Horitsuba universe: Kurogane/Fai
Takes place when Kurogane first gets hired at the academy.
He had just received his new position at the school, and the chairlady, who he was just a little bit suspicious of, had spent the past hour taking him on a tour of school grounds and was introducing him to all the other teachers and forcing him to exchange contact information with them. So far he had met no one he ever imagined himself being on friendly terms with.
"Don't worry, there is only one more person I want you to meet," she told him with a sly grin as she led him into one of the science labs. Why did his gut suddenly twist as if his body was already telling him this was a person he would not be willing to meet under any other circumstances? Or maybe it was just the feeling of destiny pulling on his insides. Whatever it was, he was just going to blame it on the noxious fumes that clogged the room. "Fai-san, are you in here?" the chairlady asked, peering around the room in search of the elusive individual. Maybe he would be lucky and this one had already gone home for the day.
"Hai, Yuuko-san!" A thin, tall, blonde man wearing a long white coat suddenly appeared in front of them. "I was just doing some after school research."
"There is someone I would like you to meet," she said, indicating Kurogane with her hand. The first thing he really noticed was the startling blue eyes that regarded him with a warm intensity and playfulness he was unaccustomed to seeing. "His name is Kurogane. He's the new phys ed teacher."
"Kurogane, eh?" and the blue eyes twinkled mischievously. "How about Kurotan-sensei? Or Kurorin-sensei?"
"My name is Kurogane," he said threateningly, but the blonde merely giggled in response.
"I knew you two would get along." Kurogane wondered what part of the situation made it seem like they were getting along. She made the two of them exchange contact information including cell phone numbers, and he learned the man's name was Fai D. Flowrite, since Yuuko had inconsiderately forgotten to give him the man's name.
The blonde gave him a lecherous grin as he pocketed the card with Kurogane's number. "My phone will be on vibrate for you," he said in parting before sauntering off to one of the lab tables, presumably to continue whatever research he had been doing.
Kurogane was secretly glad the man had walked away after that because he was unsure how to respond to such a comment from someone he just met. He thought the man may have possibly been flirting with him, but that was impossible as far as he was concerned. People simply did not flirt with him. Or at least other males were not supposed to flirt with him.
"That's enough for today, I believe," Yuuko told him as they stepped outside the room. "I hope you are prepared to start tomorrow."
"Sure," he responded gruffly, but he was hardly paying attention to her. His mind was filled with a light giggle and a knowing blue that simply refused to leave. She gave him some other information she thought he might need such as when she expected to see him every morning and what to do if he suspects a student has fallen in love with him should he find himself unable to return those affections. He only half-listened to everything she said.
She led him back to her office where she gave him some more advice and made him sign some paperwork. There was so much of it, he eventually lost track of everything he was agreeing to, though he had the vague suspicions he had agreed to give her his soul should he fail to provide her with gay porn. His eyebrow twitched as he realized too late what he had just signed; she thanked him and filed all the paperwork with a slight smirk.
She must have kept him in her office longer than he originally thought, because he spotted the blonde scientist meandering across the parking lot as he stepped outside the building. As he made his way to his bike, he watched the other man and wondered what could have engrossed him so completely, his brow furrowed in concentration, blue eyes focused intently as he bit his lower lip. With a small start that caused him to collide with someone's parked car, he realized the man held his cell phone in one hand and the sheet of paper with Kurogane's contact information in the other. The idiot was programming his number into his cell phone. He briefly wondered if he was really setting the number to vibrate.
Ah, it wasn't important anyway, and the man had just placed the phone back into his pocket and was slipping into his car. Kurogane was unsurprised to see that it was blue… and small… and he imagined what it would be like to be inside that car, purely since he didn't have a car of his own, of course. He waited until the man was out of the parking lot before getting onto his bike. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper. The writing on it was large, scribbled, and practically illegible. "Fai D. Flowrite, huh?" The man had drawn a surprisingly decent doodle of a cat in the corner. He crumbled the paper back into a ball and made a move to throw it over his shoulder, but thought better of it and shoved it into his jacket pocket.
He shook his head to clear it before putting his helmet on. He would rest tonight, and he would deal with the blonde the next time he ran into him.
