Water crashed into the less-than-shiny steel basin where Hari's hands were dipped, meticulously scrubbing bowls and dishes, each of which he handed to an ever-frowning Kai. He wasn't sure if it was his presence or something else, but he felt it necessary to scrub over every inch as thoroughly as possible. The scouring side of his sponge was worn down and splitting as he reached the final few dishes when one of the men opened the sliding door.

"Kurono, the room the boss wants to give to Chisaki is full of old equipment, we'll clean it out tomorrow so just take an extra futon to your room," he didn't wait for a response and walked away.

Hari was unbothered, he'd expected something like this as there were numerous rooms filled with older gym equipment, miscellaneous tools, unused lab equipment, and anything a living complex occupied by so many men may have required. The underground portions of the hideout were surrounded by maze-like winding hallways, leading to different houses in the region. It was an underground network that Kai had yet to be introduced to completely. Their residential area was close to the surface, but their rooms had no windows. Hari wondered if the aura coming from the boy beside him meant that he was deeply displeased with the change of plans. He took another glance at him and found his expression to be far more relaxed than he expected.

It did not make the rest of the night any easier. Though he was capable of maintaining a conversation, it was difficult to continue when everything received a grunt or a short "hn."

Considering how adamant he'd been about the dishes, Hari had a feeling he would be equally insistent about seeing his futon comforters washed, but as Hari showed him the rolled up spare, Kai was endlessly quiet, only meeting his gaze with that perpetual glare.

Hari, attentive as always, guided him to the closest restroom. When he opened the door, Kai scrunched up his face. It wasn't caked with filth, but it carried a lived-in air anyone unaccustomed would find offending.

"Does no one clean it?"

"Once a week, I think tomorrow, we were going to clean up," Hari explained as he shut the door.

Hari heard him murmur something about not being able to brush his teeth there, something about having to hold it until it was cleaned, and Hari wondered:

Does he have…

He didn't have the words to identify what it was just yet, he was young, they were children after all.

...issues?

As he pondered, he guided Kai to his room, a place he generally kept neat. His things were organized, the floor not visibly dirty, no strange, mysterious stains to be found. The yellow of the tatami mats were faded, the room small and simple with no windows and heavy yellow lighting. A single stray white sock was hanging out of the bottom drawer of his dark three-drawer dresser when Hari saw Kai's attention fixating on it, he couldn't help but open the drawer and shove it inside. Part of him was starting to wonder why he felt the need to adjust things so they didn't offend Kai. It felt strangely natural, to bend, adjust, hide things so as not to incur the other boy's wrath. Hari was not ashamed or embarrassed, but an immature version of shame, of fearing being disliked, was impulsive.

Hari was never a rambunctious child, in fact, because he was calm and understanding he was used to being the assistant. For small tasks in and around the base, as well as cleaning and cooking, much of Hari's role in the Gokudo was of a domestic helper, when he wasn't in school of course.

It was a group effort, everyone worked together to stay afloat, running small izakaya's, various tiny restaurants, among other inconspicuous work, under their Boss they all did what they could. Hari was still thinking of those tears, a representation of his gratefulness, his budding desire to situate himself in this new home around others who viewed the Boss with the same reverence and gratitude. But they were still adjusting, still learning, still growing.

When they looked at each other Hari thought Kai had something he wanted to say, but in the next second, he looked tired. The bloodshot lines in the white of his eyes were accentuated by the yellow light, thin skin around them showing signs of swelling, but also seemed to be waiting. Hari picked up his neatly folded futon and spread it out on the right side of the room.

He was trying to think of something to talk about, a light question to ask to get to know him a little better, but that aura, dense like a fog felt like a warning. If he asked, if he pried, he was going to make an enemy.

So he didn't.

Instead, he motioned to Kai to roll out his own beside his and he did. At least he wasn't one of those people who claimed territory without a second thought. Maybe he was just particular?

As he patted his hands over his comforter to flatten it out, one of the arrows slipping over his ear and swinging, he pushed it back to see Kai grabbing the edge of his own futon and dragging it away. Hari watched as Kai brought the small mass of comforters to near the wall, as far away as possible in the square space.

Maybe he is just… difficult?

Hari didn't question it but he did give him a look. Was it necessary to put his shoulder to the wall? To make such a show of laying out the futon beside his then pull it away as though to make sure Hari knew he did not wish to be so close to him?

He's just difficult.

Kai curled up in his futon facing the wall and Hari let his eyes linger on the head of auburn peeking out of the top of the blanket. He wondered if in the middle of the night he might be awoken to sniffing, to the lost boy expressing worldless anguish in the safety of the dark. Hari imagined climbing out of his futon and going in search of tissues, maybe he'd borrow a new roll of toilet paper and offer it to him. They could become friends, he could have his first friend, that was his age. It was an exciting feeling for the boy who spent day in and day out listening to older men's jargon and banter. Hari shut off the bulb overhead and laid down, then tucked his covers up to his chin with a smile.

