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31_days2005-10-29 07:25 pm
still-ciircee.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-10-29 07:25 pm
[29-10-05] [Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles] Evensong
Title: Evensong
Day/Theme: 29 October, 2005/ Evensong
Series: TRC
Character/Pairing: Fai, Kurogane-->Kurogane/Fai
Rating: R! For language and non-graphic BoySmex.
Author's Note: I've had seven hours of sleep in the past three days so if there are things that are drastically wrong here, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix them.
Note 2: LONG. MSWord tells me that it's eighteen pages.
Summary: Rock-star Kurogane! Seriously. And you can find the picture that inspired it right here! And you (like I) can get it as a wallpaper from the creator...find that here.
Disclaimer: I don't know...CLAMP could get this cracked-out. Eventually
Dedication: To Chelle-sama, for knowing the roommates.
Evensong
He wasn’t a screaming fan-child, Fai thought as he stared at the crowd of weeping, pleading girls that were gathered around the back door of the club, trying to wheedle their way past the bouncer. He wasn’t so low as to throw himself at some rock-star just because said rock-star was completely gorgeous. Not even if that rock-star was Kurogane. He swayed a little on the spot and gave the door an appraising look. He might be able to slip in.
It wasn’t just that Kurogane was gorgeous (he was—dark hair, sunset eyes, that body) it was that Kurogane was just that cool. His guitar was shaped like a freaking dragon. Every single he’d brought out went to the top and stayed there. All three albums had gone platinum in a week. The music kicked almost as much ass as the singer.
“Oh, man,” he laughed at himself. Next thing he knew he’d be plastering the walls of his room with posters and getting shit from his flat-mates for it. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking backward, watching the door. “So bad,” he scolded himself.
“Tell me about it,” a voice said from behind him. “It seems like I’m the hottest ticket in town tonight.”
Fai tripped over his own feet, but he masked it as a graceful turn and he stood poised for a moment on the edge of the curb, trying to catch his balance before he gave up and hopped down. He was forced to tip his head back to meet those sunset-colored eyes, but it was worth it. He was so close he could feel the body heat. “Yeah,” he agreed. He glanced back at the crowd of girls and then at the man they were all trying for. Kurogane was leaning against the passenger-side door of a wicked cool convertible; the red dragon snaking down the front of his outfit matched the silver dragon that slithered in raised relief across the hood of his car. “Neat car,” he offered.
Kurogane twisted, just slightly, just to look over his shoulder at the car, and Fai’s mouth went dry. “Yeah,” he agreed offhandedly. “You’re out late, aren’t you?”
As far as shattered feelings went, that statement certainly put a crack in them. “It’s, like, midnight. That’s not late,” Fai protested, hoping he didn’t sound like a petulant child.
“I meant that the show let out over an hour ago,” Kurogane said with an air of obvious amusement. “You’re out late.”
“Got nothing better to do,” Fai answered with a shrug, trying to get his heart to stop trying to climb out of his chest. “Better than that, at least,” he jerked his head in the direction of some disappointed wails.
Kurogane gave him a long, considering look. “I’m out of here,” he said at last. Fai was tempted to throw himself forward, just to get a feel of the other man. Or at least another look.
“Sure.” He stepped back.
A small smile quirked the corners of Kurogane’s lips up. “Do you want to get out of here?”
Fai felt a hopeful blush heat him. He was thankful for the dim, orange glow of the sodium lights. “Sure.” He took a hesitant step forward, wavered, and stepped back again.
The small smile became a full-blown grin. “Do you want a ride?”
His heart stopped and then thumped once, hard. “Sure,” he managed.
Kurogane gave a short, mocking bow and opened the door he’d been leaning against, stepping back and holding it in one of the smoothest moves Fai’d ever seen. He tried to be cool himself, keeping his hands in his pockets as he sauntered forward, but he lost it as he passed Kurogane because Kurogane shifted and Fai felt his shoulder press and glide along the other man’s chest as he sank into the seat. Kurogane’s smile had turned sly and secretive and Fai nearly got his hand slammed in the door because he was staring at that smile instead of putting on his seat belt.
“You’re blushing, kid,” the words were whispered against his ear as Kurogane pushed the door lock down with a soft click. Fai shivered hard, and then winced in dismay. Blushing was for school-kids. “Oh, don’t worry,” Kurogane must have caught the look as he rounded the front of the car. Sliding behind the wheel and starting the car he tossed Fai a casual glance. “I like it.”
Fai waited a block before deciding to say something. Anything. “Um…you want directions?” His heart had given up battering its way out of his chest and was scaling his throat like a mountaineer hell bent for summit. It was hard to breathe around it and the lack of oxygen was making his ears ring.
“I know where I’m going.” Stopping at a red light, Kurogane looked over at him and laughed. “You’re not that innocent, are you, kid?”
“No,” Fai squirmed and then pulled a face. He looked back with his best smile. “It’s just that I’m not usually lucky.”
Kurogane laughed again, glanced in both directions, and ran the light. “Lucky you, kid, you’re about to be.”
Fai laughed too, even as some small part of his brain imploded from the sudden surge of lust. He couldn’t look away from the man next to him, caught in the way the streetlights and city lights picked out bronze highlights in his dark hair, caught in the strength of his profile and the way his hands looked on the wheel. He didn’t notice when they pulled up in front of the hotel. He didn’t even realize that they’d stopped until the valet tried to pull his door open.
“Um,” he flipped the lock and scrambled out, looking around. Kurogane was handing the keys off and coming at him with that sly, secret smile on his face again. “This is…nice,” he managed lamely as they entered the brightly-lit lobby. He fell into step a half a pace behind Kurogane, strangely reluctant to walk right beside him.
It was a nice hotel, he supposed, even if stopping at the bank of elevators nearly killed him. He slowed and Kurogane reached out and curled a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him on. “Uh-uh, kid. We get to ride around in the VIP elevators. We’re that kind of special.”
The smile and the hand that just stayed on him ensured that he would never be able to find the VIP elevators again. The fact that Kurogane used the room keycard to call the elevator and stowed it away again in his back pocket didn’t help. “Keen,” he whistled softly as he was pushed forward into the elevator. “This is bigger than my room. It might be bigger than the whole apartment.” And the plush red walls were covered with gilt-framed mirrors which reflected a view that was an awful lot like Fai’s imaginary room with the imaginary Kurogane posters.
“Mm-hm,” Kurogane leaned back against the wall, thumbing the button for the top floor. His smile went hot and Fai felt a shiver start in his brain and work its way down. He stared as a wide hand settled on his hip, fingers curling casually through the belt loops of his jeans. “C’mere, kid.”
He followed the gentle tug, feeling like he was moving underwater, submerged in some hot spring somewhere, lost in the steam. The soft tugs drew his hips flush against Kurogane’s and Fai bit back a whimper as he parted his legs around Kurogane’s thigh, straddling it in an attempt to get closer. He felt off balance but he couldn’t object since he was off balance against a whole lot of hard muscles and intoxicating scents. “Good enough?” he asked, unable to meet his eyes, unable to look away. He wasn’t sure where to put his hands and settled for grabbing onto the handrail behind Kurogane’s back.
The fingers in his belt loops pulled, hitching his hips against Kurogane’s and Fai bit back a moan at the heat and the rub. He’d been hard since the car and he could now feel an answering hardness against his belly. “A little closer,” Kurogane murmured in his ear, pulling again, making Fai whimper. “It’s a long ride to the penthouse.”
“Are we going to have sex in the elevator?” Fai asked hopefully, going up on his toes to get closer. To get more.
Kurogane chuckled darkly and his free hand, which had been resting on the rail, found Fai’s knee and began to run a slow race up the front of his body. Long, strong fingers traced along the edge of his pocket before moving up. The palm of his hand burned against Fai’s stomach for a moment, pressed in as those lovely fingers flexed, and Fai’s shirt came un-tucked in a heady little rush. Silk, silk, silk Fai’s brain gibbered happily. The touch ghosted up and traveled over his collarbone before it whispered along his throat, Fai helpfully tipping his head back as the back of Kurogane’s knuckles skimmed along his jaw.
“It’s not that long of a ride, kid, and I think I’m going to take a little time with you.”
“…Oh.” It was hard to sound disappointed about that, especially with Kurogane nipping at his ear. “Maybe later?”
“Do us a favor and grab the room card, will you?”
He almost protested when the location of the card managed to make itself remembered; a knee-jerk reaction that disappeared when Kurogane shifted his knee. “’Kay,” Fai muttered breathlessly. He slid one hand into the right front pocket of Kurogane’s pants and had just managed to find something interesting when he received a sharp slap on the ass.
“I appreciate the initiative but I really want that keycard and I know that you know where it is. Or would you rather I take a hand or two off of you to get it myself?”
Considering the placement of those hands, Fai sighed before leaving the front-pocket glory for the back. Although…he bit his lip and slanted a speculative glance at the man he was wrapped around. Kurogane was grinning at him, one eyebrow raised questioningly. Fai went with his impulse to search both back pockets. “This might take a second,” he warned, groping.
Kurogane shifted accommodatingly against the elevator wall. “Now you’ve got it. Initiate in the right direction. Do that again,” he ordered.
