DISCLAIMER: All CLAMP stories were created by CLAMP. Characters have been adapted without authorization or approval, and I am making no profit from their use.

"Dark and Stormy" is the fifth story in my Pirates vs. Ninjas alternate universe, "Fifteen Mokona on a Dead Man's Chest". Reading the previous stories is not required. That said, if you would like to read the stories in order to take advantage of the continuity, details are on my profile page.

NOTE: This chapter has been altered from its original version, with some sections edited to meet content guidelines. If you choose to read the full version elsewhere, please be advised that it involves sexual situations with some dominance themes including edgeplay and breathplay, as well as emotional issues.

[Le Citron d'Or]

Combine 1-1/2 oz. gold rum with 3/4 oz. lime juice and 1/2 oz. limoncello.
Add 3 dashes Angostura bitters and shake with ice.
Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon.

Today was a 100% success! Sure, she and Kamui were stuck on the other side of the world, separated from anyone they knew for fifteen hours now, with no idea how long it'd be before they could make contact, but they'd found the orb they were looking for. And whatever force was whipping up killing intent in the dark mist on the horizon had held back instead of approaching. She and her new friend could wait till their teams showed up, safe and warm on shore.

Though, boy, had Kamui pitched a fit when he realized nobody was attacking. He'd kicked rocks all over, screaming for somebody to show up who he could fight, and worked up a nice, big hungry just in time to eat the beans and corn bread Hikaru had brought out for lunch (which went perfectly with Kamui's beef jerky). Once they'd gotten into the hard cider, he'd even agreed to arm wrestle (although he insisted that wasn't how they'd settle who got the orb).

A friendly match and conversation was way better than fighting and bleeding and dying.

Kamui was a pretty good arm wrestler, too. In all the hours from lunch, through sunset and moonrise and the present field of stars on black, neither of them had budged the other more than an inch. The glow of the boulder she reheated every half hour cast their table in a warm orange light and empty bottles clinked merrily at their feet while they pushed. Eventually, they'd think about dinner, but it wasn't like they had to stop arm wrestling yet. They didn't have a schedule or anything.

"I don't expect you to understand," Kamui snarled. (He'd been telling her all about his friends back home.) "Everybody always says, 'You just have to do what your heart really wants', and I know that's my problem. But it's not that simple! How do I make a choice like that?"

"They like each other, too, right?"

"Of course they do!"

"Then there's no problem! You can date both of them together."

"What?!"

She tried to take him down when surprise broke his focus, but his reflexes were too good. He caught the attack and pushed their hands back to the middle.

"New rule. No making fun of my problems."

"I'm not making fun, though. When I met Lantis and Eagle four years ago, I fell in love with both of them, too. But they were practically dating each other already, so that whole 'picking' thing never came up. If it's the three of us, nobody gets left out."

"I... Um. Huh." His scowl twisted up into a thinky face. "I wonder if keeping up a committed threesome for four years would get enough points to beat Fai? If he has more sex with Kurogane, and Captain Doumeki's points aren't enough, I mean."

"Well, Eagle says he'll stay at a 10x combi modifier for the next two years, so between me and Lantis he's getting about nine million, five-"

"How the hell do you know the combi modifiers?!" Kamui's eyes went so wide, she could almost see how purple they were, even by the bare glow of superheated rocks. "You keep talking like this 'Eagle' is a pirate! Are you trying to tell me that you've been shacked up with a pirate for four years?!"

The only people Lady Yuuko had said weren't supposed to know that Eagle was from Autozam were members of the Ninja Union, since most of them would throw a fit. Kamui obviously wasn't Union, but he looked like he was going to throw a fit anyway. Hikaru figured she'd better keep that part to herself until she asked Eagle if Kamui could know.

"Did any pirates turn in nine and a half million sex points last year?"

"Well, no."

"Well, there you go."

"But if he was in hiding, he might not turn them in." Frowning at nothing, Kamui asked, "You met him four years ago? Does your Eagle have a last name?"

"Everybody has a last name!" she answered, and changed the subject as fast as she could. "Mine's Shidou, by the way. But what about you? Are you going to ask out your two friends when you get home?"

"What? No! I mean... That's... A threesome's really not going to work for me!"

"Why not?"

"Why not?! She's his sister!"

"I guess that would complicate things."

