(Chapter 2 - set right after Task 23 "Dangerous partner")

There were consequences of a life lived mostly outdoors, Eiji mused as he slowly walked down the corridor towards Akashi Satoru's room. One of them was a heightened sense of awareness. Takaoka Eiji had lived as an Ashu hunter most of his life, had spent years traveling the islands, and that kind of life necessitated very acute senses. And just because he now had his own room at SGS headquarters didn't mean he could just turn off those acquired instincts. Therefore, Eiji noticed things; he did not comment on many of them, but that didn't mean they escaped his attention.

Chief's longer looks directed at him was one of those things. Eiji could feel them even when his back was turned to Satoru. He had also taken notice that Satoru had begun to touch him more often; casual clasps on the shoulder, an approving pat on the back, a gentle grasp of his upper arm when they spoke - and what puzzled Eiji most about it all was that he didn't mind any of it. On the contrary; he had actually begun to enjoy those casual contacts and those warm brown eyes gazing at him these past few weeks. What he wasn't able to make sense of, however, was his own reaction to them. Why was it that, when Satoru looked at him or touched him in any way, his heart rate would speed up?

Especially since this did not happen with anyone else on the team.

And then there was the dream from a few nights ago. Even now Eiji still could feel the blush creeping up his cheeks whenever he thought about it, and he had hardly ever blushed before in his life.

There wasn't much about the dream he actually remembered, only fragments of images. But he remembered the colors; red and silver. When he awoke, it was still in the dead of night - and he was hard to the point of pain.

The arousal itself was nothing new to Eiji; he was a man, after all, and even in his still half-asleep state he knew what to do about it. But while he was working on the sorely needed relief, parts of the dream came back to him. A face was materializing from the haze and Eiji's eyes flew open with surprise when he recognized it. He was too far gone, however, to stop his ministrations and so he had come with a powerful spurt - and Satoru's name on his lips.

All this went through Takaoka Eiji's mind, distracting him to a point that he actually walked straight past Chief's room. He doubled back and took a deep breath to clear his head while his hand hovered over the buzzer.

He was here to apologize to Satoru about punching him in the gut on the Boardwalk earlier today. And he hadn't yet figured out how to smoothly work 'By the way, Chief, why is it that there seem to be butterflies having a party in my stomach every time you touch me?' into the conversation. Not to mention that he would bite off his tongue before mentioning the dream.

No, he had to somehow make sense of all this by himself. He just needed more time - and more touches...

Apology first, Takaoka! Analysis of butterflies and wet dreams later.

He squared his shoulders and pressed the buzzer.

When Satoru opened the door, he didn't give the impression that he was still mad at Eiji for the sucker-punch. He did seem surprised to see him, though.

"Eiji."

"Satoru-san, I..." Eiji cleared his throat, chewed on his lower lip, then, still standing in the hallway, abruptly bowed to Akashi. "I want to apologize for what happened on the Boardwalk earlier today. I shouldn't have punched you, that was..."

"Eiji."

The Ashu-hunter looked up at the softly spoken sound of his name to find Satoru regarding him intently. The chief nodded towards the interior of his room.

"Won't you come in."

Eiji straightened and crossed the threshold; despite Satoru's 'open door' offer from a few weeks ago, this was the first time Eiji had actually entered his room.

He took a surreptitious look around. Satoru's room was furnished just like his, but there were noticeably more knick-knacks; artifacts of all kinds covered the desk, dresser and other surfaces, and several prints of treasure maps were pinned to the walls. Eiji gave a small, lopsided grin; Chief's work was definitely his hobby.

Although the room was well-lit, a vanilla-scented candle was burning in a holder on the nightstand next to an open book; a novel, Eiji supposed. Satoru had been reading.

"Sorry if I interrupted anything," he said, nodding towards the book, but Satoru waved it off.

"Don't worry about it. Here, have a seat." He gestured towards the desk chair, but Eiji shook his head and propped his hip onto the side of the desk instead.

