私に薬の主人を呼んではいけない

by Kyoko0001

Fai doesn't think the term 'drug lord' is an accurate description of his line of work. Of course, it's hard to explain exactly what it is you do when you find out that your Tinder crush is an officer at the Tokyo police department. Modern Day AU. KuroFai. Mentions of other CLAMP ships here and there. Full list of warnings at the beginning of each chapter.

6. Chapter 6

Well hello my lovelies! Check out the end notes for my rambles, links, and excuses!

I don't own Tsubasa.

0o0o0

After having been called out to the club by him, Kurogane should probably be annoyed at the fact that Fai was texting more than he was actually conversing with him—but he was drunk enough that he didn't care. 'sides, he knew Blondie was technically still on the clock—even if he had been pounding the whisky just as hard as Kurogane.

Which was impressive, given what a lightweight the moron had been the other night.

"So, anyway—" Fai hit the send button and set his phone back down before refilling both of their glasses. "—I should probably stop working before people start catching on that I'm sloshed."

Kurogane huffed, raised his glass and tapped it against Blondie's before they both knocked the burning liquid back. It was none of his business if Fai wanted to drunk text his employees—but no, it probably wasn't what he should be doing.

"You usually get drunk while working?"

Fai was back at the texting game and nodded as he sent off another message. "As terrible as that sounds, you're not too far from the truth. Ninety percent of the reason why I have a personal assistant is so that he takes my phone away when I get like this. Self-control isn't really my thing these days." As soon as he had locked the screen again and set the phone down, it was buzzing again loudly, screen relighting and begging for attention.

"What's the other ten percent, then?" Fai's phone vibrated again and Kurogane had to wonder just what the hell was so important that his employees were blowing his shit up like this.

"To keep me properly caffeinated, my dear Kuro-silly." Fai's hazy eyes scanned the new message that had just come in and he frowned before slipping out of the booth and practically prancing across the room to throw his arms around his unsuspecting assistant's shoulders.

Poor kid almost jumped out of his skin in surprise.

He had no idea what Blondie was saying, but he was giving a silly smile and handed his cell off before prancing back off towards the booth—free of his burden.

"So, you really do pay someone to babysit your ass then?" Kurogane watched as he slid back into his seat with surprising grace and poured them both one more drink.

Like the rest, Fai gladly accepted this one and they both knocked it back in time to catch the patronizing smile of the waitress as she dropped off two glasses of water and a picture of the same.

It must be her polite way of cutting them off.

Fai didn't seem to mind one bit and sipped from his water slowly—blue eyes watching his own lazily for a moment. Kurogane only noticed that that last shot was his limit now that he was trying to focus on those mischievous blue pools.

If he was at his limit, he was gonna have to keep a close eye on Blondie.

"I guess you could look at it that way, Kuro-chan. Though I should probably cut him a break after the night we had." Fai's smile went from amused to sad and Kurogane watched him lean forward to rest his cheek onto his palm while he sipped a bit more of his water, sucking on the straw as he looked out the window, watching the people outside of the building standing in line to get in.

Kurogane swallowed hard and watched his sad expression for a moment. It was one of the only genuine looks he had seen Blondie rock when he wasn't sleeping—and even though it wasn't a happy look, it was more beautiful than any of the fake smiles he had plastered onto his face the entirety of the night.

Be it the alcohol or the stress of whatever the hell had shaken him so badly, it didn't matter.

It was good to see him without a mask.

"But you don't want to talk about it." Kurogane peeled his eyes away from Fai and turned his attention to his own glass of water and downed it in one go—one upping Blondie on the hydration front.

"Nope." Fai chirped, but didn't look away from the window—his sad expression not matching the cheery tone.

Kurogane watched him for a moment longer. Fai tucked a strand of blond hair behind his ear and he wasn't sure if Blondie was still watching the people below or his own sad reflection at this point. "Don't say I didn't offer."

"Kuro-sweet is such a gentleman. I wonder what's gotten into him?" Blondie closed his eyes and managed to slap another smile on his face before he turned his attention back to the cop.

"Nothing's gotten into me." A decent human being didn't exactly equate to a gentleman in his mind—but he doubted he was going to get Fai to agree with him on that front.

"Now, it might just be because I'm drunk—but it almost sounds like you actually care." Fai chuckled and Kurogane sighed.

"You think I would have dragged my ass out to this loud ass club after you sent me an SOS if I didn't at least care a little?" –and what kind of shitty ass people did Fai have in his life to assume that Kurogane didn't give a single fuck?

"I think you think the sex is good."

It was—but that wasn't the only reason he was out here.

"Yeah well, you're right about that, but you are also an idiot."

"At least I'm a cute idiot." Fai winked and reached a hand across the table, his fingers ghosting over the cop's own, traveling up his hand, then his wrist. "But I told you already. I didn't ask you to come out to play therapist… If you care so much about it, let's find someplace quiet and you can help me work off my frustration."

"That is the discreetest you've come on to me since I got here, Blondie." Kurogane snorted and Fai batted his eyes at him.

"Did it work?"

"Sure." That earned him a cheesy smile and Kurogane rolled his eyes. "Finish your glass of water and we'll work off that frustration of yours."

Fai sucked on his straw for a moment—his amusement not fading as Kurogane watched him swallow a few times. "Look who's suddenly getting the dirty talk thing down."

Nope—time for a change of subject. Kurogane was not going to get him started again with the lewd shit in public. "Where we heading?"

"Someplace private. That's all you need to worry your handsome little head about."

Right. So probably somewhere in the building.

Worked for him—his parents were in town for the weekend and he was not about to bring his booty all the way home to meet the parents.

Even if Biggs had liked him.

Blondie finished his water and set the empty glass in front of Kurogane. "—satisfied?"

"Yes." Fai gave him a devilish grin before sliding out of the booth and swaying slightly.

Kurogane was shit faced—but less shit faced than Blondie, for sure.

He managed to catch the idiot and steady him by pulling him back, so he teetered and landed against the cop rather than on the floor. Fai didn't seem fazed by almost face planting and tugged him across the room and over to the staircase.

Oh yeah, he was trashed. Kurogane was really going to need to keep an eye on him.

They hit the stairs and the muffled sound of dubstep got louder and louder the closer to the first floor they got. Just a few hours ago—on their way up to the top—the stairs had been relatively clear of people and debris.

Now - on their way back down - they were weaving around couples enjoying each other, broken glass, vomit and trash.

Fai didn't seem surprised or bothered by the mess and when they reached the first floor, he threw the door open without pausing. The blasting music and the flashing lights made Kurogane's head swim, but Fai tugged him along, weaving their way through the dance floor and popping out of the crowd next to the bar.

Fai only slowed to a stop to punch a code into a door that was marked "EMPLOYEES ONLY" before tugging Kurogane past the threshold, and he closed it securely behind them. Thankfully, it was a hell of a lot easier to think and see straight without the flashing lights and gaudy music, and the cop was almost surprised to find what appeared to be an office area.

Unlike that disgusting ass staircase, the hallway before them was clean as a whistle. Brightly lit, with offices on either side and with what appeared to be a breakroom at the very end—complete with a kitchenette and fridge.

Fai pulled him along again with a little tug and Kurogane followed until Fai again paused. This time, to knock on one of the doors before pulling it open just far enough to get his head inside.

"Subaru?" Fai's tone was calmer now. He sounded sober at least, but by the way he was leaning on the door frame, it was easy to see that he was at least feeling it as much as Kurogane.

If Blondie did this a lot, he was probably good at playing sober.

"What can I do for you, Fai-sama."

The voice that answered was soft and given the formality, he had a feeling Fai had been lying about not working here—hell, he probably owned this place right along with Kyuden.

"I'm going to be in my office. I don't want to be disturbed unless it's for an update from Seishiro or Kujaku… but can you get the cleaning crew on the stairs? I don't need any more injuries tonight, especially not because someone slipped on vomit." Fai's tone was direct, and he didn't wait for an answer before he closed the door and they were again on their way up the hall.

Oh yeah. He was totally lying.

Fai punched in another code, on another door, and there was a quiet beep before the lock disengaged. Blondie twisted the handle and pushed the heavy wood door open to reveal a large office with an ornate wooden desk sitting in the middle.

This was as good a spot to screw him as any he supposed. Though he wanted to get Fai in a bed and begging before the night was over—nothing wrong with getting a head start in Blondie's office-not office.

Fai worked his tie free and let it hang around his neck while he shrugged out of his blazer and tossed it hastily onto the floor. Kurogane didn't wait for him to get further before he hoisted him up by his hips and set him on the desk, Blondie kissing his neck and clinging to him as he did so. Kurogane was always surprised by how freaking light Fai was. It took almost no effort to hoist him up.

"I thought you said your friend owns this place?" Kurogane teased and tilted his head to give Blondie better access.

"By friend—I mean me when I am sober and have the mental capacity to function. You don't have enough friendship points to expect anything I say to be the truth." Fai bit his neck—probably a punishment for overstepping.

He would pay him back for that.

Blondie's lips tasted like whisky—not that Kurogane gave a shit. They were soft and eager, parting happily when the cop slid his tongue against his bottom lip.

He gripped Fai's chin with one hand and used the other to ease his thighs apart so Kurogane could slot himself between the blond's legs. The cop earned a pleased moan as he moved to grab Blondies ass and grind their hips together.

The slacks had to go and Kurogane made quick work of the button zipper combo. Fai broke the kiss to plant his hands on the desk and lift his hips as Kurogane tugged the expensive fabric down his thighs - leaving him bare and very obviously aroused.

Fai mewled softly when Kurogane gripped his needy member and stroked him slowly. The younger man ran a thumb over the sensitive tip, collecting the small bead of precum that had already started to accumulate and smirked. Locking eyes with his lover, he took a knee.

Blondie quirked an eyebrow at him—the look didn't last, because he was tossing his head back and gasping when Kurogane took him into his mouth, worrying his tongue along the sensitive underside as he sucked just hard enough to drive Fai crazy.

"Kuro-chan is full of surprises now, isn't he?" Elegant fingers tangled in his short hair and Kurogane relaxed his jaw to take more of Fai in—earning another delicious gasp from him as he held his hips in place with two firm hands.

Kurogane didn't usually find himself on this end of things—but it was worth the reward given the way Fai reacted to his touch, panting and watching him through half lidded eyes as he struggled to stay still, head falling back and moaning when Kurogane teased him too much.

It didn't last long. The cop was confused at first when Fai started to get quiet—stopped rolling his hips and tugging at his hair—but it slowly made sense when Fai pushed him away, knocking him on his ass in the process.

By the time he had figured out what the hell was going on, Fai was bent over a nearby trash can, yaking his brains out.

While Kurogane usually had a pretty strong stomach, he had to cover his mouth and look away as the scent of whisky and stomach acid hit his nose.

This sure was one way to kill the mood.

It was a damn sama—he had been thinking about Fai nonstop since he had dropped him off at his car yesterday. He had known Fai was drunk—but not this drunk. Kurogane's brain switched gears easily enough from fucking Fai to taking care of the idiot.

"You ok?" Kurogane got to his feet and reluctantly stepped closer to Blondie and ran a hand up and down his back. He was far from the barf-your-brains-out zone, but his own breath still tasted like whisky and between the smell and the sound? Well, he wasn't sure enough of his stomach and had to turn his head and look away.

"Fuck me…" Fai whined before vomiting again and Kurogane had to hold his breath as the smell hit him.

"I mean—you're hot, but no thanks."

"Fuck you, asshole." Fai managed after sucking in a few deep breaths but didn't sit up from his crouched position. "Sorry…"

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to your liver, old man. You can't hold your liquor for shit." Kurogane looked about the room and left Fai's side to snag the box of tissues off the desk and held one out to the idiot.

"If you knew my invitation for a night out include holding my hair while I puked–would you have still come?" Fai groaned and gave him a miserable look as he accepted the tissue and wiped at his mouth.

"Don't get me wrong–I like you–but I don't usually do vomit." Kurogane had to look away again as Fai heaved into the trashcan once more and sighed as he got to his feet. "You need water or some shit?"

Water should help, right? At least Fai could rise out his mouth.

Blondie nodded and pointed at a mini fridge that was concealed under the desk. Sure enough, when he popped it open, he found just what he was looking for and snagged one of the icy bottles of spring water for Fai.

"You like me?" Blondie looked fucking ridiculous sitting with his head halfway in the trashcan—peeking over his shoulder with that stupid expression of surprise—the look made complete with the remnants of snot and vomit making him look truly piteous.

Fai really was an idiot.

Kurogane sighed and knelt down next to him again, ripping a few more tissues out of the box and shoving them in Fai's direction.

"I wouldn't fuck you if I didn't at least like you." Fai wiped the majority of the mess off of his face with trembling hands and the cop unscrewed the cap of the water bottle before holding it out to him.

"I guess that makes sense… You don't have to like me just because we're sleeping together, though." Fai's voice was raw as he accepted the water and sipped it slowly.

"Well, too late. You're a dumb ass—but you're growing on me." Fai chuckled and took another sip of water, swishing it around in his mouth before spitting it into the garbage can and handing it back out towards the cop.

"Hm… can I tell you a secret?" Blondie pushed the trashcan away with his foot and gracelessly flopped over, resting his head in Kurogane's lap and watching him with hazy eyes.

Somehow, he managed to look good doing it—he was distractingly attractive as Kurogane tried to focus on whatever the hell it was those pink lips were talking about.

"I'm not gonna stop you, moron." That earned him an amused snort and he ran a hand through Fai's hair and waited for him to continue.

"I knew after the first night that I liked you a lot… That's why I got dinner with you the other night. I don't usually do repeats." Fai closed his eyes and hummed softly. "—I shouldn't tell you that, though. I don't do repeats for a reason…"

"So, what's it mean that I'm a threepeat?" Kurogane didn't know if he really wanted to know what that meant.

Did he want to know if Fai was falling for him? Would that change his mind about how he felt about the idiot?

"You make me feel… Nice?" Blondie giggled and shrugged, his eyes fluttering open again to study the younger man's face.

"That's good, right?" Kurogane raised an eyebrow and drew his hands through the blond's hair again—Fai leaned into the touch and sighed. The idiot sure as hell didn't make him feel bad—"nice" would probably be underselling the emotion, though.

Fai was—

Well, he was something else.

"Yes and no." He was frowning now—eyes unfocused as though he was lost in thought. "It's complicated."

If that wasn't the understatement of the god damn century. "Why do I get the feeling everything about you is complicated…"

Which is probably why he shouldn't be thinking too hard about how nice—or more than nice—Blondie made him feel. Or that the idiot apparently felt the same.

That wouldn't do him any good.

"My life is a clusterfuck. You're not wrong." Fai laughed again—he laughed a lot when he was drunk—but this one came out so bitter you could almost taste it. "It's just too complicated to fall in love right now."

That made sense—Kurogane could respect that—right person, wrong time.

Wait.

Fuck.

Kurogane was drunk and needed to stop letting his mind wander. He was not the right person. He should not be thinking about Fai deciding maybe things weren't really that complicated—everyone had their shit, after all—but maybe Kurogane could help.

He definitely should not be imagining how good Fai had looked bumming on the couch snuggling his dog and wearing his clothes.

Nope.

Fuck.

"Lemme guess. You don't want to talk about why it's so complicated?" Kurogane chose to change the topic and Fai shook his head slowly.

That was probably good—because drunk him did not need to be telling the crazy ass random dude off Tinder he had been hooking up with that he wanted something more.

"Just wanna enjoy you while I can… Sorry I almost puked in your hair, Kuro-chii." The blond thankfully rolled with the subject change and Kurogane drew the hand though his hair again.

"No harm done, but you gotta hit the hay, Blondie. You're drunk."

Fai snuggled into his lap a little further and grinned. "Kuro-chan is drunk, too—so he has to go nunight with me."

"Yeah, well—as much as it would make Biggs happy to see you again, my folks are in town for the weekend." As much as it would make the cop happy, too—Fai wasn't hard to sleep next to and he was gonna be worrying about the idiot if he just left him alone, anyways.

"Wow. You ditched your mom and dad for booty?" Fai looked far too amused for his own good and Kurogane rolled his eyes.

His dad had read the text from Blondie inviting him out from over his shoulder, and had all but thrown him outta his own house. His fucking mom had raided his closet and picked out his outfit, for Christ's sakes—while his pops had ordered him a freaking cab.

There had been no 'ditching' involved.

"They're here every few weeks for mom's appointments with her doctor and I'm at their house at least three times a week, moron. They'll live."

"Awe~" Blondie grinned and reached up to poke Kurogane's cheek. "Kuro-cute loves his faaaaamily."

The cop was sure he couldn't roll his eyes and harder and lightly batted Fai's hand away with an annoyed growl. "That's ok, I'm close to my parents too… No judgement here… but that sorta ruins my plans of snuggling you silly tonight."

He also didn't think it was possible for Blondie to get any weirder, but that last comment just put him one a whole new level.

How does one snuggle someone silly? Where the fuck did he come up with this shit?

"What's wrong with your place?" Kurogane passed on finding out exactly what snuggling someone silly entailed and focused on what was important.

"You know how I said I'm close to my parents?" Blondie managed a totally neutral expression, but his words came out in a slightly higher pitch, giving away that he was on the edge of breaking out into another fit of giggles.

"You live with your parents?" Fai couldn't keep his expression straight any longer and started another round of drunk giggles. The laughter was infectious and as Blondie nodded his head slowly, Kurogane found a smile creeping onto his face.

