Chapter Text
Ah, Valentines’ Day.
It’s a day meant for many things.
Heartfelt confessions.
Spending quality time with your significant other(though you should do that anyway, what the hell is wrong with people today?).
The giving of gifts, ranging from little chocolate hearts to…anything really.
Top it off with a very...love filled evening and you’ve got yourself one hell of a holiday. Mostly.
To be completely honest, I never really got into it as much at first. Sure the sex seemed to be even better on that day for some reason(maybe it’s something in the air?) and watching everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off the day before is hilarious to say the least, but other than that it seemed…Hmm. What's the right way to say it?
You'd just think that most of the other things people do on that day should be done anyway? Spending time with each other, the gift giving and all that. I doubt I’m the only one that thinks this.
I hear a slightly deep puff of a laugh come from my right, ‘You sound like a bitter old man.’ Another puff follows from someone that thinks themselves more clever than they truly are. ‘What? Are you going to go swinging around your glorified walking stick, telling the kids to stay off of your lawn next?’
My eyes nearly roll into the back of my head, ‘Oh, shut up.’
“What’s wrong? Still going through your mid-life crisis? Not ready for that stage of your life yet?’
My hand moves before I can stop it, not like I put up much of a fight really, and swiftly slaps the annoying white haired Archer on the back of his dumb head. What I thought would earn me a grunt or even a blade at my throat only manages to pull out another near-silent laugh.
This little bastard…
I stand with an annoyed huff and scan the area for another suitable rooftop that doesn’t have white haired brats perched on them, waiting to torment me. “You are the worst company ever. I don’t even know why I try with you.” I also don’t even get a chance to finish my search for a better perch before a slightly shaky tan hand grips my arm and tries to pull me back down.
“W-Wait…” says the Archer, voice also shaking a bit from laughing. “Don’t go yet, Ojiisan*. We’re not done talking yet.”
I glare down at the top of his head, just itching to slap it hard with my staff. “You…You really feel like dying today, don’t you? Another bout of self-loathing come to bite you in the ass?” The white haired man says nothing, grip on my arm tightening.
Damn it.
I plop back down next to the my fellow Servant with the loudest and longest sigh that I can muster, head tilted back in halfway annoyance. “Whhhyyyy are you so annoying?”
Again, no response comes and after a moment of looking up at the sky soot filled sky, I look to my right to see if the kid is still alive. What I find surprises me.
Staring.
Silver eyes that probably have been staring at me this entire time watch me intently. I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I meet his stare. What? What do want? His constant staring is unnerving, silver eyes seeming to try to stare into my very soul and find secrets there that nobody should know. Add in the fact that I’m still in his grip, we’re technically enemies, and that our peaceful talk could easily turn into a bloodbath and you’ll begin to understand why I’m so on edge.
Both literally and figuratively.
No, I did not mean to make a pun. It just turned out that way.
There is a long bit of staring, unreadable silver and confused red meeting before he finally makes his move. My whole body tenses as I halfway materialize my staff when my hand is jerked towards the silver eyed Archer.
He does something that’s too quick for my eyes to catch before placing a small…
What the hell is that?
All I do is blink as my hand is closed around something small enough to fit nicely in my palm, before being pushed back towards my chest. My eyes are drawn to the now clenched fist, so confused by it that even the sudden sound of wind doesn’t catch my attention. When I finally manage to get my words and look back up to ask what he was even doing, I find that he is no longer there.
“Wha--”
Do I know how long I’ve been sitting up here bye myself like a damn fool? Nope. Do I even know where he went? Ha! If only.
No, all I can do now is squint at the burning landscape in confusion before finally removing my clenched fist from my chest to examine what exactly is was that he gave me. What I see when I open it makes me even more confused.
Chocolate..?
Sitting in the palm of my hand was a small square piece of chocolate wrapped in a light blue wrapper. Funny how it matches my robes.
To say I was stumped was an understatement. Why would he, an annoying little thing that likes to torment me on a daily basis, give me of all people a piece of what looks to be well made chocolate? Where did he even manage to get something like this when all that's left of this city is fire and ash? None of this makes sense!
I planned on getting an answer the next time we met up. Hell, I’d even beat the answer out of him if I had to!
But…
I twirl the small light blue wrapper around in the air with a bit of my magic, enjoying how it reflects the light of the only lamp I have cut on in the room. My smile is sad as I watch it spin.
That was the last time I saw you.
My once sad smile turns a bit bitter at my next thought.
Well, the last time I saw you before she got to you.
No longer using my magic to keep it up in the air, the paper floats down and lands in the palm of my hand. The sight is oh so familiar and leaves a warm feeling in my chest.
I won’t say that I dislike her since we were in the middle of a war and she was following her Masters’ orders…
However, I’m not gonna lie and say that there wasn’t a bit of anger there when I told Ritsuka and his little group what had happened before they came along.
The sound of something crinkling hits my ears and I immediately look down. So the anger hasn’t fully gone away yet, huh? A sigh escapes me, something that sounds louder than usual in the quiet bedroom, as I begin to smooth the slightly crinkled wrapper back into a square. After a few swipes the wrapper looks somewhat brand new. Of course there are permanent creases from folding and a couple wrinkles just from having the damn thing for so long.
Yes, this is the wrapper from back then if you couldn’t guess.
…
What?
