Loveless: Phantom Pains (Yamato/Koya)
This come second in the little series I'm writing about these two. It begins with Forever There. PS please ignore how Koya's name spelling changes. It gets romanized differently depending on which translation you read :|

Fandom: Loveless
Pairing: Yamato/Koya
Warnings: Sex. Up against a wall, even. Slight breathplay and shades of D/s.
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: ~3400


Phantom Pains

Among the world of spell battlers, there was very little cohesion. Few pairs ever found each other, fewer knew what they could do, fewer still were trained in any material way.

For Yamato and Koya, who fit all three of those criteria, there was a very small information pool, through which news streaked like lightning. That Beloved's fighter had taken another Sacrifice was old news. The trail of beaten pairs Loveless left in his wake, however – that was always fresh.

Koya pressed her hands against the side of her cup and jerked them away, fascinated by the sensation of the hot porcelain burning her palms. Her eyes glittered behind her glasses, and she moved to dip her fingertips in her mug when Yamato pulled it away.

"You're acting like a child," she said, a wicked light in her eyes.

"You're acting like Nagisa-sensei," Koya retorted.

"Am not," Yamato said, and stuck out her tongue. Koya pulled the cup back toward her and blew on her tea to cool it, peeking up at Yamato over the rims of her glasses. It made her world fuzzy.

Suddenly, she set the cup down with a clank, her head going up. There was another fighter nearby; they had just entered the edge of her senses. Yamato watched her, her muscles tense, as Koya slowly cast her eyes around the cafe.

The pair took a table near the door. A girl and a boy just their age, maybe slightly older, although it was hard to tell since they both still had their ears. The boy looked up, locked eyes with Kouya. He jerked his head, indicating they should move.

Koya nodded to Yamato. They got up and left their table, brushing past other patrons to pull up chairs at their table. This could be the break they were waiting for.

"You're the Zero pair, aren't you?" the boy said without preamble.

"How rude," Yamato pouted. "You didn't even ask for our names first."

"We are," Koya said, not seeing the sense in dancing around the subject.

"You fought Loveless and Beloved recently?" he asked.

"Yes," Koya said.

"How did it end?"

Yamato's eyes slid sideways to Kouya. She didn't like to remember the last moments of that fight, nor the few moments afterward. They had been – she had been – it hadn't been good.

"I forfeited the match," Koya said, blinking slowly behind her glasses. Yamato's normally mobile face stilled as well. She hadn't thought Koya would volunteer that. "By default, Loveless was the winner."

The boy nodded slowly. "That's what I had heard." He paused. "We've been sent to engage Loveless. We decided to scout beforehand. I'm Himura. This is my Sacrifice, Sadako."

"Who sent you? Seven Voices?" Yamato leaned forward. "Nagisa-sensei thought that guy had stopped sending Fighters after Sleepless."

That sent a flinch shuddering through Sadako. Her eyes sharpened on them. "That was Zero," she said, almost accusing.

"Not us," Yamato singsonged. "The little brats did that, we hadn't even been sent yet."

"No, we aren't from Seven Moons," Himura said. "Although we know of it. We were sent by a different master."

Yamato shrugged. "Either way, Loveless walked away from us. I haven't exactly been tracking his movements."

"Have you heard where he is?" Koya asked.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Himura said. "Nobody seems to know where they are."

"The Loveless boy goes to elementary school. I can give you the address."

"Ah, so he is an elementary school student...?" Himura asked, leaning back.

"Don't underestimate him," Koya said. "He has Beloved at his back. That one will do anything to win."

"He beat you easily enough," Himura said.

"Now, now," Yamato said, laying her hand on Koya's arm. Koya had gone tense, glaring at the other fighter from behind her glasses. Nothing about that fight had been easy. "You shouldn't be rude to cute girls." She winked, a smirk pulling her lips sideways.

"Himura," Sadako murmured, an apparent warning. The atmosphere in the room was getting thicker. The fighters had begun glaring at each other over the table.

"How is it that a pair who don't even share a name can do so much damage? Breathless-"

"Children," Yamato said, bored.

"Sleepless-"

"Underestimated Loveless," Koya said.

"I heard Beloved beat Zero all on his own," Himura said. "A Fighter without his Sacrifice."

"Natsuo and Yohji play dirty," Yamato said. "They cheat. It's easy to turn that against them."

"Don't say you don't," Himura said scornfully. "You challenged Beloved when he was still wounded. You-"

"Lynched him," Koya said with deadly quiet. Her face had stilled to the blank mask she wore when she was going into battle. Yamato felt the air pulled from her chest.

