Dark Adaptation

by Hickok

NEW CONTENT ADDED! Bound to the eternal contract, can a life of sin be so easily shed? Muraki has all that he desires, yet so much remains unanswered. What manner of darkness unfurled between the walls of Muraki manor? Muraki x Tsuzuki and Oriya x Watari

24. Watari: Loves Last Surrender Pt: 2

Dark Adaptation

Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei is the property of Yoko Matsushita, not the property of NaPap. And don't think I'm not suing!

Loves Last Surrender – Part Two

Watari

We didn't go to dinner that night. Gushoshin and I worked hard on the case all day and well into the night, only pausing long enough for me to take a shower and wash away the stink the broiling heat had made of me. The yukata I changed into was a perfect fit. I exited the bathroom in a cloud of steam; my complexion somewhat flushed and my hair pulled back in an immaculate braid.

"Just think… I could have a real job!" I sighed, running a hand through my still damp bangs.

Gushoshin flashed me a somewhat disapproving look from behind the glowing screen of the laptop. "Are you sure you were in there long enough? You may have left just a smidgen of hot water and you wouldn't want it to go to waste. What with there only being seven or so other people needing to frequently clean themselves in this establishment."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Oh, would you lighten up Gushoshin? I'm just taking advantage of Mr. Mibu's kind hospitality!"

The Gushoshin scoffed and lowered his head, speaking in a hushed overtone. "I'm under the impression that is not he only aspect of Mr. Mibu that you would care to take advantage of."

"I heard that!" I snapped, sliding my glasses on and wandering over to peruse the information panning across the computer screen. "Did my information on the sigil stand up?"

"It certainly did!" Gushoushin said, bringing up a minimized icon with much enthusiasm. "I checked out the components in correspondence to the demons Eurynomous, Mara, and Balban and at least three portions of the sigil sloppily correspond to these specific demons markings. The forth portion matches the sigil of Cathichas perfectly, so it seems that Kira Tsukiori's information was correct."

I felt a burgeoning sense of satisfaction drill through my body. At long last it felt as though we were getting somewhere. That I was finally figuring this whole sorry puzzle out! A great weight had been lifted from my conscience already. I wasn't alone in this fight anymore. I had the ministry's backing in the form of Kira Tsukiori, Enma's most trusted elite agent. Seki was still alive. She was no doubt the prisoner of that awful man and the Popo Bawa but as long as she was alive, there was still a chance that we could find one another again. There was still a chance that I could redeem myself. And that opportunity was everything to me.

"It's definitely a flawed representation of the signature of Mitkiel. Looks like he has been framed by this Cathichas character after all." I leant over, placing my hands against the curve of my knees and taking a more comprehensive look at the sigil. "There must be a way we can find out where Cathichas is hiding… I had a look this afternoon and none of the recent files panned out. I suggest we put it aside for now and peruse the older files tomorrow."

The Gushoushin stretched his arms out above his head, bringing his fisted hands down to rub his eyes. "Well, I'm wide awake, so I don't mind going through some of the earlier files now."

I glared at him with an understanding smirk set upon my features. I had a good idea what he was getting at with this. "You're just saying that to make me feel guilty about taking a break, aren't you? Why don't you just go ahead and write 'Bad Guardian' on my forehead?"

He chuckled softly, waving a hand back towards me with dissuasive insistence. "I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. Oh and by the way, Mr. Mibu called on you a while you were dallying in the shower." I couldn't help but bite into my lip upon hearing the name. Separating myself from Oriya had been a nightmare to say the least and maintaining that distance was the only thing that would keep my desires from driving me insane. "He wanted to talk to you about something, said to go see him when you were done."

- SC -

And that's how I found myself outside Oriya's door only minutes later. I knocked twice, hesitantly, almost hoping that he wouldn't answer. That he had gone to sleep, was taking a shower, was waxing his chest… just so long as he was doing something that would keep him from adhering to my presence, forcing me into a compromising position between my lust and my duty to the Ministry of-

"Come in."

I resigned myself to the inevitable with a sigh and slid open the door, entering the room as professionally as possible. Oriya was shelving one of his katana's on its' display stand. He was wearing a beautiful black kimono with embroided flowers of red and white along its' exquisite length. It peeked a little wider at the chest than his normal attire and I had to consciously force myself to look at his face, rather than what sat below it. It certainly wasn't strengthening my resolve to separate myself from him. I'm sure that was his intention all along. You sneaky bastard.

"Ah, Mr. Watari –" His voice was cool and smooth, so I wasn't able to tell exactly what mood he was in. He didn't appear to be cross. "I was beginning to think your push towards professionalism would keep you from attending to my presence."

"Eh-heh." I flashed a nervous smile. "G-Gushoushin said you wanted to see me about something?" My face twisted comically. "Oh no! You're unhappy with our investigation process, aren't you? Our results are unsatisfactory! I'm sorry this is taking so long but I do have a tendency to be overly meticulous, as you are most certainly more than aware of by this stage-"

Oriya held up a hand smartly, cutting my babbling excuse making short. "Hey, take it easy, blondie. I didn't call you here to whack you around the legs with a wooden stick."

'Though I might like that.' I thought, then immediately berated myself for thinking that way. This was in no way conducive towards maintaining a professional relationship with this man!

Oh God, how I loathed Enma for this. Don't think he wouldn't be hearing about it in the next Employer satisfaction survey. And that suggestion box would be overflowing, you mark my words!

"Don't go jumping to conclusions." Oriya finished, honoring me with a patient smile. I sighed in relief, pressing my fingers across my chest, registering the excitable fluttering of my heart as I did.

"Well, thank God for that…" I murmured, faintly relieved that Oriya hadn't used the shift in our relationship as an excuse to crack down on me, so to speak. His attitude was as seemingly congenial as ever.

"Actually, I think you've been doing an exemplary job." He confessed, stepping away from the display wall and approaching the center of the room. He gestured for me to step past the doorway and I entered with tentative hesitance, sliding the door shut against my better judgment. It was like placing my signature on the contract of inevitability. I was consigning myself to the predictable conclusion.

I chided myself internally, concentrating on the conversation. I couldn't concern myself with things that may or may not happen. "Really?" I asked, wishing I could think of something to do with my arms. They seemed very obvious to me all of a sudden, hanging limp and loose at my sides. I brought them up and crossed them over my chest, trying not to make it seem like a defensive pose. Hisoka was the master of that one. "You're happy with how the case has been going?"

He nodded slowly and deeply, in that special way only very composed and mature people were able to do. His own arms were tucked into the wide sloping sleeves of his yukata and he didn't look the least bit uncomfortable. "Certainly. You've made remarkable headway. You're beginning to make progress; your investigative skills are second to none. I'm rather impressed by you, Guardian."

I puffed my chest out, feeling quite pleased with myself for all of two seconds. Until Oriya quashed my enthusiasm in one foul swoop.

"I didn't think a blond would even know where to begin! You've certainly proved me wrong."

I felt sweat pop out on my forehead. I wasn't quite sure how to handle this gracefully, so I went the safe route and chose to say nothing, just chuckle a little at my own folly. It was amazing how this man could effectively promote and belittle a person in just the one sentence.

His smile hitched higher, indicating that he meant no harm by his comment. I suppose he felt the need for a peace offering anyway because the next second saw him sweeping over to the nightstand. He swung the glass doors open, revealing a modest but at the same time impressive liquor supply. "I believe a congratulatory drink is in order." He stated, indicating the delicious bouquet with a grandiose sweep of his lean hand. I held up my own in some manner of protest.

"Oh, well that's very generous of you, Mr. Mibu but don't you have some business that needs taking care of, first?" I'm sure it didn't come off as sounding very sincere but as a man moderately fond of indulging in the fey mistress Alcohol, it was near to impossible for me to afford some genuine articulation to my speech when said mistress was dropped squarely in my lap, figuratively nude and lathered up in baby oil.

Oriya laughed, hand already performing a prostate check deep in the dark bowels of the cupboard. "That was the business, blondie." He squinted down along the line of his hand, obviously trying to suss out an appropriate blend. "I would have invited the little birdie around but he didn't look as though he could handle his liquor all that well. And I do hate to waste such fine produce." At long last he withdrew the bottle of his choosing and brought it over for me to inspect. I nearly fell over backwards once I had gotten a good look at the label.

"Calvados Hors D'age?! Oriya, this… this is… a fifteen year old brandy!" I squealed, no doubt with diamonds in my eyes. Here in my hand I was holding a bottle that had started to ferment when Oriya had been a teenager. "Next to shöchu, brandy is my favorite! Well, after beer that is…"

"Ah yes. I assumed you would approve." Oriya said. He sounded awfully smug, as though this was some indication that he could afford me any number of pleasures that I desired, without my ever needing to ask for them.

"Approve?!" I spluttered, gripping the bottle to my chest as though it were my newborn child. "If this were a person I would rent it an apartment and visit it on the side! This stuff's so pure it shows up on some periodic tables!"

"My… who ever would have thought the blondie had such good taste." The samurai mused, running his fingernail down the line of the bottle, and then tilting it back up again to lightly trace the curved corner. The implication wasn't lost on me.

"Well… I picked you, didn't I?" I said softly, ever so shyly. Oriya was silent but I could sense that he was as resentful of Enma's orders as I was. This wasn't his fault and it wasn't mine either. It was just stupid dumb rules and we were the ones paying for it.

If only he hadn't been so easy to adore.

Oriya gently extricated the bottle from my tight grasp and held it up by the neck. The light was very dim in the room and it was hard for me to get a good look at anything but I could see that the bottle had not yet been opened. Fifteen years corked up and stowed away and now… here it was.

"So… care to join me for a drink?" He asked tentatively. I was more than honored and it took a while to think of how best to respond.

"Oriya… this is a fifteen year old brandy! You sure you wanna be wasting it on me?"

He looked annoyed. I could tell because his lip curled up slightly and he tapped my head with the bottle, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to let me know that I was being ungracious.

"You brat. It's not wasted on you and I know you realize that." He brought the bottle back against his body, expression drooping somewhat to indicate rejection. "If you do not wish to be in my company this evening, at least be honest enough to say so. Don't go skirting the issue."

How could he even believe that I felt that way? Didn't he realize how I longed for him? How I wanted him with every fiber of my heart and hormones? (The order of that changed depending on the time of day) I would have happily spent every second of every day with him, if he would let me. But Enma… my job at the Ministry… what was I supposed to do?

"Oriya, that's not it." I groaned, resting my hand about his wrist and distributing a comforting squeeze against the bone. "I'd love to have a drink with you! I just think that you're spoiling me with such a bottle… you should save it for a special occasion!"

"What special occasion could I possibly save it for?" He uttered tartly and I felt an enormous wave of pity course through my body for this beautiful man. As decent and kind as he undoubtedly was, he felt very much alone in the world. He'd said it when we'd first met him, those many months ago in Kyoto, though none of us had cared to understand the depth and true resentment behind those telling words: "A man like me, living in my ghostly world, has no right to interfere with those who are fighting for their lives."

I understood now, all too well. And I was sick with it. Oriya… he felt dead. In his mind, his existence was void and pointless, even in comparison to those of us that were truly departed.

Oriya felt deader than the dead themselves. God, what a thoughtless prat I was! Worrying about my job and reputation when here this man was clinging to the hope that our relationship could be salvaged, because for whatever the reason, I made him feel alive.

I looked up into his face; forcing the pity not to show and I brought him a smile as purely loving as I possibly could. It had a visible effect. I felt the character of his face change almost instantaneously. There was new warmth and color and I knew that he was grateful to me.

"You're right. We have plenty to celebrate right now." I clenched his free hand between both mine and gave it a tender squeeze. "We know what the killer is. We know that Seki is alive and we can assume for the time being that she is safe. We have air in our lungs and brain cells to destroy. We're healthy, happy and young. Well… you're young at least. I can drink to that."

Oriya smirked. He seemed very pleased. "Very well. Just make sure that door's locked. I wouldn't want any of my girls to see me handing this out at liberty. They'd get jealous."

