Ranmaru was stunned. You could hear the creeks in his breath between his exhales. He couldn't believe it. Nobunaga was here. He was here and on top of Ranmaru, sword on neck. Ranmaru could feel the line where his flesh met the steel. His body was frozen, and his arms were weighted down by his own awe and fear. The expansion of his stomach had stopped; however, he could recognize himself breathing, but-maybe not taking in as much air as necessary. It was as if he was trying to not scare Nobunaga off despite being the one trapped by his blade. Ranmaru's eyes locked with Nobunaga's.
Nobunaga's eyes, fiercer looking and piercing in his gaze. They had sunken in. His face was stressed, and his hair had seemed to become thicker and was slightly shorter than Ranmaru remembers. Was it war alone that had driven this successful conqueror into this state?
The night was eerily silent. It was as if the world had held its breath. You could hear the wind pushing on the door's thin bamboo ever so slightly. Nobunaga, almost as still as Ranmaru, opens his mouth finally.
"What do you want," despite him asking a question, it was more of a demand for Ranmaru's response to Nobunaga's call.
Ranmaru gulped. A numbness filled Ranmaru's tongue. Nobunaga's voice was deeper than before. More commanding. Ranmaru was captivated. Nobunaga's voice was so comforting despite the context. It was almost like a drug was being reinjected, except the dose was stronger. Did it always have a low growl? Two days ago, he could hear him, but the confusion made it seem like it was a different man who had commanded his soldiers to tie him up and throw him away. It was a different man who had refused to meet him in the room they kept him captured in. Maybe it was a different man now?
"Answer me! For what purpose do you have with me?" Nobunaga takes a harder grip on his sword. He pushes it closer to Ranmaru's neck. Ranmaru feels it nick on the tiny hairs on his skin. Any movement now would cut him.
Ranmaru's right hand twitches. The blade on his neck nicks another hair.
"Oda Nobunaga,"
Nobunaga's eyes soften ever so slightly as he hears his name gently fly out of Ranmaru's mouth. How long had it been since he's heard a voice call to him like this, begging and pleading for him.
" I have come to fulfill my duty as your page and to fulfill my promise to you." Ranmaru's eyes stayed locked with Nobunaga's. His face stern and unwavering.
Another silent moment interrupts their exchange. No one moves. The sound of the wind, again, fills in the dead air.
"You are no longer my page. I have no duties for you to fulfill. Besides, I do not wish to hear about kept promises from a man who betrayed my soldiers...who betrayed me."
Quickly Ranmaru blurts at him, pushing his head a little closer toward Nobunaga almost instinctively.
"I didn't betray you!"
"Where were you!?"
Again. The wind seems to take the lead. Ranmaru relaxed himself.
"I- I'm not…" Ranmaru's eyes start to burn. He could feel a pinch on his neck until it was warm. The warmth slid gently down his neck.
"After all this time I realized, I truly didn't know anything about you. You're Ranmaru Mori, yes; There were secrets about your past I never fully pieced together despite you saying you had amnesia. You have a funny way of talking. I thought, maybe 'this guy is probably a foreigner' but then my sister told me you made predictions about the future that seemed utopic. You said you lost your memories, yet you remember your mother, you had another commander you followed. Is this commander who you betrayed me for?"
Nobunaga grits his teeth. You could see the pain on his face as he talked about Ranmaru's commander.
"No! It's not true Nobunaga! I would've given my life to you that day! I-"
"Then tell me who you are! Who is Ranmaru Mori? Why did he betray me?"
Ranmaru finally lowers his gaze.
Nobunaga's eyes twitch as if was a slight insult to him from Ranmaru's part. The aversion frustrates Nobunaga and causes him to release the grip from his sword and lower it from Ranmaru's neck.
"My name is Hajime. I was born... hundreds of years into the future. My father, just like you, took me under his wing. He had taken me in when I was a lost kid. I... I loved him. I looked up to him. At some point I was trying to overachieve his expectations, however, one of my men-no, my brother betrayed our father. I made the decision to leave him to die despite the fact that we were oathed together in brotherhood. When I was confronted by the other members in my gang, they set me up, shot, and killed me. Next thing I knew I ended up here in this body, in this time period."
Nobunaga's eyes widened. He drops his sword and grips the front of Ranmaru's outfit. He shakes him back and forth, slamming his body against the floor.
"Don't you dare play with me! From the future? I've never heard such a thing. You think this is funny!? You were gone for eleven years and in that time, this is the best excuse you can come up with!? Don't think you can trick me now!"
"Toshiro kidnapped me!"
There was a quick pause from Nobunaga who ceased his violence.
