#abiten

[freetobeafcknriot]

SEIRYUU ABI & RYOKURYUU SHUTEN:　does it look like we're getting along well? dumbass king. to me, it looks like you cute dragons are all playing around with each other.

[ultraviolet-eucatastrophe]

Still up in the air

(A small self-indulgent Abi/Shuten fic I wrote on impulse a while back. NSFW alluded to, but nothing explicit. This is largely silly, fluffy, dealing-with-consequences fic but I thought I’d post it before carrying on with an unrelated longer story. Enjoy!)

Abi awoke to warmth, and a morning turned green.

Green, he thought vaguely, eyes still closed as his mind floated on the cusp of wakefulness, a peaceful place to be. A good colour. One of his favourites, and that was saying something, as Abi could see many more colours than most people could. It was the colour of summer leaves and pine branches in winter, of bright birds’ feathers or of fine jade. And of course, of…

Wait. The thought came a moment later, as he drifted a little closer to the waking world. Green?

He really could see that colour, he realised; he wasn’t just dreaming. It flooded his mind, in a warm, green light, but also made a lacework of green across his vision; in fact, he realised, there was actually something covering his face, a fine network of something soft.

Abi opened his eyes, even though he didn’t really need to.

Hair, he realised; that was what was covering his face, he thought in some confusion, brushing it away, blowing the long green locks from out of his mouth so he could breathe properly. He was lying in a bed that was not his own, staring up at a ceiling - above which was the sky in all the full brightness of about midday, he thought - and furthermore he wasn’t alone. Beside him was…

Oh.

Abi drew in a little breath as he turned his head to see Shuten’s sleeping form beside him, one bare arm slung lazily across Abi’s waist. His hair had come loose from its tie, and was flung everywhere in a great green tangle across both of their faces, but Abi could see Shuten’s face well enough, feel the warm, enveloping green light of him in his mind.

Abi frowned a little as his memory struggled to catch up with what he was seeing, trying to remember the night before. Even as he did so, his head ached, and he noticed how dry his mouth felt, a slight nausea making his stomach squirm.

He remembered… they had been drinking, it had been the King’s birthday celebration, a great occasion in the castle. There had been a feast, and there had been music and dancing, and the drink had been flowing for hours. Shuten was teasing him as usual and amid a swirl of warmth and laughter and colours Abi had teased him back, wanting suddenly to stop the words in his mouth and render him speechless, for once in his life, as Shuten so often stole the words from Abi.

(How frequent such feelings had become in his life lately. It was… concerning, Abi thought. To say the least. He almost liked it better when they were fighting side by side every day on the battlefield, or snapping at each other across the castle yard; at least that felt simpler, as uncomplicated as this was supposed to be in theory.)  

It was peacetime now though, and there were celebrations, and the two of them were held in high honour along with Hakuryuu and Ouryuu, for protecting the king in his wars. It had been a happy occasion, and they had danced, amongst a by-now rather uninhibited crowd of courtiers of various sorts, and at some point they had lost track of where the King and Guen and Zeno were. After that Abi couldn’t remember except in patches, but they had slipped away, and then… Abi drew a hand up over his face and groaned inwardly. Yes, then they had somehow ended up in bed, without Abi having much memory of how they had got all the way from the feast hall to Shuten’s rooms on the top floor, which he now recognised. He remembered only biting cold, exhilaration, a blur of stars in the dark sky overhead… Abi grimaced. He certainly hoped Shuten had not flown him all the way across the castle yard and the rooftops of the royal apartments in the state he had surely also been in last night, but he suspected that was exactly what had happened.          

Abi turned his head, provoking another pulse of discomfort in his temples. He glared at Shuten’s sleeping face which was half buried in the pillow by Abi’s neck, and found, to his surprise and slight frustration, that the urge to kill - or at least severely injure - this vexing green creature was dissipating even before it had been fully born.

