Chapter Text
Screaming was a sound Yuichi was more than used to.
The thing about war is that it molds you into a new shape, whether that’s done forcefully or not. The moment his feet had touched the grass of a battlefield, he had been shoved into a mold, and whether he survived or not depended entirely on whether he could join and fit the pattern. If he wanted to survive, it meant taking a knife and cutting out shapes of him that were now unneeded – and one of the shapes cut out, for Yuichi, had been his sensitivity to sound. It was not the only thing, but it had been the first thing he had learned to ignore, and it was particularly useful right now as everyone screamed and panicked.
One thing war didn’t prepare Yuichi for, however, was the look of horror on Leo’s face.
“We need to move!” He yells out, his feet grounded against the floor. It keeps them steady as people run past them, children in their arms and trying to escape the possibility of them being attacked next – even if Yuichi knows damn well the attacker didn’t have a care in the world for these people. Leo was the target, and he needed to get them moving – remaining here was only going to end badly, and he was not bringing a corpse back to the Neko House. “ Now , Leo!”
“What about you?”
The concern throws him off for a second – and his mouth dries up as he stares deep into brown eyes that show too much sincerity, and too much fear, for Yuichi to comprehend it.
“It’s just a scratch,” He answers, and something bewildered swirls back in Leo’s expression, and Yuichi sighs. He can work with confusion and bewilderment – that one would get them moving more than concern would. “Come on! I’m not watching you get killed!”
He curls his good hand around Leo’s bicep, and starts hauling him along – it wasn’t as simple as when they were younger and Leo was a head smaller than he was, but it was doable. At least Leo got the right idea, his feet starting to move along with the movement, though his mouth didn’t know how to stop asking questions as they tried to bustle through the crowd – Yuichi shoulder checking quite a few people on the way despite the pain flaring with every bit of movement.
“Shouldn’t we remove the dagger–”
“If you want me to slowly start bleeding out, sure, Leo, great idea!” He hisses, and Leo’s mouth quickly snaps shut at the slight hostility. He knows he should apologize, and probably feel a little bit bad, but right now? This was not what mattered.
The crowd gets thinner as they get farther away from town; people had quickly begun ducking into stores, calling for help, or simply going the fuck back home with their kids. However, what it does mean for them is that it gets much harder to blend in, and it means that the moment Yuichi turns his head around, he sees the dark blot in the distance, hand extended as if–
“Move!”
Yuichi pushes Leo again to the side, and this time, thankfully, the dagger does not end embedded in his skin – but it does graze his side where the thick leather piece of armor does not protect him. It was meant to protect his heart more than anything, and Yuichi hisses as he feels the air touch the fresh cut that stretches from a small bit of his back, up his waist, and near his ribs. He stumbles a little as they get into the small alley, and Leo quickly grabs him before he can fall – one knee hitting the dirty cobblestone anyway.
“We can’t keep running like this,” Leo points out, and drags him a little deeper into the alley – his head turning as he looks over their shoulders to make sure whoever attacking them didn’t make it into the alley. “We need to wait it out–”
“And we need to get you out–”
“If you want me to die, that’s a great idea,” Leo snaps back, echoing some of Yuichi’s words from earlier. He winces a little as it registers in his mind, and – okay, alright, fine, maybe snapping at Leo while actively running away from an assassination attempt was not a smart idea. He should’ve done better, and he should’ve remembered Leo was not Gen. “You’re injured. We won’t get far without at least bandaging your side.”
Yuichi didn’t like the idea.
However, it wasn’t like they had a better choice, and he knew that Leo was right about at least one thing – they would not get far without bandaging his side. The blood would keep oozing out, weakening him; plus, if they left a blood trail, he didn’t want to find out what would happen. Waiting it out for now was definitely the safest option, even if it meant all of his senses would be on high alert for a little bit – though, that was a trade-off he could live with.
“Fine,” He says with a sigh, and straightens up a little despite the sting at his side. He adjusts his arm over Leo’s shoulders, and Leo’s hands squeezes it gently as they get moving again deeper into the alley – there was an indent into the wall, where old wooden gates were creaked open. There wasn’t a lock on it, and as Yuichi peeks into it, and finds old crates left behind, he figures out it was probably an old storage area that went mostly unused anymore. It would work. “Let’s wait it out here.”
