Only with Your Heart

As tight as it got a little, slowly and carefully, Ruklov untied Chizuru's wrist.

As he held his body tightly about to fall into bed and lay down a thousand cranes in a move so gentle that he was too gentle, he raised a pillow to his head.

"Does it hurt?

As soon as he heard that, Ruklov shook his head mocking himself. "You've decided to hurt. Let's call Alde right away to cleanse his body. Call a medic if you need one..."

"Wait. Don't call anyone yet. Stay here."

Chizuru tried to sweeten it thoroughly.

Might be cowardly, but now that Luklov knew he'd listen to Chizuru's wishes, he really didn't want to miss the chance to stay with him.

"Here... stay next door. Just a little bit."

Ruklov did not answer and stared down at Chizuru with sincere eyes. I nodded a few times, as I had observed after a while, and hung a sheet on the body of a thousand cranes in such a polite manner that it did not suit a tough warrior like him. Then he lay one side of his body down next to it, supported his head with his hands, and looked down at his old lover.

Chizuru stares at him too.

The two of them could hardly distract themselves from each other, nor could they utter thoughtful words.

No - - Maybe you didn't need words.

Neither an apology nor a confession of love makes any sense before their interchangeable gaze. Even if we didn't bother to speak, they were all passed on through our souls, to each other's hearts.

After a long and gentle silence, Chizuru gently reached out of his sheets and touched the scar running from Lucrov's forehead to his temples. It's a dry mark like it's been years, but maybe it was pretty deep at the time of the wound.

Chizuru carefully contoured it.

"Can I ask you something? About this wound..."

As if, for the first time when asked, he remembered the existence of the wound, Ruklov raised his eyebrows slightly to show them. I don't feel uncomfortable with Chizuru's question.

"What do you want to know?

His voice, listening back, was calm and calm.

"When did you get hurt?

"Four and a half years ago. A short while before I washed my feet from the killer business and became known as the Duke of all shapes..."

"It must have hurt."

"Is that where you're concerned? How many rumors have you heard about me?

"Ugh, yeah...... but"

Chizuru could hardly find a good expression, but he took a breath without hurry before whispering. "There must have been something going on, right?

Black assassin, the king's forehand… Even if only from some human beings, an uncut eye so worried that it does not seem to belong to a man who is called that way, stares quietly at Chizuru.

Thousand Cranes' unknown fourteen years of his secrets alternate between his desire to know and his desire that maybe he should remain unknown. And Ruklov, too, seemed to be dying to decide whether to teach or not.

After a while, however, Ruklov gradually began to explain.

"... I had something I wanted. The king... promised to give it to me. I believed it... I had to believe it."

Chizuru remembered a man called the king of this country.

That said, only a few times was Chizuru allowed to see him, and none of them were for such a long time, so it is a remembrance. As far as I can remember, he was a narrow, delicate figure for a man of this era. I didn't seem like a bad person, but would I have been a few years older than Luklov, feeling a little unreliable to take the throne?

"But I wasn't willing to honor that promise to him... Or even if it was, he couldn't. I should have figured it out thinly, but I couldn't admit it, and I dyed my hands in evil for ten years... threatening or sometimes killing his political enemies..."

Here Ruklov cut the word once.

Looks like they're confirming Chizuru's reaction... No way, do you think Chizuru would disgust Luklov? If so, he's wrong. Chizuru narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"It must have been hard."

"I don't know...... At some point, I didn't feel anything."

"Yeah."

Don't lie to me.

Such an inner Thousand Cranes voice seems to have been properly conveyed to Luklov. When he finally took his gaze off Chizuru, he continued his confession quietly, blurring out at the waves of sheets.

"I used to go out of the country and be entrusted with the battle of war mayhem. Anyway, I was ordered from one side to the other to do things that defiled my hands, and I even followed them, like a mindless clown. For him - the king - there's never been a better story. I was able to apply mud to my face when I was treated like a hero enough to threaten the King's presence."

Lucrov's voice was always pale, but Thousand Cranes knew that wasn't because he didn't feel anything, but because if he was too spicy, he would no longer be able to express his suffering.

By birth, Ruklov is not a man who likes to fight.

When I had to fight, then I just had the courage to stand up without running, and I never enjoyed the fight, let alone the killing itself. If you can, he wants to live in peace as one or other lord in some secluded area, just as he currently does... that's what I've been saying.

Chizuru also wished that one day he could live happily beside (rather than) him like that... there was something I was hoping for.

Fourteen years ago.

Now, here, it is not Thousand Cranes who are allowed to cry. But it was too difficult to stop the overflowing tears from weighing in.

"On my last assignment, I suffered this wound. That's when I made up my mind. No more dreams to follow. Forget everything, give up, and live alone quietly."

Ruklov glanced back at Chizuru again.

He also couldn't help but seem to be trying to stop something from overflowing his eyes. I couldn't wait, and Chizuru woke up his humping body and approached Ruklov softly. Luklov arms and supports such a fine back of a thousand cranes, narrowing the distance much further.

Naked, chest and chest.

The heart and the heart, they touch each other.

Chizuru closed his eyes and gently kissed Luklov's cheek. Ruklov did not resist at all.

"What did you want me to do that much... what was it?

Chizuru asked his last question, staring at each other slightly apart. Ruklov answered slowly with a plundered voice as he lay his eyes down and opened again, staring at Thousand Cranes with his uncut eyes.

"Come on... I wonder what it was..."