Bloodline, 10/10

[astrangestorm]

He felt warm prickles run up and down his arm as he slept, but when he opened his eyes, the room was empty. Satoshi had been near, but he hadn’t come close.

It was dark when he woke again for good.

He slowly pushed the blankets away, still a bit lightheaded when he got to his feet. He shuffled through the well-appointed bedchamber, finding them all sitting in the next room over, the four of them. Two Kingsguard stood at the opposite end of the room, ready to leap into action at a moment’s notice.

Jun and Sho had their heads together, the table overburdened with scrolls and papers. With the king’s sudden, gruesome death, it would be a long time before Jun would be able to assume full control of the kingdom. But he had the best person to help him by his side.

Masaki was sitting in quiet observation, a nervous look in his eyes. And then pacing the floor impatiently was Satoshi, who turned to look at him before Nino could even speak. He hovered in the doorway instead, holding onto the frame to keep from toppling over in exhaustion.

It was Jun who was the first to speak. He turned to the guards and dismissed them. They obeyed without complaint, which meant that Jun was being respected again after so many years of cloaking himself in apathy.

When the five of them were alone, Nino bowed his head to his brother.

“Your Majesty.”

Jun rose to his feet, putting his hands on his hips. He took a deep breath before he spoke, eyes serious. “This is what you truly want?”

He nodded.

Masaki shook his head. “No. We should wait.”

“It is too dangerous,” Sho agreed.

Satoshi didn’t bother to offer his opinion. Nino already knew what he wanted.

“Will you do it?” Nino asked Jun. “I’m sure you’ve had counsel and advice from all of them, but this is your kingdom now and your decision to make.”

Jun had changed considerably from the day Nino had first seen him swagger into the royal audience chamber. It was clear that he had taken command firmly, and that the Sun Kingdom would at last come into the right hands. The journey ahead of Jun was a perilous one, but things would surely change.

“I have already sent a cavalry division ahead to Hinohara Castle,” Jun announced, moving around the table to come and stand before him. “Nobody comes in or out. If Rumiko is alive in there, she will not be allowed to leave.”

Nino held on to the doorframe with his tainted arm, holding out his right one instead, palm up. Jun frowned, taking hold of him by the wrist. Jun’s fingers slid along his unmarked skin.

“It should be done properly,” Jun said quietly. “As ours were done.”

“We don’t need to involve anyone else.” He lowered his voice so only Jun might hear him. “Brother, this is a shared duty. We must see it through.”

“You will be hurt. Again,” Jun whispered, sounding anxious.

“The cause is just,” Nino replied, grinning.

Jun let him go, turning. “Satoshi,” he called out. “When you are free and you’ve ensured that the witch is dead, what will you do? Will you bring trouble to this kingdom? Will you seek further vengeance against me or my family?”

Satoshi stopped his pacing, looking at Jun with a cold stare. “No, Your Majesty. I will go home.”

Nino tried not to react, tried not to let it get to him. He’d made a promise. And he was going to keep it, even if it meant never seeing Satoshi again. Satoshi who couldn’t even bring himself to meet Nino’s eyes.

“Well, there you have it,” he said lightly. “We can all trust that Satoshi will be true to his word. He is not a fickle human, after all.”

“But I am a fickle human,” Jun announced. “And here is what this fickle human demands. Kazunari, you will receive the new marks tonight…”

“No!” Masaki shouted, jumping to his feet.

“But I forbid you to speak the words they represent until you are inside Hinohara Castle. Satoshi. If Rumiko is already dead, then she is no threat to me and Kazunari has my permission to free you. If Rumiko is alive, then Kazunari can free you and you may deal with her as you choose. But you cannot harm anyone else.”

Satoshi’s eyes were dark, unreadable. “And my brother?”

“Masaki stays here in Amaterasu with me when you and Kazunari depart. He is free to leave when the words are spoken. But not a moment before.”

Satoshi stared at Jun, gaze unfaltering. Jun returned the sentiment.

“Your terms are fair,” Satoshi agreed.

“Satoshi!” Masaki protested, moving across the room, shaking his brother. “Satoshi, you cannot do this. Wait another day. Wait a week, at least. Look at him, he can barely stand. Look at him!”

