"Sorry about the wait."
She doesn't realize just how much she's missed him until he stands in front of her again, all cocky grin and rough voice and everything that is unmistakably Kyo.
Yuya's had every intention of yelling at him, scolding him for taking so long, but all she can do is run to him and throw herself into his arms. For the first time in three years, he holds her, and she's home.
"I love you," she whispers, her voice almost lost against the fabric of his kimono, hiccupping with restrained tears. "I missed you."
"Yeah, yeah," Kyo says, running his calloused fingers through her hair.
He doesn't return either statement, but that seems fueled less by dismissal and more by his discomfort with emotional display. Holding her like this is strange enough, she's not going to push him for any more.
Kyo is far from gifted when it comes to communication, but Yuya thinks he might actually mean that apology for keeping her waiting. For a few moments, she just listens to his heartbeat, feels the warm presence of him. He's here. He's alive. She's awake and everything.
Kyoshiro smiles and waves, and he's gone.
"Shit, three years," Kyo mutters. "I shoulda' walked faster."
"It's okay." Yuya's eyes drift shut, her arms tight around his waist. "I'm just… I'm so happy you're all right."
Bleeding out on a collapsing platform, screaming for her to run.
Yuya shudders. She doesn't want to think about that anymore. It's been behind her eyes for three years: the image of him in so much pain, and so desperate to keep her safe.
Kyo shakes his head with a little snort of a laugh.
"Please. I've walked off worse than that."
He's full of shit and still has an aching scar to prove it, but she needs to hear the lie. She probably knows he's full of shit, but it helps anyway. She breathes a little easier.
They wander for a while. It's interesting, almost like the earliest days except they don't really have an objective and Yuya doesn't experience nearly so many urges to shoot her companion. Three years have mellowed her some, but he is the greater factor.
Kyo is still quiet in public spaces, still intimidating to any stranger who dares look their way. Still, she must admit, an asshole to just about everyone he doesn't know. But Kyo reserves another side of himself for her – his hand on her leg under a table, his vibrant eyes always conscious of her location and wary for her safety. She isn't sure if he's making up for time away or if he's going to stay this protective.
"I'm fine, you know," she tells him one night, while preparing for bed at the latest inn. "There's nothing in this town I haven't been handling on my own for three years."
A shadow crosses Kyo's eyes, and Yuya wonders if she's said something wrong.
"Because you've always been so effective at defending yourself," he says, before falling back to lie down with his hands laced together behind his head.
"Excuse me?" Yuya snaps. "I was perfectly effective at defending myself before you showed up, and I've been perfectly effective at defending myself since the Mibu stopped interfering."
Kyo sighs.
"All right."
He doesn't sound convinced. Yuya makes a face and goes back to getting ready for bed. Despite her annoyance, she lies down next to him when she's done.
"Are you okay?" she asks quietly. Her fingers trace the line of his collarbone, over a knot where something must have broken it years ago.
Kyo raises an eyebrow.
"Am I okay? Who the fuck are you talking to?" he scoffs.
"Please, Kyo. Don't… don't hide from me anymore."
She leans her forehead against his chest and lets the steady beat of his heart calm her down. Kyo's fingers play through her hair, his other hand trailing down her back.
"I'm fine," he says. "Don't get all worked up."
Yuya looks up, and he kisses her. A low trick, maybe, but does it count as a trick if he's wanted to do it all night, since long before it occurred to him as a useful way to shut her up?
She's only kissed him once, and the memory does him no justice. Kyo is overwhelming, his hands tight on her hips as he licks into her mouth. Yuya can't quite remember what she was thinking, but she thinks it can't be all that important. She sort of whimpers into the kiss as his knee nudges her thighs apart, just hinting at what he can do to her. Her arms lock around his neck, heat pooling at her core. She doesn't think she's ever really wanted anyone before tonight.
"Never did get to show you how a real man feels," Kyo growls in her ear.
Yuya shivers. She yelled at him for that comment three years ago, but it's different now. His breath is hot on her throat and his thumbs are digging into her hipbones, and he can't be showing off because they're alone.
"Kyo," she breathes, and her voice hitches. She squirms as he nips at her neck. "Don't!"
He stops moving and his crimson gaze meets hers.
Do you want me to stop? he asks without words.
"Just… no marks where people could see," Yuya says, her cheeks flushing pink. "I… we can…"
She can't even finish the thought, and she's grateful that he doesn't need her to. He shifts onto his back. The new position feels odd, but not uncomfortable. His leg presses upward between hers, just barely touching her but desire coils tight in her belly regardless.
It just now occurs to Yuya how strange it is to see him in sleeping clothes. She's sure he didn't wear any before. He's shrugged out of the sleeves of his and is already making short work of hers, his rough hands slipping into her robe and making her quiver as they cup the curves of her ass. Her back arches involuntarily, and he pulls her up so she's straddling his hips and her face is level with his.
