Eyyyy, chapter 11 back with naught but the coolest and smoothest of transitions.

What's up guys? I was actually gonna write and upload this a bit later, but Independence Day for my country is in a couple days (Like three) and I wanted to get this out before that, simply so that I wouldn't be compelled to write anything on Independence Day. (I swear this verse is like an eternal itch, as soon as you get one spot, the itch moves to another)

Anyway, I was doing research for this chapter and fun fact, I was originally gonna stick Atsushi in Sicily. Then I read about the blue-gold festivals in Province and I changed my mind so quickly. If you have time, look up lavender fields in Italy. It's breath taking guys.


Replying to comments:

TLDG: Thank you for the comment dear. And lazy is good sometimes! I love love love writing Shibuya as well, shopping districts that are packed with personality and people are always amusing to write. Nigou'll be showing up sooner than you'd think and Kise is bae. Kise is love and sunshine and I can't wait till he shows up because it'll be so nice for Furi to have someone who doesn't joke about disembowelment with a straight face.


Anyway, enjoy~!


Chapter 9.5: Tatsuya's Theory of Happiness


Sault, Provence: Italy

Himuro Tatsuya sat comfortably next to an open window, quietly sipping a cup of lemon tea. The early morning air blew gently through his parted curtains bringing with it the pleasant scent of lavender and honey. He smiled softly as he took another long sip of his warm tea, the festivals would be starting soon.

His house was small and modest, just a floor above the bakery that he ran. There was an old velvet couch with three rather mismatched pillows not too far from him and his medium sized television was on, the pre-news programming filling the room with the relaxing drawl of Italian. Tatsuya finished his tea and set the cup down on the window still. He got up and moved quietly to one of the bundles of lavender flowers he had braided and placed around his living room, gracefully unravelling the braid and plucking three healthy stems to place into his cup. His smile widened as he re-braided the flowers into their previous ornamental state. He paused briefly after he had finished and rubbed his fingers together, light purple sparks falling from his fingertips and drifting to his carpets forming small perky periwinkles as they landed.

The black-haired man picked up the blue blooms and arranged them carefully in his arms, slate grey eyes looking adoringly at the frail flowers. Atsushi would love them.

He was certain.


He was a seasonal being, one of the spring variety to be exact, and his lord Ryouta had already gone into hibernation with the rest of his family. His lord's last orders to him were to settle down and have fun until he woke up and Tatsuya's only companion up till that point had been a rather moody winter spirit who went by the name Yukio. Yukio himself had told Tatsuya that he would be going to live further East, probably in Russia and had left the spring deity by himself in the warm regions of western Europe.

Tatsuya didn't really know what he was supposed to do by himself. Atsushi was bound by Gaia in Japan with the rest of Akashi-sama's pantheon and had given him his brooch to take care of until he came back and humankind had been particularly uninteresting in the early years of the Gregorian Calendar. As a matter of fact, Tatsuya only remembered them dying from plague and disease until they adapted and didn't die anymore but even still, he didn't care to mingle with them just yet.

He just remembered being terribly lonely.

His thoughts were filled of his mate's impossibly tall frame and his soft, heavy lidded eyes. Tatsuya's fingers longed to run through his long purple hair and tangle them in the fluffy tresses until he scratched at his lover's scalp. He wished to braid his beloved flowers in Atsushi's hair while he slept peacefully upon his laps or to listen to his soothing tenor voice lull him to sleep with the words of the universe. He had even began missing his incessant whining and horrible work ethic and after one century of lazing about and completing his duties in maintaining the world's seasons in his lord's absence he met the deity of autumn, Mibuchi Reo.

Mibuchi was strange, which was a polite understatement. He had chosen to court the deity of the storms, a wild man named Hayama and was probably the only one of the seasonal deities who enjoyed wearing their traditional clothing which consisted of layers of heavy silken robes and ornamental accessories. Tatsuya was honestly just glad that the being didn't wear the ridiculous wooden sandals that would've completed the ensemble.

Mibuchi had been on his way to usher in the beginnings of chill to the southern half of the world and had decided to stop in one of Tatsuya's personal fields. Not just any of his fields either, Mibuchi had stopped in the one field Tatsuya had taken to create flowers that reflected his longing.

The autumn deity had marveled at the blooms for a full ten days before offering to spread them to his regions in return for keeping his secret from the other deities. Tatsuya honestly didn't care, his pining wasn't a secret since he was certain Kiyoshi, the deity of summer, already figured it out when he came to wash the frost from Italy the year before and Yukio already knew everything about Tatsuya anyway, he just wanted Mibuchi out of his field.

