Chapter Text
“Some of the boys have been telling me that he was the star of the show at the Vision Hunt Ceremony.” Itto complains around a mouthful of sticky dango, “I’m like—are you kidding me? How come he gets his own special ceremony?”
Lumine looks at the oni in disgust, narrowly dodging the stray droplets of rice cake soup as he waved around a piece of sausage. He was about to put it in his mouth when Lumine had half a mind to snatch it out of the oni’s hand who then stared at her, thick eyebrows raised nearly to his hairline.
“Tofu,” a curt answer, and the oni rolled his eyes, grabbing the plate of yakisoba on his left before resuming his little tantrum—which Lumine was barely listening to by the way. She was too busy making the most of her victory against him on their recent bet, feasting like a queen without a care in the world.
Itto was paying, so she might as well. Paimon seemed to agree, stuffing her face with some rice buns somewhere to her right.
“Anyway, was the hundredth Vision supposed to be like, stronger than the other ninety-nine, or something?” Itto slams a large fist on the table, making the contents jump and Lumine’s heart skip a beat.
He seems to ponder something for a bit, fingers rubbing his chin in some semblance of a thinking pose that Lumine was surprised the other was even capable of—considering their recent escapades. Still, Lumine enjoys his company. He had a refreshing personality, a stark contrast to all the formalities her other Inazuman friends present themselves with.
No offense to the others, she still cares about them a lot, but Itto’s honesty was very much appreciated, though it often breeds trouble whenever he and Paimon get together.
Which was a regular occurrence as of late.
“Pff, nah,” he closes his eyes and waves dismissively, “it couldn’t have been that ‘cause hello! They would’ve chosen me if that’s what they were going for,” he chuckles, and just like that, the oni was back to munching on some Tri-Flavored Skewers.
“Ooh you know, Thoma actually told us some time ago that he wanted to meet you!” Paimon says, far too happy to be planning a simple innocent meet-up.
“Oh yeah?” He grins, he cracks his knuckles and speaks all too loudly than what could be considered appropriate conduct inside a public establishment. “So the tough guy wants to tussle, huh? I’ll show him!”
“Yup yup! In the words of someone else we know, “ She clears her throat, a hand resting on her hip in mock arrogance, the other a balled fist raised in the air. “Vengeance will be mine! Er... in this case, yours!”
“Yeah! Tell this ‘Thoma’ guy to meet me at Chinju Forest at exactly midnight tomorrow! I’ll pound him into the dirt!”
Lumine’s warning “Let’s not—” fell on deaf ears as the two continued to take turns hyping each other up, yelling so loud that the other customers were glaring at them angrily.
Which—okay she was used to having eyes on them during their meals. It was something she had to deal with back in Liyue, no thanks to the eccentric couple that seemed to attract attention wherever they went. But this was different.
Paimon was spending too much time around Eula it seems.
And Itto was simply an idiot.
She feels a headache gnawing at the base of her skull, tension pulling at her temples. Lumine rubs at the bridge of her nose as she very non-aggressively stabs a tofu and considers hurling it at the oni.
Reluctantly, she resigns to her fate. At the very least, they didn’t get kicked out. If the Tenryou Commission weren’t so busy they would have jailed Itto for public disturbance of peace.
(And when later on Itto dares offer her a sheepish glance after patting his empty pockets down for loose change, Lumine had to physically restrain herself from committing murder right then and there.)
Lumine does in fact, not tell Thoma that Itto wanted to meet him too. It wasn’t purely out of spite—she was busy at the time, and it appears that Thoma was too, considering that she hadn’t run into him at all during the entirety of her day spent running around Narukami Island doing commissions.
Instead, she was unfortunate enough to run into a disgruntled Itto in Ritou. He was muttering angrily under his breath, scaring away anyone who dared come within a ten foot radius of the oni. He visibly perks up at the sight of the blonde though, running up to her. The shopkeeper he was previously face-to-face with nearly fainted in relief.
