Prompt: Free!, Sougisa, nymph/centaurAU, Everything about you resonates happiness... Now I won't settle for less
Parole: 770


The sun's rays draw complicated and fascinating shapes adorning the sleeping, small body of Nagisa, who leans against Sousuke's chest as he lies on his side, relaxed, enjoying the summer's warmth and a small river's sounds.
"Nagisa," he whispers, carefully moving a few hairs from the nymph's forehead with a gentleness he only reserves to small and pure creatures, just like the boy sleeping on him.
He fell asleep after a few hours of frolicking in the river, trying to get Sousuke to follow and play together, and yet did not manage. The excuse was 'the wound'. Well, it exists, right where the arm joins with the shoulder. It was caused by humans, and it will never heal. However, of course it was simply an excuse. He simply liked watching that little creature skip around, coo at cute animals that crossed his way, and bathe in the sun as well while Sousuke relaxed under a tree's shade.
His tail moves quiet every now and then, sending insects away, as his fingers leave a light trail up and down Nagisa's arm - which is when thoughts occur to him.
It is incredible, indeed. Nymphs, most times, possess a peculiar ability to seduce whoever happens across them, their bodies are delicious heavens for any one who meets them, and their lust is well-known across the land as simply part of their nature. Nagisa does not escape this rule. His charming forms are always barely hidden by a thin veil wrapping up his body, a lot of times Sousuke notices the nymph blush and bite his lip with desire as he steals glances of Sousuke's body.
And the centaur, as ironic as it is, might be the only centaur around without a desire for intimate touches, for mating, for nudity, for joining his body with someone else's. More than that, he found himself explaining that he hates that kind of contact. He hates everything about it, the way it makes him feel attacked, the way it makes him vulnerable, the invasion it entails.
It isolated him from a lot of other centaurs, and led him to a solitary existence, a sad and incomplete one without anyone to share life with. It must have been possible, for people of the past, to live with someone without having to engage in something they might have loathed on such a level.
And the one person who seems to be willing to do that was a nymph. Who, one day, will need to mate, to indulge in pleasures of the body that Sousuke cannot - will not - provide. And despite the fondness Sousuke found himself nurturing inside for that loud, bouncy and cheerful little thing - a creature that seems to be the complete opposite of anything Sousuke is.

He looks down at Nagisa - who snores softly nuzzling his forehead slowly on Sousuke's side, an arm stretched towards the back without being able to wrap around it - with a heavy heart as the thought of an end occurs to him like many times before, even though Nagisa's company truly brightened solitary and boring days on his own. A small light, sitting by him and filling the silence up with warm chatter. At first, it irritated him, as he was used to the quiet sound the wind would often make, being the sole one. But slowly, his ears became acquainted with Nagisa's timber, his chirps, and the tenderness in his voice whenever he said, "I want to stay by your side," despite being part of a colony that never set him aside. It was always his choice, one that Sousuke could not, reasonably, approve.
And he voiced his concerns over and over, yet Nagisa always replied with a smile and, "it is my choice, being with you."
That always brought worries along the way, but Nagisa never seemed to mind. He never looks worried, or anxious. He is a simple creature, enjoying another's company, and that is it.
Well, if Nagisa will keep allowing him to partake in his little shiny world of peace and joy, Sousuke will not go away from him.