Nino swallowed, saying nothing as he felt the intensity of Satoshi’s eyes finally turn to him. There was no way a handful of months would win out over eight hundred years. Nino had known that all along.

Satoshi easily brushed his brother’s hands aside. “Your Majesty,” he said, “let us proceed.”

It happened quickly. Sho was sent to Rumiko’s now-abandoned chambers for the ink. An angry but obedient Masaki worked with the Kingsguard to find the special chair. And Nino sat at Jun’s side, slowly writing down the characters that Jun would first trace and then stab into his skin.

From the river that was choked and its tributaries emptied, I release you.

He couldn’t just say the words, Nino now understood. They had to be part of him, part of his blood. Forever.

Sho was gentle, tears falling onto Nino’s clothes as he got him strapped into the horrible chair, locking his unblemished right arm into place. He shut his eyes, breathing in and out as he felt the tickle of the pen Jun used to trace each character onto his arm, Masaki beside him ensuring that each one was accurately drawn. For Nino’s sake, they would be drawn small, from the crook of his arm running halfway to his wrist. Their size didn’t matter, only their meaning. And their power.

He could hear the three of them whispering, Jun’s voice the shakiest of all as the long tattooist’s needles were loaded into the tool that had been used on him before. Rumiko had cursed the ink that was used to mark him, and he didn’t quite know the words to say. But he supposed that he didn’t have to say the same thing. He didn’t want it to be a curse this time.

He wanted it to be a promise.

Jun finished tracing, clearing his throat. He opened his eyes, saw his brother sitting beside him with the half-empty pot of ink. It would be enough. It would be more than enough.

“Forgive me,” Jun mumbled, pulling the stopper from the pot and holding it out.

Nino found the words he wanted. “Let Satoshi and Masaki be forever free.”

Though Sho and Jun hadn’t understood him, he knew that Satoshi and Masaki had. He could see the ink bubble, change color. It reacted to the words he’d spoken.

At the last moment, Jun hesitated. But Nino didn’t.

“Brother. Do it.”

Jun simply nodded, upending the pot over his arm, the purple staining across his pale skin, dripping down onto the metal trough beneath. It was still painful, but not as it had been the first time. Perhaps a promise caused less damage than a curse.

It didn’t, however, change the way the needles felt. He looked away, wondering what the members of the Kingsguard in the halls might think. Anyone passing by would think that their new king was torturing his own brother to death.

Jun’s movements weren’t as quick and steady as the tattooist’s had been, and it took an agonizingly long time. Sho and Masaki were already mixing ingredients together somewhere nearby, the stink of kerida blossom filling the room. They would do anything they could to keep Nino from descending into a feverish hell.

He tried to be strong, but he simply couldn’t manage it any longer. Jun plunged the needle tool into his skin over and over, the purple colliding with the red as it had before, and Nino’s screams finally took form. “Satoshi!” he howled, writhing in agony. “Satoshi!”

And then he was there. Then he was there. Crouching down beside him, arms around his middle. He could feel Satoshi’s lips against his neck, his warm whispers against his ear.

“I love you,” he was saying, softer than he ever had. “Kazu, I love you.”

Nino believed him.

—

Hinohara Castle was an eastward journey of four days from the capital, the first three by horse and the last by mule up a treacherous mountain pass. “Castle” was a bit misleading, Jun had explained before they departed. It was an old hunting lodge turned prison. Political exiles had been sent to Hinohara to rot for centuries. King Kotaro had chosen to send his daughter there. Multiple times.

They bore papers with the seal of the king. While the palace struggled to retain order, word of the king’s death had not been spread openly. Only trickles of news were likely reaching the streets of Amaterasu by now, and the countryside would learn of it later still. Jun had stamped everything they needed to get through checkpoints, but he’d used his grandfather’s seal to do it. It would be a while before he had his own.

They’d packed only what they needed, riding together on one horse, Satoshi with the reins and Nino sitting before him. Despite the constant motion, Nino had spent years sleeping in transit. He spent most hours on their horse only half-awake, comforted by the warmth of Satoshi behind him and this last mission that was theirs alone to complete.

They stayed in towns, using the money Jun had given them to see their horse cared for in stables overnight, to obtain food and proper lodging. Satoshi hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to him since they’d departed, hadn’t made a move to touch him aside from when they rode. He was singularly focused, Nino knew. He was driven by the hope that Rumiko yet lived, but only so that he might take her life himself. It was dark, it was ugly.

