Sorry! Didn't mean to make you wait so long, just been busy with surgery and all. Here you go!

Don't own, run away now, etc.

DEVIL IN THE DARK
Chapter 5

Sliding into his character was like putting on an old, well-worn coat. It was comfortable, despite the aspects of Gii he had never been totally at ease with. He decided to be a gentler Gii, as understanding as he'd wanted him to be. This Gii would coax but not force, be emotional rather than quite so distant. Never had a role been so important.

"Takumi," he murmured.

Before his eyes, Kyousuke, usually so easy-going, transformed into his fearful identical twin of a character. It took no effort at all, this shift, because the way he trembled and shrank back was so familiar, after two years and four movies of it.

"Takumi."

Diasuke slid his fingers into Kyousuke's hair, feeling him shake, watched the boy shut his eyes a moment and try to calm himself. Slowly the teenager reached a hand up, hesitantly curled it around Daisuke's forearm.

"Baby. Takumi."

"Gii?" It was a question, but he said it the way Takumi did, slowly and drawn out.

"Yeah. Can I touch? It's okay. It's okay to be scared."

With a shy smile unlike him, Kyousuke nodded, but inhaled suddenly as the other body moved closer.

"It's okay. You're safe."

"Gii."

As a hand cupped his cheek, Kyousuke's eyes fluttered shut again. He continued to shake, but moved his face encouragingly against the soft touch. Daisuke ran his thumbpad over the pink lips, then the hand slid behind to stroke the nape. Kyousuke shivered at this, but his breathing was slower.

"Takumi."

What the hell, Gii would do it. Without warning, Daisuke moved forward and pressed his mouth to Kyousuke's. A sound of fright almost drove him back, but then the younger boy grabbed and squeezed his shoulder. Daisuke kept the first few kisses relatively chaste, then opened his mouth and wordlessly urged Kyousuke to do the same.

With a sweet hesitation, Kyousuke parted his lips and let a tongue breach them. Takumi and Gii had never kissed this way except once when the actors had momentarily lost control, but Kyousuke seemed to relax a little. He let Daisuke have control, as Takumi did with Gii, but willingly kissed back. Daisuke wrapped his arms around the boy and held on despite a slight struggle.

"I love you." It had always been Gii's excuse, but at least it was true.

"Gii..."

Daisuke knew the teenager wouldn't be able to go again, but no matter - this was about comfort, not sex. He pushed his face against a thin neck and licked the line of the vein, then placed kisses aong the wet path. His hands were moving all over, up and down Kyousuke's back, squeezing his bottom, running over the faint curve of waist into hip.

I need to make him eat more, Daisuke thought, somewhat randomly.

"I'm here. I'm yours and you're mine. I promise, you're safe with me. I'll never hurt you." Daisuke caught his lips again, tasted the slight sweetness of his boyfriend. "Takumi."

"Gii, I love you."

A tear came out and quickly trickled down his face; Daisuke wiped its trace away. He continued to touch the boy, and his trembling and fear was almost okay, because this was Takumi, and Takumi had been afraid before. Even more than the movies showed, because the two actors had often acted out scenes from the novels and from the film they hadn't starred in. Kyousuke had really wanted to practice the human contact phobia, and Daisuke wanted any excuse to touch him.

It hadn't always been easy. Fear, even pretended fear in Kyousuke's eyes had been hard for Daisuke to look into. His early practice of asking "Are you okay?" after every intimate scene had never gone away, even persisting into their life as a couple. The part of the fifth movie that Daisuke still bitterly called "the rape scene" was the worst of all. It took an entire day to film, because after each take he'd had to go vomit. Kyousuke had been so patient, though, so reassuring.

Daisuke placed a gentle kiss on each closed eyelid. "You remember, right? The most important thing about me?"

A shy smile. "That you love me."

"More than anything."

"I love you too."

Their hands all stayed above the waist above the waists, because that was as far and Takumi and Gii went, for the most part. They explored each other in this semi-chaste way for a long time, kissing and reassuring and being reassured by their proximity to each other. At last, Kyousukes trembling eased, and he murmured "Dai-chan" into the elder's shoulder.

"I'm here, Mao."

"Thank you."

"Did it help?"

"I think so. I'm still scared but...I don't know. It's like, if I can put that on Takumi...it's all right."

"That makes sense. They are pretty unlike us, after all." Daisuke laughed softly. "Remember the blowjob scene?"

Kyousuke groaned. Of course he did. There was a part at the end of Bibou No Detail where the director wanted to imply that Gii was orally pleasuring Takumi to the point of climax. Kyousuke had been extremely embarrassed, refusing to rehearse it in the presence of anyone else, and had been visibly shaking with apprehension while the camera was positioned to get a close-up of his face.

