[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 7

Ran dozed for what must have been moments only, startling awake to an ooze of half-melted icecream running over the ticklish skin below his ribs. He shuddered, smoothing the liquid stuff down so it at least wouldn't move. Icecream pressed into his skin, he raised sticky fingers, staring at them contemplatively for a long moment, his tongue finally flickering out to taste the sweet mingled with Yohji's come.

Yohji grunted, an arm tightening around Ran's shoulders. Possessive. Not moving away. And slowly, as Ran watched, his eyes flickered open, a lazy smile spreading over his face.

"Fuck," he said, sleepily.

Ran felt a smile forming in return, and out of some unknown instinct he leaned down and brushed a strand of hair out of Yohji's eyes.

"Again?" he asked, gently teasing, following the trail of his hand with a kiss.

Yohji's smile flashed bigger, then his lips brushed over Ran's. "Don't make promises you can't keep," he whispered, voice low and husky, hand skimming down Ran's spine to rest on one hip. His eyes flickered over Ran's face, and he smiled again. "I can't believe I've got you here in my bed," he confessed with sleep-driven honesty. "I'm not dreaming, am I?"

Ran's brows lowered, a hollow reality settling in his breast but he forced a smile, fairly obviously forced a smile and said, "I hope not." The smile faltered, never strong to begin with, and he glanced away.

"Hey, stop that," murmured Yohji, something inside him clenching at Ran's vulnerability. He threaded his fingers through strands of scarlet hair and brushed Ran's lips with his again, stroked noses. "I don't mind lying to everyone else." He nipped at Ran's lower lip, enjoying the involuntary gasp that resulted. "But I won't lie to you. I want you here."

"You want me here," Ran repeated softly, returning Yohji's kiss until the hollow feeling faded and then vanished, only then drawing back to examine Yohji's expression. He nodded to himself, as though confirming something, and entirely unaware that he was grinning breathed "I want to be here, too." The grin curled a bit. "And speaking of promises ..."

"Shower first," said Yohji. "You're all sticky." He spread his palm over Ran's belly, just above the healing scar, and rubbed.

Ran shuddered at the touch, catching Yohji's hand and scowling up at him, hopefully with enough humor in his eyes or in the tiny, stifled, irreppressible smile that the other man - no, that his lover knew that he was teasing. "Not as sticky as some."

"You put it there," Yohji said, with a purr in his voice. "You'd better clean it off."

Ran's tongue flickered out to wet his lips on a thought. "I can do that." He looked pointedly to the dried come on his own belly, streaked white below the fresh scar. "Can you?"

Yohji flexed his arm, still caught securely in Ran's grip, wanting to touch, but Ran wasn't relinquishing control so easily. He would have liked to wrestle some, but he was all too aware of Ran's fragility. Too soon, too recently speared on Schion's blade.

"Shower," he said, and rolled away, off the bed, tugging Ran after him.

Ran scrambled up after him, feeling ridiculously accomplished for having achieved some kind of response. Yohji's hand was warm in his, and Ran followed him into the bath readily, loose-limbed and content in a way he hadn't been since, well, in a long time.

Yohji wasted no time in turning on the water. The chill outside of his cosy room was like a slap in the face, and would have crushed his libido in an instant if it hadn't been for the sight of Ran, shivering and not caring, looking at him with a heat in his eyes that Yohji had never seen in anyone before. No-one. Ever.

It was luck rather than judgement that the water was warm enough when Yohji stepped backwards under the spray, pulling Ran with him, into his arms, warm-wet and still-sticky and shivering.

Ran started at the first spray of water, a full-body shiver that tugged at the healing wound below his ribs, and he stepped further under the warmth into Yohji's arms. He held Yohji's shoulders carefully in his hands, felt that care returned, rested his cheek against Yohji's neck for a moment. "Soap?" He asked quietly, not moving or showing any willingness to move.

"In a minute." Yohji's voice was tight, the touch of Ran's skin on his forcing his eyes to shut, his body to stand completely still, savouring the contact. He kissed Ran's hair, already slick with water, and a whimper escaped from somewhere deep inside of him.