"He shot me, threw me in the sea and sent me back to the future-only it was no longer the future that I was originally from. I was back, but things were different. I was being suspected of betrayal as well."
Nobunaga's face tenses, "you're not making your case sound any less good,"
"I'm saying…" Ranmaru sighs.
"It was a different version where history had changed. He, again, betrayed my boss and the gang, only for me to have ended up dead and back to this past. I was there for only a week. When I came back, it wasn't until Oichi told me the date of the current year, I had realized I was too late. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this- "
Ranmaru's tears began to gush out. It was like the handles of a running faucet had stopped working, unable to just turn it off. His face was sullen yet determined. Nobunaga stiffened. His gaze unchanging. Making Ranmaru cry wasn't something he had expected to happen in this reunion. It wasn't something that he ever thought he'd see again.
"Toshiro, he killed my boss- my father. He killed my friends and the only family I had left. When I remembered you were waiting for me, I came back as soon as possible. I had taken his gun and shot myself in the head just to come back to see you. I don't expect you to have pity on me or believe me… and I don't expect you to have sympathy for me, but my father told me I was free. And if I had to change the course of history just to complete this promise to you, then I will. That's what I will do with my freedom. I will never leave your side again. You're the only person-"
There was a knock.
Nobunaga hurriedly grabs Ranmaru's wrists and pulls him into a clumsy embrace. Ranmaru sits, legs slightly contorted, with his arms around Nobunaga's waist, Ranmaru's head placed under Nobunaga's chin, and Ranmaru's face buried in his chest.
"My Lord, it is me."
"...Noritoshi, come in."
Ranmaru twitches a little at the sound of Noritoshi's name being called so comfortably.
Nobunaga places a hand around Ranmaru's wrist and wraps his other arm around his waist, tightly pulling him in to decrease the bulkiness of Nobunaga's yukata.
Noritoshi opens the door without stepping in. He bows and then sits. Nobunaga continues to have his back faced towards the door.
"My lord, the generals want to speak with you about a pressing issue. He would like to speak to Oichi as well.
"This can wait until tomorrow. Besides, my sister is already sleeping, so I will not disturb her. It's been a long day."
"Understood. I'll be taking my leave." As Noritoshi begins to stand up Nobunaga interjects,
"Noritoshi, thank you, for everything." Noritoshi bows and then closes the door.
Ranmaru, still wrapped around his person, takes a big inhale, and gently pulls himself in closer to Nobunaga. Nobunaga grips his hand ever so slightly tighter around Ranmaru's wrist. Both men get a centimeter closer to each other. It was like a tiny magnet had kept pulling them closer to each other but wasn't strong enough to complete its pull.
Ranmaru looks up.
Nobunaga looks down.
Ranmaru inched in again, closer to Nobunaga's face.
Nobunaga gripped Ranmaru's waist just a tad bit tighter.
It was as if neither of them knew what the other was doing. Every push and pull were so small, so insignificant, yet sparked such a reaction out of the other, you could feel the atmospheric electricity in the room rise.
Ranmaru went in for the kiss. His lips pressed on Nobunaga's for the first time in only a few weeks.
Nobunaga's shoulders dropped from the release of tension. Like always, he didn't close his eyes. He watched Ranmaru's face contort just a twinge with desperation. His arm gets tighter around Ranmaru's waist again; however, he doesn't kiss him back. He lets Ranmaru hold him. It had been only twenty seconds of Ranmaru's lips pushing on Nobunaga before they released. Nobunaga in the last second almost follows Ranmaru when he lets go. There's a pang that can be visibly read on his face. Even at this age now, Nobunaga knows it's his heart dying and reviving again.
It was like he could remember every touch they've exchanged, every breath gasped, and it was flooding Nobunaga's thoughts. He had mourned it all. His face turned cold again.
Ranmaru, without looking at Nobunaga, releases himself from Nobunaga and sits two feet or so away from him.
They both avert their eyes from each other. Ranmaru couldn't bear to see Nobunaga's reaction to the kiss and Nobunaga didn't know how to respond. No matter how much their bodies remembered each other, it was still obvious that they were in fact strangers to each other now.
Nobunaga looked at his yukata and noticed the blood. He passes Ranmaru a small cloth.
"Clean yourself and go back to your cell. If you're so desperate in trying to convince me of your innocence, I will hear you out, but if you as much take one step from where my men can see you, you will be slain on the spot; I will have no hesitation on giving them my word to do so if I think you're plotting anything. We will figure out your punishment later, as of now, you're an enemy to me and my people. You shall not yet be trusted."
Ranmaru nodded.