He looked younger when he slept, Abi thought vaguely, through the fog of mild confusion and embarrassment as tried to piece together the events of last night. Peaceful, almost, without that maddening sharp-toothed grin on his face. Also, though the blanket was still pulled up around Abi - he had never liked the cold, had always slept wrapped up warmly - it had slipped down on the other side, baring Shuten’s shoulders which were…. muscled in an way that was very appealing, he had to admit. The was also a purplish bite mark against Shuten’s collarbone, which for the most absurd moment made Abi feel a brief, instinctive stab of something almost like jealousy, before the realisation that his own teeth had presumably made that mark fully set in.

He was still getting used to… this. Whatever this was. It wasn’t the first time it had happened - their mutual snapping and teasing turning to sharp kisses and stolen touches when words weren’t enough to relieve the crackling tension in the air between them anymore. There had been a few times now, but before they had been meticulously discrete. Who knew what the damage was this time.

Yet another reason for Abi to wonder - as he always did - whether this time would be the last.

He sighed, lying back on the pillow and staring up through the ceiling as his head ached unpleasantly. Hangovers were not a very great deal different from how he felt in the later stages after using his power, especially when he knew he had overstretched his abilities, clinging on to consciousness for longer than he could really stand. When the paralysis had worn off but he was often left with a pain in his head and pulsing sensitivity behind his eyes. But being accustomed to it didn’t make them any easier to endure.

Still, he thought. All circumstances considered, this was a much better situation than a battlefield. Probably. But Shuten’s arm was draped across Abi’s waist under the blankets, and the touch of his sleep-warm skin against Abi’s - and oh, yes, they were naked under the blankets, the realisation hitting anew with another stab of unpleasantly mingled embarrassment and triumph - was surprisingly pleasant. Warm and heavy, and somehow safe.

Yet also, it made a frisson of…. something run up and down his spine, as details from last night came filtering back. Sharp dragon’s teeth grazing the soft skin of throats, collarbones, sharper words, kissing each other silent, starting all over again. The rasp of scales against skin as their legs entwined amongst the blankets - not an unpleasant feeling at all, Abi had learned - that suddenly seemed constricting, tangling their bodies together.    

“Hmmm…. wha… what’s going on…”

Abi started a little, despite himself, as Shuten stirred and murmured. Shuten’s voice was slightly huskier than usual as his eyes fluttered open. For a moment several expressions passed through them as they met Abi’s gaze; Abi thought he saw confusion pass to alarm to a momentary tenderness, a raw and almost childlike vulnerability that made Abi’s heart ache. Just the tail-ends of some dream, perhaps? He didn’t have time to determine that for certain though, for within a disappointingly short span of seconds, the teasing smile was back to playing about Shuten’s lips, the momentary peace all but vanished. “Watching me sleep, Seiryuu?”

“Your hair was in my face” said Abi without thinking, then immediately felt like a fool. Oh no, he could feel himself blushing. How does one stop blushing? And for that matter, how was it possible to be blushing in front of someone you’ve known well for years, when you’ve just woken up in bed with them… again…

“Oh. Well, for that I’m afraid you only have yourself to blame… if I remember rightly you seemed insistent on untying it last night. You practically ripped the tie out, you wanted so much to touch it. Tell me, Abi-chan, is it a fantasy you’ve had for a while, or…? Ah!”

Abi took a soft swipe at him with a corner of the blanket, ignoring his wounded expression. “You talk too much. How can you even talk so much at this hour?”  

“Oh, poor dear, do you have a hangover…?”

Abi rolled his eyes, turning around so his back was to Shuten. “Yes, surprisingly enough, and don’t try to tell me you don’t, because I wouldn’t believe it for a second.”  

“As a matter of fact my head does ache… slightly…”    

Abi turned his face into the pillow. Annoyance, that was surely what he felt. That was easy, that was familiar. Even if it wasn’t, let Shuten think so for the moment, until Abi worked it out himself. “Ugh, your grating voice is hurting my ears…”

Shuten shuffled closer under the blankets, bringing his dragon leg up around Abi’s thigh, his face at the juncture of Abi’s neck and shoulder. On balance, he thought, it was good that Shuten couldn’t see his face, as Abi was sure his his cheeks were blushing dark enough to hide even the bright red markings of the dragon. “What are you going to do about it?”