Hari had not expected to awaken to the sound of a gasp and the telltale thumps and rapid shifting of someone scrambling across the weaved straw. Hari heard the thud of footsteps, felt a presence rising behind him. He winced when the light blasted through the once pitch-black room, then whined and buried his face into his pillow, tugging his comforter to block out the assault.

But he was being attacked by something else, what was distinctly a foot pressing into his hip, digging, then shaking him until he was throwing off his covers and sitting up.

Kai was standing there, furious and pale, wiping sweat on his pants and glancing behind him as though there might be a ghost.

"...what?" Hari's vision was still foggy, his eyes searching for a visible reason to be so upset.

"Rat."

"What?"

"There's a rat,"

Hari looked around the room, to the opening, and saw nothing.

"It ran out,"

Maybe Kai wasn't good at talking?

"Oh," when Hari considered the words he relaxed. There was no serious danger. "Sometimes they get in."
He figured it was explanation enough, that they could go back to sleep and deal with it in the morning or discuss the concept of how likely an underground residence was infiltrated by rodents, but Kai's stare had returned. It was a threat. Disgust at the idea of sweeping something that was clearly an issue under the rug rather than fixing it immediately. Hari in his sleep-interrupted daze might have been more inclined to address things with dismissive humor.

"What? Do you want me to catch it?"

Hari meant it as a joke, a damn joke, but the way the shadows were cast over Kai's face, the back of his head haloed, the gold glowing in a dare to refuse.

"...I-"

"You offered,"

Hari was certainly awake now, staring up into that domineering expression in curiosity.

He's just difficult.

"I didn't think you'd take me seriously," Hari responded, wondering if that was enough to halt what was about to be an awkward and strange evening.

But Kai didn't respond, clenching his fists and squaring his shoulders he almost expected compliance. Hari just as strangely, and still out of some child-like interest decided it could be an adventure. He climbed to his feet and headed toward the door, sliding into his house slippers, he looked back at Kai.

"C'mon then,'

Kai opened his mouth as though he were going to protest, but Hari continued, "You want to make sure I catch it, don't you?"

A long-lashed blink and Hari saw someone who thought and acted in patterns. He saw someone who believed in things he saw for himself and as Hari stepped through the opening to his room he couldn't help a faint smile.

What he was soon to realize was, Kai was someone who fixated and persevered.

The living quarters weren't exactly quiet. Even as they traveled away from the noise coming down the hall, men hollering, the distinct clink of bottles, fists slapping against tables, and the clicking of ceramic pieces being shifted across a tabletop. They both recognized the men were drinking and playing Riichi and because of the noise, the mouse must have gone in the opposite direction.

Thankfully, Hari had grown accustomed to the winding halls and they followed the most likely direction, noticing tiny pawprints in spots of dirt and dust. No, they did not clean the underground quarters often and the whole place was in need of it, but Hari had glanced at Kai.

He did not know, but he was starting to understand, Kai was watching intently for signs of the skittering creature. He was focused, his pupils darting all about them, concerned that it would sneak past them somehow as they traveled down another hallway.

But they were lucky. It had accidentally taken a wrong turn into a dead-end and was dashing back and forth between the corners as they approached.

"There," Kai said quickly. "Catch it."

It was a command and Hari was not bothered by it. They'd come there for that reason, after all. Kai waited behind him while Hari took only a few steps forward. He simply was placing himself in a good position, then stood still, waiting for the tiny terrified creature to try to rush past him. It did so on his left and he shot the shorthand out. It pricked its little shoulder and the mouse came to a halt.

Kai's eyes snapped to Hari's hair then. He had an inkling that Hari's quirk had something to do with the unique shape of it, but he hadn't expected it to be that kind of power. His lips parted, air sucked in between them and he seemed to reach a state of deep focus. Naturally, he was gauging its usefulness, inferencing its limits, deciphering a way he could outmaneuver him if he were ever to turn the sharp points of those white arrows against him, but he was pulled from his deep focus by Hari stooping to pinch the tail of the mouse he'd just frozen in place.

He spun to Kai and held up the unmoving creature out toward him.

"There, it's caught,"

"Stop,"

"What?"

"You're disgusting,"

Kai saw that tiny smile, the beginnings of a smirk and the alarm in his ears was rising in volume. He had only just started to feel clean, to feel safe, and this other child's pettiness was threatening that peace with a rodent.

