Chapter Text
They both touched down softly, the wet ground squishing as their feet sank into the surface. The air in this area was thick with a green and black fog that felt damp against their skin, and unfortunately heavily obscured their vision. Neither of the two were able to see more than ten feet in front of themselves, and it was difficult to make out the details of things once they were further than five feet away.
Yuder created a bit of a breeze in an attempt to clear the mist out of the air, but quickly realized that even though it did work to an extent, the fog quickly filled the area within another few seconds.
“I think I’ll just have to keep clearing out the air so we can find the flower. It shouldn’t be that far, especially with how thick the fog is,” Yuder said, beginning to search in earnest. Kishiar nodded lightly in understanding and joined him in looking, moving a bit away from Yuder in an attempt to cover more ground in their search. Within a couple minutes, Kishiar’s voice rang out in the otherwise eerily silent area.
“Yuder, is this it over here?” Yuder made his way to Kishiar, and quickly confirmed that was the flower they were searching for. The flower was in a recess in the trunk of a tree, and was surrounded by a cage of tangled vines, making it barely visible.
Yuder tried to recall what Enon told him about harvesting the flower. He needed to get not only the bloom, but the stem and roots as well; he also needed to avoid damaging the vines outside as much as possible, since if they became too hurt, they could spread a toxin to the flower that would nullify its effects.
Yuder sighed, before heading close and beginning to use his abilities to try and gently move the vines. “It might take a few minutes to get it. Don’t go too far.” Kishiar hummed in acknowledgement, and decided to spend the time soaking up Yuder’s appearance. He didn’t get as much time as he’d like to just gaze at the other.
He was so beautiful. Kishiar’s eyes caught on the sharp lines of his figure as he gently manipulated the vines, and then the way his shirt hugged his torso. Kishiar knew Yuder specifically wore clothes that wouldn’t get in the way in combat, but sometimes he hoped that Yuder thought about him when choosing the outfits.
If Kishiar ever found out that his beloved was teasing him with what he wore, Kishiar thought that he would die happily at that moment. He doubted such a thought even crossed Yuder’s mind, though.
Kishiar’s gaze landed back on Yuder’s hands, recognizing that the other was making good progress in freeing the flower. Slightly surprising, given that this was such a delicate task, and Yuder — for all that Kishiar loved him — was a bit more fond of brute force. However, Kishiar did have full faith that he would succeed from the beginning, because Yuder was the one doing it.
Kishiar’s eyes traced their way back up to Yuder’s chest, and then rested on the mask on his face. He let out a wistful sigh, wondering if Yuder would ever take it off in front of him. Though, even if Kishiar never got too see Yuder’s face again, he didn’t think he would be too sad.
As long as Yuder still spent time with him, and continued to let him be somewhat physically affectionate, Kishiar would be satisfied. He would always hope for more, but he could tell that — while Yuder returned his feelings — the other had some misgiving that was stopping him from getting too deeply involved with Kishiar.
As Kishiar dragged his gaze down to Yuder’s throat, he was hit with a wave of dizziness so intense it actually caused him to stumble out of his stationary position. He glanced at his status window, and cursed himself inwardly for not paying attention to it once he realized he was under the effect of a poison.
“QWERTY.” Yuder immediately looked over at the call, noticing the mildly panicked tone in Kishiar’s voice. To his distress, Kishiar looked rather ill at the moment. His eyes were coated in a haze, and his posture seemed as if it was taking triple the energy to keep him upright. Why hadn’t the other said anything?
“Did the potion wear off?” Yuder glanced at the timer he had set earlier, realizing it still had over half an hour left. The panic he managed to suppress came creeping up at that realization; if a S rank potion couldn’t counteract the toxin, there wasn’t much either of them would have with them that could help.
“No, the potion is still in effect,” Kishiar began, glancing again at his status window. He fiddled with the information on the screen for a few seconds before he continued. “The poison seems to be S+ rank. I’m not sure why, considering the rank of the dungeon.”
Yuder did know that, occasionally, the cures in poison dungeons would have more concentrated toxins around them as a deterrent, but he hadn’t ever come across any that were of a higher rank than the dungeon itself.
“What are your symptoms? Has it gotten any worse already?” Yuder asked as he abandoned the mostly freed flower, rushing over to Kishiar’s side.
