We’re going to continue that fine tradition now with Sasaki to Miyano, so get strapped in! Today, you’re going to get completely caught up in one fell swoop (as we usually wait until a tank is released before scanlating new content, so we’ve got several chapters to cover!).
Ready to dive deep into Sasaki and Miyano’s brand new relationship? Then head behind the cut!
Chapter 34: Sick Visit
Note: This chapter was released in mid-May, at the peak of the Coronavirus crisis in Japan, and Sensei admitted that while it was a timely chapter, she had also been wanting to write it for a while, so the timing worked out nicely.
On a rare day he doesn’t have any club activities to attend to, Tashiro invites Miyano and Kuresawa to go to a candy shop. When he recalls that Kuresawa probably can’t go after all, seeing as he’ll likely be going to visit his hospitalized girlfriend, Kuresawa surprisingly says he’s free and would like to go with them.
It turns out she attends school online for the most part but does occasionally attend classes, and today is one of those days, so she’s spending free time after with her family. When Tashiro wonders why he doesn’t go anyway, Kuresawa explains he doesn’t want to butt in on her time with her family. Besides…
Kuresawa: “It’s fine; I’ll join them once I’m part of her family too.”
Tashiro: “THIS GUY JUST MADE A WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT.”
Tashiro checks with Miyano to make sure he doesn’t have any plans either, and when Miyano hesitates before admitting that he kind of does have plans, Tashiro blithely nods. “Got it. You’ve got a date.”
Kuresawa and Tashiro both get the hint: “Oh right… His exam was yesterday, huh?” “And he’s been cooped up at home studying for the past week, huh?” “So you haven’t seen him in a whole week, huh?” “Don’t worry, we get it.” “HAVE FUN.”
Mortified by his friends’ gentle ribbing, Miyano checks his phone when a message arrives and receives the most disappointing news:
/Sorry, I’ve got a cold today./
Over at Sasaki’s home, we see that he’d actually been planning on going to the school to see Miyano, even running a fever as he was, but his sister eventually convinces him to stay home and recover, though he’s more concerned with the risk of Miyano catching his cold than his own health.
He gloomily texts Miyano the bad news, drifting off to thoughts of possibly being able to see him the next day provided his fever has broken…and then is woken by a rather unexpected sight:
Miyano: Nice to see you’re awake.
Sasaki’s understandably confused about what Miyano is doing sitting by his bed in his room, and Miyano explains he wasn’t going to come, but Kuresawa and Tashiro convinced him they should all three go on a little ‘sick visit’, and that Miyano should go and take care of him. Miyano hadn’t thought it was necessary, seeing as Sasaki had his whole family around, but they insisted. They’d then abandoned Miyano to care for Sasaki, heading off to have fun themselves.
Miyano had been missing him and mostly just wanted to peek in, and he begins to pull out the goodies he brought along to help him feel better, but Sasaki just watches him, woozy and happy he’s there, and says:
Sasaki: “Myaa-chan. I missed you.”
He apologizes again for not being able to meet up with him like they’d agreed, and Miyano assures him it’s fine. But seeing that Sasaki seems genuinely disappointed and lonely, he offers something he’s been working towards:
Miyano: “Then…would you like to try leaning on me?”
He knows that Sasaki holds back with him, and that he tries to be strong, but in moments like these, he can see Sasaki’s weakness, and so he makes an effort to let Sasaki know that it’s all right to be a little selfish, to give in to the things he wants, because Miyano will accept that.
So Sasaki does, gladly, but before he can so much as get a little bit closer to his boyfriend…they’re interrupted.
Satoko: “How’s your f…riend?” (I didn’t know you had a guest!)
Miyano: “Hello; I’m Miyano, an underclassman.”
Satoko: “Miyano-kun! Welcome~” (I’m his sister!)
Sasaki is murdering his sister inside his mind while Miyano skillfully navigates her offers of snacks and such. Being the polite little thing he is, he’s about to follow her from the room when she leaves, ready to offer to help her prepare snacks, when Sasaki reaches out and takes his hand, holding him in place. He quickly drops it, though, surprised at himself, and tells Miyano where he can find the kitchen.
Miyano leaves, and Sasaki silently berates himself for being so needy. It’s only, they’re dating, and Miyano’s in his *house*, and they were finally going to have some time to themselves, and he had to go and catch this stupid cold… Luck just isn’t on his side.
Miyano returns to find that Sasaki has drifted off in his absence, and catches sight of Sasaki’s desk in the corner, still littered with signs of how much studying he’s been doing recently to prepare for his exam.
He quietly settles on the floor beside Sasaki, who’s leaning onto his bed to nap, and quietly whispers, “Good work,” before laying his head on the bed beside Sasaki as well.
Sasaki wakes, eyes popping open to see Miyano right next to him, and apologizes for nodding off. In his sleep, the face mask he was wearing so that he wouldn’t pass his cold on to Miyano has come off, and with a soft leer, he asks Miyano:
Sasaki: “Did you try and kiss me?”
Miyano, flustered, replies that of course he didn’t; he would never jump someone while they were sleeping. Sasaki is touched, and then reminds him, a finger on his lips over the mask:
Sasaki: “I’m awake now.”
Even more flustered than before, Miyano reminds him that he’s got a fever, and that’s not really something they should be doing right now.
Eventually, Miyano takes his leave, urging Sasaki to feel better, and as he’s about to apologize for coming over out of the blue like this, Sasaki leans down…
…and finally gives Miyano the soft over-the-mask kiss he’s been wanting to do since Chapter 15.
Miyano leaves, feeling just a little bit guilty for finding Sasaki adorable even when he’s feeling terrible from a cold.
Sasaki immediately goes back to sleep and is already out when his sister finds him, remarking that it’s nice he’s made such good friends at his school.
Chapter 35: Handmade
It’s Valentine’s Day in canon, which means time for Miyano to angst over whether and how to give his boyfriend chocolates! Our story opens with Miyano at a bookshop looking over all the recipe books on how to make chocolates. He recalls that the year before, they’d traded chocolates they’d randomly bought at a convenience store, which makes him wonder if Sasaki had already been in love with him then, since it would have been six months before he actually confessed to Miyano. Yup, probably.
He feels bad for having made Sasaki wait so long for a response to his confession, and while he doesn’t think it could really make up for it, he wants to do anything and everything he can to try.
As he’s pondering over how to make this Valentine’s Day special for Sasaki, a voice calls to him, “Are you thinking of making some chocolates?”
It’s Makimura! Aka Miyano’s middle school crush who briefly and inadvertently made Sasaki feel a bit self-conscious and worried that Miyano might still have feelings for her.
Seeing Miyano in the recipe section and being a bright young woman who can put two and two together, she asks if he’s going to make chocolates for ‘that Sempai’. When he asks why she would think that, she says:
Makimura: “Well, your eyes were just so bright back then!”
He doesn’t quite understand what she means, and she goes on to explain that she really wanted to sketch his expression at the time, it was so striking.
She recollects that he had rather disastrous experiences in cooking class back in middle school, so he probably shouldn’t attempt chocolate making on his own.
Miyano mulls over this advice privately–he agrees he should make them with someone, but he can only think of one person he’d want to make them with, and would it be weird to do that with the person you’re going to give them to?
Makimura looks on and reaffirms to herself that yeah…it would’ve been really nice to have sketched them. She then takes her leave, but not without saying, “Let me take your picture if you ever cut the cake!” (‘Cutting the cake’ referring to, of course, getting married). Miyano doesn’t quite get the suggestion, but he lets it go.
He later calls up Sasaki with the suggestion they make chocolates together. After all, Sasaki mentioned before that sometimes he makes sweets for himself, and Miyano wants to make him something too, but he’s not really good in the kitchen, so a little insurance would be nice. Sasaki immediately recalls, to Miyano’s horror, “Oh RIGHT! Your friends had to stop you from using a knife that one time!” which Miyano begs him to forget.
Despite his teasing, though, Sasaki is touched by the thought, and Miyano misinterprets his quietness for hesitation, since he did just finish a long bout of studying and might be busy, but Sasaki assures him that he’d love to.
Unfortunately, his sister overhears this one-sided conversation and immediately begins tattling on him to their mother, because that is what siblings do.
Sasaki: “Sure, that should be fine…”
Satoko: “MOM! Shuu’s trying to make something again! (I heard him say something about chocolates!)”
Sasaki: “Sorry, could you wait just a sec?”
Miyano: “Of course.”
Sasaki: “STOP TELLING ON ME.”
Satoko: “You’ve been doing nothing but making sweets since you finished your exams! I’m gonna get fat with all this stuff you’re making!”
Sasaki: “No one’s telling you to eat it! Just DON’T EAT IT.”
Satoko: “But if it’s there then OF COURSE I’m gonna eat it! It’s friggin’ delicious!”
Sasaki: “Try some self-control, geez…”
Miyano overhears all of this and cannot help but chuckle in amusement, to which Sasaki accuses, “…You were just laughing at me, weren’t you?” and Miyano immediately responds seriously, “Oh no, I would never!”
At the Miyano home, Miyano finds his mother in the living room and asks if he could have someone over to make chocolates with on Valentine’s Day. His mother is, quite understandably, a bit confused.
Miyano Mama: “…You, who after failing to make pancakes FIVE TIMES IN A ROW swore he would never cook again…want to make chocolates with someone for Valentines Day? (Remember how you blew up the flour and broke the eggs and dropped the pan trying to flip the pancakes and served them half-cooked?)”
Miyano: “You can keep your voice down, you know…”
After her gentle teasing, she gives her blessing, wondering if it’s someone from school. He confirms that yes, it’s a sempai he’s making them with. She’s delighted at the idea of boys getting together to make chocolates and recalls that some boys even give them to their friends these days.
“That’s such a nice idea. Make some for me, won’t you~?”
Miyano steels himself, though, knowing this was coming and not intending to paint this as anything less than what it is.
Miyano: “The person I want to give the chocolates to…is a boy.”
Miyano Mama: “Oh, it is? You should introduce him to me sometime, then.”
Miyano: “…Oh, okay.”
And that’s that. Miyano feels like he needs her to understand what his feelings are, how serious he is about this, and goes on to explain that he really enjoys being around this person, and he wants to be with them going forward as well. “I…I love him.”
His mother only smiles at him, nodding. “Yeah. It’s nice being in love, isn’t it? I’m in love with your dad, too.”
She wonders if the person he wants to make chocolates with is the same sempai he’s just said he’s in love with, and Miyano affirms that yes, it is. She reminds him she’ll be out most of the day that day, but she’ll be back in the evening, so Miyano should invite him to stay for dinner, wondering if he has any foods he particularly likes or dislikes.
As she wanders into the kitchen to begin planning, Miyano quietly has a happy little breakdown on the couch. “…I’m so lucky she’s my mom…”
Valentine’s Day comes, and Sasaki comes calling. They manage to get through the chocolate-making process without blowing up any flour this time, and by the time Miyano’s mother returns, they’ve made some really gorgeous treats that they all three share for dessert. When it comes time for Sasaki to head home, Miyano tells his mother he’s going to walk him to the station, and she wishes Sasaki good night, inviting him back any time.
On the way back to the station (which we learn for the first time is the real-life Ten’ouchou Station in Kanagawa Prefecture, only ~45 min by train from Tokyo for anyone wanting to start a pilgrimage to SasaMyaa holy sites…or to just snoop on Google Maps), Sasaki pulls out a beautifully wrapped chocolate that he prepared with Miyano’s mom’s help while Miyano was in the bathroom.
Miyano is flustered, because he didn’t save anything to actually GIVE to Sasaki, thinking that the dessert they’d shared had been them giving chocolates to each other. He immediately darts into a convenience store, returning a few minutes later with a can of hot cocoa, clumsily wrapped with a ribbon.
Miyano: “Here, this is my chocolate for you.”
Sasaki is amused and gratefully takes it, and Miyano reminds him that next year for sure he’ll have learned to make something by himself that he can give to Sasaki. Sasaki is thrown by the statement: here, yet again, is Miyano demonstrating that he’s thinking about their future together.
As they part ways at the train station, Sasaki gently ruffles his hair and tells him good night, and though a little bit embarrassed by the gesture, Miyano still flushes happily as he tells Sasaki good night as well.
Walking back home alone, he stares at the beautifully wrapped chocolate, then lifts his head to the night sky, recalling the reactions of his friends and family to how he feels about Sasaki.
Tashiro, knowing they were together (or at least wanted to be) before Miyano told him.
Makimura, finding the way Miyano looked at Sasaki so striking, she wanted to commit it to a sketch.
His own mother, letting him know she understood how good it felt to be in love with someone.
And Sasaki himself, with that bright smile and easy, “Myaa-chan,” always there for him.
He continues on home with a smile and a bright flush to his cheeks.
Chapter 36: Lie
Our chapter opens with Sasaki nervously sitting in his room, clicking through a laptop borrowed from his sister to check a website. He’s been waiting for this day for a while, and it’s finally here: February 21 (yes, the day before Miyano’s birthday), the day exam results are announced.
He’s passed.
The shock of passing, all his hard work paying off, quickly gives way to relief, and Sasaki slumps against his desk, pulling out his phone to check the time. At 10:03 AM, he concludes that Miyano’s probably in class right now, so he shouldn’t call.
No, instead, he’ll just go directly to the school.
