Chapter Hundred Sixteen

Without Hands

 

Deep within the cavernous insides of the Empire, dreamed a great dragon of black and darkly-red scales. Many-headed, legless, serpentine, and blind like the legendary Hira loyalty and stubbornness. It ate rocks and they came out as gemstones from the other side of Its half-Spirit, half-obsidian stone body. Its size so unimaginable, It couldn't slither out of the earth without breaking it apart and causing havoc and destruction with its mere appearance.

Thus, It preferred to sleep and only crawl deep in the ground, burrowing through the Empire's cavernous insides. But sometimes, in times of great need and turmoil, It was summoned to the surface to aid those who held Its name and could call It.

Like right now.

...

Nekohiko knew the ramifications of summoning Hinohebira to do his bidding. Even Hira Lords rarely used their call to have the Beast by their side, so dangerous It was.

But Nekohiko could aid It with his Binding and minimize the damage, too. He didn't need the entirety of the Beast here, now. He only needed Its blessing and Its recognition of who he was and why he came.

He and Aomi descended to the lowest levels of the underground Hira castle. One of the endless dark hallways swept with the gleam of infernal flames like red and yellow flickers just outside his view. It smelled like sulfur in here, and the heat in the air was slowly rising the longer he remained here.

The last time he'd been to this place, Abihiko had dragged him here to see Okinaga's "treasury" of garbage in one of the many storage rooms. Unguarded, simply because Lord Hira Okinaga never expected guests and never expected those to break his trust like this, wandering where they shouldn't.

Plus, the last time, young Nekohiko and Abihiko had obviously not gone to the hidden sections of the castle. Nobody but the blood-born Hira Binders could even see the way there.

Now, maybe they had a chance.

"Ready?" Nekohiko asked Aomi who stood by his side in the empty, eerily-quiet hallway.

The girl was dressed in the same Hira-colored black-and-red robes. She looked like she belonged in this environment. Yet not if one saw her eyes.

She stared, unblinkingly and terror-stricken, around her -- at the suffocating, claustrophobic walls and ceilings of the deeper Hira hallways. Subtly, but she shivered, even though the air around them was dry and hot like standing near a stove.

"Mn," she squeezed out. Then swallowed. "Ready for what?"

"For Hinohebira. Its arrival, even in the smallest of Its Spirit forms is... a bit staggering," Nekohiko admitted. "If It even deigns to show up to my call."

Part of him was still unsure. What if Hinohebira was of the same mindset as Hira Okinaga about Nekohiko and his actions five years ago? What if Hinohebira also viewed him as the enemy of the people and the Calamity humans feared so much?

However, even as he said it, he felt it.

...

The barely-there but unmistakable slow shifting of the ground beneath their feet, of the walls, of the very ceiling. Like a wave, passing through the stone underground of the Hira realm.

The earthquake.

Slight yet horrifying just as they always were to a person born in the earthquake-prone land of the Akitsushima Empire.

...

Earthquakes were never a joke in this land.

"Ahhhh!" Aomi breathed, clinging to the wall and throwing a desperate look around as though searching for a place to hide under.

There would be no place to hide under, anyway. If they were mere mortals and not Binders, they would have been dead already. If this were a natural earthquake, it might have crushed them with all the floors above this level -- regardless of how well they hid. And buried them here, where nobody would ever find them.

But this was not a natural earthquake.

This was only Hinohebira, dutifully answering Nekohiko's call.

 

 

---

***

 

The Beast was painfully aware of how much destruction It could bring with Its physical form. Even waking up to Nekohiko calling caused an earthquake in the Hira lands.

So once It grew aware of Nekohiko and that Nekohiko asked It to come -- Hinohebira chose to extend only Its Spiritual, ephemeral form to manifest. Nekohiko counted on that, of course. He knew that the Spirits, especially the Great Ones, were kind to their land and its people. None of them wanted to harm anyone.

That didn't stop the situation from being horrifying when a transparent, ghost-like body of an enormous serpent emerged from within the walls of the hallway. All of Its scales and segments and metallic plates flickered in the lights even with how insubstantial It was.

It still evoked the sense of colossal size, of eldritch existence, of menace.