Fai rummaged on command until the elevator pinged and glided to a stop. “Key,” he announced, lifting the card up between them.
“Thank you,” Kurogane plucked it from his fingers. After a moment or two he tipped down the tinted glasses he wore and regarded him over the lenses. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to get off the ride for a minute, little boy,” he said.
With a dissatisfied grumble, Fai got both feet back on the floor and stepped back. “I’m not a little boy,” he muttered, straightening his shirt which had found itself up around his armpits. “I’m nineteen.”
“You’re complete jail-bait,” Kurogane told him, already kicking the door of the room open because he was just that cool that the elevator stopped right at his door.
“Nineteen is not jail-bait,” he protested, following the other man through the door. “It’s legal for lots of stuff. It’s legal for…where’s the bed?”
Kurogane, already across the room and pouring something into a glass, gave him a slow, lazy smile. “It’s behind one of my many, many doors. This is the penthouse kid; I’ve got all the cool toys up here.” He crooked a finger at him. “And yes, indeed, nineteen is legal for ‘where’s the bed’-ing.”
Fai crossed the room to the barstool that Kurogane had seated himself on, a little grateful when Kurogane reclaimed his belt loops and positioned him neatly in the warm vee of his thighs; he needed the direction. “So…what are we drinking,” he asked because the bedroom, whichever room it was, seemed to be a distant destination.
“I am having a glass of sake because I don’t liquor-up minors.”
“So don’t,” Fai retorted, slipping the glass out of his hands and raising it in a cocky salute before taking it like a shot.
He didn’t need Kurogane’s laughter to tell him that he’d gone about drinking the sake the wrong way. “You’re going to hold that in, aren’t you, kid, just to prove that you’re a big shot?” Fai glared at him as he nodded, trying valiantly to hold himself together. “Well, I’m having my sake whether you’re a big shot or not,” Kurogane told him and kissed him.
There was no way that the alcohol had had time to wreak havoc on his systems but the room spun anyhow and Fai found that he couldn’t stay on his feet. He was pretty sure he whimpered, but Kurogane’s kiss absorbed it before it went anywhere. By the time he got his mouth back, Fai had his hands buried in Kurogane’s hair (and it felt so much better than silk ever could have) and Kurogane had him pressed up against the bar. Stay calm. Be cool, Fai lectured himself. “I’d really like to be naked now,” he blurted out.
Kurogane gave a philosophical shrug and Fai shivered as the buttons on his shirt started to surrender, one by one, to Kurogane. “Okay,” he said, and Fai got caught in how predatory the rock-star could look, “but I’m still going to take my time. You’re going to go to hell—completely naked—before you get what you’re after.”
Fai thought that over, watching his shirt fall open. He shrugged it off. “Okay. Can you be completely naked too?”
“Sure.”
Fai woke up sometime after his return-trip from Hell feeling a lovely ache in every unholy part of his body. It wasn’t what woke him, but it was a pleasant way to wake up. He’d woken because Kurogane was talking and if he was talking, then he was obviously awake. Awake could mean one of two things Fai reasoned.
One: Get out.
or
Two: Get some.
He pushed up into a back-bowing stretch before looking around the room. Kurogane wasn’t in the bed, giving option one a boost. However, he was still in a state of undress, which Fai knew he could use in option two’s favor.
Obviously fresh from the shower and wearing only a hotel towel, Kurogane was at the window, looking out over the town. He was muttering a litany of ‘no’s at it. Fai slipped out of bed and padded over to him, completely nude and entirely at ease with it. Kurogane must have seen him coming because he turned to face him, giving him a slight smile even as he lifted a finger to his lips in the universal request for silence. He then pointed at the cellular phone that Fai hadn’t noticed him holding and rolled his eyes.
Fai nodded cheerfully. It was time to play Hang Up. Eyeing the muscled body in front of him thoughtfully (the plan itself was simple, the choices were many, varied, and tempting) he finally settled on a cluster of water droplets on the cusp of Kurogane’s shoulder. Pursing his lips he carefully sipped them off one at a time, his lips just barely brushing the cool skin. He moved along, collecting the water from the ridge of his collarbone and the shallow cup at the base of his throat.
When he moved to follow a particularly interesting bead of water, intending to catch it before it hit the towel, Kurogane stopped him. “Yeah, just a sec,” he told whoever was on the other end of the phone line. He took the hand that had been tangled in Fai’s hair away to cover the mouth piece. “Behave yourself, kid,” he admonished.
Nodding again, Fai went back to Kurogane’s shoulders and arms as Kurogane went back to his conversation. Provoking the rebukes was one of the best parts of Hang Up. And the fact that one hand had returned to his hair and was stroking through it was a good indicator that he was making inroads. He rewarded the hand in his hair with a series of tiny kisses to the bicep responsible for putting it there. He looked up at Kurogane through his lashes and found that Kurogane was watching him.
He smiled and reached for the knot in the towel with swift, clever hands only to be blocked by Kurogane twisting away. “Give me a second?” This time the phone was muffled against his shoulder. “What did I just tell you?”
Fai smiled sweetly. “To behave myself,” he chirped. “And I have been,” he mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key.
Kurogane glared at him. Then shook his head and leaned forward to kiss Fai’s neck, sucking at the skin. Fai hoped that there would be a purple spot blooming there when he next looked in the mirror. “Go behave on the bed,” the words were murmured right against the sensitized flesh.
Without really meaning to, Fai found himself back on the bed. He was half miffed at being sent there and half impressed that he’d just gone without even a token protest. Sprawling out on his stomach, he watched Kurogane talk on the phone. While it was certainly nice to watch the rock-star walk around nearly nude, the conversation was boring; a long list of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘yeah’ and ‘okay’. Playing Hang Up had been more fun. Although…he rolled over onto his back, pleased to note that Kurogane paused in his pacing to look at him…without the threat of one or more of his roommates walking in, it was entirely possible that he could play a round of Long Distance Hang Up.
He closed his eyes, tucked one arm casually behind his head, and began to run the other hand up and down his chest. Light, gliding touches that teased the senses; he wriggled, arching into his own caress as his fingers drifted over and around all the best places. He let it come to rest low on his stomach and opened his eyes, looking for Kurogane. He didn’t have to look far; Kurogane was standing by the chair that was next to the bed, staring at him with eyes gone smoky-dark. “Mm-hm,” he said to the person he was on the phone with. To Fai he mouthed the word cocktease.
Fai smiled at him and shook his head. He reached down and curled his fingers tightly around himself—no tease here—and stroked. He felt his eyelids flutter and bit down on his lip so that he wouldn’t moan. He had to behave after all. He gave Kurogane a breathless grin.
“Hey, give me a minute,” Kurogane told the phone just before he crammed it into the space between the cushion and the arm of the chair.
It took all of a second before Fai found himself pinned to the bed by a hard body over his own and two hands tight on his wrists. The look on Kurogane’s face clearly said that he’d been pushed just a little too far and it made a thrill shoot down Fai’s spine and he’d whispered ‘please’ before he’d even known he was thinking it. Kurogane shuddered but didn’t move. “Come on. Please?”
“Kid, if I didn’t have to be on the phone, you would be this close to coming so hard you’d see stars.”
“Please?” Fai was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work, but he tried it anyway.
Kurogane’s eyes went black but all he did was close the gap between them and bite Fai’s bottom lip hard enough to sting. “Shut up and listen. The reason you’re ‘please’ing instead of fucking is because I do have to be on the phone. And every time I put the phone down it’s another two or three minutes I’ll have to spend on the damn thing before I can hang up and fuck you through this mattress. Got it?”
Fai sucked on his lower lip so that he wouldn’t say ‘please’ again and nodded.
“I’m going to finish that damn call and you’re going to grab a couple of fistfuls of sheet and hold onto it until I come back. And before you can say ‘that’s no fun’,” Kurogane said, sliding off the bed, and Fai, in a long, bone-melting, rush, “when I come back, I will make it fun.”
He nodded again, keeping his eyes glued to Kurogane even as Kurogane turned around to find the phone again and stayed that way. “Yeah? No. No. I know. Yes. You know how it is; it’s the penthouse. There are all sorts of neat things to play with.”
Fai grinned. There was something inherently funny about Kurogane making that joke and he had to let go of the sheet for a second in order to cover his mouth and hold back the bubble of laughter that threatened.
“Gotcha. No. Fine. All right,” Kurogane said, the conversation apparently winding down. “All right. Yes. Yes. I know. I will. Okay. Bye. Yeah, I love you too, Mom.”
The blood that had been happily occupied elsewhere in Fai’s body stopped thumping pleasantly through his veins as a cold, hard chill froze it. He managed a weak squawk as he jerked the sheets up and over his head.
“Hey.” Fai let Kurogane drag the sheet down low enough so that his eyes peeked out. “I kind of liked the view. Besides, the time to cover your ass was before I had my way with it.” He tugged again and Fai held firm. “Come out of there.”
“You called your mom?”
“No. She called me. She knows that I don’t sleep after a show so, if I don’t call her, she calls me to get the details. Come out of the sheet. I’m supposed to be making sure that you have fun.”
Fai clutched the sheet a little tighter. “You were talking to your mother?”