He returns the laptop to his sister, who hesitantly asks how he did. He says he passed and receives enthusiastic congratulations from his sister and mother. They definitely have to go out tonight to celebrate!
But before any decisions can be made, Sasaki is already at the entryway, putting on his shoes. His sister is confused about why he’s going to school. If he wants to let them know he passed, all he needs to do is to call them. Sasaki explains he has ‘other things’ he needs to do as well and exits the house to his sister once again telling on him to their long-suffering mother.
On the way to the station, he runs into Ogasawara, who was actually on his way to Sasaki’s place to pick up the guitar he’d stored in Sasaki’s room so he wouldn’t be tempted to play it while he was supposed to be studying for exams. Sasaki explains he’s heading to school and his room’s unlocked, so just go in and grab it.
Ogasawara asks him how his exam turned out, and Sasaki says he passed–Ogasawara? Yup, he passed too. But then why is Sasaki going to school? He could just call.
Sasaki: “…What does it matter if I go to school or not?”
After a beat, Ogasawara asks, “…Does it have anything to do with that BL fanboy?”
Sasaki is pretty shocked, wondering where Ogasawara got that idea from.
Ogasawara: “Well, I mean. It’s hardly like you to go to campus when attendance is optional (you’d even stopped arriving late when you DID have to go!). Plus you’ve ditched hanging out with me to go to bookshops with the BL fanboy.”
Finally working himself up to ask the question of all questions, he does so:
Ogasawara: “Are you…seriously dating him?”
Sasaki takes a beat, then reminds him it’s none of his business. Ogasawara agrees that yeah, it isn’t, but STILL.
Ogasawara: “Ugh, are you serious…?”
Sasaki: “What’s the big deal?”
He’s not happy at all that Ogasawara seems to be judging him, for whatever reason. He’s going to take precisely zero shit from anyone for being with Miyano, certainly not one of his closest friends.
The thing is…Ogasawara simply CANNOT HANDLE the thought of Sasaki and Miyano doing the kinds of things he’s seen in the BL manga that his girlfriend reads (which, we’re reminded, Ogasawara also reads).
Sasaki relaxes, realizing this isn’t Ogasawara being a homophobe necessarily; he’s just being really, really stupid.
They spend a few minutes discussing Ogasawara’s girlfriend’s taste in BL, and whether or not that has anything to do with Sasaki and/or Miyano, and just what sorts of ukes she likes, and what an uke actually *is*, which makes Sasaki quietly wonder just how he came to be sitting here, in the middle of the sidewalk, discussing BL with Ogasawara…and prompts Ogasawara to ask a very important question:
Ogasawara: “…So which are you?”
Sasaki is about to answer, when Ogasawara flailingly begs him not to. “When I stop and think about it, most people probably wouldn’t want to know that sort of thing about their friends.” Sasaki responds hotly with, “AND I DIDN’T WANT TO TELL YOU, EITHER.”
They part ways, and Sasaki is left pondering the question: Which is he?
At school, lunch break has just started, and Miyano receives a phone call from Sasaki. The first words from Sasaki’s mouth are, “I passed.” Miyano immediately congratulates him, but Sasaki follows it up with, “Can you come to my old third-year classroom?”
Almost before the words have even left his lips, Miyano is there, throwing the door to the empty classroom open to find Sasaki sitting in the back corner alone. “That was quick!” he laughs.
Miyano is surprised to see him at school, especially since third-years don’t have to be there anymore. Surely it’s annoying to come all the way to school when he could have just texted or called?
Sasaki laughs, reaching out to touch Miyano’s cheek. “…It’s not annoying.” No, it’s definitely not. It used to be, and he recalls a time when he hated being here so much, but it isn’t like that anymore. “Coming to school stopped being annoying,” he says, gently caressing Miyano’s nape, and flushing, Miyano covers Sasaki’s hand with his own. “…I’m glad, then.”
Well, since he passed, Sasaki feels like he’s earned a little something to celebrate. Miyano agrees, asking what Sasaki would like. With a devilish grin that says he’s been thinking about this for a while, he pulls Miyano down to sit between his legs, front to back, and whips out his phone to pull up an image he saved.
Miyano: “………What IS this?”
Sasaki explains that he saw this in a manga once and wanted to try it himself. Miyano warns him against getting too many ideas from BL, but Sasaki only laughs it off. A beat passes, and he asks Miyano how long he has for lunch break. Miyano shows the bentou he brought from home, which means he can start eating now and doesn’t have to worry about going to the cafeteria to order anything, so he can stay until the bell rings. Miyano then turns to ask what Sasaki is doing for lunch–
–and meets his lips.
Miyano gently pulls back, flushing, because they can’t do that sort of thing at school… Sasaki reassures him all he wants to do is kiss, promise, so…
Sasaki: “Can we just stay like this a little longer?”
Miyano burrows into him in silent agreement, but privately notes that Sasaki thinks this is just a matter of Sasaki having to hold back…not realizing that Miyano…wants to do things as well. He’s got wants and desires too.
Sasaki mistakes the torn expression on his face for pain, and Miyano quickly dismisses it, stammering a bit before he finally manages to find his words:
Miyano: “……..I’m not an uke.”
Sasaki: /”…What the heck is he talking about?”/
He’s VERY confused, and Miyano explains that that wasn’t really what he wanted to say, but everything he was thinking just got overwritten with BL terminology, so it came out like that, and then Sasaki realizes what the issue is.
Sasaki: “You’re you, Myaa-chan.”
Miyano swallows, steels himself, then makes his own desires known: “…I want to try again.” And that, Sasaki thinks, is just a really unfair thing to say right about now.
As they trade heated kisses and I love yous on the floor of an empty classroom, Sasaki thinks back to Ogasawara asking him ‘Which are you?’ As long as it’s with Miyano…he’d be okay with anything.
They are making out on the floor, though, and he spares a thought for the discomfort of lying on a bare floor in mid-February, asking Miyano if he’s cold where he is. Miyano assures him he’s fine, and Sasaki laughs, “…You know, I might find it hard to stop at just kissing when you say you’re ‘fine’ in this position.”
Miyano panics, flustered, and Sasaki teasingly reminds him that’s a lie.
Because he is lying.
Lying, because he knows he should be fine either way, but of course he’s got his preferences, positions he might feel more comfortable in, even though he knows that might make Miyano unhappy.
Lying, because they’re at school, yet he still wants to keep going, even though Miyano has told him he doesn’t want to do this sort of thing on campus.
Lying, because he said all he wanted to do was kiss…when he wants so much more now.
And our chapter closes on a panel of Sasaki already taking off his coat, straddling Miyano, who’s beginning to shoulder out of his own uniform, in an empty classroom.
[Next update: September 11]
SO. HOW ABOUT THAT? What do you think of these chapters, hm? That’s quite a lot of development in such a short time, and we’re eating GOOD in the SasaMyaa fandom! From Miyano’s mom warmly welcoming Sasaki into the family and encouraging her son to pursue love, to Ogasawara’s TMI breakdown, to a possible sudden ratcheting up of the physical relationship between the two, it’s been a wild ride! Leave your predictions in a comment as to what you think might be coming next! Will they get interrupted? Will they stop themselves with cool heads returning? (as a reminder, Sensei has not been one to draw explicit art really–though she has done it before–so I would not expect much if any explicit content, especially right now, since she’s very much been focused on building up their emotional relationship; it’s still interesting seeing them finally exploring some more physical intimacy and seeing how someone like Miyano, who reads so much BL manga, might have his ideas about a physical relationship influenced by the [good and bad] things he’s read in manga)
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In Chapter 14, with their respective secrets out in the open, Mitsuru and Inusaki start to rekindle the mood with some making out–only to be interrupted by a phone call from Mitsuru’s mom. Mitsuru informs her that he’ll be spending the night at Inusaki’s place, in light of the downpour (and even makes Inusaki talk to his mom as well; rude little shit XD). Mitsuru gives him one last chance to back out, if he really doesn’t want to do anything, and Inusaki eventually gives in with a reluctant, “…As long as we don’t go all the way.” (hey, someone’s gotta be the adult in this relationship!)
More making out ensues (this time with far less clothing), and Inusaki wonders if Mitsuru just really likes kissing. Mitsuru confesses he doesn’t really know–as he’s got nothing to compare it to, since Inusaki is his first love. When he whispers Inusaki’s name softly into his ear, Inusaki begs him not to do that–the tone of his voice reminds him too much of Kuro. Mitsuru irrationally is irritated by this, which Inusaki finds ridiculous, because well, they’re one and the same, right?
Mitsuru not-so-gently reminds him, wrapping his fingers around Inusaki, that he could never do THIS with a crow.
True to his word, they stop at handies and lie beside each other in Inusaki’s bed, talking. Mitsuru asks when he first learned he could speak to birds, and Inusaki relates his sad tale of being cursed out by a pigeon as a boy. Inusaki turns his question back on Mitsuru, asking how exactly his power works. “You don’t actually turn INTO a bird, right??”
Mitsuru confesses it’s not quite so fantastic as that: he only borrows their bodies for a short time, sending his mind out from his own body to use theirs. He first learned he could do it as a second-grader, when he saw some crows flying in the sky and thought they seemed so free and wanted to be like them. He doesn’t use his power too often, as it’s taxing, and the day he met Inusaki as Kuro was the first time he’d used it in a while. He’d only been speaking to himself when Inusaki overheard him, certainly not expecting to be spoken back to. Especially not when they’d barely traded more than a few words as humans.
He’d been instantly attracted to Inusaki, but when he realized Inusaki was actually falling for his crow self, that had been a shock: his rival was himself…as a bird. Inusaki reminds him teasingly that it’s his own fault for being such a cool crow, and he shouldn’t be jealous of himself.
He then goes on to say that he’s always hated his ability to speak to birds, certain it could never come in useful–but it led him to Mitsuru, so maybe it’s not so bad.
This, unfortunately, only turns Mitsuru on, so sleep is difficult to find.
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In Chapter 15, Mitsuru is seen turning down another offer to go out with friends to karaoke, as he’s got a date. He’s in college now, commuting from home, so he and Inusaki are still together. As he meets up with Inusaki for their date, he confesses he’s actually been thinking of getting a bird as a pet and wants Inusaki to help him pick one out. None of the pet shop birds quite fits, though, so they resolve to come again another time and instead go out to dinner.
After, they relax back at Inusaki’s place with a post-prandial cup of coffee, and Inusaki wonders if Mitsuru gets hit on at college; he does, but he assures Inusaki there’s nothing to be worried about. Still, Inusaki wonders what might happen if Mitsuru got confessed to by a girl who could speak to birds, like Inusaki.
Mitsuru doesn’t think he’d want to date anyone who’d actually use that as their selling point, it’s way too cringey. “Well you’re already dating someone cringey right now!” Mitsuru is confused: what about Inusaki is cringey in any way? Plus, he didn’t fall for Inusaki because of his power. “Maybe, but it’s what made you interested in me, right??” Sure, but he loves Inusaki for himself.
Dropping the L word, he waits for Inusaki to reciprocate, and while Inusaki can’t bring himself to use the same language, he does confess, “Well I’m the one who fell for you first; have no fear, I’m head over heels for you.” Mitsuru quite likes the sound of that.
It’s not their first time–that happened the day Mitsuru got accepted into university–but it’s still fresh and fun. They make an early night of it, though, since Mitsuru has early classes the next day. Thus passes life for them, and when Inusaki runs into another crow, he greets it warmly–freaking it out until it flutters away in a tizzy.
“I’m the only crow who’ll ever hit on you,” comes a voice from behind him, and Inusaki turns around, greeting Mitsuru with a bright, warm smile.
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In the final little extra, we get a little peek back at that ‘first time’ as Mitsuru receives his acceptance letter for college. Since he got in, he asks Inusaki to let him spend the night (he’s already told his mom he’s doing so and even taken a bath, so His Body Is Ready). After all, Inusaki was the one who told him they could finally go all the way once Mitsuru got into college. Mitsuru warns him to temper his expectations, since he’s never had sex before, and Inusaki confesses that, well, that kind of goes for the both of them, which surprises Mitsuru, who thought he’d at least done it once (a boastful lie on Inusaki’s part, alas). This suits Mitsuru just fine.
In another tiny short, Inusaki wonders how Mitsuru managed to jump into the same crow every time to speak to Inusaki–there’s hundreds of crows around, it seems impossible! Mitsuru explains that he didn’t use the same one; it was a different crow every time. “But…you always seemed just as cool every time I saw you!” Mitsuru explains that, if that’s the cause, then it must simply be that Inusaki was seeing through the crow to the cool Mitsuru underneath.
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And that’s all! Hope this little summary helped wrap things up for you Toritan fans! Thanks for reading!
]]>Apologies for the long delay in releases; I’ve been working on finalizing another novel I’ve been working on, and scanlating had to take a short break! We’re back, though, with a new piece to share in a moment, but first a quick plug of the novel: After a rather long while in the making, the final installment of the Fellfire Summer series is finally out! Head on over to Shoptember to make a purchase ($2), or buy the kindle version on Amazon (slightly marked up at $2.99 at Amazon’s insistence).
Three nations, on the brink of war—none of whom can afford one. Orexa cannot let the capture and torture of one of her citizens by Ruzian authorities go unchallenged, but with no standing army and only a tentative treaty with Vasque on the books, King Vizick is left with little recourse but to summon representatives from the sister nations and pray diplomacy will win out in the end.
