Betting Pool, a yami no matsuei fanfic

Betting Pool

[Part Three of the "Typically Chaotic Workweek" Series]

Disclaimer: Last time I checked, I still didn't own Yami no Matsuei.

Rating: PG-13 for language, sexuality, and Tsuzuki being perverse

Pairing: Tatsumi/Watari, sprinklings of Tsuzuki/Hisoka

Summary: Continuing with the trends of "Casual Friday" and "Playing Hooky," we learn what happens when Tsuzuki finishes his paperwork and has nothing better to do than harass his coworkers with cruel and unusual bets. Gambling problem, Asato-kun?

Notes: Wow, I can't believe how much reaction those other two fics got! As such, I decided to make a series out of it. Tatsumi's less out of whack this time, I promise. But the leather pants will reappear, among other things. (I'm so evil…)

Oh, and to clarify some things from last time:

For those of you who thought Tatsumi should've shredded Konoe back in the club when the old man clamped a hand down on them, don't forget, it's a serious offense to use Shinigami powers in front of mortals.

And with regards to using Tonsil Hockey to get rid of our favorite chief, well, I picture him as sort of a prude who'd easily get freaked by two guys making out, let alone two coworkers. Konoe isn't going to be cowed by any threat of physical violence Tatsumi could possibly make, so the next best thing is pure smut. Besides, it's fan service, plain and simple.

They were lying under the sakura trees around brunch on Sunday, for lack of better things to do. Actually, it was because the whole apartment complex had to be fumigated for cockroaches and they'd been exiled. But since it was a Sunday, and Juo-cho was basically a skeleton staff of those who didn't mind working weekends and late shifts, it was quiet.

"You've yet to explain yourself, you know."

Tatsumi sighed. "I know."

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, Seiichiro Tatsumi! I want answers! Your personality does not just do a complete one-eighty unless you've been brainwashed or something. And as fun as it was, your willingness to jump out windows and run away with paperwork still on your desk is very unlike you and it just about scared the life back into me," Watari reprimanded.

"Believe me, I thought very hard about what I was getting myself into."

It had been a full week since Watari and Tatsumi's three-day suspension for skipping out on work, and they hadn't discussed the brunette's odd behavior yet. For a few days, Watari had left it at 'I just want to make you happy.' But as the days marched on, full of their usual mundane blow up the lab and freak out on budget forms routines, the niggling need to know the whole truth had gone from a tiny ticklish sensation to a burning itch. Tatsumi removed his glasses, folding them up and holding them in his hand as he stared up through the puffy pink clouds of sakura.

"I fought with myself the entire time, you know. Nearly ninety years of having, as you put it, the personality of a rock, and I'd grown sort of comfortable with acting that way. I didn't have to worry about emotions, I didn't have to care about anyone. And then you come along and upend everything. I suppose all I wanted was to get as far away from that false me I put on in public, and I ended up going too far. All that I could think about was your happiness, neglecting my own, because…and I swear to Enma-Daioh if you breathe a word of this to Tsuzuki you will never see another paycheck again…because I was afraid that by displeasing you, I'd lose you…like I lost Tsuzuki."

Watari smiled, his face warming with a blush as he leaned over and kissed Tatsumi softly. "Hate to break it to you, but you're never getting rid of me. And, as I believe I've told you a couple of times now, you don't have to go to such lengths to please me. I'm easily amused, if twenty-seven years of being around you hasn't indicated that by now. None of this bouncing between personalities anymore, okay?" he broke into an evil grin. "You're an old man. Gallivanting around like you're Bon's age, well, that just isn't healthy."

"I'll show you old man!" Tatsumi growled, scrambling to pin Watari to the ground. The blonde was hysterically laughing as his blue-eyed lover sat astride his hips, holding slender shoulders to the dirt.

"You're so cute," Watari sighed, still chuckling. "And that's a very good impression of Muraki you're doing too."

