Work Text:
Kiku stayed out tonight. Most in the Imperial Army were humans but his squad specifically were Catrek. They took advantage of their race, as was to be expected, and kept them all on night patrol. The samurai Catrek in his squad were who he led and he tried to treat them all equally but tried was the important word in this sentence.
There was one who constantly set him on edge, for better or worse. For now, he was causing Kiku yet another headache. Private Heracles was missing again, probably taking a nap. He knew that it was natural for them to take naps throughout the day and night. Not to sleep the entirety of the day away with the expectation of staying up all night.
But this was the Imperial Army. Sacrifices must be made by all of them and this included Heracles. So Kiku searched him out as he thought of fitting punishments.
The rest of the army already had nearly no respect for their group. There was no way to verify that any actual work was being done outside of Sergeant Kiku’s word. Luckily, that was all the Lieutenant who was charged with watching them needed.
Turning a corner around the food quarters left Kiku staring face to face with a stranger. A stranger who was dangerously close to one of his men.
Kiku glared at the other Catrek. He had messy brown hair and olive green eyes. He dressed like a noble though he still seemed young. Judging by his bright red colored ears and tail, he was a mage, and that made Kiku even more nervous. Kiku’s ears fell flat against his head and his eyes dilated.
The stranger just grinned at him, showing his fangs. “Well, think about my offer, huh?” He gave a mock salute and climbed the fence that was supposed to be protecting them. Once sure the stranger was gone, Kiku walked to Heracles and did his best to glare. “Private Heracles, who was that? Why did you let him go?”
Heracles turned to Kiku, his own ear twitched and tail curled and unfurled as though un-bothered by the situation at hand. The very serious situation at hand. “Oh. Hello Kiku.” He spoke slowly, almost as though he were tired. So Kiku was half-right, he was napping.
“You are on thin ice, Private Heracles, calling me by name without answering my question.”
Heracles just hummed and looked back towards the fence. “I'm not fond of titles. Feels restricting.”
Kiku tensed. Heracles was a poor farmer's son. Like many in his squad he was called in by a draft so his loyalty was questionable. Not Kiku, though. Kiku was stubborn and was a volunteer in the army for believing in the cause of keeping the peace. One might question why a draft was needed when there was no war at hand and one may come to the conclusion that the country was plotting one, but not Kiku. Kiku was loyal to a fault.
So he played his part to the letter and continued his glare at Heracles with a straightened stance. “Answer the question, Private.”
Heracles yawned. “The stranger, you mean? His name’s Toni. Well, actually, it's Antonio.”
Kiku's eyes grew wide. “Antonio Carriedo?”
Heracles nodded, sitting down and leaning against the wall of the mess hall. He shut his eyes as though preparing for a nap.
Kiku glared once more. “What is a nobleman's son doing here? And why were you speaking to him and not reporting to me about his appearance?”
“He promised me freedom.”
Again, Kiku tensed. He was not happy with the way Heracles was talking. If this were to get out he would be labeled a deserter and only the Gods knew what would happen to him after that. Not that Kiku knew why he always gave Heracles special treatment, but he decided to prod for further information.
“How so?”
“He said he could get a ship. A ship that could fly.” Kiku let out a breath of air.
“And you believe him?”
“Mhmm.” He really did look like he was about to sleep. The way he peacefully lay against the wall, his ears twitching every so often at the night-time sounds around them, Kiku couldn’t help but smile. Something about Heracles always made him soft though he couldn’t quite find the reason why. Quickly dropping the smile, Kiku went back to his stance and hard-eyed glare.
“What would you do if the higher ups had heard of this dream of yours?”
“You are the higher ups, aren’t you? Why don’t you tell me?”
Kiku felt himself wince at that. Heracles was right. It was now his responsibility to either severely punish the Private or report him to the Lieutenant. So Kiku was at a crossroads. On the one hand, if he reported him Kiku might not see him again, but if he punished him questions would arise as to why and he would end up with the first answer anyways. So instead, he let his personal favoritism play out. He let out a sigh and shook his head.
“I won’t be doing anything tonight, Private, but be warned that I won’t let you off so easily should this repeat.”
Heracles sat up and stared at Kiku with shock. Kiku just turned around to try to avoid his gaze and walked. Yes. Next time he would punish him.