But treachery snakes out from the woodwork before the Vasque delegation has even arrived at the Oresian fortress at Dunagrenn, and accusations fly fast in the direction of the Ruzian representatives. Will this meeting of nations succeed in averting a war—or merely start one?
Length: 140,000 words
Content: Contains male/male sexual content, so please be aware.
This book is the final installment of the original fantasy/(gay) romance adventure novel Fellfire Summer (free) and its sequel Argentine Winter ($2), available to readers for $2. If you would like to donate more to the author, simply input how many US Dollars ($) you would like to pay on the product page, or else leave the price at “$2”, add the item to your cart, and proceed to checkout.
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]]>If you missed it on tumblr, I’ve finally finished Argentine Winter, the sequel to my original novel Fellfire Summer (available for free here), and I thought I’d share it here, since many of you kindly checked out the first book. Please excuse the brief update for personal reasons!
Summary:
In accordance with King Vizick’s decree, the Holds are slowly being brought back to earth, though the task is an arduous one met with resistance from all sides. But while talks proceed well with Vasque to the east, tensions are mounting with L’ruz to the west, and when a Crownswatch Fell Mage stationed along the river border between nations suddenly goes missing, Lir of Bantam is charged with tracking her down—a task he can’t hope to complete alone.
Finnian of Layton, though, has absolutely no Fell gifts to speak of, making him hardly Lir’s first choice in companion to head a search party, for if they run into any trouble, he’ll quite literally be nothing more than dead weight dragging Lir down. The two must set aside their mutual distaste for one another and work together to rescue Finnian’s wayward twin Fiona—but in the course of their hunt, they uncover a decidedly more sinister plot brewing well across the border, deep in the heart of Ruzian territory.
Length: 114,000 words
Content: Contains male/male sexual content, so please be aware.
This book is the sequel to the original fantasy/(gay) romance adventure novel Fellfire Summer (free), available to readers for $2. If you would like to donate more to the author, simply input how many US Dollars ($) you would like to pay, or else leave the price at “$2”, add the item to your cart, and proceed to checkout.
This book is a digital book, and your download will be available as soon as you checkout. There is no download limit, no expiration period, and no DRM. Available formats are:
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. Follow the author for more updates on upcoming novels at @blayredelecour
Please consider leaving a review on this page after you’ve finished to share your thoughts!
Releases for September Scans have been slow as I worked to finish this, so we should be back to our usual release rate by the end of May. Thanks for your patience!
]]>Stalled en route to the Capitole by Everet’s first ever thunderstorm, Alaric and the new Ambassador bed down and wait for the weather to clear, engaging in an awkward but rather necessary discussion in the meanwhile.
Length: 9,700 words
This is a short story follow-up to Fellfire Summer (read original here), available to readers free of charge. If you would like to donate anything to the author, simply input how many US Dollars ($) you would like to pay, or else leave the price at “$0”, add the item to your cart, and proceed to checkout.
This book is a digital book, and your download will be available as soon as you checkout. There is no download limit, no expiration period, and no DRM. Available formats are:
If you would prefer a different format, please contact us and we’ll provide alternate formats as well, to the best of our ability. You may also contact us with any questions or concerns you may have. Follow the author for more updates on upcoming novels at @blayredelecour
Please consider leaving a review on the purchase page after you’ve finished to share your thoughts! This book is free to share, but if you’d like to encourage friends to read it, please direct them to this page so that they can download a copy themselves, as a way to help us keep track of how many people are enjoying the book. Thanks!
]]>When Commadont Alaric Monteval is asked to emigrate from his homeland of Vasque to neighboring Orexa on a long-term diplomatic mission, he thinks the move tantamount to retirement from his soldiering days and resigns himself to a quiet—and assuredly boring—life among the clouds atop the airborne country’s luxurious Holds.
However, he quickly finds himself wishing that the most intimidating hurdles he might be faced with were the opulent Oresian galas and the fickle moods of his new Holdmaster, Everet of Eizenthley, as he’s drawn into helping investigate an assassination attempt prefacing a coup d’etat.
Now the newly minted ambassador and his host must work together—a difficult task at times—to unravel the murderers’ plot before their world comes quite literally crashing down on their heads.
Length: 108,000 words
Content: Contains male/male sexual content, so please be aware.
This is an original high fantasy/(gay) romance adventure novel, meaning you’ll get sword fights and magic and men falling for men, and what could be better than that? It’s available to readers free of charge. If you would like to donate anything to the author, simply input how many US Dollars ($) you would like to pay, or else leave the price at “$0”, add the item to your cart, and proceed to checkout.
This book is a digital book, and your download will be available as soon as you checkout. There is no download limit, no expiration period, and no DRM. Available formats are:
If you would prefer a different format, please contact us and we’ll provide alternate formats as well, to the best of our ability. You may also contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.
Please consider leaving a review on the product page after you’ve finished to share your thoughts! This book is free to share, but if you’d like to encourage friends to read it, please direct them to this page so that they can download a copy themselves, as a way to help us keep track of how many people are enjoying the book. Thanks!
]]>For those of you new to the series or unfamiliar with these novels, the High Speed! novels by Ouji Koji are what Free! is based on. Volume 1 covers 12-year-old Rin’s transfer to Iwatobi and convincing Haru, Makoto, and Nagisa to form a relay team with him, culminating with their race and Rin’s departure for Australia. Volume 2 takes place 3 months later as Haru and Makoto enter middle school and deals largely with their forming a relay team with new friends, as well as touching on Nagisa’s struggles as he’s still in elementary school and Rin’s issues in Australia. Yamazaki Sousuke, a prominent character in Season 2 of the Free! anime, plays a large part in Volume 2.
While I haven’t translated these novels, I did write up detailed summaries with many select passages translated, so you can view then in PDF format for easy reading!
Download the High Speed! summary
High Speed! 2 summary
(of note, the HS2 summary is a bit sparser than 1, because I had less time and interest in being SUPER detailed; also, volume 2 was a LOT longer than volume 1, so I had less time and rushed through a lot of it, leaving only the largest, most important details of the book).
Enjoy!
]]>http://shoptember.strawberrywine.org
http://shoptember.strawberrywine.org
http://shoptember.strawberrywine.org
Over the years, we here at September Scanlations have amassed quite…the collection of unused or no longer wanted doujinshi, manga, BL magazines, merchandise, the works! It’s doing us absolutely no good sitting in our tiny Tokyo apartments, and while we could sell it back for yennies on the hyaku-en on Otome Road, we thought some of you guys might be interested in giving our extra stuff loving homes! More room in our apartments = more excuses to buy new manga and doujinshi to bring to you guys!
We’ve got BL magazines we scanned (Ciel, TresTres, Drap, Gush, the list goes on!), BL manga that turned out not to be a good fit for September for one reason or another (usually because they were one-shot anthologies, alas XD), mountains of doujinshi from a number of fandoms, and more!
Browse through our (hopefully!) well-organized goods, and check back often, because we’ll be adding more and more stuff as we go along (and we’ll accept no judgment from any of you as it slowly dawns just how much crap we’ve got between us here at September Scans XD;). It’s our first time operating a shop, so we may have some bumps as we get started, but we hope you’ll bear with us!
All goods bought here are, ultimately, second-hand, as they went through at least our possession first (so hardly anything’s really new and wrapped), but unless otherwise specified (clearly, in big bold letters), most of what we offer here is in like-new condition. These are pieces that we bought and never used, so there’s no undue bending of the spine or torn pages or anything of that sort for anything tagged ‘like new‘. Further, any sort of triggery stuff will be marked as much as possible, so be on the lookout for notices in product descriptions—or drop us a message via the contact form if you want to make absolutely sure, and we’ll be happy to go into more detail about the contents/context of any questionable material.
Our items also have useful areas for reviews, so if you see something you’ve either read before or own yourself, do us a favor and leave a review! Everyone benefits that way :D
We’ve tried to organize items as well as possible, so feel free to use the menu above or the search form. You can search for authors (like ‘fujitani youko’) and series (like ‘sekai-ichi hatsukoi’), or find popular pairings we stock (like ‘ichinose tokiya/ittoki otoya’) listed in the tags at the bottom of every page for much easier searching! If you don’t see what you want now–check back later, as we’re bound to have something new up for you to check out :D We also have a list of all our tags used in a helpful cloud at the bottom of every page, so give it a glance as well.
Payment for now is only available through paypal, but several different shipping methods are offered, ranging in price from ‘expensive by very fast and trackable’ to ‘slow and steady and cheap’, so choose the method that fits your budget and desire to get your goods! NOTE: Unless otherwise requested (such as explicitly choosing EMS for fast, secure shipping), we’ll always try to get you the cheapest and most reasonable shipping possible for your goods, so if our shipping calculator flubs for some reason and we’re able to get you quicker shipping for cheaper than you paid, we’ll issue you a voucher to use on your next purchase for the difference :D
Well? What’re you waiting for? Get browsing!
]]>First up, an extra image from Chapter 7, showing our boys making out in a moonlit bath!
Chapter 8
Truthfully, he’d thought things would always be like this. He’d pine after Seiya-san–while at the same time enjoying an easy, enjoyable relationship with the person he loved second-most: Shougo. He honestly found their relationship comfortable, and perhaps he’d just wished, somewhere deep inside, that things could stay like that forever and ever.
But that equilibrium suddenly shattered with a bang one day.
So starts Act 8 of Back Stage!! as Rei walks into the SenaPro offices via the living room of the Senas’ home…and finds it an utter mess. Broken glasses, documents strewn about, books on the table and floor, the usually pristine image a complete and utter disaster. Even the atmosphere feels heavy and somber, and he confronts the maid, who’s making some attempt to clean up, asking her what happened. She sighs before confessing, “It seems…the Master and Madam had a fight…”
Rei has trouble believing this–they’re the very definition of a happy couple, oftentimes coming off more like lovestruck teenagers than parents with grown children. Not that even the happiest couples never fight, and Rei’s seen them bicker about work or evening meals and such before, but he’s never seen such evidence of a fight between the pair before. He can’t imagine that Seiya would have laid a hand on Nagisa or thrown anything at her, so most of the mess was likely Nagisa’s doing.
He inquires as to their present whereabouts, and the maid replies that Nagisa’s in her room–and that Seiya had stormed out. “Storming out” definitely implies an immediate departure and not one made after making amends with Nagisa, which worries Rei. He asks if perhaps Seiya had left to buy something in an attempt to win Nagisa over again–but the maid responds that it didn’t seem that way to her.
He decides to get to the bottom of just what’s happened by confronting Nagisa herself, letting the maid know she can leave this to him and return to work. The maid seems relieved–she’s got other matters to attend to, since it’s Nagisa’s birthday today and they need to prepare for the evening’s party–and Rei decides to wrangle other SenaPro staff into helping get everything back in order. But first–he heads up to the second floor to Nagisa’s room, taking a deep breath before knocking and entering. “Excuse me, Nagisa-san? Just what’s going…”
But the room is in a similar state of disarray to the living room, and Nagisa shouts out, “Don’t come in!” tossing a pillow at him, obviously not realizing that it was Rei coming in.
As it finally hits that it’s him and not Seiya come to speak with her, she breaks down, exclaiming through tears, “Seiya-kun forgot my birthday!” Rei is shocked–forgot her birthday? “And that’s not all! He even said he was too busy for it right now and would I mind if we had the present-giving and party later!” Nope, Nagisa hadn’t mishead him, as Rei had hoped; they’d fought because he’d forgotten the day itself and then asked to hold festivities later when reminded. “He always used to put me before his work! He doesn’t love me anymore! Divorce! DIVORCE!”
Rei is quite dumbfounded–Nagisa has always been picky about special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays, and Seiya has, in the past, always gone along with it and met her demands, greeting her with beautiful bouquets and extravagant gifts. But recently, Seiya’s finally been given the chance to produce his own original musical–with himself in charge of the script and music, lyrics, direction…and of course, the starring role. It’s been his dream for years, but he’s never had the time to take off to prepare for it before, and then there was the throat surgery and rehabilitation associated with it. But now that the CRUSHERZ and Izumi are doing well on their own, Seiya finally has the chance to really pour himself into stage planning.
But all of that preparation combined with Seiya’s usual eccentricities means that he’s been even more strange than usual since getting started with this musical, and while he’ll sometimes be found at his desk or piano, deep in thought, other times he’s simply reading a book or watching a movie, lazing about really. Sometimes he’ll babble on and on and on, while at other times he won’t want to talk to anyone. Nagisa’s birthday just fell at a bad time, when he didn’t want to speak to anyone and had just let it slip his mind with these other matters weighing on him.
This almost ‘disease’ where artists fell into patterns unlike their usual demeanor was truly a thing to be feared, but Nagisa probably had no knowledge of such an ‘illness’. It’s part of Rei’s job, though, to help her understand and support the pair here. He attempts to calm down Nagisa, explaining that Seiya is likely busy with his musical, but she turns on him reminding him that Seiya just the previous evening was playing video games and drinking–he had time for that but not to prepare for her birthday? Rei honestly can’t defend this–he knows it was simply Seiya’s way of gathering his focus, but to others, it would’ve seemed ridiculous.