The tinge of pink in her cheeks blooms bright red at the sensation of his arousal hardening against her thigh, and at the incredibly embarrassing way her own body reacts with twitching muscles and waves of heat. She hides her face between his neck and shoulder, and she can just about feel his devilish grin.
Yuya lets her hands wander over his chest and abs, shyly at first but growing bolder. Kyo's muscles tense and shudder under her touch, and Yuya feels just a hint of pride as she realizes she's affecting him too. The flinch and growl when her fingers run down his sides aren't right, though, and Yuya freezes.
"Kyo?"
"Just don't touch that, I'm fine," Kyo mutters before bringing his lips back to hers and silencing any protest or concern she might come up with. Pain pulses in the scar between his right hip and ribs, but it will pass, it always does.
His left hand moves upward to cup her breast, and Yuya lets out a little cry as his mouth follows, tongue flicking at her nipple and sending a snap of pleasure through her nerves. At the same time, his other hand ghosts along her inner thigh and she has to stifle a louder cry with her wrist.
"Someone shoulda' fuckin warned me about you," Kyo murmurs against her soft skin, and his clever fingers just barely brush between her legs.
Yuya tries to say please, but the noise she makes isn't quite speech. Kyo looks at her, silently asking, and she barely has time to finish nodding before he pins her on her back.
Kyo's fingers are slender but when he pushes the second one into her, Yuya can't breathe. Her legs instinctively try to close and find his body still between them, and two fingers sliding in and out in a steady rhythm. The fact that he keeps it slow makes her crave his touch all the more.
She trembles, breathing fast and ragged, and she moans out loud as his thumb finds her clit and rubs in little circles while two digits spread and curl inside her. Yuya's hips jerk uncontrollably and her vision goes white and he's merciless, quickening the pace and wringing every last hint of pleasure from her until she's sobbing and her nails leave little crescents in his shoulders.
Kyo bites her collarbone and kisses the forming mark, grinning at her undignified squeal of surprise and the halfhearted slap aimed at his head. Yuya twines her fingers into his hair, pulls him closer, and kisses him. She never expected love to be so strange.
The first roll of her hips under his isn't intentional, she's just trying to shift into a more comfortable tangle of limbs. But when she hears Kyo's sharp breath and feels his cock twitch against her, she tries it again, very deliberately sliding her wet slit along his length. The feeling is unfamiliar and awkward and she's sure she'd be too shy to even try it if she weren't still giddy.
"Fuck," Kyo hisses through gritted teeth, firmly gripping her hips and grinding his own against her. Yuya gasps and her back arches off the sheets, which does something for him too judging by his expression.
"I love you," Yuya whispers against his throat. "Kyo, please…."
He kisses her, trying to communicate things he has no idea how to say. Kyo doesn't just love her, that doesn't feel like enough. In her voice, the words are enough to carry the meaning beyond them, but he doesn't trust himself to do that.
"Tell me if I'm hurting you," he murmurs. Yuya smiles, and he hooks his arms under her thighs.
Her body automatically tenses when she feels him, warm and hard against her slick center. His fingers are familiar, easier to take in, and she gradually relaxes under his skillful touch until his hand moves to her thigh again – his fingers wet from her and cool against her skin, she's sure it would embarrass her if he weren't so distracting.
He guides himself inside her, slow and careful but she's gasping, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Kyo kisses her neck, his hands firm but not tight on her thigh and waist. He waits. He can wait for her.
Yuya's head falls back against the pillow, feeling her entire body react to the incredibly strange sensation of him pressing against her insides, hot and thick and hard in a way his fingers never could have prepared her for. She unconsciously twitches, tightens around him and she hears a quiet groan in his low voice. Her arms find their way around his neck again.
"I'm okay," Yuya breathes.
He's slower and gentler with her than she ever thought he could be, but every time he leaves her almost empty she pleads with him for more, and every time he grins against her throat and thrusts back in she damn near screams. The maddening, perfect friction is intoxicating, the drag of his cock against her oversensitive nerves sending her right out of her mind.
"F… faster, please," she begs, because what he's doing now is too much but it's still not enough, she needs him.
Kyo grabs her hips and drives into her, picking up the pace and just a touch more force now that she's adjusted. She cries out softly each time he rolls his hips forward, and he feels her arch and writhe underneath him. She's perfect. He never thought this shit was real.
He pins her up against the wall behind the bed, changing the angle and feeling her shiver all over. He knows she's close by the way the tight heat of her twitches around him, and he reaches between them to help her over the edge. Yuya whimpers into a kiss as her toes curl and she crosses her ankles behind his waist. He can't stop – she doesn't want him to – and when he finally finds that edge himself, he sighs her name.
End
I noticed an unfortunate trend of Kyo being insulting and controlling in his relationship with Yuya even post-series, and I wanted to explore his development while still trying to keep him in character. He certainly is emotionally incompetent, but he's significantly matured by the end and she is very clearly important to him.