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Boredom – an emotion Toya had been well-acquainted with his entire life.
He came from exceedingly typical beginnings; nowhere near the status of a noble but distinctly better off than the peasantfolk. His father went out into the kingdom each day to earn their daily bread while his mother stayed at home to cook and clean. Toya himself was never able to do much of anything.
When his two brothers came of age, they were conscripted into the king's army, after which they decided to remain soldiers, so he was never really spoiled for choice in the way of company. Times were stagnant in the Dark Kingdom, so even as a child, Toya had nothing to look forward to but the day he too would be called in for service.
What a fool he was to think his life in the army would be any different than staring out the window all day at home. The setting may have changed, but his life was still nothing but constant monotony day in and day out. He was only 18 when the imperial guard escorted him upon Lord Kaito's doorstep for the first time, and yet his gloomy demeanor might've fooled you into thinking he'd been at this for years.
Then, all of a sudden, war broke out. Generations’ worth of peace between the kingdoms of light and dark had been shattered. Families were broken apart and homes were mercilessly ravaged. Toya, like nearly every other rookie soldier, had been haphazardly stuffed onto the front lines. Yet even wartime turned out to be utterly boring.
Contrary to what the majority of his companions thought – especially that turncoat sorcerer – Toya found live combat to be hardly any different from smashing apart a training dummy. His reputation quickly became stained with the blood of infamy due to his immense talent in the way of swordplay, but he cared not for victory or status. Not when nothing anyone did challenged him.
Eventually, he became one of the kingdom's chief tacticians. Despite his grand intelligence, this too was hardly a challenge. Their enemies were far too concerned with virtuousness – though one could suppose this distinction was what drew the line between a ‘knight’ and a ‘soldier’. Either way, it was all too easy to ambush every troupe and encampment the Light Kingdom organized, tales of the terrifying split-haired knight spreading far and wide for it.
That was until, for the very first time in his career as a strategist, Toya's plan had been foiled. Never before had his men ever found themselves at a disadvantage, yet this time the knights were waiting for them. For once, Toya felt the tingling sensation of surprise running through his body.
“Thought you could get away with bullying us forever, huh? Well, too bad!” smirked an orange-haired knight – a new face, far too full of youthful bravado for his own good. It was then that Toya understood he was looking at the man responsible for this blunder.
“I'm impressed that you managed to see through my strategy, knight.” Toya replied in his typical cold tone, though his words were spoken in atypical earnest. “But can you bite as hard as you bark?”
“Eager to find out?” The knight cockily drew his sword. Despite the ongoing battle around them, it felt as though all but the two of them had vanished from reality. A rush of foreign adrenaline forced its way through Toya's veins, prompting him to, in spite of his best judgement, match the knight's battle stance.
“Very.” For perhaps the first time in his entire life, Toya's lips turned up into a confident smile. Without further ado, the two of them began to clash, the combination of clanging blades and grunts of effort ringing in Toya's ears as they engaged in a bloody dance.
Toya had never met someone who could keep up with him like this. Usually, when he drew his sword, the battle was over before it started. But this knight's strength and skill were equally undeniable. He actually had to think to counter his attacks, and within that stimulation arose an excitement Toya had never known before.
“...!”
Toya staggered backward with a gasp when cold steel managed to graze his cheek. He touched a pair of armored fingertips to where the cut began to ooze with blood, barely able to register that he'd been wounded even as he pressed upon the spot where his skin was flayed before pulling back to stare upon the crimson stains on his hand.
“You…” Toya muttered, a mixture of shock, intrigue and something completely alien sending his voice into a pathetic tremble. Before the orange-haired boy could respond, however, a sudden explosion of smoke boomed across the battlefield.
For once, Toya was tempted not to do the smart thing – which was to retreat and lick his wounds. Perhaps he might've made good on his sudden impulse to claw through the smoke until he relocated his opponent, were it not for the cold hand touching itself to his shoulder. It barely took a moment's worth of dizziness to find himself back at their encampment.
“My apologies for the sudden warp~” Rui – the culprit of that abrupt display – hummed, kneeling to meet the level of where Toya had collapsed onto the floor. “I should have warned you about the Dawn Knight. Quite the formidable foe, isn't he?”
“The Dawn Knight, huh…?” Toya muttered back, once again pressing his fingertips to the cut on his cheek. It was by no means a serious injury, requiring perhaps a single bandage at best, and yet it left behind an impression deeper than impalement.
“Kamishiro-senpai. Tell me everything you know about him.”
Shinonome Akito – the full name of the knight that had captured Toya's interest. Rui described him as a passionate boy who apparently enlisted into the king's guard a year before he came of age by his own will; a devout, altruistic swordsman who, like Toya, was quite skilled at concocting stratagems. In a way, it seemed like this Akito was a perfect mirror to himself.
Factoring Akito into his calculations produced a variable of unpredictability that Toya couldn't help but gravitate towards. Whether his muttering colleagues chose to label it as ‘competitiveness’ or ‘obsession’, he became determined to best Akito in this boorish little game they'd initiated.
“The knights seem to have made base two clicks of the western border.” explained one of the scouts he'd sent for reconnaissance. “It seems like Sir Shinonome is leading them.”
“You're certain?” Toya queried, perking up the way their hunting dogs would suddenly morph back into puppies once offered the camp's dinner scraps.
“Positive.” confirmed the scout. “I'd recognize that bright orange hair anywhere.”
“Then I'll handle him myself.” Toya spoke it like it was some noble act, even though all his allies were well aware of the unspoken feud between the two. “The rest of you know what to do. We move out in 10.”
At the very least, Toya wasn't so stupid as to think this rivalry was unfounded. He recognized all of the Light Kingdom's usual tactics, and more importantly, he had all of Akito's memorized. That knight knew far better than to encroach upon enemy territory so blatantly. He was practically begging for Toya to swoop in and initiate their umpteenth rematch.
