Nothing Else Matters

Disclaimer: I do not own Ultimate Muscle, Kinnikuman, or any of the characters included or mentioned in this fanfic. I don't own 'Nothing Else Matters' either, because it belongs to Metallica. I don't own anything. Apart from the waitress with the really short skirt, and I don't like her. Oh yeah, and I own saucepan lady too…why the hell are you looking at me like that?

Author Notes: Couldn't be bothered to copy and paste all the other stuff that's usually above this. Which shows that I'm mega lazy-ful. And that last sentence shows that I need coffee, as I am sleepy and cannot even write proper words. The stuff that's usually up there still stands though, especially as this is a chapter that might get rather…steamy. You have been warned.

I'm so sorry for not updating in so long! The un-creative bug has bitten me! Thanks to all my reviewers! You all deserve cookies!

Chapter 3 – Intoxication

"I don't believe it, Kid. You hauled me halfway across town, decided to go on three different forms of public transport – all of which I despise, by the way – got lost more times than I could count and managed to insult the one person willing to give us directions. On top of all of that, this 'very good place' that you had in mind to visit turns out to be a theme park! And not just any theme park. No. This theme park is very special, because it just so happens to have been out of business for TWO YEARS!"

The two chojins stood on the other side of a corrugated iron fence from what looked like a twisted mess of corroded, distorted metal flecked with chipped, lacklustre paint. A faded sign lay neglected on the ground, looking as though it had once been attached to the fence in an insubstantial way. Barely legible words read: DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, along with the date of when the park shut down.

Mantaro stared up at the top of the fence as though expecting the dilapidated theme park to suddenly transform into a fully functioning, colourful area of worldly delights, as it must have been, at least at one point. Kevin folded his arms, and continued to stare at the stationary figure with impatience. Despite being irritated at the outcome of their journey, he felt a little sorry for his companion. Mantaro had been very excited about going to this place, and had jabbered on about it the whole way, including on the tube, tram and bus. True, it had been annoying, but Kevin had been thankful for the company. Not many people took time out to chat to him. The Kid had planned out everything they were going to do – all the rides they were going to go on, all the food they were going to eat. As soon as they had reached the rundown mass of twisted metal, however, Mantaro had stopped talking, shocked at the scene, and hadn't said a thing for the fifteen minutes that he'd been staring at the fence. Kevin felt the creeping sensation of guilt – the Prince already felt bad, and shouting hadn't helped anything.

"Come on, Kid. We should go now. It doesn't matter about this place, we can always go somewhere else…" Kevin tried to provoke a response, but his attempt fell on deaf ears. "Kid Muscle, come on! Don't make me drag – "

"I'm sorry."

Kevin was taken aback after being cut off in the middle of a sentence. "What? Oh, that's alright. Like I said, it doesn't matter, so stop apologising. It's mid-afternoon now; it'll take another couple of hours to get back into the middle of town. Why don't we go to a bar?"

Mantaro turned his head to stare at the 7"2 wrestler, looking confused.

"A…bar?"

"Yes, Kid. It's a building licensed to sell liquor on the premises, and people go there to consume alcoholic products," Kevin replied, only a little derisively. "I know some good ones, and I'm sure that they won't be closed down."

The Prince grinned half-heartedly. "You're going to hold this against me forever, aren't you?"

Kevin turned, smiling to himself. "Only as long as I remember it…"

"Then I hope for my sake that your memory's not too great," Mantaro called as Kevin began to walk back in the direction that they had come only a little while earlier. Feeling a little less miserable than he had been a moment ago, he ran to catch up with the retreating figure. He didn't know what it was about the other wrestler that just cheered him up, but it seemed that Kevin Mask's mere presence was enough to make him feel so much better. Of course, the reason that he was upset was that the park's closed nature revealed him to be idiot. And that was exactly the picture of him that he didn't want projected everywhere. Also, he had read on an advertising brochure (a very old one, now that he thought about it) that the park featured an extremely romantic Tunnel of Love ride, and Mantaro's growing heartache every time he looked at Kevin Mask was more than enough to make him want to find out just how far his attraction stretched…

They turned left out of the small path that had led them to the park and walked in silence down the road to the bus stop. Many different conversation possibilities danced through Mantaro's head, but somehow the silence felt more appropriate. He had never really been to a bar before, as Meat's overprotective nature barred him from any alcohol acquaintances he cared to establish. Not that he ever cared to, of course. The last time he had tried alcohol was when Terry Kenyon had smuggled a bottle of whiskey into a training session. Mantaro could never quite understand why anybody thought that whiskey tasted nice. To him it was bitter and horrible.