Fancy ass Fai—with his swank ass car—the professional businessman—lived still at home. As humorous as that was, it was also strangely endearing. "You take care of your old man, then?"

"No—well, yes—I get to help out because I am there but most of the time, he's fine. That's not the reason I live at home." Blondie brought both his hands up to cover his face in mock embarrassment—peeking between his fingers to catch the cop's smile.

"You spent all of your money on your fancy clothes and overpowered cars, so you have to live at home?" Fai shook his head again quickly, stifling his giggles as he grinned.

"Good guess, but no."

"Let's see…" Kurogane ran his hand though Fai's hair one more time and looked up towards the ceiling so he didn't get distracted by the moron's cute expression. Much more of this and his drunk brain was going to lean in for a kiss—and that shit was not gonna happen till Fai brushed his teeth. "You have no idea how to take care of yourself, so your mom still does your laundry, packs your lunch and generally makes sure you don't die because you're an idiot?"

Blondie burst out laughing again—a tear escaping from the corner of his eyes as he tried to reel himself back in. "Oh—Oh my god—you guessed it, you sexist bastard! Only not my mom—my dad. My dad is the best."

"Your dad does your laundry and packs your lunch?"

Fai nodded quickly and gave him the silliest grin. "Didn't expect that now, did you?"

No. He could have guessed that Fai cared a lot about his father—not that he lived with him. That was an interesting surprise.

"No… But since we're both stuck with our parents, I guess were shit outta luck, hm?" Which was a bummer—he wouldn't get to find out what getting snuggled silly was like tonight—but at least he wouldn't be walk of shaming it tomorrow in front of his parent's ether.

His old man would have a fucking field day.

"I mean, I have a 3000 sq foot house, but if my dad finds out I brought a boy home, he is going to think we're getting married and ask you a bunch of uncomfortable questions. You might wanna crawl out the window to avoid it." Fai attempted to hoist himself up into a sitting position and only managed to topple back over and crack himself up again.

Oh yeah—he was fucking shit faced.

"As fun as that sounds—I don't want to crawl out of your bedroom window like some high school punk about to be caught by his girlfriend's parents." He managed to make it thus far in his life without that experience and he wasn't looking to change that.

He was not drunk enough for that shit.

"Well, I'm not your girlfriend and it's a pretty far drop from the bedroom window. Dad has rose bushes in the flower bed on that side of the house. Take it from me when I tell you they hurt like a bitch." Fai tried to sit up one more time and Kurogane planted a hand in the middle of his back to steady him so he didn't fall back again.

"Why do you even know that?"

Fai was grinning and shifted his legs so he could get to his feet. "What can I say—I was a naughty kid."

Kurogane managed to stand up and steady himself with a hand on the side of the desk and held out his other to Blondie before helping to pull him up. "Why do I get the feeling you haven't grown outta being a naughty kid?"

Blondie quirked an eyebrow at him and smirked, wobbling a bit and leaning against the cop's chest to balance himself. "Kuro-innocent has only scratched the surface of how naughty I can be."

"Yeah, well—you could'a showed me if you hadn't drank so goddamn much, moron." The cop slapped Fai's ass as soon as he turned to walk away, causing the blond to jump and giggle like a fucking school girl.

"I would say the nights still young—but I'm not twenty-something anymore. I don't know if I could have rallied to keep going tonight even when I was back in college. I've always been a bit of a lightweight when it comes to booze." It took Fai two tries to get the door to his office open and Kurogane had to catch him as he swayed back with the door.

"If you know you're a lightweight, then cut your ass off, dummy."

"Pssht. I told you, self-control really isn't my thing and you hid me from my assistant, so if this is anyone's fault… well, it's probably mine, but I don't really care." Fai managed to get upright again and walked down the hallway, steadying himself with a hand on the wall as they made their way to the break space at the very end of the hallway.

"Where are we even going?" Kurogane followed close behind him, ready to catch him in case he tripped.

"To try and make myself look a little less like a classy train wreck and a little more like someone who actually has some authority around here, so I can boss some people around to make sure—" Fai paused as he reached one of the cupboards and pulled it open to reveal various cleaning supplies.

Fai looked a little better than a classy train wreck in his book—but he couldn't exactly blame him for being self-conscious about his appearance, given that they were in what should, for Fai at least, be a professional setting.

"—well, you get it, anyway." Blondie plucked out a small black toiletry bag and closed the cabinet again. "Time to pretend I have my shit together."

There was a bathroom off the brake room area and Fai left the door open as he washed his face and brushed his teeth. The icy water left his cheeks flushed and the toothpaste thankfully washed away the lingering scent of vomit that had been clinging to his breath.

Blondie was starting to rebutton his shirt and actually look a little less sloshed out of his mind when one of the doors up the hall opened and slammed shut again—the sound of surprisingly loud footsteps filled what had been silence and Fai hardly paid it any mind as he got the last few buttons on his shirt.

"So, this is where you're hiding, then?" Kurogane was leaning against the wall watching the entrance when some squirt stormed into the room and stomped over to them.

He was rocking a suit like Fai had been—looking a hell of a lot more put together than Blondie as he stopped a few feet short of them to glare.

"You caught me. I need you, Subaru, and Kanoe to hold the fort down here until tomorrow." Blondie didn't bother with his tie or suit coat and neatly draped them over one arm before hitting the light and side stepping the cranky twerp in the suit.

"You know we usually manage just fine without you, right?" Kurogane had to wonder what this dude was getting his panties all in a knot over, then, if he had everything under control.

Sure—this squirt probably had no idea Fai wasn't in a good place—but the moron was finally starting to be a little less shaken and Kurogane didn't appreciate this asshole yelling at him.

Not that it was his place to get in between Fai and his employees—not employees. That, and this jerk's bad attitude didn't seem to ruffle any feathers and Fai took his respectless manner in stride and maintained his freakishly pleasant smile.

Fai leaned on the wall next to the cop. "Thanks for that but I'm serious—everyone needs to be extra careful tonight, Kamui. Syaoran is heading out early as well, but he will be working on emails and such. I will be available by phone, if it's an emergency." Blondie sighed and ran a hand though his hair and Kamui just glared harder—lowering his gaze and nodding.

"It's true, then?"

"Yes. Now's not the time nor the company to discuss it, though. Has Seishiro reported back in?" Kamui shook his head and Fai nodded. "Never here when you need him, hm?"

"Subaru is missing, too—not on his floor or in his office, so my guess is he's with that bastard."

"Of course—" Blondie sighed again and, for a moment, looked as annoyed as Kamui.

He caught himself, though, and pulled on another smile before pushing up the wall and discreetly grabbing the cop's hand to maintain his balance. "I'll yell at them tomorrow… Do you know if Syaoran made it back downstairs?"

"He's with Kanoe in her office getting things ready for tomorrow's meetings… Are you ok?" the first sign of concern worked its way onto Kamui's face and Fai shrugged.

"I drank too much. I'm going to go home and sleep it off—I'll be in early tomorrow with a clear head." Blondie squeezed Kurogane's hand and leaned on him a little further—his tone finally sounding tired.

Kurogane had only needed to drink enough to get sick once—had never cared to repeat the experience—but he was seriously impressed Fai was able to stay awake.

"Did you need Seishiro to get some—"

"No." Fai cut him off with a firm tone and Kamui raised an eyebrow in surprise. "—I'm temporarily taking a break."

"Good. Subaru and I were starting to worry about you." Shorty shrugged his shoulders and brushed off the reaction more or less before turning to head back up the hallway. "—somehow, I got stuck managing 3 outta 4 floors, so I gotta head back. I'll send Syaoran your way."

"Thanks, Kamui." Blondie called after him and waited until Grumpy was out of sight before muffling giggles behind his hand and wrapping an arm around the cop's waist to hide his face against Kurogane's chest. "Did I pull off seeming half was sober?"

"I guess. I'm too drunk to be the judge of that." Kurogane ran a hand up and down Fai's back and shook his head slowly.

It was really starting to hit him now.

"You know, you act more or less the same when you're drunk. A little more talkative—but I was hoping to discover a silly side." Fai was back to the giggling and Kurogane scoffed.

Yeah, no—silly wasn't really his thing—tired was, though.

Alcohol usually only served to knock his ass out when he got this drunk.

They were not alone for long and Fai was still shaking off the last of his laughter when his assistant appeared and gave them both a worried look. Fai had the sense to straighten himself again and pulled back on a semi-sober face for his assistant.

"Anything explode while I was busy?"

"No, Fai-sama… Are you ok? Did you want me to get you something to eat?" The brunette had keys in his hands, a leather laptop bag slung over one of his shoulders and was frowning at them from the doorway.

"Kuro-chan and I are going to call it a night. I was hoping you could drop me off and run him home, too?" Fai's tone was perfectly calm as he spoke, but he didn't leave any room for argument.

Now, the cop might be drunker than he thought—but he was pretty sure Syaoran looked slightly horrified at that statement.

Because that wasn't a red flag at all.

"A—are you sure?"

"It's not up for discussion." Fai started to head back out of the room and pulled Kurogane along as he went, not waiting for an answer.

He really was all about the hand holding today.

Syaoran, who looked worried for whatever reason, led the way after a moment and they headed out. He would worry about that weird reaction tomorrow morning—drunk him didn't have the brain power to puzzle it out now.

Currently, Kurogane was just happy to be getting Fai the hell out of this madhouse and away from his cranky ass employees.

He needed to sleep this shit off.

Kurogane needed to sleep this shit off.

It was too late to be this drunk.

Even though Fai had spent a good amount of time getting cleaned up, he still looked rough as they headed out the back emergency exit and into the dimly lit alley—he was only wearing his slacks and thin button down shirt—his jacket, tie, and vest draped over his arms as they both followed Syaoran outdoors.

They just had to make it up the block to Blondie's car and they could both get home and crash out.

Which didn't sound like a big deal, but Fai was holding his hand and leaning his weight on the cop heavily to keep himself steady. Blondie was having a hard time keeping his eyes open and Kurogane was willing to bet he would clunk out as soon as the car started moving.

Which meant Kurogane and Syaoran were probably going to have to carry him all the way into his house and get him to bed—Lord knows, once he was out, he most likely wasn't getting back up. He also didn't think leaving Fai alone tonight was a good idea—but so far, Blondie was still with it enough to tell him to fuck off.

So the plan still stood that Kurogane was heading home once they got Blondie to bed and it didn't sit right with him. It wasn't like Kurogane was going over there to take advantage of Fai—he would feel pretty guilty if he got hurt, though.

Leaving became a bit more difficult when Syaoran opened the back door and almost slammed into something.

Well… Someone.

Someones.

"Dammit, Seishiro!" Fai leaned heavily on Kurogane as they sidestepped the man. "Every time I need you, you're balls deep in Subaru." Blondie did not sound amused as they put an appropriate amount of distance between themselves and the half-undressed couple.

Syaoran had the same idea and had skittered off up the alleyway as soon as he realized what was doing. His apologies over interrupting were drowned out by Fai's annoyed accusation, though.

"What can I say—" The taller of the two men tossed an easy smile over his shoulder as he lowered his partner down to his feet. Kurogane couldn't get a decent look at him in the dim light of the alley—glasses—dark hair—stupid smirk.

So, this was Seishiro.

Seishiro had had someone, whom Kurogane assumed was Subaru, pressed against the wall—the smaller man was currently blushing up a storm as he untucked his legs from around his lover's waist. The poor guy looked as equally embarrassed as he was confused while he tried to right himself.

"I was on my way to come see you—but our sweet Subaru distracted me." Glasses at least had the decency to tuck himself away and pull his shirt into place before he turned to face them with an expression of pure innocence.

Kurogane was not a fan.

Not when Seishiro had left Subaru half naked and exposed just so he could smile at Fai like a fucking predator. Something about his immediate interest in Blondie didn't sit right with him.

"I think you just like to flaunt your favorite toy." Fai wasn't bothered—at least he didn't seem to be.

Subaru glared at Blondie for that last comment, but Fai was too preoccupied with Seishiro to notice as green eyes watched him with a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. He did however squeeze the cop's hand lightly and leaned back against the wall—looking as though he was perfectly at ease.

"I'm not the only one flaunting my favorite toy. He's new. A police officer, I heard?" Glasses gave Kurogane a once over before refocusing his deceptively friendly grin back to Fai.

Like that wasn't creepy as shit.

"Let's stick to this issue, shall we?" The grip on Kurogane's hand tightened and Fai's tone got a little cheerier—his cheeks tugging into an even brighter smile.

That must have hit a raw nerve—Kurogane didn't get why they were bothering with this stupid smiling shit. They were pretty obviously a few wrong comments away from being at each other's throats, so the freaky ass smiling was making the tension even more unsettling.

"Another time, then. You need to set aside some time to speak with me before the meeting tomorrow about taking care of—" Seishiro paused for a moment and adjusted his glasses. "—well to make sure all of our ducks are in a row."

"I—don't need to do anything. If you would like to meet, check the calendar and set something up." Kurogane didn't think it had was possible for someone to say Back-the-fuck-up in such a pleasant way—but Blondie pulled it off nicely.

Seishiro took a few steps forward nonetheless—so either he wasn't reading between the lines or didn't give a fuck that he was pissing Fai off.

Kurogane had a feeling it was the latter, given how amused the asshat appeared to be at eliciting that reaction. He didn't know what kind of game Seishiro was trying to play—but Kurogane was two seconds from punching this guy square in the nose and walking off to the car with Fai.

Blondie was stressed enough without this punk pushing his buttons.

Glasses was not a small guy and he had a bit of height on Fai and the asshole used every inch of it to loom over Fai—expression still obnoxiously pleasant as he got right up in the blond's personal space.

Well—Kurogane would consider him uncomfortably close—and he was just getting closer.

He tightened his grip on Blondies hand and made a move to tug the idiot behind him so he could tell this bastard to fuck off in plain Japanese.

To his astonishment, Fai didn't budge.

Didn't break eye contact with Seishiro.

Didn't so much as twitch when glasses came almost nose to nose with him.

Instead he grabbed Kurogane's wrist—a silent order to stay put.

Apparently, Blondie felt confident that he could handle this just fine. Even if Seishiro was bigger, more sober, and seemed to be even nuttier than Fai.

"This is a problem." Glasses leaned his hand against the wall right next to Blondies face in a move to up the trapped feeling, and Kurogane was seriously tempted to break this guy's jaw.

Who the fuck did this shitbag think he was?

"No. The problem is that I needed you—and you were out here fucking my second floor manager." Fai dropped his hold and tucked both his hands into the pockets of his slacks before shrugging.

Seishiro's only response to those words was balling the hand that was next to Fai's head and keeping that smirk on his lips.

Red eyes flickered over to where Syaoran was standing—he had moved next to Subaru and the two of them were watching the display. Neither of them looked all that worried at the fact that Fai was nose to nose in a face off with Seishiro.

He didn't know if that was reassuring or not.

Did this happen a lot, then? Because Kurogane wasn't usually one to sit around and watch something like this.

They shouldn't be that close—Blondie didn't come off as the kind of person to throw down—but the cop didn't know that for sure. If the two of them were going to go after each other even though Kurogane was right next to them, there wouldn't be time to react or put himself between Fai and this psycho.

"As much as I love hearing you say that you need me—" the bastard licked his lips and Kurogane managed to catch himself before he growled. "—certainly you understand the need to blow off steam after a night like tonight."

Fai blinked once, twice, and Seishiro leaned back—dropping his hand to his side and giving Blondie a bit of space. "—Though if I had known you were also feeling the stress—I would have invited you. Though your new cop buddy wouldn't be around any longer if he wasn't getting you off still."

Seishiro glanced at Kurogane and glared hard—when he turned his attention back to Blondie, he was greeted with an annoyed frown. Who the fuck did this douche think he was?

"I'm not in a good mood. Cut the bullshit. No one is impressed." Fai's voice was quiet, but his tone meant business.

It only seemed to amuse Seishiro, and the bastard adjusted his glasses and smirked. Fai's warning tone didn't deter him from whatever game he was playing. "Someone's salty."

"Someone's salty because they're getting back on the straight and narrow and the person who was supposed to be keeping an eye on Reed chose now to fuck up." Fai pushed off the wall and took half a step forward, taking his hands out of his pants' pockets and bringing them up to cup Seishiro's cheeks in what should have been an intimate gesture. "Fucked up bad."

It wasn't.

Kurogane had seen what Fai looked like when he was being sweet—loving. This wasn't it.

This was bone chilling. Uncomfortable. A warning.

He didn't need to look over at Syaoran and Subaru to see that they were both starting to worry.

"The same someone who currently stinks like whisky and bad decisions? That's cute." Seishiro was still smiling and didn't flinch at Blondie's touch, even as he dragged his left thumb across glasses's right cheek.

Kurogane didn't know who the hell Reed was—but he could only assume it had something to do with whatever had happened to ruin Fai's night. Figures the creep was responsible or connected in some way.

"The very same someone who is losing patience and won't hesitate to replace you if you insist on this stupid game." Blondie patted Seishiro's right cheek and took a step back—reaching for Kurogane's hand and interlacing their fingers again.

He didn't miss that Fai had conveniently put himself between the cop and Seishiro—the bastard in the glasses didn't miss it, either. He again looked Kurogane up and down—gaze lingering on their interlaced fingers for a moment before he refocused on Fai.

