Work Text:
Close, close, it's so close...!
Ugh, how annoying! Stupid interference was getting in his brain and keeping him from thinking properly! Even the sound of his pen bouncing against the table or the feeling of swiping his tongue across his lips wasn't enough to drown out whatever white noise thoughts were keeping him from hearing the rest of the melody!
He knew it was right there, just out of his reach, but it just wouldn't show! Like an itch on the part of his back that he wasn't quite flexible enough to scratch, and he was just about to crumple up the paper and abandon this stupid half-finished masterpiece when it hit him—
Warmth, and the smell of rose petals and citrus, bringing forth the vision of fruit trees sprouting amidst a spring flower field, a beautiful scene that finally, finally unclogged the ears in his brain!
One hand shot up in a "one second" gesture, letting his most beloved muse know he was in the midst of a breakthrough (he distantly heard a warm giggle, her equivalent of an okay), while the other furiously scribbled the new notes down before the dastardly thing could slip from his grasp again, the passion and speed with which he was writing making his oddly-perched body lean forward and tilt his chair with an ugly creak, until his most beloved muse also used that strength of hers to hold it down and in place for him.
Really, he was so lucky, she was too good to him! But he couldn't let himself even think about her face now and get distracted, not untiiiiil...
Leo finished off the composition, laughing triumphantly as he let the pen fall to the table and took up the paper in his hands instead, plopping back to sit his butt properly in the chair and look up at her at last. It was really so unfair to everyone else, how she was so much more beautiful than anybody else in the universe, and how she was just as stunning upside-down as she was rightside-up.
"Naru~! Wanna see?" He asked with a grin, already holding the paper above his head so that she could read it, from where she was leaning over him with one arm draped around his waist. Those shining violet eyes left his to look over the paper, fingers delicately tracing over the notes as she let out an approving hum...before letting that hum turn into the sound of one of the melodies, her impressed smile obvious even though he couldn't see it from this angle.
Ah, it still made his heart soar! All of Knights knew how to sight-read, of course, it had been a necessary skill when they were led by someone as fickle and impulsive as Leo, who would spring new songs and changes on you without bothering to actually turn them into proper audio tracks or teach you anything himself—
But Naru was usually the fastest at it of all of them, and she always had that cute, instinctive little urge to hum along as she went to keep track, and he couldn't help but think how she complemented him so much even in such mundane little ways. She was always the first one who took the vibrant landscapes of music straight out of his head, pulling them out into the world around them without any of that irritating hesitation, or confusion, or thinking, immediately turning all of his masterpieces into reality with that angelic voice of hers.
Ah, if only they hadn't been born as weak humans, he'd love to stay like that forever! Writing endless songs for her, inspired by her, hearing her serenade him with them all right away, neither of them needing pesky things like food, or sleep, or showers, or dates (even though he had developed a fondness for their dates, after spending many painstaking hours of trial and error learning how to actually do them properly, all to win her over and make her swoon for him).
And Leo was just about to start looking for more papers, to start a new song, about a dedicated god of composition and his loving goddess of music, when he noticed that her perfect face was turned back to him again, one of his most favorite, and one of her most odd, expressions on her face. Brows a little furrowed, her lips in a well-practiced pout, but the corners of her mouth were turned up ever so slightly as stars of amusement twinkled in her eyes. Trying to look annoyed with him for the cardinal sin of ignoring her for even a moment, but too caught up in being intrigued by the thought of what was going on in that head of his to actually sell it.
He felt his own expression brighten as he slumped his shoulders a bit, for once allowing a potential masterpiece to slip away in favor of appeasing the goddess that was with him right now, instead. Even bringing a finger up to playfully tap the end of her nose, an unmistakable fondness in his voice despite its casual tone. "What's up, Naru~? What'd I miss?"
The tiniest pause before she actually answered, and he saw the focus it took for her gaze not to follow his finger and go cross-eyed. His childish grin widened even more at the thought. Then her expression softened, dropping the playful annoyance. "I was telling you that it's a lovely song, is all."
"You say that every time, you know."
An airy little scoff. He can hear her willing away the blush on her cheeks.
"Because it's true every time, you know."
"And if it wasn't, would you tell me?"
He's smirking now. He's got her cornered, after all. Naru, his dearest, most hopeless romantic Naru, would never risk saying something so cruel to her beloved. She would hum and stall and dance her way around telling him it wasn't good, to spare his feelings and ego—
"I would."
Oh.
The straightforward answer makes him blink with a deer in headlights expression, and it's Arashi's turn to smirk now. Maybe he still doesn't know her so well that he can read her like a book, but the thought only makes him more aware of his own heartbeat as it quickens. That only makes him want to poke and prod and find out what else he still can't predict about her.
