Touda walked the halls of Tenkou wearing only his leather leggings and armlets, the long fall of his hair, and a collar and pair of stiff cuffs buckled snugly around each wrist.

He knew there was no shame in what he did, and he felt none, but he still found himself glad that the palace was still and silent around him, everyone sleeping or preparing for sleep. He did not wish to have any interruptions. When he reached Tsuzuki’s door he slid it open and stepped inside quietly. As he had hoped, and rather expected, Tsuzuki was still awake, standing at the window. As he turned, in the moment before a welcoming smile covered it, Tsuzuki’s face was distant and a little sad.

Touda was privately pleased to see both the distance and the painted smile vanish when Tsuzuki saw him.

"Tou… da… ?" Tsuzuki’s eyes were wide and startled in the dusk and Touda’s mouth quirked for one moment.

He composed himself, though, and stepped forward until he could sink down to his knees at Tsuzuki’s feet, head bowed, hair coiling silkily on the floor around him. "You called me to come forth. I have come."

"Oh." It was barely a whisper, but Touda thought he could hear understanding in it, the echo of many years ago. Good. He was not surprised to feel Tsuzuki’s hands come to rest, light, on his bare shoulders.

"I meant to free you." These words were stronger, and softer, and Touda looked up at last, meeting Tsuzuki’s shadowed, twilight eyes.

"You did." He said only that, and waited.

Tsuzuki’s teeth closed on his lip, and he sank down himself until he could wrap his arms around Touda. "Oh, Touda."

Touda supposed he might as well be resigned to it, that Tsuzuki touched so much. If he were honest, it was something he had rather counted on, coming here tonight, and he let his hands curve around Tsuzuki’s back in return. "Do you want me?" he murmured.

"I… Touda…" The answer was yes, Touda could tell by the way Tsuzuki’s fingers stole up to stroke through the wild fall of his hair before being snatched back.

Touda bent his head again. "Then take me."

Tsuzuki stilled. "Touda. Are you sure this is what you want?"

Touda snorted against the curve of Tsuzuki’s shoulder; he couldn’t help it. "Tsuzuki, don’t you know how you really captured each of the others?" Exasperation wasn’t the most appropriate tone for this moment, but this was Tsuzuki, after all. It was likely inevitable. More formally, he repeated, "Take me."

After a long moment Tsuzuki whispered, "All right." His hands found Touda’s wrists and undid the cuffs, slid gently down Touda’s throat and undid the collar, throwing them aside.

Touda closed his eyes and stifled a shiver as he finally felt it. Tsuzuki wasn’t a kami; he had no river of dark, shining hair to show his power, to warn all who saw him of his might. But Touda could feel it nevertheless, flowing around him, the power to match Tsuzuki’s beauty, fit to captivate any kami alive.

He let Tsuzuki lead him to the bed and knelt there, spreading his knees wide, bending down; a thrill of heat slid through him as he remembered lying just like this at Tsuzuki’s feet, stunned, in the moment Tsuzuki had broken his chains. His lips curved, softly, hidden by the fall of his hair, remembering the kindness of Tsuzuki’s smile.

And then his breath caught as Tsuzuki’s hands touched him, bringing then into now. He shivered as those hands moved over his bare skin, stroking his arched back, caressing his raised rear. This was why he had come, to surrender himself, to take a master of his own will and no other, and he moaned, faint and husky, as Tsuzuki’s fingers opened him, setting things right at last.

"Touda." Tsuzuki’s voice was as gentle as his hands, and the contrast to the power that couldn’t help dancing around Tsuzuki’s every touch stole Touda’s breath. "I do want you," Tsuzuki told him, and heat ran through Touda, exultation that the poison between he and his master was purged after all. He moaned, clutching at the sheets, as Tsuzuki pushed into him, slow and hard.

Pleasure and triumph twined together. Triumph that he was the one to be mastered this way, the one, out of all the bound kami who yearned for it, that Tsuzuki gave this surety to. Pleasure at the power that penetrated him far more thoroughly and mercilessly than the slow, gentle strokes of Tsuzuki’s body inside his, pleasure that he surrendered himself only to one worthy of his pride.

"Tsuzuki," he panted, slowly losing his composure under Tsuzuki’s easy thrusts and wild, dark power. He could feel his own magic rising, answering Tsuzuki’s, and cried out as that shadowy, flickering strength locked down on him like a fist. Pleasure pierced through him, fierce and intense, and he finally, finally yielded to it completely, moaning as heat wrung him until he couldn’t see or think or breathe.

He lay sprawled over the bed, shaking as the heat settled, and gradually became aware of Tsuzuki’s hands stroking over his body, tugging off his leggings and armlets, smoothing his hair, warm and soothing. A faint chuckle escaped him; Tsuzuki was incurably caring.

"I remember," Tsuzuki said, quietly. "I remember how you looked at me, when I came to let you out. How amazed you seemed. How soft your eyes were. That was what I hated most about that visor, before I found out what it really was; that I couldn’t see your eyes any more."

Touda was rather glad his face was still hidden in the angle of his arm. "That was a moment of weakness."

"Was it?" He could hear the smile in Tsuzuki’s voice.

Touda hesitated for a long moment, but his reasons to hold back were gone, weren’t they? Perhaps the other eleven still didn’t deserve his honesty, but Tsuzuki had come for him, called him, given him the raw, naked truth he needed after the Yellow Emperor’s lies and schemes. "It isn’t only your power that masters me," he admitted at last.

He felt Tsuzuki’s lips brush the back of his neck and couldn’t help another shiver. "I’m glad you’re mine," Tsuzuki whispered. "Touda. Thank you."

Touda took a breath for steadiness and turned over, looking up at Tsuzuki without shield or mask, surrendering this, too. Tsuzuki smiled down at him, soft and brilliant, hands closing around Touda’s face, and Touda breathed out again. He felt clumsy and uncertain, trying to answer his master’s open heart; it was a relief to get it right. He had to close his eyes, though, when Tsuzuki leaned down to kiss him, sweet and tender.

This, he would admit to himself, was what mastered him, as much as Tsuzuki’s world-shaking strength—Tsuzuki’s gentleness, the compassion that had saved him twice over. A tiny voice deep inside him whispered that this might have conquered him even without that strength.

So he didn’t protest when Tsuzuki settled against him, arms wrapped around him, fingers twining delicately into the flow of his hair, clearly not letting go any time soon. Instead he rested one hand, lightly, at the small of Tsuzuki’s back and lay quietly as the moon set outside the window and Tsuzuki drifted into sleep.

End