I slid the lock into place on the door as Oriya placed a series of cushions upon the floor, all the better to preserve the sanctity of our butt muscles. I sidled up to join him, watching with curious interest as he placed two tulip shaped snifter glasses down upon the floor and proceeded to empty an appropriate amount into each. My father had been quite the brandy connoisseur and when I'd been old enough to legally drink, he would let me join him and my brothers down in the den to enjoy a glass or two, have a smoke and tell dirty jokes. My father… I hadn't thought of him in some time. The scent of the brandy brought his face to the forefront of my memory. He had been entirely Japanese and he had gone to England whilst he was a young man to live and work for some years. That's where he had met my mother and like most great romance stories they fell in love and whipped their butts off to the Casino Chapel. Some time after their marriage, they'd traveled back to Japan to live where they popped out us kids. He'd been a big man my father. He'd had dark, mussed hair, weathered features and a great smile. He'd worn glasses, though the frames were considerably smaller than mine and he always seemed to have the butt of a stogie between his lips. He'd loved cigars. Heck, I think he fancied himself a bit of an old fashioned English detective after living there for a number of years.

God, I missed that man. He'd been a wonderful father and a strong, valiant protector. He'd been good to me. Even if he had taught me how to swear and smoke, something my mother had never settled for.

Oriya broke through my reminiscing by prodding the brandy glass towards my blank expression. "There you go."

"Thanking you!" I declared, taking the glass and holding it beneath my nose in order to inhale the deep, spicy scent of the brandy. Damn that brought back the memories… "Don't suppose you have anything I could smoke around here, do you?"

Oriya, in the midst of pouring his own cup, raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't have any cigarettes of your own left?"

I shook my head, holding the stem of the brandy glass between my fingers the way you're supposed to. It looked so sophisticated.

"Nah… I dropped them all in a puddle last night, remember? Sorry to be a bother but… whenever I drink brandy, I just sorta gotta have a smoke with it. My Papa and I… ya understand?"

Oriya mused on this for a bit. I could recall that he hadn't been exactly shouting his encouragement for me to smoke but then again, I think he could understand my feelings behind it. He climbed to his feet, abandoning his own serve for the time being.

"I don't have anything like cigars or cigarette's at the moment. But if you like, we could share my pipe. Would that be alright?"

Sharing Oriya's pipe… the idea was delightfully provocative as well as quite an honor. I nodded my head and as some means of gratitude, took it upon myself to fill his glass as Oriya unearthed his ornate pipe.

"I know how things like this can be quite precious. This was my fathers pipe and he gave it to me as a gift, just after I had my accident." Oriya returned to sit beside me, retrieving a weathered pouch from the depths of his kimono pocket. He flipped it open and delved his fingers into the unfamiliar weed within. It seemed he caught my expression because the next moment he was chuckling to himself. "Do not concern yourself. It is not marijuana. I can't afford to indulge in such a weed; it would dull my senses considerably. This here is an aromatic herb, cultivated from the village of Asamimura. There is a relaxant property to it that helps soothe the mind and body but I can assure you, it is not of the illegal persuasion."

I shrugged light heartedly, watching with astute interest as Oriya filled the pipe. "I smoked pot once or twice when I was a teenager. Got no use for it now, that's for damn sure." He lit the pipe with a match and puffed a few times to allow the weed to catch. He inhaled deeply and the smoke filled his lungs and I was envious of it.

His eyes met mine. "I could kiss you right now and send this fog deep into your body."

I shivered, wishing he wouldn't just tease me with the words, though they did make the prospect of his actions so much more delicious.

Oriya lifted his glass and held it out me. The smoke passed out from between his lips and lifted into the night air, disappearing up into the rafters. I was jealous. That smoke had been inside of him. It had touched a part of him that would be beyond me forever.

I was jealous of smoke. This was a good place to get to.

"Here's to a successful resolution." He said, prompting me to lift my own glass. I raised both it and my smile in the one fell swoop.

"And a merry afterlife!" I concluded, clinking glasses with Oriya and then downing my drink in the one go. The brandy tasted full and dense upon my tongue, the flavor supple and full of memories. It warmed my chest as it slid down through my body, making my eyes water a little as the aftertaste bit back with a vengeance, flaring at the sides of my tongue aggressively. Oriya outwardly blanched at my confident show.

"I… uh… really don't think you should drink it that quickly Mr. Watari."

I held the glass back out to him and gave it a little shake to hurry him along. He'd offered me the brandy, now he would have to face the consequences. "Oh, don't worry about me, sir! I have a very high alcohol tolerance!" I hiccupped in order to add weight to my argument.

Oriya shrugged and refilled my glass. He was a little more generous this time around I noticed. "It's your hangover." He muttered, taking a sip of his own drink and then passing the pipe on to me. I took it in my left hand and brought the ornate setting to my lips, allowing my tongue to rest on the very place that Oriya's would have perched only moments before. I drew back carefully, pulling the smoke into my lungs and grimacing slightly at the unfamiliar taste that came with it. It took a moment but it became pleasant to me, possibly because it was the very same flavor that lingered in Oriya's mouth whenever we shared a kiss. Sometimes this, other times Tobacco. It was divine to be made a part of it.

I blew out the smoke and took a sip of my drink. I was beginning to feel very warm and light inside. "Ah… I love brandy. And shöchu too. Takes me back to my days in college. The first time I ever drank shöchu was when I was eighteen, at a campus party. I met Tamiko that night." I sighed deeply, passing the pipe back over to Oriya. Our fingers met along the line of the shaft and it sent an entirely pleasurable tingle up my spine. I felt like a teenager again. A teenager whose parents said I wasn't allowed to have a girl in my room while they were out but here I was doing it anyway. Take that Enma! "God… that really was a long time ago… I was so young. I thought I was going to be with her forever. I thought I was gonna live forever."

Oriya set the pipe between his lips and held it steady with his fingers. "It's funny, isn't it? The way some things relate back to a particular time in your life. The first time I smoked a cigarette was when I was thirteen. It reminds me of my father. He smoked 'With Class', an expensive brand. I was seventeen the first time I tried a pipe. That reminds me of the first night I spent with a girl."

And somehow the topic came back to sex, subtle though the implication was. I set my drink down, swirling my finger around the top of the glass. I was curious, always curious and I couldn't dissuade myself from wanting to know.

"If you don't mind me asking… how old were you when you realized?"

"Realized what?" Oriya said, drawing back upon the pipe and exhaling with svelte ease. This man could make disco look sophisticated.

"That you were bisexual?" I questioned, wondering if this were perhaps just a little too personal even as it hurled itself out from my lips. But Oriya didn't even look surprised that I had asked. He passed the pipe back to me, expression unchanging.

"Around the same time, actually. There was this teacher… he taught English literature."

I almost snorted smoke out of my nose."… You slept with a teacher?"

He laughed, waving a hand at me whilst swallowing the brandy he'd just slipped between his lips. "I didn't sleep with him! I was just attracted to him. Strongly enough to make me come to the conclusion that perhaps my door swung both ways. To be honest… I kind of liked it." He smiled in an almost mischievous way, swirling the liquid of his drink about in a contemplative arc. "To admit to myself that men were attractive to me… felt kind of sexy. Dangerous even."

"That's sort of how I felt too. Obviously." We both giggled like schoolgirls and that's when I knew for sure that the brandy was taking effect. What did I do, armed with this knowledge? Absolutely nothing. Well, nothing that I should have done, anyway. "So, do you want to honestly tell me why you specifically requested that I wasn't assigned to your case?"

"Still beating that dead horse, are we?" Oriya huffed, whipping the pipe out from between my lips and setting it back between his own.

"Yes I am! I was offended. It hurt my feelings." I took a deep sip, thinking as deeply on that issue as a marginally tipsy person could think. I barely registered the fact that Oriya was refilling my glass. "I can't recall ever having done anything to deserve that kind of disrespect from you. Unless…" I gasped aloud as though making a tremendous revelation. "I get it now! Oh my god, it was so blatantly obvious!"

"Please, share your thoughts." Oriya offered, sounding quite bored. I shot my finger into his face.

"You didn't want me because I'm a blond! You thought I was some ditzy, dumb, no hoper bimbo who couldn't tell a Macintosh from a microwave!"

What a conclusion. Whadda go Yutaka, you nailed that one.

Oriya was just as sound in his evaluation of my foregone deduction. "Wow, Mr. Watari, I may have underestimated you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. You're acting more like a bimbo than I would have ever expected." He finalized, tipping his head back in order to drain the final dregs of his drink. I pouted at him through the base of his glass.

"Mibu, you are so mean."

The samurai chuckled, splashing a second generous helping into the now empty vessel. "No, I'm just teasing. I've never had any problems with you."

"Then why?" Still curious despite everything.

He gestured about with his glass as though it were a classroom pointer rather than a rare and perfectly aged beverage. "As I said before, your appearance just inspires all the wrong attention."

"Oh, I see." I said, stealing the pipe back off of him and taking another puff. "You were worried the girls wouldn't be able to work because they would be all over me." Seemed a fairly reasonably conclusion to draw in my opinion.

Oriya set his finger on the center of my forehead and used it to push me onto my back. I landed with a hard, overzealous thud on the floor, the pipe still clenched firmly between my teeth and brandy glass somehow remaining upright. How like me to not waste a drop.

"Dream on, four-eyes." Oriya muttered, leaning down over me in order to slide the pipe free and re-set it within the sanctions of his own full lips. "My girls don't attend to your presence that way and you know it. There's more of a chance that I would have been the one distracted."

"You?" I asked, though not as ignorant of his implications as I pretended to be.

"I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I have an affinity for blondes." He murmured, winking beautifully at me.

I blushed beyond measure, knowing full well that I couldn't pretend not to notice his behavior towards me anymore. "Mr. Mibu, you shouldn't talk that way. Our arrangement being as it is now-"

He held up a hand, indicating that it wasn't necessary for me to say anything else. "Forgive me. I suppose my advancements have been inappropriate. It's just… the first time I met you, you struck me as a fun sort of guy, even with the geeky disposition and bottle-cap glasses."

"They're not that thick…" I said, touching the glasses with sudden insecurity.

"You should get contacts." He suggested, resettling himself atop one of the cushions and washing down the smoke from his pipe with a deep swill from his brandy glass. "You have such pretty eyes and the glasses only serve to draw attention away from them."

"You really think I have pretty eyes?" I was quite chuffed, to say the least. That wasn't something I got to hear very often.

"They're warm and… lively." He affirmed, smiling at me. I returned that warm gesture, feeling my face also flushing slightly at his words. Was there no end to this mans indisputable charm? Gosh, I just wanted to eat him!

"Thankyou." My voice was very soft and shy. I fancied it as almost an invitation that I was susceptible to anything right at that moment. But Oriya apparently didn't notice the gap in my outer wall because he returned to his drink and dropped a stunner on me instead.

" … You have one hell of a scary smile though."

I chuckled in good humor, lifting my glass up as though to say 'What can you do?' "It's a gift." I stated, bringing the drink back down to chug merrily upon it. I finished my third and Oriya refilled both our glasses, this time almost halfway. We was having us a little party. Wonder what the college kids were up to?

Oriya had indulged my curiosity; now it was his turn. "So… what inspired you to so persistently pursue this case, if not for my charming company alone?" I froze up a little, not liking the turn this conversation had suddenly taken. "I noticed that expression on your face when Ichibana said Seki was still alive. You gonna tell me what's going on?"

I smiled wearily and was silent for some time. "…It's a long story."

"I'm all ears." Oriya was not one to be evaded so easily but that's exactly the direction I forced him to take.

"It's a long and personal story. I'd need a few more drinks before I'd be ready to spill it."

"Fair enough." He said and we both took hearty gulps of our brandy.

And hour passed and we chatted about other things.

"You don't say?" I asked, taking the bottle off of Oriya and slugging back the brandy. We'd abandoned the glasses some time back, Oriya making use of them for shöchu instead. I'd lost count of how many drinks we'd gone through exactly but it was just enough to make my eyesight that little bit blurrier than it normally was. My mood was charming to say the least.

"You'd be surprised." He said, reclining against the side of the bed and inhaling deeply on his pipe. "I've found aromatic tea often makes my hair more shiny and manageable."

