Disclaimer: I don't own…you don't sue.
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Chapstick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry
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4th Tube
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"Hey, it's Kyo. Can you come over here? I need to ask you something," Kyo pleaded quietly into the silver phone.
"Uh, sure. Corner of 26th and Main, right?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be right over then," Yusuke replied as he tried to figure out why Kyo was so desperate to have him over. He tugged on his white sneakers and thrusted his arms into the sleeves of his jacket before he headed out the front door of his small apartment. Kyo lived only a few blocks away, so getting there wouldn't take long at all.
Rounding the corner, Yusuke came upon the doorsteps of a small, quaint, two-story, white house. The trimming was a navy color, as were the shutters on the windows. The front porch wrapped around the side of the house, and there were white wicker rockers adorning it. Yusuke grinned as the picture of Kyo curled up sleeping in one of the chairs filled his mind. That would be too classic.
"Hey," came the deep call from the front door as Yusuke made his way up the steps to the front door.
Yusuke looked up to see the ruby eyes of orange-haired guide. "You know, you really are cute with that half-asleep look on your face," he said with a smirk.
Kyo groaned. "Not you, too. I get that enough from Karasu. Come on in."
Yusuke and Kyo made their way up the hard-wood stairs and down the hall to a room painted a calm blue. There was a full-sized bed in the far corner of the room, a computer and desk in the opposite corner, and many posters embellishing the walls, giving it a personal feeling. A small, ebony loveseat sat near the door. Yusuke slipped off his shoes, leaving them by the door and trekked across the padded ivory carpet to the desk where he turned the desk chair around and plopped down. "So, what's the big question?"
Kyo sat down in the loveseat, pulling his legs up into the chair and wrapping his arms around them. "Are you busy tonight?"
The ebony-haired boy smirked. "Asking me out on a date? Oh Kyo, you shouldn't have!" Yusuke exclaimed sarcastically. "We've only just met a few days ago! What would everyone say?"
"Haha, funny," Kyo replied with a roll of his eyes. "I didn't call you over here for that. I need to know if you can cover for me at my job. It's a simple job. All you do is run a cash register. Think you can handle that?"
"I thought at every job you had to have someone who also works there cover for you. Am I allowed to do it?"
"Yeah, the boss is really lenient. He'll probably end up paying you some extra for covering for me, and if he doesn't, I'll still give you some cash for covering for me."
Yusuke grinned. "Nah, it's okay. Anything to help out a pal, right?"
Kyo started chuckling low in his throat. "If only he knew what he is getting himself into,"Kyo thought to himself. "Well, whatever works for you. It's the graveyard shift, from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. If you want, you can stop by here when you finish. My master should be in bed by then. Just go around to the back of the house. I'll have a ladder under that window," Kyo said as he gestured to the window beside the head of his bed, "You can just stay the night and we can hang out and whatnot. You know, whatever you want to do."
"So what type of job is this exactly?" Yusuke asked curiously. "And how exactly do I get there?"
Kyo nodded towards a sheet of paper taped to the side of the computer monitor. "Those are directions to the store from here. It's a pawn shop, and even though you might not think it, it gets a healthy amount of business." Kyo smirked to himself behind his knees, "Payback time for getting my foot stuck in my mouth! But you'll be able to handle it."
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Yusuke stopped suspiciously at the oddly named pawn shop. "Passion and Pleasures? What kinda name is that for a pawn shop," he thought to himself. Stepping inside with no clue as to what the people Kyo worked with looked like, Yusuke began looking for any type of life form. "Hello? Anyone here?"
A slender man with long, silky black hair, sapphire eyes, and pale, ivory skin stepped out of the back. "Mmmm… nice. Not too short, not too tall…not overly muscular…May I help you? The name's Karasu," he said as he sashayed over to Yusuke and put out his hand.
Reaching out tentively, Yusuke took the taller man's hand. "Umm, Kyo's sick. He asked me if I could cover for him. He said to tell your boss that he's sorry it's so last minute, and he hopes it'll be okay if I fill in for him tonight."
Karasu seemed to ponder the topic for a few minutes before answering quickly. "Well, I'm sure Sakyo won't mind, I've had others fill in for me before. Just stay out of the very back of the store. The room that I just came out of is okay, but don't go any farther. That's Sakyo's domain, and believe me, he's very territorial."
Yusuke nodded and glanced around the shop. "Well, this shouldn't be too hard. I've worked my fair share in shops before, but tell me. Just what kind of pawn shop sells things like this?" he asked while picking up a leather whip with handcuffs to go along with it. The look in Karasu's eyes accompanied by his maniacal laughter made Yusuke wish he'd never asked.
"Pawn shop? Hun, this shop is a pawn shop in one light, but it doubles as much more." Walking over to the shop counter and taking a large magazine, he waltzed back over to Yusuke with that gleam in his eyes. "Take a look at this magazine, then think about the sign outside. Tell me what you think this store also doubles as after that."
Taking the magazine and flipping through the pages, Yusuke's eyes widened as realization hit him. "You mean to tell me that I'm working in an adult sex shop! I'm gonna kill Kyo when I get back to his place! Oh I'm gonna slaughter him…"
Karasu laughed lightly before taking the magazine away and placing it back on the counter. "Don't worry, all you have to do is work the register, ring them up, take their money, and watch them leave. That's all Kyo does, that's all you have to do." Grabbing a long, black coat from the back room and heading to the door, Karasu smirked at Yusuke. "You'll be okay. I'll make sure there's a little extra in Kyo's paycheck for you. Bye now, Honey."
"Honey?" Yusuke looked skeptically around the room before heading to the counter. He lifted himself up on the tall stool that sat behind it and tossed his coat carelessly into the room behind him. Pulling out a magazine of his own that he had taken with him, he began turning his attention away from the store. "Kyo is dead. I'll get him back for this one."
