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Post by Seiya on Dec 20, 2022 11:58:40 GMT -5
He ain't all too sure of when he'd fallen asleep.
It came easy-- easier than usual, none of the constant shiftin', none of the layin' there and thinkin' and sparin' maybe just one too many thoughts for how his ma's doin' back home. It ain't like Seiya's ever had much trouble sleepin', save for around wintertime, when the thin walls and thinner blankets of their cottage did little to ward off the sea-kissed chill, but ever since he left home, it's been a bit trickier. Wandering alone gives you more time to weigh on the world, more time to think about where you're goin' and where you've been and where the hell you're supposed to go next.
But it had been easier, last night, with another warm body cradled close to his chest, however unfamiliar. That, combined with just how damn tiring it'd been to pick a fight with a pissed off displacer beast, made it all too easy to drift off into dreamland, though it seems like he'd gotten lost on the way there, too. If Seiya had any dreams, he sure as hell didn't remember 'em.
His mind is pleasantly empty when he wakes up, Akari still nestled in his arms-- Seiya can't tell if he's still sleepin' or not, or if maybe he's just layin' there, lost in thought. Some people are like that, from what he knows. Ain't easy for everyone to just vault themselves right up and out into the world as soon as their eyes crack open. Still, based on the way the sun spills through the windows, floodin' over both of them in a swath of light that's maybe just a little too bright... maybe they shouldn't dawdle too much, just in case Akari's got places to be. Wouldn't wanna hold him up or anythin'.
"Hey," he begins, unwinding an arm from around Akari's frame and moving a calloused hand to settle on his shoulder, giving it a gentle shake. "You up yet?"
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Post by Akari on Dec 20, 2022 15:30:47 GMT -5
Waking is usually a slow affair for Akari. Like rising through heavy smoke and whispers, only he does not wish to leave them. There is a desire there to curl into the weight of that darkness, to stay there forever, where he can at least dream of the faces of his family. Where he can stay with Hizuki’s voice in his ear whispering of her love and her worry and all the things that makes Akari’s heart ache with his love for her, and his longing.
It is easier to wake this morning than it has been since… Since when? Akari isn’t even sure. Perhaps not since before his world stopped spinning. Maybe it was easier to wake when he knew he would be opening his eyes to see his sister’s smile, his mother sitting by the low table in their kitchen, and all the world alive with color around him.
At first he isn’t sure why it’s easier to wake, and then he realizes with a small jolt that his mind had been empty as he slept last night. He had remained blissfully unaware of time passing through the night and had slept soundly.
But.. Why? How?
His answer comes with calloused fingers against his shoulder, gently shaking him back to the present and out of his mind. Seiya’s now familiar voice drifts into his ears, and Akari opens dark eyes to peer up at him in the morning light.
Right… They… They shared a bed last night. He had slept through the night in Seiya’s arms, for the first time since the last time he shared a space with Hizuki, he slept beside another living being.
Oh.
Akari nods, just a minute movement of his head, before he pushes himself into a sitting position on the futon. The blanket that had been wrapped around him pools at Akari’s waist as he takes a glance around the room and tries to judge what time of day it is. The light tells him it is still likely morning, but much later than Akari would usually rise. This all felt… This all felt very different for him.
There is no notepad within Akari’s reach at the moment. So, with nothing else to use, he reaches over and traces letters on the exposed skin of Seiya’s shoulder with a gentle fingertip one by one.
‘G o o d M o r n i n g.’
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Post by Seiya on Dec 21, 2022 2:22:14 GMT -5
Although Akari is fairly quick to move into a seated position on the futon, Seiya is hardly in any hurry to readjust-- he stays where he is, one arm folded underneath his head, laying on his side, draped across the narrow futon as comfortably as can be, still careful to give his bedmate for the moment plenty of space of his own. If the two of 'em ain't really in any rush to go anywhere, then he'd rather just savor the chance to get comfortable while he can. It's nice to get to just lay here and savor the feeling of loungin' somewhere nice, after all-- somethin' with actual, honest-to-Gods pillows and blankets. This beats the grass any day, as fond as he is of fallin' asleep beneath the watchful eyes of the stars.
He watches those ink-black eyes of Akari's flit around for a second as they search for a means of communication, and Seiya feels a quick jolt of guilt-- oh, boy, it ain't like he'd forgotten about him being mute, but... it's a little difficult to adjust to the fact that he can't just keep an easy conversation goin' like he could with most. It's somethin' to work on, somethin' he'll just have to remember and keep track of and not take for granted; he's halfway to jumpin' up to find the damn notebook when suddenly Akari's fingertip is against his shoulder, slow and gentle as it traces out letters.
