STA: I apologize from the bottom of my heart for the rubies. They seemed appropriate for the situation, but I still feel like I've sinned.

L'Arc hung his head lower and lower as Therese's scolding carried on. It was only meant to be a little fun, but letting himself get carried away definitely hurt his chances with her.

When she turned to another girl for affirmation, L'arc stole a glance at the other men who had been caught alongside him. They had all known Naofumi, and each carried a weapon not unlike his scythe. Glass had claimed the Shield Hero was the only real hero to appear, but perhaps these three were like the other heroes from his world who could never follow Kizuna's example. It might be wise to get near them as well.

"L'Arc, are you even listening to me?"

"Motoyasu, stop stealing glances at that blue-haired foreigner while I'm scolding you!"

Therese didn't have a vassal weapon to translate for her, and she glared at L'Arc when he lifted his head to glower at the man who had checked out his woman. "If you're not paying attention, we'll need to start the lecture over from the beginning."

And so, while the swordsman and bowman were eventually let off by the women in their team, L'Arc and the spearman sat on their ankles in the hall well past when everyone else was released. Even after the buxom red-haired babe who had scolded the spearman at last tired of chewing him out, Therese made sure to give a few last parting remarks so that L'Arc had been the most thoroughly scolded before she left him in the hall to reflect on his misdeeds.

He really did intend to reflect, just a little. Working with her come morning was going to be tense, and if he ever progressed his relationship, she might bring up the incident to put him back in his place. But L'Arc only had five seconds to think such glum thoughts before the spearman said, "Well, that failed. Want to see if we can pick someone else up at the bar?"

"You really don't know when to quit, huh?"

The spearman laughed at that. "Whore will be over it by morning. It was only a little lighthearted fun anyway. It looks like everyone else decided to be a wet blanket and turn in for the night, so less competition for us."

It was the opposite of reflecting, but they were on a mission to hunt all of the world's heroes. If the spearman wasn't a Holy Hero, his weapon at least looked like it might be a vassal weapon, Whether he had to die to bring about his world's end or to prevent him from invading L'Arc's world, he was a target either way. His smile and carefree attitude were his most dangerous attributes. While he didn't seem as genuine as Naofumi, L'Arc could sense that getting too close to this one would make him hard to raise a hand against.

But he couldn't kill the spearman without confirming he had the right target. Attacking an innocent could expose him before he was able to target a real hero, and if he failed his mission, he would rather do so with as few casualties as possible. L'Arc wanted his own world to survive, but that didn't mean he was at peace with the harm he had to inflict on another world.

He held out a hand to shake with the spearman. "L'Arc Berg, adventurer here to grow stronger against the waves. Let's see what other mischief we can get away with."

The spearman clasped his hand and made his job easy by saying, "Motoyasu Kitamura, Spear Hero. Maybe if you're strong enough, you and that cute girl you were with can join my party."

Well, that handled the matter of confirming he was a hero. All he had to do was get this one alone somewhere and eliminate him. Without the level boost from his home world during a wave, L'Arc was only a moderately talented adventurer who might struggle against a hero, but eliminating this one now would make the next wave easier. L'Arc already knew something that could take Motoyasu down regardless of whatever stats he boasted as a hero. Without knowing who this man was, he had watched Motoyasu swallow a rucolu fruit and foam at the mouth upon immediately collapsing from the intense alcohol poisoning only the day before. So long as no one was around to intervene when he slipped a rucolu fruit into Motoyasu's drink, he'd be done for.

L'Arc rose to his feet and winced. After sitting on his ankles so long, his legs were numb. They moved too slowly to right himself when Motoyasu, seemingly in the same predicament, stumbled upon trying to stand and crashed into L'Arc. The two tumbled to the floor, L'Arc landing on his back with Motoyasu atop him.

With no awareness for the position the two landed in, Motoyasu lifted one hand to rub his head. Specifically, the hand that had broken his fall by catching the floor rather than L'Arc. "Jeez. My hangover isn't totally gone yet. That rattled my brain."

