Unintended 2
-
Rider’s face remains blank even after Archer’s shameful declaration. For a second, the blonde wonders if his friend heard him. Then, Rider’s eyebrows rise in an expression of simple curiosity. He doesn’t even look surprised. Archer blushes stupidly before looking away. Did the big idiot know it would happen? Had he expected it? Somehow, it annoys Archer as much as it embarrasses him. He realises it is better to set things straight.
‘’I didn’t have sex with him, mind you,’’ the blonde adds with a scoff. ‘’We simply... slept side by side in the same bed.’’
The red-haired Servant’s answer was cut off by Alexander’s sudden arrival. The boy’s blond hair was slightly dishevelled and his face was red. He had a smile on his face that tried to look innocent, but the sheepish look in his eyes betrayed him. Archer’s attention immediately focused on his son.
Rider sighs and his attention wavers as Archer berates his son for something the boy has done. To be honest, Rider doesn’t know what to think of the situation. He is not sure what exactly he had expected. Did he really think nothing would happen between the ex-lovers? It would have been awfully naive to think so. Archer loves the priest, and the damn priest lusts for Archer. It was bound to happen. Well, according to his friend, it didn’t actually happen. They just slept together, or so he says. This renders Rider a bit uneasy. Sex would have been meaningless for the priest, he knows that. Cuddling, however, is much different. Does that mean the priest is falling for his old lover, or that it is simply a scheme to find his way back into Archer’s pants? Whichever it is, Rider feels like he has lost yet another chance with Archer. Not that he is in love with his friend...! He just would have liked to give their relationship a try, that’s all. The man groans at his own foolishness, just wanting to bury his face in his own hands in exasperation. Fine, yes, time to admit it like a real grown-up: his feelings for Archer have been evolving at a maddingly fast pace lately. He doesn’t know why, or what exactly triggered this sudden change. Why did he want love when he had a strong friendship? He feels stupid, remembering how many times he had berated Archer about being foolishly in love with someone who would never love him back. Although, after this shocking revelation, Rider was no longer sure if the priest was not going to fall for Archer.
‘’You can’t be serious!’’
Archer’s cry put a stop to Rider’s musings. He realises that the blonde has gotten up from the swing and his looking down at his son with wide eyes. Alexander looks half shamed-face and half scared.
‘’What’s going on?’’ the red-haired Servant asks with a frown.
‘’Weren’t you listening?!’’ Archer retorts. ‘’Alexander just told me that a man asked him to give me this!’’
And something is shoved into Rider’s face. Grunting, he manages to take the offending object to have a look at it. It’s a folded piece of paper. Falling to see what has riled up his friend that much, he unfolds the sheet to discover something written by hand. The lewd words that are thus displayed have Rider raises his eyebrows in incomprehension. Being wooed has never offended Archer in the past, so why is he making a scene right now? And wait, how the hell did Archer manage to know what’s written there since he doesn’t even know how to read?
‘’What?’’ is what Rider manages to say.
‘’Alexander read it to me out loud, big oaf!’’
Oh, so that’s what the fuss is all about. Yes, he can understand why Archer is angry. The words written on that piece of sheet are hardly suitable for the mind of a nine-year-old boy.
‘’I’m sorry…’’ Alexander mumbles, looking down as if he were the one at fault.
‘’You did nothing wrong, poppet,’’ Rider assures the boy with a smile. ‘’Now, tell Uncle Rider who is the man who gave you this message, will you?’’
Alexander looks up shyly, unsure. A nod from his mother reassures him, and he points towards a man sitting on a bench on the other side of the park. Judging from his shabby appearance, it is unlikely he is there to look over his own children while they are playing.
Somehow, the thought of this man talking to his name-sake, the child of the person he considers his closest friend, angers Rider. He gets up, his whole body thrumming with the need to punch something. Alexander looks up at him with wide eyes while Archer only raises an eyebrow.
‘’Are you going to kill the man, Uncle Rider?!’’ the boy asks in an excited voice, eyes bright.
The question, coming from such an innocent sweet voice, calms Rider down a bit. He sighs, knowing it would simply be causing unneeded troubles to walk to the man to punch him in the face.
‘’No, poppet,’’ the red-haired Servant answers. ‘’I’m simply going to talk to him. You stay here with your mommy, alright?’’
‘’But I’d like to see you fight!’’ Alexander complains with a pout.
Rider glances at Archer who simply shrugs as if saying ‘it can’t be helped’.
‘’What makes you think that Uncle Rider can fight, love? It’s not because I’m big that I know how to fight! Your mommy is much stronger than I am!’’
