The Varied Path (Akatsuki no Yona Fanfiction)

Chapter 97: Light Humor

Now that it was all over, all four of the dragons plus Calista and Hak were smushed in the bigger tent, which was feeling very small all of the sudden. But with the sun set to come up in a few hours, no one could get a wink of sleep.

Jae-ha propped himself up on his elbows. A thought just occurred to him.

"Hak, shouldn't you have slept with Yona?"

"Bears won't come out here." He muttered back, half asleep. All of his energy was too drained to be dealing with the green dragon right now.

"Bears aren't the only danger." Jae-ha countered swiftly, eyebrows drawing together contemplatively when the Thunder Beast didn't rise to the bait.

Strangely enough, Yoon had switched places with Hak for unknown reasons to the rest of them, crowding the already cramped tent more than usual. It was getting hard to breathe in here.

But Calista suspected it had something to do with the fact that their red-haired princess couldn't look her bodyguard in the eye. Maybe due to their brief interaction during the Fire Festival.

She wasn't certain though, too caught up in the fight that happened later on in the night. It still boggled her mind how he managed to evade all of their attacks without any effort. Snuggling closer to the blue dragon beside her, she argued that it was to keep the cold out rather than the actual reason she knew it was. 

Zeno was curled up into a ball in an attempt to make more room for them, but in turn, it caused Kija to curve himself around the yellow dragon in order to give Jae-ha and Hak more space. It didn't do much of anything, but no one was going to tell the optimistic, trying-to-be-helpful Hakuryuu that.

"Shin-ah, really. I can just go outside." Calista tried to reason with him, doing her best to ignore how he was pressed up against her. Now definitely wasn't the time to be affectionate.

Not in front of all of their friends. She didn't want to give them an opportunity to tease them when they were all so exhausted. There was no way it would end well. 

The two of them were squished at the very end, and if either one of them moved, she feared the tent would collapse on top of them. Yoon would not be happy with that, and they probably wouldn't hear the end of it for as long as they lived.

Shin-ah had initially braced himself over her, throwing the covers of his bedroll over them to keep them warm and she nearly sent a knife at Jae-ha as she heard his snicker, but couldn't position herself properly to do so from underneath the blue dragon.

Instead, she wiggled slightly as she tried to find a comfortable spot on the ground that wouldn't stab itself into her battered body.

His arms had trembled with the effort of keeping his weight off of her, and after she whispered a suggestion in his ear, he almost choked.

Doing his very best not to crush her, Shin-ah was glad his fur hid most of the flush creeping up his neck as he rearranged her more comfortably on her side so that the uneven ground didn't dig into her back anymore. They were now facing each other, and he pulled her as close to him as he could.

With his arm draped around her waist, he was glad the others couldn't see the red dusting his cheeks. 

"... Are you warm enough?" He asked her quietly.

Calista stretched up ever so slightly, bumping the tip of her nose against his jaw. "Yes... thank you, Shin-ah..."

He shifted, unable to stop the proud swell of his chest as he heard the gratitude and love ring clear. Months ago, she wouldn't let herself be this open with him and he felt giddy at how far they had come since then.