Aomi's breath caught as she backed into Nekohiko. The entire hallway before them suddenly went dark and blurry with the enormous scales slithering through. And this was merely one-tenth of Hinohebira's actual size! They couldn't even see the head or where the body ended or began -- only a continuous stretch of its bulk, dwarfing them in comparison.

"Wh-what is this--"

"Shhh." Nekohiko pushed the girl behind him, observing the mass of the Hinohebira's body slithering through the hallway -- phasing in and out of the walls as all Spirits could.

He saw that the Great Fire snake couldn't define where they were and how It needed to come greet them. The Beast was blind, so small wonder It had no real idea of scale or how communication worked between It and tiny humans.

Nekohiko outstretched his hand and brushed his fingertips over Hinohebira's ephemeral body.

The scaly skin under his fingers barely connected, so spectral it was, but the Beast still stopped. And listened in to Its sensations from Nekohiko's touch.

"Sorry for summoning you here. Can you assume a smaller shape, please?" Nekohiko asked it, soothingly. "We need your help in entering the Hira Family's secret vaults. Will you let us in?"

No answer came.

The length of the Spirit Serpent slithered on through the hall as though nothing happened. But then, once It phased entirely out of sight, something changed.

The heat increased. So much, sweat began cascading down Nekohiko's face and back as he breathed in the hot and dry air, almost imagining the strain it put on his wooden body.

Good thing he had fireproofed it long ago.

"Is It... gone?" Aomi whispered, still clinging to Nekohiko from the side.

"Probably no. It takes time for the Spirits to adjust their size to be able to communicate with humans. Especially Spirits as Great as Bizarre Beasts."

From the dark distance, a dim red glow came like the smolder of coals. It grew brighter and brighter, and Nekohiko finally saw an outline of a gateway where there had been none before.

Like a secret passage drawing out of inexistence.

"The Hira vault," he murmured.

Nekohiko stiffened, unsure whether this was an invitation -- but Aomi shed all her hesitation in an instant. The girl braved a step, then another. Then broke into a run toward the faint door of the Hira vault. Nekohiko had no choice but to follow.

They both came to a halt when they came close enough to see the enormous pale-gold snake twining around the burning entrance. Its size was still greater than human's, but not so much that It disappeared into the walls or the ceiling.

The Beast's head and eyes were black like extinguished coal, sightless.

Yet it still somehow felt as though the Beast was watching them, and judging their worth.

Aomi dawdled only a little. Hinohebira didn't look like it would attack them -- It only slithered about the hidden door like a creeping vine. So the girl stepped up, touching the door as though to push it open.

Except she couldn't. There was no door.

Hinohebira's amusement only increased, listening in to their next actions.

"Where the hell is the door?" Aomi glanced back at Nekohiko, frustrated. "If this is the vault, why can't we go in?!"

...

"Let us in," Nekohiko ordered the Serpent.

Rather than reply in human language, which Nekohiko wasn't sure Hinohebira even knew -- the Serpent Spirit merely tilted Its head.

Its fascination had shades of distrust and scorn, Nekohiko could swear. As though the Beast didn't feel like they... deserved to go in.

Well, Hinohebira had a point.

Neither of them was a Hira Binder. Even if Aomi might be a blood-born Hira, her Binding powers were sealed, so...

She couldn't have counted as a person worthy of entering. Hinohebira was loyal to House Hira -- and loyalty, in particular, was such a huge cornerstone of the Hira belief system!

"We need to go in because this is urgent," Nekohiko said. "As the true Emperor, I need to find... some records about..."

Hisomes?

Eh, didn't sound very urgent, to be honest.

But he had nothing better to say, so why not this?

"About the enemies of the Empire who threaten my Throne," he finished, uncomfortable with Hinohebira's utter stillness.

...

Because the Serpent didn't shift at all, even after he explained himself. If anything, now It looked like It wanted to let him in even less.

Grrrrr...!

"I need to go in -- let me in!" Aomi snapped, all of a sudden. She raised her reddened face, flushed from the heat swerving around them. Sweat clumped her hair and made her look desperate, fevered. "Do you hear me?!"

Silence amplified the echoes and the terrible hoarseness of Aomi's voice.

