Curiosity could not kill the cat

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/50480788.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Fandom: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Relationship: Hiryuu & Zeno (Akatsuki no Yona)
Characters: Hiryuu (Akatsuki no Yona), Zeno (Akatsuki no Yona), mentions of the
other dragons, Original Dragon Warriors (Akatsuki no Yona)
Additional Tags: Blood and Injury, Major Character Injury, Blood and Gore, Mild Gore,
Blood Loss, Self-Mutilation, Fucked Up, what the fuck, What the Hell,
what, abuse of writing authority by author, I Am Sorry, choking on
blood, he is simply curious, bro is discovering things today
Language: English
Series: Part 1 of what the hell
Stats: Published: 2023-10-01 Words: 2,192 Chapters: 1/1
 Curiosity could not kill the cat
by Visumper

Summary

It was hard to forget the pain, but it was even harder to forget the feeling of his flesh pulling
itself back together. He could feel the muscles reaching for one another like opposite
magnets, blending together as if they had never been torn apart.

It didn’t hurt anymore. Anything he ever felt in the past few seconds disappeared almost
instantly, as if it were never there.

It made him curious.

(or: zeno discovers what the full extent of his power is... yeah... um.)

Notes

HI I have no idea what compelled me to write this,,, anyways hello Yona fandom i hope we
are not all dead just yet

been a major akayona fan for years and this is the first fic i write for it oh dear.

its nothing overly graphic (by my own standards, I ran out of adjectives) but just another
warning please read the tags,,,

See the end of the work for more notes

“Curiosity killed the cat,” is a fairly common phrase.

It’s often used as a warning not to do anything stupid.

The cat knows it’s going to be killed, but its curiosity was too strong. The thing is, Zeno
knows this isn’t a good idea. After all, what if he was wrong? It could’ve been a one time
thing.

He wasn’t gifted with any power like the other dragons, right?

That was what he thought at least, until he got cut that one time. He felt the pain– it was
searing, agonizing. It was hard to forget the feeling of sharp metal slicing through flesh,
digging deeper and deeper– reaching for bone.

He remembered screeching in pain, blood gushing out of the wound as the man who cut him
smirked, lifting his sword to strike another blow.

It was hard to forget the pain, but it was even harder to forget the feeling of his flesh pulling
itself back together. He could feel the muscles reaching for one another like opposite
magnets, blending together as if they had never been torn apart.

It didn’t hurt anymore. Anything he ever felt in the past few seconds disappeared almost
instantly, as if it were never there.

At first, he was incredibly confused. His eyes wandered hesitantly to the wound, expecting to
see open flesh and a waterfall of blood. Instead, he saw pristine and untouched skin. His
clothes were torn where the sword had cut, but his shoulder did not hold a single scar.

He thought he had imagined it all, the soldier cutting him, all the blood, the pain. That all
changed when the man’s eyes widened in terror, sword clattering to the ground behind him as
he turned tail and fled almost instantly.
The word he shrieked was “monster.”

The soldier said it with so much fear. Zeno remained sunken on the ground in shock, hand
pressing against his skin. The flesh didn’t fall through when he touched it. He tentatively
applied small amounts of pressure. His skin still didn’t cave.

“There’s no way that was real,” he muttered as he shakily rose to his feet. His legs trembled
like a newborn deer’s as he stumbled his way back. Hiryuu– he needed to find King Hiryuu
and the other dragons. Surely King Hiryuu would know something about this.

Nervousness swam in his veins as Zeno made his way back to the others. When his king saw
him, he raced towards Zeno, taking him into his arms. The yellow dragon stumbled on his
feet as he was enveloped in the warmth of his king’s hands.

“Zeno! There you are– I was so worried,” Hiryuu backed away and placed both hands on his
shoulders, violet eyes scanning him up and down for injuries. “Are you alright?”

Zeno backed away a bit, raising his hands to show he was fine. “I'm alright. More
importantly, how are you? And the others?” he inquired nervously. Hiryuu’s smile faltered.
“They’re still out fighting,” he looked out onto the battlefield. “But I believe it should end
soon.”

