Saruhiko tapped his fingers against the hilt of his rapier. Misaki should be here by now, he was never late. He expected Misaki to burst out of someplace unexpected any moment, flustered and frantically apologising.
This lateness in itself was extremely surprising without it being out of Misaki's comfort zone. Misaki had never really appeared truly comfortable when he was not with Saruhiko.
He turned his head at a loud shout from the opposite side of the square where there was a small stage.
"Come all to witness the flogging of a demon caught bewitching the Captain's horses!"
Saruhiko drew in a quick breath. Surely it wouldn't be Misaki they were talking about. It couldn't be. His blood boiled at the thought of what he would do it it was Misaki.
He approached the growing crowd and heard the unmistakable crack of a whip followed by a scream of pain. He knew that voice. He slipped a knife from a hidden slit in his sleeve. The crowd naturally parted around him as if they could sense his anger and wanted to get away from it. From this distance he could hear the jeers and catcalls and they only served to fuel his anger.
He pulled back his hand, aimed and threw the knife in a perfect trajectory. It caught the sleeve of the village guard as he raised the whip once more, pinning it to a post and immobilising the guard.
The resulting silence was deafening. Everyone turned to trace the origin of the knife and was met with a fuming Captain. The sound of gravel beneath his boots seemed to echo around the square as he walked towards the guard. Drawing another knife, he held its blade to the guard's throat.
"How dare you," he spat. "How dare you capture my servant and humiliate him in this way? He has done nothing to prove himself malicious in all the service he has given me and he definitely would not have done anything to harm any of you."
"But- but I-" the guard protested but he was cut off by a slight increase of the pressure of the blade against his throat.
"Silence, filth," he snapped. "You are not worthy of my presence. Be glad that I will spare your life."
Saruhiko viciously pulled the knife out of the man's sleeve, still holding his other blade to his throat. "Kneel," he ordered, pocketing his knives.
He picked up the discarded whip and raised it, ready to strike, cruel gleam in his eyes.
"Saruhiko, no!" There was a soft cry and a tug at the hem of his trousers and Saruhiko looked down into watery amber eyes.
Saruhiko knelt down, dropping the whip. "He would have killed you, Misaki. These people have no mercy."
Misaki shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I don't want you to do this. Just because others are cruel, it doesn't mean you should be cruel too."
Saruhiko nodded. He turned to the guard. "Get out of my sight," he spat.
He stood. "As for the rest of you, I will not be inspecting this village and I will take my leave before nightfall. Let this be a lesson to all of you not to judge a book by its cover."
As the crowd dissipated, Saruhiko knelt down again. "How did you manage to crawl up to me with that huge gash in your back? It's still bleeding!"
Misaki smiled weakly as Saruhiko started stroking his head. "I had to stop you. I didn't want you to sink to their level. You're better than that."
"Still as reckless as ever. I'm going to carry you back to the inn so that I can patch you up before we leave. You'll ride with me and Tsubaki can take the saddlebags. You're going to have to put your arms around my neck. I don't want to put too much pressure on your back."
Misaki did as he was told and Saruhiko hooked an arm beneath his knees. He hooked his other arm just above where the gash started. Misaki's ears were flat against his head and he had his eyes screwed shut as Saruhiko lifted him. Saruhiko carried him back in silence.
When they got back to their room, Saruhiko sat Misaki down on the bed. He fetched a bucket of cool water and a cloth before pulling out a knife to cut away the bloodstained tunic he was wearing. He dabbed gently at the crusted blood around the wound and Misaki barely restrained a cry of pain. He bandaged his torso as well as he could and handed Misaki a clean tunic.
"Stay here for a while. I'll fetch us some food. We'll leave in the afternoon."
He returned a while later with some bread, meat and a pitcher of water. Misaki accepted his portion gratefully. When they were done, Saruhiko set the cutlery aside and pulled Misaki into a gentle hug.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that," he whispered. "I shouldn't have let you out of my sight. I've failed you as a master. I couldn't even protect you."
Misaki leaned into Saruhiko. "You haven't failed me, Saruhiko. You stepped in and saved me. And you let that man go. You have no idea how much that actually says about you. You care about me enough to actually listen to me."
Saruhiko nuzzled Misaki's head, barely resisting the urge to just hold him tight. He cared, he cared so much. Since Misaki had come into his life, he'd had these feelings and he didn't know what to do with them. He just knew that he wanted, no, needed Misaki around. Right now, he was just a tangled mess and he didn't know half of how to untangle himself.
