Work Text:
Wake up, go to work, go back home, sleep.
This is the routine Heizou has grown accustomed to for the past six months of supposedly living a normal married life.
He loves Kazuha with all his heart. Proposed to him at an amusement park after three months of meeting each other, married him properly at a local church, bought a house with him in a mundane neighborhood and he even lessened his hacking activities where he dug incriminating information about high-profile corrupt politicians. All of these he did to try his hand at living a normal life with his very much normal husband.
Don’t get him wrong, he will do everything over and over again if it means waking up everyday beside Kazuha, holding his hand while wearing their wedding rings together and eating their meals in comfortable silence — but by the gods, everything about this normal life that didn’t include Kazuha is boring. More so whenever his husband attends a week-long business trip and leaves Heizou alone in the solitude of their house.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it home tonight. It’s raining badly here in Liyue Harbor, so now my flight got canceled.” Kazuha says over the phone.
“I miss your loving arms and your cuddles. Come home.” Heizou whines out before he hears a soft laugh from the other end of the line.
“Another client stressing you out, I assume.”
“Burdened me with more requests for the project, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.” Heizou tries to reassure as his stomach twists in a knot.
“I’ll be back home tomorrow evening and cuddle you. Would you like me to bring you anything?”
“Bring me my client’s head.” Heizou jokes.
“Morbid as always. But I can arrange that, if you want.” His husband chuckles. Naturally, the lovely sound soothes Heizou. “I’ll call you tomorrow morning. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
When the call ends, Heizou slides his phone into his pocket and walks back to his desk to check on the programs running on his computer.
Okay, maybe Heizou has been lying to Kazuha ever since they met at the amusement park. Lying about being a software developer to hide the true nature of his occupation as a wanted hacker never sat well on his stomach. But it’s a necessity.
After all, he was married to his job as a hacker before he was married to Kazuha. He can’t leave his job even if he wanted to, but he doesn’t want to leave Kazuha either. Digging and exposing classified information regarding the government officials are important to him, practically a way of life. How else will the public know about the crooked officials’ dirt? It may have landed him as a wanted criminal but who will do it if not him?
Of course he has no plans of telling that to his spouse. For everything Kazuha is as a sweet, loving partner, he is still a normal businessman at the end of the day. His spouse won’t understand why he would lie to live a normal life with him, won’t understand the risk of being caught dead by the government that wanted to crucify him for his deeds.
But what if he does understand you? A traitorous part of Heizou’s brain says.
He shakes his head in contempt because Kazuha is normal… right?
Guess there is only one way to find out.
Heizou sits in front of his computer and begins to work. His fingers are light and fast as he hits the keys yet his focus remains on the programs and applications in front of him. Emerald eyes scans every opened window on his screens; an assurance that he’s on the right track.
Moments like this give him a rush of adrenaline. Whenever he mines for information regarding a target of his own choosing, there’s always a surge of anticipation coursing through his veins: the risk of getting caught, the firewalls he had torn down, the value of the information he’s attempting to get. They all provide him the push he has constantly wanted — craved for — from a job well-done.
Somehow, his situation right now is different. There is no surge of adrenaline attempting to course through him as he keeps on searching for any undisclosed information regarding Kazuha. Instead, there is cold, empty dread at the idea of being disappointed about the outcome of his personal investigation.
But then he finally sees it. A top secret file about a man named Kaedehara Kazuha.
“Bingo.” Heizou mutters to himself, his heart beating at a rapid pace.
What has his deceivingly ‘normal’ husband done to earn a top secret file deeply hidden in the government system?
His eyes skim through every detail, gulping every word like a starving man. All the details he needs to confirm the identity of his husband are all there, presented in front of him like he struck gold. And that’s because he did.
He looks at the long list of crimes Kazuha is wanted for: defection, stealing national intelligence, conspiring against the government, etc. but what strikes him the most is:
“Known body count, twenty.” Heizou says, looking through the list of names Kazuha officially killed before slumping his back against his chair.
All this time, Kazuha — his sweet, ever-so loving spouse who won his heart through gentle smiles and tender kisses — is a government spy who went rogue.
It’s as if the world punched him in the gut as a big ‘fuck you’ to tell him that he was incapable of living a white picket fence life.
