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Somehow Shun wasn’t surprised when he found out that Kaito would be his roommate. He is one of the few people who can actually tolerate Kaito for more than ten minutes at a time, and of course, Kaito is similarly one of the few people who can tolerate him. It’s funny to be living together, after spending so many years as rivals, and then coming to a hasty truce as they fought to protect their dimension. But they don’t have a lot of options as far as living spaces go; the city was razed to the ground, the few livable houses available are for families with young children. For people like Shun and Kaito, who are helping to clean and rebuild the schools, they make do with the old student dormitories, and right now the Spade Branch of Heartland Duel School is the only school with a livable dorm.
Each day Shun and Kaito wake up, dress and wash up, go to the cafeteria for breakfast, and then they head out to wherever they’re needed. Sometimes they work on restoring the main building of the Spade branch, sometimes they go to the Clover branch and work on the dorms, sometimes they go into the city and help with the cleanup. They’re not trained carpenters or electricians, but they’ve got grit and muscle, and that goes a long way when one has to restore an entire city. Kaito and Shun have both gained a reputation for being able to pull twice their own weight, literally and figuratively.
The two of them work with hardly any breaks until around 6 PM, when they head back to the dorms to join their friends for dinner. Ruri has been running a daycare center for parents who are also involved in the cleanup, and she’s always got stories to tell about the kids she looks after. Lately she’s been taking the kids to the park so they can plant a garden.
After dinner Kaito and Shun shower and collapse in their beds, too tired to do much else. They barely even speak to each other, it always seems kind of pointless. What would they talk about, the splinters in their hands and the blisters on their feet? They both know every single thing the other has done during the day. Perhaps the only other thing they could talk about are the nightmares they both have, of the cruel laughter of child soldiers as they carded entire crowds of people, or the look in Ruri’s eyes when she was brainwashed, or the duels they had against Zarc that brought them to their knees. Sure they could discuss those things, but what would be the point?
One day Shun finds himself have a hard time getting a splinter out of his palm. It hurts like hell but he can’t find the goddamn thing no matter how intently he peers at his own hand. After several minutes of struggle, he hears Kaito sigh.
“Get over here, let me see.”
Shun crosses the room and holds out his hand with a frown. “I fail to see how you could do a better job.”
Kaito gives him a wry smile and holds up a pair of tweezers. “Makes life so much easier.” He has the splinter out in mere seconds, and Shun is ready to thank him and go back to his side of the room, but Kaito keeps a hold of Shun’s hand and pulls a bottle out of his bedside table’s drawer. “You should treat these things,” he says as he squeezes a drop of antibacterial ointment on Shun’s palm. “You don’t know what kind of diseases are lurking out there.”
Shun snorts. “Paranoid, much?”
Kaito shrugs and focuses on sanitizing his own hands. “It’s not new if that’s what you’re wondering. Haruto once got an infected cut when he was a toddler, it wasn’t pretty.”
Sometimes Shun forgets that Kaito is a big brother, too. He hesitates by Kaito’s bed. “How is he? Haruto.”
Kaito looks up at Shun. His expression is blank, he would look totally okay if not for the pain in his eyes. “He’s…getting there.”
Shun sits on the edge of Kaito’s bed. “I’m sure no one would fault you for going back home sometimes.”
Kaito looks away. “Yeah well…I never know what to say to them. They were attacked and I…I survived.”
Shun has always known Kaito felt guilty for not being there to save his family, but he had no idea it still weighed on him so heavily. “I’m sure they don’t think of it that way.”
“He will someday,” Kaito snaps. “Someday when Haruto is older he’ll wonder why his big brother couldn’t save him. I have no idea what I’ll do when that happens.”
“Gee, I have no idea what that feels like,” Shun says coldly. “Feeling like you failed to keep your little sibling safe.”
Kaito almost looks guilty. “That’s different.”
“How, exactly?”
“Ruri was—”
“Kidnapped under my watch? Brainwashed? Nearly absorbed and taken away from me while I was unable to reach her?”
“Older,” Kaito says. “I know she loves you but she never idolized you. Haruto used to think I could do no wrong. I got the monsters out of his closet, I picked him up when he fell, and the one time he really needed me I wasn’t there for him. He’s…he’s just a baby.” Kaito blinks back tears and he clears his throat. “I’ll just never be his hero again.”
Shun doesn’t know what to say to that. Eventually he goes back to his own bed. Kaito turns out the lights and they both try to sleep. But Shun lies awake for most of the night, and from the lack of snoring he can tell that Kaito does, too.
