#watanuki will realize gyoro and ururun are not there once he's over how happy he is to see ashton!!! ;o;

[existentialismee]

leafslash

In the midst of changes to the world they were brought to, Watanuki finally managed to pull himself from the kingdom of Xalphina; a land so filled to the brim with magic, he could hardly believe it was real. Truly, he was finding it quite difficult to grasp that this wasn’t something he was just dreaming; from Spirale falling apart and being pulled into a black hole, to new lands suddenly being formed and appearances being changed for almost every citizen present. Even he, himself, had drastically changed into.. something, he didn’t even feel like naming; unable to really look at himself in the mirror without feeling a sort of deep rooted embarrassment. He wasn’t the only one, he could remind himself; perhaps even he had gotten off easily compared to others.. but despite the obvious problem at hand, there was something more important that swirled through Watanuki’s mind more than the fact he was no longer human.

Where had everyone gone?

He had woken up, alone; unable to contact Syaoran, Sakura.. or anyone he had befriended while being here. Perhaps it was due to everyone adjusting to their new forms, unable to even think of finding one another; but Watanuki refused to wait any longer than he already had to make sure they were all alright.

It was fortunate, he thought, that a spell he had been blessed with could conceal him from the sight of others; currently using his invisibility to traverse the streets of a neighbouring kingdom called Opalaria, which he was quickly able to learn used to be the ward he once resided in. He had also heard that most of these new races were truly only welcome in their own kingdom; thankful that for now, he could at least attempt to avoid any conflict or unwanted attention. Though, Watanuki didn’t know who he was looking for; or how different they would have looked from how he originally knew them.. but he soon found that it would perhaps not be quite as difficult as he first assumed.

Mismatched hues fell to a certain pool; shimmering on one side, while the other was hidden against the shade of a building. Inside sat someone who looked to be merfolk; the red and blue of his fins so familiar to Watanuki that he couldn’t help but stop in his travels to watch him. Those colours were so bright, so striking; he knew he had seen them before.. but only realized why when the merman had turned his head, allowing the nymph to catch a glimpse of a face he knew quite well.

“.. Ashton.. san?��

The name slipped from his mouth so easily; a look of surprise quickly surfacing on Watanuki’s face. Without a second thought, he willed himself back into sight; taking quick, yet gentle strides to where the other sat in the water. If he had said Ashton’s name while he could not see him, he didn’t realize; merely focused on making sure this person was who he thought it was. He stood at the opposite end of the pool; allowing a gentle smile to finally surface on his features, as relief washed over him like the sea that surrounded them both.

“..It is you, Ashton-san.”

“Thank goodness.. I’m so glad to see you again.”

[existentialismee]

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He’d been nervous to ask. Cautious to overstep any boundaries, afraid to overstay his welcome. So for a moment, he awaits Kimihiro’s answer with bated breath, ‘til he receives the reply he’d almost been too hesitant to hope to expect. Yes, he’s quietly told. He’d be happy to have Ashton here for the night, of course he may stay. And he smiles at that, out of relief  ( though having worried at all now seems silly to him )  and from the way light seems to dance in Kimihiro’s eyes at the mere suggestion of it. Were he to take a guess, Ashton likely hadn’t been to only one to think to ask it. As ofttimes as he’d left it unspoken, there must have been just as many that Kimihiro had done the very same. He wants to laugh, but doesn’t quite, from realizing how timidly they’d both skirted around the same question. “ I’m glad. I was really hoping you wouldn’t mind having me. ”  This time he does laugh, the soft and breathless kind one makes with the expelling of nerves. Tomorrow, there won’t be any need to send their good mornings through messages… They’ll be together, able to say it in person. Something about that makes Ashton beam. But then, Kimihiro’s gaze drops from his and his tone becomes wistful. He says what Ashton so often thinks—he resents to see him go, to need to say goodbyes when their time together ends. Why can’t he always stay? How intensely he wishes that were the case. “ Kimihiro… ” Ashton lifts his head as he feels their fingers interlace, and he watches him in a look of soft surprise, though understanding all the same. It’s a sentiment they share for certain, he’s thought so too, every trip he makes back to his home ward. “ No— No, of course it’s alright for you to say. To be honest, I’ve lost track of how much I’ve thought the same thing. Probably… every time I go. ” From above, his dragons chirr in gentle agreement, Gyoro lowered and Ururun’s fin flat. That’s right, they hear it most often, don’t they. And they feel it, too. Ashton mulls to himself. He knows a solution, but to ask it is another…

