He burned with the fire and he burned with the loss and both of them were the kind of burning that leaves scars and scorch-marks, and he burns now but it's different, it's-- it's hands under his clothes and lips on his skin and laughter drowned in each other's mouths and it's-- it's happiness, it's the spark in the darkness and the dawn after the night and the end of the war and he has never wanted anything more than this. It's Ryoga's fingers traced over his scar and his fingers tracing over Ryoga's scar, it's elbows jabbing into him at night and noses knocking together when they kiss, it's Ryoga's voice speaking a name he'd thrown away and bringing it back to life and him along with it.
(it's coming home, after so long thinking he'd never have one again)
florence & the machine - rabbit heart (raise it up)
Kattobingu, it means never giving up, means never backing down, means never being scared-- or, no, it means carrying on even when you are scared (and he is, he is, without Astral he'll always be that little bit terrified). And Yuuma, well, kattobingu is his thing, it's what he is and what he does and how he got from the boy with two friends and no parents who could barely duel to the boy who saved the world with a duel and has more friends than he could ever have dreamed of.
(but Astral is how he got there too and Astral is the best and the brightest of anyone he's ever met or ever will, so Yuuma holds Kotori's hand and flies with her and all the rest and reaches forward to-- to adventure, to Astral, to kattobingu)
hands like houses - the definition of not leaving
V finds him out in the storm after his latest fight with Tron, finds him out there with his hair and clothes plastered to his skin, eyes shut to let him lift his face into the downpour, and IV almost laughs when he hears that voice say his name (because of course it's V, of course Tron wouldn't come himself and wouldn't let his precious III out in a storm like this).
"IV," V says again, except that there's a shift in his voice this time and oh, oh, and before IV even really knows what he's doing he has his arms around him, words coming in hitching breaths against his chest (Chris, Chris, Chris, aniki-aniki-aniki) and he never realized, never knew how much he's missed him, how much he wanted his brother instead of what Tron had made him - made them all - into.
(don't leave me, he breathes into Chris' chest, and only the tightening of Chris' arms around him answers him because of course Chris will leave, of course he'll be V again, and IV doesn't want that he wants anything but that but he can't fight it right now, can't do anything more than clutch onto Chris in the cold and the rain and the darkness where it's just them, just for this one shared and muted moment)