Kurogane looked balefully at him. “Is this the part where you ask me about what it’s like to have Yuuko for a mom?”
It was Fai’s turn to frown. “What?” The thought processed quickly. “Jesus, no. What sort of sick fuck talks about anybody’s parents while naked? And what the hell do I care? I don’t even remember my own mom, so how the hell would I know the difference between being raised by a famous singer or not? I’m just trying to make sure that you were on the phone with the woman who gave birth to you.”
“You lost your mom?” Kurogane asked, his voice gone quiet.
Fai clutched his head, pulling at his hair in frustration. “Yes; both of my parents died in a car crash when I was little. I don’t remember either of them. I was raised in a bunch of different foster homes. It was tough at times and I was sad but I am now happy and well adjusted. Now will you answer the question? While I was playing Hang Up with you, were you on the phone with your mother?”
“Yeah. Yuuko. Mom. Woman of birth-giving.”
“Oh. My. God.” Fai flopped over put his hands over his eyes. He only mostly ignored the sheet inching down his body. “I’m going to Hell. I’m going to be cursed and then, when I die horribly, I’m going to Hell. I played Hang Up while your mom was on the phone. That’s, like, the worst one.”
“What’s ‘hang up’?”
Fai dropped his hands and gave him an incredulous stare.
Which Kurogane returned.
“That’s a game?”
“Yes. And the second house rule is: Never play Hang Up when it’s family on the line; the closer the relation, the worse the curse and the lower the level of Hell. And it was your mom. I’m fucking doomed.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t laugh, you sadistic bastard. You could have said something. Like ‘hi, Mom’. Or ‘No, Mom’ or…”
He stopped talking because Kurogane kissed him, tongue slipping over the tender place he’d bitten earlier. “Well, if you’re going to Hell, you might as well break the other house rules while you’re at it,” he suggested in a voice that reeked of sin.
When Kurogane said it, it seemed like a good idea. Fai sank into another kiss, murmuring, “There are only two rules and it’s impossible to break the first one right now.”
“Mm?”
“Rule number one is: don’t fuck in somebody else’s bed.”
Kurogane drew back, looking delighted. “You’re kidding.”
Fai couldn’t help but stare at him. “No. There are seven of us crammed into that apartment; the bed thing is important. God, you’re beautiful,” he told him, feeling almost helpless with it. He wanted to touch Kurogane’s smile, something real and sweet that didn’t belong to the rock-star Kurogane…but to the real one. “I wanna touch you,” he heard himself whisper, “in all kinds of inappropriate places.”
That made Kurogane laugh again. “Kid, you are so... I can’t wait to see what you consider to be an inappropriate place.” His smile quieted, even as the heat began to simmer in his eyes. Fai felt the words form against his lips as Kurogane kissed him slowly. “Touch away.”
It was Kurogane’s voice, again, that woke Fai as he drifted hazily between sleep and almost-sleep. “How often does your mom call?” he mumbled into the pillow.
“Just the once. You’re obsessive, you know that?”
“Mmhm.”
“And you’re starting to stick to stuff. Yourself, the sheets…me… Come on. Time for a shower.”
Fai considered moving and immediately rejected the idea. “Uh-uh. Let’s have sex,” he invited. The bed would surely be involved in having more sex and the having of more sex would be an added benefit; Fai patted the bed beside him.
Kurogane made a sighing sound. “Kid, come on. The Washing Off Copious Amounts of Seminal Fluids Fairy already has the water running.”
“Did you…” Fai blinked and pushed himself up on his elbows. “Did you just call yourself a fairy?”
“No. Come on, shower time.”
Letting himself flop back down on the bed, Fai yawned. “Couldn’t the Gives out Sponge Baths So I Don’t Have to Get Out of Bed Fairy swing by instead?”
“You are so lazy.”
Because Kurogane sounded so amused and so exasperated, Fai let him nudge him out of bed and into the shower. He even let him laugh at the undignified yelp he let out when he leaned against the cold tiles; he liked Kurogane’s laugh a lot, both the dark-sex-lust baritone rumble and this new, amused-happy-laugh laughter. Besides, the cold tile against his butt woke him up. “You’re not tired,” he said, in a half-question.
“No.” Warm, wet hands on his hips pressed him into the direct spray of the shower and then slid up and into his hair, stroking it back from his face. “You’re a mess.”
“It’s your fault,” he smiled, rubbing up into the hands on his head. “That’s nice. Why?”
Kurogane pulled him closer and began to wash his hair with something that smelled like coconuts. “Why is it nice?”
“Hotel gave you girly shampoo. I meant, ‘why aren’t you tired’.”
“This is my shampoo,” Kurogane said, pinching his ass.
Fai laughed. “I like it. It smells nice. Really!” he dodged a second pinch and then smiled. “Why aren’t you tired?”
Kurogane smiled a little and shrugged. “Too wired, I guess,” he replied, pushing him under the water to rinse.
“Can’t be,” he said when he emerged. “We had sex, like, a dozen times. You came so hard that last time that you prayed to deities that don’t even exist. Can I wash your hair?”
“They might too exist, you heathen. And yeah, knock yourself out.” His eyes closed and Fai took advantage of the opportunity to stare at him a little. “Insomnia, habit, tradition; take your pick and we’ll run with it.”
“Tradition,” he chose and he hoped that Kurogane didn’t hear the forlorn note of longing in his voice. “All nighters with those hot, blue-eyed blonds that you pick up and everything.”
“We just had sex a half hour ago,” Kurogane said plaintively. “Give an old man some time to recover, kid.”
“For a rock-star, old is not twenty-six; old is thirty,” Fai corrected lazily, more interested in breathing in the rich, spicy-sweet scent that was Kurogane than in having sex again. “You have fantastic hair, you know that? It’s soft and when it’s wet it’s like…I don’t know. Nice.”
Kurogane grinned. “You are such a fanboy. Which I don’t really object to, but I can’t believe you quoted me to me.”
Fai grinned back. “Normally I’m not brainless enough to admit it. It’s all the sex; I don’t normally have so much that’s that good.” He got out of the shower and looked at his towel thoughtfully. “If I whip your ass with my towel, will that make up for it?”
“No,” Kurogane answered as his own towel snapped out. Before Fai could retaliate, Kurogane tucked him into a thick robe and took his towel away to give his hair a brisk drying. “There you go, kid, all prettied up.”
“Kiss ass,” he said, dimpling at him.
“You first,” Kurogane suggested.
“I thought you had to rest,” Fai countered, leaving the bathroom and heading for the bar in the main room of the suite. “I’m getting a drink. Do you…whoa.” He stopped dead as he drew level with the bar.
“Sounds like somebody has discovered the t.v.,” Kurogane detoured around him and handed him a bottle of water. “Did you want to watch something?”
“Can we?” he clutched the cool plastic of the bottle and focused on carefully twisting the cap off. As cool as he felt it would be to watch anything on the huge, flat screen plasma television hanging in the room just off the bar, he wanted Kurogane more.
Kurogane slid a hand over the nape of Fai’s neck and, like he had at the elevators, pushed him forward. “Sure, kid. It’s three? Four in the morning? And I’ve got three hundred plus channels. There’s got to be something good on.”
Fai grinned and threw himself on the massive sofa that dominated what space the t.v. didn’t. He let out a whimper and indulged in a full body roll against it. “This is suede,” he enthused. “I bet it stains like hell. Wanna fuck on it?” He said it just to make Kurogane laugh.
“Tempting, kid, but I’ve found something better.” Kurogane held up the remote and began hitting buttons. “Somebody’s running a Tokyo Undead Hooker Massacre marathon. Five is going to start in a couple of minutes.”
“You want to watch…what?” Fai looked up at him, dumbfounded.
It was a look that he was getting returned in spades. “You’ve never watched Tokyo Undead?” Kurogane asked, blinking at him. “They’re classics.”
“Classics.”
“Absolutely. You want popcorn? I’ve got time to make it. Never mind. I’m making popcorn even if you don’t want it; you can’t watch these movies without popcorn.”
He twisted, looking over the back of the couch so that he could watch Kurogane making the popcorn. “You’re such a geek,” he told him cheerfully.
Kurogane flipped him off before bringing the popcorn in and settling down on the couch next to him and offering out the bowl. “You say that now. Just wait until it starts. Five is the last of the first series and it’s my favorite.”
“First series?” Fai started at him as, on the screen, some androgynous being in black panties paraded into downtown Tokyo. “How many are there?”
“Shhh. Three series, ten movies. This part’s good.”
Black Panties exploded in a shower of blood and various unidentifiable viscera for no apparent reason.
“Okay.”
When the ninth person had died and the fourth androgynous being (Purple Panties) had inexplicably burst into flames, Fai looked up at Kurogane grinned. “I love this movie,” he told him, a yawn catching him by surprise.
Kurogane smiled back. “Knew you would. Tired?”
“A little, but I want to finish the movie.”
“Hey, here,” Kurogane shifted, prodded, slid and Fai found himself with his head pillowed on a very familiar thigh. “Better?”
Fai smiled. “Yeah.”