He called Souma shortly after he returned to his apartment to tell her of his new position. As his former teacher, she seemed pleased, especially since most of the instructors had never expected him to go very far because of his temper. He hung up on her after a few minutes of listening to her tease him. He knew he should be grateful to her, and he was; she was the only instructor who had been willing to stick with him through the years, and it was probably her influence that had landed him a position at such a good school. But still, the old hag grated on his nerves sometimes. He popped a dinner in his microwave and wondered what it would be like to know someone who could actually cook. A man could only survive on tv dinners for so long. Real food would be glorious to taste again, but he didn't have any friends who cooked and he was currently not in the market for a significant other.
After taking a warm shower, he collapsed onto his bed. He wanted to look presentable for his first day of teaching so he set his alarm a full hour before Yuuko had requested he be at the school. Yet when he closed his eyes all he could see was blue, and sleep became elusive as his mind kept imagining him grasping onto blonde strands instead. Sleep continued to evade him, tantalizing him with glimpses of blue, light whispers, soft touches, and airy gasps. With a frustrated groan, he thrust his hand into his pants to satisfy himself.
His first day of teaching went as well as he could have hoped. He had succeeded in not embarrassing himself, and he had managed to get most of his students to fear and respect him. He also did not see the blonde scientist the entire day, though he kept expecting him to pop out of nowhere and tease him about something. Yet a week passed and he saw no sign of the blonde though he saw everyone else he had met on that first day.
Eventually, he went to Yuuko's office to ask about the man's whereabouts, because, really, a teacher being gone for an entire week was just too damn suspicious. "Ah, so what you're telling me is you miss him already," she said as soon as he finished his explanation as to why he was there. Why must women always try to find reasons that were not there?
"No. I just want to know where the hell he's been."
She stared at him levelly across her desk as if she didn't believe a word of what he was saying. He stared just as levelly back at her, daring her to try and contradict him. "I can tell you he will be back tomorrow, but I cannot tell you where he has been." She was continuing to challenge him, he could feel it in the atmosphere. How many other new teachers had she stared down in the exact same manner?
"Why? Is it something so terrible that no one can know or it will destroy his life?"
"No. It simply breaks confidentiality." So he had come to her office to be tortured, and he would not even be able to get what he had wanted. He stood to leave, vowing to himself never to go there again unless it was absolutely necessary. "If you want to know, call him yourself. You have his cell phone number."
He grunted; he didn't want her to think she knew what he was about to do, but he noticed her smirk anyway before he stomped out of her office. Damn witch, maybe he would teach her a lesson and not call the idiot after all.
He found a secluded area of campus and double checked the surrounding area for prying students before pulling out his phone. He scrolled to the man's number and simply stared at it for a few minutes, internally debating what he was going to do. If he called him, the blonde might never let him live it down, but he had to learn he couldn't just leave for a week with only telling the witch. Besides, it was his duty to look out for his fellow teachers and make sure they were not in any impending danger. He finally decided to do it, solely for the sake of his duty; at least, that's what he told himself, ignoring the small voice that said he was just a little worried about him.
He was about to give up when the man's voice reached his ears. "Eh, Kuro-sama, is that really you?"
His sigh was caused by exasperation. Really. "That's not the way you answer the phone," he growled.
The other man seemingly ignored Kurogane's complaints. "Were you worried about me? Did you call to make sure I was alright?"
"Of course not!" he snapped, and he was rewarded with the light giggle that had haunted him for the past week. "Why the hell are you gone anyway?"
"Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow!"
"That wasn't the question," he responded, looking around to see if any students had tried to sneak up on him.
"I was in Norway for a business trip. A very unpleasant business trip," he added as an afterthought.
Kurogane grunted, sensing the man was not going to give him any more information about his mysterious trip. He supposed it was only fair since they had only known each other for about a week and had only spoken to each other twice. "I'll see you tomorrow, Kuro-chan!"
The man hung up before he had the chance to respond to anything. "Was that Fai-sensei?" a distinctively young, female voice said from in front of him. He nearly dropped his phone and glared at the student who had dared to sneak up on him. She had long dark hair, violet eyes, and looked vaguely familiar to him though he couldn't quite place her. "Is he coming back soon? He's my best friend's favorite sensei, and she's worried she'll fail chemistry if he doesn't return soon."
"I wasn't talking to that idiot," he said sullenly as he slipped his phone into his pocket. He knew he had seen the girl somewhere before.
"Oh, I could have sworn I heard his voice." She rummaged around in her bag and pulled out a bento box which she handed to him. "Here. Souma said you couldn't cook, so she asked me to bring this for you to help you eat healthy."
"Souma?" Some random middle school girl knew Souma?
"You know Fai-sensei is a fantastic cook, right?"
