Warning: teeth-rotting stuff :p
I'm not a romantic, unless we're talking about fictional characters. I wanted to write something Iori/Chizuru at first, but all my current WIPs either didn't fit or couldn't finish them in time.
This one, on the other hand, was a scene that I wanted to add in my main OT3 story (still working on it, I swear) but it would have been waaaay later in the story… so, why not post it as a stand alone?
So here it is, another snippet in an already established poly relationship between Iori, Chizuru and Kyo, set months after The peculiarity of their acquaintance (that is a few clicks away).
See ya later in the ending notes!
Mana
They say in Heaven, love comes first
We'll make Heaven a place on Earth
Heaven is a place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
They say in Heaven, love comes first
We'll make Heaven a place on Earth
Heaven is a place on Earth - Belinda Carlisle
"Stop touching your face, Chi. You're all dirty."
"Uh? Really?"
Iori briefly looked up from his book and glanced at his lovers.
Chizuru and Kyo were busy doing maintenance for their bikes, placed in the middle of the Kusanagi's estate: sitting on a big piece of cloth surrounded by tools and spare parts, his partners had spent the whole morning taking care of their vehicles, something they both loved to do by themselves.
And while Iori thought it was the most boring thing in the world, as they were well aware of his dislike for bikes, sitting on the porch reading a book while they were enjoying their shared hobby was a nice compromise for spending time together.
"Oh come on, look at what you did!"
Having been distracted again from his reading, Iori looked up: Chizuru's face got somehow dirtier with motor oil, apparently thanks to Kyo.
"I was just trying to help!"
"With your dirty gloves?"
"I forgot it!"
Of course Kyo would try to clean Chizuru's face without even thinking of removing his gloves first.
Iori chuckled. It was such a Kyo thing to do.
"Hey, no! Stop!"
And now Chizuru was trying to smear his face with her own dirty gloves.
"Kyo! Do you really have to act like a child all the time?"
Shizuka Kusanagi knelt near Iori, bringing a tray with tea and snacks, and a slightly annoyed look on her face.
"How is it my fault now?!"
Kyo had definitely failed in not getting caught by Chizuru, and was now pouting like the kid he actually was.
Chizuru grinned, proudly looking at her work all over Kyo's face. "Well, you started. I'm just returning the favor."
"I didn't stain you on purpose!"
"But you kept doing it!"
Kyo squirmed, trying to get free from her tight grip but to no avail. He didn't answer her, though. Clearly, he had fun smearing her face with grease.
Iori chuckled again, amused by the scene.
Near him, Shizuka sighed. "I'll force those two to shower before dinner. Anyway, maybe you want to go read elsewhere, Yagami-san? Must be hard given how noisy Kyo can be."
Iori shook his head. "No need to. They keep me company."
"You sure?"
"Absolutely."
"As you prefer" she gently patted his knee. "But the kitchen or the archives are quieter, should you need too."
"I'll keep that in mind" he smiled, feeling a sense of warmth when Shizuka smiled back.
"Very well. I'll go back to prepare everything for the dinner then" she got up, nodding at the tray. "Drink your tea before it gets cold. Kyo and Kagura-san can warm theirs later."
And with that, she went back to her errands.
Iori took his mug and held it for a few moments between his hands to reheat it a bit - a nice, different use for his pyrokinesis - and then took a sip of tea. White peach, which Shizuka paired with some shiroi koibito cookies. Her choices for tea and snacks were always impeccable.
It was so strange to think fondly of the woman who was the mother of his lifetime rival… a rival who was now one of his two lovers.
And yet, here he was.
Almost a year into this poly relationship, and pretty much adopted into the Kusanagi clan, treated like a son.
As it had always been this way.
Both Shizuka and Saisyu quickly overcome the initial surprise trying to be open-minded and understanding of their situation, and it didn't take long for them to welcome both Iori and Chizuru into their family. The happiness they brought to their only son was the most important thing, be damned the people who had something against their relationship just because it wasn't considered "normal" by society.
What does that mean, anyway?
Iori had never been considered normal once, in his life.
