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The thing Kaoru wanted to do, most of all, was relax.
It was a near impossible feat to accomplish while on a quest, sure, but today had gone by fairly smoothly.
The one (one! only one, can you believe it?) monster they came across today was pathetically weak. Kaoru wasn’t a fighter when he didn’t have to be, but even he could tell that the chimera they fought was inexperienced. If the way it stumbled through its attacks didn’t give it away, the fact that it was only the size of a bear cub would have explained its unconfident attacks.
On top of that, they’d been eating good all week. Hinata had swiped one of Kunugi-sensei’s credit cards just before they left. Rather than pick at the repetitive meals of dried fruits, mixed nuts, and jerky that (aside from the constant threat of imminent death) was every demigod’s least favorite part of questing, they had been happily dining in well rated restaurants.
Senacchi was even willing to join him in calling their other siblings, Arashi and Aira were pleased to see their—actually, his—smiling face, as well as Senacchi’s almost constant stink eye. It was good being able to see them, but after the hour-long call, Kaoru was drained of nearly all his energy.
Sitting in his cot, Kaoru picked at the edges of his already fraying sleeping bag. It was almost time for him to head to bed. It was early, just barely dusk, but Kaoru was exhausted and if he didn’t get to sleep now Senacchi would soon, and then Kaoru would be kept awake for another forty five minutes at least while Senacchi did his skincare routine. It was supposed to be Moricchi’s night to sleep in their tent, too. The number of people on this quest was an odd one, and Mayoi was already being terrorized by Hinata on a nightly basis, Kaoru couldn’t dump Moricchi on him full-time in good conscience. Moricchi was fun to talk to, and Kaoru always felt better when he knew the son of Hephaestus had his back during a fight, but the novelties of sleepovers still hadn’t worn off on him. Normally, Kaoru didn’t mind it, but tonight he wanted to sleep, not to be up at two in the morning debating in hushed whispers against Moricchi’s much less quiet shouts about which Power Ranger was the best.
Kaoru had already finished his nighttime routine. His hair had been brushed, bangs pushed out of the way with one of Ayase’s headbands since he had forgotten his own. Using his own toothbrush, (Kaoru wasn’t that scatterbrained, he remembered the necessities) his teeth were brushed, although his mouth tasted like children’s bubblegum rather than mint. Kaoru’s toothbrush had been packed. His toothpaste, on the other hand...Hinata wouldn’t notice any missing. Probably.
With headbands and toothpaste foregone, it’d be a natural conclusion to assume that Kaoru’s fuzzy pajama bottoms were also borrowed, whether it be from Hinata, (who claimed anything pink within eyesight as his), or Mayoi (who, while reclusive, had admitted to Kaoru that he liked both soft textures and Sanrio). You’d be wrong, though. The Hello Kitty pants Kaoru donned were all his, gifted to him by his own cabin last November. Kaoru had never been more thankful for his Mom’s blessing. On anyone else who was 178 centimeters and unfairly muscular for their age, they’d look stupid. On a son of Aphrodite? If he could make the vibrant, carrot colored Camp shirts look good, Kaoru could work a cat patterned pair of pants.
The white t-shirt he wore was snug against his chest, and his socks were almost as fuzzy as his pants, but despite this, Kaoru still hadn’t gotten to sleep. It was a travesty, really, and needed to be retributed as soon as possible. Unzipping his six year old Camp issued sleeping bag was harder than it should have been. The zipper got snagged every few centimeters, the small opening that could barely fit Kaoru’s calf taunted him, he was so close to being able to get in and drift off, if only the piece of garbage would open—!
At first, Kaoru thought the loud, sharp snap! he had heard was him yanking the zipper of his bag clean off, his impatience paving the way to him cuddling up next to Moricchi instead of sleeping in the blissful solitude of his personal bubble. When he looked down, however, nothing was broken. Still attached to its track, the zipper felt heavy in Kaoru’s palm.
He was tired, maybe he had drifted off and not noticed? It didn’t make as much sense as Kaoru wanted it to, but he was tired, Senacchi would be here soon, and a pillow under his head was so much more appealing than drowsily watching Senacchi smear thousands of yen of product onto his face as he hummed along to Red Velvet songs. It was unacceptable, and Kaoru was going to open this sleeping bag, shut his eyes, and get to sleep.
Snap!
The second noise was enough to get Kaoru up on his feet again, but the dozen or so quick snaps in succession certainly made him move faster.
On second thought, Kaoru wished Moricchi was here. Hell, he wished any of his party were here, even Senacchi, who half assed his way through nearly every fight he assisted in. He would even have accepted help from Souma at this point, because all Kaoru had going for him was his encyclopedia of healing knowledge and the fact that his ass looked really good in these pants.
Nevertheless, Kaoru ripped open the entrance to his tent. He shook his head in every direction he could, searching for whatever beast could have made the sound, but Kaoru couldn’t see anything. He squinted, then began searching again. It wasn’t nearly dark enough to warrant the action, but maybe his eyesight was worse than he had assumed.
