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#1 Dark
When the sun starts to set, that’s when Leaks mentions that Shui should head home soon before the monsters start creeping out; Shui hears the reluctance, but is nevertheless happy Leaks wants him safe.
#2 Deathly
Leaks keeps himself removed from life as a muted observer, and so Shui takes it upon himself to try and immerse Leaks with the light that chases away that deathly shadow.
#3 Moth
Shui calls them “night butterflies” and laughs loudly when their constant fluttering makes Leaks' flicker his ears in annoyance.
#4 Mutation
The ink-black hue of his ears and slightly crooked tail are what marked Leaks as one of ill omen, and he begins to think even without them, maybe the curse is seeped down to his very blood and DNA.
#5 Holiest
On bright days, Shui takes Leaks' hand to go for walks through the forest, and as he sings, Leaks is captivated by the shine of the Moon of Light making a halo over Shui’s head.
#6 Private
“You can’t just keep thinking everything in here is alright to touch!” Leaks hisses, and his cheeks are red as he snatches the small notebook away from Shui’s hands and wide eyes.
#7 Concept
Despite being perfectly content with spending his days studying magic, Leaks starts to think that he didn’t know “happiness” until Shui smiled at him.
#8 Disrupt
One broken beaker and loud scolding later, Shui thinks that he can now truly confirm Leaks' claim that his guard was let down around him.
#9 Emerge
“The flowers always come out all at once~,” Shui notes with a grin during one of the first few days of spring, and the forget-me-nots are spilling down Leaks’ home like an enchanted waterfall.
#10 Inner
In their conversations, they lay close enough together for their breaths to mingle, and Leaks speaks of stars and elements and the universe; Shui sings to him about dreams and memories and bonds.
#11 Identity
“You’ll be the best chief Sanga that Ransen has ever had,” they tell him, but Shui isn’t sure if such a title is worth it if he has to give up his visits to the forest.
#12 Blessing
“This is for your wife, to ensure a safe delivery of your child,” Leaks says, handing the pouch of medicinal herbs to Shui, and their hands linger longer than they should.
#13 Eating
Honestly, Leaks should’ve pressed harder if Shui actually knew how to cook or not, because what is on his plate doesn’t look edible in the least (he still eats it).
#14 Pervert
Shui didn’t come by that day, and as Leaks desperately presses a forgotten scarf Shui left in his house to his nose, he knows it’s because it’s the mating season.
#15 Warning
Shui hears the whispers and rumors going around, but he refuses to have every moment of happiness with Leaks turn heavy and dark with an unwanted premonition, though he knows one day he'll have to heed it.
#16 Homemade
The flowers are arranged neatly, and not a petal goes out of place when Shui places his wife’s gift on top of Leaks' head with a delighted, “It suits you!”
#17 Between
It must take Shui quite a while to get to Leaks’ hidden home in the middle of the forest, but as it is, it’s impossible for Leaks to cross the distance himself, no matter how much he wants to.
#18 Stealthy
“Shui, you are a disgrace as a cat,” Leaks mutters as Shui stumbles over every tree root and steps onto every crunchy brown leaf with startled apologies.
#19 Ferocious
Monsters were what kept the cats out of the depths of the forest, but it’s the oppressive stares of those same cats that makes Shui disregard those monsters to visit Leaks.
#20 Astounding
Although it’s a little below the scope of what he’s capable of, Leaks performs little acts of flashy magic just for Shui, just to see his eyes light up as he calls Leaks the most amazing cat he knows.
#21 Deduction
It’s just so odd, because Leaks understands the world and its denizens, yet Shui keeps surprising him, and he’s as impossible to pin down as pure light.
#22 Greedy
I know in a way you’re like everyone else in that you think I’m innocent and naive, Shui thinks, ignoring Leaks’ protests as he nuzzles into him, but I’m selfish because I won’t stop trying to have more of you.
#23 Two
Leaks isn’t used to not being alone, and covers up his mistake of not getting two cups for the tea by pretending to Shui that he didn’t want any yet.
#24 Bench
“I forbid you to go near any tools, you clumsy cat,” Leaks says, his eyes narrowed at Shui’s suggestion for making a bench so that he could sit beside Leaks and watch him work.
