For anyone who's concerned, yes, I will update Stress. This week, hopefully. I just missed KaiRay more than chocolate, and so had to write some. It was going to be a oneshot, but then it grew a little. I'm pleased - it'll be my first KaiRay multi-chapter in years.

Enjoy!

"Mr Hiwatari?"

"Yeah." Kai got to his feet and winced. Those chairs hadn't been very comfortable The masseur smiled at him, and indicated that he should enter the room. He did so, eyeing the massage couch in the centre of the room with mistrust.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Ray Kon." They shook hands. He had a decent grip, and his smile, if it was possible, had broadened. "If you would just take a seat over there?" Kai looked past the dominating massage couch and saw a desk and two chairs, over to side of the room.

"Why?" he asked brusquely. As he observed the flash of surprise on the masseur's face, he also felt a familiar heat heighten his interest - the man was insanely handsome. Knee-length wavy black hir was scraped back from his forehead and held in a long, tight strip of white cloth that stretched to almost the end of the hair. The hair was pulled back so severely that on anyone else, it would probably have aged them by at least ten years. On this man, nothing of the sort. His skin was much darker than Kai's, bordering on the colour Kai considered "Asian", and his eyes were such a light shade of brown as to be called golden, livened by flecks of green. He was wearing smart black trousers and a loose top, but his arms and the sinews in his neck showed that he was physically fit.

"I'd like to discuss your medical history and current health, if that's all right, in order to decide what treatment is best for you."

So irritatingly polite.

"Huh. Treatment," Kai scoffed. "As if this is like medicine or something."

"Or something," the masseur replied amiably enough, pulling out Kai's chair for him.

Kai was reasonably impressed. It took self-control not to rise to his jibes - something that most of the people he worked with didn't have. Riling them had stopped being entertaining a long ago. Probably at the point where he had started doing it without meaning to.

He couldn't help but notice that (What had he said his name was? Oh yeah,) Ray crossed his legs when he sat down in the chair next to him.

He scolded himself mentally for being so cliché - what next, checking the ears?

Now that he'd thought it, he couldn't stop his gaze flicking over them quickly, right-left. None. Pity. Not that it meant anything. He subconsciously tugged at his right ear, where a decade ago there had been a hole. Healed over long since, of course. It didn't pay to 'flaunt' in business.

As they discussed his medical history (nothing to mention, really) and his current health (even less, unless a couple of ear infections counted), he continued to needle Ray, trying for some reaction outside of the plastic customer-services smile. Eventually, Ray put down his pen with a final-sounding clunk and shifted slightly in his seat.

"What made you decide to come here, Mr Hiwatari?" The inference clear; because you don't seem like you want to be here.

Kai snorted and settled more comfortably in the chair.

"To be frank, someone else's money."

Ray raised his eyebrows curiously.

"Simple, really. Work colleague grabs my shoulder to congratulate me on a bonus, throws a hissy fit about how tight the muscles were, books me a session here. Wouldn't take the amount back from me either, so I figured I had to come to avoid waste."

"Work stressful?"

Kai shrugged.

"It's work."

Ray waited a few seconds, probably for a more informative reply. Kai just folded his arms and tried not to stare at Ray's biceps.

"Ok." Ray stood up and gestured towards a pile of neatly folded white towels. "You ok with undressing?"

Kai shrugged again, fighting a juvenile urge to joke "Only if you help". He wondered if it had somehow shown in his eyes, because Ray's face briefly creased with a grin.

"Right, strip off, towel round your waist and lie on your stomach on the table. Call me when you're done."

"So, what are you doing?" Kai asked in a muffled voice. He didn't like being unable to see what was going on, it made him feel uneasy.

"Such a businessman," Ray said with a laugh. Kai maintained a questioning silence, which shattered in an embarrassing noise of surprise as he felt Ray's hands rest slickly on his back. "At the moment, I'm just doing a quick massage, which will hopefully relax you and give me a better idea about what sort of treatment you need."

"Treatment," Kai muttered again, trying not to quiver as Ray's hands slid up and down his back.