He drifted without meaning to, caught in the cross currents of the movie and Kurogane’s voice as he told him important plot points to take note of and details from the first four movies. I want to ask you everything he thought, watching the movie through closed eyes. I want to know things that you don’t tell just anybody. I want to know you. I want you to know me and we can have stupid jokes and bad movies and mind blowing sex. I want to talk you out of a bad mood and to see you take a walk in the fall, when all the leaves are coming down. I want to teach you to play all the stupid games I know, like Touch And Run Away. I want to be with you.
“Kid?” A hand brushed over his face, feather light touches. “Did you know that you talk in your sleep?”
“Hm?” Fai opened his eyes as the dreamy-drifting feeling disappeared like mist in the sunlight of being touched. “I wasn’t sleeping. Just kind of floating. I do sort of talk to myself, though.” He wiggled and twisted so that he could see Kurogane’s face. “What did I say?” he asked.
Kurogane shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not sure.” The hand on his face shifted and a thumb swept idly at the delicate skin around his eyes. “I should put you to bed, kid,” he said softly. “You’ve got blue circles under your eyes.”
The idea was appealing. “You’re going to put me to bed?”
He laughed. “I’m going to tuck you in and let you sleep while I order breakfast and get my stuff loaded out.”
“Breakfast? Load out? What time is it?” Fai scrambled into sitting and looked around the room for a clock.
Kurogane was watching him with an air of almost detached curiosity. “Five-thirty or so. I’ve got another show tomorrow night and I’ve got to be able to check out the club for the set-up. So. Drive all day, crash for the night, run the set-up and the checks, warm up, zen, concert, back to the hotel for a night of no sleeping as per tradition. Why? You got some place you’ve got to be?”
Fai brushed his hair out of his face. “Work.” And, he realized with an internal groan, it was Sunday. He’d have to walk home. He was tempted to ask for a ride, but he didn’t want to come off as clingy. “I’ve got to get home.”
“Stay for breakfast; I’ll drop you off wherever you’re going after.”
“Oh…ah, thanks. I didn’t want to ask because it’d be…well, whatever, right? I should probably, um, get dressed. You live with six other people,” he explained needlessly, “and you learn to not eat whilst naked.” He stood up and pushed his hair out of his eyes again. “Where the hell are my clothes? I should have tripped over them at least once last night.”
“Bedroom, the dry-cleaner bag hanging on the door; I always send my stuff down so that I don’t have to do my own laundry, so I sent yours out, too.”
“Cool. Thanks.” He was heading for the bedroom when he heard Kurogane pick up the phone and ask for room service. “Don’t you want to know what I want?” he asked curiously.
Kurogane covered the mouthpiece. “Why don’t we see how close I can get with a guess? It can be the ‘Guess What’s for Breakfast’ game.”
Fai grinned. “Sounds like fun.” He hummed to himself as he got dressed and decided, when Kurogane came into the room and began pulling clothes out of one of the dresser drawers, that he could stand to put his socks and shoes on, too. He watched the other man dressing and had to consciously remember to breathe. “You’re…” he cut himself off before he could say ‘beautiful’, or something equally embarrassing, again.
“I’m what?”
“Nothing?”
“Spill it, kid,” Kurogane, still shirtless, stalked toward him and Fai let himself get pinned against the wall.
“No. It’s stupid.” He stole a kiss, since he could.
Kurogane kissed him back, lightly. “Tell me.”
“No way. It’s really stupid.”
“If you don’t tell me, I’m going to let you go.”
Fai capitulated. “It’s going to sound really dumb,” he muttered.
“You’re blushing.”
“Shut up, I know.” He looked away and kept his eyes focused on the small café-au-lait birthmark on Kurogane’s left shoulder. “It’s just…I’m in graphic design at the technical college but, when I’ve got the money for the fees, I audit some of the art classes at the university. History, style, just, you know, non-corporate driven art. And you’re…you’ve got eyes that are the color of an early summer sunset. And all these planes and angles and the lines of you…and then when you move and even when you’re just standing there, the light just…you’re just really beautiful. Okay? I told you it was going to sound lame.”
Kurogane tipped his face up and Fai wanted to drown in his eyes. “You’re something else, kid.”
“Yeah,” Fai rolled his eyes, exasperated with himself, “a love-sick, starry-eyed thirteen year old girl."
“A girl, huh?” Fai looked down as Kurogane began to unbutton his shirt.
“Uh-huh. Wha—” he cut off his question with a hiss of indrawn breath as Kurogane began to plant a trail of soft, sucking kisses down his neck. “God I love that,” Fai mumbled, threading his fingers through Kurogane’s hair. “You could do that forever and I wouldn’t ever ask you to stop. Not even for sex.” There was a soft chuckle, a puff of air and amusement against his skin, and the kiss when hard and stinging. “Do I have a hickey now?” he asked.
Kurogane pulled away and rubbed his thumb over the spot his mouth had just left. “Yep. It looks good on you.”
Fai stared at him. “You just gave me a love bite that I’m going to have to hide from everybody I know.”
“Mmhm.”
“I think my brain just fell out.”
“Yeah, mine too.”
“Good,” Fai moaned as they dove at each other. He lost his clothes before they even hit the bed and, by the time Kurogane’s pants were gone too, he’d completely lost his sense of time. He realized, as he fell, lost, that he was being both starry-eyed and love sick, but he couldn’t do a thing about it while wrapped up in the man causing it. The phone ringing, sudden and shrill, pulled at his consciousness without making so much as a dent in the other things going on in his mind. “What…?”
Kurogane bit him. “Breakfast is here. And it can fucking wait because I’m not going to.”
Fai laughed. “It’s going to get cold.”
“No it’s isn’t. I told them to keep it on a warmer. I am wise to your ways, kid.”
He squirmed away as best he could anyhow. “We have to play Guess What’s For Breakfast,” he said.
“We can play right here. You’re a kid. You eat junk,” Kurogane held him down. “I got you a Belgian waffle with cinnamon, powdered sugar, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream.”
“You’re good at this game,” Fai arched up against him unaccountably turned on by the thought of breakfast food though he reasoned that the whipped cream part of it might have something to do with it. “What are you having?”
“Oatmeal.”
“God, you’re sexy.”
“So are you, now quit talking otherwise I’m going to be forced to take away your ability to speak.”
Despite scolding himself out loud in the shower (alone), Fai only managed to talk his way through (a lukewarm) breakfast. It was the elevator that did it.
Kurogane had spent the whole ride down, grinning at him, and when he’d asked about it he’d shrugged and said that he was waiting to be asked if they were going to have sex in the VIP elevator.
Now, parked in front of the apartment building, standing next to the convertible and leaning against the door because he couldn’t just leave, he could find the ability to speak anyway; Kurogane had apparently taken it for good. “So…um…” he smiled and bit back the stupid offers that came to mind. Want to come up and meet all my roommates? and, worse, Want to come up and have breakfast again, because I can’t think of any other way to get you to stay?.
“What?” Kurogane, wearing the tinted sunglasses again, tipped them down to give him a look. “You want me to sign something?”
It made him relax, for some stupid reason. “Yeah. How about my ass?”
Kurogane laughed. “You’d have a hard time selling that autograph on E-bay,” he told him.
Fai turned to give his rear end a look and then looked back at Kurogane. “You think?”
“Don’t peddle your ass on the internet, kid.”
“FAI!” A shout from above saved him from asking Kurogane if he’d bid on it if he did put it up for auction. “Your shift as the rent boy has ended already and you’re going to be late for work if you don’t get your ass up here!”
“I know,” he shouted back. “Let me get this month’s rent from my John here and I’ll be up to give you your share, pimp.” Back on familiar ground, he grinned at Kurogane and winked. “And thus, the denizens of 515 get everybody’s Sunday morning off to an ungodly start. Thanks for the ride. And breakfast.” He half-waved and jogged around the front of the car, heading for the door.
“Hey, Fai!” It was Kurogane’s voice that stopped him in the middle of the street.
Heart thumping painfully, he turned. “Yeah?”
Kurogane crooked a finger at him. “C’mere.” He went and was pulled down into a fierce, sweet kiss. “See you around, Fai.”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “See you around, Kurogane.”
He didn’t watch the car pull away but he was pretty sure he felt it.
It showed up at the apartment a month later; the address written in a strong, unfamiliar hand and lacking his last name. The compact disc inside the package was plain, shining silver and was obviously a homemade burn.
Written on it, in blue sharpie and in the same handwriting, were the words Track One: For the Blue-Eyed Blond. He took it into his room to listen to it.
You’re blushing
Oh, don’t worry, I like it.
The words jolted him almost as much as the voice, a quiet whisper of secret things, all light and dark and dear.
I think I’m gonna spend some time on you
‘cause I wanna touch you in inappropriate places
The music was a soft, dreamy thing, wrapped around the words and the next lines made his stomach drop.
You talk in your sleep,
I should have kicked you out of my bed
Not for the whispers,
But for the things that you said
He closed his eyes
If you sold your soul, I’d buy it
just to tuck it away
If you sold the rest of you,
I’d buy it and put it on display
and let the last of the song wash over him
Stay where I can find you,
I’ll be back around
You’ve become the sound
Of my evensong
You're my evensong
Something tight in his chest, like the ache in his heart, eased away into warmth as he set his cd player on repeat. He put on headphones and fell asleep with the echo of his heartbeat in his ears.
