Work Text:
Adaman doesn't know how it started. Rei was a runt, a young skinny thing, a teenager that’s all legs and arms that came tumbling out of that hole in the sky. He’s not Diamond clan, Adaman shouldn’t care for him, and yet from the moment Adaman laid eyes on him he knew he was lost. It was stupidly easy to convince Rei to follow him to the marsh, and while keeping Rei in one place is like pinning a live butterfly, Rei turns up often enough that Adaman is not left pining.
And yet, he wants more. Rei likes everyone, is liked by everyone, and when he’s not with Adaman he’s at the dojo, fighting and training with anyone who fancies being flattened, or challenging Ingo. And oh he should not feel threatened, the old man posed no threat to him and neither did any of the other trainers, and yet it burned under his skin, that roiling jealousy and stinging irritation that Rei had his attention on anyone but him. And he tries, he tries to tamp it down, but no amount of praying at the moss stone, head pressed to its cool rock face, can tamp down that ardent, jealous affection that keeps him tied to Rei.
He is overcome one festival night, and with some plotting Rei is plied with sake and chivvied away from the main festivities to sit with him. And he is drunk, lying head on his thigh and looking up at Adaman with a half dazed look in his eyes, grinning that stupid little smile that had hooked Adaman in all those months ago. And he shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t, but it’s oh so easy to comb through his hair and press kisses to his brow, indulging in that near-forbidden affection and smiling at Rei’s murmured drunken mumblings. He’s sure Cyllene would have his hide is she found him molesting her young charge but he didn’t care, and Rei wasn’t fighting back, and it only took a tip of Rei’s chin before he was kissing him properly, tongue greedily exploring his mouth, and Adaman quite forgot why he should be opposed to this at all.