And Nino would help him.

The pain in his bandaged right arm was an ever-present throb, but the kerida blossom Sho and Masaki had ordered him to slather on his skin, to sprinkle on his food, and to chew on directly kept any fever at bay. He suspected he’d still be sore and tender when they arrived at Hinohara, but he supposed it didn’t matter. He’d only have to say the words once, and Satoshi would be free.

On the final day of their journey, with only the mountain trail still waiting for them, he woke to find their room empty. He ensured that his arms were covered, and he went out into the warm morning air. He hadn’t been abandoned. Such a thing was impossible, and he found Satoshi standing alone just out the back door of the inn, hands gripping the rail of the wooden balcony tightly, his shoulders shaking.

He was weeping.

There was no disguising his approach, and Nino moved to stand at his side, offering what comfort he might. Tears formed in his own eyes when Satoshi pulled on him, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing him tight.

He knew that Satoshi hated Rumiko all the way to his bones, so it was unlikely he was out here feeling guilty, having second thoughts about what he was going to do once they reached the castle.

It took him only a few more moments to understand. The back of the hotel faced the rising sun. This was the closest Satoshi had been to his home in eight hundred years.

“It won’t be much longer,” Nino promised him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “You’ll be there soon.”

Satoshi said nothing, taking comfort where he could until they could delay themselves no longer.

They took two mules up the mountain, a local guide from the town leading the way on a mule of his own. Nino introduced them as representatives from the king’s treasury. The cavalry force that had arrived and gone up the mountain a few days earlier was part of their expedition to determine if Hinohara Castle should continue or be replaced. The guide seemed to accept the explanation. He seemed to have no idea who the castle’s dangerous prisoner might be.

It was midday when the guide left them, and the Kingsguard met them. They knew that the king’s stamp was false, that it was Jun who now ruled in Amaterasu. They also knew that they were forbidden to enter the castle. The captain of the guard informed them that a rotating force of four men had been posted at Hinohara, but that nobody had come out of the place since they’d arrived. Either they’d deserted their posts or were still inside.

Nino asked for the men to stay outside, no matter what they heard inside. Nobody argued. They all knew who Satoshi was, and seeing him away from the confines of the palace likely struck fear into all their hearts.

The captain gave Nino a knife anyway, refusing to let him go inside without being able to defend himself. Nino doubted he would have need to use it, but he accepted it anyway.

He followed Satoshi past the gates, letting the Kingsguard lock them behind them. The iron fence that surrounded the property was as tall as three men and impossible to climb. It was a single-story property, rundown and filthy, the hard-packed dirt home to only the occasional weed.

Satoshi walked in front, moving up the steps to slide open the front door. Nino jumped back in disgust as a body fell, a member of the Kingsguard dead for days, his throat slashed. He could see purple inkstains all over the man’s armor, the tatami flooring inside splattered. The language of the gods, the curse breaking, had reached out across the eastern sands. Rumiko had lost the curse that gave her life meaning, and she had fought against it as the poison had leaked from her.

The estate was quiet, rats rummaging around old furniture as they stepped over the corpse and made their way inside. It smelled of years of neglect, like dried piss and rotted food. Nino picked at the bandaging around his arm, slowly preparing to unravel it. Given the quiet and given the sheer amount of ink covering the walls and floors, it was unlikely Rumiko would put up much of a fight if she was still alive.

They found her in the rear of the house, two more dead soldiers pushed against the door. Nino suspected the fourth had fled for his life. Her clothing was in tatters, and she’d ripped most of the hair from her head, clumps of it lying on the table before her, twisted into little braids or flowers. She was sitting upright, her left arm on the table, nothing but a blackened stain. She was wheezing, still alive by sheer force of will, and when they stepped into the room, she somehow found the strength to lift her head.

The ink had fallen from her eyes like tears, hemorrhaged from her nose and from her mouth, dried streaks of it covering almost all of her face. Her father had drowned in it. But she had survived. Nino wasn’t sure how much of her was still alive in there though.

She couldn’t speak, could only blink, the whites of her eyes stained with the poison ink. Perhaps she had only hung on in hopes that this moment would come.