"I don't care," he snarled as he snatched the bento box from her. He would rather starve before asking favors from anyone else, especially people he just met. Besides, there was always the chance Souma would continue to feed him through mysterious girls, and if all else failed, the school had a cafeteria he could eat at.
He didn't see much of the blonde the day he returned. Whenever he did manage to catch sight of him between classes, he was generally engaged in conversation with one or more of his students. His female students that he was being far too friendly with where Kurogane was concerned. He usually turned away as soon as he saw the skirts, so he didn't notice when the girl who had given him the lunch was one of two students talking to the blonde at one point and didn't see her smile when she caught sight of Kurogane and pull on Fai's arm to whisper something in his ear which caused him to grin in response. If he would have noticed, he probably would have called in sick the next day.
"Kuro-rin!" an extremely cheerful voice greeted him the next morning before he had even stepped three feet away from his bike. The blonde just appeared before him holding a bento box before him as if it were an offering. "Tomoyo-chan told me you can't cook and haven't been eating healthily. Nice bike." Since Kurogane had made no move to take the box from him, Fai busied himself with physically manipulating the ninja's hands into the proper position.
"Tomoyo?" He had never met any Tomoyo's before; besides, he figured his people were the least likely people for the blonde to know.
"She's one of the middle school students," and he dropped the bento box into Kurogane's waiting hands. "I have to go now, but if you want to eat lunch together just give me a call, okay? And if there's anything special you want to eat for lunch let me know!" He grunted, planning on throwing the lunch away as soon as the man was out of sight. The man giggled before walking off.
Kurogane took at second look at the box he was holding. On second thought, it would be a shame to let a perfectly good lunch go to waste. He would eat it just this once, and then tell the man never to make him lunch again.
For the next week and a half, they followed the same pattern with the blonde giving him lunch first thing in the morning, but then he would barely see him for the rest of the day. The science teacher would smile broadly, wave, and call to Kuro-tan-sensei every time he caught sight of him, but other than the daily delivery of lunch, they never got to speak to each other, not that Kurogane liked to talk to people or would even know what to talk about with an idiot anyway.
Still, the blonde's laugh and blue eyes followed him home every night, and he was getting increasingly frustrated and began taking it out on his students. The problem got so bad that Yuuko had to take him into her office to talk about his problem. She suggested he just get it over with and allow whoever it was to just have their way with him, reminding him of his contract to provide her with gay porn.. Her suggestion did nothing to cool his temper, and he ended up storming out of her office.
A week later he was seriously considering killing something and was stalking around the school after hours to cool down before he got on the road. Eventually, he found himself in the science wing, outside the lab where he had first met Fai. On impulse, he peered in through the slightly open door. He was there, sure enough, bent over some chemicals towards the back of the room. He almost pushed open the door, but settled instead on pulling out his cell phone, dialing the man's number.
At first he thought maybe the man's cell phone was off since he couldn't hear anything, but then the man reached into his pocket, and pulled out his phone. Without looking at the display, he lifted the phone to his ear. "Kuro-myu?"
Kurogane shut his phone and put it back into his pocket. He figured if he really wanted to talk to the man he could just go in the room. But he settled instead on simply watching him as the man went back to his work, looking up at the ceiling very frequently. He broke one of his test tubes at one point and jumped back with a small curse. "I can't concentrate when I'm thinking about him," he whimpered as he walked away from the counter and out of Kurogane's line of sight.
He heard the man gasp and collapse against something, causing him to take a step closer to the door. Should he go in to make sure the man was okay? Definite panting now and the sounds of flesh against flesh. "Ku…ro…gane…" and he could almost imagine the man's writhing body beneath his panting his name in the same manner.
So now he knew what the man was up to, and it was difficult not to go in there and join him or even to take care of himself right in the hallway. Somehow he found the strength to walk away, and he smirked in the knowledge that the blonde was affected just as much as he was, if not more since he was the one getting off on school grounds. Kurogane at least made it back to his apartment. Granted, he collapsed back against the door as soon as it was closed, but he still made it to the privacy of his own home. He shut his eyes, and all he could see was blue.
It was another week before Kurogane stayed on campus after hours again, and for about an hour, he just wandered the grounds, making sure most people had gone home for the day or those that lived there were staying away from the academic buildings. Once he was fairly sure the odds of getting caught were slim, he strode purposively to the room where the idiot normally did his research at.
Only to discover he was not there.
Kurogane made a mental note that the next time he wanted a rendezvous with someone to inform the other individual of his plans.
