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The snow compacts underneath Teru’s feet and makes a muffled condensed crunch as he walks through the cold snowy streets. Sword in hand, he carries out his work as per his normal routine. As little motivation as Teru has during the unforgiving winter, he understands that his responsibilities come far before his own comfortability, even when his socks are wet with the soft touch of snow and when his skin begins to dry and crack.
Under the dimly lit streetlights, cold wind blows, causing his joints to stiffen. The gentle, yet bitter, wind lightly blowing through strands of hair, making the tips of his ears burn and change to a blemishing red.
As the steady breeze comes to a quieting stop, the street grows unnaturally still. Teru slows. His grip tightens around the benumbing hilt of his blade. The air ahead of him feels abundant, a familiar sensation of recognition and disgust. Breathing thinly through his nose, Teru steadies and approaches ahead.
…
Just minutes into the fight with the apparition, and the pure desolate white of the snow beneath Teru's feet is stained with a deep, thick red. As the dark blood seeps into the dull snow, its innocent white is stripped away and replaced with a harsh violence.
Teru, finally eradicating the apparition, had felt the burning, stinging pain in the place where he was struck. As he sheathed his sword, Teru took his free hand and lightly began to clutch at and hold onto his open wound. The slightly warm, thick wetness spreads across his palm, and he can feel the blood stick and stretch between his fingers.
With adrenaline fading, Teru was now aware of his dizzying world that spread across his vision.
Lowering his head to get a good look at just how badly he had been injured. Disdain was creased into his expression upon analyzing just how bad a position he was in. The crimson was painted flatly into his white montsuki kimono. Along with the dripping stain bleeding into his similarly colored hakamas.
Teru tried to study just where he was, where he was closest too.
The familiar rusting street sign allowed a small grin to fall upon his face.
Slugging himself through the snow, he feels the weight of his legs; it was like they could give up on him at any second. Blood has been dripping out a small tiny path right behind him.
Now feeling pretty lightheaded, Teru wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep trekking through the heavy deep snow. Lucky enough for him, however, he was just able to make it to the front door of someone who was about to be very irritated with him.
After using the rest of his strength just to bang on the hard, metal door, he feels his right foot give out first. His shoulder hit and slid onto the door. Teru slowly slid further down, hunched up and leaning against the hollow steel of the house's entrance. He rested, practically, the whole right side of his body. The left side of him was the only thing holding him up, along with the help from the door. Knowing he made it, Teru finally relaxed a little, with his ear feeling suctioned to the stainless steel.
Ear pressed tightly to the entrance, he heard weary footsteps on the other side, behind the door.
Said door coming open, Teru falls. His body had completely given up on the idea of supporting him, and considering Teru caught the only person that was home off guard, he hit his head against the dull wood floors.
After the rattling in his head finally calmed, he gently turned his head up to what he could only describe as a concerned idiot standing next to him, having a fierce grip on the doorknob.
He couldn’t peel his eyes off him; to Teru, Akane was just someone he never wanted to shy away from. Keeping his eyes lidded and half shut, Teru made sure that his vision was full of the sight of Akane.
Forcing himself to keep his eyes open, even if it’s just a little.
Teru began to feel a small, underwhelming smile creep onto his lips as he heard Akane's fearful voice fill his ears.
Teru accepts the shift in weight within the dense floor upon which he now lies and immediately feels warmth build slowly through him.
He notices how Akane grabs onto his aching shoulder, gripping at the thin flowing sleeves of his exorcist clothing, the same clothing he would now have to get the blunt red stain out of. His eyes begin to come to a complete shut, considering his body is trying to conserve as much energy as possible.
So he does nothing as he notices how his body begins to no longer touch the floor but rather be held upwards in thin arms. And even though those lanky limbs shake as Akane carries Teru up the stairs, he has an odd amount of trust that the other will not drop him, so he soothes in his arms.
Atop the stairs, Teru feels a small breath be blown onto his face as Akane lets out a relieved breath.
Fitting through the already open door of the bedroom, Akane walks speedily to his bed to, albeit, roughly drop Teru onto his mattress. A grunt follows as he lands on the messy thick layer of sheets and blankets.
