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It was one thing to lose a fight, but quite another to be tossed over a cliff in the process.
Mei’s a good flyer, okay, and he totally could’ve recovered from that if his sense of direction didn’t get tossed out the non-existent window the moment he was whipped across the air like a pebble.
Okay, to be clear, he didn’t mean to pick a fight with a dragon. It’s not his fault he got separated from the group because they wouldn’t listen to him, and okay, maybe he stumbled upon forbidden grounds and ruffled some feathers, or scales in this case, and urgh. Now everything hurts. He must’ve gotten nicked bad.
Based on his immediate surroundings, that was a hell of a crash landing.
Glancing up, the cliff he was thrown off was dangerously steep. Either that, or he was now stuck in a deep valley. It all looked the same; perhaps that’s just the dizziness from trying to get on his feet. Honestly, Mei’s amazed he hasn’t passed out yet.
“Damn it,” he mutters to himself, groaning pathetically as he takes in the damage with a sinking feeling.
His healing was only average at best, but he didn’t have much else to lean on. It’d help take out some of the sting and hopefully buy him some time to figure out a plan.
With a wince, he brings a shaky hand to the gash on his left side. It takes him a few inhales to steady himself enough to attempt channeling mana into it.
Kazuya was always better at this kind of stuff, but that was because he had lots of practice. Mei, on the other hand, almost never returned the favour with the way Kazuya fought mainly on the backline, aggressive but decisive.
Damn it, now he was thinking of him again. He must be really out of it.
Mei’s hand wobbles again and that’s when he glimpses down to find it was barely glowing blue, a telltale sign that he had no mana left to give.
An injury and mana drain to boot. Shit, this was bad.
“What the hell, is that you, Mei?”
And now he was hallucinating Kazuya’s voice. Just wonderful. Mana drain was always a trip and a half, so if he’s this far gone, he might as well pass out now and pray nothing else gnarly finds him here while he recovers. Yes, his wound was bad, but it wasn’t fatal. He could afford a little nap first and deal with it in the morning. Passing out would be freaking fantastic right about now.
Mei resigns himself to his fate when a strong shake of his shoulders forces his eyes open.
And that, that honestly annoys him more than it hurts him. Mei whips around to glare lopsidedly at the offender, who looks kind of cute in a blurry way. An awful lot like Kazuya.
“What happened to you?”
That voice. But more than that, there was a familiar undercurrent of worry that he hasn’t heard in a while. Back when they were still partners and Kazuya would tease and scold him, so often that it became comforting and numbed the pain. He’d tell Mei this would be the last time he'd put him back together, but it never was…until it actually was, and Mei hadn’t even seen it coming.
Ah, it feels really warm now. It must be that steady even flow all along his left side, gentle yet efficient. Very well practiced. A perfect illusion. Mei’s missed that part of him, it seems.
“Mei, Mei, c’mon, stop being so dramatic,” dream-Kazuya urges him, and it’s not until something firmer wraps around his back that he jolts right up from the touch.
It should’ve hurt to move; it didn’t.
Blinking awake, Mei comes face-to-face with not-dream-not-blurry-Kazuya in the flesh, shell-shocked. His first instinct is to squirm away from Kazuya’s arms.
“Kazuya?” he questions in disbelief.
“Who else, dummy?” Kazuya looks amused, as if he wasn’t the one randomly chilling at the bottom of a ravine or wherever the hell they were.
“No way. What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? I live here.”
Mei already knows then that he was going to spend the rest of his miniscule mental and physical energy on this one conversation. Whether or not it would be worth it was still up for grabs.
“Here? Here—no wonder I couldn’t find you. Why the hell would you choose to live here?” He sounds way too weak to put up a good fight though, and Kazuya grins like he knows it.
“It’s quiet.” Kazuya pauses, smiling still. “Well, it was until you showed up. I see you took quite a beating.”
“I...yeah,” Mei admits sourly. “You stick around to save all the stragglers who get mauled by a dragon?”
Kazuya’s eyes widen, perking up.
“You pissed off a dragon? Which type?”
Of course. That’s what excites Kazuya.