The girl waited, her hands in fists, her shoulders raised as though in the middle of battle. She heaved.

Yet the Serpent still showed no recognition or reaction to her.

"What do you want to hear? That we will die if we don't go inside? We might not, but it still doesn't stop it from being horrible! Being so... lost and ignorant all the time. Being so helpless. I need to learn the truth," Aomi growled, wiping her sleeve across her sweaty face. "There is nothing more important than truth -- I can no longer trip and stumble around, blind -- not knowing where the steady ground is, all right? It's fucking tiring. Everything is so flimsy and flaky -- and I want something... to root myself in. A certainty. And I know for sure--" And she stuck her finger into the inaccessible vault. Her finger trembled. "-- that all the answers I ever wanted are inside!"

Her voice broke off into a scream.

"Let me in, dammit, you stupid animal!"

"Aomi!"

Even he, the Emperor, would not allow himself to talk in this manner to a Great Spirit like Hinohebira!

And yet... his worry and grabbing the girl to pull her away from the offended Spirit was moot.

The Spirit wasn't all that offended.

Actually, It was no longer as curious-looking. Instead, It retreated back into the typical for a Spirit unreadable manner. Merely existing according to Its own rules, nothing more. And then, just as incomprehensibly, It tangled its ghostly body around the arch of the door that slowly emerged out of the bare stone. Crimson smolder highlighted the edge of the door, and at last -- the door cracked open.

Both Aomi and Nekohiko gasped with relief because the coolest of breezes came from beyond the door.

It smelled of dust, staleness and dead silence, this breeze -- but it was so refreshing after the heated proximity of Hinohebira.

The girl shoved the door, barging inside with the resounding clang of the ancient doors slamming open.

The coolness and hush of the hidden space behind it stunned Nekohiko. But more so the fact that Aomi's little outburst had actually earned them the entry into the Hira vault!

How?

Perplexed, he followed the girl inside, but couldn't help glancing back to the flicker of the Spirit essence that was Hinohebira at the doors. Had the Serpent been really that impressed with some little girl's proclamation?

Huh.

"Did you just guess what It would consider worthy of letting us in? Or did you know exactly what to state to sway it?"

"Eh...?" Aomi didn't even bother to turn. "I would kill for knowledge and truth, Neko. Not that you would ever understand."

...

Hey! What was it with such a personal attack, Aomi?

"Holy hells, this place is enormous," Aomi groaned after the first shock of pelting inside wore off.

Hinohebira had slowly crept inside, slithering along the far walls of the vault and lighting all the gemstone lanterns along the perimeter. And after It did, the shadowy nothingness of the vault finally came into view.

Rows upon rows of jagged rock shelves, packed with stone and wooden and paper and cloth tablets or scrolls. Yet the further from the entrance they walked, the more they saw some other ways to preserve memories about the recorded events. Something like gelatinous quartz frames with the First-rate Aspect memories of what had happened once, long ago. Jars with liquids that looked like concentrated Towa Memory spells, bottled. Everything glittering like hidden treasures in the fickle lights of the vault.

"Gods and Demons," Aomi muttered, craning her neck to peer into the sprawling canopy of shelves.

A library, yes.

A library of history that had been deemed too dangerous or controversial to keep in the eyes of the public.

...

Nekohiko half-wondered if his entire life's story was recorded in there, too, even though the outside history books hadn't even preserved his name or existence.

Though it didn't matter. Soon, Abihiko would tell him everything he needed to know. The rest -- he wouldn't go looking for. Never again.

Aomi was of another mindset, though.

Her stuttered breath might as well choked her with how stricken she was just from seeing this place. And all the knowledge of the world it had to offer.

"How the hell am I supposed to find what I need?" the girl finally breathed out. "I could spend here years, and not get what I wanted..."

Wildly, she turned to Nekohiko.

"The Trial is the day after tomorrow!"

Nekohiko hummed, just as lost as she was. "I doubt the information will be extremely useful for the Trial, really. Abihiko has his pitch ready, regardless."

"But--" The girl slapped the air, dejected. "Do you really think that any more evidence and proof against Morokata wouldn't help?! I think it will be crucial. Because that guy is obviously not sitting out there, doing nothing. He is readying his own pitch as well! Assuming anything else is going to cost you!"