Are you wondering if I ate the chocolate he gave me?
Of course I didn’t! We were still enemies back then. The damn thing could’ve been filled with poison or worse for all I knew. Nah, I threw the chocolate away the same day he gave it to me.
Though it’s fairly obvious at this point that I kept the wrapper.
And I may have used the only water source available in that fiery prison of a city to wash it then folded it up and stuck it somewhere in my robes.
…
Maybe.
A sleepy mumble from somewhere in the room grabs my attention. More like from someone if we’re trying to be specific here. I can feel my lips turn up in a soft smile as I hop off of the bench by our 'happy window' and walk over to my bed that’s up against the wall. Splayed out on his stomach is a certain white haired Servant that is currently making grabby hands against the sheets, blindly trying to figure out where his ‘walking hot water bottle’ had gone. I can’t help but laugh at the cute display before sitting down by his reaching hand.
The hand then tugs at the white unbuttoned shirt I wear(which is his if your were curious), runs down a bit of the fabric before gliding over my underwear and bare thigh until finally settling on right hand. He scratches at the knuckles for a bit before rubbing over the area in a sleepy apology. Then, and only then, does he turn his head to crack open his left eye.
I’ll admit, my smile does fade a little at the obvious sign of corruption just below his eye. Red veins mark up his beautiful tan skin but it’s alright. I usually only take notice of it when I’m thinking about the past. Otherwise it doesn't bother me as much. What’s more important are his eyes and how pretty they’ve become;A mixture of gold and silver stares up at me with a sleepy but happy crinkle in the corner, so I reach over and rub at it. Then underneath it. Then over the whole eye, gently forcing his lid closed as I do.
The sleepy Archer lets out a small grumble in protest before fully rolling onto his right side so he can see me better, hand that was playing with my own now covering the one that rubbed over his eye.
I grin at his slightly annoyed face, “Awake now?”
“Mmmph…Unfortunately. Why are you up so early?”
Early? Is it really that early? I glance over at the clock on the brown bedside table and…Oh. Wow, it really is early. 4:30 in the morning to be exact.
I turn back to him, “Oh.” Kage, my mate, snorts.
“You are such an old man…Waking up so early.”
Annnnd here we go. My fingers latch onto his cheek with bruising force before pulling as hard as I can, “You just could not wait to call me an old man, could you? Couldn’t let me have one morning. One peaceful morning.”
Kage is unfazed by my cheek pulling, completely used to it at this point, the little turd. All he does is shrug, “Well you do go to bed early sometimes and with the waking up early bit now too…” He lets the sentence hang in the air.
"Sometimes I'm too tired to even move! I need rest!"
"Yes, yes."
"You little..."
And so begins our back and forth for the next 15 minutes.
“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”
A huff, “You just now figuring that out? Amazing…”
I lean down and bite his nose, “Shut up. Go to sleep.”
He slinks his arm around my waist with ease, “I need my walking hot water bottle to sleep.”
...annoying.
When I next lean down it’s for a kiss. Soft and somewhat sleepy. Not heat. No rush. Just gentle. Too early to be rolling around in the bed anyway. Save that for tonight. When we part, I reach underneath the bed and start to tug on something attached to the underside of it. I hear Kage sit up a bit to figure out what it is I’m tugging on but he’ll find out soon enough.
“What are you doing?” He asks curiously.
“Shhh.”
“...fine.” A reluctant sounding answer. If he were younger, I could almost imagine him folding his arms with a small pout. The thought makes me laugha a bit myself as I continue to yank and tug on the item.
Finally pulling the damn box that I attached too well free, I straighten up and turn to Kage. Before he can say or do anything I shove the box at him. He instinctively puts up a hand to block the oncoming object. Good. Happy that he did what I hoped he would, I let go of my end of the box.
My Archer takes it with a startled noise, looking from me to the box and back again before truly examining what I gave to him. The next time he looks at me, his silver-ish gold eyes are wide. It might really take me laying next to him for him to get to sleep because now he looks more awake than ever, I think with another laugh before rubbing at his forehead a bit.
“I thought you weren’t all that interested in Valentines’ Day.”
I hum in thought, “It’s not all that bad I guess.”
Replacing my hand with my lips, I place a quick kiss to his forehead before leaning away and holding up the light blue wrapper. His eyes go even wider as he stares at it in disbelief. This only makes me grin like a cat that got the cream.
“Happy Valentines’ Day.”
My mates mouth hangs open for a few moments longer in shock, only snapping out of it when I speak again.
“I know it’s not handmade, that’s more Alters’ thing than mine, but I figured you liked that brand. Wouldn’t lug it around a city filled with fire if ya didn’t, right?”
Kage closes his eyes with a laugh of his own, “You really are…No. Thank you, you strange druid.”
“I take offense to that.”
The white haired Archer simply ignores me and leans in for another soft kiss, setting the box of chocolates on the bedside table as he does. We don’t really part this time. Simply fall onto the bed, lips pressing against each other for awhile. I think it’s about 5 in the morning when we actually go to sleep, Kage molded against my back, face buried in my neck. I’d long since placed my keepsake ontop of his gift and I stare at the two items one last time before closing my eyes with a smile.
My Archer places a soft kiss on my neck.
“Happy Valentines’ Day, old man.”
And you know what?
Today, I’ll let it slide.
Just for today though. Don’t go getting any ideas.