“I don’t fucking know! Urgh, it was an accident.” Mei sighs and then stares at Kazuya, a little sullen. “Thanks, though. I’m glad someone was around. I couldn’t get even a basic healing spell going.”
The twinkle in his eyes grow, and Mei has a bad feeling about this.
“Can I help?”
Mei narrows his eyes in suspicion.
“You already helped.”
“More, I mean.”
“Kazuya, you have that face on.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“After avoiding me all these years, I’m not letting you continue to run random experiments on me. You’ve lost that goodwill, alright?”
Kazuya shrugs innocently, the way he always did when he had another plan in the works.
Nothing ever deters Miyuki Kazuya. Mei liked him for that; they understood each other that way. But Kazuya also just couldn’t be satisfied with doing things the easy way, couldn’t just accept his talent and make the best of it. Winning was too simple when it was the two of them, and once Mei grew into his fourth element, Kazuya hardly ever saw action after he set the strategy straight.
There were the rare moments when things went awry, and on those occasions, Mei knew no one but Kazuya would’ve been able to get the two of them out alive. It was the reason Mei wanted Kazuya by his side, always. He knew that’s what they were destined for.
But no, Kazuya had to keep testing out his theories with different mages, like he wasn’t a damn powerful one himself. Evidently, he had reached the peak too soon with Mei, and an easy paycheck and widespread glory was an affront to his desire to push the envelope, even at the risk of his own life.
So, Mei had led his own party to fame while Kazuya had slinked into the shadows, tinkering with weird support items and potions and hadn’t held a solid partnership at least since last Mei heard. Certainly, no sane mage would choose to live here.
“So. Talk to me, Kazuya. You owe me at least that after five years.”
Mei hates that he talks first. His eyes are not watery. They had both agreed to move onto bigger and better things, though not from lack of trying on Mei’s part to get Kazuya to see the bigger and better thing was right here with him. He wasn’t holding a grudge, but if he was, he’d be losing. Badly.
“I didn’t know I owed you anything,” Kazuya answers without hesitation. “But hey, if you want to talk, I’m right here.”
Mei nods a little too eagerly, because Kazuya wasn’t one to open himself to any kind of open ‘interrogation’ and Mei wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth if Kazuya was pitying his current state. That small shift in his center of gravity manages to strike him down, and his body decides to give up altogether, slumping over onto Kazuya’s thighs.
Great. His head is literally in Kazuya’s lap, and he can’t even move, much less enjoy it like he used to. Now it just feels awkward. Has he mentioned how much mana drain sucks?
“You don’t happen to have any mana recovery potions on you, huh?” Mei asks to the sky, and Kazuya peers down at him, a grin forming.
“I have something better, if you’ll allow me.”
This time, Kazuya’s holding his hand out, and Mei registers it as ah, he’s asking for permission.
Kazuya, like Mei, has remarkable control. But all mages were fallible, and an ability that strong was hard to keep at bay.
Kazuya had slipped a handful of times before, but it hadn’t taken much out of Mei, who had carefully cultivated his mana reserve until his stamina was second to none (which was what made the current situation so embarrassing). If anything, back then Mei was secretly glad to break Kazuya’s careful attention, know that for those split seconds, his focus was on Mei, and Mei alone.
“Mei?” he asks again, steadier, but that sliver of worry still hits Mei deep.
Five years ago, Kazuya wouldn’t have asked. He would’ve told Mei this was what was best for him and bent him to his will, and Mei would’ve loved him all the more for it.
“Fine, fine,” he acquiesces. “This better be good, Kazuya.”
Kazuya hums back noncommittally, taking his hand back and grazes Mei’s forearm with his thumb.
Mei’s spine stiffens. He imagines he’d recoil and jump away if he could move. Kazuya’s touch wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either. It felt intrusive, squeamish like when he first realized Kazuya’s ability was always on no matter what he wore and who he touched. When their relationship got more physical, Mei had learned to zone in on that sensation, the faint trickle of electricity beneath Kazuya’s finger pads, the tiny droplets of mana prickling where their lips met, an invisible dance.
This wasn’t that. This was…
Mei grimaces.
“Whatever you’re doing, it sucks,” he mutters.
Kazuya chuckles, soft and beautiful.
