Notes starting to get a little warmer in here. Fai's such a flirt. :)
He was still sitting morosely at the bar sometime later, ignoring the jostling of the other patrons and nursing his second drink since Fai had vanished, when Touya bent over and said, "Fai's set is coming up, if you want to get a seat."
"I don't care about it," Kurogane said automatically, but got up and headed over to the stage despite himself. Fuuma was sitting at the front watching another stripper work it for him, but he turned his head when Kurogane approached.
"There you are," he said. "Good, I was worried you were gonna miss it! The double act is coming up, it's what made this place famous. I took Kamui to see it last month."
"How'd that work out for you," Kurogane said, and Fuuma fingered his black eye and grinned as though it was the funniest thing ever. Maybe it was for him, the guy had screwed up priorities.
"You're gonna love it," he said. "They're hot. Perfect twinks, they're exactly your type."
"I'm not gay and even if I was I wouldn't like twinks," Kurogane said, wearily. His bottle of beer felt cool in his hand; he took the seat next to Fuuma when his friend gestured.
"It's alright," Fuuma told him. "Eventually you'll be comfortable with yourself," and Kurogane didn't feel up to much more than a belligerent growl.
The lights were dimming in the club itself and the DJ was letting the music taper down; the strippers currently on stage bent and picked up discarded clothing, accepted the last few bills thrust out to them, and walked out through the back door. Fuuma nudged him and said, "After this, we'll buy you some alone time with one of 'em."
Against his better wishes his thoughts turned to Fai, and he flushed. "As long as it's not the blond one," he said, and wasn't sure why Fuuma started laughing; before he could ask the DJ stopped the music and stood up in his booth.
"Gentlemen," he said. "And drunk lady who won't stop ogling the waiters, welcome to the Sin Bin!"
"Mmm," said Yuuko, eyeing a rather harassed bespectacled waiter with dark hair.
"Original," Kurogane said under his breath.
"This is something of a special night for us," the DJ continued, as the harassed waiter dropped a tray full of empty glasses on the bar and hissed something at Touya, pointing back at Yuuko. "Normally the headline event is limited to weekends, but this week they've come early."
He paused to tap at his computer, and a new song started, a light beat that cycled. "Here they come - we hope you'll enjoy the birds of paradise, gentlemen..."
And Fai walked out from backstage wearing...
Kurogane's mind shut down.
Skin, was his first thought, which was stupid because it was in the name: stripper. Fai was wearing black leather pants that laced up along the sides, exposing the soft pale skin of his legs; they clung to his hips tightly, outlining his ass and the bulge of his cock. His top half was clad in a plain tank top that looked two sizes too small, with strategic rips and cuts across it to show the hard muscle of his chest and the flatness of his stomach; the hem was too high and the line of his pale golden treasure trail was clearly visible between it and his pants. His hair seemed different, more wild and mussed, and he was wearing smoky black eyeliner that served to highlight the blue of his eyes. He casually wrapped an arm around the pole on the left-hand side of the stage and leaned against it, smiling ferally; his gaze flitted across the crowd, and when it met Kurogane's his grin widened.
The music was still going through its gentle introductory pace, and Kurogane swallowed heavily. Without the interference of that - in hindsight, over sized - t-shirt, the muscle of Fai's shoulders and chest were on display; he was pretty solidly built for how skinny he seemed, built like the dancer he claimed to be.
Then Fai entered the stage again from the left, and Kurogane's immediate thought was what the fuck. This version of the blond wore white; long thigh-high white boots and matching leather shorts; his top was white mesh and he wore white gloves that circled his elbows. He moved lightly, past the black-clad Fai, touching him as he walked past - a drag of his fingertips down the black-clad Fai's bicep - and took up a mirroring image against the pole on the other side of the stage.
Two of them what the fuck, Kurogane thought again, and then twins, identical twins and then which one did I speak to?
"I give you Phoenix in black," said the DJ, while the room applauded, "And Starling in white. The Birds of Paradise, everybody!"
