Someone gave you all my love baby,
Alll my love
All my love
He was unable to get her out the first month. Then the second; and as the third month passed, their calls became too infrequent, made him miss her even more. So when she stopped accepting his calls, he let her, turned to his work to escape his reality. He knew he'd lost her to the wind, and she was so out of reach she was foreign to him now. Kureto supposed he'd known how this would end, with her leaving him by morning, as she had so early in their affair. The first time he'd stopped her, she'd taken a bit of convincing the next day to continue that trend.
Ari had even told him about her lack of true affection, once, almost deliriously one night, as he made her cum hard around him as he slammed deep into her once, twice. "I can't love you right, and I'm sorry, but you feel so good, my god, so-god!"
So the least he could do was make her feel good. Him missing her wasn't going to help anyone, so he tried not to after a few months, even as he looked to another pretty girl, unwilling to court the idea that he'd loved her. Because he'd miss her even more, and that's not what he was supposed to be doing. He allowed his love to vanish inside the new girl, talentless compared to Miyasato, but for some reason, since she was a branch family member, she was already higher-ranked than Ari.
Kureto cut things off with the branch family girl after a couple months; but he didn't let his father know. He prefered the old man to think he was following orders, ones that told him to 'test new waters', . The sex had devolved into something terribly uninteresting, and Kureto, to avoid being too cruel, had ended it quickly with a few bitter words from her.
she stomped her foot as she spoke, "it's that low born girl, isn't it?"
Even with her tears, she still looked rather pretty. But not as pretty as Ari. Kureto didn't feel anything for her anyways, barely remembered her name now, unsure how to placate her; wondered if he wanted to.
"I don't know what you mean," Kureto answered, looking up from his desk with a shrug. "But you should still leave."
"I'm not taking this for an answer-"
"Look, my father still thinks we're seeing each other. And we can do something like you only calling me when you want to fuck, or vice versa, but I'm certainly not going to waste anymore time on this."
"fuck you."
"No thank you, not right now," Kureto said, relaxing back in his chair, raising an eyebrow, grin betraying his neutral tone.
"...do you not feel anything?"
"Not right now."
"And you think it's fair to be so cruel to me?"
Kureto shrugged. "I don't care enough to keep you around with kindness anymore, I'd apologize, but, that would take more of my time away."
The branch family girl looked lovely in a dress, he supposed, in the end, but her brilliance could never match Ari's.
After a year of them being apart, his father called him back into his office; not to challenge him like Kureto thought he would, the year they'd been apart molding him into something stronger, along with a new rank. Instead, his father told him Miyasato would be back with in the month, hardly looking him in the eye, reports holding his eye. When Tenri Hiiragi talked about Kureto being his successor, however, for one of the third times since Mahiru died (versus the 50 times he was reminded of her genius before the catastrophe), he did make eye contact, but it seemed that Kureto's encroachments on his absolute reign had finally made an impact on their personal relationship.
Which was fantastic by his measurement. He didn't really give a shit about anything but power anymore, had certainly learned his lesson when he'd been unable to stop Ari from leaving. But he supposed she was returning within a month, wondered if she'd come back to him. Kureto would leave it up to her, adding in a quick message to her, through Aoi, along the lines of 'the two hours a day is now entirely optional; come by only if you want to.'. Even now, he was her superior.
He half expected her to ignore him, the other half serving his ego entirely. This time, he'd make sure his father didn't have a clue, even if she was living in his rooms, able to keep himself as far away from Tenri Hiiragi as he could manage, made sure every location he stayed in was virtually opposite to his father's. And the old man wasn't moving very often anyways.
She did come back to him; late, of course, half into his room, leaning against his door, giving him this lovely, long, long look. Miyasato's lips pressed together, still familiar, even if she'd clearly tanned in her time away on the coastal outpost. She'd changed, but she looked like herself, which meant he had to believe she was the prettiest woman he'd ever been with.
"Kureto, I-" she attempted.
He didn't speak, waited for her to lock the door. The little whine he detected from her made his heart pick up a pace, eyeing her hungrily now, standing up from his seat. Kureto stayed behind his desk, leaning over it, fingers tapping impatiently over the smooth wood, waited for her to make a decision. She'd always been rather slow when it came to matters of the heart, entirely opposite to her activities on the battlefield, a juxtaposition that never failed to amuse him.
At the thought, he looked away from her, smiled to himself, shaking his head.
she asked, "What?"
"Are you going to lock that door, or should I?"
Her fingers caught at the latch as she let the door clunk closed, locked the door behind her before she almost jogged to him. "still as dreamy as ever."
