Butterfly Wings
Words: 6,860
Pairing: Akashi Seijuurou/Kuroko Tetsuya
Beta: None
Warnings: None
The hallway was frigid when he stepped out of his bedroom. He was barefoot, and the low temperature of the flooring was severe enough to sting his skin, but he bore with it. Silently, he padded down the stairs and into the kitchen, heading straight to the tap with no preamble. He was so thirsty he didn't even bother finding a glass and just drank like that, mouth pressed to the clear stream of water pouring out steadily.
Eventually, when he had his fill, he closed he tap and wiped his mouth. He stood still for a while. It was completely silent here - here being far enough from the nearest city that no cars passed this way except for the rare truck driver or lost traveller, and far enough that no streetlights had been built to light the road. He thought he should probably go back to bed, but he was wide awake now, alert despite the barely three hours of sleep he'd gotten. He'd regret this decision come morning, he knew, but he wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway, even if he did go back to bed.
It was even colder outside when he left the house, and it looked like it might snow soon. It was beautiful out despite the weather, he thought, dark branches glittering with droplets of ice, the white grass crunching beneath his every step.
As he walked, he tried to remember what had roused him from his slumber. He'd been dreaming, he knew that, and he also knew he'd had this dream before, feeling undeniably anxious when he woke every time as if there was work due and a speedily approaching deadline.
But he also remembered an aching fondness and... and happiness of a sort that was peaceful and fulfilling. That was all, just the faint, lingering emotions and no clue as to what actually occurred in his night-time visions. He would try to disregard them, and he should - after all, they were just dreams - but they held a strange importance to them that stopped him from dismissing them so easily.
He looked up as he walked, realising distantly that the moon was full. It was usually comforting to him, but tonight when he looked up at it he thought it held a strange reddish tinge to it, the gentle light it usually bestowed upon him tainted somehow. It didn't calm him down anymore, just intensified the feeling of urgency and left a faint aftertaste of unease.
He was silent on the way back up the little hill he lived on too, watching his breath fog in the cold air of the early morning with a strange focus. He hadn't spoken in so long, he thought spontaneously. In fact, he couldn't even remember the last time he'd spoken out loud instead of just to himself, in his head. The words were there, in his head, and if he thought about it his mouth and tongue would move almost automatically into the right positions, so it was obvious he knew how, but he hadn't. He tried it now, as he re-entered the lightening house.
"My name is Tetsuya." His voice was loud in the silence, almost blasphemous, but it felt strangely invigorating to break it, so he tried again.
"I am male. I-" and here he stopped. There was a mirror in the hallway, in which Tetsuya stared at his face as he unwound the bright red scarf around his neck. What did he know about this person in the reflection? About himself? He didn't know how old he was, how long he'd been here, where he came from. He knew Japanese, he could write and read but...
He sighed, hanging up his scarf and removed his dark coat to hang up alongside it. He'd been here for about two months now, spending each day alone and in silence, and he didn't know of anything before that.
{He was desperate and angry and so, so tired. "For the last time, do something!" he shouted. "Control them! Your people are wreaking havoc everywhere they go!"
The man (or was he a man?) he was talking to didn't turn around, but laughed coldly. "You care too much," he said simply, moving another piece on the shogi board on the table before him.
"They're killing people, Sei. Innocent people. And it is so pointless."
"Isn't it?" The man turned his head to the side now so Tetsuya could see his face in sharp profile, a bright red eye focusing on him and a white, pointed ear peeking out from amongst tufts of matching red hair. His pupil was oddly slitted, like a cat's or, Tetsuya thought now, perhaps a demon's.
"We are not kind, my dear," he said, turning back to his game. "We are dark and merciless and I must confess that I care not for the lives of a few pesky mortals." His tone had turned scathing by the end of his statement, his broad shoulders tightening as if he was restraining incredulous, unkind laughter.
Tetsuya remained silent, standing lost and angry and dizzy with demand and want. He'd tried for so long, but Seijuurou wouldn't listen. He wouldn't stop the carnage, called Tetsuya soft for wanting it to cease as if wanting peace made him weak, but the reality was and always would be that if he wouldn't control his court, then Tetsuya was left with no choice but control it for him.
