This is my shot at a challenge that both me and Mirlin are taking, having thought it up together and finding that it would be something we would both like to devote some time to. Therefore we put our stories up to have them compared, and to have them criticized; we both like to get constructive criticism. Most of all though, we wrote these stories because we just love to write about weird situations like this one.

We have found two people volunteering to judge on sexiness, as they themselves put it, and one person to judge on the main character being 'in character'. We hope to entertain you all with our views at what we like to call 'Hao's problem'.

Characters:

© Story: Seth fox

Hao's problem

-Chapter 1-

In which Hao barely gets away with it

As was his custom, Hao sat on the roof of the hotel he and his companions were staying in. Today this was the Rocky Road inn. He had always liked high places, since they gave him an excellent view of his surroundings, allowed him to sit unobserved and undisturbed, and most of all offered him the space he needed to think about his plots and schemes. The latter of these was what he was about to do.

A problem had presented itself to Hao, a problem the likes of which Hao had never encountered before. Something that he had never had to give much thought to before had been turned into a small nagging problem, and although Hao would never admit this out loud, it bothered him. And the worst thing was that it was entirely his own fault.

It had all begun at the moment, a few months before, when he had picked up Opacho. She was a very sweet girl who had, over the course of a few weeks become so devoted to Hao that she rarely lost sight of him. Hao thought that this was amusing and, since Opacho had no little power at her disposition, he didn't mind her taking a liking to him at all, innocent as it was.

Until now.

Recently, Opacho had picked up the habit of sleeping in Hao's room. At first she would only sneak in and lay down next to him once or twice a week, but when Hao didn't protest, her nightly visits became more frequent, until she had finally taken up permanent residence with her master.

Since Opacho had started sleeping in his room, Hao had refrained from touching himself, not only to spare the girl's innocence, but mostly because he felt that it was a very intimate and private practice that no one should be allowed to witness.

At first, this posed no problem, as Hao never did it more than once or twice a week. When Opacho's visits became more frequent though, the opportunities became less and less, until there were none left at all. This effectively meant that Hao had not enjoyed any release for over three weeks, which was too long, even for someone of his background.

Hao disliked admitting this to himself, but at the same time recognized that it was an inevitable thing. Reincarnating meant taking a new body every five hundred years, and that body had to grow up. Hao had dealt with it before, and thus he knew he would have to again. Yet it still struck him every time how enormous the effect of hormones on the human body an mind could be.

Restlessness, irritation, bodily reactions at inconvenient moments (here his poncho came in handy), all these things caused by the lack of so simple a thing as sexual release. Hao could not help but marvel at the influence of this on him. It had even distracted him from his plans for a while, which was usually very difficult. The human body was indeed a force to be considered, and Hao made a mental note to see how he could use this against his enemies in the future.

He glanced sideways at Opacho. She was staring at the stars in the darkening sky, oblivious her master's thoughts. Hao closed his eyes and made a mental list of the options he had to rid himself of this inconvenient bodily distraction.

The first option was to wait until Opacho was asleep, then just do it quietly. Hao was disinclined to do this, for, as he reasoned to himself, she could wake up at any moment, and he would have to be very quiet, both things that he found disagreeable to think about. Thus this option was disregarded.

The second thing that he could do was move himself to the roof while Opacho slept, as he could do what he wished there. Hao also disregarded this option, because if Opacho were to wake up and find him missing she might go and look for him, or indeed fetch the others to do so, a scenario which Hao preferred not to imagine.

Third was the idea of just being strict and ordering Opacho to stay away from his room at night. This was not the right thing to do, Hao found, because it would not only upset Opacho and make him feel slightly guilty, but would also alert his other companions to his activities, something which he did not want to happen. They might view his giving in to bodily desires as a weakness and trust him less or question him, which was something that Hao couldn't afford in this phase of planning.

This left him with just the fourth option; the bathroom. One awkward afternoon Hao had explained to Opacho that she shouldn't follow him there, as there were things that men and women needed to be alone for. This had earned Hao about fifteen minutes of privacy a day; while he was in the bathroom, and usually while he showered, although Opacho would often sit on the other side of the shower curtain and talk to him until he wanted to get dressed.