Even though he knew he was a complete idiot for it, Toya always took the bait. Every time, it was a matter of seconds before the two of them were left in suspiciously clean isolation, allowing them the luxury of a no-holds-barred duel without the risk of interruption.
It felt like dirty talk, the way they'd grease up each other's egos before pouncing like a pair of wild animals – only with blades and fists instead of claws and teeth. Toya never tired of the way Akito swung his sword like the longevity of the kingdom itself was in jeopardy, relishing every moment until one factor or another called the match to be settled upon their next encounter.
When the war eventually ended, Toya should've been happy. Even his most battle-hungry of companions seemed relieved at the formation of the peace treaty, and his own family had acquaintances in the Light Kingdom too. Still, returning to the monotony of castle life made him feel… empty.
It wasn't like he yearned for wartime to return. He'd always been a little gloomy and had certainly grown sedulous in his hedonism, but he didn't take any amount of joy in the blood he was made to spill during this conflict. No, his problem was far more specific and of infinite complication.
He missed Akito. The way he'd proclaim his intent to win with such fiery passion, the power he exuded as he slashed his blade into his foes, the brainpower he exhibited in stopping his enemies’ plans dead in their tracks, that gorgeous face earning a gradual sheen of sweat and dirt, the fleeting glimpses of naked muscle Toya had burned into his memory-
Ah… What irony, to find love in the middle of a battlefield. When he really thought about it, though, what were their insipid little contests if not a boorish mating ritual? Through their many months of conflict, a quiet bond had been whispered between their utterly stubborn, utterly foolish hearts, begging for the day to come that the room would fall silent and its voice could be heard.
“I'm guessing that bouquet of flowers isn't for Tenma-san.” chimed in the low voice of Mafuyu, happening to catch Toya just as he decided that day was today.
“...Asahina-san.” Toya spoke in acknowledgement, shifting a glance to where he – or rather she, though Toya would never speak of the secret which dangled Mafuyu's career on a precipice – leaned against the castle wall.
“I’m surprised you’re going to the Light Kingdom.” Mafuyu continued despite her junior’s lack of answer, the hollow click of her shoes providing a singsongy backdrop to her unwavering monotone. “You haven’t appeared in public since the signing of the peace treaty.”
“Sudden adjustments have never been my strong suit.” Toya dared not to make eye contact even as Mafuyu’s weight clattered against the gate, keeping his gaze entirely transfixed on the collection of sky blue petals caught within his grasp. “I hear that some people have even been approaching Saki-san in hopes that the oracle will ‘cleanse the transplants’.”
“The oracle…” Mafuyu muttered back the appellation like a selective echo, slowly raising a hand to where – if Toya remembered correctly – she’d suffered a clean stab not even a pair of weeks ago. “It’s nice that Tenma-san was able to cure her illness, but the loss of her medical skills was certainly a heavy blow.”
“Indeed…” Toya conceded, finally freeing up one hand in order to roll the shoulder that had never quite outgrown its months-old stiffness. “Kamishiro-senpai’s methods are faster, but... quite crude, to say the least.”
“As for her brother…” Though she hadn’t phrased it as a question, Mafuyu’s words brought the conversation right back to where Toya was hoping he could ignore it had started.
“Your earlier assessment was correct.” Toya confirmed, lifting up the bouquet like the object of befuddlement it became once placed into his hands. “Tsukasa-senpai prefers Stargazer Lilies. He says the shape of the petals reminds him of his aspirations.”
“Then these Forget-Me-Nots must be for someone else.” Mafuyu concluded – a rather obvious statement on its lonesome, a poorly-disguised attempt to pry further into Toya's affairs once the surface layer was peeled off.
“The shopkeeper told me they were popular with the knights.” was Toya's sole reply. Without waiting for another word from his senior or bothering to throw one into the hat himself, he allowed his feet to carry him off the castle grounds in pursuit of the border.
The Light Kingdom was an aberrance for Toya and his well-developed sense of normalcy – familiar, yet anomalous all the same, like the uncanniness of sketching a face from memory. The bustle of pedestrians and peasant workers going about their daily lives atop the unwavering susurrus resonated with the buzzing white noise Toya had grown accustomed to in his childhood days, yet he couldn't shake the feeling of plunging deep into enemy territory.
No… It wasn't right to think that way. Even if a palmful of villagers glanced at him with disdain, the two kingdoms were no longer engaged in deadlock. On the contrary, any display of prejudice would be further reprehensible than his presence on the streets. Still, that didn't change that he'd chosen to stir the cream before it managed to settle.
Toya was hardly a patient man. Quite the opposite, in fact – he knew better than anyone the importance of striking while the iron was hot. It was how he earned his commendations during the war, and it supplied him with confidence ample enough to carry him toward his paramour's alleged abode without pause.
Eventually, Toya's venture brought him to an easeful shop laid in brick. The cobblestone path led up to a kaleidoscope of differently colored flowers kept in pots of what looked to be clay. They were lined against the door, windows and even the wrought iron table set out front, bringing with them the radiance of a peculiar warmth. It felt almost unbefitting of the name hung upon the signboard, and yet the inscription remained identical no matter how many times Toya read it.
‘Shinonome’. This humble little flower shop, which stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the other buildings of their fellow working class, was the home of his Akito.
Toya knocked thrice against the wooden door. He was still unused to the feeling of his own bare hands – having clad them in layers of cloth and armor for hours on end, day by painstaking day – and found himself studying the way his pale fingers flexed as he pulled back. Perhaps he should invest in a pair of gloves to use in his everyday life…
The sight waiting behind the door as it was thrown open sent a shock through Toya's system. Unmistakably, leaning against the wooden frame was the orange-haired, droopy-eyed knight he'd exchanged blades with so many times – only he looked so different in his casual attire.