From his look, that was the complete opposite of Japanese beauty standards, to his own family and the powers that came with it, nothing in him was "normal".
Yet, that was the thing he craved the most… and found it in his teammates.
In that relationship that was so alien for the majority of people, but that was now his normalcy, his reason to wake up in the morning.
"No! Chi, put that thing away! Don't you dare!"
Looking again at his partners, Iori saw Chizuru threatening Kyo with the garden hose: she suddenly burst into a laugh, squeezing her eyes shut and tilting her head back. Iori knew each of those gestures like the back of his hand and loved all of them, as much as he loved how Kyo scrunched his nose when laughing, his mouth wide open in a big smile showing his bunny teeth.
Without even thinking, he reached for his phone, aimed at his lovers and took a few pictures of them: they were all dirty and messy, but Iori didn't care, as they always looked beautiful in his eyes.
He couldn't help but think how, for once, his life had treated him good.
Iori finally had a reason to keep living. A reason to smile, someone who would accept him the way he was, who loved him dearly and whom he deeply loved in return.
Someone Iori finally felt at home with.
It hadn't been easy at first.
Their relationship wasn't something planned. It happened by accident during a night out with Chizuru, to see where things would go between them, if they could work their past relationship once again… and then Kyo came.
He entered their lives and their relationship like a human typhoon, shook all their certainties and their solid ground, only to finally decide to stay. Make himself at home inside their hearts.
For Iori, that had been scary.
Their rivalry had always been complicated to say the least, his past actions taking a toll on it to the point that, when Iori realized he never really hated Kyo, he decided he'd never admit it to him.
How could he have possibly done that, after years of stalking and death threats screamed at the top of his lungs?
How could he have admitted something so personal?
What if Kyo had used that unexpected info against him, to make fun of him and be cruel?
Iori kept repeating to himself he'd deserved it, but he also knew he wouldn't have been able to bear it.
How would Kyo have reacted when discovering Iori was attracted to both women and men? Would he have been disgusted, knowing his longtime rival had developed a crush on him?
Unexpectedly, neither of that happened.
There had been shock, but Kyo never refused him.
He wasn't disgusted at all. Surprised, for sure.
Iori was too, when Kyo confessed he reciprocated his and Chizurus' feelings. That he liked them too.
He never left their side since, and true to his clan crest he became their sunshine.
Kyo did everything in his power to make him and Chizuru smile, picking up the pieces of their broken souls and mending them back together with an invisible golden thread, relentlessly and unconditionally.
He wasn't perfect, still childish, and the whole N.E.S.T.S ordeal had left him with wounds he was unable to fix or explain to someone.
At least until their relationship started.
Iori and Chizuru knew what happened to him. They were broken, but they were able to help him.
They all found the support and love they needed.
It hadn't been easy, they had a rocky start and adapting to a poly relationship had been a game of guessing and learning, but they did it. And they were still here, after almost a year. Sometimes Iori was still baffled by that, how far they've got, how just one year prior all this would have been just a wild fantasy.
"Hey, whatcha doin' with your phone?"
Kyo's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
Iori smirked and snapped another pic. "Just trying to take a picture, but you two are too dirty and messy to get a decent result."
Kyo and Chizuru exchanged a look and smirked back.
"Well, sorry we're not currently holding up to your high standards, Yagami-san" Kyo mocked him using his last name, despite having switched to his first name a few months into their relationship. "Please, allow us to make up for that."
"Come here, Iorin" Chizuru purred, "join us in the dirt!"
And so they both started running toward him with extended arms, their stained gloves still on.
Iori jumped on his feet.
"Don't you even try!" he hissed. "Stay away from me-NO! NO, STAY BACK, YOU ASSHOLES!"
"What the… I can't believe it!"
The more Iori cleaned his face and neck, the more he found oil stains somewhere.
Dinner had been uneventful, except he also had to join Kyo and Chizuru in the shower - separately, of course, as the least thing he wanted was to be caught doing anything but sleep at the Kusanagi estate - because they successfully managed to catch and smear him in grease. A thing that was making his skincare routine way longer than usual.