Abi felt himself blush even deeper. “N-nothing, until I’ve had some water” he said, trying to keep his composure as he got up - the wooden floor was not cold, but not exactly warm either - drawing the blanket behind him. There ensued a brief tussle as Shuten clung onto the other end of the blanket from the bed, stifling laughter as Abi rolled his eyes in exasperation.  

He let go of the blanket, and it fell away to the floor, baring his naked back to the cold air; well, that had silenced Shuten. He picked up the ewer, smiling unconcernedly to himself. “I’ve half a mind to pour cold water all over you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He turned around, looking over one shoulder. Shuten was gazing at him, his hair an utter disheveled mess, the rumpled blanket tangled up about him and artfully concealing… well, very little from a normal person’s sight, and nothing at all from Abi’s. His dragon leg was propped up - surely a deliberate pose, that exhibitionist - and his almost iridescent scales glimmered very prettily in the sunlight slanting through the shades, Abi thought. He took a long sip of water, keeping eye contact over the rim of the cup. “However do you know that?” Abi refilled the cup, tone guileless. “What if I found it amusing to make you scream?”

Shuten snorted. “Abi, Abi, my dear, I can think of far more enjoyable ways to do that.”

Abi returned to the bed, still holding the cup of water, over Shuten’s head, enjoying watching Shuten’s darting purple eyes follow it. “Hmm? Do elaborate.”

“And you call me a tease” said Shuten, through clenched teeth.

Abi shrugged unconcernedly, letting himself enjoy the reaction. “I just enjoy watching your heart speed up to three times its normal rate.”  

As expected, Shuten shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you coming out with things like that. Talk about a mood killer.” He grinned, a sharp-toothed smile as Abi placed the cup of water finally in his hands, and he drank, long and deep.

Abi relented, then, taking the cup from Shuten and setting it firmly on the table, letting Shuten pull him back down amidst the glowing warmth of the tangled blankets, the burning heat between their bodies. Well, if they were this far gone already, then they may as well get the most out of it, he remembered thinking, before Shuten’s mouth against his throat temporary banished any such semblance of coherence from his thoughts.

A little while later they lay side by side, not quite touching other than in the dancing warm lights that were senses they had of each other, twining together on some strange plane where the dragon’s blood dictated the dance of their lives, Abi felt sure. That, though, was one of very few things he could not see, and right now there was a much more immediate situation at hand.

“Shuten” said Abi seriously, as he snuggled tentatively closer, Shuten’s hand slipping to the nape of his neck with untold tenderness, calloused fingers carding through his tangled hair. “I feel compelled to tell you…”

Shuten blinked. “What?”

Abi sighed, pointing behind him with a thumb, towards the closed door. “That for some time now, Zeno and Guen and the King have been taking bets on whether we’re sleeping together. They’re a few rooms away outside that door now, hiding behind a chest and giggling like children. Except for Guen of course, I don’t know what he bet, but he looks like he’s severely regretting his choices.”

Shuten laughed, archly. “Gambling is a foolish pastime.”

Abi snorted. “Says the man who tried to coerce me into using my power to help him cheat at tiles, to settle a previous gambling dispute from years before he had even heard of a dragon.”

“…That was once!”

“Really? I remember it more like…. three… four times…” Abi’s head still hurt, and he winced as he sat up in bed. “Stop deflecting. The point is…” he dropped his voice, though there was no reason to. “What are we going to do about the others?” When they had done this before, it had always been with the utmost discretion - and really, what better two conspirators than the dragon who could see anyone who might be watching or listening in, and the one who could provide them an easy escape? - but now the secret was out; whatever they had been last night, is certainly wasn’t discrete.   Abi didn’t care too much about the opinions of the court, but, he realised, he had to know that the others wouldn’t mind, that they would still be… well, whatever they had been before, the five of them together building a whole new kingdom from the ground up. That was important. Things like…. well, whatever had happened here, those could complicate things. Abi had never, ever wanted complications.

“What do you mean, what will we do about them?” asked Shuten, frowning. “You just said they know already, don’t they? So we don’t even need to worry about telling them!”  

That was so infuriatingly like Shuten to say that Abi nearly laughed. “You know what I mean.”

