Title: Anticipation
Fandom: Viewfinder
Pairings: Asami/Akihito
Rating: R
Warnings: None
Part One
Asami lit his cigarette and watched with detachment as the street lights illuminated the first falling snow. It was dark already, the days were getting short and his nights had strangely become too cold for him to spend alone. The sterile emptiness of his luxurious apartment was overbearing and he found that the sole sound of his own breathing in the vast silence bothered him more than he was prepared to handle. He frowned, disgusted with himself, but he was far too gone down this dangerous road of need to be able to lie to himself about it anymore. His growing desire for his boy's closeness made him careless and weak and the only thing worse than this was the fact that he was fully aware of it, yet he could do nothing at all to stop himself from feeling so much, because the very thought of removing Takaba permanently from his life hurt too much to be endured. Who could have guessed that at the height of his power he would find himself longing for the company of another human being? And that, no less, of a cheeky, stubborn, dirty little punk who had no more style than he had common sense. He could not decide what was more pathetic; the fact that he had not yet managed to bend the impudent brat to his will, or his desperate need to do so, to have him and to bind him until he was trapped and cornered and had nowhere to go. It was torture in a way, this whirlwind of emotion that brought to the surface so much of his inner darkness. His every instinct screamed for him to hunt his wayward boy and all that Takaba's resistance had ever managed to do was to make this desire in him burn all the more stronger. He wanted to devour him, to posses him, to take him so completely that there would be nothing of him left that did not bear his mark upon it, until Takaba was so utterly his, that there could never be any doubt about it again, in either of their minds.
He stubbed out his cigarette with more violence than was necessary, frustrated and impatient beyond reason. The foul weather put him in a foul mood and the perpetual grey of the sodden streets made him irritable. The snow melted into filthy water the moment it touched the ground and people plodded through it in a hurry, looking straight ahead of themselves, busy, huddled and worried. Utterly insignificant in the grand scheme of his existence.
Where was Takaba? By his calculation, he should have been out of the ugly building half an hour ago and Asami hated waiting for anything. He could send his men inside to fetch his boy, but he did not feel like causing a scandal that would put his unwilling lover in a particularly sulky mood for the rest of the night. But more importantly, if he did send his men inside to get him, it would certainly be noticed, even if Takaba swallowed his fiery temper in front of his colleagues and came along quietly. Asami's fascination with him had already gathered the attention of too many dangerous individuals whose notice he would have rather avoided. He could not protect him like this; Takaba was too wild, too unpredictable, too prone to getting himself into trouble… too precious to be risked.
A moment of dark fear snaked through him and he smothered it with anger. He had never been a man capable of anything even remotely resembling love and that worked against him now, when he found himself so unexpectedly, so unacceptably emotionally attached to this… child.
Irritated, he lit another cigarette and glanced towards the entrance, shocking himself with the sheer relief he felt when he saw Takaba coming out at last. His boy was a mess, tired, wet and dirty, all the signs of some stake-out or other gone terribly wrong, and still the very sight of him stirred him so profoundly, that he had to fight for control to keep his cool. Takaba was a spot of bright colour in the midst of the miserable, ugly winter, among the countless many grey, expressionless people and it made his heart leap as he watched him run across the street. He caused a commotion in the traffic as a driver braked suddenly to avoid running him over and then stuck out his head to swear.
Takaba was wearing an atrocious, red sweater and torn, dirty jeans. He blew warm air on to his hands and hugged himself, trembling visibly from the cold. He had no jacket on and he was wet, as if a speeding car had sloshed him while he was standing on a sidewalk. His face was smudged and his hair messy and plastered, but he still shone, golden and bright, as if he was a child of the sun itself and carried its rays with him even when the clouds were so thick, that the clear sky seemed to be nothing but a memory of a half forgotten dream.
He really should get the boy some decent clothes, Asami thought to himself, knowing very well that he would be flatly refused. Takaba was a walking embarrassment to a man like him who demanded nothing less than perfection both from himself and from those he chose as partners in bed. He really should teach him how to dress, but he still enjoyed watching him slosh down the street such as he was, wet and ragged but still so brightly, so wonderfully alive that everything faded into shadows of utter insignificance as he passed by.
Takaba had not seen him yet and that alone spoke how worn out and tired the boy was, because he usually was much more alert than this. Asami waited for that first moment of realization to strike Takaba's face when he saw his car and glowing with anticipation, he was not disappointed. It all lasted only a moment, but he knew how to watch for it; the widening of those remarkable eyes, the surprise, the denial, the touch of fear before it was all washed clean in a wave of pure anger which Asami's sudden appearance, especially in public, never failed to inspire.
Takaba glanced around himself, looking for a way to escape, but then he saw Asami's men standing close, waiting for him to make a foolish move so that they could run after him and bring him back by force. Takaba had had enough of such experiences to know better, so after only a moment of hesitation, he squared his shoulders with tense determination and stalked over towards the car with a frown plastered all over his face. His cute, full little mouth curved downwards and Asami felt a pang of desire tighten in his gut as he imagined kissing it roughly into willingness, forcing obedience upon it and then drinking the smothered gasps from its moist, warm depths. Nobody had a mouth like Takaba and nobody kissed like he did, so unwilling to begin with and yet so greedy and eager once he was aroused.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Takaba demanded when Asami scrolled down his window to look at him.
"I came to pick you up," Asami said. "You have been running wild for too long."
"Running wild?" Takaba yelled in outrage. "And what is that to you? You do not own me!"
It was so hard sometimes to let him get away with such declarations. He would have to remember to make him pay for this one with interest later on, when he had him desperate, bound and begging.
"Akihito, I am sure that this is not a conversation that you want to have in the middle of the street," Asami said evenly. "Get into the car."
"The hell I will!" he cried. "I am not going anywhere with you!" The silent, dark bodyguard opened the door for him and Takaba glowered.
"Akihito, you do not want me to make a scene in front of your employers, do you?" Asami warned in a calm, low voice that carried depths of threat and promise in it. Takaba turned, following his cold gaze to see his fat superior and the slender woman that he worked for by his side, his anger melting to shock and then into real fear.
"Well?" Asami asked.
"No," Takaba whispered, defeated.
"Get into the car. Now." Asami repeated. "If you make me tell you again, you will thoroughly regret it."
Takaba scowled at him, but after one last, despairing glance at the imposing building he had just left and all the people he knew coming out of it, he did as he was told, crawling into the corner of the limo to pout, as far away from Asami as he could manage, crossing his arms tightly across his chest and glaring at the floor.
Asami smiled to himself, amused by his attitude. His boy really was cute when he sulked like this, desperately fighting a losing battle because they both knew what was coming and how this night would end. The thought of it turned him on unbearably and he already ached from desire, Takaba's closeness having its usual effect on his body after so many days of abstinence, because he had lately begun to find every other lover he tried to indulge in as sorely lacking in every possible way. He would teach his boy proper respect one of these days and he would very much enjoy the process, but not yet. He wanted to enjoy him such as he was for just a little while longer and then he would break him into a good little pet. But, it was amazing really, how much brighter his day suddenly seemed with Takaba finally by his side, in his car and the whole night of doing wicked things to him still ahead of them both.
Had he really been in a foul mood coming here? Suddenly, it was so hard to imagine, as if it had never been real at all. He drew in the bitter smoke of his cigarette, grinning when Takaba scowled up at him under the overlong fringe of his wild hair. Really, before Takaba had turned up in his life, he had forgotten how much fun living could actually be.