Finally sure there were no more stains on his neck, Iori trashed the used cotton pads and put his eyeglasses on his head to keep the hair away from the eyes, and finally cleaned his face for good.
Motor grease fight he'd lost aside, the rest of the night was pretty quiet: he helped Shizuka with the dinner, as he enjoyed cooking a lot, had to bear the awful dad jokes and bad puns Saisyu Kusanagi, Kyo and Chizuru dished out (another fight he couldn't win. Both he and Shizuka found those jokes terrible, but they were always outnumbered), and also got an update about his magatama.
Blinking, he looked for the washcloth and then for his skin cleanser.
His family jewel had been in Chizuru's hands for a few months now.
It was a weird feeling being without it but, unlike that one time Ash Crimson stole it, he decided to give it to her.
She had his trust, and also an idea for getting rid of the curse: after a lot of digging and reading in their clans' archives, Chizuru came to the conclusion that the curse was tied to the magatama only and not to its user, thus explaining why Iori couldn't use his flames without it, but also why he didn't suffer its side effects in that case.
She explained that probably the Hakkeshu that made a pact with his ancestor 660 years ago had cursed the jewel and binded the Yasakani flames to it, making its user dependant from the item: they had to rely on the magatama in order to being able to use the flames, but in making so they were also condemned to a short lifespan. Not using it would have meant being curse-free, but also not being able to use the flames.
Therefore, the magatama could be considered a cursed item not so different from many others still existing, and Chizuru was sure it was possible for her to exorcize it.
Since then, Iori gave his jewel to the priestess, who spent countless hours carefully untangling the invisible cursed threads that covered it. It was a long process and far from being done, not to mention they all had to be even more careful and keep a closer eye to the Orochi seal.
It also meant they had to rearrange their fighting strategies, with Iori switching back to his Yasakani style - using the magatama only if necessary - and Kyo training with him and learning how to rely less on his flames and more on his kempo, becoming even more dangerous as the tank of their team.
Iori looked around until he found the tonic, the last step in his nightly skin care routine.
He still felt weird without his flames.
He wasn't scared, he knew he was more than capable of fighting without them, as all the tournament fighters learned when Crimson had robbed him of those.
It was just… strange. As a part of him was missing.
But he also knew it was for a good reason.
Now, Iori had hope.
Hope for him to get rid of the curse and live a long life.
Hope to spend it with his lovers.
It was a scary thought to have, especially when that little voice in his head kept saying it was just wishful thinking and that it would have never worked. That he was still bound to die within his thirty years.
Iori wasn't sure if it was Orochi or his own self-hate who was speaking, not that it mattered anyway: the thought was still there in the back of his mind, resurfacing whenever his mood was low.
But now he didn't have to face this fight alone.
Chizuru and Kyo made sure to keep his spirit up and remind him that nothing was set in stone anymore, and that as long as they had something to work with, there was hope.
And a small part of him was desperately holding onto that.
Finally done with his nightly skin care routine, Iori exited the bathroom and headed to Kyo's room, where he and Chizuru were already nestled in bed, cuddling and apparently still working on his English pronunciation.
"May I have a coke please?"
"No, it's coke. Try again."
"May I have a coke please?"
Chizuru snorted. Kyo pouted.
"Guess I'll just ask for a beer when traveling outside Japan" he grumbled, putting his English textbook away.
Iori chuckled.
While they had been able to convince Kyo to go back to study, it turned out that helping him learn new languages was a hopeless challenge.
Discovering Kyo went around for years asking for dicks instead of a soda because of his awful pronunciation had been the source of endless entertainment, and became a recurring inside joke.
"You okay here? Want some snacks before sleeping?"
Shizuka's smiling face appeared from the slightly opened door, already bringing some leftover cookies from their afternoon tea.
"Can't say no to that!" Kyo said, getting up and taking the tray from his mom's hands. The woman smiled, only to grimace when looking at his pajamas.
"Oh, Kyo… again with the ugly underwear?"
Iori didn't notice his lover's undies of the day until now.
A cat. A stylized kitty face over his dick.
"They're not ugly, you just can't see the beauty of it!"