Shuten’s smile curled his lip, revealing a glint of sharp teeth. “Well, I don’t see the need for anything else. It’s hardly as though we’re about to marry each other, and the others… well, I’m at least relatively certain they at least know what sex is. With the possible exception of the King…. he does seem rather lost on such human matters. I don’t suppose the dragon gods up in heaven discuss these things in too much depth.”

Abi elbowed him affectionately in the ribs. “Oh, hush” he said; but despite Shuten’s lack of a serious answer, he was oddly reassured.  

“But really” said Shuten, drawing Abi close. “I say we just go out there and tell them that they’re weeks late, and that whatever they were betting, it probably isn’t nearly enough. That we feel undervalued.”

Abi laughed, grudgingly, only to be silenced a moment later when Shuten kissed him. When they had kissed the night before it had been hungrier, all teeth catching at lips and tongues, back and forth challenges and competition. This was slower, most lingering but no less heated, and, despite the lingering pain in his head and the dryness in his throat, Abi wanted more.  

He supposed they could wait a little longer to go out and face the others.  

It was well into the afternoon by the time they had both dressed again in the fine but now severely rumpled clothes they had worn to the feast the night before, Abi was feeling nervous again. He finished tying the ribbon as neatly as he could, frowning in distaste at the wild state of his hair. The ribbon had been found clinging to the windowsill, having apparently been tossed there last night; it fluttered in a gentle breeze. Lucky, really, that it had not come loose and drifted down into the courtyard below; if it had, he was sure Shuten would have jumped down to fetch it back right there and then, which would of course have been infinitely more mortifying.

Abi glanced at the closed door. Several rooms away, Hiryuu, Hakuryuu and Ouyruu were gathered, likely plotting to variously tease, berate, or, Gods forbid, congratulate them to the end of the world and back, Abi felt sure. He tugged on Shuten’s sleeve. “If you go out that door and then immediately jump out of a window and leave me there on my own” he whispered, into the hollow of Shuten’s throat, while his collar was still undone, “then please know that I can very easily hunt you down anywhere in the palace, the grounds, or, in fact, the whole kingdom of Kouka, and it will give me the greatest of joy to paralyse you to death.”

Shuten paused in doing up his belt, letting out a sharp bark of laughter. “Enticing though that sounds, I wouldn’t dream of missing the looks on their faces.”  

With an exasperated sigh and a glare to hide his smile, Abi turned, took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

[freetobeafcknriot]

favorite shipping tropes

featuring: a bunch of rarepairs lol

[ultraviolet-eucatastrophe]

“Seiryuu, you idiot, what are you doing out there?” snapped Shuten, into the howling gale outside the doors.

Abi said nothing, merely standing with his back to the storm and looking up, tiny green and red songbird cupped carefully in his hands in defiance of the wind. 

“Abi! What in all hells... what are you looking at? What’s up on the roof that’s so damn interesting?”

Abi pointed with his free hand, face aggrieved. “Up there! There’s a....”

Here, his words were lost in a roar of wind as a sudden gust lashed the front steps. 

“What?” Shuten winced as the wind blew under the canopied gallery, making the lamps within flicker behind him. 

“I said” said Abi, fixing those golden eyes on him, “there’s a stray kitten caught in the storm gutter on the roof.” He tilted his head. “Ryokuryuu, you’ve got to help me rescue it!”

Shuten blinked in disbelief. “I’ve got to do what now?”

“You heard” said Abi, tapping a foot, infuriatingly. “Please, help me.” He opened his hands and let the bird free; the tiny creature immediately darted to the lee of the doorway and to the warmth within. 

Shuten found he could sympathise. 

And yet there was Abi, staring back at him with a look that was half defiance and half urgency, pain - Abi always had felt other’s suffering as easily as his own, Shuten thought - for the plight of the kitten. So terribly sentimental. 

And yet... and yet he found it hard to refuse. He gave a mighty sigh, passing a hand over his face and wondering what his past self - that wiry, hungry young man with nothing to his name but a sharp spear and his sharper wits, nothing to lose and everything to gain - would say if he knew that one day he would be indulging the compassionate whims of this pretty, soft-spoken noble’s son who could probably see into his very heart or some such unsettling thing. Come to think of it though, his younger self probably wouldn’t even notice; his younger self would probably be far too busy sneering at the fact that here he was, wielding the power of a god alongside said noble personage, in the service of a king of all people, and that all that had been entirely voluntary. 

