#nitoh kosuke

Obviously the dragon's not much of an issue, he and Haruto pretty much have things worked out, they're living in harmony. He stays safe in his Underworld, which Kosuke always vaguely pictures as being located in Haruto's rib cage right between the lungs, and he doesn't bother anyone.

He's still a Phantom though. That means that, to Khimaira, he's still food, and so there's a degree to which Khimaira's always awake when Haruto is around, lazily staring at the Phantom living in Haruto's chest like a house cat watching a caged parakeet. It's a truce for now, lizard, Kosuke caught it whispering once, but if I ever get my paws on you, down the hatch you go.

Kosuke's not sure if Wizardragon said anything back. He can't hear anyone else's Phantom talk, just the one he carries around himself. Haruto didn't react, so maybe Wizardragon just ignored it. Or, you know, Haruto and Wizardragon are sort of...integrated in a way that he and Khimaira aren't because Khimaira's really just hitching a lift on him, so maybe Haruto said something back.

The point.

The point is.

Kosuke's life is very nearly perfect. He's got a decent apartment, he's nearly done with his doctorate, his students and his professors like him, he's doing everything he ever wanted to do with his life. He's got a partner who loves him, and is also the hottest man on the planet.

And he's also got Khimaira, semi-dormant and drowsy in whatever space it occupies, and sometimes he can feel it looking out at Haruto through his eyes and seeing dinner. Not him, he’s not seeing that, but it’s been so long now having this other being living alongside and within him that sometimes it’s hard to keep straight which things are him and which are the Phantom, just like when Khimaira’s getting hungry and he starts feeling sympathetic pangs.

He knows it’s not really him, but sometimes he looks at Haruto and loves him so much and wants him so badly that his mouth starts to water.

Haruto is always going on trips—to seek out other mages, generally, or to hunt down the occasional naturally-occurring Phantom, or occasionally because he’s just restless and anxious. He’s never gone for very long, a month at the most. Kosuke doesn’t mind; sometimes he needs the quiet to get work done on his thesis, it’s so easy to get distracted. Besides, when he gets back he’s always got new stories, and generally something interesting to eat, and the pleasure of seeing him again can at least briefly override the sensation of Khimaira watching, thoughtfully, waiting for Wizardragon to make a wrong move.

This time Haruto was in Morocco, and he’s come back with an unexpected tan and a jar of preserved lemons and a handful of weird rocks for Wajima and Shunpei. The tan is all over, too, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, near-golden streaks sunbleached into his already-dyed hair, and when they’re in bed Kosuke buries his face in the side of that tanned neck and says, “You gotta tell me what you were doing getting naked over there.”

Haruto gasps out a laugh. “Nothing fun, I promise.”

“You smell like sunlight.” One kiss, Haruto’s pulse beating against his lips for a long, sweet moment, and then another on his collarbone, shifting down in a line of them until he reaches that spot in the middle of Haruto’s chest where he imagines that Wizardragon live and pauses and looks up. “You sure you don’t wanna tell me?”

There’s a heartbeat’s pause, and then Haruto looks down at him, reaches down and threads the fingers of one hand into his hair, and at the backs of his eyes there’s a flicker of fire as he says, slowly and carefully, “I lost my temper.”

Somewhere in the space inside Kosuke where Khimaira lives, the Phantom lifts its head and sniffs, and this time Kosuke is so close to Haruto that he can feel Wizardragon’s answer, a regard that feels like flames running down Kosuke’s spine. Not an unfriendly one, though. Maybe even affectionate.

Kosuke swallows hard, mouth suddenly starting to water. “Yeah,” he says thickly, “yeah, I get that,” and he’s looking up at Haruto and he loves him so much and he wants him so badly—and Haruto is looking down at him with that fire still burning at the backs of his eyes and somehow it seems like he gets it.

Not that either of them is saying anything now. The hunger is filling Kosuke’s throat too much to speak, and it tastes a lot like love.