Lost in an article about his favorite band, the sound of the bell signaling someone's presence faintly registered in his ears. When the figure finally slammed his hand down on the counter, Yusuke's eyes jerked up from the magazine. "Yeah, yeah, what the hell do you--" Yusuke lost all train of thought as he stared at the person in front of him.
"Look, no one needs to know about this. The guys on the team needed some, and didn't want to go buy it themselves, so we had to draw straws. Looks like my luck was running short. If you don't say anything about me being here, then I won't say anything about you working here."
Yusuke smirked. "Well, that's a shame. I don't work here, I'm filling in for a friend. Now just what do you need in the first place?" Yusuke closed the magazine and propped his elbow up on the counter, his face resting in his hand. "You seem a bit nervous, too. Could this be your first time shopping in a place like this? Or is it your first time buying what you came for?"
The pale figure seemed a bit uncomfortable in Yusuke's presence, but other than a slight scowl on his lips, he kept most of his nervousness hidden. "I need lubricant," he bit out harshly. "As for your other questions, I don't feel the need to answer them. It's my business."
"Heh, I thought as much. So this is your first time?"
"No!" he shouted, obviously slowly letting Yusuke's matter-of-fact statements get to him.
"So it's not! Ahaha! Scandalous! A nice, young man like yourself in adult sex shops buying such things. But I guess every teenage guy has the urges." Fiddling behind the counter, assuming that's where the lubricant might be kept, Yusuke pulled out a box that just happened to hold lubricant…and many different kinds of it. "So, flavored, or normal? Colored or clear? Warming, or--"
"Just give me a damn tube of it! I don't care what it looks like, tastes like, or feels like! It's not for me! So please just give me one!" The young man gripped the edge of the counter tightly and had a desperate look in his eyes.
Chuckling lightly to himself and deciding that he'd played enough minds games for one night, Yusuke grabbed a random tube from the box and rung it up for the poor lad. "Enjoy." Yusuke watched the figure closely as he hurried out of the store and climbed into the small silver car.
"I told Kyo he had a nice ass…"
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Kyo looked up from his desk to find Yusuke atop the ladder tapping on his window. Quickly closing the notebook and shoving it in a random drawer, he realized that he had forgotten to unlock the window. Undoing the latch then slowly making his way back across the room, Kyo heard Yusuke crawl in. Hearing the mattress groan as Yusuke's weight was placed on it, Kyo closed his tired eyes.
"So what were you working on?"
The question came out of nowhere, and Kyo was half expecting it to begin with. "Nothing, it's just an old hobby. It was for my mom; she always wanted me to do it."
Yusuke's brows furrowed with curiosity. "But what exactly is it?"
"It's nothing!" Kyo exclaimed as he shot an angry glare in Yusuke's direction.
"Sorry dude, I just saw you hunched over that notebook working like a good litte student so I figured it was something for school. Didn't know it was such a touchy subject. Sorry."
"Nevermind it," Kyo whispered as he got up to make his way across the room to shut the door. But he didn't exactly make it there.
His body being slammed to the floor, Kyo comprehended the fact that he had just been tackled! Yusuke was sitting on top of him fiddling with his gingery hair. "Get off! What the hell do you think you're doing!" he screamed as he struggled to free himself.
"So when were you going to tell me exactly what type of shop that really was? Because it sure as hell wasn't a normal pawn shop. I had to get some guy who called me 'Honey' to explain it to me."
"Karasu," Kyo stated knowingly with a slight smirk on his face.
"Yeah whatever. He was gorgeous, but not really my type. He's into bondage, I can tell. But he's gotta be the dominant one, if I had to guess."
"Gross…" Kyo mentally groaned as a vivid mental image came to him involving Karasu and leather whips and chains… lot of leather whips and chains.
"But I have to admit, it was nice to see that sexy ass come in… even if it's owner was a bit on the cold side," Yusuke said as if speaking to himself.
Kyo's ears perked up. There was only one ass he had heard Yusuke mention, and that belonged to one--
"Yuki Sohma. He came in to get some lube. Said some guy on the team needed it and he was the unlucky one who was supposed to buy it," Yusuke said while climbing off Kyo and planting himself on the over-sized bed. "But my bets are that it's for him. He seemed a bit nervous about the whole thing. Then, when I asked him what kinda he wanted, he nearly bit my head off. So I guess it was his first time, or his second maybe. Who knows… with a guy like that, who can really tell?"
Kyo, who had currently placed himself back in the desk chair laughed like a mad man. "Who would've thought? The Prince, Yuki Sohma, buying lube in an adult sex store! It'd make the front page in the daily newspaper! Ahhh…oh man! I just thought of something, Yusuke! How am I gonna be able to keep a straight face around him now? Now I have to face him everyday at soccer!"
Yusuke's face twisted in a mix of humor and realization. "That's right! Oh man! That'll be a riot!"
Kyo sat laughing softly for a few minutes before it dawned on him. "I could have so much fun with this. It would be the ultimate blackmail…"
As they both settled in for a few hours of sleep, both in the bed, for neither had anything against sleeping in the same bed, Kyo began brainstorming many different ways to use his knew knowledge to his advantage.
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Kyo jogged lazily to the soccer field the next day, gear in hand. He put on his equipment and started stretching before his run when he saw his target, and the only other person out there, walk by. Smirking, he stopped stretching and snuck up behind the solitary figure, daring to breathe right in his ear as he spoke.
"So, flavored or normal?"
Yuki Sohma's breath caught in his throat as the deep words reeled through his mind. "H-how d-d-did you--"
"Colored or clear?"
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Chapter 4 title: Secrets by Good Charlotte
--Fire-Arisa-Ice--
