"I don't mean to alarm you, Shion, but it appears we're being followed."

Kagamine's voice was quiet as he led their horse along in an easy trot. They'd left the village behind them, heading north along the road. It was already further than Shion had ever ventured before, and the bamboo forest which surrounded them was entirely unfamiliar.

"Can you sense anything?," the boy whispered.

He pressed his forehead between Kagamine's shoulders. Feeling their slight movement as they swayed gently back and forth was comforting to him. Familiar, somehow.

"I've done this before," he breathed. "I'm not sure when, but- I was anxious-"

"Why?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. All I remember is riding behind you, holding on to you. You said something ominous which made me afraid-"

"Please try to remember, Shion. It's important."

He closed his eyes, leaning in to the boy's back with a sigh. "It's no use. I can't sense anything else."

One of Kagamine's hands moved to rummage around in his garments until he found what he was seeking and pressed it into Shion's fingers. His counterpart stared down at it in surprise.

"If anything happens to me, run, and take this with you."

"But, Kagamine-"

"I swore I would always protect you. I need to protect this, too. It's the most valuable thing I have on me."

Sudden flashes flickered through Shion's mind.

"Arguably the most valuable thing in this entire province," he murmured.

His counterpart nodded. "No one outside of the fortress knows of Kamui's passing, which means his seal could still be misused." Kagamine bent over to whisper something to their horse-

Shion remembered. He could see it.

He pulled the youth back against him with an almost-desperate strength.

"Kagamine," he choked out, "I think- there's going to be an ambush-"

Every muscle in the boy's body tensed.

"Best not rush into it, then." Kagamine squeezed at his hand. The youth actually- believed him?

Shion wasn't even sure that he believed himself. He'd sensed something, definitely, without being able to judge whether it lay in this, or in some other, future. Whether there would truly be an ambush, or how they should deal with it- he didn't know. All he knew was the cold feeling of dread rushing through him.

He pressed the youth's body close. This was all he knew for certain, all he trusted.

"Kagamine," he whispered. There was another feeling occupying his heart as well, one that he didn't dare mention. It wasn't the place, or the time. Perhaps, if they made it through this, together-

"Hold on to me tightly, Shion." One of the boy's hands fell protectively over his forearms.

He'd been right, then. Kagamine didn't have to say it. He heard the tension in the boy's quiet voice.

"We're going to break into a gallop. Not now, but soon."

He nodded softly against Kagamine's back, unable to watch what was going to happen. He could already sense it far too clearly.

Kamui's horse kept trotting along at an easy pace, entirely ignorant of the danger. Perhaps he sensed the stiffness in Kagamine's body, as Shion did. Perhaps fear really did have some sort of humanly undetectable scent, but Kagamine wasn't afraid, only ready. As for himself, Shion suspected he'd felt that particular emotion enough for his body to have thoroughly absorbed it and made it his own.

Kagamine had told him this horse had been the determining factor, before. He had no choice but to put his faith in it and in the skillfulness of its rider.

There was a shrill sound, like birdsong, only no such bird had ever existed. The boy's grip tightened on his arm.

He leaned over, murmuring to the great beast beneath them, and Shion held his breath.

"Now, Shion," he whispered.

The trees rushed past them, the air, the retreating light of the sun. It felt as though two worlds were meeting, blurring at their edges.

"I sincerely hope that no one is armed with a bow."

Little figures of carved stone with tiny quivers of arrows-

Not one of them holding a sword-

Shion was suddenly brought back into his body by the sound of crunching bone and the movement of Kagamine's leg swinging out wildly, inevitable howls of pain echoing out behind them.

"Is it wrong to be pleased by the fact you happened to break someone's jaw?"

The horse kept running. Shion smiled against the boy's back.

"If such a thing is fated, and if nothing can be done about it, then- I’m not entirely certain it makes any difference.”

Kagamine sighed. "When I told you to pay attention to those memories of yours, I didn't mean for you to forget everything else."

"I've not forgotten anything, Kagamine." Shion brushed light fingers through his hair. "Not a single word you've said to me, or a single thing you've done for my sake." The sun was sinking low over the horizon. Stars had already begun to appear in the sky above them. "Nor the way you make me feel."

The boy made a sarcastic little grunt, seemingly immune to his overtures, and Shion smiled, laying his head against Kagamine's shoulder.

"I suppose you're not finding this as romantic as you'd hoped."

"I'm not drunk anymore, Shion."

As he kissed the boy's ear, though, he found it strangely warm.

