Ship: Ikuya/Natsuya Fandom: Free! Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED Other Tags: character death, light incest, I ended up shipping Nao/Ikuya here because I'm a contrary fuck, surprise it's a Joker Game fusion, because Nao reminds me of Yuuki and I'm sorry about it, Ikuya launches himself at Nao as soon the story ends Word Count: 588
*shakes fist @ your general direction*
***
Ikuya hoarded Natsuya’s letters like they were written on gold-leaf, not allowing anyone, not even their mother to read them more than once. Natsuya wrote to both of them, purportedly, but most of his remarks were aimed at Ikuya anyway. He was always careful to leave out things that could be censored, but they were anyway, bold black lines cutting through the deliberately bland and colorless words of Natsuya’s everyday life.
I hope you are keeping well and taking care of yourself and mother. I think of the both of you and home everyday. I hope one day I will be able to swim with you again. Ikuya’s heart hurt at his words. He wanted it desperately to be true.
*
Natsuya’s photograph, framed in silver, had been taken the first time he’d received his officer’s uniform. His eyes were bright and his face shining with happiness despite the sepia. It always stood on Ikuya’s desk. It wasn’t that he forgot about it, but it had merely become part of the fabric of his life.
When Serizawa picked it up and examined it, however, Ikuya tensed despite himself. He hadn’t seen Serizawa in almost ten years, and certainly not after the war, and then they’d met on the street by some odd coincidence. Serizawa was as genial as ever, although his fair hair now was genuinely grey and he walked with a pronounced limp.
Ikuya’s social skills hadn’t completely atrophied -- he asked Serizawa for dinner and hid his surprise when he accepted. His mother had been glad to see him, after all. Serizawa had always been her favorite of Natsuya’s friends.
“Do you wonder what happened to him? The official account couldn’t be satisfying, I know since I wrote it.” Serizawa placed the photograph back to its place of honor and looked at Ikuya.
Ikuya wondered if it was a test, somehow.
“Of course I want to know,” he said. If it was a test, he would fail it.
*
Serizawa said that they’d been recruited almost straight away after their officer’s training had ended. Both of them were surprisingly adept at the great game, or so they thought of it. Natsuya’s innocent good looks had helped him many a time and Serizawa’s natural propensity to blend in with the background helped him too. “But we were naive,” Serizawa said with a sigh. “It wasn’t until our fellows started dying around us that we realized what kind of game we were in.”
Ikuya thought about the letters Natsuya had sent him, the details of life in the army. The little brushes of humor and grace all throughout what had to be increasingly grim circumstances. Had they all been lies? Natsuya hadn’t been fighting out there at all, but rather, in the shadows.
He looked at Serizawa, anger building in his veins. He hated him then, for taking away his brother for the second time. “Why are you telling me this? Surely you’re forbidden to say anything.”
“Oh, I am,” Serizawa said with a small smile. “But I have so little time that the consequences hardly matter to me anymore. I’m blind, you know, in my right eye. The poison works slowly but surely, but I’m helping it along.”
“How did he die, then? I didn’t ask about you.”
“He died with honor, defending you and yours. He saved a friend who he said reminded him of you.” Serizawa must have an excellent memory, Ikuya thought, to quote directly from the letter he had sent so long ago.
FILL: Team Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, M
Fandom: Free!
Major Tags: TAGS OMITTED
Other Tags: character death, light incest, I ended up shipping Nao/Ikuya here because I'm a contrary fuck, surprise it's a Joker Game fusion, because Nao reminds me of Yuuki and I'm sorry about it, Ikuya launches himself at Nao as soon the story ends
Word Count: 588
*shakes fist @ your general direction*
***
Ikuya hoarded Natsuya’s letters like they were written on gold-leaf, not allowing anyone, not even their mother to read them more than once. Natsuya wrote to both of them, purportedly, but most of his remarks were aimed at Ikuya anyway. He was always careful to leave out things that could be censored, but they were anyway, bold black lines cutting through the deliberately bland and colorless words of Natsuya’s everyday life.
I hope you are keeping well and taking care of yourself and mother. I think of the both of you and home everyday. I hope one day I will be able to swim with you again.
Ikuya’s heart hurt at his words. He wanted it desperately to be true.
*
Natsuya’s photograph, framed in silver, had been taken the first time he’d received his officer’s uniform. His eyes were bright and his face shining with happiness despite the sepia. It always stood on Ikuya’s desk. It wasn’t that he forgot about it, but it had merely become part of the fabric of his life.
When Serizawa picked it up and examined it, however, Ikuya tensed despite himself. He hadn’t seen Serizawa in almost ten years, and certainly not after the war, and then they’d met on the street by some odd coincidence. Serizawa was as genial as ever, although his fair hair now was genuinely grey and he walked with a pronounced limp.
Ikuya’s social skills hadn’t completely atrophied -- he asked Serizawa for dinner and hid his surprise when he accepted. His mother had been glad to see him, after all. Serizawa had always been her favorite of Natsuya’s friends.
“Do you wonder what happened to him? The official account couldn’t be satisfying, I know since I wrote it.” Serizawa placed the photograph back to its place of honor and looked at Ikuya.
Ikuya wondered if it was a test, somehow.
“Of course I want to know,” he said. If it was a test, he would fail it.
*
Serizawa said that they’d been recruited almost straight away after their officer’s training had ended. Both of them were surprisingly adept at the great game, or so they thought of it. Natsuya’s innocent good looks had helped him many a time and Serizawa’s natural propensity to blend in with the background helped him too. “But we were naive,” Serizawa said with a sigh. “It wasn’t until our fellows started dying around us that we realized what kind of game we were in.”
Ikuya thought about the letters Natsuya had sent him, the details of life in the army. The little brushes of humor and grace all throughout what had to be increasingly grim circumstances. Had they all been lies? Natsuya hadn’t been fighting out there at all, but rather, in the shadows.
He looked at Serizawa, anger building in his veins. He hated him then, for taking away his brother for the second time. “Why are you telling me this? Surely you’re forbidden to say anything.”
“Oh, I am,” Serizawa said with a small smile. “But I have so little time that the consequences hardly matter to me anymore. I’m blind, you know, in my right eye. The poison works slowly but surely, but I’m helping it along.”
“How did he die, then? I didn’t ask about you.”
“He died with honor, defending you and yours. He saved a friend who he said reminded him of you.” Serizawa must have an excellent memory, Ikuya thought, to quote directly from the letter he had sent so long ago.