This is my exchange gift for: @caystar Their request: Character(s): Saizo or Shigezane | Theme(s): Fluff, Smut | Rating: Up to M | Dislikes: Gore, Rape, Incest, Magistrate |
“Hey, Doll! Come back here!” You hear a bright, laughing voice shout from behind as you jog down the halls and along the verandas, avoiding the man behind you with a smile on your lips and warmth in your heart.
~*~
You arrived in Yonezawa a few short months ago to be the poison tester for the great Date Masamune. Immediately it had proven more dangerous than you had expected, but you met the challenge head on because the wellbeing of your family was at stake. Acceptance into the clan hadn’t been an easy one, but you managed - especially when Lord Masamune made you his personal chef and both he and Kojuro showed you kindness.
Then you met his cousin.
Date Shigezane. Playful, passionate, kind, caring, a little bit of a troublemaker, but never out of malice. He was also one of Lord Masamune’s generals - talented on the battlefield and a competent strategist.
The first time you met him, you were dressed as a man, pretending to be your brother. He had poked fun at you, teasing mercilessly. It was strange at first - you didn’t know him at all and often got flustered at his prodding. However, once you got comfortable around him, you started giving as good as you got, returning each good-natured tease with one of your own.
Over the following months, you found yourself wanting to spend more and more of your free time with Lord Shigezane. You felt his presence like a warm spring breeze as it wrapped around you, holding you close, giving you comfort when you needed it whenever he was visiting Yonezawa. Even once you were ousted as being a female, his treatment of you didn’t change. He still teased you, joked around with you and was just his usual friendly self.
You looked forward to when he was in the castle because the time he was there always seemed a bit brighter. When he was around, you sought him out. When he wasn’t, you always awaited his arrival. He was the spring to your winter, always warming you from the inside and melting the snow that formed from the negativity that weighed you down with the wars that were constantly being waged.
Two weeks ago, when the Date army had returned from battle, badly beaten but victorious by a thread, you had been summoned by Lord Shigezane to his side as he lay in his sickbed within his quarters. He had managed to get himself injured quite severely while attempting to protect Lord Masamune and lay there heavily bandaged, with some of his wounds bleeding through the cloth coverings.
When you announced yourself, you entered at his greeting and felt your heart clench at the state he was in. His eyes met yours as you came to a stop next to his futon, kneeling at his side, and you saw his steely gaze was clouded over with pain, that same pain causing the lines of his face to be tense as he tried to keep it from you.
“Lord Shigezane -” You manage to say past the sudden lump in your throat as you continuously took in his bloodied bandages and bruises.
“Hey there, Doll. What’s up? You usually tease me when I come back with a few scratches like this.” His voice was brittle sounding, it was breaking your heart. He watched you intently and you felt tears welling at the corners of your eyes.
You quickly use your sleeve to wipe the offending liquid away to give him a smile. “I apologize, milord. I don’t know what’s come over me.”
But you did know.
The feelings you got when you saw him visiting the castle, the fear you felt when he went to war, when he came back in less than perfect condition. You were in love with him. Seeing him like this and knowing your reaction to it, only confirmed your thoughts. But there was no way you could tell him - he was nobility and you were just a page. Date Shigezane was out of your league.
You watched as he seemed to study your forced, watery smile, through pain-filled eyes before they began drooping.
“Lord Shigezane?” You asked after him as you watched his eyes began closing. You watched his hand slowly lift to where your hands clenched at the kimono covering your knees.
“Please…don’t look…don’t make eyes look like that.” He slurs as he weakly grasps your hands with his one large one. “You’re too beautiful to…make a face like that.”
His oddly serious words surprised you, the surprise quickly covered by fear when his head lolled to the side and his hand lost its grip on yours. Fear morphed to panic when he didn’t move. You thought the worst had happened and he had died until you noticed the slight movement of his chest indicating he had simply fallen asleep.
You heaved a sigh of relief when you saw he still lived and tenderly reached up to push lengths of his hair from his closed eyes, careful not to disturb his rejuvenating slumber. “Beautiful, am I? No, it is you who is the beautiful one, Lord Shigezane.” You whisper to no one as you watch him sleep, occasionally wiping away the sweat beading on his brow from his fever.
~*~
Your heart swelled now at the memory as you still managed to evade him in his playful chase. You knew that he was likely letting you escape him, but you didn’t care. Having such a man as Date Shigezane chasing after you was a joy beyond measure.
Your love for him had only grown in the following weeks after that battle, though no words of confession had passed your lips. But you had no need for them - you knew how you felt and had no issue with him not returning your feelings, knowing that he would need a samurai’s daughter to pass on his name which was something that you could never do. No, your happiness came from simply being with him in any capacity.
Hopping down into the gardens from the veranda on which you had been using in your escape, you made a cursory glance around you to see if you had managed to evade him. So far so good - he was nowhere in sight and you slowed, panting for breath with a smile on your lips.
But your ease was short lived.
As you were passing by a large oak, its limbs heavy with the new growth that came with the season, you were grabbed from behind and whirled around. You closed your eyes and cried out as balances were shifted by the person whose arms were around you, causing both of you to fall to the lush green grass at your sandaled feet.
You immediately started fighting the person, writhing and kicking to get loose of the arms binding you, until you caught a whiff of a familiar scent emanating off of your captor. Sake laced with something slightly earthy and floral, but far from overpowering. When you opened eyes equally familiar kimono. A shiver of sweet awareness moved throughout your body at the sound of his deep chuckle, causing you to join him - the sound of your merriment lost to the leaves above.
