safeshiptember day 7: fantasy/modern AU
I DIDN'T THINK I'D MAKE IT IN TIME FOR DAY 7 I THOUGHT I'D HAVE TO POST IT LATE BUT HERE I AM!! banrisa tangled au, i said i'd do it and here it is!! just a lil warning, there are a few hints of tangled-typical grooming and emotional abuse and manipulation. i didn't adapt the whole film, mostly just the campfire scene and more importantly the lanterns scene <3 it's a liiitle long bc i'm incapable of writing short things i think, hope you enjoy ❣️
[ao3 link]
———
Banri pulls himself up onto the river bank, then hauls Isa up next to him. Both of them are completely soaked to the bone with their clothes sticking uncomfortably to their bodies. They both flop back onto the comparatively dryer grass, chests heaving to take oxygen into their burning lungs. Her pet chameleon is clinging to her hair for its little reptilian life, as blue as the water streaming past them.
At least they’re alive. Shivering, teeth chattering, and drenched from head to toe, but at least they made it out of that cave alive. He really thought they were gonna die when the falling rocks had blocked their only escape from that shitty cave that was filling up with water.
“Good fuckin’ lord, woman, were you ever gonna tell me you had glowing hair?!” he demands once he finds the breath to do so.
“You didn’t ask!” Isa protests.
“Oh yeah, sorry for not thinkin’ ‘Oh gee, I wonder if the girl living in the middle of nowhere has glowing hair, something I’d never encountered before and something I never thought I’d ever encounter’. Real bad slip-up on my part, yeah.”
Isa just pouts at him—probably too exhausted to argue properly—while her purple little reptile freak sticks its tongue out at him. He knows it’s misplaced anger—it was Isa’s glowing magic hair that had saved them, after all. It was the only source of illumination in the cave that led to him finding a little cranny in a wall that he destroyed through sheer willpower to free them. And it’s not like it was her idea to get them trapped in there in the first place.
Whatever. He has more important logs to burn or however the saying goes. Speaking of which, he probably should do that—find some logs to burn.
Banri tosses his soaked jacket off. He can curse about the near-drowning experience later. The worst thing that could happen now is catching a cold, and after all the effort he’s put into making sure he and the strange girl he’s travelling with make it to the city alive and in one piece, he’s not keen on that happening. Fortunately, firewood is easy to find, and soon enough he gets a fire going. They settle down in front of the fire and heave out a collective sigh of relief in unison.
“So,” he says. “What other secret things can your mane do?”
She frowns. “Don’t call my hair a mane! I’m not a horse or a lion, I’m a girl.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just answer the question already.”
“Well, glowing is just a side effect. The main thing is—” She gasps and seizes his hand. Heat shoots up from his palm where she’s touching all the way up to his face, for reasons he would really rather not think too much about. “Oh god, you’re hurt!”
“Huh?” Oh, right, the gash in his palm where he cut himself on a rock trying to free them from the cavern. “Eh, I’ve survived worst, it’s no big dea—what the hell are you doing?”
He watches, confused and curious, as Isa gathers the ends of her soaked pink hair and coils it around his hand. She hums the same tune that made her hair glow earlier, and a warm tingly sensation spreads over his palm. She pulls some of her hair off his hand, revealing whole unmarred skin where there was a gash just a second ago.
“Right,” he says, because sure, why not? The strange girl from the strange tower with that annoying little lizard pet has hair that can glow and heal injuries. “There a story behind that, or is it just some magic trick you’re doing?”
Isa hesitates. “Um… it’s a bit of a long story, if you don’t mind?”
Banri snorts. “Ain’t like I got much else to do right now, anyway. If you’ve got a tale to tell, I might as well listen while we’re dryin’ off.”
And so she begins her tale.
Father had found little baby Isa, with a head full of glowing pink hair crying in an open field, abandoned by her birth parents. There were some bad people who wanted to kidnap her and sell her off as a slave to some rich folks for her power, but Father rescued her in the nick of time and fought them off. Seeing that he couldn’t find her original parents, he took her home to his tower and raised her like she was his own daughter. In return for him taking such good care of her, Isa helped him out with his research regarding healing magic and the like.
“Research?” Banri asks, curious. He did help out with some research projects here and there to make some quick, relatively easy money, but it never really caught his fancy. “What kinda tests did he have you do?”