Day/Theme: 29 October, 2005/ Evensong
Series: TRC
Character/Pairing: Fai, Kurogane-->Kurogane/Fai
Rating: R! For language and non-graphic BoySmex.
Author's Note: I've had seven hours of sleep in the past three days so if there are things that are drastically wrong here, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix them.
Note 2: LONG. MSWord tells me that it's eighteen pages.
Summary: Rock-star Kurogane! Seriously. And you can find the picture that inspired it right here! And you (like I) can get it as a wallpaper from the creator...find that here.
Disclaimer: I don't know...CLAMP could get this cracked-out. Eventually
Dedication: To Chelle-sama, for knowing the roommates.
Evensong
He wasn’t a screaming fan-child, Fai thought as he stared at the crowd of weeping, pleading girls that were gathered around the back door of the club, trying to wheedle their way past the bouncer. He wasn’t so low as to throw himself at some rock-star just because said rock-star was completely gorgeous. Not even if that rock-star was Kurogane. He swayed a little on the spot and gave the door an appraising look. He might be able to slip in.
It wasn’t just that Kurogane was gorgeous (he was—dark hair, sunset eyes, that body) it was that Kurogane was just that cool. His guitar was shaped like a freaking dragon. Every single he’d brought out went to the top and stayed there. All three albums had gone platinum in a week. The music kicked almost as much ass as the singer.
“Oh, man,” he laughed at himself. Next thing he knew he’d be plastering the walls of his room with posters and getting shit from his flat-mates for it. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking backward, watching the door. “So bad,” he scolded himself.
“Tell me about it,” a voice said from behind him. “It seems like I’m the hottest ticket in town tonight.”
Fai tripped over his own feet, but he masked it as a graceful turn and he stood poised for a moment on the edge of the curb, trying to catch his balance before he gave up and hopped down. He was forced to tip his head back to meet those sunset-colored eyes, but it was worth it. He was so close he could feel the body heat. “Yeah,” he agreed. He glanced back at the crowd of girls and then at the man they were all trying for. Kurogane was leaning against the passenger-side door of a wicked cool convertible; the red dragon snaking down the front of his outfit matched the silver dragon that slithered in raised relief across the hood of his car. “Neat car,” he offered.
Kurogane twisted, just slightly, just to look over his shoulder at the car, and Fai’s mouth went dry. “Yeah,” he agreed offhandedly. “You’re out late, aren’t you?”
As far as shattered feelings went, that statement certainly put a crack in them. “It’s, like, midnight. That’s not late,” Fai protested, hoping he didn’t sound like a petulant child.
“I meant that the show let out over an hour ago,” Kurogane said with an air of obvious amusement. “You’re out late.”
“Got nothing better to do,” Fai answered with a shrug, trying to get his heart to stop trying to climb out of his chest. “Better than that, at least,” he jerked his head in the direction of some disappointed wails.
Kurogane gave him a long, considering look. “I’m out of here,” he said at last. Fai was tempted to throw himself forward, just to get a feel of the other man. Or at least another look.
“Sure.” He stepped back.
A small smile quirked the corners of Kurogane’s lips up. “Do you want to get out of here?”
Fai felt a hopeful blush heat him. He was thankful for the dim, orange glow of the sodium lights. “Sure.” He took a hesitant step forward, wavered, and stepped back again.
The small smile became a full-blown grin. “Do you want a ride?”
His heart stopped and then thumped once, hard. “Sure,” he managed.
Kurogane gave a short, mocking bow and opened the door he’d been leaning against, stepping back and holding it in one of the smoothest moves Fai’d ever seen. He tried to be cool himself, keeping his hands in his pockets as he sauntered forward, but he lost it as he passed Kurogane because Kurogane shifted and Fai felt his shoulder press and glide along the other man’s chest as he sank into the seat. Kurogane’s smile had turned sly and secretive and Fai nearly got his hand slammed in the door because he was staring at that smile instead of putting on his seat belt.
“You’re blushing, kid,” the words were whispered against his ear as Kurogane pushed the door lock down with a soft click. Fai shivered hard, and then winced in dismay. Blushing was for school-kids. “Oh, don’t worry,” Kurogane must have caught the look as he rounded the front of the car. Sliding behind the wheel and starting the car he tossed Fai a casual glance. “I like it.”
Fai waited a block before deciding to say something. Anything. “Um…you want directions?” His heart had given up battering its way out of his chest and was scaling his throat like a mountaineer hell bent for summit. It was hard to breathe around it and the lack of oxygen was making his ears ring.
“I know where I’m going.” Stopping at a red light, Kurogane looked over at him and laughed. “You’re not that innocent, are you, kid?”
“No,” Fai squirmed and then pulled a face. He looked back with his best smile. “It’s just that I’m not usually lucky.”
Kurogane laughed again, glanced in both directions, and ran the light. “Lucky you, kid, you’re about to be.”
Fai laughed too, even as some small part of his brain imploded from the sudden surge of lust. He couldn’t look away from the man next to him, caught in the way the streetlights and city lights picked out bronze highlights in his dark hair, caught in the strength of his profile and the way his hands looked on the wheel. He didn’t notice when they pulled up in front of the hotel. He didn’t even realize that they’d stopped until the valet tried to pull his door open.
“Um,” he flipped the lock and scrambled out, looking around. Kurogane was handing the keys off and coming at him with that sly, secret smile on his face again. “This is…nice,” he managed lamely as they entered the brightly-lit lobby. He fell into step a half a pace behind Kurogane, strangely reluctant to walk right beside him.
It was a nice hotel, he supposed, even if stopping at the bank of elevators nearly killed him. He slowed and Kurogane reached out and curled a hand around the back of his neck, pulling him on. “Uh-uh, kid. We get to ride around in the VIP elevators. We’re that kind of special.”
The smile and the hand that just stayed on him ensured that he would never be able to find the VIP elevators again. The fact that Kurogane used the room keycard to call the elevator and stowed it away again in his back pocket didn’t help. “Keen,” he whistled softly as he was pushed forward into the elevator. “This is bigger than my room. It might be bigger than the whole apartment.” And the plush red walls were covered with gilt-framed mirrors which reflected a view that was an awful lot like Fai’s imaginary room with the imaginary Kurogane posters.
“Mm-hm,” Kurogane leaned back against the wall, thumbing the button for the top floor. His smile went hot and Fai felt a shiver start in his brain and work its way down. He stared as a wide hand settled on his hip, fingers curling casually through the belt loops of his jeans. “C’mere, kid.”
He followed the gentle tug, feeling like he was moving underwater, submerged in some hot spring somewhere, lost in the steam. The soft tugs drew his hips flush against Kurogane’s and Fai bit back a whimper as he parted his legs around Kurogane’s thigh, straddling it in an attempt to get closer. He felt off balance but he couldn’t object since he was off balance against a whole lot of hard muscles and intoxicating scents. “Good enough?” he asked, unable to meet his eyes, unable to look away. He wasn’t sure where to put his hands and settled for grabbing onto the handrail behind Kurogane’s back.
The fingers in his belt loops pulled, hitching his hips against Kurogane’s and Fai bit back a moan at the heat and the rub. He’d been hard since the car and he could now feel an answering hardness against his belly. “A little closer,” Kurogane murmured in his ear, pulling again, making Fai whimper. “It’s a long ride to the penthouse.”
“Are we going to have sex in the elevator?” Fai asked hopefully, going up on his toes to get closer. To get more.
Kurogane chuckled darkly and his free hand, which had been resting on the rail, found Fai’s knee and began to run a slow race up the front of his body. Long, strong fingers traced along the edge of his pocket before moving up. The palm of his hand burned against Fai’s stomach for a moment, pressed in as those lovely fingers flexed, and Fai’s shirt came un-tucked in a heady little rush. Silk, silk, silk Fai’s brain gibbered happily. The touch ghosted up and traveled over his collarbone before it whispered along his throat, Fai helpfully tipping his head back as the back of Kurogane’s knuckles skimmed along his jaw.
“It’s not that long of a ride, kid, and I think I’m going to take a little time with you.”
“…Oh.” It was hard to sound disappointed about that, especially with Kurogane nipping at his ear. “Maybe later?”
“Do us a favor and grab the room card, will you?”
He almost protested when the location of the card managed to make itself remembered; a knee-jerk reaction that disappeared when Kurogane shifted his knee. “’Kay,” Fai muttered breathlessly. He slid one hand into the right front pocket of Kurogane’s pants and had just managed to find something interesting when he received a sharp slap on the ass.
“I appreciate the initiative but I really want that keycard and I know that you know where it is. Or would you rather I take a hand or two off of you to get it myself?”
Considering the placement of those hands, Fai sighed before leaving the front-pocket glory for the back. Although…he bit his lip and slanted a speculative glance at the man he was wrapped around. Kurogane was grinning at him, one eyebrow raised questioningly. Fai went with his impulse to search both back pockets. “This might take a second,” he warned, groping.
Kurogane shifted accommodatingly against the elevator wall. “Now you’ve got it. Initiate in the right direction. Do that again,” he ordered.
Fai rummaged on command until the elevator pinged and glided to a stop. “Key,” he announced, lifting the card up between them.