"I..." he started, and trailed off. Seijuurou made and enquiring noise, encouraging him to continue. "Is that your final word, Seijuurou?" he asked softly. His eyes remained firmly on those broad shoulders and the beautiful wings that rose from them as the man laughed.
"Finally, Tetsuya, you understand," he replied, moving yet another piece after much deliberation. His wings fluttered slightly at the movement, and he was reminded oddly of a butterfly, though Seijuurou was not nearly so delicate.
"Yes, I suppose I do," he whispered, smiling sadly. He slipped out of the room without waiting for a reply, though he knew there was none that would've been offered had he stayed..}
He blinked as he remembered himself, and looked down at the batter he was stirring. He attempted to recall what he'd just been thinking, but failed. Tetsuya gasped as he realised how late it'd gotten, and put the whisk down next to the bowl, leaning back against the table and staring out of the window.
Where had the day gone? He'd gotten a sudden taste for cake and then forgotten what he was doing, stirring the mixture on automatic as his mind wandered. He was so out of it, lost in thoughts even he wasn't privy to, losing hours at a time. There was something wrong with him, he knew, but he didn't know what it was, or how to fix it. And there was another thing...
He could do things. Things that people shouldn't be able to do. Like understanding what birds were saying or feeling emotions from trees of all things and it scared him. He wasn't normal, and he couldn't remember anything and then he thought, maybe he'd isolated himself on purpose? Maybe he'd known he wouldn't be accepted in society, or needed to hide to keep himself safe from a possible threat, so he put himself here. But it seemed so lonely - nobody to talk to, no human contact, nothing. All he had were strange dreams he never remembered when morning came and a pervading, invasive sense of urgency.
He did remember last night's dream though. Or, at least, something from it. He recalled a male voice, calling his name. A voice that seemed incredibly familiar, like it was a part of him, but that was all. No face, no sense of understanding, and perhaps, he wondered idly, he was going crazy. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities.
He'd taken up a new hobby lately. He'd been bored out of his mind, so he'd looked through some boxes he'd found in the closet in the spare room and found a whole range of art supplies - paints, sketchbooks, canvases. He didn't even know if he could draw, but he'd decided to try his hand at sketching some of the wildlife around his (was it his?) house and found, surprisingly, that it felt almost natural. He wasn't bad at it at all, and he found himself passing hours before realising the time.
It was something to distract him from the dreams and the monotony and helped stave off the loneliness, and it eased his frustration somewhat. To be honest, at this point he'd take what he could get.
{For as long as he could remember, Seijuurou had hated humans - or rather, he'd just disliked them at first, but now he actually loathed them with all his heart, and if you asked him it was their own damn fault. They had hurt him, hurt his people, hurt Tetsuya, and though he could forgive them for their ignorance and pointless hate, Seijuurou never could. Tetsuya should have known, should have foreseen that keeping all that negativity bottled up inside was never going to end well.
Seijuurou pretended not to care, to have no desire for any kind of vengeance and perhaps he didn't, but the hate and anger would only have grown, poisoned his mind as it had until not even Tetsuya could turn him away from the compulsion it presented to him and it wasn't even his fault! It was in his nature, the desire for violent means, the drive towards an end. Seijuurou was dark, he embodied war and bloodshed and death and Tetsuya knew that, loved him anyway, and yet still he hadn't expected this.
They were always meant to be opposites, light and dark in balance. Both were necessary - order and disorder, life and death, pleasure and pain - and both of them understood that, and when the world was brought out of balance, they needed to restore it. That was their job, their purpose. It was good like that.
Until Seijuurou lost control.
And Tetsuya begged and demanded and raged, and Seijuurou did nothing, and he should have known. They both should have known that the result could only have been this.
Seijuurou should have know that Tetsuya would do anything.}
It was a beautiful day out when it happened. The sun was large and bright, and the skies a clear blue, but it wasn't too warm for comfort. In fact, it was still a little chilly as winter died out into spring and brought with it new life.
He was walking down to the woods about a mile from the house, to a stream there that he had grown to like, when he saw a figure approaching from the corner of his eye.
