PSOH Shin Tokyo 'Cake'
"You again, is it?" Taizuu observed with peevish excitement, reluctantly motioning to his henchmen to depart. He shut the Pet Shop's door behind them, suppressing an urge to follow them out.
Encounters with this exotic man were more than likely to get out of hand, as the owner of Neo Chinatown knew too well. No need for witnesses, then. Taizuu had an image to uphold, even if it was only for his own personal satisfaction.
"Indeed. My grandson is out today, collecting. Thus, I am here to serve. Cake?"
Count D's doppelganger motioned at the tiered display before him, liberally scattered with petite confections. He handed Taizuu an unwanted cup of tea.
Woo Fei sat, unwilling, clutching his cup and saucer awkwardly before him on his bent knees, two silk-tasselled settee cushions away from the elder Count.
Grandson, my ass.
This man had made a fool of him before. He must tread carefully.
The Count gestured again at the tray, a long elegant white hand liberally tipped with manicured talons, polished the exact color of mint iced sherbet. Taizuu shook his head.
"No cake?"
"No. I don't care for sweet things."
"No? Then...why do you stop by so often, Taizuu?"
The owner of Neo Chinatown bit his tongue in an effort not to respond to that little jibe. He maintained his careful silence, sipping tea through clenched teeth.
"You must know my grandson much prefers the sweet," the teasing voice continued, "over the savoury. That is all you are likely to be offered here…to eat, of course." Red lips curved provocatively.
"Y-yes."
An unwilling blush stained Woo Fei's cheeks, just imagining.
The Count demurely sashayed his silk-wrapped ass one cushion closer to Woo Fei, who was ;eft only to grip his teacup tighter in self-defense and stare rigidly straight ahead at the walls. The brocaded cloth that wrapped that slim body was a delicate but startling shade of lime-green today, and it caused Count D's golden eyes to sparkle like a fine old French champagne. Just one more ecellent reason not to look too closely at his companion, Woo Fei was certain. Better be safe than sorry.
"Tell me, Taizuu. Do you have a tuxedo in that businessman's closet of yours?"
Foolishly surprised at the unexpected question, Woo Fei slewed his upper half 'round to face at the fascinating man beside him, teacup rattling on its saucer at his speed.
"Y-yes, of course I do! I attend many social functions for business reasons. Most, if not all, require formal dress. Why do you…ask?"
Ah.
Golden eyes tangled with his chocolate brown ones, sucking his attention to them like quicksand, pale and deadly. Taizu shifted, not thinking, and edged a little closer to his current nemesis.
Both the Counts were very dangerous. It paid Taizu to be wary, but...
Very, very pretty, those eyes. Like a cat's eyes, soft and mysterious. Or ancient gold, Minoan treasure, reclaimed from the depths of the past. They were perfectly set, yellow diamonds in a pale, sharp face that was oddly mask-like, but beautiful all the same.
He could spend a great deal of time looking at this collection of angles and lines, Taizuu concluded dreamily, and not be in any way bored.
"Then, my dear sir, I believe that I shall require your company this evening, to a certain social function I cannot avoid. You are not otherwise occupied?"
"W-what?" Taizuu blinked rapidly, taken back by the sudden invitation. Or, wait, wasn't it really more like an 'order'? But…even so, the Count had a very persuasive tone.
"Pardon?"
The Count edged another millimetre nearer, ostensibly to be closer to the arrays of sweets, his sleeve brushing casually against Woo Fei's as he leant forward to carefully select a petite Napoleon from the second cake tier. Taizu manfully attempted to ignore the brief contact, failing entirely when D then turned to him in a confiding way, the barest tip of his pink tongue peeking out as he lapped a trace of pastry cream from those moist red lips, having consumed the Napoleon in just lightning-strike two bites.
"Mmmm, delicious!" the Count exclaimed, smiling. "My grandson tells me I must attend this certain party this evening, and that I must bring with me a most eligible and handsome young guest." The Count slid a hand onto Taizuu's knee, cocking his chin so that the slide of dark silk hair fell at angle over one brightly curious eye. Taizu gulped and struggled to swallow, like the veriest raw young lad faced full-on first time with the lures of a professional geisha.
"I'd enjoy the pleasure of your company, Taizu," the Count continued. "If you're free, of course?"
He angled his pointy chin up as he inquired, treating Woo Fei to a simmering glance from beneath a fan of lashes so luxuriant they should be illegal. Taizu inhaled sharply, enchanted, and found himself nodding eagerly.
"Y-yes, of course. I'm free as bird, as it happens," his dry mouth gabbled, having completely bypassed his brain. "I'll be more than happy to accompany you, Count!"
"Excellent," the Count nodded cordially, patting him gently on the lower thigh, just above his knee cap. "Then we'll meet at Shin-Ōsaka Station at eight this evening."
"What! All the way there?" Taizu ignored the tingles running down his leg to protest this sudden, very much more difficult to manage prospect for an eceving's entertainment. "That's more than seven hours by automobile! I'd have to take the Shinkasen to arrive by eight and it's already four, now! I'll never make it-do be reasonable, Count!"
"Oh?" Both eyebrows were raised gently. The red mouth thinned, just that tiny amount sufficient to be noticeable. "That schedule is a problem for you? Ah, well…" The Count shrugged, regretfully. "No matter. I'm sure I can find someone else."
