I had to rewrite the ending several times, but I am finally pleased (I know, it took long enough)! It would have gotten more graphic, but I figured that my poor mind (which just sort of freezes at the idea of writing a lemon) had had enough getting just the beginning part right. Lazy sod, I know, I know, and it is now Thursday. I'm not entirely happy with this. Will be updating late again this week, too.
This part written to the lovely sounds of Harusaki Sentimental by Plastic Tree. Good song. Go listen. Now.
(7 April 2005)
Together
by Seph Lorraine
The silence of the room was penetrated quite suddenly by the door bursting open, and smashing into the wall behind it. A bright light shone behind the sillhouetted figure in the doorway, and the room was cast in a dull glow from the light without.
"What's the meaning of all this sexiness?" The voice demanded with a roar.
"Hello, Kudou." Ran rolled his eyes and went back to his reading, huddled by the small light by his bed.
"You!" The tall blond entered dramatically and pointed at his roommate accusingly, "You've had girls over! I can smell it all over the place! You ridiculous little man-whore!"
Ran paid him little mind, having grown quite familiar with Youji's antics after a year, "And what a shame, you missed them all."
"And the men?" Youji wiggled his eyebrows, shutting the door (after pulling it from the cracked plaster of the wall behind him and resetting it on the hinges, albeit crookedly). He pranced over to his bed with a grace only he possessed and flopped onto the bouncy mattress to stare at the man across from him.
"Missed them, too." The redhead set the book down. His roommate was always very demanding of the attention he claimed to be due himself. He reluctantly humoured the man, since he was obviously dellusional.
Green eyes stared at him waiting for something else, after a moment of seeing the other man was not going to talk he sighed, "Don't tell me you shut yourself up in the house reading and listening to that nonsense you always listen to for the entire weekend!"
"Mozart is not nonsense, you uncultured twit."
"But Gackt is."
The redhead glared half-heartedly.
Youji rolled his eyes, "So you sat around with your sister, read your books, and listened to your obviously-not-nonsensical-oh-my-Gackt-what-was-I-thinking piano ballads while the world passed you dismissively by. Anything else happen? Anything note-worthy?"
Violet eyes moved away instantly, searching the wall for some small nailhead he could stare at until he could remove the evening before from his mind. He had only left his home that morning to return to the dorms, but since the evening before when he had watched Ken ride away from their small house on his motorcycle, his thoughts had hardly been without the other man.
His mind was a mess, really. Of course there were the obvious questions that arose from such a situation: Why did he kiss me? Did I really want him to kiss me? Does this mean we're somehow involved now? Am I ever even going to see him again? Do I want to see him again? Finally, after the state of confusion seemed to settle itself, he simply decided he was being stupid and dismissed them all, opting to think of other things. Like Aya-chan. Which, of course, only opted to make him feel guilty.
Aya hadn't come home that evening, and she hadn't been home in the morning when Ran knocked on her door to say goodbye before catching his train back across the expansive city to the university. She hadn't called, either, which worried him a bit. Most disturbing, however, was he hadn't even noticed she hadn't come home until well after midnight when he lay awake in his bed staring at a street lamp shining outside through his window. He was a horrible brother. He had kissed her boyfriend (even if he hadn't initiated it, he had responded willingly), and he had forgotten about her.
Part of him really wanted to find her and tell her what happened and apologise deeply, while part of him really wanted to look Ken up in a public directory and demand more from the brunet than some simple, lousy kiss in the rain. Schizophrenia must have been genetic amoung the Fujimiya children. Or something.
Of course that kiss had hardly been lousy.
Ran was bitten by angst, suddenly. Yes, he just wanted to sit alone in a dark room with some tea, a rainstorm outside, a scowl, and none of Youji's pesky, bothering questions. He would not look at the other man, he determined. He would just stare at the nail a few centimetres above his roommate's head and contemplate what sort of picture or poster had been held up by it before.
This did not go unnoticed by the room's other occupant.
"Well?" He looked expectant.
"Well, what?"
"Tell me what happened. It's obviously you're concealing something."
"Nothing happened."
"Oh come, now. Share the love, Ran."
"No."
"Ugh! You know the No Privacy Act of first semester hasn't yet been expired or ammended to end it's validation! You must tell me what interesting thing happened so that you might possibly have a chance at not dying young, lonely, and bitter!"
