#eldinkind

Fuck’s sake. Not like they were gonna be alone or anything.Not like they’d be doing anything.

Hell, they’d beenalone together, and they’d done stufftogether, so why was he so fucking nervous now?

Not as if they hadn’t seen each other naked before.

It just felt…sorta weird, to be naked together in public.

“Garou? Are you coming?”

Garou’s head jerked up and he grasped the towel more tightlyaround his waist. Mumen stood before him, naked but for an identical towel, andlooking unfairly adorable without his glasses.

“I… Yeah.” Garou slammed his locker shut andnodded.

Mumen gave him a faint smile and let the way from thechanging rooms.

Garou gave him a long hard look as he followed. He’d seenMumen’s back a few times (so smooth and slender and supple; the skin thereflushed red when Mumen was aroused) but hadn’t paid attention to much elsebeyond that pert little ass (cycling definitelypaid off).

So as Garou’s eyes trailed down Mumen’s deliciously litheform, he noticed something he’d not seen before.

Mumen had a scar on the back of his calf, the muscles thereslightly misshapen, as if they’d healed funny.

The icy fingers of guilt grasped at Garou’s stomach,kneading and twisting cruelly. It was worse than the nerves, which made himfeel kind of sick.

But Mumen was sitting down now, and had begun to washhimself, the scar out of view.

Lips pursed, Garou followed suit.

Mumen had told him the public baths were soothing andrelaxing after a hard day, but when they finally stepped into the bath, Garoufound it neither soothing nor relaxing. In fact, sitting there beside Mumen,Garou felt the opposite of relaxed. Hewas fairly sure that if he didn’t get away soon, the tension was going to snaphim in two.

Mumen must have felt it too, because he kept looking towardshim with that concerned little pout he wore whenever Garou showed up on hisdoorstep all bloody after a fight, and he kept asking things like, ‘Are youenjoying this?’ and 'The water feels good, doesn’t it?’, to which Garouresponded with what had become a customary grunt.

“Garou?” There it was again. The concern, the softnote of worry in his voice, as if he was talking to an injured wild animal.

“Yeah?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah.”

Mumen shifted closer. “It’s just you seem a littlequiet…”

“Hn.” Garou clenched his teeth.

“Garou…”

“I’m fine.I’m fuckin’ relaxing here.”

Mumen arched a brow at him. “I might have left myglasses in the changing room, but I can see you aren’t relaxed.”

“Yeah? Guess I’ll get out then.”

“Don’t say that. What’s wrong?”

Water sloshed noisily as Garou stood up and climbed from thebath, and he stomped back to the changing rooms without responding. He knew hewas sorta being an idiot, and he knew he’d hurt Mumen’s feelings, but hecouldn’t stand sitting there with him like everything was okay. That scar…

The clenching of his stomach tightened, and the nausea rosehigher in Garou’s throat. He swallowed it back, and just managed to stophimself punching the lockers in frustration. He rested his hands against theminstead, and concentrated on taking slow, deep breaths.

That scar. It was because of him, wasn’t it?

Garou’s memory of his first meeting with Mumen was kind ofblurry, but he knew he’d hospitalised the guy. He’d hospitalised a lot of people. So many he didn’t reallyremember the details. But he’d remembered Mumen’s face, and every now and thenhe felt really fucking guilty over what he did, and figured Mumen had to besome kind of masochist to want to be with him despite what happened in thepast.

“Garou?”

The voice made him tense all over again, and he wasdefinitely an idiot, because of fucking course Mumen had followed himimmediately. Couldn’t a guy get a minute’s peace?

Garou gulped. “Yeah?”

A bottle of flavoured milk appeared in his line of sight. “Milk’sgood after a bath. Want some?”

“…'kay.” Garou grabbed the bottle, and stoodthere contemplating it for a long moment. From the corner of his eye, he sawMumen sit down on the bench and take a big sip of milk, and he heard him letout a refreshed sigh.

Setting his milk aside, Garou began to towel off.

“What’s on your mind?” Mumen asked softly, after afew minutes. He was still sitting there, sipping his milk as if he had all thetime in the world.

Garou averted his gaze. He didn’t deserve to look at Mumen.On the plus side, it seemed being naked in public with him wasn’t an issueanymore. Why would it be, when the stupid-ass human side of his brain wanted tomake him feel guilty instead?!

“Garou, talk to me. Please.”

Oh there it was. Mumen knew how hard it was to say no to himwhen. Especially when he asked it in such a fucking heart-wrenchinglybeseeching way.

