2112/You're Not In Trouble

You're Not In Trouble
Date of Scene:	28 November 2024
Location:	Shin Hoshi Shotengai
Synopsis:	A kiss with Jadeite.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Jadeite

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
You're not in trouble, Mamoru had said, but we have stuff to talk about.

@};--',--'-,--

Now the two boys are down Shin Hoshi at a sushi place, and Mamoru has a little cooler with ice packs in it, for putting Anko's due sashimi in. He has already bought an assortment and put it in the cooler, and they're at a little table that they look almost comically large for.

"Thank you," Mamoru says once they're settled, the cooler on the floor between his feet, "for keeping me safe and fighting so hard. And I apologize for my breakdown when I woke up. And I love you. And what the fuck was that pose! It was so... so... there were like beams of light and you looked like a piece of european renaissance artwork or something and like you were having some kind of religious experience??"

Jadeite has posed:
"Like the Pieta," Tamaki says, because he spent the first ten years of his life being a good Catholic Midwesterner before coming to Japan. "I mean - you had died. You had just died, and I was pretty sure Usagi-chan could save you but I wasn't sure, and if you lived you'd need your body intact, and if you died for real it'd be nice if Usagi could have an open casket funeral, and - I couldn't lose you AGAIN."

He's glad they're both sitting. He's shaking from the adreneline drop - he'd fought to kill, though Usagi had fired the well-earned final blow. Being able to eat something small and easy to snack on is helping; so is being here, next to Mamoru, close enough to see him breathe and blink and live.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"At least," says Mamoru with a funny kind of laugh, reaching across the little table to put his hand on the back of Tamaki's, "it wasn't my fault. You guys can't yell at me for being reckless this time."

A beat.

"I'm teasing," the prince confesses. "I understand-- I do. But I'm still worried you're putting me on a pedestal. But I guess that's-- (while a little weird, not gonna lie)-- not really relevant here. Which is good! You were finding solace in your formative years' upbringing or something..."

Mamoru trails off, then looks wry. "Uh-- here I have something to distract you with."

He leans in, looking like he's going to kiss Tamaki, but says softly, "Sometimes I need *you* to kiss *me*."

Jadeite has posed:
"We can't! This is the fault of a bad driver, and you are as pure as the newly fallen snow," Tamaki says, and he snort-laughs, his hand twisting up to clutch at Mamoru's. "The pieta thing is less a pedestal and more a - look, we've died multiple times now. And I love you. If you're dying or in danger of it, I want to be by your side."

...wait. hold on. wait. "I can??" IS THAT LEGAL?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru hugs their clutched hands to his chest, resting his lips against Tamaki's knuckles for a moment, eyes overbright and looking at the table. And then the blond boy is so surprised and even disbelieving??? that Mamoru looks up to stare a little incredulously at him.

"Yes?" he asks hesitantly, as if it were some kind of trick question. "I keep thinking maybe you're getting abstract about it and I'm a very tactile person with the people it's safe to touch. You know? I mean, if you don't think you can just kiss me, there's definitely a perceived power imbalance that needs to be corrected--"

Jadeite has posed:
"No, no, no, that's not it, I promise," Tamaki says, raising his free hand. "I'm not trying to put you on a pedestal here. I mean, I might still be but I'm not aware of it?? But, like."

He scrubs at his face, trying to calculate what he wants to say.

"Before, I was in your face all the time. I never left you alone, and I couldn't deal with things alone, and I did all kinds of weird stuff to try and get your attention. I didn't respect it when you told me to calm down and leave you alone. And now, like - I have your attention and I know you like me, but. I spent so long trying to grab you to get your attention and didn't leave you alone. You have a life outside of me, and I am developing my life outside of you. I - I wanted to make sure that if we were kissing, it was because you wanted to kiss me, you know?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Affectionate amusement comes through where their hands are clasped even before Mamoru's face changes to show it. "I was giving you a perfect opening to shut me up by kissing me," he laughs. Then, gentler, "It's all right. I think-- if we're just honest with each other, and if we ask for what we want, out loud or through my power, we'll be okay. Because... I don't remember what time you're talking about, but if we're communicating properly then I don't think a time like that will happen again."

His voice gets much lower, and he leans in again and murmurs, "I want us both to stop trying to predict the other. If you need to know how I feel about something, please, touch me. If you want to kiss me, please do. Unless someone else is already kissing me, no shoving."

Jadeite has posed:
"I think - I'm going to wait to shut you up with a kiss until I"m more sure of my instincts. I've been not in my own head long enough I don't always trust it."

And through his touch, Mamoru can sense - tenderness. An affection that is bone deep. But also nerves, that he will go too far, that he will harm again. He wants to be there, but he also will not let himself hurt Mamoru again. He still fears, a little, that Mamoru will flinch from him again.

"Then - since no one else is here except us, and we've got all night," he says in the same low voice, his face flushing, "can I kiss you?"

(Not asked as a knight to a liege. But from one boy to another.)

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The prince makes this simple: he lets down his filters entirely, and Jadeite can see that Mamoru really wants him to kiss him, and he says, "Yes."

Mamoru's eyes are bright, and Jadeite can also see that Mamoru's still wearing a mask, and it's a mask of being okay with his senses after that nonsense. They're no longer jangling because Usagi fixed that, but they don't feel entirely properly seated--

--and when Tamaki does kiss Mamoru, those miniature sensory nightmares click back into place, and he's grounded.

He's grounded in the moment in time, in the place; Mamoru relaxes and Tamaki, Jadeite, can feel the life around them and the layers of building and ground beneath them, can feel the heartbeat of the city and its long history, of the land itself-- and the kiss makes all that attention focus on one point, their point of contact, their kiss.

Jadeite has posed:
He can feel the world around him. The earth breathing in and out. (Mamoru breathing in and out.) The song of people and plants and animals aroudn him. (The tiny sounds Mamoru makes as Tamaki dares to deepen the kiss.) The heartbeat of stone and concrete and brick. (The heartbeat under his fingers, skin to skin, heart to heart.)

He loves him. He is still afraid and there is a distant edge from seeing Mamoru dead again, the shock of fear, the icy rage that had frozen his heart - but here and now? He loves, and he is glad Mamoru is here and is welcoming him, and he is not good at this but he will try, he must try, his dear beloved Mamoru -

"I adore you," he murmurs when they stop to catch their breaths.