His clothes were rustic and simple, the yellow overshirt providing him with a comfortable yet stylish look, and his hair had been left to shag over his forehead – far messier than the laser-focused precision of his typical grooming tendencies. In comparison to Toya, who very much looked and felt like his militaristic persona had been haphazardly frankensteined into a tawdry attempt at normality, it was like Akito had transformed into a wholly different person. Toya was nearly tempted to question if he was looking at the same Akito, until-
“What the hell are you doing here?” Akito spat out with all his typical venom, the neutrality imprinted on his face suddenly pressing into a deep scowl.
Ah. There he was.
“Isn't it obvious?” Toya spoke far too matter-of-factly for his own good, extending forth the bouquet he'd been anxiously clutching since he set out on his journey. “I'm here to court you, my knight.”
“...Excuse me?” Akito huffed as though his ears were playing a nasty trick – as, surely, that had to have been the most ridiculous thing to ever fall upon them. This, however, merely prompted Toya to repeat his intentions.
“I'm here to court you.” Toya replied candidly, speaking as if Akito had actually misheard him. Akito grunted as the bouquet was thrust rather pushily into his face, though you wouldn't have known it from the deadpan look of his sudden admirer.
“You've gotta be kidding…” Akito sighed in total disbelief, batting the sky-colored flowers back toward the soldier hulking in his doorway. “I've got to admit, soldier boy. Not everybody's got the balls to taunt the Dawn Knight in his own home.”
“I don't intend to taunt you.” said Toya plainly, stroking the flowers in his hands with a clawed motion that resembled the way in which he'd clasp his sword. “Now that the peace treaty has been signed, I wish to have a relationship with you.”
“If it weren't for the peace treaty, I'd strike you down where you stand.” Akito snarled, shoving his palm flat against Toya's chest to push him a short distance away. The soldier's body gave nary a flinch in response, though his heart was dissimilarly garnering the plague known as ambivalence.
Akito could have pushed him much harder than that. Toya knew from firsthand experience of the most tantalizing sort that Akito's raw strength was far beyond remarkable. However, this knowledge only served to wound Toya deeper than any number of scars they'd given to each other. It brought to light that Akito had no intention to hurt him nor offer him the time of day; he just wanted him to leave.
Toya's heart sank, as did the hand holding up the bouquet of Forget-Me-Nots he'd so carefully purchased. It was ludicrous, really, that such simple rejection would shatter his heart more thoroughly than anything he'd witnessed during his days at war. It was a crushing reminder that no matter how much his seniors praised his maturity or how many times he squashed his foes like ants beneath his feet, he was nothing but a foolish child with unrealistic notions of romance swimming through his brain.
“Besides, why the hell did you bring someone else's bouquet as a gift for a flower shop owner…?” Akito muttered – though for Toya, it came out with the importance of an ear-piercing scream – as he turned his back. “This is a place of business. If you're not gonna buy anything, then I don't wanna see your-”
“I'll buy something.” Toya blurted out far too hell-for-leather to avoid looking as desperate as he felt. “You sell Stargazer Lilies, don't you?”
“...You're really annoying, you know that?” Akito sighed in defeat, turning back around with a less-than-unimpressed expression – but at least he bothered to look at Toya this time. It seemed money was a universal language after all.
“Fine. Whatever gets you away from me the fastest.” Akito grumbled deeply. With far more annoyance than hesitation present in his body, he ducked toward an unseen aisle just beyond the doorway with practice precision.
“...And you're staying outside!” he thought to add right when Toya dared to take the step that would have put him over the knight's property line. It was less than ideal to be put out like an ill-behaved dog, but he'd take it over full-on rejection.
“I have to admit, I was surprised to learn that you've been living with your family.” Toya thought to make idle conversation, to which Akito instantly groaned as he began assembling the soldier's requested bouquet. “I would have thought you'd keep to your royal quarters.”
“I thought I told you to stay outside!” Akito immediately barked, wagging the bunch of flowers in his hands precisely the same way he'd always taunt Toya with his blade.
“I am outside.” Toya offered an apt riposte, using his own bouquet as a tool to point out that the tips of his toes were mere centimeters off from the space between cobblestone and wood.
“Stay outside and shut up, then.” Akito groaned, stopping to massage his temples before resuming his mission to wrap up the bone he'd decided to throw this stubborn mutt. Despite the sharpness of his tone, however, Toya found the finished product to be quite beautifully arranged once Akito strode over to stuff it into his arms.
“It's on the house.” Akito insisted in what was perhaps the only perceivable instance where gifting someone a free bouquet managed to sound rude. “Now get the hell out of my house and don't come back.”
“If you won't accept my flowers as a gift, can't you take them as payment?” asked Toya, swapping arms to cleverly place the Forget-Me-Nots back into Akito's main point of view. “That way we'll be even.”
“...Good lord...” Akito drug his hands across his face hard enough to convince you he was trying to take his features with him. “Fine, but only if you leave me alone.”
“Thank you. I know nothing about taking care of flowers, so they would have died in my care.” Toya explained as he transferred the flowers into Akito's hands, who groaned at the obviousness that he'd been ignored. “The girl who sold these to me makes quality apple pies as well. I'll bring you some next time.”
“I told you there is no next time, dammit…!” Akito scolded as Toya's back strode further out of view. Regardless, he could sense the soldier had made up his mind. He threw bread to the ducks and now he was bearing the consequences.
Toya, meanwhile, walked away with a sense of fulfillment. Though he had to practically stuff them into his mouth to get the job done, he achieved his primary objective – giving Akito flowers. The first round of their latest bout might have been less than ideal, but Toya was a strategic man. If Akito wanted to play the long game, he was fully prepared to add yet another crushing victory to his docket.
“Can you BELIEVE him?!”
Some time later, Akito found himself complaining aloud as he laid strike after strike into the wooden dummy. It was a shock to see him upon the castle grounds after he was granted some much-deserved time off, but a knight would always be a knight. When he got, for lack of a better word, pissed the fuck off, there was no better catharsis than taking out his frustrations on a target that was specially built for this sort of abuse.
