Title: A Sweet Tyranny

Rating: PG-13 for the time being, the overall story has an M rating

Warning: It's an AU fic with OOC moments, adult situations

Disclaimer: I wish the boys were mine, but they're not! I borrowed the characters from the incomparable Takanaga-sensei.

Note: I wanted to try telling the story from a later time frame; they're older, established in their careers, a little more settled. Since Souichi went to school in Tokyo, two main incidents haven't happened: He didn't meet Tetsuhiro in his twenties, and he wasn't attacked by the assistant professor, so he's not psychotically homophobic. Otherwise their lives are fairly parallel to the original story.

Love is a sweet tyranny, because the lover endureth his torments willingly. ~Proverb

Prologue

The house was quiet as the two boys entered through the back door. The brunette looked through the first floor before returning to the kitchen and grabbing the blonde's hand. "Come on, Masaki-san! I told you everyone was out for the afternoon."

"Wha…what about Kunihiro, isn't he here?" Masaki asked nervously as he looked around. Tetsuhiro thought he looked like a skittish colt, shying at every sound. It was this helplessness that was so endearing to him; he wanted to protect Masaki-san from the whole world, and take care of him forever.

"You know he went over to his girlfriend's after school let out. It's just us Masaki-san," he took the older boy in his arms and they started kissing. Masaki held on as if Tetsuhiro was a life-line and the only thing keeping him from drowning.

The two boys lived in a rural town and their families and acquaintances were very narrow-minded about almost everything, including sexual orientation. Both boys were gay and neither had felt safe in coming out to their families or friends. At times each had felt as if he was suffocating and it was only natural that they would reach out to each other for comfort and understanding. For Tetsuhiro it was more than just a passing fancy, he'd fallen in love with the older boy and although he was only sixteen, he was very serious about this relationship. For Masaki's part, he wanted to love Tetsuhiro so badly he'd talked himself into believing it really was love he felt. He wasn't nearly so open or honest with his feelings and he was terrified of what would happen if that one person ever found out about them.

The two boys made it upstairs to Tetsuhiro's bedroom and fell on to the bed. They were giggling at their eagerness and beginning to really get in to it when the bedroom door was thrown open. They both jumped and looked up at Kunihiro. He stood there for a second in shock as Masaki and Tetsuhiro faced him. Masaki looked ashamed; and Tetsuhiro, defiant.

"So you two really are…!" Kunihiro spat out. He was shocked and furious. There was also something else at the back of his heart that he couldn't put a name to but he hated the way it made him feel and he lashed out at the two boys in front of him. "You two are sick! Perverts! How could you do such things together?"

"How could we not, Nii-san?" Tetsuhiro snapped back at his brother. "We love each other and want to be together! There's nothing wrong with wanting to be with the person you love!"

"There is if it's another guy!" Kunihiro snarled back. "It's wrong, gross! You two make me want to barf, just get out of here if you want to act so depraved and twisted!"

"This is my room, you idiot! If you don't want to see, then get out!" Tetsuhiro retorted and pushed his brother out the door and slammed it in his face. As he turned to see how Masaki-san was, he noticed the other boy was crying.

"Masaki-san," he said gently as he kneeled beside his lover, "it's ok now, he's gone."

Masaki just shook his head and kept crying, "Sorry…I'm sorry Tetsuhiro!"

"There's nothing to be sorry for, my brother's an idiot that's all there is to it. Don't let it get to you. He'll come around eventually.…" his voice trailed off when Masaki started shaking his head.

"No he won't! It's all over, and I'm sorry. I used you because you were so kind and understanding. I wanted to love you, I tried; but I can't do it anymore. I love Kunihiro. Kunihiro's the one I love and if he finds me disgusting…I…I can't go on!"

Tetsuhiro woke with a start. He lay still until his heartbeat returned to normal, then he quietly got out of bed, so as not to wake his current partner. As he walked to the living room he couldn't help but rehash the nightmare he'd just had. 'It's been years since I had that dream, why now?' he groaned. He walked over to the penthouse window and looked down at the empty street as he leaned his forehead on the glass. It felt cool and he needed to calm down. As he closed his eyes and sighed, he heard a sound behind him. When he turned around he saw this evening's lover standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Haru, I didn't mean to wake you," Tetsuhiro smiled at the other man.

"It's ok, I don't mind; but are you alright, Tetsu? You were making a lot of weird sounds right before you woke up and it looked to me like you might be crying."

"I'm fine," he grimaced. "I just had a dream about some ghosts from my past," Tetsuhiro sighed. This is what he got from sleeping with someone who knew him so well. He shouldn't have broken his own rule about not doing friends! If he hadn't been so lonely, and horny, he would have said no when Haru propositioned him. "You might as well go back to bed; I'll be there in a minute."

"Are you sure? I'm a good listener, you know," the other man smiled.

"Yeah, I'm sure. We've got an early day tomorrow and need our sleep. There's no sense in us both being sleep deprived!" Tetsuhiro grinned at his friend.

"Ok, good night," Haru knew when to back out gracefully, and he'd known the brunette long enough to know when he needed to be alone.

Tetsuhiro sighed again and went to the kitchen to get a beer. He sat down in the living room to drink it and thought back to that time when he'd been naïve enough to believe that love would always win out. He knew better than that now. There was no such thing as true love, just the occasional encounter with attractive and willing partners. He should be satisfied with that, but he wasn't.

The last six years had been exciting and profitable. He had joined a prestigious pharmaceutical firm during his last year of university and due to some very lucky circumstances; he'd managed to bring about a coup with one of his projects. The resulting payoff had been huge and he'd managed it well and built it into a very tidy fortune. It had sometimes been a ride that made him queasy, like a roller coaster, but for the most part it had been fun and exhilarating. The only drawback had been that he had no one to share it with. There had been lovers, partners…encounters; but no one to truly love. He'd finally given up on finding a genuine love and pursued anyone he was attracted to who showed interest in him. It had been a lonely existence and he desperately wanted a change. He just didn't know how to go about it.

Last month he'd retired from the company and applied to his old alma mater as a prospective teacher. He was young enough and still idealistic enough to want to give back a bit of his good fortune to younger generations. However, he did have an ulterior motive. Nagoya University had a professor that Tetsuhiro desperately wanted to meet and work with. His name was Tatsumi, Souichi Tatsumi and he was brilliant! He was also working in Tetsuhiro's field of study and had made inroads on a project that he had tried to accomplish and been unable to. Tetsuhiro thought that if they pooled their knowledge, they might, just might, succeed where separately, they'd both failed. Anyway, it was worth a shot and tomorrow he was heading back to Nagoya for an interview with that very same professor. Every time he thought about actually meeting his idol he got all nervous and jittery, 'I'm acting like a schoolgirl getting ready to go out with her first crush!' He laughed at his foolishness as he finished the beer and went back to bed to try to get some sleep.