“Thank you,” Kurogane plucked it from his fingers. After a moment or two he tipped down the tinted glasses he wore and regarded him over the lenses. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to get off the ride for a minute, little boy,” he said.
With a dissatisfied grumble, Fai got both feet back on the floor and stepped back. “I’m not a little boy,” he muttered, straightening his shirt which had found itself up around his armpits. “I’m nineteen.”
“You’re complete jail-bait,” Kurogane told him, already kicking the door of the room open because he was just that cool that the elevator stopped right at his door.
“Nineteen is not jail-bait,” he protested, following the other man through the door. “It’s legal for lots of stuff. It’s legal for…where’s the bed?”
Kurogane, already across the room and pouring something into a glass, gave him a slow, lazy smile. “It’s behind one of my many, many doors. This is the penthouse kid; I’ve got all the cool toys up here.” He crooked a finger at him. “And yes, indeed, nineteen is legal for ‘where’s the bed’-ing.”
Fai crossed the room to the barstool that Kurogane had seated himself on, a little grateful when Kurogane reclaimed his belt loops and positioned him neatly in the warm vee of his thighs; he needed the direction. “So…what are we drinking,” he asked because the bedroom, whichever room it was, seemed to be a distant destination.
“I am having a glass of sake because I don’t liquor-up minors.”
“So don’t,” Fai retorted, slipping the glass out of his hands and raising it in a cocky salute before taking it like a shot.
He didn’t need Kurogane’s laughter to tell him that he’d gone about drinking the sake the wrong way. “You’re going to hold that in, aren’t you, kid, just to prove that you’re a big shot?” Fai glared at him as he nodded, trying valiantly to hold himself together. “Well, I’m having my sake whether you’re a big shot or not,” Kurogane told him and kissed him.
There was no way that the alcohol had had time to wreak havoc on his systems but the room spun anyhow and Fai found that he couldn’t stay on his feet. He was pretty sure he whimpered, but Kurogane’s kiss absorbed it before it went anywhere. By the time he got his mouth back, Fai had his hands buried in Kurogane’s hair (and it felt so much better than silk ever could have) and Kurogane had him pressed up against the bar. Stay calm. Be cool, Fai lectured himself. “I’d really like to be naked now,” he blurted out.
Kurogane gave a philosophical shrug and Fai shivered as the buttons on his shirt started to surrender, one by one, to Kurogane. “Okay,” he said, and Fai got caught in how predatory the rock-star could look, “but I’m still going to take my time. You’re going to go to hell—completely naked—before you get what you’re after.”
Fai thought that over, watching his shirt fall open. He shrugged it off. “Okay. Can you be completely naked too?”
“Sure.”
Fai woke up sometime after his return-trip from Hell feeling a lovely ache in every unholy part of his body. It wasn’t what woke him, but it was a pleasant way to wake up. He’d woken because Kurogane was talking and if he was talking, then he was obviously awake. Awake could mean one of two things Fai reasoned.
One: Get out.
or
Two: Get some.
He pushed up into a back-bowing stretch before looking around the room. Kurogane wasn’t in the bed, giving option one a boost. However, he was still in a state of undress, which Fai knew he could use in option two’s favor.
Obviously fresh from the shower and wearing only a hotel towel, Kurogane was at the window, looking out over the town. He was muttering a litany of ‘no’s at it. Fai slipped out of bed and padded over to him, completely nude and entirely at ease with it. Kurogane must have seen him coming because he turned to face him, giving him a slight smile even as he lifted a finger to his lips in the universal request for silence. He then pointed at the cellular phone that Fai hadn’t noticed him holding and rolled his eyes.
Fai nodded cheerfully. It was time to play Hang Up. Eyeing the muscled body in front of him thoughtfully (the plan itself was simple, the choices were many, varied, and tempting) he finally settled on a cluster of water droplets on the cusp of Kurogane’s shoulder. Pursing his lips he carefully sipped them off one at a time, his lips just barely brushing the cool skin. He moved along, collecting the water from the ridge of his collarbone and the shallow cup at the base of his throat.
When he moved to follow a particularly interesting bead of water, intending to catch it before it hit the towel, Kurogane stopped him. “Yeah, just a sec,” he told whoever was on the other end of the phone line. He took the hand that had been tangled in Fai’s hair away to cover the mouth piece. “Behave yourself, kid,” he admonished.
Nodding again, Fai went back to Kurogane’s shoulders and arms as Kurogane went back to his conversation. Provoking the rebukes was one of the best parts of Hang Up. And the fact that one hand had returned to his hair and was stroking through it was a good indicator that he was making inroads. He rewarded the hand in his hair with a series of tiny kisses to the bicep responsible for putting it there. He looked up at Kurogane through his lashes and found that Kurogane was watching him.
He smiled and reached for the knot in the towel with swift, clever hands only to be blocked by Kurogane twisting away. “Give me a second?” This time the phone was muffled against his shoulder. “What did I just tell you?”
Fai smiled sweetly. “To behave myself,” he chirped. “And I have been,” he mimed zipping his lips shut and throwing away the key.
Kurogane glared at him. Then shook his head and leaned forward to kiss Fai’s neck, sucking at the skin. Fai hoped that there would be a purple spot blooming there when he next looked in the mirror. “Go behave on the bed,” the words were murmured right against the sensitized flesh.
Without really meaning to, Fai found himself back on the bed. He was half miffed at being sent there and half impressed that he’d just gone without even a token protest. Sprawling out on his stomach, he watched Kurogane talk on the phone. While it was certainly nice to watch the rock-star walk around nearly nude, the conversation was boring; a long list of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and ‘yeah’ and ‘okay’. Playing Hang Up had been more fun. Although…he rolled over onto his back, pleased to note that Kurogane paused in his pacing to look at him…without the threat of one or more of his roommates walking in, it was entirely possible that he could play a round of Long Distance Hang Up.
He closed his eyes, tucked one arm casually behind his head, and began to run the other hand up and down his chest. Light, gliding touches that teased the senses; he wriggled, arching into his own caress as his fingers drifted over and around all the best places. He let it come to rest low on his stomach and opened his eyes, looking for Kurogane. He didn’t have to look far; Kurogane was standing by the chair that was next to the bed, staring at him with eyes gone smoky-dark. “Mm-hm,” he said to the person he was on the phone with. To Fai he mouthed the word cocktease.
Fai smiled at him and shook his head. He reached down and curled his fingers tightly around himself—no tease here—and stroked. He felt his eyelids flutter and bit down on his lip so that he wouldn’t moan. He had to behave after all. He gave Kurogane a breathless grin.
“Hey, give me a minute,” Kurogane told the phone just before he crammed it into the space between the cushion and the arm of the chair.
It took all of a second before Fai found himself pinned to the bed by a hard body over his own and two hands tight on his wrists. The look on Kurogane’s face clearly said that he’d been pushed just a little too far and it made a thrill shoot down Fai’s spine and he’d whispered ‘please’ before he’d even known he was thinking it. Kurogane shuddered but didn’t move. “Come on. Please?”
“Kid, if I didn’t have to be on the phone, you would be this close to coming so hard you’d see stars.”
“Please?” Fai was pretty sure it wasn’t going to work, but he tried it anyway.
Kurogane’s eyes went black but all he did was close the gap between them and bite Fai’s bottom lip hard enough to sting. “Shut up and listen. The reason you’re ‘please’ing instead of fucking is because I do have to be on the phone. And every time I put the phone down it’s another two or three minutes I’ll have to spend on the damn thing before I can hang up and fuck you through this mattress. Got it?”
Fai sucked on his lower lip so that he wouldn’t say ‘please’ again and nodded.
“I’m going to finish that damn call and you’re going to grab a couple of fistfuls of sheet and hold onto it until I come back. And before you can say ‘that’s no fun’,” Kurogane said, sliding off the bed, and Fai, in a long, bone-melting, rush, “when I come back, I will make it fun.”
He nodded again, keeping his eyes glued to Kurogane even as Kurogane turned around to find the phone again and stayed that way. “Yeah? No. No. I know. Yes. You know how it is; it’s the penthouse. There are all sorts of neat things to play with.”
Fai grinned. There was something inherently funny about Kurogane making that joke and he had to let go of the sheet for a second in order to cover his mouth and hold back the bubble of laughter that threatened.
“Gotcha. No. Fine. All right,” Kurogane said, the conversation apparently winding down. “All right. Yes. Yes. I know. I will. Okay. Bye. Yeah, I love you too, Mom.”
The blood that had been happily occupied elsewhere in Fai’s body stopped thumping pleasantly through his veins as a cold, hard chill froze it. He managed a weak squawk as he jerked the sheets up and over his head.
“Hey.” Fai let Kurogane drag the sheet down low enough so that his eyes peeked out. “I kind of liked the view. Besides, the time to cover your ass was before I had my way with it.” He tugged again and Fai held firm. “Come out of there.”
“You called your mom?”
“No. She called me. She knows that I don’t sleep after a show so, if I don’t call her, she calls me to get the details. Come out of the sheet. I’m supposed to be making sure that you have fun.”
Fai clutched the sheet a little tighter. “You were talking to your mother?”
Kurogane looked balefully at him. “Is this the part where you ask me about what it’s like to have Yuuko for a mom?”