“And he's been showing up at my house every day this week!” growled the knight, hacking into the dummy's neck with a slash that left behind a particularly nasty splinter. “He keeps bringing me flowers and sweets like he thinks we're friends or something!”
“Sounds like he thinks something else~” Mizuki teased from where she sat on the sidelines, only to jump back slightly when the sheer power of Akito's subsequent strike blew the dummy's head clean off.
“Akito, please, we really can't afford to keep replacing the dummies!” Tsukasa scolded from his spot next to Mizuki, to which Akito merely rolled his eyes before resuming his mission to brutalize what was left of the mangled dummy.
“I'm not sure what you're so up in arms about, Li'l Bro.” Mizuki shrugged out – using that obnoxious nickname she'd given to Akito when she found out he was related to ‘that pretty girl who runs the flower shop’. “Lots of folks from the Dark Kingdom have been coming here lately! I keep spotting that soldier with the purple hair in Kanade's garden.”
Mizuki and Kanade… What an ironic friendship the two of them had. They were both women, but they'd enlisted as knights for completely opposite reasons. Mizuki was drafted against her will due to the circumstances of her birth; Kanade had to hide her own to take the place of her sickly father. Perhaps it was expected that neither of them would have particularly strong feelings on a war they never wished to fight, but still…
“Doesn't it bug you guys?” Akito ceased his relentless slashes to scratch his head in contemplation. “Acting so casual with people we were at war with a couple weeks ago?”
“You have a point.” Tsukasa spoke with an equally contemplative fist to the chin – a rare instance in which he managed to say something that didn't make Akito want to kick his teeth in. “Even if the kingdoms are at peace now, it's hardly appropriate to fraternize with our former enemies!”
“Oh, you're one to talk.” Mizuki sniggered, playfully shoving her side into Tsukasa's with a resounding ‘clink’. “You've done way more than fraternize, haven't you, Tsukasa-senpai~?”
“Gh-!” Tsukasa immediately froze up like a deer in headlights, throwing the room into an awkward silence that his subsequent dramatic cough did quite poorly to conceal. “I-I-I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about! I would never do something as uncouth as to involve myself with an imperial soldier!”
“Really...?” Akito droned sarcastically, as he was far from stupid enough not to notice his colleagues were hiding something from him. Tsukasa and Mizuki shared a series of glances as though engaged in a silent argument over the matter, before finally the pink-haired knight leaned forward and sent the waiting pot of tea crashing off the table.
“Tsukasa-senpai and the mad sorcerer got caught together in his quarters~”
“Wha-?!” Akito immediately recoiled, the glaringly obvious flusterment in guilt present in his senior's body language offering all the confirmation he needed. “Ew!”
“NONONONONONONONO, IT WASN'T LIKE THAT AT ALL!” Tsukasa shouted at a volume mighty enough to make both his juniors flinch, frantically waving his arms in any direction they would snap to match his spindling web of excuses. “I-it's just that the king pardoned Rui's act of treason in accordance with the treaty! A-and we're, um… yes, we're both very important figures in our respective kingdoms! So our meeting was strictly professional!”
“Uh-huh. I'm sure you handled each other very professionally.” Mizuki continued to snicker, a cheshire grin curling across her face as Tsukasa lit up with such heat you'd almost expect steam to start pouring from the canals of his ears.
“I hate you guys…” groused Akito and his last nerve. He tossed his blade to the ground with an unceremonious clatter, slumping against the floor in a pool of the fighting spirit that had just drained itself from his body.
“Love you too, Li'l Bro.” Mizuki poked the bear one last time by bumping her shoulder into her new floorbound companion. “But you get my point, right? You don't have to convince yourself that you're not allowed to want something.”
“...Who said I'm doing that?” He muttered back with his gaze averted, though his muted reaction spoke for itself. Akito was known for being loud and headstrong, tackling all his problems through brute force until they bowed to his will – but this was different. No matter how hard he pushed Toya away, he couldn't break the bonds of fate which chained them together.
Akito had never really given much consideration to his relationship with Toya – mostly because, up until a week ago, he didn't see them as having a relationship. Toya was a beguiling enemy who happened to be an impressive warrior; no more, no less.
Yet, inevitably, spending so much time inside somebody else's head carved out a space for them in your heart whether you liked it or not. Day and night, Akito would spend his time racking his brain to figure out which piece to move across the chessboard the two of them had set up for themselves.
With each battle, a new phase in that same old looping cycle would make itself apparent. Akito prepared a siege against Toya's troupe, Toya met him halfway with a flawless counterattack, then Akito went right back to plotting his revenge. It was endlessly infuriating, and yet he found himself repeatedly intrigued by this opponent who never failed to match the burning passion which earned him his knighthood to begin with.
When Akito was essentially forced to take a vacation upon the war's end, he was already sure he'd be bored out of his skull until the day he could resume his duties. He was the type who preferred to be in a constant state of snowballing – always pushing toward his next goal without stopping to smell the roses. To that end, being trapped in his family's dingy little flower shop felt as punitive as a trip to the castle dungeon.
He felt… empty. At first, he attributed it to the contempt he felt for his circumstances. Tending to the flowers provided him with a bit of the satisfaction he craved, as it often involved a fair bit of manual labor, but it was nowhere near how correct it felt to brandish his sword in defense of his kingdom.
At first, he thought setting up a mini training ground for himself in his backyard would do the trick. Regardless of his orders, he couldn't just neglect his body for a whole month, so it felt like killing two birds with one stone. But to his dismay, no matter how many distractions he packed into his daily schedule – gardening, workouts, deep cleaning the house so often it bordered on freakish – it wouldn't erase the strange feeling that he was missing something.
Having to admit it to himself was decidedly the biggest humiliation Akito had ever been made to suffer through, but he realized the answer to his woes the day Toya turned up on his doorstep. The thing he'd been missing all this time wasn't the glory of battle or any other of the hundred-odd excuses he drummed up in his head – it was Toya.
