I promise I'm not letting this 'fic die... it just comes very slowly, that's all. Eheh. Warnings for lime and... weirdness... a lot of weirdness at the end. And a fuckload of Seishirou introspection.
Chapter Seven
When Seishirou woke the next morning, he realized quickly it was far later than he normally slept. Through years of training and experience, he had forced his body to the point where it could survive on very little sleep if necessary. However, that seldom was necessary anymore.
It had been more so when Subaru had still been a teenager, when he was still working as a veteranarian. He had to be on the job at eight o’clock for that, and most of his kills, naturally, were done at night. If he did anything after work with the twins, that left him very little time for sleeping.
He realized suddenly that he didn’t know if he was still on that schedule or not. Was he still working as a vet? Or had he dropped that facade when he had revealed his true occupation to Subaru?
Seishirou ground his teeth. He wanted to get off on his own, try to figure out what was going on. But he had no other friends, not even acquaintances. There was no one to tell him what had been happening in his life except Subaru.
The bed was empty except for him, but there was a dent in the mattress next to where he had been sleeping. He stretched his hand out to it and noted that it was cool to the touch. Subaru had obviously been up for some time. That made sense -- it was nearly eleven o’clock in the morning. Subaru was an early riser except when he had been working late.
As if on cue, the Sumeragi stuck his head into the room. “Oh, you’re up,” he said, with a smile that looked perfectly natural to Seishirou. “Good. I was just going to wake you for breakfast.”
Breakfast?
Subaru walked in with a precariously balanced tray. Western breakfast, which he was fond of. But, of course, Subaru had known that already. He settled carefully on the bed next to Seishirou and put the tray down between them. Seishirou noted that it had enough food for two.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Subaru asked, when he hesitated.
“Of course,” Seishirou said. The food wasn’t poisoned and he was being paranoid for even considering it. Honestly, if Subaru was going to kill him, that certainly wouldn’t be how he would go about it. Deception just wasn’t in his nature.
Subaru frowned slightly. “If you’re not hungry, I could -- ”
“I’m fine,” Seishirou said, trying not to sound impatient, then wondering why he was bothering with the effort at all. It certainly wasn’t as if he cared whether or not he hurt Subaru’s feelings. With a slight sigh, he started to eat the food. At least it was good food; that was something to be said.
Subaru picked at his own food, not eating very much. Seishirou gave him a casual eye and wondering if he wanted to know what was wrong. He decided that he did. It was curiosity, that was all. Certainly not out of concern. “What’s wrong?”
“Hm?” Subaru looked up, then smiled. “Oh, nothing. Just a little worried. I mean, I’m assuming that you don’t have your memory back, or you would have said something by now.”
“It’s nothing to worry over,” Seishirou lied through his teeth. He was plenty worried over it, but he wasn’t about to tell Subaru that. Never show weakness to an enemy. Even if they weren’t actually an enemy, which Subaru apparently wasn’t, the principle remained the same.
Subaru just gave him a skeptical look.
“All right, it’s something to worry over,” Seishirou conceded. “But there’s nothing that either of us can do about it, so there isn’t really any point in worrying. And I don’t waste my energy on pointless worrying.”
“Of course you don’t,” Subaru murmured.
“Eat your breakfast, Subaru-kun.”
“I am eating my breakfast,” Subaru protested, in a childish, almost petulant tone. Half of Seishirou was annoyed by it; the other half thought it was cute. “Hokuto-chan wanted us to come over to dinner tonight, but we don’t have to if you’re not feeling well still.”
“I’m feeling just fine,” Seishirou said.
“Are you sure?” Subaru asked. “Because, you know, Hokuto-chan can exacerbate even the slightest bit of a headache.”
Seishirou opened his mouth to snap that he was fine, damn it, when he saw the tiny sparkle in Subaru’s eye. “Ha ha, very funny,” he replied, feeling distinctly put out. It just didn’t seem right that Subaru would be able to get underneath his skin so easily. And it wasn’t anything that he was doing, it was just Seishirou’s discomfort with the whole situation.
Subaru giggled a little, but said nothing. Instead, he returned to his breakfast, eating with a bit more enthusiasm.
“But I have to work tonight,” Seishirou said abruptly.
“I know,” Subaru said. “I saw the fax.”
Seishirou wanted to ask if he had read it, but it didn’t really matter. That Subaru was that comfortable with his profession was all he needed to know. “So perhaps going to your sister’s for dinner wouldn’t be that good an idea?”