"Now?" Ran panted, pressing all against the slick length of Yohji's lean-muscled body, stroking the lines of his back and moving against the cock hard against his belly and not meaning the soap, forcing out another needy little plea that would probably be embarrassing upon reflection. "Again?"

Yohji made a little groaning sound, and kissed him, deep, breathtaking. "God, Ran, when you... oh God. You're so..." And clever fingers eased between their bodies to find hard flesh. Ran sucked in a surprised breath, looking up blindly at Yohji's passion-closed eyes, the strong fingers on his cock overwhelming the pain and the soreness and the doubt. Should be surprising that he could want Yohji this much, that Yohji could want him back. But he did. Undeniably. His breath was short already, his grip sure, and his own cock was pressing relentlessly against Ran's thigh.

"This is heaven," Yohji murmured into Aya's hair. "Let's just do this forever."

And then there was the sound of a door slamming. A girlish giggle from somewhere downstairs.

"Aya," Ran moaned on a shocked breath, jerking back, almost slipping on the tile. Strong hands caught him by the arms, and he looked up into Yohji's eyes, searching for reassurance or an answer or anything really to counter the sudden rush of fear.

"Steady," said Yohji. "It's okay, I locked the door." He planted a kiss on Ran's forehead, tugged him close again. "Just stay quiet until they've gone to bed."

"Quiet," he murmured. "It's that late? They'll just go to bed?" He smiled softly, relaxing against Yohji's water-slick body. "We could go to bed, after," he glanced away, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. "After we get something to eat."

Yohji wrapped his arms firmly around Ran, drawing him close. Safe. Not about to escape. Pressing his lips to Ran's forehead, eyes closed. Marvelling at how the notion of Ran expressing hunger - any sort of hunger - set butterflies fluttering in his belly. "Eating sounds good," he murmured, and twitched his hips to let his cock bounce once against Ran's before he pressed their hips together.

"Eating?" Aya forgotten, almost, Ran smiled, feeling almost playful with the flex of Yohji's cock against his own. "This is teasing, right? You mean, not really eating," he continued, almost gasping at the wet-slick hard feeling of Yohji moving against him, all flirting muscles and smiles as Ran attempted seduction. "Not eating, but," and drew his fingers down Yohji's length, shivering himself at the feel.

"That's right," Yohji gasped. "Only I'm not sure how much more teasing I can take." And he kissed Ran hard, only just remembering in time he was a little too fragile to slam against the tile. And it excited him, Yohji realised, that fragility. It fitted with the almost coy, playful side of Ran he was seeing for the first time, and it made the hard core of the man that Yohji knew all too well a little less daunting. Underneath the cold ruthlessness of Abyssinian was the boy who had been left behind the night Takatori Reiji stole his life, and Yohji felt as though he was resurrecting him, bit by bit, peeling back the layers of guilt and pain and killing, to find the real Ran underneath.

He ran his hands down the goosebumped flesh of Ran's back to cup his ass in his palms. It was all he could do to remember to breathe.

"Not teasing," Ran breathed, pressing desperately against Yohji, the hands on his ass new and all the more exciting for it and he mirrored the hold, sliding katana-rough hands down the smooth back to cup and squeeze smooth flesh. "Not really. Not teasing." He laughed, just a soft little sound all the more earned by Yohji's returning grin. "I intend to deliver."

"Glad to hear it," said Yohji, licking his lips, looking more wolfish than ever. "What is it you're planning on delivering, exactly?" His eyes dipped down for a delicious glance at Ran's cock, the pink tip just visible, sandwiched between their bellies and nestling against his own.

"Oh, I," Ran paused, eyelids fluttering almost closed against the sudden slide of Yohji's cock against his own. "Deliver, something, I don't," and his arms slid up to cling to Yohji's shoulders, his knees giving out and his words stuttering to a halt. "Anything?"

"How about this?" Yohji curled his fingers around Ran's erection and gently rubbed it over his own again, stealing a kiss at the same time. Then he pulled back, checking Ran was okay, before he sank to his knees, still aware that this was all new and desperately afraid of pushing his luck.