“Traveler! Guess that ‘Thoma’ boy ain’t shit!” he yells, attracting more and more looks at the mention of the esteemed ‘Fixer of Ritou”. “Guess he got too scared to show up—which sucks ass, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about! Not to mention I waited literal hours for the bastard to show up, but I’m counting this one as a win—for me!”
“I mean, pshh I understand, anyone would be too scared to stand toe-to-toe with the ‘One and Oni’ Arataki Itto!” He puffs his chest out, “I’d be shitting bricks too if I challenged me!”
“Actually,” Lumine sighs, “I hadn’t seen him at all since the last time we met, so I wasn’t able to pass on the message.”
“Whaaat?” Itto deflates, “All this trouble and it turns out he didn’t show up just ‘cuz he didn’t know? You’re kidding!”
As a matter of fact, she was not.
“Haaaa,” Itto huffs, crossing his arms defiantly, “Fine, since you weren’t able to fulfill your part of the deal, help me with this stupid task and I’ll let you off the hook for now.”
Spoken like a true Vision-bearer blessed by the God of Contracts. Lumine pinches the bridge of her nose. She didn’t bother with reminding him about how she had to pay for the meal that he owed them—there was just no winning when it came to Arataki Itto.
“Alright, fine. Is this why you’re all the way in Ritou today?”
“Yup, when the sun started to shine earlier I knew that ‘Mr. 100th Vision Holder’ wasn’t gonna show up, but I heard footsteps so I thought, ‘Man this guy is late as fuck’ but whatever, better late than never right?”
They walk back to one of the shops. “Turns out… It was Ayato-aniki! I told him I was waiting for someone called Thoma, and he had the audacity to laugh at me!”
“He challenged me to see if I could fix him a crate of lavender melons cheaper than the ones sold currently at the Inazuma city marketplace, and in exchange, he would introduce us—of course, I wasn’t gonna back down from a challenge!” He rubs the back of his neck gingerly, “So uhhh, here we are now.”
“So Ayato made you his errand boy?”
“What? No!” Itto took that waaay too personally. “This is a challenge, and you bet your ass I’m gonna win!”
Lumine decides not to tell him that Ayato was probably the reason Thoma was too busy to have met him, offering her silent compliance for the sake of her sanity.
At least after she deals with this matter, Itto would be out of her hands for the time being. Archons bless Thoma .
He was gonna need it.
“Arataki Itto?” Thoma pauses from where he was trimming the bushes in the garden, looking back at Ayato who was sipping his tea with a serene look. “He wants to meet me?”
“The One and Oni,” he looks back at Thoma with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “It seems that an extra shipment of lavender melons arrived miraculously last night, so you should have the rest of the day free, right?”
“Well, Ayato-sama…”
Ayato hums, noncommittal. He takes a small sip of his tea, sencha , carefully prepared by Thoma himself.
“That reminds me, the chefs will be preparing food for dinner later right? I asked them to prepare some extra as I’ve gotten my hands on some exotic ingredients from—”
“Oh whoops! Well, would you look at the time! Arataki-san wanted to meet, right?” he chuckles nervously. “Well I should go and prepare myself, do a quick wash of the remaining laundry and sweep outside for a bit. Oh and I almost forgot, the kids needed help fixing some of their stuffed toys. I should probably get to that… If the Young Lady asks—”
Ayato waves him off, “I was just thinking those beetle legs would look exceptionally exquisite in rice cake soup won’t you agree?”
The sliding door closes with a soft thud, Thoma seeking reprieve inside the Kamisato estate. Ayato hides a smile behind his cup of tea, eyes closed contently.
Thoma was in for a treat.
Itto was staring rather intently at a fruit stand. It was under such intense scrutiny that it might as well had crushed itself right then and there from the pressure. Kuki Shinobu had sent him out to run some errands which—to be fair, he owed her after getting him out of jail far too many times in one week.