"I'll certainly be looking into it." I stated, running my fingers over the crown of my head. "I have such horrendous problems with split ends."

Oriya looked me over briefly and then shrugged, prying the bottle out of my hand. "It looks fine to me." He chugged it back like a sailor.

I shook a finger in his face. "No, trust me. They're there. Once, I spent the night with this guy I had been seeing for some weeks. We were at his place, getting a little cozy and the minute I took my clothes off, the guy flat out told me he didn't want to go any further because my hair felt like flax and I had… chunky thighs." It was embarrassing to think about that night, even now. Made me wanna get well and stewed.

Oriya snorted disdainfully, passing me the pipe. "I think that guy needed contacts."

I took the pipe off of him and drew back the smoke. It filled my lungs with a harsh, grating warmth and just for a change of pace, I exhaled out through my nose, causing my sinuses to burn as a result. The brandy bottle only held a few dregs and Oriya offered it to me but I graciously refused, allowing him to drain what was left. "Ever since then I've had this paranoid obsession about my hair and legs."

"Well the guy was probably nervous about being with another man." Oriya offered, licking the last few drops of liquid from the rim of the bottle. The sexual implications of this act sent a shiver directly down through my loins. "I wouldn't take it personally. Trust me. If anything you could stand to gain a pound or two."

I waved my hand amiably. "You're just being nice. Anyone who has seen me naked can attest to that. Most people are ready to exchange goodbyes the moment I remove my clothing."

"You willing to put that to the test?" He asked, quick as a whip. His voice the very definition of seductive.

I was just tipsy enough by that stage of the conversation that I hardly felt embarrassed by his comments anymore. Instead, I laughed perhaps a little louder than was appropriate in the instance, rolling back on my butt and clutching at my ankles in order to keep from tipping over completely.

"Another drink and I might just take you up on that!" I flouted loutishly, hardly surprised to see Oriya start tipping the shöchu into my long empty glass with overzealous enthusiasm. "No! No!" I laughed, battering his arm away but slinging the drink back, so as not to appear discourteous. "We can't go there, not now! Getting naked with me would only ruin any potential you and I have for a wonderful friendship." It would also rudely awaken Oriya to the harsh reality of how I actually looked naked and I honestly preferred to keep him guessing there. With the right clothing I could actually fool people into thinking that I looked a shiny dollar in the buff, rather than a rusty quarter.

Oriya smiled from behind his trademark wall of smoke. "I must say… it's quite nice having a conversation with someone so easy going. Not having to concern myself with delicate subjects…"

And so he spoke too soon. Our conversation continued on in lighthearted good banter, until we happened to stumble across a more sensitive topic. Before I knew it, I was lying face down on Oriya's bed, crying and carrying on a treat.

"I'm a useless scientist," Was the first coherent blubber out of my mouth. "I can't invent anything good or do anything right, Tatsumi always gets mad at me for wasting his money, no one loves me as much as they love Tsuzuki, I let him get possessed because I was completely incompetent, I'll never complete my sex-change potion, I'm always gonna be a tag-along and I draw like a pre-schooler!" I wailed in reverence to what was surely a tragedy befitting of the bard in Hamlet.

I glimpsed Oriya's incredulous expression out from the corner of my puffy eyes. "If I'd known you'd react this way, I wouldn't have asked you about your job." He muttered, sloshing a liberal dollop of shöchu back into the depths of his throat. I sat up dramatically, woozing a little from the sudden head spin that assaulted my brain. I'd had too much to drink and now I was paying for it good.

"I'm never gonna make a good guardian!" I ejaculated with sudden, profound emotion. I'd never been jealous of any other Guardians success before, especially not Tsuzuki's. And I'd always fancied myself to be quite an asset to the Summons Section, if not in work ethic then at least in humor value. I had no idea where this random outburst had come from! I was a little frightened of myself!

Oriya extinguished his pipe and tucked it away. I could see from the way his lip was twitching, that he was attempting not to laugh at me. "Aww don't say that…" He at least managed to sound nominally sincere.

"No it's true!" I insisted expressively, jabbing my finger about at god only knows what. "The world's full of winners and losers and I'm a loser! A big fat one with thunder thighs and split ends!" And off I went again.

"Would I have invited you to join me this evening if I thought you were a loser? No." Oriya spoke to me as a parent might address a child that was long overdue for a nap. Goodness knows, I could have probably used one right about then. Probably explains everything.

His words didn't provide a great deal of comfort and I just continued to snuffle pointlessly, face aimed down towards the bed and shoulders quivering a little as evidence of my patheticness.

Oriya took a moments consideration. "I didn't take you for an emotional drunk…" He admitted after observing me in action.

"I'm not!" I snuffled, waving a hand at my face as a means of combating my outburst. "I don't know what this is! I didn't even cry when I found out I was dead! I guess it's just been a long couple of weeks." I felt that one more drink was hardly likely to make the difference, so I reached out for the neck of the shöchu bottle but Oriya beat me to it. He pushed it clear and climbed to his feet, setting himself down on the bed beside me. He pulled me close just as easily as he had moved that bottle across the floor. Effortless, though I was hardly a lightweight.

"Try and calm down." He soothed, bringing his strong arm about my shoulder. Well that sure as Hell wasn't helping things, son! "Take a few deep breaths."

"I'm sorry!" I bawled, burying my face in my hands. If I hadn't been tipsy, no doubt this unlawful display would have left me rightly embarrassed for myself. This was beyond dismal! Why the Hell was I carrying on like this?

"It's all right." He assured me, one of his worn hands running donuts down toward the lower portion of my back. Strangely enough it brought me to mind of an ex-boyfriend who'd enforced the same tactic when comforting me, just as a means of working his way down to my butt. He had liked firm backsides. This guy stuck in my head the most, because he had briefly dated Tsuzuki after breaking up with me. I guess us Guardians of Death like to just keep it in the office. "The investigation must be really upsetting you."

"It's not just that." I said, taking off my glasses and rubbing the heel of my hand into my left eye. The mascara I had used that morning was starting to irritate me, on account of the no good crying. "But… you don't wanna listen to my silly problems."

Oriya grunted in that cranky way that never failed to remind me of an old man. I'm sure he would grow up to be the spitting image of Mr. Konoe, no bones about it. They both possessed that same gruff yet compassionate demeanor. "I bet they're not silly at all." He gave my body an encouraging rock to the side. "I'd be happy to lend an ear. Go on, try me."

This wasn't something I was eager to discuss and I wasn't sure how to best indicate this, without appearing rude. I brought myself unsteadily to my feet, putting my glasses back on and racking my brain for a plausible excuse to annul this possible turn in our conversation.

"I should head off to bed…" I said, rubbing my forehead gingerly with my fingers. It was becoming increasingly difficult to focus. "I have a lot of work to do tomorrow…" I felt, rather than saw Oriya stand up behind me. He rested his hands comfortingly on my shoulders and I shrugged them free as gently and graciously as I possibly could. I would only grow weaker in the light of his softness and I wanted to try and be strong now. "Please don't. …You don't have to pretend to care about me. Why, you barely even know who I am and what I have done."

Oriya moved me around to face him and I was momentarily brought to my complete senses by the candid expression worn upon his handsome features. The entire Noh façade had been entirely ripped clear and here he stood before me, the honest sincerity of his core emotions presented to me like open wounds in the hot sun. It made me feel vulnerable and entirely susceptible.

"Why are you closing yourself off to me?" He asked softly, his eyebrows furrowed down in such a true sense of sadness. So open and sore that it made my heart ache by my mere presence before it. "Why won't you talk about what it is that troubles you so? Must you face everything alone?"

I never liked being a hard bastard but I made myself be tough with him. I couldn't let myself be won over so easily, not when there was so much at stake! Besides, kind and intelligent though he was, there were a great many things that he would not be able to understand. Things that I did not want to tell him. Things that I would not tell him.

"I'm not at liberty to share my memories." I said firmly, rapping my hand against the wall of my chest. "They are mine. And they are precious to me. And because of that, you should have the courtesy to respect my silence."

"Of course I respect it." His voice remained calm and centered, though I could see that he was feeling just the slightest bit exasperated by my reluctance to confide in him. The corners of his eyes crinkled, exposing his crows' feet. A sure sign that he was annoyed but not yet to the point of verbally expressing it. "Just as you should respect the fact that I care for you deeply. If you don't wish to speak, that's fine. But please don't be angry with me for wanting to know. For wanting to help."

I never usually drew on my misfortunes in order to make a point but I felt the need to do so then, perhaps because Oriya was pushing me steadily into a corner and I wanted to shock him a little. Give myself a little wiggle room so I could escape from this conversation with my dignity intact.

"I'm used to doing things on my own, Mibu." I growled, my voice holding more than a slight nuance of bitter anger. "I did as a child and for years after Tamiko passed away."

But still he continued to push and I wasn't sure whether to hug him for it, or smash his teeth in with the knuckles of my right fist. God, this man was infuriating sometimes! "But don't you miss having someone around to help you with such trials? Someone of the romantic persuasion? Did you ever marry or engage in a long term relationship following that period with your wife?"

I raised an eyebrow and gave him a curious look. "This sounds suspiciously like a sales pitch. This is really bringing out the pimp in you, isn't it?

He smiled gently, his thumb now stroking a warm circle across my cheek. He had his head cocked to the side as he watched me, as though trying to figure me out.

"The friend actually. I'm genuinely interested."

I tried to decipher his expression but the immaculate control he had over it made it near to impossible. He seemed to be sincere…

"Well…" I said, "I never really found anyone I could say that I… loved in that way. I've had a few short term, mostly physical relationships. I guess I was hoping to accidentally stumble across the sort of intimacy I'd read about in books. You know… someone to just hold and share all that mooshy stuff with."

I expected Oriya to be amused by this choice of words, at how truly cockney I sounded. But he continued to do everything right. He didn't laugh at me. He didn't pull a face. He didn't drag me into the toilet and drop my head into the bowl for a swirly. He just continued to stroke my cheek in such an unobtrusive and considerate manner. No other man in the world would have allowed me that.

"Maybe you were just with the wrong people." He suggested. I couldn't help but scoff a little. What an understatement! "You said before that you didn't realize you were bisexual until after you and Tamiko were married. It might have taken some time before you could experience a deep relationship with a man. Sex is not the same as making love after all."

"I'm sure I'd have some idea what you are speaking of." I confessed, with a short, soft voice. "If I'd ever felt that way about any man I had been with."

"What do you mean?" He asked, cocking his head to one side. That posture reminded me of Tsuzuki, though the depth of expression in Oriya's face was subjectively more profound than my dear friends ever was. No offense.

"I haven't… had a committed relationship with a guy before." I confessed, wondering even as I expressed myself to him, why it seemed nearly impossible to keep a secret from this man. He was like a childhood confessor, the priest behind the lattice screen that you felt secure in spilling your guts to. "Making love with a man, entails love for the man himself and I don't think I've ever experienced that." I pulled myself free from where Oriya's eyes had kept me rooted for the past couple of minutes and made my leisurely way over to stare out the window. I rested my fingertips on the glass, watching the soothing movements of the plum blossom tree down in the gardens heart. "In fact… I don't know if I've ever experienced that with anyone. Not even Tamiko. To think I've gone through life, having only ever enjoyed sex for the physical implications, rather than the emotional."

I felt him move in close behind me and the warm sensation of his breath upon my ear. "Then why not start tonight?" I jerked my head about to stare up at him, the exhalation of my next breath freezing in the pit of my stomach. "Let me make love to you." He seemed to register my expression and for a moment appeared a little rejected. "You don't want that?"

"Wah?" It was stupid but that was the only sound I was able to produce. My brain was firmly locked in neutral.

Oriya rested his arms around my middle, locking his right hand about his left wrist. This pulled the line of my back in tightly against the wall of his chest. I could feel the heat of his body through the thin layer of my yukata. He rocked me gently. A soothing mechanism to lull me into accepting his offer. "Is there any harm in it, if it will make you feel better?"

I chuckled nervously but at the same moment my undead heart was pounding a million miles an hour. "Do you extend this offer to all your guests?" I joked weakly. He smiled down at me.