"Perhaps if that someone was sober enough to check their email, they would have already found my full report. Looks like they're too busy drinking their problems away and fucking their cop friend to have any idea what's going on, though. That's not like you—you aren't losing your touch now, are you?"

Fai simply raised an eyebrow and Seishiro put both of his hands up and finally backed off—chuckling as though pushing Blondie's buttons had been the most amusing part of his day.

"Wise move." Fai leaned back against Kurogane and they both watched glasses finally back down. He wrapped a protective arm around Blondie's waist and was glad Fai didn't pull away.

"If you have any other questions, let me know." Subaru grabbed Seishiro's hand and shot him a scolding look, earning a shrug from the asshole in the glasses who was more focused on watching them than paying attention so his lover.

"Don't be too rough with Subaru. I need both of you in working condition tomorrow." Fai's carefree tone was back, and he flashed his manager an apologetic smile. "Relax until then. I'm going to go sleep this off, but I'll be in early."

"Rest up, Fai-sama. You're gonna need it." Subaru looked down towards his feet.

Apology apparently accepted.

Fai leaned into Kurogane as they made their way up the alleyway—leaving Seishiro and Subaru to do whatever it was they were going to do now after having been interrupted. Blondie seemed pretty preoccupied with not face planting, but Kurogane spared a glance over his shoulder to glare at Seishiro one more time.

Subaru and he were looking at one of their phones, and glasses was in the process of lighting up a smoke. He glanced up just in time to catch Kurogane—he might have been smiling, but there was something obviously threatening about it.

He did not like Serishiro—Fai might have a screw loose, but Seishiro was the kind of man Kurogane regularly arrested. He might still be a little wet behind the ears when it came to his experience as an officer—but even with less than a year on the force under his belt he knew how to pick out a dangerous person.

Fai stumbled and giggled, though, and Kurogane's attention snapped back to the sidewalk in front of him and the apparently amused blond. "Watch where you're going. I'm not gonna feel bad if you fall."

Blondie seemed to find that funny as well and he thunked his head down on Kurogane's shoulder as he continued to giggle while they stumbled up the street following Syaoran.

"What the fuck is so funny?" Kurogane tightened his hold on Fai's waist and didn't miss the worried look Syaoran shot their way.

"You looked like an angry puppy about to bite Sei-chan for touching your stuff—You're so cute you could give Biggs a run for his money." Fai managed to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before falling into another fit of giggles.

"That guy is an asshat and if Biggs was here, he would have tried to eat him for dinner for getting near you." Kurogane was tempted to roll his eyes but settled for getting them moving forward again.

"That's putting it lightly. Seishiro is a sadistic sleaze ball. His brother's not much better—but at least he's got the commitment thing figured out." Fai's laughter settled into an exhausted sigh and he wiggled out of Kurogane's arm to fish keys out of his pocket and toss them to his assistant.

"There's more than one of 'em?" Kurogane mentally cringed thinking about another Seishiro fuckwad hanging off of Fai like some sort of thirsty pervert.

"Mhum. I've known them both for years. They are very good at what they do. Even if sometimes they're hard to get along with…" Blondie grabbed his hand and they started ambling slowly back up the street.

"Tch. Look who's putting it lightly now." Kurogane hoped he didn't catch glasses ogling at Fai again or else he might just knock his fucking teeth in and teach him a lesson about boundaries.

"Do you often have a strong dislike for people when you first meet them?" Blondie glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and caught the cop's shrug.

"I don't like most people—but I also don't hate most people like that right off the bat." Granted, most people weren't looming over his date and licking their lips minutes after having their dick in some other poor bastard.

"What about me?" Fai was looking down at his feet as he asked this—taking extra care to watch his step.

"You're special, I guess." Kurogane hadn't hated Fai right off the bat.

Fai had made him uncomfortable and unsure of what he wanted—but not in a bad way. Biggs had taken to him right away, which he could still barely believe, and after tonight Blondie was feeling a hell of a lot less like a mystery and more like a plain old person who had bad days and needed comfort.

Human.

"Because your dog likes me?" Fai glanced up at him through his eyelashes and gave a small smile.

"That's not the only reason, but yeah. Biggs likes you. Congrats." Kurogane saw car lights flash half a block away on the other side of the street and Syaoran hit the fob again to get the locks to pop.

"I like Biggs, too." Fai chuckled as they started to cross the street and held the cop's hand a little tighter. "Though I'm glad you have better self-control than him. If you had bit Sei-chan, things would have gotten complicated."

"Weirdo. I don't bite people. I punch them." Kurogane opened the back-passenger side door to the Maserati so Fai could climb in while Syaoran hopped up front.

"—that may very well be, but trust me when I tell you, you'll hurt your hand more than his hard head. Been there, done that. Not very satisfying… Granted-I've bit him too. That wasn't—well that was a sex thing, though. You know I get bitie when I get excited." Fai chuckled and rubbed the back of his head.

Kurogane couldn't say that he was surprised to hear that they had boned, given the fucking way glasses had been looking at Fai. He didn't like it, though—if they weren't together, he should be leaving Fai the fuck alone.

"Fuck, Blondie."

"He's not really into it like you—"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. I don't wanna hear about what that psycho likes in bed. I can't think about you and him like that." Kurogane waited for Fai to finish securing his seatbelt before doing the same and tried not to cringe at the thought of Fai clinging to Seishiro as he rode out his orgasm.

Nope. Total mood killer. More so than Fai almost yacking in his hair.

"If it makes you feel any better you are waaaay better in bed. For me, at least. Seishiro can get Subaru panting and shaking—and I'm sorry, Kuro." Fai covered his mouth and started giggling just as Syaoran pulled into traffic. "—I tend to get carried away. It gets worse when I drink."

Kurogane should have changed the subject—should have left it at that—but he was also drunk and his brain wasn't at its sharpest. He regretted his next question the second it left his mouth.

"Why would you even know that?"

Fai's flashed a sly smile his way before leaning closer to the cop and motioning for him to come closer. With a cupped hand he whispered hotly in Kurogane's ear. "Sei-chan, Subaru and I have a bit of a history, if you know what I mean."

"You fucked them both? Like, at the same time?"

Wow. Kinky.

Then again—Fai had already proven he was a pretty kinky bastard.

Fai leaned back and nodded. "More than once."

"How the hell do you even get yourself into that kinda situation." Not that Kurogane was judging—Blondie could fuck whomever he pleased. Hell—he didn't like the thought of Seishiro touching Fai—but that was more so because he liked touching Fai.

"The first time was—I am too drunk to math… I was 16ish maybe, and Subaru had only been seeing Seishiro for a few months back then. I went over and we were playing a drinking game that turned dirty and before I knew it—I had had my first drink, first kiss and first time all in one night."

Well this conversation had gone to hell in a handbasket.

That was fucked up.

Seriously fucked.

"How old is that creep, anyhow?"

"Kuro-chan, I am too drunk for math…" Fai leaned across the seat dramatically and wrapped his arms around the cop's shoulders, nipping at his ear as he did so. "Why do you wanna know?"

"I probably don't…" Kurogane should butt out. Why did he have any right to care who Blondie fucked or when?

"Someone is awfully jealous. I'm not usually into that." Fai licked up his neck, "—But Kuro-woof is like a jealous puppy who is sad that there master has payed attention to another dog at the dog park…"

"You don't know what you're talking about, idiot." Kurogane absolutely did not flinch when Blondie nipped at his neck with enough pressure to leave a bruise.

The sad part was, Fai wasn't too far off.

The stupid puppy/master shit was just to push his buttons, but Kurogane was man enough to admit when he was jealous. He didn't know why he was jealous—didn't have a right to be—but he was and could admit it.

"Hm… So cute." Fai lapped at the mark he had left before resting his head back on the cop's shoulder. "I bet Sei-chan is going to yell at me tomorrow over you."

If he did, Fai would probably just put him in his place again. He had no idea why one of Blondie's employees felt the need to butt into his personal life—or why he would give a fuck about who Blondie was going home with.

They all seemed to have an opinion about it, which was strange as fuck.

"Tell him to go fuck himself and if he has a problem with it, I'll kick his teeth in." Kurogane slung an arm around Blondie's shoulders and focused on the streets whizzing by as they merged right to get onto the highway ramp.

"Such a brute. Now I know where Biggs gets his bad attitude. He copies his daddy."

"I'm not his daddy… 'sides he's been a stubborn ass since he was a pup. Just so happens I'm able to manage that energy and direct it in a productive way." Fai was back to nibbling on his neck and the cop sighed.

Biggs may or may not pick up on Blondie's scent and put two and two together that Kurogane had seen the idiot. After Fai had spent the night at his apartment, Biggs had whined when he left—but seemed to get over it once they got to work.

At least Kurogane had assumed, until they had gotten back home and his bastard dog had spent the evening rolling around on the pillow Fai had used when he had slept over. When his parents had gotten into town earlier that night, they had seen firsthand that Biggs was still obsessed with that pillow.

"I wish I had taken a selfie with him. I wanted to show my dad how big and fluffy he is." Blondie sighed and Kurogane smirked.

Right.

Well, he may have forgotten to ask about those pictured he had snapped but at least they were coming in handy.

"I might have gotten a picture of you two when you were sleeping. Forgot to ask when you woke up if it was ok." Kurogane was reaching for his phone and Fai pulled back to flash him the happiest smile.

"Can you send it to me?"

"Yeah. Here." It took only a few seconds to send off the few photos he had managed to snag, and he watched Blondie's screen light up as they came through on his end.

If at all possible, Fai's looked even happier as he scrolled through the photos before saving them. "You're in the wrong field. You should have been a photographer, because these are adorable."

"Helps when you have photogenic subjects. Biggs rarely sits still for a good picture unless he's sleeping." Fai leaned across the space between the seats again and captured Kurogane's lips for a brief kiss.

"Have I told you you're sweet?" Blondie whispered in his ear and Kurogane rolled his eyes. "And that I have a sweet tooth?"

"I'm not sweet, you're just a weirdo." He refocused his attention on their surroundings and tried to get his bearings. They had been driving for a while and it looked like they were headed outside of Tokyo to the ritzy neighborhoods.

As a cop, he didn't find himself on this side of town often and when he did, it was usually for low level DV's or neighbor disputes. Boring stuff.

"Hm… I know Kuro-sweet said his parents were in town… but would they be devastated if you decided to stay the night?" Fai's voice was quieter now and he was doing a good job of hiding his face, but he got the feeling Blondie was worried he would say no.

If Fai needed him—hell even if he just wanted him to spend the night—he would.

His mom and pop would be fine at home. If he was being honest—they were probably going to get a kick out of him spending the night at Fai's place, anyways.

"If you want me to stay, they'll be fine. They're adults." Fai sat up and flashed him a worried smile.

"What about Biggs?"

"Biggs gets left with my parents a lot when I can't bring him with me. He's basically a toddler with bad manners and sharp teeth, so he doesn't get left alone." Kurogane hated crating the dumb bastard.

Short periods of an hour or two were fine. Anything longer and Biggs got destructive—tearing, chewing, and clawing his way through whatever he could get his paws on.

"Do they like watching their grandpup?" Kurogane snorted and Fai looked confused for a moment.

Of course Fai would refer to Biggs that way.

"They uh—they like Biggs a lot. It's not often we get a dog with such a mixed personality, so he has a special place in their heart." Biggs minded them pretty well most of the time, too, which helped.

He liked going to visit his parent's house because they had a nice big fenced in yard to romp around and rough house in. Biggs could do without the other dogs—but he got along with most of them well enough that they could be together when supervised.

"Biggs likes them too, though?" Fai was fidgeting now, knee bouncing and fingers playing with one of the buttons on the bottom of his untucked shit and it was Kurogane's turn to chuckle.

He had never seen Fai nervous—didn't know why he was nervous—but it was a pleasant change from the overconfident fake ass smiles. Not because he liked Blondie uncomfortable, but he did like him honest.

"Mom and dad have been around him since the day he was born. He likes them just fine." that seemed to put Fai at ease and he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

He still couldn't hold still, but his expression was more relaxed. "Good. I didn't wanna hog his papa if he was missing you."

"If anything, he's going to be pissy that I hung out with you without him." Syaoran took the next exit and Fai focused his attention on the street in front of them, leaning towards the cop to get a good view.

"Hopefully, he'll forgive you for betraying him."

"I take it we're almost there?"

Fai's only response was a quick nod and they both were quiet the rest of the ride. Kurogane watched as the houses got larger, older, the lots got bigger, the trees taller and eventually they pulled into the driveway of one of the swankier houses.

This was not what he was expecting.

Not that he really had any idea what he should be expecting—but if he had to guess, he would have assumed that Blondie lived in some bougie penthouse or high rise near downtown. Not a McMansion in the suburbs that screamed old money.

To each their own, he supposed.

"That's weird." Fai unbuckled his seat belt and frowned as he looked at the brightly lit house. All the lights on the ground floor were on—this one was only the one on the block that looked like there was anyone dumb enough to be up past 2am.

"What is?" Kurogane followed Fai's lead and unbuckled and hopped out of the back of the car.

"Well, either we have a dumb robber or someone's up… My guess is, someone is up." Blondie slammed the back door of the Maserati shut after collecting his jacket and phone.

"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Kurogane watched Fai shrug before giving his assistant a happy wave and snagging the cop's hand.

"Guess we'll find out. But usually my dad's are sleep-a-holics and are out by ten." Fai grinned—not like he had earlier that night when they had been chilling on the office floor—this was another one of his fake smiles.

So—yeah no, it was probably a bad thing—or, at least, a stressful thing for Blondie.

Maybe this was why he had been so nervous?

Not that Fai was dwelling on it—he tugged them towards the door and Kurogane followed without complaint.

The sidewalk that led up to the house was winding and lined by bushes and other perennials on either side. Someone obviously took very good care of the place—there were potted plants and hanging flower baskets decorating the porch and wind chimes were sounding softly as Fai dug his keys out of his jacket.

After a minute of struggling, Blondie forked the keys over and Kurogane got the door open easily enough. The cop handed the keys back and stepped back to let Fai head in first—again placing a hand on the center of his back to steady him.

The house was even fancier on the inside than he would have guessed, given the well maintained exterior. High ceilings, rich colors and plush carpets gave the home a warm, open feel and Kurogane followed Fai's lead and slipped out of his shoes and took off his jacket.

Blondie grabbed his hand again and they were about to make their way to the stairs when there was a crashing sound at the other end of the house.

Fai sighed—gave him an apologetic look—and took them both back down the stairs.

Kurogane was more focused on keeping his balance as they made their way through the house, so he didn't immediately notice the man kneeling and picking up glass off the kitchen floor.

"Are you ok?" Fai dropped Kurogane's hand and went to the dark-haired man's side.

"Fine—Just got a little dizzy there for a second. What are you doing home so early?" The man's voice was soft, and he shooed Fai's hands away when he tried to help pick up the remnants of the broken mug.

Kurogane assumed this was Fai's father, given his age, although they looked nothing alike. Since Fai had told him he was adopted that wasn't all that surprising, after all. Shoulder length black hair framed his face and gold eyes looked exhausted as they glanced up—widening slightly in surprise as he noticed Kurogane.

"You should let me do it. If you're dizzy, you need to go lay down." Fai ignored the man's protests and held out both his hands to carefully accept the broken glass before standing and dumping it into the trash can.

The man slowly got to his feet and stepped aside as Fai snagged a roll of paper towels from next to the sink and started soaking up most of whatever liquid had been in the cup.

"Fai, you're being rude. Who's your friend." They all jumped in surprise as a fourth person entered the room—another gentlemen that was old enough to be Fai's father padded into the room rocking a half asleep look.

"That is Kuro-chan." Fai answered quietly—not looking up from the mess he was cleaning.

Probably a good idea, there had to still be small pieces of glass.

"Kuro-chan?" Both men parroted back with slightly confused expressions and it took every ounce of will power for the cop not to sigh.

"Kurogane." He corrected and even though he was trashed, he had enough sense to shake both of their hands.

"Nice to meet you, Kurogane. My name is Taishakuten—this is my husband, Ashura." The blond, almost silver haired one said and Kurogane tried to make a mental note.

He was too drunk for this shit.

Husband? As in, Fai had two dads? Had he mentioned dads—not dad—before?

Not that he gave a shit—he obviously didn't have an issue with same sex couples.

"Nice to meet you." the cop nodded and caught Fai's slightly horrified expression as he got up to toss the wet paper towel away.

You know, this did sorta feel like a high schooler getting caught by his SO's parents—but not as bad as he would have imagined.

Taishakuten flashed him a toothy smile before turning his attention to Fai and sighing. "You know, I don't think you are any better equipped to clean broken glass than your father. You are impressively drunk."

"Well, that's the only thing about me that's impressive today." Blondie leaned against the counter and gave an exhausted sigh—neither of his parents seemed all that concerned.

Taishakuten shooed both Fai and Ashura to the other side of the island and got to cleaning the rest of the glass while Fai flashed Kurogane an apologetic smile. "We'll go to sleep soon, ok?"

"Take your time." This was awkward—but not too terribly so.

"Is that what you two are going to do?" Ashura teased and Fai shrugged.

"You want us to keep the door open to make sure there is no funny business?" The pure innocence Fai managed to lace into his voice was pretty remarkable—and even stumbling drunk, he managed to look the part.

"Dear god, no." Taishakuten wrinkled his nose and Fai was back to giggling—reaching out to grab the cop's hand and pull him a little closer.