He stopped completely and turned to stare at the man, who climbed up the hill steadily with eyes on Tetsuya in a clear message to wait for him. The man was tall, Tetsuya could tell even from up here - taller than him, and his hair gleamed a bright yellow under the sun. As he came closer, Tetsuya supposed that he had the kind of face everybody could agree on as being handsome - delicate features, defined bone structure, and a shiny white smile.
"Hello," he greeted politely once the stranger was within earshot.
"Hey!" Tetsuya winced at the loud, cheerful volume of the man's voice. His ears had become a little sensitive after spending so long in relative silence, but even so he'd bet anybody would find that voice grating on them after a while.
He coughed. "Who are you?" he asked awkwardly, clutching at the straps of his canvas bag. The man's smile dimmed a little.
"Oh, right," he mumbled to himself, then, louder, replied, "Ryouta."
"Right," Tetsuya frowned at the lack of a surname, then realised with a flash of embarrassment that he didn't even remember his own. "Tetsuya," he said finally, uncomfortably, adding "pleased to meet you," just to be polite.
The man, Ryouta, grinned in response as if he noticed nothing amiss. "Likewise."
Tetsuya nodded shyly. Ryouta still stared at him, smile bright as his hair in the sun, smile sharp in a way that made Tetsuya want to take a step back.
"I, I was just..." he gestured at the woods down the hills vaguely, and Ryouta nodded vigorously.
"Yes, of course!" he exclaimed, "I'll accompany you!"
"No, thank you," Tetsuya said immediately, only realising what that must've sounded like after the words were out of his mouth. He flushed, and asked, "you were looking for me?" just to distract from any offence his words might've caused
Ryouta shifted in his feet. "I suppose," he replied, a little sheepishly. "I was just curious."
"About?"
"Oh, you know," the blond man waved his hand in the air vaguely. "Who lived here. If anyone lived here. There were rumours," he explained, smile still fixed in place. Tetsuya felt uneasy.
"I see," he said, fidgeting. He did not see.
The man nodded. "Yeah, its supposed to be haunted, you know."
With every word Ryouta said, Tetsuya's unease grew. He didn't like this person at all, and he also didn't believe him. Ryouta seemed so happy it felt fake, and Tetsuya felt like he could stab a person in the back with the same smile still pasted across his face.
"You should go," he said suddenly, not even caring how insolent he must sound, and turned to go back to the house. He felt too open out here, too exposed. He would feel a lot safer inside and away from this stranger.
"Aaah, don't go," Ryouta whined, sounding ridiculously amused, but Tetsuya didn't look back as he started walking back home, abandoning any plans.
"Don't you want to remember?" the man called out in a sly voice. Tetsuya couldn't help himself, he stopped dead in his tracks.
"I'm sorry?"
"You can't remember anything, right? I can help you."
And he wanted to, God how he wanted to. But then he made the mistake of looking back, and Ryouta didn't look like Ryouta anymore. His hazel eyes were glowing a feral yellow, his straight white smile fanged, and in that split second Tetsuya could swear he saw wings behind Ryouta unlike any he'd ever seen before - black with yellow veins running through them and a sickly green tinge to the edges, and he ran. He ran without stopping or looking back until he slammed the front door shut and leaned against it, panting with exertion.
'What was happening?' he asked himself, but there was no answer forthcoming.
The only thing he could think of were those wings, and how closely they resembled that of a butterfly.
{The men before him were of mixed allegiance. There were some of his court, a couple of Seijuurou's, and the rest were those who belonged to neither and freely wandered to wherever fate took them. He liked some, disliked other, but none of that mattered now. They were all here for one reason, and Tetsuya knew they would all help him, willing or unwilling.
"This situation is getting out of hand," he said, sitting tall and authoritatively. "Something must be done."
"Our king refuses to stop it," a man with dark skin and even darker hair said. "We like it this way." His blonde companion nodded in agreement, leaning back on hands braced against the wall behind him.
"I know," Tetsuya said, "and I don't care. What must be done, must be done."
"You always were a strange one," the blonde man called out. "But what would you do, when even you cannot change our king's mind?"
"Silence, impudent beast," another man in spectacles snapped. He then turned to Tetsuya. "Your highness, the only way to force a stop to this havoc would be to forcefully close the bridge between the worlds. There is no other way."