She looked between them, gaze empty as ink continued to bubble and drip from the corners of her mouth. Satoshi stood before her, arms at his sides.

“She will not be able to fight back,” Nino said quietly, standing behind him.

“I know,” Satoshi said.

“She has suffered here. She continues to suffer.”

He breathed through his mouth, trying not to inhale the scent of death and blood that permeated the whole house. When he got outside, Nino would simply have the Kingsguard burn it to the ground.

“I will not hurt any of the men outside,” Satoshi told him. “I agreed to his terms.”

“I know that.”

There was a tremor in Satoshi’s reply. “Kazunari. Please.”

Nino tugged the bandaging free from his arm, letting it flutter to the ground. He looked down at the small characters Jun had drawn. Purple, the same purple. No infection, no inflammation. Just the words to set them free. Unlike Raku’s curse, there’d never be a need to reverse it. The ink would stay under his skin until the day he died. He didn’t know what it might do to him, but it was worth the risk.

“Will you look at me and not at her?”

Satoshi turned, his eyes rimmed in red, his lips trembling. Nino held his arm out, not caring about the pain.

“Will you touch me while I say them?”

He nodded, holding out his hand. Nino sighed, feeling the softest brush of Satoshi’s fingertips against his scarred skin.

He wanted to say ‘I love you,’ but it wasn’t something to be said in a place like this. Instead he looked into Satoshi’s eyes, just as he had that day in the storage room, sacks of grain piled high to the ceiling. Funny enough, Rumiko had been there too.

Nino smiled with tears in his eyes.

“From the river that was choked and its tributaries emptied, I release you.”

Satoshi cried out, falling forward. Nino barely had the strength to keep them both from tumbling to the ink-stained ground, wrapping his arms around Satoshi, feeling the familiar heat of his body. I love you, he thought. You’re going to leave me, but I love you. I love you. I love you.

He knew something had changed a few moments later as Satoshi straightened up, taking hold of him by the shoulders.

He just knew.

Satoshi let him go, only running a finger along his jaw before turning away. Nino refused to leave. He would stay and see it done.

It went quicker than he’d thought. He didn’t even realize it was happening until Rumiko coughed the first time, a mixture of dark ink and water spurting out of her mouth. Satoshi was filling her lungs with water. She would die drowning.

Her movements were slow after everything she’d already endured, toppling over and clawing weakly at her throat, at her chest. Satoshi didn’t even move, simply standing, looking down at her. Nino crossed his arms, hugging himself. She writhed on the floor until she lacked the ability to struggle. A minute later, it was done.

Just like that, his centuries of pain had come to a quiet end.

—

Without words, they turned and walked out of the room, heading out of the forsaken building and into the clean, fresh air. They lingered together on the far side of the “castle,” out of the sight and hearing of the Kingsguard. They faced the east, and Nino stood a few steps back, waiting for the inevitable.

“Come with me,” Satoshi said.

He didn’t have to say where.

Nino shook his head, sighing. “Jun needs my help.”

Satoshi didn’t turn around to look at him now. “You said you didn’t want to be king.”

“And I won’t be. But it will take him years to undo all the wrongs of the Sun Kingdom, to move past what evils his family committed. The task may actually be impossible,” he admitted. “It is a broken kingdom, but I know that he will spend the rest of his life trying to do what he can. How can I turn away from him?”

“This was always going to be your answer?” He didn’t miss the stubborn tone of Satoshi’s voice, familiar even now.

“I thought you would be gone already,” he mumbled. “I honestly thought you would ride off into the eastern sky on a cloud or a water spout without looking back.”

At that, Satoshi turned. Looking back. And this time, Nino could see the change in him. He hadn’t grown bigger or taller or stronger. He wore the same shabby clothes, his dark, unruly hair falling across his forehead. He was only wearing boots because he had to. Everything that had changed had changed in his eyes. They were still brown, but when the light caught them, Nino thought they might have glimmered. That they might have shone. The power he’d shown at the palace, his water-hopping and glass-filling…those had been parlor tricks.

“I am thirty-four,” Nino reminded him. “You are eight hundred and thirty-six, give or take.”

“Kazunari…”

“I am growing older every second,” he said sharply. “I will age. I will grow old. And I will die. It doesn’t seem that way now, when you and I look similar. But you know it is so. You watched it happen to everyone else in my wretched family. Our lives must seem so quick to you.”

