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Dawn light streamed in through the window, suffusing everything with an amber hue and rousing Sakazuki from his slumber. A light breeze blew in from the open window bringing with it the fresh scent of the sea and the sounds of birds. As he continued to shake off the enchanting grip of sleep, he noticed his shoulder was aching. This wasn't entirely unusual—his body was in an almost constant state soreness since he joined the marines last year—but as he came fully to, he was able to see why it was suddenly in pain.
His hand, more specifically the base of his right palm, was being pulled away from his body by some invisible force. The sensation had been there for as long as Sakazuki could remember, but it was always just a dull ache. Just a reminder, an ever present companion that told him to get out to sea, to get far away from the ramshackle town of his birth and find the one he was destined for.
Sakazuki grumbled, forcing his hand down and rising to his feet. He swayed gently as he stood, trying to compensate for the unfamiliar drag on his wrist, seething at the inconvenience. Not two days ago he'd been promoted to petty officer, and he did not need this kind of distraction.
His morning routine continued as normal, but his focus was almost entirely on keeping his hand in check. In his morning shower, normally an efficient, uninteresting affair, he was momentarily distracted by another young marine and nearly launched the soap out of his hand and across the room. Breakfast was a similar struggle, as he was forced to chose between eating with his non-dominant hand and spraying his food everywhere with his spasmodic wrist movements.
By midday the pull had only gotten stronger, draining his arm strength and threatening to upend his usually peerless balance. Mornings always began with push ups which Sakazuki normally quite enjoyed. The repetitive motion, the rhythmic call and response from his captain meant his mind could just go blank. This morning, however, just as his mind began to drift, a particularly strong tug on his arm left him with only one hand to balance upon. Thankfully, he managed to keep himself from landing face first in the dirt, and those around him interpreted it as him showing off, rather than something so frivolous as having a soulmate nearby.
Morning warm ups progressed into late afternoon training, Sakazki's arm continuing to fatigue from the strain of holding it in check. And while Running laps with his fellow infantrymen, the unthinkable happened. He was rounding a corner, leading the pack by several paces, when he saw out of the corner of his eye a group of new recruits being led around by his base commander. One of the new recruits stood head and shoulders above the rest, and his sunglasses caught Sakazuki's eye. Before he realized what was happening, his hand had jerked away from its place at his side, careening him sideways and onto the tarmac. Several sets of feet trampled, tripped over, and battered his body leaving him at the bottom of a screaming, grunting pile of disgruntled human bodies.
Sakazuki could barely suck in a breath, elbows and knees digging into his body as their owners struggled to stand back up. Slowly, agonizingly, the pile thinned and he was able to rise, taking a seat at the edge of the track. He watched as the remaining uninjured marines continued their training, muscles burning as he once again forced his arm to stay at his side.
The man he had noticed in the crowd of new recruits was coming over to him, holding out his hand in greeting. His sunglasses, an orange-gold affair, matched both his shoes and the cuffs of his long sleeved shirt. "Ohh~ you took quite the tumble there, didn't you?" Sakazuki looked up at him, trying to mask the increasing discomfort as his hand did everything it could to humiliate its owner.
"What?" Was all that Sakazuki could utter before the muscles in his shoulder finally gave out and his hand flung forward, landing in the palm of the other man with a resounding slap.
The silence was deafening, seconds stretched to hours as every nearby marine turned to look at his predicament.
Sakazuki could feel the eyeballs on him and this unknown man. Soulmate meetings were always an event, but they didn't often leave multiple people injured, and the soulmates usually looked excited, or at least curious. He tried in vain to remove his hand from the other, but the pull was too strong and he only succeeded in pulling the strangely dressed man closer to him. A hot red flush rose unbidden from the depths of his chest and up into his face. He knew what he had to do, and it was better to get it over with now than wait until even more people were staring.
He turned to face his interlocutor, nearly his same height, and steeled himself. He closed his eyes as he brought his lips towards the other man's. The distance seemed interminable, and he could hear the chuckling and murmuring of his comrades as he continued forward. He kept going, sure he should have reached the other's face by now, until they were standing chest to chest. He opened his eyes.
The man had no head.
"Why don't you take me out to lunch first, eh~?" Came a voice from… nowhere? Everywhere? He pulled back, and the man's face rematerialized in front of him, nearly blinding him in the process.
"What?"
"Is that all you can say maaaan? I just wanna talk with you before we do that, you know?" Sakazuki grumbled. He wasn't sure what to make of this man, but it couldn't be good.
"Fine," he finally replied, unceremoniously walking towards the mess. The sooner he finished with this, the sooner he could get back to training. He could hear jeering and catcalling follow him as the other man followed behind him.
"Ohh, So eloquent! I hope all our conversations are this riveting." His voice trailed away as Sakazuki stopped listening to him, feeling his shoulder strain as he dragged him along.