He was suddenly wrenched out of his little stupor as a large double-decker bus came hurtling around the corner of the street towards the little bus stop at a speed usually not put into practise by large red passenger vehicles. Sure that the bus was going to slam into something and cause a tragic road accident, Mantaro stepped back and flattened himself against a brick wall. Kevin seemed unaffected, and stood steadfast as the huge red monster of a bus screeched to a halt on the tarmac, sending wisps of steam into the atmosphere from the tired wheels. Mantaro could smell burning tyre rubber and noticed that many of the passengers on the crowded bus had gone interesting shades of green.

The bus doors swung open violently and a couple of people looked more than happy to scarper out into the safety of the street. One unfortunate man was so dizzy that he ended up walking straight into part of the same wall that the Kinniku Prince was currently attempting to attach himself to. The man slid down to the floor and lay there on the pavement, twitching.

"Kid, are you coming or not?"

Mantaro looked up quickly and saw Kevin waiting with an air of impatience. He swallowed.

"I…erm…I think we can probably wait for the next bus. It can't take too long, now can it?"

Kevin shook his head, subconsciously making his long hair twirl distractingly.

"No. I checked the rota, and this is the last bus for a couple of hours. You don't want to stay here, do you?"

Mantaro was about to comment that anywhere would be better than putting his life at risk by taking this dangerous form of public transport, but a menacing grunt issued forth from the general direction of the bus driver. Not wanting to be left behind by his companion, he reluctantly dug into his pocket to recover enough to change to pay for his fare. Groaning inwardly, he trudged away from the wall and stepped onto the bus, stopping before the driver, who stared at him. Mantaro dropped the change into the designated area and pulled his little white ticket from the machine, succeeding in ripping it, quite cleanly, in half. Not knowing quite what to do, he stammered, 'I…erm…where – "

"Just move along," the driver said gruffly, as Kevin gently pushed Mantaro aside and paid for his own fare. After what seemed to be an age of anticipation, the engine jumped back to life with a roar and the screeching wheels carried the bus once more down the road. The two chojins shuffled down nearer the back in silent agreement to find seats. It became rather apparent in less than a minute, however, that there weren't going to be any free seats for a very long time. Mantaro managed to find standing space between an angry-looking middle-aged woman with an army of shopping bags, and a rather large man in a pinstripe suit. Both were looking rather unwell, and so Mantaro resolved to move somewhere else very quickly if either passenger showed signs of vomiting. With nothing else to look at without staring at people's faces, his eyes wandered to fellow passenger's possessions. The middle-aged woman's bags were hardly interesting, being mostly full of vegetables and what seemed to be the world's largest collection of saucepans. Having no particular attachment to saucepans, Mantaro wondered whether a strange saucepan fetish had struck the woman…somehow he doubted it. Even the most perverted of minds rarely found kitchen appliances kinky. Apart from, perhaps, those vibrating microwaves.

Bored with the saucepan-lady, he looked up, and saw just as much as felt that the bus was meandering wildly towards another bus stop. A sudden lurch caused him to lose his footing, and he hurtled straight into Kevin, accidentally hitting the saucepan woman in the face with a flailing hand as he went. Rather than knocking the Brit to the ground, Mantaro felt Kevin's powerful hands grip his shoulders to steady him. Unfortunately, this only caused his legs to feel weaker, and when the bus heaved to a halt, both chojins were knocked to the floor.

It took Mantaro a minute to react to being on top of someone that he found irresistibly attractive. He blinked.

"What are you doing down there, Kevin?"