The next day Shun breaks from the norm. Kaito starts working on restoring a practice field, but Shun makes his way into the city to find the Tenjo household. He finds Kaito’s family in a two-story house that they share with another family, and Shun asks Mr. and Mrs. Tenjo if he can take Haruto to the school to visit his big brother. The agree immediately, probably because Haruto has only to hear Kaito’s name to start leaping for joy and begging to go see his nii-sama.
Kaito is beyond shocked when Haruto comes racing into the classroom and runs right into his arms. Every person in the classroom stops what they’re doing to say hello to Haruto, give him a high five or pat his head. Many of these people have families with young children as well, children they may not have seen for some time. Someone procures a bag of candy and the whole room stops to take a break and have a piece. Haruto is in awe that his big brother is building a school, and he spends the whole afternoon in Kaito’s arms, snuggled against his chest. Shun isn’t surprised when Kaito leaves to take Haruto home and doesn’t come back for a long time.
It’s morning when Shun next sees Kaito, sitting up in his bed and reading a book. When Kaito realizes that Shun is awake, he puts the book aside and says somewhat awkwardly, “Thanks for that. You know, bringing Haruto over. I really…I guess I needed it.”
“Don’t mention it,” Shun says. He’s never been good with receiving other people’s gratitude, but it is truly happy that he could help. He’s about to leave the room when Kaito hands him a piece of paper.
“Haruto made this,” he says, not meeting Shun’s eyes.
It’s a picture of a bunch of boys hammering away at a building marked ‘Skool.’ Shun is utterly touched.
A few weeks after the Haruto event (as Shun has referred to the day), Shun and Kaito have just finished a long day of restoring the Clover branch’s roof, and they’re both covered in dust, tar, and sweat, and they’re desperate for a shower. Unfortunately for them, there’s only one stall available in the communal bathroom, and neither of them particularly feels like waiting. Several rounds of rock-paper-scissors fail to decide a winner, and they’re both getting impatient.
“Somebody hurry up!” Kaito yells to the other boys.
“Just go together!” One of them yells back, “Jesus, you’re both guys, what’s the big deal?”
“For real,” says another voice, “Half of us are all doubled up anyway.”
Shun glowers at the one empty stall. It’s true, he and Kaito are both guys, so it’s not like they have anything to lose, but there’s more at stake than dignity.
Kaito pushes past Shun and grumbles, “Come on then.”
Shun follows hesitantly and he and Kaito squeeze into the tiny stall together. For a few seconds, neither of them move. Finally Kaito strips off his shirt and lets it land on the bench. Shun averts his eyes until Kaito is stripped down and turning on the water.
“You gonna stand there all day?” Kaito asks.
Shun keeps his eyes on the wall as he toys with the hem of his own shirt.
“Well?” Kaito prompts.
“Shut up,” Shun hisses, finally tossing his shirt off. He undresses quickly and steps into the shower, and he freezes, finally getting a look at Kaito. Perhaps Kaito can sense Shun’s eyes on him, because he turns around with a sneer on his face, only for it to be replaced by a look of shock.
For a moment the two of them stare at each other. Then Kaito moves out from under the water and starts washing his hair. Shun steps under the showerhead, his head a jumble of emotion. He can’t stop glancing at Kaito, or more specifically, Kaito’s scars.
Neither of them speak as they finish up in the shower. When they’re done they turn off the water and gather their clothes, and with towels around their waists they head back to their room to get dressed. Shun hastily throws on a pair of sweatpants and turns to Kaito, also standing there in just his pants. Before Kaito can get his shirt on, Shun lays his hand over Kaito’s right side, on his largest scar.
“Where did this one come from?” Shun asks quietly.
For a moment Kaito says nothing. Finally he mutters, “I jumped on top of an academia kid to keep him from carding an old man. Duel disk sliced me.”
Shun moves his hand to Kaito’s back, between his shoulder blades. He doesn’t miss the way Kaito shudders. “And this?”
“Skid marks from a particularly vicious attack.”
Shun blurts, “I have those, too.”
“Oh, yeah?” Kaito asks.
Shun takes his hand off Kaito’s back and turns to show him the long scar running down his spine. Kaito’s fingers ghost over the raised skin and Shun gulps.
“Who gave that to you?” Kaito asks.
Shun lets out a short laugh. “You did.”
