Work Text:
The first time it happens, it’s an accident.
Toge’s not sure why he does it. He certainly doesn’t have any memories of someone doing the same for him. Maybe he’s just finally watched too many movies or maybe he’s just weak to Yuuta looking like a sad puppy.
They’re cleaning themselves up after a mission - it’s only their second one together and Yuuta has improved a lot. He’s still a bit skittish and really only understands Toge about half the time but he’s obviously trying and that’s the main thing.
Toge’s only injury is his throat this time but Yuuta’s got a bad scrape on his left knee from a fall during a mad scramble to avoid an attack, blood wet around the gaping rip in his pant leg. Ichiji has gone to make a phone call so Toge is playing nursemaid with the first aid kit, trying to clean the grit and dried blood from Yuuta’s knee while the other boy wrings his hands anxiously.
“I’m so sorry, Inumaki, if I’d just moved faster at the end there, you wouldn’t have had to use your technique so much.” Yuuta is glum, obviously beating himself up over his performance. Toge’s noticed he’s pretty hard on himself, especially if someone else gets hurt. Unsurprising, he supposes, with what he knows of the other boy’s history.
But Toge getting hurt is just par for the course. He thought Yuuta understood that by now.
“Tsuna tsuna,” he says calmly, swiping an alcohol wipe over Yuuta’s knee. The dark haired boy winces, watching as Toge starts to wrap his knee with a roll of bandages.
“But you shouldn’t have to,” Yuuta mumbles. His eyes track Toge’s fingers as he ties off the ends of the bandage into a pair of bunny ears. “It’s not fair you got hurt helping me.”
Toge gives him a flat look and pokes the wound he just treated. “Ikura.”
“Ow,” Yuuta yelps, and then realizes what Toge said. “I’m not a hypocrite, this was just from me being clumsy.” He’s got the droopy-eyed look about him again, probably thinking he let Toge down, or some such nonsense.
Then at least we’ll be clumsy together then, Toge signs, knowing Yuuta won’t catch most of his words. He only just started studying JSL.
Automatically, mindlessly, he leans over and presses a quick, soft kiss to Yuuta’s bandaged knee, and then gives it a small pat for good measure. Toge doesn’t even realize what he’s done until he’s turned away to close up the first aid kit and Yuuta’s still sitting there, stock still and silent.
Toge flushes, incredibly embarrassed, but when he sneaks a look at the other boy from the corner of his eye, Yuuta looks… amazed? There’s a sort of wonderment on his face, as if he’s shocked Toge touched him at all. There’s a bit of a blush on his cheeks, too, a fond glitter to his eyes as he watches Toge put away their supplies.
Toge clears his throat and stands, taking their kit with him. Yuuta scrambles up to follow him.
“I only caught ‘clumsy’,” he admits sheepishly, as they walk back to Ichiji’s car. Toge laughs quietly behind his collar, glad that his unthinking action hasn’t created any awkwardness between them. He likes Yuuta and he wants the two of them to be friends.
“Don’t laugh,” Yuuta chides with a soft grin, nudging him with an elbow. “I’ll get better, you’ll see.”
Toge’s not sure if he’s talking about sign language, or fighting with his technique, or even just about his scraped knee, but he finds he doesn’t care.
Yuuta looks determined and Toge believes him.
And the kisses keep happening, sometimes unthinkingly and sometimes…not. Now that Toge knows Rika isn’t going to come out and murder him, he maybe has a little bit of fun watching Yuuta’s face turn scarlet, happily dazed when Toge lays a kiss on the cut on his arm, that slice over his eyebrow, or the deep bruise across his ankle.
They’re all small injuries, not worth Shoko’s time, and Toge sees no harm in it, beyond Yuuta’s blood pressure. The other boy still seems stupefied that Toge is willingly touching him but Toge can tell that he likes these brief, sweet kisses that ask nothing of him but give only warmth, only care. The two of them become closer and closer, spending time together outside of missions, having sleepovers in each other's rooms to binge watch Youtube videos and practice JSL.
Eventually though, Yuuta figures out RCT.
He’s not very good at it, in the beginning, which is to be expected from what Shoko says. Still, Toge thinks that’s probably the end of the kissing thing. Now that Yuuta can heal himself, there won’t be any need for them now. It’s not as if Toge’s kiss could make Yuuta feel better to begin with, he’d just wanted to…
Well, anyway, it’s over now.