The creeping intro looped again, a female voice sounding over it gently, and the twins started moving. They looped their legs around the poles and both of them climbed them in perfect synchronization, and when they got to the tops they fell lightly backward, upside down and holding on with their thighs, legs stretched and toes pointed. The Fai in black - Phoenix, the DJ said - was closest to Kurogane, and Kurogane focused on him as he took hold of the pole and spun around it; he moved like an acrobat, like a gymnast, his body flexing in rolling waves that made it look like the easiest thing in the world.
His hips jerked, thrusting lightly into the air as he moved, and it was the most obscene thing Kurogane had ever seen. Every movement was full of poise and grace, and the crowd responded to it with whistles and shouts as he flowed from one pose to the other, using the pole as it was intended: to show off just how goddamn flexible he really was.
And fuck, it was making Kurogane hard.
They kept this up for the whole three minutes of the song, both of them. Kurogane couldn't decide which one to stare at more. At one point Phoenix winked at him while hanging upside down, but at another the one in white, Starling, grinned at him while twisted around the other pole, holding onto it with just one calf, and they were both so goddamn confident, deliberate in their sexuality. The other patrons seemed to have fallen away somehow. Kurogane felt like no matter what they were both dancing for him which made no sense: they must do this multiple times a week.
As the pounding song slowed they slid down gracefully, landing on their hands and then cartwheeling neatly onto their feet; they came upright facing each other, only slightly out of breath. Sound came back as the crowd applauded, and then the music segued into another song, one with the tempo of a waltz. Phoenix held out a hand and Starling hooked one foot over the other ankle, turning away with lowered eyelashes and letting his hair cover his face, the very image of demure bashfulness.
What followed was as different to the tricks with the poles as the pole dancing had been from the strippers working it when Kurogane came in; the twin in black pursued the twin in white across the stage in a fast-paced dance with swift footwork. He 'caught' Starling halfway through and his twin's act seemed to fall; before Kurogane's very eyes their hands meshed, fingers linking, and Phoenix tugged his twin against his chest. Starling raised one foot impossibly high and wrapped it around a black leather-covered ass as they touched noses, and Kurogane's jaw dropped open. They were twins, surely they wouldn't -
They kissed as they ground their groins together, and the crowd thundered its approval.
After that the rest of the song was lost to a flirtatious dance that owed a lot to a tango; those long white boots flashed as Starling and Phoenix thrust up against each other and separated, moving as a unit, their eyes flashing across the room. Their mouths met a dozen more times, their hips working in time to the music, their footsteps on the stage following the drums.
At one point Starling hooked his ankle around his twin's and his arms around Phoenix's shoulders, and they waltzed backward in sync, Phoenix's hands on his twin's white hips, and then they seemed to move in a way he couldn't follow and Kurogane realized Phoenix had the bottom of Starling's mesh top in his hands; he eased it off without missing a beat of the dance and threw it disdainfully aside, ghosting his fingers up Starling's bare sides, and when the song ended he bent his head and sucked a bruising kiss into Starling's throat. Starling just ran his fingers through Phoenix's hair, and although it felt staged, the look of genuine warmth on his face still startled Kurogane.
The next dance had the black-clad Phoenix as the pursued partner, and he lost his tank-top. Starling deliberately threw it at Kurogane with an enigmatic smirk, which made him wonder whether Starling was Fai. He couldn't see the brazen flirt in these two dancers; their sexuality was a lot more controlled and deliberate and conscious, unlike the natural, casual air with which Fai had hit on him. He watched, rapt, as Phoenix gripped Starling's hips from behind and tugged him back so his ass ground against Phoenix's cock; Starling lolled his head to one side, exposing the line of his neck to Phoenix's curious mouth, and reached behind him to run his fingers lightly through Phoenix's hair. They swayed from side to side together, Starling's long gloves flashing as he ran the backs of his fingers over Phoenix's mouth, Phoenix's lips very red against the pale skin of Starline's throat.
It was dancing and it was screwing live onstage in front of other people, and Kurogane found the whole thing so intoxicating he couldn't even voice it. His cock was stiff in his pants and he covered it with Phoenix's tank top, struggling to breath through his nose. The crowd was noisy around him, but it didn't matter; Phoenix had gone to his knees before Starling and was - was opening up the zipper on his shorts with his teeth, while Starling smirked and rocked his hips.