"You knocked me over, you idiot."

"Ah. Oh yes. Sorry!"

Slightly hesitantly, he clambered off of the British chojin and offered to help him up. His heart leapt when his gloved hand was grasped by Kevin's, and he stammered another apology as he pulled his companion to his feet. Kevin dusted off his coat and gave Mantaro a quick glance.

"I thought I told you to stop apologising," the Brit muttered, before grabbing onto one of the support beams as the bus lurched into action once again.

Kevin Mask slammed the two beer tankards down onto the tabletop, nearly missing the chair as he sat down. The cheap beer splashed over the edge of the glass and frothed lazily. Automatically, Mantaro grabbed one of the glasses and put it to his mouth, downing the liquor as quickly as he could. Three pints of alcohol ago, he would have hated the bitter aftertaste, but right now he couldn't care less. The warm beverage was really relaxing, despite making him feel a little light-headed. After what Meat had told him, he would never have thought that alcohol could make a person taste so great! He felt so free, alive, and unrestrained by the pressure of being an Intergalactic Wrestling Hero. Kevin looked rather loose as well, come to think of it.

Slamming his empty tankard loudly back down on the table earned him a dirty glare from the bartender, but he really didn't care. He glanced up at the large clock positioned on the wall opposite him and Kevin.

"Hey, Kev, buddy, look! It's nearly eleven pm!"

Kevin, whose mask was at a slightly wonky angle, paused to remove the straw from where his mouth must have been underneath the azure metal.

"So?"

"Meat's going to be really worried about me," Mantaro giggled. "He thinks I went for a walk. He'll probably have sent out a search party by now." For some reason, this seemed to be funnier that it should have been.

"Yes, and then they'll arrest me for abducting you, and I'll go to prison, and I'll never be able to wrestle again, and it'll hang on your conscience forever and ever, and you'll die old and alone. Am I using the word 'and' too much?" Kevin asked, feigning solemnity for a moment, before laughing madly.

"I don't know. I'm thirsty again."

Kevin poked his straw up through the mask gap near his chain again and sipped the rest of his beer.

"We shouldn't drink any more of this stuff. It's shit. Come back to my hotel room, and we can have some real alcohol. Have you ever tried gin and tonic, Kid?"

Mantaro tried to blink, but then realised he no longer knew how to. Supposing it was an effect of the beer, he yawned, stretching his arms instead.

"No, I haven't tried it. But all alcohol's the same, isn't it?"

"Of course it is," Kevin answered shortly, "but gin and tonic's better."

"Better than the same?"

"Very much so."

"Let's go then! I haven't been to a hotel in…ages!" Mantaro said loudly, gesturing wildly with his hand and knocking a glass to the floor.

"Hey! Are you gonna pay for that, punk?" the bartender shouted angrily from the bar.

Mantaro stood up and attempted to approach the bar, tripping over a chair leg and landing with a thud on his front, on the floor.

"Of course I'm going to pay. I'm just going to lie down here for a bit first," he said, suddenly overcome by fatigue.

"No!" the bartender protested. "Get your filthy body off of my clean floor, and get out!"

"You call this clean?" Mantaro's muffled voice could barely be heard. "Have you ever actually smelt it?"

Suddenly, strong hands yanked him up and shook him vigorously. He heard Kevin's voice cutting through the strange blurred sounds and visions that had overcome his senses, "Kid, come on. We're not wanted here."

The Prince's swimming view slowly sorted itself out, and he glared at the bartender, who glared back, before being pulled out of the bar by the Brit.

The cold outside air hit like a brick wall, automatically slightly sobering the two chojins. A strong wind whipped up Kevin's long dirty-blonde hair and made Mantaro shiver under his t-shirt. How had it gotten so cold? It had still been warm when they finally managed to escape the demon bus from hell, and the tube and tram had been mostly uneventful. They had only been in the bar for a couple of hours, and had talked about everything under the sun that they could think of in their intoxicated state. Mantaro couldn't remember half of the things that he had confessed to, or that had been disclosed to him. Perhaps that was a good thing, though, considering the circumstances.