In front of the glow of his monitors, Heizou can feel a smile pull up on his lips. The top secret government file confirms what his intuition has been telling him, that his beloved husband is not as innocent as he initially presumed. And it’s thrilling.
A giggle erupts from Heizou’s lips as he stares at the photo of his husband on a wanted poster. He closes his eyes, slumps his head against the headrest of his chair, and lets out a content sigh to the ceiling.
And then he feels a feather-light touch of something cold and sharp against his throat.
“I’m home.” Kazuha whispers to Heizou’s ear before pressing a tender kiss against his cheek, like he’d normally do every time he comes home to him. But with the katana as an added bonus.
He didn’t hear the front door open, didn’t hear Kazuha enter their room, didn’t notice anything uncanny in the air, didn’t feel a katana coming for his neck. How could he? It’s only his first time as a victim to his husband’s stealth as an assassin.
Heizou can only smile, enamored by the thought. He loves doing his firsts with his husband.
“I thought you’re arriving tomorrow.” Heizou would have kissed his husband’s cheek back if there isn’t a lethal weapon that could slit his throat at the slightest movement.
“Had a feeling you missed me too much. Who am I to keep my spouse waiting?” Kazuha says in a honey-like voice. He’d often use it for Heizou but with a little more edge this time.
A grin creeps up Heizou’s face. “I did. How’s work?” He asks, matching the tone his husband used.
“Surely, you already know how it was.” And what it was is left unsaid. “What do you plan to do with it?” Kazuha questions.
That… isn’t something Heizou has thought of yet. Now that he knows Kazuha’s actual occupation, he doesn’t know where to go from here.
“Nothing bad,” Heizou looks at Kazuha’s hand that wields the katana on his neck and he smiles upon seeing the familiar golden band on his husband’s ring finger. “I did vow to stand by your side against the troubles that may come your way, remember?”
Kazuha is silent for a while before he lets out a sigh. Heizou no longer feels the light press of the katana against his skin.
“As I vowed to not withhold any secrets from you. To be an honest, faithful and loyal spouse until my last dying breath.” Kazuha sheathes his weapon before saying, “I… have not been completely honest to you as your husband.”
Heizou moves his chair to face his husband and gives him an incredulous look. “Did you cheat on me?!”
“I would never.” Kazuha says firmly. “But I know you’re the black hat hacker responsible for exposing incriminating information about government officials.”
Ah.
“Since when?”
“Ever since we first met. Some of the higher ups in the government wanted your head and sent me to do the job.”
Heizou nods, but his mind is deep in thought. A part of him doesn’t want to ask or even entertain a certain idea but he needs to know. “Was everything a lie?”
“Other than my occupation, no. My heart has always been true to you.” Kazuha puts the palm of his hand against his chest.
Heizou can’t confirm if Kazuha’s statement is genuine, but he knows one thing: his husband understands his predicament better than no other.
“Mine, too.” Heizou says.
A soft smile plays on Kazuha’s lips. “I officially defected when we got married.” He reaches for Heizou’s hand. “To honor my promise of protecting and defending you from those who may do harm against you.” Kazuha caresses his knuckles with a thumb and gently pulls his hand up before his lips. Ruby eyes lovingly stare at his own emerald ones as his husband’s soft lips plant a kiss on his wedding ring.
For Kazuha to bring up that certain vow… it makes Heizou’s heart skip a beat. “You killed the higher ups after me, didn’t you?” Heizou eventually asks, connecting the dots.
Kazuha refuses to look in his eyes in favor of fumbling the wedding ring sitting on his ring finger. “Does that bother you?”
“It doesn’t.” Acts of service is starting to become his love language.
As Kazuha holds his hand tenderly, Heizou uses his other one to reach for his husband’s cheek when a thought pops up in his head.
“You’re literally married to your job.” Heizou said with a teasing grin.
Kazuha merely gives him the kindest smile Heizou has seen so far. “Killing you here and now seems like a tempting idea.”
“‘Morbid as always.’” Heizou mimics, remembering their conversation on the phone earlier when everything between them was still mundanely normal.
Kazuha shakes his head with a small, fond smile. “Shut up and kiss me.”
And Heizou happily obliges.