He suggests that they wait for Seiya to return and then talk this out together, but Nagisa is having none of it and orders Rei to head to the Ward Office right away and retrieve divorce papers. Rei nods along, well aware that she’s just overreacting and deciding to give her time to cool off, feigning a call from the office downstairs and leaving Nagisa to herself. It’s best to leave her to her own devices and wait for her to calm down–which is probably what Seiya has done. At least, Rei hopes that’s what this is. He’ll have to get ahold of Seiya somehow and make sure he readies a present of some sort before returning.
He heads into the office, passing the living room (still a wreck), and calls up Seiya on his cell phone–but no response. He texts a short message–“Let’s think about how to deal with Nagisa-san together. Please call me.”–and then gets back to cleaning. All he can do is wait for now.
“We’re back~!” It’s evening, and Shougo and Izumi are finally home for the party–with a tag-a-long in the form of Ichijou Ryouma. Rei had thought about explaining to the brothers about their parents’ situation here, but he stops short when he sees their guest (who looks very uncomfortable–likely because of the death glare Shougo’s giving him).
Izumi’s invited him along, and Rei reasons to himself that this might actually help Nagisa’s mood. While the three head into the (now clean) living room to set up the cake and presents, Rei heads up to summon Nagisa, letting her know that Ryouma will be joining them (and receiving the expected excited response). She giddily informs him that she’ll be down as soon as she redoes her makeup, and Rei takes his leave, glad she seems to be back in high spirits.
When she finally comes downstairs, the party begins in earnest–but not before Izumi innocently inquires as to the whereabouts of their father–it isn’t like him to miss a party. But Nagisa–after freezing for a moment–assures them he’s just busy and will be home later, so they should celebrate themselves. They enjoy themselves, and after cutting the cake and sharing some tea, Rei ducks out for a bathroom break, pausing to check his phone for any messages from Seiya while he’s at it–to no avail. He’d thought Seiya coming home right now with Nagisa in such a good mood would be the perfect chance–but alas.
As he comes out of the bathroom, though, he finds Shougo waiting for him in a chair near the entrance. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing, just…did my parents have a fight or something?”
Rei’s pretty shocked at how quickly Shougo hits the nail on the head, and Shougo goes on to explain it’s not like Seiya to miss Nagisa’s birthday, and she seemed a little strange. It seems that while Izumi didn’t notice a thing, Shougo had been quite sharp on this point. Rei confesses that that’s indeed the case–and that he’d thought to inform them ahead of time…but it seems that Seiya forgot Nagisa’s birthday. Shougo starts to understand the situation a bit more now, sympathizing more with his father, since as a fellow artist he can understand the stress he’s under better than most.
When Shougo asks where his father is now, Rei explains that he just left without warning, and Shougo snickers that perhaps he’s given in to his wanderlust–which Rei laughs dryly at while silently praying that isn’t the case.
“If he doesn’t come back soon, Nagisa-san was raging on about divorcing him, you know,” Rei adds jokingly, recalling Nagisa’s tirade earlier–but Shougo doesn’t seem to see it the same way.
“…And, would you be happy if that happened?”
Rei is shocked silent–having never expected that response to his comment. Shougo’s expression is serious, sending a shudder through Rei. It’s not just the question that’s startled Rei, it’s the look on Shougo’s face as he delivers it.
Any response dies in his throat–would he be happy if Seiya and Nagisa divorced…? “O–of course not! It would be a tremendous blow to SenaPro!”
Shougo seems to consider this for a moment before nodding, satisfied, and then following up with his usual smile the easy request of, “So…mind if I go back to your place with you after the party?”
Rei reminds him they shouldn’t be seen leaving together, so he’ll have to make sure to stagger their exits–an order to which Shougo merrily agrees, dropping a light kiss on his cheek before returning to the living room for the party.
Rei watches him leave and goes over his question in his mind–would you be happy if that happened?
Why would he ask something like that? It’s not as if just by the two divorcing that Rei would automatically become Seiya-san’s new spouse–but when he considers this, he’s once again reminded of the feelings that have, of late, grown more and more distant. ‘Oh right… I’m in love with Seiya-san…‘ It’s always just been a given that he’s stopped being aware of it, really.
He’d told Shougo there was no way he could rejoice at their divorce, but…how did he really feel, deep inside, about this fight? If they really did go through with a divorce, then… Nagisa had always just been this constant, accepted presence beside Seiya, ever since they’d first met. He’d never considered the remote possibility that they might separate–and truthfully, he can’t really consider it now. But…they’ve never fought like this before, either, and his heart is a churning miasma of discomfort now as something…starts to change.
Seiya wound up not returning in time for the party, and after closing down the festivities, Rei leaves the Sena home for his own apartment–with Shougo catching up to him a few moments later, looping his arms around his shoulders from behind in greeting. Rei chides him for drinking too much champagne and reminds him that they’re outside; it’ll be bad if someone sees them like this. He shakes off Shougo’s embrace, and they start walking beside each other again. They arrive at Rei’s apartment a short time later, and Shougo steps inside first, while Rei turns in the genkan to lock the door–when Shougo embraces him again from behind, squeezing him hard in his arms.
Rei protests that he hasn’t showered yet, but Shougo brushes off the suggestion–he can do that later–and shoves Rei against the door, pressing his lips to Rei’s neck and ignoring his protests. He then frantically starts tugging at Rei’s tie, prompting Rei to question what’s gotten into him, but Shougo is silent, pressing his mouth against the nape of Rei’s neck and biting. He yelps in surprise–but before he can voice his irritation, he’s whirled around and forcefully kissed. Throughout this rough treatment, though, Rei’s thoughts are filled not with anger, but confusion. Shougo’s never this forceful, and he could easily put a stop to this with one sound punch–but he doesn’t, instead wrapping his arms around Shougo and sliding their tongues together of his own volition, questions whirling in his head.
The kiss continues, and Shougo smoothly slips off Rei’s belt, lifting his shirt to touch Rei’s skin directly and sliding his fingers over his chest, his nipples. Before Rei can let himself get lost in the pleasure, though, Shougo tugs down his boxers and props one of Rei’s legs up with one arm, pressing inside to the hilt in one motion before Rei can stop him. Rei brings a hand to his mouth and kills the yelp of pain he wants to give, conscious that they’re still in the genkan and could easily be overheard by anyone wandering the hall outside.
Shougo’s hand goes to Rei’s cock and starts to jerk him off feverishly, and Rei begins to respond to the familiar motions, hips shuddering as pain finally gives way to pleasure as Shougo thrusts with abandon, going deeper and deeper with each punishing thrust. Rei’s brought to climax with Shougo’s hands, with Shougo following just behind before slipping out, leaving Rei to balance himself against the shoe box in the entryway.
“What’s…the big idea all of a sudden…?!” But any notion he might have had to complain about what just happened dissipates the instant he sees Shougo’s expression–one of pain and sadness he’s never seen before. “What…what’s wrong with you?”
“I’m…sorry.” His voice leaks out as he stares at the ground. He’s silent for a long moment before seeming to come to a decision, and he fists his hands at his sides. “I’m just…so worried…”
“Worried?” It’s a word he’s never associated with Shougo before.
“If my dad…ever seriously went after you… I know I wouldn’t have a chance in hell of winning you over.” He lifts his head, and his expression clearly shows the worry he speaks of. “If I ever asked you…to choose between me or him, you’d definitely choose my father, right?”
“That’s…”
But Rei can’t respond immediately. If the ‘usual’ Shougo had asked him that sort of question, he’d have easily responded, Damn straight! but with the way Shougo is right now, Rei feels like responding that way would break something in him. He stands there for a while in silence, and at length, Shougo clenches his eyes shut and laughs dryly, “Sorry, I…I can’t do this tonight. I’ll leave.” Which he does, slamming the door behind himself.
Rei stares after him in shock before finally gathering himself together, muttering that he needs a shower now. He strips and heads into the bathroom, reflecting that Shougo’s been acting strange all evening, asking Rei things like wouldn’t you be happy if Nagisa and Seiya divorced. He’d never imagined the couple’s fight would affect Shougo like this–but then he recalls Shougo’s expression as he confessed his unease.
Rei had always assumed that their relationship would continue as it was forever–but how did Shougo feel about what they were doing? He’s never considered it–never had to really, because he recalls long before that Shougo had once joked that he’d finally be able to move up to person-Rei-loves-most after Seiya died, that all he had to do was bide his time. Thinking back on it now, though…that was indeed a long time ago. Maybe Rei’s the only one who thinks nothing has changed since then. He’d honestly never realized that Shougo was so worried about their relationship and recalls here that…he’s never even once told Shougo anything that might comfort him, keep these worries from rising. Sure, he’d said things like I really like you, and Shougo himself had resolved to wait for Rei, but perhaps Rei has been taking it for granted all this time.
He’d thought he’d done enough to get across how important Shougo was to him, but… “I guess it’s not as easy as just hoping he’ll divine it from my actions, huh…” Plus, no matter how successfully he might have made his affections known, Shougo had always known that he’d merely been relegated to “second best”. Maybe Rei had been the only one ever truly comfortable with their relationship; Shougo had always loved Rei and Rei alone, earnestly and wholeheartedly pursuing him all these years. “He must…have been in so much pain…” His chest throbs painfully as he recalls Shougo’s expression moments before.
He exits the bathroom, glancing at himself in the mirror on the way out, and catches sight of the red mark left by Shougo on his neck. “This…is all my fault.” He traces the stinging mark with his fingers, resolving to apologize to Shougo. While the immediate cause of all of this might be the fight between Seiya and Nagisa, he’s the real one at fault underneath it all for his insensitivity. But how to go about it? “Like…’You’ll always be second-best, but I really have feelings for you, so I’d like us to be together’?” He laughs bitterly at his own appalling selfishness. That’s not an apology–that’s pouring salt in the wound.
He slips into sweatpants and heads out back into his living room–where he catches something moving in the darkness ahead. “Who’s there?!” He reaches for the lights and flips them on–and finds Seiya crouched in a corner of his room. “Se–Seiya-san…?”
Seiya apologizes, explaining that he’d thought to surprise Rei and had hidden to do just that–but then it kind of got to the point where it was a little…awkward to show himself. Rei’s thoughts go blank for a moment at Seiya’s words–what is he doing here? How did he get in (well, his apartment is one managed by SenaPro, so he probably had a key huh…)? How long has he been here? And ‘awkward’? Was he here before Rei even got home?
At this realization, a shudder runs down Rei’s spine–because that means, then…that Seiya has heard everything he’d just done with Shougo. “Um–the–that before, that was…” Rei gropes for words, but none come, and he can think of no way to explain himself.
It’s all over.
If he’d heard everything Rei and Shougo had discussed, it means Seiya’s aware of Rei’s feelings for him now, and of course has realized about his and Shougo’s relationship. It’s the thing he’s always feared.
He can’t possibly stay with SenaPro any longer. This place he’d wanted to protect for himself at any cost–he can feel it all crashing down around him. But then–Seiya stands up and loops an arm through Rei’s own, tugging him forward. “Well, shall we go?”
“…Eh…?”
“I’d kind of like you to come with me. We’re running away.”
“Wha…t?”
Seiya glances over at Rei superiorly, pasting on that familiar smile he always wears. “You said you were going to help me figure out how to deal with Nagisa, right?”
Rei wakes to the sounds of birds calling, slowly opening his eyes to the morning light. He feels like he’s just had the worst dream, with a feeling of despair still weighing heavily on his chest, and after blinking a few times, he realizes that he doesn’t recognize where he is, sitting up and glancing over his surroundings. “Where…am I?”
There’s gentle morning light streaming through delicate lace curtains, and he tries to locate a clock to see what time it is, but there’s none to be found, not even his own watch, which he’d taken off before his shower–
“Oh right…the shower…” At this, everything about the previous evening comes back to him. It wasn’t a dream–Seiya had really been in his room and now knows everything, but after that…what happened? He vaguely recalls being led out of his apartment…and riding in something, a taxi maybe? The shock seems to have made much of the previous evening a blur.
He does, however, recall Seiya saying they were running away, and that they were going to deal with Nagisa together. But…why would Seiya bring him along to run away? After discovering how Rei felt about him, Rei had been sure Seiya would never want to see him again.
But, speaking of Seiya…where was he? Rei stands from the bed and begins to wander about, finding that he’s on the second floor of whatever house he’s in. There’s a broad blue sky stretching out outside the window, with something twinkling on the distant horizon. The sea…? Or, a lake? Wherever they are, it’s not the city at least. He heads down to the first floor and finds Seiya busy in the kitchen, and after exchanging morning greetings, Seiya urges him to set the table for two–breakfast is almost ready.
Rei does so, still thoroughly confused, and Seiya sets the breakfast spread out for them to dig in.
When Rei hesitates to eat, Seiya asks if he isn’t hungry, and Rei presses Seiya for some explanation–where are they? Why has Seiya brought him here?
Seiya picks up a rice bowl and answers easily, “I just thought you needed some time.” At Rei’s confusion, he adds, “And I needed some time as well, so it all worked out nicely. And if you don’t hurry up and eat, it’ll get cold!”
Needed some time? Sometimes Rei has trouble understanding Seiya, but chalks it up to artistic eccentricities. They finish their dinner in companionable silence before Rei recalls he hasn’t brought anything with him–no cell phone, no laptop, nothing. He won’t be able to get any work done now! Seiya waves him off, though–they’re in such a nice place, it’s best not to worry about the little things. Rei can’t so easily brush off his duties, though, and reminds Seiya that he has to accompany Izumi on a shoot today. Seiya explains that Sotomura will surely be able to handle it, and as the company president, orders Rei to forget about work for now.
