Naruto Fanfiction // Lessons in Living // Chapter 7
Title: Lessons in Living Chapter 7: When the Dam Breaks
Series: Monoshizukanohi//Naruto & Crossover AU
Author: Darkprism
Genre: Drama/Romance/Kink
Rating: Overall Mature
Pairing: Tenzou & Sai and other men in my Monoshizukanohi 'verse
Word Count: Ongoing
Warnings/Notes: This chapter: language, BDSM, D/s relationships, crossover of worlds, mild impact play, nipple torture, hand job, anal, other.
Spoilers: None whatsoever.
Summary: A year ago, Tenzou lost the only man he ever loved, and the only man he believes he ever will love. So when an artistic prodigy many years Tenzou's junior enters his life with determined demands for love, play, and safe harbor, Tenzou is forced to face his past, remember his promises, and challenge his presumption that forever after is final.
Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone for their patient support while I've dealt with all manner of real life crises in the past two months. I hope this 8200 word chunk helps to show my appreciation. This is NOT the last chapter of the story. See end for other notes. Much love and many, many thanks. ♥
Tenzou shoved open the side door of the Saint Ann Street McDonald's in Shadgrove and started to cross the parking lot to his Hummer. He paused midway, legs shaky and knees weak. He cocked his head, fingers clenching the plastic cup of ice water just a little tighter, and he waited to see if his guts were going to ease. The night was damp, cool without being cold, and a light drizzle fell, wetting the shoulders of Tenzou's black trench coat. Cars passed by on the roads on all four sides of the fast food restaurant, and the traffic was heavy for a Sunday night. Headlights shone, distantly a siren coming from the direction of Saint Ann's hospital wailed, and Tenzou breathed a sigh of relief when his intestines stopped twisting like a rope bridge over a canyon.
Continuing to the H3's door, Tenzou unlocked it and climbed inside. He finished the water and rested, knowing he had to get moving or he'd be late. He was due to pick up Sai from the Addiction Feed in five minutes and take the kid to Club Break, and his body evidently thought that was tantamount to going to war. That was something nobody really talked about: the physical reactions to fear and combat and training. Your bladder shrank, your bowels turned to water, your stomach heaved bile-flavored breakfast, and soldiers simply had to deal with those reactions while carrying on with the exercise or maneuver or engagement. Tenzou knew how to breathe through it, knew better than to get overexcited or anxious and thus make it worse, but the severity of tonight's little episode was... unexpected. So far he'd made two pit stops, one to a gas station for Pepto and the second to this McDonald's where he'd spent the last ten minutes melting porcelain. Thank God for the enlightening bit of graffiti on the joys of oral sex or Tenzou would have been positively bored.
Chuckling at himself because if he didn't laugh he'd give in to pure hysteria, Tenzou tipped a piece of ice into his mouth and dropped the cup into the console in the truck's floorboard. His cheek went numb as he pulled into the flow of traffic. Sai didn't have a cell phone, so Tenzou tapped through menus on his iPhone and dialed the café.
"Addiction Feed," said a dull male voice after the fourth ring.
"Ulquiorra?" Tenzou asked.
"What?"
"It's Asashi Tenzou. Do me a favor."
"Why?"
Tenzou snorted, teeth clenched. "Because I'm asking nicely."
"What?"
Ulquiorra sounded bored and resigned to fate. The epitome of communicative and cordial, this one. Ulquiorra and Gaara should get together and have a non-chat. It'd be hilarious to watch. "About a week ago, I was in there with a brunet kid. Young, slender, about five foot--"
"Yes. And?"
"Is he there?"
"Yes."
"Good. Tell him I'll be ten minutes late."
"Mm." Ulquiorra hung up, and Tenzou had to hope the man would be good for the message. Tenzou and Sai had spoken every day since they'd met up in the middle of the night and Tenzou had offered to... well. Tenzou still wasn't sure. Take Sai under his wing? Show Sai some ropes without tying any of the knots? Guard and be friends with Sai until someone better came along and struck Sai's fancy?
Tenzou reached for the Pepto in the passenger seat. Who was he kidding? He wanted the kid. Wanted to fuck him, hold him, hurt him, tuck him in to bed at night. Tenzou'd thought long and gotten hard over the last few days on what he would allow himself to do and what he wouldn't. He'd drawn lines, erased them, restructured priorities, watched them crumble, created limits, wondered if they were sane...
The medicine was thick on his tongue and chalky in his throat, and Tenzou recapped the bottle, leaned sideways, and stored it in the glove compartment. He retrieved a pack of gum, and popped two caplets into his mouth. He barely tasted the mint and wove through the streets repeating mantras to himself.
I will only do what's best for him. I will hold the line. I will show and not take. I will only do what's best for him...
There was a snarky, though irritatingly calm, voice that sounded way too much like Kakashi whispering that Tenzou was kind of cute when being so fucking delusional. One half of him agreed, understood that he had no business taking the kid to Break. He had no business taking anyone anywhere in the state he was in, which was frayed, unraveled, and sort of spontaneously schizophrenic. Picking up Sai, seeing him, going through with the carefully laid out and ambitious plan for the evening was a suicide mission that would self-destruct in his face. Tenzou knew this.
And yet he steered his truck toward the café with dogged determination. Because the other half of him argued, in a terribly reasonable fashion, that some sort of interaction had to happen. He'd made promises to the boy that he had to keep. Tenzou was honor-bound to protect and serve, to teach and Master, and at least if Tenzou carried through with the plan, he'd have a chance at showing Sai that yes, Tenzou cared, but there were other people out there who could do for the kid what Sai needed without Tenzou's battleship of baggage. Tenzou accepted that physical contact was likely inevitable, could stomach that because, well, it wasn't like Tenzou could do much with a dick that only stayed hard for about five minutes max without any sort of orgasmic point. Tenzou could commit himself to going slow, could limit the sex to doing only for Sai, could show Sai Scene and other options, and maybe, just maybe, Tenzou could scrape out of this situation with himself in one piece and Sai safely and eventually in the arms of a saner, better man.
And it didn't matter that the idea of Sai with someone else made his insides burn, his asshole spasm, and his gorge rise. Nerves. That was just nerves.
Tenzou turned into the Addiction Feed parking lot, and a slim figure wrapped in a deep blue Japanese Happi coat got up from a bench next to the front door. At the very sight of Sai, Tenzou wanted to moan and to cry and to beg somebody for mercy. The boy was so graceful, walking to Tenzou's truck. Sai was resolute, eyes wide, shoulders relaxed, pale skin practically lit from within. Sai tried to open the passenger door, but it was locked, and Tenzou's fingers shook as he hit the button.
All week, he'd been calm on the phone. He'd listened to Sai speak of paintings, daily routine, childhood, lonely Christmases, and about how Sai had always wanted a kitten. Tenzou had answered Sai's questions about building Break, about his woodworking business, and, bewildered, he'd given Sai his suit measurements when Sai had demanded them. Sai had confessed to liking collars, cinnamon ice cream, and had asked for dozens of details about fisting before saying he wasn't sure he liked the idea after all while Tenzou tried not to hyperventilate. Tenzou had steered Sai into making arrangements to meet up, being careful to choose a night when he knew Kakashi was not going to be at the club. Tenzou'd explained Break's dress code or lack thereof when Sai had lamented over what to wear. Sai had backed Tenzou into a corner, and Tenzou had snapped at Sai that no, he would not dictate Sai's wardrobe, and the answer to why was because he said so, dammit.
Waterboarding would never have made Tenzou confess that the very idea of having command of such small, intimate details had Tenzou hard and doubled over in want. Being so involved crossed lines that Tenzou was desperate to hold.
The reasoning behind those boundaries, however, completely escaped Tenzou when Sai climbed into the H3. He wore snug silken pants, black calf-high boots, and the coat covered whatever he wore over his upper half. His hair was clean, messy again in artful arrangement. He smelled sweet, like chocolate, and he smiled at Tenzou without a hint of artifice.
Tenzou's heart pounded, and an image of a birch tree wrapped in ice leapt to Tenzou's mind. Branches crackled, icicles fell to stab the earth, and the bark began to split. For a second, Tenzou couldn't remember anything: how to breathe, why they were there, where they were going, how they'd met, if there'd been a point when Sai had not been in Tenzou's life. He couldn't even make his throat work in a swallow.
Sai frowned. "You look sick."
Tenzou sucked wind in a wheeze. "Nice to see you, too."
"Why do you look sick?" Sai asked this time instead of stating.
"I'm fine."
"You're pale."
"It's the light."
"Your lips have no color."
"It's normal."
"It isn't. Normal is pink. You seem--"
"Sai, I'm all right!" Tenzou bellowed.
"You're lying," Sai answered, calmly with a deepening frown.
Tenzou gaped at the kid. He didn't know if he wanted to kiss Sai or shake the boy until the pretty, thin neck threatened to snap. "I ate something that disagreed with me."
Sai's frown vanished. "Oh. Do you need medicine?"
"I've taken some."
"Oh." Sai's eyes searched the interior of the truck with an inward, preoccupied gaze. "You don't have to take me to the club. We could go to your home, where you could rest and be comfortable, and I could experience what I want with just you."
"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" Tenzou muttered, forehead on the steering wheel.
"...I don't know?" Sai replied.
Tenzou sighed, sat up, and put the truck into gear. "We're going to the club, Sai."
"I don't like you sick." Sai's tone was stubborn, and he clasped Tenzou's wrist.
"I'll pass that along to my immune system. Buckle up." Tenzou gently shook off Sai's hold.
Sai dutifully put on his seatbelt. "I don't think the mind-to-blood cell communication works like that, and I don't understand why we're going to the club if you're ill when we could accomplish--"
"Sai," Tenzou barked in his best military commander voice, and Sai didn't flinch but did sit up straighter in the seat, staring at Tenzou with big, wide eyes. "State the rules."
"We go at your pace. I only see you for Scene action or information. I will answer and ask questions unless you direct me to be quiet. I go to you for help. I can't draw on your house or break any more windows. I am to call you on your cell phone between six a.m. and eleven p.m. unless there is an emergency." Sai rattled off the list like an elementary school kid might recite an assigned poem; just words, no meaning. His frown shouldn't have been so adorable, and Tenzou tried to ignore it, pulling out of the parking lot.
"Now tell me what we've talked about in regards to visiting Break."
"Why?"
"Because I asked you to."
"Have you forgotten?" Sai sounded hopeful.
"No, Sai," Tenzou said dryly. "I have this dumb idea that if you repeat it often enough, it'll sink in."
"Sink into what?"
Tenzou had learned over the hours of chatting that Sai tended to act more literal and emotionally stunted than he was when doing something he didn't like. Tenzou shot Sai an unhappy look, and Sai flopped back into the seat, arms folded across his chest.
"Our engagement tonight at Break is meant to show me a broader view of Scene than just the two of us could provide or know, and it follows rule one as it's part of the pace you've set, but I still think it breaks rule two because it means going somewhere else for information. I only want to talk to you. I only care what you think because I only want to play with you or with someone you choose. I don't want that power because I'm not qualified, and--"
"Thank you, Sai," Tenzou interjected wearily.
"Besides," Sai continued, picking at a seam in his coat. "The entire plan should change if you are compromised. All the books say not to do things when--"
"Sai, that's enough." The birch tree in Tenzou's crazy headspace swayed and crunched in a gusty breeze. Sai didn't answer, and after a few minutes, guilt and duty got the better of Tenzou's tongue. "You're right, Sai. One shouldn't play if one is emotionally or physically unstable. That's why we're not doing anything in the club, tonight."
Sai appeared to mull that over. "So if we were somewhere other than the club, there would be a chance of you recuperating and us playing or doing something?"
Tenzou ground his teeth. "My pace, Sai. Mine."
Sai huffed.
"Fine," Tenzou said. "Consider it an order, then."