They played five more songs, and Kurogane couldn't look away and didn't dare touch himself. He wanted both of them, and he knew that was their job and yet. And yet. They kept looking at him; at one point, during a song with a particularly fast tempo, Phoenix had looked right at him and then whispered in Starling's ear before flipping them around; Starling had looked at him too, and smiled in a kind of lazy, smoldering way that made his cock twitch under the fabric of his pants.
That song ended with them kissing, Phoenix pressed back against the pole, Starling holding his hands above his head with one hand, the other pressed across Phoenix's chest, thumbing his nipple; both of their pants gaped open and their hair was wild, lips swollen. They looked debauched. As the last chords faded the applause rose, and they parted; Starling's mouth moved and whatever he said made Phoenix laugh.
They bowed gracefully to the crowd, not even bothering to do up their pants, and then Starling went and started gathering their clothes while Phoenix walked the edges of the stage, collecting the money impatient spectators held toward them. He teased and bantered with the customers, letting them tuck the bills into the waistband of his leather pants, and Kurogane was so occupied staring at him that Starling had to cough to draw his attention. He was standing on the very edge of the stage, and up close he was even more stunning than Kurogane had thought. "Hi," he said lightly. "Can I have my brother's top back, please?"
Kurogane glanced down at the shirt in his lap doing a credible job of hiding his erection and grimaced, reluctantly pulling it away and handing it up to him. Fuuma whistled and nudged him. "Not so straight after all, eh?" he said smugly, and Starling laughed, but not unkindly.
"We don't do private dances very often," he said, as Phoenix reached them. "For you we could maybe make an exception."
"Hey, I'm the birthday boy here," Fuuma said indignantly.
"You're not a new customer though," said Phoenix sweetly, slinging an arm around Starling's waist.
"You can only have one of us," Starling said to Kurogane. "Which one would you rather?"
Kurogane looked between them, at the identical amused looks on their faces, at their identical poses, and down to where they touched each other. Phoenix's pose was familiar. "Him," he said, pointing at the twin in black. "Fai."
Starling whistled low and impressed, and Fai threw his head back and laughed. "You're good," he said, admiringly.
"I'll dance for you if you can remember to keep your hands to yourself this time," Starling - the twin - said to Fuuma, who smirked at him.
"Go downstairs and pay the bouncer, we'll be down in ten or fifteen minutes," Fai said, a teasing grin curling the edges of his mouth, and then he continued his route around the stage collecting money, his hips sashaying as he approached punters.
Kurogane swallowed. His mouth felt very dry. "How much is a private dance?" Kurogane asked, and Starling pointed to the sign hanging behind the bar.
"It's on me," Yuuko said airily, and Kurogane groaned in horror. "Anything to make this poor frustrated virgin less... frustrating."
"I can pay for my own dance!" Kurogane snapped.
"Are you really a virgin?" Starling asked, interestedly, and Kurogane scowled, turning away to hide his blush. "Oh dear. I'll take that as a yes."
"Why Starling?" Kurogane asked, abruptly, and the man raised an eyebrow. "What's your real name?"
The blond tilted his head consideringly and then sighed, sitting down on the edge of the stage; he made a come here gesture with his fingers and Kurogane obliged, careful not to touch him in front of the bouncers. "It's a secret," he whispered into Kurogane's ear, his breath hot against the skin of Kurogane's jaw, and laughed at his expression. "It's true, though," he said. "Never ask a lady her age and never ask a stripper their real name."
"Your brother gave me his," Kurogane said.
"My brother... wants to take you home with us tonight," Starling said, thoughtfully, and something about the us made Kurogane pause. Starling grinned at him. "He's more impulsive than I am. We'll talk about it after you get your dance. I'm going to wash up."
And with that he was on his feet and moving, leaving Kurogane to sink back in his chair and press a hand to his aching erection, trapped still under his jeans. He eyed the mouth of the stairs, and figured he could make it. His condition couldn't be a rare one here.
The bouncer at the foot of the stairs to the private rooms looked up at Kurogane from behind his sunglasses and scowled at him. Fuuma stuck his hands in his pockets and grinned as Kurogane counted out the cash for two dances.
"You get fifteen minutes," said the bouncer. "Look, but don't touch."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Fuuma said with a smirk.
