lifeline
Hiyori has a visitor, in the nighttime.
He only comes to her at night, the boy-god with the haunted eyes. He comes to her blood-splattered and exhausted, with a heaviness that Hiyori longs to take away.
"Why did you save me?" he asks.
She had pushed him out of the way of a rampaging horse. She had been trampled and spent weeks covered with aches and bruises.
"Why...? Because it was right thing to do."
"Right," he scoffs.
But that night he worships her. His hands tremble as he peels away her yukata and Hiyori wonders if he's ever done this before and then she's not wondering anything at all because — oh. He licks her until she's raw on the inside, and so sensitive each stroke of his tongue brings tears to her eyes.
When she sinks to her knees afterwards to return the favor his smile fades. Gently, he lifts her back to her feet.
"No. You should never kneel before me."
She wakes up to a hand stroking her cheek. It's warm and rough and calloused. She blinks her eyes open to find Yato staring at her with an expression so full of longing it makes her heart twist.
"Yato," she whispers. She scooches over, silently inviting him, not daring to put her thoughts into words.
His lips press against hers gently before he slides in next to her. Her hands intertwine in his hair and she holds him to her chest so that he can hear her heartbeat.
"So I guess I'm not even going to get a thank you?"
The boy looks up, startled.
"Wait...you remember me?"
"Of course I remember you! I still have bruises from back then. It was only a couple days ago."
He looks at her with a strange expression on his face. "Thank you," he says finally.
There's an awkward silence.
"Well? So I'm not even going to know the name of the person I saved?"
His lips curve into a slight smile and it sort of takes her breath away.
"It's Yato."
She wakes up to find Yato standing in her room. Strangely it doesn't scare her to see an almost complete stranger in her room in the middle of the night covered in blood. Maybe it should but Hiyori knows Yato would never hurt her.
"I'm sorry," he chokes out. "I didn't know where else to go."
"What's wrong?" she asks.
"I-I-I'm not—" his teeth grind against each other. "Never mind. It's nothing. This was a mistake."
He looks so despairing in that moment, so full of pain and Hiyori could never turn away someone who needs her help, not ever, so she does the only thing she can think to do to fix this.
She kisses him.
There's a second's hesitation but then he's kissing her back, fiercely. His lips are rough and chapped and the way his tongue drags across her's sends shivers down her spine. Somehow they end up on the bed with Yato pressing her down, kissing her so desperately, like this will save him. And she can tell how much he needs this, needs her, and part of her needs him too.
By the time they break apart they're both panting and Hiyori wonders if her face is as red as Yato's is.
"Stay with me," she says.
He's always gone in the morning.
A/N: So I see this as a kind of reincarnation for Hiyori but you can look at it as an AU or whatever. Also I've only watched the anime so may or may not be canon-compliant.