A/N: Well. This has been in writing since November, and I'm currently up to Chapter 3. Not very fast moving. Only this chapter is typed up, and now my hand is just going to fall off.

This was inspired by a couple of fics that I read, the only one I can remember right now being Sakura. This was originally a one-shot, but now has become a multi-chaptered fic, that will span from the Starlight festival to basically the end of the series (I hope).

So... enjoy!

Also, yes, I was listening to Oh, It Is Love by Hellogoodbye none stop when I first began writing this, how can you tell?

He actually feels as though he belongs, in this mixed up 'family', where there's the one younger sister and seven older brothers to protect her. He's never felt like this before, not at home – because he was the lone brother – or with the bandits – because he was the Boss. But now, he's got friends in them. True, it's hard to be friends with Hotoho- sorry, the Emperor, and he feels a little distant from Mitsukake and Chiriko (who are simply too clever for him), but Chichiri is fun, and he enjoys teasing Tamahome and then acting wounded whenever he retaliates, and Miaka has become like another sister to him, albeit one he actually likes.

And then there's Nuriko.

He slid his eyes over to the older boy laughing with Miaka. He's only known Nuriko for a month, from when the impossibly strong boy threatened Koji, to now, but he's quickly become dearer to him that anyone he'd ever met. There's a closeness there that he hasn't felt before, and maybe there's something else, something that he can only feel in the dreams he soon forgets, or in those moments when he finds himself staring at his fellow seishi. Which, he realises with a grin, he's doing right now.

Nuriko evidently noticed his stare – he looked back an odd expression on his face. Tasuki simply grinned wider, flashing his fangs at the bewildered boy, and pointed to the strongman he'd noticed. "Just wondering if even you'd be able to beat that guy," he remarked, and watched as Nuriko put his hands on his hips.

"Oh, you were, were you?" He shot back, and promptly hopped up onto the stage and, as the strongman declared himself the winner, the seishi lifted him up, with one hand, and began spinning him.

He watched the laughing boy with a chuckle of his own, and as he watched he felt a mixture of emotions bubbling under his surface. He felt amusement, pride, and something so old that it took him a moment to remember it. Lust? He looked back at Nuriko, at that long braid, the slender limbs, at the curve of his lips, and he watched that boy more than ever before. He had to know what it was like to kiss those lips, touch that skin with a purpose.

He shook his head to rid himself of his wandering thoughts. He couldn't. To take what they had beyond friendship was impossible, and he wouldn't ruin what he already had- not even to know what lay beneath that robe.

Nuriko jumped down from the stage. "Look what I won!" He cried, presenting Tasuki with the prize, who laughed.

"Ne, Miaka," he said, turning to where his Priestess had been, "look- Miaka?" He spun around – there was no sign of the glutton anywhere. "Oh, shit."

"You lost her?" Nuriko demanded.

"I'm sorry! I was a little busy watching you," he answered, a little too truthfully. Nuriko have him another odd look. He sighed. "Come on then," he sighed, "we'd better look for her before she gets into trouble."

"Or trouble finds her," said Nuriko quietly, following on behind.

They walked in silence, apart from Nuriko's wonderings as to what could have happened to Miaka and Tasuki's terse requests that he "shut it, dammit." Apart from that, he was left in silence, left to his own thoughts, and he wasn't sure he liked what he found.

For all he hated women, he'd never felt an attraction to men before, and yet, here he was, lusting after a man who dressed like a woman. He'd always been aware that there was something lurking under the surface when it came to Nuriko, but he'd never imagined it was this! He looked over to the older boy again, but there wasn't anything new in his emotions. He'd just forgotten what it was like, to want someone like this.

"Tasuki." Nuriko interrupted his thoughts with a cool hand on his shoulder. "I think we should look down these streets." He motioned to the dark, narrow alleyways which branched off the main road. "She may have been ta- I mean, she may have gone down them."

"Yeah," he said, and Nuriko removed his hand to turn down the street on his left. Tasuki found he missed the slight pressure, but suddenly he was aware that this was a familiar feeling, something he experienced every time Nuriko touched him. It was simply that now it had a name.

