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If they were to ever find themselves on the subject, King would find Enzo to be cut from the same cloth. He'd never considered himself the paternal sort, even if he'd taken care of a multitude of younger siblings at one time in his life - his youth. He was too independent, too unattached.[break][break]
Instead, he turned out to be doting - even if she wasn't his own by blood. By this point, he considered her his own too. His family.[break][break]
"How 'bout you, Miu?" he asks in turn, ruffling her hair as the little girl huffs - seeming to finally get her courage back up when Delta waves. Tough little lady knight that she is, she marches forward with the deerling constant alongside her.[break][break]
The attention she gifts the entertained lucario for a moment seems to be the common ground she needed. She points at the jackal, but her eyes remain on Delta. "My dad has a lucario too!" Her brow furrows, "Oh. Not this dad, my other dad. Uncle Enzo is my dogfather." Over her head, Enzo is mouthing godfather with a snort of laughter. He waves a hand, unbothered.[break][break]
"Clearly Miu can talk enough for the both of them."

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[attr="class","text"] “No problem.” Enzo lifts a brow at the claim, but it falls as he laughs, “Is that so? She must be extra tough, if a Turkey leg is easy pickings.” It’s a light tease, violet eyes drifting away from the man for a moment to his daughter.[break][break]
He swings Miu down to stand with her deerling again, but her normal boldness temporarily wanes in the favor of shyness. First her hands wring at the hilt of the toy sword and then one clutches the hem of Enzo’s shirt as she ducks half-behind him, watching the other little girl just as attentively.[break][break]
“Hm? What’s got you so sheepish today?” Normally, she’ll talk just about anyone’s ear off.[break][break]
Maybe it’s the sudden swap from the safety net of a school setting to actively meeting someone her own age out in the wild of the real world.

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[attr="class","text"] “I leave everything in your very capable hands,” he concluded, a short nod given to the day manager who had been jotting down his instructions on a work tablet. Because of course, Enzo couldn’t step away from the Nimbus without checking things over several times before actually making it out the door. They were maybe ten minutes behind schedule. It was fine. Except now Miu, where he’d hoisted her up onto his shoulders, was now lightly drumming on his head impatiently. “Yes, we’re on our way now Miu, don’t worry.”[break][break]
“Uh, boss..”[break][break]
Except apparently they weren’t. Enzo stopped mid stride as the concierge approached. An apprehensive look shadowed the man’s face, as if he felt bad for interrupting their departure. Because, well, he probably knew well that interruption was never one of Enzo’s favored things. Even among his most senior staff. But he was perhaps feeling a bit lighthearted right then–a rarity to not be taken lightly.[break][break]
At least for right then.[break][break]
“Yes, what is it?” Absently his hands rose to stop Miu from continuing to use the top of his head as a bongo. “We’re just leaving. If you have any concerns, you know that you can direct them to Helena and she can handle it just fine, Tobias.”[break][break]
With the way Tobias was wringing his hands together, it seemed that he could not, in fact, direct his concerns to Helena. “Well, yes, of course sir. It’s just that–” he leaned forward, eyes flitting to the side in indication. “There is a boy at the desk who refuses to leave.”[break][break]
Enzo frowned as he looked over the man’s shoulder to the desk across the lobby. True to Tobias’ word, there was a blond boy parked there, no more than thirteen or fourteen, but still skinny as a reed. All awkward, new height and folded arms as he leaned against the edge with indifferent eyes. It felt familiar, in an odd way. He shook off the strange sensation. “So? Have security toss him, if he loiters outside, he’ll have bigger problems than hotel personnel soon enough.”[break][break]
“Ah, yes, I did make him aware of that, but the thing is, sir–”[break][break]
Once again, the poor concierge was interrupted, though more by his own halting that time as it seemed the boy caught Enzo looking. Across the room, their eyes connected, and again he was struck with that odd pang. His worker looked back over his shoulder then toward Enzo again. The little punk had slouched up off the desk and was beelining it for them, hands in his pockets. Or well, beelining as in shuffling in an apathetic teenage sort of way. With intention.[break][break]
“–he keeps insisting that he’s your son.” the agitated whisper caused Enzo’s attention to snap back toward Tobias, and then slowly, his stare drifted sideways toward Kosei. “Sorry, come again?”[break][break]
“Hilarious, getting all of my staff in on a little prank.” Funny joke, right? Really went the extra mile to make it realistic, right?

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Even now, Kosei was committed to the practicality of his arguments. But Enzo was rapidly losing the capability to keep up with verbal sparring. His thoughts had scattered with the jarring pain in his shoulder, the split in his eyebrow. It felt like a ringing between his ears might start at any moment.[break][break]

“Well maybe you’re my problem,” he spit back. In more ways than the obvious. In more ways than Enzo could really even acknowledge or admit to himself.[break][break]

His mouth was fixed in a wordless snarl right back at the other, inexplicable heat licking under the surface of the skin on his face. Furious, pained violet bored into dark eyes. And then in the next moment, fingers clamped to his jaw with enough force to draw an agitated hiss through his teeth. But it was soon swallowed by Kosei’s mouth within a breath as it crashed against Enzo’s. Something in his brain short-circuited with the unexpectedness of it. And then he was responding, angry and pressing. Teeth dragging on a bottom lip with no pretense at gentleness.[break][break]

Adrenaline burned through some of the throbbing pain in his shoulder, dulling it. But every shuffled and nudge drew the sting to the surface so that it mingled with the craving that bloomed in the wake of whatever… this was. The outletting of their frustrations with one another in a purely physical way. A battle of tongues and teeth instead of what probably should’ve been busted knuckles and blackened eyes.[break][break]