Shun can feel Kaito flinch, and for a second he panics. He didn’t mean that to sound accusatory, he knows he’s probably given Kaito some scars as well, and he doesn’t blame Kaito for what happened. Before he can voice any of that, he feels a hot puff of air on his back and next thing he knows, Kaito’s lips are tracing his scar.
Shun gasps and Kaito asks, “Problem?” His lips still pressed to Shun’s back.
“N-no,” Shun stammers. His fingers curl into fists and he bites his lip.
Kaito chuckles and he puts his hands on Shun’s shoulders. “Chill out,” he breathes against the nape of Shun’s neck. “I’m not going to jump you.”
“I think you already did,” Shun retorts, but he loosens his hands.
“Oh trust me, you’ll know when I’m jumping you,” Kaito says.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Shun asks. He yelps as Kaito kicks the backs of his knees and he buckles, only to land in Kaito’s arms.
Kaito lifts him, bridal style, and smirks. “In case you were wondering, this is still not jumping you.”
Shun knows his face is red and he’s ready to snarl, but as quickly as he lifted Shun, Kaito drops him. Shun falls back on his own bed, and Kaito straddles his hips.
“I guess this is why you were so hesitant about sharing the shower?” Kaito asks, looking down at Shun’s bare chest.
Shun gulps again, his throat dry, and manages to nod. His chest is covered in smaller scars, but the biggest swath of damage comes from a burn that covers his abdomen. The skin there is raw pink and stretched tight.
“Is it healed?” Kaito asks.
Shun nods. “It was…I got hit with some boiling water, back when we were first attacked.” He’ll never forget the pain of the hot water searing his skin. Back when it was a free for all on both sides and they didn’t know how much worse it would get, if it could get worse than children flinging cups of boiling water at each other.
Kaito bows his head and presses his lip to the burn. Shun gasps and arches up, pushing against Kaito’s mouth.
“You don’t have to do that,” Shun pants, even as he hopes to god that Kaito doesn’t stop.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Kaito says. He closes his mouth around Shun’s skin and sucks softly at first, then harder when Shun buries his fingers in Kaito’s hair and anchors him in place. Shun’s chest has been sensitive to texture and pressure ever since his burn healed, and it’s never been…enjoyable, until now. Kaito moves his mouth across the burn, teasing Shun with his tongue and even his teeth, pressing them against the edges of the burn and gently nipping the untouched skin around it. Heat bubbles in Shun’s stomach, spreading to the tips of his fingers and down to his feet. He tugs at Kaito’s hair, pulling him back each time he moves away. He can feel Kaito smirking through his kisses, and Shun vows to repay him for this, somehow, once he regains control of his own motor functions.
Finally Kaito sits up and knocks Shun’s hands away when Shun tries to pull him back. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, and Shun sits up and grabs Kaito’s wrist. He wore his resistance scarf on this hand, and now Shun can see why. There’s a scar on his palm.
“Where did this come from?” Shun asks, still breathless.
Kaito’s eyes harden. “I grabbed a soldier’s duel disk and threw it aside.”
“Idiot,” Shun says softly. “Do you know how many nerve endings are in the palms?”
Kaito rolls his eyes. “I do now, genius.”
Shun pulls Kaito’s hand closer, and he kisses his palm. Shun smirks at the hitch in Kaito’s breath, two can play at this game. He presses his teeth along the edges of the raised skin and retraces the same path with his tongue. Kaito’s fingers shake.
Shun keeps hold of Kaito’s hand even as he presses on Kaito’s shoulder, pushing him back against the mattress. His fingers once again find the scar on Kaito’s ribs. “How did you survive this?” Shun asks. “I know it didn’t happen when I was with you. What the hell did you do when you were on your own?”
Kaito bites his lip. “I stitched myself up.”
Shun stares at him incredulously. “You truly are an idiot. What are we going to do with you?” He traces the scar with feather-light touches of his fingertips. “Big damn hero, alone in an alleyway stitching up his own wounds. You’ve got a lot of nerve, telling me to disinfect a splinter.”
Kaito rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m a hypocrite, what else is new?”
Kaito’s voice rises in pitch towards the end of his sentence, as Shun leans down and licks the path of the scar. He trails back down Kaito’s side, sucking hard on the raised skin. He can feel smaller scars where he guesses Kaito’s hand slipped while he sewed his skin back together. Kaito shakes his hand free of Shun’s and Shun feels Kaito’s fingers curl into his hair. Shun smirks, then sits up and focuses on another set of scars, what looks like claw marks that go across his chest.
