Chapter Text
It began on a day like any other.
Aki was walking through the forest he lived in, foraging various potion supplies: nightshade for poison antidotes, the leaves of wild strawberries for a painkiller, forget-me-nots for a particularly expensive and popular anti-aging brew. It wasn’t that he was preoccupied with price; a witch living on his own with the ability to sustain without outside help had little use for coin. Most of that stayed with the old family friend who sold the concoctions in the nearby city for him. No, for Aki, the potions had a far more precious purpose- practice. Sure, making the same ones repeatedly could get boring, but each time they were a little more precise.
It was when he had just finished tucking away a valuable mushroom intended for a luck potion that Aki heard the voice screaming for help. It was unusual for anyone to wander this far into the forest except for Kishibe, who always stayed on the safe path that Aki had laid out for him years ago. Small white bellflowers that were unnoticeable to anyone not actively looking for them led from the city to Aki’s home in the most direct route possible. The purity charm cast on them kept monsters far away.
After slipping his foraging basket onto a tree branch to keep it away from anything that might sneak a snack, he went to further investigate. Calmly, of course: rushing into an unknown situation was a recipe for disaster. Following the noise led him to the edge of a small clearing, where a blond boy with sharp teeth was being swung around by a large tentacled monster emerging from a nearby river. Toying with its food, thought Aki absently.
Well… not his problem. Aki didn’t mess with the creatures in the forest; everything was a part of nature, including monstrous beings that ate humans foolish enough to wander into their territory. Unfortunately for Aki, he’d been spotted.
“Hey! Heeeeeeey!” A voice, loud and obnoxious, called.Grimacing, Aki turned back to see the boy waving frantically- or at least it looked like that. Maybe it was just the movements of the monster. But the words: there was no mistaking those had come from the human in its grasp. “Help! C’mon, don’t just- ouch! Don’t leave me hangin’!”
Aki wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a joke or not; either way, he didn’t find it funny. He was on the verge of turning back and leaving the creature to its business when another cry for help was cut off suddenly by the boy’s head being slammed harshly against the ground. Aki couldn’t help but wince at seeing such a thing. Knowing something was going to happen and seeing it in action were two entirely different things, and… well, Aki wasn’t that heartless. With a deep sigh he released the metal clasp keeping his grimoire bound to his side, slipped the tome from the thick leather straps, and flipped open the pages. Fire magic wouldn’t work, and lightning was far too dangerous; the tentacled monster’s hold on the boy would transfer the shock and most likely kill him. Ice was an option, but tended to be less effective on water-based creatures. In that case, then…
He took a deep breath, quickly and quietly reciting an incantation. White light spun around his fingertips, growing and gathering into an orb the size of an apple. When the words were finished he flung it at the creature, which shrieked as it was struck and attempted to recoil, but the stop magic was too strong. The thing was frozen in time, and Aki rushed to the boy’s side, using a sharp knife to slice through the tentacle that held him with ease. It was only after he’d put away his belongings and gathered the boy into his arms that he noticed how small he was- nearly half a foot shorter than himself when standing, he imagined- as well as being quite… thin. Bony. It made carrying him back to his home a difficult task indeed.
The home Aki had built for himself after leaving the city was nothing special. It was a single room built into a half-dead tree, but it had a door with a warding charm, a decently comfortable bed, and bookshelves built into the walls. In the middle of the space was a fireplace, which served as both a practical way to keep warm, and as a cooking area. More often than not it was occupied by a cauldron of this potion or that, only moved when Aki caved to the desire for a warm meal.
After dumping the unconscious boy on the bed, Aki got to work. While most of his potions were handed over to Kishibe for sale, the witch had his own stash for emergencies- one may think an injured stranger knocked out in his bed may count as such, but not to him. He was asleep; he could wait for the simple brew to finish.
Wild strawberry leaves, mugwort, bark of an elm tree, and water were placed into a fresh pot and hung over the fire to come to a boil. Searching through drawers and shelves revealed the containers for the rest of the ingredients. Chamomile, ginger, and arrowroot peel were set beside the hearth for later addition. As badly as Aki wanted to remain beside them and warm his frozen hands, the head wound currently leaking blood onto his bed required attention. He took a deep breath and walked back over, brushing blond hair dyed red out of the way to get a closer look. It seemed the unfortunate kid had not just struck the ground, but a rock, to boot. Aki let out a small hiss of sympathy pain, but in truth it was nothing a salve couldn’t fix.
Only an hour after arriving at the tree home, the blond boy wakes, groaning and slowly, slowly sitting up. Aki had been dozing by the fireplace, but upon hearing the noise quickly made his way to his feet, a cup of the now cooled potion in his hands.
"Woah… where am I?" His words are slightly slurred, a concerning thing: Aki had never tested his potions for concussions before. They were still in development.
"My house." The boy blinked, gaze finally focusing on Aki, and his eyes widened.
"You!" He cried out, and the witch raised an eyebrow. "You almost let me be eaten by that… that thing!"
"Yeah."
"Why?!"
Aki shrugged, shoving the cup of potion into the boy's hands. "Here. Drink this."
He seemed to move on from the accusation quickly and effortlessly. "What is it?" The boy peered down into the liquid with narrow eyes.
