𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 ┅ 𝖪𝗇𝗂𝗀𝗁𝗍! 𝖦𝗈𝗃𝗈 𝖲𝖺𝗍𝗈𝗋𝗎 & 𝖶𝗂𝖿𝖾! 𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋
𝘈 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦.
NOTE: yes this was inspired by short king Napoleon and his yearning for his wife, bc every woman deserves that much love. I was originally gonna make this about Choso but I started to miss my blue eyed king. Anyways I kinda love how this turned out, giggling and kicking my feet in the air as I was typing this out LMAO.
From the Muddy Trenches of the Northern Front:
My Dearest, My Only Soul,
I have not seen your face in three weeks, and already I am convinced that the sun has forgotten how to shine. This wretched northern border is nothing but gray skies, ceaseless rain, and mud that threatens to swallow my boots whole. Nanami tells me I am being dramatic. I told him he lacks a soul, which is why his armor always looks so perfectly polished while mine is caked in grime.
They call us the realm’s greatest defense, but what good is being the strongest knight in the kingdom if I cannot even hold my wife? I spent the afternoon pretending to listen to Shoko discuss supply lines, but in truth, I was only remembering the way you laughed when I dropped that entire tray of pastries last month.
The campaign is tedious. The enemy forces are stubborn, but they are no match for us; we will break their lines soon enough. Yet, victory means nothing if it keeps me from your side. I wake up in the dead of night, reaching for you, only to grasp cold canvas and the smell of wet wool. It is a cruel torture.
Write to me instantly. Tell me you miss me. Tell me you are wasting away without me, just as I am without you. If a letter from you does not arrive by the next courier, I might just ride back through the enemy lines myself, consequences be damned.
Ever and completely your devoted husband,
From the Comfort of the Hearth:
Your letter arrived soaked in rain and smelling faintly of wet dog, though I suppose I must blame the courier’s pouch for the latter.
You are being entirely dramatic, my love. Nanami, as usual, possesses the soundest mind in your entire regiment. You have been gone for less than a month, yet your letter reads as though you have been exiled to the ends of the earth for a decade. Pray do not ride back through enemy lines; I would rather not have to explain to the King that his star knight abandoned the vanguard because he was lonely.
The manor is quiet without you, it is true. I do not have to hide the sweets from your voracious appetite, and the floors remain remarkably clean without your muddy boots tracking through the halls. However, the bed is indeed too large and too cold without you stretching across the entirety of it.
Do your duty, protect your men, protect me, and listen to Shoko. You are the strongest knight the realm has ever seen—you will be perfectly fine. Stop picking fights with your commanders and focus on bringing yourself home in one piece.
From a Command Tent, Past Midnight:
To the Cruelest Woman in the Kingdom,
How can you be so terribly reasonable when my heart is breaking? I read your letter by the light of a dying candle, hoping for words of desperate yearning, and instead, you praise Nanami and celebrate the cleanliness of our floors! You wound me deeper than any sword ever could.
We had a skirmish today. It was a decisive victory, of course. I shattered their vanguard with a single charge. Everyone cheered, the others wept with so much relief you would think I delivered their wife’s babe, and all I could think was: I wonder if she is reading in the garden right now.
I am bored, my sweet. Miserably, terribly bored. The strategy meetings are an exercise in listening to old men drone on about maps, and I am tempted to set the next map on fire just for some excitement. The only thing keeping me sane is the ribbon you tied around my hilt before I left. I press it to my lips before every battle. Aren’t I incredibly romantic.
Do not tell me I will be fine. I am a man dying of thirst in a desert, and your letters are the only drops of water I receive. Tell me you wept when you read my last letter. Lie to me if you must! Just tell me you want me home tomorrow and I will make it happen. Please.
Your miserable, adoration-sick husband,
If you set fire to the war maps, I will personally ensure you are banned from the kitchens for a year upon your return. Do not try me.
I did not weep when I read your letter, but I did smile so fiercely that the maid asked if I had received good news. You are a terror on the battlefield and a child in your correspondence. It is a wonder the kingdom sleeps soundly knowing its grand protector is currently pouting in a tent because his wife told him to be sensible.
The spring flowers are beginning to bloom in the courtyard. The blue ones remind me of your eyes—though the flowers are much quieter and far less demanding of my attention.
You speak of thirst, Satoru, yet you forget that I am holding the well. Win this war. Secure the borders so that no more husbands have to march away into the rain. I know the burden you carry, even if you mask it with complaints and theatrics. You will hold the line, because you are Satoru Gojo, and you will come back to me because I expect nothing less.
Take care of yourself. My heart is with you, always. And do not talk about delivering babes anymore.
Dusk on the Northern Front:
Tomorrow we march for the enemy’s main stronghold. The others say it will be the bloodiest clash of the entire campaign, the one that decides the fate of the borders. How poetic old men can be. The others are tense, sharpening their blades in a silence so thick you could cut it with a knife. And here I am with a quill and ink.
