A/N This happened when I was procrastinating over the troublesome chapter 10 of 'Is It Life or Art'. It had been sitting neglected and unfinished for quite a while, and I thought it was rather fun... I'm not sure if it's part of a longer story or whether it should stand alone - let me know what you think/if you want more!

Raidou was stiff, dripping with sweat, and where he had been boiling half an hour ago was now chilled since the sunshine had been replaced by a cool early evening breeze. He felt immeasurably relieved to see the village gates loom before him. It hadn't been a particularly hard or deadly mission, and they'd completed it well within the day. No-one was hurt, but everyone was tired. And for tokubetsu jounin, such a mission, well, it was a bit of an anticlimax. There was no great sense of achievement; no surge of adrenaline.

He adjusted his jacket, which was sticking to him uncomfortably, and looked around at his companions, smiling a weary smile. "Nearly there, guys," he said. "And thank fuck for that."

Apart from Aoba, they were a fairly young team - newish chuunins. They were probably feeling tolerably pleased with themselves. Raidou sighed and raised an eyebrow in return to Aoba's expressive half smile. The bulk of the work seemed to have landed on them, as usual. I'm too old for this, he thought, half facetiously, half some strange emotion he couldn't quite put his finger on. The younger generation were supposed to be catching us up by now...

Thinking of a couple of other teams he knew, well, maybe that was the case in a few of them. Just not mine, he couldn't help an inner voice snarking irritably. Raidou was a stickler for proper technique, he expected competence, flawless teamwork and instinctive understanding. He knew he had a regrettable tendency to only fully trust guys who'd been in ANBU with him, but that was something he thought he kept in check.

Ah well, nearly home, anyway, he thought. And sure, they were crappy this time, and we might've got the job done quicker without them, but they'll have learnt from this, right? They'll be better next time. But he couldn't help a grim little laugh escaping his lips at this last thought, and the snarky inner voice added an irrepressible yeah, right, before he could help himself. "Fucking amateurs," he murmured as he passed through the arch.

He paused at the desk where the two shinobi on gate duty were lounging nonchalantly. Kotetsu and Izumo, today. They looked bored out of their skulls. Raidou perched on the desk, leaning back on one arm to chat a moment.

"I'll report in," Aoba called over, continuing on his way. "It won't take both of us."

Raidou shot him a relieved and grateful smile. He and Aoba knew each other well, and each could tell when the other had enough. Right now, he knew, Aoba would want to be left to relax by himself, and the only contact he'd put up with gracefully would be formalities. Raidou just wanted to forget about the mission, forget work and have fun. See anyone, anyone he hadn't just been on a mission with.

"Good mission?" asked Kotetsu as the others passed out of view.

"It's done anyway," was Raidou's uncommunicative reply. "What's been going on here."

"Not much," said Izumo. "Genma's team got back about half an hour ago." He turned to Kotetsu, "and that was the first we'd seen since they all left at dawn, wasn't it?"

"Yep," said Kotetsu. "Not much inning and outing today." They shared a knowing smirk.

"Genma's back?" Raidou felt his bad mood retreat from him a little. He got up and stretched. If he knew Genma, he'd be drinking a nice cup of tea right now, meditatively chewing his senbon, and thinking about dinner. Raidou decided to pay him a visit instead of going straight home to a lonely bare apartment. He grinned. "See you later, guys."

Five minutes later he was pushing open the unlocked door of Genma's apartment. "Hey Genma," he called, "it's me. You in there, man?"

"Hey, Raidou, man, yeah, come in." Genma's voice called back, lazy and slightly muffled. "I'm in the living room."

Raidou wandered through the kitchen and propped himself up in the doorframe that separated the two rooms. Genma was curled up in a large leather armchair by the window, wearing his dressing gown and chewing on his senbon needle. No cup of tea was in evidence.

Genma smiled, and at the same time sighed and rolled his eyes. "Hey, man, since you're up, put the kettle on, would you?" he said. "I am fucked."