Ran frowned, "I took Aya out to eat at a cafe. And I got to talk to my okaasan for the first time in maybe two months."
Youji blinked, "That's it?"
The redhead huffed and reached for a notebook in his bag and a pen to work on his literary analysis assignment, "Yea, got a problem?"
"Yes, I have a problem with it! You have no life! You read, you talk to your sister, and you study! The only time you'll talk to anyone is when you're drunk, which has happened all of thrice and only by an over-exertion of my own efforts!" The blond seemed incredulous, "I don't see how you live in this little shell of yours. Doesn't it get cramped? Start to smell weird after a while?"
"I keep my shell quite clean, thank you." He wondered once again what it was that made him put up with the other man's constant nagging about his hermitness.
Youji ignored the comment and continued, "I mean, if I were to find you a nice guy to set you up with, you'd turn me down."
Ran mentally scalped himself for being drunk enough to reveal that little secret to his roommate first semester. It wasn't that he cared what others thought of him or his sexual preferences, as it was that he simply didn't want them thinking at all about him or his private life. Of course, the Kudou had known all along, being strangely observant (after all, he had to have some skill to get into such a prestigious school), and had even thought it rather complimentary to the redhead's character. Youji, himself, had experienced many male partners in his circus of flirting and partying with both sexes. The man knew no limits.
"If you were to meet a nice guy, you'd probably just scare him away before you could start anything."
Vaguely he remembered Ken's blatant words, "I think you're a fucking psychopath." He hadn't seemed afraid then.
"Who?" Youji had stopped his tirade to a grinding halt and was staring at the man on the opposite side of the room.
Ran frowned, he didn't know when his tongue had simply began to follow the trails of his mind, "Just a guy."
Green eyes gleamed as his attentive ears perked up, "Do you know all the shitty romance stories that begin like that? Just a guy?" He lifted his hands in exaggeration as he recited, mindlessly, "'Kari, who was that talking to you?', 'Oh, no one, Yokko. It was just a guy!' And then they do something crazy like fall in love and win a war or become the popular kids at school or something." Youji sniggered to himself.
Sighing the redhead rolled his eyes, "My sister's boyfriend."
"Oh." The blond frowned, "Well, that's understandable. If I were your sister's boyfriend, I would--"
"Don't even go there."
"--probably be inclined to agree."
Ran shook the comment off with a glare before speaking quietly again, "He called me a psychopath."
Youji began to laugh but was cut off sharply as the thought hit him; he had been talking about something quite similar to this with Ken a few days ago. A light seemed to flicker in his teasing green eyes, as he found himself suddenly inspired. Wouldn't it just be Hawaiian shirt day in hell if Ran was talking about Ken right now? His curiosity was piqued. It could never be that Ran was the psychotic older-brother his younger friend had admitted to wanting in the shop a few days ago. No way. Tokyo was too large, to diverse, and far to over-populated for this situation to be the same.
But then again, the shop where Ken worked was in the same district as the Fujimiya's house, and only a few blocks away, now that he thought about it.
Youji smirked, "So, he called you that to your face, did he?"
"He did." The redhead looked vaguely amused at the memory, but quickly narrowed his gaze and continued searching for his missing pen.
That sure sounded like Ken. Youji sighed, "Tactless."
"Excuse me?" A crimson eybrow quirked.
"Nothing. Just thinking." Youji grinned even wider. "So, you met your sister's boyfriend? What was that like? Have you recently helped him to get into a nice morgue somewhere, or is he still out there wondering?"
Ran didn't even seem to have heard the joke, he simply hesitated and began fumbling with the things in his bag (where was that bleeding pen?), "Can we just talk about something else?"
"Why? I'm interested in hearing about how you dismembered him of his various appendages and threw him into the bay." Sniggering from the resident playboy.
"I did no such thing." The younger man sighed, "We just talked... and stuff."
What was that? "And stuff? Stuff as in serious maiming? or stuff as in hot kinky sex?"
The violet eyed man glared half-heartedly, "I would not have sex with my sister's boyfriend."
Youji's grin doubled, thoroughly unconvinced, "But you would... do other 'stuff'?"
Ran was about to ask the other man what he was insinuating when a sudden memory of the night before seemed to hit him between the eyes. They had had this discussion on the couch in his house. Ken had been half naked, both had been flirting. There had been much "insinuated" then. He remained silent, instead.