Rei struggles–if the president says it’s fine, then surely it must be…but despite all the precautions he’s taken to ensure no one’s schedule will be messed up should Rei not be able to come in at some point, he’s still worried and sure the office is in a panic. “I’ve got to…at least call them…”
“No phone!” They don’t need one–and it’s better not to have one, as this way no one can bother them. Rei now realizes that this is indeed Seiya’s little getaway spot.
Seiya starts suggesting what they can do after breakfast–maybe some sunbathing? Or fishing? Seiya seems thrilled to be able to take Rei on this excursion–and thus begins their ‘runaway lifestyle’.
Three days later, Rei’s sitting in a rocking chair on the veranda reading, glancing up at the movement of the sun and deciding it must be around noon. Life these past few days has been quiet and uneventful. There’s nothing connecting them to the outside world, no reason for them to fret about the hours passing by. They wake whenever they want, with Rei usually rising whenever he hears Seiya cooking breakfast. They pass the time reading or going on walks, eating the fish they catch along the way. Rei feels a sense of urgency pushing him to return as soon as possible, but he’s finally starting to actually enjoy his time here. It reminds him of his early days in the Sena household, where he passed lazy days reading and looking after Izumi.
…That had all been before he’d met Shougo. He’d always known of the existence of an elder Sena son, but Shougo had been studying overseas and hadn’t been home in some time.
“God, that first meeting was horrible…” he mutters to himself with a dry laugh before bringing his fingers to the mark on his neck; it still stings a bit.
Rei has found himself thinking about Shougo from time to time while out here. Despite finding himself starting to enjoy this lifestyle, something still tugs at his heart concerning Shougo. He sighs to himself and sets the book aside, heading back into the house. In the living room, he finds Seiya asleep on the sofa, a book on the floor where it had apparently fallen from his hand when he drifted off while reading. Rei picks up the book and places it on the table–then takes a moment to watch Seiya sleeping.
Seiya had confessed that this was his secret hideout, and that he was showing it to Rei, special. He’s shown Rei many things out here–a bird building its nest in a tree branch, how to make a whistle out of grass, a little waterfall up a hill–even just yesterday, he’d taken Rei fishing for the first time and then cooked their catch over a fire. All of these things were first-time experiences for Rei, but he still felt a sense of nostalgia with them. Seiya himself had been the same as always, so much so that Rei had started to think perhaps Seiya hadn’t overheard his conversation with Shougo after all. Sure, he’d probably been able to divine what they’d been doing, but they’d been all the way in the entrance area and Rei had tried to keep his voice down, so…maybe? There’s no way Seiya would be spending time with him like this otherwise.
But, while he’s truly enjoying this time…it’s been three days, and the more he enjoys himself, the more difficult it comes to keep calm about everything. What’s going on with work? Is Izumi doing well in his duties even without Rei to guide him? Has Nagisa recovered and gone to her photoshoot properly? Is Sotomura laid up in bed with an ulcer from all this stress?
And Shougo…given the way they’d parted before, what’s he doing right now? Maybe he’s totally freaking out about Rei’s disappearance, calling on his Twitter followers the world over to search for Rei?
Rei shrugs off this worry, though, and heads into the kitchen, inspecting the contents of the fridge for lunch. As he sets about preparation, Seiya wanders in asking what’s for lunch. Rei suggests that if sliced pork over vegetables is fine, he can probably handle that, and Seiya offers to make the dressing. Seiya sets to work merrily, and this sight makes Rei recall his discomfort and worry now, and he broaches the subject, “Seiya-san, we…really should contact someone now… Everyone’s going to be worried sick.”
“It’s fine,” Seiya assures. “I’ve contacted someone already.” Rei is shocked–who? “I texted Shougo and let him know I was with you.”
At this, Rei goes pale for a moment. “Shougo…? But, why would you…” Seiya reasons that while no one would really worry with how often he goes off the grid like this if he didn’t tell someone, the same can’t be said about Rei going missing, so he made sure to let them know. Rei accepts this…but why Shougo of all people?
Shougo was so worried about his father’s importance to Rei–so how must he be feeling now, knowing that they’re alone together? He recalls Shougo’s expression, confessing how worried he was, and his heart clenches painfully in his chest–not pain for himself, but for Shougo. “I’m going back… Please let me go back!” He wants to fly back home immediately, to reassure Shougo that there’s nothing to worry about. He wants to comfort Shougo, to offer him relief.
Here, though, Seiya gives him a strange look. “Oh? But I thought you were in love with me? You were going to choose me if forced to pick between Shougo and me, right?”
Rei’s eyes widen at the accusation; so, he had heard… Rei gropes for words, and it’s just like that night is playing over before him all over again now. Shougo asks him the question again, and he still can’t respond–because he’s sure if he does, he’ll hurt Shougo.
But then, this brings in a new element–wait, that’s strange… Why can’t he respond now, then? It’s Seiya standing before him now, not Shougo. Even if he says he loves Seiya, he can’t hurt Shougo right now, so there’s no reason he should be hesitating here…
So why can’t he answer?
“Rei-kun…are you really in love with me?” All Rei has to do is say yes, just nod, but his tongue won’t move, and his body is frozen stiff. He knows he must be in love with Seiya, saying that he’d choose Seiya ought to be the answer… “Then, shall we give it a test…?”
Rei’s heart thuds in his chest, and Seiya slides around the counter, slowly approaching, and brings a hand to Rei’s cheek. These hands that patted him on the head, thanking him for taking care of Izumi, hands that Rei loved so much…
…but right now, they frighten him, and he can hear the sound of his teeth chattering as he shudders. He doesn’t understand what’s going on, can’t believe it–doesn’t want to believe it. This isn’t right, it’s not, and he squeezes his eyes shut–just as Seiya’s lips brush his own.
It’s a moment he’s dreamt of for so long–a moment where something he’d always thought to be a dream has finally become reality. And yet–
“…Why’re you crying, Rei-kun?”
Rei struggles to apologize, but the tears keep coming–why? These aren’t tears of joy, he understands well; he’s shocked and disgusted, rather. But–why does he feel the same sense of revulsion and discomfort with Seiya that he had felt with Mitsuzaka before…? He’s always loved this man…
“Rei-kun,” Seiya softly calls his attention, “When I kissed you…who did you think of?”
“Shougo…and Nagisa-san, and Izumi-san…” He’d felt how wrong this way, that in doing this he was betraying Shougo–as well as Nagisa and Izumi.
Seiya nods, satisfied, “Yeah, I figured.” And at Rei’s confusion, he explains, “Rei-kun–you don’t love me romantically, you love me as family. Something closer to a father, I suspect.”
“As…a father?”
“Exactly; you never really had a father before, right? So I guess you’ve come to think of the Sena family as your own.” And…perhaps he’s right. Seiya was the first person to ever teach him what it meant to have a warm, loving family. “That’s why my kiss felt strange to you; and why you felt like it was unfair to Nagisa and Izumi. Am I wrong?”
He might have a point, but… “No, you’re wrong… I really did love you!” This person taught him the warmth of family, but at the same time, he truly had loved Seiya, who shared his light with Rei. “Loved you so, so much, but it was just too much to bear living under the same roof as you, so I left… I’d always thought about you–and you only!” The first person he’d ever truly been in love with. He’d felt it the greatest honor to be by Seiya’s side, to work for him. He can’t imagine any way in which that was not romantic love. And yet…
“Mm, yeah–but that’s why you loved me. In the past, right?” Rei jolts–‘loved’? “What you feel for me right now is more like familial love, isn’t it?” Rei parses this suggestion, and Seiya continues. “Because there’s someone else you’re in love with, right?”
Rei takes in all of this new information as realization hits–the feelings he’s felt for Seiya have, somewhere along the way, changed from lust and desperation to a warm sunbeam, leaving him light and radiant. Even in their little getaway here, despite being under the same roof with Seiya all alone, not once did he feel overcome with lust or anything of the sort. It’s instead felt rather…comfortable, laid-back. This…must be what familial love is… He’d never understood that before, always assuming that these changing feelings were just an extension of his romantic emotions. Everyone says that when you marry someone, romantic feelings over time shift to those of intimate family ties, so Rei had just assumed that’s what this was.
But that’s not what happened with Rei; he hadn’t just shifted to such familial love with the natural flow of time–rather, someone had caused it. And that person is…
“Then…the one I’m in love with now…is Shougo, huh…”
“Exactly,” Seiya praises, obviously pleased that Rei’s finally come around. Rei realizes he’s been in love with Shougo for a long, long time now. He’d always assumed Shougo was second in his heart, but he’d risen up to first long ago.
He’s a bit confused–is this why Seiya brought him here? To make him realize this? Seiya hedges a bit–he’s not really sure himself. He probably just didn’t want to be alone out here. Rei ponders that perhaps this is what Seiya meant that first day when he’d said he thought Rei needed some time.
“But…are you sure it’s okay?”
“What’s okay?”
“Just…I’m a guy, and I’m…with your own son…”
Most parents would rail against such a union, but not Seiya: “Nah, I’m perfectly fine with it. I figure it’s your business.” The easy response is very “Seiya-like”, but Rei still has some doubts, and Seiya allows, “Though I’m not sure how Nagisa will react.” Indeed; she doesn’t seem a bigot, but there’s no telling how she’ll react when it comes to her own son, and Rei resolves to keep it a secret for now.
Rei’s heart feels lighter now, and he’s overcome with the urge to see Shougo again and tell him how he truly feels, what he’s realized–and at this, Seiya finally suggests they return, since Rei seems to have figured things out and Seiya as well has reached his own conclusion for how to deal with things.
Seiya checks his phone and grimaces–20 missed calls and 145 missed texts, yikes! The phone suddenly rings here, though–it’s Sotomura. Seiya answers a bit warily, not wanting to be chewed out likely, but immediately grows pale with shock, frantically gathering their things to leave after cutting the call short on hearing Sotomura’s news. Rei, confused, begs for an explanation, to which Seiya replies that he’s got a car on the way to pick them up–because Nagisa and Shougo were just in a car accident and have been taken to the hospital.
Rei’s vision goes dark–an accident? Nagisa and Shougo…? He tries to pull details out of Seiya on the way, but Seiya’s as ignorant as he is, having only heard the news of the accident from Sotomura who also didn’t have many details. Sotomura’s texted them the hostpital’s address, and they pile into the taxi and speed off. Seiya ponders aloud that they might have been coming to find Seiya and Rei, and this knowledge sends a cold shudder of guilt through Rei. If something has happened to the two of them because of this…
“Shougo…”
He’s never been religious before, but he finds himself seeking every available avenue, clasping his hands together and praying to God, Buddha, even his own mother…to hear his plea and keep them safe.
They finally arrive at the hospital, only to find that mother and son were treated separately and are in separate rooms. Seiya offers to go to Nagisa and urges Rei to take care of Shougo, and the pair split up–but when Rei finally reaches Shougo’s room, he’s met with a sign: No Visitors. He’s always had the worst luck. But a nurse draws near and asks if he’s family–to which he responds no, but that he was asked by the patient’s father to check on him. She lets him in, to his surprise, and there he finds Shougo unconscious on a hospital bed, tubes and wires attached everywhere and with an oxygen mask on his face.
“Shougo!” he calls out over and over again, rushing to the bedside. It’s all he can say. There don’t seem to be any obvious injuries, and when he questions the attending physician about his state, the doctor replies that he seems to have hit his head badly and all they can do is wait. He urges Rei to try talking to him, though, and suggests that it might bring him around. The doctor leaves Rei alone with Shougo, and Rei tries to speak with him. “Hey…you’ve gotta be kidding me here, right? Open your eyes, dammit! I still haven’t gotten to tell you how I feel…” Tears start to fall, flowing down his cheeks onto the bed. “I’m so…so sorry for being so half-assed about everything all this time–I didn’t even realize it myself, see. But Seiya-san…helped me finally understand. I finally get it, so… Just open your eyes! I love you, okay? Love you the most, more than Seiya-san, more than anyone else, and I never got to tell you that…”
“…Seriously?”
Rei’s head snaps up, eyes wide, and for a moment he didn’t understand what had happened–“Shou…go?”
“WOOHOO! I totally got you!” Shougo shoots upright, holding a sign with SURPRISE! written on it in one hand and the oxygen mask he’d been wearing in the other.
………………..‘got you’? “Wha…but, you…you were hurt…and…wait, the accident…? Huh? But–you weren’t allowed visitors…?”
“Oh–no no, there really was an accident! But we just got bumped from behind and came to the hospital for a checkup just in case. Then we all thought it might be kind of fun to surprise you sooooo~”
“Wait…‘we all’…?”
The door opens with a bang, and in charges Nagisa, seeming completely uninjured. “Rei-kun, we really pulled one over on you! Even the doctors and Sotomura-kun were all in on it!”
Behind her, smiling uneasily, is Seiya. “They really got us good.”
Nagisa turns on him. “It’s all your fault to begin with! Disappearing like that and snatching up Rei-kun as well!” Seiya apologies, and Nagisa’s expression melts into a fond smile, and she agrees to forgive him, since he apparently had given her a rather heartfelt confession of his own as she lay on the hospital bed. It appears their fight has been resolved. “Oh–and Rei-kun!”