The way Sai brightened at those words did not bode well for Tenzou's tentative boundaries. "Order?" Sai asked, interested.
"Sure," Tenzou replied, trying to sound casual. "We will go to the club, you will observe people playing, you will ask any questions of me or other members, you will try things if the mood strikes you, and you and I will not do anything in the club." Tenzou hoped to God that was specific enough. Leaving Sai loopholes was not a wise idea.
"That's what you want?" Sai asked, voice so soft Tenzou almost didn't hear him.
"Yes, Sai. That's what I want." The words rang hollow in Tenzou's own ears, and his insides cramped.
"You're lying, again, but okay." Sai clasped his hands in his lap and stared out the window.
Tenzou didn't care if he'd won the pyrrhic victory by fighting. Sai had agreed, and Tenzou concentrated on driving and breathing. By the time they reached the road that wound up the side of a plateau heading toward the cathedral on top, the drizzle had stopped and the stars bright enough to overcome light pollution were appearing as the clouds rolled out to sea. Sai didn't say another word while Tenzou navigated the switchback curves, but he did twist in his seat to get a better look at the view. All of Monoshizukanohi sprawled beyond and below them, the city's spires swirled in fog and mist. Tenzou slowed down when the road leveled so Sai could see, and he smiled at Sai's terribly quiet sigh.
On Sundays, the above-ground dance club Bliss was closed and below-ground BDSM club Break was open. Most people would take the Tomb entrance into the underground passageway leading to Break, but Tenzou didn't want to deal with that nonsense. He parked in the VIP lot near Bliss' front door and killed the engine. "Ready?" he asked his mute passenger.
Sai merely nodded and opened his door. Tenzou was worried, but comforted somewhat when Sai's swift and determined gait matched his as they crossed the parking lot and ascended wide, concrete steps. Tenzou dug in the pocket of his black pants for the electronic passkey that would undo the locks and let them inside. His slacks were tailored but plain, the only embellishment a leather-esque sheen to the nap. Over the pants, Tenzou wore a dark grey, heavy t-shirt with a v-neck. Nothing fancy, just as he preferred it. Let Neji and Naruto have their vinyl and leather outfits. Things cost a fortune and didn't suit Tenzou.
Tenzou withdrew the passkey and paused. He didn't keep it on his regular keychain any longer, and when he'd snatched the thing out of the kitchen's junk drawer earlier tonight, he'd not thought anything of it. Now, though, he stared at the silver rectangle that was a tiny reproduction of a framed painting depicting a forest and lake. A birch forest, to be exact, and Tenzou knew the trees in the original were covered in ice. Tenzou couldn't remember the artist's name, only that it had been one of Jack's favorites.
"What's that?" Sai asked, coming closer.
"The key." Tenzou's voice was rough.
Sai studied Tenzou's palm. "That's Nin Yi's, 'Why Do You Come To Me,'" he pronounced. "Though sometimes the title's interpreted, 'Why Do You Kneel To Me.'"
"Yes. Yes it is." Tenzou looked at Sai, met the serious gaze, and Sai said nothing more. Tenzou swiped the passkey over the sensor, entered a ten-digit code, and the massive gothic doors began to swing open on their automated hinges. Tenzou was numb about the lips, and his brain was full of fog. He walked into the building, barely glancing at Sai's mural high up on the wall. He secured the outer doors, waved his key over two more sensor panels, and then they were descending a stone staircase lit by dim sconces.
"We can check our coats, here," Tenzou said, gesturing to the counter tucked into a nook near one of the doorways into the club. The Catacombs, as the hallways around the club were called, were mostly empty tonight. Tenzou heard music, a low steady beat, and the few patrons he did see were outfitted in the usual amount of leather, vinyl, chain, and lace. One man walked by in nothing but a black leather thong, and another came out of the club heading for the restrooms in absolutely nothing at all. Sai watched the second man's progression with interest, and he shrugged out of his Happi coat.
"Very good, sir!" said Rose, the sweet woman who usually occupied the check counter. She took Sai's jacket, and beneath it Sai wore nothing but the silk pants and a single black armband around his left bicep. Though Sai was slim and slight, his dense, well-defined musculature shifted and slid beneath pale, white-almond skin. When he bent his arm, the band constricted and visible veins plumped in Sai's forearms and hands. He was smooth save for the shadows of his underarms and a short dusting of black hair that started below his navel. Tenzou's palms itched, and he dug fingernails into them. He'd seen the likeness in a painting, and he'd felt Sai through clothing, but the flesh and bone visual left his mouth dry.
Rose glanced at Tenzou and winked, and Tenzou handed over his duster, gulping down desire and despair. "Thank you," Tenzou said, taking their checked item stubs.
"You're welcome. Enjoy your night, sirs."
"You look nice," Sai said to Tenzou, eying Tenzou with such extreme focus that he broke into a sweat.
"Thank you," Tenzou replied politely, leading them into Break proper. "So do you."
"You mean it." Sai brought both hands up to his heart, one fist resting on the other over his breastbone. Sai smiled at the floor, and Tenzou's knees went watery. He halted and almost told Sai he had to go, and if Sai needed him, he'd be hiding in the bathroom wishing he did drugs.
"I..." Tenzou began, and Sai's head snapped up to stare up at him.
"You?" Sai asked.
"Tenzou?" called an incredulous and familiar voice. Tenzou tore himself away from Sai to watch Kiba saunter over to them. Kiba's jeans were slung low on his hips, and he had on a leather shoulder piece studded with rivets that covered his upper back. The triskelion dragon tattoo covering Kiba's chest seemed to swirl beneath the overhead red and blue lights, and Tenzou breathed through a spell of dizziness.
"Kiba," Tenzou replied. "Good to see you."
"The fuck ya doin' here?" Kiba asked, laughing. Kiba grabbed Tenzou's hand and yanked Tenzou into a fierce embrace, slapping him on the shoulder.
"I think my name's still on the deed," Tenzou answered.
"Well, shit, sure, but ya ain't been here in... Oh, hang the fuck on. Who's this?" Kiba grinned a toothy, pointy grin at Sai, who smiled back without hesitation.
"Kiba, meet Sai."
"Nice to meet you," Sai said. Loudly. And he glanced at Tenzou meaningfully, as though checking to see if Tenzou noted the progress on tonight's orders. Tenzou winced.
"Yours?" Kiba asked Tenzou without answering Sai directly.
"No," Tenzou said.
"Yes," Sai said at the same time.
"Under protection," Tenzou clarified.
Kiba cocked a brow at Tenzou. "Sub?"
"Just looking for now," Tenzou tried, but Sai drowned him out.
"Yes, I am interested in being a submissive." Sai stepped close enough to Kiba that Kiba stumbled backward a pace, blinking down at Sai with a bemused expression. "I want to be his submissive, but he says I must see how others behave in the Lifestyle first. Are you a Dom?"
"Ah..." Kiba smiled weakly, obviously amused to all hell. Tenzou inwardly groaned. "I'm more anythin' ya need me t'be, babe."
Sai's grin shown like a laser beam. "Good. Can you take me to one of those areas under the spotlights, tie me to something sturdy, and use implements I choose to hit my ass and thighs, then, please? I suspect I'll need the experience before he'll relent and do it himself."
There was no doubt of the "he" to whom Sai referred, and Tenzou ran a hand over his face while Kiba burst into genuine laughter. Sai glanced at Tenzou. "Why do people keep laughing at me when I say what I want?" he asked, frowning.
"Because ya say it so goddamned straight, sweetheart," Kiba said. "It's a rare an' pretty sort 'a thing."
"Oh," Sai said, still frowning. "Well, then, are you interested?"
Kiba looked Sai up and down appraisingly. "Oh, I'm interested, a'right, but ya see that redhead over there in the DJ booth?" Kiba turned to one side and pointed at Gaara, who was engrossed in his control panel.
"Yes," Sai said.
"He's mine an' I'm his, an' I got ta ask him if I wanna get my hands dirty. An' yer fuckin' gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I had plans fer my boyfriend tonight." Kiba smiled kindly at Sai.
"Okay." Sai nodded. "Then is there someone else you'd recommend?" Sai was practically yelling again, but Kiba wasn't deterred.
"Ah, well, I think Naru's 'round here somewhere with that brat 'a his." Kiba craned his neck, searching, and Tenzou surveyed the room. There was a seating area along the rear of the club, a bar that served non-alcoholic drinks and food on the opposite wall from where Tenzou stood, and there were five play areas and one main stage with a catwalk that jutted out into the middle of the club. Kimimaro, clad only in velvet strips and his usual ton of metal jewelry, was on the main stage with two other club-paid submissives. They were talking to members, setting up for their show.
If Kimimaro was working tonight, that meant Itachi and Haku were close by, and sure enough, Tenzou spotted the elder Uchiha sitting on a couch in the back of the room, next to the padded restraint wall. Haku was kneeling next to Itachi's knee, and sitting with Itachi was a man Tenzou didn't recognize, but who could have been Itachi and Sasuke's long-lost brother.
"Think they're over on the far side 'a the stage," Kiba said, starting to head in that direction.
Sai followed, so Tenzou went, too. "Naruto and Sasuke are playing on a night when Itachi and his crew are here?" Tenzou asked.
Kiba shrugged. "Don't ask me. I don't get involved in their fucked up politics. Fer all I know, they like watchin' each other do their thing."
From what he'd heard from Kakashi, Tenzou didn't think so, but he stayed quiet on the subject while they rounded the catwalk and headed toward the rear-most play area. Naruto was uncoiling rope, dressed head to toe in red leather, and Sasuke was arranging tools in a row on a table. Sasuke wore a pair of black, shiny shorts over an obvious cock cage, and a chain connected his nipple piercings. He spotted them first, and nudged Naruto, who turned and lit up the room with a grin.
"Holy motherfucker," Naruto cried, embracing Tenzou much as Kiba had. "The hell you doin' here, Tenzou? You lost?"
"Nah," Kiba said before Tenzou could get a chance. "He's here with--"
"I know you," Sai said to Naruto, stepping forward and pointing. Something about the way Sai spoke made Tenzou's stomach drop.
Sasuke's mouth twisted into a smirk bordering on a sneer, and Naruto blinked. "Uh, cool?" Naruto said.
"We went to pre-school together for a year," Sai proclaimed.
Naruto chuckled uncomfortably. "I don't really remember pre-school too well."
"I do," Sai said. "You used to call me retarded, and I told everyone how small your penis is."
Kiba choked, Sasuke's eyes grew wider than should be humanly possible, and Tenzou didn't know if he should laugh or save Naruto from Sai.
"Oh, that was you?" Naruto asked with a Cheshire grin.
"Yes," Sai said.
Naruto cackled. "Oh fuck me. We must not have gotten along too well back then."
"I hated you," Sai said with undiluted sincerity that snuffed out any lingering humor from the air. "You were cruel to me."
Naruto's mouth worked without sound before he found words. "You seriously remember being in pre-school?"
"Yes."
"The hell did you find this guy?" Naruto asked Tenzou.
"An art gallery." Tenzou sighed. "Sai, you should--"
"Sai?" Naruto interjected. "The artist Sai?"
"I am..." Sai retreated toward Tenzou, and Tenzou drew closer, resisting the temptation to wrap Sai in a protective embrace.
"Your work's awesome," Naruto said with enthusiasm. "Saw it in the gallery the other day."
"Thank you." Sai seemed somewhat mollified, but he turned to Kiba, who held up both hands in surrender. "I do not wish to interact with this man as a pupil or submissive."
"Who says you were going to get to?" Sasuke asked in a dangerous tone.
Sai pivoted and sized Sasuke up with a glance. Tenzou braced. "No one said it or is saying it, and I'm not allowing it, now. And I'm sorry you have to be with someone with such a small dick."
Kiba laughed and Sasuke's eyes grew preternaturally wide again. "Hey!" Naruto cried. "It's grown a little since I was fuckin' four, a'right?"
