The sky above the slumbering forest became a twilight pastel, and Takumi stirred as the first birds began their song. He was not used to sleeping on the ground. He wasn't used to sleeping with another person, either.
The two boys were wrapped tightly in Takumi's kimono. His lover's slow, steady breath against his arm, the one that supported Leo's head, told the Hoshidan that Leo was still asleep. Together, the formed their own warm, little world. Takumi smiled—a private smile, made only for himself. He nuzzled against his sleeping partner's tousled hair, and scented its redolence; his hands began to wander, slowly, so as not to disturb, some of the places they had discovered the night before.
And how delightful a journey it was. His caress slipped down the soft slope of slumbering Leo's back ever so gently, and stopped where the small of his back met his bottom. "Hummwaah?" Leo asked, and nested his face nearer to Takumi's armpit, asleep again.
Takumi held his breath; his hand wandered further, over Leo's undershorts, his backside. The stiffening organ in Takumi's shorts was begging, demanding further inspection, but... well, perhaps it was best to wait.
Leo stirred. "Mmm, Takumi-bear..." he said, his eyes as soft as the morning dew. He closed them up again, and wrapped Takumi tighter, trying to get a few more blissful moments of sleep. It had been a late night.
The sound of nearby shouting snapped Leo's eyes open again. He brought himself upright, and the kimono slipped from his pale white shoulders and fell to the grass beneath. Takumi's smile was gone. The unmistakable din of weaponclash came, joining the clamor of shouting and hooves pounding the earth.
"It's not safe," Takumi said, taking the lead. He took Leo by the hand and brought him to his feet. "We have to go!"
Leo took just one second to admire fully the rather large protrusion in the front of Takumi's undershorts. "Right," and he began snapping up his clothes, donning them as quickly as he could without having had his morning tomato juice. Nearby, their horses whinnied and tossed their heads impatiently, scenting blood on the morning wind.
Adrenaline racing, the boys mounted and rode like the wind through the trees towards the sound of battle. They debouched into a clearing, and witnessed a bloody clash. It was as they had feared: a squad of Nohrian infantry was battling with a Hoshidan scouting party. Dead and dying men lay scattered, and bloody weapons flashed and glinted in the sun as deft strokes were parried and countered. Takumi raised Fujin-yumi in an instant, and prepared to fell a Nohrian infantryman.
Leo batted the weapon aside, sending the arrow to sail harmlessly into the ground. "No!" he shouted.
Hooves drumming against the earth marked the appearance of reinforcements. Xander, Camille, and Elise rode in from the West; Ryoma, Hinoka, and Sakura rode in from the East.
"Leo, what are you doing?!" shouted Xander. Here, the eyes of their siblings were on them. "Get over here now!"
Leo locked eyes with Takumi, and all the pain in the world was his: "Come with me," he only whispered. "Please, Takumi." It was now or never.
Takumi hesitated, then shook his head no. "Takumi!" shouted Ryoma and Hinoka. After what seemed decades, Takumi broke away and rode to his family. Leo never saw those tears that ran down his cheeks; almost nobody did.
Later, the two lovers met in combat: Brynhildr, the fire that burned in Leo's heart, and Fujin-yumi, the wind that stoked it. They could not bring themselves to hurt each other, for each served to make the other greater; instead they turned and fled each other, each going their own way to the frail solace of East versus West, of duty, of lines that should not have been crossed.