SPOILERS for Zeno’s backstory under the cut, and also some minor ones regarding previous White Dragons.
Summary: Zeno can see the ghosts of other dragons attached to the current ones—and that includes his original brothers. In which Abi is perpetually done, Shu-ten’s sole purpose in life is to be The Annoying BrotherTM, Gu-en was not prepared for all these ghosts, and Zeno just wanted to chill.
Thanks to @bookdancerfics and @tinydemondragon for your help betaing!
A link to the AO3 version will be provided soon.
I don’t own Akatsuki no Yona.
Zeno didn’t let himself look at the new dragons head-on until he joined the Miss, but when he did, his legs buckled. He hit the ground hard, and the living gathered around him worriedly. He had no eyes for them, though. No—his eyes were fixed entirely on the ghosts hanging out in the background.
“I hope he’s ok,” Abi sighed, peering over Seiryuu’s shoulder.
“Course he is,” Shu-ten snorted. He crossed his arms and turned his back on the spectacle that was Zeno, but one of his index fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on his elbow. He might as well have yelled his worry aloud.
Gu-en, though—Gu-en was—Zeno wasn’t sure what to make of Gu-en.
“Is he ok?!” he yelled, craning his neck over the dozens of ghosts attached to Hakuryuu. “Oi, let me through!”
“Our boy,” one of the ghosts warbled, and Gu-en cursed.
“Your boy is right here and fine, let me through!”
A hand on Zeno’s shoulder jolted him, and he managed to turn away from his past to peer up at the person.
“Zeno?” the Boy asked, feather floating in the wind. “Are you ok?”
“Zeno is fine,” he choked out. Then, remembering Gu-en—“Zeno is fine,” he repeated, louder. “Just tripped, that’s all!”
“You were standing still…” the Boy said slowly.
“Yes, yes,” Zeno waved off, hopping to his feet and beaming his best smile. “No matter. Let’s eat!”
“You just ate?” Hakuryuu wondered. Zeno chose to ignore him. Food solved everything; surely it would solve the mystery of his old friends’ ghosts. Not to mention how, exactly, he was supposed to talk to them without letting the new dragons know they had the original dragons riding pillion.
Now that Zeno had noticed them, it seemed the original dragons were never out of his sight. During the second dinner, Shu-ten reached as far away from Ryokuryuu as he possibly could to wave his hand through Zeno’s food in an attempt to steal it. He could hear Gu-en chattering away and Abi’s occasional quiet response, though he refused to look at them. By the time dinner was over, Zeno was more than ready to confront them.
Thankfully, Little Miss and the Boy took one tent, while the dragons and Mister took another. First watch went to Mister, so for the moment, it was just Zeno and the other dragons. All three of them dropped off to sleep quickly, claiming a need for “beauty sleep” (Ryokuryuu), exhausted from the day’s excitement (Hakuryuu), or just following the others’ lead (Seiryuu). For a moment, Zeno just lay there… and then he sat up, pasted a beaming smile on his face, and turned to face his ghosts.
“Hey! How are you guys?”
The looks he got back weren’t impressed.
“Really? ‘Hey, how are you,’ after hundreds of years?” Shu-ten cocked an eyebrow. “Not ‘guys I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you I’m immortal, let alone bother visiting over the years, not even when you were on your death beds’?”
Gu-en huffed and folded his arms, leaning back and using the pile of snooping White Dragon ghosts behind him as support. “I’m still bitter over that.”
“You’re not the only one,” Abi sighed, rolling his eyes. “Shu-ten may have taken a while, but we all settled down eventually. With our bond, it shouldn’t have been hard.”
At that, Zeno couldn’t keep quiet. He hadn’t wanted it at the time, but—“That goes both ways!” The other original dragons startled, and one of Hakuryuu’s ghosts shushed them as the new dragon rolled over. “That goes both ways,” Zeno repeated, quieter than before. “You knew where I was, and it wasn’t impossible to avoid the castle guards.”
“You’re right,” Gu-en agreed. “That’s on all of us. We’re brothers, and we shouldn’t have waited around for someone else to go first. And—”
“And nothing,” Shu-ten interrupted. “What is this, a funeral? The gang’s finally back together! Let’s celebrate now, and do the serious stuff later.”
Gu-en groaned, but didn’t point out that Shu-ten had been the one to start the ‘serious stuff’ in the first place. Sharing a glance with him, Zeno and Abi agreed to do the same.
“What would you rather do?” Abi asked.
“Story time!” Shu-ten beamed, purposefully drawing his lips back as far as possible to show off his fangs. “I want to know aaaaalllllll about what my little brothers have been up to in the last millennia!”
Coincidence? I think not. I love the fact that Yoon is in the Dragon Huddle. Not Yona, (the Crimson Dragon), and not Hak, (the adopted Dark Dragon). It's just normal human Yoon. I feel it shows some kind of progress in the lives of the Dragon Warriors since the original four. Or maybe I'm just overthinking this...🤔