“Usually I just healed various injured animals in the forest surrounding our home, though sometimes there would be traffickers or thieves who wanted to break into the tower to kidnap me. Don’t worry, nothing actually happened to me,” she adds hastily. “Father fought them off before they could even see me—he does a really good job at protecting me!”
Mm, Banri doesn’t know how much he trusts that. Pretty convenient that she never actually got to see these hypothetical people who want to harm her, huh?
“After subduing them, he’d bring them up to the tower so I could heal them. It was killing two birds with one stone, he’d say: they get their injuries healed, and we get to study more power in more detail. But…” Isa winces, and her voice trails off.
Banri frowns. “What? Somethin’ happened?”
“Um, it’s no big deal. It’s just—we soon found out that when I heal people, I kinda… relive the injury as it occurred?”
Instantly he wrenches his hand out of her hair—or tries to, but because of how tightly she’d wound her hair around his hand, she ends up toppling over into his chest.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” Isa wails. “I forgot I still had my hair around your hand—that’s so silly of me, your hand’s already healed, why did I still keep it wrapped up?”
“Ain’t a big deal, stop fussin’ over it,” he says with a roll of his eyes, trying to ignore the way his heart is slamming against his chest like it’s trying to break free. It’s… a weird feeling, realising he doesn’t mind this as much as he thought he would. Having her against his chest, her hair wrapped around his hand. He clears his throat, willing that strange feeling to fuck off. “Anyway, what’s this about you relivin’ the injury? Like you transfer the injury to yourself or somethin’?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. I don’t experience the injury itself, just the memory of it. So, like, the pain, I guess.” She smiles up at him. “Don’t worry about me, really. It’s not fun, sure, but at least I’ve got a pretty high pain tolerance ‘cause of that!”
Somehow that smile isn’t convincing him. Maybe because he’s seen her dance and sing around in a pub full of strangers, full of life and mirth, and the smile she wore that time was a million times brighter and truer than the farce she has plastered on her face right now. “Right. But don’t you think if this Father of yours really loved you, he wouldn’t be puttin’ you through all that pain just for his stupid experiments?”
Isa shakes her head firmly. “No, really, it’s fine. Whatever pain I experienced during the experiments is nothing compared to how much Father has done to take care of me and protect me over all these years. I wanna do anything I can to show him how much I love and appreciate him, so even if I have to suffer a little for the experiments, I think it’s worth it.”
Riiight. Honestly, the more she talks about this Father of hers, the more she raises red flags in Banri’s mind, and the more he wants to turn Father into a new dummy to test his knives and sword on. Sounds like a real nasty piece of work to him, and a hypocrite to boot, spouting shit about keeping her safe from people who only want to exploit her for her power without any care for her actual well-being when he’s essentially doing the same thing.
But saying that would only invite an argument. And while he’s never been one to back down from arguments, for some reason now he just… can’t bring himself to. Maybe he just feels like he owes her—after all, she did just relive the pain of his cut hand through healing him.
Instead, he changes the topic. “You say this Father of yours loves you, but he’s never let you out of the tower even once?”
Isa’s smile dims. “Yeah… He’d do anything for me! He brings me books from outside to read and lets me watch the lantern festival from the tower, but I can’t leave for my own safety.”
The lantern festival—the entire reason why they’re travelling together in the first place. Just yesterday, he needed a temporary place to hide after ditching his companions and making off with the crown he’d swiped from the royal palace on his own. On the run from both his companions and some fucking police horse that has now joined their circus troupe of travellers (and that Isa has taken to calling Juchan like it’s an adorable little pet), he just happened to stumble upon a gigantic tower in the middle of an abandoned clearing in the forest. How a massive tower like that had gone unnoticed for so long—he’d never heard of it before, and he likes to think he’s pretty in the loop about things that go on in the kingdom, you have to if you wanna find the next big thing to thieve and pawn off—was beyond him, but that didn’t matter to him. Thinking it had to be empty, he scaled up the tower—only to be concussed by what felt strangely enough like a frying pan.
Next thing he knew, he was bound to a chair with an oddly silky pink rope. The owner of said silky pink ‘rope’ turned out to be the most gorgeous girl he’d ever laid eyes upon—and considering that he’s had a few flings and torrid nights with various women he met in pubs around the kingdom, that was saying something. The most striking thing about her was her long, shiny pink hair—the same thing that was binding him to his chair, he soon realised as he followed the trail of the pink ‘rope’ that went around (and around, and around, and around) the room. You could probably make ten carpets with her hair and she’d still have a full head of hair. And her eyes too, damn, he’d never seen eyes so crystalline blue and innocent, soft and round at the corners.