"You like him, don't you?"
The redhead dropped the bag, his scowl growing as he kicked the notebook away and simply lay down to look at the ceiling, "Do you really think I'd like him, Kudou? He's dating my sister." His tone was low.
"Stranger things have happened." Now was the time to invisibly identify the situation. Were Ran and Ken complaining about each other, or was this a meer coincidence? "Come to think of it, recently, my friend was telling me about how he met the older brother of a girl he's dating. At first, I was thinking about telling him to run on her, but he ended up coming to the conclusion that he actually liked the brother better than the sister."
Yea, right. Ran was sitting in an instant, his violet-eyed gaze piercing through the tall, lanky man before him, "What are you saying?"
Youji's smirk was teasing and mischevious as he pulled himself up from the bed, "All I'm saying is that the world is a crazy place, and you let too many things pass you by."
The redhead obviously didn't understand.
"Hey, you should come with me and Schu, tomorrow! We're going out to a club."
Laying back against his pillow once more, violet eyes closed. He thought the other man had finally given up on dragging him out dancing with him and his many conquests, but it seemed he had been wrong, "No, thank you. I need to work on--"
"Meh, forget that, Ran. You're coming out with us. And you're going to have fun, and maybe get a bit smashed. And you will enjoy it thoroughly."
"No, I--"
"Yes, you will."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No, stop that."
"Yes, you stop."
"No, I'm not going."
"Oh, but yes, Ran. You are!" And before he could say another thing, the blond had opened the door and waltzed from the room with all the flair of a bottle rocket. A very sexy bottle rocket. He left Ran to mope about and wish for an earthquake to trap him in the rubble of his filthy dorm room to die.
Out in the hallway Youji frowned and leaned against the wall, pulling out his mobile phone and selecting a familiar number with practised ease. He still wasn't sure if Ken was the guy Ran was talking about, but he was hoping, because he was about to take a big chance. He had only been wrong about a pairing once before and the reprecussions had been painful; he really hoped that his instinct was right this time.
And he figured, if anything, at least they would have something in common to talk about all evening.
"Moshi moshi." A husky, sleep-garbled voice answered the other end of the line.
"Kenken." He smiled calmly, "Don't tell me I woke you up at four in the afternoon."
"You didn't wake me up at four in the afternoon." The voice sighed, pausing for a yawn, "You woke me up at four twenty-eight in the afternoon."
Youji rolled his eyes at the sarcasm, "Look, I need you to sourge yourself of all the flower-shit you're usually so mangled in and put on some nice, decently attractive clothes by tomorrow evening around seven. I'm telling you now so you can get a head start. I understand it might take a while."
"What?" Ken sounded bleary, "Why? What's happening?"
"We're going clubbing."
The other end of the line was silent.
"You, me, and Schuldig, we're all going out to a club, and we're going to dance, and get drunk, and have a wild orgy."
"You need four people for an orgy, Yotan."
"Oh, I'm sure someone else will show up."
"You know there's no way I'm going clubbing with you or having an orgy (joke or no) with your people."
"My people? You make us sound like gaijin, Kenken. Or aliens."
"And you call Schuldig and that Farf-guy Japanese, do you?"
Youji laughed outright at that and started back down the hall toward the commons.
"No," Ken's voice spoke assuredly, "That's not what I meant; I meant your crowd. You and your group, always going clubbing and participating in other such lewd activities with one another."
"Lewd activities? All of us? I'll have you know I'm quite monogamous."
"Wait, did you just mention something about an orgy...?" The brunet's voice question in mock thoughtfulness, "Oh no, that couldn't be. The Ever Moral and Monogamous Kudou Youji would never even entertain such a thought! What could I have been thinking?"
Youji cut in, still laughing as he passed many strange-staring passers by on the stair-well, "You're coming, and don't even try to get out of it, because it's final. Plans are already made."
"Really? Since when?"
"Since now. Meet us downtown at the Crater, right? Wait for us outside or we'll never see you."
Ken muttered but gave in. He didn't really have any plans for that evening anyway, and the blond hadn't mentioned having some random girl he wanted him to meet. Of course, that meant there probably was some unfortunate soul coming whom he would be forced to sit and make trivial chat with as Schuldig and Youji all but molested each other and their numerous dance partners on the dance floor, and Youji just really didn't want to put up with explaining it to him.