...

"They say assuming anything at all is costly, in regards to Hisomes..."

"Neko!" 

"Aomi, what was the thing you wanted to check so much in here?" he asked, stern. "I do not doubt that you probably can find the proofs somewhere around, but, realistically-speaking... I don't think you can manage before the Trial. At least, if you tell me now -- I will know if we can use it for later."

The girl chewed her lip, looking every bit as though she wanted to scream but stopped herself. Her shoulders drooped.

"I read... reports," she said, giving up. "About your mother, Neko, being pregnant with you."

Without even having a sense of connection to his birth parents, Nekohiko still tensed up at the mention.

His mom...

He had never really thought about her.

"But some ladies gossiped that Lady Hisome Takarashi -- Morokata's mother -- might have also been pregnant at the same exact time. Actually, earlier than your mom was." Aomi frowned, flapping her hand vaguely. "They never really said it outright in the reports, just hinted. But I can read between the lines. The thing is that... do you know why the Imperial marriages and siring an heir are so important for the Spiritway and why there are so many rituals about that?"

The ritual seclusion arrays and the ancient traditions of making sure the Emperor and Empress consummate their marriage and produce an heir as soon as possible...

Yes, Nekohiko had heard something about this once. Morokata had told him about this himself, during their three-way dinner with Abihiko a month ago.

"It is to make sure that the firstborn child of the next generation gets the Imperial Binding powers of our family," Nekohiko said, feeling uncomfortable with discussing this. "They are very thorough about who the powers pass down to. Due to these powers being so... overwhelming."

"Well, in case someone schemes and manages to secure a secret wedding and sire the firstborn in the new generation of the Imperial family before the ruling Emperor and Empress, that child will inherit the power," Aomi said. "And from the vague hints about what happened back then... years ago... I think, Neko, that Lady Takarashi and your uncle, Prince Isaseri-hiko, might have married in secret. And fathered a child before your parents did. Thus, making that child the real heir of the Imperial powers."

...

What...

What dirty laundry was this?

Morokata's mom and the Usurper?! Huh? What--

They had wanted to make a child to steal the Imperial Binding powers away from Nekohiko?

...

"Little it did for them, seeing as I inherited all that power anyway," Nekohiko blurted, for some reason feeling more anxious than he should. "So I am unsure of how this is related to me--"

"Only in the way that the Hisome family had a real chance at getting to the Throne back then. And also... Neko," Aomi paused, sounding a bit squeamish, "the fact that you inherited all that power just means that Takarashi's child had died. Or was murdered... by someone who wanted to preserve the purity of the Imperial line."

"What? I don't care! This is irrelevant to me--"

"...and this implies that some people in the Hisome family believe that... the Emerald Throne was never yours to begin with. And that they would feel no qualms in taking it from you. Because they think it is theirs, in the first place," Aomi ended, shrugging awkwardly. "Can you not see how that makes Morokata's or maybe even Takarashi's resentment at you or your parents relevant to you? How do you think your parents had even been murdered? By whom, and why?"

...

All right, Nekohiko was getting seriously unnerved, talking about this.

In a flash, snippets of conversations with others zoomed before him. Suminoe, telling him that Takarashi was not interested in being the Empress "anymore". Which meant she had been interested in it sometime before.

Morokata, stating just recently about Nekohiko always assuming wrongly that the Throne was his.

...and that Nekohiko might not have been in the right for ascending it.

...

Was Aomi right?

Did Hisome people truly believe he didn't deserve to be on the Throne? And they deserved it, instead?

Ugh, this was so... nerve-wracking. So... dizzying!

"I am still not sure what me or Abihiko knowing this would do for us against Morokata," Nekohiko spat, turning away. "It only makes it sound... like nonsense. Utter nonsense. And a waste of my time."

"But knowing the truth might help you understand what next moves they would make! How many enemies exactly you have! And which methods they are likely to use!" Aomi cried from behind him.

But Nekohiko was not really in the mood for humoring her, for now.

If anything, it felt distracting.

"Aomi, not now. I told you already -- I do not like ancient history. I hate other people's private and selfish sins or desires. The less I know about them, the better."

