Crossover - Scream in Cathedrals (MKR/KKM)
Title: Scream in Cathedrals.
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth/Kyou Kara Maou.
Warnings: None.
Characters/couples: Lantis/Conrad.
Summary: Lantis should really stop getting close to people who are only too willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Rating: R/NC17
Notes: Prompt: Crossover: Magic Knight Rayearth/Kyou Kara Maou, Lantis/Conrad: Hidden wounds - “I know about sacrifices.”
Scream in Cathedrals.
We scream in cathedrals
Why can't it be beautiful
Why does there
Gotta be a sacrifice
Just say yes
You little arsonist
"iieee" Tori Amos.
It's the same dream he has had since before he arrived to this world, back there in Autozam: Zagato's last words and then a moment of pure, white bliss as he and princess Emeraude embraced. A last goodbye as they were killed by innocents whom most likely didn't know a thing, because who would, in their right mind, agree to kill someone they didn't know?
It still makes him wake up so that Lantis is staring at the ceiling of this new bedroom hard, throat tight, before he manages to keep his grief and pain in check, moving to stand up carefully. He doesn't don a complete outfit when he decides to go out, just buckles his sword and the new one that queen Cheri gave him before walking outside.
Looking at the queen's eyes and golden hair, or the same green eyes and serious face of the youngest prince makes something twist and ache inside Lantis, for all that it isn't his regret to bear. Would a child of his brother and Emeraude have looked like that, golden and fair and trying so hard to be noticed, to be as serious as he believed he should be? Or would have been a happy and sweet child, always laughing, bright under the sun?
It's so easy for Lantis to think of this land and remember Cephiro, so much that this place is hardly the comfort he had sought when he left Autozam, after Eagle's betrayal. He could easily see Guru Clef and the priestess talking together, Presea working side by side with lady Krehnikov, and the people of Cephiro learning to live in a place where their will was what kept them all live, rather than just one person's prayer.
Lantis curls his hand around the hilt of the new sword and clenches his jaw, trying to dispel his thoughts of the land he used to call home, the land he will never go back, and then he stops walking, waiting until whoever it was that had been following him decides to come out from within the shadows.
“Lord Weller,” the middle prince smiles, his stance casual, hand on the hilt of his sword. Lantis looks at him until he gets close, not bringing out the fact that he had been following him. He's still a stranger to this land, after all, a month since he arrived through the water of this place.
“Is there something troubling you, my lord Lantis?”
“I am no lord,” he tells the apparently young man. He's a little older than him but not by much: was he from Shin Makoku, his 105 years old wouldn't make much difference to the 83 years old that Conrad has.
Still Conrad smiles, such a familiar smile that the betrayal he has just gone through aches all through his body.
“Neither am I. Shall we drop pretenses, then?” Conrad asks, warm and friendly, and barely waits for him to nod before he keeps on his questions. “You couldn't sleep?”
“I was thinking about my world,” he answers, both because it's the truth and because he can't see no wrong in saying that much, even if Lantis is in a world where he was first mistaken for a promised king, all due to his dark hair and dark clothes, for his magic and the way he had come through the water.
The gods, after all, have a wicked sense of humor. It's just fate that mere humans don't share it.
“Cephiro, was it?” Conrad asks, and when Lantis starts to walk, Conrad falls into easy step with him, too, his hand still curled protectively around the hilt of his sword, but his smile is amiable and almost sweet. “I heard lord von Voltaire asked lord von Kleist for a copy of the report he made. From what I heard, it most be an extremely beautiful place. ”
“Shin Makoku is more beautiful,” Lantis answer, simply because a land where free will reigned would always be. It still brough a more honest smile to Conrad's face, one that Lantis hurried not to notice as they carried on walking outside.
“I'd like to return the compliment with such certainity,” Conrad adds, his smile still untrusting and unwavering. “I must admit, I'd like to get to know your land.”
Lantis wonders about the new pillar. Will it be man or woman? Old or young? What if he or she already has a family, or someone to care about? He wonders if there'll even be a Cephiro, if he ever decides to go back.
“Perhaps, if the Shinou allows it, there'll be a way for our worls to connect.”
Lantis frowns, turning a little to face Conrad and his expression. There is no actual religion in Cephiro, every festival and celebration done for the pillar, and the Shinou is already too close for any comfort to what he hates in Cephiro for Lantis to be respectful, but he holds his words.