"You jest," the only female in the room turned to glare at him. "Do you know what that would require, Shintarou?" she demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
"Of course I do, Satsuki," the bespectacled man replied, frowning heavily as if the mere idea of him not knowing something was abhorrent to him.
"Then you know why it isn't possible," the first man intersected, folding muscled arms across his broad chest. "The process requires both royals. Didn't you hear me say Seijuurou-sama refuses to cooperate?"
"Oh, but there's another way, Daiki-cchi," the blond told him, smiling slyly. "Isn't there, your highness."
"Yes there is, Ryouta." Tetsuya replied, frowning. "Which is why you're all here."
Satsuki gasped, pink eyes wide. "Surely you don't mean-"
"I do," Tetsuya interrupted. He smiled kindly at her. "I don't exactly have a choice. You all will perform the ceremony, I will act as vessel."
"But if you told him this was your solution then he would stop, surely?" Satsuki insisted. "You are infinitely more important to him than even his anger."
"But he wouldn't stop, would he," Daiki replied in his stead. It wasn't a question.
Tetsuya shook his head anyway. "No, he'd probably lock me up somewhere or something along those lines. It wouldn't hold me forever, but Seijuurou works fast." He looked them all in the eye now, one by one, impressing the severity of his next words. "Which is why," he said, "Seijuurou won't find out until it is done."
"He would have our heads," Shintarou mumbled, bandaged fingers tightening against the edge of the table.
Ryouta laughed. "Oh, but we don't have a choice either," he said, picking nonchalantly at his nails.
"You're invoking the old magic," the only one of them who'd remained silent this whole time said quietly.
Tetsuya smiled. "Yes, Atsushi, I am," he replied. The man didn't seem angry, merely frowned at him. Tetsuya's smile turned sad.
"I'm sorry, all of you, for leaving you. But you see why it must be done. The balance is being tipped too far. All of this destruction must stop lest the world die, and I'm the only one who can come back from the change, or even survive it."
Satsuki shook he head violently, tears in her eyes. "And what of us? What of your subjects?" she demanded. Daiki reached to put an arm around her, but she shook it off angrily, not sparing a glance for her childhood friend.
"I trust in you and Shintarou to take care of matters in my stead," he replied. "Don't look so sad, Satsuki. This isn't forever. I'll be back before you know it."
He motioned with his hand as he stood, and they all stood with him as he lead them into an adjoining room already prepared for the spell.
Without pausing, he walked straight to the centre of the drawn circle in the middle of the room. "Join hands," he called out, and they did so, forming a ring about him. He closed his eyes, whispered something under his breath and took a knife from his belt. He made a cut on his forearm, just deep enough to bleed steadily and then dripped the red liquid onto the floor in front of him.
Immediately, there was light, and then the chanting began and it hurt, oh it hurt so much he thought he would rather die than experience another second of this, but he didn't let himself scream - only dropped onto the floor and listened dazedly as the chanting grow louder and louder, and his eyes slipped closed.
"I love you," he whispered, but this time, Seijuurou was not there to answer him.}
His powers, if that was indeed what they were, grew stronger with every day that passed. Then again, perhaps it wasn't that he was becoming stronger, but that he just grew more and more used to them with time. Either way, he felt he understood them more now. When he focused, he could sense the emotions and wellbeing of things around him, sense the life itself flowing through the very air. The birds chattered inanely, and though they sometimes replied to his questions they were at heart flighty creatures, uninterested in mundane conversation and the everyday problems of people.
He also remembered more of his dreams, though nothing of his memory. The man in he met in his sleep had hair like fire and eyes of gold and blood, and he was both terrifying and beautiful all at once. When he called out to him, he spoke Tetsuya's name like a lover, but never once came closer or let them touch, even by accident. They were sitting sometimes, other times standing, but he always said the same things.
"Come back, Tetsuya," he would say, pleading without admitting he was pleading. "Come back home. Haven't you punished me enough, dear?"
And Tetsuya would shake his head and smile and say, "no, not yet. Just a little longer, my love."
He woke up confused, every time. It felt so natural, in his dreams, to call the man by such endearments and be called such in turn, but he didn't even remember his name, or even know if the man actually existed at all. He may have been losing his mind, for all he knew. He probably was.
