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Training began at the break of dawn, just like always. Makoto was already at the base of that massive tree by the time Yukari was finally out of bed and dressed. He leaned against the trunk of it, eyes closed and arms crossed as usual.
Yukari wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking he was asleep on his feet in moments like this. Though anyone who tried to take advantage of that possibility would quickly learn how the young man never had his guard down when outdoors. She still remembered the time she tried to sneak up on him only to get flipped onto her back and poked in the forehead with the butt of his sword.
‘Staying alert is just part of being a mercenary,’ he always said. Though his advice was always helpful, he tended to deliver it in such a way that it made Yukari want to kick him in the shin. She never knew someone could be so smug without ever grinning or laughing.
It had been interesting to learn such intricacies of the feared mercenary named Makoto Yuki. Travelling with the same person for the better part of a year allowed for a better look than most people got, so while her primary focus was on learning to be a proper mercenary to work alongside him, she still took some pride in breaking down her partner’s walls.
The thought made her smile as she walked up to Makoto, who had finally opened his eyes to look her over from his spot by the tree.
“You’re here on time,” he said. “I thought I’d have a few more minutes to myself.”
There went that quick wit of his. One of the chief things Yukari had learned about Makoto was that he had a tongue every bit as sharp as his sword.
She took offense to little jabs like he had just thrown out early on in their business together, but she knew him well enough by now to know those comments didn’t have any real bite to them. Still, that didn’t mean she would just let him poke fun at the fact that she wasn’t a morning person.
“Ha ha,” she drawled. “Isn’t it too early in the morning for you to be snippy?”
“Just making sure you’re not sleepwalking.”
Makoto moved to the tarp holding all of their gear a few feet away. He grabbed Yukari’s bow and some practice arrows from the pile before tossing them over to her.
“Here,” he said. “Warm-up with target practice, then we’ll spar like usual.”
Yukari nodded as she positioned herself in front of the wooden targets spread out around them. Practicing like this was second nature to her by now. Her archery practice may have started out as nothing more than a hobby in her youth, but it had fully evolved into her primary means of fighting as an adult. If she was confident in nothing else, it was her ability to shoot something with an arrow.
Faced with the same targets as always, today should have been more of the same. Unfortunately for Yukari, it was just too easy to get distracted by her partner. He made her heart behave in ways that weren’t always conducive to staying calm.
At this point, she had convinced herself that it was only natural to feel that way, given the circumstances. After all, he saved her life in their very first meeting, like something out of a fairy tale. Yukari would never forget it.
She had been alone, battered and bleeding in a forest plagued by the monsters known as Shadows. Setting off for the first time since her father’s mysterious death, she plunged herself into that darkness in order to cross over into Kirijo territory lands. The danger of the forest was known to everyone in her hometown, acting like a cautionary tale to wayward children, and still she went in, determined to make it through and finally get answers about what had befallen her father.
But Shadows did not care about hopes or dreams. Those walking abominations only cared about ridding the world of every human they came across, so when Yukari entered their domain so carelessly, it was no surprise that she quickly found herself overwhelmed. That was when a blue-haired young man appeared from out of the fog, rushing in to step in between her and the beasts.
Yukari remembered him being just as short on words back then as he was today, but the few he gave her were firm and full of resolve. When he told her that none of the Shadows would touch her again, there was no choice but to believe him.
And so, Yukari sat there, breathless and awestruck as he fought off an entire horde of monsters. With nothing but a chipped sword in hand and a promise on his lips, he warded off every one of her would-be attackers.
By the time he was done and all the Shadows were crumbling into dust, dawn was just setting in, not unlike the one Yukari found herself reminiscing under today. Back then, Makoto had brought light back to her world when she thought that darkness would be the last sight she would ever see.
Things moved pretty fast from there. She told him about her plan to get into House Kirijo as a guard to try and find answers about her father, who had worked for them during some massive incident that the various royals in the area had all but wiped from the records. In response, he took her on as a mercenary partner-slash-student, both to increase her skills before applying and to ease his own burdens a bit. Accepting was an easy decision. Not only would she be able to improve herself studying under someone so capable, but she could pay him back for saving her life.
From then on, her days of reading stories under the shade of tress in her family garden were long gone. No longer could she gossip with the girls in neighboring houses while eating fruit that had just ripened.
