Fully Exposed

As embarrassing as it was taking his boxers off, it was worse watching Kitagawa walk around, looking through fingers framed like a box, trying to find the right angle. And every time he moved to hide his junk, Kitagawa asked him to stand still.

The only relief was that the angle he finally chose was from his right side, which let him hide his dick behind his raised thigh.

Still, time was moving very slowly as he stood, trying not to move too much, waiting for Ren and Ann to knock on the door and get him out of this. Kitagawa was no help at all, too focused on painting to say a word except to once again order him to stand still or turn his head back. Not that it was easy standing still for so long.

Holding his arms in the air for this long would have been impossible without the pulleys Kitagawa had him holding onto. They were helping him to stay balanced, but he didn't like keeping his bad leg still like this. Having it elevated usually helped, but he'd never kept it up for this long before. He hoped it wouldn't lock up. It'd make putting his clothes on difficult, but there was no way he'd be able to stealth through a palace hopping on one leg.

Glancing at the door again, he wondered what was taking them so long. Was that cat delaying just to make him do this? Or maybe Ann was just trying to make sure the painting got made?

Or worse, maybe the thing they were looking for wasn't even here and he was posing for nothing.

Kitagawa cleared his throat again and Ryuji looked forward with a grunt, "How long is this gonna take again?"

"I will finish when I am done." Kitagawa answered unhelpfully, drawing on the canvas with a pencil, "It is best not to rush fine art."

Ryuji fidgeted, trying not to let anything spill into view, "Does that mean an hour? Or–"

Kitagawa gave a long-suffering sigh as if he were the one struggling, "Traditionally, a proper nude model painting is done in three-hour sessions. I would say that this will take at least three sessions to complete," He caught Kitagawa narrowing his eyes at him, "more if you persist in distracting me."

"Three sessions?" Ryuji shouted, letting go of the ropes, "I don't want to stand here naked for nine hours!"

"Admittedly, I don't want you to either," Kitagawa said with a huff, "You're moving around too much as it is, and I really must get to painting Takamaki-san." He finally looked Ryuji in the eye, "Now I need you to return to your pose."

Ryuji grumbled, shooting a mutinous look to the door. They probably weren't standing outside, but he could just imagine Ann and the cat snickering at him.

Kitagawa cleared his throat again and Ryuji sighed, "Yeah, yeah…" He muttered, grabbing the ropes and getting back into position.

"Skull!" Mona's voice was a muffled shout through the door, "It was a locked room in the back, I got it open. Now we just have to wait until Madarame sees it."

Ryuji couldn't quite stop himself from grinning, "Fer real?"

Kitagawa gave a long-suffering sigh, "Sakamoto-san, can you please keep your head forward?" Then he paused, "Who were you talking to?"

"Eh, I just heard Ren's cat, it must have gotten out of his bag."

"He keeps his cat in his bag?" Kitagawa raised an eyebrow, "Is that… good for it?"

Ryuji shrugged, "He seems to like it?"

"I do not," Mona muttered darkly.

Kitagawa seemed to accept that before shaking his head, "Still, he shouldn't have brought it if he can't keep it under control. Sensei wouldn't approve."

"Eh, it's fine. He's probably just stretching his legs." Ryuji said, hoping he could do the same without getting yelled at.

"I must insist." Kitagawa rose from his stool and started heading towards the door, "Ren, please make sure you control your cat."

"Stall him!" Mona hissed, "He'll realize they aren't here!"

Ryuji's eyes widened, "What?"

"Ryuji you idiot, Ren and Lady Ann are waiting in the Metaverse!"

"H-hey wait," Ryuji hopped off the bucket, trying to intercept Kitagawa, but his leg locked up, leaving him unable to do more than stagger after Kitagawa as he opened the door.

Madarame arrived home in time to see a naked blonde boy hobbling through the hall of his atelier, calling out after Yusuke. It was only the first shock he received that day. The second was finding his private storage room unlocked with his apprentice and the naked blonde inside. The third was when the boy pulled the cloth off Saiyuri so he could cover himself.

That was when Madarame decided to call his private security company.

Panther looked around the courtyard as she took a moment to rest. The Nue they'd faced had been no joke. "Do you think Skull and Morgana managed to get away?"

Joker grimaced, "With Skull's leg, I thought it would be easier for him to come here after opening the door."

"I guess that makes sense, but shouldn't he be here by now? They got it open–"

"OH SHIIII–" Skull's voice filled the air and he fell from the ceiling, arms flailing frantically. Panther's eyes widened, but Joker lept into the air and caught him before he hit the ground.

A second later, Kitagawa landed on his feet where Joker had been standing. He was beginning to recover when Mona slammed into him head first, the sound they made reminded Panther of two coconuts being smacked together.

Joker landed and Skull frantically looked down at himself before sighing in relief, "Oh thank God I'm not naked."

"You actually got naked?" Panther asked, unable to keep the glee from her voice.

Skull gave her a disgusted look, "Yeah, fer like, an hour. Then Morgana came knocking and Kitagawa went looking for you and I had to chase him. I didn't even have time to get any clothes on!"

"Maybe if you had just kept your mouth shut, he wouldn't have gone looking," Morgana grumbled.

"Well, I'm glad the metaverse provided," Joker said, pushing past the remark before they could escalate and helped Ryuji back onto his feet.

Kitagawa's groan caught their attention as he slowly got back to his feet and looked around, "W-who are you all?"

"Aw crap." Skull groaned, "Uh, hey man, calm down, it's me."

"Sakamato. That means you two are..." He trailed off, "I don't remember you wearing a biker outfit before." He rubbed his head, "What is this place?"

Ryuji held his hands up and backed up behind Joker and Panther, "Nope, nope, one of you guys explain this, I'm just gonna mess it up."

"Well, that does give credence to your claim that you are who you say you are…"

"Hey!"

Joker sighed and stepped forward, "This is going to be a little hard to believe, but we're inside Madarame's heart."

"... Inside Sensei's heart?" Kitagawa stared at Joker for a long moment before returning his gaze to Skull, "Sakamoto, did you somehow slip me drugs?"

Author's Note: Among the many stories I have worked on that get infrequent updates. I'm just glad I finally pushed this chapter to completion! I hope you all like it.