“Ryokuryuu, did you hear me? Please, there isn’t much time” Abi rolled his eyes. “You can fight your personal battles later!”

He gritted his teeth. Damn his soft heart. “Alright. Where is this kitten then?” he frowned, out into the dark sky and the howling gale, as he grasped Abi around the waist. “And you’re coming too... I need your sharp eyes to show me the way.”

A little while later, Shuten landed in a puddle that was pooling at the bottom of the steps, with a large splash. Not that it mattered; they were both of them soaked and shivering, their hair slicked down over their faces.

But that didn’t really matter, Shuten knew. What mattered was the tiny bundle of soot-grey fur that Abi had tucked inside the folds of his inner tunic, sodden, bedraggled and whining, but alive. 

“What are you going to do with him?” asked Shuten. He grinned. “And do you trust him? Cats like to eat little birds for snacks, you know. Ah!” he raised his hands in mock surrender as Abi glared furiously at him. “Alright, alright, no need to paralyse me, I was only joking! Honestly, Seiryuu, what would the king say if he saw you treating me like this, hmm?”

“I imagine he’d congratulate me for defending those without the power to defend themselves, while you pretend to be so heartless” he said, kissing the kitten on top of the head. “But we all know the truth.” Abi smiled smugly, poking Shuten in the chest. “Take it from me... like it or not, you’ve definitely got a heart in there somewhere.”

Abi laughed, as Shuten struggled for words that didn’t come quickly enough. 

“To answer your question though, I hadn’t though about what to do with him” continued Abi, before Shuten could answer. His face went soft once more. “But I think... I’ll give him to the king.” They had entered the warmth of the hall now, heat from the fire rolling over them, the greatest relief, and the kitten mewed a little louder. “I think that sweet fool will love him.”

Shuten couldn’t help but smile, now that Abi was safely turned away from him and could not see. “Yes” he said. “I suppose he will.”

[murkymuse]

GS!ABI X SHUTEN plz c:

Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling/vice versa: Shuten. He then kicks the door because it pissed him off. 

Who doodles little hearts all over the desk with their initials inside them: Hmm...Going to say Shuten for this too. It’s yet another reason he doesn’t want Abi to see his poetry notebook. 

Who starts the tickle fights: Again, Shuten 

Who starts the pillow fights: Abi, in retaliation to the tickle fight. She has deadly aim lol

Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a small affectionate smile: Both will do this on occasion.

Who mistakes salt for sugar: Abi’s eyesight is too good for this mistake (even though she’s not good at cooking). So Shuten.

Who lets the microwave play the loud beeping sound at 1am in the morning: Both lol

Who comes up with cheesy pick up lines: SHUTEN 

Who rearranges the bookshelf in alphabetical order: Definitely Abi

Who licks the spoon when they’re baking brownies: Hmm... They share the spoon lol

Who buys candles for dinners even though there’s no special occasion: Shuten might as a joke or something

Who draws little tattoos on the other with a pen: Shuten probably

Who comes home with a new souvenir magnet every time they go on vacation: Abi

Who convinces the other to fill out those couple surveys in the back of magazines: I don’t see either of them doing this one tbh

[archerazzure]

Forgot to post this earlier in the month when I drew it. So have these adorable children now instead.

Originally it was just supposed to be Shuten, but also wanted to draw Abi. These two have a fun dynamic.

[murkymuse]

Abiten for the ship meme

YAY!

who’s the cuddler: Shuten is that tough guy that is not-so-secretly a cuddlebug.

who makes the bed: Hmm…Abi. Or servants.

who wakes up first: Shuten.

who has the weird taste in music: Hmm, Shuten.

who is more protective: Shuten. Abi KNOWS Shuten can take care of himself. But Abi’s powers have that whole backfire flaw that leaves Abi vulnerable after using them.

who sings in the shower: I can see Abi humming but not singing.

who cries during movies: …Probably Abi. Shuten teases about it, of course.

who spends the most while out shopping: Depends what they’re buying. Probably Abi, unless Shuten gets alcohol. Because he really likes the expensive drinks. XD 

who kisses more roughly: Shuten…Those teeth…Just yeah.

who is more dominate: With these two it can switch around so quickly. It’s like they enjoy playing sexually charged mind games with each other and seeing who can get the upper hand. Oh, wait, they do. XD

my rating of the ship from 1-10: Nine! It’s only not a ten because they are backstory characters and I don’t have enough canon interactions.