"Pain reliever." Aki was shocked when that was all it took for him to down the whole cup, and he pulled his jaw back up off the floor to ask: "Anyone ever tell you you're stupid?"
"Yeah, all the time. Why?"
"Because you just- you don't know me, yet you still drank the potion. It could have been, I don't know, poison?"
"Why the hell would ya save me from gettin' hentaied and then eaten just to kill me anywho? Seems like a lotta trouble for nothin'."
Aki opened his mouth to retort, found nothing, closed it again. It made the boy on the bed grin wide. "I'm Denji! Nice to meetcha."
"... Aki."
After examining Denji to make sure he wasn't hurt anywhere else, an arduous task considering the kid wouldn't stop fucking squirming, Aki determined it was safe for him to head back home- which was apparently somewhere in the city. No surprise. The witch gave him instructions on how to safely get there, and sent him off with one request:
"Don't come back."
—
Denji came back the next day.
Aki was busy retrieving the foraging basket he'd had to abandon previously to save the blond when he spotted him, wandering around aimlessly like he hadn't almost been killed by doing the same thing not even twenty-four hours ago. He even had the nerve to grin at Aki when he saw him, a cloth bundle in his arms.
"There you are! You're really hard to track down, y'know?" Denji said.
"... Yeah, I know." That was kind of the entire point of living deep in a forest away from civilization.
"Well anyway, since you saved my life an' all, even though you clearly didn't wanna, I brought you something!"
"You really, really didn't have to."
"Nope, but I did." Holding out the bundle in his arms, he unwrapped it and-
Rats. Those were rats. Yup, four rat carcasses, and Aki's horror must have shown on his face because Denji's own held an expression of disappointment.
"You've never had roasted rat before? It's real good! Tastes just like chicken!"
Aki takes a deep breath, closes his eyes. "No, Denji, I-" sighing, he shifts the basket from one arm to the other. "Come on. Let's go to my house. I'll make you something actually fit for human consumption."
"Wait, really?! Hell yeah!"
And that's how Denji conned his way into Aki's home a second time.
"What were you even doing out here yesterday?" Denji was carefully stepping around Aki's garden, in between rows of peppers, tomatoes, carrots, onions, while the witch collected said vegetables in a different basket. The one for foraging had been stowed away already on a shelf inside with other potion ingredients. "Hasn't anyone ever told you the forest is dangerous?"
"Yeah, 'cause the monsters and the witch and- oh! You got chickens!" Denji spotted the creatures and hurried over, poking his fingers through the wire mesh only to get pecked at. Aki snorted when the blond jerked his hand back, waving it back and forth as if the pain would simply fly away.
"Get some eggs while you're over there. If the hens don't steal your hand, I mean."
"I jus- just stick my hand in and grab 'em?"
"The eggs, yes. Not the hens."
"I know that!"
Aki gave a hum, and split his attention between watching over Denji and wiping dirt off of a freshly pulled up onion. He'd been joking about the chickens, mostly- they were all good girls, but he wouldn't put it past Denji to somehow piss them off. The blond was surprisingly gentle, however, and soon he'd collected the half dozen eggs that had been laid that morning. The perfect amount for what he intended to cook. “So,” Aki began as they headed into his home, “your reason for being here yesterday.”
“Ohhh, right! Yeah, I was lookin’ for food.”
Aki raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t spare the blond a glance. He sat by the fireplace once more, replacing the cauldron bubbling away with the beginnings of a regeneration potion with a frying pan instead. “You live in the city, don’t you? Why come to the forest instead of buying something to eat?” Peppers and onions were chopped, eggs scrambled in a small bowl off to the side. They made a satisfying sizzle when poured into the pan.
Denji watched on with interest, like he’d never seen anyone cook before. “Ain’t got any money,” he explained simply.
Well. That was understandable, then. Not long after Aki’s parents had passed, he’d been in a similar situation, after all. The thought tugged at his heartstrings and Aki actively shoved the feeling down: he’d decided long ago he would have nothing to do with the people in the city. The one exception was Kishibe- not even the potions counted as having something to do, because otherwise the brews would just go to waste, and he couldn’t bear to see the ingredients he so painstakingly collected thrown out like that.
Once the first omelet was done Aki plated it and handed it off to Denji, who dug in almost immediately. Aki watched on in horror as the blond practically inhaled the thing. He’d never seen such a messy eater in his entire life.
“This’s so good!” The words were spat around a mouthful of egg and veggie, and Aki wished he could tear his eyes away, but alas. It wasn’t until his own omelet had almost burned that his body finally cooperated with him.
“So why do ya live out here?” Denji sat cross-legged in front of the fire with Aki now, empty plate held in hands after he (quite literally) licked it clean.
“Keeps me away from people.”
“Why’d ya want that?”
“You city folks don’t take very kindly to magic users.”
“Wait, so you- you’re the witch?!”
…
Denji hadn’t realized that by now? He’d mentioned the witch in the woods, how he was one of the reasons people were warned away, had understood that Aki lived out there…
“You’re- I just- I expected some old hag! Ya know, with like, a big wart on her nose and, like, not… not you! You’re my age, and- and…”
Aki waited, expression blank, for Denji to finish his thought.
“... hot!”
He nearly choked on his food. This kid would be the death of him.