Chapter Text
It’s a dream that comes to him more often than not these nights - and some days too, when his mind starts to wander and his focus goes a bit fuzzy. It starts with the sound of his window sliding open, always sticking that little bit right away so a tiny grunt of exertion can be heard if you listen carefully, and a cool breeze sneaking in and wrapping itself over his exposed skin. Gentle cold kisses of air working from his ankles to his knees, across his bare stomach, up his arms and finally sliding cool fingers across his already flushing cheeks.
The few times he ever mentions it to anyone this is when it deviates. He tells them of his fantasy of how he kicks the intruder in the face and grins down at them through the window as he shuts it once again and locks it triumphantly and the story ends with him settling back into his bed under the window and falling into an easy, restful sleep under the starlight.
The truth is that he waits, breath frozen in his chest, for that familiar shadow to blot out the stars and slink into his room. His bed dips under the pressure of one foot, and then the other, and then with an easy, graceful leap, the pressure is gone and his visitor is leaning over the end of his bed to tug the window shut.
Kageyama stares down at him then and sometimes the world changes in these dark nights. Sometimes there’s a hunger in his eyes that makes Kei shiver. Sometimes there’s an emptiness that’s even more frightening. Mostly there’s just a curious sheen, like Kei is a favored puzzle to return to time and time again when Kageyama needs a moment of peace. He feels it in the questioning fingers that trace unseen words and shapes along Kei’s arms. Not hesitant but curious. Not quite cautious but not quite bold enough to be completely careless.
There’s always a noise. Sometimes a commotion, sometimes a creaking floor, sometimes just a breeze tapping the window just right. Then Kageyama is gone. No lingering smoke or scent or touch. Just. Gone.
“Having trouble sleeping again, King? Oh, sorry. Princeling.” Kei corrects himself with a smirk. Kageyama grumbles something at him, eyes tired and posture heavy under his delicate prince’s crown. “What was that?”
“I asked why you constantly ask questions you already know the answers to.”
They make quite a picture, he knows; the distant and harsh prince and his coldly savage adviser-in-training, always at odds with each other.
“Because,” he says softly and to anyone nearby he’s sure his posture and tone sound threatening but no one dares to step up to stop him. “I know for a fact I didn’t invite you inside.”
“Yet you leave your window unlocked,” Kageyama replies, voice just as dangerously low as Kei’s.
“Who am I to deny the prince what he wants?” Kei straightens as Kageyama’s older brother approaches them, all golden smiles and perfectly fluffed hair, with his own adviser on his heels. He bows to them both and excuses himself.
“The same person you’ve always been.” Kageyama doesn’t shout but his voice reaches Kei all the same. Kei’s fingers press the five point star at the base of his throat. He doesn’t need to be anywhere near Kageyama to hear his voice.
My true north.