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Gojoun heard the news from the rumor mill, not the official channels owing, he supposed, to the fact he’d never formally officiated their engagement. It hadn’t really occurred to him. They’d fallen so easily, so comfortably into each other it seemed like they’d always been together and would be.
Seiko had fallen in the Arancar attack. Severely wounded, possibly crippled. Possibly dying.
It struck him like a lightening bolt, he lost her. Before he ever had her he lost her.
Immediately he petitioned his Captain for emergency family leave, then had to appeal for simply Emergency leave. Three weeks passed before he was able to get a full weekend away from the clean up detail to visit her in Fourth and he made sure he was dressed well, with flowers and a book from his grandfather’s library.
“…Seeing who?”
“Seiko. Seiko? She’s… She was hurt, in the attack. I’m Hassoko Gojoun, her fiance.”
“…Seiko. Right. Down the hall last door on the left.”
He couldn’t interpret the look the the unseated secretary gave him, possibly pity after her condition. He steeled himself for the worst.
She lay like a broken angel, hair carefully arranged outward like a halo, bandages swathing her arm, chest, and trailing below the thick blankets festooned with pillows around her. So enthralled was he, it took a number of heartbeats before he realized she was bracketed on both sides by half dressed and glaring males.
Quickly he scoured his dusty memories for the names of her brothers, and any identifying characteristics. Neither were giving him a sunny smile, or a lecture on manners, or…
“Er… Asihaldo and Haijida?” He scrambled.
“Ajibaldo.”
“Hakaida.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
He really should have formalized their engagement when he first decided he was in love. It had just seemed like a huge step, a momentous step, something to be undertaken together with utmost romance and thought… And there was never the perfect moment to ask her when they met on their dates, the conversations always flowing so naturally on some other path, comfortably familiar…
“Gojoun. Hassoko Gojoun.” He tried not to stammer under their death glares.
The dark haired one gave the other a questioning look… Ah! Aji had the dark hair. They’d spoken over each other he hadn’t been sure…
“The book geek.”
“Oh.”
Gojoun felt his eye twitch and took a deep breath. These were her brothers. This was probably some sort of hazing. She had told him plenty about both of them even if his memory wasn’t the greatest for people as opposed to architects. Aji was a violent brute from 11th and Kada was a more refined kind of brute from Fifth.
“I’m here to see Seiko. We’re engaged.” he felt bold and powerful saying it, though it wasn’t something they’d actually discussed… It felt like saying the words meant that she had to be fine, she had to wake up and smile softly at him and ask if he’d made any headway on that kido for rebuilding spirit particle structures…
Whatever reaction he was expecting from his declaration, it wasn’t the long drawn out silence and feral smiles. Whatever sort of hazing he had to go through however was fine, he was determined! He loved Seiko, and he would make her his wife and they would be happy no matter her physical condition, or family status!
“Oy. Psycho. You’re gonna marry this dipshit?” Aji asked of the sleeping angel “Gonna give up all your plans and schemes and be a little nice wife?”
“It’s hardly gentlemanly to declare something like that when the other person can’t argue.” Hakaida mused, hand stroking through long silky brown hair in a way Gojoun had never been brave enough for. “There’s been cases of land and property disputes over just such a thing, in fact it’s illegal to formally arrange a marriage between an able bodied personage and a victim unable to decline owing to poor health.”
Gojoun cast back to his law classes, nibbling at his lip absentmindedly. He couldn’t remember the exact wording but he feared Hakaida might be right on the spirit if not the sentence. Still! If Seiko woke up she would of course agree! And if she didn’t…
“Seiko and I are destined to be, ours is a love stronger than mere social and physical boundaries. When she wakes up she will tell you herself. Until then I will be leaving these for her, and… and attending to her at every opportunity.” Gojoun thrust the flowers at them like a weapon.
“Every opportunity? This is the first time you’ve shown up! Seiko’s been down for three weeks! What the hell were you waiting for, an invitation?” Aji snorted and curled closer to Seiko, one arm wrapping around her in a possessive grasp. Gojoun hadn’t gotten a real hug yet, but that would have been so forward of him to expect… they brushed hands on occasion.
“He’s an unseated no-one from Second. He was probably afraid to come.” Hakaida murmured.
“I had other duties to perform that Seiko wouldn’t have appreciated me abandoning!” Gojoun tried to defend himself only to be drowned out by Aji’s incredulous snort. He’d known when he first met her, surrounded by falling maple leaves, reading a book on the late constructions of feudal villages in the Blue Dragon Valley that she was beyond a normal girl. The twin feathers on her blade only enforced it. He wasn’t one to be intimidated by a strong woman! So what if she was Seated Fifth in Fourth and he was still struggling to learn his sword’s name? He came from a noble house, he had a long time to catch up!
“Unseated?! Some unseated rat wants to chain down my baby brother? Fuck that! Seiko deserves no less than fucking Second Seat!”
“I thought you were going for Captain?”
“Well yeah but that’s nothing to do with Seiko! I’m just that good!”
“Of course Mister Sixth Seat.”
“Oh fuck you ‘I got Third by technicality.'”
“I still earned it.”
Gojoun picked at his ear a few minutes and then raised his hand and cleared his throat. “Excuse me. Little brother?”
They stopped trying to punch each other over Seiko’s sleeping body and gave him an unimpressed look.
“Seiko. Psycho Seiko. Our little brother. Who the fuck did you think you were propositioning asshole? What… you didn’t know he had a dick?!”