Subaru shrugged a little. He was treading on dangerous ground and he knew it, because he did not know anything about the specifics of Seishirou’s job. He didn’t know if he would need to do research to find the target, or if all the information was provided. He was kicking himself for not having looked closer at the fax. As far as he knew, the job could take anywhere between ten minutes and three days.
He settled on a neutral course of action. “If you think you won’t have time, okay, I’ll call her and reschedule.” He would have to take a look at the fax and note the particulars, then watch and see how long it took Seishirou to complete it, that was all.
“I just don’t want your sister to get upset if I have to leave early with no explanation,” Seishirou said.
Subaru giggled again. “Oh, honestly. Like she wouldn’t know.”
Seishirou, admittedly, was poleaxed by this. “She knows I’m an assassin, too?”
Subaru’s giggles turned to outright laughter. “She knew even before you told me. Really, do you think she threatened you with a kitchen knife for kicks? She’s smarter than she looks.”
Seishirou had to admit that he had a point.
“Then are we going or aren’t we?” Subaru asked.
“I’d rather not,” Seishirou said. He wasn’t particularly fond of the idea of dealing with Hokuto on top of everything else he was trying to work through right now. She was shrill. And she might say still more things that would make his present situation weirder.
“Then we won’t,” Subaru said peaceably. “We can go a little later this week. She won’t care. She’ll get more time alone with Kakyou this way.”
Seishirou reminded himself that he was waiting and watching, but this was something he figured he should get more specifics on. The name was unfamiliar to him. “Kakyou?”
“Mm. Kuzuki Kakyou. She’s a friend of Hokuto’s.”
“Friend?” Seishirou asked skeptically.
Subaru smiled a little. “Of course, we all suspect very deeply that they’re more than friends, but Hokuto-chan won’t even tell me whether or not I’m right. Which means that they must be, or else she’d be denying it.”
“I see,” Seishirou replied.
Subaru picked up the breakfast tray and moved it to the side table, effectively ending the meal. Neither of them had been eating for the past ten minutes, so it didn’t particularly matter. He snuggled up to Seishirou, resting his head against his chest. “I really was worried,” he said softly.
Seishirou hesitated, but he could play this game, and play it well. Acting affectionate was easy. It was being affectionate that was hard. He ran his fingers gently through Subaru’s hair. Now this would be a perfect opportunity to find out exactly how serious Subaru was.
“I’m fine, Subaru-kun,” he said, and slid his hand down from Subaru’s hair to stroke his back. Then further down, going underneath Subaru’s shirt.
“You are feeling better,” Subaru said with a smile. “You know my rule. Kiss first, then grope.”
Seishirou was not about to pass up an invitation like that. He pulled Subaru in for a long, involved kiss, which the Sumeragi returned with enthusiasm. Before Subaru had had quite enough time to process, he found himself pinned to the bed, with both Seishirou’s hands sliding over his skin.
It was not precisely how he had imagined his first time, but he had to admit it was better than going out to get fucked by a stranger. The only question was if Seishirou would notice.
He had to relax. It was absolutely essential that he relax, or it would hurt more than absolutely necessary. But relaxing was very difficult in this position. Seishirou was not precisely taking his time. He had already pulled Subaru’s shirt over his head and tossed it to the floor.
This wasn’t going to go well.
//What do I do?// he called frantically to his cousin.
It took a moment for Irishido to rouse himself from whatever he had been paying attention to. //Enjoy yourself?// he suggested dryly. //It keeps you from having to go out for it, at least.//
//But he’ll notice!// Subaru protested vigorously.
//He sure fucking will if you don’t pull yourself together,// Irishido snapped back. //Pulling away now will look more suspicious than the sex hurting a little. But if you don’t get a hold of yourself and start groping back, he’s going to know something’s wrong. So get it together.//
Subaru had to admit that Irishido had a point, and if nothing else, his cousin certainly knew more about sex than he did. Given this, he started tugging at the hem of Seishirou’s T-shirt. He felt clumsy, but Seishirou didn’t seem to notice or care. In fact, about all Seishirou seemed to care about was what he was doing.
//Relax,// Irishido said calmly, implacably. //Don’t think. Just let yourself feel.//
Subaru tried to relax, and jumped as Seishirou pressed a hand firmly against the front of his pants. He couldn’t hold back a moan.
