Crazy! So much time passed by like nothing. Sorry for the long wait. I had been studying for this major exam for months just to have it postponed due to the current viral dilemma. Anyhow, enjoy then~
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Disclaimer in first chapter.
Chapter 32:
Kotaro sat in the corner, silently watching the small pup play by himself. He refused to engage too much fearing that if he did, he would get carried away and forget about Tobimaru. He scoffed and looked away, wondering if it was a mistake to take the dog in, in the first place.
His frown relaxed a bit when he noticed something licking the tip of his fingers. "Huh?" He found the pup happily licking his fingers as if they were food. "...are you hungry?" 'Or maybe it's 'cause I was cooking just a while ago.' Kotaro inevitably deciphered the gesture as 'cute' but didn't show it on his face. 'Maybe I should get him some food...I don't think I've fed him yet...I think Nanashi gave him something in the morning...' The younger decided, standing up from his spot and pouring something into a bowl. He placed it in front of the dog who accepted it unconditionally.
"So carefree, huh? Must be nice?"
"Yo, I'm back. Finally getting along, are we?" Nanashi's voice entered the house.
"No we're not! But at the same time, I can't let him die, can I?" The brunette sulked.
"Good for you." The redhead ruffled the other's hair as he walked towards the water barrel.
"Are you even listening?"
Shou was in one of those awfully good moods and decided to take Kazuya out into the shopping district. It was basically a street lined by shopping stalls of varied products, including jewelry, food, clothes—you name it.
"How's this? I reckon it would look splendid on you with your fine skin." Shou lifted a long magenta necklace and held it against Kazuya's neck.
"It's too extravagant for me, Shou..."
"Nonsense, then how about this one..." The master reached for a smaller one but was interrupted by his assistant. "What is it, can you not see I'm in the middle of something?"
"My apologies sir, it's just that we finally received a message from the merchant that you wanted to do business with..."
Shou sighed and nodded. "Don't go anywhere, Kazuya. I'll be right back." With that he walked towards a quieter street to discuss business with his assistant. The bluenette obliged and silently stood by the jewelry stand, gazing at the sparkling gems. His fingers lightly touched a glistening silver chain with a charm attached to it.
"Oh, didn' know you were into that kinda stuff?" An unfamiliar voice startled him. Kazuya automatically took his hand away and turned to see a grinning Chinese samurai. "Y-you..."
"Hey, what's my name?" Tengfei refused to talk to the other until he heard his name leave those lips. He didn't fathom, why but he wanted to collapse all walls between them as soon as possible.
"Huh? Oh, Ten...Teng...fei...?"
"Yeah~ you remembered." Lok hooted and wrapped an arm over of the younger's shoulders.
"H-hey..." Kazuya appeared uncomfortable with his frank nature until he paled and pushed the other away. 'He completely forgot for a second that Shou was right around the corner.'
"Huh, what's the problem?"
"Please don't act so familiar with me."
"Why not?" Lok raised a brow, not taking the other seriously as he gently took hold of one of the his hands. "Oh, I get it~. Playing hard to get, are we?" The elder boldly brought the hand to his lips and pecked it, causing the other to turn a shade of red. He was so breathtaking, that Lok wanted to devour him right then and there.
"What is going on?" A third voice, that could only belong to Shou, interjected. Kazuya flinched, instantly taking his hand away.
"Shou..." The actor stepped towards the other.
'Who?' Lok couldn't help but wonder.
"Who is this?" Shou inquired with a bitter tone.
"No one." Kazuya answered.
"Unbelievable, is there no wonder I don't allow you outside the house on your own. You should be grateful you can continue your acting dream." The raven-haired gripped the other's arm and was prepared to drag him away. "We're leaving." However, when the older man pulled forward he felt resistance from the younger. Both Kazuya and Shou looked back to see Tengfei holding on to the bluenette's other arm. "You dare—!"
"Who are ya to talk to him like that, huh?" Lok nonchalantly spoke with his chin raised.
"I don't have to answer to the likes of you. Hands off him. If you dare touch him again in the future, it won't be easy for you." Shou glared straight into Lok's downturned eyes. In truth, all the other's threats were a joke to him but why did he release the younger's arm and allow him to be dragged away?
