A/N : This is the alternate version of "Fragrance of Rain," which I decided to post after a few people wondered what would happen if Kaname hadn't cared. For comparison, read "Fragrance of Rain" from my profile.

Dedicated to Lord Youko, who asked for a mature K/A story : I'm sorry it isn't so mature, but after all, I like to hold back a bit when it comes to Aido :) Also, for all the Kaname/Aido fans out there! This is a standalone story, but it can be read with my other Kaname/Aido stories and takes place sometime after 'Strawberries in blood'. Hope you guys enjoy this!


Hanabusa Aido's golden head jerked upward when a drop of cold water landed on his cheek. A second drop splashed into his eye, and a third trickled down his temple. To his left and right, villagers were hurrying away to their homes. A downpour was only minutes away!

Aido sprinted a considerable distance from the sidewalk to the shelter beneath an overhead road. Huge stone columns supported the highway above, leaving its underbelly dry and shady. Even in rain, the elevated concrete ground wouldn't flood; it was the kind of perfect temporary shelter which drew travelers and rain-caught people.

Kaname Kuran strolled in from the other side, first seeing Hanabusa Aido treating the convenient roof to his appreciative expression, before seeing Aido's blue eyes widened to comical roundness upon realizing the other's presence.

"I-It's going to rain," Aido coughed out by way of greeting, going ramrod stiff under Kaname's appraising gaze.

"It won't kill you," Kaname replied, stepping past Aido and looking as though he wanted to continue his way out of the shelter.

"But-but-but–"

Aido felt a vague pang of distaste at the thought of getting his clothes and shoes wet.

Just then, the downpour began in earnest. Kaname paused, a wry smile tipping his lips.

"…But it wouldn't hurt to remain dry."

Aido grunted noncommittally and nodded.

Kaname went to one of the columns and sat down on the ledge of its base, extending his legs in preparation of a considerable wait. Hanabusa began to pace back and forth, looking into the misty distance. Presently, however, he became aware that he was looking outside to avoid meeting Kaname's gaze. For he could feel the red eyes on him, following his movements lazily throughout the to and fro of his walking. On the "to" portion of it he felt an unnerving prickle on the back of his neck, and on the "fro" part, he knew his throat was heating up with a deep tropical burn.

Hanabusa risked a glance through his lashes, found that bloody gaze, and immediately ducked his head down again. It was no relief to face away from Kaname because he only felt more apprehensive about the predatory scrutiny he couldn't see. The redness on his neck spread upwards and downwards, and his hands, clasped behind his back, tightened their sweaty grasps on one another.

"- I could run out and get a cab to come by," Aido suggested abruptly.

"That would be unnecessary. That is, unless you are rushing for time?"

"Nonotatall –" Aido swallowed, cracked his knuckles and resumed his pacing, up and down, to and fro, increasingly unnerved by Kaname's unrelenting observation. The tension in his back and stomach reached his knees, and suddenly, as Kaname shifted position slightly, he tripped over his own foot.

"Um!" Aido yelped as he tossed his arms out and narrowly avoided falling completely. Quickly he straightened, expression askew with embarrassment. He took a moment to fidget with his shirt.

"Sit," Kaname said.

Aido dropped to the ground where he stood and froze in that position.

Red eyes examined Aido's pokerfaced countenance with cool amusement.

"I didn't mean where you were," he said drily.

Aido sprang to his feet so quickly he nearly fell over.

"OhbutI –"

Kaname leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and Aido clamped his lips together.

Unhurriedly, Kaname reached out and hooked Aido's belt loop with a forefinger, dragging him close. Aido squawked, fell two startled steps forward and stopped short, right in front of Kaname, his shins between Kaname's inner thighs, his stomach two inches, two scant, endless inches, from Kaname's cold eyes.

When Kaname lifted Aido's shirt and pressed his lips against the supple flesh of his stomach, blood drained from Aido's face.

The warm lips disappeared for a moment and then resumed, this time with a tongue, and then with teeth, gently tracing the curve of his waist before moving down to his abdomen. The mouth got harsher, biting and scratching. Not daring to protest, not even daring to touch, Aido's hands convulsed at his sides. He panted and heaved desperately, unaware of the small, high pitched sounds he made, feeling only the unendurable heat writhing shamelessly in his belly.

Then there was only the pasty, unpleasant shock of his shirt falling back over the red, wet patch of his stomach, and Kaname leaned back on the pillar, waiting impassively for Aido to look down at him. When Aido did so, seemingly stricken by Kaname's cool, red eyes, Kaname jerked his head to one side, indicating the space beside him.

"Sit," he said.

