『バウンド』 Bound

Clashed Reunion

It was either the beaming sun's light or the short irritable pokes on his cheeks that awoke Tatsumi. His narrow, dark green eyes squinted dangerously at the perpetrator hovering over his face from behind his head.

"What's with the scary look, hehe." Oh. Just Lubbock being himself. Tatsumi planned to go right back to sleep, but his cheeks were suddenly being stretched and he sweated. He is clearly not going to be getting any more rest.

"Come on. We got a big day ahead of us." Tatsumi wondered why Lubbock sounded so cheery. He also wondered why his own cheeks were being continuously pinched and smooshed.

"I got it, I got it." He muttered while sitting up to escape the manhandling. As he rubbed his bruised cheek with a tired frown, he heard Lubbock quietly laugh behind him.

"You're clearly not a morning person." Lubbock commented humorously and Tatsumi dismissively batted his hand at him. His foggy mind began to recap yesterday. Lubbock's family is gone, Lauren headed to the Capitol, him and Lubbock are almost at Night Raid...

Tatsumi glanced out the corner of his eye and noticed the bandage around Lubbock's bare torso. That's right, he also took out the stitching. That does not explain how he ended up asleep behind the large rock...

As though a light switch flicked on, the confessions ran through his head. Then miscommunication, and then finally the...

"You're finally awake, huh?" Lubbock asked. It seemed so because Tatsumi now had a red face.

"Y-Yeah."

Lubbock smiled and placed a hand on top of Tatsumi's.

"It's okay if you feel like maybe our emotions got the better of us last night. I don't want you to take pity and-"

"Wait a minute, who decided any of that?" Tatsumi interrupted and turned around completely to face Lubbock. "There's no way I can fake my feelings for you. It's a little obvious that I'm attracted to you." Tatsumi said bluntly. Lubbock flushed from his statement and looked down at their hands.

"S-So... do you...?" He hinted at. Tatsumi leaned in with a serious look.

"... Smile." Lubbock faltered from the command.

"H-Huh?"

"You're very pretty." At this, Lubbock had definitely smiled, but he gave a confused sound as well.

"What are you-?" Tatsumi took this opportunity to swoop in and kiss the grin on Lubbock's face. As expected, his heart soared and his stomach gave an extra flip at Lubbock's extremely shy blush.

"I like it. Just do that more often." Tatsumi said as he looked around the hot spring, unaware of Lubbock being very embarrassed.

"You're seriously weird..." Lubbock commented and Tatsumi stood up with a large smile.

"Well we already established that. Ready to head back to the headquarters?" Tatsumi said. Lubbock stood as well and headed toward his bag.

"That's what I've been trying to get you to do. Just let me put on a jacket." Tatsumi nearly forgot Lubbock did not have a shirt on. His whole chest and V line is basically open for display.

"Okay, I'm ready." When Lubbock slipped on a shirt and his jacket, Tatsumi place the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

"Alright. Quite sulking, we could always use the hot spring at our base."

...

As their distance decreased between them and Night Raid, Lubbock brought up a question that had Tatsumi thinking very hard.

"Since we're sort of a thing, what should we do once we get to the base?"

Of course Tatsumi did not want to end things immediately because there was a chance of getting caught. What is the risk of having his friends see how close they are? It would be embarrassing at first, but it is not like anyone will be affected by their intimacy.

He must have taken too long to answer, because Lubbock grabbed his hand with an apprehensive expression.

"Do you think we have to... stop...?" He asked hesitantly. Tatsumi quickly shook his head and laced their fingers together.

"No, we won't. But what's best for you? Want to lay low or should we make it obvious?"

"Well when you say it like that..." Lubbock muttered. Tatsumi pressed against his side as they continued to walk.

"Don't worry, we still have time to think." He said. Lubbock nodded. "Hm... ever wonder what they could be up to?" He asked.

"Sometimes. I mean there's no question that they're busy dealing with the Jeagers." Lubbock answered. "I hope they didn't clean my room out. That is if they knew what my situation was."

"Same here. It'll be hard to believe that they're still searching for us. Although if they found my teigu, that'll be one plus. Bulat would have killed me if he found out that I lost it." Tatsumi said jokingly.

"I wouldn't blame him." Lubbock said afterwards and Tatsumi held up a finger.

"Then it's settled. If my sword is there, you have to let me get you a weapon." He decided and Lubbock gawked.

"D-Don't I get a say in this!?"

"Nope. Unless by some miracle they find CrossTail as well." Lubbock shook his head with a sweat.

"That's impossible. It kinda... broke into pieces." Tatsumi's eyes widened.

"What!? Why didn't you say that before?"

"... I was in a coma-"

"Well, as long as its broken, there's no point in the Imperial Army collecting it," Tatstumi interrupted, "Maybe if we find bits and pieces, we can glue it up and-"

"You're really naive. It's kinda cute." Lubbock said over him with an exasperate smile. Tatsumi flushed from the apparent compliment.

"I-I'm just trying to be positive."

"You're also being stupid, but I can understand since you still have a lot to learn about everything."

"Yeah, like breaking your teigu, yet you claimed it was 'indestructible'- ow..!" Tatsumi let go of Lubbock's other hand to rub his aching shoulder with a wince.

"Anyway, let's focus on navigating through the terrain." Lubbock said innocently after had he punched Tatsumi's shoulder. "You remember these parts, right?

Tatsumi looked up and old memories flashed through his head. Him and Akame would run around these parts looking for danger beasts to bring to the base. Wait...

"Ah!" Tatsumi had dragged Lubbock behind a bush and made a quiet motion.

"Shh."

The sound of rustling and footsteps became clearer and Tatsumi sighed. Hopefully, he can remember the basic concepts of stealth combat.

Just as he pulled out his sword, a black flash appeared before them. With reflexive instincts, Tatsumi slammed the blade of his sword against the attack and it turned out to be another blade he was clashing with. With a confused frown, he looked up and at the sight, the black sword he had clashed with dropped to the ground.

"T-Tatsumi...?"

It was Akame.