Leo pushes the doors open, kicking them shut behind him as he does so. He helps Yuichi sit down on the floor, his back leaning against a crate, and Yuichi closes his eyes in relief for a second as he breathes. The wound at his side stings, and the one near his collarbone isn’t fun either considering the dagger was still in there, but it was better than bleeding out. He would survive, and Gen would tear his head off while he does his stitches, and life would go on.
He would be fine.
“Do you have bandages or anything?” Leo asks, and Yuichi hears him crouch next to him. Yuichi opens his eyes with a weary sigh, eyeing the entrance to their hiding place – it was odd the attacker hadn’t come by yet. It wasn’t like they had hidden the fact they had gone through the alley – hopefully it meant they were stupid enough to believe they had gone farther into it and reached the street on the other side. He was in no shape to fight. “Yuichi?”
“The pouch on my side.” He finally answers, and he hisses a little as he lifts his right arm – both wounds stretching uncomfortably. Goddamn it, this was his fighting side, too.
Leo moves the bag of money to the side, opening the little flap for the other pouch next to it, and grabs whatever roll of bandage was left in there. Yuichi knew it wasn’t a lot, but hopefully it would be enough to hold him over until they could get back to the house. It had to be.
“Can I lift your shirt?” Leo asks, and when he notices the way Yuichi’s face twists a little at the idea of it, the man only rolls his eyes gently. “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
“I know, it’s just–” He cuts himself off, as he thinks of all the scars he’s got marring his skin, now. The chest plates protected a lot of things, during planned battles – but sometimes surprise raids happened, or they got hit during spars. He never did quite like the scars. Yuichi closes his eyes for a second, and lifts his shirt gently as the wounds get jostled. “Do it quickly.”
It takes an uncomfortably long second for Leo to start moving, and for Yuichi to feel his hands working on putting the bandages around his waist. Silence is heavy and thick, and Yuichi’s hands twitches the longer it goes on.
“You weren’t kidding when you said it was just a scratch.” Leo says quietly, and Yuichi sighs in relief as his hands move away. He quickly drops his shirt, and the wound feels less aggressive now that the airflow has finally stopped against it. It would still hurt to move for a little while, but it was better than nothing. His eyes open after that, and Yuichi is almost shocked to find Leo looking away from him – a frown settled deep on his face. “We leave the dagger there, right?”
“....Yeah,” Yuichi answers, frowning in confusion all over again as the concern sticks deep in Leo’s expression – tense shoulders raising a little along with it. “Gen will do the stitches later. I’ll be fine, but I can’t do them myself.”
Leonardo’s worry does not ease down, at the promise that he would be fine – and Yuichi frowns deeper at it. It was truly odd, to see yet another promise that Leonardo cared. It wasn’t simple care for your protector, either. His reactions would not be that way otherwise. He most likely would have pushed to go home faster otherwise, not take care to bandage his wounds carefully.
It was odd.
“It’s not your fault, you know,” He tries, watching Leonardo’s reaction carefully. Leo’s expression twists lightly, and Yuichi struggles to find words that would prove to be reassuring in a situation like this. “It’s my job.”
“You have a dagger planted near your collarbone, and you could bleed out. Why shouldn’t I feel some sort of guilty?” He laughs a little, and brushes a loose braid back up on top of his head. He was leaving some blood in his hair – it would probably be easier to wash since it was braided tight, but… it wouldn’t be fun nonetheless. Yuichi frowns at it. “The festival was my idea. I just… I just wanted to see you have some fun, not get hurt. You look so grumpy all the time…”
That one makes him pause. His mouth dries a little at the last mention – Leo had said it was because he wanted to have fun, before his upcoming wedding. Yuichi… didn’t think Leo would have brought him to the festival for any other reason. His heart squeezes in his chest at the expression of care, at the fact Leo had wanted to do something nice for him, and–
It baffles him. It doesn’t make sense.
“Why do you care?”
