Broken Bird: Chapter 3
<<= Chapter 2 Beginning Archive Chapter 4 =>>
Title: Broken Bird: Chapter 3
Author: saurgristiel (supplemented by b-sim)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Hyde (Hideto) & Gackt (Satoru), Ken, KAZ (Kazu), misc OCs
Genre: Historical,
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, just the idea.
Warnings: Violence/abuse, Inappropriate touching.
Words: 2,837
Summary: Hideto finally finds his Satoru.
~~~
He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he was rudely pulled back to reality by 2 men hoisting him up by his shoulders. They dragged him into the adjoining room and hung his wrist rope just high enough that he couldn’t push up and free himself. The peg that the rope was resting on was angled up too.
He was right that the day would be hot and he could feel the oppressive weather weighing on his chest. He was quite uncomfortable, not to mention the eight pairs of eyes on him.
Their leader walked into the room. “Looks like someone is coming for you.” Satoru looked up at him from his spot on the floor next to a column in the wall. “We just have to wait now.” He sat down on a cushion and enjoyed a small meal with his men.
About an hour later, one of the men got a bit too drunk and started making moon-eyes at Satoru, who shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. His hands were numb and his shoulders were starting to hurt.
“Boss… Can I…?”
“Just a little…”
The man smiled like a predator at Satoru, who tried to back up against the wall. The man pulled out a knife, put it between his teeth, and crawled over to Satoru. He sat on his knees and ran his finger down the collar of Satoru’s yukata and down his chest.
The man's fingers were calloused, just like Hideto's were, but his touch was completely different. It made Satoru think of the differences and it made him miss home and Hideto even more. He wished with all his might at that very moment that this was all just a terrible nightmare. They could beat him, insult him, cut his hair, shame him, but this? Touching him? It was the ultimate disgrace. No one but Hideto had touched Satoru like this before and it was something that the tall man wanted to keep just to themselves. The thought that he wouldn't be able to made more tears well up in his eyes.
“P-Please don’t…” Satoru stuttered, trying to beg the man to be merciful and let him keep this much of himself - they had taken everything else. A tear streaked down his cheek.
The man placed the back of the knife on Satoru’s lips. “Don’t speak.” He trailed it down to Satoru’s neck and he lightly pressed. “Understand?” Satoru whined, memories flashing before his eyes, but nodded. “Good.”
Satoru pulled his knees up when the man’s hand went for the hem of his yukata. Satoru sniffed as he started crying, afraid of what the man might do. He trembled as the man ran his hand up his shin and gasp-squeaked in fear when the man reached past his knee.
The man set the knife aside, “I SAID be quiet.” He put his hand on Satoru’s mouth and shoved his head back, knocking it against the wall.
“Hey…” Their boss said.
Satoru’s vision went for a swim and he closed his eyes to try to keep the nausea in check. It didn’t really work. The force of the man’s hand also pulled his lip just wrong and made it bleed again. Satoru couldn’t do anything but cry as the man’s other hand slid up his thigh.
Knowing that, by now, it was futile to fight, Satoru tried to make the best of what was happening, closing his eyes and trying to imagine that it was Hideto touching him. He tried to block out the sounds of the men having their meal at the table. He tried to ignore the pain in his limbs. He replayed sounds of Hideto's pants and moans and sweet words in his head from memory. He wasn't trying to gain any pleasure out of this, just trying to lessen the pain and the humiliation.
It wasn't working.
He was far too weak to do something as drastic as creating a different reality. He didn't have the mental strength to do it. Whimpering softly, he gave up completely.
That was when there was a noise somewhere in the house.
An unconscious man crashed through the shoji that separated the rooms. “That yours?”
Satoru slowly opened his eyes, recognizing that voice. Relief seemed to flood his veins then. He knew Hideto would come for him, he just didn’t know when. The man removed his hand.
“Who’re you?” Their boss demanded.
“I’m here for… him.” He slowed down as he pointed to Satoru, taking in his Sa-chan’s appearance: Little dot bruises on his cheeks, a bleeding lip, and a still-red-turning-purple mark from being slapped earlier. His hair didn’t bunch right. And he was crying. There were only two words in both his and Haido's mind: Sa-chan's hurt.