No, now she spent each day striving to be a proper mercenary. She trained, she took notes during planning sessions, she shopped for supplies and gear, and she put up with all of the unconventional ways she had to travel from one land to the next. Though all those things of course came with their own benefits, she quickly discovered. Namely, getting to do them alongside Makoto Yuki.
Falling in love had not been part of the plan she so carefully crafted after losing her father. The goal was to get stronger, find some proper leads, and then clear his name of wrongdoing, plus taking down anyone who happened to be involved in his death. None of that was supposed to include falling for her emotionally repressed travel buddy with a baby face and dreamy eyes that did not match his profession.
She just couldn’t help it. She adored the way he always dropped his callous exterior when talking to children. The way he so meticulously checked on her injuries after battle never failed to make her heart want to break free of its confinement in her chest.
She laughed at the faces he made when people invaded his personal space and his mock outrage whenever she swiped a bit of his food. She practically melted in the moments when he sang aloud into the night, certain she had gone to sleep already and no one was around to hear him.
And, of course, she never tired of watching him fight for others. Most mercenaries operated wherever money led them, and while Makoto always made sure he got proper payment for what he did, Yukari had seen him act purely in service of others too many times to believe he was the same as the others in their line of work.
As she fired another blunt arrow into the training dummy ahead, her mind went back to that night they met as it often did. She thought about how his eyes shined in the moonlight back then and how the determination in his face made him look so much more mature. She was sure that the way she stared at him back then wasn’t totally unlike how she stared at him now in moments of downtime.
It was a wonder that for someone so observant, there was seemingly no part of him that could recognize that the girl he spent nearly all his time with was pining after him like some lovestruck teen. Probably for the best, Yukari knew, but that didn’t stop her from wishing he wasn’t so dense about anything outside of combat.
Partially lost in her musings, Yukari’s arrow only nicked the shoulder of the training dummy furthest from her in the field. It whistled through the air before plunging into the pale gold grass below.
“Damn it…”
Makoto took the opportunity to speak up. “Remember to give yourself proper time to aim. You aren’t some machine that has to maintain a certain rate of fire. Rushing just wastes an arrow and leaves you momentarily defenseless.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Just got a bit off-track. You know I can fire that fast without issue.”
“Most of the time, yes. But we’re working so that you can say that about all of your attempts no matter what. House Kirijo won’t accept an archer that struggles to hit a target on command, regardless of the excuses she offers.”
She knew that. If there was one thing she had etched into her brain, it was the lengthy list of requirements for a guard under House Kirijo’s employ. Sneaking her way into the team of guards tasked with watching over the Kirijo family themselves was going to be next to impossible, hence her dogged training with Makoto. It just didn’t help that said training was getting harder and harder the more she had him in mind.
After wrapping up her practice with a bow, they moved onto sparring as Makoto mentioned before. This was definitely her least favorite part of training for several reasons.
Firstly, she hated using a sword. Makoto claimed that she needed to know how to use one in case someone got in close quarters with her, but she just wasn’t convinced that she was cut out for combat like that. If she had it her way, she would never let any hostile entity get within fifty feet of her in a fight.
The second reason was tied to the first. Makoto had practically been born with a sword in his hand, meaning the skill gap between them in these sparring sessions was vast. Her continued training had lessened it a bit, but there was simply no besting him when it came to using his weapon of choice. Losing in different ways every time was not great for her mood, regardless of him claiming that she was improving.
Lastly, as had been discovered somewhat recently, sparring with someone you had a massive crush on was extremely complicated. On top of the distractions she had been pondering before, she had to deal with being in such close proximity with Makoto and sharing contact with him in short bursts. The electricity that danced across her skin in such fleeting moments would undoubtedly prove to be her downfall one day.
Maybe even today, Yukari thought as she blocked a swipe from Makoto’s sword. Her defense had caused his arm to brush against her own, sending that intoxicating feeling flooding into the point of contact. This wouldn’t be a problem in an actual fight, but Makoto obviously would not take that as an explanation.
She tried to fend off his attacks while clinging to her sense of reason, but everything she had been thinking about earlier was still plastered in her mind for her to go right back to the second she looked into those pale blue eyes of his. It wasn’t a surprise that she just wasn’t in a proper state of mind to win today.
It only took a few more swings and a sweep of her legs for Yukari to end up in the familiar position of being on her back in the grass. Makoto crouched down over her with his wooden training sword stabbed into the ground next to her head. The sight of him looming over her like that did not help her situation at all.