"There's a town nearby, one where we ought to be able to find decent shelter." Kagamine shrugged. "Probably sake too."

"You know what happens to men who have too much sake," Shion whispered softly, teasing at his earlobe, “don't you?"

The youth nodded. "Evidently they start spewing nonsense about how romantic it'd be running from brigands who'd be perfectly content to kill them-”

"I'm surprised that you're not drinking," Shion teased with a wry little smile. "I had thought you'd want to celebrate a little."

They'd made their way there easily enough. Judging from the wan and fragile crescent suspended high above them, it must've been around midnight. Kagamine had said this town was close, but apparently their own individual definitions of that word had differed tremendously. They'd kept riding for hours, and this had been the only place where the lamps were still burning. Although Shion himself had little enough idea of distances or boundaries, one look at Kagamine's beaming face the moment they'd dismounted was enough to tell him they'd made it somewhere Lord Hatori wouldn't find them.

"Toshi would cross his arms and scowl at me for even considering it," the boy answered, shrugging.

Ah, yes. Of course that was the reason.

A fire had been lit for them, and he instinctively headed towards it, shivering beneath his rain-damp clothes. "We ought to lay our things out to dry." Shion paused, glancing over at the youth with a questioning look. "Unless you think someone's pursued us?"

Kagamine shook his head. "Those men didn't have horses."

"I imagine they're very expensive."

"So were the weapons they were carrying."

Shion tilted his head, gazing back over his shoulder with a deepening frown. Toshi had mentioned something, earlier-

The youth hovered just inside the threshold. Shion found it odd, especially since he must've been freezing in his wet clothes as well. He turned to warm his hands above the fire, and when he glanced behind him again, Kagamine was still just standing there, unmoving.

"Come," Shion coaxed, "warm yourself. You hardly need my permission to come inside." He gave Kagamine a provocative look, expecting a laugh and the inevitable joke about coming inside things, but neither appeared to be imminent.

"I- took it for granted that we'd be sharing a room, and a bed, together," he responded hesitantly, "but now it occurs to me that maybe I ought to have asked you first."

"I've spent the last three nights beside you. Why should this one be any different?"

Kagamine said nothing, only stared down at the well-worn tatami. "I've been thinking that, if I really wanted to protect you, I should've never asked you to come with me in the first place. It's begun to feel incredibly selfish." He gave an awkward shrug. "I mean, I have something to gain from risking all this, but you-"

"Do you actually think I've nothing to gain here, Kagamine?" The boy gazed up at him, a doubtful look clouding his brilliant eyes as Shion approached him very slowly. "Maybe I didn't, in the beginning," he admitted. "You needed me, and I responded to that need, but now-" He began quietly unpinning his own sleeves. "I've come to realize I need you too. That I can't imagine ever being left behind without you." The youth watched his movements as though he didn't dare to even breathe. "The words you've said, the things you've done, and everything you are- they're necessary to me."

Shion's fingers began to unfasten the knot at his waist.

"At first, I thought what I felt for you was only gratitude-" His hands slid the fabric back from his shoulders. "-and that what you felt for me, although you called it love, was truly only pity-"

Shion stopped close in front of him.

"That you were only a foolish boy."

He took Kagamine's hands and placed them over where the fabric hung from his hips.

"I know better now," he whispered, smiling.

The youth's mouth finally twisted up into a grin. "Is this an overly complicated way of telling me you love me?"

"To the depths and ends of my very soul," Shion answered earnestly, "if such a thing exists."

"But, don't you feel as though you're betraying Kamui?"

He hesitated for a moment, blushing. "I- touched another existence when I held that fur, one in which Kamui lived, and we-"

The youth's fingers slipped underneath his chin. "Did you love me there, as well?" Kagamine's voice was low and strangely unlike itself. More- mature? Shion stared at him for a moment, nodding softly.

You are a child no longer.

Half-felt sensations flooded through him, hazy impressions with only a tenuous connection between them. They weren't frightening in and of themselves, but this scattered, disjointed, disassociation made him feel somehow lost-

"Come back to me, Shion."

Here. Now. He stared at Kagamine's face, relieved to see it again before him. "Within that existence," he began haltingly, "you and I- we made an agreement with each other. You swore to answer any question I asked about you, and in return, I swore to do whatever you told me."

That lopsided grin twisted up at the boy's mouth even harder. "Doesn't sound like me at all."

"When you told me to return to you, just now," Shion whispered, "it felt the same and had the same effect."

"I'm sure I must've put it to some rather nefarious uses-"

"Not so many as you might think."