Before either of them could say another word, a new light flared on the horizon in the middle of the dark mist. Where the glow before had been green, and full of trailing spirals, this was a ghostly blue so soft, it looked like a lightning bug at the edge of the world. It'd have to be bigger than any lightning bug, though. Making sure her arm didn't give in their arm wrestling match, she focused her eyes on the horizon.

"Can you see what it is?" Kamui asked.

"A ship," Hikaru answered. "I see three masts, and a black flag... with a four-leaf clover over crossed bones. So it's a pirate ship, right?"

Kamui's voice turned soft, and had an edge to it that sent chills down her spine. "Can you see a figurehead on the bow?"

"I see a lady with wings like a dragonfly... and no head."

"Shit." He slipped a spyglass from his pocket to check for himself. His hand gave way, slamming into the table as Hikaru's push lost its push-back. Barely flicking his eyes away from the strange ship, he muttered, "That doesn't count."

"You know that ship?"

"It's the Clover Belle. It's got to be. The actual fucking Clover Belle." As clouds rolled into dark, thundering masses at the edge of the world, Kamui kicked his chair over and shouted at the moon. "Now it's ghost ships?! What's next?! Does somebody want to pull Valeria up from the seafloor, full of mermaid zombies? How about demons? We haven't had any actual demons yet! Somebody drop the fucking King of Hell on this island so we can throw him a tea party!" He whipped around, pointing a finger at her. "That's a metaphorical tea party. Don't you dare pull a teapot out of fucking ninjaspace, or I swear to God I will break everything."

"No teapots," she promised him. Hikaru followed him to the edge of the tide. He held out his arm to keep her from stepping into the water, and she stayed. Even she'd heard the stories that anything in the water within sight of the Clover Belle was cursed to an undignified death in short order. It was more surprising that Kamui took those stories seriously. "You think the Dioscuri are made up, but you believe in the Clover Belle?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore, but I know the Clover Belle is real." He looked away from his spyglass to meet her eye. "Privilege of serving on the Pirate King's Council. I know she's real, I know she calls the seas of Lifan her home, and I know Nataku is deadly serious about Lifan's... arrangement... to float her a tribute every year. I don't know what she's doing this far south, though. We're nowhere near Lifan."

Tight-lipped, Kamui went back to studying the ship, and Hikaru likewise gave it a quieter inspection. On her dark wooden decks, under sails stained gray by salt and shadow, five figures stood as if the seas churning into a storm around them were no more concern than a pleasure cruise. Three young men who had the same face and wore matching coats in a red so dark it was almost black held look-outs on both sides of the ship, with one at the stern. A girl in a dress that glowed like moonlight with mechanical wings on her shoulders walked up the bow, and a man in a high-collared coat of blue brocade had the wheel. He wasn't steering, Hikaru noticed, nor even touching it. The wheel and all the sails moved without assistance.

"The one in blue'll be the captain," Kamui murmured. "Mihara Oujirou. No one knows for sure what crew he's stolen over the years."

"But they can't make land, right?"

"That's the story. Doomed to sail forever, reliving her last voyage, taking whatever sailors are unlucky enough to cross her path."

"So we're safe. The ship can't touch the island."

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Kamui asked.

Hikaru shrugged. "It's supposed to be true."

On the distant ship, the gears on the girl's wings turned. She floated into the air above the bowsprit as rolling fog churned around the sides of the boat. Flashes of dark pink and purple shot through the clouds. Sometimes Hikaru thought she saw mist become a person's face just before she blinked. The pale glow around the ship made everything ten times clearer than it should have been, even with distance vision techniques.

She saw perfectly when the girl in white turned to look straight at her and at Kamui. The girl smiled, like an old friend, and mouthed something that looked like, 'It's all right.' Hikaru strained her ears to listen across the distance.

"My name is Suu. Stay away from the water and you'll be safe."

"Is she trying to talk to us?" Kamui asked.

Hikaru nodded. "She says her name is Suu, and that we shouldn't touch the water."

"Oh, thanks!" Kamui yelled. "It's so helpful for you to tell me things I already know!"

"You already knew her name?"

"Well, no... but-"

"It's nice to meet you, Suu! My name's Hikaru, and this is Kamui!"

