Love Lies Bleeding

Memories are just where you laid them,

Dragging waters 'til the depths give up their dead.

What did you expect to find?

Was it something you left behind?

Don't you remember everything I said when I said:

Don't fall away, and leave me to myself.

Don't fall away, and leave love bleeding in my hands,

In my hands again;

Leave love bleeding in my hands.

In my hands,

Love lies bleeding.

`Hemorrhage (Love Lies Bleeding)', Fuel

The demon and the monk stayed together two days; two days of forced rest and recuperation. Two days of glares from the red-haired bandit. Two days of tension, threatening to make the demon grip at his thick, midnight-blue locks and tear at his scalp. Two days too long.

But, as he watched his companion sleep, he reasoned that it was all his fault anyway. He'd gone with his original plan of attempting to beat his one-time best friend to death, finding satisfaction in the crunch of his bones and the tears in his flesh. But in the end, his heart betrayed him, as it had done so often before.

Then, they were here. And he was beginning to hate it. The monk couldn't help it, but oh, gods! The desire to murder every last miserable, filthy, stinking, drunken, whoring bandit in the fortress made his fingers twitch and his mouth dry.

The desire to take Houjun till he screamed himself raw to work off this agression was also there, but not as prevalent. It was sad to say, but Hikou prefered murder to sex in some instances.

Besides, sex with Houjun while he was still an invalid wouldn't have been much fun. Their first encounter had been rushed and not very satisfactory, but it couldn't be helped. He had to cement the bond between them, seal it with his kiss, with the living man's seed in his mouth. Something to show Houjun that it was real. Something to mark him as Hikou's.

The memories made him shift uncomfortably on his small bed; they had moved a cot for him to rest within Houjun's room and take care of him. However, it only really served to keep Hikou near Houjun and taunt him with the pale flesh of the monk's body, sprawled out on his bed.

Houjun slept innocently. His head turned, blind eye against the pillow. One arm was slung over his chest as it rose and fell with his breath, and the other was up by his head, hand curled into a loose fist and resting on his pillow, not far from his head.

He hadn't changed his sleeping habits in a decade.

Hikou finally gave in as he saw the monk twitch, and rose from his bed. It wouldn't hurt to touch him while he slept, would it? Not at all. He would simply edge down the covers a little, and then lay a hand over his heart, feeling the strong, steady beat of the living man's blood through his body.

Houjun stirred not; his body was still.

It wouldn't hurt, Hikou decided, to let his fingertips trail over his lean belly, then, and trace the fine scars that a life of hardship had left on the monk.

Houjun twitched once, belly rolling slightly under the teasing touches of the demon's featherlight hands.

If he wouldn't wake, Hikou thought as he cast all pretense of innocence aside, the monk would miss all the fun. The ties to his trousers were loosened, the flaps laid back, the loincloth beneath tugged at.

Houjun began to stir a lot more.

Hikou had to work fast. Even as the monk began to yawn and mumble incoherently, awakened by his disrobing, he was still groggy and unaware of what was happening.

At least, Houjun was unaware until Hikou had swept back the covers and leaned over his belly, holding his soft member and began to gently kiss his ballsac.

That woke Houjun up fairly quickly. A strangled noise escaped the monk's throat, and his eye blinked rapidly, trying to clear the sleep from it. He shifted, arms flailing as he tried to grab the bed, and then found purchase in handfuls of silk.

"Hikou," was his strangled gasp, his eyes widening as he felt the man's tongue lathe acoss his sensitive flesh. Houjun sat up just to pitch backward again, gasping sharply.

The arousal took Houjun entirely by surprise; Hikou's skilled mouth (where did he learn this, anyway?) was all over, turning him hard without much work. When had it become so easy for his flesh to engorge? Since he'd tasted the proverbial fruit on the vine, had he acquired a liking for it? Or did his body simply respond to stimulus before his mind had a chance to be repulsed?

It didn't matter now; Hikou's legs swept up and straddled his waist, and he bent over the man's groin and lavished it with his attention.

Houjun found his hips rocking, the demon's palms pressing against their points, refusing to allow him to move with him. He was dominated. He was controlled.

He was about to have a mind-blowing orgasm.

He lifted his fist and bit on his knuckles to keep the shriek from escaping his throat as he shuddered and bucked. His eye clenched shut, and ever muscle in his body went taut before turning to so much jelly as he slumped to the bed again.

Hikou turned his head, wiping at his mouth, before he leaned over the bed.

"Don't you -dare- spit that on the floor," Houjun gasped, outraged.

Hikou coughed on what he had been about to do, before making a plaintive face, mouth still full. He all but begged the monk with his gaze--but found no mercy there. He then turned his head and spat into his hand... and then stopped, and looked down between them.

Houjun, thinking Hikou was done, relaxed slightly against the bed... before he felt sticky hands on his member again, and then sliding down.

Hikou's voice reached his ears, urging him gently, "Relax."

And then there was a slick finger working it's way into what had formerly been an exit, not an entrance.

A rude squawk and a rough smack was delivered to Hikou's back.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Houjun squeaked as he wriggled.

"Prepping you," Hikou said softly. "Because I'm either going to have you, or I'm going to go mad and slaughter the bandits."

Houjun froze.

Hikou glanced back over his shoulder, frowning, "I was speaking figuratively, Houjun." But that glimmer to his eyes said otherwise.

Houjun didn't have time to retort--he was still being subjected to that finger worming it's way into his body and he stuggled against it, muscles tightening like a vise.

"Oi! Give me back my finger!" Hikou protested.