[mcgrillzdumpinc]

drives in 5 months late for the originals fic-writing fiasco, here I am with some AbiTen for @murkymuse Happy birthday you beautiful lady!!!!

p.s. this is gs!Abi in tribute to Murky’s gs!Abi. but I write her exactly the same way I would for canon Abi lol

“My name is Abi.  As you aware by now, I am the warrior chosen by the Blue Dragon god.”

“Heh.  You sure do talk big for someone who collapsed on the battlefield.”

“Now, now, Ryokuryuu, that is the power of Seiryuu.”

“I took out hundreds of more scoundrels that you and Hakuryuu combined.”

“She has a point, Ryokuryuu.”

“Ah… So these are the people the gods have chosen.”

That was the first time they spoke to each other.  The battle to save their new master was over, and they had run with Hiryuu thrown over Hakuryuu’s shoulder.  Their red-haired king, a dorky-looking guy by Shuten’s standards, was smiling as he tried to learn everyone’s names.  Ouryuu was tending to the fire, his blue eyes wide & his grin small, but it was difficult not to notice how his hands shook while he poked the firewood with a stick.  Hakuryuu, a huge old man that Shuten already didn’t like, was staring at Hiryuu with an uncomfortable amount of reverence.  And Seiryuu, or Abi as she called herself, was scowling at Shuten, obviously ready to fight him even though she was still paralyzed from the battle & had yet to thank him for carrying her from the danger.  Shuten didn’t like her too much.  Sure, she was pretty and her eyes were breathtakingly gorgeous, but that were her only good points.  “Don’t really need a warrior that gets useless so quickly,” he muttered.

"What about you, Ryoukuryuu?" Hiryuu asked, trying to stop a fight.  "What's your name?"

"Shuten!" he answered.  "Don't know about all this having to serve you bullcrap, but being a dragon's pretty fun."  Hiryuu's smile faltered, but he managed to laugh.

"We don't need a warrior who squanders his duties," Seiryuu snapped.

"Shut your fucking mouth," Shuten grumbled.  Not even his mother ever talked to him that way!  What a brat!  If he didn't have something against hitting an ally when they were down, he would've had Seiryuu's face meet the blunt end of his spear.

"And I'm Zeno!" Ouryuu shouted, surprisingly upbeat for someone so obviously shaken by the battlefield.  “I’m just a priest-in-training, so please take care of me!”  Ouryuu bowed comically.  Well, he was a pipsqueak and obviously useless, but Shuten figured he could at least try to get along with Ouryuu out of all these stupid dragons.

“You have a nice name, Zeno,” Hiryuu commented.  A small blush appeared on Ouryuu’s cheeks.  Nope, Shuten wasn’t going to get along well with him at all.

Hiryuu turned his head to look at Hakuryuu, who jumped at the sudden eye contact and shyly dodged his gaze.  Shuten wanted to vomit.  “What’s your name, Hakur--”

“Guen!” Hakuryuu shouted before Hiryuu could finish his question.  He smiled, wide and bright (and disgusting), and bowed deeply to Hiryuu.  “I will be your warrior and servant from here on.  It is my greatest pleasure to be able to serve the gods this way.”

Hiryuu moved to his knees and bowed, though not as deeply as Hakuryuu.  “A pleasure to meet you, Guen.  I am excited to know more about you, the man my White Dragon brother chose.”

Hakuryuu rose up only to bow again, this time to the dragons.  “It is wonderful to meet you all, as well, my brothers.”

Yep, Shuten was going to vomit.  “Yeah, let’s all get along,” he grumbled sarcastically.

(He would later regret his decision to not hit Seiryuu, because as soon as the blue warrior was able to move, Shuten’s cheek met the blunt end of her sword.)