With a frustrated grunt, he turned to leave. "Kuro-sama, what are you doing here?" a very surprised looking blonde standing on the interior side of the partially closed doorway asked. "I forgot some essential paperwork here, so I came back to get it." He crossed the room, casting the occasional glance at Kurogane, making him feel as if the blonde was wary of his presence and unsure of what to make of him being there. Granted, he was out of his department and on school grounds when almost everyone else had gone.
He stepped behind the thin man and placed one hand firmly on the table on either side of him, standing as close as he possibly could without their bodies actually touching. "I think you know damn well why I'm here," he growled in the other man's ear, unruly, silken blonde locks brushing his face.
The blonde took him completely by surprise by flipping around and placing a hand on his chest. "I lied. I didn't forget anything." The hand slid slowly up his chest until it was cupping his cheek. "I was waiting for you, but then I had to take a quick bathroom break."
A warm mouth pressed urgently against his, tongue gliding over his upper lip. "What made you think I would come here," he challenged as soon as the man pulled away.
"Because I saw you here the other day." The man's warm breath caressed his neck, making him shiver, and Fai was rubbing against his body in a way that left no doubt in Kurogane's mind as to what he wanted. "I have to admit, I've been in lust with you ever since I met you." He turned around, pressing back against him, pulling one of his hands off the table and guiding it into his pants. "Wondering what it would be like for you to fuck me, right here in this room."
Kurogane growled and bit the other man's ear, unable to resist temptation when it was right in front of him and rubbing against him in such an arousing manner. He removed his hand, eliciting a small whimper from the blonde, and pulled the long white coat off him. The man pressed back against him as soon as the coat crumbled to the floor. Kurogane wasted no time in undoing the man's pants. He grabbed the blonde's hips and pressed urgently against him, causing the smaller man to brace himself against the table, bent over it slightly in just the perfect position. Kurogane struggled to keep his lust in check for a few more moments. "Hey, do you have something?" he asked, nuzzling against the blonde hair.
"In my coat pocket," the man panted back. "There's a condom in there as well."
"Do you do this often?" he asked disdainfully as he rummaged around in the white coat. He found both and moved back to a position where he could nuzzle the blonde locks some more.
"No, I," he gasped as he struggled to adjust to Kurogane's fingers, "I was just really hoping you would take pity on me." The man whimpered quite loudly when he heard Kurogane unzipping his pants. "Please," he gasped.
"You seem a bit too eager," Kurogane accused as he gripped the man's wiry hips. He could have sworn he saw the man smirk over his shoulder at him, but in the next instant he was inside, and the blonde was reduced to bracing himself against the table. Kurogane wasn't about to hold anything back, especially since he had been tempted for so long. He growled and bit Fai's ear as he thrust into him ruthlessly, watching as the man tried to brace himself with both thin hands, long fingers attempting to find purchase on the smooth surface.
He hissed as Kurogane slid his hand from his hip to his straining arousal. "Ku…ro…chan."
"Don't call me that," he growled, and he drove harder into the man just to remind him who was in control of things.
Fai collapsed first, losing the tentative grip he had on the table, hands sliding across it. Kurogane shifted his grip to around the man's waist, supporting the thin frame as he finished.
He managed to catch himself with one hand on the edge f the table, keeping his other arm wrapped tightly around the blonde. He buried his face in the man's hair, trying to catch his breath as the scientist reached back to gently stroke the side of his face.
"I wasn't expecting Kuro-sama to be so enthusiastic," he said shakily.
"Do you have a problem with that?" he asked, leaning into the soft touch. It wasn't often he got to be pampered.
"I like your enthusiasm," Fai said, and he stepped away to make a move to retrieve his clothes, but he stumbled against the table as he stood back up. "Though I think next time we should do this on the floor." He managed to put his clothes back on and grinned at Kurogane. "So, same time next week?" Kurogane simply glared at him as he fastened his pants again. He had absolutely no intention of making plans of doing things with the man on a regularly scheduled basis, no matter how much he might enjoy them. "No?" Was that just the faintest expression of hurt that crossed those blue eyes? "Well, call me again whenever you're ready to go. Remember, my cell phone's on vibrate for you," he called as he strolled from the room, waving over his shoulder, other hand lounging in his pocket.
Arms folded across his chest, Kurogane sighed and looked out the window. The obnoxiously blue sky smiled back at him, and somehow Kurogane knew the color would never by the same for him again.