Otherwise, it might imply that Morokata had been correct in wanting to make Nekohiko's life miserable. That Morokata had been in the right all along?

And this was not where Nekohiko wanted to stand.

"But the truth!" the girl cried, shocked.

"..."

Tiredly, Nekohiko turned to her in the doors.

He studied the hollow, cavernous room with the shelves and endless scrolls and records dusting along its walls. Then the little girl in the middle of it, lost and burning with the desire to learn and understand all the myriads of truths hidden within. And the giant, spectral Serpent slowly coiling around the room, paying wary attention to everything that went inside.

Perhaps, It was intrigued. Or maybe just confused about the source of so much screaming going on before It.

Nekohiko sighed, then attempted to smile at Aomi. The girl was indeed resourceful. And meant well. It was just that... Nekohiko wasn't as big a fan of truth as she was.

"You can stay in here and dig through if you want," he said. "Hinohebira seems to like you enough to keep you safe while you do. Maybe it will even help you to find exactly what you need. But as for me, I am afraid I do not want to dig through, Aomi. The last time I did, it didn't end up well for me. I might not be very smart, but at least I am learning to keep myself away from things that will harm me."

He cocked his head to the side, listening in to his other body not quite far from here. 

"Besides..." And he lifted a finger, his mood instantly improving. "Your brother has just brought me dinner from his favorite restaurant nearby. I think I'll go and have it with him, then. Are you hungry, too, Aomi?"

"Only for what's in here," she grumbled, grim.

"Good luck, then."

And with that, he left. Both the girl and the Fiery Spirit Snake coiling around her.

Ah yes, he was definitely learning what was good for him.

And right now, what was good for him -- was that delectable three-course dinner waiting for him above, in the tranquil stalactite garden. And the man who brought it there.

 

 

---

***

 

"So Haehime and Kotone are going to stay here?" Nekohiko asked Abihiko when they got back to their room after the small dinner mainly made of pickles and sugared desserts. Which was weird, but oddly exactly what Nekohiko felt he craved.

"They are still weak and unable to stay awake for longer than a few moments. The Spiritside is very intense with them, yet."

Abihiko held the door open for him, then closed it with such a guarded look in his eyes that Nekohiko found it funny.

"Are you still afraid I will run away? After I voluntarily came into your room just now?"

"Tsk, I don't want Hira guards to see you too much."

Abihiko let out a worn-out sigh, shrugging his outer cloak off to dump on the floor like he always did to his things.

"Some of them do know what Kata looks like and might tell on you to Okinaga. Do you remember what he said he would do if he ever found you?"

The room shimmered in the swirling glows of the gemstone lights across the ceiling. Lit by them, Abihiko seemed particularly mystical and alluring tonight.

Nekohiko doffed his own cloak and then the outer robes. Though, unlike Abihiko, he took care to fold them neatly beside the bed.

"Yes, Okinaga will kill me, of course. To protect you from me. Like an innocent young man you are, tempted by my seductive self," Nekohiko told him, slowly and awkwardly sinking to the bed as though in a hint.

Abihiko smiled wide like a cat. If cats could also blush, of course.

"Neko, you're dirty."

"If that sentence was dirty, then... your looks right now are even more so," Nekohiko threw back, slightly wounded.

"No, I meant -- literally." Abihiko smirked, pointing at his own dressed persona. "And so am I. We have ridden for so many hours and haven't had a good bath for days in the camp. Why are you lounging on my bed like that, you filthy savage?"

...

Nekohiko gave him a blank stare, his tongue itching with all the many quips about Abihiko being not at all smooth in his suggestion to go bathe together. But he was so busy coming up with something snarky that the moment passed by. And Abihiko snatched the reins right from under his nose with his sultry, infuriatingly-charming wink.

"You can try to continue seducing me in the tub, if you so wish. Good luck with that, husband."

Ahhh...

Good luck?

Suuuure.

Nekohiko took it upon himself to prove that he didn't need luck. Only persistence and the sense of superiority. Those were Bound to intimidate Abihiko sooner or later and have him surrender. Exactly as it had happened in Ise.

