Chapter Text
The moment the sky darkened and then dawned, the four quickly searched for the cause. That day, Seimei had told them to rest. And, of course, what had happened was no harmless occurrence. Outside, in the woods, there wasn't a single woman bathing.
How sad, and how boring.
And that's the only reason Suzaku came to spy—what was the point now? He let his guard down too much when he heard familiar footsteps, but unhurried. It must have seemed strange to him; Ashiya-dono always ran angrily and in a hurry.
"Ashiya-dono!" He turned, and his smile froze and vanished. It was too late to draw his sword and unsheathe it against the youkai.
At that moment, his vision grew increasingly blurry and dark. When he awoke, he found himself facing something terrifying: the weight of something pressing down on his ankle, severely damaging his legs so that he couldn't move.
Suzaku clutched the chains that only caused him suffering. He wanted to destroy them, break them, be free again.
Weren't the others looking for him?
Wasn't he important to them? To Byakko and the other two, Suzaku was just an annoying colleague. And to his own master, Seimei, he was just another shikigami. And to Ashiya-dono…
But, well, it was him Suzaku feared now. Not his Ashiya-dono, the one he knew, but someone more mature, older, and not human. Especially since he was a youkai.
"Time travel?" Suzaku deciphered. "Are you Ashiya-dono?" It was foolish to ask; that demon had the same soul as the young onmyoji.
"Suzaku!" murmured the demon—or the Ashiya-dono from the future—embracing him tightly. Suzaku remained motionless, those arms encircling him tightly, unwilling to let go. It was suffocating.
Suzaku was thrown to the cold ground. His hands, trapped, were held by the demon. Douman's tongue coldly kissed the deity's warm body.
Oh, how he missed Suzaku, though in his heart he knew this wasn't his Suzaku. More than four hundred years had passed; perhaps this furious desire to at least hold Suzaku in his arms had been fulfilled.
Douman didn't know how he had been transported to the Heian period. Nor did he see the point in preventing Seimei's death, or warning anyone, for Seimei knew the future and hadn't had the nerve to change it.
Would this damage the future? So be it. The future would flow, because Ashiya Douman still existed. This Ashiya-dono would become a demon in the future; Douman knew that eventually, yes, that without Suzaku, perhaps his younger self would find a way.
He also wondered where his Suzaku was. Douman must have felt bad for stealing something that didn't belong to him, but, well, he didn't regret it. He could steal Suzaku from someone else to have him for himself.
A melancholic and selfish possessiveness consumed him: if he couldn't have his own past and future with the being he loved most, he would take someone else's.
He removed the kariginu from the body of the god of the south; his heart melted at the sight of such a work of art. His lips pressed against that slender, porcelain body. He licked and bit.
That didn't satisfy his intense possessiveness, nor the hunger for contact he had endured for so long. An ancient emptiness roared inside him, which neither flesh nor submission could fully fill.
"Hey..." the god let out a pained groan, though he still tried to keep his eyes open. "Ashiya-dono would never have done this!"
Not again! Douman hated it when Suzaku uttered other men's names, even if it was the same man from another line. It was a piercing reminder that, to this Suzaku, he was still an intruder, a threat.
Douman's eyes gleamed. Two months had passed, and Suzaku no longer rejected his touch. The only thing that should concern Douman was why Suzaku hadn't yet been exiled from his godly position for mating with a human. In this sense, demon.
Was it because Douman had done it without the other's consent? Was that why it wasn't considered taboo? Didn't he break the rule?! A cold doubt crept into his triumph at still appreciating his beloved's divinity. Was it acceptance, or simply resignation that Suzaku could still maintain his divine life?
Suzaku's wings were beautiful. Although visible, they were still bound by Douman's chains. Even if Douman didn't put much pressure on them, he would never damage those red wings he cherished so much.
That also pained his eyes; he still remembered when his Suzaku's wings turned black like a crow's.
He lay down in the makeshift nest in the forest, on top of Suzaku. Suzaku looked at him and still managed a smile.
That smile was more because he wasn't imagining Douman, but Ashiya-dono.
Douman was annoyed, but he wouldn't confront him. "Your belly is swollen!" he said, touching the swollen abdomen. Suzaku flinched and almost jumped.
As a former onmyoji, he could see the new life growing inside the divine beast.
Douman was excited, although he didn't know what kind of child he would become: a demon, a god, a monster, or a hybrid of both?
He let Suzaku go outside step by step, all the while creating a barrier to conceal their presence so others wouldn't notice.
Douman wrinkled his nose; his past self was very persistent in searching for and using search talismans. He even tried to make a contract with Suzaku, to no avail, since Seimei couldn't summon his shikigami.
Douman asked Suzaku, "By the way, shouldn't you be walking around in bird form in that state?"
The pregnancy was already visible, and the process was progressing rapidly. Perhaps because of that being that was born inside him, he had demonic and divine blood. Suzaku slept in his bird form, curled up in the nest, his bright red feathers shimmering softly in the dim night light.
He looked overly feathered and fluffy.
Douman wanted whatever Suzaku found most comfortable, whether in humanoid form or as a divine bird.
Douman could restrain himself from embracing him intimately, much less going to extremes.
Suzaku had been too gentle; this was the carefree Suzaku he knew.
Douman cared deeply for Suzaku. Now, for example, seeing him survey his surroundings with a mixture of boredom and curiosity, like a child, Douman knew he couldn't let him go, though it wasn't as if he wanted to.
Suzaku took a walk, sniffing at the flowers whose petals shimmered in his presence. With this, the god realized where they might be.
Even so, it was impossible for him to break the spell of the place's seal: an environment both real and illusory.
If only he could use his powers and escape. He felt the movement within his womb. The being inside him was very active and was expending all his energy. And too much.
"Ashi... Dou-chan," Suzaku turned around with an amused smile. There was no point in worrying so much anymore; apparently, no one was looking for him. So why bother?