Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies as usual.
A/N: Inspired by Murakami Haruki's After Dark. Early birthday fic for Yanagi-senpai. :) If this story confuses you, please read the end notes. Thank you.
NOTES: Post high school graduation; pre-college. Lurking plot. Analytical conversation. Strangeness. Akaya POV.
Warnings: Failed smut attempt. Lemon lime. Rough revision.
[BGM: The Beatles – "Eleanor Rigby"]
α‒Blocker
(Alpha-Blocker)
Midnight.
His senpai surprised him with a call, when his consciousness had already slithered into shallow slumber.
"I want to meet you."
Akaya agreed to the other's sudden request without a second thought. Though, the heavy rain pounding discontentedly at his window objected fiercely against his decision.
Wasting no time, he threw on a simple T-shirt and a pair of jeans, grabbed an umbrella, and snuck out of his house as quickly and quietly as possible.
With sneakers slapping the wet pavement, he maneuvered through his blurry surroundings. The raindrop army obscured his path, dimming the street lights that should have acted as guidance for the pedestrians. He splattered moisture all over the bottom of pant legs with each puddle his feet failed to dodge.
Heedlessly, he pressed on.
Finally, after some tribulation, he found his destination—a white building with dark windows complete with a bright neon sign sticking out from the side of the structure that appealed to potential customers from a distance.
Alphaville.
It name struck him as weird instantly at the first sight-it didn't have a cheesy name like its counterparts, though, it seemed oddly fitting for a bland building like this. Why had his senpai chosen this misfit of a love hotel out of all the other ones?
Of course, he could have sought an answer from the other immediately. Yet, his concern turned to another problem. Why had his senpai rejected shelter's shield from the storm?
He almost failed to recognize him in his disastrous state. The other stood openly under the rain, letting it soak his entirety as if he was merely taking a shower.
Akaya hurried over to him. He held the umbrella out to his senpai, defending him while offering himself to the oppressive precipitation instead.
Yanagi turned to him wordlessly. Neither of them tried to talk over the deafening waterfall.
They entered the hotel in silence.
...
Love hotel.
He knew of no such thing until he entered high school. No one talked of such things during the simple days of junior high. Then teenagers enter high school and hit puberty, and video games and pointless mischief no longer dominate as the subject of their attention.
He remembered how his classmate chatted away with him and other boys in the class about how his older brother took his girlfriend to a love hotel. The love hotel where precious privacy had been offered them at a certain price that could not be bought at their homes even if they forsook their entire allowance savings.
At the love hotel, no one knew of their age, their gender, their identity. No one threatened to tell their parents, their teachers, their friends about their tryst. Couples like them simply entered, fed the vending machine at the lobby a few bills, pressed some buttons, received a key, and rode the elevator up to their chosen room. Couples could choose to stay for an allotted time, or for the night—depending on their fancy, or the amount of money they were willing to pay.
What once had been an anecdote secretly exchanged among the boys in his class became his story now. Though, this wasn't necessarily something he would share with anyone, let alone with the average adolescents who obsessed and fantasized about the opposite sex.
The two of them, after some consideration and indecisiveness, resorted to The Saltwater Room—an ocean-themed cerulean room with underwater scenes painted on walls.
The room was well air-conditioned, but it still didn't help much. The thick and dense summer air still managed to seep inside. When he inhaled, it felt as if someone smothered him with a rag.
He took the time to examine his deep blue environment. The colorful two-dimensional fish frozen in the wall mural should have stilled him, washed him with peace. But he felt as if the pit of his stomach became a tiny river. There, a thousand fish struggled to swim upstream.
The anticipation made him feel as if time rewound itself, and stopped at the first time they engaged in love-making. It wasn't their first time. But it was the first time his senpai lover initiated invitation. Usually, he had been the assertive one.
The other emerged from the steamy bathroom a short while later. He wore a yukata matching the room's cold color.
His senpai approached him, who now sat stiffly on the edge of the bed.
He turned hesitantly to face him. Yanagi knelt on the bed, leaning in to attach their lips together.
He placed one hand on the back of the other's head to push him forward, so his tongue could dive into his warm mouth. His other hand became impatient. It slid inside the yukata collar to caress the body underneath-the other's prominent collarbone, his flat chest, his hardening nipples.
Akaya felt his senpai's impatience. His senpai acted more hastily than him today. Before he knew it, the other had already unzipped and pulled down his pants. He watched him sit on his thighs to guide his member to the hidden orifice between his buttocks.
He heard the other let out a shaky breath. The other only succeeded in inserting the tip of his member.
Yet, sexual activity between the sexes differed as a result of the contrasting anatomy of each sex. Intercourse between two men would be slightly more difficult than intercourse between a man and a woman.
"Hold on, senpai." He stopped the other's self-torture. Pushing the other down onto the bed gently, he grabbed the bottle of lubricant conveniently placed on the nightstand. He unscrewed the top, squeezed a generous amount onto his palms and applied it to suit his needs.