Yes. That was what he would call it, as though the lingering memory of that night in Lavaridge hadn’t crept out every once in a while. Something long forgotten to the recesses of Kosei’s blackout, but annoying stuck in Enzo’s as a resilient what if?[break][break]

Another flare of pain from his shoulder rolled through him, twisting to mingle with a shiver as Kosei’s mouth moved against his and a muffled curse tumbled from his mouth. Breathier than the furious litany of them he’d spouted before. Eventually his head rolled back, resting against the wall behind him as he eyed the other. His bad arm cradled itself close to his chest, but the other hand had crumpled around Kosei’s shirt collar. “Much more emphatic than the last time,” he wheezed, voice thinned and husky between the hurt and the satisfaction. The corner of his mouth hooked upward, knowing and clever.[break][break]

Even if his mind was scrambling. Even if he didn’t know anything at all. Just that he wanted to pull Kosei back under. He shouldn’t have liked the way it felt. To have that force exerted over him when he maintained such a firm edge of control over himself despite the flippancy he appeared to act with. Or maybe it was just the way it felt to be the focus point that Kosei fixated on when his own restraint untethered.

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Kosei Kiryu // m: recruitment act i

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[attr="class","text"] “You sure you want one of these, topolina? Out of everything else?” His glance moves warily up the line toward the hefty drumsticks being handed out at the front. He’s almost positive she’ll be grossed out by the bone—[break][break]
“Yep! —Ha HA!”[break][break]
Triumphantly, the little lady knight errant swings her foam sword and bonks him in the knee. The pretty pink deerling, dressed as her steed bleats as it skitters to Enzo’s other side.[break][break]
“Careful there, Miu,” he speaks lightly as he swings her up into the crook of an arm. “You might whack someone you don’t mean to.”[break][break]
A chorus of giggles follows as she bonks his forehead in response, ruffling his hair. Enzo sighs, “Have I been knighted, then? Or are you slaying the dragon?” He misses her response as a question cuts through her chatter.[break][break]
He shifts to look at the approaching man, along with a little girl who looks to be roughly the same age as Miu. A brow lifts at the oi, but Enzo doesn’t acknowledge the brusqueness beyond that. “Sure is. Strange how popular commodity food is.”[break][break]
He’s not interested in the meat stick, but he’s anything, it’s doting.

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He was arguing for the sake of arguing. To see what the other might do. Granted he was sore and tired and in pain. Irritated by the fact that Kosei felt the need to yank him around like a weightless pool noodle. But it was a part of the provocation. The game.[break][break]

“Do you even listen to yourself?” he hissed back. “You’re so pedantic, you have no flexibility whatsoever.” There was no way that Enzo would admit to any fault. And as far as he was concerned, there wasn’t anything wrong. He’d never been raised under a strict hand or an obsessive demand for order and routine. It definitely showed.[break][break]

But liberating Kosei from any of that didn’t seem possible. It must’ve been a futile effort. Or maybe it was worth it to provoke the spark of fury that seemed to light dark eyes. Even under the snap of his own temper, the violet of his own eyes flared with satisfaction. The edge of a manic smile pulling the corners of his mouth.[break][break]

Yes, he liked this. He liked letting his temper loose, and Enzo enjoyed spurring it.[break][break]

Still, though, his own lip curled in a snarl. “Well maybe I’m sick of you,” he bit back, nose wrinkling in put upon distaste. “You’re a bore. Maybe I’m a slob, but at least I don’t need to fulfill each and every order to a spotless t.” Regardless of what Kosei might’ve thought, though, Enzo wouldn’t have ditched him either, had the rolls been reversed or the other had been impaired too greatly. He was selfish, sure, but not entirely cold toward his partner.[break][break]

But there was little use in trying to reason with Kosei when his temper finally pitched. Not that Enzo was really wanting to placate him anyway. He might’ve had some regrets, though, right about when the heel of Kosei’s hand pressed roughly against his dislocated shoulder.[break][break]

“What? Nonononono—“ His refusal didn’t matter, interrupted by the sharp POP that filled his ears, before a wordless howl from Enzo followed. His stomach heaved, instant nausea rolling over him as his vision tunneled and blackened at the edges.[break][break]

Despite being effectively pinned against the wall by Kosei’s forearm, his knees buckled. That was likely the only thing that kept him upright as the stream of pained sound rapidly devolved into a flurry of curses. His opposite hand reached up to push back at Kosei regardless. “The hell’s wrong with you?” It was a halfhearted growl, though, as adrenaline kicked in again. Eyes narrowed in challenge, but also…not.

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[attr="class","text"]Enzo hummed quietly, “If you’d asked a younger me, I would’ve probably said that that was by far enough generosity. But now, I would suggest that if you think there’s potential to salvage something there by seeing him more often, it may not be so bad to at least test the waters.”[break][break]
Less chance of those what ifs that way.[break][break]
As Yumi turned to subdue the mienfoo blocking them, Enzo looked toward the edge of the trail where a ponyta lingered cautiously. It was smart to be so wary. With a click of his tongue, Asta surged forward one last time, uprooting the earth under its hooves with ROCK SLIDE.[break][break]
After he threw a pokeball for the lycanroc to retrieve once it had clicked shut, he turned back toward his companion. He rolled his shoulders, mulling over the soreness that had crept into his limbs, but more particularly his feet from walking so far.[break][break]
“I think that’s an excellent idea.” He smiled faintly, “A soak sounds divine right about now.”

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