☯ + slaying mikoto
He knows Suoh by his gait and his silhouette, without his glasses on, and he’d know him still fully blinded by the sound of his footsteps, and even in the absence of his hearing and sight, Reisi would know him still by the pressure of the red aura against his own, screen static in the picture of the world that is given to him by the Slate.
That knowledge, if it can even be called sensory input, goes deeper than the sound of their footsteps on the ground, or the chill in the air, or the taste of blood in his mouth.
And that is the crux of this situation, this moment, isn’t it? Reisi only knows Suoh as a King knows another King. If Reisi thinks that Suoh ever saw Munakata Reisi, the man, he’s wrong. If Reisi thinks that he, himself, ever saw Suoh Mikoto, the man--
If he has ever hoped for those things--
He can no longer be angry, or afraid. He can’t even meet Suoh’s eyes, though he knows he gazes directly at Suoh’s face, until he’s close enough to see clearly without his glasses on. He brings Tenro into position. The angle is uncomfortable. The movement is new, as yet unpracticed, Reisi realizes, as Suoh slides forward.
Suoh’s red aura vanishes with the Sword inches above their heads, as close to the two of them as their noses are to one another’s. It is a relief to see his success, and Reisi feels the absence of that bone-deep awareness of Suoh’s presence as another relief before he realizes.
Suoh isn’t dead yet. He mumbles something, that Reisi will parse into words with significance hours later in his office, but for now, dizzy with that relief and sick with something that will twist into grief (also hours later, in his office)--Reisi closes his eyes, and leans into Suoh’s touch.
Suoh’s hand, warm against his back (has anyone touched him in months?), and Suoh’s breath, warm against his ear. A final, perfect silence of that which makes them Kings, even as Reisi can still feel that warmth, and then, all too soon, Reisi has to lower Suoh to the ground.
