If ever you feel like doing a prompt with Shiranui and Harada, I'd love to see what you come up with using "i bet you kiss your knuckles right before they touch my cheek"...
It all started when Shiranui’s elbow collided with Harada’s face.
Maybe it was an accident, and maybe it wasn’t, but one way or the other, Shiranui was going to pay. Harada’s face was no stranger to unexpected impacts, but he was usually able to shrug them off just fine. Thing was, after a day like he’d had, he wasn’t feeling as resilient as usual. In fact, he wasn’t feeling much of anything, anymore.
Shiranui didn’t seem to be trying to pick a fight, since Harada didn’t hear any taunts, so assessing the damage took priority over getting even. Slowly, Harada wiped his mouth, then ran his tongue along his teeth. That was definitely blood he was tasting, but at least he still had teeth. Given that Shiranui was possessed of demonic strength, that was a pleasant surprise.
Where’d he get off to, anyway? Cheek beginning to throb painfully—that lip would probably start getting fat real quick—Harada glanced around impatiently. Ordinarily, Shiranui never would’ve been able to land a hit that high up, since he was a few inches shorter than Harada, but he’d been getting up to go… somewhere. Outside? Already? Shit, was he seriously skipping out on the check?
Figures. The one time Harada ever agreed to have a drink with Shiranui, and the bastard ran out on him. Getting to his feet in a hurry, and making sure not to elbow his neighbor in the same way he’d just been hurt, Harada stormed outside. It wasn’t like Shiranui to miss the chance for a fight.
To his immense surprise, he discovered Shiranui staring up at the sky just outside. In the dark, Harada couldn’t see his expression, and his tone of voice was equally as inscrutable: “Hey,” he said, not turning to face him, and Harada curled his fingers into fists. “I thought you’d follow me.”
“Yeah,” said Harada, approaching, and came to a halt beside Shiranui. He didn’t seem interested in fighting, so there was plenty of time to prepare: he’d better make his first punch a good one. Raising his fingers to feel along his swelling lip, Harada winced at his increased sensitivity. Yeah, that wasn’t going to look too good once he got back into the light. He’d better call it a night as soon as he forced Shiranui to settle the tab.
Glancing sideways to assess his chances, Harada realized that Shiranui appeared perfectly unconcerned with his condition, and anger rose within him like the dragon of Shiranui’s tattoo. Acting on his previously suppressed impulse, Harada twisted sideways, throwing all his weight into his fist so that it slammed into the bridge of Shiranui’s nose at full force.
It was the only real hit he’d ever managed to land on a demon, and Harada was proud of himself for it. It was a solid strike, too; he could hear the bone crack. Shiranui yelped, raising his hands defensively to hold his nose in place as it healed with an odd crackling sound. (Damn, it’d be nice to have demon healing right about now. Swollen lips weren’t anything to scoff at.)
Assuming a defensive position, Harada braced himself for Shiranui to complain about how unsportsmanlike that was, or otherwise continue their fight and put on a show that would get them thrown out of Shimabara—but instead, his reaction was as far out of the blue as everything else he’d ever said: “You kissed your knuckles,” gasped Shiranui. “I saw you.”
Harada frowned, caught completely off-guard, before he realized what Shiranui was implying. “I was wiping my mouth,” hissed Harada. “Because you elbowed me in the fucking face.” And that shit hurt, he added privately to himself. Not that he’d ever admit as much to the man who did it.
“Did I?” returned Shiranui, giving his nose a couple experimental tweaks before deciding it was straight, and wiped the blood from his face with an unexpected grin. (Harada would have thought he’d be a little angrier about someone spilling his precious demon blood, but maybe not all demons were as weird about that as Kazama?) “Sorry, not sorry. Didn’t even notice.”
“You didn’t notice?” Bull-fucking-shit. He must have noticed. He’d been messing with him all night in less-than-subtle ways. Elbowing him accidentally-on-purpose was right in line with what he’d already been doing.
“I had other things to think about,” said Shiranui, shrugging, and turned toward Harada. Oddly, he looked completely in his element with a smear of blood still on his face. “Still do, actually, only you just gave me a reason to follow through. After all, I gotta get back at you for mussing up my face.”
“If anything, we’re even,” snapped Harada, patience completely depleted. “You mussed up mine fir—!”
Shiranui moved so fast Harada didn’t even have time to react, seizing his lapels and pulling him into a swift, shallow, and painful… kiss? What the actual fuck. Harada’s mind went blank for a second out of shock and disgust—albeit less of the latter than he expected—and he couldn’t even muster the strength to shove him away.
…Until Shiranui’s hands entered his hakama, anyway. That was when Harada’s automatic defenses activated, but they still kicked in a second too late. As gracefully as if they were dancing, Shiranui withdrew his hands and stepped back, standing a safe distance away to regard his confusion with an amused smirk and the hint of a crimson blush.
Clenching his fists as he felt himself flush too, Harada took a step forward in preparation to beat the shit out of Shiranui… when a coin fell through the leg of his hakama. Distracted by the clink, Harada looked down, registering for the first time the extremely uncomfortable sensation of metal coins jangling in his fundoshi. Had Shiranui seriously… just…?
Harada’s mind short-circuited, trying to process too many things all at once. The elbow in his face, the kiss, the hands, the sake pounding through his head… how was he supposed to deal with this? Weren’t demons hard enough to handle already?!
“That should be enough to cover both our tabs,” said Shiranui, eyes sparkling in the lantern-light. “I’d meant to stay a little longer, but I guess I got too clumsy and missed my chance. Oops.” He flashed the dumbfounded Harada another shit-eating grin, swaggering toward the gate. “I’ll see you around sometime, Harada. Maybe then we can finish what we started.”
Harada opened his mouth to ask whether he means the sake, the fistfight, or the kiss—but Shiranui only tossed him a last, roguish wink, and vanished on the spot.