"Has it?" Sasuke purred in mock innocence.
"Don't start with me," Naruto warned without looking at his lover. "Look, man," he said to Sai, "I'm sorry 'bout whatever happened when we were little. And if you're gonna be comin' around, especially with Tenzou, here, we should be civil, right?" He held out a hand to Sai. "Truce?"
Sai stared at Naruto for a long few seconds without saying anything. "Okay. I accept your apology, though it is very late." Sai didn't take Naruto's hand, but he did nod a brief bow.
"Good enough, I guess." Naruto's smile didn't match his hard eyes when he looked at Tenzou. "This one yours?"
"Under my protection," Tenzou said.
"He needs it," Naruto said dryly.
"Yeah, we're tryin' to find a Dom for the night," Kiba put in. "Havin' a bit of a time. As you might gather."
"Well, it won't be Naruto," Sasuke said, with that blend of petulant and authoritative that seemed to be Sasuke's specialty. "He's busy."
"I got that, princess," Kiba growled with an eyeroll, and he overrode whatever Sasuke was about to say next. "I was jus' bringin' the new guy over 'cause he said somethin' 'bout learnin' more, and I know Naru's passed all Tenzou's tests, so figured..."
"Thank you, Kiba," Tenzou said, so weary he worried he might fall down where he stood. "It was a reasonable plan at the time."
"Anyway," Naruto shook himself and hugged Tenzou again. "Always good to see you, man. Don't be such a stranger, right?"
"We'll see," Tenzou replied.
"Good luck," Sasuke called with terrific sweetness as the three of them wandered away, led again by Sai, who stopped in the middle of the club in front of the catwalk.
"Who else is a Dom?" Sai demanded of Kiba.
"Ya mean other than yer sponsor, here?" Kiba said pointedly.
"I've told Tenzou what I want, and he has given me orders to fulfill tonight," Sai said, stubborn and righteous.
Kiba looked at Tenzou, baffled, and Tenzou sighed. "It's not as though I don't occasionally question my sanity, too, Kiba."
"No shit?" Kiba muttered, and he did a double take that made Tenzou turn.
The man who'd been sitting next to Itachi was approaching, hands behind his back and slight smile turning thin lips. He was taller than Tenzou and slender, with black hair that was cut in long pieces around his angular, pointed face. He wore a dark gray coat with tails, a simple dark shirt, a blood-red vest, black slacks, and shiny dress shoes. His skin was pale and his eyes were large and lazy, the color like sherry in dim light. "Pardon me," he said, addressing Tenzou. "But I couldn't help but overhear you were seeking a Dominant's assistance for the evening?"
"Yes," Sai said, but Tenzou put a hand on Sai's shoulder, and Sai shut his mouth.
"I don't think we've met," Tenzou said carefully. Something about this man set off every warning bell Tenzou had.
"We haven't, it's true," the man agreed. He bowed from the waist, hand over his heart. "I am Sebastian Michaelis, at your service."
The name rang even more bells. "You seem very familiar."
Sebastian chuckled. "I am a familiar personage of sorts. I'm an entrepreneur, much like yourself, Mr. Asashi. A small business owner. Perhaps we've met in Town Hall meetings or fund raisers? I've also held a minor city office, here and there."
"Maybe," Tenzou agreed, something still nagging at him. Not to mention creeping him out. "What's your business?"
"The occult," Sebastian said casually with a lift of peaked eyebrows. "Magic, mysteries, things of that nature."
"Creepy shit," Kiba summed up.
"In two words, precisely," Sebastian said with a wide, reptilian smile.
"Not exactly my area of interest," Tenzou commented.
"Ah, well, I suppose it might have been a more mundane meeting through my former occupation."
"Which was?"
"Private counsel."
"Yer a lawyer?" Kiba blurted.
"Indeed."
The chimes of recognition sounded in Tenzou's mind. It'd been years ago, now, but Jack had gotten obsessed with some story making the headlines in local news. "The Phantonhive case."
"Goodness, you remember it?" Sebastian said.
"I do. A young boy lost his parents in a fire."
"It is true," Sebastian agreed, nodding. "I was a family friend and represented young Ciel in court."
"So you caught the guys?" Kiba asked. "Who did the crime?"
"Oh, I assure you, anyone who means ill will to Ciel is met with justice." Sebastian sighed. "I was appointed his guardian for a while, but now he's all grown and powerful in his own right." Sebastian smiled at Sai. "You remind me some of him, I have to say. I noticed you when you first arrived."
"Oh?" Sai asked, voice strangely flat.
"I don't recall you on the membership list," Tenzou said.
"I'm not a member," Sebastian said, still fixated on Sai. "Lord Uchiha was good enough to invite me as a guest."
Well, naturally, Tenzou thought. Leave it to the damned Uchiha to know every weird motherfucker in a five thousand mile radius. Tenzou ground his teeth.
"Tell me, might I have your name?" Sebastian asked Sai.
"It's Sai."
"Just Sai?"
"To you, yes."
Sebastian laughed. "I see."
"You're a Dom?"
"I do enjoy the flavor of sadism and control," Sebastian answered.
"Don't we all," Tenzou cut in. "And while we appreciate the interest and offer to help, I'm not sure he's interested in--" Tenzou broke off when Sai shrugged out from under Tenzou's hand.
"Then we should play," Sai said, loud and firm. Tenzou's heart stopped dead in his chest.
"Oh, absolutely," Sebastian agreed, holding out a gloved hand. Sai reached for it, and it was like watching a murder in slow motion.
"Kid's under Tenzou's protection," Kiba said, coming to Tenzou's rescue when he couldn't find his wits or tongue or sense.
"Oh?" Sebastian asked, and Sai's hand froze hovering over Sebastian's.
"Qualifications," Tenzou said gruffly, shaking out of the fog.
"I have them," Sebastian said smoothly.
"What are they?"
"I was trained by Master Lucifer in a club called Abaddon. It's in New Orleans. You may have heard of it? Lovely city. So much sin. Reminds me of this one. That was... goodness. Twenty years ago? Since then I assure you I've had my measure of submissives and Masters, alike, and learned much behind the whip and on my knees. I do love to serve to mutual benefit. And I insist that you observe sweet Sai and me for the duration of the night, just to make sure I meet each and every marked need."
Tenzou was going to be sick. He didn't like or trust this man, but it had nothing to do with Scene and everything to do with personality. The man wasn't safe, Tenzou didn't care how well he threw tails or tied knots or how long the guy'd been at it. "No," said Tenzou, his mouth open to say more.
"I accept your qualifications," said Sai, before Tenzou got another word in edgewise, and Tenzou glared sharply at Sai.
Sebastian looked from Tenzou to Sai and back again. "Oh, dear?"
"No fuckin' way," Kiba reinforced.
Sebastian seemed taken aback. "Ah, well, I wouldn't want to cause difficulty."
"You won't," Sai said, and, like magic, Sai was no longer the quiet, pliant boy listening to others speak as though he wasn't there. He turned to Tenzou, dark eyes swirling with emotions Tenzou couldn't identify, but they were murky like ghost ships under a moonless sky.
"I am under your protection, but not yours, right?" Sai asked.
"Right," Tenzou said hesitantly. "But--"
"Which means I can still make my own choices, and I like him."
"Why in the hell...?" Kiba asked, but Tenzou barely heard him.
"Sai..." Tenzou began. "Don't--"
Quick like a viper, Sai was next to Tenzou, on tiptoe and speaking quietly and even rationally into Tenzou's face. "He is a Dom. He is not you. He is not a book nor by the book. I wanted to go home with you. I want only you. But you wanted to come here. You wanted to lie to yourself by commanding me." Sai took a harsh breath and grabbed Tenzou's shirt. "This is what happens when we go at your liar's pace. This is what it feels like when you let me go to someone else." Sai shook Tenzou by the lapels and let go just as swiftly. Tenzou would have fallen on his ass if Kiba hadn't caught him.
"Tenzou?" Kiba whispered, worried, but Tenzou could only stare as Sai deliberately took Sebastian's hand, and Sebastian tucked it under his arm. Tenzou saw the boy flinch at the contact, but Sebastian seemed not to notice.
"Goodness," Sebastian said. "Such lengths people go to fulfill desires."
"Tenzou." Kiba tried again, but Tenzou's ears rang with a thousand gongs.
"I want to be tied and beaten," Sai said, sounding distant and like the whole business bored and angered him.
"With pleasure." And with an amused glance at Tenzou, Sebastian began to lead Sai toward a play area. "Do join us when you're able?"
Sai didn't so much as falter as he walked away, and Tenzou knew Kiba was speaking to him, and it was probably something Tenzou should hear. He thought other people might be staring at him, curious and worried, and Tenzou probably looked like he felt: hurt, horrified, stunned, sick, weak, helpless, foolish, damned. Here he was, one-time teacher, one-time Master, and now a broken, wilted man. He couldn't move, and he couldn't speak. He was frozen to the floor, and the image of the tree came to haunt him once more.
The birch was shaking, trembling like the very earth beneath it was quaking. Ice snapped and rained to the cold soil below. The bark got stripped as chunks of snow fell into piles. Little branches evaporated into splinters, bigger ones bowed, cracked, and sprang into place. Heat rose, vast and sudden, and it roared through the ground and into the roots. It swarmed up the trunk, filled the cells, the rings, the life of the tree. The frost boiled to mist, and Tenzou's spine straightened as the limbs unfurled, higher and higher to the shrouded sun.
Tenzou thought of wood, of saws, of edges and chisels and hammers and nails. The scent of forest, turpentine, and paint rose rich in his mind, he heard a faint sigh in his left ear that was not Kiba and was not himself.
In the breath was a single word, and that word was, "No."
"Oh shit," Kiba said, calmly, but from behind Tenzou, which was weird until Tenzou realized he was advancing on Sebastian and Sai in long, sturdy strides. He didn't touch Sebastian, but he grabbed Sai by the back of the neck. His hand wrapped, clenched, and yanked Sai out of Sebastian's grasp and to Tenzou's right. Tenzou could tell the instinct to block and fight was upon Sai, so Tenzou did the only sane and logical thing that a well-trained professional soldier would do in these circumstances: he shoved a hand between Sai's legs and cupped Sai's cock and balls in a mean squeeze.
Sai's intake of breath got Tenzou hard. Sai's lips parted, his eyes flew to Tenzou, wide and full of what Tenzou readily identified as lust and hope and yearning. Tenzou knew that look like he knew the head of his own dick.
Sai's chest rose and fell, spine arching with the force of Tenzou's dual grip. Tenzou leaned until they were nose to nose, and he smelled mint, soap, and sweat. "I... said... no." Tenzou spoke slowly and without malice, Sai whimpered, and shit but Tenzou loved that sound. He'd missed that sound.
"Do you understand?" Tenzou asked.
"Yes," Sai replied.
"Do you consent?"
"To anything that is you."
Tenzou rewarded Sai with a stroke, and the cock beneath the silk was elongating, filling. Sai's shaky exhale blew on Tenzou's lips, and Sai groaned, the note of longing every bit as loud as Sai's earlier proclamations to men who were not Tenzou. Who could never be Tenzou, and who were not worthy of Sai.
"I see circumstances have changed," said Sebastian, and Tenzou was startled to realize he was still standing in the club in the presence of others beside Sai. He needed to correct that right the fuck now.
Tenzou let Sai go long enough to scoop the small boy into his arms. Sai clung to him, face buried in Tenzou's chest. Sai was heavier than he looked, but no burden too great to bear, and Tenzou marched away from the gawking crowd, out the door, and up the stairs. Sai was panting, and Tenzou held him tighter, wondering how in the hell he was going to get to his passkey when he saw the door was already open. A trickle of concern slithered in around the pulsing throb of mania, but when Tenzou saw Neji and Shikamaru, it receded.