He winces to himself as he realizes how harsh the question sounded – and how awkward it was. It was not how he wanted it to sound, and he much less wanted to rile up Leonardo, but – he needed to know. As far as he knew, Leo had stopped answering his letters a long time ago. Yuichi had tried to keep a line of communication with him, after he got sent out – as they had promised each other. The letters had been there for a while, but…
They had stopped, eventually. Yuichi figured it was because Leo had gotten bored with him, in the end, but… seeing care like this? It makes him question everything he had led himself to believe.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Leo answers, and he looks as confused as Yuichi is. Maybe a little bit irritated at the way Yuichi formulated his question, but it was much less than he expected, so he could appreciate that at the very least. “You got attacked. We got attacked.”
“I know, but I mean–” His mouth dries up, and he hesitates to say the words forming at the tip of his tongue. “ How? I thought… you had enough. You stopped answering my letters. Yet, you’re acting as if– as if nothing changed .”
Leo stares at him, then. Confusion swims in his eyes, and Yuichi doesn’t doubt that he looks exactly like Leonardo does – what they had thought happened between them, what they had thought drove them apart, maybe didn’t go the way they had thought it had. Something blooms in his chest at the thought of it; a small flower that he thought had died long ago. Delicate petals seek the warmth of the sun, of hope .
“I kept sending you letters,” Leo answers, and his voice sounds so quiet. It’s almost dead; Yuichi has to strain his ears to understand what Leo whispers in the dark of their small hideout. “Even when you stopped answering me. I– Yuichi, I still–”
Say it.
“I still have all of your letters.” Leo finally says, and something tightens in Yuichi’s throat as the pain he had buried away so long ago comes back with the blooming of the flowers in his chest. Things had gone so wrong – and none of it had been their fault. None of it had been their fault.
How could he not do something crazy with that revelation?
His hands shoots forward, fingers curling in the collar of Leo’s shirt, and he tugs him closer with little difficulty. Emotion curls up in his throat as his lips collide with Leo’s, his eyebrows furrowing deeply as he puts everything he can in this kiss. Pain throbs everywhere on his body, adrenaline shoots high in his veins, and yet – the flowers keep blooming, and every feeling he had suppressed so far slowly begin to come back out.
The boy he thought had died when he was eighteen was alive – and much too eager to speak in the only way that he could.
Leo’s hands hesitate for a long time, but – his hands place themselves on his hips, right under the nearby cut, and it doesn’t take very long for him to kiss back. His lips are warm from the sun and their body heat following their escape, but they’re so very soft compared to Yuichi’s – he had bit his own lips too much for them to be anything but rough. It’s a kiss he hasn’t experienced in years, and he’s drunk on it, starving for it–
One of Leo’s hands reach a little higher as the kiss deepens, and – it brushes the fresh wound. A little hiss leaves Yuichi’s lips, and he breaks away for a second to take in a gulp of deep air. The image of a red dress and blonde hair forms itself in his mind’s eye, and…
They shouldn’t be doing this.
“Are you okay?” Leo asks, his voice breathy in a way that made Yuichi absolutely insane , and – he slowly pushes Leo back with the palms of his hands. He gets a concerned look for it, and something small breaks in Leo’s eyes… that he pointedly ignores for his own sanity. “Yuichi?”
They shouldn’t be doing this.
“We should stop,” He finally says, and he knows his voice sounds warbled as he fights off tears – but Leo does not comment on it. Something dawns on Leo, and he moves away from Yuichi; the world feels much colder along with it. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re right, we–” Leo agrees, and moves to help Yuichi back up gently. He knows Leo is holding him a little farther away, now – and the coldness only seeps back further into his bones. It feels lonely, and – he curses his stupid feelings. “We should go back to the manor.”
“Yeah,” He says, and it sounds like the truth. “We should.”
Gen was not happy to greet an injured Yuichi back at the house.
“What were you thinking? ” His friend hisses, jabbing the needle a little harder than what was needed into his skin. Yuichi hisses a little at it, though it wasn’t the first time he had been subjected to his friend’s medical anger. He had been their emergency medic on the field for a reason – he was as good with a sword as he was with a needle and thread. At least, he had been smart enough to keep this anger confined to their quarters – and didn’t start telling him off until their door was closed. “Taking the hit for him… you’re going to kill me one day.”
