Endless (1/2) - Kamen Rider Kabuto/LOVELESS
Title: Endless (1/2)
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kabuto/LOVELESS (sort of)
Pairings: Implied Kagami/Tendou makeouts, but no actual makeouts.
Rating: PG at most.
Warnings/spoilers: Post-series for Kabuto, you only need to know the premise of LOVELESS.
Author's Notes: Look, it's a Loveless fusion. You don't question it, you just go with it. However, it's set post-Kabuto, so it'll be spoilery as hell if you haven't seen to the end. Also, oh my god, you guys, this is truly the dumbest thing I have ever written. And yet I kind of love it with all my heart. :< It was only supposed to be, like, a thousand words and then it just sort of. Wouldn't stop.
So many thanks to Siobhan for holding my hand, she loves me. ;__;♥
Also, I blame Meg! ♥
(P.S. I nearly called this "Titleless" because I thought it was hilarious.)
Things hadn't quite gone according to plan.
Not that Kagami had had a rock-solid plan in mind--rushing straight ahead tended to blur the specific details a little--but he was pretty sure this wasn't how things were supposed to go.
The fight was difficult and he was glad to see Tendou was still alive and seemed to have learned his lesson, really. They fought against Mishima's Native form together and had rounded on Negishi trying to throw the switch to the radio tower.
Both of Gatack's caliburs sliced through the metal and wires of the machine, missing Negishi's hand by mere centimeters and sending a shower of sparks halfway across the room. Electricity crackled and arced all along it, the penultimate explosion sending Gatack careening into Kabuto as they were thrown clear of the building, only their suits saving them from the final massive explosion.
There was a sound like thunder cracking above them and a huge burst of energy like a small supernova radiating outward from the tower, over in just a few seconds, like a brief gust of wind. Unsettling, but everything still standing when it was over.
Kabuto and Gatack dissolved around them, the heat from the burning building warm on Kagami's face now. It felt almost anti-climactic that way; they hadn't even seen Negishi die, like it couldn't quite be over yet. And the broadcast that had been meant to turn all of humanity into Natives, if that had been what they saw just now, would that mean... Kagami didn't feel any different, he still felt human... but how would he really know?
He turned to Tendou, asking, "Do you feel any--"
And that's when things got kind of weird.
*
Kagami knew he was staring. He could tell by the strange half-annoyed, half-serious look Tendou was giving him, the expectant way he was waiting for Kagami to just say whatever-it-was already.
It was just--
Tendou, he--
He had--
"You have ears," Kagami finally blurted out, unable to tear his gaze away from them.
Tendou looked him like he was about to ask if Kagami had hit his head on the way out, but Kagami pointed slowly at him, repeating, "You have ears. On your head."
Tendou's hand flew into his hair, fingers light and hesitant against the new additions. Even without touching them, Kagami could see the large black cat ears nestled into Tendou's soft hair were glossy and silky. They were so dark that they nearly shone in the firelight of the still-burning wreckage.
He had the strangest urge to reach over and pet Tendou's new ears; the only thing stopping him was the look on Tendou's face. The one that made Kagami pretty sure Tendou was freaked out enough that he'd break anyone's arm if they tried to touch him right now, even though Tendou had forcibly schooled his features into cool indifference.
He was still touching his ears, though, sliding his fingertips along the whispy edges of them, eyes widening in surprise when his ears flickered away from the touch.
Kagami knew he was staring again.
He really couldn't help it, though. Tendou had cat ears attached to his head, suddenly twitching this way and that now that they had realized they could move.
"Are they--" Kagami almost reached out a hand towards Tendou, forcing it down at the last second. "Are they real?"
Tendou turned to look sharply at him and something in his face was off, something that made Kagami abruptly wonder if he had them, too. His hands went to his own head, but there was nothing there, just his usual messy hair.
"I don't have them, do I?" Kagami asked, wondering if there was something else he he had instead. A quick patdown didn't reveal anything new. "Why do you have cat ears? The radio wave--"
Tendou nodded, but wasn't really looking at Kagami. "Something went wrong with it. This isn't what they had planned."