It takes Seiya a moment to process what they are, but they click into place pretty damn quick. This is a clever way of communication-- not one they could rely on too much, that's for sure-- but it seems like it ain't a bad alternative.
"Good morning to you too, Akari," he says with a broad grin. "Sleep well?"
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Post by Akari on Dec 22, 2022 15:54:18 GMT -5
A faint smile plays at Akari’s lips when Seiya bids him good morning. There’s still a bit of sleep-soft messiness to Seiya in the morning, and Akari reaches down to brush away a fly-away hair from the top of Seiya’s head before he answers his question with a few more gentle strokes on his shoulder.
‘I did. Did you?’
He looks at Seiya’s face while he waits for his response, just studying his features with a quiet intensity he always seems to carry with him. The other man certainly had a handsome face. He clearly was not completely human, though Akari could not quite place where his heritage might lie. The dog ears on his head seem to allude to stories of the inugami said to inhabit the Crescent Isle, but Akari did not want to assume anything.
It wasn’t like it matter what Seiya was. Akari was not the type to judge someone based on their bloodline, after all. But he could not help but wonder all the same. It wasn an idle sort of curiosity about a passing stranger.
Though Seiya had certainly been closer to Akari than most strangers ever would be. If only for a night.
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Post by Seiya on Dec 24, 2022 17:11:44 GMT -5
For a guy who's as hard to read as Akari is, he sure is the strangely gentle sort.
Seiya's ear twitches as those slender fingers briefly rise to comb some of his hair back into place before sliding back down to trace more letters over his shoulder, all of his focus goin' straight into noting the curves and lines of what he's writin'-- after the moment it takes to process, he just nods, that easy smile stayin' on his face, maybe even brightenin' just a little bit because of the way Akari's grinnin' just a bit himself. It ain't all too noticeable, but it's somethin' other than that stony-faced look he's been givin' him this whole time, so it's one hell of an upgrade.
"Yea, I did," he says honestly, using his free hand to pat the futon beneath him. He savors the softness beneath his palm, all the comfort it yields a balm against his calloused fingers and punch-split skin. "Best sleep I've gotten in a hot minute, to tell ya the truth. Beats the grass by a long shot."
Those violet eyes stray to the way Akari's hand lingers against his skin, ready to keep scrawlin' more letters against his skin in reply, and he's hit with a sleep-hazy memory of somethin' he'd murmured the night before.
"...Y'know, this is a nice way to talk an' all, but I was serious about you teachin' me your hand signs. I wanna learn."
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Post by Akari on Dec 29, 2022 21:24:15 GMT -5
Akari nods, commiserate, when Seiya speaks of sleeping on the ground and grass. As a child, Akari would never have dreamed of sleeping outside, exposed to the elements. But childhood was often a lacking facsimile of life. Now, he was more than used to the feeling of the wind and cold and dirt as he slept. Now he was used to many things he would have never thought to dream of when he was small, and the world was all hazy bliss.
Seiya draws him from his thoughts, his voice a gentle tug on Akari’s mind that brings him back to the present when otherwise Akari might find himself lost. Though his expression hardly changes as Seiya speaks, there is a flash of something like surprise in his eyes when Seiya asks to be taught.
How strange to wish to learn a language spoken by a passing stranger. Perhaps it was Seiya’s idle curiosity that urged him to learn it. Akari supposed he could understand that if it were his reasoning. Maybe it was all a passing fancy for something new that Seiya had not seen before.
But Akari was not a teacher. He did not have his sister’s patience or his mother’s guiding hands. There might have been a time in his life when he would have tried to be more like them, where he might have tried to fulfill Seiya’s wish. But now both his sister and his mother were gone. And Akari could no longer follow in their footsteps. He had already traveled far beyond where they had tread, after all.
There was no turning back now.
‘Teaching you would take more than a single morning; I do not think we have the time to do such a thing here.’ Akari’s finger is light as he writes on Seiya’s shoulder, finally responding to his words. ‘If you wish to learn, I would seek a teacher. Perhaps you could find someone in the Starlight City who would be able to help you.’