Satoru saw Hideto’s eye twitch and his focus fuzz. “Run…”
“What?’
“RUN!!” He cried as he saw Haido emerge. A wicked smile curled to Hideto’s lips as he drew his sword. Satoru’s condition made any hope of negotiating fly out the window.
Haido placed both his and Hideto's anger into their sword, slashing down enemy after enemy. Haido could feel Hideto's heartache within itself as well, knowing that the sight of Satoru must have hurt him. It could also feel guilt - Hideto felt guilty for not coming here in time. Two of its most precious people were hurt in some way or other. These men had hurt them. That gave Haido all the reason it needed to do what it was. Enemy... Hurt Sa-chan... Hurt Hideto... Must kill.
Hideto, on this rare occasion, was on Haido's side, willing the little demon to cut them down more brutally. He usually wasn't a violent man but he would become one if his lover was hurt. And from the way that man had been positioned so closely to Satoru, Hideto could only guess what he had been doing. The thought that someone else touched his Sa-chan like that made his blood boil.
As everyone went Quixotic to fight the intruder, Satoru tried to get free. He pulled a little too hard on the peg and it let go, making his hands and the peg fall onto his head. “Owww…” He held his head for a moment, trying not to listen to the fight, knowing it would upset him.
As he tried to get feeling back in his hands, he noticed the knife that his latest abuser had set down. As he reached for it, someone stepped on it, only to topple back from having a knife thrown into his neck.
Satoru closed his eyes, regained his composure, and picked the knife up. At first, he discovered that Mizuho had tied his ankles quite simply. He untied that rope and examined his wrist rope. It was tied simply as well, but complicated enough that he couldn’t undo it one handed. He held the knife between his heels and carefully cut through the rope. It was tricky, but he managed to free himself with cutting, wriggling, and perseverance.
He looked up and saw the carnage. Everyone except their leader had been defeated, either dead or nearly dead on the floor or propped against a wall. Hideto was surprisingly clean, or at least less blood-covered than one might expect. He hadn’t mutilated the men (mostly), just killed them.
And now their leader fell to the ground, sliding off of Hideto’s sword.
Satoru managed to get to his feet and stumbled toward Hideto as the bloody sword was raised to make sure the leader wasn’t breathing. He hugged Hideto from behind and begged, “Don’t. I’m fine, just…” He got light-headed again and panted, “I’m okay… Haido, I’m okay…”
Haido fought for a second and said, “Breathing…”
“That’s me…” Though, it might not have been, but whoever it was would not live to see the sun set.
Satoru took a step back but slipped and they landed on their bums together. He kept holding Hideto, willing him to come back to his senses, while he tried to fight his illness, resting his head on Hideto’s shoulder, closing his eyes. God, he had missed this so much. He took a deep breath, taking in Hideto's scent. It was mixed with the smell of blood and sweat but a scent that was purely Hideto alone was there. It made him feel as if everything was going to be alright from now on. They would go home soon and everything would be back to normal.
At the gentle touch to the body he shared with Haido, Hideto slowly came down from his own killing high. Just as he was about to tell Haido that everything was okay now (Haido had become more obedient in the last 3 years thanks to Satoru), they heard a womanly gasp, scream, and a thud on the floor. Haido tensed once more, readied its sword and tried to get up, but Satoru, even with his fading strength, managed to keep it from doing so.
“No. She’s okay… Don’t… hurt her…” He panted. He felt the body in his arms relax.
Hideto blinked a few times, finally regaining control. “S-Sa-chan…?” Hideto dropped his sword and looked around him, noticing the crying girl.
“I’m okay…” he heard next to his ear. Hideto turned around and held Satoru’s face in his hands, wiping his cheeks with his thumbs. Gaining a closer look at Satoru now, Hideto realized that the servant had been treated worse than he thought. He had never before seen this many bruises and wounds on his lover. Hideto had always done his best to make sure that he was safe. And his hair... It was shorter than before. Something clenched inside him as he realized that - he wondered how painful it must have been for Satoru for the past few days.