'That look in his eyes...' Tengfei thought standing completely still as he watched their figures slowly diminish. While he refused to back down, he noticed Kazuya staring at him with helpless pleading eyes—begging him to stop his foolishness and let go before both of them regretted it. Lok succumbed to that gaze and slowly on its own, his hand loosened up. 'He looked like he was ready to die...shit, why did this hurt so much?'
As soon as they entered the house, Shou threw Kazuya into one of the rooms. "Five minutes! I only look away for five minutes and you're already flirting with someone else?!"
"No, Shou—I wasn't..."
"How dare you lie!" Shou smacked him across the face. "I saw the expression you were making—do you really think you can fool me?! Now, tell me who is he?!" He clutched a handful of the other's clothing and yanked him up.
"No one Shou, I promise. I don't know him..." Kazuya begged, hoping Shou would fall for it. He didn't want Tengfei to be dragged into this.
"So, you're a whore now?"
"No—!"
"Enough! Strip. Right now. Someone needs to remind you who you belong to, apparently. I'll make it so that no one can use this body." Kazuya swallowed hard. This was going to be a painfully long night.
The actor woke up late in the afternoon the next day with a body unable to move. He winced in pain with every movement he executed. 'I won't be able to bathe after all...I should probably have the maid prepare a wet towel and bucket of water...' Kazuya thought as he tried to fix his thin yukata. He picked up one of the mirrors off the shelf and gazed at an ugly version of his face. There was a small diffuse violet bruise right under his left eye along the cheek bone. His eyes were red and puffy and his neck had all sorts of marks. The man sighed. 'How much did he have to endure?' He just prayed make up could cover this. Other than that, it didn't seem like Shou was anywhere to be found. The bluenette assumed he went to work as usual.
Meanwhile, Kotaro lazily sat on the futon in the middle of the day. He didn't have any tasks at hand and neither did he have the motivation to do anything. He secretly glanced at the pup who was taking a nap on the floor near the far end of the futon.
"Kotaro, water?" Nanashi grabbed his attention and passed him a cup.
"Mn, thanks."
"Don't die on me now."
"Ha ha." The teen sarcastically laughed as he drank. He was impressed though, Nanashi could be really nurturing when he wanted to. Since the teen had been so irregular about his sleep and diet, the redhead silently kept track for him instead. He was taken aback when the samurai dumped his head on the smaller lap. "Eh—"
"I'm serious." Nanashi closed his eyes, laying on the ground with a knee up as the back of his skull felt the curvature of the teen's thigh. "You'll waste all the effort I went through to save your life in the first place." The elder stared at Kotaro as his fingers played with a long strand of the brunette's hair. Kotaro averted his eyes, feeling guilty and understanding at the same time.
"I'll take better care of myself..." the younger muttered, holding the other's head.
Nanashi smirked. "Good." The teen began to feel nervous at the continuous smile from the other and Nanashi must have recognized that. "Come here."
If the brunette wasn't wrong, then in that moment, that could only imply one thing... Kotaro bent his neck down and kissed the redhead on the lips, very softly. "Heh, you still have a long way to go." Nanashi placed a hand at the back of the teen's head and kissed him harder, before he sat up and continued kissing. As the elder stuck his tongue in, they kissed some more until he slowly pushed the younger on to the futon.
"Hah...Nanashi...wait...breath—m" Kotaro was holding the other's face as he attempted to keep up.
"Someone's lacking stamina."
"S-shut up..."
"Yo guys~! Uh-" Tengfei swung the door to the house open to catch the two right in the act. Kotaro froze on the spot. "Oops... Actually, I was just gonna say I'll be eating out—don't mind me, continue please." Lok winked and closed the door more gently this time.
"That guy!" The brunette cried out completely red.
'Hm...maybe, I could go peek on him real quick...ugh, I feel so frickin' annoyed! I shouldn' have let him go.' Tengfei scratched his head before slapping his straw hat back on. He recalled the way to the young man's street from their walk last time. 'Shouldn't be too hard.' He thought.
Tengfei knocked on the door and an old maid opened up. "Hello, good day young lady~"
"Oh my, what a smooth talker. Who's young? You shouldn't joke with your elders."
"Haha, trust me, I'm much older than I look."
"How can I help you?"
"Actually, is a beautiful man named Kazuya here? I wanted to see him again." Lok responded.
"A friend?"
