“Maybe it was both?  Love for a king and mercy for his people…” 

There was silence for a long time in the room until a melting icicle dropped water down JiYong’s neck.  Without thinking he flung his arm up and the icicle disappeared in the sheet of flame.  When he lowered his gaze once more, he was shocked to see Dara pressed cowering against the wall with a fresh spray of white ice fanned behind her.  Slowly he flexed his hands, unsure whether to go near her or not.

“Dara, you know I would never use my fire against you.”  His head hung, hair flicking over his face, shielding it.  “Once was enough for many lifetimes over.”

“That was an accident.”  Whispered Dara and forced herself to sit up.  “JiYong, little wonder your kingdom is falling apart.  If you rule by sheer impulse and anger as you are now… no kingdom could function under such a rule.  What… would your father say of his lands?”

“My father and you were the only people I respected.  I have neither of you in my life anymore and my kingdom means nothing to me.  My fire was made to destroy, I will use it to destroy.”

“No JiYong.  Your fire is a tool.  You may use it for good or evil as you choose.  Your brother uses the same tool for evil, please JiYongie, please use it for good.”  Suddenly Dara straightened.  “At least, please, stop your brother from using his fire for evil.  JiYong if you do not stop him now he will conquer your land and then where will he stop?  All he wants to do is conquer, crush and destroy.  You have to stop him JiYong for the sake of everyone else in both ours and other kingdoms!”

JiYong watched the ice princess of Ilindria as she pleaded with him.  Her eyes deep blue in their urgency and her hair teased loose from the plait she always wore it in.  For the first time JiYong noticed that the blue shimmer deep in her hair had spread so that now her hair was almost a translucent blue with a silvery white haze over it.  The fire king sighed again and dropped onto the floor beside Dara. 

“I wish you had come much sooner.  For the sake of my people and myself.  Your reasoning and my inability to refuse you, may well have saved many lives and much unhappiness.  Taeyang and Daesung as you may know, were made my army generals and built up what was once the most feared army in the world.  They have recently been in another land helping them fight against invaders.  My home army is… sadly rebellious at the present time.  TaeYang has been working with them but even the golden sun himself is having some trouble.”  JiYong smiled somewhat bitterly at the rabble he had made of TaeYang’s beautiful army.  “Daesung is also my official court counsellor and will be arriving shortly to give me a report of the war and also… remind me of his friendship.”

He stopped suddenly.  “Why did you come?  I mean to warn me about my brother?”

Dara looked back at him, her forehead crinkling as she tried to understand his question.  “I couldn’t just let him kill you.”

“Why not?”

“We… used to be friends JiYong.  I treasured your friendship more than I treasured anything else in the world.”

“So for a little girl’s memory I must risk the lives of myself and my soldiers?”

Dara stood up and JiYong’s eyebrows rose in surprise as she glared down at him, her eyes sparking blue ice.  “Heaven forbid that you should waste the lives of your soldiers! They should gladly risk their lives for their country and for their fellow countrymen! Not for me and certainly not for their king! Who would want to risk their life for such a spoiled self-centred brat!  I wonder that your country has not collapsed in revolution long before now! I thought I was coming to my friend and a man who cared.  Apparently I was wrong.  Perhaps it is well that your best friend is called the Golden Sun.  At last he has the firepower to deal with you.”

“Dara.  You never calmed me by using fire.  You used to place your cool over my fire and “deal” with me that way.  Remember?”

“I remember that person very well.  But he seems to have changed into a different person.  I remember nothing about the king of Seoulician from the JiYong I played with.”

Reaching up JiYong pushed one hand through his hair and Dara watched the scarlet roots in his hair glint and glow against the black.  “Well… a very large part of the JiYong you played with was made by the ice princess he played with.  She has not been part of his life for many years and he has forgotten her influence.  Perhaps, if she were to be part of his life again, the old JiYong would return?  Both Ilindria and Seoulian could then; maybe… possibly all live happily ever after.”