Suu smiled again, and held out her arm above the ship's bow. Glass formed out of nothingness in front of her. It wasn't the same as pulling something from ninjaspace - Hikaru sensed it coming into existence, not popping through cracks in reality. The fog rose up to punch through it, shattering the glass with an inhuman shriek. Even Kamui jumped as if he could hear the crash. As it passed through the bright shower of shards, the purple streak became a shadow on the clouds. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled like festival drums - and in the light, the darkness had arms, maybe maybe even a head silhouetted on the sky with two glowing eyes dead center. Its fingernails were like knives, and could've used the ship as a bathtoy.

"I was kidding about the demons!" Kamui hissed. He didn't look like he'd think twice about taking the shadow on, but something was making him shake. Hikaru could feel his shivers. They shook her, too, like a nearby bell ringing when you sing its note.

Hikaru shrugged off the feeling, taking a fighting stance, and tried to think of a good way to know what was happening on that ship, or how she could help. She frowned at Kamui.

"Are we seeing something that's happening now, or an old fight they're reliving?"

"Don't you know the story?"

"Only that the Mihara brothers fought over Princess Shuuko, and when Ichirou won, Oujirou named the Clover Belle for her, then sailed off and never came back."

"It's more complicated than that," Kamui answered in a whisper.

When he calmed down a little, maybe she'd ask him about it. She could ask Suu, she supposed, but the ghost girl was busy right now. It wouldn't be nice to interrupt.

Suu and her fellow sailors fought mostly without noise, except for the crash of stormy waves. Hikaru imagined their wordless understanding was a lot like what she, Umi-chan, and Fuu-chan would be like if they'd been working together for hundreds of years, and could create sharp metal or living glass out of nothing instead of fire, water, and wind. Two boys in red pushed their hands forward, and a web of glinting spears, branching like metal trees, shot through the floating maze of Suu's glass.

"Can you even hurt a demon with metal?" Kamui wondered. "Will they be okay?"

"I think that glass technique is forcing that shadow to manifest physically. I'm not sure how - I haven't learned about fighting demons yet," Hikaru answered.

"Me neither. But I know some people I can ask."

Swooping colors in the mist filled the air with a shrill whine. All the ghost sailors focused their full attention on the fight, except for one. One of the three boys, unnoticed by the rest, snuck behind the boy at the stern. As fast as Hikaru saw his knife - before she could yell 'Look out!' - he slit the other boy's throat. All other eyes on the ship turned when the body hit the deck.

The last boy's face drained to bluish white. "A! B!" he yelled, running toward the stern as Hikaru focused on hearing his words within the clash of battle. "Not again, A! I won't let you do this again!"

The killer had jumped onto the rail as the last boy ran over. Kamui turned away with a sickened look on his face. He'd probably known this would happen.

"Don't worry, C. It's going to be different this time," the killer promised with a sad smile. "It won't be you who has to run."

With his knife still dripping blood, he let himself fall backwards over the side of the ship. The pink streak flying through the fog caught him and bore him toward the giant shadow. Something about it put a chill in Hikaru's spine like nothing she'd felt before.

"A!" the boy named C roared.

No one had time for any more words. The shadow leaned over the boat as if to smash it, and C joined Suu in forming a dragon out of the sea itself. Plated in glass and flanked by metal, the raging salt water screamed toward the shadow. It struck. It didn't kill, but it struck true, and fell back into the ocean. A noise resounded that sounded like storm clouds cackling, then a wave the size of the wall around Lady Yuuko's castle surged toward the shore, looking like it would break over their heads.

Hikaru strained her will toward the magma under the earth, pulling it to meet the wave. Alongside, Kamui's power pulled the ground into a towering cliff. Her wall cooled into a curve of obsidian, holding back the tide. Kamui's rock shift put their entire campsite on a perch twice as high as the wave crest. Hopefully, that'd keep them alive and uncursed.

Even if she couldn't offer the same to ghosts that'd haunted the sea for centuries.

"I'm not saying this because I like you or anything," Kamui said, his eyes on the Clover Belle's battle, "but I hope my crew are too busy to get here until that ship is gone. I'll have your back till then if you'll have mine."

The idea of Lantis and Eagle running into this storm, and possibly being cursed by sailing towards the ghost ship, didn't sit any better with her. She'd rather freeze a few more days.

"You've got a deal." Hikaru smiled at the way-too-serious pirate. "Because I do like you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"I... have no response to that."