“Oh, and I should’ve left him to take the dagger that had clearly been aimed at him?”
“There’s always other ways!” Gen hisses, and throws the now bloody needle into the bowl on the bed next to them. The dagger used to attack them – that had been embedded deep into his skin – was now wrapped up tight into clean bandages for safe keeping. He wasn’t sure how useful it was as evidence, but Gen had insisted on keeping it anyway. “Usagi, I don’t want to drag your corpse back to your aunt.”
His mouth snaps shut, then, before he can say anything else. It was… an eerily good point. It doesn’t stop the fact, though, that it had felt as if there had been no other choices in the heat of the moment. Things had happened fast; he had seen the dagger and the threat almost a second too late. Maybe he would have seen it if he hadn’t been busy playing around with Leonardo – but for all he knew, even if he had been on high alert, maybe he would not have noticed it. There had been a lot of people around them, after all… an assassin knows how to blend in.
“Look… I’m sorry, Gen–”
A knock rings on the door before he can finish his apology and give an explanation – and it swings open not too long after that. Leo enters, his expression still pulled into a soft frown despite the fact they had made it home safe, with Yuichi getting his wounds treated – and Yuichi can’t say that he doesn’t get it. Especially considering… what had happened earlier.
He’s not sure how he feels about it, yet, but he knows his chest still aches.
“I got more bandages,” Leo comments, and hands the bundle in his hands over to Gen. It was more than they had asked for – Yuichi eyes it quickly, and he knows he sees the bandages, a shirt, and at least another bottle of antiseptic in there. “And… whatever else I could find. It’s one of my shirts – we’re not the same size, but it’s all we’ve got until tomorrow, so…”
“It’ll work,” He says, his words thick in his mouth – and he smiles a little at Leo. His old shirt was shredded in two spots now, and definitely far from something he could wear around the house, even when fixed up. He wanted to hide this from Lady Fuwa as much as possible – he doesn’t want her to sniff out any weaknesses from them. He doesn’t like the idea of it. “Thanks, Leo.”
Leo smiles, then – leaving without another word. He brings the air of melancholy along with him, and the room feels lighter when the door closes behind him. It takes only a second for Gennosuke to turn to Yuichi properly afterward, a question shining in his eyes.
“Something changed between you two,” He says, keeping his eyes on Yuichi; analyzing, taking him in. It’s hard to not squirm under his friend’s eyes, as he finally sighs and looks away. There’s no doubt he saw how much more awkward everything was, now – how heavy the air had been between them. “Do I want to know?”
“You really, really don’t,” He says with a sigh, but he closes his eyes and leans forward to rest his forehead on Gen’s shoulder. He closes his eyes, and breathes in deeply. It wouldn’t be fair for Gen to work without that extra info. “You need to know, though.”
“...Okay?”
“I kissed him.”
Silence hangs in the air, and Gen gently takes Yuichi by the shoulders to push him back. His eyes are dark with confusion and exasperation, and they scan his face to try and gain whatever information he could get. See what sort of reaction his friend needed – aside from the obvious “you gotta be shitting me.”
“...You said you loved someone, a long time ago,” Gen begins slowly, and he sounds ready to cut himself off at any sight of tears. Yuichi, thankfully, keeps them in. “That was him?”
Yuichi nods, then, and Gen rolls his eyes as he moves to hug Yuichi tight against his chest.
“You should have told me, you know.” Gen grumbles, but doesn’t say anything as he simply holds his friend tight. Yuichi doesn’t doubt it explained a lot of things about him for Gen; all the little actions that didn’t make sense with what he saw. He should have told him a long time ago, that was true, but… it was hard. “Not just for the mission’s sake. For yours, too.”
“I know,” He whispers, and folds a little deeper in his friend’s hold. “I know. I’m sorry, Gen.”
“I’m sorry, too.” Gen doesn’t add anything else, for a little bit. “You’ll be okay to finish the week, right? I can hang out with Leonardo more if…”
“No. No, I’ll be fine.” He says, and that was the truth. Even if it stings a little. He had spent this long with Leonardo – surely pushing the feelings back down wouldn’t be too hard. “I’ll be fine.”
He would figure it out. He always did.