“Y–yes, ma’am?”
“Just so you know, Seiya-kun is mine. I’m not giving him to you!”
“……………………..Eh?”
“You can have Shougo instead, so I’ll thank you to give up Seiya-kun.”
It takes Rei a moment to process this–Nagisa professing that Seiya is hers…and that Rei can have Shougo instead…
“Wait, you mean…?”
“Of course I knew! I’ve known for ages that you were in love with Seiya-kun! You always looked at him like some lovestruck girl, after all. But–sorry, I’m neeeever giving him up to you! And I’m not divorcing him!” With this, she hugs Seiya tightly for good measure.
“So…you knew?”
“Of course! Don’t underestimate a woman’s intuition!” Which seems to suggest that the only one who really thought he was keeping it a secret…was Rei himself.
He chuckles softly and reassures her, “Don’t worry, please. I promise not to take him from you. But in return…”
“In return…?”
“Would you please…accept me as a member of your family?” He’s always wanted that, he thinks, but was perhaps blinded by his love for Seiya from this desire.
Nagisa is shocked, though, and responds promptly, “What’re you talking about? You’ve been a member of our family for ages now!” She’s known about his feelings all these years, and yet hasn’t thrown him out or pushed him away, simply letting him feel the way he was drawn to. Of course, it likely helped that she was confident that she was loved by Seiya, but more so, it showed how much she truly cared for Rei as well. She was indeed the mother of the Sena household, watching over Rei like a mother and ensuring he wasn’t hurt.
“Thank…you…so much.” His eyes well up with tears, but he fights them back and bows his head, and when he looks up again, Seiya is smiling gently at him from within Nagisa’s embrace. This man has given him a place to be, has brought him this far and shared his warm light with Rei, and Nagisa has always watched over him to ensure that he kept that place.
But…what he needs now, is… “And one more thing…”
“More requests?”
Rei bobs a nod before turning to face Shougo. “I’ll take Shougo, as you so kindly suggested.” As he speaks the words, a happiness wells up within his heart, and a smile blossoms naturally on his face. He’s so happy to be able to express his feelings not just to Shougo himself, but to the people he calls his family.
“Rei…” Shougo’s eyes flare wide, and tears start to stream down his cheeks.
“Eh–wait, what’s wrong, Shougo?!” He peers into Shougo’s eyes with concern, “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”
But Shougo shakes his head, laughing through his tears. “No, it’s just…you finally smiled at me…with that smile you’ve only ever shown my father before…”
Rei freezes at these words, recalling Shougo’s long-ago request when they’d only just met: “Hey… Smile at me like you smile at my dad.” He’d said it was a beautiful smile…one that Rei only showed Seiya, probably because of how much he loved Seiya.
Maybe Shougo…had been waiting all this time to see that smile.
Shougo reached over and dragged Rei into an embrace, “I love you so much Rei! I’ll cherish you forever!” As he gives into the embrace, though, Rei notices all of the wires and tubes used in their gag…and wraps both arms tightly around Shougo, squeezing with all his might. “OWOWOWOWOW! EH?! What’s the big idea, Rei?!”
“I don’t care if it was just a joke–it was in horrible taste!”
Shougo protests that he was really worried about Rei, though, and that they went through a lot trying to track him down. Rei returns that while he may have a point, there are limits to what you should and shouldn’t do to get back at someone, and does he have any idea how worried they were?! Shougo continues to try and apologize, but Rei is having none of it, sinking back into the punk mode he so long ago rose above.
On finally returning to Tokyo, Rei slips back into work mode and picks up where he left off, relieved to see that Sotomura has handled everything splendidly, though the poor man is quite exhausted now. After apologizing thoroughly, he lets Sotomura off early for some well-deserved rest. He finishes up what work he has for the day before deciding the rest can wait and finally heads home–but just as he steps out of the SenaPro offices, he feels someone watching, and turns to find Shougo waiting for him, expression like an abandoned puppy.
He sighs to himself; he’d kind of expected this. “…All right, come on.” Shougo scrambles to his side, all but wagging a tail behind him, and Rei warns that they’re in public, so if he doesn’t take care, he’ll break up with him. Shougo droops again at this, keeping quiet as they plod along, and Rei reflects, ‘Ah crap…he’s really too adorable like this…’
Once they reach his apartment, he asks if they should shower first–but Shougo appraches him from behind and wraps his arms around him. “…What’s wrong?” he asks softly.
“I really…thought we were done…” Shougo’s voice is soft and trembling, and Rei can only catch it because of their proximity.
“Yeah…”
“I was so scared…you were going to go to him…”
“Yeah…” Rei can only nod, not able to bring himself to say anything more, and a warmth blossoms in his chest–Shougo is so precious to him, and it warms him from the inside out. “Hey, loosen up a bit?” Shougo does so, and he twists in the embrace to face Shougo. “But…you’re not scared anymore, right?” He smiles at this and hugs Shougo tightly.
“…Nope, not scared.” He hugs Rei close. “…I really love you, Rei.”
“…I love you too.” He brushes a kiss across Shougo’s lips. “More than anyone else.” He never would’ve been able to bring himself to say these things usually, but they just seem to flow out of him here, and he finds himself happy to finally be able to speak his mind.
“Rei…” Shougo starts, and Rei brings his palms up to cradle Shougo’s cheeks.
“Idiot…what’re you crying for?”
“I’m just…so happy, I’m so, so happy now…” He brings his hands to cover Rei’s own, and they slowly kiss–first their lips, then forehead, then just at the corner of the eye, then the cheek, and again on the lips. The soft, gentle kisses tickle, rousing a bit of impatience along the way. Is this perhaps what true happiness is…? Usually Rei is eager to move on to the real thing as quickly as possible, but right now he’s satisfied with just these butterfly kisses. Of course it’s not as if he doesn’t want to step things up, but he feels like he’d be just as happy just touching like this forever…
Shougo calls his name, and Rei feels his temperature start to rise; Shougo grabs him by the hips and gently lifts him up before setting him down on the bed as they start to remove each other’s clothes. “You know…thanks to you, now I really like the sound a tie makes when you pull it off,” Shougo confesses, and Rei snaps that he’s an idiot as he works at the buttons on Shougo’s shirt with trembling fingers.
It’s been years since he and Shougo started their relationship…but it feels like this is the first time they’ve ever touched one another like this. No teasing or desperation, just gentleness, like fingers conversing through touch. Shougo’s fingers and tongue brush along Rei’s skin, up and down his body, and he asks softly for permission to mark him, which Rei grants so long as he’s sure to keep the bites where no one will see. Shougo is thrilled and sets to work, suckling eagerly at the skin of Rei’s thigh to leave red welts in his wake. Rei reflects here that Shougo’s always wanted to leave these marks, even when Rei protested, and realizes that it was probably out of worry and uncertainty that deep down, Rei wasn’t really his.
“Tonight…” Rei offers, “tonight…you can do whatever you want.”
Shougo’s eyes go wide with shock before he smiles softly. “…With an offer like that, I won’t be able to hold back, you know.” Shougo continues his trek along Rei’s body, pulling up pleasure in his wake, and settles at his chest to suckle and tease on his nipples with one hand while tugging Rei’s cock to life with the other. Shougo’s strokes are gentle and slow, and Rei thrashes beneath him, legs locked around Shougo. “You look about ready to burst,” Shougo teases softly, swiping a finger across the tip. “It’s all right–go ahead and cum.” At this, Rei spills over Shougo’s hand, breathing harshly as Shougo reaches over to the headboard to retrieve the lotion, rubbing it over Rei.
Rei can already sense the pleasure building from the preparation, and Shougo asks if he wants him already, sliding a finger inside. Rei’s hips shudder in response, and Shougo brushes his fingers around inside. “Certainly seems like you want me here…” He increases the number of fingers, each time bringing Rei to new heights of pleasure. “Can I put it in now…?”
“Just…hurry…” Rei begs, and twists in pleasure when Shougo brushes a finger over his prostate. If he hadn’t just climaxed, that certainly would’ve sent him shooting over his peak. He feels more sensitive now than he’s ever been before–but Shougo pauses here.
“…Hey, Rei?”
“Wh…at?” Why does Shougo look…a little worried?
“Say…you want this. Say that…you want me.”
“Shougo…” He’s heard this request a thousand times before. Shougo always wants to hear Rei say it. He’s never asked why Shougo asks this, because he’s probably always known: these aren’t the words Shougo wants truly, but he’s too afraid to ask for what he really wants.
He’ll probably regret these words in the morning. “I want…you, Shougo. I don’t want anyone but you.”
Shougo gulps in shock, slipping his fingers out before mounting Rei and pushing his hips up to slide himself inside.
He slides in to the hilt and starts thrusting with abandon, making his earlier gentleness seem like a lie. Rei wraps his legs around Shougo’s hips and cries out as Shougo pistons in and out–it just feels too good to handle. Shougo chants his name, and Rei reaches out both arms to wrap around Shougo’s neck to hold close, gripping tight enough that he feared he might leave marks. As Shougo climaxed, spilling inside Rei, he as well reached his peak.
After one round in the bed, Shougo had carried Rei into the bathroom under the pretense of helping him take care of the afterwork of spilling inside, but… “H…ow…is this…taking responsibility…in the least…”
“‘S not like you can blame me… You’re the one who said I could stick it in.” Shougo diligently uses his fingers to clean away the evidence of their joining, but Rei is having trouble bearing it, up on his knees in the bathtub as Shougo fingers him from behind, each movement sending the water in the tub splashing. “Baths sure are nice, though… The way that sexy voice of yours echoes…”
“Sh–shut up…!” While he’d admittedly told Shougo he could do whatever he wanted, it’s not like he can help getting embarrassed.
Shougo ponders here that a bigger bath would be nicer, though–and he’s just had a great idea: Rei can move someplace with a bigger bath! Rei chastises him for losing focus–and if he’s not going to do what he came here to do, he should just get out. Shougo scrambles to comply, slipping his fingers out before quickly replacing them with his cock.
“Certainly doesn’t seem like your body wants me to get out, though…”
“Don’t…have to narrate…the whole damn thing…”
“Yessir~” he responds with a chuckle before slowly starting to move. The narrow space makes his thrusts naturally slower, and given that they’ve already gone at it passionately on the bed, this is great for Rei’s tired body. Their bodies somehow feel even closer in the water, and as the waves lap against him, Rei presses himself backward to meet Shougo’s thrusts, seeking deeper penetration. “I–‘m gonna…nna…cum…!” He spurts his release into the water, and after another few passes, Shougo climaxes inside him again.
Shougo embraces him tightly from behind and presses his lips to Rei’s nape. A dull stinging sensation reminds Rei that this is where Shougo bit him four days prior. “I’m sorry…that I hurt you.”
He laves the mark with his tongue like a dog, and while Rei admits to himself that it did hurt, it wasn’t nearly as bad as the pain in Shougo’s heart, he’s sure. Rei offers instead, “Just…make sure you only leave love bites from now on,” a suggestion to which Shougo agrees wholeheartedly.
Rei wakes in the darkness–and soft breathing next to himself in the bed. He rolls over and finds Shougo sleeping next to him. He doesn’t recall making it here himself after their second round in the bath, so he assumes Shougo must have carried him here.
He lies there for a long while, watching Shougo sleep, mumbling to himself, “Sure did take us long enough to get here…” Granted, it was all his fault it took this long in the first place. He’d thought things would continue as they were, with him being in love with Seiya most and keeping Shougo as second best…so for it to all chance in the course of a single day is just…
Well, he supposes it’s fairer to say that he just realized in the course of a single day that things had changed a long time ago. He doesn’t think he has any place, now, lecturing Izumi–not when Izumi seems far more mature when it comes to his love life. He accepts his feelings square on and makes sure his partner knows how he feels, and as Rei thinks about Izumi facing down love so straight-forwardly, he laughs softly.
One night…has turned into a revolution, and he can finally call Shougo his full-fledged lover. And to have his ‘family’ accept that love as well is just…
“Nn…Rei…?” Shougo calls out, opening his eyes sleepily–but the moment his gaze falls on Rei in the dim light, he breaks into an easy smile, lids drooping. When Rei catches this smile, he realizes that this must be what Shougo was talking about–the beautiful smile that you only show the person you love most. It’s lovely and fills Rei with a swell of happiness. “We’ve still got time, right? Come back to bed~” He reaches out and tugs Rei in for an embrace before drifting off again, and Rei follows shortly after.
As for how their relationship developed after that…
Finally back in the office, Rei recalls that Shougo texted him while he was driving and slips a hand into his pocket to check his phone.
/All done with work! Mind if I head over to your place now?? (//▽//)/
Rei sighs at the usual emoticon-filled message and returns a quick response: /I just got back, so I’ll head home after doing a bit more work. You can head on inside./
Not a minute passes before Shougo’s follow-up comes: /WOOHOO! I’ll be waitiiiiiiiing~ o(≧▽≦)o/
The text draws a smile–Rei doesn’t doubt that Shougo is making exactly that face right now. Truthfully, Rei’s a bit excited as well, since it’s been a week since Shougo came over; while they might have realized their mutual feelings, they’ve both been rather busy, as usual. Shougo keeps trying to get Rei to move in together, but Rei doesn’t feel like moving from the conveniently located apartment he has now, and in addition to it being a little embarrassing to live together, there’s also the problem of Shougo likely letting it go to his head. However, this hasn’t stopped Shougo from scouting out nearby places (equipped, of course, with properly large baths), but Rei’s remained firm.