As worried as he was about his flesh rebuilding itself, there was also an underlying
excitement. Never before had he ever been able to contribute to battles. He was always on the
sidelines, being protected by either King Hiryuu or the other dragons. If regeneration really
was his power, maybe he could help more. Maybe he could do something now, other than be
a burden on the battlefield.

“Um,” he started nervously. Hiryuu’s hands lifted from his shoulders, intently listening. “Ah,
um. Sorry, nevermind,” he quickly said instead of the words he wanted to say. Hiryuu’s head
tilted ever so slightly. He looked as if he wanted to say more, but decided against it.
“If you decide you want to talk about it, I’ll always be here.”

—————————

This is a bad idea, Zeno recognizes, as he locks the door to his room. This is a very bad idea.

If he’s wrong, he will die. And then one of the other dragons would find his body– and then
King Hiryuu would find out and…

It’s not a good idea.

But Zeno hadn’t been able to quell the stirring curiosity in his chest for the past few days. It
started off with small cuts across his arm, which healed almost instantaneously, just like the
slice across his shoulder. And then he wondered what was the extent of the injury his body
could heal. The slash from the sword was deep and gruesome, and definitely would’ve done
some permanent damage. He could’ve died, maybe, had he bled out.

If an injury like that could heal, what else could?

It was just a knife. It was just a small knife, but could definitely do some damage. Not nearly
as much as the sword could, but still enough.

The sword was more of a flesh wound than anything else. It hadn’t sunken deep enough to
fully decapitate his arm. Could he only heal flesh wounds? What about broken bones? Was
the regeneration always this fast, no matter what injury it was?

Zeno rolled up a cloth and wedged it into his mouth, then lifted the knife against his arm. It
shone with a bright, regal glimmer. Its handle was decorated with fine and intricate patterns
and details.
It was a gift from Shuten, meant to be used for emergencies if he ever needed to protect
himself when Hiryuu or the other dragons couldn’t.

He would be… disappointed if he knew this is what I was using it for.

Zeno raised the knife higher into the air, lining it above his arm, before firmly shutting his
eyes and slamming it down into his arm. Searching hot pain exploded from his blood as it
splattered across the room. He felt the knife press into the bone of his arm, sending tremors
of agony through his entire system. Biting down on the cloth, he willed himself not to
scream.

He remained frozen still, as if stuck in time, before feeling the familiar reach of flesh. This
time, he could feel the disrupted part of his bone morph and change shape, reverting to how it
was originally. Hesitantly, he cracked open his eyes to witness the last bits of flesh connect
and the tip of the knife force itself out of his arm. It fell to the ground with a clatter, splashing
into the pools of his own blood. Turning over his arm to examine it, it looked completely
fine.

He was left without a single scar.

Zeno had found that the only sign of injury would be the blood he spilled from it. But his
wounds always closed before he had the chance to lose too much. Even when he did lose a
considerable amount, it was if his blood cells regenerated as well to make up for the loss of
it.

The yellow dragon grimaced. He really didn’t like pain or all of the blood and gore, but he
needed to know. The sooner he discovered the full extent of his powers, the sooner he would
be of use.

So, despite the logical side of his brain telling him to stop, the desperate side of his heart did
not listen. Picking up the knife from the ground, he winced when his hand touched the thick
red blood.
He could heal bone, too. He had just proved that. Could he heal anything? What about an
artery? An organ? An important vein? Would those be able to heal just as fast, too?

It was exciting, exhilarating, almost– finding out what he was truly capable of after being a
burden to his king and the other dragons for so long.

He raised the knife against his stomach this time, the tip pressing gently against the organ.
The stomach was an important organ for the human body. If he could heal this, too, then…

His fear was rapidly washing away, replaced with a mad excitement. He almost hurriedly
formed a firm grip around the adorned handle, pushing it through his flesh in one hard press.
Zeno kept his eyes open this time, wanting to see the regeneration first hand. It was
fascinating, the way his own flesh pulled itself together and forced the knife out. The veins
reconnected like wires, and his muscles merged together smoothly.

