The Fox and the Lion
By Scarlet Tigress
Chapter 4
As much as Watanuki craved time to himself to think about his feelings, he and Doumeki were constantly together. Despite the archer's cool personality, Watanuki never felt as if he could focus around the other boy and he desperately needed to figure out what was going on, both between them and inside of himself. The seer hesitated to ask Doumeki for space, afraid that the archer would interpret his request as a form of insecurity or regret. The seer did not regret kissing Doumeki at all, it had been the most amazing thing he had ever done and yet he was still unsure about what their relationship really was. Watanuki figured that since he had been the one to kiss the stoic boy, it was his own fault if he felt uneasy and bore the feelings with silence. After all, he could have ignored Haruka and gone on as before, oblivious to Doumeki's feelings. Unfortunately, Doumeki was not the problem. The problem was with Watanuki himself. Since their kiss, he felt as if a deep, aching shiver had settled itself right beneath his skin and being around Doumeki only made it worse. The seer found that he could not do homework or even help with the temple chores without thinking about the kiss. The heat that he had felt when touching Doumeki, the pleasure of the archer's lips, were ever present in his thoughts. Watanuki had never felt such desire for anyone before and while he craved to reach out to Doumeki once again, the seer was afraid. He was afraid that he would lose himself in that kind of passion and never be able find his way back. Watanuki was not sure what he should do or what was even appropriate. The idea of making love to a woman was nerve wracking enough, but with a man he knew there would almost certainly be pain for somebody.
It was impossible not to notice, even without Haruka's help, that Doumeki wanted (and now expected) intimacy. Watanuki had thought that fear and arousal were mutually exclusive emotions, but he was coming to discover that that was not the case. From what he had heard from whispered conversations and various books, the experience could be…well…rather brutal. The kiss had shown Watanuki that his own feelings were competitive and very aggressive, as well as affectionate. Even an impassioned kiss had left him stunned and bleeding, what would something more be like? Doumeki was just as eager and just as rough as he, maybe even more so. Watanuki chewed his lip, his mind filled with carnal longing and instinctual trepidation. The mathematics before him could have gotten up and walked off the page for all he would have noticed. Watanuki really wished he could talk to Yuko. Whatever her price might be, he really wanted her help. Suddenly, as if the witch had been listening to Watanuki's private thoughts, the telephone in the kitchen rang. He could tell from the formal timbre of Doumeki's voice that Yuko was on the other line. Quick as a fox, the seer discarded his homework and dashed into the kitchen, where Doumeki was already preparing to hand him the phone.
"Yuko-san?" The boy said breathlessly.
"Watanuki-kun? How was the kiss? Tell me everything!" The witch sang merrily over the crackling line. Watanuki felt a dark blush crawl up his cheeks. Was there anything that damn woman didn't know?
"I…it…why the hell should I tell you?" Watanuki snarled, "Of all the impudent and indecent things to ask anyway! Why do you even care?"
"Now, that's very rude. After all, I was only calling in the interest of your romantic well-being…" She practically purred over the vast distance.
"Yeah, and to dig up as many juicy and embarrassing details as possible." Watanuki said, rolling his eyes.
"Of course! I am on a very long trip and one is bound to get bored in transit. Now, tell Doumeki to leave as I have a few little things to talk to you about personally." Yuko said, her voice still low and sultry, as if sharing a very dirty secret. Watanuki felt, for the first time that day, as if he wanted to keep Doumeki there in the room. However, Yuko probably had all sorts of embarrassing things to discuss and so Watanuki waved the archer out of the kitchen.
"So, what do you need to tell me?" The seer asked apprehensively.
"First, that sex among men is not the same as it is between men and women and probably not the same for you and Doumeki as it is for other couples. You have to be careful, or you could get hurt. Take your time and use lots of lubricant." The witch said nonchalantly as if discussing the weather. Watanuki felt his blood pressure spike.
"I…I…It's not like I am just going to jump into bed this second you know! What, just because we kissed instantly makes us…What ever it is when people have sex? Besides, I am only seventeen and I only just had my first kiss and…" Watanuki tried to explain, but somehow just ended up feeling awkward.
"That was your first kiss? How cute!" She trilled. Watanuki felt his heart sink. Great, now she knew that juicy little tidbit too.