“My father…”

“…will not see things the way that you do,” Nino interrupted him. “I’m from the family that trapped you, and even if he lets me and the rest of the human race remain alive, he will do no favors for me.”

“You don’t know him.”

“I don’t have to.”

Satoshi rested his hands on his hips, staring him down. “You will not be moved?”

“If you doubt the way I feel for you, then look here.” He held up his right arm, the tattoos rough and haphazardly carved. “Look here and be assured of it.”

Satoshi’s look was stern. “I don’t have to take orders from you now.”

“It wasn’t an order, you idiot,” he muttered, unable to keep tears from forming in his eyes. Why wouldn’t he just go? Why wouldn’t he just accept that this was the way of things? He was free.

“We found a way,” Satoshi said. “We are standing here right now, you and I, because we found a way.”

He shook his head. “From the river that was choked and its tributaries emptied, I release you. I release you. Damn it, I release you!” He bent down, tugging the boot from his foot and flinging it across the grassy field at him. It landed harmlessly a few feet to Satoshi’s left. “I fucking release you!”

The look in Satoshi’s eyes softened, and he started to laugh. He started to laugh so hard that he nearly fell over, bending forward and sounding half-mad.

“I’ll throw the other boot! Shoe of mine hit your head!” he hollered in two languages, aiming for menacing and ending in a laugh of his own. They’d been through so much together. So much he couldn’t comprehend it.

They stood there, human and god, laughing until they ached. Finally Satoshi leaned over, lifting Nino’s boot from the grass. He carried it with him, holding it out. Nino refused to accept it, so Satoshi just let it fall back to the ground.

Nino was crying, he was laughing. He had no idea what he felt. But he let Satoshi step forward, put his arms around him. He stood there with one boot, arm aching and heart full, letting Satoshi’s mouth capture his own.

And somehow he knew that once again, they would find a way.

—

Eight Months Later

—

The eastern border town of Kawazu-cho was in need of a full-time healer.

It also happened to be five hundred and six miles closer to the Great Sea than Amaterasu was. Still a bit far from the sea itself, but what started in Kawazu-cho as a muddy stream widened and deepened as it flowed east. It was a tributary of a much greater river that went all the way to the sea. A trading barge might make the journey in a week. Someone who could walk on water a great deal faster.

The town was a common stop for several caravans, Water Finders and traders alike, so he’d had no trouble finding himself a ride. It had been over a year since he’d ridden through the desert at night, a camel beneath him, and he’d missed it. He paid his way to Kawazu-cho by making salves and medicinal powders. And when those things weren’t required, he assisted the Water Finder’s wife, helping to keep track of the camels and the accounts as he’d done for so many years.

As soon as word had reached them about the king’s death, they’d packed up everything and headed for Amaterasu. They’d been worried about him. They’d had no word from him since he’d left, and Ninomiya Kazuko had finally had enough.

It had taken them over a month coming from the southwest, and when they’d arrived, Amaterasu wasn’t the same city she’d left decades earlier. For one thing, there were fewer soldiers walking the streets. The strict water rationing that had defined the capital region for centuries had come to an end.

It was the first law that Jun had passed as leader of the Sun Kingdom, the first of hundreds he had completely rewritten or torn to pieces now several months later. Nino wasn’t sure if Jun or Sho had gotten a full night’s rest in the last several months, but there was still much to be done.

Nobody outside of the palace really believed the stories that there had been gods walking among them. They simply believed that the royal family had kept water from them on purpose. Jun let them think whatever pleased them, ordering new pipes built and new wells dug throughout Amaterasu. The lead engineer on the project, a man with a kind smile named Masaki, had a real knack for finding new water sources near the capital.

“I’ll go home when I’m good and ready,” Masaki told Nino repeatedly before getting back to work.

Negotiations with the Empire of Salt on an aqueduct project, set to be financed entirely from the royal family’s centuries-old cache of gold and jewels, were already underway.

Nino had done what was asked of him without complaint, attending meetings and negotiations on his brother’s behalf. But as the months went on, he’d realized that things would still get done in the capital without him. And he would be even more valuable in the east, forging new trade relationships.