"You think this is from the explosion? " Kagami kept watching Tendou touching his ears, it was kind of-- well, probably not what he should be thinking about. "That doesn't make sense, though. Why you and not me? If the armor had protected me, Kabuto would have protected you, too."
"And you were closer to the blast when it happened. Both suits where on when--" Tendou suddenly looked sharply at the street below them and was on his feet half a moment later, his ears pricked forward and twitching slightly. Then he was gone, halfway down the stairs to the street before Kagami could push himself up and follow.
*
By the time Kagami caught up to him, it'd been enough time for Tendou to work through whatever theory had occurred to him. He was intently watching the confusion on the streets, people rushing along in a panic, the Zectroopers somehow managing to keep things sort of in control. For the most part.
There were other people like Tendou--a group of high school girls were crying and tugging on their new ears, the handful of earless girls trying to calm the others down. A mother and father were panicking over their baby's tiny fuzz-covered ears, but none were on their heads. A young salaryman had dropped his briefcase and was clutching at his in the middle of the street.
Kagami kept looking; a little less than half of the people seemed to have them, but he couldn't figure out if there was a pattern there. It seemed like one was sort of tugging at the back of his mind, but....
Tendou was staring hard at the people, his ears flickering back and forth and Kagami had the surreal thought that they were now his most expressive feature.
"Did you figure out what--"
The way Tendou suddenly pivoted to face him and the horrible piercing look were bad enough, but Tendou's ears were suddenly folding tightly back against his head. Like the time Kagami had seen his neighbor take after her cat with the spray bottle for shredding the curtains with its claws.
Only a lot more dangerous.
Tendou stared at Kagami's unchanged head for a long moment, eyes narrowed and thunderous, making Kagami suddenly feel like he'd done something very, very wrong and Tendou knew.
"What is it? What's--"
But Tendou turned away from him without another word, ears still pinned back against his head.
*
Kagami followed at a (sort of) safe distance, keeping one eye on Tendou and the other on the people on the street. He couldn't see the connection between them, it had affected men and women both, and he'd seen even a few foreigners with ears, so it wasn't restricted by ethnicity. It seemed to mostly affect children, but there had been several adults, too.
Maybe it was about purity of heart or maybe--
They were nearly halfway back to the Extenders when Tendou suddenly froze and Kagami nearly ran into him, he'd been so lost in his thoughts.
He wanted to ask Tendou what was wrong, but Tendou had already taken off in a dead run before he got the chance. Less than a minute later, Tendou was speeding west in such a hurry that there was only one place he could be headed towards.
*
He couldn't have been too far behind, because Tendou was still ruffling through Hiyori's hair when Kagami arrived at La Salle. She didn't look very pleased with the way Tendou was examining her ears so closely, but she wasn't protesting, either. The only real sign of her impatience was her new tail lazily drifting back and forth around her legs. Juka-chan was sitting nearby, still trying to comb her hair back into place, also not looking all that upset.
Both of them had ears much like Tendou's, set neatly underneath the crowns of their heads, the fur looking glossy and smooth to the touch. Kagami thought he probably could have gotten away with ruffling Juka-chan's new ears, but really didn't want to chance it with Tendou in the room and in whatever mood he was in.
Instead, he quietly asked Juka-chan, "Are you alright? Did anything happen to you or do you feel strange?"
"Nope!" Juka-chan grinned at him and flashed him a quick v-sign. "That energy burst hit and it felt a little tingly for a second and then, voila!" She pet her new ears and genuinely seemed okay with them, which Kagami thought kind of weird, but she was a Tendou, too, he supposed.
"Hey, you don't have any!" she said with a cute pout. "That's too bad, they're kind of fun. There was a whole news report about it, tons of people were rushing to the hospital but there really wasn't anything they could do about it. There was a whole thing about how all the babies have them, but none of the moms and dads do, so it can't be genetic, but they don't seem to be hurting anything. The babies were really cute, too! They even had the little tails like--"
It took a few moments for the implications of that to sink in, for all the pieces to slide into place, while Juka-chan gave him a puzzled look. But it finally clicked and really made a horrible sort of sense.