“Shit, sorry…” Akane huffed out in what is presumably stress.
In just a few seconds Akane rushes off towards the hallway into another room.
Terus's limbs twitched as he slowly moved to grasp at his gaping wound. He felt so moronic. Prying his eyes to an open state, he glared down onto the aching sensation of the hole in his left side. Teru feels his teeth grind together, and his eyebrows shift down into a tense taut. While he is used to being harmed in a wide variety of ways, the uncomfortable feeling never seems to leave. Time after time.
Deciding to try not to dwell on it too much as Akane rushes back in with a multitude of different medical supplies. Now being able to see the expression of obvious nervous panic.
Teru feels a little more grounded upon seeing it. Squeezing his left eye shut, however, as he remembers the struggling agony in his abdomen.
Akane sits just next to where Teru's waist lies on the bed. With slightly shaky, cold hands, Akane carefully removes as little clothing as possible and makes his way over to the now exposed injury.
“Try to hold still, okay, president?”
Teru could only whine in response; even in this situation, Akane found it in him to roll his eyes.
A small damp cloth was rubbed over Teru's side. Feeling the sting, Teru's neck jolted to look at where the new instance of pain was coming from, earning an exasperated sigh from Akane.
“I told you not to move. It’s going to sting, so… I don’t know, try and relax.” Frustration seeped out at the end of Akane's words, though it had no malice and could be considered light in a certain sense.
“How comforting.” Sassed Teru as he smirked, his smile twitching as the rising chemically inflicted twinge continued.
And then, clearly amused by how Teru still manages to have an attitude, Akane gives him a small smile in return with eyes still looking down at Teru’s tarnished skin. The familiarity of it, the way the warm dim light from his bedroom lamp glows across his face, the small bit of worry that was hiding behind his eyes. Teru couldn’t help but stare, feeling his face begin to settle into an unfazed warmth. Teru, with his slowly tinting face, can’t look away.
Shifting his line of sight, Teru watches Akane's arm switch from the alcohol-dampened cloth to what are seemingly medical threads and a needle.
With a precise pace, Akanes right hand slowly inserted the needle into the base of Teru's skin, while his left held his operation steady by resting his palm on the middle of Teru's abdomen. Teru just rested his head back against Akane's sunken pillow, with his neck still fixed to be able to see Akane and examine how he was stitching him up.
Finally feeling a little relief. And while the burning sensation was still evident, it wasn’t horrible.
Teru's eyes watched the focus etched across the oh-so-helpful Akane currently sewing him together. While observing, he closely took in Akane's features. The way his eyebrows lean downwards with stress and how he bites on the inside corner of his lip as he concentrates. It felt so strange to be so attracted to someone else. To another person.
Teru could feel Akane's palm begin to sweat as it rested on his stomach.
He felt his heart speed up.
And his vision became more and more focused on the boy sitting next to him, the one who, without a word of real complaint, helped him.
Whether it be because of blood loss or exhaustion (probably both), Teru slowly took his left hand and casually set it on top of the firm hand resting just beside his ribs. Slightly clasping his hands around slender fingers.
Just as Akane averted his vision from his work to assess the sensation at the top of his hand, Teru just fluttered his eyes shut, his body allowing him to calm himself just enough to fall asleep. Exhaustion is taking over Teru, leaving Akane utterly awkward and alone.
***
As Akane looks down at the rough, calloused hand now resting atop his own, he feels strange. And as of late, he’s been feeling strange quite often.
‘God, what has Minamoto done to me now?’
Shaking his thoughts clear, Akane realized he should focus on the task at hand rather than the confusing palpable throb in his chest and the dainty shivers that crawl up his spine.
Akane continues as he nears the end of stitching him up. Akane could feel a sharp quiver in his heart as he stared at the harsh, now clean and sewn-up wound.
Lost in thought as Akane gazed at Teru's skin, he quickly remembered the tender sensation on his hand. Just how long has he been basically holding hands with Teru Minamoto? An odd blooming feeling was spread throughout Akane's face, and he could sense heat rising on the back of his neck.
‘Seriously, what’s been going on with me…?’