"Kid Muscle, are you okay?" Kevin's voice cut through the Prince's stupor.

Mantaro shook his head to clear it, before poking the Brit.

"Uh…yeah. Why?"

"You seem unable to walk in a straight line…and you're attempting to prod a lamppost."

Mantaro squinted, trying to concentrate. Come to think of it, Kevin was right.

"I was wondering why you felt so frigid," he muttered in reply.

"Don't you mean 'rigid'?"

"I mean what I say, not what I mean to say. Know what I mean?" Mantaro replied thickly, and only realised that he was still addressing the lamppost when his arm was grabbed and he was dragged away by the real Kevin Mask. The Brit seemed to have decided that there was no way that he would manage to guide the Kinniku prince all the way back to his hotel room unless he physically dragged him, and so Mantaro consented to be pulled along rather than concentrate on where he was going. A rush of warm air about ten minutes later notified him that they were now in the large foyer of a similarly large hotel. Although it was late, there were many large orbs of light that blurred the Prince's vision and made him feel rather dizzy. He clung to Kevin's coat as the relatively confused-looking receptionist handed over a room key to the Brit. Then he was pulled over to the lift, and, when the doors opened, pushed into the tiny metal box that made up the elevator. Kevin pressed a button that indicated that his room was on the eleventh floor, and the life jerked upwards.

After a few awkward moments, the elevator pinged loudly, causing Mantaro's head to suddenly hurt rather a lot. By this time, he was far more clear-headed than before, and could have navigated his way around more easily, but seeing as Kevin grabbed his wrist again, he decided that he quite enjoyed the physical contact.

The Brit lead out of the lift and down an elaborately decorated hallway that looked more like it belonged in a medieval castle than a hotel. Mantaro was hardly surprised when he nearly tripped over a suit of armour that looked like it had been recently polished.

"My room's just down here," Kevin said flatly, and the Kinniku Prince suspected that the effects of alcohol were starting to wear off on the Brit too.

Without another word, they stopped in front of a large oak door with a plaque that showed the number '17' in fancy gold lettering. Kevin inserted the key gently, and turned it. With a soft click the door opened, swinging backwards on its hinges to reveal the room beyond.

Mantaro swore softly as his wrist was released, and he stepped over the threshold. The room was almost regal in appearance, with crimson painted walls, soft carpeting, a huge sheepskin rug, a flickering fire in the large fireplace and a glittering chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Two doors led off – one to the bedroom and the other to the bathroom, he presumed.

"Take your shoes off, Kid. I don't want you wrecking the carpet," Kevin said with a touch of amusement in his tone, closing the hotel room door.

"Oh, oh I'm sorry!" Mantaro gabbled, slipping his shoes off quickly and placing them as carefully as he could against the wall.

"I told you to stop apologising to me! You only need to do that if you've offended someone, or actually done something wrong," Kevin laughed, removing his brown gloves and coat and hanging them on the door hook. He stalked over to an obscure mini-bar near the opposite wall and opened the door, scouting inside for something. After a moment, he reached inside the fridge and took out two bottles and two glasses. Shutting the fridge door, he went over to the sheepskin rug and sat down in front of the fire. Mantaro stood awkwardly still, watching as Kevin poured out a small amount of gin into each glass, then filled the rest of the glass with fizzing tonic water. The knight seemed to notice that something was missing, and he turned around to stare at Mantaro with his penetrating yellow eyes.

"Sit down."

Wordlessly, the Prince obeyed, dropping down onto the carpet and taking the offered glass of fizzing substance.

"I…don't know whether I should drink anymore. My head's still spinning, and there seem to be three of you, Kevin…" he explained feebly.

"Gin and tonic never did anybody much harm," Kevin answered smoothly, leaning in quite close. "Just try it – I think you'll like it…"

Mantaro sighed. "If you say so." Slowly, his head starting to ache, he sipped some of the liquid. Almost immediately the bitter taste in his mouth was replaced by a refreshing blend of fantastic fizzing flavour. Before he could stop himself, he had finished his glass, and Kevin had refilled it.

