✔ blue-coloured beginnings 「 khunbam 」

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"Your heart should not grow so soft, Bam."

The brunet winced as the chill of Khunʼs hands came in contact with the stinging ankle he sprained amid the third round of the Crown Game. Absent-mindedly, his eyes followed the frost symbols engraving itself on his skin, the particles of shinsu slowly blurring the blue and purplish patches until ice twice as rigid as a plate mail enclosed from his knee to the tips of his toes.

"Look at you, all messed up. Perhaps, I should have killed them myself when I had the chance?"

Something about the menace reflected in the bluenetʼs seemingly innocent excerpt as he lifted his stare upwards, meeting the formerʼs gaze, caused even greater turmoil within Bam. At this point, he doesnʼt even care about the weight of the spells cast upon him anymore ever since the whole tests started- or even before that- as long as it meant that Khunʼs emotions would remain transparent in Bamʼs eyes.

"Aguero, there is no need for the situation to escalate-"

"No?" The younger flinched ever so slightly at the sharpness of Khunʼs raised tone as the latter released his ankle and stood up, the grip on Bamʼs chin stiffening as he propped it upwards for their line of sight to meet. "Thrice. You almost died three fucking times! The least those lesser vermins deserve is a working limb!"

"No."

To be honest, even Bam himself is at a loss on how he still had the courage to oppose the young Agnis, given that two out of the three aforesaid incidents was partly due to his lack of awareness to his surroundings. He understood that probably ever since Khun rescued him from the cave, he had always been naturally protective of him, so the bluenet reacting to everything that had something to do with him had was a normal occurrence, but sometimes, those reactions are projected to Bam in a fearful, almost unhinged daze. And unpredictability has always been one of the few things that the retainer cannot fathom.

"No more unnecessary deaths, Aguero. If it continues, I donʼt think I can handle it," he could barely utter, shruddering and red blotching over his vision as the memory of strands of blonde hair and blood dripping from the brandish of his sword flashed in a split second. 'Please let hers be the last one.'

"Is this about Rachel again?" Khun frowned, and Bam wished this wouldnʼt lead to another misunderstanding once more. To his startlement, the bluenet only cupped his face and pleaded. "She was barely a decent life, Bam! Please, tell me the truth. Donʼt leave me in the dark again. What are you so anxious about?"

The brunet averted his sight to the ongoing fight in front of them, bringing his knees to his chest and clutching it for dear life. He does not want to think about it. Just knowing that there was even the slightest possibility of endangering his best friend makes Bam feel like breaking into cold sweat, a strange, needle-like fluttering piercing his stomach.

"I do not want to fear anymore." Bam shook, his vision swirling until he cannot discern what was happening around him. 'Focus. Donʼt falter. You must make it until the game is over.'

Khunʼs grasp on his shoulders brought him back from his trance, his head aching in response. "And you donʼt have to! You have me! Weʼre supposed to be a team for fuckʼs sake!"

"Thatʼs the thing, Aguero!"

The buzzer rang, signifying the beginning of the fourth round.

"Iʼm afraid of a future where the price of my sins will cost you! I do not want you becoming a bargaining chip!" He doesnʼt want to lose him by the time people start coming after him. Learning from Rachel, the only person aside from the Ten Great Family Heads who knew about his mother, the girl who was in cahoots with Khun Maria, and as someone who tried to kill Khun, had been a hard pill to swallow. Just like how people from the Khun Family pursue goals out of practical interest, those from the outside might also be doing things in a whim, antagonizing and destroying lives for their own entertainment. "So please promise me, Aguero. That when the time comes, and Iʼd have no other choice but to take a life, the only hands which will be bloodied are mine."