Part of him was terrified. Not just by the prospect of harboring such attachment for someone he would still consider his enemy were it not for royal circumvention, but the very idea that he needed someone that way to begin with. His cowardice was what led him to push Toya away with such insistence; so terrified of love that he'd rather let himself stew in self-hatred for the rest of time.
He should've guessed that Toya wouldn't give up. He was always annoying like that, more often than not needing to be physically yanked away from the field before he ever considered willingly bowing out of their many confrontations. Considering his eccentricities, it was hardly a surprise when he kept turning up with more presents than Akito knew what to do with.
Whether he liked it or not, Toya had slowly integrated himself into Akito's domestic life. Even when he wasn't hanging around the shop like an obnoxious buzzing fly, that ceramic vase – visibly more expensive than the ones used for display at the storefront – sat neat on his shelf as those sky-blue flowers slowly wilted. His fridge and pantry were full of sweets and delicacies Toya had brought for him. Hell, he still had yet to pick up the set of clothes he left behind after Akito dragged his stupid ass inside from a rainstorm…
And when he was around, Akito felt far calmer than he'd ever dare to admit aloud. Flowers were a secondary interest of his at best, but it still felt nice to explain the cultivation methods when Toya chose to ask. It was rare that someone took a genuine interest in his craft, whether it was at home or on the battlefield, but Toya seemed to know precisely which itch to scratch to make every part of him turn soft and gummy.
…Fuck. He really didn't want to give Mizuki the satisfaction of knowing she was right, but she'd really hit the nail on the head with this one. He'd fallen completely in love with Toya, and the only thing stopping him from reaching out to grasp what he wanted was his own pitiful heart.
“Welp!” Mizuki suddenly stood up, startling Akito's train of thought off the rails as she began an exaggerated march toward the exit door. “It's almost afternoon teatime, so I'm off to meet with Kanade~”
“Now wait just a minute!” Tsukasa sped after his junior, fully intending to lasso her back in with the very grapevine she'd been combing. “You better not tell anyone else about what you heard, you understand?! Hey, quit running away!”
“How the hell did those two manage to survive the war…?”
Toya's next visit felt as though it arrived within the span of a hair's breadth and an arduous century all at once. Dealing with the anxiety of anticipation was never Akito's strong suit – hence why he excelled at problems that could be solved with his fist or a blade more than anything – and it showed in the dark circles he ended up sporting beneath his eyes the following day.
Most would hardly consider the morning praise hour an appropriate time to be up and about – but for Akito, it was an excuse to bind together the scattering clouds in his brain with thick bonds of twine. That was to say he took it upon himself to get his blood pumping, working up a plentiful sweat before the sun had risen high enough to provide his half-naked body with a healthy glimmer.
“You're up early.” spoke that audaciously calm voice Akito had grown so used to hearing in the past week. Toya stood in the frame of the door which led to the patio, arms crossed in a sight not dissimilar to what the soldier laid eyes upon when he stepped upon Akito's door for the very first time.
“...So are you.” Akito grunted, his expression about as amused-looking as ever when the view of his muscled back thinned out to offer Toya his proper attention. “How'd you even get in my house…?”
“Your sister let me in.” Toya explained simply. It made sense – Ena was always scolding Akito for being so rude to ‘that handsome blue-haired regular’, but that didn't make it any less annoying that his biggest rival had been met with the hospitality of an old family friend.
…More accurately, he hated how nice it felt to see him first thing in the morning.
“So what's your excuse to see me this time, huh?” Akito feigned his typical indifference through what could only be described as ‘unabashed staring' on his guest's part. It was hardly a surprise on either front – he knew he had a great body, and he knew shame was a word that had no intention of entering Toya's lexicon. Still, that didn't stop him from having to put a touch of deliberate effort into ignoring the slight tingle of extra heat upon his cheeks.
“The same as always.” Toya spoke blatantly, hardly needing to finish the thought for Akito to know he would have said ‘to court you’. “Only this time, I didn't bring a gift.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Akito raised a brow curiously. He recognized that overly-serious look on Toya's face, having watched it bleed into a smug turn of lips so many times just moments before their blades collided.
“I'd like to spar with you, Akito.” Toya began, fingers carefully unraveling the strings and buttons holding up his shirt until it sat loosely enough that the cleft between his pecs was clearly visible. “You knights covet your romantic values, don't you? So I'd like to do things the proper way and duel for your hand.”
“...Hah?” was the only thing that came out of Akito's mouth in reply, as he truly – very truly and deeply – had no idea how he was meant to respond with anything other than pure bewilderment. Every time he thought he'd witnessed the depths of Toya's complete absurdity, in came another curveball with a deathly intent to strike him in the head.
“Wh- Hey, why are you taking your clothes off?!” Akito was suddenly made to shout. Perhaps he should've guessed earlier that Toya intended to peel off his shirt, but he was too stuck in shock to do anything about it before the soldier's bare torso was suddenly right in his face.
“This puts us on equal ground.” Toya explained, though the fact that his gaze blatantly fell upon Akito's well-developed pecs even as he folded up the discarded article spoke to his true intentions. “You only have practice swords here, anyway. At worst, we'll give each other a few bruises.”
“I didn’t even agree to fight you, dammit!” Akito squeaked – squeaked. Since when the hell did an accomplished knight prodigy and commendable war veteran squeak?! – at the sheer absurdity of the sight before him. The worst part was that he couldn't even judge Toya for sizing his body up and down like he was gauging how much honey he'd need to run his tongue along every inch, as he was doing precisely the same thing right now.
Toya might've been taller and leaner than Akito, but the muscle definition from his months of training and combat was most certainly present. It spoke to their individual fighting styles quite nicely, really – Toya preferred to blitz his opponent with practiced strikes of the utmost precision; Akito bulldozed everything in his path with pure raw power.