"And then they lynched you," Himura said darkly. Sadako's fists had clenched on the edge of the table. Yamato saw Sadako's eyes shift from Himura to the two Zero, but her attention was focused on Koya. They still didn't know – anything – about their names. Her name hadn't appeared on her breast for weeks – they practiced vocabulary, spellwork, felt through their connection, but... no name.

Koya rose slowly from the table. "You should see for yourself," she said, "who lynched who."

"You can't mean to challenge me here," Himura said in amusement. "It's a public cafe."

"Koya," Yamato said, her voice steady and light, even though she felt panic gnawing through her gut. She stood up, slipped her arm around Koya's waist, not caring who in the restaurant was watching.

Koya seemed to relax in her embrace, although her gaze never left Himura. "Outside."

Himura rose from the table as well. "Sadako," he said.

His Sacrifice watched him steadily for a long moment. Then she stood. Yamato's smirk deepened. They were trained backward – the Sacrifice deferring to her Fighter, instead of taking her Fighter in hand the way Yamato had done with Koya.

Yamato and Koya left first, Yamato whispering in Koya's ear, "What are you thinking, we don't even know our name!"

"We're still connected," Koya said stubbornly. "You're still my Fighter."

"We don't even know if you can still engage your system-"

Koya pulled out of her arms, turning to confront Himura and Sadako. "I challenge you to a spell battle," she said.

"I accept," Himura said.

"System engage," Koya declared, with utter confidence, and Yamato felt herself slipping into a familiar posture, leaned on one leg, her arms crossed. The fighter system expanded to cover the street, streetlights – people faded into the background.

"We are Tameless," Himura declared – so far Sadako hadn't said a word since they left the cafe. "We cannot be held down. We cannot be pacified. We fight with the rage and beauty of a wild beast."

He reached out, touched Sadako gently under the hollow of her ear – her human ear. Her cat ears had tilted backward uncertainly. She reached to touch him in the same place, and their names sprang to life.

There was a short pause, in which Koya was expected to declare their name. She swallowed, opened her mouth. Hesitated. "We – we are." She paused, gathered herself. For a Fighter to mis-speak was a step that would lose the battle before it began.

"We have lost our name," Yamato said, her Sacrifice's voice carrying none of the power that a Fighter's would have.

"You what?" Himura said, and the building of magic swirling around the two of them stopped abruptly. "You can't have-"

"We have lost our name," Koya repeated, "But not our connection. We have lost our name, but not our words. We are Fighter and Sacrifice."

Yamato felt a shock of Koya's power rip through her gut, pulling her breath from her. It was nothing like what had happened when they had declared their Zero name – this was twice as raw, thrice as painful, and Yamato thought she might fly into pieces. She swallowed as she realized what Koya had done. She had declared them as an embodiment of the pair, of what it meant to be Fighter and Sacrifice, of the connection itself.

"Oh," Sadako said in a tiny voice as the wave of power rippled over them as well. Declaring names was meant for intimidation – and Koya had clearly done that.

Himura's mouth twisted in fury. "You are hideous," he said, his words cracking out like a whip. "You are an abomination. You are nothing. You do not have a name to bind you. Your connection is weak."

"Koya, don't let him shake you," Yamato said. She recognized the words as a spell; she hoped her Fighter did.

"Our connection is stronger than steel, stronger than diamond," Koya declared, like the other spell had never even been uttered. "Tameless is nothing but a creature nipping at our heels. You are a mere annoyance."

But Himura shook off Koya's spell as easily as she had shaken off his. Yamato felt dread rise in her – Tameless was good.

"Maul," Himura said, and Yamato shivered at the unfamiliarity of the word. "Rend them with razor claws, take them to pieces!"

"We are steel," Koya said, building on her last spell. "Nothing can tear us apart. We are impenetrable. Refused."

"Ignite!" Hiruma shouted, and that one Yamato did know. "With the liquid-hot flame of a volcano!"

"Freeze!" Koya shouted back. "A blizzard from the mountaintops – your fire is quenched."

"It cannot be quenched by ice!" Hiruma countered. "It is hotter than the sun!"

Yamato felt the touch of heat on her skin, and then it burned – burned like nothing she had felt, burned its way through her body and then out her wrists, and a restriction sprang into being around her hands, white-hot. Yamato fell to her knees, panting.

"Yamato?" Koya asked, glancing at her. She looked frightened. Yamato wondered if she had screamed.

"Flatten them," Yamato said, her voice cold. "Into dust."

"Ash," Koya said, switching tactics at once. "Your fire is nothing but choking ash and dying embers. It freezes in your lungs, cuts off your breath."

