Title: Motive and Opportunity
Author: c2t2
Summary: Mugen tries to lie to himself, then an irresistible opportunity presents itself and he ruins everything.
Pairing: explicit Fuu/Mugen, subtle Fuu/Jin
Note: Not a fluffy Mugen. Incidentally, there's lots of foul language. (I'm considering adding a second chapter to sort out everyone's mistakes into a happy(er) ending.)
Update: Second chapter is uploaded.
Part One
They had spent all Fuu's traveling money on prostitutes.
"Mou…" she was furious, "I don't know why you guys keep wasting all our money buying women when I'm right here."
They'd had this conversation so many times, they were conducting it from memory.
"Who'd want your company, you pushy bitch." Mugen didn't even bother looking at her or breaking his bored monotone. He lay sprawled gracelessly under the nearest tree, gazing blankly at the leaves above him. Jin knelt in perfect stillness nearby, his eyes closed and face impassive, betrayed only by the growling of his empty stomach.
Fuu and Mugen's stomachs growled in reply.
"How dare you! I'll have you know with my youth and beauty I am miles ahead of any of the women you chase after."
"You? A nagging, flat-chested glutton with zero sex appeal?"
"I have tons of sex appeal! It's not my fault you're too tasteless to appreciate it!"
"Is that so?" Mugen rolled to his feet in a single motion.
There was a pause, and Fuu was suddenly paying attention. What was going on? This wasn't part of their ritual. Mugen had broken the script!
He stalked over to her, shoulders slouched and face some combination of anger and… what?
"Kyaa!" Fuu shrieked as her back slammed against rough tree bark. Mugen held her wrists pinned high above her head - his single hand's grip an unbreakable vice. His body was angled away from her, presenting no target to kick.
"Sex appeal? I should trade the whores for you? I'm sick of that mouth of yours," he growled, his dark eyes burning hot, "Do you know what you're saying? You'll give me what they give, you'll do for me everything that they do?" Fuu gulped; Mugen's eyes fixed on the movement of her throat. "Let's see if you're right," his free hand wrapped the end of her obi and yanked it, no gentleness in his touch.
Time seemed to slow down for Fuu. Panic, disbelief, adrenaline. Her senses sharpened; colors grew brighter, and every scent became more pronounced – Pine sap, upturned earth, sword polish, Mugen's skin, the soap she'd used to wash their clothes. Her heart was pounding so hard she was certain it would burst and she would die right here. She couldn't seem to get enough breath. She could feel each millimeter of slack in her obi, the incremental loosening of her kimono.
Her mind flashed back to her last day at the teahouse. Her hands were being held immobile, the Daikan's son was about to cut off her fingers. She panicked now as she had then, and just as she'd done that time, she stammered out a plea to Mugen.
"St-st-stop!"
Before the word even finished leaving her lips, his grip had vanished. Fuu's hands dropped to clutch her kimono, to keep it from falling open, and she was left staring at the back of Mugen's red jacket as he walked away.
"That's why you're not enough; and you never will be, so you'd better shut your trap from now on. Come on, Jin, let's go find something to eat."
There was a small clack. Jin's swords settled from ready position to rest at his side as he fell into step beside Mugen.
Fuu's knees felt weak, and she slid down the tree until her bottom rested on the ground.
Her mind flatly refused to process what had just happened, and instead fixated on a seemingly insignificant detail.
Jin had needed to re-settle his swords.
…He'd been about to draw?
…Oh!
…Perhaps if Mugen hadn't stopped…
And her thoughts had already circled back to that.
She could still feel the phantom touch of his hand gripping her wrists.
Fuu kept her mind cataloguing minor details as she busied her hands re-wrapping her obi.
She felt hot.
That was strange. When she nearly lost her fingers in the teahouse, her skin had been freezing, her sweat ice cold.
Also, back then, her vision had faded and grayed, not sharpened and brightened.
Fuu was still sitting in the dirt. She hoped she hadn't gotten any smudges on her kimono.