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Post by Seiya on Jan 1, 2023 0:50:51 GMT -5
This message is longer, a bit harder to follow-- it takes every bit of Seiya's focus to process every letter, to string 'em all together in his mind as they form against his skin, but after a few moments of thinkin' of where the letters stop and the spaces fall, of constructin' the sentences in his mind, he pauses, raising an eyebrow at Akari's suggestion. He has to scoff, really-- c'mon, he can't really think that Seiya could just walk on into Starlight City so easily and ask someone to put in the effort to teach him somethin' like this, can he?
"Well, duh, of course it ain't somethin' I can learn in a mornin'," he says with a shrug, though he's careful to only move one shoulder, not wanting to displace Akari's hand. There is no trace of mockery to be found in his voice, merely honest agreement, understanding-- hell, he's barely got good command of the common language, and he's had twenty-four years for that! How's he gonna master somethin' like this in a mornin'? "I ain't sharp, but I ain't that dumb."
Even so, despite the lack of any malice or taunting in his tone, a bitterness does creep into his features for a brief second, those bright eyes going dim with something indescribable. It must be real easy for full-blooded humans to go walkin' in and out of cities to get what they need, huh?
"...like anyone in Starlight City'd wanna sit down with me and do anythin' for me," he grumbles, the syllables harsh with hard resentment, bloodied with old pain. "Most ain't all that keen on teachin' shit to a half-yokai, y'know. Don't like 'em gettin' too sharp."
There's a heavy pause, a too-long moment where Seiya looks down at the wooden floorboards and traces over the lines like they're the most interestin' thing in the world, can't lift his gaze up to look at Akari for a second 'cause he's not sure what he'll see in those ink-dark eyes. Spite tastes heavy on his tongue and he hates the flavor, bitter and stinging like he's just bitten into some unripe fruit, but it ain't like he can chase it away so easily. Even so, he swallows, forcin' himself to look back up, to meet Akari's gaze like he ain't afraid of what he'll see there.
"...besides," he murmurs. "Who says they'll teach it right? I wanna understand you, so who's gonna teach me better than you?"
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Post by Akari on Jan 2, 2023 17:56:25 GMT -5
Akari’s hand rests against Seiya’s shoulder while the other man speaks, his fingertips roughened with callouses and his skin cool in the morning air. Absently they play against Seiya’s skin, his fingers tapping out idle nothings, no words coming from their movement.
There is a moment when the sour twist of bitterness flits across Seiya’s features, giving Akari pause. His fingers still, and Akari… Akari cannot help but frown in response.
Such a face was not made for bitterness, Akari thinks. His features were more suited to brighter things. A grin of victory, a satisfied smile. Those would suit him far better than that look of scabbed over hurt.
There’s something there, like a story to be told in the bitterness of Seiya’s voice when he speaks of the way others might react to him. To his being a half-yokai. And for a moment, Akari feels… Shame.
He had noticed that Seiya was not entirely human; it was truly impossible to miss. But he had not thought of the burden that may come with that. Seiya’s words, though quiet, spoke of a lifetime of rejection. Of being turned away not for who he was but for what. And Akari, unwittingly, had brought those memories to the surface, hadn’t he…? Not on purpose but simply because he had not thought of such a thing.
His fingers jerk for a moment as he struggles with the urge to apologize. But what good could apologies do for a man who faced the derision of the world at large? Akari apologizing for his small blunder would not change the root of the problem. And he could not sympathize with a plight he couldn’t possibly understand. Akari himself had always been… different. Both he and Hizuki had stood out from the rest. But his entire world had been his village for so long; strange as they were, they had been accepted there. His world had been kinder to him than it seemed Seiya’s had been to him.
‘You are not stupid.’ He writes instead of any apologies. ‘Do not imply as much. I cannot tell you not to mind the thoughts and opinions of others; it would be unreasonable to think they would have no effect on you. But it is a fool who sees their own foolishness in others. Their view of the world and yourself should have little bearing on your own. If one of them were to insist that they see the sky as pink instead of blue, would their view change the true color of the sky, even if they believe they are correct?’
He writes a bit slower than he had previously, giving longer pauses before each word. Usually, he wouldn’t have so much to say, but something about the hurt in Seiya’s face urges him to at least try to chase it away.
Seiya was… Honest. And Kind. Perhaps a bit cocky from the way he went after a displacer beast alone. But cockiness was not always bad if it was tempered with skill and reason. A man like Seiya was not suited for feelings like hurt or uncertainty.
Akari just hoped what he said next would not bring another pained expression to that face looking up at him.