"Dude," said Raidou, peering at his friend in concern. "You've been back half an hour, and you haven't had your tea yet? That's not like you." he turned back into the kitchen and filled Genma's rather battered kettle from the tap. "Hard day?" he called.

"Not really," Genma called back. "Just…" His voice tailed off and the kettle began roaring, drowning him out. Raidou tipped the remains of Genma's morning tea out of the teapot and gave it a cursory rinse. He wondered if Genma had had a similar day to his. Not really hard, but somehow making you feel like shit all the same. Are we getting disillusioned? he wondered. Can you still be illusioned after going through ANBU?

Genma wandered into the kitchen as the kettle boiled. "Warm the pot," he said, as Raidou dropped a teabag in.

Raidou fished the teabag out again, sighing dramatically. "Hey, I'm making you your tea," he said. "You could've stayed where you were." He poured boiling water into the teapot, then swirled it round before pouring it into the sink. "Satisfied?"

"Perfectly, thank-you'" Genma replied, swinging himself onto the work surface, then groaning in pain. "Fuck, am I stiff!"

Raidou filled the teapot and reached some mugs down. "Me too, man, me too," he said. "It's been one of those days…" He noticed Genma was still in full uniform under his dressing gown. "Hey, you shouldn't come in and just flop like that!" he chided, "it's not good for you!"

"I know, Grandma, I'll have a shower in a minute. But, ahh, what a fucking piece-of-shit day. Nothing really happened, nothing went wrong, but ahhh. I can't explain it." Genma leant back against the cupboards, staring at the ceiling as Raidou got the milk out of the fridge. "It was just shit."

"I know what you mean, man," said Raidou. "I had exactly the same."

"If we were going to have the same day," said Genma, taking the cup that Raidou handed him and slurping a quarter of it down in one go, "why couldn't we have had it together…?"

"Because that would've been a vastly better day, and my bad karma wouldn't've allowed it," Raidou replied, not being able to help smiling. He slapped Genma's thigh playfully, and leant next to him on the work surface. "I've told you before that I really don't think it's a good idea to suck that and drink tea at the same time, haven't I..?"

"Countless times, man, countless times…" Genma waggled the senbon at Raidou in a way that could have been construed as slightly obscene. "It's probably your anal attitude causing your bad karma. Let it go, dude."

"Yeah…" Raidou drank tea and pondered. "Can't change our ways now, I guess."

"Oh, I don't know," Genma replied musingly. "We're still young."

"Are we?"

"You need a drink."

"I need a shower." A shower. As the words passed his lips Raidou realised that he really really didn't feel like the ten minute walk to his own apartment. He was getting stiffer by the minute, he wanted his shower now, and then to relax for the evening with a drink in his hand and his best friend beside him. He wanted inane conversation and bizarre jokes that no-one else would find funny, and the easy intimacy that came with having been part of someone's life for so long.

"Yeah, you smell of " - Genma sniffed delicately - "ANBU."

Raidou laughed. "Ah no, not that!" He threw up his hands in mock horror. "ANBU probably smells different now, anyway. I reckon it was distilled essence of all of us." He shuddered slightly at the memory, and looked beseechingly up at Genma, all but laying his head in his lap. "Please may I use your shower, O my dearest and most esteemed comrade. I don't feel like going home."

Genma smiled and ruffled his hair. "You'd be welcome, but my hot water system is a bit buggered. There's only really enough for one shower, and then you have to wait an hour and a half for it to heat up again…"

"No shit!"

"Yes shit, I'm afraid. But, hey, I don't mind sharing. Nothing I haven't seen before, I could always recognise you even with your mask on."

Sharing a shower. Well, why not? "Alright," said Raidou. "If you're sure there's room. I don't want to ruin your showering experience." It wasn't a big deal. They'd often had to use communal showers in their ANBU days. And now, well, you don't lose that comfortableness with someone easily.

They wandered into the bathroom, Genma carrying his second mug of tea, and searched the airing cupboard for clean towels. There seemed to be a dearth of them.

"Ah, I need to do some washing," sighed Genma. "When is there time to get your laundry done in this life?" He rooted around a little deeper and brought out a faded beach towel, worn slightly thin.