Tatsuya had spent that century perfecting his flowers, spreading them further south and east and enjoying the scent that filled his territory during the summer months. He had formed something of an uneasy friendship with Mibuchi and to a lesser extent Hayama and would regularly braid flower crowns and bracelets for Yukio so that he wouldn't go blind from all the snow that fell in his region as a result of his constant presence. His loneliness had abated to naught but a small twinge of longing for his love but he had eventually turned those feelings into flowers too.

Time passed as it always did and Tatsuya had frequently bothered Shigehiro for access into the Sky Garden to offer his new creations to Gaia. Kiyoshi still hated bringing summer to the north, Yukio still accepted his topiary gifts with a small, genuine smile and Mibuchi still carried the title of Most Elegant Season when the Pantheon were awoken for the first time.


It had been something that Kiyoshi had been complaining about for a while. He had noticed that the humans from the West were overstepping their bounds and crossing onto the native peoples' territories and claiming it in the names of their monarchs without negotiating with the heads of said territory, but none of them had expected the humans to enslave their own kind.

It was pure brutality, watching them be beaten and killed and utterly dominated without the means to stop them. The Emperor had made it one of the laws that the season deities could not interfere with the course of the world while they slept and while they understood that rule for the most part, it was a physical pain to watch the massacre go on beneath their noses.

It would be a further three years after the horrifying discovery was made for Mibuchi to get sick (something that had never, ever happened before). Harvest was something Mibuchi ruled over, it was his forte as the deity of autumn and all the blood that had been shed on the fields had mixed within the earth and poisoned him. None of the deities knew what to do, there were no protocols for a dying season and quite frankly, no one knew what would happen should one of the season die.

They had brought him back to the temple and had explained the situation to Momoi and Shigehiro who had both looked like they had swallowed the largest pills of their eternal lives. Momoi had put Mibuchi into his room and had immediately got to work on extracting his power and binding it to his scepter .Hayama had grimly took over Mibuchi's role as Autumn and Tatsuya had the personal pleasure of watching the storm-turned-autumn deity become darker and angrier in regard to humankind.

Tatsuya knew it was bad when he had returned to the temple to place a crown of Mibuchi's favorite yellow roses atop his silky hair and was nearly shocked by the stray bolts of lightning that were lancing off a homicidal Hayama.

That same night, Tatsuya had ascended the stairway to the Sky Garden and snapped. He cursed Gaia for taking Atsushi from him, for taking the only member who could fix this mess of a world. He cursed his Emperor for sleeping peacefully while the world was literally bleeding out and killing itself and finally, he cursed himself for being so obscenely useless.

When he had awoken in the morning, it was to painfully familiar spidery fingers curling themselves in his hair. He heard a soft humming and could smell the rich scent he had spent centuries trying to recreate and his eyes snapped open to find long, straight lavender tresses tickling his nose and a sleep-heavy voice dripping with adoration and amusement whispering, 'Good morning, Muro-chin' to him.

Tatsuya couldn't quite remember what happened after that, just that he was pretty sure he cried a little and that Atsushi had spent a solid twenty minutes simply touching him and reassuring him that he was there. Then there was a clear, bell-like voice summoning them to the main room of the temple and Tatsuya took a moment to take in the fact that the entirety of the Gaian Pantheon, including Kuroko, had been awakened.

Aomine was still curled tightly over Kagami, head tucked childishly under the Love God's head and arms wrapped stubbornly around his waist. Kagami for the most part was far too tired to complain about the War God's weight or about his hair prickling his cheek and simply cuddled him back, right arm situated comfortably on his lower back and left playing idly in his now mid-back length hair.

Midorima stood to the far end of the room, weight supported by a stone counter and taped hands folded snugly into his pits. Tatsuya saw Kise, who was probably the only one of the Pantheon members who looked to be actually awake, bounce across to the ambassador and throw a fluffy white coat over his shoulders before jumping and lying horizontally effortlessly in the air, fingers already keeping busy with creating some sunflowers.

Then Tatsuya saw his Emperor and had to fight to keep his snort of amusement in. Akashi Seijuurou sat on one of the high backed chairs that Shigehiro kept lying around, sharp crimson eyes gazing sympathetically at an unidentifiable lump covered in a hideously garish burgundy kimono in his laps. His hands were on what Tatsuya would assume was the lump's lower back and he was attempting to coax the lump to stand up and off of him with rather negative results.

