Chapter Text
It starts with a pair of earrings, presented to him by Yggdrasil.
They're subtle enough, he supposes — emeralds in gold settings, not so large as to bother him or get in the way, but not unnoticeable if he were to tuck his hair behind his ear.
The only problem is..
"My ears aren't pierced," Kratos says, a bit confused.
Yggdrasil smiles.
"I think they'll look lovely on you," is all Yggdrasil says, brushing Kratos's bangs off of his face and using the motion to peek at his ear. "Bring them to my quarters tonight."
Kratos does as he's told. He has suspicions, but they're not confirmed until he walks in and Yggdrasil has a small table of needles set out.
"You're piercing my ears?" Kratos says, more statement than question.
"Do you mind?"
Kratos considers for a moment whether he might.
"No," he says, honestly. "That's fine."
He sits where Yggdrasil wants him on the edge of the bed, and remains still as Yggdrasil straddles him.
Kratos isn't surprised to feel Yggdrasil half-hard against his belly. He figures, most of the time, when he has an odd request, that it's something related to Yggdrasil's personal satisfaction.
He pulls Kratos's hair up into a ribbon to get it out of his way, and then he's lining up a needle just outside of Kratos's peripheral sight.
It's just a prick. It doesn't hurt nearly as much as some of the other things Yggdrasil has done to him.
Yggdrasil lets the needle sit in his ear lobe while he prepares the earrings, and then it's pulled through and quickly replaced with one of the studs.
Overall, it doesn't hurt much. It would heal quickly even without their crystals.
Yggdrasil kisses him once the first one is done. He holds Kratos by the side of his neck, thumb grazing over his reddened ear, and kisses him slow and deep until Kratos is panting against his mouth and grabbing at the bed beneath him. Yggdrasil kisses him until it feels filthy, all teeth and tongue and wet noises in the space where they pull apart and crash back together.
Eventually, Yggdrasil pulls back; he's seemingly uneffected to the outside observer, but Kratos is the one he's pressed against.
"Would you like to do the other one, as well?" Kratos asks, his voice noticeably rough but his tone as even as ever.
Yggdrasil shudders, and nods.
He goes through the same steps for the other ear, except this time, once the stud is secured in place, Yggdrasil immediately shoves Kratos onto his back and crawls properly on top of him.
"Thank you," Kratos breathes between frantic kisses, and Yggdrasil moans into his mouth.
Their dynamic has shifted and stretched and bent over the years, but it never breaks; Kratos knows him well, and Yggdrasil knows him well, and neither of them cares to question anything too deeply when they work so perfectly in tandem.
When Kratos returns to his quarters and catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, gold and green glint off his ears.
They do look lovely.
He almost smiles.
Chapter Text
His pierced ears go mostly unnoticed and un-commented upon, until he tucks his hair back while talking to Yuan about the plans for the next Chosen.
Light catches on the gold and emerald stud, and Yuan falters mid-sentence.
"Did he do that?" Yuan asks, forcibly even.
Kratos frowns.
"Do what?"
Yuan gestures his hand up toward Kratos's exposed ear.
"That," Yuan nearly spits. "The earring."
Kratos might blush if it was easier for him to.
Yuan doesn't know about him and Yggdrasil — not officially, anyway; Kratos hasn't told him, and he can't imagine Yggdrasil has said anything, but... Well. There's been times that Yggdrasil has been less than subtle about his intentions for the rest of Kratos's day.
"Who?" Kratos asks, playing either innocent or dumb.
Yuan's frown becomes a scowl.
"Is it true, then?" he asks, venomously. "The two of you?"
Kratos frowns now, too.
What does he even say to that? Yes, we're having regular intercourse. No, we haven't put a name to it.
"Mind yourself," Kratos decides on instead of giving him confirmation or denial. "It's not my place to speculate on Lord Yggdrasil's relationships."
Yuan scoffs.
"I think we both know where your place is," Yuan sneers, at his feet unsaid.
Kratos untucks his hair so the earring is hidden again.
"Maybe you should be more concerned with your own, then," he says, and turns away.
Yuan doesn't follow him when he walks away from the conversation, which is probably a good thing; they've had intense arguments before when Yuan won't leave well enough alone.
Kratos finds his fingertips reaching up and touching his earrings, though. They healed within hours — they were healed by the time Yggdrasil was done with him for the night. He supposes he could take them out, but...
...Would that be a rejection too close for Yggdrasil to bear? Kratos knows, in secret, that under Yggdrasil's mask of the indifferent god, Mithos has never left him. They're one and the same, even if Yggdrasil goes years without changing forms, sometimes.