(The only thing kinda ruining the image was the rather comical way she was wielding the frying pan like it was a sword. That, and her damned purple chameleon sticking its cold gross slimy tongue in his ear every time he gave her attitude.)
For a girl with such a cute doll-like face and who seemed awfully naive about the world, she sure knew how to strike a mean deal. While he was passed out, she’d swiped his bag with the crown in it, and was holding it ransom on the condition that he took her to the lantern festival in the main city and back home. It wasn’t the worst conditions he heard, but it struck him as odd even then. Sure, her tower was rather out of the way and no one would’ve been able to find it unless they were looking for it or stumbled upon it by some extremely lucky happenstance, but she’d really never attended the biggest festival in the kingdom at least once?
“Yeah,” she answered him, lowering her frying pan despondently. “I’ve always wanted to attend. I’d read a story in one of the books Father gave me that people would make wishes before casting their lanterns into the night sky, and then they’d dance to make their wishes come true.” With a sigh, she dropped the pan altogether and curled up on the floor, hugging her knees. The purple chameleon climbed up her shoulder and nuzzled against her cheek as if trying to comfort her. “Aww, don’t worry about me, Kyuchan, I’m not sad. It’s just… there isn’t much to do here. I paint, I talk to Kyuchan, sometimes I put on Father’s records and dance… but there’s only so much you can do and see up here. Even if it’s just once, I wanna experience the festival for myself. I wanna make a wish and cast it to the sky and dance without a care in the world. The wish doesn’t have to come true—I don’t even know what I’d wish for, not when I have everything I could ever need here—I just… wanna see what’s beyond this tower. Experience something I can’t here, you know?”
And maybe it was that sentiment that drove him to agree to her conditions, even though he was never the type to make a promise and keep it. Well, it should be easy enough, right? Just bring a girl to the festival and back within a couple days, and then be on his merry way to his next heist without looking back over his shoulder at the tower.
And that is how through many a misadventure, they’ve ended up here on the riverbank, soaked to the bone but thankfully still alive. They’re almost at the city; in fact, they can start making their way there after they’ve recovered from the earlier near-drowning incident and Banri gets over his shock at finding out magic is in fact real.
Something about what she said just now weighs heavy on his mind, though.
Banri frowns. “You said he never let you attend the festival ‘cause he’s worried about your safety? Not even if he escorted you?”
Isa fiddles with the ends of her skirt. “I’ve tried asking him, but he’s always got some important matters to attend to that coincides with the festival. He always brings back gifts from the festival for me to make up for it, though! So it’s not too bad!”
That… raises even more red flags to Banri. Honestly, the more she talks about this Father, the more he’s wondering if he should break his promise to her and not return her to that tower after the festival.
But why do I care so much? I only met her yesterday. And the only reason why I’m with her right now at all is ‘cause she forced me into it. Ain’t none of my business what weird shit her Father’s doing to her.
“Anyway, that’s enough about me!” Isa leans closer to him, the flames of the campfire dancing in her eyes as she looks up at him. “The only thing I know about you is that you have some crown with you, and you’re probably some kind of troublemaker.”
“Callin’ the guy takin’ you to your long-awaited festival a troublemaker—I could just turn around and return you back to your tall fancy tower, y’know.”
“Yeah, but then you won’t get your precious crown back.”
Honestly, he could easily steal it back from her and she wouldn’t even realise it. But this is the most fun he’s had in a while—even considering the annoying little reptile in her hair and the near-drowning incident. He doesn’t want it to end quite so soon yet.
He leans back on his palms, looking away from her inquisitive gaze. “Ain’t nothin’ interesting, I promise ya. I’m just a damn good thief, then I ended up meetin’ you, and here we are now.”
But she shifts even closer, so close that her skirt brushes against his knees. “Really? I don’t buy that. I think you’re more interesting than you’re letting on. Though, then again, you are the first person I’ve had a proper conversation with who’s not Father.”
“… You’re gonna keep buggin’ me until I talk, huh?”
She giggles. “It’s not like we have much to do while waiting for our clothes to dry off.”
“Well, if you’re really that interested.”