"You wanted me to catch it, I caught it. Here, it's yours,"

"Stay away,"

Hari advanced and Kai backed away.

"It's a welcome gift,"

And he'd had enough. Before he could think he swiped, causing blood and guts to burst, coating Hari's clothing in red. He stared in awe at the tail hanging down between his fingers with nothing attached to it.

Kai was clutching his own hand, grinding his teeth, and showing Hari the most ferocious glare he could muster. How dare this boy push him to this extent? To touching something so filthy and now he was filthy. He could still feel the fur, the warmth, the flesh, and the sensations ricocheted through his body, forcing his stomach to erupt with queasiness.

Hari was unable to form a coherent thought and Kai tried not to vomit when a man's voice came roaring at them from the down the hall. Neither noticed for they were too busy seizing each other up, studying, waiting for the next move. They both noticed each other's lips, in the same shape, hanging open slightly.

Even as the men approached, they weren't paying attention. The shock of the moment was finally broken by Hari snorting, covering his mouth with his clean hand, and muffling his laughs.

Kai felt it then, heat rising to his cheeks, a kind of embarrassment he'd never experienced until that moment.

"What's so funny?"

As the men closed in Hari revealed a small grin, but said not a word. Kai didn't know yet, as they were reprimanded, sent to the restroom to clean up, then ushered back into Hari's room with commands to go to sleep that Hari was starting to like him.

Kai didn't know yet, that Hari's easy-going nature coupled well with his particularities, that Hari found amusement in his numerous expressions during their little adventure, that Kai's reflexive recoil was laughable, that Kai's focusing eyes were an interesting sight to him. Kai did not know, Hari had trouble sleeping that night, due to tremors of giddy, of his own fixation sprouting up through soil soaked in blood.

Cleansing was in order. Implicitly, Hari knew because he'd learned. Though it wasn't yet visible Kai was trembling, his sense of security offended by the touch of the villains and nothing would be right until he'd scraped that, along with his lingering irritations, away. In a floor embedded bath meant to be shared, Kai was alone, having scrubbed his arm nearly raw, he relaxed. The steam opened his sinuses and padded the storm that had been brewing within him. In the scent of soap and the faint ripple of the water, as he adjusted himself, Kai felt safest. Alone, surrounded by polished tile floors and walls.

Well, mostly alone.

When he opened his eyes he expected Hari to be there, not within sight, but standing on the opposite side of a closed sliding door. Always within earshot, Kai expected if he wished to make conversation Hari would oblige. It was part of his role.

"Kurono,"

Kai enjoyed the quickness with which he received his reply, it was tingle inducing, absurdly pleasing in the most simple of ways.

"Yes,"

And Hari had to know Kai was settling into a mood, resurfacing a kind of charm that only came with the steam of a bath. It was always in the most soothing, clean atmosphere that Kai's voice grew silkier.

"We'll be working late tonight."

"Understood."

There was a pause as Kai caressed his own collarbone with the fingers of his right hand. It was his own touch only that he seemed to enjoy, the tips smoothing across the taut, wet skin, letting out a sigh in some unrealized sense of pleasure at the idea of Hari waiting for him. He smoothed his hand to the curve of his neck, reaching back and kneading at the muscles untensing at the base.

Kai did not understand what was building within him, he sometimes became submerged in self-involved dazes, the feel of his own perfect skin, a kind of narcissism that had blossomed when he had become an adult. He unconsciously blamed Hari for it, he blamed Hari for the joy he felt when he palmed his own throat and danced his way up to his jawline, tracing it, wondering how Hari might react if he were standing there and watching him.

He was not a man who fully understood the level of perversity his thoughts had despite how little interest he seemed to have in such things. He was an enigma.

A demanding enigma.

"Make some coffee, I'm getting out."
Hari responded in the affirmative. Kai smirked at the sound of his fading footsteps. His submission always put him at ease. He could do anything, ask anything, and Hari would comply. His sense of control returned and it bled into his perception of all that had transpired earlier that evening.

He felt somehow he'd succeeded. They'd lost a shield, no one integral. The League had lost a major player and the arm of one of their most talented comrades. There was no reason to be stressed. They had the upper hand and would continue to have the upper hand.

As he patted the water off his body with a towel and put on a fresh set of clothes, Kai took in another long, deep inhale of warm air. He was rejuvenated, brought back to his center and ready to take on his next steps, so long as Hari had prepared coffee in time for him to return to the lab.

He had. As they sat at their desks and began their work, the same desire to assert his control kept him distracted enough that his mind went in search of something to appease his craving. Not fully consciously of course. No. Kai did not have unclean thoughts. He had no time for such things, but he was headed for some kind of change.