"Fine. Sure, I'll see you there."
"Alright, then. We'll be expecting you."
"Matta ne." Ken said tiredly, and hung up, determined to get some more sleep before heading out to the park for soccer practice with the kids. Sometimes the brunet really damned his good-side. He hadn't gotten much sleep at all the night before, after that... moment. And he had the strangest feeling that a cup of tea was not going to give him enough energy.
He had been almost shocked with what he had done by the time he had reached his small apartment from the Fujimiya house the evening before. The remainder of the tingling he felt on his lips hadn't been enough for him to know whether he was glad he would probably never see the older Fujimiya again, or not. If anything he was angry; somehow it seemed like he always knew how to screw up a situation beyond understanding.
It had been a trip solely ventured for the purpose of making a clean break with Aya-chan. He had meant to call things off and find a way to tell the girl she was just to young. He hadn't really been intending to do what he had done until he began to really watch the redhead, and saw to his surprise, the other man watching him just as guiltily.
Impulse and not-fully thought through actions had again supplied him with another crisis on his conscience. He had kissed the man he had admittedly wanted to kiss since he had met him, yet at the same time, the situation still seemed very delicate. And he still hadn't broken up with Aya-chan.
Maybe when he saw her next, and told her quietly and sympathetically that they couldn't continue their little courtship, he could simply omitt the part when he realised he had wanted her brother more than her, and the part about the kiss. And the part where he had missed quite a bit of sleep on account of straying thoughts about said man. If luck were on his side Ran would maybe feel to guilty to say anything either, and the girl would never even know what had mysteriously been happening behind her back. Everything could go back to how it was before when he didn't know her or her brother. It wasn't an awful idea.
Just an empty one.
He was quite rested, though admittedly not in the best of all moods, when he got off the train and walked the lively two blocks to the Crater where he was to wait for Youji and his current boy-toy. He shook his head at that thought and wondered vaguely how long it would last. He was surprised that the two were actually going on four months currently. It was unlike Youji, or Schuldig for that matter, to stick with anyone for a recognisable length of time, but the two seemed to be doing as fine as ever whenever he saw them.
Ken sighed and leaned against a street-sign post just outside of the rather sizeable club. It was a lively place, with many people milling about and coming in and out every minute. Of course, Youji knew this, being why he had been told to wait for the other man outside where he was actually visible.
It was seven-thirty, and dark, early in Tokyo. Of course, he'd only been waiting fifteen minutes anyway; Youji was rarely on time. He leaned against the pole again and began watching the people that passed him by. He wondered what had actually made him come at Youji's call. Right now he wanted little more than to go home and maybe watch some TV, eat some ramen, and fall asleep on the couch. Yet, instead, he stood alone on the crowded sidewalk in front of one of the most well-known clubs in downtown Tokyo, dressed in a tight black shirt and jeans (and he was very aware of the stares he was receiving in payment for exposing what little of his body he did), and waiting for a man and his crowd of lewd followers whom were never at a place when they said they would be there.
"Kenken!" The voice greeted him, as usual. It seemed ridiculous to even think he could meet up with Youji without being addressed, instead of in an ordinary fashion, by the nickname he so cursed.
"My name is Ken; only one Ken. No need to add another on there." He grumbled and turned to meet the voice.
He froze, brown eyes going wide.
"My, everytime I see you you seem to have some ridiculous look on your face. It's quite unbecoming." A tall redhead with a foreign accent, loosely attached to Youji's arm smirked, leaning forward and patting Ken on the cheeck with a patronising manner. Schuldig hadn't been around Ken very frequently, but enough to feel comfortable teasing the brunet for whatever reason he was provided. And that didn't take anything, really.
Ken felt like flipping the other man off, but opted for keeping his eyes glued to a figure standing not three feet behind the happy couple.
A pair of surprised violets lifted to stare directly back at him.
"Kenken," Youji drawled, a smirk dancing on his thin lips, causing his German partner to raise an eyebrow in question, "This," He gestured to Ran, "is my roommate: Fujimiya--"
"I know him." The brunette cut in quietly, blinking and nodding to the other man, "Nice to see you again."
Ran was unable to speak.