Except, three days later, Toge’s finishing some homework in his room that evening when there’s a knock at his door. It’s Yuuta, looking bedraggled and windswept, just back from a mission with Maki. Toge stands aside to let him in, watching him carefully. Yuuta’s got a nervous energy about him that he’s unsure about.
Are you okay?, he signs, making a questioning sound in his throat. He’s already in his pajamas for the night, his sigils bare as he tilts his head at his friend.
Yuuta comes closer, pulling up the sleeve on his right arm. There’s a bruise and some dried blood there but no wound as far as Toge can see. Did Yuuta use RCT on himself? He really was getting stronger with‒
“It hurts,” Yuuta blurts out, his arm lifted like an offering. He’s looking at Toge seriously, his brows drawn together as if he’s waiting for Toge to fix this, fix him. Bewildered, Toge takes Yuuta’s arm carefully, turning it over to see the underside of his arm. There’s nothing there either. Toge brushes his fingers idly up the smooth skin and Yuuta shivers in his hold.
Without a word, Toge leans over and presses his lips to Yuuta’s wrist, directly over his pulse point, and… lingers.
When he finally pulls away, he finds Yuuta watching him with a hungry sort of look in his eyes, as if Toge has offered him a drink of water in the desert but he’s still starving. This time it’s Toge who blushes, wondering when this simple thing between them had become so real.
“Shake?” he asks softly, cradling Yuuta’s arm until he pulls away gently, sliding his sleeve back down again.
“Yeah,” Yuuta breathes, still holding Toge’s gaze, apparently unable to look away. “Much better.”
Whatever is happening, Toge doesn’t question it. Despite his use of RCT, Yuuta hasn’t given up their “make it better” kisses and Toge’s quietly pleased about it. He doesn’t want to give up these tiny moments of intimacy and, he supposes, Yuuta doesn’t either.
And as it happens, the next time Yuuta gets hurt, RCT is not a help to him.
It’s a sunny, cool morning and Yuuta is having a one-on-one training match with Maki, the clang of their weapons loud and brutal. Maki’s obviously not holding back but Yuuta seems to be holding his own, enough that Toge switches his attention to doing his own warm up stretches with Panda. It’s not long, though, before Yuuta’s on the ground in the dirt - not an uncommon sight with Maki - but this time he groans, rolling on to his side, holding his shoulder. His katana lies forgotten a few feet away.
“You dislocated your shoulder,” Maki notes, and then, without so much as a heads up, she steps hard on his chest and jerks his arm upwards, towards her, hard. Yuuta’s arm properly snaps back into place and he shouts in surprise, immediately cradling it as Maki releases him. He rocks back and forth with the ache of it, eyes watering, and Toge winces in sympathy. He’s dislocated his shoulder before, too, and it’s never any fun.
Maki moves on to torturing - training - with Panda, and Toge goes to kneel by Yuuta’s side, signing to catch his attention.
I know it hurts but Maki is really the best at that, he signs. It’s better if you don’t have much warning.
Yuuta huffs a breath, pushing up his sleeve and craning his neck as if there’s something to see on his shoulder. “I get it. It just surprised me,” he says ruefully, rubbing his arm. “I should have got errkkkngh…”
Whatever Yuuta was going to say trails off into an incomprehensible whine as Toge leans forward to delicately kiss his bicep, just the barest hint of his lips against skin before sitting back and smiling.
There, Toge signs, satisfied with his handiwork. All better.
Yuuta’s mouth is working but no sound is coming out. Toge’s smile turns a little smug.
“T-Thank you, Inumaki,” Yuuta finally croaks. There’s an adorable amount of red on his cheeks as he carefully presses his hand over his bicep and, surprisingly, leaves it there, as if to protect Toge’s kiss as long as possible.
Toge’s heart does a little flip-flop in his chest and he wonders, sitting there in the sunlight with Yuuta, if maybe these tiny kisses between them are healing him, too.
Unfortunately, the next time Toge kisses Yuuta, they’re standing by Ichiji’s car and his friend is on his way to Africa. Toge reaches up to take Yuuta’s head between his hands, tilting the taller boy down just enough to brush a kiss over his forehead.
“Mentaiko, Yuuta,” Toge whispers, trying for a smile. Yuuta doesn’t deserve to be sent away with tears.
