Orchid

"Welcome home."

His mother's kind voice greets him as he steps into the genkan. Tokihisa returns a quiet "I'm home" as he removes his sandals, neatly setting them aside before stepping into his home, arms leaden with produce. He hurries past his mother to the storage cellars, giving her a kind smile, missing the look of surprise on her face in his haste.

He doesn't miss it when he returns back to the central room- no, it would be near impossible to miss the surprise and happiness brightening his mother's face.

"Tokihisa," she starts again, voice brimming with joy and relief as she shuffles over to her son, reaching out to take his hands. "I haven't seen you smile in months."

Tokihisa returns the gesture, squeezing the older woman's hands gently and gifting her with another smile. "It was a good day today," is all he offers in explanation, and for now, that's enough.

-x-

The marketplace had been crowded and busy, as usual. Tokihisa didn't like it, but he didn't mind it terribly either. As long as the pickpockets kept away, he could handle the trips to the market easily. Just another chore, another repetition in his life.

No, don't be that way, your life is good.

The internal scolding does little to lift his mood.

Same shopkeepers.

Same streets.

Same days. Over and over and over.

Comfortable days, but... boring. And oh how spoiled Tokihisa must be to have the privilege of such a senseless problem.

It's always the same, up until the moment it isn't.

Tokihisa murmurs an apology to the stranger he bumped in to- it's always crowded this time of day, it's a regular occurance, but whoever it is, not budging from their place- it's different.

It's annoying.

Tokihisa glances up, a more forceful apology on his tongue- before it dies on his lips when he meets the gaze of someone obviously new. Nobody in the town wears clothes so travel worn, not even the poor farmers.

And nobody had eyes that burned right through Tokihisa like that.

The world around Tokihisa fades as he stares, probably rather rudely, at the man. He's almost inhumanly beautiful, though Tokihisa couldn't explain why if asked. The smooth paleness of his skin, or maybe the angles of the bones of his face, or the intensity of his gaze perhaps.

"No, it was my fault."

The smooth voice snaps Tokihisa back to reality, and he flushes at his own rudeness, quickly bowing and insisting that no, he should have been watching where he went, it's his fault, and he is sorry.

Why is my heart beating so wildly?

"If you're so insistent you were at fault, then make it up to me," the stranger cuts in, and Tokihisa almost bites his tongue in his haste to quiet down. "I'm passing through, I don't know this village well. Will you give me a tour, and show me where I might find board?"

And of course Tokihisa would accept. Not just to make up for his rudeness- usually he would do only the bare minimum required to uphold his family's image.

Something about this stranger made Tokihisa feel more alive than he had felt in months.

-x-

The events of the day flashed through Tokihisa's mind for what must have been the thousandth time as he unrolled his futon for the night.

It was ridiculous. He was being ridiculous.

But he couldn't help but think- somewhere, in his village, the stranger is doing the same, is settling down for the night just like him, and knowing it must be so sends strange shivers of happiness through Tokihisa's body.

Tomorrow, he thinks to himself. I'll find him again. He won't move on so soon. Tomorrow I'll see him again.

-x-

"You seem to be making a habit of running into me." A familiar voice rumbles through the chest Tokihisa had run into. He can't help but smile, looking up at the stranger.

"You seem to be making a habit of being in my way," he returns, voice only wavering slightly with the bold line. Luckily, the stranger seems amused, not offended.

"If this is to become regular, I think I'd like to at least know your name."

"Tokihisa. I'm Tokihisa."

"...Masao."

-x-

Tokihisa's luck remains- he keeps running into Masao. Or maybe Masao seeks him out, though he they find each other each day is still remarkable.

Chance meetings turn to pre-set ones. Walks and tours of little-known spots near the village turn to kisses and hands pushing open Tokihisa's yukata, and for a while, everything is perfect.

Tokihisa asks about Masao's past one day, though it's hard to think with hands, cool despite the summer hear, exploring his chest and stomach, yukata pooled around Tokihisa's waist.

He laughs when Masao says he's a vampire and a samurai, and he doesn't ask again for a while.

-x-

When Tokihisa gives his whole body to Masao, it hurts. Masao isn't gentle- it's like Tokihisa is more of an outlet than a partner, but he's fallen so hard he can't find it in himself to care.

The oiled fingers that stretch him work far too fast, and Tokihisa cries out and grips Masao's shoulders with vice-like strength the whole time- though the man never seems to bruise.

The relief when Masao withdraws those fingers is short lived, and Tokihisa has to bring one hand to his mouth to bite down on, to keep from crying out at the pain of the stretch as Masao's cock enters him for the first time. He's sure tears are streaming down his face- his skin must be red and blotchy- but Masao only hums and sighs, and when Tokihisa can think past the pain, he can only be glad Masao doesn't mind such a fragile and inexperienced partner.

After Masao finishes inside him, being kind enough to stroke Tokihisa to completion as well, he reclines next to the younger man, letting him catch his breath.

"You're like an orchid," Masao muses, some time later. Tokihisa had almost drifted to sleep, but he stirs at the sound of Masao's voice. Tokihisa waits for him to elaborate, but he doesn't, so Tokihisa responds the only way his brain allows him.

"For you, I would become an orchid."

-x-

The second time Masao takes him, he bites Tokihisa, drinks from him, and Tokihisa realized he had never been joking.

-x-

Tokihisa's questions flow without end after that- questions about Masao's past, about the things he's seen and lived through, about his age and the ages past. Masao answers, never annoyed, usually amused at how Tokihisa hangs off his every word.

Sometimes he makes it into a game, Tokihisa having to give something up to Masao for every question he wants answered.

Tokihisa would give him anything even without the reward, though.

Masao knows.

-x-

"Could I stay like this- young and with you- forever, if you.... if you...."

"If I turned you?"

Tokihisa nods, face burning. Why is he suddenly so shy to ask? He'd been wondering about it for days, unable to get the thought out of his mind.

So caught up in his own worrying, he misses how Masao sidesteps the 'with you' part of the question.

-x-

The day Tokihisa decides to have Masao turn him is the last day he sees his parents.

He bids them goodbye early in the morning- he had a scheduled trip to the neighboring village to visit an aunt- and goes to rendezvous with Masao, nervous energy thrumming in his veins.

It's not supposed to be the last day.

When Masao takes Tokihisa into his arms, pushes aside his yukata in a familiar motion, and bites, it isn't fear or regret Tokihisa feels but love and adoration.

Looking back on it, he feels disgusted with his past self.

He passes out when he changes- when he dies.

And when he wakes, Masao is gone- tired of waiting, this game having gone on long enough for his taste.

Tokihisa learns the pain of sunlight at the same time he learns the pain of heartbreak, the still heart in his chest still somehow aching.

"You're like an orchid."

"For you, I would become an orchid."

Tokihisa dies that day, and Ran enters the world.