Never Never Land Part 3
A Viewfinder Fanfic

Huang was in the room he was recuperating in. Despite the bandage wrapped around his chest, he was doing push ups. Mikhail would have rolled his eyes at the sheer stupidity of exercising before fully recovering, if it hadn't presented such an enticing picture. Muscles flexing, perspiration make a light sheen on his skin. He looked away, taking a deep breath to cool the heat beginning to coil in his lower body. He was here to talk business. Pleasure would have to wait. He cleared his throat.

"I'm almost done." Huang assured him smoothly, not even sounding worn out.

Mikhail crossed his arms, looking back at Huang. "You do realize most would drop what they're doing when I come calling. I'm a dangerous man when displeased, Huang."

Huang did two more push ups before standing and picking up a towel from the nightstand to pat himself dry with. "Does the sight before you...displease you?" He looked over at him with a smirk.

Mikhail felt a smirk curl his own lips. "Certainly not."

"Then why make me stop? One should always partake of pleasures while they can." He propped one arm against the bedpost - eyes smoldering with heat. The invitation was more than obvious.

'Business, Mikhail.' He lectured himself silently. "I was just visited by members of the Daoyun."

"Ah." Huang straightened. "So this is a business call? Let me guess, they wanted you to hand me over to their care."

"They said we hadn't had any negative dealings in the past, so they asked for me to comply with their request. A stretch, really, considering we hadn't had any dealings in the past. I told them they'd have to sweeten the deal to garner my interest."

"And did they?"

"They were lackeys. They didn't have the authority."

"I see. And what will you do if they come back with an offer?"

"That would depend on the offer, wouldn't it?" Mikhail replied, leaning back against the dresser.

"I see." Huang moved forward to stand beside him, leaning one hand on the dresser. "So...I should make a counter offer?"

"What could you possibly have to offer?" He glanced over, smirking again.

"You may be surprised at what I can offer." Huang's words were a heated whisper.

With an effort, Mikhail focused on what was in front of him. It was the bed, which didn't help his thoughts flow in the right direction at all. He kept talking, ignoring Huang's advances. "Their visit was followed by one by a member of your family. Due to our lack of dealings in the past, they expressed concern for you welfare in my care."

"What did you tell them?"

"That you were as safe in my care as you wished to be."

Huang leaned closer, his breath hot on his ear. "But what if I don't want to be safe in your care, Mikhail?" His lips curled around the curve of his ear, suckling.

Mikhail pulled away, placing a hand against Huang's shoulder and pushing him back a step. "Pleasure is fleeting. Power lasts a lifetime." His father's mantra. Words he'd grown up hearing. Drummed into his ear time and gain.

"You already have power, why deny yourself pleasure?"

The counter words made him freeze. They were practically his own thoughts spoken to him. The objection he'd never dared voice aloud. Seeing his hesitation, Huang took ahold of the hand on his shoulder and brought his palm to his mouth. He grazed it with his teeth, then followed the path with lips and tongue.

A repeated action from a long ago memory. Their interrupted night of passion from their youth. If pleasure was fleeting, why was Huang's touch burned into his memory? Why did he still have this effect on him?

"Shall I take your silence for agreement?" Huang murmured into his skin, lips moving up to his wrist. "For consent?" He nuzzled against his pulse.

"You think me so easily seduced?" Mikhail went to pull his hand back, but Huang held to it tightly.

"It is you who have seduced me." He countered. "A look sets me on fire...a touch burns me to the core." He placed the captured hand on his chest, over his heart, which was pounding hard against his ribcage already. "Do you feel my excitement?"

"Excitement, is it?" Mikhail's tone was mocking. Slowly he dragged his hand downward, letting his fingers dance over Huang's bare skin. The other man met his gaze - naked lust in his eyes.

"You want me, Mikhail. I know you do."

"I know you want me. Have you spent even a moment of your time here on a thought that didn't involve getting me into your bed?"

"Oh, a great deal more time on what I'd do to you in my bed than how to get you there."

Mikhail yanked his hand back with a frown. "So confident you could get me there, were you?"

"Yes."

"Don't underestimate me, Huang."

"Tell me to leave then."

Mikhail's eyes narrowed, but the other had called his bluff. "Why do the Daoyun want you?"

Huang growled in frustration. "Because any dead Haifeng makes it a war. Are you satisfied?"

"Not truly."

"Mikhail. I am going to close that door and lock it. Then I am going to drag you onto that bed and fuck you until you come screaming my name. Do you truly intend to object?"