But still, it was torture to be this close, to be walking side by side but be unable to touch. The thoughts rushing around his head made the air around him thick with tension. He avoided looking at the slender boy next to him; instead, he stared straight in front, trying to get his thoughts in order. He didn't want to ruin what he had with Nuriko, the easy friendship, the laughter. Besides, Nuriko loved Hotohori, and regardless of what he felt, there was no way Nuriko felt the same, and –

Nuriko's hand brushed across his, and he was undone.

"I think I see her down-" Nuriko was cut off by Tasuki's hands closing around his arms, and the bandit's lips pressing against his own. He froze, shocked beyond belief, but slowly he began to relax into the touch.

Tasuki's blood was roaring in his veins, his heartbeat increased tenfold. His skin was screaming, on fire at the places where it touched the boy pressed to him, bitterly cold where it was not. He was drowning in Nuriko. He was lost, lost in these emotions, the feel of Nuriko's lips against his, the softness of that purple hair resting against his face. For that split second, there was nothing but his fellow seishi; the smoothness of skin against skin and that burning passionate need for more.

And then he pulled away slightly, and found himself staring into a pair of wide, shocked rose-coloured eyes.

"Shit!" He hissed, and stumbled back, not feeling the light arms fall from around his neck, or seeing the disappointment flash in those eyes. He saw only the shock, and for once his speed was his folly – the faster he tried to get away, the less his legs worked. "Oh, Gods, gomen nasai! Shit-"

He stopped when he hit the opposite wall, and he stared at the entrance to the alley, rather that look into those eyes and see… He didn't know what he'd see. Maybe shock, maybe pity, but he knew – he knew there'd be repulsion. Even though Nuriko was gay, even though they were close, Nuriko loved Hotohori. Unrequited love – the bane of both their lives.

But what he'd done, it wouldn't, couldn't be forgotten. He'd ruined it. He'd had something good with Nuriko, true friendship, something rare in a bandit's life, and Koji had been the only one he'd have called a friend like that. Nuriko had been someone to talk to, someone to laugh with, someone who'd understood what it was like to not fit in. But, as usual, his emotions had taken his head, and now he'd ruined it all.

"I'm sorry," he said again, because all he could do now was apologize. He heard Nuriko move closer and suddenly there was a soft hand on his chin, pulling his head to look into wide eyes. He jumped back with a shock, his back hitting the wall. The eyes were filled with wonder as he touched Tasuki's bottom lip with his thumb. Tasuki knocked the hand back desperately. "I'm sorry," he repeated. "I just – I wanted-" Rose eyes met his. "Forget it," he whispered. "Forget it, it didn't mean nothing-"

Suddenly he was pushed up against the wall, brick harsh and sharp against his back, Nuriko's body hard planes and soft skin against his front. The older boy's face was inches from his own and those eyes looked at him hard. Tasuki struggled, but Nuriko just pressed harder, until he gave up, and stood still, eyes shut tight. Without warning, Nuriko ground his hips into his, and as Tasuki gasped, he pressed his lips against his open ones.

Tasuki wrenched his head away, but "the hell?" was all he managed before Nuriko attacked his lips again.

It was furious, passionate, a million different things all tied into one moment of nothing. Tongues fought, teeth clashed, fingers danced over arms and skin before coming to rest on necks, tangled in hair. They stayed that way for a minute, before Nuriko pulled away, gasping for breath, leaving Tasuki standing on shaking legs.

"Tell me that meant nothing," murmured Nuriko, eyes raking up and down his body, "because if that meant nothing, maybe I want nothing." He lunged forward, latching his lips on the patch of skin above Tasuki's coat. The flame haired boy growled low in his throat. This was unbelievable, wrong, forbidden, lustful and so very wanted. Nuriko left his neck, a cold breeze reaching the hot, flushed skin where his mouth had been. The bandit gathered him around the waist and pulled those lips to his.