His bangs hung down from his face as he held her in his gaze. “You’re unfocused today. Why?”
“I–I…”
I can’t get the sight of you out of my head.
Having you within five feet of me turns me into a mess.
Some days I just want to sit and watch the sunrise with you.
I would give anything to see you smile more.
She couldn’t dare to let any of those thoughts leave her lips, so instead she just gaped like a fish deprived of water.
Struck by the odd sight, Makoto lowered the back of his hand onto her forehead, pushing her hair aside and humming as skin met skin.
“No fever,” he said. “Have you been sleeping enough?”
Yukari huffed, pushing his hand away despite internally wishing it were just a bit lower on her face.
“Like you can say anything about that,” she retorted. “You’re usually up half the night!”
“Yeah, keeping watch.”
“Of what, the bottom half of your eyelids? You look about as alert as a newborn when it gets late.”
“One of us has to do something. We could be invaded by the next region over and you still wouldn’t wake up in time.”
“What’d you say?!”
As often happened between them, those troublesome ‘heart eyes’ of hers faded away and were replaced by a burning flame, lit by Makoto’s tactless comments.
For all that she loved about him, she had just as many reasons to find him insufferable. He was so dismissive of a girl’s lifestyle, always chiding her for taking too long on her hair or trying to look nice when they went out somewhere. He ate like a starved animal and always made her try things that looked like something else’s dinner that had come back up. He was always hurrying them along to the next location even when she expressed a desire to stay in a given area. Honestly, despite being such an accomplished mercenary, there was a lot of him that was still just a dumb boy at heart.
But above all else, Makoto never truly acknowledged her skill. He made comments about she was getting better, sure, but his actions had yet to show that he really believed what he was saying. He continued to push her hard in training, he continued to have her stay out of difficult battles, and he still talked to her like she was a little kid tagging along with him sometimes.
Maybe it was just due to how her emotions were running wild this morning, but thinking about all that had Yukari’s blood burning a bit hotter than normal. So when Makoto stood to try and offer a hand in his victory, she declined by kicking it away and rolling into a standing position. Before he knew what was happening, she charged ahead and batted his sword away with a quick strike at his wrist.
Sure, she might not have been that good with a sword, but she could rely on her fists just fine. Growing up in a rural town full of dumb boys that thought picking on girls was fun forced that knowledge onto her. And luckily for her, she knew hand-to-hand was one of Makoto’s weaker areas. So what if it went against his own training plans? For once, he was going to have to deal with her being the one to shake things up.
Makoto shook his wrist out as he got into his own stance. “If you wanted to spar this way, you could’ve just asked. That hurt.”
“What happened to always being prepared?” Yukari taunted.
“It was a cheap shot.”
“No such thing in a real fight.” She raised her fists a little higher. “Stop whining and come at me.”
Makoto obliged, moving forward likely to not be outdone and to shut up his protégé for a moment. She knew he could be petty when he wanted to.
Neither of them were exactly martial arts masters, so their exchange looked like a controlled street brawl more than anything. They weren’t throwing elbows or grabbing dirt to use as a blinding tactic, but they were certainly giving it their all to not lose. Makoto had his own pride as a makeshift teacher to maintain. Yukari simply wanted to direct the maelstrom of emotions plaguing her at someone else for a change.
Yukari’s right hook was ducked by Makoto. The jab he tried to sneak in afterwards got blocked by her other hand. She twisted, trying to get him in some kind of grab, but he was ready to slip out of her grasp. He kicked at her legs as he backed off to a safe distance.
The field stayed blanketed by sun the entire time. At times Makoto proved too bright to look at, but Yukari pushed herself onwards anyway. It wasn’t like that sight was too different from what she normally thought of him.
Whether by her own dedication or something finally getting to Makoto for once, he soon made a mistake and gave Yukari an opening. His footing was just a little too unstable coming off from a block, so Yukari closed the distance between them and swept his legs out from under him as he had done to her earlier. He fell to the ground in a heap, gasping at the impact despite it being in a patch of grass.
From there, it was a mad scramble to capitalize on the moment. Yukari threw herself on top of him, straddling his hips to pin down his legs with her own before dragging his wrists above his head and holding them against the ground. In this position, not even the fact that he was stronger did much to help. Yukari forced herself down with all the power she could muster.
“There! How do you like that?” she asked. “One big scary mercenary pinned to the ground.”
Makoto frowned, still flexing to try and break free. “Doesn’t mean much if you can’t strike me from this position.”
