2. Fluster.
T: Taking on board the opinions of reviewers I'm now opening this fic up for a beta! Feel free to e-mail if you're interested!!! Anyways, warnings remain the same and I fear that I still have yet to own anything you see here other than the 'plot'.
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He'd spent hours talking to overly emotive people in tiny little rooms full of yet more emotive people in order to acquire a stupidly large pile of shiny, and all but useless, broachers.
Massaging idly at his temples with his left hand, he uses his right to pull yet another brightly hued and overly laminated, strip of folded paper from the pile. He has chance only to register yet another picture of smiling and suspiciously rosy faces before a perky voice enquires,
"What's all this then?"
The smile on Tsubaki's face tells him that denial is all but useless and, gesturing to the chaotic mess that is currently his desk, he responds,
"I've decided to take Tsuzuki on an Onsen holiday."
"Oh ho so you're finally giving him a proper love confession, are you?"
The phrasing of that enquiry drags forward the hazy memory of the party and, brows drawing together in a frown intended as rebuke for his actions at that time, he responds,
"We've already been over this…"
"You've no want to embarrass yourself any further than you have already." Tsubaki concludes before rolling her eyes and adding, "Honestly, Hisoka, I don't understand why you're embarrassed. You simply allowed your heart to do the talking for once rather than muddling everything up by letting your head interfere."
"Yes and in doing as such I struck your partner and reminded my own of that dark time that we'd both silently never agreed to speak of again."
"Hiji understands why you acted that way and as to the other…" She trails as she senses that, here at least, he shall not be pushed and, picking up a random broacher, states,
"I never pictured you as the sort for this sort of holiday."
"I'm not…not really…"
"Meaning Tsuzuki put the idea in your head." She remarks, the warm spark of emotions that accompanies the statement prompting him to enquire,
"What do you mean by that?"
"Do you really need me to answer that question?"
"Camille…" The useless argument dies on his tongue and feeling now irrationally frustrated, he states simply, "I don't know what to do."
A warm wave of what he faintly recalls as maternal care and then a gentle hand is settling into his hair,
"Would you like us to tag along? Four's a less scary number than two and as Hiji and I are a couple we can make lots of excuses if you want some time alone with Tsu."
"Ah, that sounds like a perfect solution, however…"
"If you're about to bring up the Tatsumi card never fear." She states before informing him, "Hiji and I are currently in-between cases and I've been holding onto a bit of harmless blackmail material that'll smooth over any other little objections he may come up with."
For a long moment he simply stares, speechless, at his dearest friend and then, smiling the smallest of smiles, he enquires,
"You were around tourist industry types when you were alive, right?"
"That's right! Before things got…strange… papa was keen for me to learn everything there was to learn about running a hospitality industry. I'd like to think that, if life had taken a different turn, he would have helped me implement that knowledge and slowly take over the business." There is a smile still on her face and though there is a melancholy there in her emotions it is faded enough that he knows it to be a harmless, nostalgic, sort of grief.
"Could you find me an Onsen resort that'll deliver something perfect for someone like me?"
"You know me, Hisoka, I love a challenge!"
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
He looks from the picturesque scene before him to the young woman stood at his left should and then back again,
"This is…wow…are you certain we can afford this??" The enquiry elicits a gentle huff of aggravation from his partner and the response of,
"Camille brokered a stupidly low rate, she told you that herself while we were on the bus…not that it should matter to you considering you're not at all involved in the financial side of this vacation."
There is the faintest colour on the other's cheek that hints that this overly hard response may be due to embarrassment, though of course it may also be the first warning that the chilled atmosphere is getting to his slight companion. Having no want to risk the physical abuse that would most likely result from testing to see which is truly the cause he simply puts on an oblivious face and states,
"I really want to see what our rooms are like!!"
Smiling sweetly Tsubaki gestures to one of two small, traditionally styled, buildings and says,
"That's where you two are staying and Hiji and I will be next door. The owners have stocked each 'house' with everything we should need while we're here, though they did leave me with a few contact details just in case."
There is something underlying those words, some hidden something that niggles at him well after they've gone they're separate ways and he's enjoying the childish glee of having his own personal hot spring. It finally clicks as he's running his fingers through the water and enjoying the patterns that the ensuing ripples create, the way that Tsubaki had discussed their arrangements had hinted at them being left to their own devices.
Indeed now that he thought about it he recalled the young woman mentioning just such a thing as they were walking the last few meters to the 'resort'.
"The owners actually live in the village we've just left, neither of them is all that healthy, you see and this passage tends to get snowed in at the blink of an eye."
It was stupid, of course, but the knowledge that there would be a third un-associated party somewhere around them had been an odd comfort to him…a sort of a guard against the more base edges of his affection for his partner.
Now…now his mind was filling with images of large, luminescent, green eyes and skin so white it seemed on occasion all but translucent…with the subtle sent of his skin and the fire that caught at him sometimes when the other turned his head just so…
The soft sound of feet reminds him that he is not alone and warns of the risk involved in travelling too far down this particular path. Flushing a little for the guilt of thinking things that were not quite yet appropriate he swiftly gains his feet.
Hisoka steps out into the open air a moment later, his slight form shivering slightly at the change in air temperature,
"It's been a while since we've been somewhere like this." He remarks, the odd note in his voice, as well as the tautening of his body language, as a powerful tell of the direction that his thoughts have taken.
Before he is quite aware he has furled the other into the strongest of hugs, is faced with the solidification of his previous fantasy.
He feels the heat of lust catch at him, feels his fingers tightening, just slightly, on the other's arms and feels the gentle increase of the other's heartbeat.
It would be so very easy right now to simply give into the sensation that was building there in his heart, to allow his lust to dominate him and yet…he had no want for any relationship he had with the other to be anything other than forever, had no want to push for something that would only ever be one sided.
Thus he wills one hand up into the other's hair and, with a playful ruffle of his hair, he states, "I'm going to go see Hiji's place," before leasing his grip and all but running away.
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T: More to come as soon as I am able!!