Aido swallowed, teetered for a moment, then stepped drunkenly over Kaname's leg. Instead of sitting on the ledge, he sank down on the ground in front of it, breathing quickly and irregularly.

He never knew why it was that, when it concerned Kaname, duty was never quite enough for him, friendship was always rather too disrespectful, and physical desire, no matter what, was inexplicably distressing and terrifying. His hand itched to lift his shirt and touch the red, damp flesh of his stomach, hoped to find and linger over the indents of Kaname's teeth, but he was afraid to do so where he could be seen doing it – his trachea seemed to wither at the very thought of doing so. He could have rested his chin on Kaname's knee, if it had seemed proper to do so.

In the microcosm kept away from the world by a veil of grey water, all senses were lulled into stillness by the constant, susurrus legato. Down there on the ground, in the half-light, beside Kaname's leg, with the memory of Kaname's mouth on him playing over and over again, against the fragrance of falling rain, Aido never knew how he found, after an uncountable number of minutes, the courage to break the silence.

"Kaname-sama…do you – want to – do anything?"

"What do you have in mind?"

Kaname stood up and stretched comfortably, and ambled, if anyone could amble with a viperous nonchalance, to the edge of the bridge. Water splashed onto his head and face.

"– I – don't – nothing – anything. Anything you want."

With a sudden, suggestive, dreadful indolence, Kaname stepped back towards Aido, who reeled in his legs quickly, finding them too long and ungainly. When his knees were drawn up, Aido quailed and pressed back against the column as the slow, quiet 'klop' of Kaname's shoes neared him.

Black shoes drew level with a final thud, and Aido flinched at the noise. Pressing his lips together, Aido forced himself to breathe slowly through his nose, with the result that it sounded extremely loud and shaky to his own ears.

Kaname hooked his hands easily in his own pockets and kicked Aido's right knee back. A short, panicked cry burst from Aido. His left knee was kicked back, spreading his legs alarmingly wide.

"Anything," Kaname repeated. Already unhinged by his own lewd, graceless position, Aido jerked sharply at the ruthlessness in Kaname's voice.

Kaname was very near now, leaning directly over Aido, supporting his weight on the column with one arm. A drop of water fell, from Kaname's hair, and landed on Aido's cheek. The noble blinked, swallowed and stared straight ahead. His insides convulsed beneath the cool, polished mahogany of Kaname's passionless gaze, and once more a dangerous fire was fanned into living in the pit below his stomach.

Kaname placed knee under Aido's chin and forced it up. Aido had to look at the hard, lean frame above his. When he arched away from Kaname's knee, his groin touched Kaname's foot, and it burned him to feel own body reacting in the worse possible way.

"Scared?"

Aido heard the word through his ragged breathing. Behind him, between his body and the column, his fists clenched, and an imperceptible shiver began at his elbows.

"NoI'mnot."

Kaname pushed his knee into Aido's throat. Aido wanted to gasp, but couldn't. He thought he bellowed, but it was a pleading whimper that came out. His fingers dug into the unyielding ground and the trembling in his shoulders intensified. It was unreasonable that his perfectly proportioned skeleton should liquefy under a mere stare, but of course it did, and closing his eyes, struggling for breath, availed Aido nothing.

Kaname's foot stepped delicately onto his groin.

"Hnh – " Aido flattened against the column, panting from the friction, eyes large. The pressure intensified, and Aido cried out once before clapping one palm over his mouth. When hard wedge of Kaname's heel dug in under the taut peak in his pants, Aido's hands jumped down involuntarily, closing around Kaname's foot. His head jerked from side to side, out of sync with his ragged groaning.

"Please – hah – ah – hurts – AH –"

Kaname lifted his foot away, and Aido's knees snapped together instinctively.

"Give me your belt."

Aido's eyelids fluttered. He looked blindly at the front Kaname's thighs, which led to Kaname's waist and Kaname's sleek, black belt.

Hot with apprehension, Aido found his own belt buckle under Kaname's foot. His fingers were wet, and very slow, and they did not seem to be his own. He was shocked at the brazen stiffness of his own erection, so bold despite – or perhaps because of – the pain. Under Kaname's knowing, mocking scrutiny, he pulled his belt loose, blinking at the loud hiss of the belt sliding around his pants, the hesitant clink of its buckle, until he gave it – offered it, raising a shaking fist with numb fingers clenched around the belt, to Kaname.

Kaname coiled it up, slowly, and Aido's gaze followed the shortening end of the belt, hypnotized by its glossy, demanding sashay.

The belt cracked once beside Aido. His entire body jerked at the loudness of it, but the sound made his insides twirl dizzyingly.

His legs fell open of their own accord, parted in invitation, like a card; baring his arousal. Disgraced by his own action, his cheeks and throat coloured darkly; his lips parted slightly.