Unknowingly, his eyes slowly trailed up. As he stays there in awe at Teru's face, he can feel his thoughts go numb again, fixated on the sleeping jerk in front of him. Instinctively, Akane's thumb began to rub and soothe Teru's index finger.
Snapping back to reality yet again, he began to slightly freak out.
‘I should probably get all the blood this moron has tracked around my house cleaned up…’
Gracefully and slowly, Akane slid his hand out from underneath Terus.
Akane's movements slowed as he began to reach over to his medical supplies and pick them all neatly back together. After a few light metal clanks, everything was in order, and he slipped out of the room.
The cold floor creaked slightly as he headed for his bathroom. Akane’s mind still felt so jumbled, but to be fair, it’s been quite the hectic night. He thinks back to Teru. Akane knows Teru has very little regard for his own safety, and just knowing that alone makes him sick to his stomach with an odd amount of worry.
Reaching the medicine cabinet, he inserts the first aid kit back in its usual, untouched spot. Akane clicks his tongue as he bends down to the cabinet below his sink and grabs a small amount of cleaning supplies.
———
Starting off at just the bottom of the stairs, Akane bends down to touch the hard flooring. Taking a deep, raw, wet rag and rubbing out the slowly drying blood now splotched across the surface of dark cherry wood.
As he glares down at the dark pit of coppery gore, he can feel the joints in his elbow tightening. While his feelings towards Teru were often skewed at times, he has always cared deeply for him.
That’s when Akane senses that strange feeling yet again. Deep inside himself, he feels his heart kick into a slow, yearning gear. The way his chest closes in, the tension within his ribs, as his heart palpitates. Why does he feel this way, so severely?
In a sick sense, Akane thinks back to Aoi.
That’s when it finally clicks. This peculiar weight he feels when he’s with Minamoto. This is what he wants to feel for Aoi. So why doesn’t he? All his amplified passion for her, all of his body that he wished would scream and yell out for her. Akane knew that she should’ve been what’s natural. But in all these years, no amount of throwing himself at her had ever tempted his body into truly wanting her. This ache within his genetic rhythm wasn’t ever supposed to be her.
Like in slow motion, Akanes body moves on what feels like its own to sit onto his knees. A leisurely rush of now light red water is squeezed out of the rag instinctively as Akane makes a tense fist, knuckles almost a pale white.
Even after coming to this new reckoning, it still really makes no sense to him. Akane found it incredibly hard to believe that he could never be in love with Aoi. I mean—she’s the girl he’s been supposedly in love with since, well, forever. Loving her is all he really knows. So why does being with Teru feel like he’s finally been kicked into action, like his heart just woke up?
To clear his mind of the fact that he isn’t the idea of himself he’s been trying to force himself to be, he finishes cleaning.
…
Finally a little less shaken by the idea of his desires not residing within Aoi, his limbs crack and creak as he stretches out. Hunching over the floor, cleaning up after the hurting scum bag who invaded his home, didn’t exactly do wonders for his now aching back and joints.
Tired, he makes his way up the staircase. Head now throbbing, and all he wants to do is sleep.
That’s when he saw his main issue.
Teru was currently sleeping quite peacefully in his bed.
‘Great…’
Akane didn’t have the heart to wake him up and move him. Hell, he basically almost died.
So, Akane just pulls the covers up, shifting the sheets to cover Teru's most likely frigid and exposed skin. Teru doesn’t particularly move much, other than a few shifts. Akane lets out a heavy breath, one he hadn’t even realized he was holding.
After a few moments more, Akane remembers he needs somewhere to sleep as well.
‘Should I just…?’
Nervously, Akane stumbled over across Teru's sleeping body and tucked himself right against his wall, far enough away from Teru he was probably going to get. Akane wasn’t exactly cozy, nor did he even really have any blankets on him, but something in him was being awfully stingy and awkward.
Feeling the weight of his eyes getting heavier and heavier, his eyes shut.
Lying in the relative dark, the soft lamp light cast a quiet warmth over the two now side by side. Even with his chest tight and mind strained, with Teru being so close, nothing seemed as relevant. This is when Akane set into motion that his tangled emotions could always be dealt with tomorrow.
The warmth and exhaustion eased the two boys into a gentle rest, one they both needed.