『バウンド』 Bound

There is no End

The beaming light shining from the window finally urges Tatsumi to wake up. He continuously blinked drowsily and shifted on the blanket, feeling Lubbock shift back. That's right. They did lose their virginity together last night. That explains why they are entangled under the blanket nude. His heart did a soar from remembering the deep expressing of their love.

Tatsumi exhaled his giddiness and stared at the rumpled clothing on the ground. Well he'd move to clean up to avoid a scene, but the door was already knocked on.

"I don't know why Leone asked me to do this. Boys, wake up-"

Najenda and Tatsumi stared at each other for a while until the woman looked down at the clothes on the floor, then at Lubbock's sleeping figure.

"... Breakfast is already made so please come out when you two are ready." Najenda politely said before closing the door. Tatsumi winced when he heard Najenda shout Leone's name very dangerously.

"LEONE!"

Lubbock jolted in his arms from being woken by the scream and Tatsumi apologetically stroked his back.

"Sorry, Lubba." He said as Lubbock poked his head up.

"What was that just now?" He tiredly slurred. Tatsumi only shook his head and leaned in to peck Lubbock's lips.

"Eh nothing important. We should go meet the others though. It's reconstruction day." Tatsumi said. As predicted, Lubbock groaned lazily and hid himself back under the blanket.

"Tell them I'm sick or somethin'..." Lubbock muttered. Tatsumi chuckled before pinching hard on Lubbock's side. The older male jolted and fell off the bed with the blanket. "Ow you jerk!" Lubbock cried out, rubbing his side.

"You look pretty healthy to me." Tatsumi said smartly, sitting up on the bed with a small laugh.

...

Leone really wasn't kidding about Najenda separating him and Lubbock. Tatsumi had to help clear debris while Lubbock has to help rebuild the Capitol building. The brunette would longily stare ahead, wishing that he could have Lubbock's perky personality near him. It would have definitely motived him.

"Mister Tatsumi! Can you help me?" A girl called out with a very large grin and a blush. Instead, he is stuck with a team including quite a few girls who can't seem to take the hint to get lost.

"Oh uh..." Tatsumi looked around before shoving a random stranger toward the girl. "Here you go! They can help you out." He said before heading off with a wave, ignoring her disappointed shout.

"Still popular I see." Leone commented from behind. "Hehe, I figured."

"I didn't ask for it. I thought people would run away and scream by now." Tatsumi said, pointing at his face, referring to his red eye and fangs.

"Ah, an oblivious country boy as usual."

Tatsumi huffed, seeing as he would not get through to the woman. As a matter of fact she is not even helping clear the debris in his area.

"Why are you here anyway?" He asked. Leone placed her hands on her hips.

"I just wanted to chat a bit. We didn't get to and I missed my favorite boy- k-kidding!" She yelped when Tatsumi practically glared fire at her.

"You should get back to your team before Najenda catches you. We can talk after we're finished. It's what I'm forced to do with Lubba anyway." Tatsumi added with a sigh. Leone hummed.

"Oh alright. I'll go bother Wave for it." She said before walking off. Oh yeah, Wave is helping out too. Although he has not seen him around. Tatsumi exhaled again, realizing that Lubbock could be working with Wave. He has nothing against it at all! Which is what he keeps telling himself, even though he may not be truthful to himself.

It has to be the possession of his body from Incursio that is causing his feelings to go haywire.

"Christ..." He muttered, rubbing his red eye. Why does his eye always itch or burn when he feels uneasy or conflicted?

He looked down from the hill to see a soldier sprinting to Najenda with an urgent look. With a closer look, the soldier said something quite fast and Najenda's eyes widened in shock. Before Tatsumi could even begin to guess what that was about, Najenda stared directly at him.

"Tatsumi! Down here!" Hoping he was not going to get scolded for whatever reason, Tatsumi left the field and walked up to her.

"I swear I'm doing my job!" He said quickly and Najenda shook her head. She waved off the soldier and sighed deeply.

"There were several tests ran by the professionals. They found a result that's quite unpleasant, which relates to you." Tatsumi furrowed his brows.

"What?"

"Your use of Incursio is affecting you severely. You've been doing more than what you can and it does not help when the teigu is trying to possess you." Najenda informed.

"So what? I'll just use less of its power." Tatsumi reasoned. The older woman frowned.

"Tatsumi... the rate of both factors have unhealthily increased. You're already inconsistent with your transformations. The possession increased to affecting your personality. Those have nothing to do with your power usage."

"Then what is the problem?"

"... If you use Incursio once more, you're either going to lose your sense of mind forever, or die."

Tatsumi's breath hitched. He had not taken the situation more seriously since it began. He figured the spirit would cease its actions, but it seems like it was truly against him the whole time. Why? Just how did Bulat handle Incursio?

"I see..." He finally responded faintly.

"Tatsumi-" The teen immediately headed toward the Capitol building, ignoring Najenda's shouts.

Albeit it took a while before he reached the stairs, seeing several soldiers lift up pieces of the balcony from the ground. His eyes desperately searched the site until he finally spotted a figure in a green jacket.

Lubbock straightened up and gave a thumb's up to a teammate, who lifted the marble and set off inside the building. He then looked ahead to see Tatsumi and slid his goggles up from his face while waving.

"Oh, hey Tatsumi- ah!" Lubbock's arm was grabbed and Tatsumi pulled him from the area. "T-Tatsumi!?"

Moments later, Tatsumi dragged him behind a large wall and before Lubbock could question him, the brunette held onto his torso tightly while hurrying his face into Lubbock's chest.

"S-Sorry... Didn't want to make a scene..."

Lubbock gave a look of worry and wrapped his arms around Tatsumi. It was not long before Lubbock felt the upper half of his shirt being soaked and continued to hold Tatsumi's shaking form.

"Whatever happened, I'm here for you." Lubbock said gently.

Tatsumi knew this, and it only pained him more.