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Kenma sits atop a throne of blood and fur, the animals slinking in the shadows that surrounded him. The room is dark, the only light that remains is that of the animals’ keen yellow eyes.
Silence stands heavily in the air as Kenma waits, his fingers delicately brushing over the lion’s fur that lines his armrests. He waits patiently, though somewhat perturbed as his lower lip sits between his teeth.
This was not Heaven, nor was it Hell. No, those two places were bright. This was purgatory, and he was the half fallen seraph that reigned supreme over it. Purgatory was dark and uncertain, just like him.
A God known as Zeus had taken the wings that he had previously given to Kenma as reprimand for his disobedience. Alas, nobody was able to take the ones that Kenma had made for himself. No one could touch the colossal black crow’s wings that spread across his broad back unless they wanted to be transported to the in between, stuck in limbo for the rest of eternity as a wretched half-and-half orphan of Zeus and Hades.
Kenma sits in between, his long black nails tapping on the gnarled black bark of his throne as he agonizes. His gaze rests still on the grand oak doors to his castle, the safest place on Earth where purgatory remains.
He’s expecting someone, but they are late.
Kuroo Tetsurou had prior stumbled around in the world of Gods and men, unable to grasp a sense of self or of security. That’s how purgatory felt for most of its new spirits, as they were still surrounded by living humans at the same time that they were surrounded by guardian angels and broken-winged seraphs. They didn’t know where to go, and no one would tell them.
He was only told to find the God of purgatory himself. Nobody told him where to look.
Before Kuroo’s death, Kenma had made a deal with Aphrodite to have him sent to purgatory. He was very keen on seeing that the deal was carried out as she had agreed because she had wanted Kuroo for her own. Kenma refused. She said that since he was supposed to end up in Heaven, it wasn't Kenma’s place to take him back.
Kenma wouldn’t have that. He didn’t have it, actually.
He pulled out a list of men that he had encountered while he was still living and sent it to her, alongside each of their best qualities and when they would die. He said that she could have all of his past lovers if he could have just one beautiful Kuroo Tetsurou for himself.
She agreed, but under a few specific conditions. She made Kenma promise that he would never let Kuroo leave the castle, which was veiled from the living world and only acted as a hotel for Gods passing from Heaven to Hell. But since it was still Kenma’s home, and he wanted Kuroo to live in it with him, he agreed. Their agreement was sealed with the spill of lion’s blood. The fur of the creature was sent home with Aphrodite as a reminder of their trade and all of the men that she would be receiving within a few years.
Now, Kenma waits for Kuroo. Aphrodite had sent him away from the golden gates and walked with him down to purgatory where she told him to look for the darkest place on Earth, where he would find his salvation. As he stumbled through the grass, he was completely clueless to the fact that what waited in ‘salvation’ was the love of his life, the boy that he had been missing ever since his untimely death in his twenties. The boy whose name was the last word ever uttered off of his lips. Yes, that boy was waiting in the darkest place on Earth and Kuroo had no idea.
It took multiple years of horrible journeying for Kuroo to find the castle, but it only registered as a few minutes inside of the palace where Kenma sits anxiously atop of his throne.
Kuroo doesn’t knock, he’s too tired. He simply pushes open the door and walks inside. Immediately he is surrounded by the thousands of animals that Kenma keeps safe with him. A few dozen begin to crowd him, taking so much of his attention that he doesn’t even notice who sits atop of the large, darkened throne.
Not until Kenma speaks out loud and clear, “Kuro, I missed you.”
Kuroo snaps his head up. However, the room is too devoid of light to see Kenma clearly. But Kuroo knew his voice. Of course he knows the sound of his lover.
“Kenma?” He asks aloud, his heart racing. He drops one of his hands down to pet the fur of a panther that sleekly slides past him.
“I’m here, Kuro,” Kenma replies, standing up from his seat. He walks forward, his wings fleeting off of his back with a wingspan of at least ten feet. They are the first thing Kuro sees as his lover approaches him for the first time in sixty long, lonely years.
“Kenma…,” He murmurs, eyes examining Kenma’s changed, godly body. “You’re different.”
“I’m the God of purgatory, Kuro,” Kenma replies, blushing as he looks down at his feet. “I didn’t ask for this either, though.”
Kuroo nods. “Your wings…,” he begins, then takes a deep breath. “They’re really pretty.”