“ What would you think if it didn’t have to be that way…? Is that, something you’d want? ”

“Eh..?”

Once forlorn, Watanuki’s expression quickly changes at Ashton’s words; his eyes widening ever so slightly as he raises his gaze to find the other’s again. No, it wasn’t the fact that Ashton had felt the same that caught him off guard; that they shared the feelings from those times when they had to leave one another. He’d sensed it within Ashton as well, the wish to be together longer; seen it in his gaze every time Watanuki walked him to the door to say goodnight.

It.. was the question. What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if their time with one another no longer had to end in departure? Though Watanuki often wondered what it would be like, to have Ashton at his side not only throughout the day, but in a place they could come back to together.. he never thought it would be spoken of so.. effortlessly.

His heart starts to beat a little faster in his chest.

“Do you mean.. if we lived together?” he asks after a moment has passed, once he feels himself regain a little bit of his composure; but even so, it’s difficult to hide the emotion fluttering across his face. His gaze keeps to Ashton, until it promptly falls; as if searching for something he can’t quite place. “I..”

The answer was at the tip of his tongue just begging to be said, but something within the shopkeeper made him hesitate. It was that same uncertainty that hung over Watanuki like a shadow; the one that made him question everything he did in Spirale, while so many of his obligations were still waiting for him back at home. Was it alright for him to indulge in something like this, to admit that it was something he wanted..? The chance to live with someone, be with them in this way was an impossibility for him as the shopkeeper; but here, he was given so much he could have never even dreamed of.

Someone to share a life with, to be happy with no matter what obstacles they faced. Someone who loved him, who truly loved him, and never allowed him even a moment to feel lonely.

Silence befalls Watanuki as his expression remains unreadable.. but he stirs, quietly, as his body slowly begins to turn towards Ashton; moving now so that their chests were against each other. And he smiles, his eyes somewhat misty as he holds Ashton’s hand a little tighter; despite that his touch remains gentle and soft.

“.. of course.. of course I would want that, more than anything” it’s then that he speaks his feelings, and his heartbeat only grows-- surely Ashton could feel it, but he had no intention of hiding it. Ashton told him once that he was allowed to be happy, and so Watanuki would let himself be-- here, now, in any moment they spent together. “To have you next to me in every moment of the day, to no longer have to say goodbye.. nothing would make me happier.”

“What do you think..? Would you move in with me, Ashton?”

[existentialismee]

leafslash​:

There were few places Ashton could call   ‘ home. ’ Spirited worlds away, the mercenary had instantaneously found himself without a place that was his own. The roads of Expel, foot beaten paths of warriors sojourned, were once more where he had any lasting tethers. His friends had tread their own paths, forged lives separate from the perils of their journey, and he had continued his alone. Bidding goodbyes had been difficult on him, but as the months progressed… it was easy to become complacent again with living this way. Gyoro and Ururun made the sting of loneliness a little easier to bear, for their companionship gave him solace in the times solitude ate at him the most. Yet something ached in a starkly different way than he’d recalled. It would happen when he set up camp at nightfall. As the burn of a campfire in open wilderness danced light over his resting form, he’d catch himself gazing upon the stars—as though there were someone among them, someone he could not put a name or a face to. Whoever they were, the memory of them was behind lock and key, unable to deciphered and only to be pondered about in vague reminders.  ( A child with a green knitted scarf in Krosse, a roasted cabbage dish, a voice of a stranger that was a little too familiar but not entirely the same. )  It went on like this for months, this glaring absence of a mystery person that did not exist… Until— He’d found himself in the city of spirals anew, and the memories surged back into him all at once, much too fast. Overwhelmed and determined, his feet had carried him across the wards before he’d realized it. And soon he was standing in a home he remembered with tender warmth, but was notably empty as he stood in it now. Kimihiro… He wasn’t here? Ashton lingered for a while, not wanting to leave the missing piece of memories this home had returned to him. But after a while… The knob of the front door turned, and his breath stole from his lungs.

