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“Six.” Nayu announces blandly, looking unimpressed.
“Hm? Six what?” Altus asks, snapping out of his reverie as his lover continues patching the wounds on his arms up. The hands resting near his wounds tighten unconsciously, forcing a jolt of more surprise than actual pain.
“I placed six spells to make sure you wouldn't get hurt by your own stupidity. Which means...you successfully harmed yourself the seven, eighth, ninth and tenth. Idiot.” Nayu berates, his nails digging into Altus's flesh as he finishes bandaging up the nasty gashes on his arms.
It's not deep enough to risk anything, but it's definitely not shallow either. It shouldn't have happened in the first place though...not when he'd made sure no normal threat could wound him. Any normal man would at least be gritting their teeth through the pain if it was getting touched so carelessly by another.
Unfortunately, (or fortunately) Altus is anything but normal.
“You know I'll be just fine Nayuyu. After all, as long as I have you to patch me up I'll be fine.” Altus grins at the man before him, a laugh rumbling in his chest. The said man to who the grin is directed towards however, frowns. It's always been disconcerting to Nayu how Altus could find something to smile about no matter what. Some days he's fond of that. Other times, times like these, he's less than pleased — it's obvious from the glare he shoots at his lover.
“Remind me again, why are you my...” His voice trails off, unsure of what exactly to call Altus. Boyfriend? It sounds weird. Lover? Too cringy of a word to describe him.
“Significant other? Husband?” Altus suggests, leaning his face closer to the pondering man.
“Significant annoyance in your case...” Nayu grumbles as he snaps back to reality, an exasperated sigh escaping his lips.
“But yes. Remind me again...why exactly are you...my 'significant other' sometimes and a chronic pain in my ass most of the time?”
“Nevermind. Don't even reply to that. It was a rhetorical question.” Nayu adds on quickly, before the man sitting on the cot actually thinks of a response.
Altus has the nerve to chuckle at him.
“What?” Nayu demands, standing up to his full height to glare down at the nuisance — a nuisance that he would definitely mind being bothered by for a life time, surely.
“You said 'my'. You said I was your signifant other and chronic pain in the ass.” Altus giggles to himself foolishly at the thought. If anyone else were to witness the feared captain of the knights...giggling, they'd think they had had one too many drinks.
Nayu (attempts to) fight back at the red creeping onto his face. “Well, so what! Besides wasn't that your suggestion? Unless you're smiling simply because you think you find your pain funny?” Nayu scoffs, only half meaning it.
His frustration with his lover has long since disappeared some time ago. Altus has always been annoyingly good at doing so, at making him feel more than he should. He's not sure he dislikes it entirely.
"And what if I do?" Altus smiles cheekily as he pulls Nayu down to have the man sat on his lap, unmindful of his own injuries, his face blocking off any other view.
Nayu doesn't answer, squirming from the knight's hold.
Altus looks up to Nayu with so much adoration in his eyes, it's almost unbearable for the latter.
He'd like to spend his numbered days worshipping Nayu, god or not, Altus thinks to himself.
"Are you done now?" Nayu deadpans, as he stops squirming from Altus's hold. The hope for escape is futile anyhow, when Altus's grip is as firm as it is now.
Privately though, he doesn't hate it.
It's not helping his case though, not when his blush is burning as hot as it is right now.
"Hm...maybe?" Altus winks at Nayu, his lips and eyes curving into crescents. His hands cup Nayu's cheeks, admiring how perfectly...human he looks like right now.
Nayu's imperfections are beautiful — that crooked nose, from the time he broke his nose after he got into a fight from back as an apprentice. His imperfections are perfect — that faint nick on his eyebrow, from when a dart had been thrown his direction. He could go on for eternity, he thinks, admiring every inch of the man before him.
Altus doesn't know who moves first.
All he knows is that one moment he's staring up at his lover, the next their lips are melded gently against each other, devastatingly gentle.
The first kiss is chaste and fleeting. It reminds him of their childhood together, of all those mornings at the academy. It reminds him of the shy, timid person he was around Nayu, back when they were still kids.
The second lasts longer —tinged faintly with the kind of sweetness that reminds Altus of their teenage years — of stolen kisses and hazy, golden afternoons spent together.
The third tastes honeyed. It brings the distant memory of the two of them entangled in a mess of limbs, laying on a field of grass stargazing. He remembers pointing out the constellations in the sky with Nayu.
Honestly, Altus gives up counting after the third. Everything feels cloudy. His brain feels foggy, granted clarity only during the too brief periods when his lips separate from Nayu's.
Always though, he dives back into the lips of the man he loves so dear.
They're each pressed onto the other, until Altus can't feel where he ends and where Nayu begins.
After what feels like an eternity, they pull away. Their eyes are glazed, lips rubbed raw and swollen.
"I hate you." Nayu gasps out.
It's a little hard for Altus to take Nayu seriously though, when the latter lays his head on the former's chest, uncaring of the wounds.
That's a lie. They both know it, in the way Nayu doesn't put as much force as he likes to when he does this.
A silence engulfs them. It's peaceful in a way neither of them feel used to.
A voice muffled by skin carefully breaks through it about maybe an eternity and a half later, gentle in a way Nayu's never is, vulnerability bleeding through it in a way he never allows it to.
"Don't get wounded anymore, you dumbass. I'm sick of patching you up every single time you come back from your battles."
When he's the one baring the healers away when they so much as get closer to Altus to inspect his wounds, but that's besides the point. Maybe. Probably.
"I do try to come back as unharmed as possible, y'know."
"Try harder then."
"Of course."
Nayu doesn't attempt to conceal the edge to his voice. Altus doesn't either — the half smile in his voice, that is.
It frustrates Nayu.
But maybe that's also why he...loves Altus too.