But he wanted Ran so much it hurt, and the little gasp that escaped from his throat when Yohji brushed his tongue over the head of his cock sent a shiver straight down his spine. "You're so hot," Yohji breathed. "So damn hot."

"You," Ran breathed, staring down almost unbelieving. "Fucking incredible," before his head slammed back and his hips arched forward, his hands tangling in Yohji's hair without conscious thought. Yohji's lips moved against the soft skin, his mouth opening to actually take Ran inside, Ran biting back moans until his lip bled as he slid into Yohji's mouth.

Yohji swallowed a chuckle as he sucked Ran's cock deeper, running his hands over the smooth curves of his ass, fingertips just grazing the crack in between. Pulling Ran closer then pushing him back, just a little, encouraging him to fuck. The thick, pulsing flesh in his mouth tasted good; drops of sweet precome forming at the tip to be licked up at the end of each stroke.

He let it fall from his mouth, nuzzled it briefly and looked up. "Do it fast, if you like. I can take it."

He took the head of Ran's eager cock into his mouth again, and his fingers resumed their explorations.

He could feel Yohji's tongue slipping beneath and between the delicate folds of his foreskin, could feel the head of his cock sliding against the slick sides of Yohji's hollowing mouth. His eyes rolled back in his head at Yohji's words, and his hips flexed irresistibly faster until it was all hot and wet and the falling water and Yohji's silk-sleek hair. "Please," he managed, slipped into Yohji's throat, nearly passed out at the feeling.

Yohji tilted the angle and swallowed him down, closing his eyes as his nose brushed soft, wet curls to better feel the thick heat in his mouth and throat. Relishing the feeling as Ran moved, unable to resist running his fingers along the smooth skin between Ran's balls and his ass, holding his breath to test Ran's reaction as he swirled his fingertip around the soft, puckered entrance to his body.

Ran went up on his toes, pleasure crackling through him like a live current, his fingers tightening in Yohji's hair not to caress but to hold him in place as he felt his release building from his rigid extremities like a diffuse and painless trembling. "Yohji, I," he breathed, but he felt the tightening, his fingers spasmed on Yohji's skull, gripped in his flexing jaw, and he came wondering down Yohji's throat.

Yohji coughed at the first pulse, fought Aya's grip just enough to pull his head back so he didn't choke. Took the next couple of spurts on his tongue, then tipped his face up, until the head of Aya's cock rested on his lower lip, spilling over his nose and cheeks and open mouth.

Ran sobbed in a breath, consciously gentling his fingers in Yohji's hair, petting it a little as he sagged against the wall. "Sorry," he gasped, smiling a little helplessly as he drew Yohji to his feet.

"No problem." Yohji licked his lips and dodged his hair under the spray, water slicking his hair against his skull and dripping down nose and chin. Then he opened his eyes, squinted at Aya through the drips and smiled back. "You look happy," he said. Smugly.

"Yeah," Ran said thoughtfully, feeling the grin broaden without really meaning for it to. "And you look like the proverbial cat." He slid one hand to Yohji's hip, grasping his cock with the other just hard enough to make him gasp. And grinning, a bit wickedly, "Does that make me the canary?"

"Miaow," said Yohji, thrusting into Ran's fist. "Can't you see the feathers?" God, but he could get used to this. He was going to have a stupid grin plastered on his face for a week; it was going to be hard to explain it away if they were to keep this secret.

And they must. Somewhere deep inside Yohji was absolutely certain that if Aya-chan found out that would be the end. However happy Ran looked right now.

And he looked very, very happy.

Yohji looked happy, really happy like he hadn't in years, and Ran couldn't stop the grin forming over a sudden twinge of melancholy that Yohji's happiness relied on him. "I don't know," he said absently, voice almost inaudible beneath the rush of the shower. Yohji could rely on him. "Maybe I should do a full-body search." He could make Yohji happy. "Just in case." Sliding easily to his knees, hands anchoring him at Yohji's glass-sharp hipbones and he knew he could make Yohji happy. He could.

"You don't have to," said Yohji, probably because he meant it, but no doubt hoping Ran would do it just the same. His hands rested gently on Ran's shoulders, thumbs stroking the usually-tense muscles up the sides of his neck. Not tense now. Lax and warm and working as he watched Ran's head duck down.