“Thank God…” Hideto set his forehead to Satoru’s and gently kissed him (Mizuho was too horrified at the room to notice this). He let Satoru slump against his shoulder while he searched his sleeves for his beloved’s medicine. “Sa-chan, stay with me…” He felt Satoru nod and opened the medicine jar. He turned Satoru and helped him drink his medicine. “You need to take some of your medicine with you wherever you go, Sa-chan…”
“’ll try to rember…”
As Satoru rested against Hideto, his wounded hand was finally noticed. “Sa-chan?” He ran a finger down the delicate wrist and onto the bandage, making Satoru wince, however gentle Hideto's touch was. “What happened?”
“Later…” Satoru slurred, wanting nothing more than sleep.
“Alright…” Hideto caressed Satoru’s cheek and kissed the top of his head before turning his attention to the girl. “Hey.” He got no response. “Hey girl-”
“Mizuho…” Satoru mumbled.
“What? Miz-” But all he got was a soft snore. He sighed. “Hey look… Mi-chan…” Oh yeah, nice bluff… “Do you have somewhere Satoru can sleep?” Still no response. He picked up his sword and banged the flat end on the floor, getting impatient. He usually wouldn't have been so rash but Satoru was ill, exhausted, and he needed a place to rest. She looked up and finally looked at him through teary, frightened eyes.
“Look… Sa-chan doesn’t want me to hurt you, for some reason… Is there a place better than right here where he can sleep more comfortably?” She kind of nodded. “Okay. Can you help me move him?”
“D-Demon…”
Hideto sighed in slight irritation. He had gotten used to the nickname already, but it was this girl's misunderstanding of his two personalities that got to him. Everyone else already knew about the two different personas that their lord had. “Look, I’m not right now. If I was, you’d be dead and the room would be a lot messier…”
“You… killed my brother…” Her voice wavered from her grief.
“I’m sorry…” But he actually wasn't. No matter what they had been trying to do, it gave them no right to do whatever they had done to Satoru. “They’ll be returned to you and your village or whatever and this house will be cleaned up. You can see that I’m small, I can’t move him by myself…” He hated admitting he was short, but it might get her to help.
“Why should I believe you… that you won’t kill me…”
“Because an innocent being like him trusts me…” He laid his arm around Satoru. “And he doesn’t want you dead. So unless you do something really stupid, you’ll live.” That was a bit insensitive, but he had to gain her trust somehow.
She was still reluctant.
“I promise I won’t hurt you. Sa-chan really should lay down… Do it for him?”
She shakily got up and weaved through the bodies. They wrangled Satoru into the adjoining room and made him comfortable. She shut the fusuma to the carnage and started to leave the room, but Hideto stopped her.
“Where are his belongings?”
She silently went to the corner and got the little pile, bringing it to Hideto and set it on the floor beside him.
“What happened?” He tried not to sound angry, but by the way she jumped, he hadn’t succeeded. “Sorry…”
“M-my brother can be a bit rough sometimes… He… was just trying to help our village…” She wiped at the tears on her cheeks and looked at Satoru. They just had to pick the beautiful one...
An uncomfortable silence enveloped them.
“He’s taken…”
“W-What?” Her face flushed- how could he have known?
Hideto shrugged and averted his attention back to Satoru, petting him gently and running his fingers through his shorter hair. He missed Satoru's long locks already but comforted himself with the fact that it would grow out soon.
“The way you look at him… I just want you to know that he’s got someone, back home.”
“Uh… oh…” She looked down at her hands in her lap. It would figure that all the guys she liked would either be gay or taken.
Hideto looked back up at her at the sound of her defeated tone. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be nice to him…”
“Right… Ummm… What’s wrong with him?” She tentatively asked.
There was a frown on Hideto's face as he felt Satoru's forehead - was the medicine he had given his lover not enough? He was still feverish. He was looking slightly paler too and he had broken out in a sweat. He bit his lip, wondering if it would be best for them to travel back now, but wondered if Satoru was strong enough to withstand the distance in his current condition. He decided against it.
