Thank you so much for your support! I'm sorry it takes so long. Somebody asked for how they acted outside of the consulting room, and I delivered.
Kuroko no Basuke is not mine. I do not make any profit from this.
They had been down the countryside all day. The Akashis had owned an old farm which stretched acres and acres, a wide expanse of green fields and yellow hays and tall, haunted barns. They had cows and sheep and horses and pigs. The pigs were mostly for slaughter. The cows were for milking, and the sheep was for their fur. The horses were domesticated; their stables open for public who wanted to take riding lessons. By the stables there was a track for the beginners. There was a trail all over the farm, leading into the forest right behind it, which was welcomed for whomever already adept in horseback riding. Akashi visited the place once a month. He took Kuroko there a long time ago, but even though Kuroko certainly loved brushing the horses, he didn't take to riding like Akashi did.
Today Akashi took Kuroko down to the stables again. He forced the other to take riding lessons from the man who taught Akashi when he was little. Kuroko managed a trot on his own by his sheer stubbornness and desire to please Akashi—and mostly because he wanted to go home. Only after he did a circle around the track Akashi was satisfied. They were finished right by twilight.
Now the insides of his thighs were red—the horse he rode, Ryoma, was too wide for him to sit comfortably—and his hip ached like he had just fallen and twisted something in his side. It didn't hurt this much when he was actually riding the horse, but now when he was getting ready for bed, all exhaustion just suddenly hit his bones, not unlike a tower of sand teetering on falling for a long time finally crumbled because the slightest wind knocked.
Kuroko staggered to bed. Akashi was waiting with his nose deep in a book, like he always did. After Kuroko slipped under the covers Akashi put his book aside and kissed him.
"You did very well today," he said. His left hand was caressing Kuroko's stomach over the blanket. When he reached Kuroko's thighs the other moaned in discomfort.
"I'm actually aching all over, Seijuro-kun," confessed Kuroko. "I will appreciate it very much if Seijuro-kun keeps his hands to himself, because if he continues I fear I won't be able to walk for a week."
That was the wrong thing to say, since Akashi's eyes lit up with the idea. Suddenly Kuroko understood why Akashi was adamant in him taking the horseback riding lesson.
"I can give you a massage," offered Akashi.
Kuroko's eyebrows lifted subtly. "A massage," he repeated.
"Why so suspicious, Tetsuya, I'm hurt," said Akashi. Kuroko had all the rights to be suspicious. Especially after he knew the full extent of what Akashi would like to do him.
("If only I could skin him, little by little, so that I could see him truly bare," said Akashi several sessions ago.
"That sounds like it would hurt, Akashi-san," Kuroko pointed out calmly, as if the other hadn't just confessed he'd like to take his skin off his flesh.
"My lover gets under my skin, while I don't get to his. He always seems unflappable. A mystery box, locked from inside, and there is no key. I feel like the only way to get him closer to me is to take things into their literal meanings.")
Even though Kuroko hadn't exactly accepted the offer, the redhead had already rummaged their bedside table for a bottle of oil. Akashi kept olive oil there for his dry skin in winter.
But there were two bottles in Akashi's hand. Kuroko couldn't recognize the smaller bottle.
"It's eucalyptus oil," Akashi answered Kuroko's questioning gaze. "You will find it very agreeable on your sore spots, Tetsuya."
Kuroko didn't believe the other man for an ounce. "Seijuro-kun, I'm really hurting all over."
"Does it hurt more than that time I tied you to the bed post for three days?"
Face flaming with the memory, Kuroko shook his head. That was from Before—before their game of psychiatrist and patient started. Kuroko didn't feel safe so helpless under Akashi's mercy anymore, and it felt like Akashi didn't trust himself either to try something like that again.
(Because he'd lose control and do something Kuroko wouldn't have liked.)
Lately, the line between Akashi-san the patient and Seijuro-kun the lover had blurred, like jagged edges forcing to fit each other.
Or maybe Kuroko should try harder to compartmentalize. That was what Akashi asked him to, because he wanted nothing to change between them even after Kuroko knew. Maybe Kuroko was imagining things.
Kuroko should have known from the start—even without his psychology degree—that their arrangement was a bad idea.
"No, but…"
"Don't worry your pretty little head, eucalyptus oil isn't a fancy lubricant as you're terrified of," Akashi laughed. "Turn over for me, darling."
That Akashi said as he was tugging down the covers. Kuroko took the aforementioned oil and opened the cap. It smelled spicy. His nose felt clear after he sniffed it.
Akashi only smiled indulgently at Kuroko's act of blatant mistrust. Running out of reasons to refuse, Kuroko turned to lie on his stomach. Akashi's palm was a hot brand on the back of his right thigh, and it felt good against his strained muscles.
"You should take your clothes off, Tetsuya."
"Mmm," answered Kuroko. Akashi had started massaging his lower back under his shirt. His hands were slick with oil. The eucalyptus oil burned on his skin, but it was a good burn. In any second Kuroko was going to melt to a puddle of goo and drip onto the mattress; that was how good it was. After several minutes Akashi suddenly stopped.
"Clothes off," he tutted. He tugged on Kuroko's boxers. "Lift your hips up for me."
That took some effort to do. Kuroko voiced his protest in a groan as he did what Akashi asked him to do. The boxers only got as low as his knees, before Kuroko buckled and crumbled to the mattress.
"Your thighs look very sore indeed," Akashi noted absently. His hands landed on the back of Kuroko's thighs, pressing slowly. His tone contained some odd cadence Kuroko should recognize as a warning, but he was already too far gone under Akashi's ministration. "You'll probably find it bruised by tomorrow morning, Tetsuya."
The hands continued roaming low, testing each dip and knot. At one point a finger slipped between the cleft of Kuroko's ass, too deliberate to be incidental. Kuroko's head lolled to his shoulder. There was a warm puff of breath on his nape- and then out of the blue Akashi squeezed with a brutality—and none of the cruel innocence—one might expect from a child who found delights on strangling the life out of his pet. Kuroko arched off the bed from the unexpected pain: his aching flesh pulsed like the tired beats of an old train, an open war wound. Akashi's grip didn't lessen until Kuroko reached back and touched his wrist.
"Seijuro-kun," Kuroko pled. There were unshed tears in his eyes. "Gently, please."
Akashi blinked. "I'm sorry," he said, but he didn't sound sorry at all. "But you'll heal faster this way, Tetsuya."
Kuroko heard a grain of truth in the sentence, but he knew the real reason behind Akashi's act.
Akashi was pushing at the boundaries.
("I'd like to pick him apart. Break him. Then I would lick his wounds, one by one. Taste his blood on my tongue. I don't know how to make his life fully mine, Sensei, and that seems to be the only way to do that.")
He was trying to confuse Kuroko between Akashi the patient and Seijuro the lover. He'd push and push and catch Kuroko off-guard and Kuroko was afraid that before he knew he wouldn't be able to tell them apart. He'd accept Akashi the patient and things he wanted to do to him and perhaps one day he'd come to crave that violence Akashi offered. The dam was already cracking in places, and soon it would break and Kuroko would be swept under the torrent. Kuroko could see himself drowning in the waves and- and loving every second of it. That was what Kuroko feared most: loving what he shouldn't have loved. Their relationship was a sin from the start, but it was too late to stop, now. Akashi wouldn't let him- stop, anyway.
Akashi had dealt his cards. He would play, and he would come out a victor. Kuroko wasn't sure he could beat a man who always won his wars.
Criticism, feedback, suggestions are always welcomed. Don't be shy asking for what you want to see from their dynamics. I truly had fun writing this.