“Lantis?” Conrad asks, a slight frown upon his handsome face. “What's wrong?”
“You sound very loyal towards the Shinou.”
And Conrad smiles, mercy, and Lantis should know better, he really should, and he wonders why he keeps on getting close to people who'll offer their whole beings towards something else instead of taking care of themselves, about people who keeps on wanting to sacrifice themselves for 'a greater being'.
“My whole family has been, for generations,” Conrad says, and Lantis can almost hear Eagle talking about how one life was a good price to pay for Autozam's survival, and he can almost see Emeraude kneeling, praying from the moment she woke up for Cephiro and only Cephiro, as if she wasn't alive at all. “The Shinou has always been merciful to us. I have sworn my sword for him.”
And despite his best knowledge, Lantis snorts.
“... excuse me?”
“I don't believe in being loyal to a being that would force other people to sacrifice themselves and their happiness just because they feel like it,” Lantis scorns, unfaced at how Conrad's whole previous amiable expression changes. It would still be time to withdraw his words, Lantis thinks, but he has kept this thoughts silent for a long time and Emeraude and Zagato's death weight too much upon his soul, that two people had to die to be together like that. “A being like that is no benign and shouldn't be respected. A being like that, most likely, has plans of his own.”
He's unsurprised when Conrad draws his sword out, his expression serious. He glances towards the younger man, all the way from the point of his sword to his glaring brown eyes - now, at least, this is completely honest, no hidden agenda other than the fact that he just insulted what he believes in.
“I'm going to have to ask you to take that back.”
“I won't.”
The fight that starts after that is expected and yet, different than what he would've thought. There's frustration in Conrad's sword that speaks perhaps of doubts, and Lantis remembers lady Cheri talking about Julia Suzanna's wedding and Conrad's empty smile as he congratulated the lady, and he also has heard enough about the half mazoku from the rest of a very scornful society to realize more of the truth behind Weller's smile.
And it's been so long since he has fought with someone like this, no magic and no nothing but steel against steel and it feels good, not having to depend on magic or guns or anything but his own abilities, on swinging and dodging and finally sending Conrad's sword away from his hand, the edge of Lantis' sword pressed against his neck.
Conrad glares.
“I'd rather be loyal to someone than to keep on running away,” the prince tells him and Lantis feels a shard of ice inside of his chest. “What do you know about offering yourself for something bigger?”
“I know about sacrifices,” Lantis says, his voice hoarse before he pushes the mazoku against the wall, leaning his head to kiss him; there's only a moment before Conrad is kissing back. It's not a gentle kiss: teeth and the harsh press of tongue speak of their frustration, and in his kiss Lantis kisses Eagle, too, and he tries to make Conrad understand how sacrifices only mean that there'll be someone crying for that sacrifice, and how lives and free will should never be a sacrifice, how the end doesn't always justify the mean.
It's impossible to know if Conrad understands him like this, but he moans deep in his throat, and it's Conrad the one that starts pushing buttons and clothing away, and when Lantis gets his hand inside his trousers, curling around his cock, he breaths a 'please', and then he's also undoing his belt, pushing the trousers he was given down his hips.
Lantis wishes for oil, for a moment, before he pushes that idea aside: fucking would be too much more than what this is, relief and anger all mixed together, Conrad's kiss bruising and his hand stroking him hard. Fucking would involve a level of trust that neither of them has towards the other, and neither of them is going to be willing to offer that much, not when this is as much fighting as their crossing swords had been.
And if it's like this that lord Weller stops feeling like Eagle's shadow for him, so be it.
*
Later, as he lays upon his bed, eyes wide open, Lantis thinks about Eagle and he thinks about Conrad, and about Zagato and Emeraude and Cephiro as a whole, and he wonders if Conrad's words, that had called him a coward, might have been right. He had fled, after all: not wanting to fight his brother, but also unable to fight by his side in avoiding the woman he loved to commit suicide at the same time that transforming innocents into murderers.
While he had felt justified at the moment, now Lantis wonders. Perhaps, he thinks, someone needs to actually do something before the interminable chain of sacrifices may stop.
It's five in the morning when he puts on his armor, leaving the sword that lady Cheri gave him behind as he goes to see Ulrike.