"Then, I guess, you'll have to take our word for it then, hm?"

So much for this not being that awkward. Kurogane was going to maintain the stance that he was too drunk for this shit—way too drunk to make a good impression with Fai's parents—and thankfully too drunk to really care about it all that much at the moment.

"Trust me. I will. You two will be the death of me." Fai's stepdad tossed the last of the glass in the garbage and sighed. "All of you sit down before you end up falling over and hurting yourself… I have a husband doped up on painkillers, a son and his boyfriend stumbling drunk and it's almost 3am."

"He's not my boyfriend." Fai pulled out one of the barstools that were on the side of the island for Kurogane before sliding into the one next to him. "—We're just friends."

Taishakuten and Ashura shot each other a look and Kurogane shifted uncomfortably as they turned their gazes to him, but Fai's stepdad was the one to answer.

"This is the boy—"

"Gentleman." Ashura corrected and Taishakuten rolled his eyes as he grabbed the kettle off of the stove and took it over to the sink to refill it.

"—this is the gentleman that sent you home looking so… we'll say… well taken care of, yesterday?"

Oh fuck yeah, this was getting awkward as hell.

"I would say closer to totally ravished and very satisfied with himself—but I think it's safe to assume you two are a little closer than just friends no?" Ashura added and Kurogane almost choked, covering it with a cough.

"Well, if he was my boyfriend, he wouldn't want to be anymore. Thanks, guys—" Fai did not seem fazed in the slightest as he reached out to pat the cop's back comfortingly. "—and I'll have you know, it's been a while since I slept so well."

"Sleeping must be an extreme sport for the two of you, then." Fai's stepdad shut the water off and set the kettle back down on the stove before lighting it. "Kudos to Kurogane here for wearing your ass out for once."

"Anyway—" Ashura gave the sweetest of smiles as he took the last remaining seat at the kitchen island on the other side of Fai. "Our Fai mentioned that you were a police officer, Kurogane. That must be a difficult line of work."

Kurogane cleared his throat and suddenly noticed that he had unwillingly become the center of attention. Perfect... "It keeps you in shape and it's pretty rewarding."

He was going to try not to think too hard about the fact that if Blondie's old man knew what he did for a living—that meant Fai had had to at least bring him up before now…

"I see. Hopefully, they don't have you doing anything too dangerous." Ashura said and Kurogane shook his head.

At least the conversation had gone back to a safer topic—as a cop, he has had to answer these questions a hundred times, at least-nearly any time he mentioned what he did for a living, he had to deal with the 'isn't that dangerous' questions and such.

"It's not as bad as most people think." 'sides. His partner had his back. "We're spending a lot of time on drills, so I'm not out in the field much, currently."

"That's good to hear."

"Kuro-chan is very brave." Fai leaned over and kissed his cheek. "But he is beat in the cuteness department by his very serious fluffy partner."

"Right, how could I forget." Ashura gave Fai an amused look before refocusing his attention. "You work with a dog, correct?"

"Yeah." Fai had the picture front covered and was already unlocking his phone and pulling up the pictures of Biggs practically laying on top of him while he was out cold. Kurogane couldn't help the smile that snuck its way onto his face every time he saw that stupid picture. "He's a hard worker."

Ashura took the phone from Fai and looked over the picture with a soft smile before setting the phone on the counter and sliding it towards his husband. "He is just as big and fluffy as you claimed, Fai."

Taishakuten grabbed the phone and scanned the photo before handing it back and scoffing. "Leave it to Fai to turn a serious working animal into a heating pad."

At least someone got it…

Biggs was not usually considered a fluffy, cute dog. Most people were scared shitless of him.

"He was more like a teddy bear that follows you around and tries to sit on you." Blondie tucked his phone back into his pocket and Kurogane shook his head slowly.

Only with Fai was he like that.

"He really took to Fai right away. He whined the whole car ride to the station after we dropped him off yesterday." He should probably be offended that his asshole dog was acting this way after hating almost everyone on the face of the earth—the other part of him thought it was…

Well it was fucking adorable. Biggs was a well-trained K9 officer, but he was still a dog—and he could be both deadly and occasionally cute. He wished the dope would act more like a normal dog when they were not on the clock—and do things like snuggle and play.

"Well, make sure to tell him I whined the whole way home, too. Partly because I was hung over—partly because he was a very good snuggle buddy." Fai leaned over to rest his head on Kurogane's shoulder and yawned.

"Och, Fai. No love for your date?" Blondie's stepdad snorted as he killed the burner and opened a cabinet to get some mugs for the tea.

"Do you see this? This is affection right here. Shush." Fai rubbed his cheek against the cop's shoulder and Kurogane was acutely aware that he was seriously amusing his parents at the moment.

"So how much did you two drink, exactly?" Ashura was watching Fai's theatrics with a subtle smile. Kurogane had no clue how much they drank. They hadn't exactly been keeping track.

"Enough to ensure I will be a nightmare tomorrow."

"And did you two eat dinner?" Ashura's voice was sweet, but the look he gave Fai was no-nonsense.

Nice to know someone could keep this idiot in line. Kurogane found himself smiling as he watching Fai give his old man a guilty look.

"I think you know the answer."

"I see." Ashura sighed and made a move to get up only for Taishakuten to stop him by shaking his head slowly back and forth and heading towards the fridge and pulling it open.

Fai narrowed his eyes and Kurogane just sat back to watch the exchange.

"What are you doing?" Blondie's tone turned accusatory and Tai grabbed a few things before setting them onto the counter next to the stove.

"Avoiding my dear husband's wrath and making you two a sandwich." Fai's stepdad answered after Fai's glare didn't let up and Blondie wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I don't want your sandwich."

"Tough, kid. A sandwich is the best you are gonna get unless you are gonna make your poor dad get up and cook." Tai pulled down two plates and ignored the offended glare Fai gave. Ashura chuckled and Tai snagged the bread. "Food and water, then you and Mr. Police officer can head upstairs and do whatever it is you can manage at your current level of inebriation."

"Ugh. Why are you like this?" Fai covered his face with both of his hands and Tai smiled at him when he wasn't looking—dropping the aloof act as he shared an amused chuckle with his husband.

"Any fruit and or nut allergies?" Taishakuten turned his attention to Kurogane as he opened the bread and the cop shook his head.

"No, sir."

"So polite." Ashura commented and Fai turned his head to the side to flash him a smile—obviously pleased with his answer for whatever reason.

It's not like he had coached the cop on what to say around his parents, but his own mom and dad had raised him to be polite to his hosts—and his job required a lot of "yes ma'am, no ma'am" answers when dealing with citizens.

Best way to address people you had no idea how to behave around was with politeness. Since Kurogane had never really gotten close enough to any of his past flings to do the whole meet-the-parents dance—he was falling back on the manners shit.

After all—if something came of he and Blondie—it would be complicated if his dads thought he was some rude hooligan. Good thing he didn't have to worry about it in the reverse—he already knew his own old man would dig Fai's silly antics and his mom would fall for his gentle nature and sweet disposition instantly.

He had already passed the hardest test with flying colors—Biggs was obsessed with him.

"Good." Tai grabbed a knife from the knife block. "No need to poison someone. Yet."

"Tai." Fai and Ashura scolded in unison—it did not seem to ruffle Fai's stepdad's feathers one bit and he unscrewed a jar of peanut butter and started to spread a glob onto the bread.

"What? We don't know if we like him, yet." The jelly came next and Ashura chuckled as he sipped his tea.

"I think you are a nice young man, Kurogane. Taishakuten is slow to warm up at first, though. No one is going to poison you unless you make our sweet Fai cry."

Well, that was reassuring.

Caused

"No one is getting poisoned. Jesus. You two do realize I am 33, right?" Fai sat back up, took a long drink from his own mug and watched as his parents shot each other a look. "Guys…"

"You will always be our baby." Ashura reached out and pinched his cheek and Fai leaned back and sighed.

"Seems like just yesterday your father was all in knots over you going to high school and now look at you—stumbling home drunk with a random stranger and having us make you a peanut butter and jelly before sending you off to bed." Taishakuten added as he slapped the two pieces of bread together and moved onto the next sandwich.

"Kuro-chan is not a stranger. You did always teach me to trust police officers." Fai finished off his tea and got up to take the mug to the sink.

Taishakuten snorted and rolled his eyes. "Now for the real question. Are you going to pitch a fit if I leave the crusts on? You know since you are 33 and all?"

"You shouldn't have to ask. You know the answer. No crusts and cut it into fourths." Fai rinsed the cup out and stuck it into the dishwasher before heading back to his seat.

"Right, right… the same for your silent friend here?"

"Yes, or else it doesn't taste right. Get your shit together, Tai." Blondie answered for him and Kurogane was not about to say any different.

His stepdad cut the crusts off before slicing the sandwiches into fourths and sliding the plates across the island to them. "Eat that and—" Tai opened the fridge and grabbed four bottles of water, setting two in front of both Fai and Kurogane. "—drink this, then you are free. Deal?"

"Deal." Fai took a bite of one of the squares—glaring playfully. "But I am complaining to the manager of the house about your poor sandwich making skills."

"The manager of the house finds Tai's poor sandwich making skills to be endearing and dismisses your complaint." Ashura answered and sipped from his mug.

Taishakuten grinned momentarily before walking around the island to stand behind his husband. "Do we need to babysit you or can we head to bed, now?"

"We're fine." Fai swallowed another bite of the sandwich and handed one of his bottles of water over to Kurogane.

The cop wordlessly accepted it and unscrewed the top before handing it back.

Tai and Ashura shot each other another look.

"Ok. Well, since you are 33, we will trust you." Ashura stood slowly, handing his finished tea to his husband who did the same as Fai had and took the mug to the sink to rinse it and set it in the dish washer.

"K. Nighty night!" Fai chimed and sipped his water as they both watched his parents disappear around the corner. As soon as they were gone, Fai seemed to sag in relief and leaned against the cop's shoulder and laughed quietly. "I am so sorry, Kuro-san. You did a really good job, though."

"Thanks?" Kurogane took a bite of his own sandwich.

Wasn't half bad, actually—he didn't usually do sweet things like jelly, but he was drunk enough that he could deal.

"Hm… let's finish this mess so I can take you upstairs and reward you." Fai practically purred and Kurogane reached out and grabbed one of his sandwich squares and held it up to the blond's lips.

"See how you feel after you eat, barf boy." Blondie might have brushed his teeth, but Kurogane was not about to risk a repeat of earlier in the night.

"Believe it or not, I am starting to sober up." Fai bit into the sandwich and Kurogane gave him a skeptical look.

Granted—he hadn't yacked—but the whisky was only hitting him harder now.

"Yeah, well—it's not sexy when I feel like I am taking advantage of you. Bet you crash the hell out as soon as your head hits the pillow."

"We'll see, then." Fai agreed after he swallowed and took the opportunity of the cop's momentary distraction to shove a sandwich square into his mouth, too. "I win a prize if I don't, though. You have to finish what you started in my office, ne?"

"Fine." Kurogane uncapped one of his own bottles of water and downed half of it to wash down the sticky peanut butter.

They finished the rest of their meal slowly and in silence, for the most part. The house was quiet, the mood mellow and when they were done, Fai took everything over to the sink and cleaned up before grabbing his hand and leading his drunk ass quietly up the stairs and to what he assumed to be the moron's room.

As soon as the door shut, Fai kissed him sweetly, wrapping his arms around the taller man's shoulders and humming softly as he pulled them back towards the bed.

Sure–Kurogane had assumed when he had decided to meet Blondie for drinks that they were probably going to end up fucking–but after Fai had had gotten sick earlier in the night, he had changed the expectation to crashing out as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

Not that he was complaining.

It had been a few hours and Fai might be feeling better–given the insistent erection he felt pressing against his thigh, he was willing to bet Fai was in the mood.

"Hey." Kurogane broke the kiss and had to hold Blondies chin between his thumb and index finger to force their eyes to meet. "You really feeling better, all of a sudden?"

"Don't you dare tell Tai–but eating helped a lot." Fai leaned back to fall onto the bed and held his arms open for the cop to follow him.

Kurogane lowered himself down with a little more grace and went straight for the neck–just like how he knew Fai liked it–and earned himself a surprised yelp, Fai wiggling underneath him and muffling his laugh with a hand over his mouth.

"You're not gonna puke on me?" Fai shook his head back and forth and Kurogane found himself smiling as he nipped his way down Blondie's neck–popping the buttons of his dress shirt slowly and letting his fingers trace over every new inch of exposed flesh.

"No. My tummy is a happy camper thanks to that shitty excuse for a sandwich." Fai arched his back up off the mattress and wrapped his arms around the cop's neck when he bit hard at his collar bone.

That was a good enough answer for him.

He popped the last of the buttons and gripped Blondie's hips. Sliding his hands up his sides, he helped the smaller man sit up enough to get the soft fabric to slide off his shoulders. Fai took the opportunity to crash their lips together and tumbled back down onto the bed before he managed to get it totally off him.

Not that it was a bad view–Fai's cheeks and chest were flushed red and even in the dim lighting, it was easy to see he was getting flustered. The loose dress shirt was now bunched around his elbows and splayed out underneath him and the view went straight to Kurogane's crotch.

Not a bad view, at all.

Fai tugged at the hem of his t-shirt and Kurogane took the hint and ditched it, letting it fall on the floor next to the bed, forgotten, as he went for Blondies belt. The pants got tossed somewhere next, along with Fai's underwear, leaving him bare.

He did not seem to mind one bit.

Blondie was watching him–the way he was looking over his body and admiring it–with a small smirk on his lips as he rolled his hips - and Kurogane swallowed hard.

How could someone so fucking obnoxious look this good naked?

"Like what you see?" Fai purred and Kurogane leaned down to press their lips together for a quick kiss before nodding and nibbling along his jaw. Blondie tilted his head to give Kurogane better access and he made use of it by working his way back down Fai's chest.

One hand gripped Fai's protruding hip bone, thumb kneaded small circles in his soft skin there while the other grazed up his side, fingertips just barely ghosting over the skin and leaving goose bumps in their wake.

Ruby eyes watched as Fai's eyes fluttered closed and he let out a soft sigh–leaning into the gentle touch as he tangled the fingers of one hand in Kurogane's short hair and gripped his shoulder with the other. "Kuro-tease wants to take it slow?"

"You liked it last time." His breath puffed out hot against Blondies skin and the cop smirked as his partner shivered.

Fai had been putty in his hands the other night. They had started slow and ended hot, rough and fast–and Kurogane had similar plans for tonight if Fai could be patient.

Whatever Blondie had been about to say died in his throat when Kurogane ground their hips together and he couldn't help but draw his hand back down Fai's side, earning himself a whimper.

Shifting, Kurogane leaned down to pepper kisses along Fai's jaw, neck, collar bone and chest–nipping and sucking–paying extra attention to the spots of soft skin that he hadn't marked the last time.

Fai could hardly hold still. Kurogane was careful to vary the frequency as well as the pressure and location of bites so that Blondie was never expecting where he would strike next–all the while running his fingers up and down his sides, over his flat stomach, down to knead the tender skin of his thighs.

By the time he had deemed Blondie sufficiently warmed up, Kurogane leaned back to balance on his heels and looked down to marvel at his work.

God, was he beautiful.

"Sit up–" His voice came out rough and low and he watched Fai shudder in reaction to the command. Fai looked good like this–he always looked good, sure, but this was his favorite look for the blond, right after the sight of him curled up on the couch in the cop's clothes and with his dog.

Though, as much as he liked Fai covered in his love bites, if this continued, he was going to have to tone it down. Blondie was starting to look like he had come out of the wrong end of a fight. All he needed was a black eye and split lip and you would never know–not that Fai seemed to have any issues.

Not with the way he was panting and gripping the sheets with white knuckles, waiting for what was to come next. Pleasure drunk blue eyes fluttered open and Kurogane smirked as Fai did as he was told, pushing himself up on shaky arms and leaning forward to press their lips together.

"So bossy."

"Hands and knees." The cop squeezed Fai's hip and nipped back at his lips.

Fai made a show of getting up on his knees before shifting so that he was facing the other way–leaning down so that his forearms where on the bed and his ass was in the air. Tossing a sultry look over his shoulder, he watched Kurogane lick his lips. "–like this?"

Oh yeah. Just like that. That was–

Fucking perfect.

Kurogane ran his hands up the pale skin of Blondies back and growled low in his throat when Fai ground his hips back against the cop's still clothed erection and whined.

"Patience. You know I'll make you feel good." Kurogane brought one hand back down to hold his lover's hips in place and used the other to massage the base of his neck.

"Kuro-tease…" he sighed and Kurogane's only response was to shift his hand from Blondies hip over to cup his ass and squeeze.

Now–Kurogane didn't plan on giving Blondie a full body massage when they were both this sloshed and it was nearing four in the morning–but Fai did not seem to mind one bit.

He got pretty freaking distracted from his intention for sex when he felt just how tightly wound the muscles in Blondie's back were. He still got to feel Blondie up and Fai was mewling and arching into his touch as he worked him over—digging his thumbs into the tight bundles of muscle and occasionally grind his hips against Fai's ass to earn a gasp or moan.

He took his time loosening him up and worked the knots out of his neck, shoulders and back with patience. Fai had ended up easing down to lay on his stomach and Kurogane had taken to straddling his hips and using his weight to really work his lover's tight muscles. The cop eventually moved to massage his glutes, his thighs and calves and Fai's moans turned into appreciative sighs.