"Yuko-san, men are not cute." Watanuki asserted dryly.
"Cuteness is all about perspective, but it is true that men are not always cute. Sometimes they are…very rough." The witch's voice became suddenly very serious. Watanuki gulped.
"H..H..How?" The seer asked, suddenly very much aware of the cut on his hand.
"Sometimes, especially when men come to know each other as you and Doumeki do, it is hard to know how to behave. You both feel strongly for each other and care about each other's happiness, but you instinctually struggle for dominance. When a man is with a woman, it is easier for him to know how to behave since he instinctually feels the need to protect her. With you and Doumeki, you struggle to protect each other and yet, in doing so, sometimes undo the other's efforts. When you took the spider's curse from Doumeki's eye onto your own, you felt that you were protecting him. Yet, he was angered by this and gave up his eye once again to protect you. What you boys have between you is not an easy kind of love and not one that is well understood." The witch said, with a small sigh.
"I…don't know if I understand, are you telling me that we are incompatible? I thought you were the one that said we were? This whole mess is your fault anyway for telling me to come over here!" Watanuki snapped in frustration. Trust Yuko to be completely unhelpful.
"No. You are compatible. However, you are not compatible like a sword is with its sheath… but more like how an arrow is with a bow. Both pieces are worthless separately and yet they are each very much separate things. The bow and the arrow interact to produce a powerful effect, but when they touch there is tension and physical strain. Additionally, a bow and an arrow each have their own sheaths." Yuko said, her voice very calm and somewhat condescending.
"Uh…okay." Watanuki said feeling annoyed, but also a bit unnerved. The witch did have a funny way of making sense out of otherwise completely incomprehensible situations.
"Besides, your little romantic conflict will have to wait. We have bigger problems. Much bigger." Yuko said, her voice growing slightly cold.
"The miasma. Do you know what is causing it?" Watanuki asked, suddenly dead serious.
"Perhaps. In the mean time, tell Maru and Moro to stay within the inner rooms of the shop and stay in contact with Mokona. I will be home in two days time. Stay with Doumeki and please do not leave the temple." The witch instructed. She sounded almost…distracted.
"What about school?" Watanuki asked, feeling panic begin to seep into him. How would he keep up if he had to stay home for two more days?
"Tomorrow is Friday." Yuko said, as if that was the answer to everything.
"Fine. I guess one more day off will be okay, but do I have to stay here?" Watanuki whined.
"What? Is the company not…appealing?" Yuko said, her voice mischievous. Watanuki flushed.
"Sure…I mean no, but…I mean. What if he…and I…I mean…What if…Will it hurt?" The seer blurted out without thinking and slapped his forehead. Why was it he always told Yuko exactly what he was thinking? Perhaps he was cursed. In fact, he was sure he was cursed.
"Yes, maybe a little. Maybe even a lot, but that is all up to you. Follow your instincts, but don't be overwhelmed by them. Take your time. Besides, the pleasure is far more intense than the pain. It's worth it." She said with a giggle. Watanuki did not think it was very funny.
"I do not know what to do. I just want some space." Watanuki said with a sigh of defeat, his voice shaking.
"Is that a wish?" The dimensional witch asked.
"NO! Just…Ahhh!" Watanuki shouted waving his arms.
"Just embrace your inner nature and yet try to be firmly in control of it. Doumeki will have to struggle to do the same. By the way, tell Doumeki his parents are stuck in Okinawa due to weather and will probably call soon. Guess you two will have the place to yourselves a bit longer…hehe. Oops! Gotta go! Have fun!" Yuko said cheerily and the phone went dead.
Watanuki sighed and hung up the phone more forcefully than he had meant to. Doumeki poked his head into the kitchen at the sound of the telephone being slammed into its cradle. His amber eyes were warm with stifled amusement. Watanuki frowned. Of all the people in the universe to have romantic angst over, why someone who thought the whole damn thing was funny!
"What are you looking at? Don't you have…temple chores or something?" Watanuki snapped.
"No." Doumeki said passively, leaning against the doorframe.
"Well! We both decided to stay home from school so isn't there anything to do other than stare at me you lazy…delinquent!" Watanuki practically snarled.
"I have a few ideas…" Doumeki said with the barest hint of a smirk. A furious red blush bloomed on Watanuki's face.