As Satoru slid into his desk chair, Eiji said, "Look, I just want to make sure you know that what happened on the Boardwalk...this wasn't against you personally. I would have punched Masumi or Souta just the same." He paused, his face scrunching up. "No, that didn't come out right. I didn't mean to imply that I would have liked to punch them any more than you..."

Satoru chuckled when Eiji paused again, let out a frustrated growl and took a breath. "Wait, let me rephrase that again..."

Apparently deciding to save his teammate before his apology turned even more convoluted, Akashi held up a hand. "I understand, Eiji. This wasn't about me, or any of us. It was about Gai and Rei."

Eiji nodded mutely, relieved that Satoru understood.

"I know how important defeating the Questers is for you," he added, "but you have to remember that you're not alone in this anymore. Destroying them and the Negative is a team effort now."

"Yeah, well, obviously that hasn't happened today."

"Maybe not today, but it will happen eventually. Trust me."

Satoru's conviction was genuine; he obviously wanted to put Eiji at ease, and Eiji felt that surge of warmth towards him again.

The chief leaned forward in his chair and the look he gave Eiji promptly got the damn butterflies going again. "Let's not talk about this anymore. The most important thing is that everything today turned out all right in the end. Souta is safe and sound, and Quester-Robo was destroyed." Satoru gave a seemingly casual shrug. "As far as I'm concerned, that's all that counts."

They talked for a few more minutes about different things while, all the while, Eiji was surreptitiously multi-tasking between trying to ignore the palpitations in his stomach and getting his heartbeat back to normal.

He didn't linger much longer, and by the time they said their goodbyes, Eiji had himself under control again. He didn't think Satoru had noticed his earlier state.

With a carefully blank face, Satoru watched Eiji walk through the doors and didn't let the sigh wedged in his chest escape until the doors had closed behind BoukenSilver. He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

'Takaoka Eiji - if you only knew...'

It had been there since he first met Eiji a few weeks ago; Satoru couldn't deny it. A connection that he had thought was emotional, but he had to admit to himself now that it was also physical; he just hadn't realized it right away.

When he had slapped the Go Go changer onto Eiji's wrist, it had been an instinctive reaction to something he couldn't yet identify back then. He had sensed the competence and inner strength in the Ashu-watcher, and the leader in him had just somehow known that Takaoka Eiji would make a very good addition to the Boukenger team, - but the man in Akashi Satoru had had a reaction he had not felt in a very long time: instant attraction.

Not since Masaki had this happened to him. But his former treasure hunting partner had been straight and hopelessly infatuated with Kyoko, the third member of their team. When those two finally got together, Satoru had smiled and repeatedly assured them how happy he was for them, but inside, a part of him had withered irrevocably. He had promised himself to keep his heart from getting in the way of adventuring from now on, and up till now this resolution had worked out quite well.

Until Eiji had swept into his life and, unintentionally, shattered his emotional restraint as if it were glass.

More than once since then, Akashi Satoru had sat back and done some serious and lengthy introspection on that subject.

Eiji?

Of all guys, why him? Why an aloof, borderline arrogant, socially challenged half-demon?

That alone prompted Satoru to doubt whether he would ever follow up on that attraction. The fact that Takaoka Eiji had spent most of his life hunting demons all over Japan by himself made it pretty safe to assume that the handsome Ashu-watcher was somewhat 'handicapped' in matters of interpersonal relationships; therefore the usual rules of the Game of Courtship couldn't be applied, since Eiji would either totally misinterpret them or completely miss them all.

There was also the problem of leadership; as Chief, he was expected to uphold the harmony within his team, and an unrequited attraction was sure to threaten that harmony at one point. But it was there, firmly lodged in his heart and although he had tried, he'd had about as much success in ignoring this feeling as he had in wishing it away – namely none.

The treasure hunter half of him couldn't help but to keep pondering how to best acquire the object of his newfound attractions; the other half, however, the Boukenger leader, was more than a little hard-pressed to find a way to smother those inopportune feelings for his teammate.

Chagrined, Satoru kept on staring at the now closed door.

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't."

TBC…