There, standing in the foyer, eyes of gold and sapphire caught his own. And a name he had so sorely missed speaking softly left his lips. “ Kimihiro… ” Like the ignition of a match on a fuse, emotion lit his features. He smiled so wide, so true, that it almost hurt. And suddenly he was running across the stretch of hallway, throwing his arms around him in a tightest of embraces. “ Kimihiro! ”

Laughter bubbled forth; it was elated, relieved, and disbelieving all at once. His dragons lurched forward, wrapping themselves around this human they’d, too, become so very fond of. “ Kimihiro, you’re here…! You’re here, I—! ” I’m home again!

“Kimihiro...”

It’s the sound of his name that brings pause to the shopkeeper, after taking only a single step within the doorway of his once shared home. It was a name that only few in his life had ever called him-- his parents in memories that were not real, a young girl who shared the same loneliness as he had, and a boy whose mere existence gave Watanuki his own.  

Though.. they weren’t the only ones anymore, nor had they been for quite some time. There was someone else, someone who always smiled so brightly whenever that name left his lips; more than happy to say it, when Watanuki had first tentatively asked. Someone whose voice rang in Watanuki’s ears like the clear chime of a bell; who always looked at him with such fondness, such love whenever their eyes met, even for the briefest of moments.

But those eyes held onto his now stronger than ever-- brilliant emerald reaching out towards him in the distance of the entryway. For a moment, he could have sworn he had stumbled into a dream; his heart all but racing at the mere sight of that frame, of that face he cherished more than anything..

The one he had been missing all this time. The one he had been reaching for, unknowingly, since the moment he left this world.

How dearly did he miss the sound of his name, leaving those lips.

“.. Ashton..”

Watanuki’s voice leaves him in a hushed whisper, as if afraid for only a moment that if he spoke it louder.. the vision before him would disappear through his fingers. But Ashton proved all his fears to be wrong, rushing towards Watanuki and scooping him into his arms-- and in that rush of emotion, of feelings overtaking him, Watanuki realized that everything before him was real. Ashton was here, he was here.. he was..

“Ashton..!” immediately, his own arms copied the other’s; wrapping around his frame so tightly, fingers grasping into the clothes that covered his shoulders. And though tears sprang forth from his eyes, laughter of his own soon bubbled from Watanuki’s chest; feeling himself smile for what felt like the first time in so long. Even as Gyoro and Ururun folded themselves against him, Watanuki raised his hands to greet them as well; lovingly stroking their backs as he tried to catch his breath. Though, what mattered most to him.. all that mattered to him was that they were here.

His hands dropped, framing Ashton’s face in his palms as the tears continued to fall from his eyes; his smile shining in their corners as he willed himself to finally speak.

“You’ve come back.. all of you, after all this time..”

“Welcome home.”

[existentialismee]