Except for--
Kagami whipped around to stare at Tendou, who already had an icy glare leveled at him. "Wait, so you're--" Kagami started, but the words sort of died in his throat. "But--"
Tendou's ears were pinned flat against his head again.
*
Kagami at least had the presence of mind to remember Juka-chan was in the room before he blurted out something stupid that would get him killed. Tendou had let himself be dragged into La Salle's kitchen, not the most private of places, but it'd have to do.
(Thankfully, Hiyori kept Juka-chan busy by examining her new ears, gently pulling them this way and that, while Juka-chan playfully flickered them just out of reach. Kagami really loved Hiyori a lot right at that moment.)
Tendou's posture was nonchalant; from across the room he probably seemed relaxed and comfortable. Kagami knew he was walking out onto super-thin ice.
"So you're--" Kagami gestured helplessly at Tendou's head. "Please tell me that I'm wrong because that doesn't make any sense at--"
"It makes perfect sense," Tendou said calmly.
"But you-- What the hell, Tendou, didn't you have people throwing themselves at you constantly? It'd have been easy to--"
Tendou's mouth tightened into a hard line and his eyes went sharp like Kagami had just implied that he was cheap and-- Kagami had the very sudden feeling that maybe he had done just that and Tendou really was going to kill him now or, at the very least, never let him eat dinner at Tendou's house again, which was maybe worse, so he'd have to find a way to fix this and--
"Throwing myself at the nearest person who agrees is uncouth. One waits for the right person if one has any self-respect at all." He glanced briefly, but rather pointedly for Tendou, at Kagami's hair, and leaned back against the counter in a way that Kagami really didn't think was good. "The path to adulthood isn't to be shared with just anyone," he said with clear distaste.
Kagami scrubbed a hand through his very earless hair and-- "Wait, what?" He made a gesture that was supposed to indicate his frustration at Tendou's crazy but probably looked more like a violent twitch. "You're mad because I don't have them, too?"
And he really had to be wrong about that, because that was just--
It wasn't like he and Tendou had even gotten that far yet! They were clearly going somewhere, Kagami knew, and they'd had a few aborted makeout sessions, but nothing nearly as far as--
But Tendou wasn't saying anything, he just looked coolly back at Kagami, who suddenly had a god-awful headache. They'd barely just defeated the Natives and averted a world-wide crisis only to find themselves here and it was really kind of tiring. Kagami tried not to sigh too heavily.
"Tendou, it was before I'd even met you," he said reasonably and totally patiently, trying to remember who he was dealing with. "It's not like I did anything wrong, I had a girlfriend in university who I--"
Tendou narrowed his eyes and, all right, maybe Kagami kind of really wanted to kick himself, because even he had to admit that was a pretty stupid thing to start talking about.
"Okay, nevermind that. The point is that it's overreacting to get mad at me for something that was a long time ago, way before we even met, and," Kagami said more firmly, also remembering that it wasn't like Tendou was perfect when it came to relationships, and, really, he was willing to forgive Tendou for letting him think he was dead, but Tendou was also kind of not allowed to be crazy for at least the next twenty-four hours in exchange for that, "wasn't that part of what you just said? You need to accept people as they are. Nothing else has changed, right?"
Tendou was quiet as he pushed away from his spot against the counter, his ears still pinned back and mouth set in a displeased line, but Kagami was pretty sure some of the tension had been drained out of them. It was the first time he'd seen Tendou's tail as well, waving lightly against his side and looking as soft as his ears and possibly even sleeker. Kagami really, really wanted to--
"You're too defensive," Tendou said, coolly dismissive, stopping next to Kagami for a moment, then gliding out of the kitchen. "You protest too much to really believe that."
And then he was back to examining Juka-chan's ears again, before Kagami could even start to argue.
