Title: Bye Bye Baby

Disclaimer: This is not my sandbox. I'm just playing in it.

Summary: Hiro had an emotional rollercoaster of a relationship with Ayaka. Suguru had a long line of one-night stands behind him. What happens when they switch tactics…and focus on each other?

Author's Notes: Yeah, these last few chapters (OMG only 5 left, actually…and then another 13 for the sequel) are giving me issues. Thanks for the reviews! (And also: does anyone think my chapters are too "thinky" and not enough action?) (And, yeah, here I headed a little closer to VULGAR, but it's worth it, I think. Y/N?)

Chapter 8: 1000 Miles per Hour

"Another long quiet night."

Hiro rolled over again, focusing on the ceiling. It was unhelpfully blank, tauntingly empty, providing him with absolutely no answers. Sighing, he rolled over once more, on his side and facing his night stand. After one or another of the dinners with Suguru, he had moved that picture of him and Ayaka to one of his drawers; however, after his conversation with Shuichi, he had taken it back out.

Originally, he had moved it because it hadn't hurt to look at it anymore, proof that this thing with Suguru was working like he planned. Despite that thought about a photograph, the mere thought of Ayaka should have been able to elicit more of a reaction than just acknowledgement.

Shuichi had asked him if he had loved Ayaka. He had, even when they had broken up. He had, but he had decided not to wait. He had, and he'd come up with a solution to make it not so anymore. Hiro reached out and titled the picture, moonlight spearing radiantly across the glass. Had…had his solution worked so much already? It had, after all, only been weeks since he and Ayaka had broken up.

He traced his finger over Ayaka's pretty smile. She was beautiful, he had always known that. But now…now there was no warm bubble of happiness that accompanied the thought. Just like his acknowledgement of their past relationship, the thought of her beauty lacked any emotion whatsoever.

Setting the picture down, he rolled over once more, burying his face in his cool pillow. He thought.

Ayaka would be perfect with some Kyoto boy. They would go out, hands entwined romantically with each other. They would go out and have fun, laughing and smiling as if they didn't have a care in the world. She would bypass study groups to meet with him, and he would give up possibilities of overtime for her. They would kiss sweetly in public, him shy, her blushing. Their sugar sweet romance would almost disgust their friends in its cuteness. It would be the syrupy fluffiness that made up the girly romantic movies he had taken Ayaka to on dates.

Hiro frowned at nothing. Those thoughts, it should have been enough to cause at least a hint of jealousy. Hiro wasn't a jealous person by nature, but those thoughts of the woman he loved…it should have at least done something to him, caused a reaction of some kind.

He thought some more, thoughts heading along the path of vulgarity and obscenity.

Ayaka, entwined with some random guy. Eyes heavy and half-lidded, her lovely mouth bruised with kisses given by another person. Skin pale and slicked with sweat, long, dark hair sticking to her skin. Slender hands clenching in twisted sheets. Full breasts bouncing as she rode some other guy's dick, moaning wantonly for someone who wasn't him.

Hiro downright scowled now. Other than the heat curling low in his belly at the imaginings, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Was he already over her? It couldn't have been that easy, could it?

And yet the thought of her brought no reaction. Any sort of pain or guilt or, obviously, love would have been a simple tip-off that he wasn't done with his feelings for his ex. But with the lack of emotions, he could only conclude that he was in fact done and over her. The rebound scheme with Suguru had worked.

Well…now what?

Hiro shifted uneasily in his bed, that heat in his stomach only increasing with the thought of Suguru.

Was he just supposed to stop seeing Suguru? That would be awkward, going from…whatever they were back to colleagues. Really, he could just stop sleeping with Suguru, continue this whole unexpected friendship thing with him. Suguru would continue to be professional about whatever relationship they had, that much he could be certain about, but would friendship even be a possibility if he suddenly stopped the physical intimacy aspect?

In spite of the lusty heat, his stomach twisted itself into an anxious knot. His breath was suddenly caught in his throat. He…he didn't want to stop being friends with Suguru. He liked the easygoing dinners they had. He liked the flowing conversations between them. He liked how they could smile and laugh and tease each other. There was no way he was going to let go of that now.

And even the thought of removing the sex was a horrible prospect. Suguru, simply put, was good in bed. There was something about the way Suguru completely lost his composure, seeing him toss his head back and bare his throat and moan, something about the way a dark flush worked its way up his pale skin, highlighting the curve of his cheeks, something about the way he simply looked at Hiro, eyes heavy and liquid with pleasure…

Hiro looked down. An erection was tenting his boxers. His head flopped back onto the pillow, eyes focused almost desperately on the ceiling again. Just the thought of Suguru did this to him, whereas the thought of his ex did next to nothing, emotionally and physically.

Yeah, there was no way he was stopping this thing with Suguru yet. However, if things changed in some way…

Hiro let the thought fade and reached down.