Tatsumi chuckled, lying down over his younger lover, resting his head on a slender shoulder.

"If I do nothing else for all eternity, I'd want to be with you."

"Waxing poetic now? Lovely. Tatsumi, you really are too cute sometimes. Mmph, and sometimes you're just heavy. I think you're crushing me."

"I am not."

"Are too."

Tatsumi glared at him, or what he could see of Watari without his glasses. "I have sex with you and you don't complain about my weight. I don't see how you can be complaining now."

"Maybe if we did have sex, I'd stop complaining."

"And risk the chance of being caught by someone? Like the Gushoshin? I would rather not give those floating feather dusters a free show."

Watari nodded. "Right, we'll charge them to watch. Make a killing."

"Watari…"

"Oh, let me have my fun! I'm just playing with you. I know you're not an exhibitionist. Kinky at times, yes, but that's too extreme for either of us. Hey, what do you say to taking a trip over to Odaiba and checking out the beach? Maybe it'd be fun, and I'm getting bored of just lying here."

Tatsumi smiled. "Sure. But you'd better get 003 from wherever you've left her, or she'll be upset for missing out."

"Aw, she's gone to spend the day at Wakaba's house. I think she won't mind."

Tatsumi slowly got up, stretching languidly. Watari lay there on the ground for a few minutes more, looking like some fey creature with cherry blossom petals stuck in his hair. The pink of the sakura complemented the gold locks rather nicely. The older man smirked, thumping his fist against the tree trunk. A shower of petals rained down on Watari, coating him in a fluffy pink film. He scrabbled out of the pile of sakura bits with petals still stuck to his hair.

"Not funny."

"Oh, I believe it was quite funny, Watari."

"I hate you."

He shook his head. "You do not."

"Okay, so maybe I don't…but I'm gonna get you back for that. When you least expect it."

"Go ahead and try."

Watari didn't end up getting back at Tatsumi, but by the time they got to Odaiba and walked hand-in-hand down the shoreline, he didn't really care anyways. And soon enough, it was Monday again, and the two men were rushing back into their work clothes and their usual routines.

"Shit, we're going to be late. Looks like we're going to have to rely on Wakaba's cooking once again," Watari cursed, hopping on one foot as he tried getting his sock on. Tatsumi was still brushing his teeth. "How did we end up getting so late again, Tatsumi?"

"Mmph, beats the hell out of me. Did we sleep through the alarm again?"

"Must've. 003! Come on, you! Quit preening, you look fine, let's go! We're going to be late!"

They skidded in through the front door, pounded up the flights of stairs and down the hallway into their division, collapsing on the foldable metal chairs pulled into the rickety table in the break room. Everyone was staring at them as the two men and the owl breathed heavily, gasping for air as if they'd just run from one end of Japan to the other, including the oceany bits.

"What the hell is this?" Konoe barked, sounding like the boss for once. "You two are late, and Tsuzuki is here on time? Tatsumi, you're really slipping, you know that? First dodging out of work, now this…"

"We slept through the alarm," Tatsumi said, his voice severe. "We were out of our apartment all yesterday while the building was being fumigated and spent most of the evening trying to get the stench of chemicals out of the place."

Watari poured two cups of coffee, fixed them, handed one to Tatsumi, grabbed a pastry off the juddering table, kissed his lover, and ran out of the room before Konoe could unleash his maximum rage on the blonde man. 003 chirped and zipped out as well, flapping her little wings at an owlish equivalent of mach one.

"Our apartment, eh? And how long has it been our apartment?" Terazuma inquired over his mug. Wakaba elbowed him in the ribs and hissed something that sounded very much like 'Hajime, shut up.'

"Pay cuts, all of you, if you don't get working," Tatsumi threatened in reply, not feeling the need to explain his romantic entanglements in excruciating detail to the rest of his coworkers. It was funny how the room cleared out after that. Konoe paused at the door, scowling at Tatsumi as the blue-eyed man took a leisurely sip of coffee.