Ran let Yohji's words wash over him like a reassurance. He really did have to do this. For himself if no one else, and he licked his lips curiously as he leant in to Yohji's cock, the tip leaking desperately and he nuzzled the silk-soft skin just to hear Yohji moan.

It worked like a charm. Yohji didn't just moan. He whimpered. He stumbled slightly, his knees suddenly weak. "Oh," he murmured. "Oh, Ran, god..."

Ran tightened his grasp on Yohji's hips, steadying the taller man and feeling a burst of inordinate pride that he'd done this. Riding the feeling, he guided Yohji back to lean against the tiled wall, took a steadying breath, and took just the head of Yohji's cock into his mouth.

"Oh," Yohji gasped. "You're so... you look so... oh..." He curled the fingers of one hand into a loose fist, and stroked Ran's hair gently with his knuckles, transfixed by the sight of his cock disappearing between Ran's pink, slightly swollen lips.

Yohji was so still, his hips tense and his fingers careful and Ran felt an almost painful burst of tenderness or gratitude or something less certain. He would have smiled at Yohji's words. Instead taking Yohji a bit deeper, feeling the weeping head of Yohji's cock slide against his tongue and swallowing the bitter-salt liquid.

"You don't have to take it all the way," said Yohji, his voice coming out as a strangled whisper. "Not this time. Just... oh..." The rasp of Aya's tongue over his sensitive flesh was just the right side of too much, and suddenly Yohji couldn't think any more.

Yohji tensed beneath Ran's tongue, beneath his hands, and he encouraged the slight movement that followed, not certain he wanted Yohji to lose this unaccustomed control. But Yohji was alive, writhing against him and suddenly he wanted it to happen, wanted Yohji to lose that control and treat him like, like a lover, wanted him to thrust and maybe even scream because of him.

"Suck," said Yohji, one hand cupping the base of Ran's skull, the other wrapping around the root of his cock, feeding it into Ran's mouth. "Oh God, Ran... you look so... oh..."

Yohji's words knifed through him, and he hollowed his cheeks in his effort to win a repeat of that sound. He was hard again, Yohji's hands in his hair in an unconscious reversal of their earlier position that he was all too aware of as he reluctantly removed one hand from Yohji's hip and wrapped it around his own pulsing erection.

"Oh God." Yohji watched Ran's lips brush his knuckles, but he didn't let go. That was enough, for now. He didn't have enough rational thought left to teach Ran how to deep throat him, and anyway, it was already more than he could bear, just watching Ran suck him like that, touching himself, looking so heartbreakingly beautiful. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..."

Yohji was chanting above him (low cigarette-husky voice), the water steady and strong on his back spattering Yohji's thighs and he kissed Yohji's knuckles wrapped white-taut around the base of his cock as the long muscles in his legs locked and spasmed a little and the low muttered words turned into a soft wail. Ran quickened the pace of his other hand, almost desperate in his movements as though he could sense the approaching end. Arching up and swallowing convulsively around Yohji's cock as he came again, almost too soon, sobbing against Yohji's knuckles as the other man petted and stroked at his hair.

"I'm gonna come," Yohji warned, pulling back a little. Not wanting to give Ran any nasty surprises. Still not quite able to believe this was happening, and not wanting to do anything that would make it go wrong. "You don't... have to..."

Ran almost missed the words, absorbed in his own thrumming after-pleasure and the salt-slick skin beneath his tongue, but caught the first pulse of Yohji's cock, pulling back with an almost comical sense of his own surprise, come splattering against his lips and one cheek when he turned his head, laughing helplessly, inexplicably happy about the entire thing.

"Close your eyes," gasped Yohji, and let out a chuckle himself as he striped the other cheek, the sight of his come on Ran's skin as erotic as his startled expression had been funny. Enough to turn the lust pumping through Yohji's body into joy, as stroked Ran's sperm-sticky hair.

Ran squeezed his eyes shut obediently, leaning forward to prop his forehead against Yohji's thighs just beside his softening cock. Yohji's hands slowed in his hair, and Ran was still smiling, Yohji sticky on his skin and a helpless grin stretching his lips.