“Did you fight a bear?” Shun asks.
Kaito chuckles. “A Death-Toy Scissors Bear.”
As far as Shun knows, Kaito has never actually dueled Sora, or anyone else who uses a Furnimal deck, but the image of Kaito taking the monster on in a fist fight is too funny.
Shun sits up and asks in English, “So you took him on with your bare hands, or bear hands?”
He doesn’t expect Kaito to laugh, but he does. In fact he’s not just laughing, he’s full on hysterical. He’s shoving Shun away so he can hold his stomach, he’s laughing so hard. Shun can’t help but laugh along, and it really wasn’t that funny but he can’t stop laughing.
Each time Shun and Kaito catch each other’s eye they start laughing all over again, and it’s a solid twenty minutes before they can catch their breath. Shun’s glad the walls are soundproof, because otherwise someone would probably have called security on them, they sounded like a pack of hyenas.
Shun rubs his eyes and sighs. “Oh my god, that was…”
“Cathartic?” Kaito offers.
Shun nods. “Yeah.” He touches Kaito’s three scars again. Just like this, this story telling and body love. “So where did these come from?”
Kaito reaches up and almost absent mindedly tucks a strand of hair behind Shun’s ear. “Zarc,” he answers quietly.
Shun realizes it then—their bodies, and the bodies of all the people affected by the war, are memorials to the violence they endured. And Shun and Kaito have the chance to make something beautiful out of that suffering. Shun crawls into Kaito’s lap and cups his face in his hands. He kisses Kaito, softly, no teasing. Kaito stiffens at first, probably out of surprise, then Shun feels him relax. When Shun sits back, Kaito looks up at him with an unreadable expression.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” Kaito says.
“Did you honestly anticipate anything that happened tonight?” Shun asks.
Kaito gives him a somewhat sheepish smile. “Okay, you got me there.”
Shun lets his hands trail down Kaito’s neck and rest on his shoulders. “Was it unwelcome, though?”
Kaito shakes his head. Shun kisses him again and Kaito’s hands find Shun’s hips, his fingers digging into Shun’s skin. Shun pushes Kaito back down on the bed and he kisses down Kaito’s neck. Kaito throat works as he gulps and Shun nips at the hollow of his throat before kissing down to those three scars. He kisses them gently, then closes his lips over the deepest one, the one in the middle, and he sucks hard. Kaito whimpers and Shun bites down. It’s going to leave a mark, he knows it, and he thinks it’s almost poetic. Like he’s setting a claim on Kaito’s scars.
When Shun sits up, breathing heavily, he looks down at the red mark on Kaito’s chest and pokes it. “Can scars bruise?” He asks.
“I guess we’ll find out,” Kaito answers. He pushes Shun’s shoulder. “Lay down.”
Shun arches an eyebrow at his bossy tone, but does as he’s told.
Kaito shakes his head. “On your stomach.”
Shun rolls onto his stomach and Kaito sits astride his thighs. Shun tenses and with one finger, Kaito traces the scar that runs down his spine.
Ah, now Shun knows what he’s doing. He relaxes. Kaito leans down and presses his face between Shun’s shoulder blades. He kisses softly, and Shun feels something fluttering against his skin, soft and ticklish, and Christ it’s Kaito’s eyelashes. He grips the quilt under him in his fists and breathes out through his nose. Kaito is going to kill him.
Before Shun can voice that out loud, Kaito turns on him. He sinks his teeth into the scar and Shun keens. A shiver runs down his back, from the base of his skull to his tailbone, and fire ignites in his stomach. He can remember the pain of skidding across the ground, but mixed in with that is the heat of Kaito’s mouth and press of his teeth on the sensitive scar. It’s a sensory overload, is this what it was like for Kaito? Shun would ask him if he could find the words. And Kaito doesn’t stop after leaving just one mark on Shun’s back, he continues down Shun’s spine, leaving his mark over the entirety of the scar.
“You’re impossible,” Shun chokes out.
“Only fair,” Kaito purrs, “Since I gave you this.”
Shun laughs, then gasps as Kaito bites him. By the time Kaito finishes, Shun can’t tell if he never wants to move again, or if he wants to give Kaito a taste of his own medicine. He decides on the latter, and when Kaito sits up, Shun twists around and pounces on him.
“So,” Shun says, still out of breath as he traces his hands down Kaito’s chest, “How many of these did I give you?”