"Hey, I remember that!" said Raidou excitedly. 'You've still got it!"

"Never throw a towel away, man," said Genma mysteriously. He finished his tea and left the mug on the sink, then discarded the dressing gown and began to strip off. Raidou finished his tea and followed suit, folding his uniform, then putting down the toilet lid and piling it neatly on top. Genma, having just thrown his clothes on the floor, was already in the shower and adjusting the temperature by the time he was done.

"You have to ease it up," he explained as Raidou stepped in beside him. "It keeps cooling down again until you reach a certain point -" he twitched the dial again "- which comes out boiling if you start it there…"

It was the kind of shower without a moveable head - the water just cascaded down from above, and for all its quirks and peculiarities it was a good shower. Its pressure was good, and it got good and hot. If you knew how to control it, of course. Genma obviously had it down to a fine art.

"Ah," said Raidou. "I should never have attempted this without you. Last time I used this shower it scalded me and then froze me."

"It knows its master," Genma said, smiling beatifically as the hot water rained down on him. He moved aside slightly to let Raidou into the flow, and Raidou edged in beside him, groaning in contentment as the main body of water hit him, and a cloud of steam enveloped them both as he pulled the door shut behind him.

"Mmm," moaned Genma.

"Ahh," gasped Raidou.

Then they opened their eyes and looking at each other, immediately began to laugh. Genma nearly lost his balance in his mirth. Raidou put out an automatic hand to steady him, catching him under the elbow.

"Pass me the soap, would you," he asked

Genma turned his back on him slightly to rinse through his hair, and Raidou noticed a long scratch running across his left shoulder blade. "Hey," he caught hold of Genma's slippery shoulder without thinking. "How'd you do this?"

"Do what?" Genma twisted round, trying to see without much success. "Oh, crap, did that break the skin?"

"And a half!" exclaimed Raidou in slight exasperation. The skin around it was bruised and swollen as well. "How could you not feel that? It looks quite nasty." He ran a finger lightly down beside it and felt Genma flinch against him. "Feel it now?" he asked.

"Ow!" Genma exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

"Let me clean it up for you," said Raidou. "It's a mess."

"O-okay," said Genma, sounding a little subdued. "Be gentle, alright?"

"Yes, but it's going to sting a bit."

Genma leant against the shower wall, head resting on his forearms as Raidou washed out the wound as gently as he could. The skin looked torn, as if something like barbed wire had caught him through his clothes as he fell against it. "How'd you do it?" he asked.

"Ah," Genma sighed, "Saving the arse of an incompetent little chuunin, I got thrown up against a tree with a shuriken stuck in it. Left there by a member of my own team, I might add." He winced as Raidou's fingers smoothed away the caked blood and coaxed out some pieces of grit. "Is it deep?" he asked, his nonchalant tone masking an undercurrent of anxiety. "I felt it tear my shirt, but I thought it just scraped me."

"It's not deep," Raidou reassured him. "Just a bit of a mess. You're OK. I guess the shuriken poked through your jacket and then you slipped down against it." He gave Genma's tense right shoulder a brief squeeze and massaged the hard muscles. "All done," he said. "Wow, you're tense."

"Ahh, that feels good!" Genma murmured, arching back against Raidou's hand. "Mmm, yes, I am a bit."

"Probably because you sat around and let yourself get cold."

"Probably because of the stress of working with a bloody incompetent team."

Raidou chuckled. "If that's the case I need a massage too." He worked a little lower on Genma's back, running his thumb firmly down beside his spine. Genma had a lovely back, he thought. Well muscled and toned, but sparer than his own physique - leaner, longer and more flexible looking. Raidou himself had a very classic triangular torso and he lost flexibility easily. He had to be careful to keep properly stretched.

It was at this moment that he realised with a start that his back wasn't the only part of him to be stiff. How did this happen? he thought, guiltily, and wondered if he'd be able to keep Genma from noticing. He could keep him from turning round if he kept up his massaging, but that was what was doing this to him in the first place, in all likelihood. Stop it! he said firmly to himself. This isn't funny! It wasn't listening to him. It was getting bigger, and harder, and there was no way he could not be very aware of it now - he was thoroughly aroused, both in mind and body. By Genma. What was going on?

