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Gentle goes the dying daylight as the sun uses her last hours to mantle the horizon line.
Gentle does not leave the yelp that leaves Itto's lips as Gorou runs his fingers along the white flesh of what was once likely a particularly nasty slash along his hip, tracing down to underneath the hemline of his hakama. Itto's hand shoots to press against the general's, his leg twitching from the aftermath of shock. "Not there, I'm ticklish there!"
Gorou's hand lifts to hover, if only for long enough to give the oni a wry look, his ears flicking. "You said that almost every time I've touched you."
The resulting whine from the oni makes the general snort.
Itto struggles to cease his shudders, moving his head in a way that looks like a struggling bug. "I can't help it, I'm ticklish everywhere!"
That has Gorou leaning back from where he was kneeled, lifting his knees off of the pressed shrubbery beneath them. The movement is enough for a subtle waft of grass to come up between where the two men were once lying upon, and a passing breeze lifts just the tips of their multicolored locks up into the air.
Gorou tilts his head in thought, the light bringing a flash of brilliant apatite from eyes half lidded with mirth. The gesture was so dog-like, it brought a grin to Itto's face. It had taken months for Gorou to even pass such canine behavior in front of Itto, so even just the small things had Itto tucking these memories away for himself.
Itto is brought back to the present when Gorou presses his hand into Itto's thigh.
"We can… stop, you know." The general pushes off of Itto, retreating back and balancing his weight on his toes, the act straining the leather of his shoes as he lifts his hands. "I won't be offended. Promise."
Itto chases after Gorou's retreat, sitting up with his elbows and shaking his head. "No no, this was my idea! And no oni goes back on his decision!" He sucks in a breath to puff his chest, the act bringing a red to his face. He beats a fist over his heart (or, at least where he thinks his heart could be, he may have been a bit to the left of it). "Look, I won't budge this time. Promise!"
Again, those eyes glimmer. "Alright, but don't hold your breath like that. How else are you going to tell me the stories?"
Itto's breath leaves him a hiss as he nods again, firm. "You're right! You're so smart, babe."
Gorou scrunches his nose in a show of endearment before returning to the scar he had been fixated upon before. Itto tenses but doesn't move away, instead lowering his own hand to follow Gorou's, a slow, kind chase along pale scar tissue.
"So, how did you get this one?" Gorou leans his face into Itto's waist as he muses his inquiry, his words running wispily, ticklishly along Itto's skin. And the oni's breath stills for a moment (only a moment!) before he endures the torture to answer.
"When we first met Ushi." Itto recounts the story easily, his hand shifting to rub a thumb at the top of the scar. "It was my idea to get a mascot, every gang needs one, y'know?" He blows a stray strand of white hair out of his eyes before a reminiscent smirk makes its way to his lips. "But I did it all wrong. Ushi was young and afraid, he was a kid! And I don't blame him for what happened."
Here Itto now moves to scratch a claw at one side of the scar. "Though, it itches sometimes."
Gorou hums, his fingers lingering over where the scar was widest before trailing his hand upwards to a thin scratch along Itto's side. "This one?"
Itto's hand follows, a game of cat and mouse as Gorou's hand flutters easily away from Itto's grip, elusive. "Tree branch. Onikabuto hunting with some local kids in Narukami." He leans his head back, looking to the painted sky as he recounts the memory. "Right when I spotted him, I knew he was a champion. Even had a name ready! Thunder Tamer! Really leaves an impression, packs a punch and everything!"
The general draws his hand back, looking up at Itto with another tilt of that head, a brown ear swiveling forward. "What happened to it?"
The oni takes on a bashful expression. "Oh, uh. Turned out it was a lavender melon." He crosses his legs, rubbing his free hand behind his head. "But it was the biggest lavender melon I've ever seen, so I'm still a winner in something !"
Gorou throws his head back in a laugh, catching himself using Itto's arm before he falls back entirely. "A lavender melon! Archons, Itto!"
Itto purses his lips into a pout. "Hey! Look, in my defense it was a very rainy day and oni do not have night vision! I couldn't see!"
The general is unminding of Itto's defenses, instead leaning in with a soft sigh to press his head against Itto's upper arm. The softness of Gorou's hair lowers Itto's complaints to a mumble as he instead watches Gorou's hand move again, as if through water, slow and deliberate before it reaches up to prominent lines running below Itto's chest, precise, quiet, yet proud where they lay upon the oni's body.
Gorou's fingers are gossamer, barely making contact with Itto's skin. It is Itto who finally catches up to him, his hand laying over Gorou's as he presses the both of them to his skin, the both of them rising with every breath Itto takes (and the oni wonders if Gorou can feel his heart from where it lay just below their hands).
Even though Gorou is silent, Itto speaks anyway.
"It was a sunny day. Almost too sunny, really. The eye waterin' type o' bright, but maybe it was because the sun was happy." Itto turns his head to rest his chin upon Gorou's head, his other arm wrapping around the smaller man to press the general closer to him. "But ya' know? I think I prefer 'too sunny' over 'too rainy,' especially on my birthday, the day the world got the great Arataki Itto!"
Itto feels Gorou's breath again, this time where the man's face is pressed into the curve of his neck. Funnily enough, it wasn't ticklish this time.
When Gorou speaks, he's muffled but Itto understands the words easily enough. "I like them." The oni snorts, maybe he was pressing the guy a bit too firmly into himself. He remedies it by leaning back to look down at Gorou.
When the general looks up, Itto is beaming. The smile is wide, all teeth and exuberance, brilliant enough to replace the now resting sun. "You know what? Me too! I think they make me look pretty cool, actually! Way cooler than a scratch I got from hunting lavender melons."
Their day ends with two shared, shy smiles. Their night begins with Itto pointing at stars and retelling Granny Oni's stories of the constellations above.