Chapter Text
Lightly, Yakumo set down a medium sized wood box on his bed. Eiden wanted to learn more about him and his childhood after talking about his own during a conversation they had the other day, Yakumo couldn't help but go a little overboard by getting one of the old boxes filled with his childhood items from his grandparents house to get himself remembering.
Truth be told, Yakumo didn't remember a lot from his childhood, he thought looking at his old things would get him to though.
So there he was, he didn't really know what to expect in the box, maybe some old toys? Clothing? Photos? He didn't check at his grandparents house, rather he wanted to wait till he got back to Aster's mansion.
Yakumo took a seat on the bed beside the box and began to take off the wood lid.
Once off, he set it beside the box. The first thing he noticed was a snake plushie. He lightly smiled remembering how much he used to love that thing. It was one of the very first toys his grandparents got him after they found him. It was a little raggedy due to the years of him having it throughout his childhood, there were some patches of different cloth sewn onto it by his grandmother after it teared.
Smiling, he really was thankful for how caring his grandparents are, especially back then.
Yakumo soon got out of his own thoughts and placed the toy somewhere else on his bed to look at the other belongings in the box.
The next thing his eyes laid upon was an old school uniform he used to wear. He picked it up to examine it. It too was a bit worn and torn, with some rips that were hastily sewn back together from who he assumed was his grandmother, once again.
After flipping it, he froze for a moment. There was a significantly large tear. He suddenly remembered how that got there. The constant bullying and assault from others came back into his mind.
'So this is why I forgot' he thought.
Yakumo now wished he didn't bring this box back.
Memories of how he was constantly harassed at school by other students because he was 'different' as they said, came rushing back. Even though they were children, it still deeply hurt him.
They would throw rocks at him when he walked to and from school, ridiculing him about how a freak like him shouldn't be at their school. Constantly, he would come home with scratches and even bruises some times from the other children. His grandparents hated seeing him like that so they pulled him out to homeschool him instead, even so, the short time he was in that school was a living hell.
Yakumo felt his heart starting to race from the negative memories he was remembering. Tears slowly started to fall from his eyes, down onto his cheeks, he couldn't stop the wave of emotion that suddenly hit him, it felt awful.
Yakumo choked out a sob as he quickly set the uniform back in the box and started frantically wiping his tears.
"So weak." He mumbled to himself.
Everything felt horrible, why couldn't he had been born a normal human being.
His breathing quickly became more shallow and rapid as he brought his knees up to his chest to curl up, desperately wanting these feelings to go away, when a knock brought him out of his trance.
He felt shameful to let someone see him in such a state so he covered his mouth to hopefully stop the sobs from being loud enough for the person behind the door to hear.
He wanted to be gone.
There was more knocking before a moment of silence, to which Yakumo hoped the other party left. To his surprise, he heard a creak of the door opening slowly instead. Turning his gaze to intruder, he saw Garu peaking his head in his room.
Silent, with tears staining his face, he wordlessly looked at him from his bed.
"Yakumo.... are you.. okay?"
There was obvious concern on his face and even his ears were slightly drooped, he felt bad, nobody should have to be concerned for him like that.
"I-... U-Uhm." Yakumo stuttered, feeling overwhelmed as his heart beat inhumanly fast, he couldn't get out the words he wanted to say.
Garu slowly made his way over to him to embrace him.
Taken aback by the hug, he sat very rigid but soon melted into it, clutching at Garus back as he felt more hot tears well in his eyes.
He choked out another sob and burried his face into the other man's shoulder.
"Its okay, please don't cry anymore Yakumo." Garu said with a tone hes never heard from the young wolf yokai before. It was very gentle and quiet, soothing even.
...
They stayed in eachothers embrace before finally, after letting out a few more tears, Yakumo let up and pulled away gently from Garu.
His heart beat had slowed down and he wiped his wet face with the sleeves from his shirt.
"Thank you." Yakumo croaked out with a raspy voice.
He finally looked at the wolf yokai in the eyes and examined his expression.
Concern, which he wished was replaced with his usual smile instead.