Kenma grins. “You want a pair?”
Silence sits like static in the air as a hot blush spreads over Kuroo’s face. His eyes meet Kenma’s for a split second, but then he looks away.
“I don’t know…,” Kuroo replies, itching the back of his neck. He looks at Kenma’s clothes, shoes, and makeup. He smiles. “You look happy this way.”
“I am.”
“I’m glad.”
Kenma takes a step forward and holds his hand out. Kuroo takes it almost instantly.
“You’re a god?” Kuroo asks quietly, as Kenma leads him towards his throne. He lights a match from the box that sat in the pocket of his black pants and holds it in the air for Kuroo to examine the room around him at least a little bit.
“I am. Do you want to be?”
Kuroo takes a deep breath. “That’s an option for me?”
Kenma nods. “Aphrodite wanted you first, but I gave up all of my past lovers on Earth so that you could live here with me. I want to make you a God so that you can feel more comfortable walking on Earth.”
“It was really difficult to get here.”
“I know. But you did well. I’m proud of you,” Kenma replies, taking the match and putting it in between his and Kuroo’s faces to see his lover’s features better. He smiles softly as he examines the curves of Kuroo’s tired face.
Kenma draws his free hand from his side and places it warmly on Kuroo’s cheek. He whispers, “I love you, Kuro. I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
Kuroo looks at the floor. “I’ve missed you ever since you died. I wish you wouldn’t have killed yourself.”
Kenma sighs. “Me too, Kuro.”
“Why did you do it?”
The panther Kuroo petted earlier slinks past once again, brushing its body against his leg as if to ask for attention. Kenma giggles.
“She likes you,” he whispers, watching as the panther bashes it’s head into Kuroo’s stomach. Kuroo awkwardly pets her, slipping his fingers through her soft black fur.
“Why do you have so many animals?”
Kenma shrugs. “I like them. They’re kind to me. Most of the Gods are not.”
“I see,” Kuroo mutters, looking down at the ground as the panther collapses and lies on her back, as if to ask for her stomach to be rubbed. “She’s not a dog, why does she want me to rub her stomach?”
Kenma scoffs. “Because she likes having her stomach rubbed.”
“Oh.”
The air between them begins to seem awkward (at least to Kenma it does) as Kuroo sits down and pats on the panther. It makes its way into his lap and smiles at him with its sharp teeth, and he smiles back.
“I like her.”
“She can be yours if you want,” Kenma tells him lightly, watching as the match in his hand flickers out. He throws the stick on the floor. “This castle is mine and yours now. You’re my husband, so I want you to join me on the throne.”
Kuroo takes a deep breath. “This is so much, Kenma… I just got here… I’m scared.”
“I don’t want you to worry, Kuro,” Kenma says lightly, sitting down beside his lover. The two make loving eye contact as Kenma continues, “You’re already dead, what’s the worst that can happen?”
Kuroo scoffs, then laughs. “You’re right. But you still haven’t told me why you killed yourself. And why do I look like I’m twenty when I died at eighty?”
Kenma bites his lip softly. “I asked Aphrodite if she could send you the same age as me, so we could grow old together here.”
“We’re dead. We can’t grow old, Kenma.”
“...I want to try.”
Kuroo sighs gently in reply, looking down at the floor. Kenma is left to feel somewhat dumb as he watches Kuroo rub the panther’s stomach, his eyes glued to the animal and not looking up once to Kenma’s.
“This isn’t the afterlife I expected.”
Kenma snaps back quickly. “Did you not want to spend it with me? Because if you don’t, I can send you back to Aphrodite for her to make you her sex slave like she intended in the first place.”
Kuroo clamps his mouth shut.
“I can't help but feel you still have resentment and disappointment in your heart towards me, Kuro. I regret killing myself just as much as you regret not having fed your cat the night before you died. But I felt stuck, truly and really. I didn’t think there was any other way. I had depression that had gone unsolved and it spiraled out of control, eventually killing me. It wasn’t because of you, or Bokuto, or Akaashi, or Tadashi, or Shoyo. It was because of me. I didn’t think I deserved to live any longer.”
“You left me!” Kuroo yells, his heart opened and hurting as Kenma watches him with his dark amber eyes. “I mourned for you for twenty years, Kenma, until I finally got over myself and decided to enjoy the rest of my life.”
