Disclaimer: I do not own the Getbackers series. This was written purely for entertainment purposes and not profit.

Chapter 4:

He must have been careless. He must have made some mistake and let his hunger for Kazuki show in his face. In the snowy days of winter, when it was deathly cold outside and they were alone in the parlor with the softly glowing brazier, he must have loosened his grip on his carefully guarded love.

For Kazuki now looked at him differently, with eyes that warmed whenever he stepped into the room, with a tremulous and eager smile whenever he called Kazuki's name. It was as if whatever magic that set his blood racing and his heart pounding had refused to be contained any longer and infected Kazuki, creeping, like the flickering light, across the fire-warmed tatami to touch Kazuki with a tender finger.

As the snow piled calf-deep on the ground and clumped on the branches like the purest white flowers, Kazuki's bright, teasing glances were heated whenever he looked in Juubei's direction. He touched Juubei, not with the playfulness of a childhood friend, but with new, tentative desire. He took Juubei's arm as they stepped over the crunchy frost for their morning walks and leaned close so that the side of his mouth brushed Juubei's chin, dangerously close for a kiss. Whenever he passed Juubei a cup of tea from across the table, his fingers lingered on Juubei's hand and his reflection on the polished surface was smiling and coy.

Neither of them dared to even whisper of it. They danced around each other like the whirling snowflakes. They skirted each other like two lovers in a maze.

Juubei feared constantly that Lady Fuuchouin's cool, searching gaze would sweep the room and stop on his shamelessly smiling lips, on his eyes that were darkening with sinful love. He feared she would catch the tension in the air between him and her son, that she would sniff it out like a hound sniffs out a bleeding rabbit. He was afraid her face would pale with anger when she realized he was shamelessly, hopelessly in love with Kazuki, and that he would be sent from the Fuuchouin house in disgrace.

But most of all, he was afraid of the heat in Kazuki's eyes, as palpable as a caress. He was afraid of their combined passions. If it had been only his own futile love, Juubei could have kept it a secret forever. But when Kazuki bared his leg before the sweetly smoking brazier to "warm up" while smiling at Juubei with all the clumsy seduction of a teenager in love, Juubei felt his heart soar in ecstasy and plunge in terror.

Like wary predators, they circled each other, wanting each other, hungry for each other, and afraid. Juubei knew that the slightest push would send either of them over the edge. If he let his hand linger just a second too long on Kazuki's shoulder, if he stared just a minute longer at the fire lit highlights in Kazuki's hair, if he even brushed so much of a fingertip against the smooth softness of Kazuki's leg, he would not, could not stop himself from crossing the room and tumbling with Kazuki into a mess of kisses and sighs and quiet little moans.

When the air grew sweet and warm and the first shoots were poking their green heads out of the ground, Juubei often caught Kazuki sighing or gazing dazedly out the window. Sometimes, inexplicably, Kazuki would moan softly and grasp at his own hair or neck, as if he could hardly contain his growing sexuality.

From the soft brown hair of his head to the rosy nails of his toes, Kazuki was blooming with youth and loveliness. As the woods were slowly melting into a moist green spring, slowly growing aware of new life and new freshness, Kazuki was becoming aware of his growing, desiring body.

He had paled through the winter but the sunlight of spring warmed his complexion into a golden cream. He had handsome angles and hard muscles one month and then the soft curves of a young woman in the next. Like the unpredictable, gushing, changing, bursting river, Kazuki shifted and changed, but was always desirable and always desiring.

"The needle and string as one," he recited to Juubei as they stood together in the woods, during a secret training river water churning before them like a pot of soup. The touch of his hand on Juubei's wrist felt like a lover's touch. Juubei gave the plump mound of Kazuki's thumb a gentle squeeze.

"Thread the string through thy needle and tailor whatever will defeat your opponent," Kazuki whispered, eyes closed as if he was chanting a springtime spell, a prayer to the river. The warm puff of his breath on Juubei's cheek might have been the exhalation after a kiss.

"Are you ready, Juubei?" said Kazuki, stepping back and pinching a bell between two fingers. It twinkled in the springtime sun.

He took a breath and moved his arm in circular slash. The bell flashed gold and the string within tore the air as it lashed out, quicker than an arrow.

Juubei exhaled sharply and drew two needles from his wristband. The string came towards him like a cutting wave and he caught it at its crest, bringing it down and throwing himself into the dance of the Needle-String Harmony.

The next attack came like a razor-sharp net, four strings at once arcing over his head to trap him like a fish. He sidestepped and drew two more needles, crossing them in his palm and threading the strings as lightly as if he were lifting stitches from cloth. With a turn of the wrist, both arms bending, he drew the strings about himself like a current. They were under his control. He could tailor all five of them to break a boulder, or shear a single blade of grass.

"Oh, very good!" Kazuki called, his laughter tinkling as bright and golden as his bells.

Distracted, Juubei missed a step and one of the strings left the flow of its current and whipped towards him. He gasped as it struck him below the eye and left a burning, bleeding gash. He recoiled immediately. The needles fell from his hands and the strings shuddered briefly before cascading to the ground like fallen water.

"Oh, no! Juubei, your face!" Kazuki cried out, and came rushing towards him. With both hands on Juubei's shoulders, Kazuki leaned up to peer at the wound. Juubei's breath hitched. They were close enough to kiss. If a passing disciple saw them, with Kazuki up against Juubei, whose face was flushed as red as blood, he would think that they had beenkissing.

"It's nothing," Juubei said. "It's just a scratch."