If it got any more serious, though, he would have to head out and hope that there were the herbs and plants in these woods that he needed to make Satoru's medicine. He wasn't a skilled doctor but he had learned from Tanaka-san how to make Satoru's more important medication.
“Not sure. Stress builds up and hits him hard…” He turned to Mizuho then, offering her a small smile. "Don't worry. Sa-chan might come off as wimpy and weak, but... He's strong." Memories from three years ago washed over him. He had never experienced what Satoru had - living through death. He couldn't even begin to imagine how painful feeling your lover dying would be and then having to actually survive that death yourself. What did that even feel like? Did food and drinks just hold no taste anymore? What would breathing feel like? Had there been a lasting pain in Satoru's chest like Hideto had felt when he had gotten stabbed? Hideto couldn't imagine it at all.
"He's the strongest person I know," Hideto said softly, stroking Satoru's hair. "He'll be alright." His eyes trailed down to the splint on Satoru's pinky. “If his hand doesn’t heal right-”
“It will, I promise! He has a doctor, right? They can check my work…”
He looked at her, nodding slowly.
Hideto managed to coax a conversation out of her, finding out what happened and how bad it was for her village. A few hours later, she’d had enough of him and got up to make some dinner.
As he turned his head to look back at Satoru, he paused for a moment and returned his gaze to Mizuho. Softly, he said, "Thank you. For being kind to him."
Leaving that statement hanging, the rest of his attention was given to Satoru.
As Hideto returned his attention to his unconscious lover, a wry smile graced his lips as he reached out to pet the taller man. It was so good to see him again. He had missed him terribly, been worried sick and now... Now, they were finally together again. A part of Hideto hated himself for taking so long to get to his lover that all this damage had been done to his frail body. But another part was just more concerned with right now. And right now, Satoru was safe and sound and slowly getting better.
Leaning down, Hideto pressed a gentle kiss to Satoru's temple while Satoru turned toward the hand that was stroking his cheek.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Poll
<<= Chapter 2 Beginning Archive Chapter 4 =>>
Title: Broken Bird: Chapter 3
Author: saurgristiel (supplemented by b-sim)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Hyde (Hideto) & Gackt (Satoru), Ken, KAZ (Kazu), misc OCs
Genre: Historical,
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, just the idea.
Warnings: Violence/abuse, Inappropriate touching.
Words: 2,837
Summary: Hideto finally finds his Satoru.
~~~
He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but he was rudely pulled back to reality by 2 men hoisting him up by his shoulders. They dragged him into the adjoining room and hung his wrist rope just high enough that he couldn’t push up and free himself. The peg that the rope was resting on was angled up too.
He was right that the day would be hot and he could feel the oppressive weather weighing on his chest. He was quite uncomfortable, not to mention the eight pairs of eyes on him.
Their leader walked into the room. “Looks like someone is coming for you.” Satoru looked up at him from his spot on the floor next to a column in the wall. “We just have to wait now.” He sat down on a cushion and enjoyed a small meal with his men.
About an hour later, one of the men got a bit too drunk and started making moon-eyes at Satoru, who shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. His hands were numb and his shoulders were starting to hurt.
“Boss… Can I…?”
“Just a little…”
The man smiled like a predator at Satoru, who tried to back up against the wall. The man pulled out a knife, put it between his teeth, and crawled over to Satoru. He sat on his knees and ran his finger down the collar of Satoru’s yukata and down his chest.
The man's fingers were calloused, just like Hideto's were, but his touch was completely different. It made Satoru think of the differences and it made him miss home and Hideto even more. He wished with all his might at that very moment that this was all just a terrible nightmare. They could beat him, insult him, cut his hair, shame him, but this? Touching him? It was the ultimate disgrace. No one but Hideto had touched Satoru like this before and it was something that the tall man wanted to keep just to themselves. The thought that he wouldn't be able to made more tears well up in his eyes.
“P-Please don’t…” Satoru stuttered, trying to beg the man to be merciful and let him keep this much of himself - they had taken everything else. A tear streaked down his cheek.