Kaito smirks. “You’ll never get that information out of me.”
Shun takes Kaito hands in his own and kisses both his palms. Then he seizes Kaito’s wrists and pins them above his head. “Well then, I’ll just have to mark all of them, won’t I?” he asks sweetly.
Kaito’s eyes widen. “You’d be here all night,” he laughs, like he doesn’t think Shun is serious.
Shun is dead serious. “Guess we’ll be taking tomorrow off, then.”
Kaito opens his mouth. Whatever he was about to say turns into a shout of surprise as Shun sucks hard on one of his scars. Once again, Shun is so, so glad their rooms are soundproofed.
Shun wakes up when he nearly rolls off the edge of the bed. One thing about dorm beds—they were not made for two. He and Kaito aren’t exactly small either, so it took a while for them to get comfortable when they finally stopped trying to out-hickey each other. When Shun fell asleep he had both his legs wrapped around Kaito’s thighs, and his head pressed under Kaito’s chin. Somehow during the night Kaito ended up spooning him and Shun is pressed dangerously close to the edge of the bed.
“OYE!” Shun shouts, jerking back. He elbows some fleshy part of Kaito’s body and Kaito groans and scoots away from him.
“Ouch,” Kaito whines.
“Quit trying to take over my bed,” Shun says crossly, scooting away from the edge of the bed and back against Kaito’s chest. Kaito’s really freaking warm, it’s kind of gross. Shun grumbles and burrows his face in his pillow. “Should’ve made you sleep alone.”
Kaito chuckles. “If I remember correctly, sleeping together was your idea.”
“Don’t say it like that,” Shun snaps, feeling his face heat up. They slept, that was it, they didn’t sleep together.
Kaito presses his mouth to Shun’s shoulder. “You’re the one who said I could say here.”
Shun gulps and shivers. He wonders what he looks like, what Kaito looks like. He sits up and tosses the blankets off, but there’s not enough light. He flick on the lamp and Kaito groans.
“Too early,” Kaito whines, covering his eyes.
Shun stares wide-eyed at Kaito’s chest. “Holy shit.”
“What?” Kaito asks groggily.
“I mauled you.”
Kaito finally opens his eyes and he looks over Shun’s chest. “Oh yeah? I mauled you too.”
Shun looks down at himself. “Jesus!” He’s covered in bruises, red, blue, and purple. “I look like…like tie-dye!”
“I thought you looked more like a blueberry pie,” Kaito mutters.
Shun grabs his pillow and smacks Kaito in the face with it. “Perv!”
Kaito sits up, wraps his arms around Shun, and pulls him back down. He wrestles Shun underneath him and whispers into Shun’s hair, “That’s not what you said last night.”
Shun can tell his face is on fire. He digs his fingers under Kaito’s arms and Kaito yelps in his ear. Shun pokes Kaito’s stomach and Kaito writhes away from him, hitting the wall.
“Ouch,” Kaito says pitifully.
“Shut up,” Shun says.
Kaito pouts up at him. “You haven’t even seen your back yet. Do I need to like, move to another country so you don’t kill me?”
“I’m not gonna kill you,” Shun mutters.
“Good,” Kaito says smugly, “Because I would fight back and you would lose.”
“Why would I lose?”
“I’ve beaten you sooo many times—MMPH!”
Shun pounces on Kaito and claps a hand over his mouth. Shun leans down and looks Kaito in the eye.
“Keep talking like that,” Shun dares, his voice low. He’s so close his lips brush the back of his own hand. If it weren’t for the fact that his hand is covering Kaito’s mouth, they would be kissing. “See what happens.”
Shun can feel Kaito gulp and he removes his hand. He kisses Kaito gently and then sits up. “So,” Shun says casually, “What now?”
Kaito gives himself a little shake. “Um…breakfast?”
Shun was thinking more long-term, but breakfast does sound good. He nods and holds out his hand, and he helps Kaito up. They get dressed, facing away from each other, and it’s almost awkward. Shun grabs his keys and reaches for the door, but Kaito grabs his shoulder and turns him around. Shun is confused, then Kaito kisses him.
“Look,” Kaito mutters, “It’s probably not a good time right now but…maybe in a few days or weeks, we could…I don’t know, go out for dinner or something? If any restaurants are open.”
Shun grins at him. “Sounds like fun.”
Perhaps mauling each other isn’t a conventional start to a relationship, but Kaito and Shun have never exactly been conventional.