It was Fai’s turn to frown. “What?” The thought processed quickly. “Jesus, no. What sort of sick fuck talks about anybody’s parents while naked? And what the hell do I care? I don’t even remember my own mom, so how the hell would I know the difference between being raised by a famous singer or not? I’m just trying to make sure that you were on the phone with the woman who gave birth to you.”
“You lost your mom?” Kurogane asked, his voice gone quiet.
Fai clutched his head, pulling at his hair in frustration. “Yes; both of my parents died in a car crash when I was little. I don’t remember either of them. I was raised in a bunch of different foster homes. It was tough at times and I was sad but I am now happy and well adjusted. Now will you answer the question? While I was playing Hang Up with you, were you on the phone with your mother?”
“Yeah. Yuuko. Mom. Woman of birth-giving.”
“Oh. My. God.” Fai flopped over put his hands over his eyes. He only mostly ignored the sheet inching down his body. “I’m going to Hell. I’m going to be cursed and then, when I die horribly, I’m going to Hell. I played Hang Up while your mom was on the phone. That’s, like, the worst one.”
“What’s ‘hang up’?”
Fai dropped his hands and gave him an incredulous stare.
Which Kurogane returned.
“That’s a game?”
“Yes. And the second house rule is: Never play Hang Up when it’s family on the line; the closer the relation, the worse the curse and the lower the level of Hell. And it was your mom. I’m fucking doomed.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t laugh, you sadistic bastard. You could have said something. Like ‘hi, Mom’. Or ‘No, Mom’ or…”
He stopped talking because Kurogane kissed him, tongue slipping over the tender place he’d bitten earlier. “Well, if you’re going to Hell, you might as well break the other house rules while you’re at it,” he suggested in a voice that reeked of sin.
When Kurogane said it, it seemed like a good idea. Fai sank into another kiss, murmuring, “There are only two rules and it’s impossible to break the first one right now.”
“Mm?”
“Rule number one is: don’t fuck in somebody else’s bed.”
Kurogane drew back, looking delighted. “You’re kidding.”
Fai couldn’t help but stare at him. “No. There are seven of us crammed into that apartment; the bed thing is important. God, you’re beautiful,” he told him, feeling almost helpless with it. He wanted to touch Kurogane’s smile, something real and sweet that didn’t belong to the rock-star Kurogane…but to the real one. “I wanna touch you,” he heard himself whisper, “in all kinds of inappropriate places.”
That made Kurogane laugh again. “Kid, you are so... I can’t wait to see what you consider to be an inappropriate place.” His smile quieted, even as the heat began to simmer in his eyes. Fai felt the words form against his lips as Kurogane kissed him slowly. “Touch away.”
It was Kurogane’s voice, again, that woke Fai as he drifted hazily between sleep and almost-sleep. “How often does your mom call?” he mumbled into the pillow.
“Just the once. You’re obsessive, you know that?”
“Mmhm.”
“And you’re starting to stick to stuff. Yourself, the sheets…me… Come on. Time for a shower.”
Fai considered moving and immediately rejected the idea. “Uh-uh. Let’s have sex,” he invited. The bed would surely be involved in having more sex and the having of more sex would be an added benefit; Fai patted the bed beside him.
Kurogane made a sighing sound. “Kid, come on. The Washing Off Copious Amounts of Seminal Fluids Fairy already has the water running.”
“Did you…” Fai blinked and pushed himself up on his elbows. “Did you just call yourself a fairy?”
“No. Come on, shower time.”
Letting himself flop back down on the bed, Fai yawned. “Couldn’t the Gives out Sponge Baths So I Don’t Have to Get Out of Bed Fairy swing by instead?”
“You are so lazy.”
Because Kurogane sounded so amused and so exasperated, Fai let him nudge him out of bed and into the shower. He even let him laugh at the undignified yelp he let out when he leaned against the cold tiles; he liked Kurogane’s laugh a lot, both the dark-sex-lust baritone rumble and this new, amused-happy-laugh laughter. Besides, the cold tile against his butt woke him up. “You’re not tired,” he said, in a half-question.
“No.” Warm, wet hands on his hips pressed him into the direct spray of the shower and then slid up and into his hair, stroking it back from his face. “You’re a mess.”
“It’s your fault,” he smiled, rubbing up into the hands on his head. “That’s nice. Why?”
Kurogane pulled him closer and began to wash his hair with something that smelled like coconuts. “Why is it nice?”
“Hotel gave you girly shampoo. I meant, ‘why aren’t you tired’.”
“This is my shampoo,” Kurogane said, pinching his ass.
Fai laughed. “I like it. It smells nice. Really!” he dodged a second pinch and then smiled. “Why aren’t you tired?”
Kurogane smiled a little and shrugged. “Too wired, I guess,” he replied, pushing him under the water to rinse.
“Can’t be,” he said when he emerged. “We had sex, like, a dozen times. You came so hard that last time that you prayed to deities that don’t even exist. Can I wash your hair?”
“They might too exist, you heathen. And yeah, knock yourself out.” His eyes closed and Fai took advantage of the opportunity to stare at him a little. “Insomnia, habit, tradition; take your pick and we’ll run with it.”
“Tradition,” he chose and he hoped that Kurogane didn’t hear the forlorn note of longing in his voice. “All nighters with those hot, blue-eyed blonds that you pick up and everything.”
“We just had sex a half hour ago,” Kurogane said plaintively. “Give an old man some time to recover, kid.”
“For a rock-star, old is not twenty-six; old is thirty,” Fai corrected lazily, more interested in breathing in the rich, spicy-sweet scent that was Kurogane than in having sex again. “You have fantastic hair, you know that? It’s soft and when it’s wet it’s like…I don’t know. Nice.”
Kurogane grinned. “You are such a fanboy. Which I don’t really object to, but I can’t believe you quoted me to me.”
Fai grinned back. “Normally I’m not brainless enough to admit it. It’s all the sex; I don’t normally have so much that’s that good.” He got out of the shower and looked at his towel thoughtfully. “If I whip your ass with my towel, will that make up for it?”
“No,” Kurogane answered as his own towel snapped out. Before Fai could retaliate, Kurogane tucked him into a thick robe and took his towel away to give his hair a brisk drying. “There you go, kid, all prettied up.”
“Kiss ass,” he said, dimpling at him.
“You first,” Kurogane suggested.
“I thought you had to rest,” Fai countered, leaving the bathroom and heading for the bar in the main room of the suite. “I’m getting a drink. Do you…whoa.” He stopped dead as he drew level with the bar.
“Sounds like somebody has discovered the t.v.,” Kurogane detoured around him and handed him a bottle of water. “Did you want to watch something?”
“Can we?” he clutched the cool plastic of the bottle and focused on carefully twisting the cap off. As cool as he felt it would be to watch anything on the huge, flat screen plasma television hanging in the room just off the bar, he wanted Kurogane more.
Kurogane slid a hand over the nape of Fai’s neck and, like he had at the elevators, pushed him forward. “Sure, kid. It’s three? Four in the morning? And I’ve got three hundred plus channels. There’s got to be something good on.”
Fai grinned and threw himself on the massive sofa that dominated what space the t.v. didn’t. He let out a whimper and indulged in a full body roll against it. “This is suede,” he enthused. “I bet it stains like hell. Wanna fuck on it?” He said it just to make Kurogane laugh.
“Tempting, kid, but I’ve found something better.” Kurogane held up the remote and began hitting buttons. “Somebody’s running a Tokyo Undead Hooker Massacre marathon. Five is going to start in a couple of minutes.”
“You want to watch…what?” Fai looked up at him, dumbfounded.
It was a look that he was getting returned in spades. “You’ve never watched Tokyo Undead?” Kurogane asked, blinking at him. “They’re classics.”
“Classics.”
“Absolutely. You want popcorn? I’ve got time to make it. Never mind. I’m making popcorn even if you don’t want it; you can’t watch these movies without popcorn.”
He twisted, looking over the back of the couch so that he could watch Kurogane making the popcorn. “You’re such a geek,” he told him cheerfully.
Kurogane flipped him off before bringing the popcorn in and settling down on the couch next to him and offering out the bowl. “You say that now. Just wait until it starts. Five is the last of the first series and it’s my favorite.”
“First series?” Fai started at him as, on the screen, some androgynous being in black panties paraded into downtown Tokyo. “How many are there?”
“Shhh. Three series, ten movies. This part’s good.”
Black Panties exploded in a shower of blood and various unidentifiable viscera for no apparent reason.
“Okay.”
When the ninth person had died and the fourth androgynous being (Purple Panties) had inexplicably burst into flames, Fai looked up at Kurogane grinned. “I love this movie,” he told him, a yawn catching him by surprise.
Kurogane smiled back. “Knew you would. Tired?”
“A little, but I want to finish the movie.”
“Hey, here,” Kurogane shifted, prodded, slid and Fai found himself with his head pillowed on a very familiar thigh. “Better?”
Fai smiled. “Yeah.”