Plus, he doesn’t quite want Izumi knowing about their situation yet either, and if they were to move in together, there’s little doubt he’d catch on. Shougo may be crazy about his little brother, but Izumi is just as crazy for his big brother in return, and while Rei doesn’t think Izumi will object to their being together, he might pout and claim he doesn’t want to see Rei anymore, which could affect his work.
Rei steps off of the elevator and heads for his room, calling out, “I’m home.”
The moment he opens his door, Shougo leaps for him like a dog, “Rei~! I missed you!”
“Yeah yeah, okay–lemme go. I can’t take off my shoes.” Shougo swipes a kiss over his cheek, though, claiming it’s a welcome home kiss. Rei ignores him and shoves him away by the forehead as he heads further inside, prompting Shougo to trail after him begging not to be left behind.
Rei recalls here the emoticons in the text from earlier and smiles to himself. “Yup, I knew it–exactly alike.”
“Huh? What is?”
“Nothing.”
Shougo breaks into a smile here, though, beautiful and shining as ever. “Eeh? Now I’m curious! What!”
THE END
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Nezumi’s Days
Clouds move in to cover the bright sunlight, and the temperature drops, sapping away warmth. Nezumi squats down by the edge of a pond and scoops up water in his hands–it tastes delicious, and he invites the two mice stowed away in his pocket to try some as well.
After another sip, he strips off his clothes and dives into the pond–he can see a few little fish swimming lazily among the waterweed.
“I wonder if it’s always peaceful underwater.”
He distantly recalls Shion murmuring something like that some time ago with his gaze drawn to the sky.
It was back in their room in West Block, around dawn after three long, dark days of cold rain. The night before, just after sunset, Rikiga had come to visit, strangely enough, and given Shion a paper bag, saying, “I wanted you to eat this, so I brought it for you.”
It was white bread and meat–and Rikiga clarified that he had some fresh vegetables and cheese and wine as well. Shion had been thrilled with the veritable feast Rikiga had brought, “You’re really giving this to us, Rikiga-san??”
But Rikiga had shaken his head, “Not ‘to us’–‘to me’, and don’t forget that! You’re the one who’ll be eating this, Shion, got it? You’re not to share a single crumb with any uppity sly little actors.”
“We’ll eat it all together!” Shion had only returned with a bright smile, adding that he was making some soup for the kids tomorrow when they came over to have him read to them, so it would be a great lunch. Rikiga looks like he wants to protest, but his visage falls–and Nezumi has to bite back his laughter from behind his book.
“And what’s so funny over there, Eve?”
“Oh nothing–I didn’t mean to laugh. But if you’re really curious–you just looked so damn cute I couldn’t help myself, old man.” He stood and sauntered over to peek into Shion’s bag, letting out a whistle–Rikiga had really brought some high-quality stuff.
Rikiga went on to remind Shion that while he was welcome to do what he wanted with the food, Nezumi was to receive NONE of it.
Shion wasn’t listening, though, lining up the bag’s contents on the table and explaining, “Nezumi’s soup is first-rate. He hardly uses any seasoning, but it’s so delicious, so I’m sure with these ingredients, it’ll just be out of this world. Thank you so much, Rikiga-san!” Rikiga had tried to protest, but it’d been a losing battle when Shion added, “We’ll all be sure to give thanks to you before we eat, Rikiga-san! Not just a meaningless ceremoney, but one where everyone expresses their genuine gratitude to you! Right, Nezumi?”
“Oh absolutely,” Nezumi concurred, relating his intent to pledge his eternal thanks in the voice of a pure, sinless young woman. It was one of Nezumi’s many talents–that he could shift his voice to reflect the ideal form of anyone he speaks to.
Rikiga chided Nezumi for using such third-rate tricks on him, warning him not to underestimate Rikiga, but Nezumi maintained he had no such intentions, and Rikiga took his leave, plotting all the while in his mind what to bring next time for Shion that would surely make Nezumi regret his actions–maybe some butter.
Nezumi had continued his grumbling about Rikiga after the man left, but Shion had maintained that Rikiga was a kind person, bringing such wonderful things for them, and that if Nezumi continued badmouthing him, he was sure to be punished for it somehow later. Nezumi had suggested that it was just some leftovers some No.6 officials had brought for him as thanks for setting them up with whores, but Shion had countered that Rikiga could have easily kept it for himself, and instead shared it with them–and isn’t that noble?
“Noble? Are you serious?”
“Am I wrong?”
Sometimes Shion’s naivete could be unpleasant, and other times downright hilarious. Rikiga had only given Shion these items out of a sense of guilt Shion inspired within him, thinking that just being in the presence of Shion’s blameless smile and excitement could give him respite. But Shion can’t see that at all. Nezumi couldn’t wrap his mind around how Shion could be this unfailingly accepting of others.
“…Nezumi? What’re you thinking?”
Nezumi had brushed off his concern, changing the subject to how best to disperse the treats Rikiga had brough–no wine for the kids, at least! They decide to boil the potatoes and share the bread and cheese together for now, and Nezumi offers to take back what he said about Rikiga before and instead gives honest thanks.
“He bought you out, huh?”
“I’m simply flexible that way.” Nezumi had gone to boil the potatoes while Shion searched for glasses–only finding bowls and mugs, hardly fit for drinking wine. Nezumi returned that mugs were fine, and if Shion had a problem with it, then he didn’t mind drinking it all by himself.
They poured themselves wine (an import from No.3, the westernmost city, according to the bottle) while enjoying the boiled potatoes, cheese, and bread–and before they knew it, they’d drained the whole bottle between the two of them.
“Damn, you can really hold your booze…”
“Think better of me now, do you?” Shion had smiled proudly, cheeks red.
“Hardly, but I’ll admit it was unexpected. I never would’ve pegged you for a boozehound.”
“It’s my first time drinking, actually.”
“Huh?”
“It’s the first time I’ve ever had alcohol in my life. I never knew it was this delicious~”
“Eh–hey, Shion, are you all right? You drank a good half of a bottle on your own, you know? You sure you aren’t pretty drunk?”
“Mmmm, nah, I’m fine. I just feel really good, feels stupid to get worked up over details, y’know?”
“And just what sort of details were you getting worked up over?”
“Huh…what was it… Haha, I can’t r’member! It was sooooo meaningless I just forget I guess. Haha, screw you, worries! Woohoo wine!”
“Wow, Shion you…are really drunk.”
Shion stood and leaned over Nezumi, drawing so close their noses almost touched. “Maaaybe. I did have alcohol, after all. Makes sense that I’m drunk. Or is there some reason I shouldn’t be drunk??”
“Shion are you…a bad drunk?”
“Who? Me? A bad drunk? With you?”
“Who else would I be talking about, seeing as you and I and the mice are the only ones here?”
Shion straightened up again, placing his hands on his hips. “‘Who else would I be talking about, seeing as you and I and the mice are the only ones here?’ Hahaha, how d’ya like THAT? Pretty good imitation, right?”
“Of who?”
“You.”
“Not at all.”
“Liar! I sounded just like you! I’ve had an awakening! I have a true talent for impressions! Maybe I’m an impressions genius! Wait, no–I’m definitely a genius. ‘Who else would I be talking about, seeing as you and I and the mice are the only ones here?’ Hahaha, it TOTALLY sounds like you!”
“Are you having fun over there, imitating me?”
“Indeed I am.” Shion leaned down again, drawing up close to just beyond Nezumi’s nose. “It’s super fun. Everything’s always so much fun when I’m with you. Why is it so much fun when I’m with you…??”
Shion glanced away, drawing in his chin, and Nezumi tried to smile at him gently, like a mother with her child, but his cheeks were stiff, making it difficult. “I see–well that’s nice for you. A wonderful thing indeed. But are you sure you haven’t been hanging around with Inukashi and those mutts too much? We’re humans, you know–we don’t have to rub noses together to communicate.”
“‘We’re humans, you know–we don’t have to rub noses together to communicate.’ Heheh~ how was THAT? Another perfect imitation, right? But y’know Nezumi…humans can’t really communicate all that easily. You’re more likely to not be able to understand, even if you want to, than to understand perfectly… A hundred, even a thousand times more likely. Thass jus’ how id is.”
“…Shion, your articulation’s going to shit.”
“And thass where dogs have it good. All the gotta do is stick their noses together and snifffff, an’ then they know all about the other dog. Sometimes they’ll even lick each other~”
“You sure as hell better not lick my face.”
“I won’t~ Buuuuut I might BITE you~”
“Hey–idiot, cut it out, you stupid drunk! Enough’s enough–get to bed. You’ll probably have a hell of a hangover in the morning. And just how old are you anyways? I can’t believe a 16-year-old doesn’t know how to hold his booze… Shion? Hey, Shion–what’s wrong?” Shion had started to list to the side, releasing a soft snore. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Don’t sleep here! I’m not dragging your ass to bed!” Nezumi had continued to mutter a few choice words as Shion slid to the floor, and Nezumi couldn’t help the sigh that managed to escape his mouth as he sat by Shion’s side, laughing alone.
When Nezumi awoke, he could tell it was close to morning because of how chilly it was. He sat up and took a few deep breaths in, and the chill of the air in his lungs was proof he was alive. Because he was alive and warm, the air felt cold.
Living things are warm.
Shion was the one who taught him that. Living is about feeling the warmth of someone at your side, sharing your warmth with them. He learned that from Shion as well.
To Nezumi, living had been all about revenge–it had been his sole impetus to survive. He’d cared about nothing else–but he’d wavered.
No longer was a heart bent on revenge the only thing inside of him. Something completely different, something completely unrelated to No.6 had taken root. What it was…Nezumi himself couldn’t define.
And that was why he wavered.
After he wreaked his revenge on No.6, would he feel completely empty and hollow inside, utterly fulfilled, or as if some stable center still remained?
But wavering like that leads to hesitation, and hesitation opens up chinks in the armor.
Nezumi brought his hand to his back–his scar had been throbbing, but it had quieted now and would likely disappear soon.
“Ngh…” Shion groaned in his sleep from his place in bed where Nezumi had dragged him the night before.
“You are seriously…a pain in the ass. What am I gonna do with you?”
Shion just rolled over, and Nezumi slowly slipped out of bed–the stove’s flames had gone out.
“Nezumi…did you say something?”
“A simple morning greeting–‘Good morning, Your Exalted Majesty. And how are we this fine morning?'”
“A don’t…feel that bad actually.”
“Oh? So no hangover. Maybe you’ve got a knack for drinking, then. Careful you don’t wind up like that old fart.”
“Wine doesn’t induce hangovers–because it’s made from fruit. It’s easy on people.”
“Seriously?”
“I feel like I heard that somewhere before… Just feel like I maybe did, mind you.” Shion sits up in bed. “Nezumi.”
“Hm?”
“I wonder if it’s always peaceful underwater.”
“Huh?”
“Underwater. Like the sea or river or lake–I wonder if it’s always peaceful there.”
“What’re you talking about? Did you dream about something?”
“Yeah, for the first time in a while–maybe it was the wine.”
“What, was it a wine-colored dream?”
“No, but…I was swimming, underwater the whole time. I was able to breathe even, so I swam forever and ever.”
“And?”
“And that’s it. I was just swimming. It was so quiet and beautiful–it made me really happy. Made me think, ‘Wow, this sure is peaceful. No fighting, no aggression…”
“As if that could ever happen.” Shion, being an ecology student, should know fully well that there are battles even in the water, but Shion shakes his head.
“I knew that. I don’t think that underwater is some paradise or anything. But just…there are no humans there, so I wondered…”
“Wondered…?”
“…if there weren’t any meaningless battles there.”
“And that’s the kind of stuff you thought about on this swim of yours?”
“Yeah. It was…really beautiful. The floor was an endless plain of white sand, and jade-green pebbles scattered everywhere that sparkled from time to time. I reached out to pick one up at one point–but then I stopped.”
“Why?”
“I was…scared to touch it, because it was so beautiful. It felt like that world would shatter if I touched it…”
“I never would’ve pegged you for such a Romantic. You sound like some blushing virgin.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of embarrassing to even relate it. But–that’s really how it felt to me. Though if I was going to wake up anyway, I should’ve just gone ahead and taken one.”
Nezumi almost chuckles at this; maybe he’s losing his hold on his emotions. “Then just go back to sleep–maybe you’ll see the same dream again. Then you can pick up all the cash and jewels you want.”
“Guess you’re right… Hey, Nezumi?”
“Hm?”
“…We swam to escap No.6 too, didn’t we? Though I didn’t exactly have the freedomg to get lost in myself swimming then.”
“We were in the sewers. Quite a far cry from your dream.”
“But…I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things here in West Block. That’s…the truth.” His words slipped back into snores.
Nezumi could feel Shion’s warmth. With warmth like this, he could surely make it through even the coldest of winter days.
You idiot–what’re you thinking?
Those who can’t survive on their own, who can’t live their lives on their own–don’t survive. That’s how it is in West Block. He didn’t need warmth.
He poured himself some water, letting the chilly liquid slide down his throat, and Shion mumured something in his sleep.
“Did you manage to pick it up this time?” he called out, but no response came.
