Dino sat cross-legged on Kyouya’s couch, reading down a page in his book and ticking things off with a highlighter.
Five years whole-hearted devotion, check. Kyouya certainly didn’t leave much room for anything else, at least if a person wanted to live on with all his bones intact.
Never have two strings to your bow, check. Dino smiled wryly. Romario had been dropping hints about the daughters of other Families who were around his age but, after Kyouya, really, none of them were all that interesting.
Be assiduous in the practice of the military arts while thus engaged, check. Even if Dino hadn’t been inclined to keep himself in trim in any case, no one survived long around Hibari Kyouya without being able and willing to fight back. Unless they were a small, fluffy animal, of course.
Be willing to throw away your lives for each other, check. Well, all right, Dino was willing provided it was in the cause of their Families, and Kyouya just never seemed to think twice before throwing himself into any hard fight, but Dino was reasonably sure that fighting beside each other in life-and-death situations counted, given the tone of the rest of the book.
Right, then.
He snapped the book shut and tossed his pen onto the low table and announced. "All right, Kyouya, according to this book, having ‘prudently verified the root of my nature’, now is a good time for me to ask you to elevate our relationship."
"What are you babbling about now?" Kyouya asked from the other end of the couch, not looking up from his own book.
"A classic of Japanese philosophy, in fact."
That made Kyouya look up, brows raised, lip curled faintly. "Giving relationship advice?"
"Rather a lot of it, actually." Dino had to confess to some bemusement over that, himself. He certainly hadn’t been expecting it, though he was more than willing to take advantage of it.
Kyouya was looking at him with increasing suspicion and narrowing eyes. "’Elevate our relationship’?" he quoted.
Dino grinned. "Yep."
Kyouya set his book aside with precise motions, and plucked Dino’s out of his hands. He looked at the cover for a long moment. "The Hagakure," he finally noted, voice even. "A classic of Edo period samurai conduct and philosophy, indeed."
Dino waited. He couldn’t believe Kyouya, with his interest in such things, wouldn’t catch the implication.
Sure enough, Kyouya looked back up at him, eyes sharp. "I should verify your nature?"
"That’s what it said." Dino tried to stifle a smile. "And I’m sure I wouldn’t want to violate proper order or anything." When Kyouya didn’t move, he added, "Being as it says the younger companion will want to be careful when choosing a guardia—."
That did it.
Dino laughed as he landed flat on his back on the cushions with Kyouya over him, trailing off into a moan as Kyouya’s teeth closed firmly on his throat and Kyouya’s hands ran up under his shirt.
He loved that Kyouya only ever followed the rules he liked.
End