The man placed the back of the knife on Satoru’s lips. “Don’t speak.” He trailed it down to Satoru’s neck and he lightly pressed. “Understand?” Satoru whined, memories flashing before his eyes, but nodded. “Good.”
Satoru pulled his knees up when the man’s hand went for the hem of his yukata. Satoru sniffed as he started crying, afraid of what the man might do. He trembled as the man ran his hand up his shin and gasp-squeaked in fear when the man reached past his knee.
The man set the knife aside, “I SAID be quiet.” He put his hand on Satoru’s mouth and shoved his head back, knocking it against the wall.
“Hey…” Their boss said.
Satoru’s vision went for a swim and he closed his eyes to try to keep the nausea in check. It didn’t really work. The force of the man’s hand also pulled his lip just wrong and made it bleed again. Satoru couldn’t do anything but cry as the man’s other hand slid up his thigh.
Knowing that, by now, it was futile to fight, Satoru tried to make the best of what was happening, closing his eyes and trying to imagine that it was Hideto touching him. He tried to block out the sounds of the men having their meal at the table. He tried to ignore the pain in his limbs. He replayed sounds of Hideto's pants and moans and sweet words in his head from memory. He wasn't trying to gain any pleasure out of this, just trying to lessen the pain and the humiliation.
It wasn't working.
He was far too weak to do something as drastic as creating a different reality. He didn't have the mental strength to do it. Whimpering softly, he gave up completely.
That was when there was a noise somewhere in the house.
An unconscious man crashed through the shoji that separated the rooms. “That yours?”
Satoru slowly opened his eyes, recognizing that voice. Relief seemed to flood his veins then. He knew Hideto would come for him, he just didn’t know when. The man removed his hand.
“Who’re you?” Their boss demanded.
“I’m here for… him.” He slowed down as he pointed to Satoru, taking in his Sa-chan’s appearance: Little dot bruises on his cheeks, a bleeding lip, and a still-red-turning-purple mark from being slapped earlier. His hair didn’t bunch right. And he was crying. There were only two words in both his and Haido's mind: Sa-chan's hurt.
Satoru saw Hideto’s eye twitch and his focus fuzz. “Run…”
“What?’
“RUN!!” He cried as he saw Haido emerge. A wicked smile curled to Hideto’s lips as he drew his sword. Satoru’s condition made any hope of negotiating fly out the window.
Haido placed both his and Hideto's anger into their sword, slashing down enemy after enemy. Haido could feel Hideto's heartache within itself as well, knowing that the sight of Satoru must have hurt him. It could also feel guilt - Hideto felt guilty for not coming here in time. Two of its most precious people were hurt in some way or other. These men had hurt them. That gave Haido all the reason it needed to do what it was. Enemy... Hurt Sa-chan... Hurt Hideto... Must kill.
Hideto, on this rare occasion, was on Haido's side, willing the little demon to cut them down more brutally. He usually wasn't a violent man but he would become one if his lover was hurt. And from the way that man had been positioned so closely to Satoru, Hideto could only guess what he had been doing. The thought that someone else touched his Sa-chan like that made his blood boil.
As everyone went Quixotic to fight the intruder, Satoru tried to get free. He pulled a little too hard on the peg and it let go, making his hands and the peg fall onto his head. “Owww…” He held his head for a moment, trying not to listen to the fight, knowing it would upset him.
As he tried to get feeling back in his hands, he noticed the knife that his latest abuser had set down. As he reached for it, someone stepped on it, only to topple back from having a knife thrown into his neck.
Satoru closed his eyes, regained his composure, and picked the knife up. At first, he discovered that Mizuho had tied his ankles quite simply. He untied that rope and examined his wrist rope. It was tied simply as well, but complicated enough that he couldn’t undo it one handed. He held the knife between his heels and carefully cut through the rope. It was tricky, but he managed to free himself with cutting, wriggling, and perseverance.