Trying to focus on his friend's head rather than his body, Raidou moved onto his neck muscles and the base of his skull. He stared fixedly at the white tiled walls. He tried shutting his eyes, and snapped them open again rather quickly as Genma gasped, his fingers hitting a sensitive knot of muscle.

Fuck, that was hot, Raidou thought, and suppressed the thought. "Sorry, did I hurt you?" he asked, his thumb still gently stroking the back of Genma's neck. Somehow he couldn't think how to get it to stop. He inwardly cursed himself - he sounded like a lover, his voice low and soft, and he'd automatically leaned forward, speaking almost into Genma's ear.

Genma turned his head one way, then the other, stretching as much as he could. "It's OK," he muttered. He could feel himself blushing slightly, and hoped Raidou wouldn't notice, or would think it was just the effect of the hot water, because he was really getting quite turned on by this. Raidou's voice in his ear - it had sounded almost as if. But no. No, that was impossible. Raidou was just being a good mate, helping him out, and Genma had had to go and get an - he glanced down furtively - an impossibly big hard-on. Oh shit, he thought. What's he going to think? I'm just going to have to stay like this until he turns away. But if I stay like this, he'll think I want him to carry on - and I do - but I might just come right here if he keeps touching me.

When had he started feeling like this about Raidou? Genma couldn't say. It wasn't something he'd been aware of, but the idea of it now - it wasn't even surprising - it just seemed to fit. Could he bank on Raidou feeling the same, though. No! he thought desperately. What if he's disgusted, or angry? What if he turns cold on me?

It was an impasse. Neither man dared to move, for fear of revealing themselves to the other. Both knew they'd have to do something soon. Raidou couldn't unglue his hand from Genma's shoulder, and Genma, wanting to turn around and take hold of Raidou, didn't even dare to turn his head, in case the expression on his face told him something he didn't want to know.

Both were saved by the water turning cold on them.

"Argh!" Raidou leapt out of the stream of water, his enthusiasm very thoroughly dampened. "Fuck, that was sudden!" Genma purposefully leant back into it, letting the cold bring him back to his senses. Saved, he thought. And felt at once relieved and totally flat. He turned off the shower and followed Raidou out into the bathroom.

Raidou was wrapping a towel round his waist very firmly. His erection had gone down when the cold water hit him - like a randy tom-cat, he thought, ashamed - but he didn't trust it to stay down. After all, he still had to finish treating Genma's wound. Genma took a little longer, drying his face and chest, and then briskly towelling his hair before following suit.

Raidou opened the bathroom cabinet and found surgical spirit and cotton wool. He grabbed a worn-looking flannel and motioned to Genma to stand in front of the sink, where the light was still good. Gently, he patted the abused skin dry, perhaps taking a little longer over it than he needed, but he liked to do a thorough job. Then he unscrewed the lid of the surgical spirit and tipped some onto a ball of cotton wool. Genma hissed in pain as he dabbed gently along the length of the scratch, and Raidou couldn't help himself reaching out and lightly gripping his uninjured shoulder.

"Nearly done," he murmured, wincing in sympathy as he felt Genma stiffen against the stinging liquid. The smell of disinfectant and warm clean skin combined with the steamy atmosphere made him feel almost dizzy for a moment. With one hand, he slowly unscrewed the cap of a tube of antiseptic cream, then gently smoothed a small cool blob of it into the wound. Genma sighed in relief as it soothed away the burning and stinging. He relaxed his grip on the edge of the sink and turned to face Raidou, who was now towelling his face and hair vigorously, his face hidden. Genma's eyes travelled slowly over his exposed torso, with the luxury and freedom of the unobserved. Damn, but he was buff. He must weigh a good couple of pounds more than Genma, and they were practically the same, height-wise.