The room had been cleared of all non-essential crew members. Daisuke had knelt out of view and whispered encouragement to him. Yokoi-sensei promised Mao that if he did it well, he wouldn't have to do it again. Despite his unhappy anxiety, he was a good actor and pulled it off well, but hadn't been able to look anyone in the eye for the rest of the day.

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"It was cute. You were so innocent. And it turned out hot."

Kyousuke lightly shoved him. "I had no clue what I was doing. I had never been touched by anyone like that."

"Do you remember the night before that? When I was staring at you, and almost said something, but didn't?"

He did. "Yes, you said it was nothing. What were you going to say?"

"I was going to offer to suck you off so you'd have some reference."

"What? Really?"

Daisuke nodded sheepishly. "I didn't because I was afraid you'd only say yes to be polite, and I would basically be forcing you. And I knew you'd be embarrassed. And I knew one time wouldn't be enough for me."

"I kind of wish you had asked. But it was only days later that we got together, wasn't it?"

"Mmm, yeah. My happiest day."

"Mine too." Kyousuke ran his fingers along the elder's jaw. "I thought I would just have to live with my huge crush forever. That I'd always be a kid to you."

"A kid I had to grope for cameras," Daisuke chuckled.

"It didn't help when you told that reporter you thought of me as a girl."

"My manager made me say that. So people wouldn't be suspicious, because according to him, I was staring at you too much."

That made Kyousuke feel better. "So, you never thought of me as a girl?"

"Nah. You're not girly, and never were, even when you were smaller." Daisuke smiled teasingly. "Did you ever pretend I was a girl, like I told you you could?"

"No. I always liked you just as you are."

"I've never seen a girl as pretty as you anyway."

Kyousuke pouted, and grumbled, "Why does everyone call me that?"

"'Cause you are."

"Am not."

"Are."

"Am not."

"Are."

"And you don't need to call me that every single time we're on camera. People are already suspicious."

"Well." Daisuke took his warm hand and kissed it. "A lot of our fans have guessed the truth. And we were talking about going public."

"Yeah..."

"Do you want to?"

"Yes, but Matsuda doesn't want me to," Kyousuke sighed, referring to his manager. "He thinks I'll be typecast."

"If he's making you feel bad, I can kick his ass."

Kyousuke smiled weakly. "He's just trying to do what's best for my career."

"And his own wallet."

"He doesn't want me to be Takumi forever." The boy laughed mirthlessly. "He'd probably find this situation funny."

"Baby. It's gonna be okay."

Daisuke gathered the teenager into his arms and held him close. Kyousuke pressed his face into the elder's warmth and tried to steady his panicked breathing.

"Dai-chan...I can be Takumi with you, sometimes. But not for him. I don't want to do it for him."

"You're Mao. No matter what we pretend, that will never change. You're not Takumi and no one can make you be."

"But he's made me afraid...like Takumi."

"You can overcome it. Takumi did, and you're even stronger than him. You're the strongest person I've ever known, and you will survive this. Just hang on, baby. Okay? For me?"

Kyousuke nodded. "I'd do anything for you."

"Thank you, Mao."

"Do you think they'll be able to find us? We don't even know where we are."

"We weren't out long enough to go very far. We're still somewhere in Japan."

"He said if we were good, we'd be allowed outside," Kyousuke said in a soft, pained voice. "Should I be good?"

"Do whatever you're comfortable doing. I think it's safest for us to go along with him at least a little, but that doesn't mean we make this easy for him." Daisuke frowned. "I hate to say it, but we have to please him enough so..."

"So he doesn't give us to those other men," Kyousuke said, shivering.

Or just kill us, though I wonder if that would be much worse. Daisuk tightened his arms around his young lover.

"I want so much to protect you."

"Don't risk yourself, Dai-chan, ever. Nothing would be worse than being here without you."

"I'll be careful. I just wish he wasn't so focused on you," Daisuke whispered.

"I have you. I'll be okay, as long as you are."

The sound of the door didn't startle them. Over the past few days, they'd learned when a woman servant brought food, and that she scurried away when offered bribes to help them. When she was gone, Daisuke sat up and stretched.

"C'mon, baby, you need to eat."

Kyousuke wiped his sticky eyes, and headed for the bathroom. "I'll be right there."

Daisuke went ahead to the table, to spoon portions of the rice and fish onto plates, and to roll his eyes at the bottle of wine always brought with the food. Something caught his attention, a folded piece of paper that he quickly opened, then hurriedly hid in his pocket, determined that Mao would not see it.

Thank you for the show, the note read. You've given me an excellent idea.

To be continued.