*
The next few days were busy enough that Kagami really didn't have time for anything else. The remaining Natives and Worms had generally agreed to live in peace with humanity, but people were still panicky and having Gatack around publicly helped calm a lot of fears. He'd stopped by La Salle a few times, checking on Hiyori and seeing if he would run into Tendou--which he had twice now--but had had to leave early almost every time.
It wasn't until nearly a week later that he'd stopped for lunch from Hiyori and run into Juka-chan--no Tendou in sight, which was more surprising that he'd expected--who had bounced cheerfully over to him and informed him, "Onii-chan has been complaining that you've been not properly taking care of yourself or managing your time very well."
Kagami blinked at her and wasn't sure why he was surprised at that, either. "What? But he's the one who--"
Juka-chan wagged a finger at him. "Onii-chan is right, you haven't been by in ages! And you're probably living on instant food, aren't you?" She made a terrible face at him.
"Well, it's not really that bad and-- wait, what? So he wants--" Kagami tried not to make frustrated noises at her. "Juka-chan, I am never going to understand your brother."
She patted his arm comfortingly. "You're getting better, though!"
Kagami didn't have the heart to disagree with her.
*
Juka-chan had left him with orders to show up to dinner or else Onii-chan was going to really start lecturing him and we really did not want that, she said very firmly, her ears pitched forward. He suddenly had the feeling that she had probably heard the laundry list of his faults one too many times lately. And Kagami might have been able to stand up to one Tendou, but he wasn't stupid.
So he showed up for dinner and it was like nothing was out of place at all. A little surreal, but not bad.
*
Kagami knew that Tendou had forgiven him when they had all moved into the living room and crowded around the coffee table to play Hearts and Tendou's tail had wound around Kagami's elbow. He glanced quickly over at Tendou, who was explaining the strategy of the game to Juka-chan again, and Kagami was pretty sure Tendou didn't even know he was doing it.
Kagami smiled a little to himself and went back to sorting his cards, resolutely squashing the urge to pet Tendou's tail.
*
Later, after Hiyori had agreed to stay the night and had gone to do whatever with Juka-chan--Kagami was pretty sure he didn't need to know about what kind of sister-type-things they were up to--it had been quiet for long enough that Kagami couldn't resist it anymore. He knew he was pushing his luck and really should say goodnight and go home now, but the words were out before he could stop himself.
"Hey, can I--" He reached halfway towards Tendou's ears and stopped. "Do you mind if--"
Tendou stared at him with a cool, lazy look for just long enough that Kagami was ready to take it back and think about making a very strategic exit when Tendou tilted his head just so and said, "All right."
Kagami's touch was light at first, starting at the tip and skimming down with just fingertips. But when Tendou leaned in just a fraction more, Kagami knew he really didn't mind. His thumb stroked across the back of Tendou's ear, the fur even softer than it looked, and he admitted, "They've kind of been driving me crazy every time I saw you. I kept wanting to pet them and it was really distracting."
He couldn't tell if Tendou was pleased with the confession or the way Kagami's thumb was stroking along the new joint, his hand cupped over the end and fingers working gently against the soft fur. Either way, Kagami was pretty sure he could do this forever.
He used the nail of his thumb only very gently, scratching light lines along the black, black fur of Tendou's ears, following them up with an alternating sweep of the pad of his thumb. Every so often he'd apply a little more pressure along the shell of the ear, enjoying the way Tendou's ears flickered in response.
The next time Kagami looked at his face, Tendou's eyes were closed and he breathed out a soft, pleased sigh that kind of blew Kagami's mind a little. (And possibly turned him on a lot. Which might have made him worry more than it did, but Tendou could make anything hot, so he was fairly certain it wasn't some new weird fetish of his.) It wasn't just that Tendou was okay with having his ears scritched, he seemed to actually enjoy it and leaned into Kagami's touch again.
His tail snaked around Kagami's elbow again, the tip of it tapping gently against the inside of Kagami's arm. Unable to resist, Kagami stroked his free hand down its length, the tip curling up around his hand every time it reached the end. It was soft and fluffier than it looked in comparison to Tendou's hair, but still sleek and glossy, too.
