A/N: Before you say anything, yes, I am alive. And I'm back! (I have more details on my A03 if you're interested in catching up on my personal details.) Apologies for such a long absence!
Now that I'm ready to go and continue working on my timeline for Ouran, There's not much to know about this story, aside from the fact that this could be considered a follow-up on 'arc(h)' (remember how Hikaru said he wanted a ring for Kaoru? You gotta love that continuity of mine.) They're third years in college and 21 years old.
Happy New Year's, and Enjoy! Hopefully this gives you a little something to do if you're stuck by yourself tonight.
Kaoru thinks there is nothing quite like waking up on the Eve of a New Year with a good book and fresh tea to sip on. Listening to silence. To peace.
When's the last time he had this? He can't remember. It's been such a long year - there's been good news, bad news, news-as-usual. Long semesters, and long hours of homework. Business management. Money management. Life management.
And somewhere between it all, there had been few breaks.
Now, though. He can't even dwell on how at ease he finds himself, how it manages to creep into sleepy bones and rejuvenates him into awareness.
It's nice, so much so that he hears the creak of the door doesn't even move, much less say 'hello'. Why, for seconds - just a few - he almost forgets whose voice it is that shakes away the quiet and stirs up his heartbeat.
"I'm hooome!" Pause. Footsteps approach the open bedroom door. "Kaor - hey, are you alright?"
Kaoru glances up from his Kindle, a slight smile spreading. He'd miss the silence, but, with Hikaru as its replacement, he can't say he minds one bit.
"Fine, why? I'm just reading."
"You look like you were off in space."
"Was I?"
The elder of the two clicks his tongue and makes his way into the bedroom, taking a seat at Kaoru's feet.
"You don't even know if you've spaced out or not."
Silence. Then -
"I guess I was just thinking." He closes the case around the e-book. "We've been pretty busy this year, you know?"
"Ugh! Tell me about it! This semester was ridiculous, I don't think I've ever had a more difficult professor in my life! I mean, she made me re-do my big project because the proportions of my target group were 'off.' Who does that?"
He's convinced Hikaru will go on forever, spewing out his agitations from the previous year. He doesn't, though. After a brief pause, he rests his chin atop Kaoru's knee; his fingers do a little 'walk' across the younger twin's hand, then brush over the diamond-encrusted promise ring.
"I'm glad we get a break, though."
"Me too."
Kaoru knows the look, the one where those honey-tinted irises look hazed over as his gaze roams, where his lips quirk up into the faintest of smirks.
Hikaru's attention-grabbing techniques have evolved as they've aged, but they manage to work every time.
So he leans in. Both, lean in, mouths pressing together for what starts as a single, soft kiss. It's not long before it becomes garden variety - long kisses, short kisses, kisses with one of them murmuring against the other, and kisses here they are frantic in parting their lips so tongues can tangle up.
"You know..." The elder twin sighs out, hands making work of Kaoru's cardigan. "I really like those glasses."
"What, these? They're just reading glasses." He can't help but laugh. Of all the times to bring it up -
"Mmhm." The cardigan is tossed off, and nimble hands dart under his shirt to tease a nipple. "They make you look older than you really are."
"Rude." He sighs it out. Takes a deep breath. Hikaru is barely doing anything, but he's already welcoming the familiar sensations that make the coil tighten. "You're the one who picked them out. If anything, I look like a hipster."
"I know. Isn't my fashion sense amazing?"
Kaoru wants to say that thick-rimmed, square glasses are not stylish so much as out-of-date, brought back only by 'fringe' cultures of fashion if it meant poking fun at his brother - instead, however, he forces himself to swallow hard when a hot mouth finds itself covering the same spot where Hikaru's fingers were putting in work.
"I - fuck..." He grips tousled ashen locks, tugging when his tongue rubs against the nub. When did his shirt get pushed up?
"Swearing already?" A chuckle. "I just got started, Kaoru..."
"You're mean." He huffs. Pouts a bit, too. Hikaru kisses him on the lips in response, working fast to unbutton his jeans.
"But you know I love you."
Those words. Always those words, ones that make his heart sing and his head float.
"I love you, too."
"No, I mean, I love you more than anything." He gets a firm grip around the base of his younger brother's cock, pumping slow.
"I...nii-san..." Familiar words slip with ease from Kaoru's throat as the strokes stir the fire, legs spreading. Already, he feels his cheeks heating up, and a shaky hand attempts to return the gesture.
