Work Text:
Izo is drinking. Which isn't anything unusual, even mid-day, except he's alone in some shack a couple centuries after he died while his Master's out hunting for fucking frogs. Because whatever the hell was going on in the Singularity meant they had to 'lay low' and 'don't kill anyone' and she sure as hell brought the wrong Servants for that. So Fujimaru is out babysitting the dragon, and Izo is babysitting himself with alcohol. And Ryouma—
Ryouma is walking through the door, no frogs, no dragon, no Master.
Izo scowls at him, head thunking against the wall. "Sell them out too?"
Ryouma doesn't take the bait, just glances at the spread of alcohol arranged all neat on the floor. At least it was all neat when Izo brought it back a few hours ago. Huh. Yeah, it's a little messier now. "Just checking if we've had any visitors."
"Or if I snuck out to stab someone? Keeping me company to make sure I've been good?"
"I trust you," Ryouma says, absently, and the easy way he says it makes Izo want to break that trust right there and then. "To tell the truth...I'm not actually a fan of frogs." He sets his hat on the end table, and Izo's pettily glad the hat and humidity made his hair look terrible.
"Trust me enough not to tell Oryou that?"
"Oh, I have. She tends to forget." Ryouma picks up a bottle and yeah, yeah, he just happened to pick up Ryouma's favorite buying out the sake store, he didn't need to smile at him like he did him a favor. He settles down across from him, back against the bed. "Almost like old times."
With a disbelieving laugh, Izo grabs the next bottle. "You think I forget as easy as your girlfriend? Not enough drink in the world to forget what you did to me."
"I'm not expecting you to forget." Ryouma takes a careful sip of sake, studying Izo as he slouches into his scarf. "I'm just reminiscing."
Izo grits his teeth. "Reminisce on your own." And Ryouma listens, for once, just drinking quietly. And that still makes him want to punch him, but more than that, he wants to get drunk enough that he forgets who he's stuck here with.
He keeps drinking, and so does Ryouma, and he doesn't know how much time has passed when he suddenly speaks up. "Nothing like back then. You weren't pretentious enough for the good stuff," he says, nodding at Ryouma's bottle.
Ryouma laughs at that, watching him through half-lidded eyes. "We couldn't afford the good stuff."
"Sure we could. Just wasn't worth it when you passed out after one sip."
"That," Ryouma says with all the dignity of a few decades' distance, "is an exaggeration." He sips again, deliberately, until he tips the bottle a little too far and takes a startled gulp. A droplet escapes over his chin, down his throat, mixing with a trickle of sweat to dip under his collar. Kind of thing he never let show as a politician. Kind of thing Izo used to see all the time, sparring with him, sprawling by the river on a humid summer's day.
"You're already drunk."
"I am not," Ryouma says, his petulance making his cool, cultured voice slip back into the rough tones Izo knew so well. Making Izo relax despite himself. Making him remember back when he would've trusted Ryouma with anything, followed him anywhere.
Kind of thinking that gets an assassin killed.
Leaning forward, Izo snatches the bottle from his hands and takes a swig. Yeah, it's good, the kind of stuff you're supposed to savor, and the last thing he needs right now is to savor. So he just tilts his head back and gulps, and yeah it's good.
Until Ryouma grabs the bottle right from his hands, the traitor, and Izo has to open a whole new bottle. "You're drunk," he says, like the goddamn detective he is.
"No shit."
"The first time I drank around Oryou, she thought I was dying." Ryouma's chuckle echoes into the more-empty-than-not-bottle. "Her spit works wonders on hangovers, you know." He looks at Izo, head tilted in consideration. "I could ask her to—"
“Are you kidding me? She wouldn’t spit on me if I was dying cause it might help.”
“She’d help,” he says, perfectly confident, like of course he had a fucking dragon wrapped around his finger too. Bastard probably did. Ryouma'd never been a ladies' man, but he sure had a trail of admirers as a kid. Pretty face like that, serious and sincere right up until he isn't, even a giant snake could go for him.
Or maybe it wasn't a sex thing at all. Maybe she just figured he was a dumb pet that needed licking before he got himself killed again.
“You ever fuck when she's a dragon?”
And Ryouma must be even drunker than Izo thought, cause he's blushing all over. “W-what?”
“You heard me."
Ryouma clears his throat, twice, takes a sip that turns into a swig, wipes his mouth. "I...don't kiss and tell—"
Izo scowls. "I'd tell you if I fucked a dragon."
"What...?"