Kratos considers it as this: if, a long time ago, Mithos had given him a pair of earrings, and had gently pierced his ears and placed the jewelry for him, it would have meant more than Kratos could quite put into words.
So, he keeps them in.
He's already gotten used to it, anyway.
Chapter Text
The next time Yggdrasil appears in his quarters with the small table of needles, Kratos feels it's only right to tell him about Yuan's suspicions.
"Yuan thinks we're together," he says as he shrugs off his capes and sits on the end of his bed.
Yggdrasil doesn't look surprised, or annoyed, or anything like that; instead, he smiles.
"Does he?" he hums, mostly to himself.
"He saw the earrings and made assumptions," Kratos says, giving him more context.
"And?" Yggdrasil asks, coming to straddle Kratos on the bed once again. "What did you tell him?"
Kratos only meets his eyes for a moment before looking away instead, Yggdrasil tying his hair up for him again. The ribbon brushes feather-light over his neck as Yggdrasil’s fingers work his hair into a ponytail.
"That he should mind his business," Kratos mutters.
Yggdrasil laughs.
"I'm sure he wasn't happy to hear that," Yggdrasil grins.
"I left to avoid any further conflict," Kratos admits.
Yggdrasil nods with a sympathetic hum.
The tip of his finger traces over Kratos's earlobe, the touch so light it could tickle.
There's been spoken and unspoken disagreement between Yuan and Yggdrasil for a long time. Kratos tries to avoid getting in the middle of it, or being the messenger for it, but that doesn't mean he isn't occasionally privy to it.
"Do you want more?" Yggdrasil asks, thumbing over Kratos's ear where he's envisioning another set of studs.
"If you'd like," Kratos says.
Yggdrasil's smile falls slightly.
"What do you want, Kratos?" he asks. He leans against him so they're chest to chest, his mouth speaking right against his ear. "Do you like them?"
Kratos hesitates as he considers his answer, the quiet stretching over seconds.
"Yes," he finally admits. "I think they look nice."
"Mm," Yggdrasil agrees. "Do you think Yuan will like them, too?"
Kratos swallows.
Yuan won't. This kind of blatant favoritism has been an issue since Martel was alive, but it's become a different kind of issue over the last few centuries.
Accepting more would be a decidedly non-neutral action.
"No," Kratos says.
"Does that bother you?" Yggdrasil asks, his mouth hovering high on his neck, just under his ear, and so close that his breath falling against Kratos's skin makes him shiver.
"No," Kratos answers again, slightly more certain.
Yuan is still his friend, even if he's not sure exactly where Yuan and Yggdrasil stand.
Yuan will also, in his usual fashion, avoid the topic once it starts bothering him enough.
"Good," Yggdrasil breathes.
He places a single, searing hot kiss against Kratos's pulse before pulling back and sitting up straight again.
"I think a second set of lobe piercings would look nice," he says, holding Kratos's face in his hands. "Just gold, this time, I think," he says, thinking out loud.
Kratos hums an approving noise, unable to nod while Yggdrasil holds his face.
Yggdrasil leans off of Kratos's lap to the small table he's brought in, gathering the needles and studs.
This goes quicker than last time; Yggdrasil doesn't stop to kiss him after the first one, instead opting to do them both without any distractions.
Once they're done, though —
"Lay back," Yggdrasil commands, and Kratos does.
Yggdrasil smiles.
He reaches behind Kratos's head to pull away the ribbon keeping his hair up, and he fondly runs his fingers through it to fan it out over the bed.
"Do you think Yuan would let me pierce his ears?" Yggdrasil jokes, and Kratos frowns.
He can barely imagine Yuan and Yggdrasil in the same room.
He also... Doesn't like the idea. Or, rather, he doesn't like how the idea makes him feel; the thought of Yuan with earrings is a neutral one — they'd suit him well, probably, just a couple small, silver hoops — but the thought of Yggdrasil doing it makes something inside him twist.
Yuan wouldn't want that. Does Yggdrasil?
"I don't think he'd appreciate it as much as you do," Yggdrasil answers for him.
"I think he would take them out as soon as you were out of sight," Kratos huffs.
Yggdrasil laughs.
"He would!" he agrees. "He would."
Yggdrasil gets off of Kratos and stands between his legs instead.
His hands nudge Kratos's knees further apart so he can be closer, lay himself down on top of him and put all his weight into him.
As the night goes on, Yggdrasil will, occasionally, pull Kratos's hair back or brush it behind his ear, and will admire his own work. And each time, Kratos will feel the strangest shock of uncomfortable pleasure, and each time, he will ignore it.
His new piercings heal by the end of the night, same as last time.
He considers tying his hair up to get Yuan's comments done and over with, but ultimately decides not to bother with it yet.
He'll deal with it when the time comes.