Work Text:
Mt. Nantai is cold, tall, and packed with memories.
They’re nowhere near the peak-they’re only teens, really, and Gloves figures he’d probably die if he actually tried to scale the entire thing-but they’re high enough that Emperor wordlessly requests that they stop for a break.
“Yeah, I was gonna stop here anyways.” Gloves says, uncharacteristically quiet as he looks out over the trees. Usually, the Square is so bright and alive that one could hear it even on the mountain, but something about it’s been dying down lately. Ever since Team Blue and the S4 left to scope out Splatsville, it’s lost some of its charm.
“The quiet is odd.” Emperor says, joining Gloves in watching the world below them, as if he’d read Gloves’ mind. “Near silence would be odder, but it feels lifeless.”
“It’s been like that since Goggles took his team and moved on.” he mutters, surprised at how bitter he sounds. “He was really keeping the Square bouncin’.”
Emperor raises an eyebrow, curiosity flickering in his sunny yellow eyes. “Truthfully, I’d assumed you wouldn’t be far behind, what with your obsession with the newest trends.”
He raises a fair point; and he’s not the first person to think that Team Gloves would already be chasing something adventure in a new city. But something had felt…wrong. Like some otherworldly force wanted him to stay. Like something was missing.
Gloves laughs it off, flippant. “Clips has family here, so she didn’t wanna leave yet. Plus, I…I don’t really wanna leave the Square behind. It’s almost a part of me, y’know?”
“I understand.” Emperor nods, turning his gaze away from Gloves. “I suppose, technically, all of us have a part in the Square’s life. Especially with the shadows…”
Gloves jolts. Nobody had really talked about the shadows after Team Blue had made peace with them and sent them back to their apparent residence in Deca Tower. Most inklings seemed to assume that it was all some kind of elaborate prank, or mass hysteria. He hadn’t spoken with his shadow, only seen it from a distance, but Emperor had fought his, with Gloves biting his nails in the crowd out of a fear he didn’t understand.
“Your shadow was kind of a pussy.” he snorts, recalling how shaky and insecure Shadow Emperor had been. Emperor looks generally unamused at the comment, but his lips slightly quirk up anyways.
“Does that not simply reflect how great I am?” Emperor retorts, grinning in that smug way that never seemed to slip from his face in the past. It’s the same expression Gloves had stared up at as he lay humbled on the ground beneath the player he looked up to the most.
He swallows nervously. The weight of his dualies strapped to his belt anchors him to the ground. Emperor notices. “Gloves…?”
“Yeah. Sorry. Hi.” He blinks quickly, backpedaling as he realizes how high up they are. “It does.”
“Gloves, are you alright?” Emperor’s voice is blunt as always. “You dragged me up to this mountain and then got nostalgic on me. Did you have any other reason to bring me here?”
“It’s more nostalgia, technically, so if you’re sick of my shit you can beat it if ya wanna.” Gloves snarks, trying to drown out the pounding in his chest. But Emperor doesn’t move, and neither does he, and it’s sweet silence for a single moment. “Nah? Okay.”
Emperor grins. “I figured I might as well indulge you.”
His heart pounds insistently. He’d brought his former mentor (?) here to remind him of how they both got to where they are now, but of course he had to get cold feet. Uncool. For a split second Gloves considers bolting, but if he doesn’t do this now he figures he never will.
“You remember this place?” he asks finally, straying further from the mountain’s ledge and leaning against a rock. Emperor stares at him. “This is where we met.”
The king laughs, a rare sound that Gloves definitely wouldn’t mind hearing again. “I recall, yes.”
“Fuck, I dunno! I figured after you kicked my ass that I didn’t mean anything!” he shoots back, finding his frustration finally bursting out of him. He’s not really mad at Emperor, but he kind of wants to wreck his shit for doing the same all those years ago.
“On the contrary, that match gave me my current confidence.” Emperor replies softly, sounding almost humble. Gloves glares at him.
“What, rocking my shit got you to realize your true potential or somethin’? Real nice.” he spits. Emperor’s gaze softens but does not waver, burning holes in his skin. It’s not right.
“Gloves, no. It wasn’t defeating you that made me want to keep going. It was the fact that you looked up to me.”
A beat. “What?”
“I was nothing, really, before we met. The son of some millionaire, sure, but I was born into that. I wanted to be more than some kid with no friends living off daddy’s money, so I went into the mountains. I was a dumb kid, Gloves, and thought nothing of myself. I put on an act when you saw me, and when you took those dualies something swelled up inside of me that I couldn’t understand. Seeing you so devastated at losing to me, I…I couldn’t verbalize how it made me feel. So I stayed cocky. I made team Emperor. I got as far as I did because you were here that day. I owe everything to you, Gloves, because you have been my hope since that first day.”