"Uh, somethin' like that...I'm not a huge fan of labels, I either know you or I don't—we're all family here." The samurai blabbered to win the maid's favor.
"Alright, alright, come on in."
"Huh? Oh okay, pardon the intrusion." Lok didn't see that coming but scored a victory in his head.
"Master Kazuya is in the third room to the left." The maid pointed and walked on.
"Thank you." Tengfei quickly scanned the manor. 'I have a feeling the other guy isn't home yet.' The Chinese samurai walked towards the sliding paper doors of the said room but before he could tap on them, the door opened by itself and Kazuya was standing on the other side. "Hey—" As soon as Kazuya recognized the man standing in front of him in his house, his eyes bulged out in shock. Without another word uttered, Kazuya pulled Tengfei into the room and slammed the door.
"What are you doing here?!" The bluenette cried, but Tengfei's expression looked lost on him, as if he wasn't listening at all. "Why can you not—"
"Did he do this?" The bluenette faltered when Tengfei's large hand outlined the left side of his face.
"Why do you insist on making this harder for me?" An exhausted and worn out expression washed over the younger's face.
"I'm baffled. I just don' get how anyone could harm such a breathtaking face..." The elder held a rather serious look in his eyes that it almost made the other shudder in his hold.
"Please leave." Kazuya averted his face.
"Not without you."
"Listen to yourself—I don't even know you. You mean nothing!" As tempting as the offer was, Kazuya wasn't going to rely on false hope. He had no reason to hate Tengfei. If anything, Kazuya very much appreciated his open-book personality. The samurai always spoke his mind whether it was before an enemy or ally.
The actor was surprised when Lok cupped both sides of his face and smacked his mouth right on top of his. Kazuya pushed the other away almost immediately, covering his own mouth with a hand. "There, now we know each other a little better. We're not strangers anymore."
"Why are you doing this?"
"I don' know. But you're not staying 'ere anymore."
Kazuya sighed. He didn't have the energy for this. "Please leave already, and please don't ever let Shou see you."
'Shou? Must be the other guy.' "Is he your lover? He is, right? You have hickeys all over your neck." Kazuya blushed at that. "Fine I'll leave. But only if you promise to come to your grandmother's house tomorrow."
"Looking like this? Of course not."
"Your choice—I ain't leaving then." Tengfei was about to sit down and get comfortable. "Okay, alright! I'll... go."
"Hmph, great. Keep your word princess." Lok smirked his usual smirk and turned to the door. "Oh, and hang in there, okay?" the words held genuine concern and encouragement as they left the other's mouth. Kazuya's heart clenched as the words and tone of the elder warmed him up.
"Ah...! Nanashi...don't..." Kotaro pleaded as Nanashi lay behind him and played with his nipples.
"You've become sensitive."
"D-don't say it in my ear!" the brunette hissed. "And you've gotten more perverted." The redhead couldn't stifle a chuckle in response to that as he bit the younger's neck in revenge.
"If you keep yelling, your pup's gonna wake up." The elder glanced at the napping pup who was directly in their line of sight.
"Whose pup...mh..."
"Juts admit it that you like him. He's an angel, what's there not to like?"
"Shut up...no one can replace Tobimaru."
Without warning, Nanashi lay the other completely on his stomach and wet one of his fingers in his mouth. "He's not replacing anyone. How many times do I have to tell you that?" The redhead carefully inserted a finger in the younger's backside, making the other twitch once.
"W-what are you..."
"Don't worry I won't do anything. I'm just slowly preparing you for when the time comes."
"Mh..ah! Er..."
"Painful?"
"No...well...a little, it feels really weird..." Kotaro shivered as the samurai rubbed the finger in and out. "Agh! Wait...I'm going to—"
"It's fine, go ahead. It supposed to feel good soon..." As much as Nanashi enjoyed teasing the other, he tried to keep it to a minimum while he searched for his sweet spot.
"Ah!" Kotaro shuddered as released himself.
"Was that it?" The redhead mumbled to himself. 'He acts all tough, but he's so cute.' The elder pecked the top of his head once.
To Be Continued...
I don't know about u guys, but I'm digging Lok even more. Other than that, I don't have much to say, I'm still in the process of regaining myself, the last couple months were too stressful lol. On another note, stay safe (and stay home!) Thanks for reading~