This seems to impress the boy a lot. His eyes widen comically as he turns to his mother with awe written all over his face. Archer looks a bit embarrassed. He has never told his child about what exactly he is; that he is not quite human like his father, and as such, that he possesses uncommon strength and powers. It would be such a long and complicated story for a boy that age.
He is, however, saved from having to answer when a group of children rush to them. They crowd around Alexander, begging him to come back to play with them. The boy looks a bit unsure until Archer urges him gently to go back to his friends. In a few seconds, the children have scattered and are back to their games on the playground.
The blond Servant sighs in relief before sitting back down on the swing.
‘’You’ve not told him anything?’’ Rider asks after a few moments of silence.
‘’No. I feel he is too young and that I… us… ‘’ Archer motions to himself then to Rider with his hand. ‘’Our existence is too complicated for him to understand. Hell, I fear the moment he asks me why his mother is not a woman.’’ He adds with a snort.
‘’Don’t you think he might perhaps have some knowledge of the truth? The Grail probably made him aware of some things after all.’’ Rider says in a slow tone as if thinking aloud.
Archer looks unconvinced but he shrugs to dismiss the matter. He doesn’t want to think about it right now. That bridge will have to be crossed whenever he arrives to it. Rider, feeling it is not safe to pursue that matter, turns his attention to what really interests him.
‘’So, you were telling me that you slept with that beloved priest of yours. Tell me more!’’
Archer’s face, predictably, turns bright red as he is reminded of that fact. For a second, he wants to implore Rider to talk about something else, but he knows this would only wet his friend’s appetite for gossip. He sighs deeply, tightening his hold on the swing’s chains. As always, talking about Kirei makes him stupidly shy.
‘’We just slept together,’’ Archer insists. ‘’Nothing perverted happened!’’
‘’Don’t you realise that the fact that nothing happened is what makes the whole thing interesting?!’’
The blonde groans at that. He is not stupid, of course he has realised something this important.
‘’Tell me how it happened, then.’’ Rider prompts gently this time.
Archer hesitates for a second before sighing. ‘’I’m not sure of how it happened to be honest. I fell asleep on my bed in the evening. I even missed Alexander’s bedtime. Then, sometime in the night, I woke up with a start. The first thought I had was that I didn’t put Alexander to bed. I knew it was late without really knowing what time it was. The next second, I realised that I wasn’t in bed alone. This puzzled me, because I knew damn well that I was at home and not at some pervert’s apartment! The guy was still sleeping, hugging me from behind, so I peeked at him.’’ There, Archer’s cheeks turn even darker shade of crimson. ‘’S-so there was Kirei, sleeping innocently while hugging me…!’’
Rider doesn’t like it at all. His face remains neutral, but his fists clench tightly. He feels so ridiculously jealous of the priest. It’s stupid. Archer and he have slept tons of times together, but the meaning behind was so different. They slept together as friends with benefits. Archer saw his night with the priest as something highly romantic he has been praying for since he fell for the man.
‘’It was the first time I actually saw Kirei sleeping now that I think of it…’’ Archer adds, unprompted this time. ‘’Did you know that he looks angry even when he is asleep? He’s always frowning… Perhaps he was having bad dreams…’’
The red-haired Servant gets up abruptly, not wanting to hear more about a man he hates. Archer stops in mid-sentence, eyebrows raised.
‘’I should get home,’’ Rider declares, brushing off grass from his pants. ‘’You should too. It’s going to rain soon anyway. I don’t want Alex to be wet. He could catch a cold.’’
The blonde looks up towards the darkening sky. He nods.
‘’Yes. If Alexander is anything like his father, he’s going to catch colds easily.’’
Rider snorts, just wanting to mock the priest’s weak immune system, but he bites his tongue. Archer calls Alexander back. The boy looks a bit disappointed to have to leave already. He doesn’t even seem to feel the chilling air.
‘’Now boy, you’ll be nice to your mommy, right?’’ Rider says to Alexander, kneeling on the grass before him so he can look into his brown eyes. ‘’You have to take good care of your mother for Uncle Rider. Can you promise that to me?’’
Archer blushes slightly while Alexander nods with enthusiasm, happy to be given some kind of mission. He smiles.
‘’I promise to be nice to mommy and to take care of him for you, Uncle Rider!’’
Rider’s smile softens. He gently pats the soft blond hair of his namesake before turning to his troublesome mother. Archer looks a bit embarrassed. Taking advance of the fact that Alexander is looking the other way, the red-haired Servant pats Archer’s bottom. There’s no lust in that act, only kindness. The blonde punches him on the chest, mumbling something about not doing anything perverted in front of his son.