"It's all my fault!" said Kazuki. "I'm the one who insisted on perfecting the technique. I'm so sorry, Juubei."

"No, it's my own fault for being clumsy," said Juubei. He felt a trickle of blood run down his cheek like a tear and he swiped at it with his fingers. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I'm not good enough yet. How can I protect you when I'm not good enough?"

"Oh, don't be like that," Kazuki said softly, lowering his lashes on a frown. "You're always too hard on yourself." He reached for his handkerchief but Juubei gently stopped his hand.

"Don't," he said. "You'll stain it and your mother will see, and she'll know that we've been training without supervision." He pulled back, too late, when he realized that his own fingers were bloody and that he left a streak of his blood on the back of his friend's hand. "I'm sor-"

The apology wavered when Juubei saw the look on Kazuki's face.

Kazuki's mouth was pursed into an "o." His half-lidded eyes were fixed on the smear, red against the fair skin. "It's alright," he whispered, as if in a trance. "It's just blood." Heated brown eyes raked a path from the stained hand up to Juubei's eyes, then to the side of his face where the blood still oozed in little droplets. "Your blood."

Like a kitten laps at a cream-soaked paw, Kazuki raised his hand and flicked out his tongue to taste the bitter, salty blood. Juubei stared, transfixed. He could feel his pulse pounding in his wrists and against the veins of his neck. He could feel the wound on his cheek throbbing wildly.

"Your blood," Kazuki whispered again. He raised himself on his toes and pressed the length of his body against Juubei. His mouth found the beading wound as a butterfly finds nectar.

Juubei breathed shakily when he felt Kazuki gently kiss his cheek. He could feel Kazuki's slim hip through the layers of cloth, shifting against his groin. He groaned aloud at the sting of Kazuki's hot tongue swiping across the wound.

"Kazuki, no!" he protested. "That's a nasty thing to do."

With both hands, Juubei pushed down on Kazuki's shoulders and set his heels on the ground with a little thump. They froze together, Kazuki held off at arm's length and gazing hungrily, desperately up at Juubei . Like a little vampire, Kazuki licked at his lips, top and bottom, with two quick swipes. His body was as taut as a bowstring under Juubei's hands. He said very quietly, very lowly, "Oh, Juubei," and Juubei could hear the roll of lust deep in Kazuki's throat.

Juubei groaned again, as if the string had gone straight through his heart, and his hands slackened around Kazuki's shoulders. At once, Kazuki surged up against his chest and threw both arms around his neck. He tilted his face up and kissed Juubei's mouth.

Juubei found his arms wound tight around Kazuki, his hands gripping Kazuki's back, feeling the heat of his body through the clothes, feeling the straining of his muscles as Kazuki writhed against him.

Recklessly, Kazuki opened his mouth. He jerked back like a scalded child when he felt Juubei's tongue and whimpered in surprise. His parted lips were moist and red. His blinking eyes were dazed.

"Kazuki," Juubei said thickly.

And it was Kazuki who leaned forward and found Juubei's mouth again. He poked his tongue at Juubei's lips like an inquisitive poker delving into a glowing fire. It was sweeter than Juubei could have imagined. It was hot and sweet and overwhelming and Juubei knew it had to stop.

"Nnnh… no," he gasped out and pulled away. He took Kazuki's arms from around his neck and pushed his panting friend away, holding him back like he would a wild beast. "You mustn't. You mustn't do such a thing."

He gave Kazuki a little shake and Kazuki stared back at him, bewildered and dizzy. "But…" he protested thinly. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment and he rubbed his cheek against one of Juubei's hands. "But Juubei, I think I… I think I…"

I think I love you, Juubei read from Kazuki's lips, from his heaving chest and hot, flushed face, from the blood that was thrumming against his fair neck like a drum of desire. I know, I know, he replied in his mind. I love you too. But we can't be free to love each other. We aren't like the birds of the sky, who can love and mate and soar through the air as they please.

"It's just spring fever," he said instead. He forced his lips into a foolish smile. "The air is sweet and it's gone and muddled your brain. It's just spring fever."

"Spring fever?" Kazuki repeated.

"Yes," Juubei laughed. "It's nothing. Just a passing madness. I feel it too, sometimes, when the sun is bright and the flowers are pretty. Don't worry about it, Kazuki. It happens to everyone around this season." The words burned his throat as he spoke them and sounded black, like betrayal.

"Oh. I… I see," Kazuki said awkwardly. "Spring fever." He imitated Juubei's false, careless laughter. "Well," he said, shaking his head, "I feel embarrassed now. You really must forgive me."

"It's alright," Juubei said quickly. "Let's just forget about it."

"Yes," said Kazuki. He rubbed the blush on his cheeks with the back of his hand. "Come on, Juubei. Let's go. We can pick some flowers and we'll pot them when we get home. Then we'll have some tea and sweet cakes and we'll forget this ever happened, alright?"

"Certainly," said Juubei.

They didn't hold hands as they walked away from the river. They didn't dare to touch. Juubei's heart pounded with each step he took and his stomach churned with discomfort, as if his very blood was rebelling against him, as if his body was punishing him for denying a love that was so sweet and natural.

Kazuki stopped to pick a handful of yellow flowers. He sniffed at the pale, powdery centers and giggled when his nose tickled. It started drizzling and Kazuki threw his head back in the warm rain. He opened his mouth wide and drank, gasping, to quench a need that was greater than thirst.

X

I had an urge to continue this series, so… hope you liked this chapter!