Neji went stock still at the sight of Tenzou holding Sai, and Shikamaru ran into Neji's back with a startled note. Shikamaru's jaw dropped a second later, but neither man said a single word as Tenzou rushed by, and Tenzou made it out the main door into the club before it had the chance to close all the way.
"It's all right," Tenzou caught himself speaking, and he realized he'd been murmuring to Sai the entire time. What he'd been saying, God only knew. "No one's going to touch you but me." Tenzou gulped around the lump in his throat. He couldn't remember ever being this... this... whatever the fuck it was, and he stumbled on the last step leading to Bliss.
Truck. Tenzou had to get to the truck. He'd left his coat and cell at the check counter, but he still had his wallet and, more importantly, his keys. Tenzou set his resolve, and the next he knew he was balancing Sai and digging out the button to unlock the Hummer. He swung the passenger door open, and as gently as he could, Tenzou set Sai on the seat. Sai dove for him, and Tenzou tucked Sai's arms to Sai's chest. He shushed and soothed and shut Sai into the truck.
Tenzou blinked and he was yanking on the other door's handle. He remembered to breathe, and he was inside the car. He'd just managed to hit the locking mechanism, and Sai was on him. Crawling, wriggling, pressing, but not kissing or saying anything. Tenzou hugged Sai, trying to sort out the chaos. He could barely rub two brain cells together, and he wasn't sure why the hell that was, but he had to do something to comfort Sai.
"Sai, what's... why are you... it's okay, now." Tenzou was trying to get his breath and couldn't, and Sai's frustrated yell was freakin' deafening.
"I... I want... I..." Sai tensed, shook, and damn it all, but Tenzou was going to fuck the kid into the dash.
"You what?" Tenzou rasped, hands betraying him and feeling the bare skin, the chill from the damp night, the heat of Sai's body, the smooth fabric covering Sai's ass. Sai gasped against Tenzou's throat, and Tenzou's eyes rolled into the back of his skull.
"I'm... I'm aroused, and want... want you to touch me. I want you to make me come. I want... I want to kiss you, but I've never kissed anyone, and I don't know if you'll let me, and I don't know what happened, but you're being so honest, and it's beautiful, and you carried me, and I thought I was going to orgasm when I felt your hand on my--"
Tenzou got a fistful of black hair, tugged Sai away from Tenzou's neck, and pressed his mouth to Sai's. Tenzou thought the groan was his own and the shocked sound was Sai's, but it really could have been the other way around.
Sai drew back, licked his lips, breathing fast and heavy. "Oh..." Sai kissed Tenzou, just a mash of mouths, but Tenzou answered it. "Oooh... God..." Sai dove again, and this time, Tenzou held Sai still by the hair. He guided Sai through an exploring, hungry kiss, grazing Sai's upper and then lower lip with his teeth, and while Sai's mouth was open, Tenzou filled it with his tongue.
Sai scrambled closer, muffled noises spilling through his nose, and Sai repeated the exact same pattern on Tenzou. Their tongues mingled and twined, and Tenzou shifted on the bench seat until Sai was sprawled out to the right and Tenzou was holding Sai's upper body in his arms. There was no doubt, no nagging voices calling out rules or boundary lines. Even if there was, Tenzou was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to hear anything except the thud of his heart and the sounds Sai made with every single action. It was all new to Sai, all shocking, and Tenzou's brain didn't surface for air until he had a hand rubbing Sai's cock through the pants, Sai's chest lifted to his mouth, and his teeth embedded in the flesh around Sai's hard nipple.
"Nn-ah! Ah... Ah!" Sai's arm was slung around Tenzou's shoulders, fingers clinging to the fabric of Tenzou's shirt. His head thudded against the edge of the window, and he thrust into Tenzou's palm, rutting for friction. "Oh God, it's so good. I want more. I have to have more. I have to."
Tenzou reared up, met Sai's dazed gaze. "Ask me nicely, boy." Tenzou twisted Sai's nipple, let it go, slapped Sai's chest with a heated hand, and nearly died at the look of unabashed, stunned greed on Sai's sweet face.
"Please do that again!" Sai called at full volume.
"This?" Tenzou asked, voice a husky slur, and he tortured Sai's flesh and smacked it hard enough to leave a reddened mark behind.
"Yes. That. Oh... shit." Sai's voice grew higher, and his heel dug into the truck's seat, lower half lifting. His cock tented his pants, and the silk was darker where it was wet with pre-cum.
Tenzou dug his fingers into the meat of Sai's chest, massaging and digging, and he drew closer and kissed Sai. "Like it when I play with your tits, boy?" Another set of smacks, and Sai's mouth fell open, and he nodded slowly, choking on a cry when Tenzou pinched, pulled, and flicked Sai's nipple.
"Like... like... call me..." Sai babbled and called out through spanks, digs, a drag of nails, and Tenzou squeezed Sai's inner thigh to a keening whine.
"Mm? Like it when I call you 'boy?'"
"Uh-huh," Sai nodded faster, undulating and rippling in Tenzou's lap. He twisted, trying to get Tenzou's hand where he wanted it. His face crumpled when Tenzou didn't comply, and Sai's eyes opened. They were damp at the corners, and Sai's effort to swallow was visible.
"Look at you, so sweet for me." Tenzou hummed, and he thought he might pass out with the combination of innocence and eagerness squirming in his lap. He hooked his fingers under the waistband of Sai's pants and slowly tugged it down. He watched Sai's face change from frustrated to astounded, and when Sai's cock cleared the band, it slapped back against Sai's belly.
Sai froze, and Tenzou caressed creamy inner thighs. "Damn, that's a gorgeous cock you've got for me, boy." And it was. Thick at the base, no curve, not overly long, not short, and red-rouge at the glistening head.
Sai trembled. "Hearing you say that is... I... can I... I feel... can I call you..."
Tenzou tore his eyes off the gathering moisture in Sai's slit and lifted a hand to stroke Sai's cheek. "You want to call me something?" he asked, tender and low.
"Yes." Sai's eyes were darker than death in the witching hour.
"What do you want to call me, boy?" Tenzou drew closer, kissed Sai light and quick. He rubbed Sai's abdomen in lazy circles, and the backs of his fingers brushed Sai's twitching dick.
"I..." Sai lifted a hand and clung to Tenzou's shoulder. He searched Tenzou's face, dragged Tenzou closer for another, longer mesh of mouths that Tenzou granted Sai with a quiet moan. When Tenzou broke the contact, Sai grabbed the back of Tenzou's neck, kept their faces almost touching. "Can I... can I call you Daddy?" Sai's whisper was punctuated by a whimper.
Crippling, aching, need surged through Tenzou; stole his oxygen and sucker punched him in the gut. Only rarely had he ever played those games with Jack, and Tenzou had asked for it, not Jack. It was just a title, but it strummed the dark, often-denied chord in Tenzou that loved to Master, that loved pretty boys barely in their twenties trussed up and on their knees... that loved making those pretty boys cry, beg, scream, bruise, and come until they couldn't remember their own name.
Tenzou kept those needs in a secure cage. He had always respected those whom he taught who were younger than he was. He had only played with them to demonstrate, had never taken it too far, and he'd endured and loved Jack's gentle laughter and not-so-gentle occasional stirring of those needs over the years.
And now the lock on that careful cage lay broken on the ground, crackling in an inferno.
"Mmmnf..." Tenzou finally breathed a growl that reverberated in the close quarters. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, boy, you can call me Daddy."
Sai panted rapid fire, and he nearly screamed behind pressed lips when Tenzou circled, fisted, and started to stroke Sai's cock. "You like that, boy?"
"OhfuckDaddy, yes... oooh yes..." Sai moaned, eyelashes fluttering.
"That's a good boy." Tenzou's croon morphed into a snarl. "Tell Daddy how much you fucking like my hands on you."
"Love it," Sai mumbled. "Need it. Better than a-anything."
"You're Daddy's perfect boy, right now, like this, sweet and hard and doing what I say."
"For you... I want anything for you."
"Good boy, Sai." Tenzou sped up. "Tell me who you think about when you stroke this thick dick, boy."
"You, Daddy," Sai's head fell to one side.
"Mm," Tenzou grunted, letting go of Sai's cock and cupping his balls. "And when you play with these?"
"I imagine you," Sai gasped, and he struggled until his pants were around his ankles. He kicked until a boot hit the floorboard, and he untangled one foot from the silk. His heel thumped against the dashboard. The truck's windows were completely fogged, the air ripe with the smell of sex and dick and sweat.
"What about here, boy?" Tenzou asked, the pads of two fingers pressing against Sai's asshole. Sai's entire body jerked, and the ring fluttered. "Mm? You play with this sweet hole and think of me, boy?"
"I... oh shit... I..." Sai flailed and found purchase on the steering wheel. "I fuck myself with a paintbrush." He swallowed, licking his lips with his eyes closed. "It's fat. And thick. And I shove it inside me and imagine it's your prick fucking me deep."
Tenzou stifled his own cry by biting his lower lip until it bled. He lapped up blood, got a fist into Sai's hair, and Tenzou gripped and pulled until he could watch Sai's pulse pound. He stopped circling Sai's entrance and took Sai's hand off the wheel. With their eyes locked on one another, Tenzou worked up saliva, and Sai lay gasping for air around weak moans as Tenzou took two of Sai's fingers into his mouth. He coated them until drool ran down his chin, coming off Sai with a slurp.
"Show Daddy how you fuck yourself, boy."
Sai reached down between his legs. He hooked his remaining boot on the back of the bench seat, and the other foot braced against the door. He curled, lifting his hips and pushing his tight balls out of the way. Sai set wet fingertips to his asshole, and the slow, slick push inside was accompanied by a broken, battered, hitching groan. The edges of Tenzou's vision turned grey and purple, and he grabbed Sai's cock just as Sai began pumping the fingers in and out, fucking with a steady, swift rhythm.
"Oh... oh... oh..." Sai whimpered notes with every thrust and tug, and Tenzou turned his head to kiss Sai. It was messy, muddled with both their moans, and Sai's cock pulsed in Tenzou's fist at the same time Sai sucked a sharp inhale that robbed Tenzou of their mingling breath. An overwhelming wave of affectionate, protective possession stole over Tenzou, and he gently nosed Sai's sweaty cheek.
"Go on, precious," Tenzou murmured, stunningly loud and clear over the slap of striving flesh. "Come for Daddy."
The reaction was electric. Sai drew into a wicked arch, head back and strangled cry spilling through clenched teeth. His fingers plunged, Tenzou's fist stroked fast, furious, and fierce, and Sai came in thick, heavy jets that hit his chin, coated his chest, and sprinkled his stomach. Tenzou didn't stop until Sai's cries turned pained. He let go of Sai's spent cock, and lifted his dirty hand to Sai's lips. The command died on Tenzou's tongue, though, when Sai started to lick and lap and eat his own cum off Tenzou's fingers.
Sai paused, holding on to Tenzou's wrist with both hands. "I like getting a taste, Daddy."
Tenzou caught Sai's lower lip in gentle suction. "Me, too, boy. Oh... me, too."
~*~
A/N:
1. Yes, that was me doin' the cross-over thang again. I hope you like it. You have kyuubi1010 to thank for our guest star's appearance.
2. I made up the painting, the artist, and the titles.
3. For the record, if any person *ever* introduces themselves as "Master Lucifier" just do me a personal favor and run in the opposite direction, yes?
4. Between Kakashi and Itachi, I think everyone in Monoshizukanohi is known and fucked.
5. Of COURSE there's a gateway to hell in New Orleans.
5. THIS IS NOT THE END. Goodness... we still have Tenzou's dom guilt to deal with. And it will be epic.
6. Thank you again for all your patience, notes, virtual baked goods and support. You've no idea what it has meant over the last few difficult weeks.