They then part ways as the first raindrops start falling from the sky.
-
Kariya doesn’t know exactly what he expected. From Kirei’s awfully repentant expression, he had expected something bad or at least, something much worse. He smiles slightly, still petting his husband’s hair.
‘’So what?’’ he asks softly. ‘’It was about time the both of you finally had sex. I didn’t make you live with him so you could have the life of a monk, you know.’’ Kariya then grunts. ‘’Kirei, get up please. You’re heavy and I can hardly breathe.’’
The priest slowly gets up, already missing the warmth of the body he knows so well. He helps Kariya to his feet and for a second, their hands remain linked. Kariya is quick to remove his own hand though.
‘’I didn’t have sex with Archer,’’ Kirei finally says. ‘’We just slept in the same bed. Nothing happened.’’
To Kariya, this revelation feels like a mighty blow. He sits down heavily on the first pew of the row, his legs having lost all their strength. Kirei looks at him with a puzzled expression, but he is bad at reading people and Kariya has an awfully good poker face. His husband just looks tired.
Kariya manages a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes for Kirei’s benefit. Malign jealousy twists his guts, making him feel guilty and selfish. Who is he kidding? He knew this day would come from the first moment he reluctantly agreed to give Kirei’s clumsy courting a chance. Yet he had hoped… He should have known from the start. Kirei and he were never meant to be for many reasons, and even if he loathes admitting it; Kariya feels their relationship was doomed from day one because of his lack of enthusiasm when it comes to sex. Yes, plain as that. In all other matters, their relationship is perfect. Kirei is awfully adorable in all his clumsiness, showing that his feelings are genuine even if he has a hard time conveying them. Kariya, even if he used to be a bit wary of the priest, now loves him sincerely. But whoever said that 50% of a relationship is based on sex was awfully right. Kirei, being a young healthy normal male, needs release quite often. Kariya is not much older than his husband, but for him, sex has always been a chore and lost all its appeal when he was still quite young. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy the act or gets pleasure from it; he simply lacks good stamina and the need for it. Before he met Kirei, two years had gotten by without him sleeping with someone and he was okay with it. So, not wanting to be selfish, Kariya has allowed his boyfriend to wander to find himself someone to sleep with. This someone happened to be Archer, whom Kirei has been having quite a twisted relationship with before he even met Kariya. Kariya, even though he refused to admit it even to himself, was okay with all that as long as and only if Kirei and Archer remained lovers. His fear has been that Kirei’s feelings for the blond Servant would evolve into something more. They had seemed to become quite friendly lately, after all.
And now, this. Kirei slept with Archer only for the pleasure of cuddling to a warm body during the night.
Kirei is still watching him with a worried expression, and Kariya frets for a second that his thoughts are being readable on his face.
‘’Is that why you look so guilty?’’ the white-haired man asks. To his astonishment, his voice doesn’t even tremble. ‘’What’s wrong with that?’’
The priest appears to squirm on his spot. He knows something is wrong somewhere, but he doesn’t know what and where. He can’t explain why the act of sleeping with Archer feels wrong, why it feels like a betrayal. He knows it is, though, but can’t put it to words.
‘’I should only sleep with you.’’
‘’Nonsense, Kirei. Why is that? You know I’m not jealous and I want you to do whatever you require to be happy.’’
‘’… I see,’’ the priest says after a small hesitation, even if he doesn’t see at all. ‘’Perhaps I could visit you sometimes, then?’’
‘’No.’’ Kariya cuts abruptly.
Kirei’s eyes harden, and Kariya knows he’s hurt him. He sighs deeply, knowing a simple rebuff won’t be enough this time. An explanation is required.
‘’We can’t see each other for ten minutes then simply part ways after, you know that. It’s only going to hurt us more.’’ He hesitates. ‘’I’m not sure I could let you go anyway.’’
This merciless logic makes Kirei wonder, not for the first time, if his husband has some kind of power that makes him able to bottle up his own feelings for the sake of thinking. Kariya might not be very smart, but his sense of logic is implacable. Or is it his sense of duty? Kirei isn’t sure.
‘’I’m lonely without you,’’ Kariya admits again with a blush. ‘’Don’t think I don’t miss you. It’s simply better for Alexander if you stay with Archer. I don’t think he would understand if he knew we’re married but that you are still his father.’’
‘’He’s smarter than you give him credit for.’’
‘’Oh, I’m not saying he’s stupid! I know he’s not. The boy inherited his parents’ smartness, that’s for sure. He simply is too young to have to deal with all that.’’