They napped tangled up in each other until it was late afternoon. Saruhiko gently stroked Misaki's head until he stirred.
"Hey, it's time to go," he murmured.
They left the village soon enough. Saruhiko soon steered them off the usual trails. It had been a while since he'd gone this way and he hoped that their destination would be inhabitable for the night. It had also been a while since he'd had Misaki in the saddle with him. He recalled the first time they rode together and how stiff Misaki had been. Comparing that to the ease with which Misaki leaned against him now, that memory seemed so distant. And somehow, it made him think about exactly how much had changed.
They dismounted in front of a small hillock. Saruhiko searched for the old hook he knew was nearby to tie the horses to. He smiled as he saw Misaki just looking around for any sign of what he was supposed to see, ears flicking back and forth as if to pick up any additional hints.
"This is what Reisi and I found when we were children. We'd run off from his father for a day and we were fooling around when a storm came. We had to find shelter and we found this," Saruhiko explained as he guided Misaki towards what looked like a small entrance into the hillock. "It's a slight drop, so I'll go down first and catch you."
Saruhiko slid through the entrance and straightened up before calling for Misaki to follow suit. Misaki's descent was clumsier than his, but then again, he'd never really learned how to fall through the entrance gracefully until Reisi refused to catch him one day.
"It's like an underground cave. Reisi and I used it as a base when we went on hunting trips. We've stocked the place up quite well over the years, so it should be quite comfortable."
Misaki's eyes were still wide with wonder. "How did you find this in the first place?"
"I fell down the entrance and Reisi had to come in and get me. Hey, do you mind helping me light a fire? It's going to get too dark to see anything soon."
Misaki nodded and they soon had a roaring fire in the makeshift fireplace that Saruhiko and Reisi had fashioned over the years. Saruhiko fetched their saddlebags, telling Misaki to sit on the bed while waiting. He brought out some food and they had a small meal at the small table that he and Reisi had made out of the trunk of a fallen tree. Saruhiko tried to hide the fact that he was watching Misaki intently, trying to decipher his feelings about him.
What drew him to Misaki? He didn't know for sure. It was probably everything about him. Misaki was lively and he broke the usual monotonous routine that he lived in. His smiles and bright amber eyes broke down Saruhiko's walls and he learned what it felt like to care so much for someone he didn't consider part of his family at first.
Was that warmth he felt when he looked at Misaki love? He didn't know. He cared for Misaki, but in a very different way from how he cared about Reisi. Maybe, then, this was love? But did Misaki care for him in the same way? For all he knew, Misaki could just take their relationship to be that of master and a favoured servant.
"Hey, Saruhiko. Saruhiko? Oi Saruhiko!"
Saruhiko jerked out of his reverie to see Misaki waving a hand in front of his face.
"Sorry, there's just a lot on my mind right now. And I don't know half of how to sort all this out."
The next thing he knew, Misaki had embraced him and was holding his head to his chest.
"You know you can tell me about anything, right?" he murmured, stroking Saruhiko's head. "It's my job to listen to you."
Saruhiko hummed in reply. "Let's move to the bed? It's more comfortable there."
They lay down on the bed, Misaki curling up to Saruhiko almost instinctively now. Saruhiko scratched behind Misaki's ears, listening to the pleased hum from Misaki.
"Misaki, you're so cute," he whispered.
Misaki stilled for a moment. "Do you know how 'cute' is written?" Without waiting for a response, he continued. "It's written as 'must love'."
"Well, I must love you then," Saruhiko murmured, tilting Misaki's head up.
They looked into each other's eyes for a while, Misaki's slightly wide at the confession. He brought a hand to stroke Saruhiko's cheek, whispering a responding 'I love you too, you idiot'.
Saruhiko tentatively pressed his lips to Misaki's, hoping that he wouldn't be pushed was mildly surprised when Misaki pulled him closer and deepened the kiss. They broke apart only when they absolutely needed air, panting. Saruhiko leaned his forehead against Misaki's.
"Hey, what did you want to talk about?" Misaki asked softly once he'd caught his breath.
"Nothing. You just sorted everything out for me." Saruhiko smiled and held him close.
A/N: For those who are wondering, cute in Japanese is written as '可爱' where '可' means 'can' or 'must' and '爱' means 'love'.
I feel as if I'm failing all my readers because I can't update as often as I'd like to and the quality of my writing is dropping horrifically. I'm really sorry if there are any of you out there who feel like I've failed as a writer.