"Do you feel any better?" Garu spoke up. Yakumo nodded before very quietly speaking again.
"Is it alright if we stay close like this for a bit longer?"
He was chewing on his lip anticipating an answer before Garu lightly smiled, his ears going back up too.
"Yes, I want you to feel better so I'll do whatever you want to do."
He took a seat beside Yakumo on his bed before slipping his hands with the other man. Giving a light supportive squeeze. Yakumo leaned over to rest his head against Garu's, taking deep breaths and doing the techniques Eiden had taught him to calm his anxiety. Yakumo felt his mind starting to ease more and more the longer he was with his companion.
Garu was someone he had grown close to this past year after meeting, he was grateful to have someone like him in his life. He was cute, kind, and enthusiastic about spending time with him, it really made his heart warm up. He too enjoyed spending time with the wolf yokai, they both felt at ease with one another. He truly hoped they could stay together forever.
Yakumo cleared his throat.
"Um, Garu- If I may ask.. h-how did you know I was upset..?"
The young man stared at their intertwined fingers,
"I can sense whenever you start to panic, I thought at first you mightve been in danger so I came as fast as I could.. before I heard crying from inside the room." It put a slight smile on Yakumo, knowing he came just for him.
"Thank you again, I've calmed down since you came in, you're really great."
To that, Garu turned his head up towards Yakumo with a smile, he could hear his tail thumping on the bed behind them. He was so cute, it tinged his heart, he wanted to see more of that.
Slowly, he tugged away from Garu's hands to cup his face. Bright blue eyes stared back at him, a scar prominent above his nose, he could see his cheeks turning slightly red, he loved everything about him.
"Can I kiss you..?" Yakumo quietly asked.
Instead of responding, Garu closed the gap between them to push his soft lips against the other man's. He tasted sweet, seemed like he had some type of dessert not too long ago.
Blush soon settled on the serpants face as he deepened their kiss, poking his tongue at those sweet lips, to which the other immediately opened. Exploring his mouth, he tasted more of the sweetness, he wanted more.
Before getting ahead of himself, he heard a little whine come from Garu, it pulled him out of his own insatiable thoughts and he immediately pulled away to apologize profusely.
"I-I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have d-done that, I got way ahead of myself and-"
His face felt as red as a tomato, and looking at Garu, his was too.
The wolf yokai cut him off with another kiss after he regained his breath. He wanted to be closer to him so he went atop Yakumos lap.
Slightly shaking, Yakumo wrapped his hands around Garu's waist, he was so small compared to him that his fingers almost touched as they were around him. It caught him off guard he moaned a bit into the wolf yokai's mouth.
As Garu settled in the other man's lap, he wrapped his arms around Yakumos neck. Those strong arms around him felt warm and nice.
Before long, their heated kiss broke apart as the two panted.
"I love you." Garu said, his face slightly blissed out.
"I love you too Garu- So much, I-I love everything about you." Yakumo slowly brought his hands up to caress more of Garu's body, to add emphasis on what he said.
His hands explored his stomach, which was met with a whimper, it was littered with many scars, then his abs, he never really realized how built the other was, it made sense though, since he would constantly save Eiden from difficult situations and if he had made it as long as he did in the dead zone he would've had to protect himself too.
He made his way up to his chest and softly squeezed his pecs.
By now, the other man was shifting around insistently and brought his hands to hold Yakumos arms, sufficiently keeping them in place. He whined.
"Ah p-please, stop teasing.. I want more."
He didn't realize it seemed like he was teasing the poor guy, he simply got lost in admiring his body. He apologized.
"Sorry, you're just so.. beautiful I couldn't help myself."
Looking at Garu's shorts, he could see a slight bulge in it, it made his face burn, he did that?
As lust clouded Yakumo's mind, he held Garu up which was met with a gasp and repositioned them. He towered over the smaller yokai, with his elbows on each side of his head, Garu was panting and half lidded waiting for Yakumo to continue.
There wasn't a word he could find that described how he felt at that moment looking down at him.