"I've got my eye on you, Tatsumi," the older man stated, pointing his index and middle fingers at his own eyes and then quickly pointing them at Tatsumi. He repeated the motion several times. Tatsumi could've sworn he'd seen that done in a movie not long ago.

"It's going to be a very long week, I know it now," Tatsumi sighed, taking another sip.

Tsuzuki sauntered into the lab while Watari was hunched over some colorful cocktail of potentially volatile liquids. He leaned up against the counter, raking his hand through his hair with the casual attitude of someone who was definitely up to something.

"What're you working on?"

Watari glanced up, lifting the safety goggles onto his forehead. "An experiment."

"Obviously. What sort of experiment?"

"Something that'll make 003 into a human. The company can't afford to hire me a lab assistant, so should the need ever arise; I'll just use her. Besides, she already gets along with me, so there wouldn't be any conflicts of personality."

"And she's okay with this?"

"We had a long talk. I promised that it wouldn't be a permanent thing, just sort of in case of emergencies," Watari explained. "And Tatsumi agreed with me about it. I did ask him about the assistant thing, but we have basically no money to hire anybody else. It's much more cost efficient to just replace the chemicals than to shell out the salary."

Tsuzuki wrinkled his nose. "Ew, you're starting to sound like Tatsumi. That's disturbing."

"Shut up. Was there something you wanted, or are you hiding from Bon again?"

"Actually, I thought I'd see if you were up to a little wager."

Watari backed away slowly, waving the pipette in his hand. "Oh no, no more betting!"

Tsuzuki grinned, the kind of grin somebody has when they won't take no for an answer.

"Oh, come on, Watari, I'm bored! By the end of the day I'll have all of my paperwork done, and until Hisoka and I are shipped out on another assignment, I'll have nothing to do! You've got to go along with me!"

"No, Tsuzuki. No more."

"Fine, then I win."

Watari raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, you win?"

"I bet Saya and Yuma their paid vacation time that you'd be too chicken to go along with it. So now I've got about a month and a half of their vacation time, plus the two weeks of my own. I could go on a tropical cruise and leave you and Tatsumi to do all of my assignments."

"All right, you bastard, what do you want from me?" he sighed, not willing to give Tsuzuki the pleasure of taking all of that vacation time.

"You have to drug Tatsumi's coffee with one of your potions by the end of tomorrow."

The pipette fell from Watari's hand, clattering to the floor. "No. You can't make me do that, Tsuzuki, I promised Tatsumi I'd never experiment on him. I gave him my word."

"All right, then that means you have to cut your hair…and I mean seriously crop it short."

"What?!"

"That's the deal. Either you drug Tatsumi and turn him into a chinchilla or whatever, or you cut your hair. It's not like it won't grow back or anything."

Watari panicked. "We don't know that! It might not! And you can't make me do that, any of that, those are two out of the three big promises I made to Tatsumi when I said I'd have a serious relationship with him."

"Not cutting your hair is a big deal to Tatsumi?" he asked.

He nodded. "He said I wouldn't look right with short hair. I don't know what that means, but…"

"Huh, so Seiichiro the Sullen has a hair fetish. Go figure. Well, whatever, you've got until quitting time tomorrow to drop a little something extra into his coffee, or you've got to come in Wednesday looking like a man, my most feminine friend."

Watari shot him a leveling glare, not quite Tatsumi-strength, or even Hisoka-strength, but it was certainly more potent than anything Konoe could deliver. "And what do I win if I do drug Tatsumi?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Um…the pleasure of seeing Tatsumi as a chinchilla?"

Watari was tempted to throw a beaker at him. "Moron, I would find no pleasure or humor in turning my boyfriend into a chinchilla!"

"I'll…give you a month's worth of paychecks," Tsuzuki suggested.

"Tsuzuki, with all of the pay cuts you've suffered lately, you're barely making minimum wage. A month's worth of your pitiful paychecks couldn't buy a cheeseburger with fries."