"Wait! I didn't say I wouldn't go, did I? It's just…it's just rather, um, short notice, that's all," Woo Fei stumbled about verbally, all at once desperate not to lose what might be his one chance to discover more about this man who was so…intriguing. A few hours of his company would be …invigorating. Yes, that was the word. Enlightening, even.
He could justify this, then. Moreover, he could manage it, with but a little careful pre-planning.
"The Shinkansen, then. That's only, what, two, two-and-a-half hours, right? If I leave the building quite soon, I can make it, I'm sure."
Greatly daring, he reached out and patted the Count's hand where it still rested ever so lightly above his knee, his fingers lingering over the Count's just a moment too long to be...merely polite. The Count smiled sweetly and squeezed the boney curve of Taizu's kneecap in response, sending yet more tendrils of heat whispering up Taizuu's leg to his groin.
He flushed a dull red in response to those fingers, and knew it, too, and was horribly shamed, truly, but there was nothing for it but to valiently attempt to recapture his usual composure.
"It's simple; I'll just there, then," he continued, the teacup held steady only by dint of great concentration. Rattling chinaware would the absolute last straw. "So, that's settled. It'll be fine, absolutely. I'll look forward to it. And now you needn't go to the trouble of finding someone else suitable this late in the day, Count. I'll be more than happy—"
"Thank you. You are too, too kind, Taizu."
Flustered, well aware that he was horribly inclined to babble if allowed further opportunity, and sporting an increasingly sensitive crotch, Woo Fei shut his mouth with a decided snap, snatched his errant hand back and set his half empty cup-and-saucer down on the table with a clatter. He rose to his feet in a hurry, gathering his long legs beneath him like a giraffe, already thinking ahead about timetables and carry-on bags, about arranging for his chauffer and ensuring the office knew his change of plans. It would be one hell of a scramble and Taizu knew it. Oddly, it didn't faze him one bit.
"Well, then, I should be going, shouldn't I? To arrive on time, that is. To meet you, as planned."
The Count rose as well, far more gracefully, settling his silks around him with a swish. The cool clear green tones did indeed enhance those remarkable eyes, Woo Fei noted absently. But then, most colours seemed to suit the Counts.
"So kind of you, really, Taizuu," the elder Count D smiled. "I'm most glad I've asked such a…dependable...man."
"Yes! Yes, dependable. They have called me that, indeed." Taizu, struck abruptly by the utter dullness of the adjective, stood stark still for a split-second, gazing down at the cause of all his current excitement, before turning abruptly toward the door. His lips twisted sourly as he went.
'Dependable'. How...dreary-dull. What must the Count really think of him, to call him that?
He had his hand on the knob when he remembered to turn and say his polite "Thank yous." The Count was just there, right beside him, smiling beatifically, as though Taizuu were actually a knight in shining armor and not merely a dull businessman whom he happened to meet in a Pet Shop.
"No, no, I must thank you, dear sir," Count D purred, batting those incredible eyelashes. "I look forward to it."
Neo Chinatown's owner flushed beet-red again. He couldn't help it. He gawked just a bit, spirits soaring stratospeherically once more.
In a flash, the elder Count D went on tiptoe and pressed a moth-wing brush of a kiss against Woo Fei's burning cheek.
"Then, something sweet to thank you….as you don't care for cake, Taizu. I'll see you this evening, hmm?"
"A-ah! Y-y-yes!" Woo Fei practically fell through the open door, wasting not a moment before he bolted across the hallway to the sanctuary of the emergency stairwell.
He took the stairs all the way down to ground level, where his office was, from the heights of 13th floor, startlingly grateful for a private moment to hide his scarlet cheeks and heaving chest. The rapid stumble down so many steps would explain his shortness of breath, he thought, and he could duck into his own very well guarded office before any other tenant caught sight of him…and the telltale bulge that ruin the elegant line of his thin wool suit trousers.
It wasn't till he was seated properly at his desk, arranging for his train tickets and barking orders to his staff over the speakerphone, that he remembered that the Count had never mentioned how he was planning on being in Kyoto by eight p.m.
Logically, the Count should be in just as much of a rush as Woo Fei was. But he hadn't seemed the slightest bit hurried, which was downright strange.
...But, for the first time ever, Woo Fei decided that it was acceptable that he didn't actaully know the details of that particular conundrum. It would be acceptable not to probe Count D for specific answers to his factual questions later, either, because for once in his life, he really didn't care how the Count was going to accomplish a sevn hour journey in a mere four hours or less, not as long as he actually arrived at his destination, as planned.
It would be quite enough for Woo Fei to simply be the Count's chosen companion for a period longer than the scant fifteen minutes allowed by a polite call of owner to tenant—oh, that charming, mysterious, maddening man!—whoever the hell he really was.
And Taizu found he didn't so much care about that, either. If the Count wished to play 'Let's Pretend' and act as though he were his own grandfather for some arcane reason, then that was perfectly alright with Taizu-he'd a willing enough spirit under his tailored suits to go along with it and a quite impressive store of verve and creativity to draw upon, as needed.
'Dependable' was really only the least of what he was, sum total, as a man.
Really.