He spoke with mocking cheerfulness but to his surprise he saw guilt slip over Dara’s eyes and she turned away from him.  “I’m sorry I could not be part of your life JiYong.  I didn’t realise it was up to me. I thought… you didn’t want me, that you’d chosen your own kingdom.  So, I tried to take care of my own instead.  I didn’t do a very good job of that either and now, I guess I’ve ruined both kingdoms.  I’m sorry for not understanding.”

There was silence in the room.  Looking back out at the snowstorm that was now in full force over Ilindria, JiYong pushed one hand deep into his hair and roughed it back and forth.  After so long of simply obliterating anything that inconvenienced him, JiYong had no way of dealing with Dara.  He turned to look at her as Dara spoke again.  “I am most sorry for disturbing your kingdom from its serenity.”  The Ice Princess stood up, her eyes still bitingly bright.  “I will leave and allow your majesty to enjoy the fairy tale ending of his country in peace.”

For once JiYong ignored her sarcasm.  “You cannot leave Dara.  Where will you go?”

“Somewhere.  It was silly of me to compromise your kingdom by coming in person but I couldn’t think of any other way to warn you.”

“You said you cannot go home.  Where will you go?”

Dara sighed and pushed one hand through her hair.  “I don’t know where I will go but it will be somewhere I won’t endanger your precious realm any more than I have already.”

JiYong folded his arms.  “It’s already endangered.  You can’t make it much worse.” 

Dara held her hands out.  “Yes I can JiYong.  I still can’t control my ice.  Look outside, the winter I brought upon Ilindria is beginning to descend into this land as well and I have no way of stopping it.”

JiYong’s hand’s closed over hers.  “You are not leaving here.  As king, I place you under my country’s protection.”

“You can’t protect me JiYong! It was summer yesterday in Ilindria and now it’s in the middle of a blizzard! Don’t you see? As long as you keep me here I will be endangering your country!  It’s not safe for you as long as I stay here.  I have to leave.”

“Your winter will not overtake this land Dara.  I can promise you that if nothing else.”

“How?  What power do you have to stop the winter? To stop me? I can’t stop it JiYong.  I don’t know how or I wouldn’t have spread snow and ice through the whole country to alert my husband of my leaving.”

“Fire is stronger than ice.  You and I have established that clearly enough surely?  Your ice will never rule over Seoulian as long as I am alive.  You’re staying here until my brother has been killed.”

“If fire is stronger why hasn’t he stopped the winter in Ilindria?”

JiYong checked then answered confidently.  “He left it too late.  If he had known soon enough he could have melted it before the cold became too strong.  I am right here with you and your ice.”

Dara sighed and JiYong felt her hands relax within his.  “So you and your country do not get a fairy-tale ending after all.”  She spoke sardonically and JiYong’s lips twisted in answering bitterness.

“There are many stories in this world of people whose life do not have fairytale endings Dara.  I myself am hardly deserving of such an ending but I should be inhuman if I wished to deny you a happy ending.”

Dara looked up and JiYong was once again arrested by the cool deep in her eyes.  “You are not deserving of such an ending JiYong.  Neither am I.  We have, both of us, made enough mistakes in these past several years to last for the rest of our lifetime no doubt.  But, don’t your people deserve, at least one chance at their happy ending?”

“I have thought of no one save myself for these past three years.”

“Yes and just see how that thinking has advanced your kingdom so wonderfully.”

Before JiYong could think of a suitable response Daesung and TaeYang pushed through the door. 

DAESUNG AND TAEYANG BE COMIN IN YOOOOO!!!!! So excited it's actually quite sad. 

oh and THANK YOU TO ALL YOU LUUVLEY PEOPLE WHO SUBSCRIBED!!!! *happy tears*  please fell free to tell me if you don't like anything or think anything should be different or better, I am all up for criticism :D constructive preferably...

And this is really premature but... if I was to write a TAbisan fic the same kind of genre as this, would anyone read it?  I've felt guilty the whole time Iv'e been writing this cause it's Daragon when I ship Tabisan >_<

anyway thank you all SO much for reading :')