"I…um…well…" The seer muttered, struggling for composure. Doumeki leaned toward him, the warmth in his eyes growing less mirthful and more sensual.
With a jolt, Watanuki realized his own body was responding to Doumeki's closeness, coaxing him to look…and to touch. Heat crept from his face lower, spreading through his belly and filling his groin as electric fire pounded through his brain. He gasped in surprise, but the noise was almost a throaty sigh. The archer's body responded to that forbidden sound, filling him with hot need even as burning blood swept through his unprepared organ. He was growing hard, despite the fact that Watanuki had only produced that one singular sigh of lust. Doumeki, eyes like molten brass, reached a slow hand out to cup the seer's blushing face and slowly stroked his thumb over the boys trembling lips. Watanuki backed away a step, uncertain eyes flickering to Doumeki's golden stare, but he did not retreat far. Like a cornered fox, uncertain of whether to attack or retreat, Watanuki lowered his stance into an almost defensive posture. Doumeki paused. There was heat growing in the seer's strange heterochromatic eyes, but the boy's stance was too uncertain…almost fearful. With a chill, Doumeki realized that the pale boy's resistant body language aroused him even more. Something deep in his soul had awoken, filling the archer with aching desire that was both dominating, possessive, protective and ruthless. The urge to step forward and capture Watanuki's lips, to make the seer submit to his desires despite his friend's feelings raged inside Doumeki like a volcano. Doumeki wanted to claim the seer…brand him, mark him, own him at any cost so that nothing would ever touch that porcelain flesh, but his own hands.
In a movement as fluid and swift as a pouncing lion, Doumeki thrust his right leg between Watanuki's thighs and pressed the smaller boy against the counter behind them. Startled the seer raised an arm to push the larger boy away, but found his wrist trapped in the steel embrace of the archer's right hand. His effort frustrated, Watanuki felt something close to panic and yet more like rage, fill his mind along with the still blossoming desire. The seer made a noise deep in his throat that was both a snarl and a purr, a sound that spoke of passion and of resistance. The archer forced Watanuki's trapped hand to the counter's surface, where he could hold the slender boy with his weight instead of his strength. The seer's other hand fumbled at Doumeki's shoulder, uncertain whether to push the other boy away or hold him closer. Watanuki glared at Doumeki, but there was longing in his gaze as well as frustration. The seer warred with himself between giving into the rising tide of passion and protecting himself against possible attack.
"Let me go." The smaller boy hissed, his cobalt and tawny eyes hot and clear.
"Do you really want me to?" Doumeki asked, pressing his thigh against the seer's swelling erection. Watanuki gasped, his hand clenching in the archer's solid grip as the ecstasy of the delicate friction filled his body.
"I…I want to think." The seer panted, his warm breath tickling Doumeki's hovering mouth.
"Think then…" The archer said as he moved his face from Watanuki's eyes to devour the elegant curves of the boy's neck.
With deliberate slowness, the archer moved his blushing lips to rest against the edge of the seer's collar bone. The skin was smoother and perfectly white and Doumeki could not help, but groan with longing. His mouth moved on the slip of exposed flesh, gently nipping and sucking at the seer's creamy skin. Beneath him, Watanuki shivered in pleasure and the archer could feel that the seer's bulging erection was just as hard as his own. Slowly, he trailed his eager tongue up to lap the long cords of muscle trembling in the other boys neck. A slow, tortured moan escaped with the air rushing from Watanuki's lips as the other boy swelled noticeably beneath Doumeki's thigh. Doumeki surrendered to his building passion, kissing Watanuki's exposed throat and moaning softly against his skin. He inhaled deeply of the seer's strange, but addictive pine and vanilla essence. Without any kind of conscious will, Watanuki tilted his head, giving the archer more room to devour his neck. Doumeki purred appreciatively, deep in his chest and continued to trail his hot, moist tongue over the smooth skin. The archer could feel Watanuki's heartbeat quickening beneath his demanding lips and he turned his head, sucking on Watanuki's pulse just in front of the boy's ear. The seer bucked in his arms, shocked by the fiery jolt of sensation the gesture aroused.
