misnomers

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/45265507.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Relationship: Yoon | Yun/Zeno (Akatsuki no Yona)
Characters: Yoon | Yun (Akatsuki no Yona), Zeno (Akatsuki no Yona)
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2023-02-23 Words: 637 Chapters: 1/1
 misnomers
by Kaleyanne

Summary

Zeno makes an observation and Yun makes one right back.

"You're not scrubbing," said Yun, letting an idle threat wander into his tone as he threaded his
needle.

Zeno's shoulders jerked up like a cat asked if he'd seen the canary today. Immediately, Shin-
ah's long robe got another dollop of soap and the Yellow Dragon rubbed it vigorously around.

Over his shoulder, Zeno spared Yun a dim smile, but the answering huff seemed to encourage
him to let it be and focus on the laundry.

"This is a waste of my time, so you'll do the rest of the wash," Yun muttered, just loud
enough that Zeno could perceive every word. "Soaked through with blood, ripped clean in
half on this diagonal wound--"

He covered the lump in his throat by complaining louder.

"--And you don't take care of your clothes on a good day! Your hems are all fraying and you
get dirt everywhere, carousing like you do! And then you have to get the others involved. It's
not so bad with Shin-ah because his clothes are black, but Kija only wears white!! Everything
stains white so when you get him worked up-- what are you laughing at, Yellow??"

Because Zeno's shoulders were shaking even as he wrung out Shin-ah's clothes.

"Well, we call you 'mother,' but Zeno wonders if that's not because the others know nothing
of husbands and wives."

Yun choked on air and threw aside Zeno's ruined robes just to give himself time to think of a
comeback.

"I feel sorry for your wife!! Imagine you running some poor girl ragged like this! I hope she
left you and went back to her mother's!! Before dinner was ready, even!"

Zeno smiled serenely, giving Shin-ah's robe one last shake.

"No, Zeno was a very good husband, in quiet times. Anyway, the missy gets blood on her
clothes, too, sometimes."

"Don't change the subject!!"

It was wrong to blame Yona for things she only learned by bad and worse examples, and Yun
huffed and puffed his way through the rest of his mending, before tossing the cooking pot at
Zeno’s head and ordering him to get on with that, too.

"You know what it is," Yun said suddenly, as he inspected Zeno's wash. "They all need
mothers. You, not so much. You need a wife."
Zeno laughed, a whole orchestra of sound that threw his head back and nearly upset the soup
pot he tended.

"Zeno isn't taking applications at this time, but..."

"Shut up, you eternal teenager."

The wash really was done perfectly. No stains were in evidence, nor soap residue, nor stale
water smell from being dried improperly. The only real problem remaining were Zeno's own
clothes, which Yun was finally forced to give up as beyond his ability to repair. He was going
to end up spending at least another night reworking their budget to get more clothes for the
idiot seventeen-plus-whatever-year-old. Twice already!! Yun was beginning to miss the Zeno
that Kija felt needed to be taught the way of the dragons, because once Yellow got going, the
other three combined didn't cause nearly enough grief to keep up.

He had more practice at it, Yun supposed. What a pain.

In the meantime, while Yun pored over his accounting, Zeno was stuck on cooking duty.
Aside from needing to yell at him every few minutes to keep him from sneaking bites to
Pukkyu, it went smoothly enough-- though it was, of course, still Yun's prerogative to inspect
it.

"It'll do," he said briskly, tasting the stew. Yun could think of half a dozen ways to improve
the flavor or texture, but Zeno, being neither a pretty boy nor a genius, could only do so
much. "You're not bad at this kind of thing, for such an old married man."

"'Such?'" Zeno echoed, head slumping. "Why did you have to add 'such?'"
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