"Ugh!" Sadako's hands flew up to the restriction around her throat, pulling at it. The two teams stared at each other, sparks flying.

"Ash so thick it blots out the sun-" Koya continued, but was interrupted.

"Torrent!" Himura said, a rush of water building behind him. "Raging water with a tsunami's force washes this away. It is nothing. Water is everything. It is all-encompassing. It drowns." Thick volcanic ash was a black haze around Tameless, but the raging wall of water washed it away, before bearing down on Yamato and Koya. Yamato swallowed – she didn't want to have to feel the sense of drowning through the whole battle-

"It freezes solid," Koya said quickly, and the advancing water crystallized into a sheet of ice. "It is like blades, like arrows. It pierces all defenses."

"It is nothing," Himura said. "We still burn white-hot."

"It is steam," Koya rejoined. "Boiling on your skin, scalding you from the outside in."

The scream Tameless's sacrifice let out made Yamato's skin crawl. The restriction on her hands seared into the skin of her wrists.

"A blustering gale!" Himura shouted over the screaming. "It blows away this harmless fog, cools the air. We are frigid – there is no steam-"

Yamato had just enough time to see Sadako's hands, now manacled like her own, when Koya progressed to her next spell, giving them no time to breathe or counter. "Winds at sub-zero, past freezing, absolute. Rob their bodies of all warmth. Numb their hands, their feet, their tongue-"

"I still speak!" Himura cried desperately. The attack had been twofold – Koya was attempting to restrict Sadako's feet and rob Himura of his ability to spellcast in one blow. Himura had to pick between protecting his Sacrifice from this specific blow or retaining his ability to speak. He chose the latter, and Sadako fell to her knees, no longer able to stand.

"You speak as a fool! Clumsy as a beast! Your howling produces nothing but amateur growlings and snarlings, meaningless and weak."

"My tongue is a blade!" Himura said. "It is a sharpened sword, it cuts you off at the knees, it severs the weakened bond between you, who have no name-"

Yamato screamed as something felt like it ripped into her chest. He was trying to sever the connection – and he was succeeding.

"We are one!" Koya shouted frantically over Yamato's voice. "You cannot cut us in two, because we aren't two! We are one pair, one being, one life. I am Yamato and she is Koya and we are the same!"

As abruptly as it had come, the pain vanished. Yamato panted, taking in huge gulps of air, and her manacled hands clutched the neckline of her shirt. Her breast felt tender, like it had been stabbed, and it burned like it had been branded.

"You are deaf, dumb and blind!" Koya continued, having completely repelled Himura's spell. "You have cut yourself on your own clever tongue, sliced yourself to ribbons. You are useless, a stray dog wandering the sidewalk."

"Koya," Yamato croaked, pulling the buttons of her uniform apart with awkwardly shackled hands. Her breast burned. The top of her left breast – burned. That was where – she felt – that was where their name- "Koya wait."

"You are insignificant," Koya sneered. "You are caught by the dog catcher, little mutt. You are trapped in a cage, you are restricted."

Sadako fell in a heap, blinded. Himura stood staring at Koya like he feared her. "Total restriction," he said.

"We win," Koya said smugly. "End battle."

Their system retracted, and Yamato's shackles shattered. She frantically pulled her shirt aside, but when she looked, there was no mark. It was gone like it had never been.

Himura gathered Sadako in a cradling embrace. The Sacrifice had barely said a word throughout the battle, although Yamato had barely said anything herself. Koya slipped her arm firmly around Yamato's waist and watched, head held high, as Hiruma simply turned and walked away.

Koya let out a shaky breath and turned Yamato by the shoulders, pressing their lips together with almost brutal force. Yamato clutched her arms, dizzy and drowning, and stumbled backward, pulling them together into an alley between the cafe and the stores next door. Her back hit brick wall and Koya pinned her hips there, her tongue swiping against Yamato's lip until Yamato's mouth fell open.

Yamato broke first, pulling away to gasp for air. "Koya, Koya, I have to-"

"Mine forever," Koya whispered, clinging to her tight.

"Yes," Yamato said, her own hands settling on Koya's waist. "I need to tell you-"

"I felt it too," Koya said. She sank to her knees in the alley, her head resting on Yamato's thigh. "Like our name was burning into my chest. But it disappeared as soon as the battle was over."

Yamato's hand drifted down to rest on Koya's hair, stroking through it. The fake cat ears she had worn were gone for good now; Yamato had tossed them in the trash two train stops ago when Koya wasn't looking. And since the tail looked ridiculous without the ears, Koya didn't even bother. It made Yamato tremble with possessive pride to think of everyone looking at her mark on Koya. "What do you think...?"

