Lustshipping (Otogi x TKB)

. . .

He was a con artist—a good one, too. It was fun to watch, honestly. The foreign man sat with a lazy confidence, leaning back in his chair as he twisted the dice expertly between his fingers, much to the delight of the dancers who giggled behind their hands when he winked at them. That smug confidence drew nearly every customer in the bar, ready to win a few coins off a foolish foreigner. They didn't realize that they were the ones getting duped, though.

The thief watched from his corner, hiding his grin in a mug of beer. He watched as the dice fell the way the foreigner wanted. Over, and over, and over. He lost one or two times...but only when there wasn't much at stake. Just enough times that no one would question his extraordinary luck. He needn't have worried, perhaps—his infectious smile and the way he kept buying drinks for whoever his opponent at the game as at the time kept most from caring too much that they were losing far more coins than he was pouring back into their thirsts.

He was somehow friends with everyone in the bar already—even though he had won most of their savings off of them with his dice. Probably everyone was far too drunk to be anything other than pleasant, but the thief noted with interest how the foreigner had barely touched a drop, how he quickly and easily flipped certain dice out from his sleeves and into his palms to switch them out, the way that he smiled and reached out and made friendly touches that made him seem like a closer friend than he was.

The thief had to smile, admiring. To steal from them and have them thank you for it—a fascinating method.

He watched for a few moments longer. Then he set his empty mug down on the bar, slipping from his stool and padding softly across the dirt floor.

The young man almost didn't look up from his new "friends" until the thief was seated across from him.

"I'd like to play," he said.

The foreigner threw him a lazy smile, producing the dice from between his fingers.

"Then let's have a go, stranger," he said. "Would you like to make a bet?"

"Would you?" the thief purred.

The foreigner's eyebrow quirked. The smile slipped, and then grew. Eyes flashed with interest as one pair of thief's eyes met another's, and recognized each other.

No one except the thief noticed the foreigner switch one pair of dice for another within his sleeves.

"No magic tricks for you, I think," he said lightly, as though it were a joke, but they both knew the truth—this time, the game was only of luck, and not of conning skill. "And what's your wager, stranger?"

The thief noted the foreigner's eyes the color of emeralds, the flair of his raven hair, eyes running across the soft line of his jaw. Their eyes met for a brief moment, and two smiles quirked.

"I think you know," the thief said.

"You'll have to get a good roll if that's what you want," the foreigner said, laughing, but there was the thrill of the challenge and the twin possibilities of both loss and victory.

"I think I'll do fine," the thief said, as he caught the die tossed to him by the foreigner.

It was a good roll—a fantastic roll.

But the foreigner's was the exact same.

He winked one emerald eye at him.

"A draw is a draw," he said, standing up from the table with his robes shifting around him.

The foreigner's new friends clapped the thief on the back and congratulated him for a good try, but better luck next time. But the thief's eyes and the foreigner's eyes met over the table and they both knew that they had been wagering the same thing anyway, so the draw meant they both got what they wanted.

You know where to find me, the foreigner's eyes said as he moved like water, graceful, lithe, towards the stairs that lead up to the leased rooms.

The thief hadn't been planning on staying here tonight.

But, he thought, rolling the die between his fingers, watching the foreigner's back disappear up the stairs, what was one more night?

. . .

A/N: I may have almost broken my 'there will be no sex in this series' rule for this one, lol. Surprised at how much these two ended up turning each other on XD Next up is Loyaltyshipping (Yami no Yugi x Mahad)