Kagami was definitely sure he could do this forever.
*
(tbc)
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kabuto/LOVELESS (sort of)
Pairings: Implied Kagami/Tendou makeouts, but no actual makeouts.
Rating: PG at most.
Warnings/spoilers: Post-series for Kabuto, you only need to know the premise of LOVELESS.
Author's Notes: Look, it's a Loveless fusion. You don't question it, you just go with it. However, it's set post-Kabuto, so it'll be spoilery as hell if you haven't seen to the end. Also, oh my god, you guys, this is truly the dumbest thing I have ever written. And yet I kind of love it with all my heart. :< It was only supposed to be, like, a thousand words and then it just sort of. Wouldn't stop.
So many thanks to Siobhan for holding my hand, she loves me. ;__;♥
Also, I blame Meg! ♥
(P.S. I nearly called this "Titleless" because I thought it was hilarious.)
Things hadn't quite gone according to plan.
Not that Kagami had had a rock-solid plan in mind--rushing straight ahead tended to blur the specific details a little--but he was pretty sure this wasn't how things were supposed to go.
The fight was difficult and he was glad to see Tendou was still alive and seemed to have learned his lesson, really. They fought against Mishima's Native form together and had rounded on Negishi trying to throw the switch to the radio tower.
Both of Gatack's caliburs sliced through the metal and wires of the machine, missing Negishi's hand by mere centimeters and sending a shower of sparks halfway across the room. Electricity crackled and arced all along it, the penultimate explosion sending Gatack careening into Kabuto as they were thrown clear of the building, only their suits saving them from the final massive explosion.
There was a sound like thunder cracking above them and a huge burst of energy like a small supernova radiating outward from the tower, over in just a few seconds, like a brief gust of wind. Unsettling, but everything still standing when it was over.
Kabuto and Gatack dissolved around them, the heat from the burning building warm on Kagami's face now. It felt almost anti-climactic that way; they hadn't even seen Negishi die, like it couldn't quite be over yet. And the broadcast that had been meant to turn all of humanity into Natives, if that had been what they saw just now, would that mean... Kagami didn't feel any different, he still felt human... but how would he really know?
He turned to Tendou, asking, "Do you feel any--"
And that's when things got kind of weird.
*
Kagami knew he was staring. He could tell by the strange half-annoyed, half-serious look Tendou was giving him, the expectant way he was waiting for Kagami to just say whatever-it-was already.
It was just--
Tendou, he--
He had--
"You have ears," Kagami finally blurted out, unable to tear his gaze away from them.
Tendou looked him like he was about to ask if Kagami had hit his head on the way out, but Kagami pointed slowly at him, repeating, "You have ears. On your head."
Tendou's hand flew into his hair, fingers light and hesitant against the new additions. Even without touching them, Kagami could see the large black cat ears nestled into Tendou's soft hair were glossy and silky. They were so dark that they nearly shone in the firelight of the still-burning wreckage.
He had the strangest urge to reach over and pet Tendou's new ears; the only thing stopping him was the look on Tendou's face. The one that made Kagami pretty sure Tendou was freaked out enough that he'd break anyone's arm if they tried to touch him right now, even though Tendou had forcibly schooled his features into cool indifference.
He was still touching his ears, though, sliding his fingertips along the whispy edges of them, eyes widening in surprise when his ears flickered away from the touch.
Kagami knew he was staring again.
He really couldn't help it, though. Tendou had cat ears attached to his head, suddenly twitching this way and that now that they had realized they could move.
"Are they--" Kagami almost reached out a hand towards Tendou, forcing it down at the last second. "Are they real?"
Tendou turned to look sharply at him and something in his face was off, something that made Kagami abruptly wonder if he had them, too. His hands went to his own head, but there was nothing there, just his usual messy hair.
"I don't have them, do I?" Kagami asked, wondering if there was something else he he had instead. A quick patdown didn't reveal anything new. "Why do you have cat ears? The radio wave--"
Tendou nodded, but wasn't really looking at Kagami. "Something went wrong with it. This isn't what they had planned."