“Does it?” The rest of his fingers join, his pinky settling in above his pulse point. It’s barely any pressure, but Mei shudders all the same. It was weirdly intimate, which does suck if Kazuya was making some kind of point out of it.
It’s not like it matters. He doesn’t have anything left to give Kazuya; if he wanted to take it, he could.
“Mei,” Kazuya whispers, soft, almost in reverence. Before Mei can question why he was sounding like that, something wraps around him like a gentle command, melting into his bloodstream.
“Huh, that’s…quite nice,” Mei murmurs, equally in awe. The dizziness from the mana drain was already fading. “What…what is that?”
“It’s new. Kind of finicky, but it’s just reversing things. You see, it’s far easier to suck magic out than force it back into this tiny channel, like pouring water back into a straw. Most people would’ve rejected me, but hey, seems we’re quite compatible,” Kazuya explains, far too pleased.
“Is that all it takes?” Mei asks sardonically. “Compatibility?”
“No, trust.”
Mei tries not to feel butthurt at that. Their partnership didn’t work at first, and it sure had its rough patches, but he’s always trusted Kazuya. Despite all their arguments, the outrageous strategies, he always trusted Kazuya to watch his back when it counted. They’ve never lost together, never failed a single mission.
“You know I’ve always trusted…” Mei slinks back, unsure. If he had a perfect bill of health, he wouldn’t have let Kazuya touch him. It reminded him of too much and he’d lose before he even started. Giving into Kazuya was akin to opening a floodgate, one that was unfortunately saving his ass right now.
Kazuya’s still maintaining contact, pouring mana into Mei like it was just another ordinary day. Mei hates that whatever Kazuya was doing feels indescribably great. Unlike potions, this was nearly instantaneous.
“How much mana do you have, Kazuya? Geez.”
“More than you,” Kazuya replies cheekily. “Mana has to go somewhere. Usually whatever I take, I’ll just release back into the air again, but then I figured I could just hold it and that got my reserves really going. And with so much on hand, I developed this.”
“Even if you can’t use it on most people? You and your useless experiments.”
“Just say thank you, Mei, unless you want me to leave you to die.”
“Dying in your arms, what a way to go out.” Kazuya’s body stiffens beneath him.
“Mei…”
Mei flexes his fingers, ascertaining his strength. He could sit up, now, but…
“Thanks, Kazuya,” he says, like he’s about to die with dramatic flair. “I’m so glad I found you in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. So, if this dragon comes back for me, you better suck it up and take it out for me, for my honour.”
“You’ll have to lend me a hand then, for old time’s sakes. Not everyone faces a dragon and survives.”
Kazuya ruffles Mei’s hair affectionately. Instead of flinching away, Mei wills himself to concentrate and seek out those old remnants of gold, the slipstream of sparks.
There’s nothing. Nothing at all.
“You’ve gotten really powerful, huh,” Mei mumbles disappointingly.
“I don’t think I can afford to lose control with you like this,” Kazuya replies, seeing right through him. “Now c’mon, get off. I know you can get up already. My legs are asleep.”
Mei moans in fake annoyance. “Just carry me home. I don’t like the way your mana feels inside me.”
“Mana is mana,” Kazuya says with a smirk. “But fine, just—” he hugs Mei in close and rises to his feet, and Mei can feel every inch where their bodies meet, the prick of something when Mei nuzzles into his chest.
He wasn’t playing fair but neither was Kazuya.
“Let me fly you back, hm? Where did you split off from your party?”
“I don’t know,” he lies. His party will be worried, but Mei doesn’t care. “I meant your home. I don’t know who the hell is visiting you here, Kazuya, but you better have a guest room.”
Kazuya hums in thought as he starts walking.
“Nope. Still want to pretend you don’t know where your party is?”
It’s stupid, and risky, and Mei knows this isn’t where or how he manages to persuade Kazuya to see common sense, but he can’t help it. That's all it takes, apparently. Plus, he’s right here, and Mei just survived a mauling by a dragon.
If that’s not a sign, what is?
“Yeah, I do,” Mei murmurs, closing his eyes.
Kazuya’s control really was good, even if his heartbeat betrays him.