Such changes came from the most subtle realizations, in just blinks or tilts, the beginning of a turn could be found. And Kai found a change, a way to appease his craving at the edge of Hari's lips. Raising his mug of coffee to take a sip, a casual motion Kai had caught out of the corner of his eye, as the mug descended a bit of a pink swiped out, a fluid short flick, even from his office chair he saw a gleam of saliva along Hari's pale lips.

He watched the shine catch the light just slightly and imagined that dainty muscle reappearing to take another swipe. He imagined how pleasant it's pink and how light it must be. Before he realized he was imagining smearing the gloss around the inner rim of Hari's lips with his glove thumb, feeling the heat of his breath caress him through the white fabric, watch those plush lips part as though they were inviting him in, hoping, begging to feel a part of Kai inside of him. The gray in those eyes would glaze over, those pale checks would take on red gradually, flushing for him. Then he'd say,

"Show me your tongue,"

And he would obey because he was loyal.

Hari's tongue would daringly brush over his thumb. Kai would feel the tease and click his own against his teeth.

"I didn't say you could lick me, Hari," and Kai would smirk when obediently Hari did not respond. The thin brows over those sharp eyes would knit, the vibrations of a whine beginning in the back of his throat and teasing over his thumb as well.

"Be good,"

He would reward him for it if only he listened.

But what Kai imagined was simply that, a daydream, a daydream he attempted to make reality without hesitation or a second thought.

Rising from his office chair he glided through the low lit room, letting his splayed fingertips ghost over the top of his desk before falling to his side as he neared Hari.

He hadn't reacted immediately, likely thinking Kai had stood up to grab something from the bookshelf near his smaller desk, but his overwhelming presence lingered by his side.

But when he looked at him, casually, expecting just to take a glance, Kai caught his chin and tilted it up, faster than he could process, faster than he could realize, faster than his body could understand he was being presented with the opportunity to slide into a new world of possibility.

Kai was pleased with how well it was going, how smoothly he'd been able to achieve the first part of his whim. Did he recognize he was threatening an unspoken boundary? Did he know he was providing a message the strong-willed, but obediently withheld Hari was completely unprepared to receive?

Did the threads of his loyalty sew beyond the use-value of his body into its potential to serve all needs?

Even needs Kai did not completely understand himself?

Because it had not crossed his mind as a whole, that pressing his thumb tip to Hari's tongue could lead to it pushing further, that Hari closing his lips and sucking could lead to an image of the same lips around something thicker, warmer, and just a bit lower. Did his thoughts travel beyond examining and playing with Hari's dainty tongue?

They had not. It was rare enough that his thoughts had wandered to something physical in that way, but whatever lay beyond was nowhere near his impulse to pick at Hari's loyal threads.

Did he think Hari would interpret it in that way? Of course not, what he thought did not matter. Kai did not think he would receive any reaction aside from compliance.

He did not expect confused but calm eyes and those pretty pink lips in a straight line.

Their only parting a rather firm, short, "What are you doing?"

Kai's brow almost twitched with irritation.

"Show me your tongue," he commanded with less coolness than he liked and more force.

"...all of a sudden," Hari muttered more to himself, already leaning back, sliding from Kai's not-too-tight grip. "Why do you-"

"Just do it," Kai snapped.

This wasn't right, this wasn't what he expected or what he wanted. Hari was supposed to listen to him, to every demand and request without question. In less than a second his blood was boiling, his thin dark brows accentuated with muscle tensed lines. The confusion in Hari's expression and his stunned silence were more infuriating than a "No," a slap of his hand, his stillness that he sometimes portrayed washing Kai of the last of his unspecified excitement. Now merely a daydream unfulfilled.

"Forget it,"

Hari stared after him after he plopped back into his seat like he'd just endured a long and heavy conversation while he glared at this desktop as though it were the source of his frustrations. Hari, inclined to please, hoping he could remedy his discontent inquired:

"Is it for research purposes? Do you-"

"I said forget it," Kai growled it, his hands were hovering over his keyboard and fingers were tapping away.

The click reverberated in their cold, damp underground, Hari trying to understand what he had wanted and what he had meant by his action and command.

He would have been lying if, thinking back, as he swiveled in his desk chair to face his own computer screen. The softness of the white glove lingered beneath his bottom lip, firmness giving way to faint tingles like a print had been left. What did it take not to brush his own fingers over the spots and acknowledge the memory of a physical intimacy he hadn't expected. A thunk in his chest, a rush down his scalp, he couldn't have known in his stunned state he lost the opportunity for something glorious and uniquely fulfilling, something that could have fed him for a century and embellished his frequent daydreams with the sweetness he was always craving.

He vowed, were Kai to command something similar again, he would heed and execute as requested.