~!~
Three nights passed since the mysterious appearance and then disappearance of the Catrek mage, Antonio and Kiku was once again on the hunt for Heracles. Tonight was an important night. The night before an inspection. Kiku needed to be sure that his men were ready and prepared for whatever orders the Lieutenant would give them during such an important test and of course Private Heracles was missing again.
Having checked every area he could, Kiku was at a loss of where to look. It wasn’t until his ears caught the sound of light snoring that he looked up and saw a tail swaying on the edge of a roof. He was more than annoyed. He quickly and skillfully climbed the wall of the building and found himself staring at the sleeping Catrek. He poked his side with his foot to try to wake him gently before sighing and shaking his head. What was with this man? Why did he insist on skipping out on his duties?
Kiku knew the answer to this but he liked not knowing in this particular case. So he kicked Heracles by his rib. Not hard enough to break or bruise anything. Just enough to wake him up and in that he succeeded.
Heracles shot up and brought his hand to his side. With one eye shut, he glanced to his Sergeant. “Oh. Kiku. It’s you.”
“Sergeant Kiku.”
Heracles just shrugged. He looked up at the sky and pointed at a random star. “That one.”
Kiku raised an eyebrow and let his gaze follow Heracles’ finger. “A star? What about it?”
“That one’s my mother.”
Kiku frowned. For multiple reasons. One, he was not aware of Heracles’ family situation, two, he wasn’t sure why he cared, and three: “Why are you telling me this?”
Heracles stared at the star, moving his arm down. “It seemed fitting.” Kiku hummed in thought, wondering what was so fitting about telling him something so personal. Had he given the wrong impression due to his laxity on Heracles’ rule-breaking actions? He had to wonder to himself if it even would be the wrong impression.
He shook the thought away with a shake of his head and put on his best glare. “You were sleeping again.”
“Taking a nap.”
“Regardless, you know it’s against the rules and tomorrow is very important. I will not have you embarrass me in front of the Lieutenant.”
Heracles finally turned his gaze to Kiku, his eyes surprisingly hard. “I won’t embarrass you.”
Kiku was taken aback by the look. He did not expect something like that from Heracles of all people. A glare towards anyone was surprising enough, but towards him? He must have been serious. “Ah - right, of course. Though how you feel does not matter. You should still be practicing with the rest of the squad.”
“They don’t like me.”
Again, Kiku was at a loss for words. What was that supposed to mean? They didn’t like him? Who them? And why not - what was there to dislike about Heracles? Except for his obvious lack of discipline. Before Kiku could question the comment aloud, Heracles asked his own.
“Why don’t you ever punish me?”
Kiku froze entirely at that. It was a good question, one he should have seen coming, but he didn’t and thus he didn’t have an answer. To be completely honest, he wasn’t sure he would like the answer.
“You know, Kiku.” Heracles said before he could answer the question, only this time, Kiku didn’t correct him. “If it were possible for two samurai to bond, I would hope to be bound to you.”
Now, it was time for Kiku to flush slightly. Did he know what he was suggesting? What was his education level again? Not much being the son of a farmer and all that. Maybe that’s why he said that? Perhaps he just didn’t understand -
“You don’t think I know what that means, do you?”
Kiku cleared his throat and looked away, trying to calm the blush at least.
“I know it all, you know. That was something my father made sure to teach me.”
“Then why suggest such a thing with you superior?”
“Because I like you.”
Definitely gave off the wrong impression, then. Kiku flushed more. What was Heracles saying? “You like me but you don’t respect me, correct?” He forced his gaze back to face the other Catrek only to be staring into hard eyes once again.
“I respect you. More than any of the others.”
“Then stop with these foolish advances.”
Heracles frowns. “I don’t think they’re foolish.”
“Yes, they are. I am your Sergeant and you are a Private. Even though I wouldn’t mind a relationship with you we can’t go around doing things based on those feelings alone.” Heracles smiled. What did Kiku say? He replayed it back in his mind and blushed deeper than ever before. “I meant IF. “Even if” not “even though”.”
Heracles just continued to smile and stood up, stretching. “I’ll return to the group. I’ll show you how serious I was about not embarrassing you.”