"Yes. Treatment." There was an edge to Ray's voice now, and Kai grinned victoriously. The next few minutes passed in silence, until Kai asked again,

"What are you doing?"

He heard Ray sigh.

"I'll just talk you through it all, shall I?"

"Yeah." Kai bit his lip as the heat in his crotch increased. The voice and the hands both at once. Holy shit. And the odd swish from that mass of hair didn't help. Or did help, depending on your point of view.

Half an hour later, Ray stepped back. "You can sit up now."

Kai did so, trying to keep his back to Ray as much as possible to hide his continued arousal. He was certain he saw Ray's eyes dart downwards, but Ray made no reaction if he had, just walking to the small sink in the corner to wash his oily hands.

"Get dressed, and then we'll discuss future sessions," he said with his back to Kai, then left the room.

Kai got dressed, determinedly thinking about one of his more troublesome sales reps, Tyson - his eating habits and his disgusting, explosive farts that he was childishly proud of.

Dirty feet. Little children with snotty noses and shitty bums. Anything would do.

Shit, he needed to get laid. Chances of that happening had disappeared into minus numbers at about the third promotion. Shit.

He called Ray back in. Called him "Mr Kon," mind you. It had become his automatic mode of address a while ago. Much safer than navigating the minefield of given names and "mate" and all that. And it would be insane to reveal how he had instantly become "Ray" in his head. So Ray sat down again, with his legs crossed, and Kai stared at the desk. He was beginning to feel embarrassed. It was so unlike him to tumble head over heels into lust.

"Your friend was right, Mr Hiwatari. Your muscles are very, very tight."

Tala wasn't his friend. They just understood each other far too well for people who had only met two years ago.

"If you'd like, I could book you in for a course of deep muscle massage therapy. It's a bit more forceful than the session you've just had, I mean, it can be relatively uncomfortable, but I think it's necessary to break down the adhesions in your muscles."

"Adhesions?"

"Band of painful muscle."

"Hm."

"This is, of course, dependent on whether or not you feel like returning."

Kai looked at Ray in surprise - there had been a mild bite to that remark. Fair enough. He had been rude. And horny. Not that Ray knew that, right?

"I might. It did relax me," he ventured. Ray's face split into the widest grin Kai had ever seen. It was beautiful.

"No, it didn't." He uncrossed and re-crossed his legs. Kai did not watch.

There was a distinctly uncomfortable pause. "Look, Mr Hiwatari, it's not unusual for clients to experience arousal during a session."

"Not unusual doesn't really mean usual, does it?" Kai asked with a mixture of sarcasm and embarrassment. He could feel his face starting to go red.

"No, or this would be an entirely different type of service," Ray replied with a decidedly mischievous glint in his eyes.

Kai's face felt like it was on fire.

"So, you know. Here's the number," Ray passed him a green business card, "have a think and call if you want to. It would be six sessions, two a week."

Kai nodded and fingered the card uncertainly. "Right." He stood up. All lower misbehaviours aside, he did actually feel more relaxed. Maybe it was worth something. He'd be damned if Tala found out, though. He was insufferable when he was right. Insufferable most of the time, really.

But still. What must Ray think of him? Some sort of nympho?

Shaking Ray's hand, he turned to go.

"Just do me a favour," Ray called. Kai half-turned and raised his eyebrows. "Get out of that stupidly stressful job of yours early one day and go get some, ok? Shouldn't be too hard ..." He trailed of. The remainder of the sentence hung heavily in the air "for someone like you." The teasing tone, and definite, a hundred percent definite spark of attraction in Ray's golden eyes made Kai's stomach do gymnastics.

He took a deep breath for serenity, then snorted and managed in an almost normal tone, "I wish."

The rest of the evening was spent doing as much work as he could find to distract himself from thinking about anything else, though towards bedtime he did dig out his old purple stud earring and stare at it for a while.

Well, I have a vague idea of where this is going, so, yay! I'm thinking, maybe 3, 4 chapters?

What do you think? How steamy do you want it to get?

All opinions and criticisms welcome.

Thanks for reading,

xIlbx