The only thing the man and thief named Banri Settsu has ever really given a damn about in his life is getting a cheap thrill. A temporary high, because that’s the only thing that ever seems to sustain him. Life gets real boring after a while when everything comes easy to you. He dabbled in all sorts of trades to see which would be the most fulfilling to him. School was a breeze—he had numerous scholarship offers from the top academic institutions in the kingdom and beyond the kingdom at age 16. Blacksmithing was boring as hell. The only noteworthy thing was nearly burning his hands as he was forging a new blade. He took that blade with him and a bunch others from the workshop and never looked back.
He’d thought being a bodyguard for an uppity socialite would be fun—lots of people would want to cause trouble for someone like that to get some quick money from them, right? Which was true, but the job quickly lost its shine when he found out all these wannabe burglars and kidnappers were complete pushovers in a fight. Boring.
He left that post soon after—but first not without pawning a fancy clock from the tearoom. Unfortunately, he’d gotten clumsy and alerted another guard to his activities—in his defence, how was he to know that there was some weird alarm contraption hidden under the clock that would be activated if the clock was taken from its original station? What ensued was a wild chase through the manor… and he wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything else. Shielding the clock like his life depended on it as he punched and kicked and parried away blows from guards from all directions in his mad dash out of the manor. Brambles and branches scratched at his face and arms, and he’s pretty sure he lost a shoe in the scuffle, but it was the biggest thrill he’d felt in his life in years.
That’s when he went into full-time thieving. He didn’t even care for the money—he came from a fairly well-to-do family himself, not that they’re anything worth mentioning since they were hardly in his life anymore—he just wanted to feel like his world wasn’t just in drab monochrome all the time. The high from each successful steal never lasted long, hence why he was always on the lookout for a new fancy thing he could get his hands on.
Then he met the Ginsenkai Guild of Thieves and got into the good graces of the chairman’s son, Azami, and his caretaker/second father Sakyo. It was fun for a while, crusading around with them. They always seemed to have a new target for him to go after, which ensured he was never in want of something to do.
That is, until he realised that having to answer to a higher authority fucking sucked. He was always a bit of a contrarian, deliberately doing the opposite of what people told him, so he didn’t know why he thought it’d be a good idea to join a hierarchical organisation (he didn’t know all that much about himself, honestly speaking). So when the big boss sent him, Azami, and Sakyo to steal the princess’s crown from the royal palace, he decided that would be his last steal as a member of the Ginsenkai Guild. He tricked the two dumbasses stupid enough to believe him when he said he’d never betray the Guild, took the crown for himself, and fled for his life through the forest with two livid thieves, an entourage of guards, and the weirdest fucking horse he’d ever seen in his life (a grey horse with a purple mane? He didn’t hate purple but he wasn’t sure if it was a good look for a horse) hot on his trail.
“Fell off a cliff, somehow ended up unscathed, then ended up finding your tower while tryin’ to outrun that asshole of a horse,” he sums it up. “Figured a horse couldn’t climb a tower, so I took a shot.”
“Don’t call Juchan names, he’s a very nice boy,” she chides, without much actual force in her tone.
“Right, right.”
Silence falls between them. Though Isa looks perfectly at peace watching the fire dance before them, Banri’s heart feels like it just can’t settle down. No one has ever made him feel like this before—no one’s shown interest in getting to know Banri Settsu the man. They only ever were interested in his talents, or his body, or whatever else he could offer in exchange for something to take the edge off the constant dullness he lived with day in and day out.
And even stranger, he’s never felt. Well. This. Actively wanting to be with someone for the foreseeable future. Even when he’d joined the Guild, a part of him knew he wasn’t going to stay; he wasn’t going to settle down and call it home. He’d figured that maybe this was the life he was destined to live: wandering around like a ghost still alive, even if only in body, on Earth, longing for something he could never have.
So why then, even for a moment, did he entertain the idea of taking Isa away from the tower and running away with her?
Well, the answer doesn’t matter. Even if he did do that, he would probably grow bored of her eventually. Maybe he’d indulge in her body later after he’s upheld his end of their deal, take her along on his adventures for however long they wanted, then leave her behind as he’s done with everyone else. She won’t be any different than the rest.
Or that’s what he thinks, at least
———
“Whoa,” Isa breathes out, spinning around in a wide arc as she takes in the view before her.
“Great spot, huh?” Banri says with a grin. It’s thanks to his many misadventures that he knows of this place. It’s a little secluded spot by the river on the outskirts of the palace city. Not many know of it thanks to the rumours he had deliberately circulated of ghosts haunting the area a few years back because he wanted to keep his territory to himself, in case he ever needed a safe spot to lie low for the time being.