Yuuta’s own smile is wobbly though, attempting to be brave, and it reminds Toge why he dotes on this boy.
“I’ll be back soon. Just wait for me, Inumaki.”
There are no more kisses for a long time. A lot of hurts go unkissed.
A year later, Yuuta enters the medical room where Toge’s being held quickly but quietly. It’s late and he’s just spent something like 18 hours flying from Nairobi but he can’t wait. Shoko had already admonished him not to stress her patient, and he won’t, after all this time he just needs to see him .
Toge’s in a hospital bed, shirtless, with a mess of bandages around his chest and‒
‒and the stump of his left arm. Yuuta’s heart clenches.
Oh, Toge. TogeTogeToge.
“You got hurt again and I wasn’t here,” he whispers to the dark room. He feels sick.
A rustling from the bed makes him look up just in time to catch Toge’s lavender eyes fluttering open, his gaze hazy with drugs and pain. He stares at Yuuta a long moment, allowing Yuuta time to take in Toge’s longer hair, the smooth curve of his face, the longer lines of his body. Toge’s grown, still slim and toned, still beautiful. His sigils are stark against his pale skin.
“Yuuta.”
The special grade sorcerer trembles and comes as called, sitting down on the edge of Toge’s bed, half turned so he can look the smaller boy in the eye.
“I’m here, Toge,” he murmurs. His chest tightens as lilac eyes glaze with tears.
“Yuuta.” Toge’s voice is small, fragile. He turns his head slightly towards his missing arm. “Hurts.”
The words are so soft but they’re devastating. Yuuta wants to scream, to rage. He wants to take Rika and his katana and destroy a thousand curses until the world howls with his anguish, his vengeance.
Instead, he bends close over Toge, balancing on his hands to slowly lay a kiss to the bare skin on Toge’s shoulder, just above the edge of his bandages there. With this kiss, he presses RCT into Toge’s arm, filling the small body under his with warmth, with healing.
Toge gives a small gasp at the surge of energy rushing through him but Yuuta already knows the truth. Shoko has already been there. His kiss can’t heal Toge, not the way Toge healed him - a young, shattered boy afraid to live again.
Unless, maybe, he takes this one chance to…
Yuuta pulls back, withdrawing his RCT to look into Toge’s much loved, familiar face.
“Does it hurt anywhere else?” he asks quietly, searching those lovely eyes.
Toge’s still a little out of it so it takes a minute, then a shaky finger touches his own cheek.
“There?”
Toge nods, tears glittering in the pale sweep of his lashes. Yuuta cups Toge’s head gently in his palms, breath catching when the other boy leans into his touch. He kisses Toge’s cheek softly, drinking in the feel of silky skin beneath his lips. He feels Toge lift his good arm slightly, his fingers curling into the side of Yuuta’s white uniform jacket, weakly holding on to him.
Yuuta has no plans to leave. He pulls back just enough to look Toge in the eye again.
“Anywhere else?” he whispers, so close he can almost nuzzle Toge’s nose with his own.
They stare at each other.
Then, achingly slowly, Toge moves his fingers from Yuuta’s jacket to touch his own lips.
Yuuta exhales, eyes creasing, unable to hide his tender smile so he gives it to Toge, capturing his lips in a sweet kiss. Toge makes a little sound in throat and opens his mouth, allowing Yuuta to deepen the kiss, one of Yuuta’s hands sliding up into Toge’s silvery hair.
Yuuta’s mind goes hazy. They’ve never kissed like this, long and hot, the slick slide of Toge’s tongue so delicious that Yuuta’s toes curl. He wants to sink into Toge, sip him down like a fresh cup of tea, keep him caged in the safety of his arms forever. The sounds Toge makes - needy little whimpers - makes him groan in return.
He could live in his moment forever, a prisoner, and die happy.
When they finally part for air, Yuuta trails his fingers down Toge’s jawline, a light caress, and sees those kiss-swollen lips curve into a tenuous smile.
“Better?” Yuuta asks, achingly fond.
Toge appears to think for a moment and then makes a wavy so-so motion with his hand, the barest hint of an impish look on his face. Yuuta chuckles, surprised but immensely grateful.
Toge’s still here.
He leans down again, gaze flickering to Toge’s mouth.
“Good thing I’m just getting started.”