The whip snapped and caught Aido on his thigh. Pain snaked up his leg, and a long, low moan, seemingly from the pit of his belly, left his throat. His hands convulsed behind him, wanting, but not daring, to touch himself.

There was a malicious hiss, and the belt snapped against the hard mount in Aido's pants. White hot pain coursed through Aido; a fitful shriek bubbled forth, his hips twisted away – then the belt came down again, he rocked away helplessly.

His pants were so unbearably tight, the teeth of his zipper were visible at the tent.

" – please – AAHH – "

The belt snapped in reply, again, again, yet again, measured and relentless, falling on his inner thighs, his abdomen, his – Kaname switched the belt around, and it was now the buckle that bit into Aido, cutting into him like a cat's steely fangs – he slammed his heels down, ground his fists into the floor – he must have screamed repeatedly, his throat was raw – there was an sudden, explosive feeling, and fire flooded his loins, a wet, hot, molten agony –

"- stop – STOP – PLEASE – AAHH –"

Aido screamed as he came, hitting his head against the column as he arched violently. The sheer strength of it was surreal, the white, sticky evidence of it everywhere, his own shirt, the back of Kaname's hand, sliding off the length of the belt.

Kaname watched serenely while spasms wracked Aido's body.

Aido came to full conciousness, heaving, in what seemed like layers, feeling entirely wrung out by his painful orgasm. His head hung from trembling shoulders; sweat filmed over the sides of his face, cooling on the concave of his neck. The beating of his heart slowed from breakneck gallop to canter; he was still panting slightly when he opened his eyes and saw the dark stain of blood on his pants, spreading over the concave pavement, spotted an ugly pink here and there with his seed. The button had come undone and his zipper had split open, its teeth stained red, and he was bleeding at his groin, visceral evidences of the merciless flogging.

As if Aido needed to be reminded. He raised his eyes to the belt that hung, slick with blood – his own blood – and heard his own ragged keening. The belt twitched, and Kaname grasped the head of the belt tightly in one hand. In a swift, brutal motion, he yanked the belt through his grip, shucking it of Aido's fluids. Aido recoiled from the vicious action, shuddering in his exhalation.

Blood and semen clung to Kaname's fingers. Aido's own fingers, numb from their clenching, still behind his back, loosened and flexed. Kaname raised his hand to Aido's face, and Aido's fearful gaze followed it until it was too close and he squinted reflexively. Aido tensed for a slap, but Kaname only brushed a cheek lightly with the knuckles of his second and third finger, leaving a cold, sticky trail on flushed skin.

Aido flinched when Kaname touched his lips, but he opened his mouth. Kaname put two fingers in, then a third. Aido sucked, reddening in humiliation, and swallowed. His stomach roiled at the unpleasant taste of rust and salt.

Kaname pushed them in to the third knuckle, shoving Aido's head up, stretching Aido's mouth callously, curling and forceful in the hot, wet cave, uncaring that Aido was struggling, coughing, blinking furiously, and that there were tears on his cheeks. A muffled groan found its way out, his back tensed like a bow again. Claws flicked against his jaws, pricked the muscles under his tongue. Fingertips dug in roughly, to the back of his throat, too far too far too far! – Aido choked and dragged his head back impulsively, away from Kaname. Cleaned and wet, Kaname's ruthless fingers flexed in front of his face.

Kaname held the belt out to Aido. Aido's tongue touched the sore, swollen insides of his mouth, swallowing against the memory of Kaname's intrusive fingers. With a shaking hand, Aido reached out and took the belt, hardly believing it was his. Unbidden, his gaze fell to the damp mess of his pants and the guilty red stain at the bottom of his shirt.

He rose gingerly, intending to tidy himself up, but before he could straighten, agony lanced through his thighs and gut. His legs burned, raw and welted under his pants. Their cool touch grazed his skin. He keeled over the ledge of the column, one hand going to his parts. The coldness there, so like much like Kaname's unfeeling gaze, made him writhe internally.

Kaname sat beside Aido's head, putting a still-damp hand into Aido's golden hair. Aido's shoulders hunched, but not away from Kaname. To Hanabusa Aido, whether that hand had chastised him, shamed him, exposed him - whether it would go further, force him - up against a wall, the way he was wanted, which way, how - he would aways want it.

"Next time, think before you lie."

There was a hoarse, quiet whimper, much like a sob, from Aido's shaking, curled up form.

END

How was it? If you've read the Fragrance of Rain part I, which do you prefer/what do you think is better about either one? I know some of you might have expected all out yaoi, but I'm still half-decided over that! Thank you for reading till the end - comments and criticisms are very welcome, guys!

-Cheers, from Talking Cockerel