"Huang, stop making promises..." Reaching out a hand, Mikhail grasped the back of his neck and dragged him into a kiss. Their tongues tangled as Huang pressed him against the dresser, rubbing their bodies against each other. "...unless you intend to keep them."

Huang broke them apart with one final brush of his lips against his. "I fully intend to keep every one of my promises to you, Mikhail."

Words. They were just words. He had a life littered with broken oaths and empty words. They meant nothing. He couldn't afford to believe otherwise. He waited by the dresser, watching as Huang closed and locked the door before returning to stand in front of him.

"If you don't want this, tell me to stop now."

Mikhail exhaled in frustration. "If I didn't want this, do you think you'd still have a room at my hotel? After. Three. Days. In all honesty, you've been remarkably slow on the uptake."

Huang smirked at that. "In my defense, I was badly injured."

"As a rule, I don't accept excuses, but I suppose I'll let it slide...if you make it worth my while."

Huang chuckled, then dragged him into another kiss. He took control of it this time, tongue seizing control of his mouth - exploring every crevice. He teased the invading muscle with his own, sliding against it briefly only to dodge away when he sought more touch. A slight growl and their teeth clacked as Huang forcefully rubbed their tongues together. Lost in the kiss, he hadn't even realized he'd been guiding him to the bed until his back hit the sheets.

Mikhail didn't object to Huang taking control. It had been a few years since his last male lover. He didn't really care about gender himself. Pleasure was pleasure to him. But it had just been too much of a bother with Yuri around.

Of the two male lovers he'd kept long enough to bring to the hotel, one had ended up hospitalized and the other dead. He'd punished Yuri both times, but it had been easier to just stick to women anywhere his uncle was. As he had been his second, he was rarely someplace he wasn't, so even flings with male lovers had grown more and more rare as the years passed.

He'd never considered the idea that he'd been letting Yuri's presence control that aspect of his life. Surely, that wasn't the case. Nobody controlled him. And yet...

Here he was, so suddenly taking a male lover again now that Yuri was gone. And not just any male, but the very one who might have been his first had Yuri not interrupted. Sometimes he wondered if he should dare believe in fate.

"You're a million miles away, Mikhail." Huang's murmur drew him out of his memories.

"Mn...do you believe in fate?"

"Fate?" Huang's tone was curious as he leaned down to unbutton his shirt with his teeth.

"For us to meet again. Now. Not sooner; not later. Now. Could that truly be coincidence?"

Huang's lips worked their way back up the planes of his stomach and chest, bared now by the unbuttoned shirt. "Meeting you now..." His voice was thoughtful. "Meeting you now must be fate." He capturing his lips in another kiss, then lowered his body to press into his. He couldn't suppress a moan at the sensation. It was too sinuous to call it rutting. Huang undulated his body against his, stroking in a way he'd always associated with hands, not bodies.

When Huang sat up, he grabbed his arm, and pulled - twisting his body so he could straddle him. He looked up with him with more excitement than concern. He kissed him, dragging his nails down his chest and stomach. They were short, but groomed and he dug them in slightly - leaving marks in his wake. Huang moaned into the kiss, hands reaching up to entangle in his hair. Breaking the kiss he trailed his lips up his jaw to his ear, nibbling and suckling at it, before turning the same attention to his neck and collarbone.

"First claws, now teeth. If you intend to eat me, I can think of where I'd want you to start." Huang's voice was low with desire.

"I thought you promised to fuck me. Didn't you say you'd keep your promises to me?"

"I did." He released his grip on his hair. "I want to know all your secrets. I want to be a part of your world."

"Empty words." Mikhail growled back. "After you keep a few of these pretty promises, then speak of secrets and worlds."

"Then let's start with this one...you will come screaming my name..."

"I've decided you're a lion." Was Huang's greeting when he opened his eyes.

He hadn't meant to sleep at all. Merely rest his eyes after one of the most intense sexual experiences of his life. Which once again was saying something. It was clear by the light in the room, however, that he'd slept several hours. Hopefully nothing serious had happened while he napped. Not that he didn't think Sergei could handle it if it did.

"A lion?" He repeated, stretching as he waited for the explanation.

"Teeth. Claws. Even a mane." Huang ran a hand through the wild locks of his hair.

A small smile tugged at his lips. "I see."

"...Was it him? Was it that night?"

For a moment Mikhail was confused, then he sat up with a frown. "Do they bother you?"

"Only if I caused them."

