huang yutao is not like the other soldiers.

she doesn't fight for fun, or drink barrels of ale in the dining hall late at night when she thinks no one else is looking, or flex her arms like jongin and chanyeol do when the chambermaids come around.

(she's thought about telling them that kyungsoon and baekhee aren't interested, but she likes watching them make fools of themselves, and the long nights pressed between the two smaller girls' bodies are all the more sweeter for it.)

yutao doesn't like the stickiness of blood on her hands, staining her skin, or the rush of battle. huang yutao does not feel excited by it. she just feels tired.
but yutao is strong, and smart, and can handle her own better than any man in prince wufan's army.

and it is for these reasons that when yutao notices wufan looking worn out and ill, sallow skin sinking into his cheekbones, that yutao corners wufan in the throne room with her hands pressed into her hips and demands, "tell me what's wrong, duizhang," and isn't surprised in the least when wufan puts his big palms on her shoulders and says, "yutao, i have a job for you."

yutao is wufan's righthand woman, has been since they were kids and their parents realized that wufan needed someone to take care of him and yutao was showing talent in wushu at just three years old. wufan is a good man, an intimidating exterior that hides a soft underbelly, and yutao thinks that's why they get along so well. she isn't pretty like other girls, a nose too sharp for her small face and long hair that she hasn't cut since she was a teenager and realized braiding her hair was easier than cutting it every three days when it grew past her hairline and tickled her neck.

she pats wufan on the chest, not even feeling the gold buttons on his shirt through the calluses on her hands, and silently wonders why wufan looks so nervous.

"tell me what you need."

--

yutao is going to kill wufan.

the forest is dark, and damp, and she has enough twigs tangled in her hair to house a small family of squirrels. yixing neighs quietly beside her, wet nose nudging against her fingertips. her hand finds its way into yixing's soft mane, pure white almost fluorescent in the dimness of the woods, and yutao irritably blows a piece of hair out of her face.

"'go find the princess', he said," she grumbles, dropping her voice down to wufan's baritone, "'it'll be easy,' he said." tao scratches yixing lightly and hops over a log stuck in the path.

yutao has done a lot of dumb things for wufan in the name of friendship, but this is by far the dumbest.

as a prince, one of wufan's responsibilities is to get married to a princess, and his parents have already picked out the perfect match; a young woman from the royal family in one of the neighboring regions, younger than yutao but rich and beautiful and the daughter of the richest king in the country.
unfortunately, because nothing in wufan's life (and yutao's by extension) can ever be easy, the young princess had been kidnapped weeks ago and is now stuck in a large castle in an abandoned town, guarded by - what else? - a fire breathing dragon.

(did they even have dragons anymore? she thought they'd all been killed by the hunters for their hide and teeth,)

and because yutao can never resist wufan's puppy dog eyes, she's now on her way, to the castle, in the dead of night, to rescue the princess and bring her back to wufan to be married. it's all ridiculous in her mind, especially because she knows that wufan and the prince from next door (junmyeon, she thinks his name is) have a thing and if wufan just told his parents they'd be totally fine with it, it's not like it's the 16th century.

but wufan cares too much about what his parents think, and that's why she's here.

goddammit, he owes her.

--

it's nearly two hours later that tao comes upon the edge of the village, the sun beginning to creep up on the horizon. she slides off of yixing's back and startles slightly when he whines and bites at the sack slung over yutao's back. yutao reaches behind her and pulls out an apple, petting yixing's neck while the horse crunches on it.

"i don't see any damn dragon," she mumbles, twisting yixing's reins around her hand as she slips out from the cover of the forest. the castle looms in front of her, tall and shadowy, but yutao isn't impressed. there's a single light on in the tallest tower - of course - and yutao leads yixing into the town.

it's small, little huts that remind tao of her grandparents' home she visited as a kid, and she grins, running her free hand over the straw door flaps of one of the houses.

a rustling sound startles her and she tenses, sliding her wushu stick out of her pack with a practiced flick of her wrist.

more rustling, and then a young woman pokes her head out of a nearby hut. she's very pretty, delicate features and hair bright enough that yutao has to squint to look at it. the sun has broken the horizon, casting strange shadows across the village, but yutao isn't scared.

"oh!" the woman says, surprised, when she sees tao, and she disappears back into the hut. it's a few more seconds before a young man appears being dragged by the pretty blonde, and yutao shifts her weight. the man is pretty too, a toothy smile he shines at yutao that pushes his eyes into slits.
another man follows them, and yutao wonders how many people live in this supposed abandoned town.

"hello!" the pretty woman calls, waves her delicate hand before leaning into the second man. "we don't get many visitors around this part. are you here for the princess?"

yutao blinks, confused.

"yes?"

--

the woman's name is lu hai, and the two men are minseok and jongdae, respectively. lu hai is touchy, presses a warm kiss to tao's cheek as she leads the younger woman into the house, and tao glances at both of the men to see them smiling lightly.

"like i said, it isn't very often we get visitors. there have been more since the princess locked herself in the tower, but-"

yutao blinks. "locked herself in the tower? i thought she was kidnapped."

jongdae snorts, hooks his chin on minseok's shoulder and blinks at tao with eerily catlike eyes.

"that's bull. sehuna threw a fit because her parents betrothed her to a prince without asking her, wu something i think-"

"wufan?"

it's the second time yutao has interrupted, she's not usually this rude, but this is important.