"No. Only the cute ones."

Oh Lordy. I could feel myself going red. "Been a while for you too, huh?" I felt it was a reasonably fair deduction.

He didn't bother to deny it. "It's been three long years spent waiting for this night, Mr. Watari. I'll be damned if I'll let your sudden push towards friendship get in the way of how I've been longing for you." My body suddenly remembered to breathe and I jolted a harsh gasp into my lungs as Oriya pressed a kiss against the shell of my ear.

"Oriya… I don't think we should…" Like most men, I didn't exactly concur with the words that were coming out of my mouth. I could already feel my body growing hot.

"Why…? You said yourself there wasn't the issue of trust between us anymore." His arms grew tighter about my middle and he arched his body up against my back. I suppressed what threatened to be a wavering moan as I felt the bare beginnings of his erection press into the curve of my ass. "Do you like this?" He asked, moving against me. I whimpered from between tightly pressed lips as that evocative bulge rubbed a heated patch against my buttocks, sending blood rushing straight to my pelvis. "Do you like feeling my arms around you? My body against yours…"

I turned my head towards him, the sight of his wistful, desire-corrupted expression weakening my resolve even further. I had never before encountered a person who I sincerely found to be as irresistible as he was to me. "I…" I had no idea what to say, or whether I still contained the urge to protest what was happening. My fingers were clearly acting on the authority of a less practical part of my mind because they began to move up and down the line of Oriya's strong arms, curling back to caress the skin with my still torn nails.

Oriya groaned softly, bringing his lips down to the back of my neck, causing the delicate hairs to bristle at the sensation. "Because I like it. I like holding you this way. It feels… right." He used his calloused hand to brush aside the loose stands of hair that covered the side of my neck, clearing a path for his lips to softly kiss the nape.

"Mr. Mibu…" I moaned, realizing I was fighting a losing battle even as I said it.

His arms cinched about me so tightly that it constricted my lungs almost painfully. "Stop with that already. You didn't even call me that when first we met."

I pushed against his grip, managing to loosen it somewhat but only at his own acquiescence. Despite my advanced strength, he was even stronger. "O-Oriya I…"

His lips were at my ear again. "Shh… just relax. Just… focus on the feeling for a moment. Can you do that?"

" … I… uh…" It was impossible to utter a constructive word in such a situation. I mean, what was I supposed to say once he had already gotten started? I could feel my knees caving a little, bending in towards the glass of the window; my body kept in perfect alignment only by Oriya's strong arms. He started to break down my remaining defenses and flimsily constructed as they were, it didn't take long for them to collapse beneath his seductive onslaught. He peppered kisses along my neck, like slow, sensual machine gun fire, whilst his fingers gently drew the halves of my yukata apart, exposing the flesh of my chest. I moaned a little, tilting my head back as the yukata slipped down to my waist, exposing my shoulders, chest and back to the hot night air. The only factors keeping the material sanctioned to my body were the sleeves hanging in the crooks of my elbows and the thin waif of material tied about my waist. Oriya was content to ignore this for the time being and alternatively turned his attention to my shoulder blades, gently tracing patterns across my chest with his hands as his tongue outlined the bone and muscle structure of my upper back. I was forced to brace one hand against the window, no longer having Oriya's support to keep me upright. The sensations were so sublimely erotic and at the same time, they were sensitive and… thoughtful. No one had ever cared for my needs like this… not one of my previous partners had ever taken the time to stimulate my body in a fashion I had only ever considered to be feasible in one of those dippy dime store shelf romance novels.

But then again, Oriya was no normal man. He was cunning and clever. He was profoundly adept at getting what he desired from people by any means. I had seen him at work with the politicians in Kokakuro and I understood him to be manipulative but this… I felt there to be something genuine in this, even if I realized all too well that Oriya was perhaps not the most sincere of men around. And shouldn't I have been flattered to know that he would enact any and every means to acquire me? I mean, I wasn't the most handsome of guys. I wasn't ugly by any stretch of the imagination but I wasn't striking either. Not like Tsuzuki, or Oriya or even, god forbid Muraki. I was a nice normal sort of attractive, my smile being my most appealing asset. Under normal circumstances, it should have been me going to each and every extreme to try and pry Oriya out of his clothing not the other way around! This kind of treatment was a bit surreal… I wasn't used to it.

Not to say that I didn't like it of course. But I'm sure most people would be thrown if they suddenly found themselves being seduced by someone who was maybe four or five times better looking than they were, half their age, (Yeah, technically I was old enough to have dated Oriya's parents in high school) ten times richer and five or six steps up from them in the social hierarchy.

This had been one odd mission from the get go and it seemed to progressively get stranger the deeper we went.

I was jerked from my thoughts by the sublime feeling of Oriya's wet, slender tongue gliding up the line of my spine. A shiver went shooting down to meet it, and then blew right on by to coil into a knot of pleasure right at the base of my tailbone. "Oh… God…" I moaned, fisting my fingers against the glass, noticing the wet patches that the pads of my fingers had left behind. This was hardly two or three tiptoes into foreplay and I had already been brought to a sweat! … Well, it was a hot night. I had to take that into consideration.

I felt Oriya's straight teeth dig into the flesh of my deltoid. It was a small bite but it made my crotch ache in anticipation. "Tell me how it feels… where to linger… what you want…"

I couldn't let myself get involved again. The mission… Enma's orders! I could lose my station as a Guardian of Death! I might even be fired and sent onto the next stage… whatever the Hell that might be! Jesus… what if it was Hell? Oh damn, that would be ironic. Sent to the hottest place in existence for doing the hottest man in existence! … Still, I suppose that there are worse things to go to Hell for, right? … No, that was just stupid.

"I can't-" My sentence thrust itself upward into a deep groan as Oriya traced my shoulder blades with his tongue, kissing a trail up to my shoulder and into the little crook of his collarbone. "Ah yeah… just there…"

Ladies and gentleman, my name is Yutaka Watari and I'm a sexaholic. I lost my job to sex, went to Hell for sex and burned for eternity. For sex. But if you had seen the guy I'm sure you would agree with me that the loss of my eyebrows and additional body hair was well worth the sacrifice.

I braced the entire palm of my hand against the window, shutting my eyes tightly and reducing my entire vocabulary to an animalistic series of huffing and grunts as Oriya circled one of my nipples with his fingernail, causing the little bud to go rock hard beneath his ministrations. The tightening sensation sent a miniature pulse of electricity down into my loins and I internally begged him to pinch the bud between his nails. To my surprise and delight, he did just that, twirling the nipple between his perfectly rounded fingernails, pinching slightly to stimulate the nerves and then pulling back to tug the bud just enough to reduce me to a panting quivering mess. He seemed to be able to tell exactly what it was that I desired, so I arched my back encouraging him toward it and sure enough he started to kiss down the nubs of my spine, pausing when he reached my waist, where the yukata sat in bunched folds about my hips. I lifted my chest, curving my spine even further.

"Please… Oriya…"

"Please what?" He enjoyed teasing me.

"Just there… the small of my back…" Oriya kissed the aforementioned spot lightly, flicking his tongue out to wet a patch of my skin, then blowing on it gently. I growled, the sound reverberating from deep in my throat, entirely overcome by the unbelievable sensation that this meager act caused me. "Yes!"

Oriya pushed his lips down beneath the yukata folds and kissed my prominent hipbone, alternating between sucking the arched flesh and slurping his tongue about the dips and hallows it created in my skin. His hands meanwhile started to stroke up and down over my back. He dragged his nails against my skin; sending panting gasps flinging out of my mouth uninhibited. The skin burnt and tingled where he scratched me and I cried out internally for him to repeat this act until I could no longer ache for it.

"This feels… different… Better… Oh God, that feels good…" I groaned as Oriya kissed his way back up to my neck. He suckled on the pulse for a moment, and then raised his lips to sit directly on top of the opening of my ear. His hot breath seemed set to filter right on down into my very brain.

"Are you sure you won't reconsider… friend?"

"Oriya…" He made it easy for me, trailing kisses down to my jaw line and I surrendered to the inevitable. I hadn't the willpower or the desire to resist him any longer. I turned my face towards him, parting my lips invitingly and running my tongue quickly over the dry columns to wet them. Once I was sure they weren't about to tear the flesh from his own mouth, I tilted my chin up just high enough for Oriya to meet me in a sensual kiss.

We were conspirators in the act now and there was no going back after this. Lord help me, I could burn in Hell.

Was this of any concern to me at the time? No sir. None whatsoever.

I turned about in Oriya's hold and slung my arms up around his neck, sinking against him with a moan. His tongue slid across my lips and I welcomed it back within my mouth like an old friend, tasting the liquor and smoke I'm sure he received back from me. I loved the feeling of the strong, probing muscle lapping inside my lips and I brought the tip of my own tongue up to run along the vein line underneath it. Oriya got his hand down my back and tugged the tie out of my hair, shifting his fingers into the braid in order to separate the tresses. My hair tumbled down my back, now returned to its somewhat kinkier state by the setting of the braid and Oriya buried his hands in it, gently licking at my upper lip with his tongue. He pressed me up against the window and I shifted my waist against his, causing us both to moan in time at the friction our hastily stiffening erections caused when meeting. There wasn't a great deal of resistance between the yukata material and what was there only served to highlight the sensation as the fabric rubbed against my swelling penis.

Oriya didn't waste any more time. Before I could so much as ask 'How's your father?' his hand was making sort work of the only thing keeping my yukata around my body. I grabbed his wrist to slow him down, wanting to give myself a moment to think about what was going to happen. It was difficult as I'm sure I've already mentioned. My brain was still swirling about in a hazy alcohol induced cloud.

"Oriya… please…" I whispered, wrapping one arm about my midsection to grasp a hold of the already slouching material. It had sunk so low during our embrace that my pubic hair was already visible above the yukata lining. "You might not like what you see." The idea that Oriya might reject my body as my ex-boyfriend had done so many years ago was just devastating to me. Oriya smiled as though sensing my thoughts and leaned his face in close in order to nudge my nose with his own.

"I saw it last night and there was certainly nothing wrong with it then. Besides… how will I know unless I take a peek?" He kissed me softly and chaste, using this as a distraction to remove the yukata completely. The warm night air enveloped my body like thousands of warm fingers, the beautiful material collapsing in a crumpled pile around my feet. I lowered my gaze and focused on this as Oriya's eyes panned up and down the length of my body, silent in his assessment of me.

"So you are a natural blond." He said finally.

I sighed, figuring from the tone of his voice that he was disappointed and wasn't entirely sure how to express it. "See… what did I tell you?"

"Not enough." He met my eyes and there was compassion and desire equally evident in his handsome features. "You have a wonderful body, Yutaka." He glanced down the line of my abdomen again and cocked his head to the side when he came across what I knew he was bound to notice sooner or later. "Is that a… tattoo?" He seemed suddenly distracted, bringing his fingers up to brush over the small tattoo of an owl I'd had done on my left thigh when I was twenty-four.

"Sure is." I confirmed, reaching down past Oriya's admiring fingers to bestow a gentle slap to the brown and yellow caricature. I immediately wished I hadn't because it made my thigh wobble in a most unappealing way. "Someone who means a great deal to me… her favorite animal was an owl, same as me. This old girls a little more stretched than she used to be though… that's the joy of getting old."

Oriya chuckled as he knelt before me, bringing his lips down against the flesh of my thigh. I held my breath without meaning to as he started to kiss and suck the tattoo, alternating his attention equally between each thigh. I pressed myself back against the window, supporting my weight with the palms of my hands. It was a hot night and I was becoming exceedingly more aroused by Oriya's actions. It didn't take long for sweaty palm syndrome to set in and my fingers lost their grip as condensation beaded across the glass, sending my hand sliding about as I struggled to maintain my hold.

"Mmmm…" Oriya's purr was deep and raspy. It made me want to skip the foreplay completely and just get him up inside of me lickity-split. But as I later learnt, Oriya was never one to rush right to the act. On this occasion, it was his first real intimacy in three years and he aimed to enjoy every miniscule moment of it. He trailed his tongue along the lines of my loins, causing me to reflexively twitch and moan out loud. "Oh… you make some fabulous noises. I love to hear that voice of yours pitch and awn." He lazily kissed a path back up to my lips and pinched the arms of my glasses between his fingers. "You'll still be able to see me without these, right?"