A year into their journey, traversing broken states to claim the land for Hiryuu’s kingdom and finding followers of Hiryuu, Shuten figured he understood his so-called dragon “brothers” pretty well.  For all his kowtowing and exuberance towards Hiryuu, Hakuryuu had a short temper and terrible taste in food.  He could be ridiculously nice, but that never stopped him from being completely brutal on the battlefield.  He was the eldest of four kids, so he instinctively took care of everyone younger than him, and since he came from a village in the middle of nowhere, he had the strangest tastes in food (Shuten had never known anyone who could eat meat completely raw until he met Hakuryuu).  Overall, though, if they were both drunk and in the mood for finding some ladies, Shuten could get along plenty well with him.

Hiryuu was an idiot, but Shuten loved him.  Sure, it was definitely the dragon blood that drew him to the god-turned-human, but Shuten figured he would’ve liked Hiryuu regardless of if he had been chosen to be a warrior or not.  He knew so many things, from the age of mountains to the origins of rituals, and he worried for Shuten more than anyone ever had, so Shuten loved him.  He would give anything to stay by Hiryuu’s side forever.

Ouryuu was useless, in every sense of the word.  Couldn’t fight, couldn’t run very fast, didn’t even have powers!  He only knew simple things like how to skin animals, farming, and everything related to priesthood.  The only thing Shuten found remotely interesting about him was the fact that Ouryuu knew how to read, a skill Shuten never had the time to acquire.  But there was no way in hell Shuten would bother to ask Ouryuu to teach him, not when Shuten was already going out of his way to teach Ouryuu (and Hiryuu) how to fight.  But Ouryuu was also easy to talk to, always had an ear open for listening, and reminded Shuten of home sometimes.  Shuten would never admit it, but he didn’t mind Ouryuu’s presence in the slightest.

Seiryuu was the enigma.  She was a puzzle that Shuten couldn’t quite figure out.  Despite her noble status, she wielded a sword with skill and precision, so much so that she appeared to be dancing while in battle.  Despite her power easily being the strongest of the group’s, she could couldn’t use it often unless she was scouting.  Despite her cool exterior, she would fight with Shuten at the smallest of jabs.  It was like walking into enemy territory everytime Shuten engaged her.  And she only kept surprising him.

“You can call me by name,” she suddenly said one day while Hiryuu was at the market with Hakuryuu and Ouryuu.  Hiryuu’s castle was in the beginning stages of being built, and Seiryuu insisted on watching over its progress.  Shuten, with nothing better to do and nothing to buy, was walking the castle grounds with her.

“I already do,” Shuten responded.

“I mean my birth name, imbecile,” Seiryuu snapped.  “The one I told you when we met.”

“No way,” Shuten immediately replied.

Seiryuu furrowed her eyebrows, her mouth turning into a tight frown as she looked up at him.  “Why not?”

“Because it’d be weird to start calling you Abi after a whole year of Seiryuu.”

Seiryuu sighed, aggravation heavy in her breath, and stared at the path ahead of her.  “That is fair, I guess.  After all, it took me quite a bit of practice for me to become accustomed to saying your name.”

“Eh?  Which one?”

“Shuten.”

Shuten decided to ignore the way his chest tightened at the sound of someone other than Hiryuu calling him by birth name.  “It’s gross hearing you say that.”

Seiryuu scrunched her nose.  “Now that you mention it, I believe I’d be disgusted hearing you say my name, too.”

“Do you wanna fight?” he asked, immediately irked.

She shook her head.  “You’ve been letting me win lately.”

“Like hell I am!”  Sure, he had been going a bit easier on her, because he didn’t want to hurt her, but there was no way he’d let her win.

“Either way, it’s boring to keep winning.”

“Oi, you’re asking for it now.”

Before Shuten could grab the back of Seiryuu’s collar, she stopped and turned his way.  He stepped back out of surprise.  “I changed my mind,” she said, her face trained into its typical impenetrable expression.  “I want to know what my name sounds like coming from you.”

He stared at her, waiting for some sign that she was lying, but when he found nothing, he chuckled.  “What’s this all of a sudden?  Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for me, Seiryuu-chan.”