Kurogane was smiling softly as he watched him relax into the mattress limply and figured they could get back to business. As soon as he paused in his ministrations, those blue eyes fluttered open to look at him softly.

"You're really in a mood to spoil me, hm?" Fai's voice was soft and matched his smile perfectly. Kurogane watched him for a moment before moving back to let his lover roll back over.

"Shit happens." He shrugged and Fai grinned.

"I'll take it." Fai squirmed over until he was laying on his back and held his arms open in invitation. The cop leaned down, but was not prepared for how sweetly Fai was going to kiss him, a hand tangling in the back of his hair and the other looping around his neck as Fai clung to him.

"Good." the kiss broke and Kurogane pressed his forehead against Blondies and closed his eyes. "You deserve to be spoiled like that."

"Stop being so sweet." Fai chuckled and kissed him again. "Else you're going to make me fall in love."

Kurogane thought he would have minded hearing that a whole hell of a lot more than he actually did. Maybe he had been a dumbass when he wrote Blondie off as batshit.

He was a little dysfunctional, sure, but given his growing fondness for the moron–he obviously didn't really care all that much.

"Would that be so bad?" Kurogane opened his eyes to catch a flash of surprise on Blondie's face and watched him tug his cheeks into a tight grin.

"You don't mean that."

Kurogane sighed.

He did mean it–it was frustrating that he meant it because the rational half of his brain was telling him it was a very bad idea to get emotionally invested in the train wreck that was Fai.

It was a conversation for another day. When they were sober–and when he got to know the moron a little better. It was absolutely insane that after spending 3 evenings and a morning with the idiot, he was having any feelings whatsoever.

Hopefully, sober him wouldn't feel attached to Fai for no reason. Just because Fai had called him when he was having a bad day, almost yacked in his hair, drunkenly snuggled him on his office floor and admitted that he was special… shown a different sexy side of himself when he faced off with that creep with the glasses… dragged him to his parent's house at two in the morning and gotten weirdly clingy and embarrassed…

Fuck.

Now wasn't the time.

So he kissed Fai instead.

Blondie wasn't so easily distracted and pushed slightly against his chest as he turned his head to the other side. "You don't mean that, Kuro-chan. Right?" Blondies voice was low now and he gave the cop a serious look. "That would be just silly now, wouldn't it."

Red flag.

He had done something - or said something - wrong. Fai's sudden mood switch meant it was time to put the brakes on and figure it out.

If he could.

You would think he would start to be on the sobering up side of things after so many hours, but his body was apparently still metabolizing the alcohol and his head was only getting fuzzier.

"What's wrong." Kurogane shifted so that he was laying on his side next to Fai, propping his head up on his palm and reaching to pull him closer.

"Don't be so sweet." Blondie scooted closer to the cop without issue and kissed him. It was slow and desperate and when Fai broke the kiss he frowned. "You don't want me fall for you–and god help you if you're dumb enough to fall for me." Blondie had brought one of his hands up to grip Kurogane's bicep, pressing just hard enough for his nails to leave marks, and pushed him back onto the mattress.

In a surprising show of balance, Fai slung a leg over his hips and settled in his lap. Another kiss - this one rougher - as Blondie dragged his nails down the cop's side, causing him to growl and grind his hips up against Fai's bare ass. "Ok?"

"Why does that freak you out?" Fai's brows furrowed as though he was surprised. If it was because Kurogane had the balls to question the boundary he was trying to set or surprise that Kurogane cared enough to ask at all–he couldn't tell. "I told you–I wouldn't fuck you if I didn't like you."

Fai leaned back in his lap and sighed–tired and frustrated and maybe even a little angry–he balanced back with one hand planted on the cops thigh, and ran the other through his own hair as he ground his hips a bit.

Fuck, did that feel nice.

"You like to fuck me." Fai looked at him though half lidded eyes as though he were disinterested all of a sudden and Kurogane pushed himself up into a sitting position. He grabbed Fai's ass with both hands and forced them chest to chest–snapping his hips up to grind against him again.

"I do." He whispered hotly in Blondies ear and ground their hips together, enjoying the frustrated moan Fai gave almost as much as the friction itself. "But you–" pulling one of his hands away, he brought it back down to slap Fai's ass, causing the smaller man to jump. "–you aren't half bad."

He was turning out to be a better person than Kurogane had assumed when he had first met him–Fai had been careful about the side of himself that he had shown until tonight.

Tonight, he had shown an honest look at the big-hearted idiot he really was and it had been pretty fucking charming.

Just as annoying–but in an endearing way.

"You don't know what you're talking about. You're naive." Kurogane slapped Fai's ass again and Blondie yelped and let out a dark laugh–wrapping his arms around the younger man's shoulders, he chuckled darkly. "You have no idea who the hell I really am, Kuro-baby."

Kurogane had no clue how Fai moved so fast, but he was pushed roughly and fell back against the mattress and had a wonderful view of Blondie sitting in his lap with flushed skin and a devilish smirk on his lips. "You're young yet–I can forgive you if you start behaving."

Kurogane raised an eyebrow and watched as Blondie crawled down his body–kissing as he went, working his way down to the waistband of his pants and unzipped them with his teeth.

"If I don't?" the cop watched Fai struggle with the button for a moment before managing it with the help of both hands–somehow even the cheesy smile and silly giggle as he struggled with it didn't kill the mood–and as soon as he was tugging the fabric down Kurogane's thighs, he was back to his mysterious sexy act.

"Do you really want to find out?" Fai tossed the pants on the floor with the rest of their clothes and licked his lips as his blue eyes scanned over tanned flesh. "I've been tame with Kuro-bold so far… but if you won't listen to your elders… Well, I'll have to teach you a lesson." A wink and Blondie climbed off the side of the bed.

He made a show of getting something out of the bedside table and tossing it onto the bed, then sauntering off towards the large chest of drawers in the corner of the room and opened the top drawer.

Kurogane was not expecting him to flash a pair of handcuffs at him a few moments later. "Last chance to behave."

"You have no right to tell me how I do or don't feel." Kurogane smirked and Fai pursed his lips and shrugged.

"And here I was trying to spare your feelings and warn you–" Blondie made a show of crossing back across the room and climbing up the mattress from the foot of the bed and Kurogane couldn't look away.

Fuck, he was beautiful.

With strength you wouldn't have expected from someone so willowy, Fai snatched his wrists and wrestled them playfully above his head–clicking the cuffs on one hand, looping them around one of the thinner wooden posts and securing the other hand as well. The cop gave an experimental tug and the hold was surprisingly strong.

Fai hummed in amusement as he watched him pull against the restraints and happily retook his seat in Kurogane's lap to watch for a moment. "Tell me you were kidding and I might let you go."

"Didn't your mother teach you not to lie?" Kurogane watched Fai lean forward and as sexy as being handcuffed to the idiot's bed was–he wished he had a hand free to tangle in his hair as he was kissed roughly to drag out the sensation.

"Which one." Fai bit his lip before locking eyes. "The drug attic who abandoned me and my brother to foster care or the bitch who fucked my dad's associate and broke his heart?"

Fuck–not the response he was expecting.

"That explains a lot." Kurogane turned his head to the side and let Fai do as he pleased–biting and sucking down his pulse line while sharp nails dug into his upper arms.

"Take it back, Kuro-chan. I won't ask nicely again." Fai worked his way lower still and wrecked his nails down the cop's side, leaving hot red lines as he went.

"Sorry I brought up your mom?" Kurogane offered and Fai snorted in amusement and sat back to shake his head slowly.

"Not what I meant, you goof–" Fai rolled his hips and Kurogane closed his eyes and sighed. "Now take it back."

It felt way better without the pants. Fuck. When he opened his eyes again, he was greeted with the view of Fai watching him–one arm raised up, hand tangling in his own hair–the other hand flat against the cops abdominal muscles as he swiveled his hips and nearly drove Kurogane mad.

Guess this was payback for the teasing earlier.

"Fuck you, Blondie–." Kurogane gave a wolfish grin at Fai's surprised expression. "–You're beautiful, did you know that?"

He should have known he was in trouble when those big blue eyes narrowed and Fai bit his bottom lip, cheeks flushing darker than before and body suddenly stilling.

Blondie's reaction wasn't a surprise as he reached forward and gripped the cop's face and tilted his chin up. His thumb and index finger pressed into his cheeks with uncomfortable pressure as the skin of his inner cheek dug into his back molars. "On the outside, maybe. Trust me when I tell you that you want nothing to do with the person behind this pretty face."

Fai leaned forward and pressed a chaste kiss against his forehead and Kurogane wasn't sure how to respond. The rational half of his brain was telling him that his was a conversation for another time–the drunk half of his brain wanted to fire back and tell Blondie he was an idiot and that that was not his decision to make.

Kurogane knew it was time to take a step back when his possessive side came out.

"Nothing to say?" Fai said–still gripping his face firmly and looking at him as though he were in the middle of scolding a small child for bad behavior. "I'll keep going till you take it back."

"Do your worst. You don't scare me." Kurogane rolled his hips up against Fai and the blond dropped his hand and shrugged before turning his gaze lower.

"Hm… such an attitude." Fai tutted and pressed his icy palms against the cop's stomach–running them up his chest to graze his collarbones, then back down to settle on his hips when Fai shifted lower. "I see now I've been to relaxed with you… too easy going and open…"

Blondie settled on his knees between Kurogane's legs and leaned down to kiss his stomach sweetly before biting down hard at the juncture of his hip, causing Kurogane to jump and pull against the cuffs–bed frame creaking and chain links jingling. Fai watched him react, looking like the cat that had just eaten the canary.

"I gave you the wrong idea." Blondie's breath puffed out hot against the inside of one of his thighs and it was the cop's turn to shiver.

"What idea is that?" Kurogane closed his eyes and leaned back when he felt Fai's fingers graze up his leg to grip his very needy and, until now, totally forgotten erection.

"That you're anything more than a temporary distraction." Fai ran his hand down, then back up again, thumb swiping over the tip a few times, before Blondie leaned down to lap at it teasingly.

Kurogane had to swallow a few times and tugged against his restraints again. Now–until tonight–that was all Fai had been, too, so he didn't know why he felt so fucking rejected.

Especially considering that Fai had taken the first few inches of his cock into his mouth and was sucking it just right. Somehow, he had gone from being sweet, giggly and very drunk to having his shit together and acting–well fuck, he sure as hell wasn't handing over control like the last two times they had been together.

Blondie was making a show of it–eyes practically glaring, yet lips smiling as he bobbed his head slowly. No more innocent act, proving that he even wore his mask when hot and bothered.

Fuck.

This should not be that arousing–these fucking masks and games were no better than lying… But that look he was giving–showing him exactly why he didn't want to mess with Fai?

That was hot.

Blondie closed his eyes and leaned forward to take him further into his hot mouth and Kurogane hardly kept his hips from jerking up at the sensation. Fai was really good at this–either he knew better or he felt the cop's muscles tense in his attempt to keep still–but he moved his hands up to grip his hips.

He kept at it–making it a show of teasing licks, strategically placed smirks or winks when he caught the cop staring. And then there was his surprising lack of any sort of gag reflex–bringing Kurogane just to the edge of orgasm before he leaned back and gave him another chiding look.

"Do you remember the first night we met? How flustered you got when you realized–"

"Yeah." Kurogane sighed, cutting him off and letting his head fall back as he sucked in a few deep breaths.

Fuck Fai and his games.

He had replayed that night over and over again in his mind.

The way Fai had seemed other-fucking-worldly and instantly commanded Kurogane's attention. The way that he had totally controlled the conversation, teased him into a fucking blushing fool, but not in a way that made him feel uncomfortable.

More intimidated.

After Fai had made his impression, he had turned the reins over and enjoyed being touched and teased after making it clear who truly held all the control.

He remembered not hating it and trying to hate Fai for that–only to see more and more sides of him, too many to hate them all.

He remembered being weirded out that he had liked him so much when there was so much about his personality that was–well, a bad idea–and he was not sure exactly when he changed his mind about Fai.

But he had—at least drunk him had.

"Did you think one good fuck and I suddenly changed myself to become your sweet little lover?" Fai's eyes closed slowly as he leaned in to kiss the base of Kurogane's shaft. Opening them again slowly as he licked up the vein and pressed a teasing kiss to the tip. "–That because you just so happened to pull me over on my way to see my father in the hospital–"

Blondie moved down to kiss one of his thighs, letting his cheek rest against the sensitive skin there while he gathered his thoughts to continue. "–That because you took such good care of me that night, that we snuggled a bit and your dog liked me–"

Fai nipped a little further up his leg and he jerked against his restraints in response. "–That I suddenly need love and protection?" He waited a moment–watching Kurogane lazily and when he received no response, he leaned forward to suck at the head of his cock.

"Dammit, Fai." Kurogane groaned and Fai smirked up at him–looking damn good from this angle.

Fuck.

"Hm–" Fai hummed around his cock obviously amused with himself before pulling back. "Believe me yet?"

"I believe that you're fucking trashed and apparently have commitment issues." Kurogane watched Blondie shake his head slowly as he chuckled.

"No." Fai nipped at his hip bone this time but didn't quite manage to get the cop to jump again. "You're nothing more than my new favorite toy—and I have to warn you—"

He pushed himself into a sitting position and grabbed the bottle he had snagged from the nightstand before the cuffs had come out. "I lose interest in toys surprisingly fast…" Popping the cap, he squeezed a bit of the clear liquid onto his fingers before grinning at the cop.

"Just a good fuck?" Kurogane asked as Fai reached his slicked fingers behind himself and Blondie nodded as he slid the first finger into his tight entrance and made the most delicious sound.

Kurogane didn't buy for one second what Fai was saying—the moron had come to him twice for comfort now and soaked every ounce of affection up like a sponge. If he had commitment issues or if now wasn't the right time, Kurogane could buy it.

Not that, though. Fai might be batty, but he was far from emotionally distant or heartless.

"The very best kind." Blondie continued—keeping Kurogane's focus at the subtle movements as he worked himself open slowly. "But still just a good fuck."

Kurogane wanted to growl as he watched Fai pant above him—adding a second finger and rocking back against his own hand as his eyes fluttered closed. He was putting on one hell of an act with the cop splayed out on the bed in front of him - helpless and seriously wishing he had use of his arms at the moment.

He wanted to grab those hips and toss Fai down on the bed and take over the prep work. Fai looked good pleasuring himself—but he looked otherworldly when Kurogane did it for him.

He wanted to pin the moron and stretch him slowly, he wanted to kiss him and keep him from spouting off more nonsense, but mostly, he wanted to show Fai that he was more than a good fuck.

He wanted to make him feel things that other people couldn't make him feel—Kurogane knew he could do it—Blondie had told him so.

It didn't take long for him to be satisfied with his own preparation and Fai was again reaching for the bottle of lube. This time he squeezed the cool gel directly onto the cop's erection and he apologized as he watched the younger man shudder at the sudden change in temperature while he tossed the bottle to the side again.

"I don't want you to feel bad, though–" Fai frowned for a moment—watching him with an expression that could almost be mistaken as sadness while he crawled back up his body to straddle his hips. "You didn't do anything wrong."

Fai slowly lowered himself down onto the cop and they both moaned as he bottomed out. Fai leaned forward to kiss him sweet and slow, giving his body time to adjust.

Normally, Kurogane would hold him—kiss his cheeks, neck, hair and lips and run his hands up and down his back to help him relax better—but he had to settle for listening to his lovers breathing as those words bounced around in his head.

If he hadn't done anything wrong—Fai was more or less telling him the good ol' It's-not-you-it's-me break up line, which stung awfully.

Maybe this wasn't a lie, though—maybe this was the idiot's drunk way of sparing his feelings? Or maybe Kurogane was reading too far into it because his own mind was slow from the whisky and the lateness of the hour.

Fai shifted his hips up a bit and caused himself to gasp as he straightened out again, settling back down so that he was fully seated in the cop's lap, looking down at him with an expression that looked sad—mournful almost.

"We're just too different, you and I…"

Fuck.

"Not that different." Kurogane might have his arms secured snuggly—but there was nothing stopping him from rolling his hips and causing Fai to close his eyes and moan.

"You don't even know the half of it." Fai leaned back, palms open and pressed flat against Kurogane's thighs for balance as he started to move slowly.

As amazing as that felt—Kurogane couldn't fully enjoy it given the topic of conversation. Was Fai right? Were they that different?

As the night had gone on and gotten increasingly more—well, strange would be a good way to put it—the more relatable Fai had become.

He had gone from some swanky conundrum of masks and lies to this goofy, clingy, and surprisingly human person that the cop had not expected. He had a strangely close relationship with his parents, which Kurogane could relate to hard core—and he gushed about Biggs more than the cop did.

Could the idiot really blame him for finding enough there to want to see the rest?

Fai picked up the rhythm and pretty soon, it was hard to concentrate on his own thoughts. Blondie looked breathtaking up on top of him panting and moaning softly and it chased all rational thoughts away.

Fai didn't seem to have such issues and was watching him carefully. As much as he was enjoying himself riding the cop's cock, he was watching the younger man carefully for his reactions.

Fai ended up leaning in for another kiss, slowing his rhythm to painfully teasing in contrast to the burning, frantically needy kiss, Blondie's tongue lapping at his lower lip and sliding against his own as they fought for the upper hand.