But I am not worried. In fact, I am practically vibrating with impatience. The sooner I break their gates, the sooner I can leave this miserable, sodden north behind and fly back to your arms.
I have your latest letter tucked safely beneath my breastplate, right against my heart. Your scoldings are the finest armor I possess. You told me to win this war and secure the borders, and so I shall. Do you remember our wedding vows? I will give you a victory so absolute that the King will have no choice but to grant me a permanent leave of absence to do nothing but follow you around the manor like a stray dog.
Expect my next letter within the week, my love. Once the stronghold falls, I will send a courier with the news of our triumph. Hold the well for me just a little longer.
Your fiercely devoted, forever husband,
From the Manor, Seven Days Later:
The week has passed. The official royal couriers arrived in the capital this morning with tidings of a glorious victory at the northern stronghold. The bells are ringing across the city, and everyone is celebrating the end of the war.
Yet, there was no private rider bearing your coat of arms.
I know the aftermath of a siege is chaotic, and I know you must be buried under administrative duties and the demands of the King’s generals. I am trying to listen to my own advice and remain sensible. Geto would tell me you are simply being careless, and Shoko would tell me you are sleeping off the exhaustion.
But please, Satoru. Just a single line. Write to me to tell me you are whole.
With all my love and a growing impatience,
From the Manor, Three Days Later:
Ten days now. Still nothing.
I have asked the garrison commander in town if any news of casualties has been held back, but he assures me the list was complete and your name was spectacularly absent. He looked at me with pity, assuming I am merely an anxious wife. I’ll have him butchered the next time I see him.
They do not know you like I do. You are too arrogant to fall in battle, which leaves only two possibilities: either you are gravely injured and hiding it from me, or you are being entirely thoughtless.
The blue flowers in the garden have fully bloomed now. I sit by them every afternoon, waiting for the sound of hooves on the cobblestone driveway.
If this is a jest, Satoru, or some twisted way of getting me to admit how desperately I miss you, it is not amusing. Consider it admitted. I miss you terribly. The manor is too quiet, the bed is too cold, and I am sick with worry. Write to me. Please.
Your wife that misses you
From the Manor, Midnight:
I am writing this because I cannot sleep, and leaving my thoughts on paper is the only way to keep my mind from fracturing into a thousand terrors.
Even when you were surrounded by enemy forces, you found a way to smuggle out four pages of complaints about the mud and the soup. Now that the enemy is defeated, there is only silence. I have stopped pretending to be the reasonable, calm wife you accused me of being. I am terrified.
If you are alive, if you can hear the wind blowing south from the mountains, know that I am calling you home. Do not dare leave me alone in this world, Satoru Gojo. You promised me a victory, and I expect you to deliver it in person.
The ink on the eighth letter was barely dry when the heavy oak doors of the manor's study creaked open.
You didn't look up immediately, your eyes blurred with exhaustion and the dim candlelight. "I told the servants I was not to be disturbed until—"
"Not even for the grandest husband in the realm?"
The voice was rough, raspy from weeks of shouting commands and breathing in battlefield dust, but it was unmistakably his.
You dropped the quill, the black ink splattering across the pristine parchment and your nightgown as you stood up so fast your chair scraped violently against the floorboards.
Standing in the doorway was Satoru. He looked nothing like the pristine, untouchable knight who had marched away months ago. His silver hair was unruly, his cloak was torn and stained with blood, and travel-grime. His heavy armor was dented and scratched in half a dozen places. He looked exhausted, with dark shadows bruising the skin beneath his striking blue eyes.
But as his gaze locked onto yours, a familiar, blindingly arrogant grin broke across his face.
"I didn't write," he said, stepping into the room, his heavy boots thudding against the floor you had bragged about keeping clean. "Because a horse moves faster than a courier if you ride it into the ground. And I couldn't spend another second waiting for ink to dry."
You didn't care about the mud. You didn't care about the ruined letter. You crossed the room in a blur, throwing yourself against his chest. The cold, hard metal of his breastplate pressed into you, but beneath it, you could feel the frantic, heavy thudding of his heart.
Satoru’s arms wrapped around your waist, lifting you completely off your feet and burying his face into the crook of your neck. He held you with a desperate, crushing strength, inhaling the scent of you as if he were finally breathing real air after months of suffocating.
"I told you I’d be fine," he murmured against your skin, a low, rumbling laugh vibrating through his chest, though his hands were trembling as he held you. "Did you doubt me for a second, my sweet?"
"You are an absolute monster," you whispered, gripping the fabric of his torn cloak, tears finally slipping down your cheeks. "I was frantic and sick with worry."
"I know," Satoru smiled, kissing away the tears as he finally set you down, his blue eyes burning with that familiar, intense adoration. "I met the courier on the road and took your other letters from him. You missed me. You admitted it in writing. I’m keeping them forever. I’ve thought of framing them.”