As for the man he'd met in the meadow that day - Ryouta, he didn't see him again, and he was admittedly glad for it. He wanted to remember whatever he'd forgotten quite desperately, but not to the extent of putting himself in harm's way, and that man had not being what he had claimed to be. In fact, Tetsuya doubted that he'd even been human, and in any case he'd been suspicious regardless.
Then again, he'd known Tetsuya - or known the other Tetsuya, the one he couldn't remember being. And as time passed, Tetsuya was becoming less and less sure that he was even a human himself.
{"Seijuurou," he whispered, turning to greet the man who'd wrapped his arms around him from behind.
"Good morning, my dear," his lover replied, smiling gently. Tetsuya reached up and kissed his lips affectionately.
"How was your trip?" he asked, and immediately the mood soured as Seijuurou's face darkened in memory.
"I'd rather not talk of it, love," he said, and kissed the side of Tetsuya's neck. "It's been a long time since we've flown together, has it not?"
Tetsuya frowned worriedly, but let the change of topic slide. "Yes, it has," he replied. He smiled suddenly. "Race you?"
"To the lake?" Seijuurou asked, arms tightening around Tetsuya's waist.
The smaller of the two laughed. "You know that never works, Sei," he teased, and with those words twisted effortlessly out of his lover's arms, stopping a few steps away from Seijuurou, who looked at him with a mix of fondness and dismay.
"Last one there has to do whatever the other says for an entire day!" Tetsuya exclaimed, and then he was gone.
"That's cheating, Tetsuya!" Seijuurou called after him, jumping into the air to follow, but his lover just laughed in response. He rarely did, usually been quiet and controlled, but when he was with Seijuurou Tetsuya became a completely different person. A happier, more open person, and he was happy to say that Seijuurou did too.}
The man in his dreams seemed to be getting more and more frustrated as time passed. "It has been long enough, Tetsuya," he growled, more insistent now than ever. "Come back."
Tetsuya frowned at his tone. "Be patient," he replied shortly.
The red-haired man only became angrier at that. "Patience?" he exclaimed incredulously. "I have been patient, though patience does not become me. This is enough, Tetsuya. I am tired of this."
"It isn't," he replied, getting angry himself in turn, but it felt like a distant anger. Like the anger wasn't really his. "You bought this on yourself, you and your pride. I beseeched you, begged you, and still you left me no choice."
He didn't know where the words were coming from, or why he was so angry, but he was not in control of himself - dream Tetsuya was like another person altogether.
"And now you're leaving me no choice, Tetsuya. If I have to pick this world apart piece by piece to find you, I will."
"And yet you still wouldn't," he replied. "The magic hiding me from you cannot be broken, not by you and not for an eternity. Accept your mistake, Seijuurou."
His eyes widened in shock and rage. "The world will burn, Tetsuya," he growled. It was a threat, one that he understood and hated because he knew it was true. Seijuurou really would destroy the world, if not to find him then to push him, and it broke Tetsuya's heart.
He glared at his lover, and his blue eyes watered in sorrow. "Then you will burn me along with it," he replied quietly, and when he walked away, he didn't look back to see the heartbroken expression on Seijuurou's face.
{He was whimpering when Seijuurou picked him up and took him home, eyes shut tight against the pain. Iron - they had held him in iron chains and torn his skin with iron-tipped whips, and Tetsuya could see the flames that rose up in retribution behind them even with his eyes closed and his mind as faint with pain as it was. He could hear the screams of the people trapped inside the collapsing building as Seijuurou took him away.
"I'm sorry," he whispered brokenly, clutching tightly at his lover's chest. Seijuurou didn't answer, instead taking him over the bridge to the court that was his home in absolute silence.
"I'm sorry," he said again as Seijuurou lay him down, and the other man shook his head angrily.
"No," he said, then, "do you know how terrified I was?"
Tetsuya closed his eyes in exhaustion. "I can feel your fear still, it is so potent," he replied. "But I knew you would come."
Seijuurou growled, stalked away and then back furiously. "No!" he shouted. "No! Tetsuya, you see what becomes of your naivety? Your trusting of people who shouldn't be trusted?"