“Oh, I can’t? What makes you think I wouldn’t headbutt you and break your nose if I had to?”
“I don’t think you know how to properly—”
“Ugh, there you go again! You’re always doubting me!” Yukari glared at him. “I haven’t just been messing around all these months. Would it kill you to give me some credit for once?”
Yukari felt Makoto stop fighting her hold on him. His entire body went limp as he stared up at her like he had just been struck across the face. Though Yukari hadn’t entirely meant to, she had clearly touched on something raw within him. He actually looked guilty for once.
“I don’t doubt you. I know you’ve been getting better.”
“Then why do you still put me through all this training like I’m a beginner? Haven’t I proven myself enough at this point?”
“Yeah, you have. But…”
“But what? Do you just think I’m not cut out for this? Because I’m more than capable of—”
“Even the best of us aren’t invincible,” he said, cutting her off.
Confusion must have been evident on her face with how Makoto felt the need to elaborate. She had never experienced him trying to cater an explanation to her like this.
“I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve seen what happens to all types of mercenaries. The ones who aren’t prepared, the ones who think too highly of themselves…they all meet the same end. I’ve watched them slowly disappear from bars they frequent, and I’ve seen more and more missing person posters go up with faces I recognize.” Makoto sighed. “This life I live… It works for me, but I don’t want it to take you when you actually have a future you’re fighting for. I don’t want to lose you.”
Yukari’s hold went slack all of a sudden. That fire of hers was dying out, making way for the feelings all of this had started with to come pouring back in.
Did he know what it sounded like when he claimed to not want to lose her? Did he have any idea what a statement like that did to her?
He was getting too bright to look at again, but it had nothing to do with the light of the sun covering the land.
“I’ve never wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “You know that. But I said I would help you, and that takes priority. So until you become a guard with the Kirijo family, I have to keep you safe.”
It was a shock that she could hear any of Makoto’s words with her heartbeat sounding like thunder in her ears. Adrenaline was actively sabotaging her, making everything she felt so much more potent than normal. There were so many sensations engulfing on all sides that she doubted she could make out which way was up at the moment.
And even if she could get a handle on any of that, there was nothing she could do about how Makoto’s eyes had shifted. Their normal firm gaze became something unbearably soft with her in sight.
Barely able to speak, she whispered, “Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like…like I’m something more than your partner on jobs. Like what I’m feeling right now isn’t crazy.” She bit her lip to try and stop what was clearly her mouth moving without permission, but it didn’t help. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m afraid I’ll do something…reckless.”
The longer they stayed like this, the worse all these pent-up feelings would get. Yukari didn’t want to ruin what they had, not for some far-off dream that was only her problem to deal with. Just as she was about to take back everything her subconscious mind had so carelessly let slip, however, Makoto spoke again.
“Show me.”
Yukari blinked slowly. “Huh?”
“That’s our rule in training, isn’t it?” Makoto let his head fall to the side, staring off at something in the distance that was decidedly not the young woman pinning him down. “If you’ve got something reckless in mind, it’s better that you try it out on me first. Just…so that I can make sure it’s viable…you know?”
Though the light of dawn would have been a decent shield otherwise, the fact that Yukari’s shadow covered Makoto’s face meant that the blush he wore upon saying all that was fully visible. Realization smacked Yukari over the head full force.
It defied all she knew about him. It made no sense considering he never showed any inclination to romance at all. It went against almost every interaction they had ever had from her perspective, interactions in which she would have killed to see just a little bit of interest on his end.
Nothing about it seemed possible, and yet, reality was staring her in the face all the same. Makoto Yuki was embarrassed, and the only reason he would be so visibly bashful was if he knew exactly what Yukari was getting at. More than that, if he knew and wasn’t opposed to any of it. He had just phrased it in that insufferable way of his.
“You…” Yukari let out a harsh breath in disbelief. Her hair whipped around as she shook her head. “You’re so annoying, you know that?”
“Do you really have to insult me in the middle of—”
Makoto did not get a chance to finish his retort like normal. Yukari took his chance – and his breath – away by leaning down and kissing him. If he was surprised by the sudden act, he didn’t show it. He let her proceed as she wanted, doing his best to keep up with the hunger of her affection.
Yukari’s hands made their way from his wrists to his own hands. Her fingers slid in between his. Tall blades of grass scratched at the skin on her legs, but she barely felt it through the heat of the body underneath her.