"I don't think I've ever got so dirty in the shower before," said Yohji, still short of breath, pulling Ran carefully to his feet, mindful of his injury even now. "Come here."

Ran allowed himself to be pulled to his feet, to be enfolded in Yohji's arms so that he could hide in the crook of Yohji's shoulder. He felt unaccountably nervous, and pressed closer as Yohji moved to wash the both of them. Was that okay? he wanted to ask, but remained silent as Yohji ran a soaped cloth down his back and to his shoulders in a circling, comforting motion.

Yohji caught a glimpse of Ran's face as he washed him: he didn't look entirely happy, and his usual guarded expression was creeping back. Too soon. "Are you okay?" he whispered, and kissed the slick wet of Ran's shoulder.

Ran closed his eyes, tightened his arms around Yohji's too-thin ribs to feel the sleek skin and muscle. "Yes," he said softly, voice muffled by the water. "You?" But Yohji was concerned for him, and he felt an inevitable smile forming.

"Fine," said Yohji. And then, "I can usually last longer than that. Just so you know. It's just that you're," and he ran his tongue around the curve of Ran's ear, voice turning to whisper, "irresistible."

Ran grinned, suddenly happier than he'd been in years if only for the presence of this strange, self-aggrandizing man. "I believe you," Ran said, the reassurance a welcome unfamiliarity on his tongue. "We weren't trying for a marathon anyway, were we?"

"No," said Yohji. "Not this time. Tonight we do the sprinting. Tomorrow night," and he licked Ran's ear again, enjoying the shiver it sent through Ran's lean body, "we go for the stamina events."

Ran moaned, shivered, Yohji's words surprising a quick bark of laughter that was swallowed almost immediately by Yohji's mouth. Ran leaned into the kiss, boneless against Yohji's strength as water ran in runnels down his sides and belly. "We should get dried off," he panted when released, staring up bemusedly at Yohji's broad grin.

"Sure," said Yohji. The grin faded, then, and Yohji's eyes focused on Ran's, huge and green, alarmingly intense to anyone who didn't know him as well as Ran did. "I'm serious about this, Ran. I'm not fucking you around. Just... so's you know."

"I know you aren't," Ran said, as serious, unable to look away even though he felt exposed, oddly vulnerable but then he'd never grown accustomed to admitting how he felt. "Neither am I. Fucking around, I mean."

Yohji kissed him, a soft brush of lips and tongue, and folded his arms around him, nuzzling into his hair.

"I want to take you somewhere," he murmured. "Tomorrow. We could sneak off to the mountains. Tell them it's part of your convalescence."

"Now you're being ridiculous," Ran said immediately, smiling crookedly up at Yohji. This was fun, the banter, the lightheartedness of it. He'd never thought love could be anything but painful. "This is fun," he repeated aloud, brushing the fingers of his right hand over Yohji's cold-raised nipple.

Yohji gasped. "Tickles!" And then he laughed, pressing himself closer so there was no room for Ran to get up to any further mischief of the tickling kind. And once he was that close it was inevitable that they'd kiss; soft, warm, light kisses. "Definitely fun," Yohji husked. "But cold. And I'm starving."

"We never did get dinner," Ran mused, content to remain trapped against Yohji's side. "And you promised to feed me, I think."

"Damn right I did." Yohji nuzzled Ran's neck, paused to nibble on one ear, tasting the bright metal of his earring again. "We're out of food, though. And I'm out of cigarettes." He kissed Ran's shoulder, ran his tongue over the ticklish spot at the hollow of his collarbone. "I'll go to the store."

"The store." Ran frowned, possibly sulking though he certainly wouldn't admit it aloud. "I could come with you," he suggested, tone lightening with the pressure of Yohji's lips and teeth.

"You're wet. It's cold out there." Yohji smoothed Aya's hair over his skull. "I'm not going to be responsible for you having a relapse. You wait here. Make some tea or something, I'll be back before you know it."