"Which one is Phoenix going to be in?" Kurogane asked, gesturing at the cubicles and unable to keep from sounding anxious, and the bouncer jerked his head at the one on the left. Fuuma clapped him on the shoulder and he shrugged his friends' hand off, embarassed.
The cubicle was sealed off with a glass door, and contained a couch, a pole and an iPod deck. Kurogane took the couch, fidgeting uncomfortably. His jeans felt far too tight for this. He folded his hands in his lap and settled back, waiting nervously.
The blond swanned in perhaps five minutes later, and though he had changed out of all that tight leather his new outfit wasn't much better: a powder blue dog collar around his throat, a matching pleated schoolgirl skirt and a pair of black go-go boots that hugged his calves. His hair had been restyled, although it was still loose and wild, and he had reapplied his eyeliner. When he saw Kurogane's expression he laughed and twirled, the skirt flipping up enough to show a hint of pink buttock.
"Hnn," Kurogane said, trying to remember how to use words.
"I didn't think the police outfit would work for you," Fai said happily.
"The skirt is, uh..."
"Doesn't work for you either? No problem," Fai supplied helpfully, and reached behind his back, evidently undoing the clasp. The skirt slithered down his thighs, revealing a blue g-string, and Kurogane made a pained noise. He had never seen anything like it.
"So," Fai said, putting his hands on either side of Kurogane's legs and leaning toward him. "A little bird told me Kuro-shy was a virgin."
Kurogane's face burned red and Fai laughed delightedly. "It's, uh. Not something I've worried about before," Kurogane said defensively, and Fai's expression was indulgent. "I'm training to be a monk."
"Oh my, really? What a loss to the porn industry," Fai replied, touching Kurogane's chest lightly with the backs of his fingers and pouting. "Does Kuro-pious come from a Buddhist family then?"
"My family owns a shrine," Kurogane said tightly. This close he could smell Fai's sweat, see the light glinting off the thatch of soft golden hairs on his chest. Fai's nipples were light pink and peaked and his breath was hot on Kurogane's face. "What about you?"
"I dance," Fai said with an enigmatic grin, and raised a knee onto the couch next to Kurogane's leg. His body was bent, his neck crooked to bring his face closer to Kurogane's. He lifted his wrist to the light; he was wearing a watch, a cheap piece with a plastic gel strap. He pressed a button, and then grinned. "Your fifteen minutes begin now."
"No music?" Kurogane replied, leaning back into the couch and wedging his hands under his ass.
"What would you like?" Fai asked solemnly, his face changing slightly, the smile curling deliberately upward and those blue eyes narrowing, sultry.
"I don't -" Kurogane started to say, and meant to say know, but Fai interrupted him by swinging his other knee up onto the couch, kneeling over him, and striking a pose, shoulders bowed, one hand played out over his chest, the other looped up and his fingers in his hair. His hips jerked shallowly, and Kurogane realized he was working in time to the faint echoes of the music from above, the driving beat of the show.
Fai moved like his limbs were made of water, his hips working in slow circles, his head weaving from side to side in time to the beat. He ran his hands all over himself, thumbing his own nipples, tracing his collarbone, licking the pads of his first two fingers and tracing a line from his belly button down into the g-string; he was deliberate and through it all he watched Kurogane with half-lowered eyelashes. His long lean torso flexed and twisted as he fondled himself, his shoulders sliding from side to side in lithe continuous movements like a snake's, his heat sufficient that Kurogane could feel him. Kurogane remained pressed back into the couch, still and silent and wide-eyed. He had thought the open sexuality Fai had wielded on stage was intense; that had been nothing compared to this, focused now solely on him.
Fai hadn't been hard while dancing with his brother, but he was getting that way now; he rubbed at himself through the g-string and smirked at Kurogane. "Look at that," he said, and he sounded a little breathless. "This doesn't usually happen."
"Never?" Kurogane asked, and his voice sounded a lot breathless. He couldn't look away from the telltale bulge, and Fai laughed softly.