The waterweed sways–not the gentle wavering of before, but as if in a strong wind. It’s unnatural, and a silver fish darts out from the weeds to scoop up its prey in one bite.
Even under the water, there’s death.
He spots a blue stone at the pond’s bottom and picks it up–it’s not sparkling, not beautiful. It’s just a plain old boring rock.
It’s getting a bit painful holding his breath now–outside of dreams, people can’t live for long underwater, and he strokes through the water back toward the surface.
He drags himself out of the water–and something moves in his peripheral vision near his luggage: a man. Cravat and Hamlet advance on the attack, biting and nipping where they can, and this draws up cries of pain from the man. Nezumi clenches the stone he picked up from the pond and hurls it straight at the man’s face.
“Hey thief.” The man whirls around, covering his face with both hands, and Hamlet and Cravat scamper back to Nezumi, skittering up his hastily donned clothes to rest on his shoulder. “Yeah yeah, good work, you two.”
“You–you put my eye out!”
“I aimed for your forehead–and my control is perfect. I don’t miss. You’re lucky I held back.”
“Held back?!”
“Yeah; or would you rather I buried it in your skull? Be grateful I took pity on a thief.”
“This is you holding back?”
“Of course–I didn’t crack your skull, just split your skin a bit. It’s payback for trying to steal my stuff.”
“Well thank you. I’ll be sure to get a brain-scan at the nearest hostpital. Damn that hurt. It stings!” He squats by the pond to wash off his face, working up a light purple lather from some liquid he squirts into his hand. “I’ll probably have a scar by morning…”
The man stands up again, smiling. He’s tanned and has wrinkles around his eyes, and his long hair has a few streaks of white in it, but it’s hard to tell his age from his voice and bright eyes–but regardless, he’s a thief, nothing changes that.
“Still–you’re quite the looker, you know? A nice-looking kid like you shouldn’t be skinny dipping all alone. It’s dangerous in these parts.”
“Thanks for the heads-up. Never would’ve thought I’d get lectured by a thief, old man.”
“Old man? Me?”
“I certainly wasn’t talking about myself. I’m neither an old man nor a thief.”
The man blinks a few times–before bursting out laughing. “Hahah, well if that doesn’t take it! You’ve got one hell of a sharp tongue on you! Hahahaha, you’re a fun kid, haha–” But the laughter dies when Nezumi presses a knife to his throat.
“Your voice is fucking annoying. I’ll thank you to quiet down a bit–or rather, all the way.”
The man trembles, “H–hey, come on, you don’t have to pull a knife. I’ll shut up, I will. I’m sorry–if I offended you, then I’ll apologize.” Nezumi draws back and sheathes his knife, and the man rubs his neck. “Geez, you’re certainly more short-tempered than you look. I thought you’d be a bit more refined.”
“I can be a perfect gentleman before a similar partner. But you’re a thief, trying to steal someone else’s luggage. You deserve a knife to the throat more than a proper greeting.”
“And have you ever killed a man before?” The man glances up at Nezumi, judging his expression. “I’m asking you if you’ve ever killed anyone with that knife, young man.”
“I’ve no obligation to answer questions from a thief.”
“Oh–no, you’ve got it all wrong. I wasn’t trying to steal from you. You’ve gotta believe me–here, I have proof.” He empties his pockets, and it’s clear he’s better outfitted than Nezumi and therefore has no reason to steal from Nezumi.
“I really couldn’t care less how much stuff you have, old man–the fact remains that you tried to take off with my stuff, and that is stealing.”
Nezumi turns to leave, and the man stands to stop him with a question, “Wait, you’re leaving already?”
“I am. I don’t make a habit of chatting with thieves.”
“And I told you, I’m not a thief–I just wanted to check you out.”
“Check me out?”
“Yeah–to see where you’d come from.”
“What business is it of yours?”
“I just wondered if maybe…maybe you’d…come from No.6.”
The instant he hears that name, memories come flooding back, and Shion’s voice echoes deep in his ear, Nezumi, I’ll be waiting here for you. I’ll wait for you forever.
“Ooh, so I’m right, am I? You came from that city, right?”
The man steps forward and tries to grab Nezumi’s wrist, but Nezumi throws him off. “Don’t touch me.”
“Please don’t react like that–there’s just so much I want to ask you about it if you used to live there!”
“And there’s not a thing I want to talk with you about it.”
“But–you know about the city, right? Was it really destroyed? I’d heard rumors, and some of the things in your pack are from No.6, so…”
The day before he’d left, Karan and Shion had packed his bag full of items–Karan with an expression like a mother sending off her son, and Shion…simply silent.
‘Oh…this really is goodbye…’
Watching Shion from the side, seeing the tight line of his pursed lips, the evident displeaure in his mien, had brought to Nezumi the raw realization that he really was leaving.
‘I’m leaving here tomorrow. I’m leaving, and Shion’s staying.’
These two lives that had been entwined almost miraculously that night four years prior would now separate and go their own ways. He hadn’t even shared a half a year with Shion–just a blip in time compared with everything before and everything that would come after. So brief…and yet so rich. He wondered if he’d ever spend so meaningful yet meagre a span if time with anyone ever again.
He shakes his head–No.6 was destroyed; he did his part. That’s all that matters.
Shion is now nothing more than a part of his past. Memories of him will never disappear, will live on, but he’s not someone Nezumi is involved with now.
He’s cut him away. If he hadn’t done so, he wouldn’t be able to move forward. You can’t live now being caught up in the past. He’s done with it all. He’s done with clinging to the past, shouldering it. He can’t stand it.
“Hey–please, answer me. I hear all sorts of rumors–that it was destroyed, that it lives on. I can’t tell what’s truth and what’s fiction.”
“Then just go find out for yourself.”
The man draws in his chin. “That’s…well, No.6 is far away, isn’t it?”
“You could make it in 6 months. That’s pretty near. You’re a traveler, aren’t you? I doubt you’re settled down in this wilderness, old man.”
“Who knows–this might be a nice place to live if you gave it a shot. How about it–want to stay at my place tonight? Then we can have a nice long chat.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Why? You’ll have a warm bed and a bath!”
“I’m not setting foot into the home of a thief.”
“And I told you–I wasn’t stealing, I was just asking about No.6–” But he stops himself, and the sound of hoofbeats and people approaching reaches their ears. “Damn, they caught up with me…”
The group charges them, raining down complaints about ‘swindler’ and ‘conman’ and ‘cure-all my ass, it was just colored water!’ It seems the man is wanted for swindling these people out of their money. Nezumi wants nothing to do with it, though, and moves to take his leave.
“Wa–wait PLEASE! SAVE ME! I’m begging you!” the man begs as Nezumi leaves.
But the group just mock his please. “For a conman, you’ve got some bad manners there–Shion.”
Nezumi freezes in place–then turns. “His name…is Shion?”
The man flings himself at Nezumi’s feet. “Y–yeah, that’s the name I go by!”
“So it’s not your real name?”
“It’s my son’s. A little baby charming as an aster blossom.”
“…Your son’s name?” No…no way, it can’t be…
“Hey, kid!” The group call out to him menacingly. “Are you sure you’re just a passerby? Give that guy to us–otherwise…”
“Otherwise?”
“Then you’ll both find yourselves buried out here–or rather, given what a looker you are…maybe we could have some fun with you.”
With a sharp whistle, the mice go on the attack, and with their help, Nezumi dispatches the three men who’ve surrounded them in short order–his victory greeted by applause from ‘Shion’, who reacts with confusion when Nezumi subsequently takes his pouch and gives it to the men whose asses he’s just kicked, urging them to take it and forget their business with ‘Shion’, and they quickly leave.
Nezumi turns back to the man. “So were you a citizen of No.6?” Silence. “Answer me. Did you live there?”
“I did. A long time ago. I’ve long since bid farewell to it, though.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because the city was fake, my boy. And illusions always come apart at the seams eventually. I couldn’t bear to live in such an environment.”
“And that’s why you escaped on your own? Leaving behind your little baby charming as an aster blossom?”
“I couldn’t convince my wife to leave. She refused to escape the city with me–she didn’t trust me.”
“I can see why. She’d probably be nothing more than a bag of bones by now hanging around with the likes of you.”
“You really do have a tongue on you. So I suppose it has been destroyed… A false city like that can’t survive in the real world forever.”
“And if it has been?”
“Then I’ll go back.”
“Go back? No.6 is pretty far away.”
“I can make it in 6 months, I hear.”
“So now you’re missing the wife and son you abandoned so long ago, huh? Pretty selfish if you ask me.”
“No that’s…not all it is. I owe you a debt now–you saved my life. So–I’ll tell you. Come over here–so no one can hear.” He beckons Nezumi around to a thicket where three brown horses are tethered. He takes out a small bag from his shirt, within which is a small nugget of gold. “There’s gold all around No.6, see? I’m not sure how much, but it’s there.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding…”
“I’m serious!” He apparently discovered it in his younger days and sat in the information. Nezumi wonders what would’ve become of the city if it had gotten its hands on such a fortune. “If it’s been destroyed, it’s probably a chaotic mess and anyone can move in and out as they want. It’s the perfect time to start mining.”
Nezumi accuses the man of this being simply another con, and the man refutes him. “I don’t swindle. I simply wait.”
“Wait?”
“Exactly–I’ve been waiting all this time, for No.6’s destruction. And now it’s finally here. I’m gonna get set to head out right away! Hey–why don’t you come with me? You’d make a great partner. How about it? Return to No.6 with me and make a fortune!”
The man’s eyes are glittering–not with brilliant sparkling light, but with the look of a predator stalking its prey. Nezumi grits his teeth–this man isn’t crazy, and he isn’t selling anything…he’s speaking the truth–or at least, the truth as he believes it.
“And what do you intend to do with this fortune you’re going to make? Wanna live your golden years out in luxury?” Not a chance, what this man wants is…
“I’m going to buy it.”
“Buy what?”
“No.6.”
Nezumi’s breath catches in his throat, and he can only stare at the man. “Buy it… what does that even mean?”
The man replaces the gold ore into the pouch and smirks. “You know, kid–if you want to rule the world, you don’t need armies or laws or authority–you need money. It’s the strongest weapon there is. That’s where No.6 tripped up–they were unlucky enough to have idiots at the top.”
“And you’re going to rule over No.6 with this money of yours?”
“Maybe. No telling how fate will unfurl. I’m not asking for that, at least.”
“Then why?”
“Because it sounds fun. I can affect people’s lives with my own two hands. It feels amazing–there’s no more enjoyable a game.”
Nezumi glares even more sharply at the man now.
He’s nothing like Shion. Shion would never have treated human life as a toy. He never would have played with it like a game.
“No.6 is being rebuilt–it’s finally on the path to a new beginning. And you want to go in and screw it all up? For fun?”
“Rebuilt? A new beginning? Impossible–no matter who’s involved, a city-state is a city-state. Authoritarian rule will rise again some day and place the citizens under its subjection. That’s what a city-state does. And if there’s an idiot at the helm, it’ll self-destruct in time, but a brash, thoughtless scholar…will try to bring everything under his own control. Those are the ones you really have to worry about.”
“Wha…”
“So what kind of people are involved in this reconstruction? Do you think they’re foolish…or wise?”
Nezumi shakes his head slowly. “Quite wise indeed; they’ve got a lot of wisdom. I can’t imagine they’d ever become the authoritarian ruler you’re thinking of.”
“Oh? You seem to have a high opinion of him. So this man–it’s a man, right?–you know him well, do you?” In some ways…Nezumi had known him better than anyone else…and in others, he hadn’t known him at all. “And you trust him?”
He trusts him. If Shion couldn’t be trusted, then Nezumi couldn’t trust anything else in the world.
The man takes a step forward when Nezumi falls silent. “How about it? You coming with me?”
…And Nezumi takes one step back from the man. “I’ll pass. I follow the path of my own choosing.”
“I see… That’s a pity.” And he truly does look like he regrets it. “I suppose it can’t be helped though. I’ll take my leave, then. Maybe I’ll take one of these horses with me–you gave them so much of my money, after all. They can’t object to my taking a horse.” He turns back to Nezumi. “I’ll leave you with this, though: people change. That man you believe in, he’ll change too. Set anyone up at the center of that city-state, and they’ll change. And if they don’t–they’ll be destroyed. You’ll do well to remember that.”
Nezumi brings a hand to the knife at his belt. If he dispatches this man right here, right now…he can probably pick off someone who’ll otherwise bring harm to Shion. His fingers twitch, and he clenches them into a fist.
I could never forgive you for harming someone–let alone killing them–just for me.
Nezumi, don’t kill him. Don’t commit a sin just for me.
Shion stays his hand, pleading with him.
Nezumi, don’t kill him.
‘Yeah…that’s what you’d tell me, huh. You’d surely say that, and stop me. You’re always such a soft touch…
Shion…’
“Well, if fate should deem it so, maybe we’ll meet again.” The man swings himself up onto the horse and kicks its sides, setting off at a gallop and quickly disappearing over a hill.
A breeze whips up, and the shrubs tremble. Clouds darken the sky, and the land is covered in a night-like darkness.
‘Shion.’
The clouds part a bit, and a violet sky appears. In it, Nezumi can see a single small star sparkling.
On the other side of this sky lies No.6.
Nezumi continues to stare unmovingly up at the twinkling star as the wind caresses his hair.
THE END
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