Tsuzuki thought. "I'll get you and Tatsumi a weekend getaway. A nice one, at an expensive hotel. I can worm one out of Konoe really easily."

Watari considered the logic of this plan. For an all-expenses paid weekend getaway with his lover, he would have to betray the trust of said lover and do something potentially unpleasant to him physically, like turning him into the aforementioned chinchilla. Maybe he could come up with a potion that would just make Tatsumi a redhead for the day.

"Fine, I'll accept the terms of this bet. But if you can't come up with this weekend getaway, then I'm pulling out and there will be no consequences for me, you got it?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be keeping an eye out for chinchillas."

And with that, he moseyed back out of the lab. Watari sighed heavily, shaking his head as he retrieved his pipette from the ground and dropping into the sink so he could sterilize it.

"Where did he even come up with that? Chinchilla? Does he even know what a chinchilla is?" he muttered.

"Come in, Hisoka."

There was only one person in the office foolish enough to interrupt Tatsumi during budget form season and still had courtesy enough to knock before entering. Watari and Tsuzuki couldn't be bothered with it. The green-eyed boy trudged in under an armload of paperwork Tsuzuki had completed, some of it dating back three years ago. It was amazing what the older Shinigami could find when he cleaned out his desk, or rather, when Hisoka forced him to clean out his desk.

"Has Tsuzuki lost the usage of his arms? Is that why you're bringing me his work?" the secretary asked wryly, setting down his pen.

Hisoka glowered. "I'm stuck being his errand boy under penalty of losing another one of his stupid bets. I don't know how I got suckered into doing it."

"Gods…not again. What's he using against you?"

"If I don't play the happy messenger, the idiot will force me to eat an entire pie…with ice cream. I. Don't. Like. Pie," the boy ground out. "Oh, and Tsuzuki told me to tell you that you'd better, and I quote, 'fetish up, bondage boy,' because apparently, after reviewing the terms of your previous wager, you lost."

"What?!" Tatsumi yelped. "I most certainly did not! I took Watari clubbing, Tsuzuki admitted to it and worked with Terazuma. Technically, he still should be working with Terazuma but I let him out of it because those two nearly blew away half of Nerima."

"As far as I gather, Tsuzuki used some sort of charm to spy on you and said that you went to a nightclub, you did not 'go clubbing' according to his inane and perverse definition."

"Which is?"

Hisoka sighed, his expression one of long suffering. "Dancing in an erotic fashion, pressed so close to your dance partner that your leather pants start sticking together, in the midst of a sweaty, sexed-up throng to eardrum-shattering and pulsating lousy techno music. This sort of provocative 'sex with clothes on' business continues until either you pass out from heatstroke and exhaustion or you are forced to make a run for the nearest bathroom stall, corner booth, or back alley for explosive and exhibitionistic sex."

"And now I have to…" Tatsumi trailed off, his face going slightly pale.

The boy nodded. "Come into work on Wednesday in bondage fetish gear and let Watari lead you around on a leash. I'm sorry, I tried convincing Tsuzuki otherwise, but he wasn't about to listen."

"Why is he doing this?"

"Aside from sheer boredom due to completing his paperwork, he's pissed off and needs somebody to vent on. You just happen to be an easy target according to Tsuzuki."

Tatsumi frowned. "And why is he pissed off?"

"I won't have sex with him for reasons we will not discuss. He's jealous that you and Watari have only been together for about two months and have been, quote, 'screwing around,' whereas he and I have been something he assumes is 'together' for several years now and we have not."

"If he wasn't already dead, I'd kill him."

Hisoka might have smiled just a little. "He'll get his just desserts soon enough. Watari won't be the only one putting foreign ingredients in food items, and when I do, we'll see who enjoys being tormented. I just hope I find one that'll make him a nice, quiet rabbit."

"Rabbits bite, though. Better go with goldfish."