The mess was open, but it was between meal service, so there wasn't much in the way of food. He tugged his 'soulmate' over to the fruit cart with the unwanted remains from lunch. The only fruit left that wasn't rotten was the pile of red delicious apples the mess inexplicably kept in stock even though they tasted like chalk. He grabbed an apple, and brought it over to one of the tables. He sat them down on either side of the table, fate enforced handshake still in effect, and plopped the apple in front of the other man.
"Lunch," he said with the finality of the end of a conversation. His stablemate picked up the apple and inspected it, seeming unimpressed. He breathed on the apple and rubbed it against his shirt cuff until it shined.
"Name's Borsalino, you?"
"Me… What?" Grunted Sakazuki, hoping to end this interaction as quickly as possible so he could get back to work.
"Ohh, making me work for it, eh? What's your name Mr. Talkative?" 'Borsalino' continued without missing a beat. He took a bite out of the apple, chewing it slowly for a few seconds before spitting it out into a napkin. "Koh, so scary! Are you tryyying to poison your soulmate? Here I was thinking you looked like an upstanding young man and here you are, trying to do away with me. Tsk Tsk, not very kind. You know if I didn't know any better, I'd say—"
"Sakazuki"
"—you didn't… What?"
"My name is Sakazuki," he breathed, enunciating every word, "and I have things I need to do today."
A wicked grin broke out across the other man's face, as he tossed the once bitten apple into the nearest trash can. "Ahh, so you caaaan speak. I was worried my new friend wasn't going to be a very good conversation partner~" He extended the last word unnaturally, his eyebrows raised in mock astonishment, lips pursing softly with each word.
Sakazuki's next words came out as almost a growl, "yes, of course I can speak. As I said, I have things I need to get done today. Would you just kiss me so we can be on our ways?"
Borsalino frowned, "sooo forward! But I haaardly think this counts as a lunch," he drawled, rising from his seat and pulling Sakazuki up with him. His khaki shorts, barely able to reach his knees, hiked up as he used his long legs to step over the table to stand directly in front of Sakazuki. Their chests nearly touched once more before Sakazuki pulled away, trying again to unstick their hands.
He stared into his supposed partner's face for a few seconds, distracted momentarily by the five o'clock shadow just barely visible on his upper lip. It was so uncommon for someone to be near his same height, most marines had to crane their necks upwards to look at him, but this man could stare directly into his eyes without effort. "Well if you're not going to be cooperative, can you at least be quiet? I have to pick up some gear for evening drills."
"Drills, hmm?" Replied the other man, that same smile returning to his face, eyebrows wiggling suggestively. Sakazuki let out a frustrated grunt before turning away from the man, arm wrapping around his own stomach, and began walking. "Oh, soo commanding! Where we headed, hmm?" They reached a staircase, and he began climbing without responding or even looking back. "You climb these stairs every day? No wonder your legs are so…" His voice trailed off as they reached a landing and began heading down a hallway.
Sakazuki stopped suddenly and was nearly bowled over by his companion, distractedly staring at his calves. "Watch where you're going," he shouted, before turning back to the door and awkwardly trying to reach into his right pocket with his left hand. He felt the warmth of another body behind him and a hand dragging across his tight fitting marine shirt. The hand dropped into his pocket and retrieved his keys long before he was able to manipulate his arm to do the same. His hand took the keys and began fumbling with them, trying to open his door. He muttered a "thank you," as the door swung open, and he pulled both of them inside.
"You still won't just kiss me to get this over with?" He asked again, the hope of getting the rest of his daily tasks done slowly fading. A tug on his arm turned his body to face the tall man, their mouths close enough to share the same breath. He reached up, almost involuntarily, and began lifting the other man's sunglasses off of his face and up into his hair. His eyes, the color of mud, bore into Sakazuki's as they got even closer.
Their lips touched briefly, the pull holding them together beginning to slack ever so slightly. "But I'm not sure I want to 'get it over with'," replied Borsalino, pulling back from the kiss, "I still never got my lunch!"
A slight moan rose unbidden from somewhere deep inside Sakazuki, and he thrust his face forward trying to make contact again. Once again, his lips met nothing, but this time the fury and irritation was replaced with a strange sense of absence. "We can get something to eat later," he found himself saying, to even his own surprise.
He felt the other man's hot breath on his ear as he whispered, "promise?" Sakazuki nodded, and almost instantaneously he felt the warm wet crush of his soulmate's lips on his. He returned the kiss, only dimly aware that their hands were no longer stuck together. His hand, now free from the grasp of the other's, clutched desperately at his partner's body. He traced his hand up the other man's back and into his hair and pulled him even closer.
The kiss continued for what felt like an eternity, before Borsalino pulled away, that same wicked smile on his face. Sakazuki found himself falling back onto one of the beds, the other man situating himself between his knees. "You know," he started that same drawl making every word take a century, "my favorite food is bananas."