So, while soaking alongside Abihiko in the stone bath tub in the adjacent room -- Nekohiko carefully began his method of establishing dominance in their marriage. His fingers crept, hidden beneath the sudsy bubbles, to Abihiko's thigh and over it to--

Abihiko gave him a look, as though perplexed.

"Your Majesty?"

"Sex," Nekohiko hinted as subtly as he could.

Which, due to his nervousness, probably failed.

"How dirty, tsk, tsk."

"Not at all. Very, very clean. We are bathing, after all," Nekohiko tried again, now with a hopeful smile.

The steam rising from the water surface limned the sensual surfaces and the wet glistening. Wherever Nekohiko lay his eyes on. Abihiko's shoulders, his throat, pale and vulnerable. Down to his chest, marbled with the faintest traces of the Binder's corruption emerging in the veins and arteries.

The chiseled contours were only highlighted by it, though, making Nekohiko all too excited about wanting to indulge himself with caressing the smooth pectorals and check for himself how much they resembled marble. And how much -- the hot and slippery skin covered in soap.

Nekohiko's intense staring was too obvious for Abihiko not to notice.

Abihiko narrowed his eyes, half-turning away from him and lifting his sodden ponytail to show Nekohiko his wide back. "Scrub me first, at least."

Nekohiko took the offered rag, but rather than work with it on Abihiko's lean shoulderblades, he leaned against him, pushing his wet wooden chest against his back. Abihiko's heartbeat was so tender and fluttery against his wooden surface that Nekohiko couldn't help but bite his smile down.

This was so warm, so long-awaited. So intimate...

Slowly and gently, Nekohiko hugged him. His chin lay on Abihiko's shoulder, his eyes closed, nose breathing in the recognizable and delicious scent of Abihiko's skin, his hair, even the sweat not quite washed off  yet. Goosebumps puckered under his touch on Abihiko's shoulders, and Nekohiko leaned into him, excited.

As though on their own obscene will, his arms twined toward the front to help Abihiko wash himself there...

Abihiko tilted his head, more than amused by the attention. He didn't show much beyond this, keeping himself restrained and cautious. His chest, though, rose and feel much faster than usual.

Which Nekohiko really, really enjoyed seeing and feeling with his needy embrace.

"I wanted to say thank you... For being with me, even with all the Black Ship Forest shit that you know I did," he whispered into Abihiko's shoulder. 

"Ahh, so this is what your gratitude looks like," Abihiko hummed. He caught Nekohiko's fingers that inched toward something Nekohiko thought needed a bit of rubbing, and pulled them away. "A simple thank you does the job just fine, Neko."

"Stop it! I wasn't at all grateful to you back in Ise or five years ago. I did it just because I like what you look like when you... climax," Nekohiko snapped. "You blush and you bite your lips and you stare at me as though I bully you. There are even tears in your eyes when you are too aroused. It's adorable. I like it, that's all! Now please turn around and let me enjoy it again."

His other hand already found its way to the springing, easily-excited part that Nekohiko had abused so much in Ise. But Abihiko splashed water, swinging around to face him.

And his expression now looked no less animated and fevered than his other parts were. Nekohiko blinked the water out of his eyes from Abihiko's turbulent behavior in the small tub, so he lost his advantage fast -- when Abihiko bent down toward him. His red lips stretched out in one of the most predatory smiles Nekohiko had seen on him.

"I will -- if you let me see and touch you freely, back," Abihiko breathed seductively into Nekohiko's face. "I like bullying you in bed, myself."

"You bully me everywhere else, anyway! The bed should be my turf--"

A wet, hot finger lay against Nekohiko's lips. Then it slid down, to lift Nekohiko's chin to Abihiko's level. As though enjoying the view before him, Abihiko simply stared at him for a while, then reached out for a tender, swift peck on the lips.

And at the same time, below...

Ah, something was definitely going on below -- with Abihiko's touches. Tender, smooth, yet relentless.

But the moment Nekohiko realized what Abihiko wanted to do, he couldn't help but cringe.

"Nnnfgg," he protested. As though on reflex, his hand whipped out to slap Abihiko's fingers from ever touching him down below...

Instantly concerned, Abihiko stilled.

"You don't like it?"

"Don't touch it. It's a wooden dick," Nekohiko told him, mortified.

...

