On The Smallest Details.

Shibuya blinks, confused, when he sees the delicate chain that's glistening over his neck and leans forward real close, close enough that not only he feels his breath on his neck but Bielefeld's arms snatch around his neck and pull him back, half chocking him, calling him cheater. "Wait! Wolfram! 's not like tha-aaaat!"

Ken grins, tucking in back the cross inside his shirt, patting where it rest almost without a thought, waddling out of the pond and accepting the offered towel.

If he's lucky, Shibuya will forget to ask and he won't have to go on and say that he also has a lucky charm: he's been trying to get him to throw away those awful socks of him and he's not about to be defeated by something like that.

-...-

"May I say, that's not really your style, Sage?"

Ken smiles at the voice, leaning his head backwards to see Yozak coming in already in his costume for the party, wearing a light violet dress that makes his eyes even bluer and his lipstick even redder.

"Meaning the uniform?" He asks, the jacket still open as he dealed with trying to put on the boots. He accepts Yozak's kiss with a grin, knowing better than to run a hand through Yozak's hair even if he wants to, contenting himself by cupping his hand just below Yozak's jaw.

"That, too," Yozak admits, leaning against the table before reaching with one gloved hand for the chain around his neck, tugging a little. "But I was talking about this, actually. "

His eyes close as he smiles. "Just a lucky charm."

Yozak stays quiet for a few moments, cocking his head to the side as he lets go of his cross and Ken just moves to button up his jacket. Once it's done, the spy speaks again, his voice carefully vacant of anything but mild concern.

"It's something important, isn't it?"

"It belonged to my mother. As I said, it's just a lucky charm." Ken sighs, pushing his glasses up with his finger before he smiles. Talking about his mother is something that never fails to make him feel vulnerable, as if he was a seven years old again and he can't say is a feeling he appreciates. There are things that, no matter how old you are or how many lives you've lived are always hard. "Now, shall we go? We should go and eat something before anything else happens."

Yozak doesn't put more pressure on his words. He giggles like a woman, canting a hip and batting long, curled eyelashes to him, accepting his offered arm.

"Why, Sage; you really do know how to woe a lady."

Ken nods, opening the door for them both. "Well, I do try."

-...-

The only one actually surprised when the assassins appear is Yuuri, who splutters as his fiancé and Weller push him down and away from harm, swords drawn out. At least the ambassador from the Greenlands seems as surprised as Yuuri, which means that, most likely, it's a trap for both of the kingdoms and they won't have to deal with so many diplomatic consequences.

"Hey, you won't hear me complain about it," Yozak grins, shrugging, opening the slit of his violet gown to bring out some knives, keeping him ducking. "Without stunts like these, I'd be without a job in no time."

"And that'd be something we'd all regret," Ken agrees before he yelps, ducking again as a flying arrow just fails short of giving him a new haircut.

"Time to move on, Sage!" Yozak adds, throwing some knives and pushing the table away, an arm wrapped around his waist and Ken would be kind of annoyed by the easy way that Yozak carries him like a bag where not such a dire situation.

He does scramble to his feet, though, trying to take notice of where Shibuya is, but he seems to be trying to protect the Ambassador and her husband, who seem to be taking the blunt of the attack. Ken sighs in relief as Shibuya's maryoku fills the place, knowing that now is just a thing of minutes before it's all over.

He's almost allowing himself to relax when Weller screams.

"Watch out!"

Then Yozak is shouting his name, too, but he can't do a thing because there's an arrow flying straight to his chest.

"KEN!"

-...-

"Ken!" A soft laugh and warm gray eyes look at him, lifting him up, the chain glistening and the silver cross resting below his mother's breast bones. "Did you have fun today at school?"

"Uh-huh!"He nods, arms around her neck for a moment before she puts him down. Ken still clings to his hand, looking at her. "I got a 100 on my test!"

"Really?" His mother squeezed his hand, her smiling face beaming. "I'm so proud of you!"

Her smile is so wide and she's so happy that Ken almost doesn't hear the screech of a car's breaks failing, or of his mother wrapping arms around him, taking the impact instead.

-...-

"And should you be out of bed?"

Ken grins, doing his best to look as innocent as he can. Yozak is smiling but he still looks worried. He tries not to think of the bruise over his chest and the bandages around it and instead he shrugs carefully.

"I'm supposed to be resting... and I am! But a little sun is needed!"

"Man, and here I thought that you'd like a sponge bath," Yozak says, shaking his head.

There's a thousand questions in the silence that follows, and Ken isn't sure he's ready to answer any of them if they were actually said, so instead he laughs, looking back to his book.

"Told you it was my lucky charm, didn't I?"

"Better an old thing than your own neck, that's what I always say, Sage."

He hears when Yozak sits down by his side which isn't unwelcome, but he still keeps his eyes focused on the book, at least until he's sure he won't embarrass himself. Because Yozak is right, of course and still.

He blinks when a square of wood with rounded corners is set on the pages of his book, a long, thin tail of leather coiling over a small hole. Ken blinks again as he looks at Yozak, cocking his head to the side, confused.

"Well..." Yozak drawls, a hand behind his head. Ken notices that he's focusing a lot not on him, which almost makes him seem embarrassed. "Since you lost your lucky charm and all, thought that you might need a new one. Even if it's not the same."

The carved knot in the wood is meant for protection and good fortune, an old belief that comes from even before the Original King. Ken's thumb brushes the soft, polished wood before he smiles to Yozak.

"I would've thought that your lucky charm were your high heels, Yozak."

Yozak laughs, leaning back ons his hands, his arm and shoulder brushing his.

"They are," he agrees before winking at him. "But you'll need more than just your cute smile for me to share those, Sage."

Ken laughs too, thinking that it sounds like a good challenge before he moves to put on the thin leather strip around his neck, letting the wood thumb a little bellow his collarbone.