"R-right…" I stuttered, pressing my chaffed lips together tightly as Oriya removed the glasses and set them on the closest available ledge. "Listen um… do you think you could, y'know… hit the lights?"

Oriya raised an eyebrow at me and I shrugged apologetically.

"Sorry! I just like doing this in the dark better. You can see fine in the dark with your senses, eh?"

"Sure. But it'll be harder for you." Oriya said, stepping over towards the light switch and laying his fingertip along the slope of it. "You okay with that?"

I nodded, crossing my ankles one over the other, feeling even more exposed to him now that he had stepped clear across the room. He sure as Hell noticed this too because he was looking me up and down, as though he had to memorize the size and shape of each body part before the lights went out and it became just that little bit harder to do so. But he adhered to my request and switched the light off, encasing us in almost complete darkness. The moon was mostly full, so a blue light shone in through the window, bathing me in an ethereal glow. It felt a little magical and I think we both got swept up in that. Oriya dove in against me and I cupped his face good and hard, drawing him close for another kiss. I had to reach up to meet him, though I wasn't so short myself. (I was actually taller than Tsuzuki, though not many people knew this) I delved my hands into Oriya's dark head of hair, drawing it around my fingers and twisting it between my grasp until I had reduced it to series of complicated knots. We parted just long enough for him to set his mouth against my neck. I shivered at the feel of his lips there and he obviously felt it through his ability because he didn't proceed without permission.

"Can I?" He asked sweetly and with a moments hesitation, I hushed a whispered yes, whimpering with soft gratification as he peppered his hot, wet mouth up and down the line of my neck and chin, taking his time to express his affection for me, rather than making it entirely sexual. His fingers tenderly stroked my Adam's apple, moving up and around to touch the space of my neck just below my ear then suggestively curling downward to caress my throat. I must have been in love. Normally I would have freaked if anyone else had tried to touch my neck in this manner.

"Yutaka, you know if there's anything you want… you just tell me and I'd be more than happy to indulge you." Oriya whispered, bringing his bottom lip open wide enough to succulently cup my pulse. His tongue flicked out and caressed the spot, sending my mind cartwheeling into the throes of ecstasy. I was charmed and touched that he would make such an offer to me. Most men, (myself included) are entirely concerned with their own immediate sexual gratification. So much so that the needs and wants of the other partner came second, if that. It was so refreshing to think that Oriya was separate from this norm. That he was so gentle and patient in his ministrations and his focus was entirely on me. I'd barely touched him with evocative concern once and yet he'd had no complaints! He wanted to know if there was more that he could doand he seemed entirely content in making me the center of attention.

He was just so good. I felt at the very least I should offer him one last chance to pull out of this.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked, groaning softly and curling my leg up as he locked onto a particularly juicy spot beside my jugular I never knew existed. "I mean… you could do so much better than me…"

He didn't berate me with anger this time but proved me wrong with the evidence of his passion instead. He tugged me tightly against him, hands trailing down my back and inoffensively pushing my groin up against his. He was very hard now. You would never know how aroused he was just by looking at his face but by all rights he should have been panting to stick it to me. If you'll excuse the phrase.

"Don't put yourself down, Yutaka. You have me. I want you. There's no place I would rather be right now." He cupped my face and looked down at me with sincere adulation. "You truly have no idea how striking you can be, do you? Hair free, glasses gone, skin shining in the moonlight…" I blushed, despite myself. "I want to satisfy myself in you and see you satisfied by me. Tell me what you want…" He whispered into my ear, bringing his finger under my chin and lifting it just high enough to kiss the shadowed veil beneath. "… let me make you happy…"

My voice trembled as I spoke my request. "Just… say my name."

He looked at me quizzically.

"I've never been with anyone who would say my name with sincerity in bed." I explained, stroking his wrist with my fingers, wishing that he would hurry up and get naked too. I hadn't gotten a good look at him the night before. "That's all I ever wanted from any of them… for someone to say my name. And mean it."

Oriya was silent for a moment but then he gently leant forward and kissed the tip of my nose. "I want you to relax, Yutaka." My breathing sharpened considerably as he trailed his hand down, steering around my throbbing hard on, darting between my pubic hair before nestling comfortably beneath the curves of my thighs. He turned his hand sideways and separated his fingers, encouraging my legs to part. "Spread your legs for me… nice and gently. That's it."

I followed his lead, moving my heels apart in order to bring my legs out to a wider stance. "You don't have to treat me like a virgin, you know." I grumbled, slightly annoyed. "I have done this before."

Oriya smiled, flicking his finger along the curve of my cheek. "You don't like being treated gently?"

"Just a little… unexpected." I admitted, biting my lip as the hand between my legs suddenly darted up along the line of my cock, squeezing it with just enough strength to make the stimulation entirely pleasurable, not the least bit… well, cauliflower crouch, if I have to put it any particular way. Oriya's smile didn't fade as he moved his hand up and down the length of my erection, slowing down once he had reduced me to a shivering whiny mess. Then, he just swirled his thumb at the very tip, pressing his chest up against my own and leaning down to push his triumphant expression right against my own pitiable, sweating face.

"Don't expect from me what you have received from others." He hushed, kissing me softly. I thought I would faint when he took his hand off of me, only to bring his body down to the floor before me on bended knees. Knowing what was coming next and knowing it would be this man doing it… it was a miracle I didn't shoot my load into his face at that very moment. The thought itself was erotic enough to bring me to completion without the act itself. "I treat my lovers as though I am the first to ever take them."

I had to bring my attention away; just long enough to calm myself down at least a little. I glanced behind myself nervously, wondering just how this might appear if anybody happened to go trotting by. "I'm a bit uncomfortable having my bottom pressed against the window like this." It must have looked great from the other side of the glass.

"It won't cave in, if that's what you're worried about." Oriya chuckled, from somewhere around the region of my groin.

"That's most certainly not it." I snapped, offended that this was the first thought that jumped to his mind. My butt wasn't that hefty was it? "What if someone happens to walk by? I don't think I want my pale derrière on display."

Oriya traced his hands down around to my waist and dipped them behind my hips in order to catch my buttocks in each hand. He squeezed them, eliciting another mewl of pleasure from me. God damn, why couldn't we just get this show on the road? Some of us didn't have his stamina. Or patience for that matter.

"Trust me honey… you have nothing to worry about." He said, digging his nails into the cleft, drawing them back and forth to heighten the muscle tension. I felt my erection twitch, every time he adjusted those sweet fingers. "It's soft… yet ample…"

"That's from sitting in front of a computer all day…" I said, unsure of this even as I said it. Sitting in front of the computer made it soft, that's for sure. About the only thing keeping it from sloughing entirely was my regular visits to the pool.

Oriya slid up my body like a serpent and used the hands on my hind to pull me close. "Well, it seems to have paid off." He sounded off by delivering a firm smack to my buttocks and I moaned before I was able to help myself. He spanked me. Dear God, I think it was the most glorious thing I had ever felt! My erection grew to its' full capacity and pressed upward into Oriya's stomach, drawing his attention down towards it. "Oh my… don't tell me the guardian of death has a masochism fetish?"

He gave me a little pet along the throbbing length and I panted for the shear want of him. "Shit… you could give me a fetish for anything…"

Oriya grinned with a full ferocious urge and the next thing I knew, he had pushed me hard up against the window, pinning my hands high above my head. He kissed me forcefully, our tongues lapping at one another's mouths before without warning, he went sliding back down my body and sucked my sex deep into his throat with one controlled swallow. I mewled stridently, hands still pinned back above my head, palms braced against the glass.I couldn't believe my luck. To think such a beautiful man would go down on me… And he was so damn good too. I wasn't a small man in the pants arena, nor was I overtly large. On a scale out of 10, I was like a seven, which sat just fine with me thankyou very much. Meaning to say, that it shouldn't have ordinarily been easy for anyone to fit my entire erect length down his or her throat and if Oriya had been telling me the honest truth, it was three years since he had done anything like this. And here he was, whipping it out like a natural! I felt a strand of drool start to slide out from the corner of my mouth and I reached down to wipe it away. The head of my cock was pressed into the constriction of Oriya's throat and he didn't gag once, just sucking and swallowing here and there, giving me the most intense physical pleasure I had most certainly ever felt. The sensation itself was the majority of this feeling but looking down along the line of my body and seeing myself buried completely in the mouth of a man beautiful enough to bring the entire male modeling industry to its knees, was nothing short of unbelievable. This scenario was beyond my wildest dreams. Who would have ever thought that I could be so lucky?

Oriya seemed to be handling himself just fine, so I finally relaxed my self-restraints and started rolling my lips languidly against his face, moaning his name the whole while. It felt so damn good; I didn't want it to end. Well… yes and no. I wanted him inside of me, more than ever but to have his mouth wrapped around me like this… not even his pipe got to be this close.Just as I found myself teetering on the brink of obliteration, I felt the warm constriction of Oriya's throat slide free from the head of my penis and with a wet popping sound, he plucked his mouth free of my now shining staff. A strand of sticky saliva snapped free from the tip of my erection, slapping along the curve of his chin, streaking a line down from the corner of his mouth. I wish I had a picture of how he looked at precisely that moment. It was the sexiest thing I had ever seen.

"No… please…" I whined, wondering if my legs would be able to hold me much longer. Oriya was panting for breath. He'd apparently forgotten to breathe through his nose whilst he'd been attending to my manly needs. It took a minute for him to pull himself together but I gathered what he was getting at by the circular twirling of his finger.

"Turn around…" He finally managed to gasp.

I was confused but did as I was told, bracing both my arms against the window whilst Oriya disappeared across the room. I heard him open a drawer and rustle around inside for a moment, then a sharp curse as he slammed the door shut. I risked a glance over my shoulder.

"Babe, what's wrong?" I asked as he traipsed into the bathroom, not even bothering to switch on the light before diving headlong into the medicine cabinet.

"Just looking for… here." He trotted back into view, looking a wee bit embarrassed as he held up a small tub of Vaseline for my inspection. "Sorry. I used to have nice oils around here… better stuff than this. It's just been some time… is it okay if I use this?"

I laughed gently at the expression of guilt on his face. "Honey, I've had worse than Vaseline rubbed inside of me. Don't you worry about that." To be accurate, when that man had kept Reiku and I prisoner for a fortnight, he had once oiled my testicles and anus with an ointment called Deep Heat, used to treat deep muscle pains. The application burnt like Hell and left me squirming and writhing with pain from the stabbing heat and stinging sensation assaulting my sensitive canals. If that hadn't been enough, he'd perched me in front of a heater, so that the burns became almost intolerable. But I didn't feel the need to share that with Oriya. Not then. You know now. No point getting worked up about it, what's done is done.

Moving along.

A moment later, I felt Oriya brace one hand against my hip. His fingers were so strong and gentle… I felt safe with him, comforted and clean, even doing this act that has been condemned from the Church to the streets.

"Spread your legs, Yutaka."

I complied, wondering why I was trembling as I did. I couldn't wait to feel his fingers inside of me.

Oriya rested his head on my shoulder. "Relax…" He breathed and I gasped a little as I felt the tip of his finger press up against my rigid hole. I relaxed my abdomen, pushing down so that it opened just enough for him to slide his finger in. It was thick and rigid, though generously lubricated by the Vaseline. It didn't hurt a jot. Oriya's 'disability' would have allowed him to sense when and if he afforded me any pain and he avoided this diligently. I moaned loudly, orally crediting his ability. He moved the finger in and out charitably, eliciting a further pitching groan from my body as the second and then third fingers were inserted. I could only imagine what it would be like once his cock was inside of me, if his fingers felt this good. He must have known exactly how to position his invading digits because it only took one or two scissoring movements for him to start massaging my prostate. That little bud of nerve endings sent my brain on fire and I squirmed against the window, tears pricking the corners of my eyes as he assaulted that same place, over and over again, until I was crazy for completion. Oriya brought his spare hand down to rub my buttocks, keeping them separated by pushing the muscle to the side.