Kenma sighs. “I’m sorry, Kuro. I didn’t think about that when I… I didn’t mean to hurt you, baby.”
Kuroo’s breath hitches in his throat. “Baby…,” he says aloud, though very quietly. “You haven’t called me that in sixty years.”
“No shit. I’ve been dead.”
Kuroo shuffles in his spot on the carpet uncomfortably. “I wish it was brighter in here.”
Kenma nods. “It’s brighter in my bedroom. How about I take you there? We can talk.”
“Okay,” Kuroo whispers, stretching his hand out for Kenma to help him off the ground. He does, and quietly Kenma leads him to his bedroom, the panther stalking behind them.
The hallway is unlit, but lined with shining quartz. Kuroo stands awed as he looks at the thousands of doors lining the gnarled wooden walls, accented by that beautiful clear and pink stone.
After what feels like a century, Kenma and Kuroo reach the former’s bedroom at the end of the hallway. Kenma opens the door and immediately Kuro is overwhelmed by the familiar scent of orange and ginger—the soap that Kenma used to use when he was alive.
He can’t help it as a few tears fall down his face. “Your scent…”
Kenma smiles. “You missed it?”
“A lot.” Kuroo nods, and grips Kenma’s hand tighter. “I missed you a lot.”
“I missed you too, baby.” He smiles. “Do you want your friend to accompany us?”
Kenma points to the panther with his index finger, accented by a long black fingernail. Kuroo notices and touches it gently. “You like nail polish?”
Kenma snorts. “It’s not nail polish. It’s rot.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Kenma giggles, leading Kuroo into the room. The panther tries to follow, but Kuroo softly closes the door on her. She scratches at the wood for a moment and howls, but then she leaves them alone. “How are you feeling, Kuro?”
“Weird.” He sighs, and grips Kenma’s hand tighter. “But I feel better in this room than I did in the other one. This one is more like you.”
He explores the room with Kenma standing right by his side. He brushes his fingertips over the dresser and over the frame of Kenma’s California King bed, then looks through the giant windows at the brush of trees cluttering his entire view ahead. He smiles as sunlight pours onto his face.
“I like it in here,” Kuroo finally says, deciding to sit down on the edge of the bed. Kenma sits beside him, having to jump up to get over the tall bed frame.
“It’s your room now too,” Kenma whispers. Then he clenches his hands together anxiously as he says, “If you still want to be married to me, of course.”
Kuroo pulls Kenma into his chest, curling his hands into Kenma’s fully brunet hair. “Of course I do. I love you so much… I was just upset.”
Kenma nods into Kuroo’s shirt, listening to his heart stand still. “I’m really sorry, baby.”
“It’s okay,” Kuroo breathes, pulling Kenma into his lap. “We’re together now, yeah? And we’ll be Gods together, ruling Purgatory or whatever you said we’re the gods of.”
Kenma blushes, sighing lightly and happily as Kuroo presses a kiss to his forehead.
“Do I get to wear an elegant black outfit like that one too?”
Kenma snorts. “Oh yeah, and the makeup? Absolutely. I usually only dress like this when Gods come to visit. They kind of treat my castle like a hotel when they’re traveling from Heaven to Hell. But I wanted to impress you, so I thought I might as well dress up today too…”
“I am very impressed,” Kuroo says, grinning. “I think you look great. Very Godlike.”
“I’m glad, because that’s what I am.”
“How the hell did you get stuck with that?” Kuroo asks, laughing. He watches as Kenma strips of his layers of fancy black clothes and throws them to the floor until he’s just in his pants. Kuroo watches the glimmer of his bare chest, only half listening as Kenma replies.
“I acted like a pissbaby in Heaven so Zeus tried to take away my wings but they just grew right back so he tried again and they grew back again and he tried again and you get the gist. He threw me down to the underworld but Hades wouldn’t accept me since I still had wings. By this time they had turned black so when I went back up to the overworld Zeus got pissed and tried to take them again, but he couldn’t even touch them because they stung his hands. He sent me to purgatory and I’ve ruled here ever since. I’ve accumulated God powers too, which is cool.”
Kuroo nods, now watching his wings flutter. “Can I touch your wings? Or will I get stung?”
“Nah, I don’t think you will. Go ahead.”