"It was inevitable. Yuri was always a step from madness."

"So it was him. But was it me?"

Mikhail bent one leg, leaning on it to study Huang intently. "Was a whore of the Haifeng supposed to be giving out freebies to the son of a Russian mobster?"

Huang chuckled. "I was freed from that particular position at the time. It was my first week of freedom, in fact. I was excited by the prospect of choosing my own lover for the first time."

Mikhail stared. "Was it me?" Huang offered an amused smile, and he couldn't help but laugh. "We were quite the pair that night, weren't we? Which den was yours?"

"The final one. That's why I knew the girl you wanted to hire wouldn't have been good. She was in training. Miss Feng - the owner - has always said she's more loyal to me than any other Haifeng. Because I was one of hers first."

"If you were born to the family, how did you-"

"Half-breed." Huang interjected. "I told you that night. Mother was only a daughter and she had an affair."

"So she was sent to the whorehouse?" Mikhail scowled.

"Not for the affair. For keeping me. I was born, raised, and watched her die there. She always said he'd come back. Maybe he lied; maybe he died. I've never known. I'd like to think the latter but experience tells me the former." Huang studied him for a moment. "Was it me?"

Mikhail sighed. "Yes. But only because you were - would have been - first. He was punished for it. And I was given Macau."

"Punished...but alive?"

"My second."

Huang stared at him as if he doubted his sanity. "Your second?"

He chuckled. "He was good at his job as long as he remembered his place. He's dead now though. The funeral was last week."

"You'll understand if I don't offer my condolences."

"I'd find it refreshing. My turn. How did you come to be freed from your position? Too old?"

"I was getting there. But, no. A cousin - Caolin - she spoke up for me. She called it saving me. I call that questionable. I wasn't the family until she made it so. I was nameless. A nameless whore doesn't tend to get shot at. Or chased after because of deals gone wrong." There was a bitterness to the words.

"If you're concerned about how you'll die, I assure you - you're in the wrong company."

"For you, it might be worth the risk."

"But not for your family?"

"They didn't remember I was family until I was useful for them. There are those who find my attitude...ungrateful."

"And yet they sent someone here to check on you." He couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious again. It was simply part of his world. It was part of what kept him alive in it.

"Probably Caolin's doing. She's made it her personal mission to reconcile me to the family. Possibly so she has one more person more loyal to her than to Yi." Huang sounded thoughtful.

"And Yi is?"

"The head of the family. Another of my cousins."

"You're telling me there's infighting?"

"I'm telling you I have as little to do with my family as possible."

"So...there's infighting and a shipment never made it. And now there may be a war with the Daoyun. Very convenient for someone in the Haifeng. The question is who..." Mikhail contemplated the information. "This could definitely be fun."

"You still have a crazy idea of fun." Huang told him. Mikhail laughed.

"A good evening, gentlemen. I was informed you wished to see me again." Mikhail offered one of his brightest smiles to the men seated at his office desk. It had been a week since Huang and he had become lovers. Huang had yet to leave the hotel to return to the Haifeng, but Mikhail wasn't complaining. He was becoming addicted to having Huang there at the end of the day when his own business was through. It was dangerous to get attached, and he knew it. He blamed his boredom, and didn't look too deeply at other possible motives.

The two Daoyun who had first approached him made no attempt to maintain such a civil facade. "Arbatov, you said you took no sides in our disagreement with the Haifeng." Chen spoke up first.

"And that remains true." He nodded as if the other hadn't spoken accusingly, but had merely asked a question. And it was true. He wasn't involving himself with the Haifeng. Huang was another matter, but as for his family, they had made no further attempts to contact him, and he had done the same.

"Then why is Huang Haifeng still here? You're harboring our enemies, yet claim to take no side?" Bai slammed a hand on his desk angrily.

Mikhail made a point to eye the hand on the desk until it was removed."Gentlemen, my hotel is open to whoever pays to stay. If you were to pay for a room, you two would be welcome to spend a night or ten here. Yet that would certainly not mean I was taking your side. Merely that I am, as ever, a generous and forgiving host."

"You must think us fools."

"Only if you persist in your accusations." His tone held a warning.

"Arbatov, we both know Huang couldn't possibly be paying for his board here. Whatever he has promised in return for sanctuary with you, I can assure you he has no power to maintain. He is no one." Chen broke in.