"Yeah. I've got to get back to work; we should discuss the merits of this during lunch. I'm sure Watari wouldn't mind loaning some particularly nasty concoction for the sake of knocking Tsuzuki down a few pegs."

The boy flipped his hand up in farewell, sauntering out of the room and closing the door behind him. Despite the bad news he'd been delivered, Tatsumi smiled. Hisoka was certainly more than his prickly exterior let on. He enjoyed conversing with the young Shinigami, who at times seemed like a younger version of himself.

"A leash…Tsuzuki, for what you're going to put me through, I hope you get turned into a goldfish. Or a potted plant. That might even be better."

Upon returning home to their shared apartment that evening, Watari kicked off his shoes and threw his coat somewhere, in a huff. Tatsumi wasn't in the best of spirits either.

"My day sucked," they proclaimed in unison, stopping and staring when they realized the other man had said the exact same thing. Watari ignored his own misfortune for the time being, putting his arms about his lover in an attempt at being comforting.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to hide his own uneasiness.

"That bet I made with Tsuzuki…I apparently lost it. I have to go in on Wednesday looking like the 'Fetish of the Month' Club's Mr. July," the blue-eyed man groused. "And you, Watari? You said your day wasn't much better."

"I…I don't want to talk about it."

Tatsumi's hand went to the back of Watari's neck, his fingers playing with a few golden curls.

"Then it's obviously something very serious. You can tell me, Watari, I'm not going to be angry with you, whatever it is. I promise."

The fact that Watari was so melancholy over this thing that he refused to discuss worried Tatsumi, worried him deeply. Generally, there wasn't a single thing the blonde would hesitate in talking about.

"If…" he said slowly. "If I had to do something that betrayed your trust, went back on the word I gave you, I'd be correct in assuming that our relationship was over, right?"

"Watari…"

"Just answer the question. Please. If I broke a promise I made to you, would you or would you not still love me, Tatsumi?"

"Generally, a betrayal of trust would be cause enough to end our relationship, yes, but I'm assuming that you're asking this because you got suckered into a bet of Tsuzuki's and the terms he put out are potentially damaging to our relationship. So therefore, I cannot hold any promise breaking against you, because I know you wouldn't intentionally go back on your word. No stupid bet of Tsuzuki's is going to make me not love you anymore."

"Can I get that in writing? Because I'm pretty sure you're going to be pissed off after I'm done with you tomorrow."

Tatsumi sighed, pulling off his glasses and Watari's and holding them in one hand as he tipped the blonde's head back, leaning over and kissing him. The younger man squirmed, trying to get away, but with a half-hearted shove and a shuddering sob, he lunged into the kiss, throwing Tatsumi against the nearest wall. 003 chose that inopportune moment to flutter in through the open window, catching her master and his lover fiercely locked in an embrace, fumbling with suit coats and buttons as their mouths worked against one another, tongues sparring, fighting for dominance. The small owl made a noise akin to a sigh, and departed for safer territory. Raiding the pantry sounded like an excellent plan at that moment in time. Gorging herself on the bag of popcorn the two men had opened last time Silence of the Lambs was playing on the Foreign Film Network was an infinitely better option than playing hapless voyeur to human lovemaking. She never could understand humans.

Tsuzuki was waiting on tenterhooks all Tuesday, stalking the break room in the hopes of catching Tatsumi drinking tampered coffee and seeing the shocked expression on his face as whatever potion Watari had slipped into it took effect. Hisoka growled, still pissed off with regards to the wager he'd fallen into, not to mention the fact that his slacker of a partner was wasting his time loitering around the coffee machines, rather than helping him finish the paperwork he'd yet to complete.

"You're just setting yourself up for disappointment, Tsuzuki," the teenager stated. "Watari isn't going to do it."