"You think this is from the explosion? " Kagami kept watching Tendou touching his ears, it was kind of-- well, probably not what he should be thinking about. "That doesn't make sense, though. Why you and not me? If the armor had protected me, Kabuto would have protected you, too."
"And you were closer to the blast when it happened. Both suits where on when--" Tendou suddenly looked sharply at the street below them and was on his feet half a moment later, his ears pricked forward and twitching slightly. Then he was gone, halfway down the stairs to the street before Kagami could push himself up and follow.
*
By the time Kagami caught up to him, it'd been enough time for Tendou to work through whatever theory had occurred to him. He was intently watching the confusion on the streets, people rushing along in a panic, the Zectroopers somehow managing to keep things sort of in control. For the most part.
There were other people like Tendou--a group of high school girls were crying and tugging on their new ears, the handful of earless girls trying to calm the others down. A mother and father were panicking over their baby's tiny fuzz-covered ears, but none were on their heads. A young salaryman had dropped his briefcase and was clutching at his in the middle of the street.
Kagami kept looking; a little less than half of the people seemed to have them, but he couldn't figure out if there was a pattern there. It seemed like one was sort of tugging at the back of his mind, but....
Tendou was staring hard at the people, his ears flickering back and forth and Kagami had the surreal thought that they were now his most expressive feature.
"Did you figure out what--"
The way Tendou suddenly pivoted to face him and the horrible piercing look were bad enough, but Tendou's ears were suddenly folding tightly back against his head. Like the time Kagami had seen his neighbor take after her cat with the spray bottle for shredding the curtains with its claws.
Only a lot more dangerous.
Tendou stared at Kagami's unchanged head for a long moment, eyes narrowed and thunderous, making Kagami suddenly feel like he'd done something very, very wrong and Tendou knew.
"What is it? What's--"
But Tendou turned away from him without another word, ears still pinned back against his head.
*
Kagami followed at a (sort of) safe distance, keeping one eye on Tendou and the other on the people on the street. He couldn't see the connection between them, it had affected men and women both, and he'd seen even a few foreigners with ears, so it wasn't restricted by ethnicity. It seemed to mostly affect children, but there had been several adults, too.
Maybe it was about purity of heart or maybe--
They were nearly halfway back to the Extenders when Tendou suddenly froze and Kagami nearly ran into him, he'd been so lost in his thoughts.
He wanted to ask Tendou what was wrong, but Tendou had already taken off in a dead run before he got the chance. Less than a minute later, Tendou was speeding west in such a hurry that there was only one place he could be headed towards.
*
He couldn't have been too far behind, because Tendou was still ruffling through Hiyori's hair when Kagami arrived at La Salle. She didn't look very pleased with the way Tendou was examining her ears so closely, but she wasn't protesting, either. The only real sign of her impatience was her new tail lazily drifting back and forth around her legs. Juka-chan was sitting nearby, still trying to comb her hair back into place, also not looking all that upset.
Both of them had ears much like Tendou's, set neatly underneath the crowns of their heads, the fur looking glossy and smooth to the touch. Kagami thought he probably could have gotten away with ruffling Juka-chan's new ears, but really didn't want to chance it with Tendou in the room and in whatever mood he was in.
Instead, he quietly asked Juka-chan, "Are you alright? Did anything happen to you or do you feel strange?"
"Nope!" Juka-chan grinned at him and flashed him a quick v-sign. "That energy burst hit and it felt a little tingly for a second and then, voila!" She pet her new ears and genuinely seemed okay with them, which Kagami thought kind of weird, but she was a Tendou, too, he supposed.
"Hey, you don't have any!" she said with a cute pout. "That's too bad, they're kind of fun. There was a whole news report about it, tons of people were rushing to the hospital but there really wasn't anything they could do about it. There was a whole thing about how all the babies have them, but none of the moms and dads do, so it can't be genetic, but they don't seem to be hurting anything. The babies were really cute, too! They even had the little tails like--"
It took a few moments for the implications of that to sink in, for all the pieces to slide into place, while Juka-chan gave him a puzzled look. But it finally clicked and really made a horrible sort of sense.