‘Teaching you would require time we don’t have together, Seiya. I was not planning on staying in this village longer than today. That is why I suggested searching for a teacher who can give you the time that I cannot. I am sorry.’
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Post by Seiya on Jan 2, 2023 23:04:34 GMT -5
Huh. It's odd how so few words from Seiya suddenly get an awful lotta words out of Akari.
It's a damn good thing he seems to go a little slower so he can catch 'em all, because damn, Akari's suddenly gotten a lot more verbose all of a sudden-- his fingertip is all gentle, his touch light as it lingers between sentences, givin' Seiya a chance to process every part of every word he's sayin' to him. Turns out he's one hell of a poet, too; all these things about the shiftin' of the sky, how just because someone says it's one way doesn't mean it is... somethin' about all of it just kind of makes him falter, leaves him speechless in a way he hasn't been in a while.
He hadn't meant for any bitterness to creep into his words, not in the way that counted-- sure, sometimes you can't help it, but it's easy to pull the roots back before they dig too deep. It's usually easy enough to flatly laugh it off, to brush aside all the resentment he feels toward every human who's ever scorned him and pretend it doesn't bother him that badly, but there are times when he can't hide the venom in his tone, can't pretend he doesn't hate the way anger and disgust and fear flash across the faces of all the fragile humans who don't seem to know what to make of him, who see the spawn of the brutal Dog Prince before they see a gentle seamstress's son.
But Akari... huh. Akari's awfully passionate about all this, about the question of his intelligence, for someone he's only known for a day. It's kinda nice, in all honesty, and feelin' those kind letters trace across his skin just melts the tension from his face, warmth settling into his eyes like a gentle pink sunrise.
"Hey, someone got awful talkative there," he laughs, reaching a hand forward to brush a few stray snow-white strands of hair out of Akari's face in turn, a gentle answer to his own gesture from earlier. "Sweet of ya there, Akari. I appreciate the thought."
He takes a moment to drink in what Akari says about going forward, about havin' no real intention of stickin' around-- well, that makes sense, but... why's he talkin' like they'll never cross paths again?
"Then just teach me somethin' small today," he insists. "Your name. Mine. A greeting. So I can say hello to ya properly the next time we meet, and I'll have a good enough start for another lesson. How's that sound?"
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Post by Akari on Jan 16, 2023 23:33:29 GMT -5
“You wish to meet again…?” Akari’s words are hesitant this time, his finger stopping and starting near erratically rather than with that steady confidence he had before. His finger stops writing and leaves Seiya’s skin as he hesitates over what he could possibly say next.
Once upon a time, it would be easy to say yes to Seiya. Maybe in that other life, instead of staying in a random village, Seiya could have stumbled onto Akari’s home when it was still alive. Hizuki would have offered him Akari’s bed to stay in during his travels, no doubt. She had a tendency to volunteer Akari for things like that. They could have talked like this then. Maybe Akari would have been able to actually speak just a few broken words, and Seiya would have asked about learning sign language to make it easier on him. Akari would have taught him, then, with the promise of many, many more conversations between them to come.
But that was a different life, a path they couldn’t take. They were not cloistered in the safety and warmth of Akari’s bed. They were in the home of a stranger, because Akari… He no longer had a home he could return to or bring Seiya to.
“I cannot promise you another meeting, Seiya. I intend to leave these lands, and I may never return to them after I am gone.”
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Post by Seiya on Jan 18, 2023 21:05:50 GMT -5
“‘Course I do.”
There ain’t a bit of hesitation that comes with it; Seiya speaks quick and plainly as soon as Akari asks him if he truly wants to meet again, as soon as he finishes processin’ the words bein’ traced over his shoulder, even if they do come slower this time. They ain’t as smooth this time around, the penmanship shaped with his fingertips all shaky, the same way Seiya’s hand had been when he was still little and didn’t know how to hold a pen in his hand the right way, didn’t know how to put ink on parchment and make it look like words. It’s weird. Akari had been just fine a little bit ago.
Akari’s face gets all stormy, too; it ain’t like one of the heavy thunderstorms that crash over the forests of home sometimes. It’s more like a windstorm– invisible but wild with somethin’ all the same, unseen and impossible to parse properly, but leavin’ you with enough physical traces of proof and the sense that something ain’t quite right. His eyelashes cast a shadow over those big dark eyes, the muscles of his jaw just a little bit tight like he’s thinkin’ real hard ‘bout somethin’, and… Seiya’s not sure what.