Now the problem here was, Itto doesn’t know jack shit about budgeting. He was handed a small bag of mora and pushed out the door to replenish their food supply for the week, which wasn’t his job but damn if he wasn’t gonna try! Sure the bag of mora probably couldn’t even afford meals enough for one day, but—okay that was going to be a problem.
Still, the oni was a stubborn and prideful man. He wasn’t going to not take on a challenge, that was the coward’s way of doing things.
But…there might just be some things that bests even the Great Arataki Itto. Even if that one thing just so happened to be as mundane as grocery shopping .
Well he wasn’t called Arataki “He Might Lose but He’ll Never Admit Defeatto” for nothing!
He was about to buy a batch of carrots for a thousand mora each when a voice pipes up from behind him. “Oh! If you want the freshest and cheapest carrots you should go the vendor down the street,” a flash of yellow hair catches the corner of his vision before he turns around and is met with the prettiest fucking man he’s ever laid eyes upon.
“Ah, sorry. I don’t mean to intrude, but seeing the small bag of mora in your hand, I figured you might need the help.” He waves his pretty little hands in front of him, looking sheepish, “Of course if you don’t want to take my advice, you’ don’t have to! Though I can help you haggle down the price if these are the ones you want to buy.”
Itto was only mildly aware that he was staring, mouth slightly agape. A rush of warmth crept up the base of his nape as he pulled himself together in a blink of an eye. In a flourish, he whips out his trusty comb, fixing his hair and consequently, dropping the bag of mora to the ground, spilling its contents everywhere.
Thoma was only slightly concerned, a hand raised in hesitation of whether to help him grab his mora from the ground or ask the oni if he was alright.
“Uhm…”
Itto lays a hand on the crate of potatoes, leaning forward and trying to look as cool as possible, “Hey… You come here often?”
Smooth, smooth. Itto pats himself on the back mentally for that one.
“Actually I do, come here often, that is,” He looks confused, a nervous chuckle escaping his lips. “It’s kind of part of the job description y’know?”
And he smiles, a sheepish, crinkled grin that has Itto’s heart doing somersaults. He was half convinced he’d died then and there. A dead, happy man.
“That’s kinda hot actually.”
Crap he said that out loud
“Excuse me?” Thoma squeaks, a faint blush creeping up his neck. Archons, Itto’s face was getting hotter by the second.
“I uhhh,” Itto stutters, “I’m kinda hot actually, as in, it’s pretty warm right? Is it just me?”
Itto tugs at his collar, and he makes the mistake of leaning further onto the crate of vegetables, sending him and the crate toppling over onto the ground…
Along with the entirety of its contents.
Thoma, with a strength that surprises Itto, offers his hand and lifts him up effortlessly, “Are you okay?”
Itto, dumbstruck, fumbles over his words “I’m gay—I’m okay! I’m okay!” He dusts himself off, “Gonna take more than that to get the Arataki “The Oni Sumo King” Itto down, that’s for sure.” He chuckles. “Anyway Sunshine, tell me, what’s your—”
“Your wallet!”
“My wallet?” Thome points at a white cat running down the street, carrying the bag of mora that Itto had dropped earlier. What was spilled on the ground was all the oni had left, and what was left in the bag was essentially gone.
But for the umpteenth time, Itto was not the type to give up that easily.
He grabbed Thoma’s hand as he reached for the mora on the ground, hauling him up and dragging him along as he ran after the thieving feline with a quick yell of “Come on! I’m not about to get beaten by a damn cat!”
To say the least, Thoma was mortified. They were running through Inazuma City, holding hands and making way too much noise than what was socially acceptable and publicly appropriate. By the time they catched up to the cat who had perched itself on top of the giant tree near the entrance of Inazuma City, Thoma was flushed red, not from exertion, but from embarrassment.
“Here kitty kitty kitty,” Itto tried to coax the thing down, but it only hissed at him as it swatted at his hand which barely reached up to the branch it was standing on. “Dammit, give it back! Are you trying to get me killed by an angry Kuki Shinobu? Geez.”