He refused the title Jun wanted to give him. The good citizens of Kawazu-cho might be intimidated at the thought of going to a healer who was also a prince. It was Seitaro who had found a painter, commissioning the new sign that hung over the door of his clinic.

Ninomiya Kazunari, the sign read. Healer and Merchant.

His parents stayed with him in Kawazu-cho for a week before word reached them that the village of Kutotaki-mura to the south had need of a Water Finder. For all the work Jun was doing in the capital, it would be a long time before the far reaches of the kingdom could benefit. Ninomiya Seitaro would always have work to do.

When they’d gone, he locked up the clinic for the night, heading upstairs to his simple set of rooms. Nothing so luxurious as the royal palace of Amaterasu. He had to cook his own meals, clean his own clothes. He slept in a comfortable enough futon on the floor. He chewed on stinky kerida blossom before cleaning his teeth in the morning.

A letter arrived about a week after he’d settled in, sealed with the king’s symbol. But upon opening it, he saw that the entire note was written in the language of the gods, just to make him work a bit harder.

“Masaki,” he said aloud, laughing.

Like always, the language of the gods used many words to say only a little. Nino was instructed to wait by the town bridge on the night of the next full moon. The bridge over the muddy stream that flowed east and over the border.

He followed the instructions given. Kawazu-cho was not a large town, and most residents had gone to bed when Nino pulled the door of his clinic shut behind him, walking to the bridge. The moon was high overhead, the sky dotted with stars. He stepped onto the bridge, leaning against the rail and looking to the eastern sky.

It was only a short while before he saw the ripples. He tried to look unimpressed when a figure came skimming across the water, his bare feet hovering only inches above it. When he finally came close to the bridge, a water spout raised him up, bringing him eye level with Nino.

His hair was longer than it had been, still wild and black. He was grinning, at ease, as beautiful as the day they’d met.

Nino sighed. “Show off.”

—

He declined the offer to be hauled hundreds of miles downriver so he might take in the view of the Great Sea. “I have to work in the morning,” he protested as they walked hand in hand back in the direction of the clinic.

“No fun.”

“Sorry to disappoint.”

He unlocked the door, not letting his guest come upstairs until he’d brought a wet towel, cleaning the dust of the town roads from his bare feet.

They climbed the stairs together, and Nino spoke first, as he usually did.

“I’ve missed you,” he said quietly.

Satoshi stepped forward, kissing him softly. He returned it, knowing that now wasn’t the time to ask questions. To worry or to wonder. Now the time was theirs.

It was a simpler setting than Nino’s rooms had been at the palace, but that didn’t matter. They fell into their old rhythm easily, Satoshi’s kisses moving down his stomach, his tongue circling the head of his cock before taking him in his mouth. It was good, maybe it was better, knowing they didn’t have to keep their voices down to avoid alerting the soldiers at the door. There were no soldiers now. Just the two of them.

After receiving Masaki’s note, he’d made sure to have some oil on hand, and he prepared himself, letting Satoshi watch. When he felt ready, he poured out more oil, running his hand up and down the firm length of Satoshi’s shaft. “I’ve missed you,” he said again, leaning over to kiss him.

With Satoshi seated beneath him, Nino moved into his lap, wrapping an arm around him. He moved, their simultaneous moans of pleasure making them both laugh. Nino shook his head, lowering himself down and letting Satoshi’s cock fill him inch by inch. He leaned in, full and needy, kissing him like he’d dreamed of doing all these months alone.

Their lips barely parted, Nino moving a bit clumsily in his need to be fucked, grinding down until he was panting in desperation. Satoshi eventually tired of Nino doing most of the work, moving so that he was on top, thrusting into him hard enough to leave Nino in a daze. Eventually he slowed, stilling within him.

Satoshi looked down at him, tracing his fingertips along his arm. The tattoos that were there to stay. His eyes were red with unshed tears.

“Don’t cry,” Nino said, reaching out and stroking his cheek. “Just don’t.”

And so he didn’t, sliding his hand up until it was joined with Nino’s, their fingers intertwining. He pushed into Nino with long, careful strokes, whispering his name, mouth grazing along the side of his face, his neck.

How lucky he was, Nino knew, to have the love of a god.

—

When he woke in the morning, Satoshi was still there. That was a first. But what alarmed Nino was the snoring.

