exsiliumlogs | At The Place I'll Return to Someday [Closed]

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At The Place I'll Return to Someday [Closed]

Date & Time: August 7th
Location: 1888 Japan
Characters: Kido & Kano
Summary: Mission here a.k.a. frolic around Japan, steal some dogs, spend time together, w/e
Warnings: THEY NEED TO HAVE EMOTIONAL TALKS AT SOME POINT

[It started with a text. Want to go somewhere? Let's go to Japan. Come on, you and me. Was she homesick? Did she just want to get out? Maybe she wanted to prove she could do this again; leading, fighting, being someone stronger. She'd had enough rest.

But it wasn't just that. She texted him for a reason. They were on the verge of...something. Just in the distance, she could see some sort of change waiting. There was a different future if she could grab his hand and drag him forward with her.

He agreed. Maybe he wanted to get away with her, too?

Kido changed into the clothes given - thankfully they let her take male ones - and pocketed their spending money. She listened to everything in their briefing, already focusing on the mission. They could easily hit up a few of those targets between their combined abilities. If they got done fast enough, they could enjoy themselves a little, too...

She walked down the streets that weren't familiar but closer to home than anything they had been given so far and thought out loud to Kano.]

This shouldn't be too bad. I can steal the artwork from the one member... we can probably both take the dogs from the other... Just get the one drunk and encourage the daughter to go out on her own...

[A beat.] We'd have to go with her though. I'm not letting her run off and get kidnapped or something...

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He looks cute like that. It irritates her.

"I don't want a poem by you! It would probably be ridiculous." Even though she says that, she doesn't doubt she'll start seeing stupid poetry in her inbox. Well, she isn't going to mind it. "I told you, right? You have to ask me. You can do that much, can't you?"

"I thought we were already on a date." He says it without hesitation, smile widening into a grin. "That's why you dressed up, right?"

"I-I dressed up because I lost the bet!" Her cheeks turn a shade redder. It can't be that obvious. It really can't be. "Anyway! Come on, just ask me already! Make it official, idiot!"

"But Leader could've dismissed it! Ah, no, you're not the type to back down from bets, I know that." Kano deliberately ignores her, opting to lean in instead. He wants to get a better look at her blushing face.

"But if I asked you out on a date, that'd mean I'd have somewhere in mind for us to go, wouldn't it? I don't have the faintest idea where I could take you."

Kido stands - sits? - her ground despite his face getting closer again. Having him so near does nothing to help calm her and he's still being obtuse. She has to do everything, huh?

She switches the way their hands are held, holding his instead of the other way around. In a kimono like this, she can't move as fast or freely as she usually can, but she moves into his lap and shoves her weight down on him to pin him into the grass. Hands still held tight against his chest, he has no room to move away.

Leaning over him, some of her hair falls around his face. "You idiot. You know what I mean. I told you, we can't date unless you ask me. So just ask me already!"

Wait what was--??

Before Kano can react, he finds himself pinned on the ground, Kido's hair tickling the sides of his face. By instinct, his eyes turn on as his face heats up, but he doesn't let go or try to push her off. He knows she's stronger than him, anyway.

"But Kido's already asked me out! Haven't the rules been broken already?!"

"Don't be stupid." This is the only thing she refuses to budge on. He can get away with no really confessing to her outright or any of the other vague ways he answers things. After all, she promised to listen to the meaning behind those whimsical questions. But this is just one thing, the only thing, she won't let him be vague with.

"Just ask me out. Ask me to be your girlfriend. Tch, come on, come on..."

"If I do, will you let me go? You're crushing my lungs, you know. And I think I might sneeze with your hair in my face." Even as he jokes, though, he doesn't want her to get off. Having her on top of him is actually pretty nice. He squeezes her hands.

"Fine, fine. Kido, go out with me, or I'll cry."

"I already saw you cry." Kido smiles, heart beating faster. Even with a joke to pad it, even if she had to pin him like this, he said it. Her only condition for his honesty, the one thing she asked him to do months ago.

She closes the distance to kiss him again, still light and unsure but he asked her. It's hard to keep a smile off her face now.

"Well... All right. I'll be your girlfriend."

Girlfriend. It's a title he didn't think he'd get to call her, but here she is, accepting it.

A sudden joy bursts in his chest and he yanks her down so he can kiss her again, moving his lips slightly so he can taste her mouth better. So, this is how letting yourself fall in love feels like. He doesn't want it to end.

Kido makes a soft, surprised sound against his mouth but settles fast enough. He really does 'like' her, huh? To be so eager to kiss her and be close to her; hell, even his complaints earlier to get off him seem forgotten.

She tries to mimic the way his mouth moves, fumbling through it before it starts to feel natural. This whole thing feels surprisingly normal. Though her heart might be racing, that fluttering in her stomach has become pleasant instead of some strange torture.

When the kiss breaks, Kido rests her forehead against his and smiles. "You're happy, right?"