//Or, if you want, give him a blowjob,// Irishido suggested.
Subaru blushed fiercely. Fortunately, Seishirou was devoting his attention to the kissing, and didn’t notice. //But I’ve never . . .//
//Exactly. That’ll satisfy him, but you taking charge like that will also make you look sexually experienced. It’s about as good of a solution as I’ve got right now. I’ll give you tips.//
Subaru would have choked, if not for the fact that Seishirou was nibbling his way down his neck, and that in of itself was very distracting. //But you’ve never given one!// he protested, wondering how he was possibly listening to Irishido while this was going on. Apparently, he was better at multi-tasking than he had thought.
//That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to go about it,// Irishido replied. //For one thing, I’ve received more than one, and secondly, it’s not hard. Lick, suck, and if you’re feeling cruel, bite. But you’ll have to be on top first.//
//Right.// Subaru twined his arms around Seishirou’s neck and flipped them over. Seishirou was startled by this, to say the least, but decided to go along with it and see what Subaru had in mind.
“Just relax,” Subaru said, in what he sure as hell hoped was a seductive tone. “And enjoy yourself.”
Seishirou tilted his head back. This new situation was never going to cease to surprise him. Not that he was complaining about this particular aspect.
//Now kiss your way down,// Irishido instructed. Although he certainly wasn’t interested in the sex going on, he found a certain amusement in helping Subaru with it. //Slowly. Don’t fumble. And use lots of tongue.//
//What do I do with my hands?// Subaru asked, feeling pathetic for needing so much instruction. At least while he was in control, Seishirou was distracting him less. It made conversation much easier.
//Whatever you want, but I might suggest leaving them on his hips. Don’t over-sensitize him too fast.//
Subaru had no idea what the hell that was supposed to mean, but he did what he was told. He put his hands on Seishirou’s hips and slowly worked his way down Seishirou’s chest. Even without Irishido’s instruction, it was easy to tell which spots were more sensitive. Not that Seishirou responded much, but Subaru recognized the slight tensing of his muscles.
Seishirou wrapped his arms around Subaru’s waist, his hands tracing up and down Subaru’s back. At one point, his nails dug in painfully.
Subaru continued downwards and started undoing Seishirou’s pants, remembering Irishido’s advice to move slowly and not fumble. By the time he got Seishirou’s pants off, he was blushing brighter than he ever had before. Fortunately, Seishirou was not particularly in a position to notice.
Fortunately for Subaru, he got the hang of what he was doing fairly quickly, once he got over the initial gag reflex. It was fun to listen to Seishirou’s breath get faster, to see one hand clench down in the sheets.
//He’s going to come in your mouth, you know,// Irishido said mildly.
// . . .huh?// Subaru asked dazedly, not particularly paying attention to anything his cousin might be saying. He hadn’t had any idea that just giving someone else a blowjob would turn him on so much.
//I said, he’s going to come in your mouth, soon, so you’d better be prepared. If you spit it all out, that’s a dead giveaway.//
//Oh,// Subaru managed vaguely. Despite the fact that he wasn’t paying attention, he was at least semi-prepared, and managed to neither gag nor choke when Seishirou came. He wondered vaguely what he was supposed to do now, and settled for giving Seishirou a kiss. “Feeling better?” he asked.
“I wasn’t feeling bad before,” Seishirou said, altogether too logical for someone who should have, in Subaru’s opinion, have been at least semi-dazed. “But yes, I am feeling better.” Nothing like a little sex to help a headache. “You, on the other hand . . .” He reached out and gave Subaru a good grope, prompting a startled squeak from the Sumeragi. “Still seem to be having a hard time.”
Subaru managed a weak laugh at the pun. “I’m fine, I’ll just -- ” He let out another squeak as Seishirou pinned him to the bed and peeled off his loose pants before he could say another word. The squeak turned to a moan as, with little prelude, Seishirou settled between his legs.
He was utterly unprepared for how it would actually feel. Watching Irishido’s memories, even feeling them, was nothing in comparison to this. He let out moan after moan and couldn’t help but dizzily wonder if he was acting like a virgin. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about much of anything as long as Seishirou didn’t stop what he was doing.