#25 Believing
There are many stories and constellations in the sky that Shui loves hearing Leaks talk about, but the idea of wishing on falling stars makes him the most excited, and he spends the next few nights watching the nighttime cosmos eagerly.
#26 Fairytales
Leaks also tells him of the fairytales Two Canes recorded, and Shui frowns as he thinks about how others must believe Leaks to be like one of those evil witches - but perhaps they were all just misunderstood.
#27 Frozen
When Leaks says that all the snowflakes have different shapes, of course Shui stays outside trying to scrutinize as many as possible before they melt on his mittens.
#28 Open
It’s an unlocked door, a ring, a small smile, a warming heart - all things Leaks offered to Shui and no one else.
#29 Initial
“I’m glad you let me stay with you,” Shui says into his neck decorated with his braid, “instead of kicking me out on the spot.”
#30 Machine
Day and night, Leaks studies, and he keeps ignoring Shui’s reprimands of falling asleep on his books in favor of feeling Shui drape a blanket over his shoulders.
#31 Casino
Leaks does by no means gamble, but he does try a bit too hard to win the bet of picking the most herbs when Shui offhandedly mentions something “warm” as a reward; he enjoys the hug too much.
#32 High
“Come on, Leaks, I promise I’ll catch you!” Shui calls with a poorly hidden grin up to the growling and blushing Leaks that is currently stuck in a tree.
#33 Fade
It’s inevitable that this time with Shui will end, but Leaks lays awake at night, staring affectionately at the ring carrying the feelings that he hopes will last forever.
#34 Paradox
Leaks is alone once more, and has all the free time in the world to study again, yet he can’t bring his fingers to turn the pages of his spellbook as he wonders what Shui is doing, and if he'll ever see him again.
#35 Nightmare
Shui’s worst nightmare is not held in the darkness, but in the bright orange flames illuminating the heart of the forest and burning everything.
#36 Behold
The world opens up for Leaks differently now, full of not promises of magic and mystery, but of the truths of betrayal and the curse of love.
#37 Painless
Shui just thought that it would hurt less if he’d told Leaks straightforwardly that he couldn’t see him anymore, yet in the end…
#38 Closeup
If Leaks just thought about it, the ring was nothing more than metal; there were no actual feelings surrounding it, none at all.
#39 Desire
Just one more time, Shui prays to every star, to every petal of the flowers he picks, just let me see him one more time.
#40 Animalistic
They say Shui looks different now, that something dark and tired crawls just under the facade of his smile, like a wounded animal.
#41 Fully
The only illumination in Leaks’ life these days is the rounded orbs of the moons, turning through the seasons while Leaks remains utterly stagnant in this pain.
#42 Branch
When he first started learning magic, Leaks used to pretend to wave a branch like a wand to fix his crooked tail; yet all he can remember at looking at it now is Shui saying he loved it, that it gave it such charming "character".
#43 Trauma
The pain eats away at Shui’s soul, even in death, and as Sisa starts to die from the Void and the Sickness, he knows it’s the same for Leaks too.
#44 Breathless
Some things still stay the same; the sound of Shui’s song never lost the power to make Leaks’ breath hitch, even after twenty years.
#45 Grip
Even if Leaks would let him, Shui can’t hold him anymore, not as things are now, so Shui does as a poet would and tries to touch him with words.
#46 Logical
It made sense at first - corrupt Konoe, destroy the world, earn his revenge on Shui - but this is a formula Leaks is losing sight of in the blur of his madness.
#47 Lights
When Leaks had found out that Shui was a Sanga, he'd watched as Shui sang in the middle of the forest, his voice becoming one with it, his power allowing the sounds to dance visibly through the air in flecks of light - and it's the sight Leaks sees whenever he closes his eyes.
#48 Eyes
Even under his hood and red hair, Shui still tries to look into Leaks’ eyes, but he’s hidden too, under a mask, yet Shui knows Leaks is looking away.
#49 Weak
Leaks has shed off those weak emotions of love and the pain born from it - but Konoe sings that song, and Leaks knows none of it has died since that day.
#50 Faith
It was backwards from the start, of a phantom Shui being the one to chase Leaks in the hopes that his song would reach Leaks one last time - and it did, it really, really did.