"I didn't!" he exclaimed, trying to sit up. "We were all caught by surprise, and I was already weak, Sei, I was sick. I couldn't fight properly."
"Then you should never have left!" he roared, eyes thirsting for blood, blood, more blood. Tetsuya felt chills going down his spine, and for the first time he felt afraid. Not of what Seijuurou could do to him, because he knew Seijuurou would rip himself apart piece by piece before he ever laid a hand on Tetsuya. No, he was afraid of what Seijuurou was doing to himself.
"I... Sei, I have responsibilities, I can't afford to-"
"Fuck them," he interrupted. "You think I care about your duties when you-" he choked up. Tetsuya stared, shocked, because Seijuurou didn't curse, Seijuurou was never at a loss for words, and Seijuurou certainly didn't lose the ability to speak due to emotion.
"Sei..." he breathed. "Oh, Seijuurou. Please, please don't do this to yourself."
The man just waved his hand dismissively. "You're not leaving, Tetsuya. Not for an age. I just have a few more... things to take care of."
He pinned Tetsuya with his stare. "Do not leave this room," he ordered. "In fact, sleep. You need it. There'll be a healer along shortly."
He was gone before Tetsuya could even make a sound.}
He was sitting at the edge of the stream in the woods. He'd bought his sketchbook, intending to draw some, but instead he found himself staring into the trickling water, lost in thought
What if these dreams were real? What if the person in his dreams was someone to him? Perhaps some part of him remembered, and so responded to the man with familiarity. Certainly the feelings in his chest were... terrifyingly alike to love. In which case, he didn't think this was really home at all.
He shook his head. The redheaded man had said he'd see the world burn, and despite his reply he really didn't want to see that happen. Imagining places like this, people and trees and life, die so meaninglessly for someone's wrath hurt almost physically, so much so he found it difficult to breathe at the thought, and to be fair he wanted to go home. Especially if home was to him.
He was broken out of his reverie by the whisper of movement in the undergrowth, and he swung around suddenly. The birds were absolutely silent, he realised, and the trees on edge. Even the fish underwater had withdrawn from the surface and into small nooks and crannies between rocks and plants.
He stood, eyeing the shadows warily. There was someone there, someone that made everything here uncomfortable and wary.
"Hello? he called out, but there was no reply. Huffing, Tetsuya focused and there, right in front of him, a figure shrouded in shadow.
"I can see you, you know," he said. He heard a deep laugh.
"Naturally, your highness." A dark-skinned man walked out of the shadows, his hair a midnight blue. "But Ryouta said you didn't remember."
"You mean that blond man- or, not even a man? But you called me your highness? Perhaps you've mistaken me for someone else. I don't know you, and I'm certainly not royalty."
The man stared. "Are you sure?" he asked. Tetsuya just frowned.
"Okay then. I am Daiki," the man said. He walked forwards until he was standing level with Tetsuya and sat down, patting the ground next to him.
"Tetsuya," he replied eventually, also sitting. "You know that blond man?"
"Ryouta is my partner," Daiki, replied easily. "My companion."
"Your... lover?" Tetsuya asked hesitantly. Daiki smiled.
"Something like that. Do you remember your own lover, Tetsu?"
"I... what?" He shook his head, his eyes widening in realisation. "You know what I've forgotten, also."
"Yes, I suppose I do. Or, well, I knew you."
Tetsuya nodded slowly. "Is it the red-haired man?"
Daiki smiled knowingly. "He's been visiting you, hasn't he."
Tetsuya blushed, and he didn't even know why but suddenly the dreams felt incredibly private, and he didn't want to divulge any of the details.
"Yeah, thought so," Daiki nodded, laughing. He turned serious suddenly. "He misses you, Tetsuya."
He didn't look up. "I didn't even know. I still don't know. Not even his name."
Daiki sighed. "Okay, you want to know? You're the king to the Seelie Court, and he the king to the Unseelie. I am one of his numerous subjects. And his name is Seijuurou."
"Seijuurou," Tetsuya repeated, testing the name on his tongue. "Sei..."
And it hit him suddenly, who he was, who Sei was, what had happened and why he was living as an amnesiac miles away from any contact. "Sei," he repeated again, and he didn't know whether to rage or cry. He looked to Daiki, who seemed bemused.