With one hand on his head, the other applied greater pressure to the well-placed position it landed on L'Arc's chest. Of course, Motoyasu had only fallen to his hands and knees, so his legs kept him putting any further weight on L'Arc's body. Not that L'Arc was any happier in light of that to have Motoyasu's knee so close to his crotch.

"You're luck I'm a guy. It would be another hour-long lecture if your hand landed where it did on a woman."

"Hm? Isn't this normal?" Motoyasu asked, patting L'Arc's chest before he straightened and withdrew his hand. "Where do you land when you and a cute girl collide and fall together?"

"What's with that question? You're in the habit of knocking girls down?"

Motoyasu actually put a finger to his lip and thought about it before saying, "It's more like they have a habit of crashing into me on the first day of school. It made for a memorable greeting the first time but… What was her name again? Miho… No, that was the girl I ran into during third year. Katane? Or was her name Kataha? Oh, whatever. It usually works out well as long as you say the right lines afterward."

L'Arc thought he'd been pissed to hear Naofumi's tale of failing to notice Raphtalia'a attempts to seduce him. He hadn't known true anger. At least Motoyasu understood well enough what it meant to be a man to only laugh when L'Arc shook him for having landed in such a lucky situation multiple times. What sort of nonsense life did a man lead to routinely fall with his hand on a woman's chest!? If that was how all the heroes were treated by this world, then no wonder Glass thought they were all failures! Anyone that spoiled was a lost cause!

It made L'Arc very much not want to go to the bar with such a man to pick up women, but he also very much needed a drink after receiving such devastating news. He let Motoyasu pull him to his feet and didn't need to be told to follow him towards the same tavern they ate at the night before.

The bartender took one look at Motoyasu as they entered and moved his rucolu fruit off of the counter and onto a shelf below. That would make obtaining one to poison Motoyasu with harder, but worst case scenario, there was always giving someone alcohol poisoning the old-fashion way. L'Arc slid into a barstool beside Motoyasu and took a look at the drink menu. He wasn't able to read it, but he'd gotten someone to explain how heavy each was the night before, and remembered their positions.

The problem with getting someone drunk the old fashion way was that you had to drink with them. L'Arc ordered himself a light drink and Motoyasu the heavy one, and the wait began.

"Whore can be so stubborn," Motoyasu complained during his first drink. "I can tell you now she's good in, well, you know. So she's not a prude, but she doesn't get men being men at all."

"I feel you." Mostly, L'Arc felt rage to know that the cad next to him got laid. "Therese seems like she's into me, but then whenever I make a move, she gets mad."

"Girls can be so silly." Motoyasu held up his cup, and he and L'Arc drank to the sentiment.

By his third drink, Motoyasu had a flush to his cheeks, but there was no difference in his behavior. He smacked the ass of a woman as she walked by, but he'd done that sober. It wasn't until he pounded his fourth drink that Motoyasu seemed to forget he was there to sulk over how the party member he kept referring to on such derogatory terms scolded him.

"Seriously, that Naofumi pisses me off. All he's got is that cheat shield, but the queen's like, 'You need to work harder to accomplish as much as him.' I'm the one who contributed the most to the first wave. Where'd that respect go?"

"I know what you mean. I totally know what you mean." For all L'Arc's work getting his level up,Therese still praised Glass more for risking coming to another world ahead of them. L'Arc had been hunting every report of the Shield Hero wreaking havoc, but while all of the men with shields he fought had as bad an attitude as Glass recounted, none turned out to be the real deal. "No matter how much I do, it's never good enough."

"You really get me, huh?" Motoyasu threw an arm over L'Arc's shoulder. "Man. The other guys were ragging on me in the bath over appreciating women, but you? You're like my spirit-brother or something. Alright! Next drink's on me!"

The bartender brought them each the heavy drink that L'Arc had started Motoyasu on. In all future recountings of that night, L'Arc would pretend he couldn't remember what happened after that.

Motoyasu's arm stayed on L'Arc's shoulder, even when he told the next girl who passed that she was a solid ten. She laughed at that, and said, "Enough of that now. You're going to make your boyfriend jealous."

"I'm shuper jealoush," L'Arc assured her. Where did the confidence to hit on every girl who passed by come from?

The girl laughed more and left with her friends, and Motoyasu, laughing too, didn't seem to notice she was gone.