"Oriya! Oh!" I wasn't sure how much longer I could take this but at long last, he seemed to conclude that I had been stretched to his satisfaction. His languorous procedure complete, Oriya finally removed his fingers, leaving me empty and longing to be filled but to my dismay, he didn't undress himself. Instead, I heard him lower himself back down onto his knees. I felt him pressing my buttocks apart with each thumb as though to admire the work he had done on my swollen entrance before submitting partway to his impatient desire and pressing his face directly into the clavicle, driving his tongue down through the tight, stinging ring muscle and back within my still recovering burrow. A foreign feeling came upon me. This wet, hot sensation oiled my sensitive place and my face flushed furiously when I realized that he had slipped his tongue deep inside of me. I shrieked loudly, my hands sliding across the glass as I surrendered what tattered fragments remained of my self-control. The wet, pink flesh probed with an accuracy his fingers would never possess and he was now sampling me in that slightly obscure fashion that was as arousing in speculation as it was in action.

I felt my muscles involuntarily contract around Oriya's tongue and he clasped his long fingers about my thighs, stroking gently in an attempt to encourage me to relax. I'd only ever had this done to me once before and I'm not afraid to admit that I found I rather enjoyed the sensation of rimming. I was so excited however that I unintentionally tensed up, which hindered rather than encouraged Oriya's progress. Eventually, his massages helped me to unwind and my opening widened considerable, awarding the samurai ample room in which to work. Oriya dipped his tongue in as far as it would go, keeping it soft and supple, unlike so many who seemed to think that a pointy dagger tongue was a turn on. It generally wasn't, especially if the rectum was already sore from forceful penetration. Gently, Oriya lifted his tongue along the red raw passageways, wetting the sensitive skin more so that it was already. I was groaning loudly, my fingernails scratching down the glass and my eyes pinched shut.

The feeling of the small wet muscle within me, felt something like gentle penile penetration, only with freer movement and the velvety hot moisture of which attended it. It was one of my favorite indulgences and Oriya seemed so skilled in the act… most of my previous lovers refused point blank to do it at all! Which was fine, everyone was justified to decide what they were comfortable doing or not doing in bed and having it sprung on me now after so long was just divine.

"Oh Oriya…" I moaned, as the samurai slowly drew his tongue in and out in a gentle serenade.

The slick heat went away for a moment as Oriya paused to consider his findings. "Yes… this is most definitely what is right for you…" He drawled, thumbing at my wet opening. I panted, digging my nails into my folded arms until crescent moons were cut into my skin. Small streaks of blood curved down to drip from my elbows and splatter against the floor.

"Oriya… I want more… God please… more…" I was pleading with him but that didn't matter. Only continuing that otherworldly sensation… nothing was more important than his lips, his mouth, his tongue… He obliged with a quiet sort of contentment and once that slippery wet muscle entered me again, the excitement grew to the overwhelming degree that the scales of my stamina tilted one level too far to the side. I felt my cock twitch and my knees cinch in towards one another as lines of cum began to squirt across the windowpane. Oriya paused and I felt his hand sneak around the line of my body to gently caress the end of my slick penis.

"Oriya that's enough… your windows…" I whispered, starting to feel a little bad that I was making a mess.

"Screw the damn windows." Came Oriya's rough voice and then he penetrated me deep with his tongue and continued to lap at my entrance, pushing me flying into orgasm.

"ORIYA!!" I didn't even concern myself with how loud I was screaming, the pleasure that came from my completion providing too great a distraction. My remaining strength evaporated and my legs actually buckled beneath my weight. I almost collapsed but Oriya caught me around the waist, climbing back onto his feet and using one hand to gently rub the base of my softening penis, working his way up to the very tip as though milking me of as much cum as possible.

"Hmmm…" He murmured and I watched with tired embarrassment as he licked my semen off of his fingers and sighed deeply as though approving the palette. "You taste as sweet as I thought you would…"

I panted, unable to articulate myself further. Oriya smiled understandingly, setting his sticky fingers down on my shoulder.

"Turn around, darlin'." He gently moved my shoulders square until we were facing one another. It seemed that the moment was finally here. Oriya took a step back from me, reaching down to untie his obi as seductively as possible. I held myself up, hands holding onto the part of the window that I hadn't made a mess of, watching with hungry eyes as he slowly slid free of his yukata, revealing a lean, hard muscled body. Good God… I haven't seen anything so perfect… what a body. All that muscle, lined and etched by white and red scars… it was sexy beyond measure. His legs were long and toned and powerful, his arms sculptured like I had only ever seen in male underwear commercials. His dark brown hair cascaded over the muscular lining of his chest, down his back, strands flecking over his eyes here and there. His copper colored nipples were firm. And as for the lower portion of his magnificent body…

Oh my.

Remember how I said that on a scale of one to ten that I was like a seven? Well Oriya was like a… twelve. He was well in proportion with the rest of his large body. His erect penis was thick, large, and jutting high. I had honestly never seen bigger and I'm not just saying that because I'm more than a little fond of you, Oriya dear. I felt a momentary flux of concern, staring down at that solid mast projecting out from the curls of his dark brown pubic hair. He was going to snap me in half with that thing!

I stomped that fear down firmly, reassuring myself that Oriya's size was only likely to increase the pleasure I would feel once the initial sting had passed. I slid closer and braced my hands in the center of Oriya's back, feeling the center of his spine, where it was broken all those years before. I brought my lips to his chest, wanting to repay him in kind for his very generous actions just before. Ever so slowly, I began to rotate my groin against his, trying to rekindle my now limp erection. I was feeling sleepy as a direct result of my orgasm but seeing Oriya's naked body had driven fresh excitement through me and I was eager for more, now that I had seen first hand what was in store for me. I found a scar on Oriya's back and traced it all the way down to his buttocks. Goddamn, it was entirely muscle down there. Just two tight little orbs, no distinguishable fat whatsoever. I dug my nails into the firm flesh, eliciting a loud moan from my soon to be lover.

"You're quite something… you know?" Oriya groaned, head tilted back.

" … so are you…" I whispered up into his ear. Oriya took my hands between his and placed them on his chest.

"Look um…" He trailed off, looking intensely aware of himself. "I don't have any condoms in here. It's been too long since my last time… but I can go right now and get one off of the girls? I'm not sure how this works between humans and Guardians but I assume you'd prefer that I wore protection, right?"

What a dear he was for thinking of this at the last minute. Anyone else would have just hoisted the sails and shoved on forward without a care in the world but here he was actually taking the time to concern himself with safe sex. It was extraordinarily charming.

Unless of course he was asking because he assumed I was riddled with venereal diseases.

I placed my hand against his cheek, shiny with sweat. "It's sweet that you would even bother to ask. Guardians of Death can catch and distribute minor STI's such as crabs or genital warts but nothing bigger than that. I'm pretty sure I'm clean." I would have been positive if I hadn't of bedded that filthy old letch before I came to Kyoto but I'm certain I would have noticed if I'd picked anything up. "It's up to you, Oriya."

"Do you trust me?" He asked. I nodded, without a moment's hesitation.

"Unequivocally."

"Then I trust you." He clasped my hands between his own and sensually trailed the pads of my fingers down to his loins and I panted with mad fervor as he drew me ever closer to that delicious pulsing rod between his legs. I made to touch him, my groin aching in sweet anticipation but Oriya restrained me at the last second. Honestly, the man has the sexual self-discipline of the Archbishop! He twisted my hand over so that my palm was right side up and then retrieved the Vaseline he'd previously used to oil me.

"If you choose to continue this, I want you to be comfortable." He whispered breathlessly, setting the small tub down into the palm of my hand.

I nodded, feeling a certifiable knot of lust cascade through my groin, causing my expired erection to sit up and take notice of what was going on again. I unscrewed the lid of the Vaseline, scooping out a suitable lump of the white petroleum jelly and once I had distributed it evenly between the palms of each hand, I proceeded to lube up Oriya's hard member. He was so big that it was almost necessary to use both hands and I loved the feeling of that hot solid flesh palpitating between my fingers. Giving back some of what I had already received, I gripped the shaft of his erection hard, running the pads of my thumbs up underneath, squeezing the swollen head between them when I reached the end. Pre-cum dripped liberally from the tip and I almost considered sinking to my knees and lapping the milky drops away but Oriya thoroughly distracted me from enacting any such measure by grasping my taut scrotum in the cup of his fist, without so much as a word of warning. He gave me a thrusting squeeze before trailing his long, adept fingers back and set to work, rubbing my perineum, trying generously to coax my erection back to life. My body proved to be no flake and I felt my once retired penis respond to the corporeal ministrations almost immediately. Not wanting to leave him hanging out to dry, so to speak, I returned to my previous task of preparing Oriya's thick shaft for entry. I did a good job of it because I knew it would hurt like Hell if I didn't. I felt a weary sense of relief as I fondled his length, relief that his erection was already as big and thick as it was going to get. Any larger and nothing short of radical plastic surgery would have been able to realign my hips.

"Yutaka…" Oriya moaned my name softly as he pushed a series of shallow dips between the palms of my hands. I was standing so close to him that the head of his erection actually jabbed my thigh as it erupted out of my hold. I guess he was ready then.

I took my hands away, to establish that my good work was done and Oriya wasted no time in pushing me back against the window, squashing my butt into the drying semen stains I had previously left upon the glass. I bit my lip, trying my hardest to ignore the uncomfortable sticky mess and concentrate on Oriya's skilled ministrations instead. It wasn't particularly difficult. He moved against me, sifting a hearty moan from the depths of my throat and weaved his fingers into my hair, kissing me so softly that I was surprised his libido allowed for the gentility it.

"Are you ready for me?" He whispered, his throaty voice laden with lust.

"Yes. Baby, yes." I murmured, wishing that my voice sounded nearly as sexy as his did. My body trembled from my vocal cords to the tips of my toes, which were liberally curling off of the floor at the amenable prospect of what was about to happen; sex with the most beautiful man I had ever set eyes on.

I was nervous, so I smiled, putting up my happy little shield in order to combat my mounting anxiety. I knew it was going to hurt; I hadn't lied to Tsuzuki about this facet of anal sex. It could be brilliant, sexy and in some cases inexpressibly mind-blowing but that was only if you were able to overcome the severe coital pain. Sometimes you couldn't. I'd had occasions where it didn't matter how much I was stretched before the commencement of the act, the sex simply did not progress beyond the state of severe discomfort. I prayed to all that was Holy that this would not be the case with Oriya. The very idea of telling him to 'stop' made me want to weep and scalp myself.

I would have rather scalped myself than face that possible scenario.

Oriya bent his lips to my ear, momentarily abating my severe case of pre-coital jitters as he distributed a cheeky nip to the tender lobe. "Put your leg around me."

Ah, so this was the game we were going to play, was it? Having sex standing up wasn't necessarily my cup of cocoa (unless it was in the shower) but that was most likely due to the fact that my knees grew notoriously weak whilst making love and if my partner hadn't been quick enough, or strong enough, to grab a firm hold of me, we'd usually end up on the floor, sore in all the wrong places. Nevertheless, I trusted that Oriya, studly hunk of meat that he was, would be more competent in this arena than any of previous partners. Praying I wasn't wrong about this, I lifted my leg up and slid it around Oriya's lovely waist, angling my ankle down in order to drape my foot over the curve of his bottom. Oriya braced his arm under my thigh and firmly clutched my buttock to hold me in place. Bless him, the dear. That leg would have slammed heel first into the floor after five minutes without him holding it steady. Still, I must confess that I felt a little strange being positioned as such. I was balancing on one leg, with only Oriya and the window to support me. God help us if there was an earthquake. One good five pointer and both our asses would be in the koi pond!

"Ori… I don't want my ass on display." Thinking again of the poor nameless sap that may or may not wander past at any given moment and catch a glimpse of things I'm certain they could live a long happy life without ever encountering.