He looked up and saw the carnage. Everyone except their leader had been defeated, either dead or nearly dead on the floor or propped against a wall. Hideto was surprisingly clean, or at least less blood-covered than one might expect. He hadn’t mutilated the men (mostly), just killed them.
And now their leader fell to the ground, sliding off of Hideto’s sword.
Satoru managed to get to his feet and stumbled toward Hideto as the bloody sword was raised to make sure the leader wasn’t breathing. He hugged Hideto from behind and begged, “Don’t. I’m fine, just…” He got light-headed again and panted, “I’m okay… Haido, I’m okay…”
Haido fought for a second and said, “Breathing…”
“That’s me…” Though, it might not have been, but whoever it was would not live to see the sun set.
Satoru took a step back but slipped and they landed on their bums together. He kept holding Hideto, willing him to come back to his senses, while he tried to fight his illness, resting his head on Hideto’s shoulder, closing his eyes. God, he had missed this so much. He took a deep breath, taking in Hideto's scent. It was mixed with the smell of blood and sweat but a scent that was purely Hideto alone was there. It made him feel as if everything was going to be alright from now on. They would go home soon and everything would be back to normal.
At the gentle touch to the body he shared with Haido, Hideto slowly came down from his own killing high. Just as he was about to tell Haido that everything was okay now (Haido had become more obedient in the last 3 years thanks to Satoru), they heard a womanly gasp, scream, and a thud on the floor. Haido tensed once more, readied its sword and tried to get up, but Satoru, even with his fading strength, managed to keep it from doing so.
“No. She’s okay… Don’t… hurt her…” He panted. He felt the body in his arms relax.
Hideto blinked a few times, finally regaining control. “S-Sa-chan…?” Hideto dropped his sword and looked around him, noticing the crying girl.
“I’m okay…” he heard next to his ear. Hideto turned around and held Satoru’s face in his hands, wiping his cheeks with his thumbs. Gaining a closer look at Satoru now, Hideto realized that the servant had been treated worse than he thought. He had never before seen this many bruises and wounds on his lover. Hideto had always done his best to make sure that he was safe. And his hair... It was shorter than before. Something clenched inside him as he realized that - he wondered how painful it must have been for Satoru for the past few days.
“Thank God…” Hideto set his forehead to Satoru’s and gently kissed him (Mizuho was too horrified at the room to notice this). He let Satoru slump against his shoulder while he searched his sleeves for his beloved’s medicine. “Sa-chan, stay with me…” He felt Satoru nod and opened the medicine jar. He turned Satoru and helped him drink his medicine. “You need to take some of your medicine with you wherever you go, Sa-chan…”
“’ll try to rember…”
As Satoru rested against Hideto, his wounded hand was finally noticed. “Sa-chan?” He ran a finger down the delicate wrist and onto the bandage, making Satoru wince, however gentle Hideto's touch was. “What happened?”
“Later…” Satoru slurred, wanting nothing more than sleep.
“Alright…” Hideto caressed Satoru’s cheek and kissed the top of his head before turning his attention to the girl. “Hey.” He got no response. “Hey girl-”
“Mizuho…” Satoru mumbled.
“What? Miz-” But all he got was a soft snore. He sighed. “Hey look… Mi-chan…” Oh yeah, nice bluff… “Do you have somewhere Satoru can sleep?” Still no response. He picked up his sword and banged the flat end on the floor, getting impatient. He usually wouldn't have been so rash but Satoru was ill, exhausted, and he needed a place to rest. She looked up and finally looked at him through teary, frightened eyes.
“Look… Sa-chan doesn’t want me to hurt you, for some reason… Is there a place better than right here where he can sleep more comfortably?” She kind of nodded. “Okay. Can you help me move him?”
“D-Demon…”
Hideto sighed in slight irritation. He had gotten used to the nickname already, but it was this girl's misunderstanding of his two personalities that got to him. Everyone else already knew about the two different personas that their lord had. “Look, I’m not right now. If I was, you’d be dead and the room would be a lot messier…”
“You… killed my brother…” Her voice wavered from her grief.