...Nope, there was still nothing.
Most monsters weren’t smart enough to strategize. They, much like Moricchi and his kid brother, preferred to jump straight into the fight. Kaoru sighs, guess he’ll be awake for Senacchi and Moricchi’s antics after all. Despite the lack of a threat, adrenaline was still pumping through his veins. Kaoru flexed his fingers absentmindedly, it didn’t do much to relieve the tension in his body, but he fell out of his fighting stance somewhat.
Maybe if he feigned sleep when his tent mates arrived, they’d be quiet. Kaoru doubted it. Senacchi had a sympathetic bone in his body, sure, but it was seven sizes too small and, the last Kaoru x-rayed him, sported many hairline fractures. It was worth a shot, though, so he finally turned, ready to open the tent back up and hop into bed.
Instead, Kaoru’s eyes locked with crimson.
Jumping back was his first instinct, and Kaoru felt almost like a kangaroo with how powerful the force between his leap was. He shot an embarrassingly high amount into the air, fight or flight taking over his brain. The shriek Karou was prepared to let out was bitten back, however, when his brain processed that, oh, that’s not a demon at all. It’s just a scrawny teen, curly hair long-ish and unkempt. While the dude’s torso was hidden under a gigantic hoodie, making his silhouette look almost box-like, his skinny legs were emphasized by how tight his jeans were.
No way this guy could be a threat. No way.
Kaoru shakily stepped forward, and the boy’s eyes locked with his for only a moment before they looked down again. Kaoru continued staring, however. Looking fifty kilos sopping wet, the guy didn’t even have the potential to be made up of lean muscle, like Senacchi or the twins. Hell, Kaoru probably scared him back, it’s only right to apologize.
“Sorry, I’m-”
“I like your pants.”
In the time it took the dude to say those four words, Kaoru could have finished his entire paragraph long rambling apology. It would have been rude to speak over him purposefully, though, so Kaoru obviously refrained, but his point still stands. The guy's voice was as slow and syrupy as molasses, and Kaoru couldn’t help but latch on to every syllable he spoke.
That was, until, the words he had said registered. Kaoru looked down. Hello Kitty met his gaze.
Ha ha. Very Funny.
Now all Kaoru wanted to do was go back to his tent, place his head on his pillow, and smother himself with it. Kaoru intended to respond with a dry thanks, and maybe one of the glares that he had been bugging Senacchi to help him perfect. Instead, looking up at the guy, Kaoru’s plan was thrown out the window. Not a single muscle on the man’s face betrayed the idea that he was poking fun at Kaoru. Instead, he looked surprisingly genuine, hands rubbing against his own jeans like he wished they were as soft as Kaoru’s bottoms.
“I- Uh. Thank you...? They were a gift.”
The other boy’s eyes widened.
“Ah, I think they’re a nice gift then.”
He ended the sentence there. The air between them felt heavy, but Kaoru didn’t know what to say. Does he thank the guy for complimenting the pants he already complimented? Kaoru didn’t know. He desperately wanted to say more, but he couldn’t come up with anything else. The silence continued to stretch on.
“My brother—”
Kaoru blinked. Judging by the dude’s tensed shoulders, even he wasn’t expecting himself to speak.
“My brother used to send me beads.”
“Beads.” While it was an odd choice of gift, it was not even close to the stand out detail in that sentence. They had only known each other for eight minutes max, though, so Kaoru wasn’t about to pry about this guy’s dead brother.
“Uh, yeah. Beads. They...represented something, I think. Every year he’d send one, because I was stuck at home while he was,” He pondered over his next word. “...Somewhere better. I don’t know where, but he said it was better.”
“Oh.” It felt insensitive to speculate.
“Well, I’m sure he is somewhere better.”
The boy hummed.
“He is. He’d mention friends, at first, but…” He trailed off, focus directed back toward the dirt. It took a moment, but eventually his voice was found again.
“He stopped writing. He made friends, and I was happy for him…” He didn’t finish the sentence, letting the rest remain unsaid.
His only friend was his brother, meanwhile…
“Well, I’m Kaoru.”
At best, Kaoru was expecting a name in return. At worst, he thought he would have been told to go away. Instead, the guy just blinked at him.
“We can, uh. Be friends.”
The dude’s blinking quickened, but at least now it was paired with a small smile.
“Good! You’re like me.” Now it was Kaoru’s turn to blink. What the hell did that mean? And he still hadn’t gotten a name
“Oh, right. I’m Rei.” Rei’s mouth had been opened into an ‘O’ shape just moments before, like he hadn’t realized he was supposed to also share his name.
“Cool, but uh...what did you mean by that first part?” At Rei’s blank stare, Kaoru shifted. His mouth opened without thinking, feeling the need to explain what should have been a simple question.