"Sho tell me," L'Arc said, attempting to point an accusatory finger at Motoyasu and instead pressing his finger to Motoyasu's chest, "How are you sho good at thish?"

"What else is college for?" Motoyasu asked.

"You know what? I think I'm gonna keep y'alive. I got too much t' learn from ya."

"Thanks, man. I appreciate that. Y'know what? Anything you want, just lemme know and I'll pay ya back with it."

"Really? You really're a good guy." L'Arc clapped Motoyasu on the back. "Ah… alright! I made up my mind. If yer serious, then you gotta tell me how it is yer sho bold with women, right? I got a girl whose always makin' excushes or actin' like she doesn' notice I'm sweet on her. Sho tell me yer secrets."

"You just gotta make her feel special," Motoyasu said. "Here. Like this." And then he slid two fingers under L'Arc's chin, tilting his head up gently so that the two of them were looking into one another's eyes. His voice became softer, nudged a bit deeper, and there was a sense of tenderness in it when he said, "You're so strong, to withstand that. If there's anything I can do to relieve your burden, say the word."

A shudder ran down L'Arc's spine that left him warm instead off chilled.

"Kiss me."

L'Arc's booze addled brain realized too late that there was something off about that. Kiss Motoyasu? He settled on the justification of wanting tips on how to kiss, but when he opened his mouth to explain himself, Motoyasu's lips pressed against his. Rather than words coming out, Motoyasu's tongue went in. It was firm, yet gentle, and while it should have tasted like nothing more than the heavy drink both of them were sloshed from, there was a warm spice to it that was unlike anything L'Arc had tasted before.

L'Arc let the sensation melt him, leaning into Motoyasu and making no attempts to resist. All too soon, the sensation was over. Motoyasu pulled away, running a tongue across his upper lip once as if to lick up all he'd tasted of L'Arc. He hadn't dragged out the moment at all, letting his tongue play with L'Arc's just long enough to let L'Arc know he liked it, then pulled away to leave him wanting more.

"Yer evil. You can't jus' leave me like that."

"Oh?" Motoyasu's smile was light, breezy, even. But there was a curve to one side of it that made L'Arc suspect that if the bar counter were a battlefield, he'd have been soundly defeated. He was handsome. L'Arc had known from the moment he saw Motoyasu that he was the sort of handsome that turned girls' heads and made any man in the dating market nervous, but he hadn't looked at Motoyasu so closely before. You could write poems about how finely sculpted his face was, and those ruby eyes! The way he looked at a person seemed both relaxed and sharp, giving you the sense that he would be easy-going, but cool. Looking into this eyes, it was impossible to refuse when Motoyasu said, "Well, the next lesson needs to happen in another room."

-o-

Motoyasu woke the next morning with a pounding headache, Needing time to prepare himself for opening his eyes and seeing light filter through the window, he instead took stock of what he felt around him. He was naked beneath the sheets. There was skin pressed against his, but it wasn't sort at all. Whoever's skin it was, they were snoring. He had only vague memories of the previous night, but he sort of remembered giving love lessons, so he must have been a very thorough instructor when drunk.

Curiosity about what kind of girl he brought back to his room gave him the strength to open his eyes, and he was met with a distinctly male face.

That… made sense. Not the part where he slept with a man per se, but he had a hazy memory of giving instruction on how to remove armor in a way that didn't come off as desperate or kill the mood. "None of this is as hard as bra clasps, so I'll have to show you those later," he was pretty sure he'd said while unbuckling leather straps. But when he thought of it, he'd never seen any of the girls who stuck around or who hung out with his party for just a day or two wearing bras. His one score so far in a fantasy world, he had fumbled with a corset. Maybe he needed to practice a little more before he gave additional lessons.

Not that he was giving a man any additional lessons!

…But he might as well finish the lesson he got so deep into. With a heavy sigh, Motoyasu pulled himself out of bed and located his pants. The suite he'd been given had separate rooms for each of his party members and a kitchenette area for if they wanted to eat something without going to the bar. None of the girls were awake yet and he would rather cook for them if anything, but he could cook for… for…

Well, it wasn't the first time he woke up next to a hangover in bed with someone whose name he couldn't remember. At least it was his own bed he woke up in. He was pretty sure the man introduced himself before they started drinking, but he got drunk so soon aver that he didn't retain it.

