Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Heaven's Playground ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Saiyuki doesn't belong to me; it belongs the brilliant goddess Minekura, who I will worship forever and ever every time I look at her drool-worthy guys. I mean art. Yeah.

A/N: Heh. General Kenren/Tenpou fluff. What can I say? I was in a fluffy mood.

A big thanks goes to Moerae, for fixing up my continuity problems. *hands over peaches and ramen gift basket*

Completed: 16/11/04

Heaven had a way of screwing things up. It wasn't a well hidden fact -- hardly -- but for once in his life, Kenren wished it was different. He exhaled and a trail of smoke billowed around him, like flying ribbons during one of their festivals -- he sneered -- or particularly grey-ish-just-about-to-rain-on-your-stupid-head clouds. Clouds that were vicious and resentful -- just the sort that would hover over you with no care about your person and -- quite literally shit all over you.

Or maybe he was being a little unfair. He supposed he could be; it wasn't as if he didn't have a vicious streak himself -- he just didn't show it as much. Why should he? He was satisfied with his lot in life; the wine, women, fishing and of course, the women, were all welcome additions and to top it off, he was a general in Heaven's Western army as well. Certainly not an obedient one, but hey, that was the price his superiors had to pay to use his undeniable skill in battle; his strength was the only reason why he hadn't been sent packing, as his latest superior had said -- from what he could glean from the litany of angry curses anyway since he hadn't been paying much attention, and his superior had still been a bit pissed off about the whole sleeping with his wife thing.

As no doubt the new one he had now was, though, not quite in the same way. It looked like Kenren had moved up from sleeping with his superior's wife to sleeping with his superior -- except, it wasn't actually sleeping technically. More like, maybe a kiss or a pass, or -- and Kenren smirked at this -- a grope.

He didn't blame him for being pissed off. 

Heaven had a way with screwing things up -- screwing him up, because who in their right minds would hit on their superiors? Well, for one thing, General Kenren sure would and did. And thereby proving once and for all that he was one studly, smart guy. The kind who made cheesy pick up lines work; the kind who broke hearts but was well-meaning in his honesty; the kind who suddenly decided he liked the look of his male superior and decided to act on it in one stupid moment of sheer impulse. He couldn't blame himself for that -- no, he blamed his uncurbed nature. And Heaven. Yep, Heaven.

He had always gone for what he wanted, whether it was wine or women and he had always gotten it, wine or women. He supposed he was spoiled by that; it took a strong will and a strong mind to resist General Kenren of the Northern Army, who was now General Kenren of the Western Army because a certain wife of a certain commander couldn't resist his so-called -- he took a moment to smirk in remembrance -- charms.

Too bad a certain commander himself could.

Kenren saw surprised green eyes again and remembered the awkward silence that had soon enveloped both of them. He remembered the strain, the tension melting into a surprised acceptance because he supposed that not everyone could be swayed by his charming demeanour and seductive aura, and he remembered shrugging casually before he had left; what he couldn't remember was the excuse he made, and the reply that Tenpou was trying to put into actual words and not sounds like uh, um and ah. And as he had oh-so-casually strolled through the door, down the hall and outside into the sparkling illusion of Heaven, he couldn't help but think, damn. Shot down before anything interesting happened; he shook his head, and took a sip of from his flask, walking with determined strides to a Sakura tree. Hoisting himself up effortlessly, he settled on one of his favourite spots and took another sip, this time toasting the thin air. Only in Heaven, did the air smell sweet and good enough to take a bite of. He almost liked Heaven.

Almost.

If Heaven hadn't screwed with his mind, he had a feeling they would have gotten along just fine. They had before all this crap started churning around; all this nonsense that started off with finding Tenpou good on the eyes and ended with wondering if his superior looked just as good naked and panting. Fuckin' Heaven and its shitty illusions. There was even that one time when he might have, just might have, thought about more than a one night stand; that maybe, they could have some sort of contract or agreement or something. Nothing like a relationship of course, he amended quickly. Because he didn't do relationships, and he had a feeling Tenpou wasn't too thrilled with the idea either. The only relationship Tenpou really wanted was probably the one with his books and by now, Kenren knew well enough to leave his books alone. Like one of those Down Below leeches though, the idea wouldn't leave his mind. It stayed there at the back, just behind his idle thinking of where he could get his wine supply now that some dip-shit of a bureaucrat had cut off his vendor, and in front of the extremely graphic lusting he had going on with his superior, which was pretty freaky in its own right. Usually it was the lusting that came first and then the avoidance of all relationship or relationship-like ties that came after, but this time, like some upside down world where Heaven was Down Below and Down Below was Heaven, it was reversed.

