Who: Katou and Michael What: Katou finally gets a location on the Egg of Wormwood When: January 28th, morning Where: Michael's house Rating/Warning: Low/none Status: Complete
It had been a long time since Katou had last felt this happy. Part of him was nervous about it. With the exception of Kanan, everyone who he’d ever felt this much of a connection to had up and left the county. Not that Katou could blame them. He’d tried to do the same himself.
That, and the threat of Rociel and the Egg of Wormwood loomed constantly in his mind. It had been almost four months since the seal to armageddon had gone missing, and he wished that he could forget about it, that he could convince himself that, if had taken this long, he didn’t have to worry about it. If it wasn’t for Rociel’s murder streak, and the video game - Angel Sanctuary - he probably could have.
It was easy to forget about all of that while he laid on Michael’s bed, lounging, with the sun pouring lazily through the window. His head lay on Michael’s stomach, eyes closed, listening to music.
His phone went off, but it took him a couple of seconds before he began to pat the bed next to him, his fingers searching for the phone. When he read the text, he sat up, the contentment slipping from his face. It was time.
***
Things weren’t perfect between him and Katou and Michael wouldn’t lie to himself that they were but they were better since the shit at Christmas. He gently stroked his fingers over Katou’s back, a soft sigh escaping him as he got to just lay there relaxing with his boyfriend. Those two words still made him grin even if he didn’t say them outloud very often.
He groaned when he heard the text alert, imagining that it was Katou’s work calling him in, bringing an end to their lazy day in bed, moving his arm off him when he felt Katou stirring. “What’s wrong?” He asked, one look at the other man’s face causing him to sit up, worry written on his face.
***
Katou worried his lower lip with his teeth, not looking up from his phone right away. There was, he knew, a very real possibility that he wasn’t going to be coming back from this mission. If his dreams had taught him one thing he was good at, it was getting himself killed. He’d thought he was okay with that, but…
“Work emergency,” he said, and then finally turned toward Michael. He leaned in and kissed him, hard. “I’ve gotta take off.”
***
Michael wrapped his arm back around Katou as he kissed the other man back, pulling him as close as he could. “One of these days you’re going to have to tell me what exactly it is you do for a living you know. Especially if it’s going to make a habit of dragging you out of my bed like this.” He said trying to hide the worry and annoyance over Katou having to leave behind a smile as he kissed him again.
“You going to come back after you take care of it?”
***
“One of these days,” Katou said, grinning as he swung a leg over Michael to straddle the other man. He didn’t wish the dreams upon anyone, but it would make things easier if Michael did start dreaming. He knew he couldn’t discuss his job with people who weren’t dreamers, who weren’t aware of all the things that went bump in the night.
His smile wavered, almost imperceptible before it was back in place. “I’ll do my best,” he said. He sat back. When Kira had taken off to face Rociel, he’d broken Katou’s ribs and left him his sword. He didn’t need to break Michael’s ribs to stop him from following him, and he couldn’t leave him the sword. After a moment, he removed the back of the stud he wore in his ear. He frowned, looking looking out the window, and held it out to Michael in his fist.
***
Michael moved his hands to rest lightly on Katou’s hips as the other man straddled him, thumbs moving lazily over his skin. “Gives me longer to come up with outrageous theories you know.” He said quietly, trying to ignore the worry that was eating him up at the change in his boyfriend’s mood.
He reached his hand out for that earring, wrapping his own hand around Katou’s fist. “Kat...What’s going on?” He asked, unable to shake the feeling that there was more going on here than just a work emergency calling him in.
***
Katou couldn’t help but be amused, knowing that none of Michael’s outrageous theories could come close to the truth. “I’ll look forward to healing them,” he said.
“Nothing,” Katou lied, opening his hand in Michael’s so he could lay the earring down in his palm at the same time he leaned down to kiss him. “I mean, I know it’s pretty fucking gay, but can’t a guy give his boyfriend jewelry without it being weird?”
***
“I’m not talking about the earring.” Michael said quietly, moving his hand around to rest on Katou’s back as he pulled his other free to start switching out his earring. “And don’t think using that word is going to distract me for more than a couple minutes.” He said, dropping his old one on the nightstand.
***
“A couple of minutes is all I need,” Katou said, winking. “I really do need to get my ass in gear.” But, well, it was so much nicer to sit here on Michael, the hand on his back bringing comfort.
That wasn’t something he needed to dwell on. If he survived meeting Rociel, well, then he could come back here. “Make sure to think of me when you see it,” he said, swinging his leg off from Michael and climbing off the bed.
***
“Not sure that’s something I’d be bragging about Kat.” Michael said trying to follow Katou’s lead in keeping things kind of light.
He let out a quiet sigh as Katou climbed off the bed, letting himself enjoy the view of his boyfriend moving around. “I don’t need an earring to think about you.” He said, shoving down the question that occurred to him of why Katou was acting like this was going to be the last time they were together.
***
“It is when you've got my skills,” Katou said, grinning. He finished getting dressed, wondering as he pulled on his shirt if it wouldn't have been kinder to not say the boyfriend word today, if it would've been kinder to, instead of handing over his earring, have done something awful that Michael wouldn't have forgiven him for.
But no. That was the old Katou. The old Katou who always saw the negative in everything. Hell, this job would probably be a piece of cake and he'd back in time to cook the both of them supper. And Hyde and Tama would be a-okay after everything was taken care of. He was getting his panties in a twist over nothing.
Once he was dressed, he turned to Michael, drinking in his visage as he gazed at him. Then Katou put on his sunniest smile, and said, “whelp. I'll probably see you tonight.”
***
Michael laughed, shaking his head a little. “You’ll have to prove it to me later.” He teased. He climbed out of bed and walked over to Katou, one of the perks of living on the beach like he did no neighbors who could see into his bedroom so he could walk around naked however often he wanted.
He wrapped his arms around him and gave him a soft kiss. “I’ll see you tonight. I might be working on some music so just let yourself in.”
***
Katou wrapped his arms around Michael in return and kissed him back, though he didn’t let him go right away. Instead, Katou held on for just a moment, resting his head on Michael’s shoulder for a moment. Then, suddenly, he pulled away. “See you tonight,” he said. “Then we can celebrate me finally being done this fucking project.”