“I just feel sluggish and dizzy. Maybe slightly feverish, as well. It hasn’t gotten any worse since I noticed I was feeling off, but it hasn’t been that long, so I’m still not sure whether or not it’ll become worse.”
Yuder took a second to think. For an S+ rank poison, Kishiar seemed remarkably fine. Considering his condition hadn’t quickly deteriorated, Yuder highly doubted that this toxin was fatal. Still, he didn’t want to risk anything. While Yuder didn’t have a way to cure the poison, he did have a way to stop Kishiar from ingesting more of it.
Yuder reached up to pull off his mask, much to Kishiar’s surprise. Kishiar reached out to stop Yuder from removing it, though his movement seemed to lag for a second midair, accentuating the effects of the poison.
“Why are you taking off your mask?”
“The mask has an S+ rank air filter built into it. It should prevent the effects from getting worse, if not also lessen your symptoms.”
“But then you’ll be exposed to the poison.” Yuder hesitated before responding, seeming to weigh the benefits of answering frankly in his mind.
“I’m immune to all toxins unless they’re from monsters. This fog won’t affect me.” Kishiar looked at him like he didn’t quite believe what the other was saying.
“Then why would your mask have that feature?” Kishiar could feel Yuder’s resigned stare through the opaque material covering the other’s face.
“My brother made me add it in case I fought a monster with a high rank poison breath. There’s also other airborne effects that might not be a toxin.” Yuder said, undoing the clasp on the mask. He quickly handed the mask over, pointedly avoiding eye contact. Kishiar grabbed Yuder’s wrist, moving so their chest’s were almost flush together. He leaned his head directly into Yuder’s line of sight before speaking.
“I’m afraid I don’t know how it works. Could you put it on for me?” The tempting smile he gave was largely undermined by his obvious illness. Yuder was a little exasperated. Even when poisoned, the man just wouldn’t stop. Yuder gave a resigned sigh as he took the mask back, before he fastened it onto Kishiar’s head.
They both stayed in that position for a while, silently gazing at the other. Yuder found it a bit odd to be on the other side of the mask for once. He wasn’t sure what to say or do. Should he just go back to finish harvesting the flower now the situation has been dealt with for the moment? Before he could even turn around, Kishiar spoke once again.
“You’re even more beautiful than I remember.” Yuder’s initial instinct was to be pleased that Kishiar found him beautiful, before his mind latched onto a rather important word in the sentence.
“Remember?” Kishiar stayed silent as he continued to hold Yuder’s wrist, formulating the words he wanted to say. Yuder suddenly realized how eerily quiet this area in the dungeon was. There weren’t even sounds of animals scuffling around in the distance. He turned his arm in Kishair’s hold and grabbed onto the other’s hand, interlacing their fingers.
“I saw you without your mask before we first met.”
“When?” Yuder didn’t remember ever seeing Kishiar before they first spoke, and he knew that would be hard to forget.
“It was somewhat soon after you made your hunter debut. I was walking out of a building when I saw you duck inside an alchemy shop.” He paused for a few seconds, seeming to decide how much to reveal. “Your initial appearance was quite shocking, so I had already heard about you, and was rather curious. I waited outside, hoping to catch you when you left for a conversation.”
“After a few minutes, two men in civilian clothes walked out, though I knew immediately which one was you. I didn’t want to bother you out of uniform, so I left it at that for the moment.” Kishiar wouldn’t admit that he had been so attracted to Yuder that he searched high and low for several months, piecing together the other’s schedule, before he finally managed to get them to work on a dungeon together.
“Did you look into me?” Kishiar hesitated for a moment; he had forgotten how well Yuder could read him.
“No, I didn’t?” As he stared as the blinding smile on Kishiar’s face, Yuder decided he would let him get away with the lie. Yuder squeezed the other’s hand again, sinking deep into thought.
Honestly, he wasn’t mad at all, he was mostly just confused how to feel. Did this mean that — since Kishiar was aware of who he was since they'd met — he didn’t have to reject him this whole time?
Though, even if Kishiar knew, it’d still be hard to pull off dating, considering it was very publicly known that Kishiar was pursuing QWERTY. Yuder sighed before speaking.
“If we’re seen together in public, people would likely realize my identity, right?” Kishiar’s body immediately lost half the lingering exhaustion from the poison due to his excitement.
