Trials (An ErasermicXreader Medieval AU)

Chapter 7

Despite yourself you couldn't get the image of Shouta's body out of your mind, even as the two of you held your breath and rushed through the tall grasses of the farm hizashi had given you the directions to. You were meant to be focusing on being silent, being stealthy and blending in with your environment, but if you were honest the sight of Shouta, dripping in water, pants barely covering his manhood and smirking at you was currently running laps around your mind. Everytime the thought would fade away you would rejoice, happy to be able to focus on flattening the grass beneath your feet without making a sound or swatting branches from your face as you stalked through the woods surrounding the farm. But then, despite our best efforts the image would appear. Like an embarrassing memory from childhood that offered you no rest in your sleeping hours.

It felt wrong every time it happened, as if you were violating his privacy. It was his fault to begin with, you tried to reason halfway through the ride to the farm, he had been so blasé about being half clothed around you in the first place. After a certain point, it got so bad you had to start thinking about Hizashi to run a spike of guilt straight through you for even thinking about Shouta.

You shook your head free of the thought, instead looking towards the barn dark as the night sky above on the inside. If he was in there he certainly wasn't betraying himself to the outside world. As you and Shouta drew nearer it grew harder for you unsteady legs to keep up without stumbling over themselves but it also became easier for you to push the devilish thoughts of his body from your mind instead dwell on what lay beyond the barn door. What if Hizashi had been found by the farmer, or worse whoever he had alerted you to run from. What he was gone, already moved one unable to inform Shouta, how sour would the man's mood be then? What if, and you tried not to think about it, but with how panicked Shouta had been earlier you couldn't help yourself. What if you walked in and found blood soaked hay and Hizashi's cold body strewn across the floor. The image of your gnarled conjured blade sticking out from his chest appeared in your mind, after all it was the first time you'd seen a man freshly killed. Guilt rose up inside of you, and your steps faltered.

As if he'd been watching you Shouta paused when you did and looked back, his heavy brows knit together. He didn't dare say anything, not make any more noise then he had to, but his eyes asked the questions his lips could not. He was...worried.

You shocked your head and pointed to your foot as if allude having stepped in or on something then waved him off. He nodded, turned back towards the barn and started forward again. You shook the image from your mind, wishing whole heartedly that your mind would go back to bringing up your previous inappropriate thought instead, but the image that flashed across your mind made your stomach drop each time. That purple, gnarled blade running straight through Hizashi's chest, blood pooling around him soaking hay and staining raw wooden floors.

You swallowed hard and pushed forwards, trying to focus one your steps and the aches in your legs instead of what lay ahead for you. You did such a good job at focusing on your foot steps that you ran right into Shouta when he stopped in front of the barn's outer wall. He fell forward onto his knees from his crouching position, his arms reaching sideways and catching you before you toppled directly on top of him. You straightened yourself out and leaned against the barn wall, partially to obscure yourself from prying eyes and to blend in and also to help your weakened knees as you fought off the butterflies that were swarming the insides of your stomach. You tried to tell yourself the butterflies were nerves from almost toppling over Shouta and possibly making horrendous amounts of noise in the process but a small part of you knew it was simply his touch.

Shouta crept forward and waved you forwards with him, moving slow enough that you were able to keep quiet. You had no doubt that if you hadn't been with him he would have been ten times as fast and nearly silent. He held his hand up over his shoulder to stop you and turned just enough so you could see his mouth mimic the word "wait."