What about my neck?

The knife traveled its way up his body, to where his head connected to the rest of it almost
involuntarily. It was as if his hand thirsted for his own blood. Almost manically, he swiped
the knife across his neck in a singular sleek movement, blood splattered against the wall next
to him. Zeno gasped and choked as blood filled his throat, beginning to suffocate him.
Coughing, he spat out puddles of blood onto the floor.

This was a different pain from the others he had tried before– this one was more akin to
suffocation. When he tried to breathe, blood bubbled and gargled in his throat, dripping from
his lips. He was both terrified yet exhilarated at the same time. Nervous that he wouldn’t
regenerate, but excited to see if he could or not.

He coughed and spat more blood as he prayed that no one else could hear him.

It would be a disaster if someone came in. I wouldn’t be able to explain this.

His heartbeat accelerated as he felt the tug of flesh reaching for more around where he had
sliced his neck. Soon, all of the blood had drained from his throat, either dripping out from
his mouth or sliding back down his neck. Hacking up the last of the blood, Zeno laughed.

I survived.

He clutched the knife almost obsessively, immediately aligning it to his heart.

If I could survive that, then surely I can survive this too, right?

And if I can, then I’m pretty much invincible, right?

Despite his thoughts, there was still fear in the back of his mind.

A bone, my stomach, and throat are all one thing, but my heart is another.

Hearts are the center of a human, after all.

If I can’t heal this, I’m dead.

Would it be better to stop here? He could still fight with his regeneration as is. If he died now,
he would never get the chance to showcase his newfound power.

Listening to his logical side this time, he lowered the knife from his heart.

But if I couldn’t die even from my heart, that means I really am invincible.
The thought made Zeno beam with pride.

I can fight too, King Hiryuu. I can fight too, Guen, Abi, Shuten. I can fight, too.

Another thought that crossed his mind was that he had never injured the same place twice.
What if it was only a one time thing for each part of his body? That wouldn’t be good– he
would have just wasted his usages if that were the case.

He gingerly sliced open a small part of his arm, the same place where he had once previously.
To his relief, the wound closed up.

Except this time, his flesh began to change in feel, almost as if it were crystallizing. When his
body had mended itself, it had been replaced with shiny golden scales.

The scales of a dragon.

Zeno gasped in astonishment as he stared down at the scales. Tapping his nail against them,
he could feel that they were stone hard. This new discovery led him to do the same to his
stomach, repeatedly stabbing it until his bloodied raw flesh transformed into scales. As soon
as the scales glazed over his midsection, his knife was no longer able to penetrate his skin. It
ricocheted off of the scales and flew out of his hands, clamoring to the ground.

A rush of exhilaration flowed through his severed veins as his bloodied hands hovered over
the scales.

My skin becomes impenetrable if I injure it enough.

Zeno’s eyes wandered to his legs.

If the flesh of my legs turned to scales, would it be as strong as Shuten’s?

His gaze shifted to his arm, which was partially covered in the dragon’s scales.

If I cut off my entire arm, would it grow back as the claw of a dragon’s? Like Guen’s?

He didn’t want to think of Abi’s power. He cringed, almost shutting his eyes at the thought.

Maybe not. I doubt my eyes could turn into scales, too.

The yellow dragon remained slumped on the tainted floor. The overwhelming scent of iron
intoxicated the air. Zeno broke himself from his thoughts.

I need to clean.

I need to clean.

I need to clean.

As soon as the thrill had worn off, the feeling was quickly replaced with panic. He quickly
got up off of the floor and scrambled to the bathroom to wash off the knife, his hands, and get
some rags to clean the floor. Blood washed down the sink thickly, mixing with the cold water.
By now, the blood had already caked onto the parts of his body that were still flesh.

Zeno scrubbed, as a tingling delight returned.

He smiled joyfully,

Despite the blood-filled room

Within closed doors.
End Notes

hi... yeah..

yknow usually I'd have more to say for my ending a/n,, but um. yeah. i have no words for this
one,,, sorry zeno you are still my favorite character i promise

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