Suddenly, it became blatantly apparent. Youji's smile said far too much about the subject for a normal introduction, and he seemed less than surprised to hear the two had already met, almost... relieved. How Youji had known was a mystery, but the fact that he had had inspired something strange in the Tokyo air. Ominous. Quite rude of him, actually.
So much for a kiss goodbye.
"Is that so?" Schuldig gave a lazy smile, seeming to catch on, "Well, in that case you won't have to wait for introduction before you fuc--" And hand clamped down on his lips before he could finish the sentence and caused him to glare at his blond boyfriend.
Youji made a cutting motion across his throat and mouthed the word "tact", all as subtly as possible, before turning back to smile at the two, now very suspicious men before him, "Yes, anyway, thank you for taking him," another gesture to Ran, who was vaguely aware of being treated like a vase in someone's living room, "off our hands. Don't know how we'd fuck with him around."
Ken rolled his eyes and made to cut in but the couple was already strolling through a line of people to get into the club, waving a swift goodbye behind them. He sighed exaggeratedly and simply stood for a minute. This was most certainly an unexpected change in events. Firstly, Youji had been lying about not bringing anyone along (hardly surprising), and secondly, the person he brought along was Ran whom he had senselessly kissed (or kissed senseless?) two evenings ago half-expecting never to see him again.
"I've been discarded." The redhead mumbled, still staring lostly at the disappearing form of his roommate.
"Yea, he's an asshole." They were talking about Youji right?
"I didn't even want to come here, and when I finally do, he just leaves me."
"He does that." Ken sighed quietly, looking hesitantly at the crowd as they stood in silence for a moment, "So, are we going in?"
The redhead gave a small shrug, reluctantly meeting brown eyes, "Like I said, I didn't really want to come here to begin with."
"Me, either."
"We could go get some tea?" He moved his gaze hesitantly back to the brunet, somehow that didn't really feel like what he had meant to ask, "I don't really feel like going back yet..."
Ken glanced up at him and nodded hesitantly, wondering why he suddenly felt so tense, "Sure. Where?"
"I don't come here usually, I don't know where's close."
"Well, we could just go to my apartment?"
They were both silent for a second.
"I didn't mean that to sound propositioning."
Ran was almost unsuccessful at hiding a smirk and simply nodded, trying to appear nonchalant. It was happening again, quickly now, a quick rush of impulsiveness, though the guilt would find him again soon. The brunet had some-how managed to affect him. He felt vaguely that that could get to be irritating.
"Ok, then." Ken turned to lead the way, mentally smacking himself for sounding like some sort of hentai.
The two set off walking down the curve of a long brightly-lit street advertising almost every product and show available in the whole of downtown Tokyo. The train ride from there was crowded and uneventful, aside from the part where Ran was assaulted by the wondering hands of a very happily smiling elderly woman whom seemed to confuse his backside with her walker.
They said very little until they had reached the brunet's apartment door. It had taken several blocks of walking and only a few flights of climbing (the lift had never worked in the entirity of Ken's residency) to reach the small apartment, but Ran was glad to be away from the crowd when they did.
"Pardon the mess," the brunet spoke lightly as he cast his shoes off at the door and entered, closely followed by his guest.
The apartment he lived in was tiny, indeed, hardly two rooms, and having never been confined to such a small space himself, Ran wondered how he managed. In one corner was a small TV on a black shelf, beneath it was a mangled mass of wires that obscured a DVD player and VCR, there was little adorning the bare white walls but a small framed picture of a group of kids in soccer uniforms and a tacky 7-11 calendar (this month showing a picture of a nearly naked Yoshiki playing the piano). 1 The only other real objects of furniture were the small two-person green couch that looked ages worn and a small black table with three unmatching chairs by the kitchenette. Two doors on the opposite end of the room lead to what must have been a tiny bathroom and Ken's bedroom.
Over everything was a litter of papers, boxes, pictures, and old motorcycle and sports magazines. One of the chairs was laying on its back on the floor. The couch was turned away from the TV. A cup was turned over on the kitchenette counter dripping a strange green liquid into an already sizeable puddle on the floor beneath it. And for some off reason the entire room seemed to smell like oranges, though there wasn't an orange in sight.
Ran was almost frightened to leave the welcome mat. There had obviously been an earthquake while they were mounting the three flights of stairs up that they hadn't been informed about yet. Perhaps they had better turn on the TV...