This was by far the safest way, Hao mused. It would be very difficult for anyone to take him by surprise, and no one would go look for him, since it was clear where he was. It would, however, mean that he didn't have the luxury of time on his hands. The relative security pleased him though, and no one would be the wiser if he showered for half an hour in his own room at night.

Satisfied with this plan, Hao stood up, stretched his back and prepared to get down from the roof. Opacho got up as well and looked at Hao with her big, round eyes. "Hao-sama tired?" She asked.

Hao smiled at her. "Not really, Opacho. I'm going to take a shower before I go to sleep."

"Can Opacho come?" the girl asked innocently.

Hao shook his head. "Not tonight, Opacho." He said. With a hand motion he summoned the spirit of fire, who picked both him and Opacho up and moved them to the window of their room.

"Then Opacho will wait for Hao-sama in the room." she declared, as they gracefully entered their room.

Hao smiled ruefully. "I had expected as much." He stepped down from the windowsill, gathered from his few belongings a clean shirt, wide linen pants and clean underwear and took these with him to the bathroom. He closed the door gently behind him and noticed to his mild annoyance that there was no lock. Never the less he undressed, folded his clothes and left them in a neat pile by the door. Then he stepped into the shower cabin, closed the curtain and turned on the shower.

While he waited for the water to warm up he considered what he was about to do. His mind was still against it, as Opacho was in the next room and could probably hear everything Hao did. His body, however, was eager, and Hao admitted with regret that his uneasiness about Opacho could not withhold him from relieving himself, as he could not allow this bodily distraction to interfere with his plans to regain the other half of his soul and become shaman king.

When the temperature of the water was finally to his liking, Hao stepped under the shower beams and allowed the water to soak him. First he washed his hair and rinsed it, then he moved on down. He lathered his hands with soap, then ran them across his body. He bit back a small moan when he brushed the inside of his leg, immediately thinking of Opacho in the other room. Even so, his hands never stopped moving.

Three weeks of pent up frustration do not allow a lot of foreplay though. Soon, his slight touches in the right places had Hao's body shivering uncontrollably, before he had even touched his erection. Finally, after five minutes of straight out teasing, Hao gave in and gently grasped his erection with his right hand.

The effect of this was so sudden and so intense that Hao had to quickly lean into the wall to stay upright. He groaned softly as a wave op pleasure ran through him and left him shuddering even more heavily than before.

As slowly as he could, he began to stroke his erection, uttering soft sounds of appreciation. His eyelids grew increasingly heavy and his eyes slid closed, at which point his fantasy chose to start assaulting him with all kinds of fantasies that didn't help much; someone else there with him, kneeling before him, touching him where no one had ever touched him before, pledging their loyalty and begging Hao to be their master. The face was unclear, but that didn't matter to Hao. He knew who this person was, and he accepted it.

Naturally, it didn't take him very long to reach his limit. His right hand sped up considerably as his left wandered down to gently massage his balls. Hao threw back his head and bit his lip to stifle a moan as he finally found his release. The pleasure was so intense that his legs gave out on him, and Hao found himself suddenly sitting on the floor of the shower, shuddering as wave after wave of pleasure and relief wrecked his body.

It took him a full minute to come down from his high. Then he stood up stiffly, rinsed his hands under the water and turned off the shower. He got out, dried himself off, dressed, and with a vague smile playing about his lips returned to his room, where Opacho was waiting for him.

"Is Hao-sama alright?" Opacho asked worriedly. "Opacho heard Hao-sama fall down and moan in the shower..."

Hao's face flushed to red instantly, but he smiled at Opacho. "It was nothing, I'm fine." He said, as he petted her on the head. "Go to sleep, we've got a long day ahead of us."

Opacho's worried frown disappeared and she smiled brightly at Hao. "Opacho will go to sleep!" She exclaimed, and went over to her own bed to do just that. Hao turned off the light and slid below his own covers, inwardly cursing himself for not being more careful.

To be continued...