"Ahh." Abihiko let out a relieved laugh. "You scared me. I thought it was something worrisome--"

And he dared to reach out to stroke it again. This time, Nekohiko was even more headstrong about it.

"No." He glowered. "Do not touch it. It's... disturbing. I don't like you touching it. Now, if you excuse me..."

He wanted to go forth with pleasing Abihiko with his touches instead, but now -- Abihiko began scowling, as well.

"If you don't let me touch yours, then you can't touch mine."

...

What was this? A playground for petty, possessive children?

"What the hell. Mine was made by Hibiki -- are you aware of that? That is unsettling, and I don't want you to touch it, that's all."

"Yet you touched it yourself plenty last time I saw," Abihiko mumbled under his nose.

Argh. Nekohiko slapped the water in the tub to further his point.

"Can't you wait till I get my real body back for that? No hands on my cock before that, got it? Thanks. Now let me--"

"Na-huh." Abihiko shook his head, avoiding him as he settled back against the edge of the tub, arms spread. "If I need to wait till your real body, so be it. But you will wait till that time, too. No touching my cock with your hands, either, before that."

"..."

This was insufferable.

"I just don't want you to touch a wooden stick. Maybe you'll get a splinter if you go on with it, who knows," Nekohiko snarled, getting seriously frustrated.

He and Abihiko were in the same boat, so to speak. Abihiko wasn't the only one who had gotten a bit overexcited about the prospect of cleaning and scrubbing and tending to each other's dirty parts...

And when Nekohiko -- rarely -- got overly excited in places where he usually didn't, he also got very annoyed when his desire was denied for no real reason. Because he knew Abihiko wanted this, too! Why make such a fuss about it?

"It would be worse if your splintery wooden hands injure my cock, and you know it." And Abihiko smiled at him, saintly. "So I guess nobody's hands touch anything until you're fully human again. Win-win for everyone."

...

Grrrrrr -- you annoying little...

"Actually, if you dislike it being made by Hibiki and being wooden, I know how to bypass that," Abihiko sparked up as though coming up with a genius plan. He stretched an arm out of the tub to fish a small coalstick pen out of his discarded inner robes nearby. With his other hand, he pulled at the wooden seashell on his neck, easily Binding it out of its cord.

"Now, let's see. Here, Neko -- I solved the problem!"

Nekohiko didn't even have time to object or wonder what was going on before...

Aaaaaah!

The blasphemy!

"You did not just draw a dick on my seashell!" Nekohiko uttered, appalled. "You, degenerate!"

"Hey. If you draw eyes on your wood, you can see. If you draw a mouth, you can speak. Why not draw a dick and see what happens then--?"

"NOOOOOO!" A sudden realization hit him, and Nekohiko jumped at Abihiko, trying to wrestle the poor, abused seashell out of his grasp. The small bath tub turned into a full-on stormy sea with hot, steamy water splashing left and right within it. "How much time did you spent, coming up with something like this? Erase it! Rub it off--"

"All right, all right! I am rubbing it off," Abihiko cried back, doing his best to avoid Nekohiko's wrath in the turbulent frothing water.

But just when Nekohiko felt at ease about his seashell's chastity, he also felt something... coming in through the seashell. Because the moment Abihiko tried to rub the drawn dick off the seashell's surface...

It... kind of... felt nice, to Nekohiko's senses.

It felt exactly like rubbing a real dick, actually.

All Nekohiko wanted to do was die of shame, right there and then.

"Stop rubbing it!" he pleaded, out of his mind with mortification.

"You just told me to rub it."

"Not like this! This feels like... aaaargh! Stop it!"

Abihiko pinched the bridge of his nose, aggravated. "How many ways are there to rub something, Neko? I am doing my best, all right?"

"How dare you bully me! Like this! Just... remove the charcoal with Binding, you pervert."

"..."

Nevertheless, the intimate and romantic mood had been irrevocably destroyed, so Nekohiko went to bed fuming and planning great vengeance with which to punish Abihiko for this misdemeanor.

Abihiko was not much better. Throwing knowing looks at Nekohiko and acting so smug as though he had won some intellectual argument between the two of them.

"I only wanted to give you pleasure," Nekohiko told him, turning away in their bed. "I know you must want it, so--"

"It isn't pleasure if I can't reciprocate, dummy."