7. I own the world, the originals, and the plot, but not the Bleach boy, Black Butler guys, nor the Naruto men.
Much, much love & foggy windows,
♥Dee
Series: Monoshizukanohi//Naruto & Crossover AU
Author: Darkprism
Genre: Drama/Romance/Kink
Rating: Overall Mature
Pairing: Tenzou & Sai and other men in my Monoshizukanohi 'verse
Word Count: Ongoing
Warnings/Notes: This chapter: language, BDSM, D/s relationships, crossover of worlds, mild impact play, nipple torture, hand job, anal, other.
Spoilers: None whatsoever.
Summary: A year ago, Tenzou lost the only man he ever loved, and the only man he believes he ever will love. So when an artistic prodigy many years Tenzou's junior enters his life with determined demands for love, play, and safe harbor, Tenzou is forced to face his past, remember his promises, and challenge his presumption that forever after is final.
Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone for their patient support while I've dealt with all manner of real life crises in the past two months. I hope this 8200 word chunk helps to show my appreciation. This is NOT the last chapter of the story. See end for other notes. Much love and many, many thanks. ♥
Tenzou shoved open the side door of the Saint Ann Street McDonald's in Shadgrove and started to cross the parking lot to his Hummer. He paused midway, legs shaky and knees weak. He cocked his head, fingers clenching the plastic cup of ice water just a little tighter, and he waited to see if his guts were going to ease. The night was damp, cool without being cold, and a light drizzle fell, wetting the shoulders of Tenzou's black trench coat. Cars passed by on the roads on all four sides of the fast food restaurant, and the traffic was heavy for a Sunday night. Headlights shone, distantly a siren coming from the direction of Saint Ann's hospital wailed, and Tenzou breathed a sigh of relief when his intestines stopped twisting like a rope bridge over a canyon.
Continuing to the H3's door, Tenzou unlocked it and climbed inside. He finished the water and rested, knowing he had to get moving or he'd be late. He was due to pick up Sai from the Addiction Feed in five minutes and take the kid to Club Break, and his body evidently thought that was tantamount to going to war. That was something nobody really talked about: the physical reactions to fear and combat and training. Your bladder shrank, your bowels turned to water, your stomach heaved bile-flavored breakfast, and soldiers simply had to deal with those reactions while carrying on with the exercise or maneuver or engagement. Tenzou knew how to breathe through it, knew better than to get overexcited or anxious and thus make it worse, but the severity of tonight's little episode was... unexpected. So far he'd made two pit stops, one to a gas station for Pepto and the second to this McDonald's where he'd spent the last ten minutes melting porcelain. Thank God for the enlightening bit of graffiti on the joys of oral sex or Tenzou would have been positively bored.
Chuckling at himself because if he didn't laugh he'd give in to pure hysteria, Tenzou tipped a piece of ice into his mouth and dropped the cup into the console in the truck's floorboard. His cheek went numb as he pulled into the flow of traffic. Sai didn't have a cell phone, so Tenzou tapped through menus on his iPhone and dialed the café.
"Addiction Feed," said a dull male voice after the fourth ring.
"Ulquiorra?" Tenzou asked.
"What?"
"It's Asashi Tenzou. Do me a favor."
"Why?"
Tenzou snorted, teeth clenched. "Because I'm asking nicely."
"What?"
Ulquiorra sounded bored and resigned to fate. The epitome of communicative and cordial, this one. Ulquiorra and Gaara should get together and have a non-chat. It'd be hilarious to watch. "About a week ago, I was in there with a brunet kid. Young, slender, about five foot--"
"Yes. And?"
"Is he there?"
"Yes."
"Good. Tell him I'll be ten minutes late."
"Mm." Ulquiorra hung up, and Tenzou had to hope the man would be good for the message. Tenzou and Sai had spoken every day since they'd met up in the middle of the night and Tenzou had offered to... well. Tenzou still wasn't sure. Take Sai under his wing? Show Sai some ropes without tying any of the knots? Guard and be friends with Sai until someone better came along and struck Sai's fancy?
Tenzou reached for the Pepto in the passenger seat. Who was he kidding? He wanted the kid. Wanted to fuck him, hold him, hurt him, tuck him in to bed at night. Tenzou'd thought long and gotten hard over the last few days on what he would allow himself to do and what he wouldn't. He'd drawn lines, erased them, restructured priorities, watched them crumble, created limits, wondered if they were sane...
The medicine was thick on his tongue and chalky in his throat, and Tenzou recapped the bottle, leaned sideways, and stored it in the glove compartment. He retrieved a pack of gum, and popped two caplets into his mouth. He barely tasted the mint and wove through the streets repeating mantras to himself.
I will only do what's best for him. I will hold the line. I will show and not take. I will only do what's best for him...
There was a snarky, though irritatingly calm, voice that sounded way too much like Kakashi whispering that Tenzou was kind of cute when being so fucking delusional. One half of him agreed, understood that he had no business taking the kid to Break. He had no business taking anyone anywhere in the state he was in, which was frayed, unraveled, and sort of spontaneously schizophrenic. Picking up Sai, seeing him, going through with the carefully laid out and ambitious plan for the evening was a suicide mission that would self-destruct in his face. Tenzou knew this.
And yet he steered his truck toward the café with dogged determination. Because the other half of him argued, in a terribly reasonable fashion, that some sort of interaction had to happen. He'd made promises to the boy that he had to keep. Tenzou was honor-bound to protect and serve, to teach and Master, and at least if Tenzou carried through with the plan, he'd have a chance at showing Sai that yes, Tenzou cared, but there were other people out there who could do for the kid what Sai needed without Tenzou's battleship of baggage. Tenzou accepted that physical contact was likely inevitable, could stomach that because, well, it wasn't like Tenzou could do much with a dick that only stayed hard for about five minutes max without any sort of orgasmic point. Tenzou could commit himself to going slow, could limit the sex to doing only for Sai, could show Sai Scene and other options, and maybe, just maybe, Tenzou could scrape out of this situation with himself in one piece and Sai safely and eventually in the arms of a saner, better man.
And it didn't matter that the idea of Sai with someone else made his insides burn, his asshole spasm, and his gorge rise. Nerves. That was just nerves.
Tenzou turned into the Addiction Feed parking lot, and a slim figure wrapped in a deep blue Japanese Happi coat got up from a bench next to the front door. At the very sight of Sai, Tenzou wanted to moan and to cry and to beg somebody for mercy. The boy was so graceful, walking to Tenzou's truck. Sai was resolute, eyes wide, shoulders relaxed, pale skin practically lit from within. Sai tried to open the passenger door, but it was locked, and Tenzou's fingers shook as he hit the button.
All week, he'd been calm on the phone. He'd listened to Sai speak of paintings, daily routine, childhood, lonely Christmases, and about how Sai had always wanted a kitten. Tenzou had answered Sai's questions about building Break, about his woodworking business, and, bewildered, he'd given Sai his suit measurements when Sai had demanded them. Sai had confessed to liking collars, cinnamon ice cream, and had asked for dozens of details about fisting before saying he wasn't sure he liked the idea after all while Tenzou tried not to hyperventilate. Tenzou had steered Sai into making arrangements to meet up, being careful to choose a night when he knew Kakashi was not going to be at the club. Tenzou'd explained Break's dress code or lack thereof when Sai had lamented over what to wear. Sai had backed Tenzou into a corner, and Tenzou had snapped at Sai that no, he would not dictate Sai's wardrobe, and the answer to why was because he said so, dammit.
Waterboarding would never have made Tenzou confess that the very idea of having command of such small, intimate details had Tenzou hard and doubled over in want. Being so involved crossed lines that Tenzou was desperate to hold.
The reasoning behind those boundaries, however, completely escaped Tenzou when Sai climbed into the H3. He wore snug silken pants, black calf-high boots, and the coat covered whatever he wore over his upper half. His hair was clean, messy again in artful arrangement. He smelled sweet, like chocolate, and he smiled at Tenzou without a hint of artifice.
Tenzou's heart pounded, and an image of a birch tree wrapped in ice leapt to Tenzou's mind. Branches crackled, icicles fell to stab the earth, and the bark began to split. For a second, Tenzou couldn't remember anything: how to breathe, why they were there, where they were going, how they'd met, if there'd been a point when Sai had not been in Tenzou's life. He couldn't even make his throat work in a swallow.
Sai frowned. "You look sick."
Tenzou sucked wind in a wheeze. "Nice to see you, too."
"Why do you look sick?" Sai asked this time instead of stating.
"I'm fine."
"You're pale."
"It's the light."
"Your lips have no color."
"It's normal."
"It isn't. Normal is pink. You seem--"
"Sai, I'm all right!" Tenzou bellowed.
"You're lying," Sai answered, calmly with a deepening frown.
Tenzou gaped at the kid. He didn't know if he wanted to kiss Sai or shake the boy until the pretty, thin neck threatened to snap. "I ate something that disagreed with me."
Sai's frown vanished. "Oh. Do you need medicine?"
"I've taken some."
"Oh." Sai's eyes searched the interior of the truck with an inward, preoccupied gaze. "You don't have to take me to the club. We could go to your home, where you could rest and be comfortable, and I could experience what I want with just you."
"Gee, why didn't I think of that?" Tenzou muttered, forehead on the steering wheel.
"...I don't know?" Sai replied.
Tenzou sighed, sat up, and put the truck into gear. "We're going to the club, Sai."
"I don't like you sick." Sai's tone was stubborn, and he clasped Tenzou's wrist.
"I'll pass that along to my immune system. Buckle up." Tenzou gently shook off Sai's hold.
Sai dutifully put on his seatbelt. "I don't think the mind-to-blood cell communication works like that, and I don't understand why we're going to the club if you're ill when we could accomplish--"
"Sai," Tenzou barked in his best military commander voice, and Sai didn't flinch but did sit up straighter in the seat, staring at Tenzou with big, wide eyes. "State the rules."
"We go at your pace. I only see you for Scene action or information. I will answer and ask questions unless you direct me to be quiet. I go to you for help. I can't draw on your house or break any more windows. I am to call you on your cell phone between six a.m. and eleven p.m. unless there is an emergency." Sai rattled off the list like an elementary school kid might recite an assigned poem; just words, no meaning. His frown shouldn't have been so adorable, and Tenzou tried to ignore it, pulling out of the parking lot.
"Now tell me what we've talked about in regards to visiting Break."
"Why?"
"Because I asked you to."
"Have you forgotten?" Sai sounded hopeful.
"No, Sai," Tenzou said dryly. "I have this dumb idea that if you repeat it often enough, it'll sink in."
"Sink into what?"
Tenzou had learned over the hours of chatting that Sai tended to act more literal and emotionally stunted than he was when doing something he didn't like. Tenzou shot Sai an unhappy look, and Sai flopped back into the seat, arms folded across his chest.
"Our engagement tonight at Break is meant to show me a broader view of Scene than just the two of us could provide or know, and it follows rule one as it's part of the pace you've set, but I still think it breaks rule two because it means going somewhere else for information. I only want to talk to you. I only care what you think because I only want to play with you or with someone you choose. I don't want that power because I'm not qualified, and--"
"Thank you, Sai," Tenzou interjected wearily.
"Besides," Sai continued, picking at a seam in his coat. "The entire plan should change if you are compromised. All the books say not to do things when--"
"Sai, that's enough." The birch tree in Tenzou's crazy headspace swayed and crunched in a gusty breeze. Sai didn't answer, and after a few minutes, guilt and duty got the better of Tenzou's tongue. "You're right, Sai. One shouldn't play if one is emotionally or physically unstable. That's why we're not doing anything in the club, tonight."
Sai appeared to mull that over. "So if we were somewhere other than the club, there would be a chance of you recuperating and us playing or doing something?"
Tenzou ground his teeth. "My pace, Sai. Mine."
Sai huffed.
"Fine," Tenzou said. "Consider it an order, then."
The way Sai brightened at those words did not bode well for Tenzou's tentative boundaries. "Order?" Sai asked, interested.