“I’m sorry…” But he actually wasn't. No matter what they had been trying to do, it gave them no right to do whatever they had done to Satoru. “They’ll be returned to you and your village or whatever and this house will be cleaned up. You can see that I’m small, I can’t move him by myself…” He hated admitting he was short, but it might get her to help.
“Why should I believe you… that you won’t kill me…”
“Because an innocent being like him trusts me…” He laid his arm around Satoru. “And he doesn’t want you dead. So unless you do something really stupid, you’ll live.” That was a bit insensitive, but he had to gain her trust somehow.
She was still reluctant.
“I promise I won’t hurt you. Sa-chan really should lay down… Do it for him?”
She shakily got up and weaved through the bodies. They wrangled Satoru into the adjoining room and made him comfortable. She shut the fusuma to the carnage and started to leave the room, but Hideto stopped her.
“Where are his belongings?”
She silently went to the corner and got the little pile, bringing it to Hideto and set it on the floor beside him.
“What happened?” He tried not to sound angry, but by the way she jumped, he hadn’t succeeded. “Sorry…”
“M-my brother can be a bit rough sometimes… He… was just trying to help our village…” She wiped at the tears on her cheeks and looked at Satoru. They just had to pick the beautiful one...
An uncomfortable silence enveloped them.
“He’s taken…”
“W-What?” Her face flushed- how could he have known?
Hideto shrugged and averted his attention back to Satoru, petting him gently and running his fingers through his shorter hair. He missed Satoru's long locks already but comforted himself with the fact that it would grow out soon.
“The way you look at him… I just want you to know that he’s got someone, back home.”
“Uh… oh…” She looked down at her hands in her lap. It would figure that all the guys she liked would either be gay or taken.
Hideto looked back up at her at the sound of her defeated tone. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be nice to him…”
“Right… Ummm… What’s wrong with him?” She tentatively asked.
There was a frown on Hideto's face as he felt Satoru's forehead - was the medicine he had given his lover not enough? He was still feverish. He was looking slightly paler too and he had broken out in a sweat. He bit his lip, wondering if it would be best for them to travel back now, but wondered if Satoru was strong enough to withstand the distance in his current condition. He decided against it.
If it got any more serious, though, he would have to head out and hope that there were the herbs and plants in these woods that he needed to make Satoru's medicine. He wasn't a skilled doctor but he had learned from Tanaka-san how to make Satoru's more important medication.
“Not sure. Stress builds up and hits him hard…” He turned to Mizuho then, offering her a small smile. "Don't worry. Sa-chan might come off as wimpy and weak, but... He's strong." Memories from three years ago washed over him. He had never experienced what Satoru had - living through death. He couldn't even begin to imagine how painful feeling your lover dying would be and then having to actually survive that death yourself. What did that even feel like? Did food and drinks just hold no taste anymore? What would breathing feel like? Had there been a lasting pain in Satoru's chest like Hideto had felt when he had gotten stabbed? Hideto couldn't imagine it at all.
"He's the strongest person I know," Hideto said softly, stroking Satoru's hair. "He'll be alright." His eyes trailed down to the splint on Satoru's pinky. “If his hand doesn’t heal right-”
“It will, I promise! He has a doctor, right? They can check my work…”
He looked at her, nodding slowly.
Hideto managed to coax a conversation out of her, finding out what happened and how bad it was for her village. A few hours later, she’d had enough of him and got up to make some dinner.
As he turned his head to look back at Satoru, he paused for a moment and returned his gaze to Mizuho. Softly, he said, "Thank you. For being kind to him."
Leaving that statement hanging, the rest of his attention was given to Satoru.
As Hideto returned his attention to his unconscious lover, a wry smile graced his lips as he reached out to pet the taller man. It was so good to see him again. He had missed him terribly, been worried sick and now... Now, they were finally together again. A part of Hideto hated himself for taking so long to get to his lover that all this damage had been done to his frail body. But another part was just more concerned with right now. And right now, Satoru was safe and sound and slowly getting better.
Leaning down, Hideto pressed a gentle kiss to Satoru's temple while Satoru turned toward the hand that was stroking his cheek.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Poll
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