Shizuka just shook her head and exited the room, saying goodnight to the triad and glancing one last time at her son, whose face was sporting an annoyingly satisfied grin.
Having been left alone, Iori turned to look at his lover.
"Really, Kyo? A cat face over your dick?"
"If it makes you feel better, he bought two of those" Chizuru chimed in, curled in bed with her phone. "The other pair has a bird on it."
"Couldn't leave them at the store, I immediately thought of you two!" he gleefully answered, joining his girlfriend back in bed with the cookies. "This way none of you will feel neglected."
"Charmed."
"And I will always have you two with me! You'll be 24/7 in my head!"
"Ah yes, one of your two heads. The one you use the most."
Iori almost choked on a cookie.
Chizuru was smirking - and put her round eyeglasses on, he noticed - while Kyo just clicked his tongue.
"Ah. Ah. Ah. Very funny."
"Oh come on, don't be offended" she hugged him, "we love you this way and you know it."
Kyo's only answer was to mock her, repeating her words and making dumb faces. That was enough to fuel the priestess' ego.
"I see you want war. So be it."
"What-NO! NO!"
In the span of a few seconds Kyo's bed became the arena for a tickling fight, and Chizuru was of course winning. She had years of experience thanks to Iori being extremely ticklish.
Once again, Iori picked up his phone and took some pics of them, even a short video.
It was a true joy to see Chizuru being finally able to laugh and have fun like a normal twenty-three years old would.
Her upbringing had been hard, focused only on her role as keeper of the Orochi seal, and when Maki died she withdrew herself even more.
Always serious, always well-mannered, always the source of wisdom for everyone around her.
She accepted her duties without questioning them, carrying the weight of a role that was once for two people, never allowing herself to properly mourn her sister, never allowing herself to feel something different from the need of always taking care of her duties.
When they started dating, years prior, Iori did what he could to make her happy. And he managed to, they'd been happy and she always smiled at him and made him feel at home. But they were both damaged people, and their past was still hovering over their heads, Iori's especially.
Orochi and his self-hate were always there, never leaving him alone, tainting all his relationships.
Kyo helped them in that too.
Sure, their poly relationship put an end to the endless fights between them, finally setting Chizuru free from her role of unpaid babysitter. But it also meant she was finally able to enjoy her youth as everyone else would, finally able to laugh, joke and even act like a kid with Kyo, just like in that moment.
Like in a puzzle, Kyo was the final missing piece that completed their picture.
"STOP! CHI STOP, COME ON!"
"Only if you say 'please'!"
"NO!"
"Then perish under my nails!"
"OKAY OKAY! PLEASE, STOP!"
Kyo finally surrendered to Chizuru's supremacy and flopped on the mattress, panting, the girl still laughing and resting her head on his chest. Iori moved near the bed with crossed arms and his book in one hand, the corners of his lips curling upward.
"You think you can make room for me or I have to ask for a futon?"
Chizuru moved a bit near the wall while Kyo made a big, dramatic gesture with his arm. "Of course, have a seat, make yourself cozy!"
Iori shook his head and just took the given spot in the middle. In doing so his eyes fell again on Kyo's embarrassing kitty undies. He lowkey hoped Shizuka never had the chance to see some of the worst ones from his collection, like the undies with an anime-style smiling dick or the "All you can eat" one. But since she was still taking care of her son's laundry most of the time, well…
"Like what you see, Iorin? Ready to get frisky?"
Kyo's dumb expression met his own.
"Not here and you know that" Iori said, finally comfy. "And those undies are the least sexy thing ever."
"You say that every time I buy a new one."
"Because they're all awful."
"I'd never have started this collection if it wasn't for your snarky comments, so you have to thank yourself for this."
Iori didn't say anything, because that was sadly true. He just put his glasses back on and opened his book, Chizuru to his right still looking at her phone with sleepy eyes, Kyo on the left playing some mobile games on his own device.
An hour or so passed when Iori finally yawned.
Chizuru and Kyo were already sleeping, curled next to him. Trying to not wake them up, Iori turned and placed his glasses and book on the big night table placed behind the bed, then nestled under the blanket.