Blondie's hands were gripping his shoulders near desperately and Kurogane again tugged against the handcuffs—wanting to bring his arms down to pull the idiot closer.

When the kiss broke, Fai tucked his face into the crook of his neck and muffled his pleasured sighs and gasps. "—it's probably best that we don't see each other after tonight… I don't want to hurt my Kuro-sweet by leading him on."

Kurogane felt possessive—he didn't want to give this up and that last statement had him seeing red. Fai picked up on the shift in his mood and chuckled darkly—jerking his hips forward with a sharp snap and causing them both to gasp.

"You won't be able to stay away—" The words worked their way up and out Kurogane's throat before he had even processed what he had wanted to say.

Fuck, he hoped that was true—hoped that next time Fai had a bad night, he texted him to get a drinks—even if he didn't want to talk about it.

"What a naughty boy." Fai sighed and pushed up enough to look him in the eyes. "Didn't you hear me? Can you not fuck and listen at the same time?"

Kurogane didn't dignify that with a response—not that it seemed to bother Blondie one bit. He was picking up the rhythm again and it was leaving him near breathless as he wiggled and writhed, his hips seeking his own pleasure.

When Blondie opened his eyes and caught Kurogane staring at him, he brought one of his hands up to tangle in his own hair and dragged the other up his thin chest in a teasing show. "—you better enjoy this while it lasts—'cause this is probably the last time you're gonna get to fuck this fine ass."

That statement there made it considerably less enjoyable—but Fai made up for it by switching up the angle and speed and he was too drunk to argue with him.

He would bring this up tomorrow—and he would enjoy it now. Obviously, Fai was caught up on something he didn't want to talk about it and giving his firm stance against 'talking about it' when it came to anything tonight, Kurogane couldn't say that he was surprised.

Instead of escalating the conversation, the cop sat back and enjoyed the magnificent view of Fai. Blondie was starting to sober up but he was still drunk enough to be lost in his own little world as he put on a stunning show for the younger man.

For as intoxicated as they were, they managed to last pretty long, but Fai brought them both over the edge soon enough. He leaned forward again and buried his face in the crook of Kurogane's neck, this time to catch his breath.

They stayed like that for a while—breathing coming back down to normal and muscles again relaxing. Kurogane didn't stop Blondie when he shifted off to the side and reluctantly crawled to the side of the bed to get to his feet.

He walked quietly to the door where he pulled down a silk robe and slowly slipped it on over his shoulders—tying it loosely before heading out of the room.

Kurogane closed his eyes and focused on the soft sound of the blond moving up the hallway, the sound of the - most likely - bathroom door opening and closing, the white noise of the bathroom fan and the sound of the faucet in the sink running.

By the time Fai padded softly back into the dark room, Kurogane was not far from drifting off to sleep—he didn't startle when Fai sat back on the side of the bed, but his eyes snapped open and he looked at Fai's soft, tired smile.

"We can sleep in a minute, I swear." The harshness was gone from his voice—his tone almost melodic as he spoke. "Did I hurt you?"

Kurogane had to swallow before he could answer—he had been doing a lot more talking tonight than what was usual for him. Drunk him usually wasn't talkative—but Fai had done a hell of a job at drawing conversation out of him tonight.

"Why would you have hurt me?" Kurogane was only slightly confused at the worried expression Blondie was rocking, but it suddenly made sense when Fai's cool fingers traced over the red scratches he had left during his teasing. "Nah—could ask the same for you."

"Nah." Fai parroted back as he pressed something warm and damp against the cop's stomach. Straining his neck, he realized it was a washcloth—and Blondie was taking care to help him get cleaned up.

Of course—he could do it by his damn self if Fai would un-handcuff him—but Blondie seemed pretty content cleaning the cum, lube and sweat from his stomach and groin, fingers grazing over the bite marks and scratches he had left in the heat of the moment.

Kurogane could practically hear the gears turning in his head as he finished cleaning him up—and he let him do as he pleased.

Fai took his sweet time, too. When he deemed the task sufficiently completed, he got back up off the bed and headed back out of the room. He must have killed the light in the bathroom because what little light there had vanished with the click of the switch, but Blondie managed to make it back without issues.

Kurogane closed his eyes again and relaxed when he felt the mattress dip slightly as the blond settled back down on the bed—and he didn't complain when Fai curled up to his side, intertwining their legs and throwing an arm over his abdomen.

The silence of the room was only interrupted by the slow sound of their breathing—he would have assumed the idiot had clunked out, were it not for the fact that Fai was fidgeting still—tracing random patterns with his fingers into the cops chest—pausing occasionally for up to a minute before he started back up again.

"Why are you still awake?" Kurogane sighed after the teasing touches continued for 20 or so minutes.

There was no way he could sleep with someone tickling him like that.

"Sorry… I'm still drunk." Fai chuckled and curled a bit closer, tucking himself to Kurogane's side and sucking down a deep breath as he did so.

"Me too. What else's new?" Kurogane still had to give the idiot credit for not passing out earlier in the night.

"—But I still can't sleep… I'll hold still so Kuro-chan can go to bed, though." Fai hugged him a little tighter and Kurogane tilted his head to rest his cheek against the top of Blondies head.

"Why can't you sleep?"

"Hmm… I don't think I'm ready for tomorrow. I don't want this to end." Fai sighed and Kurogane wanted to roll his eyes.

What the hell?

Hadn't he just gone out of his way to make a point of the whole you-mean-nothing-to-me-and-just-a-boy-toy?

Hadn't they just established that?

Fai was back to fidgeting—this time flexing his ankle so that his foot rubbed back and forth against the sheets. He sighed again and Kurogane planted a kiss on the top of his head.

He felt Blondie smile against his skin. "Ugh… Why does everything have to be so complicated?"

"Does it?" Kurogane's life was pretty simple and he liked to keep it that way. It took work—but usually, simpler was better.

"Yuui used to yell at me for making everything ten times harder than he thought it needed to be." It was Kurogane's turn to snort. Why didn't that surprise him? "I bet he would like you… which—like, is there any bigger 'fuck you' my brain can give me?"

"Who's Yuui?" Kurogane felt Fai tense and Blondie shook his head back and forth slowly.

"My brother." Fai started back with the tickling patterns and Kurogane waited patiently to see if he would continue.

He was not sober enough to help Fai figure any of this shit out tonight—and the weird flip flopping was just starting to confuse him.

"Why do you have to be a police officer, Kuro-sama?" Blondie whispered after an impossibly long silence—his voice came out barely audible, given how he was hiding his face in the cop's neck—but Kurogane caught it.

Why did that, of all things, matter?

"What's that gotta do with anything?" Kurogane kissed the top of Fai's head again and tried to wait patiently for him to gather his thoughts.

Sure, some people took issue with the possible dangers—but Kurogane had never thought his line of work would be a deal breaker in a relationship. Well… possible relationship.

Was that what the hang up was?

"It's complicated… I'm drunk—you're drunk… just do me a favor, ok?" Fai yawned—his hot breath puffing against the cop's skin was oddly relaxing.

"What's that?"

"Tomorrow—ask your boss what he has to say about the bar we were at tonight… I think, things will click for you then, Kuro-naïve."

"You have got to be fucking kidding me right now." Kurogane huffed and Fai pressed a finger to his lips.

"Night, Kuro-cutie." Blondie tapped his fingers against the cop's lips twice before settling back down and Kurogane's eyes twitched.

"At least un-handcu—"

"Shhh. I said Good night, Kuro-chan."

And that was that.

Cranky-ass-Blondie's games or no—Kurogane was still far too drunk for this shit—and he fell asleep not long thereafter. He slept hard, too, only waking when Fai jolted out of bed and slammed the bedroom door open.

The distinct sound of Fai vomiting was not exactly how he wanted to start his day—not when his head was aching and his body felt sluggish and heavy. He just wanted to pee and go back to sleep.

It wasn't until Kurogane made a move to roll into a more comfortable position that he realized that the blond bastard had never un-handcuffed him from the bed.

Perfect.

There were other people up and moving about the house. Kurogane's head pounded with every creek of the floorboard or muffled voice and he was seriously thankful for Fai's black out curtains because he sure as hell didn't want the sunlight pouring in right now.

That small comfort did not last long, however, because the room flooded with light as soon as Blondie opened the door and Kurogane had to squint to get his eyes to focus on Fai.

Oh yeah.

Poor guy had to be regretting the alcohol now.

"How much did I drink last night?" Fai's voice was rough, and he walked back over to the bed before easing himself down onto the side of the mattress.

"Fuck if I know." A lot. Fai had drank as much as he had, and Kurogane had been pretty drunk. "Could you please help? I really gotta piss."

Fai seemed to perk up when he tugged on the restraints and blinked blankly at him a few times before standing and making his way around the bed. "Sorry, Kuro-chan. Do you remember where I put the key?"

"I'm sure it's around here somewhere." Had to be, right?

The events of last night came back to him now that he was looking at Fai riffle around searching for the key and was trying to decide if he wanted to bring up their little chit-chat they had had right before bed—or wait for Fai to do it.

It was hard to follow that train of thought, though, when Fai was getting more and more frantic in his movements and Kurogane was starting to get the feeling he was gonna have to murder the moron if he didn't find that key soon.

Kurogane watched Fai check both of the nightstands, the drawers in both of those nightstands, under the bed, then the top of the dresser, the drawers, the shelves in the closet, the windowsill, all with no luck.

Kurogane really had to pee.

"Fuck." Blondie whispered under his breath and ran a hand through his hair after his second rummage through the top few drawers of the dresser.

"You lost the key, didn't you." Kurogane scrunched his eyes close so he didn't have to look at the idiot's innocent smile.

"I just haven't found it yet. Where could I possibly have put it?" He listened to Fai pad across the room and pull open the bedside drawer again and turned his head to watch.

If it wasn't there the first time, he doubted Fai was going to find it on the second go around.

"Did you take it with you when you cleaned up before bed?" Kurogane sucked in a deep breath and tried not to be mad—it wasn't not like this was on purpose.

"I don't even remember bringing you to my house last night." Fai sighed and covered his face with his hands. "I mean, I was drunk, but this—this is some next level shit even for me."

"Well I didn't see 'em." Kurogane really wished that Blondies dad's hadn't forced so much liquid down them right before bed—it was really not helping the current situation.

"Not that you don't have a right to be pissed—but I swear I'm trying." Fai got down to look under the bed again and Kurogane took another deep breath.

"'m not mad. Just hurry. I really gotta go, Blondie." He felt like a fucking grade schooler trying to hold it till lunch break—and it was losing its novelty.

"Right… Ok—I guess don't go anywhere." Fai tied his robe a little more tightly around himself and pulled the bedroom door open. "I'll uh—see what we can do?"

Kurogane's only response was to quirk his eyebrow and tug at the cuffs, causing them to jangle—where the hell was he gonna go?

He had to give himself credit for not losing his shit on Fai. He was not in the best of moods given the hangover, full bladder and loud wake up call-sure, two out of the three of those things were Blondie's fault-but he didn't do any of it on purpose.

He sure as hell was taking his sweet ass time, though—he had to wonder just what the hell Fai was doing. Did he really keep a spare key to his sex cuffs in the god damn kitchen drawer?

Who handcuffed someone without knowing where the keys were, anyways? And what the hell were they gonna do if they couldn't find them? He was not about to piss his pants while they brainstormed.

Fuck.

This whole situation was ridiculous.

How did this happen to anyone? This only happened in shitty movies.

Fuuuck.

He really had to go to the bathroom.

A few minutes turned into close to 45 minutes and he couldn't take this much longer. When it came to pissing his pants or breaking Fai's headboard, he would rather reimburse him for the fucking bed. 'Sides, it wasn't like these were the same quality as the ones they used at work, right? Chances were, the links would break if he tugged hard enough.

Kurogane would give him 5 more minutes… he could make it five more minutes, right? Fucking Blondie was playing some kind of sick game leaving him tied up like this…

Five minutes came and went and Kurogane was running out of curse words to mutter under his breath—and fucks to give about the damn bed frame.

When time was up, Kurogane shifted slightly, scooting up the bed so that there was more slack between the chains and the headboard. A few deep breaths and the cop tightened his hands into fists and jerked hard.

Instead of the distinct sounds of the chain links popping open as metal gave way, there was the loud crack of the wooden beam snapping.

He would apologize later.

His first line of business was using the fucking bathroom. Thankfully, it wasn't hard to find. Once that was set, the next item on the list was finding Fai and getting these damned cuffs off… or maybe some Aspirin first—his head was killing him and his stomach was woozy.

Once he had finished up in the bathroom, he opened the door and was greeted by a very concerned Fai standing just outside of the door. As soon as he stepped into the hallway, Fai was reaching for his hands and looking over his wrists, brows furrowed and lips in a tight frown as he turned them over in his hands.

"Sorry 'bout your bed, Blondie." Kurogane got a sharp look for that comment and Fai sighed.

"I care more about you than the stupid bed. Are you hurt?" He ran fingers over the angry red marks the cuff had left and Kurogane shrugged.

"I'll be alright." His old man used to tell him his skin was a thick as his head. This was no worse than trying to hold Biggs on the lead when he really wanted something—though, as a rule of thumb, he didn't loop the leash around his wrist, if he could avoid it.

"Everything ok, you two?" A voice from the top of the staircase drew both of their attentions and Kurogane was only slightly mortified to be handcuffed, half naked, and covered in love bites and scratch marks in front of Fai's father.

He was pretty hung over, though, and still out of real fucks to give.

"Everything is ok." Fai answered and yawned as he turned around to face Ashura. "Any luck with bolt cutters?"

"I sent Tai to the store. We should have you free in no time, Kurogane." Fai's dad turned his attention to the cop—looking him over with a small smile on his face.

Well, at least someone thought that this was funny. His own old man was gonna have a fucking field day when he told him this story.

"Does he even know what to look for at the hardware store?" Fai ran a hand through his hair and his father chuckled.

"No. But he is resourceful. I'm sure a sales associate will help him and we can always send him back for a second try." Ashura gave a cheeky smile and Kurogane was starting to see where Fai got some of his odd behaviors from.

"Ok… Well, we're probably going to lay back down for a few more hours." Fai grabbed his hand and tugged lightly to get the cop to follow him back towards the bedroom door.

That sounded freaking fantastic. They had only been down and out for a few hours. Long enough to sober up—not long enough to feel rested.

"You mean the two of you are going to get decent and come downstairs for some Aspirin, hydration, and pancakes?" Blondies dad's tone was overly sweet, and he tilted his head slightly to the left.

Kurogane got the feeling that there wasn't a whole lotta room for question there. So, this was where Fai got his weirdness from—those two were like two peas in a fucking pod when it came to double speak and smiles.

"What if we took the Aspirin, drank one of you special hangover cocktails and went back to bed?" Blondie answered with equal sweetness in his voice and Ashura paused for a moment as if considering it.

"Deal. I'll see you in 10."

Fai pulled Kurogane into the bedroom and closed the door behind them before unceremoniously falling onto the bed and covering his head with one of the pillows. "If they didn't like you so much, I could go back to sleep right now."

"Sorry I didn't make a bad impression." Considering how lit they had been last night, he didn't expect for Blondies dads to like him.

He was actually assuming they were going to hold that against him. All the nonsense this morning should have cemented the bad impression—but hey—not like it was his fault they liked him.

He had pretty much done everything he could to ruin that possibility.

Kurogane sat down on the side of the bed and watched the slow rise and fall of Fai's chest. He didn't seem to have any intention of getting dressed to head downstairs and Kurogane was not about to rush that.

He still wasn't sure how he was going to get his shit on given the fact that he was handcuffed.

"Why aren't you laying down with me? Come here." Fai said after a few minutes—peeking one of his blue eyes out from under the pillow and patting the mattress next to him. "I'm not mentally prepared to go downstairs, yet."

"What the hell is waiting for us down there if you need to mentally prepared curled up in a ball like that?" The cop did as asked, thunked down onto the bed next to Fai and was surprised when Blondie flung an arm around his waist and snuggled up from behind, playing big spoon.

"Sunlight, mostly. Also-I'll warn you-the smoothie looks good but it's the grossest thing you have ever had in your entire life." Fai tightened his grip momentarily and loosened it again. "Humor him, though. Dad likes to take care of people."

"Tch. Like I wouldn't. Did you forget that they basically threatened to murder me and hide the body last night?" Not that he could really blame them, given the circumstances of their meeting.

Fai went suddenly stiff and sighed. "No—I blacked out. I remember right up to before we started drinking and the rest is just flashes."

Kurogane hummed softly in acknowledgement and rolled over so he could face Fai and get a feel for his head space. Not that the idiot's facial expressions usually matched his actual emotions.

So, he didn't remember their little chit-chat, then? The break up sex or any of what came after?

Given just how hung over he was, it seemed he currently lacked the energy to put on his usual mask now that it was just the two of them—he settled instead for wiggling closer and tucked his nose in between Kurogane's neck and the pillow.

"I don't usually bring people to my house…" Fai's words came out seriously muffled, but Kurogane more or less made it out. Both Blondie as well as his parents had told him that last night-not since highschool?

"Well, nothing too crazy happened. We had too many drinks, went down to your office for some privacy and you almost yacked in my hair."

"Oh god... "

"You decided to call it a night and your assistant dropped us off here. We got halfway up the stairs and heard a glass break. Your dad wasn't feeling so hot, so we chilled in the kitchen for a bit while your step dad made tea. We ended up eating something and headed up to bed. So, really, nothing crazy happened." Kurogane leaned his cheek on the top of Blondies head.

