fandom: owari no seraph
ship: guren/shinya/mahiru
word count: 38.2k
rating: t
read there full thing here
Their first meeting goes terribly.
Mahiru goes into the whole thing with high hopes. She’s heard good things about this particular animal shelter, and after her interview with the manager, Ichinose Sakae, she feels quite confident that things here will be very, very good for her. This is why, of course, she is delighted to find out that she will primarily be working alongside Sakae’s daughter, Guren. Related to such a kind, gentle man, Mahiru assumes that Guren must at least share some similar traits.
She learns rather quickly that it was very wrong of her to assume.
Guren is…well, she’s not like her father, to say the least. She’s beautiful, stunningly so, with long, raven black hair and sharp violet eyes. Mahiru initially thought that she just had a bit of a resting bitch face—it’s not a bad thing, necessarily; she’s met a few very kind people in her lifetime that have seemed mean and intimidating at first glance and wound up to be the complete opposite—but as soon as Guren began speaking, she realized she was sorely mistaken.
Yes, Guren looks like a bitch from a distance.
Mahiru decides that it’s because she is a bitch.
“I don’t see what the problem is,” Shinya says to her over dinner that night. “She’s hot, isn’t she?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Listen.” To enunciate her point, Shinya stops eating and straightens her back, meeting Mahiru’s gaze straight-on. “Do you remember that girl in high school? She tutored me in math for a while.”
“Wasn’t her name, like, Yuki or something?”
“Yeah, yeah. She was so mean to me. She told me I was stupid, like, without even filtering herself.”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
fandom: owari no seraph ship: guren/shinya/mahiru wc: 1.9k rating: t Guren works too hard. But Mahiru doesn’t mind. All she really wanted was some cuddles, anyway.
“The past is the past,” Shinya says wisely. “There’s no turning back now, you coward.” Without hesitation, he raises a fist and knocks on the door.
“Shinya!”
Shinya turns to Guren innocently. “Yes?”
Guren opens his mouth, then closes it again, irritation boiling at his blood. Before he can come up with a response, however, the door opens before them, and suddenly they are faced with Kureto, watching them with one sharp eyebrow raised.
“Can I help you?” he asks, sounding rather bored.
Guren tries not to scowl at him—tries, and fails, surely—but this doesn’t stop him from snapping out, “I don’t know, can you?”
He hears Mahiru and Shinya snickering from his sides, and feels his cheeks sting slightly.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I think I know what you meant,” Kureto says, that same dull tone. “May I help you, then?”
“Kureto-niisan,” Mahiru speaks up, “we aren’t here cause any disturbances. Guren just wanted to talk to you.”
Kureto looks rather disbelieving. “About what?”
“About…oh, you know…” Guren makes a vague gesture with his hand, and Kureto simple looks at him. Guren wonders if he feels quite as dead inside as he looks.
“Can we come inside?” Shinya asks suddenly. “I think we’ll be standing her for quite a while if we keep at this.”
Kureto sighs, bringing a hand up to rub against the bridge of his nose. “Fine,” he says. “But don’t expect me to make you tea or anything.”
He turns and steps inside, allowing Guren, Shinya, and Mahiru to follow. As they do so, Mahiru brushes a gentle hand against Guren’s arm and throws him a small smile.
“Just do it like you practiced in the showed,” she says mischievously.
“I—I never did that!”
“Sure, you didn’t,” Shinya says mildly. “Just like you didn’t use up all the hot water, right?”
Guren frowns at him while Mahiru laughs from Guren’s other side.
“That’s not the point,” Guren finally manages.
Shinya waves a dismissive hand. “Come on, come on, let’s follow him. Look, I imagine he’s already making our tea.”
Mahiru snickers. “You’re probably right,” she agrees. “Come on, Guren. We can’t just stand around here all day. Be a man!”
Mahiru grabs his elbow, pulling him forward, while Shinya walks behind them.
“You have to commit to things,” Shinya reminds him. “You decided you wanted to this, so now you have to. Don’t be so worried about it. What will be, will be.”
Mahiru glances back at him and flashes him a bright smile. “That’s right,” she says. “And we’re here to help.”
They enter the kitchen and see that, yes, Kureto is making tea, but he looks less than pleased about it. Guren can’t be too surprised, of course; Kureto has always been like this, to an extent. He’s all bark and no bite—or, well, he could bite, Guren’s sure. Maybe he will if Guren says the wrong thing, or if he thinks Guren is somehow mistreating Mahiru.
Kureto watches them enter, then says, “Feel free to sit down.”