"Sure," Tenzou replied, trying to sound casual. "We will go to the club, you will observe people playing, you will ask any questions of me or other members, you will try things if the mood strikes you, and you and I will not do anything in the club." Tenzou hoped to God that was specific enough. Leaving Sai loopholes was not a wise idea.
"That's what you want?" Sai asked, voice so soft Tenzou almost didn't hear him.
"Yes, Sai. That's what I want." The words rang hollow in Tenzou's own ears, and his insides cramped.
"You're lying, again, but okay." Sai clasped his hands in his lap and stared out the window.
Tenzou didn't care if he'd won the pyrrhic victory by fighting. Sai had agreed, and Tenzou concentrated on driving and breathing. By the time they reached the road that wound up the side of a plateau heading toward the cathedral on top, the drizzle had stopped and the stars bright enough to overcome light pollution were appearing as the clouds rolled out to sea. Sai didn't say another word while Tenzou navigated the switchback curves, but he did twist in his seat to get a better look at the view. All of Monoshizukanohi sprawled beyond and below them, the city's spires swirled in fog and mist. Tenzou slowed down when the road leveled so Sai could see, and he smiled at Sai's terribly quiet sigh.
On Sundays, the above-ground dance club Bliss was closed and below-ground BDSM club Break was open. Most people would take the Tomb entrance into the underground passageway leading to Break, but Tenzou didn't want to deal with that nonsense. He parked in the VIP lot near Bliss' front door and killed the engine. "Ready?" he asked his mute passenger.
Sai merely nodded and opened his door. Tenzou was worried, but comforted somewhat when Sai's swift and determined gait matched his as they crossed the parking lot and ascended wide, concrete steps. Tenzou dug in the pocket of his black pants for the electronic passkey that would undo the locks and let them inside. His slacks were tailored but plain, the only embellishment a leather-esque sheen to the nap. Over the pants, Tenzou wore a dark grey, heavy t-shirt with a v-neck. Nothing fancy, just as he preferred it. Let Neji and Naruto have their vinyl and leather outfits. Things cost a fortune and didn't suit Tenzou.
Tenzou withdrew the passkey and paused. He didn't keep it on his regular keychain any longer, and when he'd snatched the thing out of the kitchen's junk drawer earlier tonight, he'd not thought anything of it. Now, though, he stared at the silver rectangle that was a tiny reproduction of a framed painting depicting a forest and lake. A birch forest, to be exact, and Tenzou knew the trees in the original were covered in ice. Tenzou couldn't remember the artist's name, only that it had been one of Jack's favorites.
"What's that?" Sai asked, coming closer.
"The key." Tenzou's voice was rough.
Sai studied Tenzou's palm. "That's Nin Yi's, 'Why Do You Come To Me,'" he pronounced. "Though sometimes the title's interpreted, 'Why Do You Kneel To Me.'"
"Yes. Yes it is." Tenzou looked at Sai, met the serious gaze, and Sai said nothing more. Tenzou swiped the passkey over the sensor, entered a ten-digit code, and the massive gothic doors began to swing open on their automated hinges. Tenzou was numb about the lips, and his brain was full of fog. He walked into the building, barely glancing at Sai's mural high up on the wall. He secured the outer doors, waved his key over two more sensor panels, and then they were descending a stone staircase lit by dim sconces.
"We can check our coats, here," Tenzou said, gesturing to the counter tucked into a nook near one of the doorways into the club. The Catacombs, as the hallways around the club were called, were mostly empty tonight. Tenzou heard music, a low steady beat, and the few patrons he did see were outfitted in the usual amount of leather, vinyl, chain, and lace. One man walked by in nothing but a black leather thong, and another came out of the club heading for the restrooms in absolutely nothing at all. Sai watched the second man's progression with interest, and he shrugged out of his Happi coat.
"Very good, sir!" said Rose, the sweet woman who usually occupied the check counter. She took Sai's jacket, and beneath it Sai wore nothing but the silk pants and a single black armband around his left bicep. Though Sai was slim and slight, his dense, well-defined musculature shifted and slid beneath pale, white-almond skin. When he bent his arm, the band constricted and visible veins plumped in Sai's forearms and hands. He was smooth save for the shadows of his underarms and a short dusting of black hair that started below his navel. Tenzou's palms itched, and he dug fingernails into them. He'd seen the likeness in a painting, and he'd felt Sai through clothing, but the flesh and bone visual left his mouth dry.
Rose glanced at Tenzou and winked, and Tenzou handed over his duster, gulping down desire and despair. "Thank you," Tenzou said, taking their checked item stubs.
"You're welcome. Enjoy your night, sirs."
"You look nice," Sai said to Tenzou, eying Tenzou with such extreme focus that he broke into a sweat.
"Thank you," Tenzou replied politely, leading them into Break proper. "So do you."
"You mean it." Sai brought both hands up to his heart, one fist resting on the other over his breastbone. Sai smiled at the floor, and Tenzou's knees went watery. He halted and almost told Sai he had to go, and if Sai needed him, he'd be hiding in the bathroom wishing he did drugs.
"I..." Tenzou began, and Sai's head snapped up to stare up at him.
"You?" Sai asked.
"Tenzou?" called an incredulous and familiar voice. Tenzou tore himself away from Sai to watch Kiba saunter over to them. Kiba's jeans were slung low on his hips, and he had on a leather shoulder piece studded with rivets that covered his upper back. The triskelion dragon tattoo covering Kiba's chest seemed to swirl beneath the overhead red and blue lights, and Tenzou breathed through a spell of dizziness.
"Kiba," Tenzou replied. "Good to see you."
"The fuck ya doin' here?" Kiba asked, laughing. Kiba grabbed Tenzou's hand and yanked Tenzou into a fierce embrace, slapping him on the shoulder.
"I think my name's still on the deed," Tenzou answered.
"Well, shit, sure, but ya ain't been here in... Oh, hang the fuck on. Who's this?" Kiba grinned a toothy, pointy grin at Sai, who smiled back without hesitation.
"Kiba, meet Sai."
"Nice to meet you," Sai said. Loudly. And he glanced at Tenzou meaningfully, as though checking to see if Tenzou noted the progress on tonight's orders. Tenzou winced.
"Yours?" Kiba asked Tenzou without answering Sai directly.
"No," Tenzou said.
"Yes," Sai said at the same time.
"Under protection," Tenzou clarified.
Kiba cocked a brow at Tenzou. "Sub?"
"Just looking for now," Tenzou tried, but Sai drowned him out.
"Yes, I am interested in being a submissive." Sai stepped close enough to Kiba that Kiba stumbled backward a pace, blinking down at Sai with a bemused expression. "I want to be his submissive, but he says I must see how others behave in the Lifestyle first. Are you a Dom?"
"Ah..." Kiba smiled weakly, obviously amused to all hell. Tenzou inwardly groaned. "I'm more anythin' ya need me t'be, babe."
Sai's grin shown like a laser beam. "Good. Can you take me to one of those areas under the spotlights, tie me to something sturdy, and use implements I choose to hit my ass and thighs, then, please? I suspect I'll need the experience before he'll relent and do it himself."
There was no doubt of the "he" to whom Sai referred, and Tenzou ran a hand over his face while Kiba burst into genuine laughter. Sai glanced at Tenzou. "Why do people keep laughing at me when I say what I want?" he asked, frowning.
"Because ya say it so goddamned straight, sweetheart," Kiba said. "It's a rare an' pretty sort 'a thing."
"Oh," Sai said, still frowning. "Well, then, are you interested?"
Kiba looked Sai up and down appraisingly. "Oh, I'm interested, a'right, but ya see that redhead over there in the DJ booth?" Kiba turned to one side and pointed at Gaara, who was engrossed in his control panel.
"Yes," Sai said.
"He's mine an' I'm his, an' I got ta ask him if I wanna get my hands dirty. An' yer fuckin' gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I had plans fer my boyfriend tonight." Kiba smiled kindly at Sai.
"Okay." Sai nodded. "Then is there someone else you'd recommend?" Sai was practically yelling again, but Kiba wasn't deterred.
"Ah, well, I think Naru's 'round here somewhere with that brat 'a his." Kiba craned his neck, searching, and Tenzou surveyed the room. There was a seating area along the rear of the club, a bar that served non-alcoholic drinks and food on the opposite wall from where Tenzou stood, and there were five play areas and one main stage with a catwalk that jutted out into the middle of the club. Kimimaro, clad only in velvet strips and his usual ton of metal jewelry, was on the main stage with two other club-paid submissives. They were talking to members, setting up for their show.
If Kimimaro was working tonight, that meant Itachi and Haku were close by, and sure enough, Tenzou spotted the elder Uchiha sitting on a couch in the back of the room, next to the padded restraint wall. Haku was kneeling next to Itachi's knee, and sitting with Itachi was a man Tenzou didn't recognize, but who could have been Itachi and Sasuke's long-lost brother.
"Think they're over on the far side 'a the stage," Kiba said, starting to head in that direction.
Sai followed, so Tenzou went, too. "Naruto and Sasuke are playing on a night when Itachi and his crew are here?" Tenzou asked.
Kiba shrugged. "Don't ask me. I don't get involved in their fucked up politics. Fer all I know, they like watchin' each other do their thing."
From what he'd heard from Kakashi, Tenzou didn't think so, but he stayed quiet on the subject while they rounded the catwalk and headed toward the rear-most play area. Naruto was uncoiling rope, dressed head to toe in red leather, and Sasuke was arranging tools in a row on a table. Sasuke wore a pair of black, shiny shorts over an obvious cock cage, and a chain connected his nipple piercings. He spotted them first, and nudged Naruto, who turned and lit up the room with a grin.
"Holy motherfucker," Naruto cried, embracing Tenzou much as Kiba had. "The hell you doin' here, Tenzou? You lost?"
"Nah," Kiba said before Tenzou could get a chance. "He's here with--"
"I know you," Sai said to Naruto, stepping forward and pointing. Something about the way Sai spoke made Tenzou's stomach drop.
Sasuke's mouth twisted into a smirk bordering on a sneer, and Naruto blinked. "Uh, cool?" Naruto said.
"We went to pre-school together for a year," Sai proclaimed.
Naruto chuckled uncomfortably. "I don't really remember pre-school too well."
"I do," Sai said. "You used to call me retarded, and I told everyone how small your penis is."
Kiba choked, Sasuke's eyes grew wider than should be humanly possible, and Tenzou didn't know if he should laugh or save Naruto from Sai.
"Oh, that was you?" Naruto asked with a Cheshire grin.
"Yes," Sai said.
Naruto cackled. "Oh fuck me. We must not have gotten along too well back then."
"I hated you," Sai said with undiluted sincerity that snuffed out any lingering humor from the air. "You were cruel to me."
Naruto's mouth worked without sound before he found words. "You seriously remember being in pre-school?"
"Yes."
"The hell did you find this guy?" Naruto asked Tenzou.
"An art gallery." Tenzou sighed. "Sai, you should--"
"Sai?" Naruto interjected. "The artist Sai?"
"I am..." Sai retreated toward Tenzou, and Tenzou drew closer, resisting the temptation to wrap Sai in a protective embrace.
"Your work's awesome," Naruto said with enthusiasm. "Saw it in the gallery the other day."
"Thank you." Sai seemed somewhat mollified, but he turned to Kiba, who held up both hands in surrender. "I do not wish to interact with this man as a pupil or submissive."
"Who says you were going to get to?" Sasuke asked in a dangerous tone.
Sai pivoted and sized Sasuke up with a glance. Tenzou braced. "No one said it or is saying it, and I'm not allowing it, now. And I'm sorry you have to be with someone with such a small dick."
Kiba laughed and Sasuke's eyes grew preternaturally wide again. "Hey!" Naruto cried. "It's grown a little since I was fuckin' four, a'right?"