He didn't need to go into the rest of it. Obviously, Fai knew they must have had sex, given that he had woken up to the cop handcuffed to the bed—at least he should be making that connection.

"Sorry. I had a really rough day and I can be a handful when I drink." Fai sighed again and Kurogane wasn't surprised to hear it.

Fai was a big enough handful without whisky in the mix.

"It was a fun night. Even if you didn't want to tell me what was going-I'm glad I got to help you unwind." It almost made this whole lost key fiasco worth it.

Next time, he would rather just hang out without the rest of this shit, though.

"Worth the hangover?" Fai chuckled and Kurogane couldn't help the smile that worked its way onto his face.

"I'd say so. But I really want that Aspirin." The smoothie he could do without—but water sounded amazing.

"Fine... " Blondie gave him one more squeeze before rolling back to get up off the bed. Kurogane followed and glared down at the handcuffs.

These little fuckers were getting on his nerves.

"My stepdad should be back soon." Blondie tossed an apologetic smile his way and went over to the closet. "I really am sorry. I looked everywhere I could think."

"It's fine. You didn't lose it on purpose." Kurogane watched as Fai slid the door open to reveal a large walk in closet, stocked floor to ceiling with shelves, racks of clothes, and shoe boxes. Given how dressy Fai usually was—the cop was not surprised he had a wardrobe like this.

Hidden amongst all of the fancy suits, ties, and dress shirts, Fai pulled a hoodie and a pair of pajama pants out and Kurogane watched Blondie dress quickly—sliding out of his robe and leaving it in a heap on the floor.

By the time he was finished, he was bundled up from head to toe—rocking the hood and all. Kurogane didn't think the temperature in the house was uncomfortable one way or the other - and he was still shirtless.

Then again—it's not like the idiot had a lot of meat on his bones to keep him insulated—or maybe he wasn't up for rocking the gaudy love bites.

The cop sure as hell wasn't, but what was he gonna do?

Fai seemed to catch up with his train of thought and looked him over and sighed.

"So… Either you can show off how big and strong you are—or I can make you a blanket cape—but I don't think we can get your arms in a shirt on account of the…" Fai trailed off and gestured vaguely to the cop's wrists with barely concealed amusement.

"On account of the fact that you handcuffed me and lost the keys like an idiot?" Kurogane quirked an eyebrow and Fai grinned for the first time today—that honest, happy smile that he had been flashing last night.

"Yes—but a lovable idiot, right?" Fai closed the distance between them and went up on his tiptoes to give the cop a kiss on the cheek and Kurogane shook his head slowly.

"Something like that." Kurogane kissed Fai's chapped lips and Blondie surprisingly didn't pull away—instead, he wrapped both his arms around the younger man's shoulders and deepened the kiss.

"So, yes to the cape?" Fai rocked back on his heels and tapped the tip of Kurogane's nose.

Not gonna happen.

"I'm good." Hopefully Blondie's stepdad was home soon. It didn't seem like any woman lived here, so who really cared if he didn't wear a shirt? "You know where my phone got off to?"

He hadn't thought to check in before he had clunked out and let his family know he wasn't dead—last night, he had guaranteed he was gonna be home—and he didn't want them to worry.

"I think I saw it down in the kitchen next to mine. Dad plugged them in for us when he got up this morning." Fai paused at the door and he watched Blondie take a deep breath before pulling it open.

They both groaned when they hit the stairs and got flashed with the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Unlike the upper floor which had all the blinds down—every curtain downstairs was thrown open and while it made the house look like it came out of a home and gardens magazine—it made his head pound loudly in protest.

Ashura was waiting for them in the kitchen, watching them cringe as they marched into the room and took up the same seats at the island as the night before. Fai pulled the hood of his sweatshirt forward a bit and suddenly, his outfit choice made sense.

Blondie's dad set a tall glass of suspiciously green liquid in front of each of them and Fai lifted the cup up to sniff it before grimacing. "You really went to town this time, hm?"

"You two look very hungover this morning." Ashura turned back around to face the back counter and busied himself with cleaning.

"What's in it?" Fai took a sip and stuck his tongue out—his expression snapping into a smile when his dad glanced over his shoulder.

"I'll tell you once you've finished it. I suggest that you plug your nose and finish it in one go." Ashura took a cutting board over to the sink and started rinsing it and Fai turned to face him.

He hadn't seen this smile yet—Kurogane did not like this smile one bit.

"Why are you looking at me like that." Kurogane leaned back in his seat as he watched Fai struggle to snap his expression back.

"Want me to plug your nose or hold your cup, since you can't do both since you're… well you're a little tied up at the moment?" To Blondies credit—his voice only quivered at the end. He couldn't contain his laughter long, though, and was soon trying to smother his laughter while clutching the side of his head..

Kurogane missed having hands—but at least Fai was making his headache worse with his fucking teasing.

"I'll just drink it. Can't be that bad." The cop grabbed the glass and made sure not to sniff the smoothie before bringing it to his lips.

Ashura had not been exaggerating.

This shit was nasty.

His pride wouldn't let him do anything but glare at Fai while he finished it off and set the empty glass back on the table.

"And, how was it?" Fai sipped his own smoothie and scrunched his face up—Ashura chuckling from the other side of the kitchen as he watched them.

"Your turn." Was all the cop responded with, and Fai rolled his eyes before finishing his own smoothie.

It was pretty fucking funny that Fai could knock back shots of whisky like they were water—but needed a freaking chaser for some vegetable juice.

"Good god. That is the worst one yet. What did you sneak in there?" Fai pushed the offending glass away from him and leaned back in his stool—wrapping his arms around his midsection as he did so.

Before Ashura had a chance to answer, the distinct sound of the front door opening and closing drew all their attentions and Taishakuten strode into the kitchen, carrying a rather large pair of bolt cutters.

He paused in the doorway and gave Fai and Kurogane a once-over. "How the hell did you get unstuck from the bed?"

"Mr. Muscle here just manhandled the bed." Fai got up off the stool to get the bolt cutters from his stepfather and looked them over. "—I think we can at least cut the chain with these, hm?"

"What does that mean?" Taishakuten looked Kurogane over again before he seemed to catch on. "Impressive. Hopefully, you didn't hurt yourself."

"No, sir." Kurogane just wanted these damn things off so he could put a fucking shirt on.

"Good. Fai, hand those over. I know you like keeping your prisoners, but I think it's time we let him get dressed." Blondie's stepdad accepted the bolt cutters back from Fai and Kurogane swiveled in his seat so he could hold out his hands.

This was fucking ridiculous.

"Hold still. Wouldn't want to accidentally get a finger." Kurogane watched Fai roll his eyes and then shoot a look at his father.

"Dad." Blondies cheeks dusted pink and Kurogane and Tai both turned their attention to Fai and Ashura. "Aapako kuchh pasand hai?"

The cop blinked a few times confused-it wasn't until Ashura responded back in the same type of gibberish that it clicked - they weren't speaking Japanese anymore. "Aapane vaastav mein ek sundar vyakti ko chuna. mujhe aashchary hai ki vah itana majaboot kaise hua?"

"Khair, vah ek pulis adhikaaree hai.." Blondie shrugged and his father chuckled just as Taishakuten cut through one of the chain links.

"Mujhe lagata hai. Yah use kisee bhee kam aakarshak nahin banaata hai. Aap sunishchit karen ki aap usakee dekhabhaal karana chaahate hain?"

Kurogane had no clue what the two of them were talking about and he quickly decided he was better off not knowing, given the looks he got from the two of them.

"Theek hai, bahut sanlagn mat ho. jitana maza mujhe hai, mujhe utana hee sandeh hai ki ham aaj raat ko doharaane ja rahe hain." Fai rolled his eyes at the surprised look he received and quickly turned his attention to the cop. "What about the part on his wrist?"

"I can try, but I don't think this is going to do it." Taishakuten sighed but got to work. "Don't these things have like a universal key or something? Or should I call the fire department to saw these suckers off?"

"Police grades ones do but I don't know about these." Kurogane did not want to go thought that…

He had thick skin and lived his life with the I-don't-give-a-fuck-what-you-think-about-me attitude, but that was… Well he worked with the guys at the fire department pretty closely and that was almost as bad as calling his fucking coworkers to come help him out of this situation.

Taishakuten and Ashura both looked at Fai expectantly and Blondie quirked an eyebrow at them. "Guys. Common now. Of course they're police grade."

Kurogane didn't wanna know. There was no reason a civilian would need them—but he was not about to open that can of worms.

"Then I got a key back home, don't worry about the rest." He had a set on his work belt at home, a set in his car and a set in his locker at work, because you did not want to be the guy who cuffed a suspect and couldn't let them go.

"I probably could have just asked you that…" Fai walked around the island and snatched the two phones that were plugged into the wall next to his dad and handed one over to the cop. "But now you can at least move your arms. You have to work today?" Blondie leaned against the counter and held down the power button on his cell while tucking a strand of hair behind his ear.

"No." Somehow, his owns cell battery hadn't died before it had been plugged in and he unlocked it to see two text messages from his old man and a missed call from his mom.

"Then we are going to go take a nap. Don't bug us unless the house is on fire or someone is bleeding out." Fai tucked his phone in his hoodie pocket before snagging Kurogane's hand and pulling him towards the stairs.

Neither of Fai's parents seemed offended by the sudden exit and Kurogane followed without complaint. He wasn't really into standing around in front of them half naked and his eyes greatly preferred the dimmer light upstairs.

Once they were back in the room, they both crawled quietly back into bed and Fai curled up to his side and watched him check the messages from his old man.

Just want to know if you're still alive kiddo.

"Awe. Did we worry your dad?" Fai kissed his neck and Kurogane shook his head back and forth slowly.

"No. He's just nosey." He was about to type out a quick response when Fai snatched his phone. "Blondie—"

Kurogane's warning tone did not deter Fai and he held the phone above their heads and snapped a quick selfie of them—Kurogane glaring and reaching to take the phone back, and Fai in the foreground smirking like a smug bastard—before sending it off.

You could clearly see the broken handcuff hanging off his wrist and it was obvious that he was not wearing a shirt and in a bed…

While his dad was gonna get a kick outta that—Kurogane was not looking forward to explaining this shit to them.

"Pics or it didn't happen. Right, Kuro-chan?" Blondie handed the phone back, grinning at him happily as the text went through. "Though I feel bad I didn't think to get a picture with you and Biggs both the other night…"

"He won't hold still for shit when you try to get a picture of him." Kurogane ignored the message that pinged back in on his phone and leaned over to set it on the bedside table before leaning back against the pillow and allowing Fai to curl up again.

"You got a good picture of him for me, though. Getting us while we were sleeping was a good idea." Fai fished his own phone back out of his hoodie.

It had finished booting up and the lock screen had a list of notifications a mile long. Of course it was privacy locked—not that he made a habit out of snooping. No sooner had Fai started to type in his pass code as did the screen light up with a call ringing in.

His assistant.

"Sorry. I'll make this quick and we can nap." Blondie sat up and hit accept before pressing the phone to his ear. "Hey."

There was a short pause and Fai wedged the phone between his shoulder and cheek so that he could grab the blanket that had been kicked to the bottom of the bed some time during the night. "Oh I'm not mad. This is all my bad after all, but dad and Tai really like him… Any news on the uh—situation, then?"

Fai listened to the kid talking on the other end for a few minutes—looking more and more stressed as the conversation went on. By the time his assistant had finished with whatever it was he was saying, Fai was chewing on his thumb nail and frowning.

"Ok. Thanks for the update. I'll be in to handle it before 5. Tell Seishiro to fuck off and I'll call him on the way in…. Yes—ok, see you later." Blondie hung up and scrolled through the rest of his notifications before setting the phone aside and snuggling back up.

"You ok?" Kurogane welcomed him with open arms and they retook up their previous position—Blondie tangling their legs together and - oddly enough - interlaced their fingers as well as he hid his nose back in the crook of the cop's neck.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Fai sounded tired—the pervious cheer having disappeared from his voice.

"You looked stressed. Leftover shit from whatever happened last night?" Kurogane ran his hand up Fai's back and cupped the back of his head as he closed his eyes.

"I'm always stressed. I'm fine, though. I got my Kuro-chan here to snuggle."

The cop hummed softly in acknowledgment but didn't comment. Fai sure was one hell of a mind fuck—maybe he should write last night and their conversations off.

Let Blondie do what he wanted to do and not worry about it. He had no idea what the deal was with his current level of affection—but he had a feeling it was too complex for him to figure out with his head pounding like this.

No point in being stressed out over a relationship that didn't exist just because Fai had been—well he had been something else last night—Kurogane wanted to get to know him better but he wouldn't force it.

Kurogane didn't manage to fall back asleep—he had never been able to nap and after the morning adventures, he was high strung.

Fai did, though, and he slept hard.

He didn't as much as twitch until the bedroom door was thrown open. The idiot almost jumped out of his skin at the loud bang of the door hitting the wall—not that the cop could blame him.

He jumped, too—just not as high.

"Why is my sweet nephew sleeping so late in the afternoon?" The woman who was the cause of the commotion practically sang as she strutted into the room.

Her long black hair fell down to her waist and framed her thin face, making her striking eyes stand out as she grinned at them, obviously pleased with the reaction she had in sighted.

As soon as Fai's brain seemed to catch up with his jump reaction, he threw a pillow at the woman and laid back down, pulling the blanket over his head. Kurogane was left blinking at her in confusion and that only seemed to amuse her more.

"My my, Fai. Ashura did not over sell your new policeman boyfriend. Such a handsome face!" The woman cooed and Fai sighed, sat up, pulled the covers up over the cop even though he was still sitting—and the woman chuckled in amusement. "Now—don't be rude. Why don't you introduce us, Fai, sweetie."

"We're napping, go away." was the blonde's short response and Kurogane was seriously wondering how fucking batty his entire family was.

Why was his aunt of all people busting into his fucking room in the middle of the freaking day?

"Oh, we both know that isn't going to happen, darling." The woman apparently felt comfortable enough to sit on the side of the bed and Fai whined—yes, whined—and threw the blankets back down.

"Can I help you with something?"

"Why, it just so happens you can." The woman chimed and patted Fai's leg and he was pretty sure Fai could not roll his eyes any harder, even if he tried. "I called your father this morning because I hadn't heard from you. You left my office in such a rush last night, after all. Do you know how worried I was?"

The bitch pressed the back of her hand to her forehead in a mock fainting motion and Fai looked about as amused as Kurogane felt.

"I handled it. I was going to call you after I met with my team." Blondie leaned back against him, so the cop could no longer see his face—but from his tone, he could imagine the idiot's annoyance well enough.

"Good to hear." The woman's grin cooled into a small smile. "You didn't mention you were seeing someone. Keeping secrets form you dear old auntie, now are we?"

"We'll talk later." Fai's tone was polite but stern and the woman raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow at the blond.

"You bet that cute little face of yours we will. I have dinner reservations for us at 9, tonight. I figured I would stop by and get a peek at your new friend, myself, since you never keep them around for long." She turned those striking red eyes to the cop.

Well—Fai's dad's liked him, but this lady obviously didn't.

"Can I go back to sleep now?" Fai sighed and the woman looked at the clock on the bedside table.

"Your 24 is ticking away. Don't sleep too late, sweetie." And with that, she was gone.

Her heels clicking loudly against the hardwood floor as she made her way downstairs. Fai shot him another apologetic look and they both settled back down—no sooner had their heads hit the pillows than did the alarm on Fai's phone go off—signaling he needed to get up and around for work.

Whatever was in that nasty ass smoothie had helped and Kurogane's head did not pound nearly as bad when he got to his feet his time. He was totally fine going home looking like a bum—no one there he needed to impress—but Fai dragged him into the bathroom for a shower, nonetheless.

Of course-When Fai had suggested the shower-he hadn't realized the idiot wanted to shower together.

Not that he was complaining.

It was surprisingly nice—Blondie locked them in in the bathroom and wordlessly started the shower before slowly stripping back out of his hoodie and pajama pants, raising an eyebrow at the cop.

"Need help?"

"I won't tell you no." Blondie somehow managed to saunter over the short distance between them and slid icy fingers up under the hem of his t-shirt and gave a soft smile as he helped him pull it over his head, then tossed it with his own clothes onto the floor.

The pants got the same treatment and soon enough, Fai was pulling him into the standing shower and closed the glass door. Given how fucking fancy the rest of the house was, he was not at all surprised to see that Fai had a rainfall shower head in his bathroom.

It was about as nice as you would guess—and the extra wide area of the shower head meant that they could both be under the hot water at the same time. What was surprising, was that Fai did not seem interested in getting up to any funny business.

No, Blondie stood just in front of him—leaning back against his chest, he just settled in his loose embrace as they enjoyed the hot water against their skin. They stayed like that for a while—but eventually, Fai reached for the shampoo and they actually got to washing up.

Well, Fai did.

Fai took care to shampoo the cop's hair and lathered up bodywash between his hands before carefully running his palms over his chest, back, stomach, thighs, and legs. Kurogane did the same for him—and Fai really enjoyed getting his hair washed.

Kurogane took extra time to massage his scalp and neck, but eventually, the hot water started to run out and it was time for them to finish getting ready. Toweling dry was also strangely intimate and Fai made sure to do it for him—laughing as he ruffled the towel though Kurogane's short hair before pulling it quickly away and surprising him with a quick kiss.