Itto placed both hands on the tree, “This is your final warning, kitty. Three! Two! One—”
“Wait! Arataki-san,” Thoma places a warm hand on Itto’s bicep and it’s all Itto could think about as he blanked out for the next few seconds, almost missing the blonde’s words entirely. “I can get them down alright? No need to be so rough.”
Thoma approached the cat until he was standing below the branch it was on. He extends his arms upward, coaxing it into his arms with a gentle smile and reassuring words, “Hey there little guy! You got something that belongs to my friend over here, so let’s get you down to give it back okay?”
The cat tilts its head at Thoma as if recognizing his face, before tentatively pawing at the trunk of the tree. It didn’t seem like it was able to go down, unable to find purchase on the solid wood. It meows at Thoma, “Oh? Can’t get down buddy?”
While Thoma was busy dealing with the cat, Itto was busy having a mental breakdown. He almost had to physically turn the gears in his head as he stared at the other man with the faintest hint of red on his cheeks.
Gods, if his gang saw him now they’d think he was no different from a teenage boy experiencing his first crush. Which was half true. He was no teenage boy, but this was definitely his first time feeling this kinda thing.
Maybe he should ask Ms. Hina about this. Though she wasn’t the best at giving love advice, he still valued her opinion on a lot of things. She always gives the most encouraging and heartwarming responses that Itto appreciates.
Thoma looks back at Itto with another sheepish grin, “I think they’re stuck.”
“Up you go then,” Itto rests his hands on either side of Thoma’s waist, lifting him up to eye-level with the cat. Thoma steadies himself by holding onto the oni’s wrists, eyes wide in shock, before gathering himself together and reaching for the cat on the tree.
Talk about seizing your opportunities.
And while Thoma was occupied with getting the cat and the bag of mora down safely, Itto was on his 23rd breakdown that day.
How could a man’s waist be this tiny?
Gods,he’s so small!
He fits right in my arms holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit
“Uhmm, Arataki-san?” Thoma turns back slightly with much effort to keep the damn cat steady in his arms, wide green eyes piercing Itto’s very soul. “You can put me down now.”
Itto convinces himself that the whimper he heard was the cat, and not at all him.
If Thoma noticed, he gave no indication that he did, and Itto sends out a quiet, thankful plea before clearing his throat and setting him down gently.
"R-right! Sorry about that."
"It's alright!" Thoma plucks the wallet from the cat's mouth, "Here you go, it's still in one piece fortunately, so you can still carry around your mora with you... at least, what's left of it anyways. Sorry about that."
Itto lets out a loud laugh, "It's all good sunshine! Not your fault,” he adds reassuringly. The relieved grin he gets in return sets his heart pounding faster against his ribcage.
The awkward silence that befell the two was almost unbearable in the way that for once in his life, Itto was rendered mute. He was wracking his brain for any sort of conversation starter, anything that isn’t along the lines of “You’re cute let’s make out”, because Archons that is the last thing he needs to say out loud.
Unbeknownst to Thoma, who was petting and cooing at the cat curled up to his chest—Itto was not jealous, just to be clear—Itto was experiencing the closest thing to a midlife crisis, which was crazy, because he wasn’t even old enough to experience that yet.
But just as Itto opens his mouth, Thoma looks up with a soft, satisfied smile, and Itto nearly faints from shock, again. “It’s been fun mister Arataki, but I think I might know who this cat belongs to, and I bet they’re worried sick,” the cat meows, as if in affirmation, “So I’ll have to leave you for now.”
Itto must have let his disappointment show because Thoma was squeezing him gently by the arm with furrowed brows and a reassuring grin, “Hey now don’t be like that! I’ve actually been wanting to meet you so…” hit with a sudden shyness, Thoma averts his gaze from Itto, “so let’s have lunch sometime? I’m actually quite the cook, and if you’re interested, I can whip something up for you!”