Except for--
Kagami whipped around to stare at Tendou, who already had an icy glare leveled at him. "Wait, so you're--" Kagami started, but the words sort of died in his throat. "But--"
Tendou's ears were pinned flat against his head again.
*
Kagami at least had the presence of mind to remember Juka-chan was in the room before he blurted out something stupid that would get him killed. Tendou had let himself be dragged into La Salle's kitchen, not the most private of places, but it'd have to do.
(Thankfully, Hiyori kept Juka-chan busy by examining her new ears, gently pulling them this way and that, while Juka-chan playfully flickered them just out of reach. Kagami really loved Hiyori a lot right at that moment.)
Tendou's posture was nonchalant; from across the room he probably seemed relaxed and comfortable. Kagami knew he was walking out onto super-thin ice.
"So you're--" Kagami gestured helplessly at Tendou's head. "Please tell me that I'm wrong because that doesn't make any sense at--"
"It makes perfect sense," Tendou said calmly.
"But you-- What the hell, Tendou, didn't you have people throwing themselves at you constantly? It'd have been easy to--"
Tendou's mouth tightened into a hard line and his eyes went sharp like Kagami had just implied that he was cheap and-- Kagami had the very sudden feeling that maybe he had done just that and Tendou really was going to kill him now or, at the very least, never let him eat dinner at Tendou's house again, which was maybe worse, so he'd have to find a way to fix this and--
"Throwing myself at the nearest person who agrees is uncouth. One waits for the right person if one has any self-respect at all." He glanced briefly, but rather pointedly for Tendou, at Kagami's hair, and leaned back against the counter in a way that Kagami really didn't think was good. "The path to adulthood isn't to be shared with just anyone," he said with clear distaste.
Kagami scrubbed a hand through his very earless hair and-- "Wait, what?" He made a gesture that was supposed to indicate his frustration at Tendou's crazy but probably looked more like a violent twitch. "You're mad because I don't have them, too?"
And he really had to be wrong about that, because that was just--
It wasn't like he and Tendou had even gotten that far yet! They were clearly going somewhere, Kagami knew, and they'd had a few aborted makeout sessions, but nothing nearly as far as--
But Tendou wasn't saying anything, he just looked coolly back at Kagami, who suddenly had a god-awful headache. They'd barely just defeated the Natives and averted a world-wide crisis only to find themselves here and it was really kind of tiring. Kagami tried not to sigh too heavily.
"Tendou, it was before I'd even met you," he said reasonably and totally patiently, trying to remember who he was dealing with. "It's not like I did anything wrong, I had a girlfriend in university who I--"
Tendou narrowed his eyes and, all right, maybe Kagami kind of really wanted to kick himself, because even he had to admit that was a pretty stupid thing to start talking about.
"Okay, nevermind that. The point is that it's overreacting to get mad at me for something that was a long time ago, way before we even met, and," Kagami said more firmly, also remembering that it wasn't like Tendou was perfect when it came to relationships, and, really, he was willing to forgive Tendou for letting him think he was dead, but Tendou was also kind of not allowed to be crazy for at least the next twenty-four hours in exchange for that, "wasn't that part of what you just said? You need to accept people as they are. Nothing else has changed, right?"
Tendou was quiet as he pushed away from his spot against the counter, his ears still pinned back and mouth set in a displeased line, but Kagami was pretty sure some of the tension had been drained out of them. It was the first time he'd seen Tendou's tail as well, waving lightly against his side and looking as soft as his ears and possibly even sleeker. Kagami really, really wanted to--
"You're too defensive," Tendou said, coolly dismissive, stopping next to Kagami for a moment, then gliding out of the kitchen. "You protest too much to really believe that."
And then he was back to examining Juka-chan's ears again, before Kagami could even start to argue.
*
The next few days were busy enough that Kagami really didn't have time for anything else. The remaining Natives and Worms had generally agreed to live in peace with humanity, but people were still panicky and having Gatack around publicly helped calm a lot of fears. He'd stopped by La Salle a few times, checking on Hiyori and seeing if he would run into Tendou--which he had twice now--but had had to leave early almost every time.