Kurogane was a little more careful with Fai's hair and planted kisses on his neck and chest after the last of the drops of water had been wiped away. If they had been doing this at his house, they would have Biggs licking water drops off their legs—as cute as that was, he liked being able to hold Fai as he blow dried his hair and styled it.

When they emerged from the bathroom, the rest of Blondie's morning routine went quickly, and Fai was quiet as they headed downstairs—as it had gotten closer to the time for him to go to work, he had gotten noticeably more irritated.

Then again—Kurogane would probably be pretty irritated, too, if he had to drag his hungover ass into work. He fortunately would get to go home and have a lazy afternoon with his dog and parents—probably go snag some dinner before they went back home.

Fai, though—Fai was in for a long ass night dealing with whatever drama was left over from last night—meeting with his employees as well as his crazy ass aunt. They headed out through the garage and Fai snagged a set of keys off the wall while Kurogane got a good look at his stash of fancy ass cars.

The McLearen was parked closest to the door and Fai made a beeline for the driver's side door after hitting the switch for the garage door and hopped in while he waited for the cop to catch up.

The passenger seat was surprisingly roomy and Blondie waited for him to click his seatbelt before throwing that sucker in reverse and heading out their way.

Now, when Fai had insisted that he was a decent driver the other night at dinner—he hadn't really believed him. The ride was smooth and uneventful. If anything, the idiot drove a little too cautiously and it reminded Kurogane of the way his mother drove. That realization was oddly endearing. They didn't talk, but Fai rested a hand on the cop's thigh and they made the drive in comfortable silence.

It was nice.

He was almost disappointed when they pulled up to the front of his apartment. As soon as the car was parked, Fai flashed him a smile and leaned forward for a quick kiss and gave him the softest of smiles.

Kurogane would have called him beautiful if last night, it hadn't freaked the moron out.

"You want me to come help you with the keys? Make sure you can free yourself?" His tone was apologetic and his features tired as he leaned back slightly.

"No. I handcuff and unhandcuff people all day long. That and if you come in, you're gonna get trapped by my old man and his 800 questions." Fai hummed softly and kissed him again—lips lingering a moment as he gathered his thoughts.

"As lovely as that sounds, I need to go to work and put out some fires. Next time, ok?" Fai patted his leg and sat back in his seat.

Kurogane didn't ask if there would be a next time. He wasn't so sure if he wanted to know the answer just yet.

"Next time, I sure as hell better not be stuck in a pair of god damn handcuffs. No more losing keys, moron." Fai and Kurogane both laughed.

Not that today had really been that bad. Slightly mortifying—but it had been worth it to see Blondie joke, smile and tease.

"I really am sorry about that."

"Eh—don't worry about it. You have a nice family and I had fun." Kurogane reached a hand out to cup Fai's cheek. Blondie leaned into his touch and that soft smile was back.

"I've never brought a boy home that they took to so quickly. Not only did they think you were handsome, but they found your personality charming."

"Your aunt did not seem fond of me, at all." Kurogane dropped his hand as Fai shrugged, then shut the car off and shifted in his seat to face the cop better.

"She's actually not my aunt. She was my dad's law partner and still works with my stepdad. She has been my personal attorney for my business affairs and our hiccup last night has her in knots. She was annoyed at me, not you." Fai reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry about her. Dad and Tai were very impressed."

"I hope that gets sorted out, so you aren't so stressed out." Kurogane focused down at their hands.

Their words didn't sound like this was a last goodbye—but the way Fai was soaking up every last drop of contact did. Kurogane would be the first to admit that Fai had been right when he had said they were very different and Kurogane didn't know much about him—but he still didn't want this to be goodbye.

"I always do. Don't worry about me." Fai leaned in to kiss him one more time and Kurogane hardly managed to catch his surprised expression before he had a lapful of Biggs.

Someone—presumably one of his parents—had let the asshole out and he had taken the opportunity to show off his agility training by jumping into the car with a running start. Only instead of doing any sort of suspect take down or officer protection, he chose to attempt to lick Fai to death.

As tough as Kurogane was and as used to his dog's aggressive form of affection as he was, he was not prepared for the force of his dog landing in his lap and it took every ounce of self-control not to reprimand him while the dog's back claws dug into the muscles of his thighs and he tried to climb over into Fai's lap.

Blondie, who didn't spend every day dealing with Biggs' rough treatment, was not bothered by it one bit and was giggling as the shepherd's front paws dug into his shoulders.

"Hi baby boy! I missed you, too!" Fai not only didn't seem bothered by 100lbs of dog muscle power jumping into his expensive ass car and smothering him with affection—he looked tickled fucking pink and it was damn near one of the cutest things Kurogane had ever seen.

His voice went high pitched as he switched into puppy talk mode—wrapping both his arms around the wriggling dog, he gave him a bear hug before leaning back for more kisses.

It was such a nice sight that Kurogane didn't even care that he was currently getting beaten to death with the asshole's tail. Biggs never gave face kisses—he sure as hell never got this excited to see someone—and the excited little wines and happy wiggling was something else.

Fuck.

It took a second for Kurogane to remember that he should never let Biggs get this excited—especially not when he wasn't on a leash—and probably not in a car that cost more than what he spent on rent in a year.

"Sorry, Blondie—he is usually better behaved than this." Kurogane made a move to reach for Biggs' collar to pull him back only to have Fai stop him.

"No, it's ok. Best surprise attack ever, hm, cutie pants?" Blondie cooed at the dog and kissed his snout before rubbing his hands up and down Biggs' sides again. "I always want puppy kisses from this handsome boy."

Well—if it didn't bug Fai—Kurogane could let his momentary lapse of manners slip since it seemed to make both of those idiots happy. Eventually, the initial excitement dwindled and Fai settled for resting his cheek against Biggs' broad chest while he rubbed small circles up and down his back. Biggs panted loudly like he had never had anyone love on him in his life and Kurogane enjoyed the view.

Fai leaned back and hummed softly at Biggs. "What does Biggs-baby think about letting me get my phone out of my pocket?" Fai gave the dog a cheeky smile and another kiss on the snout and Biggs tail wagged a little faster at being directly addressed. "You want to take a picture with me and your handsome daddy?"

Biggs licked Blondie's face and they both took that for a yes. Kurogane helped Fai pull the dog back slightly so he could wedge a hand down, pull his phone out of his suit jacket and hand it over to Kurogane.

As soon as he let go of the dog's collar, Biggs was launching himself back into Fai's lap and after another round of pats, scratches, kisses and giggles, Fai reached around the dog to unlock his phone. "Kuro-chan has longer arms, so he'll take the picture."

The cop had no idea why Fai was telling the dog that—it wasn't as though he would understand him—and Kurogane figured already he would be taking the picture, considering Fai had a massive dog wedged in between him and the steering wheel.

"Biggs. Settle." Kurogane held the phone up and leaned in so he could get them all in the frame and thankfully, the dog did so without complaint.

"Smile!" Fai chimed happily and flashed his own soft smile up at the camera.

His bastard dog—who never held still for fucking photos—followed what he did with his hand and Kurogane got a few good pictures of the three of them smiling, one of Fai attempting to give Kurogane a chaste kiss only to have Biggs stick his snout between them and steal the kiss for himself, then finally one of Kurogane kissing Fai's forehead while Biggs licked his cheek.

He would have probably gotten a few more if Biggs didn't knock the phone out of his hand in an attempt to crawl further into Fai's lap, but by the end of it, they were both laughing and petting his very excited idiot dog and giving him the affection he deserved.

Fai's phone ringing loudly was what broke up the impromptu snuggle fest and he reluctantly retrieved it from where it had fallen on the floor.

"Hm… I don't want to go." Blondie had one arm wrapped around Biggs and the other holding the phone up above the back of his head as he frowned at the screen.

Kurogane could clearly see the contact name and couldn't really blame Fai for not wanting to answer it.

Seishiro had been a dick last night and he doubted that that was an isolated event, given what Fai had told him in the car ride home. He sent the call to voicemail and went to respond with a quick text message—but Biggs was not happy about that.

The dog attempted to nose the phone back out of Fai's hand, which resulted in more lighthearted laughter and snuggles for his naughty ass dog. Biggs was very clearly in paradise at the moment and was not ready to give it up.

"Then don't. Come take a nap with me and the furball." Kurogane saw surprise flash across Blondies face and he shook his head slowly back and forth and frowned.

He hadn't expected him to accept, but spending the rest of the day snuggled up in bed with those two would have been a hell of a way to spend the afternoon.

"Trust me when I say I would if I could… I would much rather hang out with Kuro-chan and his fluffy baby, but we all have to do things we don't want to do." Fai sighed and kissed the dog's snout again quickly. "It sucks but I have to go run my business. Crazy, hm?"

The incessant beating of his tail slowed slightly as Fai continued to frown and Biggs whined softly, his ears flatting as he licked at the blonde's hand.

"I know." Fai gave him another kiss and Biggs whined again. "Oh, come on now, don't break my heart. Those puppy dog eyes are killer." Another whine and Fai looked up at him and pouted.

Kurogane was with the dog on this one, but he still reached for the shepherd mix's collar.

"Say bye, Biggs. We gotta go inside." Kurogane managed to find it and tugged lightly.

Fai gave the dog one more kiss and sat back so the cop could try and pry his partner off of him. "I hate good bye's, too. I've never been any good at them, either." Fai offered as though it might comfort the pooch.

He didn't have a response for that—he still didn't know where he and Fai stood after last night—but he was hoping this wouldn't be a forever goodbye.

Hopefully, in a few days, they could all hang out again.

"Don't be a stranger." He finally offered and Kurogane opened the car door and climbed out first. He had to let go of the collar and he did his damndest not to smile when Biggs tried to crawl under Fai's legs.

He didn't want to encourage this behavior, but dammit. He never got like this.

"C'mon. Heel." Biggs seemed to get the picture and reluctantly hopped out of Fai's car and sat on the pavement of the sidewalk as Kurogane closed the door.

He did not expect for Fai to get out of the car and come around for one more hug. Blondie hugged him long and tight and Kurogane held him there until he leaned back slightly.

Then Fai kissed him and Kurogane didn't give a fuck who was watching them. He kissed him back with everything he was worth and when they finally broke apart, both their cheeks were flushed.

"Did you know I really like you?" Fai's voice came out in a whisper as though he shouldn't be saying this and wanted to keep it hush hush. Blondie kissed him again and pressed their foreheads together. "You make me feel…"

He trailed off and Kurogane gave him time to gather his thoughts.

He really hoped he didn't leave that thought hanging, but he wasn't going to push it.

"…you make me feel like I can be myself." Fai settled on and Kurogane nodded slowly.

Good.

The real Fai was his favorite Fai.

"Yeah, well—when you're being yourself, you're not bad, Blondie." Kurogane took a step back and looked Fai in the eyes for a long moment.

Why did he look so fucking sad?

"I like you, too. You're something else, did you know that?" That sad look snapped into a happy mask and Kurogane wanted to sigh.

He was clamming up just like he had last night.

"I know." Fai stole one last kiss before stepping back. "I know better than you think."

Blondie was looking down at Biggs now and bent down to give him one last hug as well before heading back around the car.

"I'll call you." Kurogane watched him hit the start button. Fai didn't look at him but nodded and took a deep breath.

"See ya, Kuro-chan and Biggs-baby." Fai pulled away without looking back at them and it was like a punch in the fucking gut.

Dammit.

Biggs whined as the car turned out of sight and the cop reached down to scratch behind his ear as they both watched the direction the car had gone. "I know, bud."

"What's that?"

Kurogane didn't need to turn and look to know that it was his old man who had spoken. He had caught him standing in the doorway before they had started the mushy ass goodbye and knew he had been watching the whole thing go down.

"Nothing." Kurogane ran a hand through his hair and after one last look, he turned around to head back to the house.

"Your friend didn't wanna come in?" Kurogane's dad stepped aside to let him into the house and Biggs padded in after him—sticking close to his heel as he headed into the small dining area to grab his work belt off the back of one of the chairs.

"He had work." Kurogane found the key easily enough and snapped it loose before jamming it in the lock of one of the cuffs and popping it open—doing the same with the other hand before tossing the broken cuffs into the trash can and putting the key back into his belt.

His old man watched him silently for a moment—no doubt coming up with his own conclusions. He was good at reading Kurogane—had always been able to tell what was wrong ever since he was a little kid.

No point in denying his poor mood even if he didn't feel like digging into it right now.

"You look rough." He said as Kurogane snagged a bottle of water from the fridge and tossed the cap onto the counter.

He downed the entire bottle before answering. "Hung over."

"You gonna tell me what's really wrong? You just looked like the happiest son of bitch I've ever met a second ago when you were sucking face with your boyfriend—"

"—were not dating." Kurogane didn't mean to snap—he and his dad usually got along pretty fucking well, but for whatever reason, he was irritable.

Why Blondie leaving like that was bugging him so bad was a mystery—but it was—and he wasn't used to feeling like this.

"How come. He's obviously special." His dad blocked his exit from the kitchen and Kurogane leaned against the counter and ran a hand through his hair again.

He was special, all right.

Fuck.

"I don't know." It wasn't a lie—he had no idea why Fai wasn't up for dating—why he thought they were too different. "'s complicated."

"Relationships usually are. Is it you or him that has the hold up?" His dad side stepped around him in the cramped space and got out another bottle of water and held it out to him in a silent order to drink.

"Him."

Fuck him if Fai hadn't been right.

God help him now that he was fucking attached to that flighty bastard. God help Biggs, too—the poor pooch had wandered over to the window and was looking out in the direction that the car had left in as though he might catch Blondie on his way back.

Kurogane was tempted to join him even though he knew there wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that he would really return.

"You love 'em?" His old man gave him a serious look and Kurogane cursed under his breath and sipped the second bottle of water before looking down at his hands.

Did he?

He's never loved anyone before…

Not romantically, at least. He loved his family, sure—but Fai made him feel—fuck.

Fuck.

"I hardly know 'em"

He knew he liked his laugh. His small smiles. Silly side looks. Liked the way he sounded when he first woke up. The way he had a tendency to prance around the room when he was feeling silly… the way he could knock back whisky like it was water but cringed like a little bitch at a green smoothie… the way he could flip a switch and suddenly become the most intimidating person Kurogane had ever met. How Fai turned into a whiny brat around his parents. How he managed to pull the cop out of his shell and actually get him to talk. Fuck, he liked the way he smelled—liked that Fai seemed to be happiest in his arms with his face buried in his neck…

Fuck. Fuck FUCK.

When the fuck did that happen and why the hell hadn't he been paying attention when it had happened?

"That's not what I asked, son. Do you love him?" Kurogane cussed under his breath again but nodded slowly.

Fuck this whole situation to hell and back. He had no right to feel this way.

"Ok." His dad nodded slowly in understanding and gave him a moment to process. "So—why are you giving up?"

"He made it pretty fucking clear that he didn't want me." Those words burned coming off his lips and he drank another few sips of water.

"Didn't look like that to me. What makes you think so?"

"He said so." Kurogane scrubbed at his face and tried not to picture how sorrowful those blue eyes had been when he had told Kurogane they were too different—how they held pain when they said goodbye minutes ago.

Fuck him. Fai had said it, but Kurogane didn't really believe it. If Fai did, he was lying to himself.

His old man waited for him to continue and after another few sips of water he managed to piece together another sentence. "We're too different, he said."

"Different how?"

Fuck if he knew. Blondie hadn't exactly elaborated. Bastard was cryptic as fuck.

"I don't know… I just—look I'll talk later, I just need to process for a bit. Mind if Biggs and I head back home with you and mom to get some training in?"

"Hey—whatever you gotta do, son, you just lemme know." His dad clapped a hand on his shoulder and Kurogane nodded in thanks before they both headed over to the couch.

Hopefully, mom would be back soon and he could work off some of this fucking anger and frustration.

0o0o0

*Waves innocently after abandoning this fic for 4 months*

Hi.

Long time no see right? I did not die and nothing bad happened I just got really really reaaaaaaally distracted. Yes. I got distracted after handcuffing out favorite ninja turned cop to the bed and left him there. For 4 months.

Well—actually 3 months—it took me an entire month to write this behemoth of a chapter. You can all kindly direct your thanks to Malabava because without them listening to my whiny ass complain about how hard this was to write, editing my dyslexic ass mistakes, and providing serious inspiration to keep me going? Well this could not have happened.

Check out there Tumblr! Pay special attention to their amazing Kurogane cosplays as well as their amazing art! They were kind enough to draw out the Selfies that Fai and Kurogane took in the car. Please check them out here because they are absolutely adorable! So much talent!

Now—can we just touch on the fact that this chapter is over 30,000k words? That is CRAZY long but how as I going to split this bad boy up?

I hope you all enjoyed the humor, fluff, and light heartedness of this chapter because… actually no. no spoilers. I hope you enjoyed it though! I don't know what my favorite part was because there is just so much in here that I love. Writing from Kurogane's pov proved pretty difficult this time, even though last time I breezed through it.

I had a lot of help keeping him in character as well as the other characters that don't come as easily to me like Seishiro and Taishakuten. I am seriously looking forward to showing the dynamics between Fai and his employees in the upcoming chapters as well as more mushy nonsense from his dads!

Please be sure to let me know what you think! What part was your favorite and is there anything I could improve upon?

Thank you all and see you soon!