In any case, he would cook for the man and call that a finished lesson on how to please a woman you were interested in, and also call the meal a bit of payment to buy the man's silence. Motoyasu had gathered ingredients to make a variety of omelets for the girls based on what he'd noticed of their tastes, but he could put that off for one day and make something for the man instead. What did he like anyway? He was a dude, so probably something hearty? Now that he thought of it, Motoyasu realized he had zero experience guessing men's tastes. A lot of his own interests could be boiled down to 'what are my current girlfriends into?' so even his own preferences weren't a great guide.

In the end, he scrambled breakfast sausage alongside eggs and cheese, with tomatoes set aside to dice and sprinkle on top after. The sizzling of sausage fat and eggs didn't wake the girls, but it did draw the stranger, also in nothing but pants, out of the bed. Looking at him upright, he was the man Naofumi had been talking to earlier. His hair was disheveled, but it didn't look too different from his normal wild style. He didn't have the soft, cute features Motoyasu was used to in bedmates, but there was a ruggedness to him that he could see appealing to some girls. Girls. Not him. Girls. Girls like that kind of look.

It would be better to start talking than stay silent and let his mind go dark places. Motoyasu gave the man unsure nod and said, "Morning. I don't know if you remember more of last night than me, but I'm Motoyasu. Nice to meet you."

The man paused in the middle of rubbing his head, shut his eyes in pain from something other than a hangover, then opened them and looked straight at Motoyasu. "L'Arc."

"Have a seat. I'm almost done cooking. It's my room anyway, so it's not like I can bail, but if you do something like this with a girl you like, even if you're not planning to hook up with her again, you gotta at least stay for breakfast. Waking up before her and sneaking into the kitchen earns you extra affection points. When she thinks you've left only to find out you stayed and wanted to treat her, it leaves a bigger impression than if you lie in bed waiting for her to wake up. Actually, lying there and watching her sleep would be creepy." He'd done it a time or two and been told off for it back in middle school. "You absolutely have to stay until she wakes up. Even if you don't mind burning bridges with her, your reputation will take a hit if she tells other girls that you slipped away early."

"You're actually committed to this whole first hand lessons thing, aren't you?"

Oh, good. He remembered agreeing to give lessons properly.

"Ah, forget it." L'Arc dropped into one of the seats at a table beside the kitchenette. "I feel like these lessons are more meant for a playboy than for a single, serious commitment, but I guess there's still stuff to glean from them. But speaking of reputations, you don't… you know… it's confidential which guys you teach this stuff too, right?"

"I don't generally teach other guys," Motoyasu scraped the food onto a plate and dropped it in front of L'Arc, "and I'm going to tell everyone from here on out that I still haven't."

"We should probably put on shirts so we look less suspicious."

"Right. I was too surprised when I woke up, but my hair must look pretty tangled. Actually, a bath would probably… yeah… I wouldn't normally advise telling a girl this, but for the sake of never having to discuss this with anyone again, eat fast and get out quick. I'm going to track down the rest of our clothes. If anyone catches you… um… Oh! Actually, get dressed and stick around. I'll pretend I invited you to go level grinding with us today."

As Motoyasu fled into the bedroom, he thought he overheard L'Arc curse and mutter, "I'm in too deep."

Motoyasu glanced back to see L'Arc quickly look away, and then looked away as well before he could notice again how good looking L'Arc was. Spending more time with a man who he'd already slept with was tempting fate. He hadn't ever considered the idea, and was still wary of it, but there was a certain handsomeness to L'Arc's face that he couldn't help but notice. If women were angels and L'Arc was luring him away from them, did that make him a devil leading Motoyasu into temptation?

If they were found out, it would be embarrassing for sure, but it would negate any risk of exposure that might encourage L'Arc not to meet with him again. Motoyasu didn't search for their missing shirts with as much haste as he ought to have.

-x-

STA: There's a backstory to how this fic came to be, but it's not very dramatic.