That, and it served as a nice reminder that even if he looked like nothing but an eccentric pretty boy on the outside, Toya was a warrior. The map of scars upon his body, blossoms of pink sticking out like a sore thumb against his pale skin, was telltale proof of the hardships he'd endured. As a matter of fact, Akito himself had printed quite a number of those marks laid upon his skin.
“Reminiscing, are we?” Toya asked with such complete neutrality in his tone that you'd almost take that as teasing in and of itself. He brought a pair of fingertips to the precise spot Akito's gaze had fallen upon – a clean, circular wound on the upper left side of his stomach. It looked almost decorative sitting beside his abs in its healed state.
“I remember this one well. 2 months ago, you caught me by surprise and ran me through with a polearm.” Toya recounted, tracing the pinkened flesh of his scar with a smile more gentle than Akito could be sure he'd ever witnessed from him. “I was put on bedrest for an entire week while I recovered. The smell of iron still brings me back to it.”
“Am I supposed to be sorry or something?” Akito huffed with a swift folding of his arms, casting a line and praying he'd salvage his ego with it. “We were enemies, y'know.”
“I'm aware. I've given you more than a couple scars in turn.” Toya spoke forthrightly, each word that flowed from his lips bringing him a step closer to Akito until he could poke an edged scar upon the knight's right shoulder. “Like this one. It's been half a year since I cut you here, right?”
“Th-that's…” Akito couldn't help turning his face away when Toya leaned in so close you'd think he was never taught what personal space was, especially when he started to stroke along the scar in a way that felt so strangely intimate.
“What, have you been keeping track of how many scars we've given each other or something?” Akito tried to puff out his chest out a bit; to show any amount of cheek in hopes he could feign a tiny amount of pride. Unfortunately for him, he was punished for poking the bear with a second hand joining its twin on his body.
“Of course I have.” Toya spoke blatantly, his hands working in tandem to trail across the contours of Akito's chest, hips and stomach as though he was trying to connect the dots with the many discolorations patched into his skin. “The pain that comes from the wound's infliction, the process of recovery, even the daily reminder that you left your imprint on me when I examine myself in the mirror… I cherish every bit of it.”
“To be honest…” Toya continued, retracting the hand that Akito was about to call out for being suspiciously far away from any of his scars. “I wish the cut on my cheek didn't fade so quickly. It was the very first time you left your mark on me, after all.”
This guy was a freak!
“Don't you think about it too?” Toya's voice dropped an octave – or perhaps Akito had imagined it in the midst of getting basically manhandled. “How, in a way, a part of me will always be with you?”
“Most people don't think like that, y'know…” Akito was reduced to flustered murmurs at this point, his willingness to put on a face – or even just to yell at Toya not to smooth his hands over the muscles in his abs and chest so damn blatantly – depleting by the nanosecond.
“I do.” Toya whispered. “This mark on your shoulder from 3 months ago, the one on your stomach I gave you 2 fortnights before peace negotiations began, the jagged wound from the slice of my dagger I delivered the second time we met…”
“And this one…” Toya suddenly paused when his hands reached a certain scar, frowning as his fingertips flinched away from the conspicuous mark placed right between his left pec and collarbone. “Hm…”
“Oh, that…?” Akito chimed in, bringing up a palm to roll against the spot Toya had sworn off touching for no apparent reason the knight could detect. “Took a shot straight to the chest a couple months ago. Nearly put me out of commission.”
“...I see.”
“Luckily, one of my squadmates patched me up and left me in a nearby cave. Might've bit the dust otherwise.” Akito chuckled like the matter of almost dying in battle was somehow a trivial affair. At first, he expected Toya to smile – maybe offer a little cheeky pushback before regaling him with tales of his own near-death experiences. They were both men of war, after all. Bragging about all the hardship you survived came with the veteran's package.
What he was instead met with, however, was complete and utter silence. Toya's eyes narrowed – the same way they would whenever he zeroed in for the kill during their many bouts. Only this time, he bore directly into that scar which sullied Akito's skin as though it had wronged him personally.
“What's with that look, huh?” Akito found it in him to smirk as, inversely, Toya's entire face knitted together further. “Don't tell me you're jealous you weren't the one to give it to me?”
“Actually…” Toya's voice dropped to a whisper – only this time, it wasn't the sultry kind which Akito had discovered could instantly render him weak in the knees. “I was.”
“...Huh?”
“2 months ago… That was when it happened.” Toya began his explanation, voice threatening to quiver as information he was clearly loath to divulge paddled its way to the surface. “For every siege I enacted in the 3 weeks leading up to that day, I sent my full cavalry to confront your men, right as the crucifixion hour began, in a no-holds-barred frontal assault.”
“After a while, it created a certain expectation. You began readying yourself each day at precisely the same time.” The soldier continued without an ounce of his typical fondness as he recalled the rivalry they shared during wartime. “So I broke the formula. That day, the cavalry set out during the morning prayer hour, catching your squadron by surprise.”
“During the scrimmage, you ended up isolated from the rest of your party...” Toya struggled to hold himself together at this point; a bigger display of emotion than Akito had ever thought him capable of. “...and your encampment was placed right at the base of the highlands, so I took advantage of the distraction my allies provided to sneak up to a vantage point.”
“Toya, are you saying…”
“I'm the one who shot you, Akito.” Toya confessed, the earth-shattering guilt drowning his silver eyes in wetness. It almost dared to border on curiosity – as Toya never cried. He seldom expressed an emotion at all, in fact. Yet here he was, eyes welling up for the man who was meant to be his mortal enemy for the second time.
“I shot you once with a harpoon gun and it knocked you out straight away.” Toya continued to recount, as he had yet to line up that first instance alongside its fellow ducks. “It should have been my greatest achievement – everything I've been working for, and yet…”
“And yet…?”