They do so without a word. Beneath the table, Mahiru reaches for Guren’s hand and gives it a small squeeze. On his other side, Shinya simply shoots him a regular, Shinya-esque grin.
“So,” Kureto says after a moment. “What do you need?”
“Just—er, actually, it’s noth—”
Shinya reaches over and shoves him.
Mahiru puts a hand on his shoulder, steadying him, and he straightens up.
He clears his throat.
Says, “I just want to say that, even though I think you’re a dick, I think it’s important for us to have a good relationship.”
Mahiru sighs.
Shinya lets out a breathy laugh.
Kureto turns, narrowing his eyes at Guren.
“What?”
Ah, he really should’ve made a script or something, he thinks.
“It’s just that, er, I know our history is rather…colourful?” he offers. “And because I’m with Mahiru now, and I know you still have some kind of—some kind of something against me, I—”
“I don’t care.”
Guren falters. “…What?”
“Mahiru’s a grown woman,” Kureto says, as if this isn’t obvious. “She can make her own choices. Why should who she dates bother me? I’m sure if she stays with you, she’s probably making an informed decision. Of course,” he adds, “I do happen to have my reservations about it, but it’s not like it even effects me at all.”
“Seriously?”
“Well, yeah. Shinya, on the other hand…”
Shinya laughs. “Bullshit. I know you approve of me more than you approve of Guren.”
“Marginally,” Kureto assures him.
He turns back around to finish prepping their tea, then brings it to the table and sits across from Guren, sliding a cup towards him.
“Really,” he says, “I would just rather mind my own business.”
“That’s oddly corporate of you,” Mahiru remarks.
“Corporate is all I know, sister.”
She laughs. “Fair point.”
“So, you aren’t, like, angry with me?” Guren asks.
“For what?”
“For wanting to kick your ass in school?”
“I’m sure you weren’t the only one.”
“You can say that again,” Shinya mutters.
Guren frowns down at his tea. “That’s ridiculous,” he says, looking back up at Kureto again. “I made such a big deal out of this. I waited years to say anything, because I thought you’d—I don’t know. Kill me?”
“I always told you it wasn’t such a big deal,” Mahiru says. “But you never believed me.”
“He sent us a funeral flower as a moving-in gift!” Guren protests.
“Really?” Kureto frowns. “I knew my order had been mixed up, but I never bothered to find out more than that. I figured the flowers would just be flowers, anyway.”
“And you never said anything?” Mahiru shakes her head. “Jeez, you’re so…”
“Let’s not fight about it,” Shinya suggests. “We don’t want to give Guren any more reasons to make himself an anxious mess.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” Guren says mournfully. “You’re the partner the family chose for her.”
“And you’re the other man, huh?” Shinya asks teasingly. “None of that really matters, now. That was a long time ago. Mahiru’s making her own decisions now, and any decent brother would respect that.”
“Just drink your tea,” Kureto says, sounding rather exasperated. “Here I was expecting something worth my time…”
“It’s important to visit with your in-laws,” Shinya tells him.
“You’re not married.”
“It won’t be long, now, though, you know.”
Kureto’s jaw twitches slightly.
Guren gets that feeling that, maybe, one conflict will always turn to another, eventually.
He drinks his tea.
Whatever that argument is, they’ll just have to save it for another day.
fandom: owari no seraph
ship: mahiru/shinya/guren
rating: t
word count: 4.8k
chapters: 1/?
read the full thing here
On the seventh night of the first month of summer, the noble house of Shindo throws a masquerade ball.
“There are seven thousand guests,” Mito reports. “Security is tight, but they can’t keep track of that many people all at once.”
“And everyone is wearing a mask,” Goshi reminds them. “So, even if they could keep track of all the guests, it would be pretty impossible to know who’s who.”
“Are you suggesting we steal someone’s mask?” Sayuri asks, frowning.
“I might be.”
“Ew,” Shigure says. “I’m not doing that. Some of us have standards, you know.”
“I’m not putting any of this up for discussion,” Guren speaks up.
They all turn to look at him, wide-eyed. He wonders vaguely if they had even known he was still listening to them.
His crew, though his subordinates, tend to be quite fussy about the work they do. Far from regular pirates, they are quite against doing some of the dirtier work. They’re all outlaws—filthy thieves, with high bounties on their heads—but none of them will get their hands any dirtier than absolutely necessary to complete a job.
Except, in this case, that is.
Guren will not allow them to rest until they’ve succeeded in this particular mission.
“You’ll do as I say,” he says, “and as I say only. Understood?”