~/~

Sorata wiped the sweat and soot off his brow. The rising sun mocked their sleepless night, but the Dragon of Heaven was docked by the Bravada with a felled octopus between, and teams were dousing the last flames scattered through the trees. Damn lucky no lava had come from the hole busted out the side of Mt. Saijaan. The near-molten rock shards and fire spurts'd been nothing to laugh at, but lava flow would've gone through the village on its way to the sea. Instead, his people were safe, and that was a night's work well done.

Kneeling on the beach, he poked the odd little creature who'd appeared with the fires. Those who'd watched it come out the mountain said they'd seen a tawny cat, big as a tiger with wings wide as two men were tall. All anyone could find now was this animal sleeping on the sand: a cat with wings, or near enough, but looked more like a child's toy than anything else.

"Do you know what it is?" a lady's voice asked.

Tatra and Tarta walked over from a knot of pirates who'd lay down to sleep next to their buckets, their work done. Sorata shook his head.

"Never seen anything like it before. We'll take him to the Old Stargazer once we've rested. Maybe his books will say."

"I'll get a cage," Tarta said.

He took her elbow. "No cages. He's a magical creature of no common order, I'll wager that much. When he wakes up, we ask nicely if he'll come with us to see the old man."

The younger princess simmered with frustration that would've been a boil had they not all been so tired. "So wehope it speaks our language, and it doesn't fly off?!"

While they locked eyes, the creature rolled out of Sorata's shadow into a sunbeam, murmuring something that sounded like, "Hungry..." Sorata dropped down again. Clear as a bell, the cat grunted, "Takoyaki..." and went right back to snoring.

Laughing, Sorata wiped the sand off his hands. "Well, he sure speaks my language. Whatcha say we check the volcano before I beg you ladies for a bed on solid Chizetan ground?"

They strolled toward the mountain, and the older princess pulled a shawl around her shoulders with a giggle. "Well, I can still make room for you in my bed, Sora-chan. If you don't want to sleep on the floor, that is."

"Nee-sama! No screwing the enemy! Am I the only one who remembers Sorata's here with that friff-fraff, ninja-lover Pirate King?!"

"Oh, no one cares about that, Tarta, dear!"

"I care!"

"Thanks, Tatra, but the floor might be best." Nevermind that the redhead would as like cut his throat now as she would have yesterday - that was the life they lived - but he wasn't so fancy-free as when he left. Their path crossed a clearing where Arashi minded a troop awake enough to clear rubble. She met his eye with the same cold frown as ever, then showed him her back. "There's someone..." he told the princesses. "... I want knowin' I'm serious."

Tatra leaned into his path with a glowing smile. "No wonder you're fond of that ship. You always did like pretty people."

"Ain't no better place for a man who likes pretty people than the Dragon of Heaven! Beauties every way you turn."

They weren't just pretty faces, either, although there were more lookers on board than he'd ever seen in one place. Arashi far from least. But his words on that were ones he didn't dare speak. One thing he knew about wishes: if you tell 'em, they never come true.

Laughing, he took both princess by the shoulders and moved the talk to safer waters. "You haven't even met Kamui yet!" Sorata whistled. "He'll break your heart to look at him! Like the Sumeragi's angrier, even prettier little brother. Can't miss him."

The trees cleared a few steps down, and there was no mistakin' where his people said the lava broke through the side of the volcano. He hadn't figured what they said could've been fact, but it was plain to see. Not flowing down but busting through the rock, and no small measure of it. A right torrent. A run like that should've destroyed everything in Saijaan.

It hadn't, because what Sorata saw was cooled solid, a stone patch like a scab on a wound. Tendrils of volcanic glass curled off the surface in a pattern any eye would know as a windmaster's who'd served with one. But to cool that much lava, that quickly, down to solid stone... If Lord Aoki hadn't been on the boat, Sorata would've been sure it was his work. There weren't any other windmasters at that level in port.

Yuzuriha and Saiki were at the edge of the clearing, tending wounds on a few of the locals. They left the bandaging once they saw him there. Sorata looked long over Lord Aoki's nephew, wondering if he had to recommend the kid for an officer's post.

"Did you do this, Saiki?"

"Ah... no, sir. We... had help."

"Three ninja," Yuzuriha explained. "Two now, since Hikaru disappeared with Kamui." She nodded at the cooled lava patch. "They did this, and helped with the forest fires, too."

Tarta tried to throttle the air. "How did that many goddamn ninja get onto the island?!"

"Sneaking, probably," Tatra offered.