Hikaru doesn't let him, though, not with the way he is hissing low in his ear.
"Say that again."
Long, slow strokes. Thumb, sweping over his swelling head. Kisses down his neck, up around his ear -
"Nii-san..."
Kaoru is rewarded with a faster pace, and soft kisses. For such a possessive nature, Hikaru is unyieldngly gentle in touch.
"Nii-san, shit..." He bites down on his bottom lip, fumbling around with the elder's belt until he gets it unhooked. One hand starts to reach down, but in the haze of the moment, in the compression of the coil, he forgets what he wanted to do -
But it stops. Some of the pressure is released when Hikaru lets go, and he can't help but let out a hushed groan.
"Hold on."
What Kaoru thinks should be seconds seems like forever; but, once his pants come off, and slick fingers push inside of him, he's reminded why the wait is worth it.
"Good?"
Of course it is, and he says so by letting a moan fight its way from his throat, uncovered. All the while, he manages to get a grip on his brother's cock, pumping in tandem.
A hiss. Some moans. Tangled-up sighs between kisses. There's a single moment in which he remembers the first time they did this, sixteen and curious. Why, Kaoru even goes back in time, remembers the exact way they were tangled up in Karuizawa under the guise of a not-quite-but-maybe-sort-of-relationship.
His free hand clenches the sheets, ring brought back into the realm of his consciousness. He couldn't fathom them having been right here, not this young, not this fast, and yet -
"Kaoru."
"Ye - oh God..." Hikaru rips his thoughts from him with a single twist of his hand, and the addition of a third digit. Fullness overwhelms him, and, wanting more, he rocks his hips down into the digits.
"What are you thinking about?" Hikaru thrusts them in a little harder. Kaoru responds by pumping faster, and they both groan.
"It's si-sill y- hnh..."
"I be - bet it's not, fuck..."
"Quit talking and kiss me..."
And he does just that, mouths pressed hard against each other. He'll find out later, Kaoru thinks. Right now, he didn't much feel like talking, not when he wanted more.
"Hikaru..."
"I want to feel you against me."
The clothes go, tossed off to the floor because Kaoru wants to feel him just as much; but, time crawls as he waits. Listens to the sound of his lover pumping something slick onto his cock, to the way the bedsprings whine beneath them. Anticipation, anticipation -
"Here. Sit up?"
He complies, adjusting himself to lean back against the headboard. One hand resting on the nape of Hikaru's neck, the other, his back. More kisses between them, more murmurs while legs get spread and the familiar sensation of his swollen head pushing inside.
They've been at this for so long that it's comforting now. This feeling, being full, and naked and pressed together where their two bodies can dance like one.
"I want to hear you."
Thrust.
"God, Hika - "
Again.
"Louder…"
Harder.
"Hi - oh fuckkk..."
And harder, harder, until skin is slapping skin hips rubbing together and now all Kaoru wants is more more more -
"Gettingclose..."
"Come for me..."
Somewhere between the headboard shaking and murmurs of desparation leaving Hikaru's throat, Kaoru feels the coil snap; he is biting down on his bottom lip, leg arched up high while his body shudders and he spills over his stomach. Satisfied.
And so is his brother, who whispers his name into the hollow of his neck as he reaches his own orgasm.
Soon, they settle to the bottom, both slumping into the bed in a mess of tangled limbs and sloppy kisses.
Silence visits again, but doesn't stay for long.
"What were you thinking about? Earlier..."
"Hm?" It takes Kaoru a minute to retrieve the memory, mind still trying to reel itself back to conciousness. "Oh. I just thought about our first time for a moment...felt kinda similar."
"It did, didn't it?" Hikaru craks a grin. "You know, minus the part where I had to try and find the lube with a hard-on."
A snort.
"For what it's worth, I thought you were graceful."
"Then I must be elegant this time around."
"Must be."
They laugh. Get closer, kiss a couple of times.
"What should we do today, Hikaru? It's New Year's Eve..."
"I bet there's lots of parties. We could go, if you're up for it."
"Maybe. Or we can see if everybody is in town. Meet up again for the Holidays."
"I'd like that."
But they don't move, not yet. In fact, what they say might even be empty words - Hikaru is busy tracing outlines of nerves along Kaoru's spine, and Kaoru follows the dips and turns in Hikaru's collarbones.
Kaoru is wrong about earlier. Reading and tea – they're pleasant, but this? This is a dance he wants to stay in.
