"I'm worried about Yuuri."
Murata saw Yozak glance at him out of the corner of his eye. "You don't say."
They turned from one corridor to the next, deserted in a way that only a castle can be late at night. Not quite close enough to touch on purpose.
"He's filling a void. All that power, and there's nothing he can do."
"And Conrad?"
"The instinct to care for a younger person is great, especially given their history. He'll be too focused on working to come back… He won't have all those empty hours to worry. I think…"
He gasped; Yozak's sword hand, calloused and large, clamped down on the sensitive skin of his neck and spun him through an open doorway. He could feel each stone up the length of his back, pressed as he was by broad chest that trapped him there.
"You great oaf."
"You say that like you're complaining."
It was said almost breathy, warm against his neck, and he cursed the shiver that raced from crown to spine.
"What do you think, if you from ten years ago came forward, would you want me on sight?" Murata asked, with what he thought was remarkable control.
Yozak rubbed the tips of Murata's hair through his fingertips.
"All I really wanted was your mind," he managed to say with a straight face. "If you looked at me like that… How long would you wait, if you had one of me trying to get at you? A month? A year?"
"Wait?" Murata's eyes were bright. "Why would I wait? The moment I found out you were gone, I'd run away with Dorcas."
"Pshh. As though Dorcas would leave his cute little wife."
"Perhaps you should have found a cute little wife instead," Murata said sweetly.
Yozak nipped his ear. "Perhaps I did."
He yelped as Murata's stiff boot edge met his shin.
"That'll leave a bruise," Yozak chided, shaking Murata's face between his hands.
"You'll think of some way I can make it up to you."
"You could be right."
Bending the rest of the way, he kissed him, and Murata could do little but shift to meet him, warmed through by the touch and the…Mm.
He raised his hand ineffectually, letting it slide down the warm curve of Yozak's arm. With one last hard kiss Yozak moved back, leaving Murata still plastered to the wall.
"I'll see you in a while?"
"Yeah."
And with a wink, Yozak was off, the long loping strides taking him fast out of sight.
He smiled as he scoffed. "Cute little wife."
The first day that Murata had shown up with a scarf around his neck, Yuuri had thought nothing of it. Though Yozak had been there that day as well, with a spring his step and a gleam in his eye, Yuuri had been oblivious. (He had not noticed the love bite on Yozak's neck until Conrad had pointed it out later). But as the two circumstances became more frequently hand in hand, Yuuri had picked up on it. And in his consult with Conrad, was informed that he wasn't just seeing things. Which, of course, meant confronting Ken.
"You and Yozak?"
Murata looked at him, close lipped.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"What was there to tell?"
"Apparently a lot. ….Does he dress up for you?"
Murata looked horrified. Which Yuuri took safely to mean "yes."