“Does this mean you’ll go on a date with me?” he asked, eagerness evident from the sound of his voice. He gently grabbed Yuder’s other hand, interlacing their fingers and rubbing both his thumbs against the other’s skin.
“You’re missing the point.” Yuder gave Kishiar a dry look, though Kishiar wasn’t sure how the other expected it to be at all effective anymore with the full brunt of his adorableness on display.
“I have a disguise skill. I don’t need to look like myself when we’re in public.” Yuder gained a sullen look in his eyes, thinking that it was truly unfortunate Kishiar was the one with such a skill. Kishiar chuckled as though he knew what Yuder had thought. “So, will you agree to a date with me?”
“You can pick where we go,” Yuder said, pulling away from Kishiar as he realized that the timer he had set had less than half an hour remaining. He turned back to continue freeing the flower.
“I already have it planned,” Kishiar giggled, scooting up behind Yuder. Yuder sighed, sounding slightly resigned.
“I thought you might,” Yuder responded, glancing at Kishiar over his shoulder. He quickly finished harvesting the bloom, then turned back to face Kishiar as he stowed the flower away. “We should fly back to the exit since your potion doesn’t have much time left. I need my mask back before we leave the dungeon.” Kishiar nodded in agreement and they both took off into the air, keeping above the treeline as Yuder led them back to the gate.
Once they landed, Kishiar took off Yuder’s mask as he asked, “Do you want us to hide that we’re dating when we’re on duty?” Yuder paused for a second, wondering if him agreeing to go on a date meant that they were already together, but decided to skip past it. It’s not as if he was opposed, and Kishiar had obviously already come to his own conclusion, so it seemed better to just accept it.
“It doesn’t bother me either way.” He saw Kishiar’s face light up, and had a sudden premonition that there would be many more videos of Kishiar being clingy on social media.
Kishiar handed Yuder’s mask back, but once the other had grabbed it, he gently pulled Yuder to him by the wrist and threaded his other hand in the hair and the base of his neck, tenderly running his fingers through it.
Kishiar was once again stunned by how beautiful Yuder was. Even in this horribly lit dungeon, he felt that the man was the most ethereal person he’d ever seen. He didn’t understand how Yuder wasn’t fighting off suitors left and right, but he wouldn’t complain.
Kishiar knew they were running low on time, but after warring with himself, he came to the conclusion it was better to act promptly than to go mad waiting for their date — just one, he assured himself. He had a firm grip on his self control.
“May I kiss you?” Yuder saw a familiar, unreadable feeling in the depths of Kishiar’s eyes once again. He hesitated for a moment, unsure if this was truly the best place to kiss. It still smelled rather bad. If he was honest with himself, though, he had wanted to kiss Kishiar for quite a while, and ultimately couldn’t bring himself to refuse.
As soon as Kishiar saw Yuder’s nod, he moved his hand from the nape of Yuder’s neck to the back of his head near his ear, and brought his other hand up from Yuder’s wrist to the side of his neck, with his thumb resting on the other’s jaw. He leaned down, nuzzling their noses together before their lips met.
The kiss lasted longer than Yuder had thought it would, though he didn’t make any move to pull away. Kishiar, eventually realizing that Yuder wouldn’t be the one to separate them, put a light bit of force into the kiss before pulling back slightly. He kept their foreheads pressed together for all of two seconds as he caught his breath before he came to the conclusion that he was a liar, and he moved to kiss Yuder again.
They spent the next couple of minutes repeating that cycle; kissing, breaking apart, and immediately meeting each other’s lips again. Kishiar was just wondering if he’d ever have the strength to fully pull away when he felt Yuder nibble on his bottom lip. He lightly nipped back at the other before he slowly pulled away, resting his forehead against the other’s before speaking.
“If we don’t stop now, we might never end up leaving the dungeon,” Kishiar said, the lilt of his voice obviously teasing. Yuder pulled away with a slight roll of his eyes before affixing his mask back to his face.
“We should head out then.”
“You won’t disappear before we exchange phone numbers will you?” Yuder ignored the other and walked right out of the gate. Kishiar had a sudden feeling that if he didn’t leave right now, he really wouldn’t get the other’s number. He giggled ecstatically before rushing out after his lover.