"How did you find me?" he asked softly.
Daiki smiled. "Ryouta."
"Of course," he sighed, "but how did Ryouta find me?"
"He left a tracking spell on you, at the last moment. None of us knew until fairly recently."
"I... see." He sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And Seijuurou?"
"Livid. But, if I may, I do believe it is only for want of your presence, and concern for your safety. He has become crueller and colder without you there to mellow his moods."
Tetsuya smiled sadly. "I can imagine," he whispered. "But I wouldn't have left him if it weren't absolutely necessary."
He stood up, dusted himself off and stretched. "We should go home then, no?" he asked, looking down at the man - or faery - still sitting.
"Yes, your highness," Daiki replied, also standing up. He offered his arm, which Tetsuya took and asked, "where to?"
"My court. I must relieve Shintarou and Satsuki first." Then, quieter, "and knowing Seijuurou, he won't leave me for years once I go to him."
Daiki snorted, but didn't comment. "Hold on," he said, and then they were gone.
{"Tetsuya," a voice called behind him, but he didn't turn, and continued skipping stones across the lake water.
This lake was important to them. It held memories and magic, and if there ever was a place that could be called 'theirs' it would be here. They used to come here constantly, together. These days, whilst he could claim to still frequent the place, his significant other would find he couldn't say the same.
There was a deep sigh, and then Seijuurou walked closer and sat beside him.
"What are you doing here?"
Tetsuya gripped the stone in his hand, smooth and flat and rounded edges. "Nothing."
Seijuurou was silent for a while. He took the stone from Tetsuya's hand gently, warm skin lingering against his for longer than necessary.
"You are unhappy," he said softly, throwing the stone. It didn't skip, but instead sunk, leaving ripples along the surface of the water where it fell.
"As are you."
"I am not," Seijuurou replied immediately. Tetsuya laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh.
"You're ruining yourself, Seijuurou, and it kills me to watch it. I've tried, I am still trying, but you refuse to listen to me. What use is all this hatred and anger if it only poisons your mind and your heart?"
"You are too pure to understand, Tetsuya," Seijuurou replied. Tetsuya looked at him, looked at his eyes an their intense red and gold, and how cold they were despite the fire in them. "It is in my skin, this poison. It is me."
"No, Seijuurou. Not if it hurts you," he sighed and took Seijuurou's hands between his own. "I love you, more than my life, my magic and my soul. To see you destroy yourself like this hurts more than you can possibly imagine."
"And those humans? Those shapeshifters who turned on you and tortured you? Did they not hurt you? Everything I do, I do for you, Tetsuya."
Tetsuya's expression hardened angrily. "No, if you do this for anyone, it is for yourself. I don't need this, nor do I want this. I made my peace with what happened a long time ago, Sei, and your actions hurt me more than theirs ever could."
He stood up, and Seijuurou stood with him, wings poised for flight in case Tetsuya took off. They were large and black and delicately beautiful, gold and red threads running through them where his veins were in an abstract pattern which now pulsed with anger. They looked like the wings of a butterfly, but Tetsuya knew they weren't nearly so fragile.
"Don't say that," his lover was demanding. "You were always delicate, Tetsuya. You can't stomach the idea of blood and war. That is why it is my job to protect you, my job to shield you, and my job to eradicate the reason you still have nightmares."
"I am not weak, Seijuurou," he hissed, scorned. "I survived just fine before you came into my life, and I don't need a knight now either."
He took a step back, fingers clenched into fists at his sides. "Do not mistake my kindness for weakness, Seijuurou. I am just as capable as you of seeing the darkness in humanity, but considering I don't let it control my every action, I wonder which of us it really is that can't stomach the truth."
With these words, he took off into the sky, and left Seijuurou standing alone.}
"Shintarou, Satsuki," he greeted warmly as soon as he saw them, conversing with each other quietly in a corner. They turned at the sound of his voice immediately, and Satsuki ran to meet him, face alight with relief and joy.
"Oh, I missed you, Tetsu-kun. I'm so glad you're back!" She turned back to Daiki. "You brought him, back, Dai-chan."
"I said I would," he answered, picking her up in a hug.