Acting on instinct, Doumeki ground his thigh against the other boy's erection feeling his own body respond to the intimate contact. Watanuki gasped and felt his hips flex of their own accord, driving his own eager body again the hard musculature of Doumeki's leg. The seer knew that he had lost control; that his emotions and instincts were driving him into the heat, leaving his mind behind. The smell of the archer was enticing, bold and yet subtle incense and sea salt churning with the musky odor of Doumeki's arousal. Doumeki set his teeth suggestively against the curve of Watanuki's throat, firmly gripping the skin and muscles at the base of Watanuki's neck. Watanuki's hand tangled in the soft fabric of Doumeki's temple kimono, pulling the simple shirt and exposing the other boy's tan shoulder. The action was erotic and aggressive, defensive and yet carnal. A deep, husky snarl erupted from the seer's chest as Watanuki turned to sink his own jaws into the thick muscle of Doumeki's shoulder. Watanuki could taste the salty sweat and lingering incense clinging to that archer's skin as he flicked his tongue tentatively against the captured flesh. The larger boy purred against the seer's neck, his own teeth vibrating with the noise against Watanuki's throat.
Doumeki deftly slid the fingers of his free hand into the opening of Watanuki's borrowed shirt, spreading the fabric wide while trapping the seer's arm in the cloth. He released his teeth from Watanuki's neck only to trail burning kisses down the boy's pale chest. The seer delicately sucked Doumeki's shoulder, running his tongue along the bulging muscles. The curves of the archer's body enticed him, filled him with want and hot arousal. The archer's tongue brushed the other boy's already firm nipple, noting its enticing pink hue and smoothing warmth over the eager nub. Watanuki jerked against Doumeki, only to find himself firmly pinned against the counter. Shocked into conscious thought by the pounding intensity of sensation erupting from Doumeki's mouth on his nipple, the seer hesitated. He could almost hear Yuko's words of caution ringing in his head.
"W..Wait…" Watanuki panted.
"I have…so long…" Doumeki moaned against his chest, sucking his nipple and slowly moving to place a hand over Watanuki's straining organ. The seer gasped again at the erotic touch.
"No…to fast…to fast." Watanuki managed to croak between ragged breaths, but Doumeki was not listening.
The archer's larger hand closed to cup Watanuki's hardened shaft through the soft fabric of his pants, rubbing his fingers over the sensitive area. The seer moaned against the other boy's neck as his hips pressed against Doumeki's bold hand. The archer sighed low in his throat as he tongued and sucked the seer's tender nipple, all the while massaging the other boy's sex. Watanuki felt his mind begin to release his thoughts into the void. So easy to simply give into the heat and forget about everything else but the feeling of the archer's body against his own. Watanuki almost wanted to forget and just let himself submit to Doumeki's demands…completely. Watanuki finally turned his mouth to press a hot kiss against Doumeki's neck, sucking and probing the warm flesh.
His arousal was aching, begging for release. The phone rang, startling both boys.
"Hmm…ignore it." Doumeki whispered, his eyes still hot with want.
"It's your parents. Let me go." Watanuki gasped, his head slowly clearing. Doumeki hesitated.
"They'll call back." He said, but his voice was uncertain. The phone rang insistently.
"They are stuck in Okinawa…you better talk to them. Besides, I…I need a minute." The seer said, surprised at the coolness of his own words.
His mind was darting in circles, fighting against the urge to simply seize Doumeki and continue. Still it wasn't right. It was not something he wanted to rush this way. Doumeki, with a frustrated sigh, released his prey and practically stalked to the telephone. Watanuki heaved a deep breath in both relief and disappointment. At least he would get a bit more time to sort through his mind, without worrying about the irresistible commands of his body. His muscles seemed to go weak and the seer slowly slid down against the counter to sit breathlessly on the floor. Two more days. Could he resist for two more days? Should he? Yuko had said to take his time, but what if later he regretted waiting. A sharp sting caught his attention and Watanuki gingerly reached up to press his fingers against the bruise already forming on his neck from Doumeki's teeth. Glancing at the still half dressed archer, Watanuki could see a similar bruise forming on his shoulder and a chill formed in his gut. No. Whatever was happening between them was too hot, too fast and too primal to be taken lightly. The witch was right, he would have to try to slow the pace.
"Konichiwa." Doumeki practically snarled into the telephone.