Kuroo inches forward on the bed and strokes the feathers with his right hand, his left holding his balance on the thick red comforter. He grins as his hand is enveloped with black feathers. As he brushes downwards, the wing he touches flutters into his hand. He giggles.
“How do you put clothes on?”
Kenma grins. “All of my shirts have holes in the back where my wings come through. If I press them to my back then it’s relatively easy to put on and take off my clothes. Didn’t you see me when I was taking my shirt and jacket off?”
Kuroo bites his lip. “I wasn't watching.”
“That’s okay,” Kenma replies, cocking his head and smiling brightly at Kuroo. “You know, I haven’t seen your body in a long, long time…”
“Are you asking to have sex with me?”
Kenma blushes. “Maybe. Didn’t you know that sex with a God is the most magical experience you’ll ever have?”
Kuroo scoffs. “Aren’t I a god now?”
“Well no, not yet. I have to put a ring on it,” Kenma says, looking at the ceiling as he swings his legs off the tall bed.
“You did. It’s right here,” Kuroo says, exasperated. He raises his left hand and shows Kenma his ring finger, where a silver wedding band sits.
“No, you put a ring on me,” Kenma states, showing Kuroo the ring on his own finger that Kuroo had given him long ago. “I have to formally propose to you as a God for you to become one, and we have to get married again.”
“Another wedding?”
“Yes. With Gods as guests,” Kenma replies. He smirks. “Including Zeus, who I haven’t talked to since he threw me down here. That’ll be funny, don’t you think?”
Kuroo purses his lips. “I guess so. Will you wear a fancy suit?”
Kenma nods. “And it will be more elegant than you have ever seen.”
“You know, seeing you in all of these fancy clothes is really throwing me for a loop.”
“I know. But look in my dresser. It’s filled with hoodies and sweatpants and that’s it.”
Kuroo grins. “I’m glad you’re still you when there aren’t Gods around to judge.”
“Me too,” Kenma says, then moves to snuggle into Kuroo’s chest. “I really missed you. I know I already said that but… I’m so happy to have you here with me.”
“Same here,” Kuroo whispers, slowly dropping his head to meet Kenma’s lips. A spark forms between them as their lips connect, melding together just like they used to. After a few minutes of kissing, they separate and Kenma bites his lip, face completely flushed.
“Kiss me like that again and you’ll have me all hot and bothered,” He jokes, not expecting Kuroo to envelope him in his arms and kiss him again, though harder and more passionate this time. Kenma kisses back just as hard, groaning softly into Kuroo’s lips as the latter’s tongue slips down his throat.
Kuroo pushes Kenma onto the bed and straddles his hips, kissing him long and hard. He places kisses on his cheeks and moves to his neck where he leaves an assortment of hickeys ranging from light pink to deep purple. Kenma buckles into Kuroo’s touch and whines as Kuroo marks his body. His wings arch as he does, antsily fluttering as Kuroo’s lips move down Kenma’s chest to his stomach where he leaves a soft kiss on Kenma’s belly button.
“Baby…,” Kenma utters out beneath a loud whine, speaking right as Kuroo pulls himself back up and sucks on Kenma’s collarbone. “Take your clothes off,” He whispers, tugging on the hem of Kuroo’s shirt.
Together they struggle to pull off Kuroo’s clothes, then Kenma’s pants. Kenma lies Kuroo down beside him, the two lying face to face as they kiss once again.
Kenma feels his lips go sore, but he doesn’t care. The feeling of euphoria within him is too strong to back down, he won’t let Kuroo go anytime soon.
“Kuro, baby,” Kenma starts, hooking his leg over Kuroo’s hip. “I want to take you.”
Kuroo nods. “Do it.”
Kenma grins, moving Kuroo onto his back and trapping him in a cage of the former’s strong arms, legs, and wings. They spread over Kenma’s back sturdy and wide, and Kuroo believes that this Kenma towering above him truly is a sight to see—one of the best he's ever seen before.
“You look so hot,” Kuroo murmurs. “I’m glad I found you.”
Kenma smiles. “I’m glad you found me too. Now we’ll be together forever.”
“Forever?” Kuroo asks, though he knows the answer. Forever—and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever.
“Yes, baby. Forever. I’ll love you every single night for the rest of eternity,” Kenma giggles, then Kuroo scoffs.
“Won’t that hurt?”
Kenma winks, tugging on the band of Kuroo’s underwear. “Not if you’re a God like me.”