Requiem
Author: Nyx Midnight
Rating: G
Status: 1 of 2, hopefully
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner Raidou
Type: Yaoi
Pairing: Satake/Raidou
Disclaimers: All belongs to Atlus. I'm not making any claims of ownership.
Feedback: Yes please! Critiques welcomed.
Spoilers: Chapter 12.
Thanks: Wolfsbride for the beta.
Satake looked at Raidou. A strange, four-coloured stick was floating between his hands, and he was smiling, but only a small smile, quickly swallowed by whatever was eating at Raidou and giving him such a gloomy expression. He knew he had said he wouldn't ask about it, but he didn't say he wouldn't try to cheer him. And if the pep talk didn't work, then... "Do you have five minutes to spare?"
Raidou grabbed his strange artefact and put it away as he looked at Satake. "I..." Did he? Kaya had gone off to destroy the future, his and everyone else's... but if he had to travel through time to reach her... did it matter when he left? After all, he could decide to arrive earlier... at least he hoped. And it was only five minutes. It could not hurt... "I think I do."
Gouto not scolding him for that weighed a little more on his already heavy heart.
Satake nodded in acknowledgement, then took Raidou around the bathhouse to another part of Fugawa-Cho, leading him into a house that was like all its neighbours. Both men removed their shoes, then made their way to a small room with a table in the middle. "Sit," Satake said as he went to get a bottle of sake and two cups.
Raidou smiled half-heartedly. "I thought you said I was too young?"
Satake sat and poured Raidou a drink then handed it to him. "You single-handedly saved the Capital. No boy could accomplish that." You also have a face longer than the whole land, Satake thought as he served himself a cup.
Raidou didn't argue with Satake's reasoning, even if he hadn't saved the capital by himself, far from it, but... "I shouldn't drink on duty. This isn't over yet..."
"One little cup won't knock you over, Kuzunoha," Satake said, grinning a bit. "I think you could use it."
Raidou sighed inwardly and then drank up. The sake burned down his throat and warmed his insides as it went down, but his heart remained cold. He himself had trouble believing he missed a cat he had barely met weeks ago so much, but he did. Gouto had been with him through every hardship, every trial, every single moment of this agonizing case that didn't want to end, and suddenly, he wasn't. The sarcastic voice egging him on at every corner was mute now. Well, almost, and every time he heard Gouto's voice now, ethereal and faded, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, it only reminded him that Gouto was gone.
Even if he had absolutely no intention of getting Raidou drunk, Satake was seriously considering pouring him a second cup. Raidou's face had only gotten more somber in the last minute. Who knew saving the world was such a depressing job? "More?" he asked.
Raidou raised his hand in refusal, head lowered so his cap hid his eyes.
Time trickled by, slowly. Satake's five minutes were up, but Raidou did not move to leave. Whoever said self-sacrifice to save the world was the most glorious thing was either a big fat liar or the one dying. When you were the one living on, it sucked. Gouto was a friend, an ally, so much more than any of the demons that had fought for him. Maybe even more than Narumi. To think he had believed until the last moment that Gouto was gonna pull some kind of trick out of his ass and make it back down safe and sound...
Satake was trying to think of something to say to brighten Raidou up that he had not said earlier or wasn't a horribly overused cliché. When nothing came to mind, he reached out and touched Raidou's hand, carefully, like the faintest touch would make him crumble.
Raidou slightly moved a finger under Satake's. "I'm okay," he exhaled, surprising himself at how steady that had come out.
"You're also a pretty crappy liar," Satake answered, squeezing Raidou's hand just enough for him to feel it.
"Busted." Raidou didn't look up or take his hand away from Satake's, enjoying the small, human touch. It soothed him a bit.
When he felt Satake letting go of his hand and standing, he stood as well, figuring his time was up. Looking up, he was a bit startled when he saw Satake standing in his personal space. Wow, how out of it was he? He hadn't felt the man get so close. The embrace Satake pulled him into surprised him less—after all, he must look like in serious need of comfort since his façade had cracked earlier. He had to take care to put his poker face back on when he left.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he was startled again—losing your touch, Raidou the XIV!—when Satake gently pulled his cap off his head and kissed the tousled, sweat-slicked hair sticking to his forehead. "Huh..." He tipped his head up to look at Satake's face, maybe even ask him what he was doing, but he never got the chance before Satake's lips covered his own in a surprisingly light and chaste kiss. After that, he wasn't too sure: one minute he was letting himself be held, Satake's warm lips against his, the next he was clinging to Satake's back like a drowning man, fingers tangled in the flimsy cloth of his yukata while he wetly devoured his mouth. His knees buckled but he held on, and Satake held him up, swallowing the little sounds he made and if he didn't know better, for a second he would have thought he was crying.
When he regained his footing, Satake gently let him go, his trademark smirk much softer than usual. He didn't say anything about the nail marks he surely had on his back now, or the moist lines running down Raidou's cheeks; he just stuck Raidou's cap back on his head, then cupped Raidou's face, discreetly wiping away the wetness with his thumbs, and said, "you look ready to take on the world."
Raidou wasn't as sure about it, but he felt he could fake it better now, so he nodded.
Satake grinned and slapped his shoulder. "Good. I don't know where you're going, but I know that if anyone can do it, you can. And when you have won, don't be a stranger. We'll celebrate it."
Raidou nodded sharply this time. "I will. ... thank you." He walked to the door with Satake, then stepped outside, and shielded his eyes from the sun's light as he looked up. He didn't know what would happen now, but he did know one thing: no matter what he was up against, he would make Gouto proud.
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