“You know, you- before your name you said I was like you..?” Kaoru trailed off again, bouncing slightly on the soles of his feet. His conversation skills had never deteriorated this quickly before—or, well, they had, but only when he tried to flirt. Rei was handsome, sure, but Kaoru wasn’t consciously trying to hit on him. He was just weird, and despite knowing that curiosity killed the cat, Kaoru wanted answers.
“Oh.” Rei stood still once more. He was eerily good at it, Kaoru knew he was alive, but despite this his muscles didn’t twitch. Not once did a limb fall out of place in its stillness, and the rise and fall of Rei’s chest as he breathed was so miniscule Kaoru had to squint to see the movement beneath his thick jacket.
“I thought it was obvious?” Kaoru racked his brain. He knew maybe three things about this guy, and none of them were relatable in the slightest. The color scheme Rei chose truly made it seem as if he was trying to deplete the world around him of his color, a black hole in contrast to tan skin and fluorescent pink pants. Kaoru had brothers too, sure, but both of them were unlike Rei’s own: they talked to him on a regular basis at best, and at worst, they were alive. Rei didn’t mention any sisters, either, so Kaoru couldn’t assume Rei had his own Arashi either. It felt mean to say, but Kaoru had friends too. The campgrounds they were standing in the middle of was very obviously made for more than just Kaoru, he wasn’t a loner like Rei either.
“Um, I’m trying really hard to think right now, Rei-kun, but I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Rei’s head tilted sideways. He stared unblinkingly at Kaoru, near owl-like in the way that he watched Kaoru shiver, the axis of his head tilted to a neat one hundred and eighty degrees.
“Do you not see the monsters, then?”
“I-Huh?” Kaoru couldn’t seem to close his mouth, he instead continued to gaze at Rei slack jawed. That’s impossible. Mayoi was one of the most skilled mages in the Hecate cabin, it’s why Kaoru had chosen him to go on this quest. He knew Mayoi could manipulate the mist, he’d seen the son of Hecate do so in real time, shifting the veil around his own body so he could go invisible.
Normal people had no chance of seeing through Mayoi’s magic, so how—
“The monsters. They don’t see me when I hide in the shadows, so that’s what I do, but today I watched you fight one.” The way Rei said fight...it sounded like he had never considered the concept. That couldn’t be right, though, because even if he stood the way he was standing right now, like rigor mortis had finally set in, keeping his corpse-like body upright, monsters could still catch on to a demigod’s scent.
Kaoru wanted to voice this, wanted to demand Rei tell him what he is. Instead, almost pathetically, Kaoru replied with:
“I- Moricchi did most of the fighting, actually.”
The admission didn’t appear to bother Rei in the slightest. Instead, he leaned forward more, eyes the most expressive they’ve been all night.
“Still”, Rei’s voice was breathy. “You fought it, and you won.” The adoration in his tone wasn’t hard to miss. Kaoru heard it often enough, whether it be from one of the semi-weekly confessions he received, or from his fellow campers as he returned from his umpteenth quest. He was used to the uncomfortably close, feverish blush, sparkle-in-the-eyes expressions, but he didn’t mind it as much on Rei.
For the first time since Kaoru had laid eyes on him, Kaoru could definitively say that Rei was alive. Honestly, Kaoru wasn’t quite sure how Rei had managed to survive, but when looking at him, shrouded in the light of the crescent moon, he was certain Rei was human. His eyes were blown open wide, and Kaoru couldn’t help but think that six years ago his own expression must have looked exactly like this one.
Finally finding your community, after years of being the black sheep…
“Yeah,” Kaoru smiles. “I guess we did win, huh?”
Rei remained silent, still entranced by the thrill of the fight.
“Hey.”
The tip of Kaoru’s shoe brushed against Rei’s own pair of beat up sneakers.
“Rei-kun.”
Rei looked up at him, then to their shoes, then back to him. His eyes widened the tiniest fraction as Kaoru moved closer.
Once within distance, Kaoru bumped their hips together, then their shoes, finishing it all off with a clap to Rei’s back. It was enough to push Rei forward a considerable amount. Kaoru was right, Rei would have been used to wipe the floor in any fight he stumbled into.
That would be an easy fix, though.
Kaoru knew he had Rei’s attention, if he really wanted to get into specifics, he'd had Rei’s attention the entire day without even knowing it. There was no point to dragging the wait out longer, was there?
“You were right.”
“I was?”
“Yeah. You should have come a long time ago, actually, but you can make up for it.”
Rei frowned. A fang gnawed absent mindedly at his chapped bottom lip, eyes confused but not looking away from Kaoru’s face.
“C’mon. You’re coming with for the rest of this quest, and then I’m taking you to Camp.”
Rei’s mouth fell open once more. His silence was unsurprising, people skills were hard to come by when you’ve been living in the forest for Gods knows how long.
“There are a lot of people like us, Rei-kun. It just took a while for them to find you.”