Tatsuya only allowed his snort to pass when his own lover had bent down and whispered to him that the lump was the Jiraenian King and that mornings didn't exactly agree with the shadowy monarch.

The rather lazy atmosphere was broken when Shigehiro had entered the main room and nearly had a seizure upon seeing the Pantheon all awake and gathered. Akashi had absolutely given up on removing his mate from his laps and had simply rested his hands on his lumpy partner. The Emperor announced that he had awakened them all to tend to the state of the planet and that on Atsushi would have to stay awake when they were finished to ensure that the world never got that bad again.

Tatsuya had expected them to get to work immediately since he knew the Emperor was a man of action, but was pleasantly surprised when they spent the rest of that day simply lying around. Kise collaborated with Momoi to heal Mibuchi and had passed the poison to Kuroko for him to consume (he had turned a strange silvery colour upon eating the poison and Tatsuya laughed for at least ten minutes when he found the Shadow King camouflaged perfectly in the patch of silvery sea hollies). Midorima spent most of the day writing in a small leathery notebook and Aomine and Kagami had disappeared into the recesses of the temple together.

They started work the day after and stayed working for a week afterwards, Akashi, Atsushi and Kise fixing the earth and Kuroko and Aomine dealing with the humans. Midorima disappeared from the temple and was most likely in his forest if Shigehiro was to be believed and Kagami spent the week with Tatsuya organizing and re-organising the Sky Garden until he was pleased and smelled permanently of the gladioluses he kept sticking in his brilliant vermillion hair.

Tatsuya was a bit disappointed when Akashi had announced that there work was done and that they were going back to sleep but he was quickly distracted by Atsushi asking him where he'd be living.


Atsushi was sitting in the middle of Tatsuya's lavender field, eyes strangely focused on the horizon when the raven haired deity arrived. The Lord of the Earth hadn't changed a bit, except for his new haircut, but he was every bit the spirit that Tatsuya had fallen for all those eons ago.

Tatsuya walked carefully across to him and draped himself across his lover, his long limbs spilling unflatteringly out of Atsushi's hold and causing some of the lavender pollen to spread in the air. A light laugh was already pouring from his lips when Atsushi bent down to press quick, teasing kisses to his neck and nose, lazy smirk already twisting its way across his lips.

They tangled their limbs together for the next half an hour until Tatsuya somehow ended up on top of Atsushi, flower crown firmly atop his head and glittering grey eyes laughing as he fed his lover bits of the olive and paisley covered focaccia he had baked earlier that morning. They both smelled strongly of lavender and honey by now and the sun was beginning to shine in earnest and Atsushi was trying his hardest not to choke as Tatsuya told him inane jokes while feeding him.

Then Atsushi stopped.

Tatsuya felt the change in demeanor and rolled off of him as the purple-haired giant sat up and adjusted his limbs to receive whatever message was being sent to him through the earth. The spring deity busied himself with feeding the birds the remaining pieces of his bread and re-growing the lavenders that had been crushed in their fooling around, stopping briefly when he felt the telltale lurch of the planet as it bowed in respect to its master.

A slight breeze ruffled his hair and Tatsuya contemplated braiding his own hair since it was starting to get pretty long. He sat himself down next to Atsushi and took his long bangs and fringe that obscured his left eye into his hands and dexterously began styling the silken locks into a messy up do, stopping periodically to materialize periwinkles, poppies and hydrangeas and braid them into his hair as well.

They sat in companionable silence, a soft wind blowing lavender petals and scattering the intoxicating scent through the air until well after noon. Tatsuya had finished doing his hair and had fallen asleep, head leaning on Atsushi's muscled bicep and half eaten slice of pizza Bianca in his hands. The purple haired god smiled softly as he fell out of his trance and looked at his companion, eyes still aglow in an otherworldly shade of green. He huffed and laid back down, making sure to adjust Tatsuya's body so that the deity wasn't jostled too badly and stole his pizza Bianca, chewing on the delicious piece of bread and closing his eyes in relaxation.

He would tell Tatsu-chin that they had to go home in the morning.


What the hell. This is almost 3000 words. I don't even have any words.

Pizza Bianca- a really delicious bread that Italian bakers offer to kids when their parents are bread shopping. It's really good on it's own but can also be stuffed with all sorts of things.

Focaccia- A flat bread with the same consistency as pizza. It just all around delicious and you can put all sorts of things on top of it to up the deliciousness.

I find it disconcerting that the longest chapter of this fic thus far is literally just fluffy HimuBara and history on the GoM.

At least you guys have some more information on them.

Please don't forget to leave a comment on your way out folks~