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Nathan was standing under the eave of the temple.
The yukata that Taka had left him still hung from his shoulders and rested on his body,
But his body didn't feel warm.
It was his chest.
His will and what he lived in recent months what really made him feel in a way that he had not felt for years.
He never thought he would find a home, since he left his parents years ago he had never spent so much time in a fixed place.
Katsumoto approached, while he thought
With the same straight step as always.
"Captain Algren," he said, in a low but authoritative and firm voice.
"I told you... that you won't call me that anymore."
Katsumoto tilted his head as a slight apology although no more than necessary.
"Nathan then." - who was silent as he usually does whenever he thinks of something - "I have noticed something in your eyes these days. Can I ask what it is?"—
"No... I don't sleep well in such quiet places"
Katsumoto looked at the sky and then looked at him.
"Silence holds many ghosts"
Silence.
Nathan looked at him.
"I never thanked you for not killing me."
Katsumoto watched him. Firm.
But his fingers, hidden under the sleeves,
They tightened slightly.
"You shouldn't thank me. You used to be my enemy, but now..."
Nathan waited.
Katsumoto took a step further.
"You're just like me,
You. You remind me of something I once wanted to be."
Nathan looked down.
"What did you see in me?"
Katsumoto replied after a few seconds
"A tiger that had already died. But whose heart refused to remain silent for too long"
⸻
Nathan opened his eyes slightly, not a very notorious gesture just... spontaneous
Katsumoto breathes and looks at Nathan with a "Follow me" look
They walked all over the temple, the dried flowers of the trees slowly falling like feathers on the floor emitting a dull noise as they fell.
They arrived at a small room. Just a small futon for one person and something that seemed to be a shelf
Katsumoto made a sign for Nathan to sit on the green tatami under them and murmured
"Ore wa, omae o mitomete ita."
(—I saw you.
Really.)
Nathan understood, he doesn't know how only
He understood
And he took his hand.
Just for a second.
A small touch of rough skins colliding, skins that went through so many things
It was enough.
⸻
It was the night before the trip to Tokyo.
The moment when Katsumoto was to present himself to the emperor.
I wasn't afraid.
Only
A tension that had been growing for weeks.
Nathan looked at the trees and the grass when
Katsumoto approached, like many other times,
But this time... he didn't stop a meter away.
He sat next to her.
Silent, like a shadow
⸻
"Do you think they'll listen to us?" Nathan murmured.
"No."
Nathan nodded slowly, with doubt
"You're so calm, too much."
Katsumoto looked at him and I waited a few seconds before speaking
"The river flows both if you look at it and if you don't
Why fear it?"
Nathan turned his face, he didn't understand much but
The closeness was different this time.
More loaded.
More inevitable.
Katsumoto lowered his voice:
"There are things that are felt more than death."
Nathan took a deep breath, he wondered "what happened to this man's wife?" "You must have had, right?" "Is this wrong?" "Am I his equal, now?
Breath
"What do you mean?"
Katsumoto didn't respond with words.
He just brought his face closer to Nathan's and breathed softly near him
And Nathan...
He stopped resisting.
⸻
They kissed.
Slowly at first trying to process the situation
But when Katsumoto slipped his hand under Nathan's haori fabric...
The body responded without permission.
Gasps between teeth.
The hip clash.
Clothes pushed aside.
The knees against the soft tatami.
Katsumoto gently rested his head on the tatami, putting his hand behind making sure not to hurt him.
Without talking.
Just guiding.
And once ready
Nathan lay on his back and they proceeded with their respective actions.
They lacked lighting, only the moon
White light, dim but real
"This... is not prudent," he whispered, regretting instantly
Katsumoto rode it slowly.
Firm.
With breaths that said everything that his honor could not name.
He clung to the opposite's arm and to the back of his neck trying to endure the rush of feelings and stimuli that were coming at him
Each movement was contained,
Controlled,
But deeply necessary.
When everything reached its expected and long-awaited end.
An exhalation.
And a whisper in Japanese:
"Omae o ushinaitakunai."
(—I don't want to lose you.)
Nathan didn't ask what it meant, since deep down he knew.
He just hugged him from below.
He stuck his forehead to he’s.
And he said:
—“Then take me with you.
Wherever this ends.'
⸻
The next morning,
No one knew what had happened.
Only them.
And in every look after that,
The body remembered what the mouth did not dare to say.