…What was she supposed to do now?
o0o0o0o0o
(Meanwhile…)
Mugen and Jin walked in silence for a few minutes.
"If you have something to say, then say it," Mugen goaded the glowering samurai.
"You're despicable," Jin's voice was cold.
"I know that," the mercenary chuckled, a wicked smile playing over his lips.
That had been fun. Even better, that had been enlightening.
Mugen knew terror; intimately. He had been born into a world of fear and pain. He'd killed and tortured and mutilated so many that he'd lost count before he was ten years old. Violence was his first and oldest lover.
Mugen knew what terror looked like. So he knew Fuu had been feeling a lot more than fear; though even she probably didn't realize it, as naive as she was.
Fear whitened the face and constricted the pupils. Fuu's skin had reddened and her pupils had blown wide.
That wasn't fear.
"Vile barbarian," Jin muttered beside him.
"Prissy snob," he automatically shot back.
They all had their routines.
Part 2
"Where's Jin?"
"Town," Mugen grunted.
"Again? Even with all those corpses that were staked out on the road? Mou, you two are the worst bodyguards ever!" Fuu stomped in frustration. These guys really were the worst.
"I might stay out here with you."
Fuu stopped to stare, "What? Why? What's gotten into you?"
"I'll stay. In return, you're going to give me something."
"Okay," Fuu said, then reconsidered. "Maybe. What is it?"
"One kiss."
"… WHAT?" Fuu pointed at him accusingly, "What are you talking about? Why would you ask that? What sick game are you trying to play?"
"You get into trouble when we both leave. You saw those bodies on the road. If I stay and put up with your bullshit instead of going out and getting some real tail, a kiss is more than fair."
"I know you, you perv. You wouldn't be satisfied with that! Why would I believe you'd stop there?"
"Bitch, if I wanted to rape you, I'd have done it a long time ago."
"You… you monster!"
"Sticks and stones," Mugen smirked, "Are you telling me to follow Jin to the red light district?"
"N-no," Fuu hated how weak she sounded. She tried to be independent and brave. At least, she broke herself out of situations almost as often as they had to save her. …She even saved them sometimes! But the sight of the flayed bodies on the roadside was fresh in her mind. "You're just trying to trick me or something; you want to humiliate me and laugh!"
"I don't know who the fuck you've been traveling with, but when did I do shit like that?"
Well, he had a point. Mugen was nothing if not direct. She'd never seen him be deceptive about… anything. Sure, he'd take advantage if an opportunity arose, but planning was not his strong point.
"Okay, but if you're trying to prank me or something I will never forgive you."
Mugen's sneer softened slightly, "Fine, now tie this around your eyes," he held out a length of cloth Fuu had been saving for (inevitable) bandages.
"That's even more suspicious, you know!"
"I know what I'm doing, okay? It'll be better for you this way. Really."
"…Just a kiss, that's all?"
"Knee me in the nuts if I try anything else."
Fuu took the length of fabric and fidgeted with it between her fingers, "Why are you doing this?"
"Telling you my motives isn't part of the deal."
"So why am I considering this again?"
"If you want, you can take your chances and end up like those bodies back on the road."
"Ah…" Fuu paused to consider.
"Tie the damn cloth over your eyes."
"If this is a prank, I'm going to think of the worst possible thing and do it to you twice," Fuu said while tying the length of cloth behind her head.
Was she really doing this?
It seemed so.
Fuu wasn't sure whether it was the thought of those mutilated bodies on the road, her curiosity about what Mugen was up to, pure boredom, the anticipation of possibly getting her first kiss, or some other reason entirely. Either way, the blindfold was over her eyes and she stood stiffly, her hands balled into fists at her side, waiting for Mugen to rain some unknown humiliation down on her.
"Soften your mouth." His voice sounded much closer than it had been. She could feel his breath fanning over her face. Her nerves jangled anxiously when she noticed she didn't mind it. She usually hated other people's breath.
