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“I can take care of myself, Kuni.” Heizou wipes the cut on his cheek with the back of his hand, a new line of red immediately forms.
“Can you? If you can take care of yourself, Heizou, then why is it always me who needs to get you out of trouble?” Heizou’s mouth twitches and he looks away. “No, tell me. Why do you always insist on being a such an idiot?” Kuni spits out. Their eyes lock, the intensity of their gaze gets cut when Kazuha bursts through the door.
“Is he okay?!” He rushes over and kneels down in front of Heizou on the floor.
“I’m fine, Kaz.” A softness enters his eyes.
“This time,” Kuni states.
His cold tone makes Kazuha frown but he keeps his eyes on Heizou, checking for injuries. Only finding some harmless cuts and bruises, he tells him, “It’s nothing serious, Kuni, he’s okay.”
“Because of me!” he snaps. “Because I killed the man that was about to run a knife through his chest!” Kazuha looks at the body on the floor next to him. “If I had been one second late, you’d be kneeling in Heizou’s blood right now, Kazuha.”
Kazuha tries to ignore the shiver crawling up his spine. “You should have waited for us, Heizou.” Gently, he picks a twig from their boyfriend’s hair. “Inside whatever shrub you were watching them from.”
A smile appears on Heizou’s face. “I needed to catch them in the act.”
Kuni huffs behind them and Kazuha sighs. “You needed to be careful,” he corrects.
“You are no better than him, Kazuha.” They both turn their attention to Kuni. “You are reckless, too. Your leg still hurts from that fight you got into last month.” Kazuha looks down. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?”
“Come on, Kuni,” Heizou starts. “Getting hurt is just a part of being human.” Kuni takes a step back and closes his mouth. Heizou realises his mistake in the hurt in his eyes. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
To keep it from trembling, Kuni bites on his bottom lip. “No, you’re right. You are human and I am not. And really, how can I blame you two for being so mind bogglingly stupid when—”
“Hey,” Heizou interrupts. “Call me whatever you want, but mind your words when you speak of Kazuha.”
With the intention of trying to stop Kuni from tearing at his own hair, Kazuha rises. “You know just as well as I why he reacts like this,” he tells Heizou.
“We have lost people too, Kaz. I don’t get why you defend him.”
Kuni remembers to blink. “Me neither,” he says, almost robotically. “No, do not touch me, Kazuha.”
“Don’t run,” he pleads. Kuni is out the door before he can say anything else.
—
It’s easy to get lost in it. Humanity.
He hates it. Hates the parts of him that resemble it, almost as much as the parts of him that don’t. It’s in his laughter no longer feeling foreign in his chest, the flowers he smells, the “tell Kazuha and Heizou I said hi when you get home”’s, it’s in the way he misses, the way he pets cats and rolls his eyes, in his least favourite fork and his two sizes too large house slippers. It’s what makes him leave and what makes him come back. His apology is filled with it, as much as the one he receives. Smiles taste like it and tears do too.
It’s easy to get lost in it. Wonderfully so.