Your Protector

Chapter 24

It was Monday morning, the day after the two boys woke up in Budo's bed completely naked. The martial artist seemed content as usual; I mean, it's not every day he gets to wake up knowing he had claimed Taro's virginity. His boyfriend on the other hand, seemed to have something on his mind, something that was causing him distress. It was discreet, but Budo could tell that something was bothering Taro, and he had a pretty good idea on what it was.

"Taro?"

The bookworm snapped his head at him, as if he had just been caught doing something illegal. "Hmm? Y-yes, Budo?"

The martial artist had his eyes furrowed. "Are you okay?"

Taro's eyes widened a bit. "Huh? Uh... why wouldn't I be?" he questioned, in a voice that was clearly trying to hide the truth.

Budo lifted his eyes to the heavens; he was not going to play these 'beat around the bush' games with Taro. He's already had enough of that. "Oh I don't know," he shrugged. "Yesterday you wouldn't stop panicking over the fact we allegedly slept together. Are you still worrying about that?"

Taro looked at him a bit insulted. "Is it a bad thing to worry?"

"Worry about what? It happened–"

"MAY have happened!" he quickly, and quite desperately, corrected him.

Budo sighed. He knew there was nothing alleged about it—I mean, why would he have had that dream of making love to Taro if it didn't happen? He only kept saying 'may' or 'allegedly' to ease Taro's anxiety. The poor boy already has enough on his shoulders to worry about. "It may have happened, but that was yesterday. Now it's today, and we can pretend that night never happened. And hey, now we know not to go to someone's party when there's alcohol involved," he chuckled in hopes to lighten the mood.

Taro pouted and looked away. "Told you we shouldn't have gone," he grumbled.

Budo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you were right. But look on the bright side, babe."

Taro sputtered nonsense as he looked at Budo like he was insane. "What bright side?!"

Budo bit his lip; he was probably going to regret saying this. "We were each other's first time," he mumbled with a pathetic smile.

Taro glared at him, before reaching up and tugging hard on his hachimaki, receiving a whiny 'ow!' from Budo.

As Budo adjusted his hachimaki, Taro sighed and hugged himself, needing to get something else that was bothering him off his chest. "Budo..."

Budo resisted the urge to get back at Taro for pulling his hachimaki and ruining its position. "What now, Taro?" he sighed a bit irritably.

The boy's lips turned into a thin line. He walked while keeping his eyes to the ground. "Um... do you... have any... regrets?"

Budo raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Do you regret what we may have done that night?"

Budo looked at him like it was a silly question. "Why would I?"

Taro rolled his eyes at having to spell it out for him. "Because you... didn't technically have... sex with a biological man..." the last part was barely audible.

"So you're asking if I regret sleeping with a trans man?"

Taro still kept his head low. He meekly nodded, and Budo sighed. "Taro, how many times do I have to spell it out for you? I. Don't. Care. If you're trans. If there's anyone I want to take my virginity, it's you." Taro slowly looked up at him with sad, yet adorable, black eyes. "Granted, I would've preferred it to happen later in our relationship, but I do not regret sharing my body with you."