“Call me Seiryuu-chan again and I’ll murder you.”

He laughed and decided it wouldn’t hurt to at least give it a try.  “Abi.”

Her eyes widened, eyebrows raising, a tint of pink appearing on her cheeks.  If he was any other person, Shuten would’ve kissed that expression.  Before he could try anything, though, a fist suddenly collided with his cheek, and he heard Abi shout, “Disgusting!” before running away.

Oh, she was definitely asking for it.  “Get back here so I can beat you up, Seiryuu-chan!” he yelled after her.  Sure enough, Abi turned around and started storming right at him.  He dropped his spear and held up his fists, ready to absolutely not let her win.

(He would much rather their relationship stay like this forever, anyway.)

Hiryuu was dead.  They had little reason to stay anymore.  Especially after Abi was-- ah, it still hurt him just to think about it.  She was kidnapped for her eyes, almost killed for it, and he had heard her cry all too much ever since.  One snowy morning, the dragons said their goodbyes, brothers until the end, but no longer together.

Shuten wasn’t sure who he missed more, Hiryuu or Abi.  He was glad he was able to see both of their faces before their respective departures, and that he could still sense Abi, see her light when he closed his eyes, but it wasn’t the same.  Old age had made him such a sap, he could barely believe he used to want to fight her rather than hold her.  What an idiot.

He grabbed his cloak and pulled it tighter around his body.  He was never good with the cold.  He grew up near the sea, where the winter came with a few weeks of snow before a long period of temperate cool.  Living so far inland had exposed him to one too many long, freezing winters, and the cold had come to hurt him down to his very bones.  To think he would get to live until this miserable state.

Luckily, the snow wasn’t very heavy that day, so he could find a place to settle down and warm himself up by the afternoon.

So caught up in his thoughts, Shuten almost didn’t notice Abi’s presence coming closer and clearer in his mind until she was right next to him.  He started, nearly jumped away from her, but he managed to stay put.  “What the hell are you doing here, Seiryuu?  I thought we were going our separate ways!”

Abi was silent for so long, he nearly began to believe she was just a figment of his imagination.  But then she reached for her blindfold and pulled it off, revealing the gorgeous eyes that could only ever belong to her.  They were a bit red around the rims from her crying, but she was so pretty regardless.  “I wanted you to promise me something...” she said, so softly he had to move close to her just to hear.

“What is it?” he asked, planting his spear into the ground so his hands could be free for her.  He didn’t know why, but he felt more comfortable without anything in his hands when he was around her.

“Promise me that you’ll come find me.”

“What?  Is something wrong?”  Her words were dangerously close to asking him to save her.  Did she sell herself for protection during her travels or something?  Did she make a huge mistake and needed someone to rescue her?  His mind was racing with answers, each one worse than the last.

“I simply...” Tears welled up in Abi’s eyes again.  “I simply am not ready for this to end.  I don’t want to let go of you all so soon.”  The tears began to fall from her eyes, and Shuten clasped his hands on her cheeks, as if trying to stop the flow.  “Promise me you’ll come see me someday soon.  I don’t want my last memory of my brothers to be so bitter.”

Despite the situation, Shuten found himself chuckling.  “That’s all?”

“Why are you laughing?!” Abi shouted.  She hit him on the head, but he didn’t mind.

“You were serious, I was worried you had sold yourself or something else terrible.”  Shuten sighed his relief and pressed his forehead to Abi’s.  “Of course I’ll come see you soon.  I don’t want to let go you, either.”  He closed his eyes and smiled.  Somehow, he felt so much warmer just because she was there.

“Since when were you so cordial?” Abi asked.  Despite the anger in her tone, her hands came to hold his, keeping him close.

When I fell for you, he thought.  “Who the hell knows?” he said with a snort.

Abi chuckled softly.  “I like you better when you’re this way.  Try not to change again.”

“Aye aye, Abi-chan.”

She released one of his hands to hit his head again.  He laughed and moved to hug her.  She accepted his embrace with her arms around his neck.  “I’ll only welcome you if you stop calling me Abi-chan.”

“Not a chance.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to get used to the name.”

It would not the last time they spoke to each other, but it would be the last time they spoke as brothers.