"Sorry about the mess, like I said." Ken frowned surveying his appartment quickly with a bemused frown, "It seems to have gotten worse since I stopped paying attention to it."
The redhead suppressed the say something witty and defaming, instead opting to remove his shoes and head for the couch, "It's alright."
"So, tea?" Ken set the dripping cup upright on the counter top and began to prepare some tea, merely stepping aorund the puddle to do so.
"Please."
As the brunet busied himself behind him, the Fujimiya took another glance around the room, "Do you live here by yourself?"
"Yea, just me."
"I was just wondering if one man alone was capable of this cyclone."
Ken threw him a minute glare, "I am capable of anything I put my mind to." He recited helpfully.
Hiding another grin, the redhead turned his face away, "How long have you lived here?"
"In Tokyo or this appartment?" The other man's voice responded distractedly.
"Both."
"Well, I grew up in Tokyo, and I've lived in this appartment since my last year of highschool; about three years."
"Aya said you dropped out."
Ken paused in his work, biting his lip as he pulled out two instant tea bags and brought the mugs over to the couch, "Sorry I don't have a coffee table or something."
Evasion tactics.
"So Youji's your roommate, huh?" The brunet smirked as he seated himself, "What fun times you must have together. I bet every night's full of fun ghost-stories over a lively boy-scout campfire." Sarcasm.
"If you mean me alone reading a book in the commons by the TV while he fucks some obscure person senseless in our dorm room, then yes. Yes, that's it exactly."
Ken sniggered at that, "I would expect as much."
They were silent for a moment, both thinking. The tenseness that had been waning with the conversation seemed to be rebuilding itself with every passing moment. As if they were both just waiting impatiently for some undoubtedly awful end to an already surprising night. Before Ran could quite understand why he had asked, the words of a much mentally-debated question had left his lips.
"Why did you...?"
Ken was still for a moment; he had been expecting this question but still didn't have an answer, "I don't know. Why did you respond?"
"I don't know."
"Well, it's not like I planned it or something. I mean, I think you're attractive and all, but I don't usually do that to people; date them and kiss their siblings."
The redhead frowned. As he knew it would be, the guilt was back, "It shouldn't have happened."
The brunet nodded a silent agreement, not but inches away from the older man.
"But I've been thinking about it." He spoke again quietly, "And I can't stop thinking about it."
Ken raised an eyebrow, he had hardly expected the redhead to be so forward on such a subject.
"The guilt is incredible."
Nevermind. This was going to be angsty.
The room was silent save for muffled sounds of traffic out on the street.
"I think you should break up with her." Ran muttered, still looking at the wall before them.
Ken was silent for a moment, before turning to the other man with a somewhat incredulous look (nevermind that that had been the intention of his visit to the Fujimiya house two evenings ago anyway; he still had no place telling him what to do about his and Aya's relationship). Demanding people had always been a set-off for Ken's temper and, almost subconsciously, the anger relieved his nerves. "Who are you to tell me that?"
"You can't say you feel no guilt for what happened." Violet eyes narrowed at him slightly.
"What happened! I could just tell her the truth and hope she would understand!" Or maybe not.
"I don't think you honestly want her to know what happened."
"So you want me just to break up with her? Why are you so protective of her? I thought she told me you were her brother, not her father!"
"I just don't want to see her needlessly hurt; I know I regret what happened, and if you have any shame or feeling for her you should too!"
"'What happened', 'what happened', 'what happened'. You just keep saying that." Ken's voice lowered, brown eyes narrowing, "And exactly what happened, Fujimiya-san?"
Ran glared and looked as if he were going to respond, but he quickly shut his mouth and tightened his expression into a firm scowl. Amazing how that memory was both thriling and angering. He berated himself horribly for almost wishing it would happen again.
The younger man's gaze was heated and flickered dangerously beneath the dim ceiling light, "Are you so ashamed to say it?"
"It shouldn't have happened!"
"So?" The brunett countered simply.
"So...!" Ran struggled to find a response for a moment, "So... It shouldn't have happened!"
"So?"
"So you shouldn't have kissed me!" An irritated yell.
"Would you really rather I hadn't?" An openly curious gaze from brown eyes.
What a foolish game.
The brunet hardly waited for a response, "If so, we'll just act like it never happened. I never kissed you; you never responded. And be done with it."