It's time to go back.
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth/Kyou Kara Maou.
Warnings: None.
Characters/couples: Lantis/Conrad.
Summary: Lantis should really stop getting close to people who are only too willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Rating: R/NC17
Notes: Prompt: Crossover: Magic Knight Rayearth/Kyou Kara Maou, Lantis/Conrad: Hidden wounds - “I know about sacrifices.”
Scream in Cathedrals.
We scream in cathedrals
Why can't it be beautiful
Why does there
Gotta be a sacrifice
Just say yes
You little arsonist
"iieee" Tori Amos.
It's the same dream he has had since before he arrived to this world, back there in Autozam: Zagato's last words and then a moment of pure, white bliss as he and princess Emeraude embraced. A last goodbye as they were killed by innocents whom most likely didn't know a thing, because who would, in their right mind, agree to kill someone they didn't know?
It still makes him wake up so that Lantis is staring at the ceiling of this new bedroom hard, throat tight, before he manages to keep his grief and pain in check, moving to stand up carefully. He doesn't don a complete outfit when he decides to go out, just buckles his sword and the new one that queen Cheri gave him before walking outside.
Looking at the queen's eyes and golden hair, or the same green eyes and serious face of the youngest prince makes something twist and ache inside Lantis, for all that it isn't his regret to bear. Would a child of his brother and Emeraude have looked like that, golden and fair and trying so hard to be noticed, to be as serious as he believed he should be? Or would have been a happy and sweet child, always laughing, bright under the sun?
It's so easy for Lantis to think of this land and remember Cephiro, so much that this place is hardly the comfort he had sought when he left Autozam, after Eagle's betrayal. He could easily see Guru Clef and the priestess talking together, Presea working side by side with lady Krehnikov, and the people of Cephiro learning to live in a place where their will was what kept them all live, rather than just one person's prayer.
Lantis curls his hand around the hilt of the new sword and clenches his jaw, trying to dispel his thoughts of the land he used to call home, the land he will never go back, and then he stops walking, waiting until whoever it was that had been following him decides to come out from within the shadows.
“Lord Weller,” the middle prince smiles, his stance casual, hand on the hilt of his sword. Lantis looks at him until he gets close, not bringing out the fact that he had been following him. He's still a stranger to this land, after all, a month since he arrived through the water of this place.
“Is there something troubling you, my lord Lantis?”
“I am no lord,” he tells the apparently young man. He's a little older than him but not by much: was he from Shin Makoku, his 105 years old wouldn't make much difference to the 83 years old that Conrad has.
Still Conrad smiles, such a familiar smile that the betrayal he has just gone through aches all through his body.
“Neither am I. Shall we drop pretenses, then?” Conrad asks, warm and friendly, and barely waits for him to nod before he keeps on his questions. “You couldn't sleep?”
“I was thinking about my world,” he answers, both because it's the truth and because he can't see no wrong in saying that much, even if Lantis is in a world where he was first mistaken for a promised king, all due to his dark hair and dark clothes, for his magic and the way he had come through the water.
The gods, after all, have a wicked sense of humor. It's just fate that mere humans don't share it.
“Cephiro, was it?” Conrad asks, and when Lantis starts to walk, Conrad falls into easy step with him, too, his hand still curled protectively around the hilt of his sword, but his smile is amiable and almost sweet. “I heard lord von Voltaire asked lord von Kleist for a copy of the report he made. From what I heard, it most be an extremely beautiful place. ”
“Shin Makoku is more beautiful,” Lantis answer, simply because a land where free will reigned would always be. It still brough a more honest smile to Conrad's face, one that Lantis hurried not to notice as they carried on walking outside.
“I'd like to return the compliment with such certainity,” Conrad adds, his smile still untrusting and unwavering. “I must admit, I'd like to get to know your land.”
Lantis wonders about the new pillar. Will it be man or woman? Old or young? What if he or she already has a family, or someone to care about? He wonders if there'll even be a Cephiro, if he ever decides to go back.
“Perhaps, if the Shinou allows it, there'll be a way for our worls to connect.”
Lantis frowns, turning a little to face Conrad and his expression. There is no actual religion in Cephiro, every festival and celebration done for the pillar, and the Shinou is already too close for any comfort to what he hates in Cephiro for Lantis to be respectful, but he holds his words.