It also boasts an incredible view of the sky stretching above the city and the lanterns that are beginning to dot its inky black canvas. Honestly, the sight of the lanterns every year is one of the few things he doesn’t think he will ever get bored of. No matter how many times he sees it, it never fails to take his breath away.
He can’t wait for her to finally get to see it too.
“Yeah, it’s amazing,” Isa breathes out as she strains on her tiptoes, as if trying to get closer to the sky. The chameleon on her shoulder, too, clambers atop her head for a better glimpse. “The view is amazing, and since it’s just me, you, and Kyuchan here, it’s nice and quiet too. I know I was talking big about experiencing the city for myself, but I’m actually glad you brought me here instead. It was…”
“Overwhelming?”
She gives a tiny nod. “Mhm, yeah. It was fun getting to meet so many nice people, but… y’know, it was… a lot to handle.”
And that’s fair, he thinks.
They arrived at the palace city earlier in the afternoon, and it was pretty much as Banri remembered it to be—clean, bright, bustling with people of all ages and from all walks of life. The only noteworthy difference was the festivities that were already underway: the balloons and decorations hanging between lamp posts, vendors setting up food and game stalls, and upbeat joyful music played from every corner of the street. It was nothing new to him—he’d been to the lantern festival before when he was a kid. Even as an adult now, he would swing by sometimes just to catch a glimpse of the lanterns.
Isa, on the other hand, looked like she was taking in a brand new world. Standing stock still in the middle of the street, she couldn’t stop gawking at all the foreign sights around her like a tourist (and in a way, he supposed she was, given she had spent her entire life trapped in that tower in the middle of nowhere).
It wouldn’t do to attract attention to themselves—who knew if the Ginsenkai bastards were still looking for him—but it’s gonna be hard to move around discreetly when her hair was a literal trail on its own.
Luckily, the solution presented itself in the form of a group of kids who wanted to play with her hair. Hence, he commenced the “style Isa’s hair into something that won’t cause a health and safety concern in the palace city” game, which ended with her massive tresses tucked together neatly in a long braid, decorated with little flowers and beads. It was a cute hairstyle, but what was even cuter was her reaction when he used two mirrors to show her what the end result looked like. The way her eyes lit up and she spun around in front of the mirrors trying to see her hair from different angles—she had no right being so damn adorable, but she was.
After thanking the kids for their help, he showed her around the city; brought her to his favourite haunts, showed off his skills at some game stalls and won a pretty necklace for her, and bought some local specialties for her to try. She absorbed every new experience like a sponge, gushing out her praises with a wide-eyed sense of innocence and wonder that made a strange—but not uncomfortable—feeling stir in his chest.
And he realised: it had been a while since he himself had last felt that way. Like everything was new and exciting and special. He thought he might have been envious of her for getting to experience such wonderment—but funnily enough, he didn’t. And he didn’t get why.
(Perhaps there was a certain magic in making someone else happy. He wouldn’t know—he’d never gone out of his way to try and make anyone other than himself happy before.)
Leaving Isa to gawk up at the sky for a moment, Banri goes to retrieve the goods he hid behind a tree, then taps her on her shoulder.
“Hm? Oh!” Her eyes widen when she spots what he’s holding. “You got lanterns for us too!”
“‘Course I did,” he says, lightly knocking her on the head with her lantern. “You thought I’d bring you to the lantern festival and not get one for you? Ain’t no point being here if you don’t have one.”
“Guess you have a point!”
Like it’s a precious treasure, Isa takes the lantern from him (and he can’t help but notice it looks bigger in her hands). She closes her eyes and mumbles something he doesn’t quite catch, before letting it go. If her eyes went any rounder they’d probably turn into marbles, the way she’s gazing up at her lantern floating away to join the rest in the sky.
“Whoa,” she breathes out in awe. “It’s so beautiful…”
But all he can see is her. Shrouded in the darkness of the night and away from the city lights, the only source of illumination is from the moon and lanterns above. Even from a great distance above them, the lanterns cast a warm golden glow upon her, making her look so ethereal he forgets to blink.
Ah. There’s a word for this feeling spreading from his chest to his fingertips and arms and face, all over his body. He has never experienced it before, but it’s not something he can deny any longer.
But now isn’t the type to give it a voice yet. Pushing aside those thoughts to deal with hopefully never, he takes his own lantern and closes his eyes. Even then, all he can see in his mind is pink hair and a brilliant sun soaked smile, as he makes his own wish and releases it to the sky to join hers.