"It's common practice for us to jerk off before taking the stage," he said sweetly, and Kurogane turned bright pink. Fai seemed to find this charming, judging from his grin. "Kuro-virgin is -"
What exactly he was was lost to a loud crash from the cubicle next to them, and Fai's head turned; his dance slowed and stopped. Fuuma'a voice sounded over the club music, although his words were lost; Kurogane growled and let his head fall back onto the couch.
"I'll be back," Fai said, swinging off him quickly. Kurogane made an indignant noise, and he raised his wrist, showing off his watch, and pressed a dial. "Don't worry, Kuro-stud," he said, with a flash of sharp teeth. "You'll get your fifteen minutes."
"Yeah?" Kurogane said, grinning savagely, something quivering in his belly, and Fai's eyes darkened and he licked his lips.
"Yeah," he said in a rush, and then he was gone, the glass door swinging shut behind him. Fuuma's voice came again. At least something was, Kurogane thought bitterly, pressing a hand to his aching cock. Kamui wasn't the only one who wanted to punch the bastard.
"Kurogane!" Fuuma hollered, sounding like he was being dragged down the corridor. "Looks like we're leaving, get your ass in gear!"
Kurogane hesitated for only a minute before turning his face away from the door. Fuuma would probably bitch at him for it later, but he remembered the unnamed twin's words - my brother wants to take you home - and his cock throbbed desperately inside the imprisonment of his jeans.
For a while he sat there, trying to will the damn thing to subside somewhat, but he didn't think he'd gotten anywhere when the door clicked open and Fai slipped back inside, out of breath; color rode high on his cheekbones. He had, for some reason, put the skirt back on, perhaps to avoid giving patrons upstairs the sight of his g-string before they'd paid for it.
"I'm sorry about him," Kurogane said immediately. Fai give him an odd look.
"You're not going with him?"
"I'd rather - finish what we started," Kurogane said nervously.
"He's being escorted out by my brother," Fai said thoughtfully. "Some of your party we already tossed out. The drunk lady, for instance. I don't think the birthday boy will be coming back here."
"Oh," Kurogane replied uncertainly. "Good. She's a demon witch."
This startled Fai into a laugh, and he came into the room proper. "Where did we leave off?" he said teasingly.
"You were, uh. Here," Kurogane said, gesturing to the area in front of him, and with a raised eyebrow Fai straddled him again, still wearing the skirt. Kurogane scowled at it. "I said no skirt," he added and then paused, something about the way the blond didn't comment on this making him think. He hadn't used any stupid nicknames since returning, either. "You're not Fai," he said slowly, and Starling froze, his hands on the fastening for the skirt. Now Kurogane was looking for it he could see Starling's body language was different from Fai's, more understated and less ridiculous.
"Of course I am," he said.
"No, you're not. Why are you here?"
Starling tilted his head, his eyes narrowing. "How did you work that out?" he asked.
"You're different," Kurogane said. "The skirt was a hint, but I don't - you're less, I don't know. Driven."
"Yuui," said Starling, and Kurogane frowned at him. "My name is Yuui."
He sank down to sit on Kurogane's lap, studying his face intently; his ass was hot and his thighs solid against Kurogane's legs. Kurogane bit his lower lip. "Generally when someone introduces themselves, you give them your name in return," Yuui told him lightly, "Unless your name really is 'the tall handsome one' like Fai claims it is."
"It's Kurogane," Kurogane said, flushing angrily.
Yuui's lips moved, repeating his name a syllable at a time, and then he smiled. "Well," he said. "Since Fai is no doubt busy putting the fear of god into your friend, will I do for the next ten minutes?"
"Thank you, but no," Kurogane replied cautiously, and Yuui raised an eyebrow. "You're... you're not your twin. It'd be, I don't know, weird treating you like Fai, when you're different people."
Yuui leaned back, his face utterly expressionless, and Kurogane added cautiously, "Sorry."
"I think I can see why Fai wants to take you home," Yuui said. "Someone as smart and sexy as you shouldn't stay a virgin forever."
"Uh," Kurogane managed, and Yuui leaned forward and kissed his forehead.
"We don't take customers home. After a while you all tend to blur together. But, um. We'll be done in two hours," he said, his voice a bare whisper. "You... want to stick around and wait for us?"
Kurogane didn't have to think twice before he nodded.