A funny tickle settled into her stomach.
"Hey, are you listening to me?"
Oh, right. Fuu's mouth was pressed into a hard line. Her whole body was rigid.
This was scary.
Nevertheless, she made the effort to relax her lips, felt Mugen's satisfied exhale on her skin.
He smelled like the sea.
It was not a beautiful smell, but it wasn't unpleasant, either. …Which sort of described a lot of things about Mugen.
Her fists clenched even tighter when she felt fingers on her jaw, tilting up her chin. She couldn't help tensing up again when she felt the lightest brush over her lips. Warm, soft, and slightly damp, the touch brushed over her a second time before Fuu remembered again to relax her mouth.
The next brush against her softened lips sent a shock through her body. She'd never understood the metaphor that somebody's blood 'sang', but there was a physical zing that she couldn't write off as an overactive imagination. The blindfold made her concentrate all her other senses, making every sensation stronger.
This time Mugen didn't merely brush past, but covered her mouth and moved to set his lips more firmly against hers with a low hum. He pressed their mouths together a second time, a third, then his hand on her jaw slid to the back of her neck, cradling her head at the angle he wanted.
Fuu's heart was racing. She tentatively started pushing back, trying to return the pressure without embarrassing herself by doing something wrong. She could still feel his breath steady against her face, which was unfair, since her breathing was getting erratic.
So far, he had kept his word, and the only way he was touching her was his hand behind her neck and the kiss itself.
Just as she thought she was getting the hang of it, Mugen changed what he was doing. Fuu felt a brief tug of teeth, a moment's sensation of his tongue running across her lower lip.
She went still, confused again.
Mugen pulled back. Fuu missed the pressure more than she had thought possible. "Open your mouth," his breath fanned across her face.
Fuu simply obeyed. At this point all her stubbornness was dedicated to keeping her hands at her sides. The urge to reach out and touch was so physical and immediate she would have disbelieved hearing the story from someone else.
His tongue ran over the inner edge of her bottom lip, getting her accustomed to the sensation before delving inside past her teeth, twining their tongues together in a dance she didn't know the steps to. She had no choice but to let him lead.
Suddenly, the heat and sensation was gone, leaving an unfulfilled emptiness in her racing heart and panting breath.
"Good enough," she heard Mugen's voice fading, as she sensed him walking away from her. "I'm gonna nap."
Fuu tore off the blindfold, ready to yell at him for… something, and flinched when the suddenly blinding afternoon light hit her eyes. By the time she could focus again, Mugen had sprawled out under a tree as usual and was snoring away, apparently dead to the world.
Fuu still didn't know why she wanted to scream at him, but she KNEW she would be unable to look him in the eye without turning a bright tomato red. He'd been right to use the blindfold. If she could see, she would have lost her nerve before he got anywhere near her, and she definitely wouldn't have been able to focus on what she could feel…
She sat down, openly pouting, still not sure why her emotions were so off balance.
Momo emerged from inside her kimono to chitter angrily at her.
o0o0o0o0o
(Meanwhile…)
Mugen strode away, smirking as he heard Fuu's enraged huff at his abrupt departure and her silent, virginal hysterics while he sprawled under the tree feigning sleep.
That was fun. He could see now why bitches played these games with men.
Always leave 'em wanting more…
He'd never been patient, but toying with Fuu was its own reward.
o0o0o0o0o
(Later)
By the time Jin came back, Fuu had time to feel regret.
She was glad enough that Mugen had stayed with her. Hours earlier he had killed the feral children and hopefully rid the world of their weird blood-sacrifice religion. Actually, pretty much anyone who wasn't Mugen would have lowered their guard, or at least been hesitant to slaughter children.
So it was a good thing he was there.
But watching his face light up as he carved through the small bodies drove home just how bad of an idea it had been to kiss him.
She'd been right about being unable to look him in the face without a magnificent blush, so she just started looking sort of past him when she addressed him to avoid alerting Jin that anything had happened.