It was a head-scratching, eye-squinting type of confusion Kenren has spent most of his extremely long life avoiding; only this time, he couldn't dodge it. The idea nagged and twinged at him until it was all he could do to stay still and not bang his head back repeatedly against the trunk he was haphazardly leaning on. Served him right if he did though. Maybe the pain would finally sink into his thick skull, and his sex-starved mind would quit throwing fleshy, earthy images of Tenpou spread out on his bed like some feast for the hungry.

He groaned silently and thumped his head back hard.

"That looks painful," a smooth voice commented from somewhere below and Kenren fumbled for balance, nearly slipping off in surprise.

Holding onto one of the branches like some hackled earth cat, Kenren could only blink as he gazed down into the familiar smiling face of his superior and friend -- or at the very least just his superior. He wasn't sure how they were going to get back into being comfortable friends, but at least Tenpou didn't look murderous. Heck, he was even smiling. Though, now that Kenren thought about it, for all he knew, Tenpou could have been smiling his I'm-just-toying-with-you-bam!-you're-dead smile -- Kenren hadn't exactly gotten enough time to catergorise all of Tenpou's subtle expressions. No, he snorted; he had probably been too busy wondering how Tenpou's skin would feel under his hands, under his body, pressed against his own skin, against his mouth --

"Kenren?"

Kenren nearly fell again.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah?" he questioned, regaining his balance with reflexes worthy of a hackled earth cat and gave his mental facilities a hard poke.

"Oh. Uh," Tenpou coughed. "I don't suppose you want to get down?"

Kenren looked at Tenpou suspiciously.

"Why can't we talk like this?"

"Well," Tenpou blinked, "I guess we could do."

"Yeah. We could," Kenren nodded enthusiastically, hands clutching the branch even more tightly.

"Well, uh, that is, before -- in my office -- uh, what I meant to say was that I'm not adverse to your suggestion."

Kenren almost fell again, and damn it, he was sure he had more balance than this. He was sure he did -- it just disappeared when Tenpou appeared, and if Kenren could have managed a coherent thought at the moment he would have made a logical and valid correlation between Tenpou and balance, but as it was, he just stared, stumped and speechless for once; no cheesy lines, no sexy, leering smirk, just plain silence.

He didn't stop staring until he noticed Tenpou's smile change. This was a new one, this smile; it was wider and darker, more dangerous and smirk-like, but reaching green eyes just the same, and this was one of Tenpou's hidden smiles -- the kind very few got to see even though they were more than acquaintances. He looked down and found an amused Tenpou watching him, obviously thinking different thoughts because Kenren had been utterly innocent. Innocent, he swore. He hadn't been staring at Tenpou's mouth for nefarious reasons. Of course not. Absolutely --

And Tenpou slid his hand to his chest, grasped the edges of his trench coat and pulled him lower until they were face to face. Then, Kenren watched, hypnotised as Tenpou kissed him.

This was good, fuckin' good, good enough to fuck, heck yeah, and no, damn it. Why -- ?

He stared around in a daze. What happened to the leaves and branches? Why was Tenpou looking down at him when he should have been looking up? And the most important thing of all -- why the heck was Tenpou just standing there? They had a good thing going just then -- why wasn't there more kissing and less looking? He frowned.

"I believe we should take this conversation to a more private location," Tenpou said casually, lightly tugging at his clothes, like it was just every day that he laid a big one on his disobedient subordinate.

"Yeah," Kenren agreed, grinning goofily. Private was good. Private was great. He nodded again.

"Well then, aren't you getting up?" Tenpou arched an eyebrow, silently laughing at him now.

Get up? Oh yeah, he was on the ground wasn't he? He fell? Well, if the day wasn't just getting -- better, he corrected, hastily picking up his flask, and then striding towards Tenpou. Much better, if the images in Kenren's mind were anything to go by.