"Gentlemen, I dislike to repeat myself, so I will only say this one more time. I take no sides in your dispute with the Haifeng. I have had no dealings with either of your families and neither of you have offered me any incentives to favor you. Therefore, I have no reason to object to Huang's continued presence in my hotel. Keep your fight off my grounds, and I will give you the same courtesy. But if you persist on dragging it here, and you'll find I am not a man to be trifled with."

Chen studied him before speaking. "Nothing to do with the Haifeng, you say. What of Huang himself?"

Mikhail's eyes narrowed. "I believe this conversation is over."

Bai scowled, but Chen contained him with a gesture. "You're harboring a snake, Arbatov. And you will come to regret it."

In the silence of his office after the two had departed, Mikhail sat contemplating his words. He had only Huang's words to go on. Words that could easily be lies. Wasn't it far more likely they were than weren't? Especially with the Daoyun's continued interest in him. If their only interest was to start a war by killing any Haifeng, wouldn't they move on? Why risk angering a third party for a supposedly out of favor member of the family?

"I'm starting to get inappropriate ideas of you being attached to me."

Mikhail opened his eyes to glare at Huang, who hadn't even bothered to knock. "That might be changing."

"Ah..." Huang closed the door, apparently not caring that he was currently treading on dangerous ground with him. "Did the Daoyun make an offer you couldn't refuse? Or did they make a suggestion that you find disturbing but likely?"

He felt his hands curl around the chair arms, but he met Huang's gaze calmly. "Is there a reason they should? Something you aren't telling me?"

"Perhaps." Huang paced forward, coming around behind him. Before he could turn, Huang's hands were massaging his shoulders. "I run deliveries. I've delivered to them before. I wasn't, however, in charge of the shipment that went missing."

"But you know who was." He didn't relax into the touch, even though a part of him wanted to. The confession made sense. That was just the problem. Huang's side of the story did make sense. That didn't mean it was the truth, but it was hard not to be influenced by the logic of it.

"Perhaps."

"Don't play games with me, Huang." He shrugged off his hands, and stood. Huang moved swiftly, blocking one of his paths out from behind his desk.

"But I like to play with you, Mikhail."

"You may be under the illusion because of my generosity to you that I am not dangerous. I assure you, if that's so, you're wrong." He threatened, hand moving closer to his side, placing the gun hidden under his suit jacket within easy reach.

"Oh, no, my Lion, I know you're dangerous. It's one of the things I like most about you."

"Do you know who was making the delivery to the Daoyun?"

"...always business."

"You're on dangerous ground, Huang."

Huang seemed to contemplate how serious he was about the words, then nodded. "I do. I played cards with him a few days before. Last I heard, nobody heard from him after he left to make the delivery. But I've been cut off from contacts since, and I can't say what's happened with the Haifeng since my escape from the Daoyun."

"Escape?" Mikhail scoffed. "You mean when I saved your ass?"

Huang's eyes danced as they gazed into his. "If you prefer...am I forgiven for not telling you everything now?"

Mikhail crossed his arms, studying him. "I don't see why I should."

"I couldn't simply tell you everything, Mikhail. I couldn't know yet if I could trust you."

"A wise move, in truth. I could betray you still."

"Well, then, I'll just have to work on keeping you too pleased with me to betray me." Huang's tone dripped with innuendo.

"Really? You think you can?" He couldn't help the smile that curved his lips.

"I certainly don't see where the harm could be in trying." Huang leaned closer, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Mikhail stepped back to retake his seat, and Huang stepped away from the desk. He wondered briefly at how smoothly they'd both acted. As if it was something they'd done before, or perhaps something they were meant to. Determined to keep his thoughts by how easily he seemed to be falling into a routine with Huang, he leaned on his desk, steepling his fingers. "Enter."

Sergei entered, noting Huang but seeming neither surprised or disturbed by his presence. "Forgive the interruption, but we have a visitor."

"Really, who now? The Haifeng this time?"

"No, sir. In fact-"

"Your men seem a bit above themselves. Telling family to wait to be announced." A new voice interrupted Sergei's report.

Mikhail's eyes narrowed at the man who stepped into the room. "Maksim."

"It's a long flight from the homeland, cousin. Aren't you going to give me a warmer greeting than that?"

To Be Continued...

And the plot thickens again. Geez, this fic really is rife with OCs, isn't it? And it's actually only going to get worse. Sigh.

There are pieces of Huang and Mikhail's first scene altered and missing because I refrain from posting MA material on FFnet. Please check my profile for a link to my writing journal, where you can read the unedited versions of edited fics.

Next chapter we get less talk and a little more action...maybe...