That night, as she tended the fire, all the thrill of her first kiss had faded, and she was left with nothing but regret.
If she was honest with herself…
She wished it had been Jin.
Jin was handsome, even beautiful. His body was built like a sculpture, his movements graceful, his hair long and elegant. More importantly, he was refined and disciplined, and she sometimes caught glimpses of a hidden core of goodness.
She trusted him.
He was everything Mugen was not.
Mugen always gave the aura of a predator. His hair was a wild shock sticking up in all directions, his face was never clean shaven, his body all corded muscle and bone. His movements were wild and unpredictable. He had zero sense of decency, a hard core of cruelty that he never bothered to hide.
If Jin was a carved statue, Mugen was a scarred and twisted oak.
Fuu guessed that Jin was even the better fighter.
Yet it was not Jin that Fuu thought of when she touched her lips at night, her body yearning for something she had only ever heard about.
Part 3
A student of Jin's old dojo showed up to avenge their master, and they were separated in the chaos as the town burned around them. Momo had run off at the first sign of smoke, leaving Fuu's breast feeling empty.
Fuu choked on hot ash as Mugen pulled her through the smoldering forest, seemingly unaffected by the searing heat. When they reached the shore, he pulled her over to a small fishing boat and used his sword to cut the rope tying it to the dock. Fuu didn't even have the breath to protest the theft as Mugen rowed away with calm but powerful strokes.
Eventually, they reached the far shore and Mugen declared they were out of danger. Fuu stripped off her outer kimono and waded back into the water to try and save it from the ash and soot that had worked into the fabric. She hadn't noticed the time passing until she was finished and realized that it was getting hard to see.
Thank goodness Mugen had started their campfire without her. She carefully hung her kimono on nearby tree branches and settled dejectedly down to a foodless night.
At least they had eaten lunch.
She wallowed in misery until something blocked the firelight.
Fuu looked up to see Mugen crouching in front of her.
"Let's have some fun," he said, teeth flashing white in the gloom.
o0o0o0o
"Jin won't try to find us until morning."
No matter how much she insisted that he couldn't possibly know that, Mugen didn't seem to be getting bored of the argument. It was time to change tactics.
"I plan to be a virgin bride!"
"That's… stupid," he ignored the glare she shot him, "Are you really that old fashioned? With the kind of scrapes you keep getting into, you're going to lose it to some rapist or brothel client anyway."
"That's your fault! You're supposed to be my bodyguard and you keep ditching me!"
"Why in the hell would I stay?" he snorted.
"You promised!"
"You're such a child," Fuu nearly leapt out of her skin when she felt his hand on her ankle, "Go ahead and stop me," she automatically swung her hand to strike him, which he caught with pathetic ease. "Tell me to stop," His hand slid up her calf, leaving a tingling trail. "Cry uncle. Beg for mercy. You know I will; just say the word."
Weirdly, having such an easy way out made her hesitate. But that shouldn't matter. She opened her mouth to imperiously say 'unhand me', but what came out of her mouth was "There are so many men who won't marry a used woman!"
"You plan to marry a jackass like that?"
"I…" it was getting hard to think. His hand was above her knee, now, under her yukata. Her prior experience with this kind of thing – admittedly never consensual – was her skin crawling from clammy, wiggling fingers, but for whatever reason, Mugen's hands were warm and strong, the pace up her leg had halted high on her thigh. "Maybe?"
"You can always lie to him."
That… was such a bad idea.
Fuu had always been weak to hunger, and this feeling was so similar to hunger that she had little defense against it.
"Tell me you don't want this, and I'll leave you alone," Mugen wasn't giving up.
She wasn't completely ignorant, and knew what was behind the tingling heat in her thighs, the other embarrassing things happening in her body... What upset her most was that she wanted him of all people. Rude, cruel, wild… and when it came to appearance, only a few kinds of light could make Mugen handsome.
Although, the firelight was doing an admirable job of it.