"Glady! Now stop poking me in rude places!" Houjun demanded in a harsh whisper.

Hikou wasn't seriously thinking that he was going to be used like a woman, was he? Houjun's eye all but bugged out of his head as the demon rose and began to strip, hand glistening wet with his seed and Hikou's saliva in the dark.

"Saa... Do you have any tanning oil?" Hikou asked as silks were discarded. "Do the bandits?"

"How the hell should I know?!" Houjun said, trying to scramble for his sheets, which he'd kicked in his fitful slumber to the foot of the bed. He pulled them up, even as Hikou got himself down to simply his under-robe and his trousers.

"Oil will work better. I'll be right back!" And with that said, Hikou slunk out into the dark.

Houjun made quick work, getting his pants back up and his sheet around his body, sitting up in his bed and looking like a child just roused from a nightmare. Just what had Hikou thought he was doing, anyway?

The demon returned in short order, with a metal pot in hand. He put it beside the bed, and then continued to strip.

"You know, you could... ask before molesting me in the middle of the night!" Houjun didn't know what else to say. The first words that came to him, he spoke. His dark brows furrowed as he glared at the demon who ignored his irritation. "And you're not setting a hand on me again tonight."

Hikou's eyes burned like balefire in the dark, as he turned his smoldering glance to the monk. He turned and went to the door.

The lock clicked shut with a tinny noise.

Houjun thought it best to be quiet. He'd never seen Hikou like this before, a creature of his desires. He'd been slower, even gentle with him in the cave. But now he was simply following his lusts.

Seeing him stand there, now stripped and his chest heaving with his breathing (unnatural; did he really need to breathe?), Houjun was struck with the desire to remain silent.

The lid was pried off the jug of oil, and Hikou gripped his own erection; his other hand dipped into the fluid, getting a palmful, before he looked to Houjun.

"Please," he finally rumbled, as he leaned over to put his hands on the bed. His greased erection bobbing between his legs; the damn thing was nigh hypnotic Houjun found. There was a strange fascination with seeing another man's arousal that he could not place. Had he gone completely ecchi? Okama?

He shook his head violently, resisting, before he felt Hikou's oiled hands sliding over his chest, over his shuolders, dragging him forward to be kissed hard. The demon was awake and hungry, and Houjun's mouth was his meal.

Hikou's tongue, as slippery as his hands, slipped inside Houjun's mouth and teased at the monk's tongue. He touched him wherever he could reach, not allowing him an avenue of escape. He had to kiss. He had to be touched.

The sheet was torn from his grasp, and one hand solidly pushed him back against the bed, breath rushing from his lungs. And then he squawked again as he felt his breeches gripped and tugged roughly down till they were off, and his loincloth torn away, till he was bare as he could be.

Hikou propped himself above him, hands to either side of Houjun's head as he forced another kiss on him. But as he lifted his head, Houjun's words froze Hikou in his tracks.

"Hikou, you're scaring me."

It was as if a balloon filled with the demon's ardor had a sword shoved through it; it simply burst and went flat, and the demon's erection drooped in accordance.

"Houjun..." Hikou's voice was raw, and this time his kisses were more gentle. "I can only be so good, Houjun. I am a demon. And while I try, I must..." He shuddered above the monk. "I have to have something. Every dog must be tossed a bone, Houjun!"

Houjun looked up at his brother-turned-lover, and then reached up to cup his face. "Shush," he murmured softly. "It... It'll be alright, Hikou. You just can't... seriously think I'll lay back and do whatever you want!"

"Didn't you say your flesh was mine?" Hikou snapped lowly. His hands, still slick with oil, now moved over Houjun's chest again.

They wemt down over his belly to grasp at his member, slicking it down, mingling saliva and semen and oil.

"Didn't you?" Hikou growled as he stroked.

"Didn't you say that you wanted me to let it go? That it was it, wasn't? Your desire--release," Houjun reminded him, even as he tried to keep his voice steady.

The pair stayed in their positions for a moment, until Hikou's head dropped, his cheek brushing against Houjun's. The demon's hand opened, and Houjun's limp and sticky manhood was released.

"I need you," Hikou murmured roughly. "Please. I won't ask again. But I will leave for a time."

Houjun was silent a moment, his body trembling beneath the demon's.

"Alright."

Hikou's head lifted at the single word the Suzaku Seishi had spoken.

"Alright?" Hikou repeated, for his own benefit.

"Yes. It's alright," Houjun said. "I... Just want to be with you as a man, Hikou. Not you as a demon." His brows furrowed, and his voice strengthened. "I know there's a man inside you, somewhere. A part of you is still human. I wouldn't stay here with you otherwise."

Hikou's mouth worked, but no words came out for a time, as he tried to grasp the insight Houjun had given him.

The callused palms of Houjun's hands closed around Hikou's face, tracing over the fine cheekbones and sharp jaw.

"Let it go," Houjun said softly. "And find peace."

"Let it go," Hikou repeated. What he had asked of Houjun; for the monk to let it go. Now, he had to do the same.

Slowly, his body lowered, until he was cradled against Houjun's chest, listening to the rapid, thumming beat of his heart.

"I scared you."

"Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"It happens," Houjun reassured. "Now. Rest here with me. Another time, we'll take this step. Not here, but sometime soon. Just... not yet. Can you be the man that long for me?"

"I'll try," the demon said roughly, burying his face in the smooth flesh of his companion's neck. "I'll try."

"Good. That's all I can ask."

The two remained awake, in silence, for some time after. Sleep did not come easily to either.