"There's no one out there, Yutaka." Oriya groaned, his thoughts justifiably distracted right at that moment. Eager though I was to continue my wayward plunder into the depths of salacious delights, I wasn't able to comfortably lay this concern to rest. It gnawed at the corners of my mind like a nervous parasite, grinding its' molars as a means to eliminate tension.

"But what if one of your gals decides to go on an evening walk or something?" I argued, glancing over my shoulder towards the dark yard below. Oriya smirked impishly, clearly amused by my fretful expression.

"It's not so peculiar to glance up at night and encounter the moon is it?"

My face lit up like a Tiki torch. "Oriya!" Such a fitfully unabashed statement was unexpected of this reposed gentleman, to the degree that I reposed momentarily in the wake of its' conception. A jocular remark like this was something I would have normally came up with, which should suggest the immaturity of it.

Oriya chuckled sensually as he heeded my insecurities and wedged his spare hand between my butt and the window. The sticky webs of cum didn't appear to bother him as much as they did me, for he voiced no complaint concerning it. Additionally, this shielding tactic had provided some ample cushioning for my rump, so I was pleased as punch. "There. Now I want you to relax."

I inhaled sharply as his middle and index fingers brushed over the little pucker, still wet and oily from his luxuriously decadent ministrations. It bunched a little, reacting to his touch by shrinking back in upon itself and I persuaded my mind to sway in the opposite direction to the path my body deigned to follow. I didn't allow myself time to think about it, lest I lose my nerve. "Just do it, Oriya. I want you…" I cooed, in a hushed susurration so laden with lust that it didn't even sound like me. It must have been the tone of my voice that tipped the scales because Oriya's self-control finally faltered and with a throaty groan, he slid his glistening body up against mine, drawing me up the glass of the window and bowing his pelvis just enough to bring his penis up underneath the backs of my thighs and in between the lower curves of my ass. I felt him there, bearing down against my ingress and his teeth scraping the side of my neck like a desire demented vampire, intent on driving his fangs deep into the conduits of my arteries the second he came inside of me. I sucked a deep breath in, mentally and physically preparing myself for what was about to happen. My abdomen contorted, I clasped the muscles of his back with my nails in order to anchor myself down and relaxed my pelvis floor as dramatically as I could. I prepared myself for him.

"Get in there." I hissed.

Oriya gathered himself and though I was ready for it, nothing could have prepared me for the enormity of that sensation that ripped through my abdominal cavities as he drove that long hard organ ruthlessly inside of my puckered slit with one pitiless thrust, penetrating as deep as he was able. I made a peculiar sort of noise; like a gasping scream, pilfering outward through the forced ejaculation of air from my lungs. It was as though there wasn't enough room in my body for both Oriya and oxygen to coexist. He pushed me up on the tips of my toes, buried inside of my warm orifice to the hilt. I bit my lip, sinking my forehead against his shoulder and writhed a little, trying desperately to be sweet and tolerate the pain but it was plenty difficult. There was so much of him and there was so little of me! I felt that he might tear apart my large intestine should he move again!

I consciously relaxed my nails, realizing only too late that they had already bitten oozing scratches into Oriya's broad shoulders. He said nothing to suggest that I had caused him any damage worth mentioning and instead tilted his head to the side, resting it against mine. I felt him flex his upper body lethargically, like a big, lazy lion. For a long time, he didn't move and I suspected that he knew I wasn't coping. Tears beaded at the corners of my eyes as I forced aside the embedded urge of my body to shuck free from the unnatural intrusion. This would only have resulted in the sensitive rectal walls tearing and I didn't want Oriya to feel accountable for that.

"I'm sorry," He said gently, holding himself steady with what was beyond even human constraint. "I knew… I knew it wasn't going to pleasant for you… not to start with…"

"It's nothing to be sorry about." I whispered back, using his momentary immobilization to briskly lift and lower myself on the painful intrusion, hoping that the friction might serve as a means to mask the prolonging ache. To my immense relief, it didn't take long for my pained whimpers to subside into soft purrs of satisfaction. The enduring sting from the initial penetration remained as a consistent reminder of the apparent sin in which we were indulging but it was overcome and shunned insolently by the cloud of gratifying warmth that transcended from my loins. Oriya added to my efforts by dipping his hips in time with the ridiculously serene rhythm at which my own pelvis maneuvered. He didn't bother to suppress a moan as his cock received the stimulated friction that clamped his hot organ on all sides as tightly as two hands consistently squeezing. I tightened the muscles in my ass as much as I was able and shucked my hips upwards, the force of shimmying down Oriya's length nearly skinning the erect penis. The samurai belted out a sound that was something between a scream and a choked gasp, lifting his upper torso in order to whip his hair back off of his face and transmit the exclamation towards the ceiling. I grasped his deltoids desperately, staring down into his tortured features as I continued to move without a seconds relent. His teeth were bared; eyebrows furrowed over his burning eyes as I tirelessly assaulted his trapped cock with the fabrication of my tortuous pathway. It hit me, again and again, the pleasure coursing through me like an overdose of adrenaline, injected directly into the blue conduits of my veins. And just as I hoped, my languid movements proved almost instantaneously effective, with the impressive size of Oriya's manhood able to stroke up against my prostate with every movement. I emitted a little moan of happiness, bringing my hands up to rest on Oriya's shoulders so that I could raise and lower my body more easily.

"Just give me a moment to adjust." I interjected, seeing him prepare for a second brutish assault. "Be sweet."

"It's been so long… I don't know if I have it in me to be sweet just yet." I suppose that's true. After repressing his libido for three long years, I could sense Oriya was raring to go full throttle and I should have expected this going into it. Even with the lubrication, I should have insisted that he stretch me out for longer.

I continued to move of my own accord, forcing Oriya to tolerate the mildly teasing sensation until sure enough, I felt a burgeoning warmth spreading up through my groin and encompass my senses until I was similarly aching for something tenuously more robust. I pressed one of my hands against Oriya's cheek, breathing harsh breaths into his agonized expression.

I issued one command. "Move."

He pressed my leg tightly upwards along the side of his chest, steadying me for what was coming and then pulled out almost all the way, leaving the head of his erection throbbing between the ring muscle of my anus. He forced me to wait this time and just when I figured the top of my head was bound to erupt, he took mercy and slammed himself roughly back in, eliciting a yowl of ecstasy from me as a direct result. There was still a bit of raw pain but I toughed through it, meeting the thrusts with the dips of my own pelvis. The pleasure became predominant after a while and the residual ache, easily dismissible. I shut my eyes, pulling my chin up over his shoulder and mewling to the rhythm of every movement he made inside of me. Each thrust hit up against that divine spot and every brush of contact sent a bullet of pure ecstasy rushing down into my groin. I felt as though there was something very good just around the corner, dipping out of sight but still hovering on the far borders of my peripheral vision, torturing me with its brazen, unattainable proximity.

"Uh… Oriya… move ta the left a little… j-just a little ta the left and- and… up further… dive in harder baby and you'll get it… Oh God…" The word slipped out in desperation, my toes curling inwards like flower petals coiling in the harsh sunlight. My eyes were clamped shut as I concentrated on maneuvering Oriya's cock into the place I so desperately required it. "You nearly got it… just there move… move, move please, harder… harder- Oriya! Oh!"

Suddenly I was screaming. Suddenly I was arching my back and thrashing like a fish out of water. Suddenly I was crying out Oriya's name and reeling off random intermingled sentences of English and Japanese amidst a forest of groans and yelps of delight.

He had found something in me. Something that lit a fire in me, greater in divine ecstasy then my prostate could ever offer. I'm not sure what place he had found buried deep within my body but once he had touched upon it, I couldn't imagine ever making love without it.

The effect was incredible. Indefinable. In a matter of seconds, I had shed the final shrapnel of reservation buried within my sub consciousness and reverted to some bizarre uncharacteristic animalistic savagery. My teeth struck Oriya's shoulder like a caustic snakebite, my hips gyrating so wildly against his that I nearly threw him backwards. It was the ever-constant grip of his hand about my bottom that prevented him from losing hold as we joined as one so completely that it was hard to tell where he ended and I began.

Oriya was growling aberrantly, his last shred of sexual control shattered by the strike of intense passion. His cock throbbed within the confines of my body, squeezed stalwartly by my clenched buttocks as he thrust in and out of my slight perforation. I gripped him with both arms around the neck, awash with the fiery sensations that gallivanted through my senses with each perfect stroke to my prostate, inviting… no, pleading the far off shadow of orgasm to step forward and be accounted for. The usually comical and eccentric mad-scientist (AKA: Me) found himself in perfidy of his usually well-adjusted personality. The insanity of pleasure held him effectively in its grip and didn't appear ready to relent in its assault at any point in the near future. I submitted, stunned that once I had surrendered, I was not the least bit sorry for doing so. There was no shame in it, no dishonor in letting Oriya see the degree to which he had reduced the quirky and normally unshakably work directed Guardian of Death. It was a testament to him. A tribute to how unique this man was, that he was able to diminish me to this mewling, pleading, writhing thing. A thing that could barely condense its' thoughts into one discernable construct of coherent deliberation. It simply felt too good for depth of any level; be it shallow or profound. I couldn't even fathom just how fine the physical sensations were; could never hope to conjure up words that any sentient creature could hope to bestow upon another. All I could distinguish was the taste of the passing moments, each second prolonging a pin point of pleasure that picked and plucked cords of emotions and delight, until the most hypnotizing song weaved its way through my mind and body, alighting and systematically lulling my senses into submission. Each touch was like the softest most encompassing lullaby. A lullaby that you hoped would never entice you to close your eyes but you were unable to resist the longer it carried you within its soft clutches. The rise and fall of body and breath had a meaning and with that meaning, a reason to why it was happening. And that reason was what we both felt that night but could never define.

Something beyond lust and love even. The very essence that existed betwixt and between each of these indiscernible factors.

The memory of death being lost to me left the sensation of dying unknown. But I imagined that that this was how it felt. As though I were slipping into peaceful darkness, helpless and unable to fight my way back out.

"Yutaka…" Oriya breathed, resting his chin into my shoulder, bracing one arm around my body, and keeping a firm hold of my leg with the other. I was unable to reply, barely able to kiss his face in return for the admission of my name. My erect desire pressed against his stomach, abandoned and aching for notice. Attending to it with sudden aberrant attention, Oriya released my back and used his now freed hand to clasp my cock and proceeded to stroke me vigorously; working his way from the pulsing head all the way to the scrotum and back. I yelped and moaned at the double turns of pleasure being pushed upon me, working one of my hands down to share the task of masturbation. Oriya groaned lustily as he watched me scoop the top of my cock between my fingers and squeeze and pump it desperately, whilst he wrung the cup of his hand around the base, occasionally pumping at it in the same manner he might have worked a stress ball.

"Oriya… oh… god…" The whole experience had apparently brought out my religious side, which is ironic since the religion in mention happened to be the one that condemned what we were doing. There's a thing called poetic justice but my brain happened to be too scrambled at the time to figure it out. It was barely a passing thought and then my mind turned to more important things. I clung to Oriya so entirely that I could have given static electricity a run for its' money. He continued to systematically increase the rapidity of our lovemaking, our breaths pulsing out against the skin of our necks and shoulders. He managed to keep his weight stationed, which was incredibly venerable, considering the passionate degree of our union. My toes were barely scraping the floor; he had me just about suspended, almost the entire weight of my body bearing down on his erection. His abdomen slapped against mine so hard that I was very nearly winded but our amorous amalgamation only seemed to increase in tempo until it became so passionate that Oriya braced both his hands into my lower back, (who cared about that poor fictional schmuck outside anyway?) giving me the assistance I needed to throw both my legs around his waist.

Do not take this lightly. I admit that I have warmed a few beds in my day (and a few backseats and couches also) but I was certainly by no stretch of the imagination, an acrobatic lover. That would require, on my part, a stretch of the imagination and the majority of my creative skills were scientific specific and not in the least bit bedroom oriented. But the passion I was feeling at that moment, the realm of pleasure Oriya was conveying me to, was so beyond anything I had experienced before that it dramatically compensated for the fact that I was a generally unfit man. Sure, you see the American sitcom girls flinging their legs around men's waists, hips, chest, necks with comparative ease but come on. That's television. It's intended to inspire the notion of sex being… well, sexy. But not all of us looked that good. Not all of us were that limber. Not all of us went to yoga classes and frequented the gym four or five times a week. Most of us couldn't even lift our feet up high enough to tie our shoelaces without straining a muscle in our lower backs.