Her words hung in the air as he moved in, kissing her, hand strong, tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck, eager for one of the first few times to be kissing her. He lifted her from the ground, set her on the edge of his desk, reaching between them to pop the buttons of her shirt, tugging it away so he could move his kisses to her neck. Kureto kept her caged in his arms, hands panning over her body for the first time in a while, restraining himself as he did, even when she nipped at his bottom lip.
She still drove him crazy, her entire aesthetic leaving him hopelessly attracted to her, cupping her cheek briefly as he pulled away. The action was tender, and didn't support his rough exterior, certainly didn't suit the way he he was handling her.
"What?" she asked, little smirk curving her lips, curling a piece of his hair around her finger, wrapping her legs snug around his hips.
"You didn't forget me did you?"
"never."
"Ari, I'm just trying to," he started a sentence, but she kissed him, and her interruption ended conversation.
She fucked him with her clothes mostly on, back in his chair, riding him as best she could of a year without him. He was left to do most of the work in the end, hand on her lower back, held her tight to him, wishing quiet in the back of his mind that he'd taken the time to get her out of her clothes. But he couldn't pass up a chance to fuck her, knew entirely what he'd been missing, exactly what he couldn't find with the branch family girl.
The most important thing was that he had her keening in his ear again, had her hands in his hair once more, got her speaking to him again. She said the nastiest shit sometimes, and he fucking adored it more than he let on, even if he chided her for it. Maybe he wouldn't this time around, was further convinced by how good it felt to be with her again. Maybe he wouldn't do a lot of petty shit this time around, set his face in the crook of her neck, moaning himself now, lost his pace to bury himself deep inside her, built a chorus with her.
"Oh, Kureto, oh," she gasped, body wriggling in his grasp. "you're...big, I couldn't forget."
His ego was lovingly stroked again, so he turned around, pushed her over his desk so he could move more freely; and get a look at her ass, with her skirt flipped up. He couldn't really get enough of the sight, brought his hand up to spank her, hesitated, despite their history, looking to her for consent, brought his hand down as soon as she nodded. She rocked up onto her toes, braced for more, and he gave that to her of course, the sting of his palm sending a rush of adrenaline through him. So he brought his hand down hard once, twice, had her shouting in surprise, ass rash red.
He fucked her again then, with rough fluid thrusts meant to make her cum in quick time. And she did, as dependently as ever, her loud cries echoing in his ears as he came a few moments after her. Kureto dropped back into his chair, tipping his head over the back of it even as he put his dick back in his pants, pulled up his zipper, pushing sweat dampened hair away from his face, knew he'd let his hair get too long this time around. He'd start looking like Guren, and he wasn't enough of an asshole to even pull off that look; and he smiled to himself with the joke, tugging at his hair to check it's length.
"What are you doing?" she asked, underwear back on, cleaned up, straightening her shirt.
"Is my hair too long?" he questioned absently.
"No, I like it like this, you look prettier."
"At least call me handsome."
"But you're pretty. That wouldn't work."
"Come here, and I'll show you what I think of that word."
She smiled, climbed into his lap, entertained a rough kiss, tipped her head to the side to allow his lips a path over her neck, a buzz of arousal growing when her hands slipped under his shirt. The little branch family girl stomped in with her key a moment later, as his hand snuck over her backside. Ari couldn't see the girl, was too caught up in him to notice the click of the lock, so Kureto didn't react in any kind of way, hand sliding up, rubbing over her bra strap, made her smile and kiss him again.
Ari wiggled against him, spoke with nails digging into his abdomen, "I wanna fuck you again, right now, in the chair, like that one time, Major General."
He watched the branch girl over his shoulder, almost laughing as her jaw dropped. Kureto had told her to call before she came to his room, twice over if the door was actually locked, so at least she'd been witness to this instead of an important meeting. Ari's lips began to trace a path over his jaw, grinding slow against him, hand petting over his midriff, shifting constantly in his lap. In an instant, the branch girl was forgotten, just so he could respond to Ari.
"And I want to fuck you in my bed, so you'll get to wait for that," Kureto murmured, loud enough for the branch girl to hear, even as she backpedaled.
Kureto knew the branch girl was ever so into him, infatuated mostly, had told him that kissing him was one of the sexiest things she'd ever done. He failed to tell her kissing her was only mildly fun, and that he'd had multiple girls better than her. What she had been good was stomaching him, so he'd done the same for her. Again, Ari distracted him with a hand playing through his lightly curling hair, playing with the long ends. Rather blissfully, he let her, eyes roving back to the branch girl, just as she shut the door, gave her the tiniest wave, smirk curling his lips.