Gloves finds himself unable to speak-Emperor has just poured out his heart to him, and he can’t hear anything through the blood rushing to his head. The elder boy turns away, shoulders heaving. The sunset paints his face in warm hues, not that he can see the full extent of its effects with his face in the other direction. “Emp…are you-crying?” he finally manages to ask.
“I apologize, it’s unfit for a king to cry before his subjects, I-“ Emperor chokes out, still refusing to look at Gloves. As if on autopilot, he moves in front of him, grabbing his hand gently.
“But I’m not one of your subjects, ‘kay? I’m just me.” Gloves grins up at him. “That dumb kid you found on the mountain.”
“Gloves…” he sniffs, and seeing the king reduced to tears before him breaks his heart. “You were always more than that. I never spoke to you after that battle because I was afraid of what I’d say.”
“What, like cursin’ me out?” he jokes. Emperor laughs wetly, wiping his eyes.
“I wish.” he smiles sadly. “Truthfully, I feel like I would’ve told you something I’d regret. I would’ve told you just how deep my…appreciation for you ran-still runs, even, despite myself.”
Gloves laughs again, but it rattles and he tries desperately to search for something to say. “What’re you sayin’, Emp?”
“I was entranced with your battles ever since then, frankly. I watched you all that time, and I told myself that when I faced you again I would have the time of my life, but then I formed my team, and…God, I don’t know. I didn’t want to talk to you again because I realized something horrid about myself.”
“You’re killin’ me with the suspense here, man. What do you mean?”
The boy’s cheeks turn yellow, the flush spreading over his entire face and he turns away from Gloves once again. “Well…erm. When one is thrust into the role of king, he is expected to find himself a queen.”
“Yeah, alright. And?” Gloves raises an eyebrow, still unable to put two and two together.
“I never wanted a queen.”
He laughs. “We’re in the same boat there. What did you want then, a boyfriend? Because I can help there, I betcha.”
Emperor gives another sad smile, squeezing Gloves’ hand tighter. “I didn’t want a boyfriend, Gloves. I only wanted you.”
Gloves can’t help the way his jaw drops, and he wrenches his hand from Emperor’s grip and stumbles back. “You-I-?!”
“I know it’s foolish, but you were the only person who I thought perhaps I could be imperfect with, because you cared for me nonetheless. Forgive me…if I didn’t tell you this now, it would have weighed on me a great deal. As you put it…if you’re sick of my shit, you may leave.”
“Emp, you’re the dumbest man alive.”
His eyes are sad. “I know.”
“And I love that about you, I think.”
The sadness weighing down his sunny eyes is quickly replaced by hope. “If you’re just pitying me…”
“What?! No! Do I look like I’d pull that shit? No, man, I’ve loved you since then, and maybe I didn’t always have a name for it, but the feelings never weakened or diminished and after we met again I wanted to avoid you like the plague ‘cause I woulda said some dumb shit to ya that permanently fucked up your view of me.”
“So had we spoken earlier…things could have been avoided.” Emperor says evenly.
“Communication is key, or some shit.” Gloves shrugs, before extending his hand towards his companion. “But we’re talkin’ now, yeah?”
The king smiles and takes Gloves’ hand again, stepping forward confidently. “We are. And I would like to say something now, that I would not have said otherwise.”
Gloves returns the sunny grin. “Go for it, Emp.”
“Gloves, I…I care for you greatly. And as we both step forward into this new phase of our lives, I would like to take said step together. And also potentially do so in a cafe Prince introduced me to.”
“You’re so fancy.” Gloves teases, tapping a finger against Emperor’s chest. “Yeah, I’ll go on a cafe date with ya. And I love ya too.”
Emperor blushes again, and Gloves is giddy at the fact that he did that. “Good, then. Uh. Splendid.”
“Ah, yeah, you’re a king, I gotta be cordial and shit.” He kneels, and before Emperor can protest Gloves is kissing his hand, the contact brief but he can feel the younger inkling grinning against his skin before surging up to kiss him for real.
“ Gloves .” His tone is exasperated, but his eyes are glazed over and his face is still flushed darkly.
“Emp.” Gloves replies without missing a beat.
Neither of them speak after that, and Gloves turns to look at the landscape again, quickly finding the speck in the distance that is Splatsville. “It’s so far away.”
“I’ll be by your side the whole journey.” Emperor vows, and the line is just cheesy but cool enough that it makes Gloves turn to kiss him once again.