But then Akari’s finger’s movin’ again, slow and tentative, writin’ more words that he seems all reluctant about writin’, and Seiya just tilts his head. There’s a finality behind the movements, the words, a sorrow etched into etchings, and he doesn’t really get why; it ain’t like it’s impossible for them to cross paths again, even if Akari has no plan of comin’ back around to the Crescent Isles. But the longer Seiya stares at his face, tryin’ to search for somethin’ in those night-dark eyes, the more he realizes there’s probably somethin’ he ain’t gettin’.
…Hm. Well.
“Alright, alright, I get that ya can’t promise anythin’,” he says, managing a soft little smile, one that he hopes can ease the storm, block the winds that plague the man before him. “If ya can’t come ‘round these parts again, that’s fine. But what do ya say to makin’ a deal with me– if we do cross paths again, then teach me. If it don’t happen, it don’t happen, but if it does… then I’d like to learn.”
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Post by Akari on Jan 30, 2023 13:51:53 GMT -5
Surprise washes over Akari, wrapping him in a gentle warmth that stops his fingers in their tracks and the breath in his lungs. This man, this strange, strange man who fought displacer beasts with his bare hands and then turned to look at him with gentle eyes… Akari could hardly comprehend it.
There was no one left in the world who would wait for Akari. The warmth of a ‘welcome home’ was something he had loved and lost already. The eyes that would have once sought him out in a crowd were now closed.
But Seiya, strange Seiya, seemed so determined. He made no promises of seeking Akari out, of following his trail into the wild world beyond this little room.
Yet he wanted to see Akari again.
He wanted to learn his name again. He wanted to learn how to communicate on Akari’s terms. He spoke as if he would be the one looking for Akari in crowds now, just when Akari had gotten used to being…
To being…
‘If we meet again,’ He promises, though he knows he should not. There were already so many promises etched into Akari, so many that ended too quickly, so many that would see his end. Perhaps it was foolish of him to promise something kinder when he knew he could not keep it. And yet…
‘If we meet again, I will teach you my name, I will say hello, and I will show you how to say it back.’
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Post by Seiya on Jan 31, 2023 21:10:28 GMT -5
If we meet again.
It was somethin'. Wasn't a guarantee, wasn't any kind of promise that they'd cross paths again, but it was somethin', and that not-promise came with an actual one: if the two of 'em meet again, Akari would actually teach him a few of those things he'd asked to learn. It all just hinged on the chance of whether or not they'd see one another again after their paths diverged, after Seiya's footsteps carried him forth to strange battles with strange creatures and Akari's beckoned him forth someplace Seiya could only wonder over.
Gods know where the hell Akari's goin' after this, where in Charon his path'll take him, but wherever it is, Seiya ain't worried over the possibility that they won't run into one another again. Some part of him feels like they will. He ain't too sure of why, but he ain't one to distrust his feelings, and if his heart says as much, then he'll put some faith in his heart or wish on some pretty little star twinklin' in the distance or somethin' like that.
Seiya Maeda will see Akari again, someday, and Akari will teach him what he promised.
"I can agree to that, then," he says, smile softening a bit at the edges as he sits up just a little more, glancing over his shoulder at the shower of light pourin' through the window. "Ah, still, though-- it's lookin' a bit late in the mornin', ain't it? If ya have places to be, I probably shouldn't keep ya."
He yawns, lifting an arm over his head so he can stretch, ears twitching as the warmth of waking settles over him fully.
"...though, if ya ain't in a hurry, neither am I. Heh."
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Post by Akari on Feb 15, 2023 17:36:38 GMT -5
There were already many things Akari had done this morning that he should not of. He should not have given in so easily too Seiya, should not have promised, or given him hope that they may meet again. The chances of their paths once again crossing were so distant, so small, and it would likely be better for Seiya if he never saw Akari again.
Now it seemed that maybe it would be better if Seiya had never met Akari at all.
But Akari already knew there was nothing he could do to change the past. He had gone through the throes of raging against time already, of begging and bargaining as he clung to a desperate, wild hope that things could change. They never did. And that hope had settled in his chest into something else. An ember to feed the fires of his wrath. He could never change the past.
And he… He could never unmeet Seiya.
There was little point in staying here longer, the sooner Akari returned to his travels, the better. And yet, he found himself settling back down into the comfort of the futon bellow and Seiya’s lingering warmth. He should not do this, and yet, there were many, many things Akari should not do, that he had done or will do anyway. What was one more infraction against his list of sins?
Just one more…
‘I could stay a little longer.’
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