Itto brushes off the thoughts of marriage from his mind—and with it the pout that he was not sporting, mind you—and fixes him with a wide, toothy grin, “I’ll do you one better! Let’s bring this little menace back to its rightful owner together, whaddya say?” He grasps Thoma’s unoccupied hand between his own big ones, “That way, we can go out to eat afterwards.”
“Well, while the owner is a dear friend of mine, I’m not exactly sure where they live. They’re a wandering samurai, so…”
“I’m down to help you find this friend of yours if that’s what you’re asking. I’ve nothing better to do anyway.” Actually that was a lie, he did have something better to do. “An extra pair of eyes and few more inches in height can be quite handy in finding stuff.”
“Well, I appreciate it Arataki-san!”
“Please, just Itto is fine,” he crosses his arms and puffs his chest out confidently, “though if you prefer a different name, I’ve got a few you can choose from such as, Arataki "The One and Oni" Itto, Arataki "The Oni Sumo King" Itto, Arataki "The Pride of Oni" Itto, Arataki "Beetle Gladiator" Itto, Arataki "The Ultimate TCG Champion" Itto, Arataki "He Might Lose but He'll Never Admit Defeatto”’, he strikes a pose between each name, getting progressively louder and attracting more and more attention than necessary, “Anyway, these are some of the ones I usually go by, so go ahead, take your pick. I'll respond to whichever one you choose, I promise.”
“Oh, well I suppose just Itto is fine then,”
“Sure thing, blondie. Anyway, all these talk about names and I don’t think I’ve—”
“Ah, Tama.” A short man clad in maple patterns walks up to the two, nodding at Thoma with a thankful smile. “The winds have led me nearby, and while small whispers have nearly led me astray, the sound of one such voice rising from the sea of murmurs have reunited us once again.”
“I like the way you talk, little man.” Itto declares, “I take it you’re the owner of this cat?” he crosses his arms and raises a brow.
“That would be me,” he nods.
“Well I got a few words to say to you—”
“Ah, Kazuha,” Thoma cuts Itto off before he says anything too harsh, “You see, the thing is, Tama here ran off with Itto’s wallet so I helped him retrieve it. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can take back all the mora that had fallen out when she ran away.”
Kazuha brings a hand up to his chin, “Apologies, I have naught but a sword to my name,”
“But I suppose I can get you a free meal at Uyuu Restaurant if you would accept my humble offering,”
“And how exactly are you gonna get us a meal without mora?”
Kazuha chuckles, “The owner is someone… I’ve befriended, many moons ago.”
“For a while he’d insisted that the meal he’d given us was from the depths of his heart and had asked for no monetary exchange, but my friend was a righteous man and couldn’t bear to take food from someone without paying.”
“Let’s just say he owed us a meal the next time we’d come for lunch. Unfortunately I’ll be leaving soon, so I’m afraid that offer would go to waste.”
“Hmm… well if you insist,” Itto shrugs and wraps an arm around Thoma’s shoulder, “I know there’s more to it than that, but I won’t ask. Just take care of yourself, ya hear?”
Kazuha gives him a small smile, “Of course.”
“Well that settles it, let’s go! I’m starving here.”
Kazuha walks with them to Uyuu restaurant and says goodbye, fixing Thoma with a knowing smile and half-lidded eyes before leaving, for good , Thoma thinks.
Which he hasn’t been doing much of lately. Not since he encountered the head honcho of the Arataki Gang, Arataki Itto, himself. But that look on Kazuha’s face before he’d gone had the gears in his head whirring back to life just to decipher its meaning.
While Thoma was lost in thought, a large presence nudges at him from the side, and Thoma snaps back to reality with a start.
“Oops, didn’t mean to startle you,” Itto puts down the bowl of yakisoba he was eating from, “Ya good there buddy?”
“Yup, just thinking that I’m probably not going to meet my friend anytime soon again.” Thoma smiles at him gently, “But as they say when one door closes, another one opens. So you could say I’m excited to see where this journey takes us.”
Itto chokes on a piece of chicken.