It wasn't until nearly a week later that he'd stopped for lunch from Hiyori and run into Juka-chan--no Tendou in sight, which was more surprising that he'd expected--who had bounced cheerfully over to him and informed him, "Onii-chan has been complaining that you've been not properly taking care of yourself or managing your time very well."
Kagami blinked at her and wasn't sure why he was surprised at that, either. "What? But he's the one who--"
Juka-chan wagged a finger at him. "Onii-chan is right, you haven't been by in ages! And you're probably living on instant food, aren't you?" She made a terrible face at him.
"Well, it's not really that bad and-- wait, what? So he wants--" Kagami tried not to make frustrated noises at her. "Juka-chan, I am never going to understand your brother."
She patted his arm comfortingly. "You're getting better, though!"
Kagami didn't have the heart to disagree with her.
*
Juka-chan had left him with orders to show up to dinner or else Onii-chan was going to really start lecturing him and we really did not want that, she said very firmly, her ears pitched forward. He suddenly had the feeling that she had probably heard the laundry list of his faults one too many times lately. And Kagami might have been able to stand up to one Tendou, but he wasn't stupid.
So he showed up for dinner and it was like nothing was out of place at all. A little surreal, but not bad.
*
Kagami knew that Tendou had forgiven him when they had all moved into the living room and crowded around the coffee table to play Hearts and Tendou's tail had wound around Kagami's elbow. He glanced quickly over at Tendou, who was explaining the strategy of the game to Juka-chan again, and Kagami was pretty sure Tendou didn't even know he was doing it.
Kagami smiled a little to himself and went back to sorting his cards, resolutely squashing the urge to pet Tendou's tail.
*
Later, after Hiyori had agreed to stay the night and had gone to do whatever with Juka-chan--Kagami was pretty sure he didn't need to know about what kind of sister-type-things they were up to--it had been quiet for long enough that Kagami couldn't resist it anymore. He knew he was pushing his luck and really should say goodnight and go home now, but the words were out before he could stop himself.
"Hey, can I--" He reached halfway towards Tendou's ears and stopped. "Do you mind if--"
Tendou stared at him with a cool, lazy look for just long enough that Kagami was ready to take it back and think about making a very strategic exit when Tendou tilted his head just so and said, "All right."
Kagami's touch was light at first, starting at the tip and skimming down with just fingertips. But when Tendou leaned in just a fraction more, Kagami knew he really didn't mind. His thumb stroked across the back of Tendou's ear, the fur even softer than it looked, and he admitted, "They've kind of been driving me crazy every time I saw you. I kept wanting to pet them and it was really distracting."
He couldn't tell if Tendou was pleased with the confession or the way Kagami's thumb was stroking along the new joint, his hand cupped over the end and fingers working gently against the soft fur. Either way, Kagami was pretty sure he could do this forever.
He used the nail of his thumb only very gently, scratching light lines along the black, black fur of Tendou's ears, following them up with an alternating sweep of the pad of his thumb. Every so often he'd apply a little more pressure along the shell of the ear, enjoying the way Tendou's ears flickered in response.
The next time Kagami looked at his face, Tendou's eyes were closed and he breathed out a soft, pleased sigh that kind of blew Kagami's mind a little. (And possibly turned him on a lot. Which might have made him worry more than it did, but Tendou could make anything hot, so he was fairly certain it wasn't some new weird fetish of his.) It wasn't just that Tendou was okay with having his ears scritched, he seemed to actually enjoy it and leaned into Kagami's touch again.
His tail snaked around Kagami's elbow again, the tip of it tapping gently against the inside of Kagami's arm. Unable to resist, Kagami stroked his free hand down its length, the tip curling up around his hand every time it reached the end. It was soft and fluffier than it looked in comparison to Tendou's hair, but still sleek and glossy, too.
Kagami was definitely sure he could do this forever.
*
(tbc)