While the younger princess screamed to bring the trees down, Sorata turned back to Yuzuriha. "Were they with Kurogane?"

"Kurogane?!" His ship's sea-mistress buried her face in her hands. "I was wondering why Fai wasn't around. Kamui's going to be pissed."

"So what else is new?"

"Well, these were the Witch's people, and Kurogane went into private practice however many years ago. It's possible Yuuko and the Daidouji had a joint operation-"

"But not likely," Sorata finished. "Right. So where might a man offer thanks in person?"

"They're right..." Pointing toward a far corner of the clearing, Yuzuriha sighed at the empty space. "How predictable. They're gone."

Nearby, Tarta kicked a tree. "Fucking ninja!"

~/~

Stepping out of the shadows into real space, Lantis pointed Hikaru's teammates toward the cove where Eagle had hidden the FTO. He stayed for a second to be sure no one had followed. Not a soul to be seen.

He dropped behind the rocks to meet Eagle's longboat. It was tight with four of them, but there was room for one more.

"Lady Yuuko's device works as advertised," Eagle said. "I've got a heading on what I assume is Hikaru's position."

Umi settled in her seat with her arms crossed. "Then what are we waiting for?"

~/~

His mind found stillness - clarity in the haze. His hands found purchase in a broad back. His legs circumscribed a world couched in powerful loins that drove Fai down into the bed. A kiss had never felt so much like the clash of shields and spears, or if it had he couldn't remember. Every muscle took on the charge, desire layered on desire. If he bottled his tears right now, they'd be pure, golden sex overflowing, not water at all. His Kuro-sama's chest heaved, breath and heart pounding out a cacophony.

His groans under Fai's teeth were like honey.

And though his ninja had been telling him all day that all guards were down, in that instant Fai first felt an opening. A real opening, where Kuro-sama wouldn't see him strike. He couldn't remember why he needed it, but he remembered that he did. And he took it.

His mouth was already on his lover's neck. He bit down, not hard enough to rupture but enough to block the blood to his head. The fighter's body shook with pleasure, right up to when his muscles went slack.

Fai needed a moment longer before his mind caught up.

His lover wasn't moving. He'd blacked out.

Then he remembered all the reasons.

That meant victory, didn't it? The one who walked away won their game?

Fai leaned over, pressing his hand to a muscled chest to be sure there was breath moving, a heart beating. The ninja was only asleep. Fai's hand curled over that beating heart, and he took a ragged gasp in. His forehead to his lover's, he saw the lips that had been so sure Fai was too fond of sex to betray his lover in the act.

If only the ninja had known he was no stranger to that.

Whatever monstrosity he felt now, it wasn't a disappointed libido. But he didn't have time to ponder why leaving hung like weights on his shoulders. Pulling his hand away, he stood.

The world spun. Fai stumbled first to the water pitcher he vaguely remembered Kuro-sama ringing the kitchen to deliver. It wasn't cold anymore, but the jasmine-steeped liquid was refreshing nonetheless. Enough that when he scoffed at the rays of light coming through the balcony doors, sound came out of his throat despite how raw it was.

Daylight. So Kuro-sama hadn't made it to evening after all. He'd have to pay a penalty.

If he ever came back.

Fai's feet were a little more sure as he walked to the balcony. He threw on his waistcoat on the way. His hand trembled at his Kuro-rin's jacket, so he left that on the floor, but he needed his communicator from his waistcoat pocket.

Something about the landscape made him pause. Fai studied it - for how long, he couldn't say. His sense of space was so far gone, he couldn't place it at first.

The shadows were pointing west.

The sun was in the east. Dawn, not sunset.

No punishment for Kuro-sama. Not if they'd run out the night and started another day.

He knew better than to look back, but he did it anyway. Covered with scratches and scars, the dark-haired man lay with a peace over his young eyes that only honor could buy. Fai had no doubt that, if they'd met under different circumstances...

Better not to finish that thought.

He hadn't done anything today but what he'd promised to do, and maybe his legs were still like jelly from their rudely curtailed roll in the sheets, but enough of his mind had come back that he remembered what he had to do next. Fai pulled the slip of silver out of his vest and spun it into a disc hovering in the air. He ignored the dusting of snow that fell.

"Kakyou."

The dreamseer's frowning face appeared. "Fai. You look awful."