"He will if he wants that vacation. I managed to talk Konoe into doing it, there're reservations holding for that lodge we stayed in at Hokkaido, the really nice one with the hot springs. All he has to do is just drop a little splash of something into Tatsumi's mug…"

"You really are an idiot, Tsuzuki. How are they going to enjoy a weekend alone together if Tatsumi isn't on speaking terms with Watari? Didn't you think Tatsumi would get mad at Watari for drugging him, after Watari specifically promised he wouldn't?"

Tsuzuki pondered this, but came up with no feasible answer. It didn't exactly matter, though.

"Oh, here comes Tatsumi for his three o'clock pick-me-up!"

Hisoka glanced down the hall. "And here comes Watari with a vial in his hand. This ought to be interesting."

Everyone filed into the break room, unaware of the plot that was about to unfold. Tatsumi smiled at Watari, who half-smiled back, still feeling wretched about having to go through with the terms of the bet. The blonde waved off Tatsumi, promising that he'd fetch the coffee, and made his way over to the back counter. Tsuzuki was nearly bouncing out of his shoes.

"Thank you, Watari," Tatsumi said, accepting the cup of coffee.

Hisoka glanced at the scientist, who had the vial clenched in his fist. Tsuzuki was just about foaming at the mouth. Watari was breathing heavily, sweat dotting his brow, knuckles white around the vial. Tatsumi raised the cup to his lips.

"Don't drink it!" Watari screamed.

Tatsumi swallowed. The blonde snatched the Styrofoam cup from his hands, moaning as he dashed it to the ground. Coffee seeped into the cheap carpet…and burned a hole right through the floor.

"What the hell was that for, Watari?" Konoe barked.

He was shaking, wide amber eyes still fixed on Tatsumi. "Please…please tell me you didn't…"

"One sip. Why? What did you…you put something in it, didn't you? Watari…"

"I'm so sorry…I…Tatsumi, I didn't…I couldn't…I…" he stammered.

Tsuzuki merely waited for the drug to take effect. Usually with Watari's potions, it only took one sip for the stuff to work. "Chinchilla…"

Naturally, basically everyone was in the break room at the time, although how eight people, one half-demon, and two floating chicken gods could fit into the tiny space was beyond comprehension. Then again, Watari was halfway backed against the door, cowering, waiting for what he assumed was coming. Tatsumi shouting at him about betraying him, the fiery rant and the writhing shadows being cut off as the potion took effect and turned him into a rubber duck or whatever…Watari wasn't entirely sure what the concoction was supposed to do, he threw a couple of chemicals together and hoped for the best.

"Tsuzuki…" Tatsumi growled. The elder Shinigami yelped, cringing and going into full puppy mode.

"Yes, Tatsumi?"

A tendril of shadow snaked towards him. "I believe you owe Mr. Watari something, do you not?"

"A weekend vacation in Hokkaido. Just pick up the tickets in the boss's office," he said nervously. "There's no date on them, so you can go whenever."

Watari nodded dumbly.

"And Watari…" Tatsumi continued.

"Don't punish him, Tatsumi, please," Hisoka piped up. "It's not his fault."

The teenager was ignored. The secretary and his menacing shadows loomed over the scientist in a most terrifying way. Everyone, including Terazuma, recoiled at the imagined punishment Watari was about to receive.

"I'm so sorry…" Watari choked out.

He smiled. "Takeout Chinese for dinner tonight?"

The other Shinigami stared at their superior, shocked when they didn't hear the splatter of scientific guts hitting the wall. "Eh?!"

"Are you all quite through? Or do I have to start withholding paychecks?" Tatsumi snapped.

Tsuzuki folded his arms across his chest. "Now wait a minute! What about the potion?"

Any replies made by either man were cut off as the Gushoshin began laughing, the twin gods rolling around midair. Nobody quite understood what was so funny until they all got a good look at Tatsumi, and then began nervously laughing as well, still afraid of losing their pay. The secretary shrugged, assuming it was whatever Watari had put in his coffee, hauled the blonde to his feet, and dragged him off to his office, slamming the door behind them.