“I was scared, Akito.” Toya could no longer suck up the tears flooding his ducts, clear streams now pouring down his cheeks in earnest. “I realized in that moment that I needed you.”
“I know you're going to tell me it's ridiculous, that I would fall in love with someone on the opposite side of a war.” Toya sniffled, trying and failing to wipe away the tears blurring his vision beyond recognition. “Never mind that I would abandon my troops to save them. I sat there for hours, bawling so hard I was almost certain my eyes were starting to bleed, while I prayed you would make it.”
“T…Toya…” Akito muttered, unsure of what to say or do other than mumble like an idiot. All this time, he was so sure that his ability to see right through Toya was uncanny. From memorizing his strategic methodologies to shutting down all his attempts to torment him with empty courtship, he'd convinced himself he knew everything there was to know about Toya.
It turned out he couldn't have been more wrong. This war had left a stain on Toya's heart just as ugly and stubborn as Akito's. The fact that he was even alive to hear this from the horse's mouth was a testament to that.
“When did you turn into such a crybaby, huh…?” Akito sighed out, batting away Toya's hands – bordering on aggression in their mission to cast aside his flowing tears – to replace them with the gentle feeling of his own calloused palms cupping his stained cheeks. “You're acting like I didn't pull through even though I'm standing right in front of you.”
Toya didn't offer any intelligible response, only sniffling like a kid after a tantrum as he sank into what was perhaps the only notion of physical kindness he'd ever been paid. To that end, Akito kept himself sturdy. The only semblance of motion in his palms was the tender manner in which his thumb stroked the very cheek he'd once sliced open many moons ago.
“The kingdoms are at peace, Toya. We don't have to be enemies anymore.” Akito continued, deciding to put into practice what pretty much everyone in his life had been preaching to him all this time. “You keep showing up at my door because you know that, right?”
“...Yes…” Toya managed to choke out his reply, gloved hands gingerly clasping around Akito's wrists. “There was never a moment where I didn't mean it when I said I love you.”
“You want me?” asked Akito, having turned the tables by personally closing the distance between them this time. The knight could hear the subtle flex of Toya's throat as he gulped down the emerging frog, a feverish nod – or his best attempt at one without sacrificing the warmth of Akito's touch – following directly after.
“Then have me, Toya.”
With all the speed and eagerness of a dog taken off its leash, Toya's lips caught Akito's in a motion that could only be described as a crash. Akito staggered back as he suddenly became the loadbearer of double his typical weight, an instinctual yelp parting his lips in precisely the right way for Toya to forcibly slot them together.
Toya kissed him with such unabashed fervor that Akito could barely think, let alone palm for a reprieve in which he could find his footing or at least remember how to breathe. Every time Akito dared to separate their connection, Toya chased his lips and yanked him flush with all the determination of a predator tearing into live prey.
Toya, meanwhile, had zero intention of forming any sort of meaningful thought. By this point, he'd nearly forgotten what it was like not to dance between the recesses of his own mind and the surface layer of Akito's. Giving in to his urges and simply allowing his body to move itself in accordance with his desires felt much too akin to heaven's surrender to even think of turning his brain back on.
“Toya-” Akito managed to slip out when Toya gulped in a mighty breath, only to immediately be silenced by his kiss once more. He was starting to lose track of where he ended and Toya began – whose heartbeat was hammering away so thunderously, whose hands had found their place upon which spanse of skin, even who took ownership of the slightly bitter taste swirling in his mouth.
“Calm down, you moron…!” Akito breathlessly scolded the next chance he got, only able to stop Toya's relentless advance by physically slapping a hand over the soldier's mouth. Toya merely hung there with the most pathetic in his eyes – garnering the same kind of guilt you'd feel for a pet who had no capacity to understand its wrongdoings – until Akito dared to offer him release.
“I can't, Akito.” Toya instantly whined – a stupidly adorable look for him, though it still felt strange for Akito to even allow himself to think of him that way. “I've been dreaming about this for so long.”
The visible difference in the two's muscle density did nothing to help how small Akito felt when his back was suddenly kissed by dew-misted brick. At some point during the mauling Akito just suffered, Toya had completely boxed him in just shy of where the back door was left stupidly open.
“Just go slow this time, dumbass…” Akito muttered in defeat, oblivious to the fact that Toya was also thinking about how the other looked irresistibly cute right now. It was far from an awakening on the soldier's part, though. He was well aware that he loved to watch Akito squirm.
When Toya lunged back in, his advance was stopped midway by the re-emergence of Akito's palm between them – offering him nothing but the back of his hand and one last chance to behave. With a tiny huff of frustration, Toya stuffed down his instincts and heeded Akito's orders, easing together more gently this time.
Fuck. Akito had never kissed anyone before – never even thought about doing it, really – but he was starting to gain an understanding for why so many of his comrades had developed a craving for it. Kissing Toya sweetly like this created a pyrotechnical highlight reel for each and every nerve ending that brushed together, hardly any sound to fill their ears apart from the occasional hitch of breath and smack of lips.
Toya, meanwhile, found quite plentiful noise from the swirling chemicals in his brain. When his mind, heart and body caught up to each other, he found himself to be less in sync than he'd ever been made to imagine. All of a sudden, he couldn't decide if Akito's hips were the right place to rest his hands, if he should breathe through his nose or not, or even if his kiss was remotely decent to begin with.
Though they went about their workaholicism in different ways, Toya ultimately suffered from the same problem as Akito. He was so used to being the one who had to plan out his every step 10 strides before he took it, always in control of his circumstances with a totalitarian grasp. Being thrown into a situation where he was forced to stop and let himself feel – not with the force of a blade, but the true caress of a lover's intimate touch – was completely foreign to his every instinct.
‘Different’ and ‘bad’ weren't always synonymous, though – a sentiment Akito had clued him into simply by existing in his orbit. He liked the fuzzy feeling that sloshed around in his head when they kissed like time itself had ground to a halt just for their sake, unable to tell whose heart was mimicking the other's as they incessantly boomed against each other's pressed-taut chests.