She was leaning back against her nest of blankets. He hovered over her, the hand up her yukata slid down behind her knee and pulled, surprisingly gently, until she was flat on her back.
Fuu didn't panic until he tugged her obi loose.
"Wait! Stop! Don't!" her heart, which had been speeding up this whole time, had reached some critical point that turned excitement into terror.
The hand on her obi was gone instantly. The body leaning over her moved to the side, leaving her a clear way to escape. But he didn't move away entirely.
Couldn't move away entirely.
Fuu was gripping his sleeve.
She didn't remember doing that.
They stayed that way for almost a full minute. Then he seemed to conclude she'd changed her mind and leaned over her again. Fuu tensed up, waiting for the hand to come back. Her heartbeat, which had started to even out, sped back up.
But he didn't touch her. Instead, he kissed her.
Not long ago, Fuu would have guessed that kissing someone who wasn't clean-shaven would be scratchy and gross, but the few scruffy hairs on his chin were so soft she could barely feel them. The deep shadow cast by the fire meant she could barely see him, which helped for some reason. And when the hand came back to her obi, she didn't object.
The obi pulled loose, but Mugen didn't throw open her yukata like she expected. Instead, he trailed lips across her jaw and down her neck. The simple sensation of a soft kiss on her neck was sending frighteningly powerful shocks through her body, and Mugen paused, not seeming in any rush to go further.
"You can touch me too, you know." The unexpected voice seemed loud against her skin.
He sounded amused.
Touch him? Her hands had been held stiffly at her sides this whole time. "Touch" was such a vague suggestion that she didn't even know how to start.
"Really, go ahead," his voice had fallen to a whisper. "My skin, hair, wherever you want. This body of mine is yours too, during all this."
She hadn't considered his hair.
As she sat up, her loosened yukata fell open around her shoulders. When his lips went to the newly exposed skin, her hands rose so she could wind her fingers through his wild hair.
It was so much softer than it looked.
She'd never felt anything like it. She twirled the springy strands around her fingers and gripped. Mugen's breath huffed out over her bared shoulder when he felt the tugs on his scalp.
It felt surprisingly powerful to cause this kind of reaction, but she didn't feel like stopping there.
When her hands moved to the back of his neck, Mugen sat up, breaking the contact and giving Fuu a moment of panic that she had done something wrong. But he used the extra space to shrug out of his jacket and pull the shirt over his head, swinging them behind her to add to the nest of bedding before using the bulk of his body to press her back into the fabric.
Her yukata had fallen down so far it was barely covering her breasts. Between that and the way he was semi-pinning her to the ground, Fuu felt a real stab of fear, but instead of going for her breasts, he kissed her again and she forgot to panic.
She was learning the steps to this dance - lips, teeth, and tongue. This time, she didn't hold back from touching him, and ran her hands up his arms.
She knew he was strong. Obviously. One of the strongest people she had ever known. But knowing and actually feeling it under her hands were completely different things.
The waning firelight softened the hard lines of his body, making him look attractive, even handsome. She couldn't see the gaps between his ribs, a relic of a life of starvation; nor the too hard and corded muscle in his shoulders and arms built by years of swinging a sword.
But she could still feel that strength under her fingertips.
Fuu had no idea skin could feel like this. She thought it would be like washing herself when she was bathing, but the feel of Mugen's skin was so different, so much better, that she finally understood the cliché about silk over steel. The heat pouring off him was the perfect temperature, his skin was soft over a body that was battle-hardened while still having just the right amount of give to it. Her fingertips pressed into the addicting feel of his body's breath and pulse, overlaid by something electric that she could only describe as power.
She wanted to grip onto him and absorb that life and vitality through the palms of her hands. He even smelled like strength. Somehow.
Fuu wiggled completely out of her yukata and threw her arms around Mugen's shoulders, hanging on as he arranged their bodies in a way he knew how to and she did not.
"You ready?" came the voiceless whisper and the wash of breath over her ear.