//Hang on,// Irishido said. //Coming in thirty seconds is another dead giveaway.//
His words registered, on some dim level, and Subaru did his best to calm his raging hormones. Both hands clenched down in Seishirou’s hair and he tried to think about something else. He managed to distract himself for about ten seconds by doing multiplication tables, before deciding that it wasn’t going to work.
All in all, he thought he held out a remarkably long time before the starbursts behind his eyes took over. He felt completely and wonderfully limp, like he didn’t want to move for perhaps the next century or so. Seishirou stretched out beside him, grinning like the cat that ate the proverbial canary.
Without really thinking about it, Subaru rolled over so his head was pillowed on Seishirou’s chest. “Stay like this for a while,” he murmured, closing his eyes.
“Hm,” Seishirou said. He wrapped his arm around Subaru’s waist and held the Sumeragi as he fell asleep, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
~~~~
In the end, Subaru went to Hokuto’s by himself, to allow Seishirou time to do his job. That was what Seishirou had hoped for from the beginning, and he was amazed that Subaru had picked up on the subtle cues he had used. Apparently, after all these years, Subaru was very good at reading him.
He found this disturbing, to say the least.
Around eight o’clock, once Subaru had been gone a good hour and a half, he walked down to Ueno Park. The job wasn’t a difficult one; it would involved a little research, but only to find out where the target lived and when a good time to kill him would be. Unbeknownst to Subaru, most of Seishirou’s job actually took place during the day. It was only the grand finale that was usually after dark.
By the time he got to the park, Seishirou was not in a very good mood. The gap in his memory, unexplainable by any means he could come up with (he did not consider a concussion an adequate reason for five years of amnesia) was annoying him. But that wasn’t the largest problem he was having.
As far as he could tell, there were no flaws in the story Subaru had told him. Even looking at it from the opposite angle, it didn’t help. He had tried viewing it all as if it obviously weren’t true.
He supposed that in the five years, Subaru could have been watching him enough to learn to read him. He supposed that it was possible that he either had never known or had now forgotten about knowing. He supposed it was also possible (and far more possible than the first, in his opinion) that Subaru had become sexually experienced in that time. It was all possible.
But that didn’t make it likely.
The simple problem he had with believing it was all one elaborate hoax was that elaborate hoaxes weren’t in Subaru’s nature. He had no idea why Subaru would have gone about doing this. The obvious answer -- to win Seishirou’s love -- seemed utterly absurd to Seishirou, who, by nature, did not understand why anyone would go to such ridiculous lengths to gain someone’s affection.
He also could not, no matter how hard he tried, come up with a reason. If he had won the Bet, then the story was most likely true. If he hadn’t, Subaru would be dead. In Seishirou’s view, there was no in between. But here Subaru was, quite obviously not dead, which meant that he had either won the Bet or there was some abstract third possibility that Seishirou wasn’t seeing.
For the hour he walked around Ueno Park, he could not come up with any such third possibility.
This led him to the inevitable conclusion that everything Subaru had said was true. That the reason the Sumeragi’s story seemed flawless was because it was.
Naturally, this didn’t incline Seishirou towards a good mood either.
There were still other factors he would want to examine. It would be necessary, in the next week or so, to carefully keep an eye on how much Subaru knew about his job. So far, Subaru seemed ignorant of most of the details, although he also seemed to be trying to hide it. That made sense to Seishirou. For one thing, he sure as hell hoped that Subaru was ignorant of the details. But he also understood why Subaru wouldn’t want to seem to be -- given Seishirou’s reluctance to believe that any of this would true.
He did not want Subaru knowing the details of his job. He didn’t care how many years they’d been sleeping together.
Another thing he wanted to see was Hokuto’s reaction to him. That was sure to be interesting.
He sighed. He had been walking around for quite some time; he needed to do his business and go home. He quickly located an amorous couple having a late-night picnic underneath one of the sakura trees and headed towards them with purpose. It was somewhat of a relief, although he never would have admitted it, to find that he could still kill without remorse.
The Tree was laughing at him.
In all his years, Seishirou had never mastered the art of verbal communication with the Tree. He had read in one of his books that it was possible, but there were some mental requirements that he apparently didn’t fit. Setsuka had talked to it quite lovingly, but Seishirou had never quite dared to ask if it talked back. He also didn’t know, if she had said yes, whether that would have been the truth or her own lunacy kicking in.
It was annoying. If he could talk to it, the Tree could straighten all this out on its own. But so far, all Seishirou was getting from it was the fact that the Tree was most definitely amused by the entire situation.