"Thank you," she whispered, and then Shintarou was drawing Tetsuya into a hug of his own, mindful of the wings fluttering at his back.
"There was a mess to take care of, I'll say that. We're glad to have you back."
"It's good to be back." Tetsuya replied. "I relieve you both from your duties. Did anything major happen while I was gone?"
"Seijuurou came here trying to find you. He thought we might know where you'd sequestered yourself, but, well, he was disappointed. He put up quite the tantrum, but that's pretty much it."
"Yes," Satsuki added. "Since you closed the bridge, he couldn't go to the human world himself to look for you, so he tried to go via the Seelie court, but he was unable to."
"That, too, would've been my doing," Tetsuya replied. He sighed. "I suppose now I just wait for him."
"We should probably leave then," Daiki laughed. He raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Unless we want a show."
Tetsuya immediately turned red, and Satsuki smacked the larger fae's head. "Dai-chan!" she shouted, flushing herself.
"What?" he moaned, rubbing his head. "It's true!"
"It is inappropriate," Shintarou corrected, pushing up his glasses with bandaged fingers. "Nonetheless, he is right in that we should probably take our leave. Good day, your highness."
"Bye, Tetsu-kun," Satsuki said. Daiki just waved and grinned as the trio walked out and left Tetsuya to his own devices.
"Well," he mumbled to himself. It all felt a little anticlimactic, but he finally found himself relaxing. He was home.
He was putting on a tunic after taking a shower when Seijuurou called out to him, startling him enough to make him jump.
"Tetsuya," he heard, and his hands froze on the first button as he turned to see his lover already halfway across the room, the door slamming shut in his wake.
"Seijuurou," he whispered, and then there were arms around him and a chin resting on his head as they held each other and just stood like that, taking the weight of each other in.
They didn't speak, and Tetsuya didn't know how long they stood there, but he couldn't get enough of the feel of Seijuurou against him, the smell of him, the sound of his breathing and heartbeat under his ear. He felt whole again, and he wanted this to last forever but eventually Seijuurou's arms loosened as he moved back a little, just enough to set eyes on each other's faces.
"Tetsuya," he said again, a hand gently mapping his features as the other rested on the small of his back just under the place where his wings met his back, pulling him flush against his front.
Tetsuya cupped his face in both hands and kissed him slowly, first on his forehead and then his eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth and chin. He took his time as showered every bit of skin with little kisses, all the while stroking Seijuurou's red, red hair and tracing fingers down his sharp jaw as he relearnt Seijuurou, and Seijuurou relearnt him in turn.
"I-" Seijuurou started, and broke of, unable to say anything.
"I know, love. I know," Tetsuya cooed, and then Seijuurou was kissing him, holding him so tightly against his body that there was not an inch of space between them and Tetsuya could not move, working warm, soft lips against his own. Tetsuya kissed back hard, tasted the lover he hadn't seen in far too long, arms wrapped tightly around Seijuurou's neck and mouth open to allow their tongues to entwine. He didn't fight Seijuurou, but let him take the lead and let himself be dominated.
Seijuurou walked him backwards and dropped him into his bed, never breaking the contact between their mouths, and tugged the clothes off him as Tetsuya quickly, but not impatiently, did the same - uncovering more skin to touch, to taste and see, until they were both bare and pressed close together.
Seijuurou prepared him gently, pressing fingers into him slow and deep until Tetsuya was crying out for more, and then fucked him hard and fast and steady into the bed until all he could do was gasp wordlessly in pleasure. He didn't slow down when Tetsuya begged for him to let up, nor when Tetsuya came violently onto the sheets - not even for a second. They made love until they were too tired to move and their bodies were covered in red bites And purple bruises, and talked in quiet, tender voices until their eyes could no longer stay open from sheer exhaustion.
They slept in each other's arms for hours, and come morning Seijuurou woke him up with kisses and sweet endearments murmured into his ear in a husky voice that sent shivers down his spine.
"Never leave me again," Seijuurou whispered softly, quietly, as if he was afraid to admit his weakness to anyone but Tetsuya in this moment.
He smiled. "Don't ever put me in that position again," he replied, teasing but pleading, and Seijuurou laughed.
"I won't."