Damn him.

Garou cleared his throat, forced himself to stand up straight,to look Mumen in the eye.

“You have a scar.”

Mumen’s brows rose. “What, this?” Twisting his legslightly, he looked at it himself. “Surprised you didn’t noticebefore,” he said.

Garou considered that he hadn’t noticed before because whenMumen’s legs were uncovered, they were usually wrapped around his waist. Becausewhenever he’d seen Mumen naked, he’d been more concerned with what was going onabove his legs.

“Guess I just don’t pay attention,” he saidbelatedly.

Mumen smiled. “It’s okay. I notice new scars on you allthe time. You’ve got a lot of them.”

“Yeah, and each one’s like a frickin’ medal.”Garou puffed out his chest and grinned. Then he asked himself who he reallythought he was kidding, and sagged a little. “Oi, Mumen?”

In the midst of sipping his milk, Mumen raised a questioningbrow.

Garou dropped to his knees in front of him, hands graspingMumen’s leg, fingers tracing the scar. He felt cold, and couldn’t quite meetMumen’s eye, but he had to know the truth.

“This scar. Was it…Did I…”

“It wasn’t you, Garou.”

Warm hands rested on his shoulders, and Garou let out a sighas the tension melted.

“What happened?” he asked. “It’s a fuckingbig scar.”

Mumen smiled slightly. “Car accident,” heexplained, fingers playing through Garou’s hair. “My leg got trapped. Mytibia and fibula were pinned back together.”

“Fuck. You’ve gotta be careful who you let drive you,Mumen. You could have died.”

The hero’s smile turned regretful. “Nobody was drivingme. There’s a reason I don’t have a license.”

Garou stared at him. “Fucking hell. I thought thelicenceless thing was a joke.”

“It’s a reminder not to be reckless,” Mumenruffled Garou’s hair. “You should remember that too. You have enoughscars.”

“Yeah? Well so have you!”

“Only one. I’ve been lucky so fa–whaa!” Mumenshrieked, falling back against the lockers as Garou lifted his leg.“W-what are you doing, Garou?”

“Giving you a reminder.”

Mumen’s eyes grew wide, and he scrabbled to cover himselfwith his towel. “Here? T-that’s indecent, Garou!”

Garou took one look at Mumen’s red cheeks, and snorted. “Pervert.”

“I’m not–!”

A fond smile formed on Garou’s face, and he pressed a kissto Mumen’s scar. “No more scars,” he commanded, as he let Mumen’s legdown again.

Righting himself, Mumen leaned in and kissed a scar onGarou’s shoulder. “Same goes for you,” he said, pulling him into ahug.

Garou let himself be hugged, and admitted to himself that heenjoyed the warmth of Mumen’s lips had caused a fluttering feeling that seemedto spread out from his shoulder and all the way through his chest into hisstomach. Mumen’s fingers were tracing over the scars of his back, and that feltgood too.

Curling his arms around Mumen’s slender waist, Garou hookedhis chin over his shoulder and hugged back.

“Garou…”

The tone of Mumen’s voice, so soft and whispery, caused anew kind of tension in Garou, low in his stomach and hot and thrilling.

“Yeah?”

Mumen pulled back, his red cheeks and smiling countenance fullof promise. “Let’s go back to my place,” he said, running a fingertipover another scar and arching a brow. “You’ve got a lot of scars, so youneed a much bigger reminder.”

Garou grinned. “Yeah?”

“Yes, and I fear it might get a little indecent.”

“I like indecent.”

“You’d better get dressed then.”

Garou laughed and got to his feet. “Fuck, Mumen. Neverthought being told to put clothes on was gonna make me horny.”

“Shh, Garou!” Mumen’s eyes were wide. “We’rein public!”

“Yup.” Dropping his towel aside, Garou began todress. Had he not been in a rush to drag Mumen off somewhere private, he mighthave taken it more slowly, because Mumen was definitely watching him. Garoucouldn’t blame him. He had a fucking amazing body, and it was somewhattantalising to show it off in a place where Mumen couldn’t touch.

Garou grinned to himself as he slipped on his pants, certainhe saw a look of disappointment cross Mumen’s face.

Being naked together in public turned out to be sorta fun.

Hope this was okay! It was more Garou struggles at feels than it was kisses but there’s still a kiss on a scar, so…yeah. You can imagine what they got up to at Mumen’s place >DDDD 

Got two more prompts for this so I’ll get to them soon(ish)!