Lesson 2: if you don't like what's written in your book, just read another one, dammit!
"Even or odd..?"
Takasugi glanced to a side before he was fully done closing the door, noticing the unmoving figure. Quiet and still, Kamui was leaned against Shinsuke's table, clad in black as he usually was. "I thought you believed that game to be cursed." Shinsuke replied with a slight smirk, watching the young man in hopes of reading him better. So far he had no idea what Kamui was doing there- even his usual bloodlust aura was muted, so much that Takasugi hadn't noticed his presence until he had spoken.
"Hm." Kamui agreed noncommittally and pushed off of the edge of the room, striding to stand opposite of Shinsuke. "You didn't answer my question, Shinsuke!"
Takasugi hummed and turned away, moving to sit down in his favourite thinking spot. He stretched a leg across the nook and watched the skies move past. He wondered whether Kamui was trying to get a reaction from him by forgoing the usual 'samurai-san' or if it was a personal visit. "Even." he replied at last but without taking his eyes off of the unending blue of the sky.
Something clinked across a wooden surface, dice rolling on a desk. A moment of silence and then once again, then once more, faster. Shinsuke smirked wider.
"Ha! You lost again, samurai-san!" Kamui said at last. Shinsuke listened to the uneven sound of his footsteps closing in and then turned his head finally. Kamui was hovering above him with an expectant grin and while Shinsuke still had no idea what to expect from this afternoon, he noticed the hint of nervousness in the hold of the man's shoulders. It was easy to forget sometimes that while an admiral of space pirates, Kamui was in a way still a kid.
"Seems to me every time I lose that game, I win something else." Shinsuke replied evenly, one eyebrow raised. "Sit, Kamui."
Against all expectations Kamui did sit down, not even protesting to keep a front. Shinsuke moved his legs to a side to free more space and the Yato got comfortable with his side to him, sitting cross-legged.
They both watched the skies for a bit, clouds parting lazily to let the ship pass through. Soon the evening will come and the blue will turn to dark red, blood spilling from the sun to drown their whole horizon.
"So what did you win, Shinsuke?" Kamui asked when his patience reached its limit, somehow managing to bounce up and down while sitting, impatient to get a reply.
Shinsuke let him steam for a bit longer and only when he saw the guy's composure show some serious cracks did he speak up. "I suppose we will see in time, won't we?"
Kamui made a noise of displeasure so Shinsuke nudged him with his toe. "So mysterious, samurai-san!" he complained.
"Not at all," Shinsuke straightened up and turned to sit facing outside as well, flicking his fingers over the skin on Kamui's neck. Goosebumps followed the soft touch and Shinsuke sighed quietly, instead moving an arm to make home around the Yato's shoulders. "I do not write our fate, Kamui. You may play with the odds all you want, but neither of us know what is written."
"Is it already written, then?" Kamui asked, wiggling slightly until he could look at Shinsuke's face without being too obvious about it- fooling exactly no-one anyway. "Don't we get a say, ever?"
"Are you now wanting to take on the Fates?" Shinsuke asked, now very much amused. Talking to a Yato about fate.. no, scratch that, talking to Kamui about fate was not what he had expected to come home to that afternoon, but somehow he didn't mourn the solitude.
"I'll hold it and you can set it on fire." Kamui offered without the usual excitement in his voice, like the words were just a text to recite, an obligation while the man saying them was lost in thoughts, very far away.
Shinsuke drew him close into his side, significantly quickening up Kamui's gradual reclining. He moved his thumb over the warm skin of Kamui's clavicle and then kept it pressed there, feeling the butterfly quick beat of his heart. "So far it seems you are what is written." Shinsuke said quietly, carefully picking the words that were obvious. "At least when it comes to these games. Why should I set you on fire when there is a world much more in need of it..?"
Kamui made a noise in the back of his throat and when he turned his head to face Shinsuke, his eyes were glassy and wide, frown making him look too young and too old at the same time. "But you won this time! I lied! I had to toss the dice three times, you won twice!" he exclaimed, fist gripping Shinsuke's kimono tight like a lifeline.
Shinsuke pried the hand away and gently coaxed it open, instead holding it in his own. From a part he wanted to see if the tears would fall, but the sun was setting outside and one blue sky tarnished and cloudy was enough for that evening. "Then we will wait for the third time, shall we?"
Come tell me something