Credited to @theauthorityvol1 and their post which snowballed into this mess I NEED to put into comic form at some point before I throw up from feels.
With the canon/headcanon that Dokugakuji is a bit of an artist---supposedly it's why his nails are kept trimmed though one might also say that's because he's a swordsman but it could be both!---I'd love to depict what love looked like through his eyes, through the sketches and watercolour paintings Kougaiji might eventually find in the room that used to be his whenever Kou inevitably returns to Houtou castle after the events of the Reload Blast anime.
Kougaiji might have been aware that Dokugaku dabbled in art some time back when Dokugaku doodles him and Lirin hosting a little Mother's Day celebration with a still-frozen Rasetsunyo.
Dokugaku apologises when poked about it, because only then does it occur to him that he might be overstepping, but Kou says it's fine and then asks why he's doing that because 500 years ago, you employed expensive artisans to capture grand, important moments in your life, and he doesn't mind if you want a fee or whatever since this really is good work, but maybe he and Lirin should dress up more formal for this session or something?
Which earns him a guffaw from the Big Guy because if that isn’t Classic Kou, but nah, this is the you he wants to capture to memory, this moment, so that he can show you the you that he sees when you start to feel like you're adrift, and so that he nor you ever forgets.
The 'never forget' part will hit like a sledgehammer when Kougaiji finds all of Dokugaku's art with Kou himself, Lirin and Yaone depicted, and he's so mad because you moron, you made it so YOU couldn't be in ANY of them when you tell him it's so that he never forgets, how is he suppose to do that?? When you're not in a single one of them???
But Kou sees the messy lines, the smudged fingerprints where Dokugaku's trying to fix up a portait of him---noticeably, most older drawings of Kou that Dokugaku does bears strong resemblance to Gojyo, but as time goes by, it's distinctively more Kougaiji himself---and it's like.
You're here. In every line, in every brushstroke, in every imperfection. Even if it's not your face immortalised on paper like you did for us, you're here.
And buried under all of those sketchbooks and watercolours, there is one very old piece that stands out to Kougaiji, because it's not himself or Yaone, or Lirin or landscape studies.
It's of this sweet-looking redheaded kid with a big smile, and red flowers, detailed with an almost apologetic, tender wistfulness, and he takes it on himself to find This Person to give this piece to them, because Dokugaku never forgot.
Even if he walked away, he never forgot the you he left behind, the you that will always stay with him no matter how far his path diverged from yours.
