Chapter 2

Youji

"I spy, with my little eye, something. . ." I looked in a couple different directions, trying to throw him off, "orange!" Oh, this one was good, he'd never figure it out in a million years. I'd have Aya begging at my feet to tell him the answer before the frustration drives him insane! Mwaahahaaa. . .

He didn't hesitate. "The little circle around the cigarette icon on the automatic lighter." His voice was muffled into his hand whereupon his head was propped to look out of the passenger window, not that there was a particularly large amount of captivating scenery at this point of the long drive to Kyoto.

"K'so!" I whined. "That was the hardest one yet! How did you figure it out?" He had to be cheating somehow! I knew it. . . Not that there was really anyway to cheat in this kind of game.

"You're thinking about smoking."

"Hmph," I gave a little indignant snort at the simple explanation. Aya was really a dark cloud in the blue sky when it came to prolonged rides in the car. "Well, honey, if you'd just let me smoke in the car, my car actually, I might be able to think of something else."

He countered, "I'd hate to see the person that I'm so utterly in love with die of lung cancer. Much less die of it myself."

"But lovie if we died, we'd be dying together! What mangaka wouldn't want to make a horrible comic about that?"

"Hn." Damn, I'd gotten him back on the hns

"Yeah I'm sick of this game anyway. Let's play something else. . . Oooh! I know! The dirty limerick round robin!"

"The what?" He spat at me.

"You know, dirty limericks. Only I come up with a line, then you, then me. . . Got it?" Back in high school, we'd made a drinking game of this before. It was so much fun!

"Fine." Wow, he must be bored, he actually answered me.

"Hmm. . . There once was a man from Nantucket." That was an easy one to start with. Just to break the ice a little.

"Who kicked the bucket."

"Ayaaaa!" My own whine made me cringe. "One it's supposed to be dirty, and two you can't just end it by killing the poor Nantucket man off before he gets any!"

"Haven't you ever heard of necromancy?"

"Huh?. . . Hentai! And you call me dirty!" Had I not known better I would've sworn that I'd seen him smile just a little.

Aya

After the first ten minutes in the car, I got a little edgy. Thirty minutes, I got a little irritated. Forty-five minutes, I wanted to shoot Youji. An hour, I wanted to shoot myself!

Honestly, what was the purpose of these pointless games that Youji kept insisting that we play. Can't the idiot just take solace in silence like I do?. . . Besides, who gives a damn about some old man from Nantucket and all of his talents that rhyme with "ucket?"

The realization that this trip was going to be hell no matter what had finally sunken in, so I tried to direct the aggravating prattle to something productive, like the mission. I'd meant to go over the details of just how we were going to go about this with him last night, but he had had me so pissed off that it completely slipped my mind.

Pulling a small black box from my pocket, I extracted one of two identical golden wedding bands and held it out to him.

"Oh Aya! I thought you'd never ask," he sarcastically snickered as he took the ring.

"On your left hand. . ."

"Well sooorryyy. Wild stallions like me don't have to think about things like being tied down. . . Especially to you."

"You'll soon find yourself a gelding if you don't start taking this seriously."

"Oh Aya! We have a whole week to take ourselves seriously, why not joke about it while we can?" Briefly, he looked away from the road to grace me with a broad grin. "Besides even if I were gay I wouldn't be married to you."

"Hn."

"Don't get me wrong Aya-kun you're hot as hell. . . uh, for a guy and all. . ." I could've sworn that I'd seen a hint of color his cheeks. I don't know why most men are so afraid to admit someone is attractive. Girls tell each other how cute they are all the time, and no one thinks that their about to go fuck each other into oblivion. "But," he continued, "you really need an attitude adjustment! "

"The feeling is mutual," I conceded with a sigh. Sad thing is, I kind of like his dysfunctional attitude just the way it is. "Back to the mission though. We're a recently married couple and this is our honeymoon. Our codenames are Shuichi and Yuki."

"Fine, you're Yuki. It's a girly name after all and you seem to be partial to those."

All that earned him was a glare. The comment bordered on going a little too far but I let it slide.

Youji

"So I'm the boy right." Like hell I was going to be the one to adopt a lisp and limp wrist. Not that I'd ever actually seen a person do those things in real life. . . However, Aya was the only gay guy that I personally knew. . . Anyway, if we were to draw attention we'd have to play the label up a bit, no matter how degrading it might be. . . I'd just as soon prefer that I not be the belittled one.

"Excuse me?"

"In the relationship, I'm the man."

"We're posing as a gay couple, the point being that we're both men." God Aya could be so dense. I don't know if he was really that in the dark as to the meaning of my words of if it were just a condescending effort to make me feel bad for playing to the homosexual stereotype. . . Either way I didn't appreciate the sarcasm.

"God do I have to spell it out for you? Who's fucking who?"

"I don't care," he stated mildly. "If your ego can't handle such a false identity, then who am I to dominate you." How could someone say something so sardonic and be so calm about it?

"Well I just thought it kinda went without saying. I am the bigger and the older of us two."

A rare smirk lit up his ivory features. "You've got a lot to learn."