It seemed to last for a minute – or was it just a second? Tasuki was clinging to a shred of self-control, along with a scrap of sanity. He ran his hand up that slender chest, before coming to a rest on his delicate jaw line. Nuriko moaned into his mouth, and Tasuki lost everything he was holding onto. He wrapped both his hands around the older boy's neck, as Nuriko unbuttoned his coat and then shirt, pushing them down so the top of his chest was exposed.

"Stop this!" His mind screamed at him. "Stop it before he realises, realises that he's doing this with you, not the Hotohori, no the man he LOVES!"

The thought struck through his lust-filled stupor of a mind, and he yanked his head back. He didn't miss the disappointment this time, but he couldn't let it go on, not when he knew that the boy staring at him would simply regret it – and blame him.

"What about the Emperor?" He gasped out. Nuriko stared at him, confused.

"What about Hotohori-sama?" He asked. Now it was Tasuki's turn to be confused.

"Well, you love him, don't you?"

Nuriko stared at him even harder, with wide eyes, before peals of laughter burst from him until he could barely stand. Tasuki watched, first in puzzlement, then in anger. Before he could say anything, Nuriko pulled on his shirt, and yanked his head down. "Shut up and kiss me, you fool," he whispered, and did just that.

"No!" Tasuki yanked his head back, and it hit off the wall. "No," he repeated, eyes stinging, trying to ignore the light hands touching the spot he'd hit, soothing and yet setting his nerves screaming at the same time. "You do, you do, and I don't want you to regret…this."

"I don't love Hotohori-sama," said Nuriko softly, hands twisting in the taller boy's hair, "Kourin loves Hotohori-sama."

He opened his mouth to ask who the hell Kourin was, but was cut off by the rose-eyed seishi, who darted forwards and pressed his lips to his collarbone. "Gods!" He hissed, and shut his eyes tightly. He was answered by Nuriko kissing his way up his neck, before sucking on the spot just below his ear. He made a strangled noise in his throat; his eyes flew open, his hips jerking up to meet Nuriko's. He felt the older boy smirk.

"Like that, do you?" He asked quietly, his breath tickling Tasuki's ear and making his own breath hitch.

His answer was simply a growl, but Tasuki made no move against the other boy; he just closed his eyes. He was perfectly willing to stand here, Nuriko's hands dancing over his skin, his lips against his neck, perfectly willing to be at his mercy-

"Nuriko?"

Nuriko yelped, and stumbled back as though a puppeteer had jerked on his strings. He turned his head to the entrance of the alleyway even as Tasuki tried to raise his mind from the fog it had fallen into.

"Tasuki!"

Nuriko visibly relaxed. "She's just looking for us," he murmured in relief; however, he still pulled Tasuki further into the shadows.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Tasuki hissed, desperately trying to pull his shirt and coat back on. "We can't let her see us like this!"

Nuriko raked his eyes over the bandit: his lips were swollen, skin flushed, clothes in desperate disarray. He pouted under the gaze, and he looked so adorable that Nuriko couldn't help but kiss him again, wrapping his hands around the taller boy's neck. Tasuki nipped at his bottom lip, and he pulled away, moaning.

"We'll have to carry this on later," he whispered, bringing his hands from under red hair, brushing his fingers over the hot skin as he did so. Tasuki shuddered, and Nuriko winked at him, before turning and running out of the alley, braid flying out behind him.

Tasuki slumped against the wall, breathing heavily, and closed his eyes. What…what had just happened? He pulled his shirt back up, remembering how Nuriko's fingers had danced over his skin, and how his lips had tasted and – his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't fasten his coat.

He took another deep breath. Had one kiss from the other boy really reduced him to a shaking, jumbling wreck? But, god, what a kiss! Passion and fire – he'd like to spend his whole life kissing like that, listening to the moans of the other boy, feeling –

He flushed at his thoughts, glad there was no one around to see him. He remembered Nuriko's flushed skin, moans and heavy breathing. Clearly, he hadn't been as immune to the kiss as he had made himself out to be.

He smirked as he made his way out of the alleyway. This could be very interesting.