Koya was silent for a few moments. Then, she said slowly, "I need more information about Nagisa-san's experiments," she said. "I have a theory."

"Do I get to hear it?" Yamato asked, one hand tangled in Koya's hair, one hand pressed against the brick wall.

Koya looked up at her, her glasses flashing. "Only if you're very, very good," she said, her voice rough. Yamato felt her throat go dry, slid her fingers down the side of Koya's face until they wrapped loosely around her throat.

"And if I'm not?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper as she felt Koya swallow hard, felt her pulse flutter under Yamato's palm.

"I'll make you talk to Nagisa-san," Koya said, roughly, and shifted – her knees spread wide, her hands on Yamato's thighs. The hand Yamato had pressed against the brick wall trembled. This – this is what Tameless hadn't understood. This surrender, this trust, this feeling so intense it threatened to tear both of them apart.

It was Yamato's turn to swallow, as she looked down at the picture Koya made on the ground in front of her. "How would you do that, my Fighter?" she asked, squeezing lightly. She saw Koya's eyes flicker shut, felt the rasp of labored breath against her hand.

Koya shuddered, her hands clenching on Yamato's thighs, and Yamato eased up on the pressure. Koya looked up at her dizzily, panting, and her slim, nimble fingers slid underneath Yamato's skirt, rested against the hollows of her hips, pinned her to the wall. "I can make you beg for me," she whispered, leaning forward to press her nose into the juncture of Yamato's thighs. It was Yamato's turn to have her breath stolen, her hand falling away from Koya's throat and flying up to her mouth.

Koya lifted her skirt out of the way, dragged her underwear down to her knees. Yamato shifted her legs apart, a needy, breathless noise escaping her as Koya's fingers brushed over the sensitive nub of flesh within her folds.

"Hush," Koya admonished, throwing a meaningful glance to the mouth of the alley, less than twenty feet away. They were in shadow, not quite in plain sight, but anyone who looked hard enough would know exactly what they were doing.

"You were doing something," Yamato reminded her, smoothing Koya's hair.

"Oh?" Koya asked, pretending innocence. Yamato ached, tried to press her hips forward onto Koya's hand, but Koya's was having none of it, pinning her in place with her arm. "At this rate, I'm going to make you visit Nagisa-san in person," she said, amused, ignoring the heated glare Yamato threw at her. She slid the tips of her two fingers into Yamato and then withdrew them, brushing over the spot that made her shiver, then did it again, only slightly deeper -

"Koya," Yamato ground out through gritted teeth. Koya only smiled, leaned forward, swiped her tongue briefly over Yamato and then drew back again.

That was enough. Yamato grabbed Koya's wrists, dragged her up off the floor of the alley, threw her back against the wall. She pressed herself against Koya, pinning her wrists above her head with one hand, dragging the other down her body until she had her fingers in Koya's cunt and Koya's hot, panting breaths in her ear. "You want this?" Yamato asked, closing her teeth over the pulse in Koya's throat.

"Yes, yes," Koya breathed, rocking against Yamato's hand.

"Tell me who you belong to," Yamato said, her breath whispering over Koya's ear. She felt a shiver go all the way down Koya's spine, and her thighs clenched together.

"Yamato, Yamato, my – oh-" Koya's back arched off the alley wall, molding their bodies together, squirming against Yamato's hand like it was the only thing anchoring her.

"Again," Yamato said, rocking the heel of her hand down hard, smirking darkly at the barely suppressed moan that it dragged out of Koya's throat.

"I am your Fighter," Koya said, and Yamato was unprepared for the rush of spell energy around her, the pleasure that knifed through her, aching and hot in between her legs. Koya clenched around her, spasming, and Yamato brought her hand up to taste.

Koya latched their mouths together, greedily licking all traces of herself from the inside of Yamato's mouth, tugging against the hand that still restrained her against the wall. Yamato pulled away, tugged her around, pushed her back down to her knees. "Now finish what you started," she said, spreading herself open with come-slicked fingers.

Koya swallowed, her eyes closed as she leaned in and eased her lips around Yamato's clit, her tongue pressing firmly in long, languid swipes as she sucked. Yamato felt the shaking start in her knees, a tremble in her thighs, a catch of uneven breath in her chest, and then her heart pounded hard and she flew to pieces.

She slid down the wall into Koya's waiting embrace, laying languid as Koya fixed her clothes with her head pillowed in Koya's lap. Somehow they had gone unnoticed by passers-by; Yamato didn't really care how. She rested her hand over Koya's heart, her thumb brushing over where their name should be.

"We'll figure it out," Koya said, and Yamato smiled.

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