...

Nekohiko still fumed, even as the two of them slowly fell asleep side by side. He felt Abihiko's straining arousal against his thigh and knew it must have frustrated Abihiko, too. But he was too upset to toy with him for now. Let this be the punishment all of its own!

Tch.

But the next day brought on an entirely new mood.

It was the day they would leave the Hira castle and city and travel back to Nara. The last specs of time they could spend in peace, without clashing with their enemies, without being worried about backstabbing and schemers and chaos of the capital life.

It was... like a calm before the storm. And Nekohiko wanted to spend it accordingly.

He woke up hugging as he usually did whenever they lay close. The trickle of the morning lighter glows inside the mountain came from the outside -- in hues of pink and tender blue, dyeing the room in melancholy colors. It was in this pale light that he saw Abihiko's fingers, twined with his own, on his pillow.

He smiled, remembering their stupid argument last night, and before, what Aomi had told him.

About Morokata having personal grudges against him, about the past that Nekohiko didn't care about, influencing them all even now. How odd, he thought.

The last time I've seen Morokata for more than a few minutes -- was five years ago when he and I and Iokirihime went to save Abihiko from the Binder contrabandists. Back then, those evil people had cut Abihiko's hands off and I was afraid I might never again experience their touch against my body.

That was what I had been worried about most. Not Morokata. Certainly not about how Morokata might carry a hidden hatred for me all these years...

Yet he had helped me and Abihiko on that day, nonetheless.

I haven't even talked to Morokata much back then. I do not even know him that well, as a human being.

How was this personal?

How could it be?

It was so disorienting, to think this.

So instead, he pushed these ideas out of his mind and focused on Abihiko. On his fingers, tangled with his own wooden ones. On Abihiko's pale, beautiful skin, slashes and netting of fine scars sprawled, covering his palms and fingers almost to the wrist. 

Such precise, sharp cuts and prickles, these were. And among them -- a teeth mark, vividly deeper than all of them. Nekohiko's own teeth mark. From so, so many years ago.

Abihiko was a Binder, and no doubt he would have Bound together any gash and wound on his skin if he wanted to get rid of it. Why keep such a multitude of ugly scars on his hands, then?

Nekohiko knew the answer, deep inside.

Because these scars also came from Nekohiko, like the teeth mark. Abihiko never removed these from his body.

All these small, thin scars had come from the Emerald Fir tree Abihiko had tended to for all the five years they had spent apart. Emerald Fir trees were so well-known for their harsh, razor-sharp cuts, after all.

Myriads of scars.

Like a map of belonging and hope Abihiko never wanted to part with.

Slow, Nekohiko sat up, giving Abihiko a secretive look when he realized the other woke up as well. He reached over the headboard to the red silk ribbon Abihiko had hung yesterday night before sleep. Then he pulled the ribbon toward himself, still smiling at Abihiko as cryptically as he could.

Abihiko sighed, attempting to sit up alongside him.

"No good morning? Just straight into tying me up again, like back in the Palace? Tsk, Neko--"

"Tie you up? You wish." Nekohiko gently pushed him back onto the bed, his palm splayed against Abihiko's chest. It lingered on it, pinning him down, claiming him. Wanting nothing more than to stamp his imprint on Abihiko as Abihiko had done to Nekohiko's wooden log with his brand.

A claim, quite like those scars -- that would forever mark Abihiko as his own.

In a clumsy way unused to managing such a complex hairdo, Nekohiko bunched his own long flowing hair in his hand, and strung it around with Abihiko's ribbon.

He made a high ponytail on his head.

Abihiko watched him with an utterly confused expression.

"All right...? You are being very weird, Neko."

Nekohiko flashed him a grin.

"To keep all my hair out of my face for what I want to do next."

"What are you g-going to do next?" Abihiko whispered, getting nervous.

Because Nekohiko leaned forward and caught the ties on Abihiko's inner robe pants with his teeth. Then pulled it out, undoing them for the ease of handling. Just with his teeth.

Maybe something for his lips, too. But nothing except those.

"Don't worry," he told Abihiko, happy. "No hands -- just like I promised yesterday.

"No hands at all."