“Lantis?” Conrad asks, a slight frown upon his handsome face. “What's wrong?”
“You sound very loyal towards the Shinou.”
And Conrad smiles, mercy, and Lantis should know better, he really should, and he wonders why he keeps on getting close to people who'll offer their whole beings towards something else instead of taking care of themselves, about people who keeps on wanting to sacrifice themselves for 'a greater being'.
“My whole family has been, for generations,” Conrad says, and Lantis can almost hear Eagle talking about how one life was a good price to pay for Autozam's survival, and he can almost see Emeraude kneeling, praying from the moment she woke up for Cephiro and only Cephiro, as if she wasn't alive at all. “The Shinou has always been merciful to us. I have sworn my sword for him.”
And despite his best knowledge, Lantis snorts.
“... excuse me?”
“I don't believe in being loyal to a being that would force other people to sacrifice themselves and their happiness just because they feel like it,” Lantis scorns, unfaced at how Conrad's whole previous amiable expression changes. It would still be time to withdraw his words, Lantis thinks, but he has kept this thoughts silent for a long time and Emeraude and Zagato's death weight too much upon his soul, that two people had to die to be together like that. “A being like that is no benign and shouldn't be respected. A being like that, most likely, has plans of his own.”
He's unsurprised when Conrad draws his sword out, his expression serious. He glances towards the younger man, all the way from the point of his sword to his glaring brown eyes - now, at least, this is completely honest, no hidden agenda other than the fact that he just insulted what he believes in.
“I'm going to have to ask you to take that back.”
“I won't.”
The fight that starts after that is expected and yet, different than what he would've thought. There's frustration in Conrad's sword that speaks perhaps of doubts, and Lantis remembers lady Cheri talking about Julia Suzanna's wedding and Conrad's empty smile as he congratulated the lady, and he also has heard enough about the half mazoku from the rest of a very scornful society to realize more of the truth behind Weller's smile.
And it's been so long since he has fought with someone like this, no magic and no nothing but steel against steel and it feels good, not having to depend on magic or guns or anything but his own abilities, on swinging and dodging and finally sending Conrad's sword away from his hand, the edge of Lantis' sword pressed against his neck.
Conrad glares.
“I'd rather be loyal to someone than to keep on running away,” the prince tells him and Lantis feels a shard of ice inside of his chest. “What do you know about offering yourself for something bigger?”
“I know about sacrifices,” Lantis says, his voice hoarse before he pushes the mazoku against the wall, leaning his head to kiss him; there's only a moment before Conrad is kissing back. It's not a gentle kiss: teeth and the harsh press of tongue speak of their frustration, and in his kiss Lantis kisses Eagle, too, and he tries to make Conrad understand how sacrifices only mean that there'll be someone crying for that sacrifice, and how lives and free will should never be a sacrifice, how the end doesn't always justify the mean.
It's impossible to know if Conrad understands him like this, but he moans deep in his throat, and it's Conrad the one that starts pushing buttons and clothing away, and when Lantis gets his hand inside his trousers, curling around his cock, he breaths a 'please', and then he's also undoing his belt, pushing the trousers he was given down his hips.
Lantis wishes for oil, for a moment, before he pushes that idea aside: fucking would be too much more than what this is, relief and anger all mixed together, Conrad's kiss bruising and his hand stroking him hard. Fucking would involve a level of trust that neither of them has towards the other, and neither of them is going to be willing to offer that much, not when this is as much fighting as their crossing swords had been.
And if it's like this that lord Weller stops feeling like Eagle's shadow for him, so be it.
*
Later, as he lays upon his bed, eyes wide open, Lantis thinks about Eagle and he thinks about Conrad, and about Zagato and Emeraude and Cephiro as a whole, and he wonders if Conrad's words, that had called him a coward, might have been right. He had fled, after all: not wanting to fight his brother, but also unable to fight by his side in avoiding the woman he loved to commit suicide at the same time that transforming innocents into murderers.
While he had felt justified at the moment, now Lantis wonders. Perhaps, he thinks, someone needs to actually do something before the interminable chain of sacrifices may stop.
It's five in the morning when he puts on his armor, leaving the sword that lady Cheri gave him behind as he goes to see Ulrike.
It's time to go back.