"Will you break up with her?" Ran pressed again; he didn't want to act like it didn't happen, but it would be best to, "It's not fair to her."
Ken rolled his eyes and stood, "That was why I was at your house that evening in the first place."
Silence.
"Oh." The Fujimiya could think of nothing else to respond with. He suddenly felt somewhat foolish.
"I was breaking up with her because I find myself more attracted to you than her." He through another quick glance at the redhead before going to set his mug in the small sink, "Though I wasn't meaning to start anything with you, either."
Ran wasn't sure what he was supposed to say to that. For the first time in his 22 years of existance, someone had openly admitted to having some sort of romantic feeling for him. It was a strange feeling, too. It was like a burst of heat had expanded from his chest and now filled him to very tips on his fingers, but much more opaque was the sudden realisation that he fully returned that feeling.
The guilt he had felt for the past day had been nerve-wracking, but the cause of that guilt, despite it's consequences, was still something he wanted to happen again. He didn't know how it would happen, if it did, or why, but it was undeniably something he wanted. He wasn't going to admit that to anyone but himself, though.
He didn't want to forget that.
On the other hand, Ken had five fingers, quite literally. He wasn't as guiltless as he seemed to appear to his redheaded guest. He had naturally felt a bit bruised internally, that if he had to have kissed anyone else it just had to be his girlfriend's brother (the Gods really hated him, more so than they hated everyone else that had the common angst to think such purposeless sod). Yet the intentions of his presence in the Fujimiya house that evening were ebbing away at that easily. He hadn't meant to start anything with her brother that evening before he arrived at the Fujimiya house, and he wasn't going to start anything with him now.
Nevermind that he had invited the other man in for tea, and he was now standing just metres away by the couch, staring at him with some unidentifiable expression on his gaunt, pale face.
He stared solemnly back. It was as if some foreign idea had invaded his thoughts suddenly. Some subtle prodding notion of que sera sera that urged him to step forward and approach that lone pale-figure sheathed in black.
In their minds they told themselves they were fools. Why not do what fools do best?
The string of anticipation was short as the brunet captured his lips again, and he responded without a moments hesitation. He had been thinking of this since that evening in the rain, hiding it behind his dutiful fan of guilt in the way that a blushing geisha hides her smile. It was now a tangible wish for the sweet texture of another's lips and the applied pressure of another's kiss after so long without.
He felt a pair of cool hands slowly guide themselves down his black-clad arms and intwine their fingers in his own all while stepping forward, pushing him backward until he felt the firm arm of the old green couch pressing at his back. In turn he pressed forward deeper with his mouth and his body until his hands wondered away from Ken's and slowly began to skim across the back of his neck and into his lover's touseled brown hair.
A low moan arose slowly from the back of the other man's throat, the reaction evident as the other mans now wondering hands drifted up his chest and had the top three buttons of his shirt undone with questionable ease. His jacket was pushed over his shoulders and he lowered his arms, allowing the useless garmet fall to the couch he was situated against.
Ken's lips withdrew from his slowly, turned to begin a trail of teasing pressure and gentle bites down the exposed white skin of his neck, an he leaned back instinctively for better access. His hands moved alike to the hemline of the other man's fitted black shirt, ghosting across the skin beath, and pulling upwards to remove the item as he felt the last of his own buttons undone and his shirt effortlessly being pushed aside.
The phone rang.
Ignoring it, Ran shrugged the shirt off, now pushing the brunet backwards but moving with him, and attacked the other man's lips eagerly.
The phone continued to ring and ring in spite of it's inconvenience.
It even rang some more just for the hell of it.
Ken's shirt was removed in seconds, and the younger man's fingers skim across the top of his slacks with flickering motions before beginning to work skillfully at removing the belt and undoing the clasps beneath while his lips were otherwise distracted.
Ring, ring.
The brunet pulled away suddenly with a low growl that his lover could only echo, as he slumped against the couch waiting for the younger man to find the phone in the exploded paper-mill that was his apartment. He knelt and peeked under the couch quickly before searching again over by the TV, until he had found the small black device resting on the floor behind an inconveniently placed box of instant rice. He lifted it to press the "talk" button, when it conveniently decided to stop.
With an exasperated sigh, Ken dropped the phone and rolled his eyes, muttering, "Stupid people who use telephones..."