“M-Milord!” You immediately relaxed in his arms, feeling a blush heating your cheeks at his closeness.
“I’ve got you, doll. You can’t run from me anymore.” Shigezane’s silky smooth voice came as a low whisper in your ear from behind, the husky timbre of his voice affecting you like nothing else ever had. He helped you move so that you could face him and looked up into his gunmetal eyes, noting something looked different in those depths you loved getting lost in.
His eyes locked with yours, staring, studying, making you wonder what he was thinking about, until he slowly leaned forward to press his soft looking lips to your own in an equally soft kiss. Your eyes grew wide and your body stiffened at first in surprise. It was several moments before you calmed and closed your own, enjoying the feel of his lips on yours. It was something you had been curious about for the longest time but never in your wildest dreams imagined you would actually get to experience it.
If this was a dream, it was one you never wanted to wake up from.
Shigezane’s lips were, indeed, as soft as they looked, but there was a firmness to them as he pressed harder into your own. He tasted of the sweet sake he smelled of as you let your tongue flit out to drink from his lips and you knew that if you continued kissing him, you would likely become drunk off it. You felt your tongue meet his as he did the same, likely tasting the strawberry daifuku you had been snacking on before he started chasing you. Your toes curled as he deepened the kiss, delving past your lips deeper to dance his tongue with your own.
All too soon, he slowly pulled away, taking your lower lip with him. Your eyes fluttered open to look up at him, judging his thoughts the best you could in your hazy mind from the pleasure you had felt just from a single kiss. The dark gray of his eyes had disappeared, his pupils blown as he looked at you.
Details evaded you, but it was obvious he was thinking on something serious, if the crease between his brows as they lowered in a frown was any indication. You felt fleeting concern change to curiosity as his eyes warm the longer he stared.
Without breaking eye contact, you felt Shigezane’s hand lift from your side and run his fingers through your hair just above your ear, trailing down to cup the side of your neck. His hand, while calloused from years of wielding a sword, was warm and signified comfort to you. Moving down your shoulder, his hand trailed along your limb until it reached your hand, bringing it up between you two.
You watched as he brought your knuckles up to his lips to lay a chaste kiss on the flesh there, a smirk forming in the background before he inhaled to say, “I…have something to tell you. Something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now.”
“What is it, milord?” You somehow managed to say without any vibrations in your words. The intensity of his gaze was increasing, causing your heart to race beneath your breast and your breath to come out in short spurts. It took everything in you not to shake. What he could possibly want to tell you was beyond your comprehension. Was he telling you that he had found a betrothed? Was that part of why he had kissed you? You’d been friends for quite some time. Perhaps he had found himself curious as you was of him. But now that the curiosity was sated, now he could tell you for sure?
“These past few months, ever since you came into Masamune’s service, have been some of the most interesting and most fun I’ve ever experienced at Yonezawa. When you were dressed as a man, I could tell something was different about you, something special. You are always so much fun to spend time with. When you were discovered as a woman and dressed as one when not before the others living in the castle, you became something more. You became beautiful beyond words and continued to do so since that time in more ways than I can say.” He paused, looking as if he was gathering his thoughts, never looking away from you.
“When we were still on the battlefield in the last war, all I could think about was getting back to Yonezawa where I knew you were waiting for the army’s return. Even as I protected Masamune, when I was nearly struck down, my thoughts were of you. It took me a while to figure out what that meant.” Without warning, he rolled the both of you over so that he was staring down at you, leaning on one elbow so he wouldn’t squish you under his larger frame. His free hand took the opportunity to slide back up the arm he had been holding to cup your jaw.
“What I’m trying to say is…I’m in love with you, Doll.”
Your eyes went wide and you felt a gasp escape your throat at his words, the love you felt for the man above you warming you from the inside out. You must have taken too long to reply, because he started talking again. “I know you will likely not feel the same about me because you could do so much better than me, but I - “
Pressing your fingers to his lips, you hushed him before he could continue. You smiled at him at his words and the look of surprise that came over him. “It is I who should be saying that you deserve better than what I can give you. You should be with the daughter of a samurai. I am but a cooks daughter. Even knowing all this, I couldn’t help but fall in love with you, milord. I know we may not have a future, but if you are willing, I would be happy to spend what time we can have with you.”
Shigezane chuckled at that. “Not deserve you? What this nonsense? I don’t care if you are a cooks daughter or the shogun’s. You’re the one I want, no matter your lineage. What I care about is who you are. If I promise to protect you, to love you with all that I am, will you stay with me?”
“Of course I will, milord. I would love nothing more than to be there for you, care for you, love you as you deserve.”
He leaned in until your lips were a hairsbreadth apart. “Promise?” He whispered, the sweetness of his breath poured over yours, making your mouth water.
With a single nod from you, his lips crashed down on your own, sealing the promise you both had just made to the other.
Note: I’m sorry for the angst! I know it wasn’t in your request, but it just kinda happened! I hope the fluff made up for it! Also, I know it’s for Christmas, but it’s been cold here, so I imagined this to be more spring time than winter lol.
I just got an update for Wolf Drabbles by CayStar and immediately my EYES LIT UP AND I MADE A COMBINATION OF A GASP AND A SNORT HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE lov u caystar
Bella can't keep her eyes off the steamy construction worker, and Paul is having all kinds of naughty school teacher fantasies. What happens when their worlds literally collide?
RULES: Don’t take more than a few minutes. Don’t think too hard. They don’t have to be great works of the gaming industry, just games that have affected you in a positive way. Then tag some friends including me so I can see your list.
This list includes the first game I ever played (Super Mario Bros) along with several other games that introduced me to the series they belong into.