"This place is a-a-amazing!" he said suddenly, gesturing around the room with his free hand. Kevin put his own drink (complete with a pink straw) down on the rug and looked away.

"Yes, it is. I haven't been anywhere since the end of the Chojin Crown Finals. It was Lord Flash's favourite hotel…" the Brit answered in a sombre voice, with no trace of alcohol-induced slurring.

"Oh, you mean Warsman?" Mantaro blurted out, and then immediately realised that he'd said something incredibly stupid.

"Yes…Warsman…" Kevin said quietly. A horribly awkward silence followed, and Mantaro mentally kicked himself. Finally, he plucked up the courage to ask a question that had plagued him ever since he had seen the alibi that was Lord Flash.

"He…he was more than just a coach to you, wasn't he?"

Kevin put his hand to the part of his mask that covered his forehead, and exhaled heavily.

"You want the truth, Kid?"

Mantaro blinked. He hadn't really expected the usually cold and unfriendly Brit to offer up an answer after only properly knowing him for one day. Then again, he hadn't expected to ever be able to converse with him at all…

"If you want to tell it to me, I'll listen…"

"I don't know why I feel like telling you anything at all. To be honest, I never really liked you. You seemed to be a spoilt, immature little brat of a wrestler who won by luck and fluke every time. But…you proved me wrong during our match. I thought that I had nothing to worry about as long as I knew how to defeat your Muscle Millennium. You won by pure skill and resolve, and I admired that. My view of you changed when you beat me…and you've shown me that you are a worthwhile person…perhaps I will tell you everything after all. You were right. Lord Flash – Warsman – was much more to me than just a coach. His methods of teaching were difficult, but so rewarding. By the end of the day, I would always be exhausted, but so exhilarated! You can't imagine how good I felt when he was there. One night, after a particularly strenuous training session before my semi-final match, Lor – Warsman got out a DVD for us to watch. I can't remember the title any more, but it was a love story, about a French prostitute and a young man passing himself off as a writer. Something silly like that…I never quite believed in love...but that film made me realise that the fluttering feeling that I got in my chest when he was around wasn't heartburn…but pure affection. I never got a chance to tell him…but I think that in some way, he knew…"

Kevin reached for his glass and tried to poke the straw up through the small space near his chin. After trying and failing a couple of times, he plucked the straw from the glass and threw it down.

"Oh, hang it all! I'd be bloody better off if I wasn't wearing this thing – you don't mind, do you?" he asked, without needing an answer. Mantaro could only stare, open-mouthed, as Kevin lifted his metal mask off of his head and placed it beside him, shaking his ash-blonde hair so that it twirled around his shoulders again. The Kinniku Prince, finding it suddenly rather difficult to breathe, gulped down a mouthful of his gin and tonic, ogling at the Brit. As men go, Kevin Mask wasn't particularly stunning. He was handsome – that much could be easily said – with greyish blue eyes and high cheekbones. A few freckles were scattered around his nose, and a corner of his mouth was slightly turned up in a constant smirk.

"Kid Muscle…you look like you've seen a ghost…"

Failing now to be able to swallow successfully, the Prince gasped, "C-c-call me M-Mantaro, please!"

Kevin raised an eyebrow.

"Your birth name?"

Mantaro nodded mutely.

"Well, I have to admit, it's a lot nicer than 'Kid Muscle'. A lot more flattering too. After all, you're hardly a child, are you?" the Brit said smoothly, folding his arms.

"N-no, I'm not," Mantaro stuttered. "I think I need some more alcohol…"

Kneeling up, he put his glass down and leaned over Kevin, straining to grasp the bottle of gin. A sudden impact to his knee sent him off balance, and a second later, he found himself in the lap of a certain British chojin, with a face-ful of trouser material.

"Oh God! Kevin, I'm so sorry!" he blurted out, his voice a little muffled. He tried to sit up, but before he knew what was going on, Kevin had escaped from underneath him, overpowered the Prince and manoeuvred his way atop him. Mantaro's heart hammered inside his chest, and he became aware of a sudden tightness in his groin as he looked up into the startling blue eyes that were only an inch or so above his own. His arms were pinned down, and he didn't feel strong enough to resist any advances.