Immediately, Chizuru rolled near and hugged him, hiding her face against his chest. Iori hugged her too, his chin resting on her head. A moment later Kyo hugged his back, trying to also reach Chizuru with his arm.
Every night they spent together, they often slept like this, a mess of bodies and limbs desperately trying to feel each other's warmth and closeness.
Iori loved it.
Hugging Chizuru while sleeping was something that made both of them feel better. And Kyo being the big spoon made Iori feel safe. Chizuru loved it too.
Kyo was a cuddler, and even more than receiving, he loved being the one giving his lovers hugs and kisses and everything in between.
A leg, probably Chizuru's, crossed his. Then Kyo did the same, effectively trapping Iori between them. He hoped he wouldn't need a trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
"Hmmfasshole…"
Iori tried to suppress a laugh.
Turning his head a bit, he whispered. "Were you talking about me specifically or was it generic?"
Kyo's only answer was another grumph and another unintelligible word. Then just snoring.
Tomorrow. He would have asked again tomorrow.
Notes:
…okay, it's not reaaaally Valentine-ish, but it's not really my fave festivity ever.
I think it's still really nice, though. My boi here deserves ALL THE JOYS. And since I won't rule out the idea of other snippets while working on the main story, I'll make an AO3 series for it.
A few notes here and there:
*In my headcanons, Chizuru loves to take care of her bike all by herself. Instant thing in common with Kyo, clearly.
*Iori hates bikes. There's a deep reason for it, but will come out in the main story. He also loves to cook.
*I was looking for snacks to eat with Japanese tea, and stumbled upon a site that sells snack boxes with different teas and cookies, paired based on their flavors and all. White peach tea, despite the name, is a type of black tea, while shiroi koibito are butter cookies with white chocolate filling. Now I'm hungry.
*The story of how Iori and Chizuru fell in love had been told in Nirvana: that story is pretty much the root of all my headcanons regarding them, so unless stated otherwise when I mention them as a couple/exes that's the story about them that sparked everything, no matter if it's a sequel or a different story. That's always my starting point.
*BISEXUAL IORI WORLD DOMINATION3
*The golden thread mentioned when talking about Kyo mending their broken pieces is a reference to kintsugi, the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold paint, creating something new and beautiful. I really love this concept, and thought it would fit Kyo's role perfectly.
*I will be forever salty at SNK for having forgotten about what Kyo went through thanks to N.E.S.T.S and pretty much leaving him sane and unscather while, in reality, he should have TONS of traumas from that. I have plans for this, of course, but still. Dammit, SNK.
*Iori obviously has a skin care routine. My boi is a singer and musician, he probably uses tons of stage makeup (not to mention the eyeliner he has in a lot of canon arts, look at his KoF ALLSTAR ones! Nakata understood the assignment and delivered3), and stage lights are harsh. His pretty face needs maintenance.
*He's also a megane in my headcanons, as well as Chizuru. We love and cherish meganes in this household.
*So, the magatama and Iori's curse. Another thing SNK has pretty much forgotten (like… pretty much everything). While I have a few ideas about how to fix his curse, the one I mentioned here is currently my favorite, that takes inspiration from a very very old Ranma fanfiction where a curse was represented as a mass of threads all tangled and a character tried to remove it untangling it. I liked the idea and thought it could work with the magatama… and then, I wondered: how the hell does the magatama work? We know that Iori without it can't use its flames, so they're bound to it. But on the other hand, we know that while Kyo is the current user of the Kusanagi sword, Saisyu can still use his flames, as well as Aoi and Souji (Kyo's cousins, they can be seen in KoF: Kyo). So either their treasures work differently, or the curse tied the flames to the magatama. And decided to go on with this idea. I mean, it's not like SNK will ever give us a clear answer about it, right? So unless they'll shatter my expectations (lol) it's free real estate.
*Kyo collects horrible underwear. This is just a small part of his collection. His embarrassing English is also born from a BTS interview where Taehyung said out loud he liked coke… but pronounced it as cock without realizing it, poor boy. Thank you Tae, never change. 3
Okay, these notes turned out longer than I expected.
If you've read this far, thank you!
Mana