Genma's curious gaze travelled down, and couldn't help but notice quite a bulge in the crotch area. And no sooner had he noticed that, than he began to feel it again in himself. And, oh, it was worse this time! He badly wanted, no, he needed to be touched, he needed release.

Raidou finally emerged from his towel, and found Genma's chocolately brown eyes fixed intensely on his own. Genma was leaning on the sink, smiling tensely, looking at once vulnerable and predatory. He had his senbon back in his mouth and the sight made Raidou aware of the predicament he was in once again.

"Genma -," he said, his voice unexpectedly slightly hoarse, and Genma stepped up to him, with a brisk jerk sending both their towels sliding to the floor. Raidou instinctively reached for the back of his neck again, pulling him closer. Just in time, he twitched Genma's senbon out of his mouth and dropped it with a clatter into the sink, before their lips met.

They were both urgent and intense, and their kisses were deep and fierce. Raidou had his hands either side of Genma's face, Genma's hands slid sensuously over the still-damp skin of Raidou's back, pressing him closer to him, his hips pushing forward so that their hard cocks slid against each other.

Breaking apart for a moment, they regarded each other with excitement and a new tenderness, before Genma slid down to his knees and took Raidou's cock in his mouth.

"Ah," gasped Raidou. "Ahh, I always knew you must have an oral fixation…" He wound his fingers into Genma's damp hair and made himself relax, stilling the nearly overwhelming urge to thrust into Genma's mouth.

Still on his knees, Genma turned Raidou around, so that he was leaning over the sink, then began his ministrations again, on his sphincter this time. His tongue pressed in, then swirled around the edge, then in again. One hand began to join in, his fingers, slick with saliva, sliding in and out of Raidou's tight entrance. His other hand reached between his legs to grasp his hard length, his thumb sliding over the slippery tip and spreading the moisture down, around the head and over the shaft. Raidou moaned, thrusting into his hand as Genma eased two fingers into him and moved them gently back and forth, then went in with his tongue again, then back with his fingers.

"There's some vaseline in the cabinet - pass it to me," Genma murmured, his breath tickling against Raidou's inner thigh. Raidou's head was in a blur, he couldn't separate himself and the sensations overwhelming him. He opened the cupboard door, clumsy and fumbling, and knocked out half the contents of the second shelf as he grasped the pot of vaseline. He sent the lid pinging off into the skirting board as he over-enthusiastically opened it, taking a scoop out of it himself before passing it behind him to Genma.

He felt Genma's warmth press against his back and his breath on his neck as he stood, and the hard, smooth head of his cock pushing against him, easing into him. Raidou leant over the sink, gripping the taps and trying to relax as Genma slowly slid inside him - just the head at first, then slowly in and out, then a little deeper, and a little deeper still. Raidou gasped at the intensity of the feeling, at once pain and something else, something he didn't want to stop. He slid his own vaseline-coated hand over his own length, and felt Genma move deep within him. One more, he thought, I can take one more. But Genma was so gentle and slid so delicately into him that it had been four or five before he felt himself moving towards a climax he couldn't bear to happen yet.

He moved suddenly, twisting around so that Genma slipped out of him and stumbled back, confused. Grasping him around the waist he flipped him around, and forced him to his knees on the pile of discarded towels, then pushed into him, urgent and ungentle. Genma was less prepared than he had been and cried out in shock and pain, and Raidou felt suddenly like a murderer. He pulled Genma close to him, kneeling close behind him and kissing the back of his neck, then along his jawline, stroking his hair. Then he began to move again, just a little at a time, letting the lubrication spread, giving Genma time to get used to him. "It's OK, it's OK," he murmured. "I hurt you, I'm sorry, I won't hurt you again, I promise."

Moving just millimetres at a time he eased into Genma, holding him and feeling his reactions with every movement that he made. If Genma trembled, he stopped for a moment. If he pressed back against him he pushed in a little more. Finally, feeling he was ready, Raidou pulled out all the length he'd managed to get in, and slid back again. Then again, and again, then faster. Genma began to gasp with pleasure instead of pain, and Raidou knew they had only moments before both of them came harder than they could ever remember.