She kissed him like her life depended on it, and after waiting so long for a moment like this, it very well could have. She poured months and months of longing into the kiss, barely giving Makoto a chance to rest for fear of breaking the spell completely.
She only pulled back once the way they were tangled together on the ground got to be too uncomfortable. Those ‘heart eyes’ she felt so ashamed of once upon a time had found a new home in Makoto. A sad thought arose in her when she considered that she had missed all the signs he could have been giving her.
Yukari shifted so that she was on Makoto’s side, hugging him around the middle. His arms came down to rest on hers, keeping their fingers intertwined. There was no way that the tenderness with which he held her was something new.
“Dummy…” she muttered into his side. “If you felt like this, why not just say so?”
“I thought it’d just make things complicated. Not to mention I don’t have experience with something like this. There are days I can’t tell whether you want to spend your time with me or throw me off a bridge.”
She supposed that was fair. Honestly, she had probably had both thoughts on certain occasions, so she couldn’t really blame him for the call out.
“And…” Makoto angled his head away. “This won’t last anyway…right?”
Yukari leaned over to catch his eyes again. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve been travelling together for almost a year, but it’s all been to get you ready to join House Kirijo. Soon enough, you’ll be a guard for them, and I’ll be back to travelling on my own.”
“Oh…”
Despite how many times they had talked about that very scenario, it had never had the weight that it carried now. Their time together really was limited, wasn’t it? Being mercenaries together had become such a natural part of her life that Yukari had completely forgotten that it would only be a temporary measure until she saw her own goal realized. She wouldn’t be able to travel with Makoto and be a part of the Kirijo family guard.
Sometime soon, she and Makoto would part ways, possibly for the last time. The very thought of it broke her heart.
When the silence stretched on a bit too long, Makoto sat up and said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t complain about it. I’ve known the whole time where you were going once you got strong enough.”
Yukari sat up as well. “Well, yeah, but…I don’t blame you for not thinking it all the way through. It’s not like I haven’t gotten comfortable with this arrangement of ours.”
“Hm.”
The wind took the place of their conversation then, blowing across the mostly empty field and jostling grass and loose leaves alike. It was easy to blame the breeze on the chill she felt sinking in alongside such a bitter reality check. She pulled her legs inwards until she was hugging them in her seated position.
“We really will have to split up, huh?” Yukari let out an empty laugh. “Figures the one time I actually fall for someone, I have to give them up. Sounds about right for the Takeba family luck.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Yukari saw Makoto give her a pitying sort of look. Certainly new for their dynamic, which only made her wonder how many more expressions she would have seen him make if they had more time together. From now until they parted, she would constantly have such discoveries on her mind.
She was so focused on all the things she knew she would lose out on that she didn’t notice Makoto having taken all of the silence between them to think. The passage of time only registered with her when her outstretched legs became a resting place for the back of Makoto’s head. He peered up at her with that gentle stare of his.
“Guess there’s no helping it, then,” he said. “Fine, you win.”
“Win?” Yukari asked, running a hand through his hair without thinking. “What do you…?”
“I’ll go with you. To join House Kirijo as a guard.”
Yukari’s hand stopped moving entirely. It felt almost as useless as her jaw right now. “You… You’re serious? You’d go with me? But what about your work?”
Makoto shrugged. “If I went back to being on the road, I’d just worry all the time. Joining you saves me the trouble of that, and it’s not like I really care all that much about my mercenary work. I should be fine being a royal guard for a little bit.”
Yukari stared on, dumbfounded by the words that hung in the air around her. Figuring out the intricacies of Makoto Yuki had been a challenge, and here she was finding out so many months later that she wasn’t even done. He continued to find ways to surprise her.
Oblivious to this, Makoto continued on, saying, “The schedule’s going to be annoying to adapt to, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. I wonder if we’ll be assigned to Lady Mitsuru or her father directly. It probably doesn’t matter, but I’d prefer staying with you so that—”
Whatever reasoning he had was promptly interrupted. For the second time in the last few minutes – and by the same method as before – Yukari had shut him up completely. She leaned down and raised his head at the same time, allowing them to meet in the middle for another kiss. This time, it was fueled with the knowledge that it wouldn’t be the last they shared. Feeling Makoto’s lips curve up as she did so made her all the happier.
If their sparring sessions could lead to things like this more often, maybe she wouldn’t be so against them from now on.