"K…Kevin?"

Escaping from this position was a futile effort. Even if he had wanted to, there was no way that he would be able to get out from underneath the powerful English chojin. Kevin grinned lecherously.

"This is what you want, isn't it? This is why you trailed after me today…isn't it?"

Mantaro's breath was coming in short, painful gasps.

"No! I mean, maybe it was a notion in my mind, but I really didn't think that – oh God! Do that again!"

Kevin's hand had worked its way downward, and was currently stroking the Prince's thigh. The other hand crept under Mantaro's t-shirt, caressing the rippling stomach muscles. Grinning, the young knight deftly licked the young Prince's neck, causing him to moan in pleasure.

"I knew you'd like it," Kevin whispered. "Now, would you mind taking your shirt off? And then, perhaps your trousers?"

"My WHAT?" Mantaro tried to keep a cool head, but the foreign hands wandering around his body were being altogether far too distracting for that.

"And maybe your mask too…OUCH!"

Kevin clutched his forehead in pain where Mantaro had head butted him trying to sit up very quickly. The Brit rubbed the sore spot, then turned to look at the young Prince, and was horrified to see the look of fury that was displayed.

"You bastard!" Mantaro shouted. "Is that what this is all about? You pretend to be nice to me all day, get me drunk, and then try to get it on with me, and persuade me to get my mask off? I don't think so! I'd never be able to wrestle again! That's what you want! How bloody honourable of you!"

Kevin stared in horror as the other man stumbled to his feet, glaring at him.

"No! You've got it all wrong! I swear! Where are you going? Listen to me!" he pleaded, as Mantaro started to make his way to the door. Unfortunately for the Prince, his alcohol intake had confused his legs, and he nearly tripped over again, which was just the opportunity Kevin needed to jump up and grab his hand. "Goddammit, you're going to listen to me right now!

Mantaro tried to shake his hand loose of the knight's grip, but failed and tears of vulnerability began to prick at his eyes.

"How can you do this? I thought that you lived for your stinking honour! That's what you used to be about! I thought that you really enjoyed my company today! I thought that we had fun…I didn't realise that you just saw me as a cheap fuck for you to release your pent up urges!"

"Just let me explain!" Kevin pleaded desperately.

Mantaro was about to yell that there was nothing to explain about, but the look of despair in the Brit's eyes made him reconsider.

"Alright. Explain."

Kevin stood up to his full height and brushed his fringe out of his eyes.

"I didn't mean to offend you, and I never viewed you as a 'cheap fuck'. It's just that I bared my soul to you – I told you about my love for Warsman, and I took off my mask. No one's seen me like this for a long time. When I tried to pull your mask off in the ring, it was because I knew that you'd be disgraced. Now…I'm the only one who'd see you. Would it really matter if no one knew about it?" A hopeful and strangely innocent look passed across Kevin's face, and Mantaro wondered whether this was the most emotive that he'd ever been.

"I…I don't know how far the rule extends. I'm never allowed to take it off. Never, ever. It's the most stupid rule I've ever heard. This mask's become a part of me now…I don't know whether I should," he tried to explain without sounding brainless and dithery.

Kevin's deep blue-grey eyes filled with pain.

"You don't…trust me?"

Mantaro's heart plummeted at the look in his companion's eyes. He didn't want to make anybody upset, but he didn't know enough about the rule to be able to feel secure with removing his mask. A niggling part of his brain kept on telling him how much it would hurt and embarrass him if he couldn't wrestle again. The larger, more influential part of his brain was more focussed on how much it would hurt and embarrass him if he remained celibate for the rest of his life, and lost the one chance he had to get closer to Kevin Mask.

Pulling away at the tight mask material that stopped just under his skin, Mantaro slipped his fingers underneath.

"I…trust you, Kevin…"

To be continued…

Eeeep! That took me so long to do! Okay, that wasn't as steamy as I thought it would be, but it will be more so in the next chapter. I swear. The next chapter will definitely come a long faster. If I get reviews that is…