Then he slowly entered the other, careful not to repeat the previous discomfort.
He didn't bother freeing his senpai from the disheveled yukata hanging loosely to his figure. It appealed to him as a sight of imperfect perfection.
His hands held the other's thighs apart. Rocking his hips back and forth, he brought his member in and out of his lover repeatedly.
Akaya noticed how Yanagi clung onto the sheets under him, squeezing his eyes shut and engaged in unsuccessful attempts at evening his breaths.
He wondered why his senpai refused to peer at him through his captivating narrow eyes like usual. What kind of fantasies did the other hide behind his eyelids? Who did the other think of at a time like this?
Could it be buchou? Could it be fukubuchou? Could it be his senpai's childhood friend who he still kept in touch with even after all the years they've spent apart?
Thinking, he glared at the sprawled out figure below him, his fury melting into his actions, into his pace.
He lowered himself on top of the other, his mouth hovering next to the other's ear. Lewdness and crudeness came out in jagged hot breaths. It served as the other's reminder. The reminder of who he engaged in this activity with.
His pace increased in intensity almost as if he vented anger. The broken whimpers that managed to leak from his senpai's bitten lips satiated his sadistic tendency.
Soon, they reached pleasure's peak together.
...
After a few more repeated sessions, they took turns using the bathroom to wash the residue off their tired bodies.
Exiting the steam-dense chamber, he caught sight of his senpai standing at the window as still as he had been when he stood under the pouring rain.
He approached the other. Reaching out, he wrapped his arms around his lover's shoulder and embraced him just as the sea embraced them now. He pecked the back of his neck, where he had previously left a small, barely noticeable love mark.
Imitating his senpai, he craned his neck in an attempt to see past the blur of misty rain outside. However, all he could only make out the faint, obscured lights in the distance among the silhouettes and shadows of the structures. The scene outside didn't interest him. Instead, he found bliss staring at their linked figures reflected in the window glass.
"Yanagi-senpai, I wanted to ask you. What made you decide to come to this love hotel?" This love hotel bearing such a strange name, nonetheless.
The voice his senpai spoke in even resembled the deep sea-quiet, magnetic, and full of mystery. "I watched a movie recently. It was set in a fictional city called Alphaville."
He raised an eyebrow. "Is there sex in this Alphaville place?" (1)
"Aa. There is sex in Alphaville. Sex that doesn't need love or irony. Like a prostitute and her client. They enter a love hotel like this one, engage in business, exit and depart in separate ways. Their initial meeting also their final one."
"Sex without love or irony, huh? Wouldn't that make people animals?"
His senpai shook his head. "Not animals, but completely rational beings."
He snorted. "So Alphaville's a place ruled by cold, hard reason, then."
His senpai's reply came out in a barely audible whisper. "If reason dominated this world, then perhaps farewells would not be so difficult to say."
His lover freed himself from his arms.
"Get dressed. Our time is almost up." His senpai told him as he gathered his clothes at the chair beside the bed.
"A-Aa." His warning cut him from their short-lived peaceful moment, and he scrambled to gather his own clothing on the floor.
He let their conversation sit undigested in an inconspicuous corner of his mind.
Akaya didn't think much of his senpai's words. Because he was so caught up with the little time they had leftover to get dressed. Because his tired mind reserved the last of its lucidity thinking up a plan for him to sneak back into the house unnoticed. Because his senpai had typical random moments of sudden epiphanies.
...
Outside, the rain halted to a light misty sprinkle.
He pulled his lover in for a quick goodbye kiss before turning to hurry home.
He never noticed the other watching his retreating figure for a minute longer than usual before heading the opposite direction.
...
Early morning. Nine o'clock sharp.
He woke up in an unfamiliar setting that morning.
No. Not really. His mind registered a moment later. He just wasn't used to the plainness of his room after spending half the night in a deep sea world.
He doesn't remember how he still had the energy to run home. How he staggered into the house, into his room without his waking his parents. Midnight seemed like a dream. And maybe it was.
Rubbing his sore, sleep-deprived eyes, he reached for his cell phone he tossed careless on his nightstand. Akaya checked his call log and spotted an entry at midnight from his senpai.
Their tryst proved to have existed after all.
But that wasn't enough.
Knowing his senpai, the other would already be up at this hour. He tapped the call button and held the phone to an ear.
He waited and waited. But no one ever picked up.
END NOTES:
(1) - Part of Yanagi and Akaya's exchange about Alphaville are quotes taken directly from Murakami's book, After Dark.
The title, "alpha-blocker" is actually a class of medication. :)
Because college is a huge turning point in one's life, this is the usually the time where friends say goodbye and go separate ways. Yanagi is the type of person who becomes withdrawn when he feels he would soon have to part with someone close to protect himself from the harsh impact of departures. That, because he's bad at saying goodbyes, he doesn't let those close to him know that he's parting with them. This is so in his separation with Inui in the anime. This is so here in this story with Akaya. According to him, ""If reason dominated [the] world, then perhaps farewells would not be so difficult to say."