, as he had been quite often lately.

    Y/N smiled at him, looking almost shy to be holding North's hand in public.

     North squeezed her hand again, feeling the action mimicked in his heart.

      He repeated the words that he so often said to himself. Internally, of course. He could never bring himself to say something like that out loud, to put himself willingly in that vulnerable, bare position.