After keeping his distance for so long, being permitted to stay so close to her is more than welcome. The complicated feelings he felt before have faded to the back of his mind, forgotten for now. All he can think about is how brightly she shines with that smile, how warm her skin feels against his. His heart's still beating fast, but the cause has changed.

"I look happy, don't I? Of course I am."

"Yeah. I like your smile right now." She doesn't want to let go of his hands, so she presses a soft kiss to his lips in appreciation. "I guess now if I say something like, 'You have a really nice smile' it would be normal, huh?"

"It should've been normal to begin with. My smiles are always nice." It's a dumb boast to tease her as usual. He tilts his head up to kiss her back in return for the one she gave him.

Before, she used to wonder why people kissed so much in movies or on tv. What was the big deal? Wouldn't it feel gross? But with each kiss, a greedy little voice in her heart asks for another. At this rate, even if he kissed her until her lungs went numb, she would still want another.

Kido keeps her eyes shut for a moment, enjoying the warmth of his lips and of his breath.

"You're such an idiot. Your real smiles are nicest." Another kiss, this one brief. "Thanks. For not using your eyes much tonight..."

"... if I did, you probably wouldn't have taken me seriously, I think."

It'd been tempting to continue hiding, but this one thing was something he didn't want to be clouded by his lies. It's already been muddied and dirtied beyond recognition--he didn't need to smear more on it when it was already unclear to begin with.

"It would've been hard, yeah. But you didn't. So... thanks." Her face feels warm from the smile spreading over it. She wants to kiss him again but bows her head instead to rest it against his shoulder.

This is real. This strange, surreal night is real. The feelings that confused and tormented her, too, turned out to be the real thing. She doesn't doubt it now, because the twisting coils around her heart have changed to something embracing. It doesn't hurt anymore.

Kido lets go of one of his hands to hug him loosely. It's okay to be like this. Nothing really changed, right? They always liked being together. This is just natural.

"Kano... Thanks." She murmurs it again, breathing out softly.

He touches her face with his hand. He can feel her head rise and fall with each breath he took, and he turns his so he can nose into her hair. If they went back, they'll still be able to do this. It's not a lie. His fingers curl. It's the truth.

It's fine to expose his truth when she's already given him hers.

"... sorry. For taking so long."

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't really frustrating." Frustrating, painful, agonizing; there are a lot of words she could use for it. But none of the bitterness she held comes with them. A hazy warmth keeps her from feeling much except contentment.

"But it's okay now." She pauses, laughing a little. "I meant for this mission to help you but I think I got the best deal out of it..."

"To help me? Ah, and here I thought Leader just wanted an excuse to be alone with me!"

He suspected that mission of hers, though, when she brought it up. Since their conversation on the beach, that part of him he normally kept locked up had begun to crack open beneath her persistent prying. In the end, it didn't turn out as badly as he thought it could've. At least, not yet.

But he won't think about that right now. Not when Kido's smiling and laughing on top of him, when he can touch her without fearing some sort of repercussion or about holding back.

"Ah, but are you sure it's okay?"

The longer they lie here, the more comfortable she feels. This warmth, the gentle breeze carrying familiar festival scents and sounds, it could lull her to sleep if she isn't careful.

"Hm? Why wouldn't it be okay?"

Silence.

He closes his eyes.

"All those other times... I imagine that they were more than frustrating sometimes, huh?"

He wasn't oblivious to how it affected her.

Gradually, the sounds of the festival fade into a distant hum compared to the steady sound of his breathing. Kido runs her thumb along the crook of his neck.

"...Yeah. It hurt." An understatement to say the least. She didn't want him to beat himself up over it. But pretending otherwise might just be worse. "...It really, really hurt. I don't even know... when I started to like you this way. I think it's been a while, before we came here. I used to just get irritated and upset and not know why. Knowing why made it worse. Trying to talk to you about it and getting pushed away... yeah, it was horrible."

Even though right now, a gentle warmth stays in her chest, she can remember that pain. It only ceased today after all.

"I didn't get it. I didn't understand why I kept trying... except that even though it hurt so much, ah..." She recalls certain words and shakes her head. "...Happiness isn't easy. You have to work for it. ...So I didn't want to give up. I said it'd be okay if you turned me down and it would've been but... I wanted to be happy with you." Her face burns. What a stupid, cliche sounding thing.

"... sometimes you're too stubborn, you know." If she stopped he wouldn't have blamed her. Even if it meant an outcome like this wouldn't have been possible, it would've been better than that constant torture they both put themselves through the past months.

Kano opens his eyes a little. The lights and people of the festival were blurry like this, but it's fine. What was seen wasn't always important. The unseen sometimes was. He plays with the end of her hair.

"So? Are you happy?"

With only a moment of hesitation - shyness, not doubt - she turns her head to kiss his neck. This way he can feel her smile.

"Yeah. It was worth it." Kido heard once that falling in love was hard and painful. So, it was only natural that falling for someone like Kano would be more difficult than usual. In the end, maybe that's just how it works.

"But if I could do it again... I would've punched you more." She noses against his skin, tucking her head under his chin. "Idiot."

At The Place I'll Return to Someday [Closed]

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