Still, that hardly meant he couldn’t seek out a meager thrill or two. It had always been a unique love language of theirs to throw themselves at each other with everything they had – whether that applied to swordfighting, trading brushstrokes in the art of tactical warfare, or the infinitely more complicated matter of sewing together what had once been a gaping tear. He saw no reason that their kiss should be any different.
“...You’re holding out, Akito.” spoke Toya with ample husk the next time they pulled back for air, a lavish helping of confidence slithering back into him by the aid of a mysterious force. “If you won’t duel me with your sword, can’t we at least do it with our lips?”
Akito scoffed at Toya’s ludicrous notion. His first thought was to proclaim how completely stupid that sounded, but his inner overachiever resonated with the sentiment more than he had any desire to admit aloud. An easy victory was hardly any fun, was it? And in any case, his pride as a knight wouldn’t allow him to back down from a Black Soldier’s provocation. (Admittedly, the soldier in question sensually thumbing at his bottom lip made it far easier to come to this conclusion.)
“Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you, soldier boy.” Akito teased, smoothing one of his hands – both of which had, at some point, found themselves neatly situated around Toya's neck – right where the two tones of his opponent's hair met. The shuddery breath it earned was, in a word, blissful.
Now that they'd sufficiently warmed up – as any physical activity required – Akito fell seamlessly into Toya's rhythm as he was kissed hard. He went at Akito even more passionately than before, if that were even possible, heeding no intent to return to the bonds of his leash now that they'd been snapped apart.
Akito couldn't decide if it was a better strategy to stop himself from getting too lost in the sauce or to deliberately cannonball straight into the depths, but such minute details did precious little to deter his intended warpath. He'd survived so many of Toya's assaults; he wouldn't falter at the critical moment now.
All the while, Toya was very much making good on his promise to remove his limiters. After a few rounds of especially mouthy kisses, which forced a modicum of drool to flow down Akito's chin in a trail, the two of them separated for a strategic recapturing of breath. Toya made it his personal mission to suck a proper amount of air into his lungs before Akito could manage to rehinge his dangling jaw, upon which he launched a daring counterattack.
“Mmf-?!”
Akito was caught by surprise when his mouth was suddenly stuffed with Toya's tongue. It was a flawless strike – precisely the sort of practiced scrupulousness he'd long since paraded as his speciality. It left Akito squirming in his hold, that muscular body of his reduced to a useless pile of gelatin as he struggled to get the hang of someone else's tongue licking into his mouth.
By the time Akito found it in him to return the gesture, a noise of unsavory slickness occurring as their tongues coiled and retracted, he'd visibly abandoned his inhibitions. That fiery boldness which refused to bow to anyone had all but vanished, and the satisfaction Toya drew from watching him fall apart was predictably immense.
Eager to see how Akito would look when his brain completely short-circuited, Toya's hands found their way back to the much favorable positioning of the knight's tanned hips. Just like before, his fingertips dragged along the scars and callouses mapped across his body, all the while taking advantage of the running sensations to hike Akito's leg around his waist.
In this position, Akito relied heavily enough on Toya's weight for support that were the soldier to move far enough, he'd simply fall. Not that Toya would let that happen, but it was cute to imagine the mighty Dawn Knight clamoring to the ground because he got distracted during a kiss. The thought prompted him to finally press upon that scar he'd been so terrified of before now, palming into the sensitive cicatrix until Akito was finally forced to pull away.
“Fwuh…” was the utterly stupid-sounding noise that left Akito's mouth when they separated, needing to take a moment before he could even think to remember what his damn name was. He had no idea that something as insignificant as the pressing together of lips could bring forth the same rush of adrenaline as a fight to the death.
He felt drunk – not that either of them would truly know. It was a common headache between both kingdoms that you could be forcibly drafted for war and yet go several sun-rounds before ever getting to see a drop of ale. Regardless, Toya's kiss had rendered Akito intoxicated.
“It looks like I win the duel, Akito.” Toya smirked. All that, and he still managed to find it within his heart to poke at Akito's ego. The knight could only scoff, winding up his arms and launching forth to push Toya back in a playful shove. It was nothing like the dismissiveness he'd been met with when he first turned up at Akito's home, causing Toya's smile to soften like baked goods in the oven as an old scuff on his heart was lovely bandaged.
“Yeah, about that…” Akito leaned against his wall with an amused look coloring his increasingly-lucid features. “You know a ‘duel for someone's hand’ is supposed to be between two rivals who want the same maiden, right?”
“...Well, I don't precisely have much interest in maidens.” Toya spoke blatantly – as if that much wasn't obvious from how borderline obsessed he'd been with Akito since their first meeting.
“Me neither.” Akito agreed, no longer surprised by the twinge of disappointment that arose when Toya began putting his shirt back on. “Guess I always preferred swords.”
“Then it's a good thing you have me.” Toya hummed, providing Akito with another kiss – much more chaste, but equally as brain-numbing – when he turned back around. “I fully intend on being with you forever. Frankly, it doesn't matter to me if the world needs to explode again for that to happen.”
Akito couldn't exactly argue back. They witnessed each other's deepest moments of ugliness at world's end, then came back around to meet upon the promised land that was its new beginning. It didn't matter if they needed to traverse heaven or hell to make it happen; there would never again be a moment where their souls disentangled.
Boredom – an emotion Toya had known well since the moment he entered this world, and yet nowadays he found himself with an ever-rotating kaleidoscope of opalescent feelings.
He had good friends like Saki and Tsukasa who treated him like an extension of his own family, kind seniors such as Mafuyu who showed him the way of the world… And of course, he had Akito, his incredible lover – and rival – whose very existence had opened up so many doors for Toya and his ill-nurtured heart.
“...Toya? You spacing out again?”
“No… Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you, my knight.”