"I can make tea," Ran conceded. It was cold out there, and he'd been less than tolerant of the cold lately. "Get some noodles? I want to make soup." A weak attempt at flirting, perhaps, but Yohji's hands were warm on his chilled flesh, and he was smiling indulgently as he tended to do whenever feeling especially fond, in a way that usually irritated Ran but just now made him want to curl up beneath a blanket with the man.

"Sure. Noodles. Anything you want. But we need to get out of the shower, before you go blue all over."

And Yohji shuffled him out of the shower into a towel, and then into a too-large, tattered cream sweater that he only wore when feeling fragile anymore. "I wish you wouldn't smoke inside," he murmured from inside the sweater as Yohji's fingers nimbly sorted through a pack, at the same time struggling one-armed into a t-shirt and shaking out his hair. Kudoh was talented, that was certain. Yohji's head emerged only slightly touseled from the tee, the shower-dampened lashes blinking at him innocently.

"So we've been together three hours and already you're nagging me," Yohji complained gently, grinning, not meaning it.

"I'm not nagging, Kudo," Ran growled, swiping at Yohji with one too-long sleeve. "I do not nag." Feeling somehow lighter for the teasing.

"'Course you don't," said Yohji, grinning and catching the ragged hem of the sleeve, trapping Ran's hand inside. "And I can't smoke anyway because I'm fresh out of cigs. So you get your own way after all."

Ran glared at the empty pack dangling from Yohji's hand, feeling a brief surge of vindictive pleasure. Yohji smiled at him hopefully. The feeling passed, and he returned the smile with a reluctant grin. "Smoke if you want, then," he said, tugging on his sleeve idly as if to confirm that he was caught. "Just remember my noodles. And broth, I think we're out."

"Noodles, broth, got it." Yohji brushed his nose across Ran's. "Anything else?"

Ran smiled, shook his head. "Be quick?"

"Oh yes," said Yohji, huskily, giving Ran one last, almost dangerously long kiss before he left.

Ran leaned into the kiss, following Yohji down the stairs almost arm in arm in his reluctance to break the moment. It was just a trip to the shop, not a block away and Yohji could be snake-quick when he needed, but letting go felt wrong, somehow.

"God, if you didn't need feeding so badly..." Yohji gave a reluctant growl as he disentangled himself, and backed slowly out of the kitchen door, blowing Ran a kiss as he went.

Ran smiled in return, watched Yohji grin and take a jaunty turn around the corner of the building. Ran stayed there for a long moment, staring after his lover though he could no longer see him, feeling a strange foreboding shiver up his spine. Yohji would be back.

He latched on to the tea kettle for something to do, oddly focused on the splash of cold tap water, the hiss of the gas stove. Anything to hold his attention. And so he didn't notice when Aya-chan slipped in through the kitchen door.

"Oh! Oniichan, you're up!" Ran started, nearly spilled the tea water. Aya-chan didn't notice, just skipped across the room to wrap her arms around him and hugged him carefully, ever mindful of his wound. "You look better."

"I feel better," Ran smiled, almost compelled by her presence as he settled the tea kettle on the counter and folded her more securely in his arms. He'd been too many years without hugging her to let any opportunity pass by, even if she was being overly-solicitous. "Yohji's gone to the corner store for some things for dinner. Are you hungry?" He winced slightly at Yohji's name, felt himself tense and felt her tense in response, finally stepping back to lean against the counter.

"Hungry? I mean, it's late but, yes, sure. You're hungry?" Her eyes gleamed delight at him. "Really?"

"Well, yes," Ran said slowly. He turned back to pouring out the tea, his fingers skimming nervously over porcelain. "Where did you go tonight?" he asked, perhaps a bit too casually but a distraction felt necessary.

"Oh, nowhere. Just the movies. Saw a film. It was okay. Um, are you okay? You want me to do that? Only you're getting tea all over."

Ran handed over the kettle without looking up from the puddled countertop and his shaking hands. Everything feeling different, him feeling different, sure it must show, she'd notice, and-

"Three cups?" she asked, sloshing tea straight over the first cup, adding to the pool on the counter. Ran blinked at her cautiously. "Oh, yeah, Yohji, of course. So, what have you two been up to then? Because he's really put the colour back in your cheeks, Oniichan."

to be continued...