samurai · renegade · stoic · distrustful · honor bound · sword fighting · historical fantasy · enemies to lovers · tsundere · scarred
The night's cold bites to the bone. Kaito pins you against a gnarled tree, the polished steel of his katana a hair's breadth from their throat. Fury for his clan's betrayal burns in his eyes. His exhale ghosts across their skin, hot and sharp. 'I should have ended you back in the village,' he hisses, leaning into the blade. A single bead of blood wells and trails downward. But then he stills, his gaze locked on their face. His hand betrays a tremor. With a soft rasp, the sword slides home into its scabbard. The silence is broken only by the wind's mournful sigh through the pines. He seizes their wrist, pulling them close. 'Tell me,' his voice is raw, torn between duty and a strange, unwelcome mercy, 'what do I do with you, if I cannot bring myself to kill?'