That's the sad reality and I thought I had learnt to accept my not so limited series of limitations many eons ago.

And yet here I was, pulling off my own version of the American Sitcom girl without even thinking about it. And damn it felt good. My erection, left abandoned for the time being, was pressed along Oriya's stomach, pointing up towards his chest. I could feel it throbbing and aching for a secondary release, ready to give in and shoot through every time Oriya moved his hips. I held onto him tight, flexing the muscles in my butt in order to bounce myself up and down on his cock. Oriya grunted into my shoulder, moving his hands back to cup my buttocks in each palm, using this hold to lift me higher, in turn increasing the depths to which his cock would plunge when I was dropped. We continued moving together, moaning, thrusting and yelping and I soon felt myself arrive at the edge once more.

A noise came out of me. It was the strangest noise I had ever made. Something of a grunt, a cry to express a passion that was beyond anything I had ever experienced before. I must have choked on the breath that caught in my throat, a breath that quickly darted free as that elusive bloom of pleasure snatched the lure and leapt clear from the waters that had confined it for so long. I felt myself rapture, inside and out, as wave upon wave of long withheld sexual build up was finally released. Semen ruptured out of me, splattering up Oriya's stomach and onto his chest and my thighs twitched reflexively from the aftershocks that continued to electrocute the interior of my passageways. The modern day samurai set me down suddenly and darted backwards, momentarily freeing himself from my body in order to capture my still expostulating cock in his mouth, swallowing what remained of my dripping passion. The sensation of that lovely mouth rimming about my manhood sent me spiraling once more and black clouds danced before my eyes. So… that was how it was. It felt that for those utterly insatiable moments of bliss, as though I had never experienced the depths of Hades. Instead, the two of us drifted up from its ruins into a blue cloud filled stereotype Heaven, wrapped in each other's arms and covered in kisses that caressed our skin as fleeting and soft as the wings of angels, brushing by our cheeks as we lay enchanted by the beads of love that lay twinkling in the depths of one another's eyes. We were there, the two of us; together in that unsurpassable pleasure that Oriya alone had been able to take me to. How I loved him at that point. How I loved him then when I was finally able to admit the truth of these words to myself.

But I had apparently done myself a little disservice whilst in the midst of my orgasm. It had been so extreme that I was momentarily blinded by burning hot lights that exploded across my vision and as the waves of pleasure assaulted me, I threw my head back and cracked my head on the window, drawing blood that left a matted blot against the glass.

Oriya didn't notice right away, completely distracted by his current task. It felt so good that I didn't have the heart to wise him up, so I ignored the brief discharge of pain and glanced downward, observing with ravenous eyes the delicious sight, as Oriya lapped up every last drop of semen that had erupted from me and not being satisfied with just that, used his hand to generously milk my softening penis, swallowing the residual white cream. He must have found the taste delicious because he even wiped off his own chest and licked his fingers. I personally, did not like the taste of semen. If I was given a choice I would much rather spit than swallow. But Oriya's attentions did go a long way to heightening the sexiness of our interaction.

"Mmm…" He murmured; as he licked clean my balls and cock, leaving me as well groomed as a cub in the care of a protective lioness. I simply panted, still recovering from the wonderful eruption of pleasure. Oriya looked up into my face with a teasing smile, which immediately dropped as he finally noticed the splat of blood against the glass behind me.

"Yutaka!" Oriya cried, pressing his hand to the wound I'd made. As though his fingers weren't sticky enough. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" I said, trying not to pant like the dog that just got his bone. "The wounds already healing." I brought myself back to my senses, reminding myself that Oriya hadn't even reached this place once yet. I started to sensually kiss his mouth, thinking it mighty unfair that he'd had to wait this long already. I had to keep myself from flinching at the taste of my own cum residing on his lips and tongue. "Fuck that was good… Finish it Oriya… let me see you happy."

He kissed me back and due to the state of my shaky knee syndrome, apparently decided that it would be best if we finished up in the bed. I was all fine and dandy with this. What we had done was amazing, no doubt but after that rockin' window, I was ready for a nice soft mattress and so was my butt. Oriya lifted me up, managing to make me feel like an elegant bride on her wedding night rather than a queer geeky blond and carried me to the bed. I'm no different to how most men feel after successful love and right then, all I particularly wanted to do was roll over and go to sleep. But it wasn't fair that Oriya should forego his own completion after indulging me for double or nothing, so I shook myself free from the fingers of sleep and forced myself to look perky and eager all over again. Oriya lay me down and gave me long enough to adjust myself comfortably before ruining all that by deftly lifting my legs up, pushing them into alignment alongside my head, enabling him to penetrate deeper. I hissed between my teeth.

"Don't push my legs back too far… I'm not a contortionist…" True, I had made love in a similar position before but not anyone had ever tried to put my ankles to the pillows! I was flattered if Oriya thought I'd be able to handle such an endeavor but I got the feeling he might be letting himself get just a little carried away.

Still, perhaps those yoga classes were worth looking into…

"I'm sorry…" Oriya panted, appearing a little embarrassed by his enthusiasm. He relaxed back a bit, hooking my knees atop his shoulders and rolling against me. Ah, now that was more like it. He was as nice and deep as he had been before but at least now my legs weren't popping out of joint. Wanting to show my appreciation of his thoughtfulness, I moved my fingers to the cleft of Oriya's buttocks and pressed them down, lazily circling the entrance with one fingernail. I was pleased to hear the effect I inspired in Oriya, whose breath started to pump eratically from his mouth like turbulence. His movements became drastically frantic and a little wild, close to inducing a repeated level of arousal in me. And then with three steady thrusts, he spent himself, rupturing deep inside of me. The hot, wonderful liquid shot through my passageways and I closed my eyes, pushing my hips backwards so that no drop was wasted. A beautiful gasp threaded up through Oriya's throat and out from his mouth as he stretched back, baring his neck and chest to the night air. His long eyelashes fluttered in ecstasy as he sat, crouched on his knees, gasping at the blessed air as though he had held his breath whilst he had taken me. Something happened then and I still cannot explain why but for a brief moment, I checked out of consciousness. Everything went black, as though I had dropped off to peaceful slumber, ludicrous though that is. I'm not sure how long I was out for, though it couldn't have been for more than a couple of seconds, a minute tops because I was brought back to consciousness by the feeling of Oriya's fingernails relaxing as he released my thighs, revealing ten crescent shaped cuts etched into my skin, where his nails had penetrated during intercourse. I blinked in slightly dazed confusion, watching with tired appreciation as he leaned back from me, his limp cock sliding out of my thoroughly abused orifice and swinging back feebly between the trembling thighs of the samurai, the tip still dripping with his satiated juices. I groaned softly and brought my arms up, helping Oriya to lower himself down, his wet cock coming to rest on my inside thigh as he collapsed on top of me.

"Was it all that?" He asked, as he wrapped his arms around me, face residing against the crook of my neck. He kissed the flesh there, as I silently considered the question, curling my fingers through the damp brown tresses of Oriya's hair that fell across my chest.

"Yeah…" I said at last, a contented smile marring my weary flushed features. "It was all that."

In the darkness of the night, the Guardian and the Pimp laughed together, arms tight around one another with no intention of letting go. I knew very well that it couldn't be like this forever. Enma was going to know about this come morning and I had no way of knowing just what I was going to do about it. But how could I concern myself with this, when here I lay with the most profoundly divine man on Gods earth, staring at me as though I were a clear pool in an otherwise barren desert? I shifted a little as I felt Oriya sigh and nuzzle his face into my neck, kissing where his lips fell and stroking the pads of his fingers across the opposing side. I groaned softly, feeling suddenly empty and wanting him back inside of me. I lifted my hips, conscious of the warm, satisfying sensation of his semen resting up in the depths of my body, like a very welcome visitor that I was happy to accommodate without charge. Some of the sticky mess was congealing in the opening of my anus and would have undoubtedly ruined the sheets if Oriya hadn't taken it upon himself to get me cleaned up. Using one of his very own handkerchiefs, he twisted the material about his finger and gently poked it up inside of my aching muscle, swabbing at the leakage that was of some immediate concern to the sanctity of his linens. I simply shut my eyes, letting him do as he pleased, feeling very tired and content. After a minute's excavation, Oriya withdrew his finger and scrunched the handkerchief up, setting it on the bedside table, perhaps for later use. He lay on his side beside me, and I reached out, wrapping my arms around him and pulling myself close until our noses overlapped and we were eye to eye. Strands of his long hair had gotten stuck to my chest by sweat and vice versa. I occupied myself in the sensual task of picking each strand free, managing to do so without diverting my eyes from Oriya's own, sleepy dark orbs.

I still could scarcely believe that we had done it. I was so happy it was beyond my ability to express it. Oriya too seemed quite chuffed, to say the least. He gazed at me lovingly as he ran the knuckle of his finger over my cheek. His other arm was wrapped around my midsection, his hand gently rubbing my bottom.

"Yutaka…" He said breathlessly.

"Mmmhmm?" I was sleepy. I had my eyes shut and I was ready to rock out to the world of dreams, which were only bound to disappoint after my reality had just turned so freakin' bitchin.

I cranked open one heavy eyelid to get a look at Oriya, hopefully so that it would imprint into my dreamland where you could have sex forever and never get tired. His visage did not disappoint. His hair was damp and sweat was beaded across his chest, neck and as far as I knew, his back. He looked beautiful and seductive and so much more interesting than the prospect of going to sleep.

"Did you… enjoy being with me?" He asked, after I had stared at him for what felt like a million years. Hell, it wouldn't have been hard to lose track of the time.

I smiled in recognition of this old adage and whispered directly between his lips. "I haven't stopped enjoying it yet, Oriya." I kissed him gently, adoring him and wishing I had the guts to say so much more. "You're still here…"

Oriya returned my smile, running his knuckle over my chin and a sudden, distressing thought came to mind, so upsetting that I could see no other alternative than to address it.

"Oriya?"

"Yeah?" He asked, not appearing the least bit sleepy as of yet. Heck, was probably ready for another go and here I was settling in for a kip! Not that a wash, rinse, repeat of the above didn't sound great too but at this stage Oriya would have only found himself fucking me until I fainted.

"Will you stay with me…?" I asked, feeling very shy all of a sudden. I grasped his fingers between mine and gave them a squeeze. "All through the night? I don't want you to leave me… that's what they did."

He cupped my face in his hand, stroking my cheek with a tenderness that might have even suggested his feelings for me were greater than what we had just done. "'My eternal heart and my undying love. Forever I am yours.'"

I smiled, verging on telling him that I loved him again. Fortunately, I got a hold of myself just in the nick of time. "You are a very kind man, Oriya." I nuzzled his nose and then kissed the patch of skin beneath his eye. "I adore you… you're a wonderful man."

Oriya smiled sleepily, taking up my long abandoned task of unsticking his hair from where it had plastered itself against my upper arms, shoulders and neck. It made my skin tickle every time he plucked a strand free. "Thankyou Yutaka. You're an incredibly sweet guy."

He pressed his mouth up against mine again and then seemed to change his mind about the longevity of the kiss because he readjusted his lips to sustain the contact he had already established between them. I placed my hand on the back of Oriya's head and returned the gesture in kind, before gently pressing his temple down to rest against my chest. I stroked the crown of his head and trailed my fingers across the extraordinary patchwork of muscles in his back. Our legs entwined as we lay naked atop the blankets and I found myself longing for him to push himself inside of me again. Not to make love just yet but to fill the empty void that had seemed to discomfort me ever since we had parted.

Oriya's chuckle broke through my bizarre longing, distracting me from the aching want, albeit temporarily. "Who ever thought… that a doctor could make me feel this way."

"What way?" I asked, feeling sleep tug at me like a child attempting to attract the attention of a distracted adult.

Oriya paused for a moment. "Happy…" He finally conceded.

-End Part Two-