"Has it?" Sasuke purred in mock innocence.
"Don't start with me," Naruto warned without looking at his lover. "Look, man," he said to Sai, "I'm sorry 'bout whatever happened when we were little. And if you're gonna be comin' around, especially with Tenzou, here, we should be civil, right?" He held out a hand to Sai. "Truce?"
Sai stared at Naruto for a long few seconds without saying anything. "Okay. I accept your apology, though it is very late." Sai didn't take Naruto's hand, but he did nod a brief bow.
"Good enough, I guess." Naruto's smile didn't match his hard eyes when he looked at Tenzou. "This one yours?"
"Under my protection," Tenzou said.
"He needs it," Naruto said dryly.
"Yeah, we're tryin' to find a Dom for the night," Kiba put in. "Havin' a bit of a time. As you might gather."
"Well, it won't be Naruto," Sasuke said, with that blend of petulant and authoritative that seemed to be Sasuke's specialty. "He's busy."
"I got that, princess," Kiba growled with an eyeroll, and he overrode whatever Sasuke was about to say next. "I was jus' bringin' the new guy over 'cause he said somethin' 'bout learnin' more, and I know Naru's passed all Tenzou's tests, so figured..."
"Thank you, Kiba," Tenzou said, so weary he worried he might fall down where he stood. "It was a reasonable plan at the time."
"Anyway," Naruto shook himself and hugged Tenzou again. "Always good to see you, man. Don't be such a stranger, right?"
"We'll see," Tenzou replied.
"Good luck," Sasuke called with terrific sweetness as the three of them wandered away, led again by Sai, who stopped in the middle of the club in front of the catwalk.
"Who else is a Dom?" Sai demanded of Kiba.
"Ya mean other than yer sponsor, here?" Kiba said pointedly.
"I've told Tenzou what I want, and he has given me orders to fulfill tonight," Sai said, stubborn and righteous.
Kiba looked at Tenzou, baffled, and Tenzou sighed. "It's not as though I don't occasionally question my sanity, too, Kiba."
"No shit?" Kiba muttered, and he did a double take that made Tenzou turn.
The man who'd been sitting next to Itachi was approaching, hands behind his back and slight smile turning thin lips. He was taller than Tenzou and slender, with black hair that was cut in long pieces around his angular, pointed face. He wore a dark gray coat with tails, a simple dark shirt, a blood-red vest, black slacks, and shiny dress shoes. His skin was pale and his eyes were large and lazy, the color like sherry in dim light. "Pardon me," he said, addressing Tenzou. "But I couldn't help but overhear you were seeking a Dominant's assistance for the evening?"
"Yes," Sai said, but Tenzou put a hand on Sai's shoulder, and Sai shut his mouth.
"I don't think we've met," Tenzou said carefully. Something about this man set off every warning bell Tenzou had.
"We haven't, it's true," the man agreed. He bowed from the waist, hand over his heart. "I am Sebastian Michaelis, at your service."
The name rang even more bells. "You seem very familiar."
Sebastian chuckled. "I am a familiar personage of sorts. I'm an entrepreneur, much like yourself, Mr. Asashi. A small business owner. Perhaps we've met in Town Hall meetings or fund raisers? I've also held a minor city office, here and there."
"Maybe," Tenzou agreed, something still nagging at him. Not to mention creeping him out. "What's your business?"
"The occult," Sebastian said casually with a lift of peaked eyebrows. "Magic, mysteries, things of that nature."
"Creepy shit," Kiba summed up.
"In two words, precisely," Sebastian said with a wide, reptilian smile.
"Not exactly my area of interest," Tenzou commented.
"Ah, well, I suppose it might have been a more mundane meeting through my former occupation."
"Which was?"
"Private counsel."
"Yer a lawyer?" Kiba blurted.
"Indeed."
The chimes of recognition sounded in Tenzou's mind. It'd been years ago, now, but Jack had gotten obsessed with some story making the headlines in local news. "The Phantonhive case."
"Goodness, you remember it?" Sebastian said.
"I do. A young boy lost his parents in a fire."
"It is true," Sebastian agreed, nodding. "I was a family friend and represented young Ciel in court."
"So you caught the guys?" Kiba asked. "Who did the crime?"
"Oh, I assure you, anyone who means ill will to Ciel is met with justice." Sebastian sighed. "I was appointed his guardian for a while, but now he's all grown and powerful in his own right." Sebastian smiled at Sai. "You remind me some of him, I have to say. I noticed you when you first arrived."
"Oh?" Sai asked, voice strangely flat.
"I don't recall you on the membership list," Tenzou said.
"I'm not a member," Sebastian said, still fixated on Sai. "Lord Uchiha was good enough to invite me as a guest."
Well, naturally, Tenzou thought. Leave it to the damned Uchiha to know every weird motherfucker in a five thousand mile radius. Tenzou ground his teeth.
"Tell me, might I have your name?" Sebastian asked Sai.
"It's Sai."
"Just Sai?"
"To you, yes."
Sebastian laughed. "I see."
"You're a Dom?"
"I do enjoy the flavor of sadism and control," Sebastian answered.
"Don't we all," Tenzou cut in. "And while we appreciate the interest and offer to help, I'm not sure he's interested in--" Tenzou broke off when Sai shrugged out from under Tenzou's hand.
"Then we should play," Sai said, loud and firm. Tenzou's heart stopped dead in his chest.
"Oh, absolutely," Sebastian agreed, holding out a gloved hand. Sai reached for it, and it was like watching a murder in slow motion.
"Kid's under Tenzou's protection," Kiba said, coming to Tenzou's rescue when he couldn't find his wits or tongue or sense.
"Oh?" Sebastian asked, and Sai's hand froze hovering over Sebastian's.
"Qualifications," Tenzou said gruffly, shaking out of the fog.
"I have them," Sebastian said smoothly.
"What are they?"
"I was trained by Master Lucifer in a club called Abaddon. It's in New Orleans. You may have heard of it? Lovely city. So much sin. Reminds me of this one. That was... goodness. Twenty years ago? Since then I assure you I've had my measure of submissives and Masters, alike, and learned much behind the whip and on my knees. I do love to serve to mutual benefit. And I insist that you observe sweet Sai and me for the duration of the night, just to make sure I meet each and every marked need."
Tenzou was going to be sick. He didn't like or trust this man, but it had nothing to do with Scene and everything to do with personality. The man wasn't safe, Tenzou didn't care how well he threw tails or tied knots or how long the guy'd been at it. "No," said Tenzou, his mouth open to say more.
"I accept your qualifications," said Sai, before Tenzou got another word in edgewise, and Tenzou glared sharply at Sai.
Sebastian looked from Tenzou to Sai and back again. "Oh, dear?"
"No fuckin' way," Kiba reinforced.
Sebastian seemed taken aback. "Ah, well, I wouldn't want to cause difficulty."
"You won't," Sai said, and, like magic, Sai was no longer the quiet, pliant boy listening to others speak as though he wasn't there. He turned to Tenzou, dark eyes swirling with emotions Tenzou couldn't identify, but they were murky like ghost ships under a moonless sky.
"I am under your protection, but not yours, right?" Sai asked.
"Right," Tenzou said hesitantly. "But--"
"Which means I can still make my own choices, and I like him."
"Why in the hell...?" Kiba asked, but Tenzou barely heard him.
"Sai..." Tenzou began. "Don't--"
Quick like a viper, Sai was next to Tenzou, on tiptoe and speaking quietly and even rationally into Tenzou's face. "He is a Dom. He is not you. He is not a book nor by the book. I wanted to go home with you. I want only you. But you wanted to come here. You wanted to lie to yourself by commanding me." Sai took a harsh breath and grabbed Tenzou's shirt. "This is what happens when we go at your liar's pace. This is what it feels like when you let me go to someone else." Sai shook Tenzou by the lapels and let go just as swiftly. Tenzou would have fallen on his ass if Kiba hadn't caught him.
"Tenzou?" Kiba whispered, worried, but Tenzou could only stare as Sai deliberately took Sebastian's hand, and Sebastian tucked it under his arm. Tenzou saw the boy flinch at the contact, but Sebastian seemed not to notice.
"Goodness," Sebastian said. "Such lengths people go to fulfill desires."
"Tenzou." Kiba tried again, but Tenzou's ears rang with a thousand gongs.
"I want to be tied and beaten," Sai said, sounding distant and like the whole business bored and angered him.
"With pleasure." And with an amused glance at Tenzou, Sebastian began to lead Sai toward a play area. "Do join us when you're able?"
Sai didn't so much as falter as he walked away, and Tenzou knew Kiba was speaking to him, and it was probably something Tenzou should hear. He thought other people might be staring at him, curious and worried, and Tenzou probably looked like he felt: hurt, horrified, stunned, sick, weak, helpless, foolish, damned. Here he was, one-time teacher, one-time Master, and now a broken, wilted man. He couldn't move, and he couldn't speak. He was frozen to the floor, and the image of the tree came to haunt him once more.
The birch was shaking, trembling like the very earth beneath it was quaking. Ice snapped and rained to the cold soil below. The bark got stripped as chunks of snow fell into piles. Little branches evaporated into splinters, bigger ones bowed, cracked, and sprang into place. Heat rose, vast and sudden, and it roared through the ground and into the roots. It swarmed up the trunk, filled the cells, the rings, the life of the tree. The frost boiled to mist, and Tenzou's spine straightened as the limbs unfurled, higher and higher to the shrouded sun.
Tenzou thought of wood, of saws, of edges and chisels and hammers and nails. The scent of forest, turpentine, and paint rose rich in his mind, he heard a faint sigh in his left ear that was not Kiba and was not himself.
In the breath was a single word, and that word was, "No."
"Oh shit," Kiba said, calmly, but from behind Tenzou, which was weird until Tenzou realized he was advancing on Sebastian and Sai in long, sturdy strides. He didn't touch Sebastian, but he grabbed Sai by the back of the neck. His hand wrapped, clenched, and yanked Sai out of Sebastian's grasp and to Tenzou's right. Tenzou could tell the instinct to block and fight was upon Sai, so Tenzou did the only sane and logical thing that a well-trained professional soldier would do in these circumstances: he shoved a hand between Sai's legs and cupped Sai's cock and balls in a mean squeeze.
Sai's intake of breath got Tenzou hard. Sai's lips parted, his eyes flew to Tenzou, wide and full of what Tenzou readily identified as lust and hope and yearning. Tenzou knew that look like he knew the head of his own dick.
Sai's chest rose and fell, spine arching with the force of Tenzou's dual grip. Tenzou leaned until they were nose to nose, and he smelled mint, soap, and sweat. "I... said... no." Tenzou spoke slowly and without malice, Sai whimpered, and shit but Tenzou loved that sound. He'd missed that sound.
"Do you understand?" Tenzou asked.
"Yes," Sai replied.
"Do you consent?"
"To anything that is you."
Tenzou rewarded Sai with a stroke, and the cock beneath the silk was elongating, filling. Sai's shaky exhale blew on Tenzou's lips, and Sai groaned, the note of longing every bit as loud as Sai's earlier proclamations to men who were not Tenzou. Who could never be Tenzou, and who were not worthy of Sai.
"I see circumstances have changed," said Sebastian, and Tenzou was startled to realize he was still standing in the club in the presence of others beside Sai. He needed to correct that right the fuck now.
Tenzou let Sai go long enough to scoop the small boy into his arms. Sai clung to him, face buried in Tenzou's chest. Sai was heavier than he looked, but no burden too great to bear, and Tenzou marched away from the gawking crowd, out the door, and up the stairs. Sai was panting, and Tenzou held him tighter, wondering how in the hell he was going to get to his passkey when he saw the door was already open. A trickle of concern slithered in around the pulsing throb of mania, but when Tenzou saw Neji and Shikamaru, it receded.