Opening his eyes, he spots Isa standing right by the river’s edge watching the surface. The myriad of golden lights dance on its dark rippling surface, and its reflection reveals a strange look on her face. It’s not quite happiness, not quite sadness either. Her eyebrows are furrowed, as if in deep thought. What she might be contemplating, he has no idea, but what he does know is that he’d really much rather see that silly lovely smile on her face again.
“Hey,” he murmurs, approaching her from behind. One hand rests gently on her shoulder and the other scoops her hand up in his. He feels her start in his hold before relaxing back against him. “Remember what you’re supposed to do after makin’ your wish?”
“Ah! How could I forget?” She shakes her head and puts a smile back on her face. “We’re supposed to dance! But… we’re pretty far from the city. And there’s no music here.”
“So? Who said you needed music to dance? You can just move as you want.”
A mystified look comes over her face, like that was an idea she’d never considered before. “I… can?”
“Sure, let me show you.”
Sliding his hands down to her waist, he sways her gently side to side. She moves along with him, still with some hesitance in her steps. They start at a slow rhythm, simply swaying in the same patch of grass, before Isa finally lets go of her inhibitions. Her skirt swishes prettily around her ankles as she twirls around to face him, and she puts her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. A grin spreads across his face—now they’re talking.
His arms circling around her waist, he lifts her up effortlessly into the air. Her giggles are all the music he needs as he spins them around in several circles, making her soar in an imaginary sky created just for the two of them. He only lets her feet touch the ground for a split second before he dips her so low the crown of her head just barely touches the grass. Chest to chest, he grins down at her flushed face. She’s panting, but the way her hands are clutching at the back of his shirt is telling him she doesn’t want to stop yet.
And neither does he.
Still holding her tightly, he pulls her back upright. He tucks her head against his chest and leads them in a slower, lazier dance around the clearing.
This feeling—he’s seen and experienced all sorts of things in his quest to quench his boredom, but it’s safe enough to say that no person or thing has ever made him feel the way he does now. This sense of closeness to another person, having their complete trust in him, and the desire to never part from them.
It’s intimate, that’s the word.
And damn it, he wants more, if she would let him.
As if having a mind of its own, his hand traces the side of her face, making her look up at him. His eyes shift from her curious ones down to her lips, parted just slightly.
“Banri?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
His thumb touches her lower lip, and his body is flooded with need burning hot, hotter than the flames lighting up the lanterns. With a dry throat, he just barely manages to make his request. “May I?”
A lovely pink blush fills her cheeks at his question and the feeling of his thumb on her lips. He thinks he would like to see that more often, if he could. Has he ever wanted something so much before, let alone someone? He doesn’t know, and it’s hard to think when all he can think of is how beautiful she is and how loudly his heart is crying out for her.
In response to his two-word question, she pushes herself up on her tiptoes closer to him, and her hands bring his face down lower towards her.
“Please.”
That one word is all he needs.
His entire world spins when their lips meet, and it feels like his knees could give way under him at any moment. Oh god, oh god, he never knew it possible to feel so—so much from a single kiss. And it’s the softest kiss he has ever experienced—gentle, feather-light, and unsure. Which would make sense, he figures she wouldn’t have kissed anyone before meeting him. What kind of magic does she have over him, that the barest sensation of her lips against his is enough to make him feel like he’s losing his mind?
He can’t stop himself from stealing a second kiss from her, and a third one that goes deeper than before, until he loses count of how many they’ve exchanged and how long they’ve been wrapped up in each other’s arms. Her little gasps and sighs of satisfaction that he swallows down with deepening kisses spur him on, bringing them both down onto the grass as their legs can no longer hold them up.
The only thing Banri Settsu has ever cared about is getting a cheap thrill out of life—until he met a girl in an isolated tower with beautiful pink hair and an even more beautiful smile.
And with her fitting so perfectly in his arms you could convince him they were designed to fit together like puzzle pieces, with how full his heart feels like it could burst, he’s beginning to—no, he has already realised there is so much more to life than just finding little temporary thrills to stave off boredom. There is something here that’s bigger and beyond himself, something he wants to call home, a wish he wants to fulfil every single day. Something he can see now, illuminated by the myriad of lanterns lighting up the night sky.
And something he’s not afraid to put a name to now.
Love. He’s in love with her. And he’s going to tell her so, after they’ve both had their fill of kissing each other senseless.
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