"My my, did you expect me not to?" Her arms around him finally loosen a bit, and she pauses her train of thought as he shuffles around to sit backwards in his chair and face her properly now, impish smile back on his face within moments as he listens intently to her reasoning. "Maybe I wouldn't, if this was just for fun. But since we're both in Knights, it'd only cause trouble for both of us if I went ahead and okayed something that wasn't actually up to our standards, don't you think?"
Leo lets out his own approving hum now, nodding a little as he taps his fingers against the back of his chair absently, his heart swelling with pride and joy at the unabashed confidence she spoke with— confidence she had in herself and him. She would never want to show anything less than her best, so he could never be anything less than his best, either.
It was exhilirating how she had him wrapped so tightly around her finger that the thought wasn't even suffocating, the way it would be if anyone else said it. She was never cruel or unkind to him, never truly forcing him to do or be anything he wasn't, but was still always urging him to be at his best, so that he could keep up with her, and be everything that she knew she deserved.
He thinks this must be the feeling Sena was talking about, all those times he thought Leo wasn't actually listening to him talk about her. Being so utterly caught up in the storm of Narukami Arashi that you can't even think about leaving or being left behind once she has you in her grasp.
And he thinks he doesn't mind that a bit, because in the eye of that storm is someone so impossibly, utterly breathtaking that he can still hardly believe it's him that's allowed to be standing right there with her.
"Ah, was that too serious an answer? I could flatter you instead—"
"Don't even think about it."
There's a slight roughness in his tone when he says it, and that combined with the intense look in his eyes makes her balk in surprise. She isn't even sure how to describe the expression she's seeing, because she's fairly certain she's never seen anyone look that way before. Calculating, like he was seeing straight into her soul, but passionate, loving, grateful...
Reverent. It sent a shiver down her spine, her heart threatening to beat out of her chest. She didn't even know it was possible for anyone to look this way, let alone look this way at her...
"Naru~ If you held back around me now, I'd kick your ass!" He wouldn't, so the sudden threat just breaks her out of her trance instead, both of them slipping from the tense atmosphere as stubborn smiles returned to their faces.
Maybe this was why they worked so well together, at the heart of it. Such an intense ebb and flow in emotion would have left anyone else dizzy and confused, but for these two, that had tried so hard to hide all their scary, ugly thoughts from the rest of the world, it was different. Letting their feelings flow so naturally with each other that they could let themselves be swept around freely by the currents, with the knowledge that they'd always, always be guided back to smiles and laughter and love together at the end of it— it was nothing short of blissful, instead.
So, safely back in that happy place with him again, Arashi leans down, resting her forearms on the back of the chair as her lips hover inches away from his.
"Is that so? Then I'll hold you to the same promise— what were you thinking just now, Leo-kun?"
He's no good at words on a good day, but Leo has learned that she's hardly ever looking for poetic prose from him. She's just as good at reading people as he is, after all, she knows without him even trying to say it. But he tries anyway, because she deserves it, just like she deserves everything else in the world she could ever want.
A confident smile dances on his lips now.
"I was thinkin' about how it's so unfair to everyone else in the world that you're so..." a stumble, his charming smile faltering a little, but he's still trying, "So..." ah, fuck it, "So everything!"
"So...everything?"
"Mmhm, exactly!" He says, with all the confidence and passion of someone who had absolutely meant to say exactly that from the start, "Beautiful, nice, clever, strong, gorgeous, demanding—"
"Demanding?"
"Not like that! In a good way! In the way where ya make me better just by existing, you know!"
He's leaning a little closer as he explains himself, and she can't help herself anymore, leaning forward to meet his lips in a kiss, effortlessly swallowing up whatever passionate flurry of compliments that he was probably prepared to keep going on with for forever, if she didn't stop him.
So she's relieved when she pulls away and sees his shoulders slumped slightly in contentment instead, easygoing grin back on his face as they get back to the calm contentment they started with yet again.
"Get it? You're everything."
Arashi laughs happily at how matter-of-factly Leo says it. It sounded so totally, painfully unromantic, but it was still a compliment she'd treasure nonetheless.
"Yes, yes. And you're my everything, Leo-kun."
Somehow, his grin gets even wider and brighter at that, and he feels totally invigorated again as he lets this pleasant, happy feeling wash over him.
This was proof he really was blessed by some God at birth, wasn't he? Not because of his genius, or because he had the best little sister in the world, or anything else like that. He was still grateful for all of that, too, of course, but in this moment it was stupidly simple and obvious. She loved him just as much as he loved her, and that was definite proof that something divine was taking care of him!
Other than her, of course, and...ah, right, the thought of her as a goddess, that rang a bell...what had he been thinking before...
"Ah!"
There it is!
"Naru, Naru~! Get me some paper!" He commands urgently, and she's feeling so utterly flattered by his compliments that she actually doesn't even wait and make him say please before she rushes off to do so, this time, "Wahaha, I can feel it, my inspiration! My muse! The world's gotta know! About love, about everything, about her...!"