Neji went stock still at the sight of Tenzou holding Sai, and Shikamaru ran into Neji's back with a startled note. Shikamaru's jaw dropped a second later, but neither man said a single word as Tenzou rushed by, and Tenzou made it out the main door into the club before it had the chance to close all the way.
"It's all right," Tenzou caught himself speaking, and he realized he'd been murmuring to Sai the entire time. What he'd been saying, God only knew. "No one's going to touch you but me." Tenzou gulped around the lump in his throat. He couldn't remember ever being this... this... whatever the fuck it was, and he stumbled on the last step leading to Bliss.
Truck. Tenzou had to get to the truck. He'd left his coat and cell at the check counter, but he still had his wallet and, more importantly, his keys. Tenzou set his resolve, and the next he knew he was balancing Sai and digging out the button to unlock the Hummer. He swung the passenger door open, and as gently as he could, Tenzou set Sai on the seat. Sai dove for him, and Tenzou tucked Sai's arms to Sai's chest. He shushed and soothed and shut Sai into the truck.
Tenzou blinked and he was yanking on the other door's handle. He remembered to breathe, and he was inside the car. He'd just managed to hit the locking mechanism, and Sai was on him. Crawling, wriggling, pressing, but not kissing or saying anything. Tenzou hugged Sai, trying to sort out the chaos. He could barely rub two brain cells together, and he wasn't sure why the hell that was, but he had to do something to comfort Sai.
"Sai, what's... why are you... it's okay, now." Tenzou was trying to get his breath and couldn't, and Sai's frustrated yell was freakin' deafening.
"I... I want... I..." Sai tensed, shook, and damn it all, but Tenzou was going to fuck the kid into the dash.
"You what?" Tenzou rasped, hands betraying him and feeling the bare skin, the chill from the damp night, the heat of Sai's body, the smooth fabric covering Sai's ass. Sai gasped against Tenzou's throat, and Tenzou's eyes rolled into the back of his skull.
"I'm... I'm aroused, and want... want you to touch me. I want you to make me come. I want... I want to kiss you, but I've never kissed anyone, and I don't know if you'll let me, and I don't know what happened, but you're being so honest, and it's beautiful, and you carried me, and I thought I was going to orgasm when I felt your hand on my--"
Tenzou got a fistful of black hair, tugged Sai away from Tenzou's neck, and pressed his mouth to Sai's. Tenzou thought the groan was his own and the shocked sound was Sai's, but it really could have been the other way around.
Sai drew back, licked his lips, breathing fast and heavy. "Oh..." Sai kissed Tenzou, just a mash of mouths, but Tenzou answered it. "Oooh... God..." Sai dove again, and this time, Tenzou held Sai still by the hair. He guided Sai through an exploring, hungry kiss, grazing Sai's upper and then lower lip with his teeth, and while Sai's mouth was open, Tenzou filled it with his tongue.
Sai scrambled closer, muffled noises spilling through his nose, and Sai repeated the exact same pattern on Tenzou. Their tongues mingled and twined, and Tenzou shifted on the bench seat until Sai was sprawled out to the right and Tenzou was holding Sai's upper body in his arms. There was no doubt, no nagging voices calling out rules or boundary lines. Even if there was, Tenzou was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to hear anything except the thud of his heart and the sounds Sai made with every single action. It was all new to Sai, all shocking, and Tenzou's brain didn't surface for air until he had a hand rubbing Sai's cock through the pants, Sai's chest lifted to his mouth, and his teeth embedded in the flesh around Sai's hard nipple.
"Nn-ah! Ah... Ah!" Sai's arm was slung around Tenzou's shoulders, fingers clinging to the fabric of Tenzou's shirt. His head thudded against the edge of the window, and he thrust into Tenzou's palm, rutting for friction. "Oh God, it's so good. I want more. I have to have more. I have to."
Tenzou reared up, met Sai's dazed gaze. "Ask me nicely, boy." Tenzou twisted Sai's nipple, let it go, slapped Sai's chest with a heated hand, and nearly died at the look of unabashed, stunned greed on Sai's sweet face.
"Please do that again!" Sai called at full volume.
"This?" Tenzou asked, voice a husky slur, and he tortured Sai's flesh and smacked it hard enough to leave a reddened mark behind.
"Yes. That. Oh... shit." Sai's voice grew higher, and his heel dug into the truck's seat, lower half lifting. His cock tented his pants, and the silk was darker where it was wet with pre-cum.
Tenzou dug his fingers into the meat of Sai's chest, massaging and digging, and he drew closer and kissed Sai. "Like it when I play with your tits, boy?" Another set of smacks, and Sai's mouth fell open, and he nodded slowly, choking on a cry when Tenzou pinched, pulled, and flicked Sai's nipple.
"Like... like... call me..." Sai babbled and called out through spanks, digs, a drag of nails, and Tenzou squeezed Sai's inner thigh to a keening whine.
"Mm? Like it when I call you 'boy?'"
"Uh-huh," Sai nodded faster, undulating and rippling in Tenzou's lap. He twisted, trying to get Tenzou's hand where he wanted it. His face crumpled when Tenzou didn't comply, and Sai's eyes opened. They were damp at the corners, and Sai's effort to swallow was visible.
"Look at you, so sweet for me." Tenzou hummed, and he thought he might pass out with the combination of innocence and eagerness squirming in his lap. He hooked his fingers under the waistband of Sai's pants and slowly tugged it down. He watched Sai's face change from frustrated to astounded, and when Sai's cock cleared the band, it slapped back against Sai's belly.
Sai froze, and Tenzou caressed creamy inner thighs. "Damn, that's a gorgeous cock you've got for me, boy." And it was. Thick at the base, no curve, not overly long, not short, and red-rouge at the glistening head.
Sai trembled. "Hearing you say that is... I... can I... I feel... can I call you..."
Tenzou tore his eyes off the gathering moisture in Sai's slit and lifted a hand to stroke Sai's cheek. "You want to call me something?" he asked, tender and low.
"Yes." Sai's eyes were darker than death in the witching hour.
"What do you want to call me, boy?" Tenzou drew closer, kissed Sai light and quick. He rubbed Sai's abdomen in lazy circles, and the backs of his fingers brushed Sai's twitching dick.
"I..." Sai lifted a hand and clung to Tenzou's shoulder. He searched Tenzou's face, dragged Tenzou closer for another, longer mesh of mouths that Tenzou granted Sai with a quiet moan. When Tenzou broke the contact, Sai grabbed the back of Tenzou's neck, kept their faces almost touching. "Can I... can I call you Daddy?" Sai's whisper was punctuated by a whimper.
Crippling, aching, need surged through Tenzou; stole his oxygen and sucker punched him in the gut. Only rarely had he ever played those games with Jack, and Tenzou had asked for it, not Jack. It was just a title, but it strummed the dark, often-denied chord in Tenzou that loved to Master, that loved pretty boys barely in their twenties trussed up and on their knees... that loved making those pretty boys cry, beg, scream, bruise, and come until they couldn't remember their own name.
Tenzou kept those needs in a secure cage. He had always respected those whom he taught who were younger than he was. He had only played with them to demonstrate, had never taken it too far, and he'd endured and loved Jack's gentle laughter and not-so-gentle occasional stirring of those needs over the years.
And now the lock on that careful cage lay broken on the ground, crackling in an inferno.
"Mmmnf..." Tenzou finally breathed a growl that reverberated in the close quarters. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, boy, you can call me Daddy."
Sai panted rapid fire, and he nearly screamed behind pressed lips when Tenzou circled, fisted, and started to stroke Sai's cock. "You like that, boy?"
"OhfuckDaddy, yes... oooh yes..." Sai moaned, eyelashes fluttering.
"That's a good boy." Tenzou's croon morphed into a snarl. "Tell Daddy how much you fucking like my hands on you."
"Love it," Sai mumbled. "Need it. Better than a-anything."
"You're Daddy's perfect boy, right now, like this, sweet and hard and doing what I say."
"For you... I want anything for you."
"Good boy, Sai." Tenzou sped up. "Tell me who you think about when you stroke this thick dick, boy."
"You, Daddy," Sai's head fell to one side.
"Mm," Tenzou grunted, letting go of Sai's cock and cupping his balls. "And when you play with these?"
"I imagine you," Sai gasped, and he struggled until his pants were around his ankles. He kicked until a boot hit the floorboard, and he untangled one foot from the silk. His heel thumped against the dashboard. The truck's windows were completely fogged, the air ripe with the smell of sex and dick and sweat.
"What about here, boy?" Tenzou asked, the pads of two fingers pressing against Sai's asshole. Sai's entire body jerked, and the ring fluttered. "Mm? You play with this sweet hole and think of me, boy?"
"I... oh shit... I..." Sai flailed and found purchase on the steering wheel. "I fuck myself with a paintbrush." He swallowed, licking his lips with his eyes closed. "It's fat. And thick. And I shove it inside me and imagine it's your prick fucking me deep."
Tenzou stifled his own cry by biting his lower lip until it bled. He lapped up blood, got a fist into Sai's hair, and Tenzou gripped and pulled until he could watch Sai's pulse pound. He stopped circling Sai's entrance and took Sai's hand off the wheel. With their eyes locked on one another, Tenzou worked up saliva, and Sai lay gasping for air around weak moans as Tenzou took two of Sai's fingers into his mouth. He coated them until drool ran down his chin, coming off Sai with a slurp.
"Show Daddy how you fuck yourself, boy."
Sai reached down between his legs. He hooked his remaining boot on the back of the bench seat, and the other foot braced against the door. He curled, lifting his hips and pushing his tight balls out of the way. Sai set wet fingertips to his asshole, and the slow, slick push inside was accompanied by a broken, battered, hitching groan. The edges of Tenzou's vision turned grey and purple, and he grabbed Sai's cock just as Sai began pumping the fingers in and out, fucking with a steady, swift rhythm.
"Oh... oh... oh..." Sai whimpered notes with every thrust and tug, and Tenzou turned his head to kiss Sai. It was messy, muddled with both their moans, and Sai's cock pulsed in Tenzou's fist at the same time Sai sucked a sharp inhale that robbed Tenzou of their mingling breath. An overwhelming wave of affectionate, protective possession stole over Tenzou, and he gently nosed Sai's sweaty cheek.
"Go on, precious," Tenzou murmured, stunningly loud and clear over the slap of striving flesh. "Come for Daddy."
The reaction was electric. Sai drew into a wicked arch, head back and strangled cry spilling through clenched teeth. His fingers plunged, Tenzou's fist stroked fast, furious, and fierce, and Sai came in thick, heavy jets that hit his chin, coated his chest, and sprinkled his stomach. Tenzou didn't stop until Sai's cries turned pained. He let go of Sai's spent cock, and lifted his dirty hand to Sai's lips. The command died on Tenzou's tongue, though, when Sai started to lick and lap and eat his own cum off Tenzou's fingers.
Sai paused, holding on to Tenzou's wrist with both hands. "I like getting a taste, Daddy."
Tenzou caught Sai's lower lip in gentle suction. "Me, too, boy. Oh... me, too."
~*~
A/N:
1. Yes, that was me doin' the cross-over thang again. I hope you like it. You have kyuubi1010 to thank for our guest star's appearance.
2. I made up the painting, the artist, and the titles.
3. For the record, if any person *ever* introduces themselves as "Master Lucifier" just do me a personal favor and run in the opposite direction, yes?
4. Between Kakashi and Itachi, I think everyone in Monoshizukanohi is known and fucked.
5. Of COURSE there's a gateway to hell in New Orleans.
5. THIS IS NOT THE END. Goodness... we still have Tenzou's dom guilt to deal with. And it will be epic.
6. Thank you again for all your patience, notes, virtual baked goods and support. You've no idea what it has meant over the last few difficult weeks.
7. I own the world, the originals, and the plot, but not the Bleach boy, Black Butler guys, nor the Naruto men.
Much, much love & foggy windows,
♥Dee