Stupid Tree.
~~~~
“To be honest, Subaru-chan, I’m amazed you pulled this off,” Hokuto said, pouring herself, Subaru, and Kakyou another cup of tea. “I mean, not that I ever thought you couldn’t,” she added hastily. “It’s just that, well, Seishirou is suspicious by nature . . .”
“Oh, he’s suspicious,” Subaru agreed mildly. “I can see the suspicion all over his face. But he hasn’t caught me yet.”
“And what are you going to do if he does?” Hokuto asked in her best bossy-older-sister tone of voice.
Subaru smiled crookedly. “Improvise.”
Hokuto made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. “And what about his job? You can’t pretend to know the details of that, Subaru. You have no idea what he really does, other than kill people.”
“No,” Subaru said, then shrugged, “but I don’t need to.”
“How do you figure?” Hokuto asked, taking a small drink of her tea. Kakyou was sitting silently next to her, watching the conversation as if it was a tennis match, and with no small amount of amusement. She scowled at him, which only made him smile and take her hand, so she subsided, mollified.
“Because I don’t believe Seishirou-san would have ever told me,” Subaru said. “As you said, he’s suspicious by nature. I’m not sure it’s possible for him to fully open up to someone, even someone who he’s supposedly been in love with for years.”
“But if he really was in love with you -- ” Hokuto began doubtfully.
“I still don’t believe he would have told me anything,” Subaru said neutrally. “And I don’t think it has anything to do with love or trust. I think guarding the secrets of the Sakura is as ingrained in him as guarding the secrets of the Sumeragi is in me. Neither of us would have told the other anything -- nor will we ever, most likely.”
“So it’s all right that you don’t know anything,” Hokuto said, wanting to be clear on this point.
“Yes. And after a few days of sidestepping, he’ll most likely pin me on something and I’ll have to admit it. For now, I can pretend I do, because I can pretend I’m allaying his suspicions, when really I’m just pandering to them.”
Hokuto’s eyes crossed as she tried to follow the logic of this. “Never mind,” she finally decided. “You’ve lost me, and I’m really not sure I care. If you say it works, I’ll believe you. But I’ll give you this: you’ve become a master of analyzing and predicting Seishirou’s twisted psyche.”
Subaru smiled mysteriously, sipping his tea. “Mm hmm.”
“How?” Hokuto asked bluntly.
Subaru shrugged. “The two people I was most connected with at the time of my death were him and you. I lost track of you when you left Tokyo, because I couldn’t really go far. So I watched him.”
“I thought you were in limbo,” Hokuto said uncertainly.
He gave her a look. “What would you call hovering noncorporeally around Seishirou’s apartment? I didn’t even have enough strength to be a proper spirit. That’s why Seishirou never noticed I was there. I couldn’t influence the world at all. I couldn’t really move. And sometimes I would fade out for weeks and months at a time, and I wouldn’t be able to see anything . . .” He shivered a little.
“Never mind,” Hokuto said, more gently this time. She put a hand briefly on his shoulder, then poured him more tea. “It’s over now. We’ll do this and then we’ll give you a good send-off. Okay?”
Subaru nodded, a smile touching just the corners of his lips.
Hokuto drilled him for another good hour on his plans, before Subaru said he had things to do and he needed to go. Kakyou handed him a small package. “You’ll need this,” he said cryptically. Subaru knew better than to argue, and Hokuto said nothing, although her curiosity appeared to be eating her alive. “But make sure you open it when Sakurazuka-san isn’t home.”
Subaru nodded and thanked him, hugged his sister, and took the subway home. The apartment was dark and empty. Subaru did a thorough search, just in case, before sitting down with Kakyou’s package. It was wrapped in regular brown packing paper, which he tore off impatiently.
He stared at the box for a few seconds before he broke into laughter.
//Well,// Irishido piped up, //that Kakyou does have all sorts of useful visions, doesn’t he.//
//I don’t even want to think about him going to a store and buying this,// Subaru agreed, smiling. //I think Hokuto-chan might have a conniption.//
//You’d better get to it,// Irishido replied, amused. //I’ll just go somewhere else.//
Subaru nodded a little as Irishido’s presence faded, and he continued to laugh, looking down at the vibrator that Kakyou had given him.
~~~~
Er.... I apologize for that... ^_^
Tokyo Babylon/X Fanfiction
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