Suguru shifted his cup of coffee to another hand and walked around yet another person. He would be so grateful to just get into the studio and go to his synthesizer, play the day away…although being in NG Studio would bring him closer to Tohma…

Suguru sipped the magical rejuvenating liquid some people called "coffee" and he sometimes referred to as "ambrosia" and resisted the urge to rub his aching head. After their unenlightening conversation, Tohma had taken to popping in at random times for various, most likely bullshit, reasons. He always had that sharp turn to his mouth, more a frown than a smile really, that alerted Suguru why Tohma was really stopping by.

Tohma was worried. The probability of that worry being for something other than Suguru's relationship with Hiro? Extremely low. However, as long as he didn't call Suguru's parents and mentioned anything to them about relationships, everything would be fine.

Suguru walked around a small girl staring at the windows of a bakery and nearly sighed. His parents already knew he was gay; once he determined that that was the truth about himself, he had simply sat down and said it, completely ignoring their blank stares. But an actual relationship coming to light…

He could already see his mother at the kitchen table, delicately sipping her tea. She would make some comment about how damaging a relationship of that sort was in the music business nowadays and how the legality of it, especially with a colleague, was horribly questionable. His father would finish reading the paper and only then would he turn that disappointed glower to Suguru. He'd make some comment about a proper son doing his duty and finding a woman, like his respected nephew Seguchi.

If only he had Shindou-san's parents, he reflected darkly, and tossed his now empty coffee cup into a nearby trash can. NG Studio was right ahead and there he would be able to push all those thoughts away and simply focus on the music. Today, it would be easy to get swept away in melodies and key signatures and chords and…

Oh.

Idly leaning against the front of the building, Hiro smiled and waved at him. Suguru walked over to him and tried to ignore his twisting stomach.

"Morning," Hiro said, smile widening.

Suguru tried for his own smile and wondered how it compared. "Good morning. Slept well?" he asked politely and wished that he could have a sleep free of uneasiness. Damn Tohma for being a nosy bastard.

Something about Hiro's smile went funny and skewed, but then Suguru blinked and it was gone. Actually, it was possible that he had completely imagined it. Hiro muttered a, "Yeah," and then just looked at Suguru for a moment.

Then he leaned in and suddenly kissed Suguru, openmouthed and wet in all the right ways. A pleasant tingle shivered down his spine and he responded almost lazily, soaking in the warmth of Hiro's body against his. Hiro pulled back and leaned his forehead against Suguru's. From this close, Suguru could see every fleck of dark brown in the iris, every spike of soft eyelash, every quirk of talented mouth.

Hiro licked his lips slowly and quietly asked, "Can I come by your place tonight?"

Heat tugged lowly in his stomach. There was no mistaking the true question masquerading there. Though he had to wonder if something more was settling there, some sort of emotion that Suguru could rely on, could hope that would turn this relationship into something permanent… No. He'd think about that later, when there wasn't a question to be considering at the moment.

"Later tonight," he agreed and could only hope that Tohma didn't decide another surprise visit was in order.


When Hiro came by, clothes tucked in a backpack hitched over his shoulder, Suguru had seemed twitchy and uneasy, as if something was completely wrong with the situation. Being the best friend of Shindou Shuichi, Hiro had the patience and ability to wait out those twitches; however, when the twitching didn't stop, Hiro gave in and simply asked what was wrong. After some stalling, Suguru finally gave it up that Tohma had been checking in on him lately, under orders from his parents.

By the tone of his voice, Hiro could tell that something else was wrong. However, he didn't question it. He and Suguru had actual conversations now, so he figured that if Suguru wanted to tell him, he would.

That night, they fucked slow and dirty on Suguru's bed. The sheets were absolutely trashed by the time they were done, but they just kicked them off the bed and ignored them. Suguru was exhausted—by both their physical activities and whatever uneasy thought he was carrying around—so he quickly fell asleep, head pillowed on Hiro's shoulder.

Hiro, however, was not so lucky. His mind was hooked on a singular thought. At the beginning of this whole "rebound thing," he had deemed Suguru attractive enough for the scheme. Sometime after that, Suguru had simply become desirable. But now…now Suguru was beautiful.

It wasn't that Suguru was damn near plastered to him, naked, limbs entwined with his own. It also wasn't that Suguru and he had just had some really good sex. There was just…something…about the curve of his mouth, gentled in sleep. There was something about the flicker of dark lashes, sooty against his pale cheeks. There was something about the way he was curled almost unashamedly around Hiro's body.

He brushed a few still sweaty bangs from Suguru's forehead and reveled in the way Suguru burrowed even further into the curve of his shoulder and neck. It was a ridiculous thought he knew, but there was something in the way that Suguru seemed to fit so perfectly against him, as if they somehow belonged in each other's space.

Hiro brushed a thumb gently against the soft cheek and smiled at the furrow of thin brows and the unhappy, incoherent murmur against his skin. Warm and happy in a way that had nothing to do with sex, Hiro pressed a soft kiss to Suguru's forehead and closed his eyes.