(in no particular order; including paragraphs for context; actual favorite lines are in bold)
***
“She thinks your dress is beautiful and elegant and… another positive description that women use about women things, and she simply had to come over and find out whether you made it yourself or bought it somewhere.” Kenreciel’s translation was nearly deadpan, but his tone livened up a good deal as he added, “I’m going to tell her you bought it at the man store where men buy dresses, shall I?”
“You are not,” Gent retorted.
***
“I’m just a little… not sure… about the whole…” Sano cleared his throat. “I mean, about you being a guy and all.”
“You’re not sure I’m a guy?” Saitou wondered mildly. “Would you like me to show you?”
Sano looked like he was torn between laughing and scowling, and a little uncomfortable still on top of that. “Yes,” he said hoarsely, “but not yet and definitely not here.”
***
It seems for half a moment like he’s contemplating my words, but before I can even begin to hope, he just makes a contemptuous sound and punches me across the face with his free hand. Which, now that I think about it, kinda is the tactical drawback to pinning one of his arms with both of mine.
***
It wasn’t so much that he was an overt asshole this time… just that he was still undervaluing me. I blew up an entire fucking battleship singlehandedly, by being awesome, and kept from getting shot in the process, and he still didn’t have a word to say to me. I’d say it’s like I don’t exist, but I sure as hell seem to when he wants to beat someone up…
***
I don’t seem to be nearly as surprised as I should be to see him charging at the doors in that silly-looking attack position of his. There’s no way he’s going to be able to…
Well, I guess there is a way.
Wait, I took one of those to the shoulder? What the hell am I made of?!
He stands back in this kind of ‘after you’ gesture, satisfied with the jagged hole he just put in the thick metal doors. Hell, I’d be pleased with myself too.
***
The night that had middled so promisingly ended up worse than it had started out.
***
Without haste he grasped the hilt and withdrew the blade; it shone as he knelt with his back to the lighted window, and in its silvery surface he seemed to see not his own reflection, but an image of the time this very sword had been turned away by an iron helmet, too late to save two lives from ruin. Appropriate, then, that this weapon should wreak Sano’s revenge on him, on the fool who wasn’t strong enough to fall in love but dared to do it anyway.
***
“Hey, boss, where you been?” Chou greeted him, glancing up from whatever he was doing, which looked to be essentially nothing.
***
“I can’t say I entirely approve of the departure from tradition, but I also can’t say I don’t remember what it’s like to be young and in love and impatient for the honeymoon.” She chuckled fondly, and sipped her drink as if giving Seijuurou a chance to reply. As if he had any answer to her mooning over a romantic past whose very implication was distasteful to him. She was the queen’s military advisor, after all, and probably handled her love affairs much as she would handle a war.
***
It was with a pleased breath of fresh outdoor air that he heard the door close behind him and started down the long, shrubbery-flanked walk through the front grounds to get off the property and back to simpler life. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so glad to get out of someone’s house. He thought that in the previous instance, the building might have been on fire.
***
The truly sad thing was that the rurouni didn’t seem to know what he was doing. Sad, but not particularly shocking: Himura was about the last person in the world Saitou would expect to know how to make a young man scream properly. This wasn’t something that would normally occupy Saitou’s mind for more than half a derisive minute, but due to the aforementioned exhibitionism, the issue intruded on his consciousness with irritating regularity. One of these times he was going to arrest just Himura and claim it was on charges of being bad at sex.
***
“Fuck subtlety,” was Sano’s growled retort as he hurled himself forward to attack for… yes, Saitou believed, this really had to be the thirtieth time.
“Your personality in two words,” the officer marveled as he jerked aside.
***
The truth was, for the first time he was beginning to feel a touch of guilt. Wasn’t he, in a sense, taking advantage of Heikio here with the half-truth that his reason for picking him up had been to explore his recently-discovered homosexual urges? And not having been entirely open with him at first made the idea of explaining everything now seem more than a little awkward.
Sano was distracted from these gloomy thoughts by a rack of leather pants.
***
“I didn’t know you were seeing him!” Kamatari — sent by the devious roosterhead (who knew what would happen if he did this) to alert Saitou of his presence — squealed gleefully.