At that moment Ran's mobile rang from his jacket-pocket on the couch, and the pale, half-dressed Fujimiya reach down to retrieve the vice, his hands fumbling somewhat less gracefully then usual. Of course this would happen. It happened all the time in films and books, why not in daily affairs? He flipped the small silver phone open and growled irritably into the receiver, "What?"
"Hey! How's it goin', Ran?" A smug voice responded almost over-whelmed by a great deal of blaring noise in the background.
"Kudou." He sounded about as excited as a brick.
Across the room Ken rolled his eyes and sighed, dragging his feet as he walked quietly back over to the couch to lean against the edge in a slouched manner. Ran watched him keenly, with narrowed violet eyes.
"Yea! I tried calling Ken's line, but then no one answered so I figured you guys must be having sex about now."
Ran wasn't sure if he had heard that correctly or if Youji's race of being simply had yet to evolve beyond a community of completely unlivable fucktards with the mentality of a league of pre-adolescent children with attention-span deficiency on crack in the plastic ball-pit at the park.
"So you called my line?"
"Well... Oh." The other man paused, "Yea, well I just called to see what was up, and where you guys had gone."
Ran growled, but it caught in his throat as Ken approached him again, shaking his head and frowning solemly. A tanned hand reached out again, hooking a finger around one of his belt loops and pulling him forward.
"You guys didn't even come in or tell us you were leaving, so I didn't know whether to be happy that you were finally getting some or worried than some gang jumped out mugged you or killed you or something. You know how those gangs can be when they all creep out at night..."
The brunet leaned forward, brushing his lips teasingly across Ran's free ear before trailing his tongue down the curve and once back to his neck. Ran felt his pants, now much too tight for comfort, finally being removed and the friction of another body pressing into his own. Wait, he was still on the mobile, right?
Youji's voice ghosted in through his hazy thoughts, "...and he just jumped me! I was like, 'What the hell do you think you're doing?' So, finally I got the guy to back off and put down the whip. I mean, that was just totally uncalled for..."
A hand drifted up, grabbing the phone from the redhead's hand delicately and shutting said device in one swift motion. He tossed the phone carelessly to the couch and assaulted the other man's lips, taking hold of Ran's now free arms and began pulling the man away from the couch. The other man followed willingly, unwelcomed phone call forgotten.
Ken's low voice sent a chill down his spine, "The bed would be better for this, I think."
to be continued
1 Has anyone else seen this commercial? Where Yoshiki (X Japan) is playing the piano, and it's all random and whatnot?
Thank you... (I would have responded to more of you but I had to get this piece out tonight and it would have taken too long otherwise. So sorry!)
Zeto - I was hoping to get to the part about Ran and his dad in this part, but it simply didn't work out that way. Soon! Maybe next chapter! I really love that part, and I'm dying to get it out. And more RanKen fanservice! Hurrah! Hope you enjoy!
M4r1-chan - Yay! Another J-Rock fan? J'adore! That's one of my favourite hobbies, I'm into so many bands I can't even keep my head straight thinking about it. You like Pierrot, too? Fantastic! One of the best!
HeatherR - Yes! The kiss! I finally got to the RanKen part (it always seems like I'm planning it but never actually writing it). The part about Ran and his dad is something I am dying to write, and I may have to put it into the next chapter before it kills me and I spill the proverbial edamame ahead of time. Joy! I hope you enjoyed this part; it was vicious trying to get it to end on a semi-intimate yet humourous note. Thanks for the comments on Aya's realness, too. It's much appreciated as that was the goal. Happy RanKen!
Krysana - The truth about Ran's redhair is revealed... between chapters. Meh, I tried for citrusy, but I can't seem to do it! (weeping) I hope you enjoyed this, though!
Elfgoddess00 - Thank you so much! It's nice to hear my facts affirmed! I much appreciate it! Thank you so much for your lovely comments!
kailah - As for the SD being "somewhat temporarily on hiatus until whenever maybe ever or whatever", it's true that the RanKen was the real attracting factor, so I can see what you are saying. So happy you're enjoying the fic, though!
Thank you everyone who responded! I shall have more time to respond next time, hopefully.
"I would not have sex with my sister's boyfriend." Sure you wouldn't, Ran. Sure you wouldn't.
Reviews are appreciated.