Kiku watched him hop off the roof on his own and head back towards the training ground. All the while Kiku’s brain ran wild. So many things were running in his head. “You can’t do that - but oh do you want to - wait do you really want to?”.
~!~
Weeks had passed and Heracles kept his promise. For the entire time since then he did not embarrass Kiku. For now, though, more pressing matters were at hand. It started as rumors but when he had gotten confirmation of the atrocities, Kiku was unsure what to think. He sat in his bed surrounded by the other sleeping sergeants two hours before the rest of his squad was supposed to be awake and stared at his hands. Attacking civilian towns? Setting three of them on fire while leaving no survivors all because of a handful of letters hinting towards treason against the king? Was it really worth it? He brought his hands to his head and shut his eyes. How could he be loyal to a ruler who would do such a thing? But then, what was he supposed to do? Jump ship?
He heard a light tapping at the window closest to his bed, light enough that only a Catrek’s ears could pick up. He looked up and saw the face of his headache staring at him. Confused as to what Heracles was doing up so early, Kiku let out a sigh and stood. He left his quarters and shut the door as silently as he always did, looking to Heracles with a raised eyebrow, waiting for an explanation.
“I’m leaving with Antonio.”
Kiku’s jaw dropped.
“I’m going to become a pirate. There are others who are coming along, too.” He grabbed Kiku’s hand. “I want you to come with me.”
Kiku didn’t know what to think about this. Sure, it was awful what the king was doing and he wanted no part of it but…. Oh. There was no ‘but’. It was as simple as that. “Wait, you’re defecting?” Heracles nodded.
“I’m leaving right now. The rest of the squad is coming, too, and so’s the medic team.”
Kiku continued to stare in shock. His whole squad? If word got out that he let them go, then there really would be no place for him here. ‘Who am I kidding?’ he thought to himself ‘I’m just making excuses.’ Finally giving in, Kiku nodded. The smile that covered Heracles’ face made his stomach flip for some unknown-to-him reason.
So that night they ran away from the Imperial Army to instead join a strange Catrek mage and his make-shift pirate crew. It was simple enough since all who were meant to be awake were the one’s leaving. Convenient, that.
“Kiku, right?” The strange mage said. They stood on a ship that belonged to the young noble’s family, preparing something crazy in that they would use the wind magic of other mages to make the ship fly.
Kiku turned to his new captain and stood at attention. “Captain Carriedo.” on instinct, he saluted, to which Antonio just laughed.
“Wow, Heracles wasn’t kidding. You’re a real stick-in-the-mud, huh?”
Kiku blinked a few times. “Sir?”
Antonio held up his hand to stop Kiku from continuing and shook his head. “None of that formal stuff. Just Toni is fine or, if you must, Captain.” Kiku was uncomfortable with the idea but he nodded along for now and put down his hand.
“Captain, you spoke with Heracles?”
Toni grinned wide enough to show his fangs at that. “Yup! He says that after we picked up your group, over 30% of this crew respects you and follows your orders.”
Kiku thought it over. He hadn’t had time to count how many were here before them, or how many had joined on the same night from other sources, but it wasn’t an impossible percentage to imagine. Most ships ran with 35 people max and his squad held 11.
“Right. So,“ Toni held his hand out. “Bond with me.”
Kiku’s eyes grew wide and he stepped back. More than embarrassed at the situation the way he was when Heracles spoke of it, Kiku was just surprised. “What? With you? Why?”
Toni’s tail waved behind him as if excited, he eyes shining with glee. “I want you to be my First Mate. And how great would it be if the Captain and First Mate were a bonded mage and samurai?”
Kiku swallowed nervously, but he understood the logic. He genuinely thought it over for a few moments but when he caught a glance of Heracles actually working to help someone else lift a box to a supply room, he smiled and shook his head. “No, I won’t bond with you.”
Toni frowned. “Aw really, how come?”
This time, it was Kiku’s turn to hold his hand up. “I won’t bond with you, but I will be your first mate.”
At that, Toni crossed his arms and shifted his weight from side to side. “Well, I guess that would be okay.” He grinned again. “You tell me when you’re ready to bond, huh?”
Kiku smiled and nodded, nervous and yet excited at the same time for this new adventure to come.