The youth's fingers pressed hot against his skin. He felt the fabric slide down along his hips.

Fabric. Sliding.

The last of his torn clothing, falling away-

"Kagamine," he choked out, struggling to push through the overlapping sensations assaulting him all at once, "I need you to keep me present, now more than ever."

"I shouldn't have ever told you to remember."

He kept staring at Kagamine's face, desperate for something real to hold on to. If the bargain they'd made in that other existence still bound them-

"Then, until you have need of it again," he pleaded, "tell me to stop."

"Stop remembering." Soft lips gently kissed Shion's mouth. "Stay here. Now. Be present with me."

His voice was beautiful. More beautiful than it'd ever been before. Shion stroked at Kagamine's throat, opening himself up to his kisses, clearly sensing curiosity tinged with more than a trace of awe-

"This agreement," the boy murmured, "should we make it again?"

"I don't think I have any choice in the matter, but- if it's something you wouldn't object to-"

"I swear I'll tell you anything you want to know, Shion."

"All I want to know right now," he whispered, putting his arms around the youth's neck, "is what you'll feel like inside me, Kagamine."

"Extremely pleasant," the boy teased. Shion winced, half-afraid the doubled-up sensation would strike out at him again, but this time his body and his thoughts remained well together. Kagamine's warm fingers stroked a little shyly at the curve of his hips.

"At least- that's what I hope."

Shion's fingers drifted lightly through his hair. "If it makes it any easier," he murmured, "I can do it instead.”

The body he held pressed against him drew back for a moment. "Why do you think that I'd-?"

He gave the boy a knowing look, watching his face flush crimson as his gaze drifted back to the floor.

"No. I'll do what Kamui should've done, what he can't do any longer-"

Of course he would. Shion pulled him closer. Kagamine was just as he remembered, warm and comforting and familiar as the scent he carried with him.

"Lay the fur out before the fire for us, Shion."

"Feeling adventurous, are you?"

The smile Kagamine gave him was one he wished to keep on those lips forever. "Your skin is freezing. You're going to fall sick if you're not suitably careful."

The boy was just as thoroughly soaked as he was, but Shion didn't mention it. He felt Kagamine’s gaze caress him as he unwrapped the voluminous fur and spread it out before the flames.

"Tell me that you love me. I want to hear it come from your own lips."

Once he'd turned around, he found Kagamine standing close behind him, waiting.

"I- love you, Kagamine."

A single tentative finger reached out to touch Shion's cheek. "You're so beautiful. I'm so glad- you're the one-"

Kagamine had been right. Absolutely nothing could've ever been so romantic as sinking down onto that fur with the one he adored and who adored him so completely in return.

Spring had returned to Hakata once again.

The two of them walked arm in arm through the streets, occasionally attracting curious glances. Shion smiled graciously at everyone, while Kagamine rambled on about everything and nothing. No one would consider him a boy any longer. He'd grown slightly taller than Shion now, and it was slightly amusing having to look up at him.

"Have you even been paying attention?!"

"Ah, I'm sorry, Kagamine. Everything here is very distracting."

He sighed. "I was asking what color kimono you preferred."

To be completely honest, it still felt strange wearing the damnable things, but, as someone had recently made a point of telling him, 'one has to look respectable if one expects to do business in a real city.'

"Pick whatever you think will suit me, Kagamine."

A lopsided grin twisted up at him, and all too late, Shion realized he'd made a terrible mistake. Kagamine presented him with a sleeve of the most garish fabric imaginable.

"This would be wonderful for the theatre."

The way he was smiling, Shion didn't have the will to disappoint him.

"Are you certain we can afford it?"

Kagamine nodded. Shion had already known the answer to the question when he'd asked it. His counterpart was well-suited to the merchant trade, and the loan the elder Lord Toshiwara had granted to them was very nearly paid.

"I can't wait to take you there," Kagamine sighed. "And before that, we can go watch the sun setting over the ocean-"

"Don't you dare force me to go out on a boat again."

"You have to do whatever I tell you to, remember?" That maddening little smirk- it made Shion want to kiss him.

He touched lightly examining fingers to the proffered length of silk. Its quality was impeccable, and on someone else with just a bit more confidence it might even look handsome-

"Everyone should admire you as I do, Shion."

The sound of Kagamine's voice made him blush. He stared down at the pebbles on the road.

"I'd be happy to wear it for you, then," Shion murmured. "And afterwards-"

"I won't lose any time getting it off of you, I promise."

⚘ Kagamine [Bliss & Ignorance] End ⚘