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“ Alright, they’re closed, they’re closed… I- I’m trusting that you’ve got me here, okay? ”   It’s clumsy and tentative, the way that he trails after Kimihiro. Without sight, his steps wobble and falter in each that is taken, relying on only their joined hands for guidance — which blindly receives a comforting squeeze in reply to Ashton’s uncertainty. He’d been rather insistent on Ashton not looking. Playfully refusing to allow him to step inside ‘til he’d relented and agreed that he wouldn’t peek, at whatever surprise was waiting inside. And Ashton had done so quite easily; it didn’t take much persuasion on Kimihiro’s part to have him comply to his terms, because he could see his barely contained excitement over what awaited them inside. Though Ashton had been surprised to be told there something else in store for him for the day, as today had been more than lovely enough. They’d had breakfast together, shared a walk in the park, laughed and smiled so much that Ashton’s cheeks ached from how good a time he’d been having. He’d never spent his birthdays quite like that before; in the company of someone so dear to him. He didn’t know it could get much better than that, because it was perfect as is. So he follows where Kimihiro leads him, grasping his hands with building anticipation. Above him, Gyoro and Ururun keep their eyes closed, too — something Kimihiro had also asked of them, in an effort to keep the surprise intact. He’s prepared to continue meandering sightlessly through the house ‘til suddenly Kimihiro stops and waits, and his hands leave Ashton’s all together. At their absence, his hands hover in front of him, fingers curling in a confusion of nothing to hold onto. ‘ Okay, you can open your eyes… now. ’ Carefully, Ashton’s eyes crack open upon request — a peek before they open fully. And what they see… is a complete surprise indeed.

The kitchen was adorned in decorations. Streamers and paper flowers dangled from the ceiling, balloons hung meticulously in the corners of the room. A banner pinned on the wall read of a birthday wish, and there in the middle of a table sat a gift — tenderly wrapped and topped with a bow. Ashton’s mouth open and closes once then twice, as Kimihiro offers him a somewhat giddy explanation. “ You, did this for me? Kimihiro, it’s—  it’s wonderful, I don’t know what to say. ”   He half-laughs breathlessly, expression splitting into a wide and honest smile. His eyes dart from the balloons to the streamers and back again, before finally they land on Kimihiro, who’s stood happily at his side with a smile that reaches his eyes. Ashton takes his hand, steps forward and presses a kiss to the high point of his cheek; shyly his head dips as he pulls back, and his delight takes a somewhat sheepish edge.  “ I don’t know what to say except thank you. H- How long did it take you? It looks amazing. ”

Watanuki wasn’t sure what sort of reaction he would get from Ashton the moment he opened his eyes. He had never really.. done anything like this for anyone before, considering that he was never given the chance to. His own birthday was something he’d hardly celebrated up until meeting Yuuko and the others, so he couldn’t help but worry if this was a little too much; if Ashton would meet it with some sort of reservation, or would prefer it to not be there at all.

But.. Ashton was elated. Wonderous surprise took hold of his expression as the emeralds of his eyes darted from one corner of the kitchen to the next, taking in everything that Watanuki had decorated with. Even as Watanuki explained how he had gotten it done, he could see the astonishment filter across Ashton’s face, hear it in his voice and in the breathless laugh he released when he realized this was all for him.

Watanuki’s heart swelled. To see the mercenary this happy over something that he had done for him made him feel something he could hardly put into words; his chest filling with warmth and honest relief. When Ashton stepped towards him, pressing his lips onto Watanuki’s cheek in a kiss, the shopkeeper could only laugh; pink colouring his face from the action.

“I’m so glad you like it,” was all he was able to say at first, his voice quiet and soft as he held back onto Ashton’s hand. He could see that familiar embarrassment sweep over the other, which in turn made Watanuki smile a little more; rubbing his thumb against where their hands met. “I spent most of yesterday putting everything together-- my roommates had no plans to stay home, so they didn’t mind me doing this at all. We should have the entire apartment to ourselves tonight.”

Tilting his head, he paused a moment before returning Ashton’s kiss to one on the corner of his mouth; just barely touching where his lips were.

“You made my birthday wonderful, so.. I wanted to do everything I could to do the same for you,” bringing his free hand up, Watanuki gently caressed the side of Ashton’s face; his smile ever-remaining. “Besides, I didn’t even know when your birthday had passed last year; it’s the least I can do, after everything you’ve done for me.”

As his hand returned back to his side, the shopkeeper gently pulled Ashton into the room a little further. “Now, then.. since it’s your birthday, you can pick what we do next. I thought we could call Sakura-chan and Leon-kun over to share your cake, if you’d like.. or you could open your present first. What do you think, Ashton?”