Suddenly he's furious again, at this idiot who's completely wiped away the country bumpkin he used to be but still wants to be his old friend. "That's the kind of thing you tell each other! You don't bang a dragon and keep it secret!"
Ryouma's train of thought is sluggish, now, and laughably obvious on his face. “Are you…interested in Ory—“
“Hypothetically, dipshit!” he snarls. "You want to be all buddy-buddy again, then treat me like you used to! Tell me something besides who I can kill for you!"
Ryouma takes a deep breath. "You're right to be mad," he says, and the resignation in his eyes just pisses Izo off more. "You'd be right to kill me."
"Yeah, yeah, kill you so you pop over to the Throne of Heroes and get resummoned right back. Real big of you."
Ryouma sighs, head tipping back against the bed, loose and elegant even sprawled on the floor. "I know there's nothing I can do to make it up to you, Izo. Still...I'd like to try."
Izo drinks deeply, because he's parched and not because he's looking away from that soulful, lying look of his. "We're working together cause we have to. Nothing more than that."
"I know." Izo hates how gentle his voice sounds. Sincere, as if he remembered how to be that. "I really have missed you.”
Izo snorts. "Last time you missed me, you sold me out."
But he keeps coming back, doesn't he? Ryouma just takes one look with his pretty eyes and Izo jumps to whatever he asks. And he knows, that's the worst of it. Knows that the vicious man-slayer he got offed is dependable.
Ryouma closes his eyes, taking another long swig of sake, and Izo can practically hear him thinking through the situation. Izo will yell at him, maybe throw a punch. And Ryouma will act contrite right up until he asks Izo to risk his life for him again and again and Izo will always roll over and say yes.
Screw that.
Screw him.
He lets the empty bottle drop, and Ryouma tenses at the noise. Expecting a punch, or a stab—
When Izo crawls into his lap, wrinkling those fancy pressed pants, Ryouma's eyes snap wide open.
Not so predictable now, huh?
"Izo—" Ryouma says, composure and fake accent gone, eyes locked on Izo's.
Izo leans in, watches Ryouma's eyes flickering disbelievingly to his lips, and ducks down to his neck. He licks a stripe over the warm skin, over the barely visible stubble, and can almost taste the sake in his sweat.
"Izo," Ryouma says, and now his voice is deeper than he's ever heard it before.
Izo bites, revelling in the hiss of pain and the coppery taste of his blood, just like anyone else's. And then he kisses him, kisses him because killing him won't do goddamn anything and Ryouma's kissing him back, like he's been wanting this almost as long as—
"That's disgusting. Why would you do that in front of Oryou."
Ryouma gasps, startled, into his mouth, and it'd be really fucking hot if it wasn't because Fujimaru and Oryou were bringing in buckets of frogs.
"Uh, hi?" says Fujimaru, who is definitely not paying attention to the frogs.
"Ryouma," Izo hisses, watching as Oryou places an especially moist frog onto his pillow, "is she gonna eat me?"
"Yes," says Oryou.
"No," says Ryouma, running a calming hand down Izo's back before gently hoisting him off. "She knows—"
Izo stiffens. "She knows what."
Oryou looks over at him, distinctly unimpressed. "Oryou knows the little bug wants to do horrible human things with Ryouma."
"WHAT." Screw the mission, screw the Throne of Heroes, he's gonna kill Ryouma again.
"And," Ryouma says, steadily meeting his gaze when Izo looks back to him, "she knows what I want to do with you."
Izo's stomach does a flip, and he honestly can't tell if he's had way too much to drink or not enough "And what the hell's that?"
"I don't kiss and tell."
Izo just stares at Ryouma, Ryouma and that stupid little smile on his lips and the totally unguarded look in his eyes. Damn it, he wants to trust him.
"You don't have to stop on my account, but…" Fujimaru says, and oh yeah, they're here for a reason. "We found a big pack of monsters to clear out. So you should probably stop on that account. For now."
Ryouma pushes himself up, way steadier than the bastard should be, and holds a hand out to Izo. Izo looks over at Fujimaru watching with interest, at Oryou organizing the goddamn frogs, and just lets him help him up. And hold him steady when the room lurches unpleasantly around him. "...Gimme a minute."
"He's a liability. Oryou will eat him."
Ryouma says, perfectly calmly, "Please don't."
"Fine," Oryou grumbles, and Izo lets himself lean into the arm around his shoulders. Just for now, just until he betrays him again, just until he asks him to do something stupid and self-sacrificing and Izo says yes. Just until Oryou eats him when Ryouma isn't looking.
But for now, yeah. It's nice.