He sat up, his joints cracking. Despite his need to work and earn a living that day, Nino had been unable to find a reason not to let Satoshi fuck him three different times during the night. He’d pay for it now as he bit back a complaint, staring down at him.

Satoshi was on his back, halfway out of the futon, his bare leg sticking out and his hair falling across his eyes. Nino watched in confusion as his chest moved up and down, his soft snores filling the small room.

Gods didn’t need sleep.

Determined to test the truth of it, he leaned over and pinched Satoshi’s nose closed. That woke him for sure, and he sputtered, pushing Nino’s hand away. He opened his eyes, staring up at him with a scowl.

“Why are you snoring?” Nino asked him.

Satoshi’s face reddened in embarrassment.

“Well? Tell me.”

Reluctantly, Satoshi sat up. To Nino’s continued astonishment, he seemed a bit sore himself, wincing a little. “You’re thirty-five now, Kazunari.”

Nino rolled his eyes. “Yes, thank you for the reminder.”

Satoshi didn’t miss a beat. “Well, I’m thirty-seven.”

“Eight hundred and thirty-seven,” Nino corrected him.

“No,” Satoshi insisted. He leaned forward, resting the palm of his hand against Nino’s cheek. “Just thirty-seven.”

He blinked a few times, trying to comprehend. “You arrived on a water spout.”

“Father has made a few adjustments but left the rest alone.” Satoshi leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss to Nino’s lips. “I’m thirty-seven. And soon enough I will be thirty-eight. The other day I found a gray hair!”

Nino shook his head, unable to accept it. “You didn’t give up what I think you’ve given up. Satoshi, no…”

“My father was feeling a bit generous,” Satoshi admitted. He took Nino’s hand in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I told him that I wanted to grow old with you.”

“You’re a fool, then,” Nino said, even as his heart swelled with happiness. “When it would have been far smarter to have him make me immortal!”

Satoshi’s face fell. “Oh.”

“‘Oh’ is right!” Nino complained, ruffling Satoshi’s messy hair and getting to his feet. “Does Masaki know?”

“He supported my decision.”

“You’ll regret it,” Nino informed him. “You’ll regret the added human weakness. I’ll add that to your existing list. Number one, alcohol. Number two, lungs. Number three, yours truly. And now number four, a finite lifespan.”

Satoshi got to his feet as well, pulling him close. “Weaknesses aren’t always bad.”

It would take some time to get used to it, to the realization that Satoshi was both a god and mortal. But just like they had in Nino’s rooms at the palace, looking through barely legible scraps for weeks, they had found a solution to a problem. They had found a way.

Satoshi stayed with him in Kawazu-cho for a week before announcing that he wanted to go home. He’d come back, of course. And maybe one day Nino would join him, discovering for himself just what Satoshi had been dreaming about all those years, sitting on the roof of the palace looking into the eastern sky.

They waited until nightfall, until the town had turned in and the lanterns in the streets had been extinguished. They headed for the bridge, Nino leaning in to kiss him goodbye.

Satoshi smiled. “See you when I’m older.”

Since Nino knew that Satoshi was likely going to return to him in a month, it wasn’t all that funny, but he smiled in return anyway.

As a child, Ninomiya Kazunari hadn’t believed in gods. Sure, he’d heard stories, been entertained or scared by them. But he hadn’t seen the gods in the world around him. He’d seen starving people, bone dry villages. Amaterasu was just the place where the taxes went. And water was more precious than gold.

Thankfully some of those things would start to change now. The terrible certainties of his childhood, the certainty of suffering, would become rare. Because now the Sun Kingdom wasn’t ruled by the selfish and the wicked. Water might always be a gift within its borders. Aqueducts couldn’t go everywhere, and a well might dry up on a whim. But water would no longer be withheld on purpose, to control or to punish.

Still, change would take time. And it would take hope. And it would take faith.

“See you when I’m older,” Nino replied.

He watched as the water from the stream rose effortlessly up into the air. Satoshi leapt up and onto it, waving goodbye as he had it push him along, off to the east and out of sight.

Nino didn’t know for certain how much time he had. No human could. But because of his brother, because of his friends, he now had hope. And faith…well…

He moved his fingers to his lips, still tasting the kiss from the god he loved.

Faith he had in abundance.