Original AO3 Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/3445862/chapters/7932459
Chapter warnings for coarse language, nudity, sexual content, mentions of death and murder-suicide and too much angsty feels than a chaptered fanfiction is really supposed to have.
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"O-oi, Kashima!" Masayuki's got a hand each curling around Yuu's shaking shoulders, as she cups a hand to her mouth and doesn't do anything to stop the tears from falling from her face. "What the hell - you're crying? Why are you crying? Don't tell me - you actually got sad over that dumb story?"
"Of course I did!" You basically said that you swear off love forever, because of this, because of Yoshiwara and that girl in the rain. You said that you'll never let yourself fall in love again, and here I am, slowly but surely becoming a complete and utter fool for you. How could I not be sad over this? "Of course I'm sad! So I'm crying! How else was I supposed to react?"
"Hey...I told you, brat, I'd feel better if you laughed, y'know?" Masayuki says, looking at her so fondly, so earnestly, that Yuu almost forgets how his lower lip is trembling and his eyes are rimmed with unshed tears. "I was just some stupid kid believing in stupid...miracles. Seriously, it's a dumb story we should just laugh over and forget about."
"That's where you're wrong, Masayuki-san." Yuu says, one of her hands moving up to cover one of the hands Masayuki's got wrapped around her shoulders. "What you and that young lady had really was a real love. And if I know anything at all, it's that real love is never, ever just a 'dumb story'."
...especially not when it still grabs hold of you enough to make you look like that, even after all these years, Yuu thinks, and almost keels over at the sudden surge of pain that pierces through her stomach.
Masayuki pulls away from her then, and it's a Yuu thinks it a relief that her treacherous body doesn't lean forward in response, seeking his warmth.
"Nah, I guess we just have to agree to disagree on that. I see the error in my ways now. Seriously - how the hell did I ever trick myself into believing that being honest, in friggin' Yoshiwara, was a perfectly sound idea? It's ridiculous and insane and I can't believe I fell for that." He chuckles that hollow chuckle again, and Yuu can't help but feel the urge to do something stupid, something pointless, like put her lips over his so she could suck that mirthless sound out of his lungs.
Well, he's got one thing right, at the very least - these feelings definitely are ridiculous and insane. It makes the tears fall even harder, which was apparently possible. Yuu scrubs at her eyes, carefully at first, then inelegantly, without care of what she definitely looks like right now, because if she isn't careful she might just drown, in these tears, this rainfall, these feelings, and while she doesn't really know what these feelings are what she does know is that they'd make no sense whatsoever if he's not feeling them alongside her.
"Damn it, Kashima, stop crying." Masayuki says, scooting closer to her again to brush off tears with his thumbs. "Tears won't ever change anything. Believe me. I tried."
She looks at him, still sniffling a bit, dark hair askew and brilliant green eyes rimmed red, and just like that Masayuki's heart is in his throat as he realizes: he was crying for me because he thought it would be too painful for me to do myself, and what the hell is he even doing!?
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Birdcage
Historical FictionOn one hand, the nobleman's daughter looking for the brother she never knew she had. On the other, the samurai family's son fallen from grace, resigned to a life looking out the bars of his gilded cage. They were not supposed to fall in love. But de...