She'd still agree on being cover for his and Ari's relationship, she was rather obedient, and even the thought of demotion had her scrambling.
Kureto stood Ari up, led her out of his office to his room, quiet in the late night, flitting down corridors. He hadn't held her hand often, did it now, finally, just as he was thinking to do everything right this time around. If she let him, because as the night went on, he noticed her detachment, even though she told him she hadn't cum that hard in months. But he wanted her emotionally now, as well as physically.
And she left him before morning. He wondered when she'd stopped being so gullible, rifled his hands through his hair, thought of her compliment. For once, he let the words warm him, smile wide on his face, slipping off his bed. Maybe she'd just had something to do, and he was reading into her countenance. It was her first day back anyways, he supposed, watching himself in the mirror as he shrugged on his military shirt, stepped closer to examine the half-crescent marks she'd left on his abdomen.
He'd find her in the dining hall during breakfast and scold her; so he dressed faster, was out the door in a few long strides and in the dining hall in under five minutes. Kureto pulled a quick roundabout when he noticed she wasn't there, bumped directly into Aoi. His assistant's presence made breath a heavy sigh of relief, considering Aoi knew how to find people, especially Ari. Maybe because practice made perfect. He would admit that he sent Aoi after her more than was necessary, but he didn't want to waste time on hunting her down.
"Oh, you didn't know? Funeral."
Kureto frowned down at Aoi, set his hand on his hip. "What funeral?"
"One of her friends died in the collapse of the outpost."
He hadn't been told the outpost had been overwhelmed, was immediately worried about Ari. "I'm sorry, collapse of the outpost?"
"Yes, it happened a couple weeks ago."
"I...must not have read the report," he muttered, knew his aversion to reading about Ari's location had finally cost him something. "What happened?"
"Group of vampires, under the command of a Noble, swept in and made a show of killing every human, suggesting that any other outpost we try to make will suffer the same fate."
"But we need more territory, we can't stop expanding."
"The General said the same."
"And how was Ari spared?"
"The General had called her out a day before the vampires hit," Aoi explained, the rush of relief Kureto felt making him feel rather selfish. "She returned after a week, and helped with the clean up."
He decided to read the report for a more in depth take, asked instead, "where is the funeral then? And for who?"
"Major Norio. Jon Norio."
The only reason he recognized the name was because of Ari's personal attachment to him, had only barely gotten a response out of her when he'd asked about Jon. 'Just friends', was the verdict, and he held onto her past words tightly, even if he knew the past hardly counted for shit when it came to feelings. They were subject to change constantly, and Ari wasn't good at not flip-flopping when it came down to it.
He went to the burial grounds, spotted hundreds of carved white vases with singular incense sticks burning, only a few of them with actual people close. Ari held vigil at one of the pots, soft wind stirring her hair, caused the collective smell of incense to waft by him. Kureto stood by the edge of the burial grounds, eyes falling on the weapons lying before each stone column the vases rested on, some of them cursed gear, most of them standard issue foot soldier swords.
When he saw her shoulders shake, he went to her, touched her lightly on the shoulder, started to apologize for her loss until she twitched away from him. Tears had made her eyes red, cheeks stained with wet; and still she cried without end, looking at him only briefly before she turned back to the vase.
"I should've been there," she heaved her words out through her tears. "They tore him apart, and I wasn't there."
"I'm sorry," he said, lamely, reached for her again, desperate to emphasize with her, make her feel better some way, somehow, so he wouldn't have to watch her cry as violently as she was.
She pushed his touch away, sobered for only a minute, "I fell in love while I was away, with someone who wasn't you, and now he's in a vase, so please don't say you're sorry, please don't care so much, I don't really deserve it."
It took him a moment to process the physical rejection first, another to comprehend what she'd just said to him, was left speechless by the reveal. He stepped away, just as Erika jogged up to them, followed closely by Aoi. The girl with the purple shurikens, a mark of a high ranking branch family, held Ari close, cooing to her, pulling her away from the vase and it's stone column podium. Ari dug her heels in, refused outright, bursting into fresh tears, collapsed to grasp a hold of both of Norio's swords, clutched them to her chest, finally standing after a minute.
As he watched her go, Erika and Aoi to either side of her, Kureto wondered if he'd ever get that amount of emotion from her.
And she'd fallen in love with someone else. It made him bitter, far more bitter than he'd ever admit to anyone, including himself.
He didn't think he'd have the chance to ever really love her. Someone else had given her love, a privilege that should've been his, what he should've given her at the start.
Maybe that's where his bitterness was stemming.
He'd missed out.