"What did you do?" he asked.

Watari smiled. "It's all right. Your hair's about as long as mine and very deep blue right now, but no horns, no scales, and no chinchillas. It's actually kind of a good look for you."

"Chinchillas?"

"Don't ask," he replied, leaning over and kissing him. "Thank you, Tatsumi."

He shoved a long lock of hair away from his face. "I told you yesterday, Tsuzuki's stupid antics aren't about to drive me off. Not to mention the fact that you were totally against breaking your promise and tried stopping me, which just further shows how committed you are to me. Thank you, Yutaka."

Watari stared in disbelief. "You…you called me by my first name."

Tatsumi shrugged. "I believe we're at that point in a normal human relationship where first names are generally applicable. Though I have to admit, you really are more of a Watari than a Yutaka."

"So I can't call you Seii-chan?"

"Not if you want to keep your insides on the inside."

Everyone hurried out of their offices to see the arrival of Tatsumi and Watari Wednesday morning. They'd been well informed of Tatsumi's losing his bet and the consequences of doing so, and were eager to see him. All right, the girls were more eager to see him, Terazuma couldn't have cared less but Wakaba dragged him out by one pointed ear. Saya and Yuma had cameras at the ready.

They walked side-by-side, a black leather leash gripped tightly in Watari's hand, said leash connecting to the collar about his lover's neck. Tatsumi's hair had yet to return to normal, but Watari and his personal stylist 003 had carefully braided sections of it and set it off with silver beads. He'd gone without his glasses, blue eyes shimmering with something that almost seemed mischievous. The shirt he wore was more skin than shirt, a tight silver fishnet material, sleeveless, strategically slashed at the collarbones and the waist, showing off the man's taut stomach. He'd worn the sinfully tight cobalt pants and his boots, wrists adorned with leather and silver, rings on his fingers. And, for the added touch, Watari had suggested a clip-on eyebrow ring, which he did indeed wear. The blonde was no less impressive, his hair pinned up like a prom queen's with little ruby clips, curling strands dangling about his face. He too, opted for contacts, more so that he could wear shimmery eye makeup. And he was clad in a tight, shiny red leather bodysuit and boots, nothing else. Even 003 had dressed up to match her masters, a silver bangle around one foot, a red ribbon about her neck.

"Watari…" Tsuzuki said with a low whistle. "What's this?"

"I wasn't going to let Tatsumi suffer alone. If he's going to be dressed as Mr. July, then I'll just have to be Mr. August. After all, I was very lucky that I got off with such a light punishment for putting that potion in his coffee."

"What did he…"

He smirked. "Such things are not discussable in public. Come along, Tatsumi, let's grab some coffee and I'll tether you to your desk for the morning."

"Oh, and Tsuzuki," Tatsumi said, his smirk matching Watari's. "We will not be making any more bets. If you even think about suggesting one, I will have you sent to the Castle of Candles to be the Count's personal assistant for a week and a half. Do I make myself clear?"

Tsuzuki nodded, his face white. No doubt the Count would try and cash in on some of the 'favors' he'd accumulated, and all of them smacked of sexual harassment.

Watari grinned, yanking Tatsumi close with the leash and delivering a brutal kiss that left the formerly brunette man reeling.

"I really hope you've got a meeting with Enma-Daioh today, just to know what he'd say."

Tatsumi licked his lips. "He wouldn't say anything, he knows I'm taken."

"You really are too cute sometimes."

fin

Notes: All right, so Tsuzuki was a jerk. Hey, I'd be running around forcing people into stupid bets too if my empath boyfriend wasn't putting out and my crazy best friend was too busy locking lips with his boyfriend, my ex, to cause the usual sheer mayhem and laboratory explosions I count on to keep the day from getting boring. Besides, how else was I going to get Tatsumi back into those pants? Oh, and for those of you who don't know what a chinchilla is, it's a small rodent-type creature kind of like a guinea pig.