"that was it! apparently he's the most handsome man in all the lands which isn't possible because there's no way he's more handsome than me, but..."

minseok smacks jongdae's arm and lu hai laughs.

"don't be rude, jongdae."

yutao blinks for a second as the two start bickering, lu hai watching where she's curled on the arm chair with affection in her gaze, and yutao glances out the window at the castle.

"so has anyone tried to get her down?"

minseok shrugs, scuffs his feet lightly against the wooden floor.

"kind of. sehuna is really... stubborn. when she ran away and her parents couldn't get her down, they made up the story about her being kidnapped, complete with dragon and everything, hoping her 'true love' would come and rescue her."

(yutao's a little disappointed at that. she was hoping she would see a real dragon.)

"but everyone who's made it up there has ran off once they meet her. we've been trying to warn everyone, but they won't listen."

yutao raises an eyebrow. "is she really that bad?"

the three exchange a glance that yutao can't even begin to decipher.

"she's just very... particular."

the word is loaded, and yutao can't figure out why.

sun shines through the cracks in the walls, warming yutao's skin, and she realizes that she's wasting daylight and wufan really wants her to be home by tonight, 'so you don't miss my party, yutao, you're my best friend, you can't miss it!'

yutao pushes herself up from the couch and stretches, pretending not to notice the way everyone's eyes jump to the flat curve of her stomach.

"thank you guys for all of your help, but i really have to go. i have a princess to rescue."

--

it's another half an hour before tao finally escapes the 's clutches, and the trek up to the castle and inside is barely a blink of an eye compared. she leaves yixing down at the foot of the castle, leaves him a armful of apples and kisses the top of his head before she takes a deep breath and pushes open the doors.

the castle is clean, and spacious, and not at all what yutao was expecting. she sweeps her braid over her shoulder and calls into the silence, "hello?"

there's no response. she's not sure she was expecting one.

a tall staircase looms before her, polished marble and some sort of dark, shiny wood railing that looks fun to slide down on early saturday mornings. wufan is a stickler and never lets her slide down his railings.

a few quiet steps up the stairs, and one of the pictures on the wall catches yutao's attention. it's of a young woman, maybe tao's age, with pastel pink hair and white pale skin. a delicate crown is resting on her head. she's gorgeous, even though she isn't smiling, and yutao hums.

yutao scurries through the halls and up the stairs, light on her feet and her wushu stick clutched in her hands.

"princess?" she calls after another few staircases, and still nothing.

she looks out the window and realizes she's high up, nearly at the top of the castle, and now she's irritated. at wufan's parents, for being old fashioned and stuffy; at wufan, for making her go on this stupid quest for some princess he's never even met; and now at the princess, for not answering her.

she adjusts her vest, twists a corner, and finds herself face to face with a large wooden door. it's the only door down the hall, and there's no way this can be anything but the princess' room. yutao tightens her braid, straightens her belt on her men's tunic, and then kicks open the door.

a flurry of movement and sound and yutao finds herself flat on her back, wushu stick held up as a barrier between her and her attacker.

"who are you?"

a subtle lisp, a slight nasal, and pink hair is all yutao has to take in before it clicks.

"princess?"

the woman - sehuna, it has to be, it looks exactly like the girl in the pictures in the hall - sits back on her heels, weight pressed into yutao's stomach, and crosses her arms over her chest.

"who wants to know?"

yutao narrows her eyes.

"yutao. prince wufan sent me."

sehuna - she's even more gorgeous in real life, wow, this isn't even fair? - starts, does a doubletake and then scoffs.

"why wouldn't he come and get me himself if he wanted to rescue me?"

yutao hooks an ankle around the small of sehuna's back and pulls sehuna down onto her in order to flip them over, pinning sehuna underneath her. she leans in close and chuckles at the way sehuna shivers.

"let's just say... you're not his type."

sehuna narrows her eyes, scoffing.

"well, he's not my type either, if he wants to know."

yutao raises an eyebrow, leans up so she's straddling sehuna, strong thighs pressed on either side of sehuna's slim hips, and spins her wushu stick absently between her fingers.

"so what is your type, if i may ask, princess?"

she sees it coming. she totally does. she's totally not surprised, in no way, whatsoever.

(that's a complete and utter lie.)

"not boys."

yutao laughs, surprised, and rolls off of sehuna.

"well that makes two of us."
"do you know how many men have come knocking at my door since i was a kid, claiming to be the perfect prince who will 'complete me'? do you know many dates my parents have set me up on, hoping i'll finally just settle down and pop out a couple of babies? i'm just so sick of it."

"i see now why you ran away."

sehuna glances over at yutao, something peculiar in her eyes, and shifts closer.

"do you? do you really see? do you understand what it's like?"

yutao hums thoughtfully.

"personally, no. my parents never really expected much of anything from me except to be really good at wushu and watch out for wufan. the poor boy can't take care of himself for ."

the laughs that bubbles its way out of sehuna's throat is raspy and genuine and makes something warm burst in yutao's chest.

"sounds like perfect husband material."

yutao shifts onto her back, gets herself comfortable on sehuna's rug and watches as sehuna does the same, relaxing in a way yutao doubts she's done in a long time; she recognizes the stiffness in her shoulders from being around wufan for so long.

"he means well, but he's really dumb."

"aren't they all?"

yutao laughs again, tucks her arms under her head, and thinks that maybe sehuna isn't so bad after all.