"It's done." He stopped himself from looking back again, and he dried the tears he'd cried in their bed. "It's done. Where's Kamui, and where should I meet the ship?"

"You're not meeting the ship."

"So you have some other plan to keep Kamui from destroying everything the first time Seishirou opens his mouth?"

"Do you honestly believe it'll go any better if you see Fuuma right now?"

Monou Fuuma, lord of a thousand faces. But Fai knew perfectly well that no matter what fate had laid out for him, a man was just a man.

"I can handle Fuuma," he told Kakyou.

"Right now, you look like you'll handle him as well as Subaru does. And while you're 'handling' that, who'll mind Kamui? Eat something, clean yourself up. We'll leave when you've got your strength back."

"I don't need to be coddled, Kakyou. Kamui is-"

"Kamui is safe."

Fai almost collapsed on the railing from relief. The last thing he wanted was for anyone else to get hurt because of his mistakes. "He's safe?"

"Whatever meddling Clow arranged is over. I can see Kamui's future now - he's uncomfortable but out of immediate danger. Seishirou tracked him to Candelaria, southeast of Santiago waters. We can be there seven hours after your business is done."

"I'm fine."

"Fine enough to forget how fast top-level ninja recover from blacking out."

Glancing over his shoulder, Fai listened more closely to his Kuro-kii's breathing. The rhythm had changed. It was ever so slightly more even. Turning back to Kakyou, he said, "I'll be in touch," and folded his communicator away.

He leaned against the railing, watching his ninja's peaceful face. Kuro-sama opened one eye. Fai raised an eyebrow.

"You were having a conversation," the man explained.

"Which you wanted to listen to before you followed me out."

"That was the deal. If I can walk, I follow you. I've got duties same as you."

"Now that you know how wrong you were to trust me, we'll have to settle this in some less pleasant way, won't we? Letting you follow me just won't do."

The ninja groaned as he rolled out of bed. He strolled up to the balcony where Fai was standing and gazed out at the sea. "I figured I was wrong to trust you from the beginning. I'm doing it anyway."

Fai wasn't sure if his blood wanted to freeze or boil. It took everything he had to keep his face blank while his gaze was trapped by the firm lines of his lover's face. Before he realized, he was drowning in those red eyes again.

Kurogane brushed his chin with a finger, sending a tingle down Fai's neck. "What, you think you're the only one who makes hard choices?"

The wave of guilt he expected never came, as if making a choice could be better than having no choice but to do what had to be done. He'd made enough choices he regretted not to be sure of that. And the ninja didn't even have the decency to be mad at him.

Mad at him for what? For taking the man down in what was technically a fair fight?

Feeling almost human again, Fai wondered why he cared if anyone got mad at all, let alone a man who'd vanish soon enough into the dust of years. He fixed his smile - which didn't even feel heavy now - and he leaned over the rail so he couldn't see his lover's face.

He didn't have any such defense from the ninja's voice. "So it was Kamui, huh?" Kurogane asked. "I'm glad he's out of trouble. He's a good kid."

"Don't you get tired of being perfect all the time?"

"Nope."

"... I do."

"If it ain't fun, you're doing it wrong."

"And if I don't stop you here, you'd chase me to the gates of Hell, wouldn't you?"

The ninja shrugged. "I've seen worse."

"Hell is subjective, you know." Also a physical place, but one's personal manifestation of the form was no less real, Fai thought as he twirled the key on the chain around his neck. Its golden shadows looked so innocuously pretty. "We all carry our own Hells with us, and the doors are everywhere we turn. I might be yours." He reached for his Kuro-sama's hip, admiring the battle-tightened physique under his fingers. "Will you keep trying to seduce me anyway?"

A calloused grip wrenched his chin up, settling on Fai's throat so tight he gasped.

His lover snarled, "You don't get to be my Hell. I've been there once. I'm not going back."

"Neither am I."

So he couldn't let his knees feel weak when the ninja trailed that hand off his neck, down his chest, pushing him against the balcony rail. He couldn't let a kiss steal into his mouth like a raiding ship slipping past a blockade by the dark of the new moon. Most of all, he couldn't let his heart waver when a fine, upstanding man murmured by his ear, "Good. Then I'm not done with you yet."

He had to fight back. Offering his neck, Fai tangled his fingers in his lover's hair.

"Good," he purred. "If I'd left, you might think I'm not able to fuck you till you can't move."

"We'll see who drops first, Your Majesty."