He drifted without meaning to, caught in the cross currents of the movie and Kurogane’s voice as he told him important plot points to take note of and details from the first four movies. I want to ask you everything he thought, watching the movie through closed eyes. I want to know things that you don’t tell just anybody. I want to know you. I want you to know me and we can have stupid jokes and bad movies and mind blowing sex. I want to talk you out of a bad mood and to see you take a walk in the fall, when all the leaves are coming down. I want to teach you to play all the stupid games I know, like Touch And Run Away. I want to be with you.
“Kid?” A hand brushed over his face, feather light touches. “Did you know that you talk in your sleep?”
“Hm?” Fai opened his eyes as the dreamy-drifting feeling disappeared like mist in the sunlight of being touched. “I wasn’t sleeping. Just kind of floating. I do sort of talk to myself, though.” He wiggled and twisted so that he could see Kurogane’s face. “What did I say?” he asked.
Kurogane shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not sure.” The hand on his face shifted and a thumb swept idly at the delicate skin around his eyes. “I should put you to bed, kid,” he said softly. “You’ve got blue circles under your eyes.”
The idea was appealing. “You’re going to put me to bed?”
He laughed. “I’m going to tuck you in and let you sleep while I order breakfast and get my stuff loaded out.”
“Breakfast? Load out? What time is it?” Fai scrambled into sitting and looked around the room for a clock.
Kurogane was watching him with an air of almost detached curiosity. “Five-thirty or so. I’ve got another show tomorrow night and I’ve got to be able to check out the club for the set-up. So. Drive all day, crash for the night, run the set-up and the checks, warm up, zen, concert, back to the hotel for a night of no sleeping as per tradition. Why? You got some place you’ve got to be?”
Fai brushed his hair out of his face. “Work.” And, he realized with an internal groan, it was Sunday. He’d have to walk home. He was tempted to ask for a ride, but he didn’t want to come off as clingy. “I’ve got to get home.”
“Stay for breakfast; I’ll drop you off wherever you’re going after.”
“Oh…ah, thanks. I didn’t want to ask because it’d be…well, whatever, right? I should probably, um, get dressed. You live with six other people,” he explained needlessly, “and you learn to not eat whilst naked.” He stood up and pushed his hair out of his eyes again. “Where the hell are my clothes? I should have tripped over them at least once last night.”
“Bedroom, the dry-cleaner bag hanging on the door; I always send my stuff down so that I don’t have to do my own laundry, so I sent yours out, too.”
“Cool. Thanks.” He was heading for the bedroom when he heard Kurogane pick up the phone and ask for room service. “Don’t you want to know what I want?” he asked curiously.
Kurogane covered the mouthpiece. “Why don’t we see how close I can get with a guess? It can be the ‘Guess What’s for Breakfast’ game.”
Fai grinned. “Sounds like fun.” He hummed to himself as he got dressed and decided, when Kurogane came into the room and began pulling clothes out of one of the dresser drawers, that he could stand to put his socks and shoes on, too. He watched the other man dressing and had to consciously remember to breathe. “You’re…” he cut himself off before he could say ‘beautiful’, or something equally embarrassing, again.
“I’m what?”
“Nothing?”
“Spill it, kid,” Kurogane, still shirtless, stalked toward him and Fai let himself get pinned against the wall.
“No. It’s stupid.” He stole a kiss, since he could.
Kurogane kissed him back, lightly. “Tell me.”
“No way. It’s really stupid.”
“If you don’t tell me, I’m going to let you go.”
Fai capitulated. “It’s going to sound really dumb,” he muttered.
“You’re blushing.”
“Shut up, I know.” He looked away and kept his eyes focused on the small café-au-lait birthmark on Kurogane’s left shoulder. “It’s just…I’m in graphic design at the technical college but, when I’ve got the money for the fees, I audit some of the art classes at the university. History, style, just, you know, non-corporate driven art. And you’re…you’ve got eyes that are the color of an early summer sunset. And all these planes and angles and the lines of you…and then when you move and even when you’re just standing there, the light just…you’re just really beautiful. Okay? I told you it was going to sound lame.”
Kurogane tipped his face up and Fai wanted to drown in his eyes. “You’re something else, kid.”
“Yeah,” Fai rolled his eyes, exasperated with himself, “a love-sick, starry-eyed thirteen year old girl."
“A girl, huh?” Fai looked down as Kurogane began to unbutton his shirt.
“Uh-huh. Wha—” he cut off his question with a hiss of indrawn breath as Kurogane began to plant a trail of soft, sucking kisses down his neck. “God I love that,” Fai mumbled, threading his fingers through Kurogane’s hair. “You could do that forever and I wouldn’t ever ask you to stop. Not even for sex.” There was a soft chuckle, a puff of air and amusement against his skin, and the kiss when hard and stinging. “Do I have a hickey now?” he asked.
Kurogane pulled away and rubbed his thumb over the spot his mouth had just left. “Yep. It looks good on you.”
Fai stared at him. “You just gave me a love bite that I’m going to have to hide from everybody I know.”
“Mmhm.”
“I think my brain just fell out.”
“Yeah, mine too.”
“Good,” Fai moaned as they dove at each other. He lost his clothes before they even hit the bed and, by the time Kurogane’s pants were gone too, he’d completely lost his sense of time. He realized, as he fell, lost, that he was being both starry-eyed and love sick, but he couldn’t do a thing about it while wrapped up in the man causing it. The phone ringing, sudden and shrill, pulled at his consciousness without making so much as a dent in the other things going on in his mind. “What…?”
Kurogane bit him. “Breakfast is here. And it can fucking wait because I’m not going to.”
Fai laughed. “It’s going to get cold.”
“No it’s isn’t. I told them to keep it on a warmer. I am wise to your ways, kid.”
He squirmed away as best he could anyhow. “We have to play Guess What’s For Breakfast,” he said.
“We can play right here. You’re a kid. You eat junk,” Kurogane held him down. “I got you a Belgian waffle with cinnamon, powdered sugar, strawberry sauce, and whipped cream.”
“You’re good at this game,” Fai arched up against him unaccountably turned on by the thought of breakfast food though he reasoned that the whipped cream part of it might have something to do with it. “What are you having?”
“Oatmeal.”
“God, you’re sexy.”
“So are you, now quit talking otherwise I’m going to be forced to take away your ability to speak.”
Despite scolding himself out loud in the shower (alone), Fai only managed to talk his way through (a lukewarm) breakfast. It was the elevator that did it.
Kurogane had spent the whole ride down, grinning at him, and when he’d asked about it he’d shrugged and said that he was waiting to be asked if they were going to have sex in the VIP elevator.
Now, parked in front of the apartment building, standing next to the convertible and leaning against the door because he couldn’t just leave, he could find the ability to speak anyway; Kurogane had apparently taken it for good. “So…um…” he smiled and bit back the stupid offers that came to mind. Want to come up and meet all my roommates? and, worse, Want to come up and have breakfast again, because I can’t think of any other way to get you to stay?.
“What?” Kurogane, wearing the tinted sunglasses again, tipped them down to give him a look. “You want me to sign something?”
It made him relax, for some stupid reason. “Yeah. How about my ass?”
Kurogane laughed. “You’d have a hard time selling that autograph on E-bay,” he told him.
Fai turned to give his rear end a look and then looked back at Kurogane. “You think?”
“Don’t peddle your ass on the internet, kid.”
“FAI!” A shout from above saved him from asking Kurogane if he’d bid on it if he did put it up for auction. “Your shift as the rent boy has ended already and you’re going to be late for work if you don’t get your ass up here!”
“I know,” he shouted back. “Let me get this month’s rent from my John here and I’ll be up to give you your share, pimp.” Back on familiar ground, he grinned at Kurogane and winked. “And thus, the denizens of 515 get everybody’s Sunday morning off to an ungodly start. Thanks for the ride. And breakfast.” He half-waved and jogged around the front of the car, heading for the door.
“Hey, Fai!” It was Kurogane’s voice that stopped him in the middle of the street.
Heart thumping painfully, he turned. “Yeah?”
Kurogane crooked a finger at him. “C’mere.” He went and was pulled down into a fierce, sweet kiss. “See you around, Fai.”
“Yeah,” he breathed. “See you around, Kurogane.”
He didn’t watch the car pull away but he was pretty sure he felt it.
It showed up at the apartment a month later; the address written in a strong, unfamiliar hand and lacking his last name. The compact disc inside the package was plain, shining silver and was obviously a homemade burn.
Written on it, in blue sharpie and in the same handwriting, were the words Track One: For the Blue-Eyed Blond. He took it into his room to listen to it.
You’re blushing
Oh, don’t worry, I like it.
The words jolted him almost as much as the voice, a quiet whisper of secret things, all light and dark and dear.
I think I’m gonna spend some time on you
‘cause I wanna touch you in inappropriate places
The music was a soft, dreamy thing, wrapped around the words and the next lines made his stomach drop.
You talk in your sleep,
I should have kicked you out of my bed
Not for the whispers,
But for the things that you said
He closed his eyes
If you sold your soul, I’d buy it
just to tuck it away
If you sold the rest of you,
I’d buy it and put it on display
and let the last of the song wash over him
Stay where I can find you,
I’ll be back around
You’ve become the sound
Of my evensong
You're my evensong
Something tight in his chest, like the ache in his heart, eased away into warmth as he set his cd player on repeat. He put on headphones and fell asleep with the echo of his heartbeat in his ears.