"Yes," she said, wanting this more than she knew was possible.
She felt something slightly warmer than the rest of him rest in the wetness between her legs, and after a moment's pause she gasped as he slowly pressed in.
He stilled for a minute, gave her time to adjust to the feeling, and to panic slightly at what she had just irreversibly done, then calm herself down and bask a little in the heat radiating where their bodies joined.
She was amazed that there was so little pain. Wasn't there supposed to be pain?
She had trouble holding on to such thoughts, her body overwhelming her with sensations that were amazing and weird and kind of scary. Fuu wrapped her arms around Mugen's shoulders and pulled their bodies flush together. Mugen had to roll his hips to move as she tried to absorb through her skin the strength humming just beneath his.
Mugen turned his head to the side, his breath stuttered, and he whispered. "Perfect. Perfect timing."
Before she could ask what he meant, Mugen moved one hand from around her and slid it between them, his thumb unerringly finding something that made her whole body arch in pleasure so overwhelming it almost felt like pain. He rubbed his thumb in a ruthless grinding circle, and she bit back a scream until he ordered her, a low growl directly into her ear, to scream his name instead of holding back.
She couldn't have disobeyed if she'd wanted to. Her thighs were spasming out of control as something began to build deep inside her body. She gripped Mugen's back and screamed his name over and over until the thing building inside her spilled over the edge and she was falling.
As soon as he felt her body tighten in release, Mugen whispered a final command into her ear "Now look across the fire and take a bow for our audience."
Fuu's head snapped to the side so fast she would have hurt herself if she hadn't been in the throes of orgasm. Her eyes met Jin's expression of horror and disgust, but she couldn't control her breath, her voice, or her face as the waves of pleasure hit her so hard she lost all control over her body. A few more thrusts into her body - so clearly exposed, she now realized - and Mugen grunted, going rigid, sinking his teeth into her shoulder hard enough to bruise as he pinned her across his thighs, spilling hot inside her.
Jin vanished from the firelight at a speed that was only partially an illusion, and the last thing Fuu felt before the end of her first orgasm was Mugen's body shaking with cruel laughter, and the puffs of his breath over her skin.
Fuu slumped sideways as the last of the orgasm faded, feeling boneless and unable to move, and prayed that she would faint, or die, or otherwise leave so she wouldn't have to live in this nightmare any longer.
She never got her wish, and could feel Mugen slide out of her body; could still hear his wicked chuckles as she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
The sated orgasmic bliss combined with the horror at the depths of Mugen's betrayal left her empty and dry-eyed. Unable to move, to speak, even to cry.
She wanted to cry.
To cry would at least provide some kind of release.
But tears refused to come, and as she felt Mugen's dark mirth subside as he settled down beside her, she wondered why he didn't make the cruelty complete and leave her here alone.
Unconsciousness still refused to come, so she might as well ask.
"Why are you still here? You got what you wanted, you pulled your prank on Jin. Why haven't you left me here?"
Mugen snorted. "Hey, even I have SOME sense of decency." She glanced over at him, he'd actually sounded offended. "You don't just leave right after breaking a virgin. You stay for a few minutes. If nothing else, she'll want something to hold on to."
Fuu wished now that she hadn't asked. His answer actually made it worse. He had no feeling or respect whatsoever for her. The only iota of respect he was showing was for her virginity. Which was now gone.
She hadn't thought she could feel worse than she had a minute earlier.
Fuu didn't resist when Mugen manhandled her limp body. He rolled her over until she was pressed against his side, wrapping one arm around her waist to half-cradle her against him. Her head came to rest on his shoulder, her eyes staring out across the expanse of his chest. One of her hands had fallen to rest over his heart.
She could still feel the incredible life and power flowing through his body.
It had lost none of its intoxicating thrill.
Fuu wished she had gone completely dead inside. She wished she could faint. She wished her stubbornly dry eyes would cry. She wished she didn't have to feel this anymore.
He was so warm.
o0o0o0o0o
End
